Holiday recap, Clapotis details, and Ariann love

After returning from my holiday travels, catching and recovering from a cold, getting through writing peer reviews at work (along with other stuff, but performance reviews are really the worst), and dealing with domain renewal problems that brought my site and email down all week (a rant/warning post may come soon), I can finally post an overdue recap of my holiday trips.

I survived Vegas. I say this because it took 3 hours of stop and go traffic to get there (and that was only the first quarter of the trip in terms of miles), and then spent four nights in very close quarters with my family. But it was good, and my knit gifts went over well – hat for my grandpa, scarf for my grandma, mini sweater for my brother (tiny ornament-sized sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts), and a scarf in progress for my mom. The scarf is another Chevron scarf out of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock. As I worked on it in our room, my mom asked me what it was and then who it was for. “Um, it’s for you… do you like it?” She did, so I continued to work on it throughout the trip.

Here’s a picture of my brother’s mini sweater, acting as an earbud cord cozy:

After a much quicker drive back to L.A., a stop to give a cat a ride home from being boarded (I was rewarded with a lot of rubbing, purring, and drooling), and a very short night in my own bed, I was off to the airport in the pouring rain at 4 a.m. to fly to Seattle. I spent a few days with the boyfriend and his family – eating lots of good food, hanging out, meeting some new family members (new to me and new to the world), and I even got to visit two yarn stores.

I went back to Acorn Street, which I discovered last September and loved. I was tempted by Mountain Colors worsted weight (beautiful but not quite soft enough to justify the purchase), discontinued Silk Garden colorways on sale (didn’t like any of the colors quite enough), and new Silk Garden colors (I need to put a halt to my obsession). I did decide to get the Fiber Trends Felted Clog pattern, a few hanks of Cascade 220, and size 13 needles. I quickly finished the first one in Seattle!

I also went to Village Yarn & Tea for the first time. The main reason I went was for Fleece Artist/Handmaiden yarns, since I can never find them. I felt Sea Silk for the first time and bought one hank, as well as a tea filter for lazy tea-making. I was also tempted by Fleece Artist sock yarn, but I really need to start knitting socks again before I can buy more sock yarn.

Also overdue, here are some details of the Clapotis I posted about New Year’s Eve…
Pattern: needs no name or link
Yarn: 2 hanks of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in the colorway Peacock, used almost completely.
Needles: Size 4 (24″ Inox Express)
Modifications: 2 extra section 2 repeats, 7 extra section 3 repeats (20 total).
Finished dimensions: approximately 54″ by 11″ unstretched to 18″ stretched.

I love it! The only thing keeping me from wearing it every day (now that temperatures have finally dropped again) is that I can still smell cigarette smoke on it from its trips to Reno and Vegas with me. It needs washing, but I want to try to retain its curls, so I’ve been putting it off.

And an Ariann update: I’m still loving it. The pattern is a great balance between easy and interesting, and the yarn is working well in it. I’m anticipating a very versatile and useful sweater! I’m also having fewer allergy problems, which is a relief. Unfortunately, Ariann is distracting me from some gift knitting I should be knitting – a hat for the boyfriend’s niece and a scarf for my mom. I’m hoping to get through them both this weekend so I can knit the rest of Ariann guilt-free. And maybe finish up those felted clogs.

No Ariann picture, but I’ll leave you with a non-knit hat I made in my office’s gingerbread house making contest in December:

January 13, 2007 - 2:55pm | finished!, in progress, pictured, stash | Comments