She made me socks, people. She made socks for a perfect stranger with size 11/9/42 feet. Nay, she designed socks for a perfect stranger with size 11/9/42 feet. And put them in a box filled with candles, cookies, cable needles, festive napkins and a Santa-snowman-guy in a bubble ... whatever, he's cute and bearing chocolate, what else do I need to know?Socks. Did I mention? With a mirrored faux-cable pattern. I'm not going to show off too much detail right now, because I know that my pal is thinking about doing things with the pattern.
I had a bit of an accident (long story) and my feet and ankles are still rather unsightly and misshapen from it all, so if the socks look strange, please don't blame them.
Yeah, the swelling is that bad :o), but don't look at that, look at the gorgeous socks with the perfect fit!I have been very lucky with secret pals this year. The woman who never got anything handmade since her grandmother died 23 years ago sure has collected quite the pile of handmade gifts in 2006. First there was a cute red hat and a shoulder shawl/blanket that is actually on my knees right now from Alison, then lacy gloves, flower pins and a felted key ring from Sabine, whose blog AND email address I managed to lose, because I'm such a super pal :o( and now socks from Elyse, if that's her real name :o) - I'll find out. Gifts and all notwithstanding, the best part of the exchanges was/is that I got to "meet" eight lovely women and learn a little bit about their lives and craftiness :o) - in a bit of a different way than just finding their blogs accidentally and reading them. This has been and still is a great experience with global fiber love :o), not to mention the kindness and sympathy my pals have extended to me when things got rough this year.
What else happened in "Oh"-Six? Well, obviously I began to knitblog (of course it's a verb, silly) and learned about the fiber-blog community. It continues to be a daily joy. I made my first sorta lace shawl for the World Cup Challenge and my first pair of socks in ten years. (I found that it's not quite like riding a bicycle.) I perpetrated three sweaters we shall never speak of again and knit a shawl that made my mom feel like a queen. She was buried in it. I learned to spin - on a spindle and a wheel, and I can't quite believe myself how happy spinning makes me. The only thing better than spinning is knitting with the handspun :o). All this salt-of-the-earth homemade yarn attitude didn't stop me from having quite a bit of S.E.X. (mostly online ;o) - I encountered SeaSilk and Kaalund Laceweight, not to mention my ongoing love affair with Lang yarns.
My favourite yarn store 2006 was actually not the LYS in my parents' town, but Wollsucht ("wool addiction", if you must know :o), a German online store. They don't have the biggest selection ever, but still plenty of beautiful yarns and everything else the deprived German knitter needs. They are FAST. And nice :o).
2007 is going to be the year of the stash - and the sock, seeing how that's the only type of yarn I may buy according to the KFYS rules. Recently, there has been a rather surprising development that makes it necessary for me to amend those rules.
See, I'm quittin'. Bet you didn't know I smoked. It wasn't much - my two-pack-days are long gone, and ever since I began stashing wool in my office, it happened only outside anymore, but still. I smoked. Until I finished a pack the other day and decided not to buy any more. Just like that. Not as a New Year's resolution or anything, I'm just fed up with it all. So, right now, I'm having a bit of a rough time - I learned that even if you don't smoke a lot, you've got quite the withdrawal going on when you stop - so I compiled a list of little rewards for myself - you know, a week, two weeks ... like that. I'm not going to post the list here - I'll tell you about the individual rewards when they are about to happen - but there are books and yarn on it, and it's exempt, because ... well, because I say so :o). The list is currently going up to 12 weeks, because they say that's the worst of it. I reserve the right to add a few weeks if I need to, but my reward list is not a free-for-all, I'll be very specific. And nothing will be added AFTER I bought it or anything ("oh, oops, let's just call it a reward, shall we?" - not going to happen.)
I also changed my goal for KFYS, since I really don't need to save for an Ashford Traditional anymore :o). I would like to give fair isle a go next year, and if I can learn it, there's going to be Zauberflöte in my future. It's the one AS fair isle sweater I am utterly in love with. But it's raaather expensive, so I'd better be sure I like knitting fair isle first.
Hmm, where are the resolutions? Well, I suppose Knit From Your Stash is one, and not smoking is sort of an unintentional one. There's also kind of a big thing going to happen in 2007 that will come with a couple of resolutions - it's not what you think. No matter what you think, it's not it :o). But I want to give it its own entry, so I'm just going to stop yammering and get ready for the party tonight. I got a very bad cut on my foot today (yeah, I know), so I'm not sure how much partying I'll be able to do. Ah well. There will be more incoherent musings tomorrow.
See you next year.
" 
1 comment:
Hey Kay, have a good start into 2007 and always think of if you really want things happen you can make them happen.
Claudia
Post a Comment