Happy New Year!

I hope everyone has a great New Year! This one has been pretty busy, especially this last month! People definitely seem to like the fact that we're open seven days a week.

I got a lot of Christmas projects done and I thought I'd show you the highlights.

These are socks for my cousin Henry. I wasn't really thrilled with the red until I got the heel done and then I found myself quite charmed by them!
These are my cousin Katherine's socks. They are made from Socks That Rock silk and wool. They are handwash only (who makes a sock yarn handwash only??!!) and Katherine was the one I could trust not to throw them in the machine! I made a cotton dress for Big Niece, which she put on immediately after opening it, and a zipper hoodie for Little Niece. We didn't get a picture of Little Niece in her sweater because when we tried it on her, all she did was cry. I hope she actually likes it sooner or later. My sister promised to take a picture of her in it if she isn't screaming. Both girls picked out their own yarn this year! My brother-in-law ask for door snakes so I made actual snakes. The tongues are a little big and they look like they are giving the world a raspberry. Hey, well, sometimes the world could use a great big raspberry so it's nice to know they are on the job.My sister Margaret (she's gonna kill me for posting this picture. Hi, Margaret!) got a bag of yarn with a pattern which will, hopefully, be another sweater for her sometime before next fall.

I got some very nice presents this year! My current favorite is a roller style trainer for my bicycle. Usually, you clip your rear wheel to a trainer and it is like riding a very uncomfortable stationary bike. This kind, your bike isn't attached at all and you ride it like you are riding on a road (a very narrow road). It is fun but almost like learning to ride a bike all over again. Fortunately, they recommended riding in a doorway until you get used to it because you can loose your balance and fall right over. I've been doing a little every day for three days now and I think I'm getting the hang of it. I still ping pong back and forth between the sides of the door frame but not anywhere near as much as I did a couple days ago. My goal is to be able to ride it in the middle of the bedroom. I can't see the TV from the doorway!

So that's the latest. My New Year's resolution is to blog more regularly. We'll see how that goes.

Etsy Shop Updated

Finally! Thanks to Doria taking care of customers and yelling the numbers of different colorways to me from the other room, I managed to get my Etsy site updated. Phew!

Chores

Today I'm cleaning my bedroom. I have been ignoring it for a looong time and it has gotten really, really out of hand. Those who know me, know I am a pile maker. There has been a pile of stuff in the middle of my bedroom that has been getting bigger and more unruly and today it is going down! I have a very small living space since I share a one bedroom apartment with the shop but I don't think having a bigger place would help. I'd just fill it up with even more stuff. This way, things get out of hand fairly quickly and force me to deal with them.
So why am I sitting here blogging? Procrastination, of course.
So, now no more procrastinating. I'm going in!

The Verdict is In!

My sister finally has her sweater! I didn't get to give it to her in person. I sent it home with her husband when he came to pick up the girls yesterday.
The verdict is good! It fits, she loves it and thinks it will be an excellent addition to her wardrobe. This is good news because my sister is a bit particular about her clothes and I wanted to make sure I made her something that she'd get some use out of. Also, she promised to wear it to Thanksgiving so I can take pictures.
That success under my belt, I've got the next sweater all lined up!

Finished Object

I just finished my sister's Eris sweater!

It was her Christmas present for last year. Yeah.

It's my first time sewing a zipper into, well, anything.

Hope I did it right.

(I know the bottom looks a little crooked but it really isn't.)

I'll try to get a picture of her in it when I give it to her.

Now I feel the overwhelming urge to start another sweater!!

Back Track 2-Halloween

Warning: Extreme Cuteness!

In my continuing attempt to get caught up, I give you The Fairy Princesses! (a.k.a. my nieces).My older niece has always been very photogenic, a rare thing in my family. You say "Smile!" and she looks at the camera and smiles.

My younger niece, not so much.

Here's Little Nephew dressed up as Death. He was pretty scary! You'd never know he was wearing an old Van Halen t-shirt of mine inside out as part of his costume. It was apparently the only black t-shirt in the house.

They brought the dog, Milo, along dressed as a hardened criminal. I think my brother went as his parole officer.And, finally, we had some grown up trick or treaters. Here are Annie and Regina in their pirate garb. They were headed over to a party and stopped in to say hi.

Back Track

There's a whole bunch of stuff I never blogged about this fall and I wanted to do a little catching up.

First, I went on two great bike rides with friends using the tandem.

The first was the Hub on Wheels. My friend Stefanie rode stoker for that one. Years ago, Stef introduced me to the saying "Guess what? Chicken butt!" So for last Hannuka, I got her and her whole family t-shirts with that on it. For the ride, I borrowed back Stefanie's husband's shirt and we rode as Team Chicken Butt. Here you see us modelling our shirts! We had a great ride. It was well organized and had a well marked route and I'll definitely participate another year.

The next ride was the Cambridge Bow Tie Ride. I rode this one with my friend Phoebe.

It's called the Bow Tie Ride because Cambridge is vaguely bow tie shaped. The ride was a tour of Cambridge and we saw lots of places in town I'd never been. The drawback was that a lot of the route was on the sidewalk and there were a lot of bottlenecks that were kind of hard to manage on the tandem. I did enjoy seeing everyone with their bow ties, though!

I'll probably ride it again. I may ride it on my regular bike but I probably won't be able to resist riding the tandem again. It was so much fun with someone else. We chat, we laugh. Phoebe was even talking about getting cable installed in the back of the bike so she can watch tv while we ride!

The other event that I haven't managed to blog about until now is the Yarn Harlot's visit. As usually, she was funny and gracious and she even held my socks!

It is always great to see her!