Happy 2008!

I am still working on the snowflake sweater -for those of you who have told me I am not allowed to start another project *but* I am running out of the blue yarn! I have my LYS searching for it and once I find out what they can find, then I'll move forward further on that project... but for now, I had to start something new... so I cast on (late on Dec 30th) for the back of this jacket which is from Debbie Bliss Simply family - it's a zippered jacket with ribbed sleeves - and I finished the back on New Years Day! - the yarn is an Italian yarn called Autunno and is 100% Merino Wool!

I wanted the striping of the yarn to be consistent from the left and right half and the expanse of the back... but the back of the sweater is twice the size of one of the sides... therefore, the stripes on the back would be half the size... so I cast on 1/2 of the back with ball A, and the remaining 1/2 with ball B.... I worked back and forth with both skeins for the entire back, twisting the center stitch - and came out with this:
The striping looks about the same on the left front that I have started and I'm really pleased! I didn't want the stripes to "match" - I just wanted them to be pretty much the same size... and it worked! The project seems to be moving pretty quickly and I'm excited to see it progress - maybe I'll be able to finish it this month!

On another note, when I went to Simply Knitting a couple of weeks ago to buy the Marisol yarn (I made the hats out of it) I also bought a friend yarn to make a shawl - I bought enough to be entered into a drawing for a $50 gift certificate... and I WON! - I'm very excited about it and have my prize now... I'm waiting though - since it's the new year, I did say I wasn't going to buy yarn until July 4, 2008.... it's only day 2 of my waiting... and I'm already trying to talk myself out of that deal!... I'll "cheat" a bit I'm sure... but as long as I'm MUCH more careful about randomly purchasing yarn, I'll be happy!

We had a pretty uneventful New Year's Celebration - Gregg did some cooking and baking and we had a few friends and family over. The baby "stole the show" with the singing - I was a bit manic with her running around carrying the mic - I just knew she would yank the machine over - of course, we were watching it (standing guard) the entire time she had it, and I kept "reeling her in" when she got a little too far away. it was too cute for words... if you can bare to watch, check it out:

I hope you had a wonderful and safe celebration with your family -

Happy New Year!