A mellow week so far. I worked Monday but on Christmas Day my “vacation” started - that is, I refuse to do any work this week. It’s nice being your own boss sometimes. Mom came over for the day and we exchanged presents - that is, I gave her hers and she showed me what she ordered for me but they didn’t come in yet. We then resurrected an old family Christmas tradition - midtown and the decorations that make NY wonderful this time of year. We usually went Christmas Eve so it was dark and everything was lit, but this year we did it during the day and it was quite sunny, but still fun. And, just as I was lamenting the long ago loss of roasted chestnuts vendors - we found a hot dog vendor with chestnuts on his cart. It made for a nice snack on the long walk home. Here’s a highlight of the day:

That tree

A window at Saks Fifth Avenue

A window at Lord & Taylor (we liked these much better)

Mom looking winter chic

With all my free time this week - I meant to do a lot of knitting and quilting - I’m still working on that. I keep trapping myself by the computer anyway - and even more so soon as my new printer/scanner just arrived and I want to head to Apple to get the new Leopard OS - sigh. But a marathon of Season 1 of Bones has been getting me to sit still just a bit and look! It’s the first of the Rose’s wristwarmers from the luscious merino/cashmere (Karabella Margrite) that Michelle gave me.

The yarn isn’t easy to work with - it’s quite splitty which makes cabling without a cable needle a bit of a challenge, but it’s oh so soft and lovely. And before you ask, yes, I cast on for the second.

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So a week or so ago my friends and I had a little yarn swap. My stash is taking over my apartment and I have not only boxes in the closet, but what looks like a body bag in my living room. Really, it’s not pretty. So I was glad to partake in a swap but I had a feeling most of what I wanted to part with was not the most desirable stuff. I was kind of right. A couple of things did go but on the most part I came home with the big tote of stuff I came with.

Uh, and more. I wasn’t supposed to bring home MORE.

But boy, what a score. See this little pile of black cashcotton DK? Well, it’s not really a little pile. I got 20 balls of this stuff. Woo!

I also took some lovely Shaeffer Anne. I love Anne, it makes such cuddly socks. And I do have some room for sock yarn, now that my bathroom renovation left me this piece to either part with or use.

I also took a haul of fabric home but we’ll save that for yet another post.

I’m hoping to work very little, if at all, between Christmas and New Year’s, so my goal is to get all the stash into Ravelry, and maybe even use some up. That’d be nice.

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It’s so cute I almost don’t want to give it up. This is the EZ Baby Sweater on Two Needles, aka February sweater. It’s a gift for my super to go along with his Christmas tip as he has a 1.5 month old girl. It was really just an excuse to make a cute little sweater. I’d keep it but it won’t even fit Ty.

In other knitting - I didn’t get far at all with my alpaca Hourglass as friends convinced me last weekend it was all twisted. Problem is it’s a twisty yarn and slippery needles, but it was also a little too big (I had gone up a size since I wanted a drapier sweater than last one, but this yarn itself is drapier so I think the same size should do) - anyway I ripped and cast on again but didn’t get far enough to show anything.

Also last night I cast on for the same wristwarmers as Michelle, same color even, since she was nice enough to give me the same yarn she used. Guess we’d better not wear them together, eh?

Speaking of yarn - oh no, let me save that one for tomorrow.

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