still crocheting away ...

Josh's blanket isn't done yet. But I'm getting close!



I'm putting it on hold so that I can knit on a secret project with a deadline looming. I told Josh that his blanket might be a birthday present instead of a Christmas present! (His birthday is in about six weeks.)

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

I got an iPhone!

Oh, how I have been counting the days until my Verizon contract was eligible for renewal. The weekend after Thanksgiving, it was time, and I made two trips to the Apple store in order to find an iPhone in stock. Since then, I've barely put the phone down!

I'm afraid I'm a little obsessed with Instagram and Hipstamatic.

I brought it on a walk with Josh and Gracie ...





To work (that's our Christmas tree):



Out to eat:



(That's lunch at Jessy's Taqueria, a really awesome place in Ocean View.

But mostly I take pictures of Gracie snoozing beside me on the couch:



I am always open to app recommendations, so let me know if you have any that you can't live without!

knits for friends

Oh hai.

Things have been busy 'round these parts.

Especially my knitting needles.

I've got something like a dozen FOs since August + am going to do my best to blog about them. Tiffany is doing a blog-post-a-day thing in December, and while I clearly missed the boat on that, as it's Dec. 2, I'm going to do my best to post less sporadically this month.

Speaking of Tiffany ...

I knit her some socks (Rav link)! Way back in August.



Sometimes, friends just need a pair of hand-knit socks, ya know? Knitters are the best people to receive hand-knit socks because they know the work that goes into each stitch. And getting those texts from Tiffany when she got the surprise package in the mail just made my day! (And months later, it still makes my day to think about it.)

(By the way, this is Yarn Pirate sock yarn in Wildflowers, a color I've had in my stash for several years.)

Also falling under the category of "knits for friends" is the next pair of socks (Rav link):



These are for a swap I did with my Twitter friend Melissa. This is Cascade Heritage Paints in a lovely semisolid blue. Y'all, this yarn is heavenly to work with. Really soft hand, no splitting, and SO reasonably priced. Go get some now + be amazed at the loveliness (and thriftiness). Oh, and in exchange for the socks? I got tons of delicious canned jams. I cannot wait to open strawberry margarita jam in the midst of a dreary wintry day and have a taste of summer on my toast. Thanks, Melissa!!

I'm in the midst of Christmas crocheting ... though the knitting is all done (in fact, three of my four knitted gifts are already at my parents' house -- BOOYAH). Here's a progress shot of an epic ripple blanket I'm making for my beau:



By the way, it's folded in HALF in that shot. SO huge.

It won't be done by Christmas, especially with a four-day break looming in which I will be skiing in Colorado and not lugging around a massive blanket. But he's OK with that. =)