After so many months...

I finally feel like I have enough spare time to start blogging again. Not that my schedule has kept me from knitting, quilting or cross-stitching, as the pictures will shortly show. But sitting in front of a computer all day, upwards of 12hrs and then coming home and sitting in front of a computer for ANYTHING at all...well, I'm sure you understand.

So, what have I been up to? Well, I made socks for my best friend-and here's the problem with having a best friend who lives thousands of miles away and whom you rarely get to see - you kind of forget her overall dimensions. I should have been a little more worried when everyone who saw me knitting the socks asked how many months old the baby I was knitting them for was...but I was certain Leila, whose nickname is Micro for crying out loud, was just as tiny as I was remembering. Unfortunately, she's going to have to have her heels amputated before she'll be able to wear her socks - maybe she can hang them from the mantel over the holidays.

I also made socks for my brother (twice - got his measurements whacked out too), my sister-in-law (hers were pretty perfect) and my Mother (also perfect). Mom's socks are the only ones I have a picture of, taken by a phone camera:

They're supposed to be a pattern of hearts - but while she swears she can totally see the hearts, I think it's just because she loves me and is ever so partial.

For his birthday, I knit my LOML a pair of gorgeous brown socks - softest sock yarn I've ever felt and not a single error in the pair - except for the one little glitch of not being able to find the first sock anywhere. ANYWHERE!! And we've looked, I'm telling you! So, there's been some serious sock drama this year.

But enough altruism! Christmas was over and it was time to be greedy. So, everything else I've done since is all for me, me, me. First there were the socks made in a cute little lace pattern from Socks that Rock (STR) silky in the Christmas Balls colorway. They knit up really fast and were extremely comfortable until my typically adorable, but a little less so this day, boyfriend decided to throw them in with the rest of the laundry.

But all was not lost. I joined the STR Sock of the Month (SOM) club this year and am totally loving it so far, even if I am behind. I did the January socks right away and I think they're gorgeous.

I wasn't quite as quick on the draw for the March SOM, so there's only one done so far. I like it even better than January's, but I'm also getting a little burned out on socks ( I mean after all, five for the family, one for KC and three for me - well - OK, two, as you'll see)

The leaf pattern blends in beautifully with the color of the yarn. It's a very lovely sock and I especially love the heel on this one - nice and cushy - but just the one so far.

Then there's the ever ongoing travel socks. These socks get knit 100% in traffic. OK, not completely true. I can't do a short row heel in traffic. I don't do enough of those to do it without looking at a pattern, so I do the heel at home and the rest in traffic. I've completed one and am ready to put the heel on the second - which means right now I have nothing to knit in traffic.

I had some issues with these. For one thing, I'm not totally thrilled with my short row heel - as I said, still working on that, plus I'm not real chuffed with the pattern I have. I'm in search of something better. Also, this yarn is Duets, colorway Brandied Autumn, and I really love the colors and the cute little stripes, etc, but the yarn was broken in the middle of the skein - so you're knitting along and splat - you have to start a new piece and weave in the ends - I just don't like doing that on socks if I can avoid it. But otherwise, I like these just fine.

And, for the finale - it wasn't all socks this year - I did finish my dolman tee. I tried to take a picture of me wearing it, but it's all blurry without the flash and obscured with the flash, so here it is laying on the floor:

It fits great and I wear it a lot - in fact, I'm wearing it today. My only complaint about it is since it's cotton, the neck starts to get a little too stretched out after a few wears and the sleeves start to slide down my arms.

Of course, we haven't just been sitting around knitting. We went to WVA again for President's day weekend. We were going X-Country skiing, since, of course, the Canaan valley gets TONS of snow for that weekend ... right???

yup - no snow. So, we went to a slope with man-made snow and went airboarding. What's airboarding you ask?

A total riot - like tubing, but much faster and you can steer.

And then, finally, for Memorial Day weekend, we fulfilled a lifelong dream of mine - we went backpacking.

funny story. The plan was, since this was my first time ever, to do a nice simple excursion. There's a great little park called Sky Meadows right at the edge of the Piedmont - right at the foot of the Blue Ridge mountains. So, not a far drive, and more importantly, the campsite was only one mile away from the parking lot. So, if anything went wrong, we could easily get back out to the car. And really, who would have thought you'd need reservations for the kind of camping where you have to pack in? Well, this is the Northeast - land of too many people. So we got to the park and they were completely full. Don't worry, says the ranger, you can go to the Shenandoah River state park - they have primitive camping too and they're never full - never until Memorial Day weekend apparently. So, as a last resort, we hit the Appalacian trail in the Shenandoah National Forest. But of course, we're talking serious backcountry packing now. Miles away from the car. And Bear country. We had to hang our food - or rather KC did. Since we weren't really prepared for this, all we had were my bungy cords that I always keep in the car. Ever tried swinging a bag attached to a bungy cord over a tree branch? Even if you haven't, it doesn't take much to imagine the results. So KC had to climb a tree and wiggle out far enough to loop the bag over the branch - ah, if I weren't so stressed, I would have thought to take a picture. The most fun part of the trip came at meal times. The guy at REI apprently thought little niceties like the ability to cook food was a luxury that real backpackers didn't need. When I described what I planned for dinner, he got all snotty and basically informed me real backpackers rough it out more than that. I guess that's why he left out the integral piece of our stove that would have made it possible to heat our food. So, since absolutely everything we needed required boiling water at a minimum, we enjoyed the wonders of freeze-dried food reconstituted with lukewarm water. Ever had crunchy eggs? Well, let me tell you, you haven't lived until you do!

Regardless, it was one of the best weekends I've ever had and the views in the Shenandoah never fail to impress.

Plans for this weekend is dinner at the Manor House followed by a movie on their lawn tomorrow night. This in celebration of my recent promotion, graduation, etc. Then this weekend we're going back up to Delaware - ostensibly to go to Longwood gardens, but no one's fooled. One of my favorite yarn shops is up that way.

Pictures of recent quilts and cross stitch still to come.