Almost a New Year

Wow - hard to believe we are rapidly approaching the end of 2008. It has been quite a busy year in our household and next year promises to be the same. The holidays were as expected -which is to say good. The young one learned there really is a Santa Clause. It was rather cute as he had been quite naughty right up until the eve of the big day - something we are now able to partly attribute to chemicals in his food. We are trying the Feingold diet and slowly finding out that food coloring and some other preservatives seem to trigger the uber-meltdowns. But the uberest meltdown came the other day and involved nearly running into traffic.  After mom recovered from her heart attack (still shaking over this one to be honest) we had a discussion about Santa watching everything. So he didn't believe this because, as he says, there are no cameras and he can't see Santa. So Christmas Eve, in walked Santa through the front door and boy was the young one surprised. So he went up to Santa and told him "I've been a little naughty". So Santa talked to him a bit about the various and sundry naughtiness of the past few days and now young one really does Believe with a capital B. But Santa also left him with the Lincoln Log train he has been asking for since seeing one at the Festival of Trees so he was happy. He also woke up to a small pile of presents under the tree and an understanding that Santa will be watching. Now its just a toy fiesta. Mom also got treated well with a new purple iPod nano, a ball winder (yeah!!!) and some of the knitting books she has been wanting so she is also happy Santa came to visit. 

So now the new year is upon us and time to think about those New Years resolutions. I can honestly say I have managed some of these in the past - one year I resolved no chocolate for a year and I did it. Its all about commitment and telling everyone you know what you are doing. This year its all about diets. As in Yarn Diet and Book Diet. Last year I managed to accumulate one heck of a stash of yarn and fiber.  Not to mention a favorites list in Ravelry that will take forever to accomplish. So this year I resolve to not buy new yarn until I have completed 4 finished objects from my stash. And no new fiber (except to continue my participation in Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm) until I make some serious headway on my pounds of Cormo. Oh wait, I have one exception to the yarn rule - Wollmeise. I intend to stalk at few times to try and get some of the colors I want - such as Poison No 5 - but I am not counting this as buying yarn. This is more like playing the yarn lottery. I enjoy the fun of the hunt as much as the yarn. 

The other diet is the Book Diet. I read like crazy - when all else goes I still read everyday. To this end I signed up for the 52 books in a year challenge. I am pretty sure I manage this every year but this will be the first year I track what I read for a year. I am putting my list on the side of my blog and will make notes when I find something worthy. So the diet part is that to be more economical and a bit more green I am also committing to using the library for at least 50% of the books I read. I will note which ones are library books so I can be kept honest. 

Finally I am debating the No Chocolate year again this year. Chocolate is my downfall. I love chocolate. Way too much. So I will think about this one still. I have a few more days to decide. 

So its a year of yarn, books and chocolate -sounds typical to me!

Starting La Digetessa

DSC_0061, originally uploaded by skoswalt.

My holiday project is to do the La Digetessa Knit Along on Ravelry. Here is the pretty yarn I am using. Its Wollmeise in Red Hot Chili Pepper light intensity.

ITS DONE!!!

Its finally done!!!! A years worth of work has gotten me to my finished Holiday gift for a very dear friend of mine. 

This is the story of Ot and Morf.
Morf is one extremely talented, artistic, crafty lady who can do anything. She makes the most beautiful cards and every Christmas Ot gets a beautiful handmade card.
Ot and Morf are always joking about Martha Stewart. How Martha can make anything out of nothing in no time at all.
So this year, Ot decided to give Morf a Martha Stewart Christmas present in return for all the beautiful handmade cards. 

So, Ot learned to spin, bought a fluffy fresh Cormo fleece, cleaned it, harvested fresh goldenrod, dyed the clean locks in the goldenrod dye, spun it into 550 yards of fluffy yarn, designed the pattern, knit it up and Voila - you have the beautiful Ot and Morf scarf. So at Christmas, Ot will package up the scarf, with the pattern and all the pictures from fleece to dye to yarn to scarf in a lovely package. But you know what - Ot is going to buy the damn card!What you see here is the result of one woman's efforts to be Martha Stewart for a year. I think I did pretty good. If you like the pattern, drop me a line. I am still in the process of finalizing the pdf and will make it somehow available after the holidays.

I am remarkably proud of this item. I wasn't sure the whole time I was knitting it up how it was going to look once blocked. I was so nervous. But in the end, now that it is blocked, I am absolutely in love with this item!!! I cannot believe I created this! See if you can figure out the name - the first person to leave me a comment tying the name to the scarf will get a copy of the pattern once I get it finalized and pdf'ed. 

--EDIT: Ok - I wasn't clear in my excitement. Its named "Ot and Morf" after the story. The question is - can you figure out the tie between the name and the design.