Not dead.. yet.

Yes, yes, I'm still here, alive and kicking. I've actually had quite a wonderful time since I last visited here, it's just also been rather busy.

I spent a lovely five or six days in DC with Kim, who is one of those friends that you can go for months or years without so much as an email or a text message to check in, but when you see each other in person, things just feel natural and fall exactly into place and all is right with the world. It was fabulous. Kim is also the woman who taught me to knit, so we did much knitting and stash sorting and laughing and talking, oh, and not just a little walking about as well. At a time when "girlfriends" are falling by the way side (as Jack and I gather more "couple" friends, or friends we tend to only see in certain contexts), it was also a rather poignant reminder that there are at least a few women out there that I can and do feel connected to strongly enough to trust implicitly.

So, yes, knitting. I started holiday gifts, or rather, continued them. I'm making another Shapely Tank for my sister who mentioned when I gave her the last one that she really liked wearing tanks instead of t-shirts. It's a preference we share, so I'm willing to feed it. I made the second one in a dusty rose in moss stitch, but for some reason it's turned out a bit smaller than I'd have liked. I still need to do the arms and neck, and then wash it, wherein I'm hoping it will behave like my blue one (in the same yarn and also moss stitch) and loosen up quite a lot. If not, well, there's a back up plan, so it's not too much to worry about.

My mother-in-law will be getting a prayer shawl, which .. I'll skip the internal dialogue on.. suffice it to say I'm atheist. Nonetheless, the idea that it's a shawl meant to comfort and made while thinking fondly of her will be fine. It's nothing fancy - just 57 stitches, k3, p3, repeat - and it's just LB Homespun (3 skeins, machine washable and soft), but I do like how it's turning out. I'm just over half way finished (it was my plane knitting project) and will post pictures once it gets done.

Jack is getting (finally) his black Cotton Rich sweater. I'm trying to be surreptitious about working on it when he's not around so he won't know it's coming, but he could figure it out if he tried. *shrug* I also need to figure out something else for him (we do 2 holiday gatherings, one with each of our families, so we try to make sure we have something for each of us to open at each as our families like to see what we give each other), but it will likely be something non-knitted.

My sister-in-law requested a Lucy bag, so I'm going to start working on one of those pr'bly later this week, once I finish (again) a pair of half-finger gloves in Debbie Bliss's Cotton Cash for Jack. (Have I mentioned he's allergic to wool, alpaca, and near as I can tell almost any animal fiber? The cashmere seems to either be of low enough content in the Cotton Cash or not to cause a reaction, fortunately. This is the.. third or fourth pair of half-finger gloves I've made for him, so hopefully these will last.) I have three fingers left on the second one, so that should be done today. Then I'll do another, smaller Lucy bag for my almostneice. I also have cotton yarn to use for a pair of black socks for me and some gorgeous cashmere and cotton yarn in an orangishredish shade that Kim gifted me from her stash that will also be socks for me.

The backup plan for my sister is Clapotis in a vanilla/yellow mohair that I got in a trade. It's worsted weight, so not nearly as fine as the KSH, but still quite lovely. My sister is a high school drama director, so I suspect she could also find a few events to wear it to. I also have some more cotton and some lace weight merino (I think.. have to double check the fiber on that one) coming from someone's stash clearance, but I haven't decided for sure what those want to be. The cotton may become another attempt at Soleil since the first attempt is a touch too small and I'm not sure I like it well enough in microfiber to give it as a gift. We'll see.

There's more going on in general, especially at work, but it's Sunday morning and I'm not feeling particularly inclined to dwell on those things. Instead, I think I'll go make some coffee and finish Jack's gloves.