Happy New Year!

So here is 2007. I'm still wondering where 2006 went! I suppose I lost one third of my year to endless hours at my former employer, but the time since I left them has really flown by as well. Though I have enjoyed the time much more at my new-old job than I did at the company I left.

My new camera is awesome. I just transferred my first photos from it to my PC and it went really easily. The USB cable transfer rate is actually much faster than I expected, so I may not go out and get a card reader for the new camera. (Which is by the way a Nikon COOLPIX 8700...what a name for a camera, eh?) I guess it could get slower to transfer photos if I'm moving more than like 10 at a time, so I will have to see how fast they move when I get to taking a large quantity of photos at once.

One of the first real photos I took with it was of the dishcloth that I gave to my favorite knitter:


The pattern is the Lacy Round dishcloth from my Dishcloth Knitting group, it was the March 2006 mid-month KAL pattern. It was designed by Rhonda K White at Knitting Knonsense. She also has this pattern on her website here. The yarn is Peaches 'n Creme in Peppermint.

I also took a picture of some Lang Jawoll Cotton that I ordered from the Simply Socks Yarn Company just after Christmas. They sent it out lickety split and I am looking forward to making some socks with this yarn:

The colorway is number 174 and it is 49% superwash wool, 35% cotton and 16% polyamide. It feels pretty nice, I am tempted to knit a swatch just to see how it feels as a finished cloth and how the pattern looks in person (though the Simply Socks folks have a photo of it in the listing here). Also from this store I purchased a set of Addi Turbo DPN's. I neglected to really read the listing when I purchased these needles, but they came with the CUTEST bear needle huggers that are used to keep your DPN's together. I am really enjoying using them, they are keeping my sock in progress sturdily on the needles between knitting.

I am knitting another pair of the whiskers and paw prints socks for my mother-in-law's birthday. I am just about to turn the heel on the first sock, so conceivably if I don't screw around too much tonight, I could just about have the sock done. Although unlikely, I will give it a go. I will also doubtfully have these socks done in time for her birthday, but I will give it a go. I am sure that she will forgive me as soon as the socks arrive in the mail. The Yarn Pirate sock yarn (in the Paris colorway) is knitting up nicely, it is appearing to be self striping yarn now that I'm a bit up the foot as evidenced in these photos:


The way that the yarn is striping is reminding me very much of my Texas Longhorn sock yarn. (Aren't the bears just freaking adorable?) I am still digging this pattern. Since I just finished the other pair of socks, I still have the chart memorized so I don't have to go looking at any pesky scraps of paper. I found out that while my mother-in-law has smaller feet than me (8.5-9 vs 10), she has wide feet so I'm keeping the sock at the same stitch count as mine was, I'm just going to make it either a full repeat or half a chart repeat shorter (I have to get out my tape measure and see how long they are now).

I will end by saying I hope that everyone had a nice holiday season and best wishes for a great 2007. No resolutions here, though there are a few things that I would like to do this year and I am trying to have enough faith that I will be able to attain them before I lose hope of ever achieving these goals.

Oh, last but not least.. happy 18th birthday to my cat Bratty!!