Bank of Royal Copenhagen

Yesterday I went hog wild and spent $22 on myself. While grocery shopping at Publix, the Winter 2012 issue of Interweave Knits jumped into my cart.

and while DD was spending some quality time in Plato's Closet, I enjoyed a manicure next door.

These are the kinds of treats, no matter how seemingly small, that I sometimes agonize over, but no more. Last year I began paying myself for completing certain tasks that I could and would easily avoid. Things like flossing, exercising in any intensity (including little or practically none) for 15 minutes, and going to bed without leaving any clothes on the floor. There are a few others which I am loath to disclose, but in any event I'm now motivated to do these things, if not by their intrinsic necessity or benefit, then by the fact that for each one checked off I put $1 in my favorite vase.

Win/win: things that need doing get done, and I have a modest fund of fun money to spend on little extras that make me smile. And I still have $19 left. Mad Tosh?

 

 

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FO Friday

Wednesday came and went this week, and my WIPs pretty much look the same as last week....except there are more of them. Not to worry - I have 51 more opportunities this year to get those projects off the Wednesday post and onto the Friday post.
However, it is with suitable glee that I present my first finished object of 2013.
[Insert drum roll here.]

This is my version of OwlCat Design's Rosy & Grey Hat by Simone Kereit.  The pattern is still in testing but will be released shortly to complement her Rosy & Grey Wristlets.  Obviously mine isn't so rosy and is blacker than grey. I did some stashbusting and came up with Fjord Solid by Crystal Palace Yarns (Jet Black) and Knit Picks WOTA Tonal (Blue Violet), and I must say I was quite pleased with this color combo.

What tickled me even more, however, was that this was the first colorwork project (of not all that many, mind you) which I attempted to use the "strand-in-each-hand" method.  I am a confirmed thrower and proud of it, but juggling those balls, pardon my French, is no fun.  So I watched a quick continental tutorial and away I went.

[Insert pat on the back here.]  

Such gratifying results from a simple pattern, in less than a weekend to boot!

WIP Wednesday: What's needling me

While most moms I know in other parts of the country are sending their kids back to school this morning, we still have five days to go in our leisurely Christmas* break. (* I know, I know, the school calendar says "winter break", but in my Florida household it's much more Christmastime than wintertime, and so it shall be.) So we're still in a cycle of staying up late and sleeping in, except for my DH who maintains his usual bedtime and gets up for dawn patrol to catch some waves before work each day.

Thought I'd enjoy my coffee on the couch with some knitting this morning, but I got sidetracked by blogging.....isn't it usually the other way around? My favorite project right now is Irish Coffee.....hmmmm...too early in the morning for either kind, I guess.

I'm mid-heel flap on the first sock - two-color eye-of-partridge...in a pear tree. (And yes, the Christmas decorations are still up. Today is the ninth day of Christmas, and while I have no dancing ladies here, I'm still very much enjoying the observance.)  I am loving Bijou Basin Ranch's Tibetan Dream Sock yarn, but I've learned the hard way that the fine-gauge cabling and twisted-stitching of this pattern makes it a "natural daylight only" project for me and my middle-aged eyes.

So for lamplight and TV watching I have the 10-stitch blanket to work on. There's a baby on the way (not in this household, good gracious!), and I've the feeling she won't wait till her February 19 due date.

Not as thrilled with this project as I expected, but it does have the advantage of being practically mindless except for counting the short-row corners.  And the yarn is key - Cotton Supreme Batik is a machine washable and dryable cotton.  Colorway is Sea Glass.

Still dearly loved but shoved in a bag for now is Florence.

The body is finished and the first sleeve started, but she's for me so, alas, she waits.

So far the only serious resolution I have for the new year is that I publish more WIP Wednesday posts in 2013 and that these 3 projects do not appear in all of them.

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