Cockleshells of Thoughtfulness

On the last day of this pretty difficult year, I wanted to end on an uplifting note with pretty lace and thoughtfulness. As much as I'm glad to see this year end, I've been truly grateful for:

My Family
My Knitting Group, the ManchVegas Knitters
My Health (even with the various things going on...I'm still doing pretty good!)
Ravelry and Blogs (yes, corny, but true)
Lovely yarn to knit with, fiber to spin and endless good books to read!

First, the LACE!!

At the shop, we had a Secret Snowflake Swap for the holidays and, though the kiddies and I were feeling too badly to go to the final party, I was able to finish my gift (on time!) for my boss, Cyndi....the woman who owns one of the best yarn shops in all of NH! VERY hard to decide what to make and get for such a person.

I decided to knit one of the lace scarves from one of my new favorite knitting books, Ocean Breezes by Sheryl Thies.

Look again at the scarf picture above....What do you think? Was it a good choice?

DETAILS:

Yarn: Madril Kid Seta, 1 ball in white
Needles: Crystal Palace Bamboo straights, size 8
Pattern: Cockleshell Lace scarf
Rating: A- (excellent fun, easy to knit, quick and enjoyable)

*Note-the pattern called for 3 balls of this yarn to make the 40" scarf. I only used 1 ball to get the 40" and, though I tend to knit loosely, I think I was pretty close to gauge. Not sure if the yarn amount is a typo or not. I actually blocked the scarf out to a bit longer than the 40", as well. I also added size 8/0 mirror glass seed beads to the center lace pattern, before and after the yo's. You can see them a little more clearly here:



I was thrilled with how the scarf came out and I think Cyndi liked it too. She wore it all day at work on Saturday. Woo-hoo! I wish I'd taken a picture of the gorgeous snowflake clear crystal stitch markers that Heather made for me to add to the gift...they were amazing!

THOUGHTFUL GIFTS

This holiday season, I got some truly wonderful gifts. All of them I loved (especially the gift cards!!), but a few stood out as being especially thoughtful and I wanted to share them here:

-Ian got me, not only my favorite new Vera Bradley "Curvy Tote" bag (mod pink floral!), but also spent lots of time and energy getting me a white gold necklace with a silver pendant....this pendant has the pictures of my two sweet boys lasered on the front. I was so surprised when I opened this and I've been wearing it every day since. Not only did my hubby have to send in scanned pics of the boys and fill out paperwork and such...but to remember that I'd always wanted one touched me the most. Here is a very blurry (sorry!) picture of the pendant:



-My mom knows how much I love Lemon scented things and my addiction to lip gloss and she got me a HUGE bag full of...guess what?.....M.A.R.K Lemon spray, body cream and lotion, and lip glosses for the whole year. You always know the perfect thing to get, right, Mom?

-Jackie got me the most amazing PINK!!! digital scale....highest rating and sooo nice. I've been complaining about not having one, but never got off my a** to get one. She searched around until she finally found me a pink one and....oh, do I LOVE IT!!! Thanks so much, J! I've already used it a few times and it works like a dream! (and matches my Hello Kitty toaster...lol!)



-We had a visit from Ian's high school friend, Richard, and his wife, Margaret and their little girl, Katharine. You might remember the photo I posted of her wearing the Angel Sweater I knit? Or the Sweet Leaf Hat? Or the Raspberry Hat and Mittens I made for her? They told me that she now refers to ALL mittens as raspberries! How cute is that?? I'd only met Richard once about 15 years ago when Ian and I had just started dating and this is the first time I was able to meet his wife and daughter. I have to say....I found so much to talk about with Margaret and it was like we were friends right away. Supremely friendly, a great mom and....you know what else???....she's starting to knit!!! Here is a picture of a hat she is working on:



But, the thoughtful thing was that Margaret had read my blog post about how Ben was throwing up every other night and I was running out of King size sheet sets and, you know what she did? She gave us a set of these beautiful cotton sheets for Christmas! (my gift tin of butter cookies seemed horribly, horribly lame)



I am planning on some adorable new winter wear for little Katharine ASAP! (I can't wait for them to visit again....)

Well, not much else...except look for another blog post immediately tomorrow! (I'm trying to start the year off right! he he)

Yipee! Goodbye 2007!