Where has the time gone?

Well, I can't believe it has been over a month since I've had time to write. After Thanksgiving, I came down with a nasty cold that knocked me out for most of a week (between cold and stomach bug, I used 5.5 sick days in November!), and then I've been playing catch up ever since. Add in the holiday demands and still sharing a computer with two teenagers and you get the picture -- I've been out of the picture!

Not only have I not written in a long time, but apparently I've been leaving some questions unanswered, according to one of my comment writers. My apologies. I'll try to rectify the situation (having fans carries a lot of responsibility -- especially when they are your sisters!).

Yes, the tilted duster is from the cover of the Fall Interweave Knits magazine and is designed by Norah Gaughan (pronounced "gone," I think). I'm going with an inky blue color, though, instead of the purple everyone associates with it. Sorry to make you have to Google things -- I'll try to put in links more often. (As an aside, I'm enjoying reading Norah Gaughan's blog about the design process -- she works for a yarn company called Berroco.) And, I decided to link my blog and my Ravelry name, so can be identified as "Journey Knitter."

In my knitting life, I'm especially enjoying my new knitting group at work. Due to my crazy month, I was a bit slow in organizing the second meeting, so was grateful for a member/colleague who nudged me along and helped me get the second meeting together last Thursday. I left with a smile on my face, though it was funny that everyone was so excited about sharing that we were all talking over each other and jumping from one topic to another. We've decided to meet on the first Thursday of each month. I shared my new favorite book, The Knitter's Book of Yarn by Knitter's Review's Clara Parkes (who lives in Maine) and it caught the interest of several people -- one of whom asked me to e-mail her husband and suggest it as a Christmas gift!

In the rest of my life, one son has been accepted early decision to his first choice college, Allegheny College, in western PA. He'll be a 12-hour drive away, but, having visited with him last spring, I'm confident it will be a wonderful place for him to go to college. One down, one to go. The other son is due to hear about his early action application to UVM any day/minute now. You can cut the tension around here with a butter knife.

ON MY NEEDLES
My main project at the moment is the lace shrug I'm knitting for one of my sisters for Christmas. She knows that I'm knitting it but doesn't know what color. I can reveal here that is is a variegated color combination -- I ordered three different colors and my sons picked one of them out for her. I'm a little more than half done and am just about to admit that it won't be done in time for Christmas (I should be knitting instead of writing this blog post!). I made huge progress on it the week I was home from work for 3 days with my cold, but can't afford to take more time off at this point. But, it is looking substantial enough to be able to wrap up for Christmas day. The pattern is from A Gathering of Lace by Meg Swanson.

Zeben's socks -- I actually got past the afterthought heel and am working up the legs/cuffs. I worked on them during the High School holiday concert the other night, but dropped a stitch on one before I got very far into the Golden Compass movie I went to see this afternoon and had to put them aside.

The other project on my needles is a new one since Thanksgiving. My mother-in-law took me shopping to Sakonnet Purls in Tiverton, RI and bought me a couple of knitting treats to celebrate my "big birthday" last October (they were traveling in England in October, visiting my niece and celebrating my father-in-law's birthday). I was salivating over the Cabled Tea Cozy pattern in The Knitter's Book of Yarn by Clara Parkes and she bought me the Malabrigo wool to make it. She also bought me Lantern Moon rosewood sock dps that I will be using to make mittens from the same book that I had bought Baby Ull for a few days earlier. The mittens are not on my needles yet, but I've done one side of the tea cozy and started the second side.

ON MY COOKING LIST
Since I don't have time to read anything at the moment (other than the latest edition of Interweave Knits and Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting magazines), I'm deep into Christmas cooking. Tomorrow, I'll be making Date-Filled Cookies (like the ones I used to snarf down at my grandparents' house at Thanksgiving), Festive Cookie Dough (from which I make the chocolate chip and dipped in chocolate crescent cookies that are beloved by family and friends), British Fruitcake (my neighbors aren't making it this year, so I'm picking up the slack -- believe it or not, one of my 18-year-old sons told me I have to make it because he "LOVES" fruitcake!), and Sugar and Spice Pecans. We've already been through batches of butter/sugar cookies and Chocolate Sour Cream Drops (another recipe from my childhood). Plus, I'll be making a big batch of American Chop Suey to keep us warm through the big snowstorm we're supposed to get tomorrow. Yummmmy!