The madness is mostly over. For this month, at least.

It seems as if I'll be heading down to Knoxville once a month for a while. Rae and I went down in November, right after grandma's surgery. Then we went down the weekend before Christmas, and spent a couple days down there. We found a yarn store - that was delightful (and expensive) fun. Rae decided she wants to start knitting Estonian-styled lace. We grabbed a skein of Alpaca with a Twist for her to work with. And, of course, I picked up some more sock yarn. Pretty stuff. We ended up not going out while we were there. We were just so tired - after the drive, and handling Grandma, and surviving the Walmart, goodness.

To be able to help Rae with her lace, I started my own. (Just to get a little jump start on the learning curve.) Well, okay. So I started a lace shawl a month or two ago, and it's languishing in the basket right now. But this one will be different, I promise! The repeat for this one is 30-some rows, twice as long as the Luna Moth. The horizontal repeat is a little longer too, but I can't tell you how much. This one didn't come with real great instructions! But, it's the Beginning Lace Knitter's KAL for January - so I'm sure there will be plenty of help along the way. I'm about finished with the first repeat (I think 7 are suggested, or maybe five) and it's delightfully beautiful. Also Aplaca with a Twist, in a light slate blue. I bought the yarn at Heavenly Creations on Friday, and I wanted to immediately go home and take a nap with it. Mmm.

What else is there? I've got a set of delightful socks OTN right now - a dark blue, with an easy little lace pattern on top. The first is finished, and I'm still working on the toe of the second. My Twisted wrap is still in the big project bag - I think it's close to finished now, but it's been a while since I've touched it. I need to look up the finishing instructions to see if I need to keep going. I'm still working on my pretty bag, but the stage I'm at right now is all purling, and I'm not so much a fan of that.

I got a swift for Christmas! My little brother made it for me from PVC. It's perfect. So I'm going to splurge on a ball winder now. I started winding a skein of Cascade 220, and half way through I decided that, although I enjoy ball winding, I really want a winder. So that's exciting.

But really, I think that's it. Christmas is over, I like yarn, I've debated on New Year's "goals", and Grandma goes back for another heart surgery sometime in January. Oh, and John wants me to make socks for his girlfriend. Ha. We'll see about that.

I haven't been spinning at all, lately. We were both sick all last week, which meant I hardly even touched a knitting needle while Renee knitted practically an entire blanket. Eh, okay.

I started making dishclothes. I knitting one, but it hurt my hands too much. So I started crocheting them instead. I made a star one, and a circle, and a regular square. Then I did a square one with a pattern stitch. I started a tawashi one last night (an open square with 4 linked rings inside it) and it's interesting like. They've been great with my entire lack of focusing ability right now.

I'm going to spin tonight, though. I decided. I'm going to start on that ball of Louet again, because I think I miss spinning. And I think I've got a better conceptual idea of what's going on, at this point, so it'll be good to get my hands started at catching up with my head.

Yep yep.

The holiday season has officially started. Thanksgiving (my personal favorite) is over. (Umm, and it was entirely delicious. And completely gluten-free. And homemade, down to the stuffing bread and pie crust. I'm very proud of it.) Our Christmas shopping / producing is nearly complete. We've still got to felt all the bowls, and Renee just started a blanket for her great-grandmother last night. I got a late start on gifts for my relatives. ... Okay, so I wasn't going to do anything for them. But then I grew up a little, and decided on presents for anyone under the age of 10. Which means I'm gifting for little girls. I decided I'd knit them coordinating hats. Luckily, one of the girls is technically a Johovah's witness, so her present doesn't actually need to be finished until after the holiday (but it would be nice to finish early). I think I'm going to make them all Republic Hats - one hot pink, one bright teal, and one a nice purple color. Easy, doesn't require much thought, etc.

I actually started a Lifted Twill hat for one of the girls, but. It just requires a little more focus than I've got right now. (Especially if I'm going to finish in time!) Since I'm doing a simple hat, though, I might knit some little wrist warmers to go with them. We'll see.

I finished my Renee's-family-christmas-swap gift. I drew one of the boyfriends, ha. I knit him a scarlet and grey hat based on the Turn a Square pattern. I love it- it's warm, and soft, and I might need one that's not Buckey themed!