Another Christmas is in the past

Christmas is the holiday when I miss my Mom the most. She was the glue that held our holidays together. She made it extra special and I miss that. My husband and I had a very quiet Christmas day, just the two of us. We relaxed, drank some coffee, played some colorku, I knit a little, did some baking and then we had our turkey dinner about 6:30. We had already exchanged gifts at Thanksgiving, I know, early but when it's just the two of you, we tend to do that. Just buy something for each other at odd times of the year. I received a Sony EReader, Touch Edition, PRS-600. I love it!!! Not only will it hold tons of books, it will also hold Word docs and PDF's, so I have my knitting patterns on it. It has 2 Memory Stick slots so it will hold mega data. No more lugging around a notebook of patterns. It's not too good on formatting of the charts, but then I rarely do chart knitting, so not an issue for me.

I did do some surprise holiday knitting. I've given the goodies to her now, so I can post about it. I made a pair of Cafe Au Lait mitts, in Misti Alpaca. Did I mention I love this pattern? They are wonderfully warm but not bulky. The other item made is a scarf made with Poppin. It has a very nice feel and although it's polyester, it's very nice against the skin. Very easy garter stitch pattern, looks more difficult than it was.

I always enjoy the last week of December because this is when I transfer information to my new paper calendar. Yes I have a Smartphone that has all the calendar functions and address book and excel documents, but I like having my paper calendar, for note writing and at a glance calendar notes. I have lists of my current knit projects on the needles as well as future knit projects. Post-It Notes with yarns I want to try, books I want to read or authors I want to try, etc. Transferring to a new one every year lets me cull out what I no longer have an interest in, especially the Future Knit Projects. I've culled a few out that were on my list from last year. I have no problem doing that as I feel that our interests change over the course of a year and I'm ok with that.

Have you ever been out and wished you had your knitting label with you? Does it get lost from your knitting bag? I don't think I came up with this idea, I actually think I saw it somewhere, but can't remember. But go buy yourself a portable photo album (you grandparents out there will know what I'm talking about) I purchased mine at Hobby Lobby, but you can find them anywhere. I purchased the clasp kind so that I made sure it stays closed. Instead of photos, place a knitting label with a small strand of the yarn of your current projects on the needles. It never failed that I started a project and someone would ask.....what yarn is that? and I wouldn't remember. This solved that problem. It just stays in my knitting bag now.

On to my laundry and some knitting.