This has been a great year for me, blogwise, and pretty good otherwise. It all started with Donni and Good Yarn Karma, which lead me to Bells, which lead me to Amy, who always makes me think, George, who always makes me smile, Jejune, who does great knitting paintings most recently featured in Vogue Knitting (squeeeeeee!), and Tink, my shoe twin (all amongst others). Regular knitting catchups with my former work colleagues (all blogless) as well as 3 great women in Sydney, give me something else to look forward to every month or so, as well as a chance to flash (in person) the latest stash or FO or WIP, as well as to pet the same from the others.
New friends also came from a chance comment, and from a knitterly letter swap. For an introvert like me, blogging has made getting to know people so much easier - typing an email or a blog entry is so much less confronting than walking into a room full of people I don't know and trying to get someone's attention. And I can be the person I want to be without being constrained by my shyness or lack of social eptness!
According to my FO tag, I've finished 31 things this year. I know it's been a few more, as there are some things I haven't blogged yet and some I won't bother blogging (who really needs to see another ballband dishcloth!! But I do love knitting them!). I'm pretty happy with that number, although seriously, I need to ramp it up if I'm ever going to get through the stash.
Speaking of stash, Knit From Your Stash 2007 pretty much didn't do it for me. I blame the sock yarn exception. Oh, yeah, and my complete lack of willpower. Sigh! As I've signed up for No Guilt Stash, I don't feel that bad...but I do plan on shopping the stash more this year, rather than shopping for stash!
More additions to the stash came from some very generous knitters, some doing giveaways and some just for - the most recent of which arrived on Christmas Eve (it arrived Sarah!!). The pictures were done in a bit of a rush, and now we've left the camera at my MIL's so these will have to do. Sarah bought all of these items from Etsy sellers - how cool is that!
Alpaca/merino sock yarn, cool stitch markers and a row counter bracelet (both from Hide and Sheep), a very neat button closure purse/pouch and the sweetest little badges - one each for knitting, crochet, sewing, quilting and needlepoint! Thanks Sarah! I love all of these things - I've been thinking about getting a row counter bracelet for a while now - yippee!Knitting firsts in 2007: felting (love it!) and lace (love it - just need lots of uninterrupted concentration time). Will 2008 be the year of colourwork? Probably not, but one day, I will try it!
Favourite FO of the year: Embossed Leaves Socks, without a doubt! The combination of Koigu, colour, clever pattern, fabulous effect. Love these socks. Will knit them again. Quite possibly with the alpaca/merino yarn from Sarah! A close second is husby's Beau. There's nothing quite like making a large garment for someone you love. Beau only just edges out clapotis, actually...
Favourite post of the year: Who would have thought that RoseRed's Standard of Stash Systemisation would take off! A close second is this post - quite funny, for me anyway!
Surprise of the year: Setting up two new blogs - both with the fabulous and energetic Bells - Mouthfuls of Heaven, where we document our love of Nigella, and Southern Summer of Socks, self-explanatory, I hope! Oh and Ravelry - how cool is Ravelry?!
What about you - what are you favourites, firsts or surprises for 2007?
And Happy New Year to everyone - if I have left anyone off this it's only because I think about 5700 links is probably enough for one posts. I cannot express in words how much I enjoy this blogging lark and all that comes with it, most particularly the connections I have made over the past 18 months. Thank you all.
Bought these from Russell & Bromley (in Oxford I think - somewhere in the UK, in any event!). They also came in purple suede. Wish I'd bought those as well... (see, I've learnt my lesson since then!!)
Merry Christmas, happy holidays to all!
And to make things even more of a challenge, I woke up on Friday morning with a bit of a sore throat, which by yesterday morning had turned into all out sicky sore throat, sneezing, snot nose. Not terrible, can't get out of bed flu though (phew!). So sent husby out to shop with detailed list (he only forgot 3 things, necessitating 2 more trips to the shops in the course of the day!) while I cleaned and tidied and planned out my cooking (small oven, lots of baked items - eeek!), all in between sneezing, blowing my nose and washing my hands (TMI? Sorry!)
Husby carving the ham. Many jokes about whether I'll be posting a 
Pudding ready at just the right time. Is there anything more scary than peeling back the calico from your first ever boiled plum pudding? Another phew!
Mmmm plum pudding...
All in all, a lovely evening (slightly stressful for me, sorry about that friends!). Now to relax for a couple of days, and really appreciate someone else making Christmas lunch!
Dishcloth or pot mat - this is the 
It's amazing what a difference blocking can make!
Pot Holder - this was a bit of a leap of faith on my part - didn't use a pattern for the pot holder (clearly, had a pattern for the knitted bit!) so I'm fairly pleased with how my limited sewing skills went on this!
I machine sewed the fabric and wadding (you might even say I quilted it!! Heh!) and bias binding on, and then handsewed the knitted square (which is really a parallelogram!).
Quite pleased with the matching leaf fabric which I bought after finishing the knitted part!
I was instructed to not open it until Christmas, but since 
Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Thanks Tink! HappySpider sock yarn, chocolate (mmmm chocolate), tea, lovely Tasmanian soap (love fancy soap!) and a tape measure (can never have too many of those!)
Ok, this is not all mine...most of it was for Christmas gifts.
I only kept 3 for myself, honest! I can assure you, postage is very reasonable when you are buying in bulk!! (STR Lightweight in Beryl and Ruby Slippers, STR Silkie in Valkyrie) (How could an Australian not buy a yarn called Beryl - Berr-RYL!)
But nice and open for the "hot" weather we have at Christmas time (well, if it would stop raining that is!) and to show off the pedicure.
Most importantly, a bit of party bling with the shiny red leather!
And then I weighed the sock, and found this:
Huge sigh of relief!! I should be able to finish sock 2 with 2-4 grams of yarn to spare - woo hoo! And so far, no knots in the yarn (and I didn't notice any while winding the skein, so fingers crossed!). I am expecting some bleeding when I wash the socks, as if I knit for a fair while on these they do stain my fingers, but I can live with that (and will warn the MIL as well!). Fortunately am using the KP metal dpns, so no green sticks!
These are another bargain from Zara in the UK, purchased about 4 years ago. I remember the first time I wore them. We were in Singapore and had a disastrous evening - could not find the very nice restaurant we wanted to go to for dinner so settled for something else which was not great (not terrible, just not great) and then couldn't get a cab home and so had to walk for miles (well, it felt like it, I'm sure it wasn't that far), had a fight and I got blisters on the backs of both heels from the shoes (sigh...). 
Fortunately, that is the only time they ever bit my feet, now they are very well behaved!
And then Sunday in Canberra (which you can read all about on 
mmm burnt butter alpaca - it's as soft as, well, buttah!
Handmade by Bells for me, using 
Second up - I arrived home last Sunday around lunch time, after doing the grocery shopping, to find this:
Yes, that's right, that's my husband on his hands and knees scrubbing the bathroom floor! He is no longer a bathroom cleaning virgin (although he does remain a toilet cleaning virgin...not sure why, as the toilet is actually in the bathroom. Clearly, cleaning the outside of the toilet is all it needs!! Not that I'm complaining, mind...) Have no idea what drove my husband to clean the bathroom (apart from it needing it, but that's hardly a rare occurrence! I just thought I was the only one in our relationship who noticed!). Let's hope this is just the start of many happy hours husby will share with the bathroom cleaning products!
Everything is packaged inside a clear shoe box! A shoe box! The only thing that could have been better to find inside might have been a pair of Manolos! It was truly the magic pudding of shoeboxes, I felt like the bounty would never end!
There was biscuits (mmm white choc and macadamia), a little chocolate pudding, tea, lots of tea - 5 different black teas, and almost best of all, a RED SHOE STITCH MARKER!!
And check this out - Red Rose tea! I've never seen rose tea made of actual rosebuds! Wow!
And a fab-o tea cosy and matching doily/pot mat - fits the cosy perfectly, look at those cool woven bead thingys and the fab leaf edging on the cosy - and the colour is gorgeous, matches my dinner set perfectly.
And if one tea cosy wasn't enough, there's another tea cosy! Now you see the teapot:
Now you don't!
And (I know I keep saying "and" - that's just how I felt when opening - "and there's more, and more, and more!") vintage crochet patterns, for edgings and doilies! Check this out - obviously my crochet teacher had this book when she was giving us patterns (I learnt when I was about 15, I went to a night class at tech):
And just for completeness, as there's a few more things in the pics which I haven't also raved about (too much raving can be bad for one's health, yes?) my package also included 4 egg cosies (check out 
(mmmm passionfruit merino cashmere sock yarn...) Thank you thank you thank you Fitknit! You have chosen such perfect, fabulous things, you really have set the bar high!
And for those who think I only have pointy toed high heel shoes - check it out - square toe and flat sole!
I bought these in New York in January, from Bergdorf Goodman. I wish I'd bought two pairs (at least!).
