I’m in the middle of some non-bloggable (but non-holiday-related!) stuff, so I’ll be back on Sunday.
Lucy wishes for all of you a lamp that casts a golden glow.
Adventures with sticks and string.
Roscalie Cardigan by Alice Starmore, knit from Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift on a US 3 needle
I’m in the middle of some non-bloggable (but non-holiday-related!) stuff, so I’ll be back on Sunday.
Lucy wishes for all of you a lamp that casts a golden glow.
Note: Nope, I don’t work for Justice (well, I do work for justice, but not for Justice, if you know what I mean) nor do I work for the FBI. But the agency I work for does a lot of stuff in collaboration with that section of DOJ, hence the invite to their holiday party. Nope, I’m not going.
I work in a large Federal building. There are flyers for holiday parties everywhere. In fact, I think one could spend the first three weeks of December doing nothing but going to holiday parties given by the various offices and agencies (and I’d be willing to bet there are people who do just that) and still miss out on half of them.
Have you noticed the distinct lack of holiday knitting around these parts? That’s because I’m not doing any. No one is getting handknit gifts — I ordered 90% of my gifts online. I haven’t wrapped anything yet (apart from the stuff I had to mail), but I’ll do that over the weekend. I put up no holiday decorations, nor did I do any holiday baking, apart from some chocolate chip cookies for my office’s holiday party (which I didn’t attend).
Boy, do I feel relaxed. 😀
I’m not dissing anyone’s holiday preparations, but this non-preparation sure works for me.
Here’s my favorite of the holiday cards I’ve received thus far (okay, I did send out cards):
It’s the holiday for the rest of us. Thanks, Margaret!
Precious little knitting was done last night because a certain furry somebody required a lot of attention. Here’s the shawl, arranged artfully over my laptop:
Since I have precious little knitting to show you, you get a potpourri of stuff I happened to photograph.
Anyhow, speaking of that certain furry somebody, there was a question in the comments about whether she was as docile as she is now when I first got her.
When I first got Lucy, she was extremely affectionate, but timid, and extremely well-behaved. I got the impression that the people she lived with before me yelled at her for everything and anything. She’d jump on the couch and look at me anxiously to see if that was okay. (Little did she know what a pushover I am.) Now that she is secure in her position here she is less well-behaved, but even more affectionate and sweet-natured.
She left one of her favorite toys on my bed for me to find when I got home today:
“Who? Me?”
And for grins, here is a photo of my computer monitor at work:
If you look at the enlarged photo over on its Flickr page, you can see all sorts of interesting stuff in that picture. Okay, well, maybe the stuff is only interesting to me.
Speaking of stuff that is only interesting to me, my hair is still poo-free — I’m still using and loving the Chaz Dean WEN Cleansing Conditioner. Hair update photo:
Photo taken 12 hours after washing.
When I got to the office this morning, I saw this flyer posted near the reception desk:
Maybe I am strange (maybe?), but I find this hilarious and also slightly ludicrous.
Of course, ludicrous is a word I use to describe a lot of stuff at the office . . .
Ahem.
Lookie! I made some progress on the second half of my Pacific Islands Shawl!
I made such good progress because I took Monday off from work. I am at the office for the rest of the week, so the progress will slow down quite a bit.
It was nice to hear from other map geeks in the comments to yesterday’s post. I love maps, always have. I recently got this book as well:
This is London: A Life in Maps, and it’s got reproductions of lots of antique maps in it. It’s sort of a history of the city, revolving around its maps. A very fun read!
In other news . . .
Didja see that Sheri posted information about Loopy’s Spring Fling ’08 sock retreat? And did you see who one of the “celebrity guests” is? It totally cracks me up that Sheri refers to me as a “celebrity.” 🙂
Anyhow, sign-ups are open for the retreat — I’m really looking forward to it!
The photoshoot of Lucy in yesterday’s blog post was, of course, done with her flopped down on her back in my lap. This is a relatively new “thing” for her. If she wants me to flop her over on her back, she will stand in my lap, meow insistently, and head-butt my hands. I am generally required to do this at least once a day.
Lucy would like you to know that keeping her cataloons fluffy and pretty takes a lot of grooming.
Laura has released the Pacific Islands pattern for sale. You can purchase it from her site here. I recommend this pattern — easy enough for a lace newbie and fun enough to keep the interest of a more-experienced lace knitter. And the resulting shawl is gorgeous!
There’s also the option to make a scarf, if you are an immediate gratification kind of knitter.
I’ve made a start on the second half of the shawl.
It probably makes me a total geek that I bought this book:
Today was one of those days that I had a less-than-successful photo shoot with Lucy. Wanna see?
This:
And this:
And this:
And this:
And this:
But it sure was fun trying!
My Pacific Islands Shawl is half done.
It’s on a spare needle,, waiting for me to knit the second half. Then the two halves are supposed to be grafted together in the middle. Though I might cheat and attach them using a three-needle bind-off. 😉
This has been great fun to knit, and I’m very much looking forward to having the finished shawl!
We real lucked out with the weather this weekend. The storm that was dumping ice and snow over the Northeast was simply rain for us. And the rain stopped this morning, and our only worry now is high winds which are supposed to start up soon.
And the highlight of my weekend? This:
My new phone — an LG Voyager. It has an external touch screen, and inside a full keyboard.
Makes text messaging a lot easier! The service includes mobile internet, email access, and GPS software.
I love new toys!
When she is not posing for photos, Lucy prefers to nap.