Is it Christmas again?

I feel like I am waiting up for Santa Claus to come.  We leave for New York tomorrow morning - super early. Our train is at 8:45 so we need to get up at 6 so that we can catch the metro with enough time.  I am not sure what to expect at Vogue Knitting Live, but I can only imagine.

I got this t-shirt from Adam for Christmas...

And now I have somewhere to wear it!

I probably won't post to the blog over the weekend, but I will definitely be updating twitter and facebook. So if you want, just click on the links on the right hand side of the screen and they will take you to my twitter feed and to my facebook page.

And may all of you have a happy reading and knitting weekend!

Love

There are a few things that I am feeling extremely grateful for today.  I have tried to contain my excitement around complete strangers so that I don't wave my freak flag to high, but I need an outlet before I just randomly start talking to the person walking next to me to work - thank god for my blog :)

First off, I LOVE meeting fellow knitters on the metro.  The daily commute is basically a bunch of people being shoved into a moving tin can.  You do all that you can to avoid each others eyes; some read, others play games on their phones or ipads, and then some just talk to themselves (always an interesting ride if you get a seat next to a talker).  The best though, are those that knit during the commute.  Yesterday I was leaving work really late and grabbed a seat next to a normal looking woman.  I glanced over and sure enough in her hands was a scarf that she was knitting. I struck up a conversation and we spent the entire time talking about yarn, new techniques and my upcoming weekend (see next thing I love).  Next thing you know, it is her stop and our conversation has to end.  The thing I love about it, is that you are just thrown into this moving tin can, and more often then not, you come out of it the same as you went in; but on rare occasions, you step in and you meet a knitter and you become more connected to the world.  I left the metro with a feeling of belonging to the world, of just pure happiness that I meet for a few minutes someone else that shares the same passion for knitting and yarn that I do.  There really is nothing like it, which is a reason that I also love...

large gatherings of knitters - such as VOGUE KNITTING LIVE!!! For Christmas, my parents bought me a pass to go to Vogue Knitting Live in New York this upcoming weekend. I was able to sign up for both a lecture and a class, but more importantly, I got a ticket to the market!!!  I am SUPER stoked for this weekend. I have a yarn budget that I think is more than reasonable and I have decided to knit my first full sized sweater with yarn that I purchase at the market this weekend.  Adam and I leave on Friday and get back Sunday and I can't be more excited to get there.  We have other things planned around New York for the weekend, but really I am just excited to be engulfed by fellow knitters in one place and one time.  Oh, and I will probably be stalking Clara Parkes for her to sign a book before I leave. Don't worry I will share pictures when I get back.

What things are you loving right now?

Dancing Books

I love the idea that books come to life after a bookstore closes.  Type Books in Toronto made this video while reorganizing their store, and I can't thank them enough - this just makes my day.  Enjoy!

Sheep Shearing in the News!

I couldn't resist posting.  I love it when sheep shearing shows up in my news blogs- it allows me to think, just for a minute, that the world does actually make sense!

http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2012/01/04/woman-to-take-part-in-sheep-shearing-competition/

Last Read for 2011

Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Who knew that P.D. James was a fan of Jane Austen? I learned this little tidbit while listening to Morning Edition on NPR the other week.  They did an interview with P.D. James since she had a new novel out; a novel involving two of my favorite fictional characters ever! Being a Jane Austen fan and someone who loves Pride and Prejudice, there really was no question as to if I was going to read this or not.  Since it was a little bit before Christmas still, I sent it out to my family for last minute shopping ideas (I know, I know, I'm extremely thoughtful).

While I can see how those that do not like Jane Austen or Pride and Prejudice might not like this book, if you do, it and is a must read. Throughout the novel, she incorporates characters from other Jane Austen books, but if you don't know Jane Austen, you won't even notice them.  I kept finding myself smiling throughout the book with various other characters were mentioned.  The one thing that I will say that I would have liked is if there were more scenes with both Darcy and Elizabeth.  There weren't a lot of opportunities to see them and how they were together as a married couple.  You got glimpses, but nothing really concrete.

Other than that, the plot was good and of course, being P.D. James it was well written.  I really enjoyed this book and am glad that it was my last read for 2011, literally finishing it on Dec. 31st!

Up next, my first read for 2012.

View all my reviews

Happy New Year

With a new year comes the feeling of a clean slate, a chance to fix those pesky bad habits that you just hate to admit that had during the previous year (or years).  In reality, there is no clean slate, there is always stuff that leaks over from the previous year, but the idea of a clean slate, a fresh start is too nice to pass up.  I have never been huge on making new years resolutions; I always thought that it was just setting myself up for failure and for someone with depression, that is typically something that I would recommend avoiding if at all possible.  However, I think that I have come up with a plan that will not only help me take advantage of this clean slate feeling without setting myself up too high to fail. So, here we go:

1) Make a concerted effort to stick to said new years goals.

2) Get health. So instead of saying that I will lose x amounts of pounds or saying that I will workout x many days a week, my health goal for the year is to just feel healthier.  I have had a rough year health wise and I am ready to just feel whole again.  So, this includes making better eating decisions, trying really hard to work out and to just treat myself better - I mean, I do only have one body ever, so I should probably be the best to it that I can be.

3) I am committed to start selling my knitting this year (if you are interested in any handknits, just let me know :) ) so - set up an Etsy shop instead of just talking about it.

4) Reading - the only goal that I actually set a number.  On GoodReads.com you can set a reading goal for yourself for the year.  After some thinking and discussing with Adam (who talked me down from a REALLY high number) I settled on a goal of reading 100 books in 2012.  I don't think that that is too high, but some (Adam who will remain nameless) think that it might be a little too ambitious, well in a years time we will see who was right :)

Do you have anything that you are aiming for in 2012?