Scarf Season

I've been swamped with work (before Valentine's Day is a VERY busy time for the home pleasure party business) but I've still managed to get a few stitches in.

On January 31, my older sister had a big birthday, the kind that ends in a zero. She always makes presents for people -- scrapbooks or something she has crocheted -- so I decided such a momentous birthday merited a handmade present from me. I knitted her a scarf, but sadly I can't post any pictures because I finished it 30 seconds before the UPS guy arrived at my office. Does this sound familiar? I can say she loved it and she told me it is the first handmade present she has ever gotten. This depressed me a bit, so I am thinking about what I can make her for Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, I resolved to knit Christmas presents early this year. Staying up till 4AM on Christmas Eve to finish a gift will, hopefully, be a once in a lifetime experience. I started a scarf for my Dad to match his gloves. That pattern is here and it is kicking my butt. I decided to do it in Cascade 220, which is what I used for the gloves, and even though I knit a fairly large test swatch, I still goofed it up and had to rip it out twice. That may have had more to do with how exhausted I've been and not a reflection of the pattern's difficulty. I'm now about 12 rows in and seem to be on track. I'll post a picture as soon as I have completed enough for it to actually look like something.

In other scarf news, I'm planning to knit a scarf for my best friend, Patty, as a thank you for letting Rob and I stay with her. Rob has a table at Wonder-Con in San Francisco and Patty always lets us use her as a hotel when we are in town for conventions. Wonder-Con is in two weeks and I haven't been able to get to the yarn store to pick out some awesome yarn. It's a good thing San Francisco is a 5 hour drive from LA. Sigh. This will probably be one more masterpiece that doesn't get immortalized with a photo on this blog. : )