There Will Be Afghans

Happy New Year to All. I hope 2009 is full of joy and creativity. I don't make new year's resolutions, but I wish myself the same: another year of joy and creativity in increasing doses.

I finished a quilt in the run up to Christmas. This one was for Michael, and I quilted a top I'd finished in 2007 featuring embroidered blocks Debra had sent me when she began her machine embroidery journey.



I layered it with a bamboo and cotton batt, which I liked a lot. It's light and drapey, and doesn't require very close quilting. Here's an old and very fuzzy shot of the top in progress.


I had to wrap the quilt before I got a proper photo of the whole thing.

I also knitted Allie this Vegan Fox stole for Christmas. The pattern is very fast and fun to knit. I'd never used fun fur, and it's actually kind of fun to knit up.

Then, between Christmas and New Year's Eve, I hit the road for a solo trip. First stop was a visit to my parents, sister and her kids. My nephew Nick, who lives in Los Angeles and works on the tech side of an insurance company, was visiting. Here he is with my mom. We all had a nice visit punctuated with too much food, and then it was time to go to San Francisco for a professional conference.

I stayed in SF with my friend Juanita and her husband Ian, and then I stopped in to visit my Auntie Nena and my cousin Mary Ellen.


Auntie Nena passed me her yarn stash. She was a dedicated crocheter for many years, and so she has the stash to show for it. "I had planned to make afghans," she said, "but then I decided I didn't want to."

Since "waste not, want not" is our family motto, she passed me four copy paper boxes full of yarn, nicely sorted by color.

Some of it was wool. Did you know that Sears had sold wool yarn? The rest is, of course, acrylic. I'm not a yarn snob, so I'll find projects that will make use of it, and what I don't use, I'll send to the local jail, where they teach women inmates to knit.

I'm excited to have received the legacy of busy hands from my aunt. It's also very sweet that she wanted me to have her stash, because she knows I'll make good use of it.

After our visit, complete with Mexican sweet bread, coffee cake, and canela, cinnamon tea, I hit the road again, and crossed the Golden Gate Bridge for the six hour drive home. It was an auspicious close to 2008, and I feel well supplied for a busy new year.