Stick a fork in 'er, folks, cause this baby is done.

I finished knitting the collar on Christmas day, after all of the festivities were complete and we had a moment to sit down. I blocked the sweater out that night, but the weather immediately turned muggy and gross, so it took two entire days for it to dry out enough for it to get all the way dry. I like it, although I wish that I had ripped the sleeves back even more than I already did. It seems that they were made for a damn gorilla or something. I've got them turned up in the picture, and they are STILL a bit too long. Oh, well, live and learn. Twist is heading up to the office to be my emergency freezing my ass off sweater. They like the jam down the A/C (or skimp on the heat, depending on the season) so I require something to keep me from turning into a Leigha-sicle. 

Christmas was nice and uneventful; the kids were spoiled, as you would expect the only two grandkids on both sides of the family to be. My husband gifted me with some jewelry that I love very much, and a new point and shoot camera (the Canon PowerShot D880 IS). I absolutely love the Canon Digital Rebel XTi, and it is my main camera, but I wanted something to put in my purse for out and about shots. The DSLR is not exactly light and easy to throw in your cute little purse for trips. So we found that Best Buy was having a sale on it, and combine that with some duplicate presents we had to return there anyway, and I walked out of there complete with camera, SD card and an adorable little case:

All of which makes me a happy girl.I hope you enjoyed your holidays as much as I did; have a save and happy New Year, too, while you're at it. 

Oh, how I love this time of year. I always save up at least a week of my vacation every year to take off before Christmas – Very Large Corporation gives us the week of Christmas off anyway, so that is at least two weeks of no work. Combine that with school being over as of December 12th (4.0 semester; I'll TAKE THAT), and you have one happy girl. I'd be happier, though, if I didn't have to clean my entire house this week, top to bottom, but when else am I supposed to do it? We don't do Spring Cleaning in my house – we do Christmas Vacation cleaning.

But of course, I have to make time to do something crafty. Twist now has one sleeve, completed and seamed in:

The other sleeve is about half done, and I am hoping to have this completed by the end of the year. If I pull this off, this will be the first sweater that I have knit in peices that actually fits me. The last one I attempted ended up going to my much smaller sister, because apparently I can't read a gauge swatch to save my life.

Knitting isn't the only thing I've got on my mind, though. Take a big group of friends, give them a warm summer and (I am guessing) a couple of drinks, and I now have at least six friends that are expecting babies between January and May. For the love of God, if you come to Austin, keep in mind that this seems to be in the water – I, myself, am sticking to bottled water from somewhere in the Ozarks. There is only one boy in the mix, everyone else is gestating girls, which is lucky for me because I apparently only by fabrics that are suitable for girls. 

I have to pick up something for a boy quilt, but I think I've got more than enough to keep me busy for a while with this bunch. For the charm squares, I'm thinking that I'll pick up some coordinating brown and red, and do little borders on the squares, and then sew them all together, alternating the red/brown borders. The flannel is big enough to do one of the one sheet baby blankets like I did for my kids a few months ago; that is probably the easiest one to knock out. For the others, though, I have no definite plans other than to turn into something I can gift at a baby shower. I have been missing my sewing machine for the past few weeks, but it looks like we're about to become reacquainted in a BIG way.

One back.

Left front.

Right front. (It's a little blurry, sorry!)

I cannot believe that I have knocked out so much of this sweater – two sleeves, button bands and a collar, and I'll have a real life, working sweater. Like, one I could actually WEAR. I'm still mainly working on my daughter's Christmas stocking, but this is getting lots of attention right now, too, when I just can't cross one more stitch on Santa's face. I would absolutely recommend this pattern, especially for a newb, because it gives it all to you step by step, detail by detail. Yay for well written patterns!