I always enjoy looking back at the year and reviewing my knitting projects. My proudest accomplishment is the Glove Knitting booklet. It was such a pain, in fact, that I've promised myself to never do another technique booklet. Or at least not until I forget how much of a pain the Glove Knitting booklet was! Since its publication in April it has sold 210 copies.

My favorite knitting project: the Sea Mineral Mittens. Every now and then all the colors in a project just come together perfectly and they really did for these mittens.

My 2008 Knitting Resolutions:

1. I resolve to knit and design more colorful socks. I already have a zillion gloves and mittens but I always need socks. I want to do a bunch in Cascade 220.

2. I resolve to design a colorwork ski band for DH. He wants something to wear under his Red Sox hat.

3. I resolve to finish the *&^% Great American Afghan at long last. Unfinished projects really weigh on me and this one absolutely needs to get done.

4. I resolve to again donate over $1000 to the Colorado House Rabbit Society from knitting pattern and booklet sales. The CO HRS adopts out hundreds of pet rabbits a year to good homes.

5. I resolve not to buy any more yarn other than my main color lines - Cascade 220, Palette, and Nature Spun. Unless of course someone comes up with a new inexpensive line of wool yarn in a zillion colors.

6. I resolve to continue to try to take better photos of my colorwork projects and to try to get more up-close technique photos.

7. I resolve to always appreciate all the blessings I have in my life including my abundant yarn stash, the free time to knit it up, and all the wonderful people who read my blog and continue to inspire me.

Happy New Year to everyone! I'll be back in 2008. There's a very good chance I'll be showing you a new furry friend and the new blog mascot in my next post.

I haven't been knitting as much because I've been cleaning the house in preparation for a new bunny friend. These Zilboorg mittens really should be finished by now.



It started snowing early this afternoon so it looks like we're going to have a beautiful white Christmas.



Happy Holidays to Everyone!

I am so very grateful to the hundreds of you who have left me emails, comments on the blog, and on Ravelry. Peaches obviously was the celebrity she always thought she was! Having pet rabbits really helps you learn to live fully and enjoy the moment because they don't often live as long as dogs and cats and because they mask illness and can leave you suddenly. Even though her life was too short we both agree that Peaches was lucky to live here with us because we let her be herself and didn't mind that she wasn't as affectionate as other rabbits.

When we first got Peaches I called her the wallflower because she was always on the perimeter of the room and never part of the household action. But she slowly warmed up to us and loved being the center of attention. I was hoping she'd be here for Christmas though. A week ago I was wrapping some presents on the floor and she snuck up behind me and started ripping up some gifts I'd wrapped so I was planning on Christmas Eve to put all the gifts on the floor and let her open some presents.

Right after my wonderful DH got done burying our beautiful brown-eyed Peaches in a big snowstorm, he told me he knows we need to get another rabbit soon because I love them so much. We reacted briefly to the sadness of it all but we are both now looking forward to adopting a new bunny after the holidays. There are always plenty of wonderful rabbits out there who desperately need good homes which I try to remember at times like this.

I have found an unexpected source of healing - power yoga. I've always thought that the yoga idea that you store emotions in your body was malarkey but I'm seeing things differently now. On the new Veria channel I've been working along to Yoga for Life with Kurt Johnsen of American Power Yoga. I normally live in my head so the idea that something really physical can improve me this much mentally is a new one. Learning to deal with life's difficulties without letting it affect my health negatively is really crucial and the instructor talks about that a lot in the classes.

And to try to lighten the mood around here I thought I'd show the photo from the time we mistakenly let Peaches have the newspaper first and the one time Peaches jumped up on the futon with Jack.

Peaches my sweet bunny girl died tonight. I can't even believe it. I woke up and it was the first time ever she didn't immediately greet me, waiting for her morning treat of 1/2 tablet of banana acidophilus. She wasn't eating much so I spent the day hand feeding her. My vet was on vacation and so was every other rabbit vet within a 20 mile radius. When DH returned home from work we took her into Albuquerque to an emergency vet where she got fluids and pain meds. When we got back home she was like a limp dishrag and couldn't even walk. Then it got worse but I won't go into it. Suffice it to say she did not go gentle into that good night, Jack the cat was totally freaked out, and DH has said we can never get another rabbit to break our hearts like this again. I swear to God she was perfectly fine yesterday.

She had just turned 5 years old and she only lived with us 3 3/4 years. She adored this house - it was the first house she'd ever lived in and she had pet beds, blankets, and boxes in most every room. I'm pretty sure she had more bunny toys than any other bunny in the world. We adopted her from the Colorado House Rabbit Society which is why I donate money to them from patterns even though I live in NM. The HRS rescuer called her Breezy but DH changed it to Peaches. She was so scared when she moved here that it took her several months to leave the bedroom (the door was always open) and a year before she'd brave the three stairs to come down to the living room.

She really was one of our great joys in life and always made us laugh. Just a few days ago we were giggling because she had wedged her fat self into this tiny box DH used to hold kindling. She loved the woodstove and would spend hours "inspecting" the firewood. Sometimes you'd just see her big ears over the stacks of wood. She had the most beautiful bunny eyelashes and loved to rip apart cardboard boxes loudly in the middle of the night. It is hard to even imagine this house without her.

Now I need to go cry for a few days.

Here are the Algonquin socks from Folk Style. I made them thicker using worsted weight yarn which is my preference for padding around the house. The color is too dark but it is raining/snowing here so I can't go outside.





In other news... I think Peaches has a new friend.

Author and knitwear designer Kathleen Taylor (grammak on Ravelry) posts a free stranded colorwork pattern on her blog every Friday. Today she posted some cute spiderman mittens for a young boy and I still have my eye on the Picot Hem Snowflake Hat.

The Teaching Company is offering two free lectures by my favorite professor, Dr. Patrick Allitt. Go HERE to listen to or download his lectures on Christmas in Victorian Britain or Christmas in 19th Century America.

I just realized I didn't take a single picture of Peaches in November! No wonder she is so grumpy. Instead here is a photo of Jack - he's not really fat but he has a wide body and short legs.

I love long-hair cats and I called the humane society in Colorado and told them I would help them out if they ever got in a Persian or Himalayan who really needed some grooming. They finally called and said they had a Persian and we went to look and there was Jack as sad as I've ever seen an animal. It was to be his last day at the shelter so perhaps he somehow knew. Of course we had to take him (after explaining to the humane society he wasn't even vaguely a Persian.) Now it is almost 12 years later and Jack's interests include chasing crickets, sleeping on pillows, and "helping" when we play Scrabble. Whenever he hears the sound of the Scrabble tiles in the bag he comes running out to participate.

The braided fingerless glove pattern (shown in my last blog post) is now available at my Lulu store HERE. I decided to stick with just one size, women's large, because I've already moved on. I'm hard at work on the Algonquin socks from Folk Style and I think I'm going to make the flower hat as well.

For your eye candy today here are some recent photos from the City Different (Santa Fe). There were still flowers blooming in November.


Some pretty adobe buildings


A very old church


The Lensic theater


St. Francis church

I never get sick of looking at New Mexico architecture.