Happy New Year!

It's hard to believe that another year has begun. I've heard it said that you should spend the first day of the year in the way that you'd like to spend the whole year. And while I couldn't fit in *everything* I'd like to do this year, I think we did a pretty good job. I did some work. I got ready to travel. I hung out with friends. I relaxed and watched some TV. And I did some knitting.

I worked on this:



That, my friends, is four rows of Birch. The poll I put on the blog a while back showed that pretty much everyone thinks I should bring *both* lace shawls with me to Delft. So what the heck. I'll bring both. But the rest of you were leaning pretty heavily toward Birch. So when I ran out of yarn for Mom's felted clutch on Friday night while watching hockey with the Greens (incidentally, in a New Year's miracle, the Blue Jackets won that night -- their third win in a row!), I decided to cast on my Birch. I worked on it for a while on New Year's Eve while watching a movie. Then, after getting to the end of the third row and finding myself one measly stitch off, I ripped it all out. While I was casting on the second time, I put in a few markers here and there, so I'll be able to keep track of my stitches a little better. Eventually, once the pattern becomes more obvious, I'll be able to work without the markers. But for now, they're pretty critical, or so I discovered.

Today, we're trying to do all of our last-minute preparations for the trip. We're dropping the car off at the shop today, in hopes that they'll be able to start a little earlier than they said. I was going to get a haircut (actually, I've been meaning to do that for the last month), but once again, I have no time. Instead, I'll be doing laundry and trying to pack a week's worth of clothing, knitting, work, and reading into as tiny a space as possible.

The challenge, as always, is to plan my projects for the week. I want to work on a scarf for myself, but I don't have a pattern in mind (so if you've got a good -- and different -- scarf pattern that I might like, let me know!). I've got a vest to work on, two shawls, and maybe a bit of shadow knitting. I'd really like to have a small project to work on on the plane. Maybe I'll throw in some yarn for dishcloths, too.

At this time tomorrow, I'll be hanging out in the airport. Yea! I'm so excited to be heading back to Delft -- if only to wander the streets for a few days. I'll try to check in between now and next Wednesday, when we get home. But if I don't get a chance, I'll have plenty of stories and pictures to share next week...