Sunday, January 12, 2014

2013 Year in Review

On a bench

I didn't mean to have my blog fade away like it did. It's not that I had nothing to report on, in fact I had quite a bit going on. Scott and I got engaged this past summer, when my mother came to visit. I've already started making favors, worked on perfecting my Danish cake baking, and I spent a fair amount of time looking at venues.

DSC_0043

We visited Portland  for a friend's wedding, went to Cedar Point to ride some of the biggest roller coasters in the world, made a new Ant Man costume and a Stature costume which we wore to Dragon Con. We hosted a space themed party for Halloween, where we dressed our two dogs as an astronaut and a Star Treck security officer. Did I ever even mention on the blog when we got our greyhound? Our pittador got lose while a friend was taking care of them, so we got back the morning after our friends in Lansing's wedding to spend the next day wandering the streets looking for her, eventually locating her 24 hours after she got out. After a stint with a carpet shampooer that did a bad job of sucking the water back up, we pulled up the carpet in the living and dining rooms to reveal the hardwood underneath. We hosted a whiskey tasting party using the large variety of brands we have on hand. We hosted Boxing Day dinner and roasted a goose, which neither of us had even tasted before. We finished the year celebrating by making a fancy dinner for a small group of friends, watching the ball drop from the comfort of our living room, and playing games late into the night.

I've also started doing more hours at work, which inevitably makes me more inclined to just chill out when I get home. I find myself inclined to play games that I then feel like I have wasted my time on. I certainly didn't accomplish my goal of posting daily.

My knitting and stashdown goals were unsuccessful as well. I rather lost my knitting mojo for a while, and I wasn't posting any of the things I was working on because they were gifts for people who read my blog.

I made a cowl from my handspun starting from Ysolda Teague's Snapdragon Tam pattern from Ashland Bay Merino top.

Snapdragon Cowl

Next, there was a shawlette made from my handspun in Miss Babs merino silk using the Yorkshire Prayer Shawl pattern from Judy Marples.

Yorkshire Prayer Shawl

Finally, after several tries with other patterns to make a hat using my handspun BFL from Sheepish Creations, I gave my friend Fatima Hinds's pattern Dealer's Choice Hat a go, and it tuned out beautifully.

Dealer's Choice Hat

2014 is set up to be quite eventful, first with Scott's brother and his wife having a baby, then Scott's sister's wedding, then our wedding. I look forward to a great year!