January is always a hard month for me. The holidays are over and the weather is cold and nasty. It just seems like a time when I get a little down and wonder where my life is headed. This January has been a bit harder than some because of my dissatisfaction with my current spot in the world. However, there were a couple of really bright spots this month, and I chose one as my first installment of A Dozen Days. A couple of weeks ago I went to Phoenix and spent some time with my best friend Ashley.

Ashley and I have been friends since we were 13. As it stands now, we’ve been friends more than half our lives and it’s one of those friendships where you can talk about anything any time you need to. In reality we’re more like sister than friends. In a time where things in my life are unsettled and stressful, having a friend like Ashley really means the world to me. The only thing that would make it better is if we didn’t live so far apart. I’m holding out hope that they move to Colorado in a few years rather than to Norway, but there’s been talk about both options. As she and Torstein, her husband, prepare for their first baby I feel blessed to be able to share her excitement and hopefully I’ll be able to be there to help her with the new little guy when he arrives in a few weeks.

So, while the baby won’t be born until late February or early March, January to me has been all about Ashley.

So remember the other day when I said I was going to post the details of my crafting and baking during the week? Yeah well that didn’t happen. I clearly need to work on the consistency of my blog posting. I don’t really know what the problem is, but I just haven’t felt like sitting down to write. I think a lot of it is that I haven’t knit much this week, so I feel like I’m in a funk, but some of it is just that general feeling of blah. The good news is that it’s Friday. So, I’m putting my happy face on and I’m going to try to do better next week. I actually find that if I sit down and take pictures and write in the evenings I do a much better job of posting regularly. If I leave it to do in the morning, it just doesn’t get done. I suppose that’s a good lesson. Don’t wait until the last minute.

Last weekend I actually sat down at the sewing machine. I was going to sew a pair of pajama pants, but I decided that I should start small and see how the sewing vibe was. So, I chose the Simple Leather-Handled Shoulder Bag from Amy Butler’s In Stitches that Angela gave me for my birthday. I used some scrap fabric I had left over from Cyndi’s apron and this is what I came up with.

I shortened the bag. The pattern has you cut a piece of fabric 14″ x 32″ but I didn’t have that much fabric and I knew I wanted a shorter bag so I cut my fabric 14″ x 22″ and it’s just about right for a project bag. I made i-cord handles rather than using leather as specified in the pattern, mostly because I didn’t want to buy anything for this project and I had the black yarn hanging out in the leftover bin in the craft room. The bag took about 30 minutes to sew and I’m really happy with it. The handles might be a bit too long, but that’s an easy fix. I’m going to try to sew those pajama pants this weekend from some fabric I have in my stash. I really need to do something crafty or else I will have already failed on the Holiday Headstart January project.

In exciting knitting news, I’m working on a project for Kristi - I’m test knitting her latest pattern and having a lot of fun with it. I decided to use the Bearfoot I had in my stash and it is yummy. Sometimes a new project is just what the doctor ordered to get the juices flowing again. I’ll have more on that later. Tonight is Friday Night Spinning and I’d love to finish the coopworth. I haven’t really enjoyed spinning this fiber. It’s a bit scratchy and grabby (I’m not even sure that’s the right word) and drafting it has been a challenge. Oh well, every time I sit down to spin is a learning experience. I have some alpaca on tap for my next project - it shouldn’t be scratchy or grabby at all (although I hear it’s kind of slippery). Have a great weekend. Happy crafting.

My Friday night spinning got off to a late start. I stopped at my mom’s house on my way home from work to do a book exchange, so I didn’t actually sit down to spin until about 8:00 (but I got some good books to read). I suppose the important thing is that I did sit down and spin on Friday night. I’m still working on the same blue coopworth I was working on the last time I spun anything, so I’m afraid I don’t have anything fabulous to tell you about. I started a new bobbin because this is destined to be a 2-ply and we’ll see what it’s suited for once I get it done (if that ever happens).

This weekend was quite relaxing. I read, watched tv, baked, and even sewed (I know, shocking). Since I don’t think I’ll have a lot of knitting content this week, I’ll share everything with you in the next few days.

On a side note, does anyone have a good newsboy hat pattern? I absolutely love this one (scroll down a bit), but I don’t know where to find that pattern book or something similar to it. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Happy Monday.

Look who’s alive. Yep, I survived the trip to Phoenix and the baby shower. I have pictures, but I’ve been a total slacker and haven’t even downloaded them from my camera. I’ll have to get that done this weekend because there are some I want to share. So, the trip was interesting. My flight was delayed for an hour and a half in Denver because the plane was late leaving Las Vegas due to weather. While I was waiting in Denver it started snowing really hard and there was some concern that we weren’t going to be able to take off. But, after we finally got on the plane and got de-iced we were off to sunny Phoenix. The first bit of the flight made me kind of nervous. The whole plane was shaking and bouncing around because of the storm in Denver. Sometimes watching shows like Lost don’t do you any good at all. I was imagining all these terrible things and you know if you’re on a plane from Denver to Phoenix the chances of crashing on a tropical island are pretty nonexistent. I always laugh when they do their water landing spiel because there isn’t a bit of water on that whole trip. However, after a bumpy start, the flight was just fine. I didn’t get into Phoenix until 12:30 in the morning and my very pregnant friend Ashley and her hubby had to come pick me up. I felt terrible, but she swears she didn’t mind. Luckily they don’t live very far from the airport so they just left their house when I landed and it worked out perfectly.

The shower was Saturday and we had it at a great little restaurant. It was on the patio and there was a little lake with ducks and trees and everything. The only problem was it was about 50 degrees in Phoenix on Saturday. Let’s just say it was a little chilly. They had heaters and that helped, but you definitely wanted a jacket. When you compare 50 degrees to the -20 it was at my house on Saturday it’s pretty much a heat wave, but those poor girls from Phoenix were freezing. Anyway, the food was great, the cakes were wonderful (Ashley’s mom made them), and the gifts were adorable. I had no idea how much crap you need when you have a baby. Wow - it was eye-opening. That, my friends, is a whole different world.

Sunday dawned even colder than Saturday. When we took Ashley’s mom and sister to the airport at 8:00 it was 27 degrees and there was frost! I know it’s winter, but come on. When I go to the trouble to fly to Phoenix I expect a little warm weather. Know what I mean? Anyway, Sunday was a great day. We shopped, and shopped, and shopped. We had baby stuff coming out our ears. We bought a trash can (with a lid, of course), a car seat/stroller thingy (after we did considerable research on safety and such), some cute clothes, and I went a little crazy in Pottery Barn Kids. Baby stuff is just so cute. And soft. And since I’m not having any babies, I figure I can get away with spoiling this one rotten. I don’t think he’ll care, do you? After we couldn’t shop any more we went home and washed baby stuff and put everything away, took things out of boxes and made Ashley’s hubby put everything together, organized, and generally got the nursery put together and ship shape. It was a lot of fun. The very best part was the time I got to spend with Ashley - just the two of us. We haven’t done that in too long. I realized how much I miss her. I mean, I knew I missed her because we’ve been best friends since we were 13 years old and I live in Wyoming and she lives in Arizona. But, I really miss just having a girlfriend to hang out with. Someone you can go with to the mall, to lunch, and just hang around the house. I’m going to try to go back in March to help her out after the baby is born (even though I can’t help with the baby I’m sure I can do laundry and cook). The little guy is due in late February and her mom is planning to spend a week, but I thought she might like more help than a week (what do you moms out there think about that?). I thought I might shoot for mid-March.

Knitting has been non-existant around my house. I knit a bit on the plane, but didn’t knit at all in Phoenix, on the way home, or since I’ve been back. I hope things are a bit better today because not knitting for 5 days is kinda weird. I don’t have a single thing planned for the weekend except to hang around my house, watch movies, knit, and maybe if I’m feeling really ambitious I might tackle cleaning out the pantry. No promises though.

A box of horse shoes. These particular shoes are St. Croix Eventers - a bit wider than your standard plate or rim horse shoe. The 1-H is the size: a size 1 hind (fronts and hinds are shaped differently because the wider steel of the Eventer shoe is harder to shape with a hammer on an anvil). A horse’s hind foot is more long and narrow whereas a front foot is rounder - typically.

I’m headed to Phoenix tonight for Ashley’s baby shower and I’m really excited (my flight leaves from Denver at 9:00 - I really hope I don’t have trouble with the roads). The baby sweater is, of course, not finished, but I’m taking it anyway. I should have time to work on it and Ashley wants to see it, so it’s going. I’m also taking the second knee high because I am determined to get those suckers finished - sometime. Sometime really soon would be good. I’m taking my computer and Ashley has wireless internet, so I plan to post while I’m gone. Hopefully. Have a great weekend.