Birthday thoughts

I turned 30-mumble mumble this past week.  Many people mark the start of the new year on January 1st.  For me the new year starts on my birthday.  I feel as though that day marks both an end and a beginning.  On my birthday, I let go of the hurts and disappointments of the previous year. I turn instead to gaze upon the year ahead where all things are possible with the feeling that I can make positive life decisions and enjoy what the year has to bring.

Oh, and what am I going to knit this year?  How exciting!

I freely confess that I am a shawl knitter.  I love to knit shawls (shawls, and more shawls).  Socks are beautiful, but unlikely to be knit by me (you have to knit TWO of them, in the same yarn even!).  Ditto sweaters (this may change, but since I don't wear them, why knit them?).  I do knit the occasional hat (oddly, the nephews won't wear shawls), but 99.9% of my stitches go to shawls.
So, that said, I know WHAT I'll be knitting this year- shawls.  I even know who most of them will go to- GiGi (she's insistent like that), but I don't know yet what they will look like, what size or shape they will be, or what yarn I will use.  All of these questions get me quite excited for the new knitting year ahead.

Oh, I'm imagining it, NYC, and it is awesome!

I started the lace weight version of the yellow highlighter shawl.  Hey! I only promised TK the shawlette version, so she should be ok. :-D

As you can see, it's not highlighter yellow, but more buttery.  GiGi, however, loves butter yellow and I have to have something to give her for her birthday next year.  It won't take that long to knit, but I've already made her Christmas present.

Meet Mercia, or at least the corner of Mercia.  She is a fingering weight shawl that I've submitted to the Knit Picks Independent Designer Program.  I've released three patterns with them and a fourth to be released in the next week.  I'll make sure to talk about them soon.

I spent my birthday working.  I teach a couple of Biology labs at one of the colleges that make up the City University of New York.  I'm also working on a PhD in Biology with the same university.  So I spent my birthday teaching and working on my research.  On a positive note, I got to spend the morning in the woods at Inwood Hill Park.

It's the closest thing that Manhattan has to a natural area.  The weather was cool (high 60's) and sunny.  It was a beautiful way to start out the day.  Plus I got to knit on the train on the way back to campus.

Hubbie Trickery

Hubbie woke me this morning with plans for an outing into the City (Manhattan). For those of you don't know the man, this is a surprising, nay shocking, turn of events. While he generally likes Queens, he tends to avoid the City like the plague because it has way too many people.

So when he suggested lunch (Chipotle, yum), the Strand (who can resist 18 miles of books?) and a trip to Lula's (a vegan ice cream place that makes my little heart go pitter patter) and a movie, I was all for it! Even if that movie was Scott Pilgrim, which he had seen 3 times (4 now). It's a cute, fun movie and the music in it rocks!

I suspect that Lula's and the Strand are simply just forms of bribery so he could see the movie again. I'm not above accepting bribery, especially if it looks like this:

Meet Lula's soft serve Cake Batter vegan ice cream cone. It tastes just like yellow cake batter and is make mostly of cashews. It's heaven in a waffle cone.

I was also able to get some knitting done in the movie theater. Knitting has gotten me through some really bad movies (Piranha 3D anyone). It's usually limited to stockinette in a fingering weight or larger. But sometimes can include a simple lace repeat. For my third viewing of Scott Pilgrim I chose stockinette.

This beginnings of a shawlette is in Knit Picks Stroll tonal sock in Canopy. It's a Merino/Nylon blend and really pleasant to knit. I found it to be a bit squeaky while wet, but it block beautifully and, despite the nylon content, it holds the block really well.

I spent much of yesterday designing a couple of shawlettes and redesigning a couple of others to go with some MadTosh Pashmina I got Wednesday.I absolutely love the highlighter colors (yellow-Edison's Bulb; orange-Tangelo; pink-Neon Rose; green-Chartreuse). I've designed a series of shawlettes specifically for these colors, one for each. TK, my test knitter extraordinaire, requested to knit the yellow one. She's been drooling over the Edison's Bulb for months. Given that she's also my PR person, enabler, and often used knitwear model, who am I to say no?