here's the one and only picture I have of all my knitterly deeds from the long weekend. I finally finished isa's christmas stocking! hooray! it had been in the plans for a year, but I'd only started knitting it about two weeks ago. this actually went pretty quickly, since I guess it was basically just a giant sock. here's the info:

pattern: basic toe-up sock using magic cast-on and sherman heel
yarn: araucania nature wool (held double stranded) in shade 04 (about 1.25 skein) and 01 (about 1/2 skein)
needles: clover bamboo us 10.5 dpns
finished: november 22, 2006
notes: this was the first striped sock I'd ever knitted. I had some issues with tension where I changed colors (along the back of the leg). it's not super noticeable, but the color changes are a little uneven and kind of sloppy. I tried to keep it as uniform as I could, but I didn't do such a great job. how do you keep that part neat? I finished by duplicate stitching the name at the cuff with the cream colored yarn. overall, a very simple and not very time consuming knit. I wish I'd gotten it done in time for isa's first christmas last year, but I don't think it would have turned out as nice since I only started making socks for reals this year. all in all, I'm pleased with the result and I hope she likes it at least as much as she likes whatever it's going to be stuffed with come december 25.

this past long weekend held a few firsts for me. not only did I knit my first stocking and knit my first glove (no pics yet! more info on that later), but I also participated, for the first time ever, in black friday activities. well, activity. I went down to the lys in saratoga, in search of 4" dpns with which I was planning on knitting said gloves. much to my dismay, after dragging my poor turkey stuffed self out of bed at the ungodly (and still dark outside) hour of 6:00 am, I fought my way through the crowd to discover that they didn't have any! none! zero! needless to say, I was disappointed and very sleepy and comforted myself by making several unplanned purchases. and, dang, there were a lot of people there. lots and lots and lots of rabid knitters all clamoring for yarn and books and needles and so much knitterly goodness! thank god there wasn't a fire, as I'm sure we would have all perished as we used our bodies to shield all that yarn from harm.

my brain still hasn't switched back to normal functioning (which really isn't all that impressive, so you can imagine how abysmal things are right now), but I will have more to say later. hope everyone had a nice thanksgiving weekend. only 28 days of gift knitting remain!