Not this year, Universe

I recently began making a new afghan (called the "Textured Throw"), which I was really excited about. I was going to work on only this one project so as not to get distracted and, once again, have an unfinished project collecting dust in the spare bedroom.

I blasted through two balls of yarn, crocheting all through my Christmas visit to the cottage.

But I only had those two balls of yarn.

So yesterday I went to Michael's to buy more.

And they don't carry that kind any more.

The universe HEARD me say that 2010 is going to be the year of finishing what I've started, and felt like thwarting me.

Nuts to the universe though, because this all happened in 2009, so 2010 is still unscathed.

Close-ups of the new throw. Not much to it at this point in time besides its texture. It's going to be big, but big is good for a tall household like ours.

Somebody's schnozz on Boxing Day...

Trev and I spent the 26th and the 27th at the cottage. We ventured down to the lake to drill a series of exploratory holes in the ice - Trev was armed with my dad's underwater camera to see if we could find any fish. Basically we just looked at the bottom of the lake. No fish today.

And, of course, I sat at my favourite bird-watching spot at the cottage (when the windows weren't fogged over), and managed to see some Pine Grosbeaks flock in for a quick feeding.

Gorgeous red.

My big exciting Christmas gift this year was a sewing machine:

Well done Trevor! I LOVE it. He got it at a local quilting store - who promise they'll give me a lesson on how to use it (though the manual and my ever-so-distant junior high home ec courses are helpful in the mean time). That's exciting, because then I can wander through and take a gander at all the quilty goodness inside the store!

And I've been sewing:

Two matching pillows for our living room. Straight lines - a good first project for me. I've already learned a lot.

Next project I'd like to try either pajama pants (I'm tall enough that I haven't had a nice, girly pair of pj pants since I was, oh, I dunno, 15?), or perhaps a tote bag. I don't want my home to be crowded with pillows, and they're fun and easy enough that I might go a liiiiittle overboard.

Another gift that was given in my household this year was a collection of old glass insulators, of the kind that used to be used for telegraph and electric wires. They come in gorgeous colours and are somewhat relevant to Trev's line of work. I had fun photographing them on such a brightly cloudy day.

Well, back I go to crocheting a toque. January 1, 2010 - this girl will finish something that she's started. 

Minnow and the minnows.