Forward into 2012

As usual, M and I spent two weeks over the holidays in the Midwest visiting family. It was fun but exhausting. I have to show you my parents’ Christmas tree. I took this photo with the camera on the floor looking up. The tree was over 15 feet tall.
Mom and Dad's Christmas Tree: 2011
I had some nice presents under that tree on Christmas morning including enough of this lovely Quince and Co. Osprey yarn in Cypress to knit Leaflet by Cecily Glowik MacDonald from Knitty First Fall 2011. I love the dark blue-green of the yarn, and I may start this vest soon.
Osprey in cypress

You may remember my disappointment with the Rose Quartz colorway in the STR lightweight, a.k.a. the lunchmeat-colored yarn. Well, Kristy of Eleven Stitches, who has a delightful blog, mentioned that she had recently purchased some STR in PeePee Weepkins, and she thought it was a lovely pink. M decided I should have it, and he also bought me a skein of Jabberwocky, which due to my keeping a list of STR colors I like on my Evernote, he knew I would also like. PeePee Weepkins, is NOT a lunchmeat pink, and I am looking forward to knitting with it.
Christmas STR from M

Even though, I had NO TIME to knit even ONE stitch over the holidays, I have since picked up my string and sticks and have made some progress on the Guernsey Wrap by Jared Flood, which I am knitting in Quince and Co. Lark in Lupine. I didn’t think I would have enough yarn, even though I have 100 yd more than the pattern called for, and I have gauge, but I needn’t have worried; I have enough.
Guernsey Wrap: WIP

And if that doesn’t keep me busy enough, I signed up to learn how to code in Java during Code Year at Codeacademy. It’s free, and I should be able to code in Java by the end of the year. We’ll see how it goes. I like the mental challenge, and with a PhD in biochemistry, I think I should be able to learn how to do this. The logic is different, but the coding is logical. I did go out and buy a book about Java, but I don’t know how important that will be (it wasn’t suggested by the course).
Java book
If I start writing blog posts with lots of semi-colons and curly brackets, you’ll know the coding drove me off the deep end!

I hope your New Year is off to a great start!



8 thoughts on “Forward into 2012”

  • 15 feet tall?! Wow. Lovely yarn you received – and the guernsey wrap is already gorgeous. 🙂

    Yay for coding! My brother’s a Java programmer. I code, but through a GUI using a pseudo-SQL language. And I do a lot of simple stuff in SQL.

  • The tree is still up, but the ornaments have been packed away. Today we’ll cut off the lower branches and drag the tree to the cub. We will have to saw it into thirds for the g men to pick up. Mom

  • Wow, that is one incredible tree! You really made out good on the Christmas yarn. I love Leaflet and may need to put that in my Ravelry queue. Thanks for bringing it to my attention! Very cool idea to teach yourself Java. I may do the same with Matlab. I know a little, but really need to get better at it for my research.

  • THAT is a BIG TREE!!! But it’s lovely…I’m so glad you photoed it to share. You’ve got your folks well trained, don’t you? I wish I knew your secret. I have a dickens of a time getting it into anyone’s head so usually just say: “giftcard please?”

    I kinda like that PeePeeWeepkins! (where the heck did Tina get that name?)
    (((hugs)))

  • LOVE the tree! It’s just . . . dripping. . . with ornaments. So perfect.

    Oh, that Guernsey wrap. . .

    Have fun with the code! 🙂

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