closing in

I hope everyone had a lovely holiday, really and truly. Hubs surprised us when he was able to make it home Christmas Eve and enjoy nearly two whole days with us, not having to go back on the road until the 26th, and the girls (of course) got many, many things from family near and far. I never processed the holiday season this year. It never really felt like Christmas and I can barely wrap my mind around New Years closing in. Where did 2013 go?

This has been one of the more productive years of my life, having taken great strides toward my seemingly far-fetched dreams of being paid to knit. Maybe this year slipped passed while I was busy with other things than counting the days on the calendar, and I think that's pretty damn fine.

Speaking of which.... The arrow shawl is in testing, so it may be a while before I am able to post the final part of the design series. I'm SO eager to see how everyone's pieces turn out. I've been trying to keep the shawl on the rack until I can get some nice finished pics of it but it's hard - I want to wear it every day. I did just receive color samples from Infinite Twist yesterday. Oh the things we have planned. They will surely distract me from that silky temptress!

In other news, I was contacted about contributing to a book a few months ago. Have I mentioned that here?? Oh, I'm getting old. Well, I can't share the details or pics of the finished samples or... err anything really, but I can share this gorgeous pic of the supplies.

You know my friend Mare because she's my knitter friend who I blab about from time to time and is not a contributor to the blog like the boy. Well, she's pretty great and she took like 200 pictures of my weird hands, then edited them, and got them back to me before my deadline. She also got some pretty gorgeous shots of the supplies (above, obviously) and finished samples. I'm seriously DYING to hold the book in my hands yet, sadly, I have to wait until the end of 2014.

She also took this picture of me in my natural habitat. Do you know how terrifying it is to glance up and see a gigantic lens in your face? Ya. She's the best.