Number of olives knit this week: 1 (green)
Total for the year: 122

Info on the Olive Plan 2009 coming in the next couple of weeks.

Number of olives knit this week: 1 (green)
Total for the year to date: 121

Number of olives knit this week: 1 (black)
Total for the year to date: 120

I hope everyone has a happy, joyful, peace-filled, safe holiday season. Sackie hopes the same for you too.

My year has been filled with ups and downs (and it looks like it will end that way too!). This will be my last post of the year that isn’t olive-related, so I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has stopped by my blog. I’ll see you next year! :)

And just so you know that he isn’t always a photogenic charmer, here’s a picture of Sackie while prepping for his photoshoot. He’s not liking his snowball outfit.

I’ve had beforesunrise’s Holding Hands, Feeding Ducks Scarf in my Ravelry queue since February. She mentions that the name of the scarf is from a song by The Brunettes:

Holding hands, feeding ducks
When I met you, that’s what I wanted to do

I liked the scarf when I saw it, but I like the sentiment behind the name just as much.

In an effort to procrastinate on other things, I brought out the purpley-blue yarn I dyed earlier this year and got started on the scarf. A cast on of 33 sts gave me around a 5-inch wide scarf and it took me about 6 days of leisurely, nights-only knitting to get ~65-inches. I used the recommended US sz 10.5 needles with worsted weight yarn.

The star stitch the scarf is based on grows rather quickly and the pattern is a simple 4 row repeat that is easily memorized. Don’t let the directions for star stitch intimidate. Once you have the needles and yarn in your hands, it’s really very simple and produces a really beautiful pattern.

Number of olives knit this week: 2 (green)
Total for the year to date: 119

Number of olives knit this week: 1 (green)
Total for the year to date: 117

Number of olives knit this week: 2 (green)
Total for the year to date: 116

Number of olives knit this week: 1 (green)
Total for the year to date: 114

I took Monday off from work and decided to go to the beach. The quality of the light during autumn is amazing, especially at the coast. It was cold enough to wear a hoodie, knit hat and scarf, but still warm enough that when my feet got wet, it wasn’t uncomfortable. You *have* to get your feet wet at my favorite beach in order to access the majority of it.

Been playing Little Big Planet on the weekends. The game really is wonderful.

After several years of being good, I’ve started regularly drinking coffee again. Sticking with one small cup a day, and so far I’ve been trying to limit it to three times a week. If it starts affecting my skin/complexion, I’m going to have to cut it out again.