As the (hopefully) last of the Thanksgiving leftovers warms in the oven, I thought I'd take a moment to reflect on this season of joy and gratitude. In the "what is the world coming to" category, I found this CNN.com - Woman knocked unconscious by trampling shoppers - Nov. 29, 2003 story in my inbox. After reading it in horror, I rejoiced in my smug superiority that I once again celebrated Buy Nothing Day instead of joining the hordes at the mall and box stores. But I realize now that I must step down off my high horse and concede that I, too, could have been part of a mob if the $47 deal was, say, "The Scottish Collection" or a 10-skein pack of cashmere yarn. Any other knitters with me on that? (For the humorless out there, I'm just joking ... I don't think I would really trample my fellow human beings for yarn or OOP knitting books ... I hope not, anyway). As a neighbor of mine -- an obsessive collector of country folk art -- used to say, "We all have our sicknesses."


I've finished the sleeves for "Shannon" and am now sewing it together. Here's a picture of it all blocked up (wrong sides):




Also, since apparently I did not have enough WIPs, I've started a Christmas stocking. I couldn't find a pattern I liked, so I took one from "Homespun Handknit" and tinkered around with it a little bit. Here's the start:



In other news, the following books mysteriously arrived at my doorstep last week:

"Latvian Dreams" by Joyce Williams;
"Around the World in 80 Sweaters" by Sue Bradley;
"Knitting for Anarchists" by Anna Zilboorg; and
"Folk Knitting in Estonia" by Nancy Bush.

I like them all. So much to knit, so little time. The Estonian patterns make me want to take up sock knitting again.