Mini-break

I'm off to Toronto for the weekend to visit good friends Glenna and her sister. There will be a little yarn-shop browsing in the wonderful, well-stocked Toronto stores. There will be food, and there will be discussion of the states of our various Ph.D. theses, and best of all, there will be sitting and knitting with friends. Sigh.

And now, I have a train to catch. And five hours of uninterrupted work on the birthday sweater.

Cable glove pattern

I realized that I'm not going to get around to knitting another pair of men's gloves any time in the near future. Too many other projects are waiting patiently for their turn. Therefore, I have decided to post my pattern and hope that it is relatively free of mistakes. I would love to see photos from anybody who decides to knit them, and please let me know if you do find any mistakes - this is my first time writing out a pattern in full. In the meantime I'll try to figure out how to post it as a pdf. I will continue to update the pattern here if there are any corrections.

Men's Cable Gloves
(c) Kelly

Size
Men’s medium

Finished Measurements
Width: 4 inches across palm.
Length: 10.5 inches at longest point.

Materials
Two skeins of Briggs and Little Heritage 2-ply (100% wool, 4 oz skein = 215 yards), or any worsted weight wool.
Set of 4 3.25 mm (US #3) and
set of 4 3.75 mm (US #5) double-pointed needles, or size needed to achieve gauge

Gauge
5.5 st and 8 rows = 1 inch in stockinette stitch on larger needles

Pattern

Cable instructions:
C4F = place next two stitches on a cable needle, and leave at front of work. K2 from left hand needle, then K2 from cable needle.

Right Glove
With smaller needles, cast on 44 stitches and join in the round being careful not to twist.
Work K1, P1 ribbing for 3 inches. Switch to larger needles.

Thumb Gusset
Row 1: (set-up row): K8, P2, inc 1 st (knitwise) in each of next 2 sts, P2, knit to end of round.
Row 2: (begin gusset increasing): K8, P2, K4, P2, K8, inc 1 st in each of next 2 sts, knit to end of round.
Row 3: K8, P2, K4, P2, knit to end of round.
Row 4: K8, P2, C4F, P2, K8, inc 1 st in next st, K2, inc 1 st in next st, K to end of round.
Row 5: as row 3.
Row 6: K8, P2, K4, P2, K8, inc 1 st in next st, K4, inc 1 st in next st, K to end of round.
Row 7: as row 3.
Row 8: K8, P2, K4, P2, K8, inc 1 st in next st, K6, inc 1 st in next st, K to end of round.
Row 9: as row 3.
Row 10: K8, P2, C4F, P2, K8, inc 1 st in next st, K8, inc 1 st in next st, K to end of round.
Row 11: as row 3.
Row 12: K8, P2, K4, P2, K8, inc 1 st in next st, K10, inc 1 st in next st, K to end of round.
Row 13 – 15: as row 3.
Row 16: K8, P2, C4F, P2, K8, inc 1 st in next st, K12, inc 1 st in next st, K to end of round.
Row 17 – 18: as row 3.
Row 19: K8, P2, K4, P2, K8, place next 16 st. on waste yarn, CO 2 st, K to end of row. 46 sts.
Row 20 – 21: as row 3.
Row 22: K8, P2, C4F, P2, K to end of round.
Row 23-27: as row 3.
Row 28: K8, P2, C4F, P2, K to end of round.
Row 29 – 32: as row 3.

Index Finger
Place first 16 sts of row on waste yarn (front). K 13, CO 2. Place remaining 17 sts on waste yarn (back). Join these 15 st in the round and work even in stockinette for 3" (8 cm) or until desired length is reached.
Next round: K2tog to last st. K1.
Next round: K2tog around.
Break yarn, thread though remaining sts, and pull tight.

Middle Finger
Pick up 3 sts at base of index finger, K5 sts from waste yarn in back, CO2, and K6 sts from waste yarn in front. Join these 16 sts in the round and work even in stockinette for 3.5" (9 cm) or until desired length is reached.
Next round: K2tog around.
Next round: K2tog around.
Break yarn, thread though remaining sts, and pull tight.

Ring Finger
Pick up 2 sts at base of middle finger, K5 sts from waste yarn in back, CO2, and K6 sts from waste yarn in front. Join these 15 sts in the round and work even in stockinette for 3" (8 cm) or until desired length is reached.
Next round: K2tog to last st. K1.
Next round: K2tog around.
Break yarn, thread though remaining sts, and pull tight.

Pinky Finger
Pick 3 st at base of ring finger, and K 11 remaining sts from waste yarn.
Join these 14 sts in the round and work even in stockinette for 2.75" (7 cm) or until desired length is reached.
Next round: K2tog around.
Next round: K2tog to last st. K1.
Break yarn, thread though remaining sts, and pull tight.

Thumb
Place 16 stitches from waste yarn back on needles.
Join yarn and K 16, then pick up and knit 4 st in the gap.
Next round: K 16, K2tog twice. 18 sts.
Continue to knit in the round for 2.75" (7 cm) until thumb is desired length.
Next round: K2tog around.
Next round: K2tog to last st, K1.
Break yarn, thread though remaining sts, and pull tight.

Left Glove
With smaller needles, cast on 44 stitches and join in the round being careful not to twist.
Work K1, P1 ribbing for 3 inches. Switch to larger needles.

Thumb Gusset
Row 1: (set-up row): K36, P2, inc 1 st (knitwise) in each of next 2 sts, P2, knit to end of round.
Row 2: (begin gusset increasing): K22, inc 1 st in each of next 2 sts, K8, P2, K4, P2, knit to end of round.
Row 3: K all knit stitches and P all purl stitches as they appear.
Row 4: K21, inc 1 st in next st, K2, inc 1 st in next st, K8, P2, C4F, P2, K to end of round.
Row 5: as row 3.
Row 6: K21, inc 1 st in next st, K4, inc 1 st in next st, K8, P2, K4, P2, K to end of round.
Row 7: as row 3.
Row 8: K21, inc 1 st in next st, K6, inc 1 st in next st, K8, P2, K4, P2, K to end of round.
Row 9: as row 3.
Row 10: K21, inc 1 st in next st, K8, inc 1 st in next st, K8, P2, C4F, P2, K to end of round.
Row 11: as row 3.
Row 12: K21, inc 1 st in next st, K10, inc 1 st in next st, K8, P2, K4, P2, K to end of round.
Row 13 – 15: as row 3.
Row 16: K21, inc 1 st in next st, K12, inc 1 st in next st, K8, P2, C4F, P2, K to end of round.
Row 17 – 18: as row 3.
Row 19: K21, place next 16 st. on waste yarn, CO 2 st, K8, P2, K4, P2, K to end of row. 46 sts.
Row 20 – 21: as row 3.
Row 22: K23, P2, C4F, P2, K to end of round.
Row 23-27: as row 3.
Row 28: K23, P2, C4F, P2, K to end of round.
Row 29 – 32: as row 3.

Index Finger
Place first 17 sts of row on waste yarn back). K 13, CO 2. Place remaining 16 sts on waste yarn (front). Join these 15 st in the round and work even in stockinette until desired length is reached.

Follow instructions as given for right glove to complete fingers and thumb.

Finishing
Weave in all ends on inside of gloves.

Please note: this pattern is provided for your personal use. The pattern may not be sold, and items made from this pattern may not be sold for profit. Please do not copy it or post it on any website. Feel free to post a link to it here.

Changes

Last weekend, at the age of 28, I bought my very first ballet shoes.

Last semester, I signed myself up for beginner ballet at campus rec. I have wanted to learn to dance since I was a very little girl, but when I was young, we could never afford it, and would have had to drive into the city for lessons, so I focused my energy on music and swimming, and later volunteering, and kind of gave up on it. My friend D took the beginner class a couple of years ago, and told me that it was really fun. Eventually I worked up the courage and signed up. Among a class of about twenty undergrads, many of whom had obviously danced before, I was definitely the oldest, and most un-ballerina-shaped of the group! We started from absolute scratch, learning turn-out of the legs and the basic positions. I found that I am still pretty flexible, if not particularly coordinated. I don't look very graceful, but I do enjoy the methodical nature of doing the same movements over and over, and constantly correcting yourself. There's so much history to the techniques, and I really had a lot of fun with it. So, this semester I have gradauted to a slightly more advanced class at a downtown studio (D is coming with me too!), which starts tomorrow. And I signed up for beginner Irish Dancing on campus - what the heck!

To celebrate my newly aquired shoes, I decided to make a little bag for them, since they are much too delicate to kick around in the bottom of my backpack squished amongst books and the laptop.

I'm completely winging this. It's 60 st in sport weight vintage wool (from that huge box I bought last fall) - basically a large sock in basketweave stitch so far. The yarn is really pretty, sort of a blue-green heather. I think I'll add some kind of drawstring when it's long enough, and maybe a frilly or lacey edge on the top.
Also on the theme of changes/new beginnings, we had our kitchen cabinets redone last week. Our landlord had been promising this for a while, since we were very frustrated with the old drawers that didn't really fit in their slots any more, and cupboard doors hanging off. A contractor showed up early one morning, and after a couple of inconvenient days of dishes piled up in the living room, we are loving our new little kitchen. What a difference!

Before

After

Um, yeah, about that yarn store

So I didn't get out of Wool Tyme completely unscathed, but I think I did very well, all things considered:

That's 9 skeins of Galway Heather for dh's sweater (the tenth one is already being used), one circular needle (needed for the sweater), a single ball of Sheepjes Tossa (this yarn is discontinued, but I have two more like it in my stash which are more likely to be used now that I have a little more of it. And it was in the bargain bin.), and two skeins of gorgeous handpainted sock yarn.

Isn't this beautiful? I can justifiy this one, since I'm going to make another pair of socks for my MIL's birthday, which happens to be the same day as mine. Hubby tells me that she has been hand-washing the ones I gave her for Christmas and wearing them every second day. Anyone who loves hand knit socks that much deserves to have a few pairs in rotation, I figure! This is the first time I've splurged on really nice handpainted yarn, and it's actually from a local company, Apple Laine. It's a blend of superwash merino, kid mohair, silk and nylon, and is wonderfully soft. I may have to get some for myself if I like the way this knits up. I think I might try to learn toe-up socks just so that I use every bit of this yarn. It's too pretty to waste! Any suggesstions for good beginner toe-up patterns? It has to be stretchy and fairly wide.

Here's the start of dh's birthday sweater, one skein in:

I knit this much last night while watching Little Miss Sunshine (what an excellent movie!). I'm really liking the pattern so far. The rows of plain ribbing don't require much thought, and they're broken up nicely by the cable rows. It's the same crossed cable every time, so I don't have to consult the pattern very often. And the fabric is turning out nice and stretchy, and soft. I'll need to stretch it out a bit with blocking, but the swatch grew quite a bit laterally after washing, so it should be fine according to my calculations (please let them be right!). I've got quite a ways to go with this.

And now, I have several hours worth of grading to keep me busy for the afternoon. Hmm,I wonder if I can actually evaluate student writing properly while knitting.... probably not!

A fresh crop of little FO's

I've been knitting a lot of little things since the new year came in. Instant gratification. Here's another little catch-up post.

Lace-Edged Hat in Smart Superwash 100% wool (Norway), 4.5 mm circ and dpns.

This is sort of a late Christmas gift for my SIL. I finished her Column of Leaves scarf (sadly, no photo) kind of at the last minute, and since I had a lot of yarn left over, I decided to make a matching hat. I'll be heading home again for a quick visit in February, so I get to give it to her in person. I still had a whole ball of the wool left over when this was done, so I went stash diving and came up with some leftovers of purple tweed in the same DK weight. This little baby cardigan was started and finished so quickly that it never actually made it onto the WIP list.

V-neck Cardigan from the booklet Sirdar Snuggly Book of Baby and Toddler Knits, size 3-6 months, in Smart Superwash (blue) and Tivoli Luxury DK Tweed (purple), on size 3.25 and 4 mm straights.

The original pattern was a solid with a little Fair Isle pattern at the bottom edge. I just used it as a guide for size and knit it in 4-row stripes. I finishd with less that a meter of blue left (hooray for stash usage!). This is for nobody in particular; I tend to keep a stash of baby shower presents around. Sooner or later it will find a recipient. I still need to find some cute buttons for it. And I also finished those crazy stripey socks:

Broad rib socks (improvised patttern, 72 sts) in Lang Super Soxx, on size 2.25 mm dpns.

I'm really glad I didn't try to match the stripes on these, because halfway down the leg of the second sock, I foud a knot in the yarn, and part of the pattern repeat was missing (can you spot it?). The second sock (on the left in the photo) turned out much bluer than the first - the beige pooled on the heel. Knots aside, I really like this yarn, and will probably pick up another skein or two for gift knitting. The fit seems good so far, but I'll see how much they stretch with wear. I seem to have trouble knitting socks that stay up on me, especially in the big snowboots that I've been clunking around in lately. These may well be my new favorite socks.

I'm off to Wool Tyme tomorrow - the big but very hard to get to on the bus yarn store in an industrial park - to stock up on the Galway Heather for dh's sweater. They stock a full range of wonderful stuff that I can't get at my more easily accessible LYS. I'm going to try to resist the pull of the Colinette and Fleece Artist - for the sake of my bank account, please wish me luck!

A new project

Still crazy busy at school, with minimal time for knitting these days. Here's what I've been up to.

Swatching for dh's birthday sweater. He's definitely broadening his wardrobe horizons lately. He bought himself (with a little encouragement) a gorgeous blue cabled wool sweater at Winners a few months back, and has fallen in love with it. Previously, he would have called cables too "busy". So imagine my delight when, after pulling out several dozen patterns for him to peruse, he decided on this one. Now, the gauge isn't working so well in the yarn that he has taken a liking to:

The colour is actually called Charcoal, but it's not grey at all. The photo of the skein is closer to the real thing, I'd say somewhere between chestnut brown and olive green. The weight/yardage for this worsted wool pretty close to the Classic Elite Skye Tweed that the pattern recommends, but it seems to be knitting up much finer. But hubby likes this yarn, and as David pointed out in a Knitty article that amused me to no end, men are fickle creatures to knit for. So if he really likes the yarn, and approves of the pattern, I think there's a far better of chance of the sweater that I toil over being worn and loved in the future. So I think my plan of attack is to keep the yarn and the lovely cables and re-work the pattern, with the help of my trusty software, to make it work with the gague that I am getting on 4.5 mm needles. And his birthday is February 8th, so I think I need to get moving on this!

I have some FO pictures, which I will hopefully get posted soon. In the meantime, dh and Molly both say to thank you for all of the compliments. They are both very flattered.

Spindrift swirl and tempest tossed

That's a line from the Ode to Newfoundland (provincial anthem) by the way. I was thinking about spinning this morning, and looking out at the blowing snow (yea! Finally, some snow!), and it just popped into my head.

So, yes I have been spinning. I was given this Schacht Hi-Lo drop spindle for Christmas, and I have been slowly figuring out what to do with it.

It came with a pile of combed wool (top, I'm guessing - still learning all the fibre lingo). The problem is that I have no idea what kind of wool they are, so when it comes time to buy more fibre, I don't know what I've already spun. And boy does it make a difference! The first lot that I started with was white, fairly soft wool. It was hard to get the hang of drafting, so mostly I pre-drafted all of it, and came out with a fairly lumpy bumpy first spindle full. I managed to wrestle it into a two ply skein:

It's pretty thick and thin, and a little ropey looking, but I love it all the same. It was certainly a learning experience. It's about 3 oz, somewhere between bulky and super bulky. It may have a future as a hat. We'll see.

The second pile of fibre looked much like the first, just a darker colour, maybe a little less soft.

But when I started to spin it, it was so much easier to work with. The fibres (staple?) are longer and smoother, and I could draft them easily into long, thin singles. Beautiful. Why didn't I start with this?! Last night I finished off the fist half of the pile of wool, and then taught myself to Andean ply while watching tv. And like magic, I had yarn that actually looks like real yarn:

It's 60 m, about 1.75 oz., and I'm getting around 11 wraps per inch.

So far, I'm enjoying spinning, even though it is cutting into valuable knitting time! Up next, I have the reamining half of the darker wool still to spin. And I also have these:

100 grams of hand dyed Blue Faced Leicester from Fleece Artist.

I have thoughts of buying silk hankies to try out, and am still confused about all the different types of sheep out there, and which are the best for fairly easy spinning. From Ottawa, I will basically have to mail order or buy fibre on eBay, because there are no shops in the city that sell much fibre (these Fleece Artist Slivers being the exception). I would really appreciate any tips, or referrals to retailers, websites or books that may be of help to a very beginner spinner. Has anyone got an opinion about the new book Spin to Knit? I have read most of the back issues of Spindlicity for starters.

Just a quickie

Not much time for blogging these days at Hedgehog Knits, but here are a couple of photos I've been meaning to post. First, the adorable Molly makes her blog debut:


Molly is a two-year old African Pygmy hedghog who likes to chew on yarn (especially kool-aid dyed fruity wool) and is incredibly hard to photograph because she won't stay still! (She's about to fall out of the basket here.) If I ever get around to customizing my blogger page, I intend to make this photo part of a banner.


And this is part of my lovely Christmas gift from dh. A beautiful soft woven basket from Lantern Moon. It's actually got a cloth lining, which you can close over in the top with a drawstring. I think this would be great for those with cats, or toddlers, as it affords a certain amount of protection from little intruders.

The yarns are purple-blue Hand Maiden Lady Godiva (50% Silk 50% Wool, incredibly soft!) from Nova Scotia, burgundy Knit-Wise laceweight Cashmere, and the light blue is laceweight Misti Alpaca. I will be pondering what to make with these little luxuries for some time to come.

I'll try to get some photos of my spinning for tomorrow. In the meantime, it's off to school.

Socky Goodness

Whatever did I do before I discovered the joys of sock knitting? Actually, it was sock knitting that got me back into knitting this time around. I learned to knit at a young age and had dabbled with it all my life, but it was a Swiss friend from my M.Sc. days at Queen's (around six years ago) who inspired me to learn to knit socks. I admired her beautiful stripey socks one day and was floored to hear that she had made them herself. Back in Newfoundland, the only hand-knit socks I knew were thick, worsted weight boot socks, mostly worn by men, or in skates or boots in the dead of winter. These finely knit, beautifully coloured, lightweight socks were totally new to me. And self-patterning yarn was the height of novelty to be. To hell with all the crazy fun-fur that people were knitting with at the time. I headed of to S&R department store and got me some Kroy, and a booklet by Patons called "Pull up Your Socks" which had pretty good instructions from which I managed t teach myself to knit in the round. And haven't stopped since.

Here are the latest finished socks:

"Fair Isle Options" from the Patons booklet Classics in Kroy in assorted ends of sock yarn. The Blue is Sheepjes Invicta, the white is Kroy, the rest... who knows. Pattern adapted to knit on two circulars, size 2.5 mm.

The most recently started sock is this, alas still partnerless sock:

It's a basic broad rib (K5P1) sock with no real pattern. As Glenna has mentioned, once you read the Yarn Harlot's explanation in Knitting Rules, socks make so much more sense. Unless it's cabled or lacey or something, I can pretty much make it up as I go along. You may recognize the yarn from my failed attempt at Jaywalkers. I was tired of ripping them back and making them bigger after three attempts, and I decided that I really liked this yarn too much to be so frustrated at it. It is truly nice yarn to work with, something called Super Soxx Color that was new at my LYS a couple of months ago. Ha! I just realized looking at the label that it's made by Lang and Co., Switzerland. I'm assuming that this is the same Lang company that makes Jawoll (?). If that's the case, this is a much better sock yarn folks. I love the colours and the controlled randomness of the stripes. In a perfect world, it would have a little more white, but I'm fully aware that people as fussy as me should learn to dye their own self-striping yarn!

Anyway, I set this one aside for a while to ponder whether to make the second sock a clone, or to start at a different point in the colour repeat and make totally un-matching socks. So far I'm leaning toward the latter. Any suggestions?

While I'm not officially joining the Knit from Stash challenge, as I mentioned before, I'm really trying to cut down my stash a bit lately, in consideration of my lack of storage space, my limited budget, and my general guilt at having so much lovely stuff piled up with no immediate plans for it. I'm very much a "use it or chuck it out" kind of person now, much recovered from my younger days as a packrat. So while pondering the dilemma of where to start the second stripey sock, I started an entirely different stripey sock out of some bargain stuff that I had in my stash:


Not to be confused with the previous "Super Soxx", this stuff is called "Super Socks Dazzle". No company mentioned on the label, just "Made in Italy". I think this was in the neighbourhood of $3.50 per ball. Now these stripes are not holding my attention at all. This is looking very boring, and will surely languish unfinished in my basket for a long, long time if I continue with this. I require entertainment from my socks - at least a fun, unpredictable stripe pattern to break up the stockinette monotony. So I went looking for a more interesting pattern to try with it, and I think I may have a winner. Broadripple socks from the Summer 2003 Knitty looks subtiantially more interesting - take plain, regular stripes and add a bit of ripple to keep the eye moving. I don't want to knit socks on the large (3.25 mm) needles listed in the pattern, but I think I can increase it by a full pattern repeat to 70 sts and get away with a much finer gague. I'll keep you posted.

Happy knitting!

Catching up

I think I will have enough blog fodder for quite some time to come. There was lots of knitting over the holidays. Sadly, there were some gifts that I forgot to photograph. Perhaps I can get their new owners to send me photos - we'll see. This is the second pair of gloves based on my own cable pattern, gifted to my father-in-law:

Cable gloves in Briggs and Little Tuffy, original pattern

I have written up the pattern for these, and plan to post it soon. I have to do one more pair of these, so I will use that opportunity to test-knit it. I'm a little nervous about putting it out there full of mistakes (it's the first time I've written a pattern that I intend for other people to be able to follow.) Soon. I promise.
These are the Crooked Cable socks that I was working furiously on before I left for home. I finished them a couple of days before Christmas.

Crooked Cable Socks, pattern by Sockbug, in Lang Jawoll. Knit on 2 circulars, size 2.5 mm.

I really like this pattern and will definitely knit it again - maybe for myself. I think that I would add another half or full pattern repeat to the leg to make them longer. I had lots of yardage to spare. As for the yarn, I like the reinforcing spool that comes with it, but I was unimpressed that A) the colour bled a bit, even just soaking them in cold water for blocking, so care will have to be taken to not dye all the laundry pink, and B) they were looking kind of fuzzy and old after only a couple of washes and wearings. This is a fairly expensive sock yarn by my standards. I have to say that I am more impressed with the sturdiness and ease of care with less expensive Regia sock yarns. I won't be buying this one again.

And finally, I don't think I posted these before, but I knit them back in October. This toque and wristies I made for my younger brother. He's a bass player and sound technician, so I thought they would come in handy for those chilly outdoor gigs where he needs full use of his fingers. I think he really likes them.

Touque: Cable Knit Hat, pattern by Headhuggers, altered to add the ribbed brim.
Wristies: pattern by Joelle Hoverson available free on the Canadian Living website
Yarn: elann.com Peruvian Sierra Aran, colour Chestnut.

I think that's it for the gift shots that I have. But I've got lots of other stuff in reserve. It's time that I'm short on! More to come.

Back, at long last

Hello everybody.

I'm back in Ottawa after a lovely Christmas vacation. My luggage has yet to catch up with me, but is expected later today. I think it really takes a special talent for an airline to lose my luggage on the first leg of my trip, lose my husband's when he flew down to join me a week later, and then lose mine again on the return trip. Hubby has yet to return, so let's see if they can go four for four. Alas, flying in winter in this country is never without hassles and delays, so I consider us lucky that we got where we were going, and approximately on time. Those who know me know that I am hopelessly cursed when it comes to air travel.

Other than the actual frustrations of getting there and back, Christmas in Newfoundland was wonderful. My extended family has entered a new generation within the past two years, so there were babies everywhere! My two-year-old nephew has become quite chatty since the last time I saw him, and although he didn't remember me from last Christmas, he now calls me "aunt Keddy". He is an adorable, blond, curly-headed little dear. I really should get home more often!

While I had (slow) internet access at home, I really didn't feel like sitting by myself updating the blog when there were so many people to see and places to visit. And now that I am back, I still don't have photos because hubby kept the camera with him, and is taking an extra week of vacation.

In terms of knitty gifts, I did very well this year. A cousin gave me the new Knitting Pattern a Day calendar. Hubby gave me a wonderful basket from Lantern Moon, my first drop spindle along with some fibre to spin, and wonderful, luscious luxury yarns, which I love, and of course would never have bought for myself. I have started spinning, and am enjoying it so far. I think it will take a lot of practice to get a consistant thickness and I have a lot to learn about plying and the like. I will put up some photos next week, along with a few snaps of gifts I gave, and an update on the Newfoundland mitten project.

For now, it's back to work. I have made only one New Year's resolution for 2007: I'm going to graduate. And the sooner the better. I am growing tired of my Ph.D. thesis project and need to get it written up and defended so that I can get on with my life. The real world awaits!

I hope everyone had a great holiday season, and I look forward to catching up with my blog reading!