Phew! Time for a break!

I hope everyone had a great holiday!  It was nice to spend some time with my family and I tacked on a vacation from work this week to make a sort of extended holiday for myself.  To say I'm taking a "break" might be a stretch, but it certainly feels like one after last month!  My husband's birthday was the weekend after Thanksgifing so we took a trip to NYC to celebrate his still being older than me!  ;-)  We're both self-declared foodies and I had wanted to catch The Hunger Games Exhibition at the Discovery museum before it leaves in early January, so off we went!

Now, we had a FANTASTIC TRIP.  Seriously, but this blog is supposed to be about knitting, so I'll try to keep that in mind as I write.  We started out at Saturday by hitting the Natural History Museum to see the re-opened planetarium and the butterfly conservatory, then on to an early dinner at Guantanamera.  The food and cocktails were amazing and we literally stuffed ourselves silly before heading off to Times Square.

My anticipation was building for weeks to see the Hunger Games Exhibition.  I'm a HUGE fan of the books and movies, I usually binge watch the movies while knitting at least twice a week (and sadly, I'm not kidding- I'm actually watching the first film again as I write).  There was such great knitwear in all of the movies and so I was psyched at the opportunity to see some of the fantastic knits close up.  By the time we got into the exhibition, I was practically salivating and ready to cry like a pre-teen at a One Direction concert.

The exhibition itself was fantastic.  It was interactive, informative, reflected both the movies and the books, but not a single stitch of knitwear.  To be fair, I did see the famed Katniss Cowl, but it was actually woven, not knit (though you can find a really great knit interpretation HERE on Ravelry for free).  Exciting, and I was happy to be able to inspect it up close, but the cowl actually got so much attention after the movie release I couldn't find any information (or even still frames/pics) of the other knitwear in the movies, so I had been really jazzed to see some of the other pieces.   :-/

I do also want to take the time to point out that the staff working at the Discovery Museum are really friendly, approachable, and helpful.  I saw the Harry Potter Exhibition there a few years ago and had the same experience.  If you get the chance to stop by and see something that catches your fancy, don't hesitate!  If I could have afforded to, I would have bought out half their gift shop as well!  There was a whole line of kitchen/baking products marketed for "Peeta's Bakery" that I absolutely fell in love with!

Before the end of the night, we also got to stop into the Nintendo store where there were displays for their new game, Yoshi's Wooly World!  I'm also something of a Nintendo fan and it was fun to see all the knit and crocheted characters and landscapes.

Now that November is over, I can FINALLY I show you pictures of what I've been working on and my post is so late because I was trying to get pictures.  The lighting in my apartment is pretty dim though, and the weather hasn't really been cooperating- it's been warm, but rainy mostly.

I finished the last clue for the Supernatural MKAL pretty quickly but it took me a while to get around to washing and blocking it.  Anyone who watches the show will recognize the design as the anti-possession symbol the guys have tattooed to keep the demons out. I still have about a ball and a half of that yarn left and I think it's going to go great with a couple others I have in the stash.  I'm kind of toying around with ideas and think maybe I'll be designing my first shawl with them.

Yes, this is a bathroom pic I snapped as I was leaving work.
The lighting in there is AMAZING.

I also managed to finish the Snowflake sweater for NoKniSweMo before the end of November- though how I'm still not sure.  I had three days left with one sleeve to go, but I was working on it while in NYC so I was distracted and kept having to pull the cuff out.  I was actually sewing the final button onto the sweater at 11:57 on 11/30!  Now that it's done, I've got a great sweater to put into the rotation as the weather starts to cool- if it ever cools.  It's been in the 50's here in New England, which is practically tropical for this time of year.

At the start of the month, I also spent the day at WEBS yarn store completing my opt out tests for Knitting II and Crochet I and I'm happy to say I passed both!  Now that I've got a pre-requisite under my belt, it's just a matter of figuring out which classes I'd like to take this semester.  I wish I had the time and money to do all of them, but I'll have to be patient.

So, what's coming up?  Well, I'm STILL desperately trying to finish last minute Christmas gifts.  I'll be busy with some homework from the knitting classes I've signed up for, but I really hope to start a sweater that's been in my queue for some time, Norah Gaughan's "Chainlink," with the hope that I can finish it in time to actually wear it this year.   Soon, it'll be time for New Year's resolutions!  How did we hit the end of the year already?