Shameless bragging about presents

Present 1: to me

I have three brothers, and I now offer you evidence that my brother M knows me very well:

Yay for Christmas!

Wacky? Definitely.

Baby? Hey, I have one of those!

Knits? Yes, please.

This is way too fun.  Some of the patterns are not my cuppa tea, but others... fuzzy Monster Booties, with red claws?  I'm so there!  And I'm making a pair in my size next!

Present 2: from me

Like any late-20-something Midwesterner worth her salt, I am friends with many women named Sarah; my oldest Sarah friend (she's not the oldest age-wise, but I've known her the longest) is moving back there from here this weekend.  She is off to start a new career (-ahem- LIBRARIANSHIP!!) and I wish her nothing but the best.  In the 20+ years I've known her, I can't remember that we've ever fought about anything, which is saying a lot for two strong-willed women!

So in honor of my friend, I've knit a shawlette that, unfortunately, is now doing quintuple duty as a double-birthday/double-Christmas/going-away present, since (I'm ashamed to say) the actual knitting on Little Fox in the Leaves has been done for over a year (most knit while unwittingly pregnant in Italy).  BUT I couldn't truly call a piece of lacework "finished" until it had been -gulp- blocked.  And now comes the reason for my stalling, because... you see...  I've never blocked anything.

I mean, not really, no.  I haven't.  I've run superwash merino through the washer and dryer.  But I've never blocked anything for reals, yo, with the measuring and the pinning and Sammy can't take a nap because there's a wet afghan tacked to the bedspread.  And even now...  not really.  But baby steps were taken!  I properly wet the piece, properly squished the water out without wringing the fabric, properly smoothed the shawl flat on a towel on my workroom floor... but it's no particular size and I didn't definitely pin it at all.  Reprehensible!

But I think it still looks gorram fabulous:

Woodland Shawl by Nikol Lohr

knit with 1 skein of Schoppel-Wolle Crazy Zauberball in 1702 Kleiner Fuchs (Google translates as "Small Tortoiseshell," but my skein said "Little Fox," so it's more righter) from LYS A Tangled Skein

I will miss you, my dear friend; it's been so great to reconnect with you on this side of the country.