Happy New Year!

New Year's plans at my house were pretty quiet this year.  My little family happily spent our last evening of 2013 playing on the Wii together - first a dance-off, then family Rock Band, and we concluded with a Mario Cart tournament.  Before the kids headed to bed, we enjoyed some chocolate fondue together with strawberries, bananas, raspberries & rice krispie treat chunks to dip in it, then we watched one of the home movies I edited together a number of years ago.

Once the kids were asleep, my husband and I watched an episode of Downton Abbey while I started another pair of socks.  Actually, I made a plain vanilla sock out of this Prism yarn that I bought when I was in Madison, WI back in November, but I decided I wanted to do something a little more interesting with them.  But I just finished writing and editing 3 patterns, so I wanted a little break from making up another.  I decided another pair of Whirlwind Socks was the way to go.

Speaking of Whirlwind Socks, yesterday was the end of December, which means I promised to send the first check to the City of Washington Tornado Recovery Fund.  I'll be writing that check for $160, and I thank every one of you who has purchased the pattern so far!  Remember, even if you haven't bought the pattern, "favoriting" it on Ravelry helps other people to see it, and if you have bought it and plan to make a pair, sharing pictures on your project page, personal blog, Facebook, or on other knitting websites will also help get the word out so we might be able to send even more assistance to Washington.

I have two hat patterns and a lovely textured cowl coming down the pipeline.  Tests are underway and you'll be seeing a few new patterns published toward the end of the month and beginning of February.  I hope you like them!