Lobstah Life: Back to Reality

I drove back on Tuesday afternoon from my holiday visit to my parents in Connecticut. I have to say, it was not much fun to depart from 40 degree temperatures and arrive to 10 degree temperatures! At least it is good knitting weather!

I had a tearful good-bye with my sister, who is moving to Switzerland in a week. I keep telling myself that I'm not going to see her any less than normal (she will will be coming home a few times a year minimum), but I still can't help but feel sad. She had to get rid of a lot of her stuff, so I did get to take a bunch of her clothes and books. Amongst the books was this one:

Score! My sister was trying to learn to knit this past year, but her lifestyle (very busy and split between home, corporate apartments, Europe, etc) was just not conducive to it. I've really been wanting this book for my reference library...thanks, sis!

My visit home was very productive, knitting-wise. I finished the other front to my "Twist" cardigan:

For some reason, this sweater has been giving me the roughest time with gauge. However, it looks like the two fronts match, so I'm going to ignore that negative voice in my head and move forward with the sweater. I suspect that many knitting horror stories start by ignoring those alarm bells in your head, but I also think I'm too much of a "Nervous Nellie" when it comes to my knitting, and I need to relax a bit!

I also started one of the sleeves:
As I said in an earlier post, my family and I don't exchange Christmas gifts anymore. However, I do exchange with G's mother, and she gave me a bunch of fun little knitting gifts:
Some knitting notions and a book! The book is "The Knitters Gift" by Bernadette Murphy and it is really cute. There are some interesting stories about knitting and a few simple patterns.

I received some yarn from my Grandma for my birthday, which is also in December:

I am not normally an acrylic yarn lover, but i actually kind of like this TLC Amore, it is very springy and soft. She got me enough yarn to make the sweater on the label, but I'm kind of thinking I want to make an afghan out of it, if there's enough yardage. I love the colors.

I was welcomed back to work yesterday by a gorgeous sunrise: