Return from the West

After a very brief visit to the US to see the newest member of the family, my 4 month old neice, I'm back in Hong Kong to start another year. While I was home, I did a significant amount of gifting of hand knits.

• To my mother went my Milk Run Shawl- I think that it suits her a lot more than myself, and I have a lot of leftover yarn to make something else lovely for myself. I also passed on some of my scrap skeins to her so she can work up something nice for herself.
  
• Frangiflutti was given a home to my chic best friend, and it suits her- she has gorgerous skin and the colors are set off quite nicely against her skin tone
• For my more contemplative best friend, he received an over-sized hat to keep his over-sized head warm in the cold Oregon winter
• My neice got her two blankets, the Ocean Waves and Shooting Star. My mother mentioned that she hasn't seen any of her hand knits on the baby, but I hope that isn't true!

I also managed to rake in some nice gifts as well. My best friend brought me a beautiful golden yellow gabi from her time in Ethiopia. Normally I shy away from yellow for myself, but the effect is quite stunning. Its made from 100% cotton, handwoven, and supersoft. I snuggle up in it quite often. She also gave me this beautiful sock yarn. Apparently it came from a line of yarn where every colorway is named after a feminist. I have no idea what I am going to make from this one skein, but it will be beautiful no matter what. I need to find a ball winder so I can get working!
My mother also let me dig through her stash for scrap yarn or things that she was thinking of getting rid off. I picked so much off of her that I had to take a second bag on the airplane! I also received two books by Margaret Atwood, who is one of my favorite authors. If only I could read and knit at the same time! But alas, when I try, it makes my head spin. I will just have to settle for watching Star Trek and knitting at the same time.
My second semester of my masters program has already started, so I will have little time for knitting between here and March, but I will try to get something done- I seem to keep starting up projects, but have yet to finish anything for a long time. One my New Years resolutions is to finish at least 1 project before I cast on another. Wish me luck!