I can’t believe Christmas has come and gone yet again. I’ve hung all my decorations that fill every inch of my apartment, and packed them all back up again. I wrapped a bunch of presents for friends and loved ones, and unwrapped a fair few myself. I made a ton of food, and ate way more than I should have. The whirlwind of the holiday carried me through the weeks between Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s in nervousness, anticipation and excitement.
For me, Christmas is one of my favorite times of year. I love the traditions, the movies, the food, the gatherings. I love the Christmas lights dangling from the trees, kitschy decorations in every house corner, the carefully wrapped gifts donned with perfect ribbon.
I especially love the music. From classic carols to recent standards, one could consider me a Christmas music junkie. I have more than 1000 songs of the holiday persuasion. And I download more each year. I have a number of Christmas-themed playlists dividing my collection by favorites and genre. In the past, I devoted a few Tunes posts to holiday song recommendations (in a 2007 sampler, and a seven-day series from 2006: Day 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7).
But above all, Christmas holds a special place in my heart because of the spirit that beholds so many of us. This spirit is a special energy that surges through the month of December. The mixture of excitement, anticipation, anxiety and happiness bundled into one encompassing emotion makes the end of the year unique, as well as fly by. A lot of people don’t really like the holidays, namely ThanksMas Day, but I’ve always loved it. As I unpack my many boxes of Christmas decorations (I have six crates/boxes that house my stuff … and I live in a one bedroom apartment.), I remember how I got every item, each ornament. To me, my ornament collection represents memories of past holidays, reminders of loved ones and life events captured in a moment. My trip represents a conglomeration of not only December 25th, but of the important things in my life. Decorating my tree each year allows me to revisit these things from my past.
The red-and-green donned time of year also means a busier time for me at work, which is one reason for my recent blog-writing absence. An absence I hope to fix in the coming months. During this time of revelry, my company revs up for its largest trade show. It takes months to prepare for the show, and put the various publications supporting it together. I work on all of those, so I work a lot of hours.
As of late, at least for the past few years, the overlap of a busy work time and the holidays has made experiencing this time of year to the fullest challenging. This year was especially challenging as the weeks went by and I was busier than ever. I’m hoping my hectic schedule is to blame for a slightly less enthusiastic spirit this time around.
Despite my busy schedule and limited free time, I was able to knit a few people a special gift. Here’s a roundup and a conclusion of my Stash Knit Down 2011 progress.
Voyageur Cap
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft in red
Pattern: Voyageur Cap (archive) by Tina Shaddox
For my dad, a man who’s drawn to the nostalgic days of old, I made a voyageur cap—a long, droopy hat with a tassle at the end. This dashing hat was worn on hunting trips, something I’m not sure my dad will be doing in the fullest sense. Here he is sporting his new headwear.
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Mobius Scarf
Yarn: Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud in Peppermint, Knit Picks Gloss Lace in Sterling and Knit Picks Gloss Lace in Pinot
Pattern: The perfect col by Amélie Lambert
For my stepmom, I created this unique mobius scarf. According to Wikipedia, a mobius strip “can easily be created by taking a paper strip and giving it a half-twist, and then joining the ends of the strip together to form a loop.” This pattern alternates colors in blocks of alternating garter and stockinette, creating a thick ribbed creation. At the beginning, before joining in the round, you make one twist. Keep knitting, and the twist will hold as you work in the round. It was pretty simple and easy to knit, and created this fun scarf. In fact, I’m making one for myself.
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Burgundy Fingerless Garter Mitts
Yarn: Classic Elite Yarns Alpaca Sox in Brown Maple
Pattern: Fingerless Garter Mitts by Leigh Radford
Last, but not least, I made these classic garter fingerless mitts. I’ve made them in the past, so this was a no brainer. The picture is hard to see, but the yarn was a burgundy, brown maple shade that looked really nice. I followed the pattern for the most part until the end. I didn’t knit quite as many rows as indicated and judged based on how it fit around my hand. The first pair I made seemed a little too baggy, so I wanted these to be snug. It worked out in the end.
Stash knit down 2011 total: 14
Be inspired.
I met Kate through the Association of Women Journalists (AWJ) and immediately was impressed (and inspired) by her creativity, drive, work ethic and use of social media. Her passion for journalism, digital media and communications overall is evident in the projects she takes on, including LoganSquarist, an online news outlet that she founded that uses social media to socialize the neighborhood. What I admire about Kate is her vitality as well as her desire to keep learning and growing personally and professionally. Kate is a modern-day renaissance woman who is multitalented (ask about her travel, knitting and marathon exploits!) and who brings instant value to any team or organization.
Kate has been a fantastic resource for all things digital, whether redesigning my website on Wordpress, fine tuning my social media profiles, or understanding Google Analytics. She's an excellent communicator, and I will absolutely hire her again in the future.
Kate has an incredible amount of drive when it comes to LoganSquarist. In the six months that I’ve been involved, I’ve watched the site grow from a pet project to a respected community publication. This success can be attributed to Kate’s technical and leadership skills. From building out the site to off-hours community management and a consistent flow of content, the site improves by leaps and bounds on a weekly basis. When it comes to team management, Kate delegates tasks in an organized and efficient manner, making her an all around great and inspiring person to work with.
Kate did and excellent job with our website. We have received several compliments on how nice it looks and how easy it is to navigate. She also went above and beyond to make sure that we were able to update and the website ourselves through Wordpress. I cannot gush about how awesome she is and how happy we are with the site and her dedication to the project.
Kate is a real professional and a pleasure to work with. She is a great communicator and always put her client's (my company) interest first. She is tremendously personal and had a great understanding of our business and how she could help it. She is great and is a tremendous asset to any company.
One of the best things I've ever done in my career is work with Kate Hamilton. Her enthusiasm for all things editorial, not to mention her energy and passion for any project she's involved with, is contagious. In addition to being a natural born leader, she's also a creative type, a thinker, a stickler for details, and someone with incredible vision and the drive to get things done. I always marvel at how she is constantly teaching herself new things. She always seems to be ahead of the curve on anything related to social media, and she also has an eye for design. This lady rocks! And she continues to be a mentor to me and others in journalism and communications.
Kate is a wealth of knowledge who served as a tremendous mentor for all of our team members while constantly improving processes and workflows. She’s a tremendous project manager, pays great attention to detail, and is able to demand results from her team with respect. At LoganSquarist she has built and led a team of dozens of volunteer contributors committed to her vision of a community resource. I would happily work with Kate again anytime!
I worked with Kate during my time as a community manager at Lightspan Digital while Kate was my direct manager. Kate’s communication practices really taught me how to navigate the sometimes complicated agency world. As an account manger, Kate smoothly orchestrated 10+ accounts at one time as well as help me manage and prioritize tasks in my role. Kate was a role model during my first few years in the professional world and continues to be so to this day.