Fire is the phenomenon of combustion

The first few minutes of the new year began with fire for me. Fire in the pan, fire in the sky, fire on a blog I read regularly. New Year's Eve was a nice, cozy at-home evening of knitting and cocoa and movies. I was thinking about what a nice segue into the new year we were having, and then

KABOOM! The world exploded with fireworks outside. The oil in the pan got too hot to sautee the onions. The first few moments of the new year turned noisy and bright and chaotic. I wanted to discount this as setting a tone for the year, but when I awoke the next morning, one of my favorite blogs had a post about making fire. And so it was that I had my theme for the year. My word. My subject to explore.

And, just as suddenly, tomorrow is the last day of January, and I have not even completed my thoughts for a New Year's Day post, or begun to make any resolutions (see last year's post about how I usually don't do resolutions), or decided if I was going to make resolutions this year, or even lived up to my unspoken resolution to get back to posting 5x per week. This will be my fifth post of the month.

So, what is FIRE? There are many definitions, and many phrases that involve the word fire, but here is the first entry from Merriam Webster:

a (1) : the phenomenon of combustion manifested in light, flame, and heat (2) : one of the four elements of the alchemists.

So, the year began in a combustion of light and flame, if not the heat, and it has been burning ever since. January has been all consumed, and it happened so fast as to be on fire.

Cables abound in the Gemma Cabled Scarf

I am happy to report that I have finished a gorgeous scarf (gorgeous because of the pattern and the mmmmmmalabrigo wool used) for my BFF. Yes, I did just say BFF. Learned it from the kids. Or something like that.

This pattern was simple in that cables are simple once you know how to do them, but it was quite labor intensive in that the cabling occurs often, and stitch counting and accurate row tracking was required. It is a free pattern available on Ravelry.com.

And the flip side...

As promised, here is the other side. Who could resist those ears?
...

Bandana fun

Spent last night making this super cute bandana for our Miss Kate. She got to wear it all afternoon, after her trip to the goomer. She was sooo soft and shiny! It is reversible. I'll have to show you the other side next time.

Great Goodwill!

Well, hello there. I have been remiss in posting, but shall remedy that today. My thoughts on the new year soon to come...but now:

Goodwill outlets are great for finding items on a budget. I recently went to one, and got all the following for a total of $6.67. ($1.00 per pound)These are great for my upcoming charity projects. These items were all hand knit and in unused condition.