Relaxing Weekend in the Snow!

I went to New Hampshire for the weekend with some friends. It was great to be away in the cold and snow. They did the skiing and I did some knitting!

I used my purple alpaca yarn from christmas to knit the small version of the Counterpane Carpet Bag from Handknit Holidays by Melanie Falick. I finished both sides of the bag over the weekend, I just have to block them and put it together! I want to pick a jazzy printed fabric for the lining.

For how intricate the scallops look, this is a fairly easy pattern. I would recommend using stitch markers because it can be difficult to keep track of the repeats without counting and recounting what you've done.

I've ooh and ahhed over this book for about a year before I finally bought it. The book is full of fun and interesting projects. I see myself knitting many of them in the future. The beautiful photography in the book may be the cause of this need to knit. For example, "If I knit the afghan on page 94, will I be standing in a beautiful barn all nice and cozy? or If I knit the thigh high socks on page 85 will my calves look that skinny?". I doubt it, but I will keep dreaming as I turn the pages.

Between knitting, I took a beautiful and chilly walk to this frozen site: