The further I go, the behinder I get.

First things first. Nobody guessed the correct answer for my contest back before Christmas. Here was the mysterious photo-



And what is it, you may ask? It's the inside of this-


-a parking garage on Smithfield street in Pittsburgh. There's a convenience store on the bottom floor, and when you go into the store, you pass beneath the roundabout. If you look up, you see the inside of the spiral that the cars go up, concrete walls and skylights on top. It does look rather like the inside of a salt shaker.

Congratulations to Brea for winning the random number draw-she got this lovely skein of merino/silk, spun on a spindle, about 200 yards of squooshy, colorful fun.



Things have been pretty hectic otherwise. Very busy. As I posted last time, my older daughter has finished the work she needed to do and is once again in touch. It's a process, but I love that she is back and every time I talk to her on the phone, text with her, or see her, it's very happy-making.

Last week was my 51st birthday. We went to the Japanese steakhouse nearby and I got the ridiculous birthday thing.

Despite technical difficulties, it ended up being a lot of fun.

This is a light, non-challenging sort of post. I have deep thoughts, but I am not indulging them to any great extent at the moment since 2011 was so emotionally fraught. I need fluff, and fun, and bright colors, and happiness. There is plenty of time for serious business. Maybe february.

In knitting, I've been busy. January first, I cast on a very challenging project, "In The Pink", a winged shawl with interesting construction and a very challenging pattern. I'm actually almost done. My Ravelry project page is here. I took these photos on Friday, but I've made a lot more progress since then.



See the "feathers" along the edge? There are 86 altogether. I have done 70. So I plan to finish today, making it in less than a month. I didn't expect to get it done so fast but I've been project-monogamous except for socks on the bus. I'm looking forward to doing some spinning after I'm done with this.

My younger daughter gave me a terrific gift for my birthday-she organized and cleaned the craft/library/dog room. It was a chaotic mess, things strewn all over. It was like something out of "Hoarders". It's now neat and organized and clean and I could actually go in there and sew or spin if I wanted. Amazing.

More soon, hopefully. For now, I have a knitting project to finish.