Knitting Frenzy!

Xmas is upon us, fortunately or unfortunately. Fortunately, I have the week between xmas and new year's off of work, so I'll be driving up to Portland, OR to be with family. And so, I've decided to knit gifts for *cough* twelve people! I'm about 60% done. The rest will be knit in transit, with the exception of the Argyle scarf. Fingerless gloves are perfect BART knitting, and I suspect I'll be knitting in the car on the way up to Portland (not while driving though). The Argyle knitting is quite a bit of fun - intarsia is challenging in a relaxed sort of way, as I actually enjoy repeating the same stitches over and over, but color changes and weaving yarn into the work are keeping it interesting. My enthusiasm for intarsia, however, has been sparked!
I found the basic stitch chart and instructions in Knitter's Handbook, which is an excellent reference book which covers all the basic techniques and has some great stitch patterns. After doing a bit of research on Ravelry and the web, I stumbled across Eunny Jang's work. Oh my god, she is such an amazing knitter / designer. I've been spending all my spare moments today drooling over her colorwork, laces, cables, and some of the best fitting garment designs I have ever seen. Her cabled socks are so elegant, and her colors so perfectly matched that even I (not a girly girl in the slightest) was in awe and envy over her pink and green, argyle, knee-length socks. She has quite a few tutorials in her blog, too - I'll be learning quite a bit from her site. I'm amassing quite a stash as it is, and many projects to follow after holiday knitting is out of the way - but now all I want to do is go out and buy lots of fingering weight yarn in many colors so I too can knit intarsia! Swatches, yes, I will knit lots of swatches, until I figure out exactly what to knit with this technique. For now - back to knitting!