Back to Normal

Ha!  I should have written "Normal" (in quotes) since it's all relative right?  The crazy awful pre-holiday and holiday weeks are over and we're getting back to our somewhat regular routine.  Whew!

We went to my sister's last weekend to finally celebrate Christmas with them.  Despite driving through a frickin' snowstorm in the Berkshires - of course, because it's always snowing there when it isn't snowing anywhere else - we had a nice time.  Knitted presents were loved!

Socks for my nephews and my sister

Here'e a not-as-blurry close-up:

My dad's slippers:

He didn't want to put them on again by the time
I got my camera out!

And I forgot to take a picture of my mom with her present, but here it is:

A cotton face cloth that I gave her with
some Burt's Bees face soap.

Ooh!  And check out my mom's creative packaging in the face of having no tape:

Duct tape!  I love it!

Our drive home that day was uneventful and even kind of pretty:

In Knitting News:
So, now I'm knitting like crazy - bet you thought I was done with that after the holidays - for upcoming classes to teach.

I made the Pretty Thing cowl by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (aka The Yarn Harlot - click there for her blog):

And the Winter Leaves Scarf for a basic lace knitting class:

Now I'm working on, and hoping to finish at least one by today, the Gelsomina wrist warmers:

After the wristers I've got one more project, the Ravine hat, and then I'll move on to my next projects.  One of them is the Great American Afghan knit-a-long at The Spinning Room.  Here is a sneak peak at 2 of the 5 (or so) colors:

That lighter color is actually more of a blue/green
and is really pretty.  The darker color is
actually lighter.  Ugh, will try for a better pic...

Oh, and next week starts the Mystery Sock V:April Showers sock knit-a-long!  Remember that?:

And then, I'm going to get back on track with finishing my unfinished projects.  Seriously, I am.  No more procrastinating.  No getting distracted by other cool new patterns........  Like this mystery knit-a-long to go along with season 3 of Masterpiece Classic: Downton Abbey starting this Sunday!

In Book News:
Yay!  Lots of Barnes and Noble gift cards for Christmas!!! So excited since I have a long list of books that I want to get.

I finished Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. Wow.  What a great book.  It starts in 1942 Paris with the "roundup" of Jewish residents to later be brought to Auschwitz.  When the police come to her house, a young girl named Sarah hides her brother in their secret cabinet, takes the key, and tells him she will come back for him.  She has no idea that she and her family are being taken away from their home for good.  The story then fluctuates back and forth from her story to a present day journalist who is researching the roundup, and how their stories end up intertwining.  Very engaging and the author does a great job of relaying the story while going back and forth in each chapter.  Highly, highly recommend!  Here is a link to Amazon:


I just started another GREAT book that I'll tell you about next time....

That's it for now.  Except for one last picture of Mandy that I took several weeks ago, since she was, again, creatively using her pillow: