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:

Some Changes!

New blog layout! I decided the other one, while very cool, was too hard to read and sometimes the pictures were hard to see. This one is much better (and spring-ier). I used one of Blogger's templates but one day I'll make up my own and personalize it with my own pictures and background.

Also, I've added a "Some of My Favorite Things" box to the sidebar on the right. It has links to Amazon for the things that I like that I mention in the bog. (Shameless plug: If you click there and purchase something, I'll get a little something in return.) Although, I tried to find the Oxo grater I recently purchased (at another store), but it wasn't there. There were 50,000 other Oxo graters, but not mine. Mine is a pyramid-shaped grater and I love it. I'll still put a link in the blog itself for my favorite things, but this way you can browse all my favorites without going back through all the posts! Handy!

In Knitting News:
I've been plugging away on my Dipped Infinity Scarf:

Love the subtle color changes.  The pattern is incredibly easy to follow - definitely tv knitting.  You can purchase the pattern separately, but this one came as a kit with the 8 colors pre-selected (I got it as a fiber festival and one of the vendors put it together). I would have gone mad trying to make 8 colors match so that they would gradually change like that! If you can't tell in this picture, you'll be able to tell when I have more done.  Plus, the yarn was measured out for me in this kit, which made it a little more affordable too.

And, I'm getting ready to start something new!  More on that later.

In other news:
Have I told you how much I love, Love, LOVE Downton Abbey?????  I'm on episode 5 of Season 1.  It's like the greatest little soap opera ---  the lives of the family that lives in this gorgeous English manor and how they intertwine with the lives of the staff that works for them.  Season 2 recently ended on PBS and I understand it's just as enjoyable as season 1.
If you want to try it, you can get just one episode (episode 1 of season 1!) here:

And then WHEN you love it, you can get the whole Season 1 here: Masterpiece Classic: Downton Abbey
Then come back and tell me how you like it!

I'm off to clean the bathrooms and then reward myself by watching another episode. (Somehow I think cleaning bathrooms needs a slightly larger reward....)