Not quite the end of the year I was expecting…

I was ready to come back this week and brag about the great crafty Christmas presents I got (Harmony interchangeable knitting needle set and a sewing machine) and the quick trip to visit family on Boxing Day, but….

My husband had a small and thankfully not life-threatening medical emergency that led to a trip to ER and having to stay in the hospital for a minor operation. I picked him up a few hours ago and he is now taking a nap on the couch. So of course all New Year’s Eve plans are off, dinner reservations are cancelled, and a night in jammies is on the agenda. I didn’t get any sleep whatsoever last night, so I’m not even sure I’ll make it to midnight!

Happily, I got some new yarn in the mail today for a sweater I’m knitting for myself. I’m going to do a few chores around the house, do the last bit of 2008 accounting, and try to figure out something to make for dinner tonight and tomorrow since grocery shopping and everything else was forgotten (and the stores aren’t open again until Friday morning), and then settle down on the couch and start swatching. There’s a good side to everything.

Here’s wishing everyone a happy and healthy start to 2009!!

OMG! I’m back! Merry Christmas!

Three months? Is it possible? Wow! Hello! How are you?

There are no excuses really, except too much work and lack of blog motivation, I suppose. But I started missing blogging, so here I am again!

Since there’s no way to elegantly fill in the rather large gap since last time, here’s a very inelegant bullet point list of what has been up here over the past weeks/months:

• A visit from my sister, who lives in San Diego. She came over with a friend of hers from work. It was nice seeing her again.
• Did I go anywhere? Let’s see, there was an overnight trip to Düsseldorf, a roadtrip to Kiel (both to concerts) and I think I was in Berlin too.
• Waaaay too much work, but it was nice to earn the extra money. Because…(see next point)…
• After somewhat of a struggle to find the right company, we’re getting the roof on our little granny house repaired – almost replaced, in fact! It’s going to be expensive, but is needed. My separate office next door is almost a reality! If the weather cooperates, it’ll happen at the end of January. It has to be at least 5° Celsius, however, so the whole thing could be postponed until March sometime. Keep your fingers crossed, please.
• And I did some knitting too, although not nearly as much as I would have liked. Finished, or almost finished:

I bought this chocolate brown wool at the Wollfabrik at their last sale to match my new coat. It’s very close to being finished – in fact, I’m going to knit a few more pattern repeats tonight and a few more tomorrow, then bind off so I can wear it to my mother’s the next day. I’ll block it when we’re back. It’s the Palindrome Reversible Cable Scarf from Silver.

These are the Tabi Socks from the book “Not Just More Socks”. I made them for R. (although I’m modelling them here, and they’re a bit big on me), so he can wear his flip flops around the house in winter too.

I made this really ugly bag:

It’s now been banned to the trunk of my car for shopping emergencies. I made it way too big and ignored the warnings about how stretchy it is. If I fill it up with groceries it stretches almost all the way to the ground!  The colors are awful too – one of the risks of online shopping, you never really know what you’re going to get.

So I’m making a new one in MUCH nicer colors – teal/blue/black. Hopefully I’ll get it done over the next week.

The Ogee Tunic that I posted about in SEPTEMBER is still in pieces. The knitting (except for the edge of the neck) has been done for months, but I haven’t been able to force myself to sew it all together.

We’ll be opening our presents in a few hours, after a nice Christmas Eve dinner.  Then we spend a quiet Christmas Day here and visit my mother on Boxing Day. I did NO Christmas knitting this year and did almost all my shopping online, so I’m not quite as “Bah Humbug” about Christmas this year as I usually am…no battling the crowds, no unfriendly people.

A very Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate it. If you don’t celebrate it, I wish you a wonderful couple of  peaceful days, hopefully free from work and worries.