What A Long Strange Trip It's Been

Greetings! I'm hoping you have not given up on me. I am back, my computer's back and I have a Blogging New Year's Resolution: to blog at least every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. At this point, without the promise of pictures. So, blogging three days a week, pictures whenever possible.

So. How have you been? I've been fine. The wonderful, marvelous Jan "fixed" my computer a couple days before Christmas. But everything was lost. Did I have a backup? Of course not! I am way too much of a procrastinator to have anything like that! I really don't use the computer for much, didn't have a lot of "important documents" stored on it. But I did lose some pictures. (All the best ones are on the blog, anyway). And darned if I didn't lose all my "favorite places" bookmarks. And people, let me tell you, that thing was extensive! I had it all organized and broken down into categories. "Favorite Places", I will miss you! My dad had the excellent suggestion of me getting a hard disk to back everything up on. They really aren't that expensive. And then I could have everything important backed up on it. Maybe I'll get around to doing that. After I get the earthquake survival kit all set up in the house. Definitely before the 2 boxes of pictures of the kids get arranged into cutesy photo albums. OK, you think I'm being sarcastic, but I'm really not! ...or am I?

Right after we got the computer up, me and the kids took off for Mill Valley to have Christmas with my family. There is a big Christmas Eve gala at my parent's house that is not to be missed. Then, there is a quieter, more staid Christmas Day with "the other side" of the family. On both days, there are copious amounts of food, all of it delicious and there is also the "gift exchange." Somewhere along the years, we started having this "gift exchange" thing where everyone brings a $20 (read $40) gift and puts it in the pile. Then numbers get randomly passed out equaling the number of gifts. The rules vary from year to year and from Xmas Eve and Xmas Day, but basically, number 1 opens a gift and number 2 can either pick from the gifts or steal number 1's. And so on. It gets pretty raucous at times. Over the years there have been some classic moments. Like the time my one uncle enclosed a $20 bill and a framed photo of himself smirking at the camera and "flipping the bird." We still reminisce about that one! In all it's pretty fun, but every so often, the "competitive" aspect of the fun gets pretty cutthroat. Family members will begin to faction off and "manipulate" the swapping of gifts to set it up for their kin to swoop in and take the coveted prize. I've seen it before and it happened this year. (Thankfully, not to me...this time.) Makes you think that maybe the feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys started with a Christmas gift exchange. I'm telling you, it coulda been.

Now on to knitting content: Here are a few more of those pot holders I made for Christmas gifts. I got to running around so much the last days before Christmas, I didn't have a chance to deliver the goods! Well, I hope late is better than never! I really like how they turned out and hope to make more of them. It's just that they take longer than it seems like they should. At least when I make them.
Next up is a shawl that I started in Plymouth Outback Wool and Mohair. It is a feather and fan triangular shawl pattern I found here. Since the wool skein is bigger than the mohair, I am interspersing random (or semi-random)rows of mohair, then have the bottom couple of inches be all mohair. I love these yarns. You cannot see the pattern very well in the picture, but my hope was to end up with a warm, casual shawl (denim-y) that I can wrap up in at home or in the office when it gets chilly!


Lastly, you see the beginnings of my Log Cabin bath rug, pattern from Mason Dixon Knitting. I am using four strands of Peaches 'N Creme worsted weight cones, colorway "Peppercorn Ombre." It was all they had at Walmart. I got two cones of that and one in natural. But I think I like it with four strands of the ombre, so the natural will be put aside for something else. One can always think of a good use for 100% cotton in natural.

Besides the 50 gazillion other projects I have going simultaneously, that's about all I have going on around here! That's all for now. Back by Thursday. Y'all come back now, hear?