Year-end roundup

Annual Christmas merriment with our families are done for another year. It's amazing how quickly the kids are growing and becoming their own personalities. The Dork had fun with his cousins, playing with his camera and trying to corral all the young cousins.

Mom/Aunt Kathy, do you have to take our pictures?! We really hate it when you do! Are you done yet? Teenagers!

There was lots of eating involved! The Hat is one of our favorite places to go, and not just because there is pastrami. The Dork managed, barely, to finish a Pastrami Burger.

 

Enormous portions were consumed. We've learned to share sandwiches and only ask for one order of onion rings.

 

 

 

There was rapid consumption of a wonderful bread pudding souffle at the Palace Grill in Santa Barbara. We've been going there for more than 20 years. Yum!

Oh yes, there has been knitting -  but only one holiday project. I've finished 2 scarves:

Horizontal Rib Scarf (from One More Skein by Leigh Radford)
Mirasol Nuna, 1.3 skeins, approx. 5" x 70" long
Size US 6 needles
Started Dec. 20, finished Dec. 23

Still needs blocking before I can gift it

Another Scrunchable Scarf, a great mindless knitting pattern, each row is the same.

Mirasol K'acha, 3 skeins

Approximately 5"x54"

Size US 8 needles

Started August 28, finished Dec. 28

Socks! 2x2 rib, toe-up, Fleegle heel

Regia Galaxy Saturn, ~ 265 yards (60 grams of the 100 gram ball)

Size US 0 needles

Started August 22, finished Dec. 30

And I started a hat for The Hubby in Cascade's Lana d'Oro paints. I was trying to get it done before midnight, but changed my mind about the pattern and ripped back a couple inches. It should be my first FO of 2010.

Final tally for the year - 23 projects, using just over 12,500 yards of yarn. That's over 3K more yards than I used last year!

3 baby blankets

7 scarves

3 pairs of socks

2 hats

1 crocheted doily

1 pair fingerless gloves

4 shawls (only 1 was lace)

2 sweaters

For this new year, I'm participating in the UFO Smackdown started by Nathania. I will be ripping out a few projects to reclaim the yarn, but this should motivate me to finish 10 UFOs that have been laying around or hiding from me this year. I may discover a few more, but at least 10 will be finished before 2011.

Here's to a wonderful 2010. I hope your New Year brings you and your family much happiness and health and fun!

Only a few more days...

...of vacation. As we were driving home a couple days ago, I had this sudden panic attack:

Small Voice of Panic:
"Oh no, I have school on Wednesday! What am I going to do with the kids?! I don't have a lesson plan yet! They're coming in 1st period; that doesn't give me enough time to come up with anything when I get in that morning! Quick, what can I do?! Help!!!

Voice of Reason:
"Yes, you do have a lesson plan, remember? You were going to introduce the research project that Mr. S is having them do."

Small Voice of Not-So-Much Panic:
"Right... Okay, I'm better now. Maybe I should concentrate on driving... Now, how much knitting time does that give me?"

**********
Christmas was a (mostly) fun time at the House of Mom & Dad.

The good news: everyone got something that they requested.

I got to "take-over" my 6 month-old nephew all Christmas evening.








The nieces and nephews were tons of fun,
including a screaming tickle-fest between my Hubby, A (10-years), and 2-1/2 year-old N (Baby is N's little brother).






The girls (A's 7- and 3-1/2 year old sisters) and The Dork had their own tickle time going.





The bad news: Hubby would really like a new set of lungs that don't react to dust mites. His current set of lungs have gone hypersensitive to dust, and that would include every piece of upholstered furniture in both my parents' and my sister-in-law's houses. We're going to have to install hardwood floors a little earlier than originally planned, I think. That means going through and dealing with all the stuff on the floor in all the rooms.


In actual knitting news (yes, there was knitting involved, but not too much because I had an armful of Baby I), with the exception of weaving in the ends, the Natalya wristers and the Mistake Rib scarf is done (both from Cascade 220 Superwash)


and the Dashing fingerless gloves are 3/4 finished (need to do the thumb on one and I'm only a couple inches from the end of the other.)