End of 2009 Recap

Man, I cannot believe that it's been a month since my last post! A month?!? Seriously??? Probably the busiest month since I was in grad school though, so at least I have an excuse. I wasn't being lazy, I was being very productive...just not in the blogging arena. I'm really going to try to do better this year though, if only so that I can stop composing blog posts in my head all day and just get them onto the computer.

If you're anything like me, you will not have had time to read all the blog posts that have been stacking up over the past couple of weeks, leaving you with literally hundreds of unread posts to wade through. I do still like to read everything, but I have been skimming details on FOs and not commenting much...sorry!

Not much knitting has been happening lately. I did end up doing some last-minute gift knitting, however, since I drew my sister Sheila in the family KK swap and she always appreciates a good hand-knitted gift. I finally got a reason to try Twinkle Soft Chunky and made her a Marian cowl by Jane Richmond with it. It knitted up quickly on size 19 needles, but holy cow! Those things are like broomsticks and rather awkward to work with. Nevertheless, I persevered and managed to crank out a seed-stitch cowl in a couple of hours.

I also whipped up a pair of the ubiquitous Bella's Mittens in Berroco Peruvia Quick. Let me tell you: doing cables with chunky yarn on size 8 needles is not pleasant at all. But it was worth it in the end, because they produced an airtight mitten (that took days and days to dry after blocking). Sorry for the crappy pics--they were snapped in a hurry before the cousins came over for a family fun night.

The Brain and I were lucky enough to get to go back to St. Paul and spend two weeks at my parents' house hanging out with the family. We spent lots of quality time with my brothers and my youngest sister (9 years old), and played around with my little nephews (both 2 years old) who are also both super cute. I was pretty much away from my computer the entire time and it was great! (Not so great: trading San Diego weather for the single-digit degrees in St. Paul, and a house whose furnace kept going out for the first week of our visit...yikes!)

But it was all worth it, the travel to and from was uneventful, and now I'm back in San Diego where it is currently 75 and sunny. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and a happy New Year, and that 2010 will bring better things for everyone.