Re-entry is always a bit rocky, but here I am!  We had a lovely, lively Holdiay Season — with Sarah and her family here for 2 weeks of merriment and Sasha & Dave here for 4 days as well.  There is no better or more delightful way to wear oneself to a frazzle than with a family Christmas.  Surely all my family can attest to that.  But the festivities must give way to normal daily life and so they have.

There is mild pleasure in fresh new calendars and I am enjoying long evenings by the fire.  But the great post-Christmas pleasure is Winter Knitting.  If one has finished all the gift knits (or avoided them altogether, as I did this year — except for some cotton dishcloths for Sarah), it is a Guilt-Free Knit-What-You-Want Festival of Wool!  And with lots of time to do it.  Even in our high-tech 24/7 world, winter is winter.  The days are dim and night falls early.  Things quiet down and there is not much to tempt me out of the house.  And when necessity forces errands or meetings, I scuttle home as soon as I can.  Back to my knitting!

And what am I knitting?  Well, I promised Sarah a few more cotton dishcloths.  And I am making a little Faroese-style shawl with a matching bonnet as a baby gift.  I have nearly finished my fir tree mitts — fortunately, I ended up making them without red yarn (I had to use that for two commissioned Poinsettia Brooches) so they will not be Christmassy after all — just pleasantly wintery.  Sarah gave me Lucinda Guy's Northern Gifts book for Christmas and I am making myself a pair of the Noomi Slippers. 

I dug out Evelyn's "Yzma" blanket too (okay, a little bit of guilt there!).  I am doing the border in the round — about a million stitches per round now.  And I discovered that I had skipped a pattern row 3 rounds down.  Sigh.  Well, I will tink back this round (which is wrong since I am supposed to be doing row 6 not row 7) and as I work the row (which is just knitting every stitch, fortunately) I will drop down a couple rows every other stitch and change the knits to purls.  It will take a while.  And if I had had to face it in December I probably would have popped an eyeball!   But in January, it seems like a nice little puzzle.  And if it takes a whole evening, what does it matter?  There are plenty of long, cozy evenings ahead.

So, welcome winter!  Settle in and I will make some tea.