Monday, January 04, 2010

Here we are, chaps! We got here! 2010! Let’s hope it’s a good one, all round.

I was very grateful for all the holiday wishes appended to my last post, and heartily wish them all back to you.

We have been ill – par for the Christmas course. “Gastric flu”, if that amateur diagnosis is still acceptable. My husband is still rather droopy, but improving. His illness started sooner, and was less violent. I had eight hours of vomiting on the afternoon and evening of the 31st, just after the Beijing Mileses left, very sudden of onset and departure, and remain slightly weak, but fully functioning.

We had a good time, though.

Here are Ketki and her sons in the kitchen, probably on Christmas Eve:



This is the climactic moment of Christmas Day, when the cook pours flaming brandy over the pudding:


Alistair Miles of Beijing got an Absolutely Wonderful Laptop from his parents:
And here are the knitting pictures. Ketki in her old pink gansey, just before Christmas dinner:

The group picture of my Christmas knitting, on the shores of Loch Fyne just before the party broke up on the 27th. From left to right, Thomas-the-Elder is his Lynn Barr scarf, his mother Rachel in the ASJ, his sister Lizzie in the ear-flap hat, his Aunt Cathy in the Sock Yarn Slouch Hat, his cousin Kirsty in the watch cap of round-the-world Chinese cashmere, and finally his Uncle James, in his watch cap.

Here’s an extra, taken a few minutes later in front of the inn at Cairndow. James has taken his cap off. I like the slouch hat a lot, and may return to the pattern. I knit and dispatched two chemo caps over the hols, one of them of KF sock yarn (maybe not soft enough, as I explained in the covering letter, but washable). That leaves me with a ball-and-a-bit of that wonderful yarn which could find itself metamorphosed into another slouch.

Much else to say, including primarily the planning and early decisions for the Grandson sweater. But I think I’ll keep it for later.

15 comments:

  1. Happy New Year Jean, sorry to hear you've been ill. Hope 2010 is good to you and yours.

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  2. GrannyPurple1:02 PM

    All the best for the coming year! So good to have you back.

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  3. Anonymous1:05 PM

    What a happy morning to have you back, Jean. Boy, that ASJ looks wonderful.
    Ron in Mexico

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  4. Dawn in NL1:47 PM

    Happy New Year Jean. The ASJ looks wonderful, I hope Rachel was just modelling for you!

    I hope you feel 100% again very soon. All the best,
    Dawn

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  5. Happy New Year to all you and yours.

    Hope you repossessed the ASJ PDQ! It is splendid.

    Sorry about the bug - I can remember my Grandmother remarking, after a similar illness, "I feel filleted" Which just about says it!

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  6. Anonymous3:39 PM

    Hi and welcome back!
    Which patterns did you follow for the slouch hat and the watch caps? They look fab!
    Happy New Year!

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  7. ASJ looks great. As my gran used to say "Compliments of the Season" AKA
    Happy New Year.

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  8. Anonymous5:21 PM

    Happy New Year, Jean. So sorry you were ill. Looks as though it was a good family gathering. ASJ looks great. Slouch hat definitely a success. I like them, am seeing them a lot on - mostly younger - women here in Toronto.
    - Beth

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  9. Anonymous5:46 PM

    Jean, the sheer volume of your Christmas knitting (to say nothing of the lovely quality) has me gaping in awe! I thought I was doing well sewing red jumpers for 3little girl grandaughters and a matching red vest for the grandson, but we all know sewing doesn't compare to knitting in the time and concentration (and the love) that go into every stitch.

    Happy New Year.... you are definitely inspiring me to make a better showing next year. Of course, the fact that we are building a new house in another state and cleaning out 22 years worth of accumulation in preparation for a spring move is slowing me down a little. That's my excuse for next year.... as you can see, I'm planning ahead!

    Barbara M.

    Barbara M.

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  10. I had thought the ASJ was for you. We were sick over the holidays, too. First a stomach bug before Christmas, then a nasty cold after. Still love Ketki's gansey!

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  11. =Tamar8:04 PM

    I may have to rethink slouchy hats. I've always preferred snug beanies, but with the current cold snap I've found that a looser hat holds more warm air. Suddenly those old pictures of men with their watch caps poufing on top don't look so silly.

    Eight hours and done sounds more like food poisoning to me, but I wasn't there. I hope no one else was ill.

    The ASJ looks even better on a person; I, too, thought it was for you. I wonder how it would look with the upper sleeve gathered in at the base and the forearm (added part) made to fit snugly. 15th century or victorian?

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  12. Happy New Year - and a healthy one too! It is hard to imagine it being cold enough to wear a woollen garment right now. We are in the middle of a heat wave.

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  13. Yay you're back!

    ASJ looks fantastic and Ketki wears the gansey well; never tire of seeing it.

    Wishing you and yours all the best in 2010 :))

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  14. Judith in Ottawa12:52 AM

    Happy to see you, sorry you've been ill. Encouraged that you are on the mend. Welcome to 2010!

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  15. Welcome back. My family in Seattle had that gastric thing also. Sounded very nasty. Happy Knitting for 2010.

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