The Year in Review

2010 was an interesting year to be sure. Many new and wonderful. Others not so hot. Here is a little taste of the good and the bad.

1. Robyn graduated from high school. We are so proud of her. She graduated 41st out of 489. Amazing. She is way smarter that I am. She is off to college now and experiencing college life.

2. Cara started playing the guitar. Phillip bought a guitar for me a year ago and I had never gotten around to playing it. Cara said she was interested in taking lessons. She is wonderful. I love listening to her although she does not like it.

3. Phillip continues to be busy at work. Good for us, but bad for his clients. People are still declaring bankruptcy big time.

4. I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I kinda felt I would get it and worried about it for years ever since a scare in 1988. It was a bit freeing to get it out there, face it and then kick it to the curb. The biggest pluses? No more mammograms and I had lots of time to knit.

1. I found out I had breast cancer. In the deepest darkest parts of my my mind, I knew I would get this one day. Chemo lasted 5 months. I lost my hair, my sense of taste (for a while), and have messed up finger and toe nails. I still have some neuropathy in my feet and a some of my fingers. I sure hope that gets better.

2. Robyn went to college. I know this is a good thing, but I miss her...even the messes she makes. Five hours away is too far for me to just jump in a car and go and see her. That fact would be on her "good" list.

3. I can't think of a #3. This year wasn't bad at all if you take out the cancer stuff. We are fortunate to have so much and have much to be thankful for. Maybe this should move up to the "good" list and be #5 there :D

Thorpe

One of my sister's gifts was an ear flap hat for her to use when she was walking Hanna. I told her I could make her another ear flap hat and then she would have another option in a hat. One of the most popular patterns on Ravelry is one called Thorpe. I sent her that pattern a long with a couple of other pattern choices. She chose Thorpe. It was fun to knit and the yarn striped out nicely. She chose the braids instead of i-cords. I think it adds to the cuteness of the hat. I like this one.

Christmas

Christmas is my favorite time of year. I love the lights, decorations, music...well about everything. This year we took things easy. I did almost all of my shopping online and we didn't do too much decorating around the house. I didn't get around to sending Christmas cards as I let the time get away from me on that. My next door neighbors have been putting up this star in their backyard for the past couple of years. I just love it. It brings me joy and a sense of hope. Christmas is like that for me. A time of joy and hope.

Rolling on the River

I got such a kick out of knitting this hat before, I decided to knit one for me. The other hat was knit in wool and lately wool is making me sneeze. I needed to use some good old soft acrylic for my hat. The pattern, "Ribbed Roll Hat", is fun to knit. It looks like a complicated hat, but it really isn't at all. This hat makes it look like I have mad knitting skillz.

Lunar Eclipse

This morning there was a lunar eclipse. It was was the first total lunar eclipse to occur on the day of the Winter Solstice since 1638. Pretty cool, huh? I took these pictures at 12:37, 1:24, and at 1:53. You can just barely make out the moon in the last one. It was fun to see the progression as it took place. Unfortunately I was unable to get pictures of the eclipse as it ended. The clouds rolled in and blocked everything soon after the total eclipse. I am thrilled we were able to see it before the clouds came.

A Family of Hats

Phillip asked me to knit hats for a friend of his and his family. You know me...I don't turn down an opportunity to knit hats. I thought it would be fun to knit the ladies in the family a mother/daughter type hat in the same yarn, just in different sizes. I loved how changing up the needle size and stitch count changed how the yarn striped out. On one you can definitely see the stripes and on the other the colors pooled more than striped. For the guys, I made Saints hats. I used the same colors and pattern as I did with the other hats, but I changed up the striping a little as well as the sizing. I think they turned out pretty good.

Fall?

Most places have their beautiful fall color in late September through October. Us...well sometimes it is December. The weather has been so wonky lately. Sometimes cold (lows in the 30s) and then a few days later warm (highs in the low 70s). I wish the weather would pick a more narrow temperature range and stick with it. For now, I will enjoy the beautiful Bradford pears and their lovely color.

Fingerless Again

Yeah well, I am still on the kick. I just like these so much. I decided to make a pair for my wonderful friend Cindy. Cindy brought us a couple of meal while I was going through chemo and since I found out the cancer, she would call and check on me and usually pull me out of some mental funk I was in. Whatever she did, it was just what I needed at the time. She even brought me a wonderful gift for my birthday. I know I have not told her how much I appreciate all she has done. I knit these mitt for her and I know she will read this post and it will spoil the surprise. Oh well...surprise Cindy. These are for you!

The Countries Party

Cara has become quite the social butterfly. Well, she likes her friends to fly over here. She came up with the idea of having a "Countries" party. Each person attending the party was to choose a country and bring something that represents their country. It could be food, a dance, song, or just facts. I thought that was a great theme for a party. She also planned to have the "countries" compete in Wii Olympic matches also. Cara decided to go as Russia since Russia is one of the countries of descent on Phillip's side. When I asked her what she was planning to share about her country, she said she was going to tell them all about Russian Roulette. I had to have a little discussion with her about how that was not appropriate for the party. She did point out that she was not going to show them how to play it, just tell them about it. Um...no. She did find some other wonderful facts to share about Russia that I didn't know about. That kid...

Attendees at the party represented Slovakia, Germany, Haiti, France, Holland, and China. She has a great group of friends and they are fun to have around.

Owlings

With all of the fingerless mitts knitting going on, I knew I had to find a pair for Robyn. She loves owls and this pattern "Owlings" would fit her perfectly. I fiddled with the pattern a little in order to make a thumb gusset, but otherwise I knit it straight to the pattern. I like how it has the 4x1 ribbing throughout the mitt. She will love these.

Edited to add later: She lost one of these these the day after Christmas. Good thing I still had some yarn left :) The picture was actually taken with the replacement mitt since I didn't take a picture of the first set.

Dog Park

We are happy we have a dog park in the community. It opened last spring and it is a nice space for the puppies to run and act goofy. There isn't much shade, so we avoid it when it is hot. Today was a nice day to go to the park. There were just enough dogs to make it interesting, but not too many that things could get out of hand. Jasmine and Skittles had a great time. Everyone told Jasmine how beautiful she was (like her ego needs stroking) and Skittles received lots of pets and rubs. Life was perfect. As soon as the Saints game started, the park emptied fast. I found that very amusing.

Getting Back in the Saddle

Here's another post I don't have a picture for. I didn't really want to take a picture of myself on the computer. For a long time during chemo and until now, I didn't feel like posting. I didn't feel like doing much while I was on chemo. I didn't have the energy and didn't leave the house all that much. I am going back and posting some of what happened in those months between my last post in early July and now. Most of it will be about knitting, cause that was pretty much all I felt like doing. Just wanted to let you know...