Hmm. I resemble that thought.

I was browsing around the internet, checking out the blogs that I read as well as checking up on the blogs in my web ring. (As an aside -- does anyone else dislike the current Ringsurf set-up, where you have to double click each blog you want to read, instead of the "next" option taking you directly there?) There are a great many blogs that have been somewhat inactive of late ... and I was thinking, "Sheesh. I wish these folks would update their blogs once in a while!" And then it struck me --

"Woman, you resemble that remark!"

So, after almost two months of radio silence, here is an update.

We had ALL the kids home for Christmas -- my three along with a spouse, and Doug's daughter. Five extra people in our tiny little house! It was an absolute blast. We cooked, we ate, we laughed, we talked. Boy, did we eat! My duaghter-in-law is a marvelous cook! This was one of the best holidays I've experienced in years.

One of the best things about Christmas this year was the stocking experience. I usually try to put plenty of silly stuff into the stockings every year; if I keep putting silly things into the stockings I can pretend that none of us are grown up, right? This year I did manage to knit up nice socks for each and every stocking! Proof positive:

Each and every pair of these socks has been featured on the blog at some point in the last year.

Possibly the funniest statement of the holiday came from my step-daughter, Emily. Now, Emily and I haven't always had the best of relationships. This has changed over the past couple of years, and now we look forward to our visits. Emily looked at all the socks and realized that HER socks were the only pair of Carol-dyed socks. She looked at Carrie and said, dead-pan, "See? Your mom loves me better!" We all laughed ourselves silly at that.

What else has been happening in my neck of the woods? On January 2, my little wool shop grew up a bit. We moved four doors up the plaza, into a space that was twice the size of the original shop. Here are a few photos of moving day.

We did quite well -- 17 folks helping move and stuff shelves means that there wasn't a lot of work for any one person, and it made the day quite enjoyable. We started around 9:30 in the morning, and ended around 4:30. There was (and is) still some settling and adjusting to be done, but the majority of the work was done. We opened up for business on Tuesday -- pretty remarkable turnaround I'm told.

Here's another funny -- Saturday afternoon, while everyone is running around moving shelves, boxing and unboxing wool, trying to find room for things, a very nice lady stepped into the new store. She looked around, rather bewildered. "Are you open?" she asks. "I just wanted a ball of sock wool." I very politely explained that we weren't open ... meanwhile I'm hearing muffled snorts and giggles from the back. We didn't even KNOW where the sock yarn was at that point ... altho I believe it was in transit from the original store. No electricity to the cash register, no phone hook-up for the debit machine. Doug says it was an historical event -- Carol actually refused to sell a ball of yarn. Hopefully, this will be the only day this happens!

On Thursday evening we had our very first knit night at the new shop. 21 attendees, altho one was very tiny.


There's no way we could've fit 21 folks into the old store! In fact, I'm amazed at the quantity of merchandise we DID fit into the old store. Absolutely gob-smacked, in fact. One nice lady came in this past week, looked around, and sighed "I'm so glad you finally got baby wool in." Barb and I just looked at each other in amazement. We've ALWAYS had baby yarn.

Finally, here's an update on my Year of Socks. I've started ... I've turned the heel!

This whole sock adventure was my idea, and I'm the least far along in the process. Barb has completed one sock, and is around the heel on her second. Irene is casting off her first sock. Cathy is getting ready to switch to the larger needles for the calf of her sock. And I've just turned the heel. Interestingly, I've struggled with this pattern. It feels like every three rows forward results in two rows back, which does make it difficult to achieve noticeable forward progress. I do note, however, that last night I did almost ten entire rows without having to tink back, so perhaps I, too, have turned a corner in this project.

I'm working on another square for the Great American Aran Afghan. And thinking, planning, or plotting -- whichever you prefer -- to try Sylvi. I've got 11 balls of Araucania Nature Wool Chunky, colour 105, which is a navy blue. The pattern says I need 12. I'm thinking that I could shorten the sweater by 10 rows around the bottom ... surely that will be enough? What does anyone think?