Oops!

Hello there, long neglected blog and blog-readers! Sorry I was gone for so long... I knew that I hadn't been in here for a while, but I didn't realize I had been away that long! (I'm trying to gather my thoughts here, but it's rather hard since three kids are rumbling about making all kinds of noises, haha.) There's no particular reason for this long blog break, it just happened. We are all well. Of course December was a busy month as always, but we managed to get a lot of family time too. Lots of board games have been played together, lots of meals eaten with lit candles, lots of Christmas preparations made together...

And a lot of family gatherings. We were invited to a baby christening just before Christmas for my cousins daughter, we spent Christmas Eve at my sister's with a visit from Santa Claus of course.

We spent Christmas Day here celebrating our girl who turned seven that very day.

She also had a party for her friends, which was ever so exciting. We usually have some kind of theme on the kids' parties, and this time we pretended that we were out of power, so we had to use candles and flashlights, and cook something on the alcohol burner.

Some of the kids had actually been out of power recently, because of all the storms. But we haven't been affected at all, staying nice and warm. So that's what we've been up to over here. A very nice Christmas, I would say. And a nice New Year's Eve too, spent at home in peace and quiet, watching a movie together, eating wonderful food made by my talented husband, drove up the mountain nearby (actually more like a hill...) to watch the fire works from above at midnight. And the new year came with a relaxed feeling of happiness, and actually some inspiration. Which leads us to the crafty side of life...

I haven't been crafting much lately. I had to speed knit some things before Christmas, which made me a bit tired of it all. My sister's friend wished me to make a hat for her husband for Christmas, and it took a while to finish...

It's supposed to look like a brain... And it does, when someone's wearing it. It's just an ordinary hat, with a total of 6 m i-cord attached to it. It didn't only take time to knit, it was quite tricky to attach it too, especially since I wanted it to be the same on both sides. Haven't heard what the husband thought about his Christmas present, I think I'll have to ask some day.

I also knitted and crocheted presents for my nephews. The little ones got cakes that I'd made, and the older ones got fingerless mittens. One pair was used the next day and constantly kidnapped by the little ones, so I think it's safe to say that they were appreciated. I have actually promised to make the little ones a pair each too, so they'll stop stealing their brother's. Even the dad in the family wanted a pair.

To speed things up, I tried to knit both mitts at the same time, using the magic loop. Don't know how much time you actually save the first time you try something that's a bit tricky to get right, but... At least it felt like they were done faster. I used a patterned yarn, or what to call it. It's hopeless to try and find the place where they start the same sequence, it's just to get going and hope it doesn't turn out to weird looking. But I can tell you that I will certainly knit two things at once on the magic loop again, so much easier to get the same size that way.

Well, that's that. I was a bit fed up with needle-work there for a while, might have been since I was up until 2.30 the night before Christmas Eve crocheting the last cakes... But now I'm knitting again. I'm making a hat for the son, I'll show you when it's finished.

I hope you all had a wonderful end of December and a great start on the new year. I wish you all the best things you can imagine for this year and more, and I have a feeling I'll be around a bit more often from now on... It feels like fun again!