Happy New Year

It's time to just say it.  This "holiday season" has sucked big time.  Shall I list why?  No.  That would be dull for you and for me.  Suffice it to say that I'll just be glad when the year rolls over and we can forget most of this week ever happened. (There was that one nice family skating party.  I'll cling to that memory.)
According to my astrological reading,
"...2011 will be a time when you will generate far more gratification and success than usual..."
I heartily look forward to it!

"My Barbies Are Better Dressed Than I Am."

That's what the Daughter said when she opened her new collector doll on Christmas morning.  I had knit up the little red jacket from another of my old McCall's magazines, modifying a stodgy cardigan into a long flowing silk jacket. It was attached to the box with a pretty red ribbon. Shortly after breakfast, the new doll was outside the box (a great accomplishment as anyone who has ever opened one of those packages knows), wearing her new jacket and on the shelf beside last year's girl.   A photo shoot ensued.

Christmas Eve

The presents were wrapped and under the tree...

The traditional Christmas Eve cabbage rolls were baked... 

...and we're ready.  Happy Christmas one and all.

Holiday Outfits

Thanks to Lily, Ruby, Leah and me, the girls are ready in time for their Christmas parties.

What I Want For Christmas

Santa, please bring me this book.

Purple Feet

Pattern:  Blackrose
Designer: Suzi Anvin
Yarn:  Brown Sheep Wildfoote Luxury Sock
Modification:  Moved the lace pattern two stitches instep-wards so that the first stitch on my needle would not be a ssk.
I have a very visible ladder problem here on the lace edges.  It creates a piping effect which makes the lace stand out a tad more. I can live with that but still wish it was not there.  It's so frustrating.  I pull and tug, yet still...ladders!
Love this yarn!  I picked it up last year at the Knitomatic Boxing Week sale having no previous knowledge of the brand.  What a great, sturdy and pretty yarn with which to knit lace.  It comes in so many colours too.  I may just grab some more this year if Haley still carries it.

My Bike Tires Have No Politics

Winter has arrived.  Alas, that means I'll be putting the bike away for now.  I don't mind a bit of cold but I don't have an all-weather bike and am sure to slip and break something once there's snow and ice.  So for now, I'll have to be a non-riding Left Wing, Bike Riding, Pinko.

Everything Is Possible

HAMLET 


The murmurs ebb; onto the stage I enter.
I am trying, standing in the door,
To discover in the distant echoes
What the coming years may hold in store.

The nocturnal darkness with a thousand
Binoculars is focused onto me.
Take away this cup, O Abba Father,
Everything is possible to Thee.

I am fond of this Thy stubborn project,
And to play my part I am content.
But another drama is in progress,
And, this once, O let me be exempt.

But the plan of action is determined,
And the end irrevocably sealed.
I am alone; all round me drowns in falsehood:
Life is not a walk across a field.


Boris Pasternak  1946
translated by Ann Pasternak Slater

HAMLET

The buzz subsides.  I have come on stage.

Leaning in an open door

I try to detect from the echo

What the future has in store.

A thousand opera-glasses level

The dark, point-blank, at me.

Abba, Father, if it be possible

Let this cup pass from me.

I love your preordained design

And am ready to play this role.

But the play being acted is not mine.

For this once let me go.

But the order of the acts is planned.

The end of the road already revealed.

Alone among the Pharisees I stand.

Life is not a stroll across a field.

Boris Pasternak 1946

translated by Jon Stallworthy and Peter France