Okay, I'm back. I didn't get nearly as much knitting done as intended - partly because I promptly caught the Norwalk virus when I arrived home (and lost a whole day to being sick, and two to three days to feeling too lousy to do anything). But also partly because I did some sewing.

I made myself the long full dark-brown skirt I had been wanting. (And it probably took less time than trying to find what I wanted in a shop or catalog). And, at the Sewing Studio (a wonderful, wonderful fabric shop in Normal, Il - they carry great fashion fabric as well as quilt fabric) I bought a couple yards of a lovely fancy knit and made myself a Chanel-style jacket for those rare fancy occasions I get invited to (It's a black fabric with red and gold Chinese fans printed on it).

I also made a teddy bear, but maybe more about that later.

I did finish two pairs of socks - the Celtic braid socks I've been working on since Thanksgiving, and a pair of simple bulky-wool "Dumbledore" socks (so named because the character in Harry Potter remarked that one can never have enough good thick wool socks). These socks were made with Novitia Storebror, which is a heavy to bulky worsted. I used size 4 (US) needles. The socks do almost stand up on their own, but they are very warm.

I also began a pair of Opal socks, made from one of the 2002 color collection (the grass-green with bands of blue, red, and yellow).

I worked some on the sweater but again, didn't get too much done.

Christmas itself was good - again, maybe more about that later.

I did make a couple of new year's resolutions. I don't normally do that, but this year I felt in the mood for it:

1. I will not wait until I have a big block of free time to work on my quilt; I will try to quilt on it every day for at least 10 minutes, so it won't languish in the frame for four years like my last one.

2. I am not going to feel guilty about buying the better (more-expensive) brand of paper towels, or about buying "healthy-convenience" foods like the already bagged-up salads. I am much less inclined to want to eat salad if I have to chop it up and de-stem it as well as washing it. And the same is true about orange juice - I'm not going to feel bad about buying the already-mixed-up cartons, because I can never seem to force myself to thaw and mix the frozen kind (and yes, I know the frozen kind holds its nutrients better, but that does me little good if I never get it made).

3. I'm going to try to eat more low-glycemic-index foods. Not that I'm diabetic or anything, it's just I've been doing some reading and they seem a lot healthier. And I do notice I don't get hungry as fast after eating something whole-grain than after eating something refined-grain.