Some break recap.

(Yes, I heard about the Charlie Hebdo news story. I can't come up with any commentary that is better or brighter than what others have said. Or, in more cases, drawn.)

Break was quiet. It was just the three of us; my brother and sister-in-law (and niece) had been up at Thanksgiving, and also, in Northern Virginia where they now live (kind of in the foothills), weather can be iffy in December. So they stayed home for Christmas.

The biggest unusual thing that happened was that the tree fell over. My parents still get a real tree, despite the struggles to set it up (my mom and I have to do it; my dad's knees don't allow him to help) and the fact that we're all allergic. Well, we got the tree, we got it up and decorated, and I kept saying, "If I get too close to the tree, I get vertigo, because it looks like it's going to go over." We tried to adjust it - we have one of those adjustable stands with a lever that allow you to turn the tree and adjust its angle - but it kept going back to the same position. (We should have turned it).

One night a couple days before Christmas it went over. It must have gone over slowly; very few ornaments (thank goodness) broke. Most that fell off landed on the carpeted floor and were fine; the couple that broke were where it hit the coffee table. (The saddest one we lost was an old "Shiny Brite" from WWII or just after - it was one of the clear ones with the painted bands, it came from my dad's parents. But luckily, the other vintage ornaments from them and the treetop angel survived). It also dumped water on the floor.

My mom and I managed to wrestle it back up and this time we swiveled the tree and got it better oriented. Replaced the ornaments and swept up the broken ones.

It's ironic that after having had cats since they were married until about 2010 or so, the one year the tree goes over is one where there's no cat in the house. (I can't remember the cats ever trying to climb the tree, then again, the one we had when I was a kid - he was sort of a rescue-cat -  came to us declawed and probably couldn't have).

I did get a lot of knitting done; pictures will come later. The longest-term project I finished were the Alpine Glow socks that I've been mostly-not-working-on since 2011.

I mostly received books for Christmas; this often happens. My favorite one was one I had specifically asked for, called "Centenary Stitches," edited by Elizabeth Lovick, which is a book of patterns that are re-creations of WWI era patterns. A small film group was making a movie about a particular family and its participation in WWI. The movie is called "Tell Them of Us" and is about a Lincolnshire family that sent two sons to the war (apparently only one came back). They needed vintage-styled clothing for the actors to wear, and apparently knitting was such an important part of the household economy there that many garments were knitted. Also, there were enough old photographs to use as source material, and also things like Weldon's.

A couple of things I learned:
 - apparently old patterns very frequently had mistakes in them; the editor wrote about having to try to figure out what the patterns actually intended. So even though a lot of knitters now complain about poor technical editing, apparently it's better than it was. (And also, now, with things like magazine websites and Ravelry, it's really easy to learn of errata)

- Shawls were common pre WWI because most women wore corsets, and so their trunks were well-insulated by all the undergarments and they mainly needed to keep their shoulders and arms warm. Starting in the 1920s, when a lot more women became more athletic (and also ditched the corsets), sweaters for women became more common because of the need to keep the trunk warm. This is interesting to me; I had not thought about it but yes, I can see it: on a really cold day here, I will wear a sweater or other jacket-type garment for added warmth indoors, it's mainly in spring and summer I wear shawls. Also, I remember I had a thermal undershirt, kind of like what they used to call an A-shirt when it was made for men, that I would wear for winter field labs in Michigan and Illinois, and it did do a lot towards keeping me warm.

Some of the patterns are perhaps a BIT "costumey" and things I might not wear (as in: they clearly look dated) but there are a lot of things that are interesting and nice and modern enough that I'd like to wear them. (In fact, it's surprising how many of the 100-year-old patterns do look "modern" and in some ways seem less dated than the wildly-colored, big-shouldered sweaters of the 1980s). My favorite pattern and probably the one I will make first is called the "scarf vest." It is an unusual construction, a vest that crosses over the front and ties - so you can adjust the fit by how you wrap and tie it. It's also pretty and has an unusual shape, so it should be fun to knit. There are also a few simple sweaters (like the "Sports Sweater" for women) that are nicely designed  and would be patterns I might make.