How great! That was a very thoughtful gift from your dear mom. I didn't get any knitting/crocheting gifts. Really don't need much (altho' one of those sets of changeable needles would be nice).

The gift that had no bow on it was to have my kids and DIL here. That was the best. They did give me a gift though--one of those countertop water heater appliances to have hot water available for tea coffee, etc.

My best gift was having all my kids and grandkids over for our annual Christmas breakfast, weather was a little dicey this year and was afraid one or two could not make it to our place, but they all made it which was great! Did not get much in the way of knitting stuff but that was alright as I have way too much as it is. What really surprised me was seeing my 38 year old daughter sitting across from me knitting!! Dont know when that began...when she left she did raid my "yarn stash", she described herself as becoming a "yarn whore"??? like her mother, I am not sure that was a compliment or not. I have two younger girls who have shone no interest in knitting or crocheting whatsoever,so-far. I hope all of you had a merry-merry Christmas.

NO knitting gifts for me this year....several 'mechanical' type things....a portable CD movie player for the car, a thingamabob to convert VHS movies to discs....my car installed with a remote starter that will also turn on your hearter or AC...4 or 5 playaway audio books (these are great - self contained books not much bigger than a credit card...you can put several of these in your pocket when you get on a plane (I always keep one in my purse for DR and Dentist appts)...a couple antique silhouettes to add to my collection, a trip to Williamsburg, Va for Easter....lots of fat quarters of brown and double pink civil war repro fabrics...(going to make a quilt of them)....I did VERY well this year! Of course the best present was having my husband, daughter and her fiance to spend the holidays with...my husband and I are very happy to have them as part of our daily life ...we're lucky and we know it!

We tend to keep our gift giving very low key for the adults, making the holiday's emphasis more a celebration of family coming together. But I was very surprised. My son gave me KnitPicks Options Interchangeable Harmony Wood Circular Knitting Needle Set! I can only drool over them for another two weeks, when hopefully my cast comes off.

Sounds like everyone had a great Christmas! We were able to get together with everyone except my husband's family and that was because he got very sick on Christmas Eve so we stayed home Christmas day. We will see them next weekend at his nephew's wedding. We have seven children and three sons-in-law and another one of the girls has a boyfriend, so our family continues to grow. I can't wait for Christmases with grand-babies!

Donna--I bought myself a set of Harmony wood interchangeables and I absolutely love them. I had the Denise needles years ago and never used them much because the cables were so bulky. These work like a dream.

Sandra--Lucky you! Here's a picture of a quilt my design partner made with brown and pink CW prints:

Annie

Annie....ooooh, I love your quilt. Those browns and pinks look good enough to eat with a spoon. I made one quilt of just brown repro colors, and it's the only one I've ever named. I called it "the boys in butternut" for the boys from the south that dyed so many of their uniforms with butternuts. At the time I was just reading a book on quilt made in the era of the War between the States...in it they said there were few documented southern quilts of that era...for several reasons, not the least of which was the shortage of cotton fabric due to the cotton embargo ..... but another reason given was that it was believed many southern soldiers were buried with their quilts as shrouds - it struck me as so sad, to be buried wrapped in a quilt lovingly made by a mother or wife -thus the named quilt.... what a terrible war that was! I have a lot of brown fabrics left from that quilt, and will combine it with the pinks and new browns I got for Christmas. I haven't decided on a pattern yet, but it must lend itself to many different fabrics, and I want a pattern used in the 1860-1880s....and, one not too tough, as I make and quilt mine all by hand, but tend to belong to the 'close enough' school! By the way, your points are gorgeous!

the top, unquilted....

the '0ld' brown fabrics.....most of those I got for Christmas were the double pinks or brown and pink together

Sandra--we should probably move this over to the quilting forum. >smileAnnie

Socks, my DS gave us an electric tea kettle a few years ago. It is great and we use it several times a day.

I got a set of 5 inch wood dps from my sister and a pattern book. My son gave me some dps too, so my cup runneth over.

For my birthday, my sister gave me wood Harmony interchangeable circulars from Knitpicks. They are so smooth!

And I gave my sister and my son lots of knitting and weaving things. This was a hobby Christmas.

Well, the best Christmas present I ever got was 16 yrs ago- my first granddaughter and the first girl in our family in 50 yrs- and that had been me! We have grandbaby #7, a boy, due on the 29th and I was so hoping he would make his appearance on Christmas Day, but it was not to be. So now I'm hoping he will be Seattle's 1st baby of 2009, but I guess he will decide if he wants his picture in the newspaper or not! So my Christmas present this year is not with us yet!

Donna, I got the knitpicks set too! My sweet MIL got them for me and a Joann's gift card. Now I can go buy me some yarn.

Rebecca

I didn't get any knit/crochet related goodies for Christmas. But I did go out and buy myself 10 skeins of sock yarn when they were on sale at Michael's a couple of weeks ago so I'll be busy. And DH bought me a knitting book for my birthday which was the day after Thanksgiving so I'm happy! Liked the book so much I bought another copy and sent it to my mother for Christmas as she is just starting to pick up knitting again after many many years.

donna, you'll be using those new beauties again in no time, hang in there!

Happy New Year everyone!
Robin (aka the sock knittin' fool!)

Robin--

I'm a sock knittin' fool, too. I have lots and lots of new sock yarn and I'm excited to experiment with some cables and other stitches on my basic sock pattern. I'm on a mission to have a drawer full of hand knitted socks, especially wool ones for winter since our floors are COLD.

Annie