Storms and Projects of 2008

Here's a look back at the month of December here in New Hampshire. First, this lovely ice storm that, as you can see, brought some trees down on our roof. Fortunately, since the trees are so close to the house, they couldn't build up much momentum before they hit and thus only took out a few shingles. However, DH did have to climb up there in all that ice to get them off the roof, as they were blocking the chimney!

The photo of the ice across the street gave me a chance to model my entrelac shawl. It was cozy enough for exactly two and a half minutes outside, no more. ;-) As you can see if you squint, trees across the way are drooping and even fallen. There were fallen trees everywhere, on roads, houses, cars and power lines. Over half the state was without power. We had two days of no power. Luckily, we have a woodburning stove, so we pretty much camped out night and day in the living room till the power came back. Others weren't so lucky...some people were without power for more than two weeks!

The strangest part of the whole experience was how, on the day after the storm, you could only hear two things outdoors. First, frequent shotgun-like blasts as tree limbs snapped off and fell. And second, the sound of chainsaws everywhere as people began the cleanup! Weird.


Then, just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, along came two storms in three days that each dumped a foot of snow. Here's that lovely image, post-shoveling thanks again to DH. He was starting to sing the "Why did we ever move to New Hampshire?" song. :-) And I don't blame him.


As you can imagine, all that enforced indoor time meant more knitting. Yay! So I finished all my Christmas knitting for perhaps the first year in a long time. If not ever. I also squeaked in under the 2008 wire on my "Eastlake" sweater by Norah Gaughan. Here it is, modeled by my bed. ;-) I don't have a picture of me in it yet. It came out wonderfully and I absolutely love it. Now I just have to decide what to knit next. And that's always a delightful dilemma, when there are so many tantalizing possibilities!

Did you finish all your Christmas knitting? If not, how will that affect your Christmas knitting plans for next year? Are you going to make a resolution to start knitting earlier, or just give storebought gifts to more people and handknits to fewer?