Merry Christmas!

I made it home from Germany in reasonably good condition, and Conrad and Chris will both be here tonight (the 24th). Greg sent these beautiful flowers and will celebrate with us via skype. We hope to get cards and a letter out this year, but just in case we don't, we want you all to know that we are still thinking about our family and friends, whom we love dearly.

Here's wishing all of you a peaceful and happy Christmas!

Just Books

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1997) by Haruki Murakami. This author (and his translator) are brilliant; the book was a real thought-provoking page-turner. It's hard to even describe what it's about--a young man whose life becomes strange and convoluted as he tries to bring his emotionally traumatized wife back to him. But there are so many layers of the story, and all are intriguing.

Beowulf translated by Burton Raffel. I finally read this, and it is fantastic! The translation really seems to underscore the tragic, beautiful and noble qualities of this tale.

Rolling Thunder (1974) by Doug Boyd. Rolling Thunder, an American Indian medicine man, has become a part of my life. I often try to imagine how he would view various situations and what his mind-set would be. While reading this description of his practice, I was surprised to discover how close American Indian and Eastern spiritual thought are to each other.

The Europeans (1878) by Henry James. A brother and sister pair who grew up in Europe come to America to meet their relatives and seek their forture. James enjoys playing with the differences in the characteristics of the two types--the European and the American, and the story is compelling and fun to read.

Edwin's Sweater and a Warm Scarf

As busy as I am here, I try to fit in knitting almost every day. It's my therapy! Here are a couple of recent finished projects.

Friends in Munich just had a baby, so they got a little blue sweater with some cute sheep buttons.



Here's a close-up of the very soft yarn (Lana Grossa Cinque, worsted-weight, wool and acrylic blend) and the cute buttons. The pattern is "Babies Neckdown Cardigan" by Knitting Pure and Simple.



I found some fun yarn on sale and made this very warm scarf/shawl. The yarn, called "Gedifra Seymor Double," is a bulky-weight wool and acrylic blend; the pattern is from ravelry: "Merino Stripes Wide Scarf."



Speaking of scarves, I frogged (unraveled) the mobius! I really liked it, but when I tried to unravel part of it to fix a mistake, I started unraveling at the wrong end, and then it was impossible to recover the rest. So now the yarn is sitting in balls waiting to be turned into another scarf or mobius.