Guess who's back, back again...

I know I was missing for a bit before I went away, but I swear, teacher, I do have a good excuse!
I won't get into the specifics as that would involve a lengthy post all on its own, but suffice to say that Dad got suddenly ill on the Saturday before I was due to go away. ( I found him collapsed on the bedroom floor where he'd been for 6 hours, but didn't call me as "he didn't want to bother me"). So bad I had to call an ambulance and he was admitted to hospital. The social worker got involved and refused to release him into the current home situation (caring for my Mam).
I finally managed to get him released on the Wed evening after I had organised a private health care crowd to call every day while I was on holidays, at a cost of approx €1000 for me.
So, I was due to fly out on Thurs morning, and I only knew for sure I was going on Wed night.
I shall summarise and say that I genuinely thought this holiday wasn't going to happen, and even when it did, I was so stressed out that the first week was kind of a blur.
BUT,
I did manage to have a good time, and I did do some yarn shopping.
Before the pron goodness, I must say a very large thank you to my hubby, John. He was an absolute rock during the crisis with my Dad, as he constantly is with my Mam. I don't think I could cope with them on my own. He really is a superstar. I love you.

Ok, slushy stuff over, let's get down to the knitty yarn pron gritty.
Bear in mind that I was much more restrained this year due to the current economic climate...
So I bought the following in no particular order:
Sugar n Cream Stripy stuff in various colours:

Patons Classic Wool as Alice specifically asked me for a Sock Monkey from the free pattern that accompanied it. I know, I KNOW it's toy knitting, but I was BEGGED. What can you do?

Then I found the bead section in Michaels. Short story = I went mad buying stuff to make stitch markers. Watch this space for exciting new stitch marker discovery stuff.

So I also bought some yum:

Berocco Ultra Alpaca Fine

What a yum colour.

Some Cascade 220 as you can't go wrong with it:

Some Louet Riverstone as I fell in love with the colour but have no idea what to make with it:

Some more Sugar n Cream:

And then I went Knit Picks shopping.

I bought the Christmas tree ornament kit:

All Palette yarn, and needing to be knit asap.

I got my hands on the Maeve Fair Isle Mittens and Scarf kit:

I also grabbed some Essential tweedy sock yarn:

I shopped further afield and grabbed:

Fibranatura Yummy:

And scoop of all scoops...

Malabrigo Sock!!!

So that seems to be all of my purchases.

Project news:

The Noro Striped scarf is complete, in fact hubby wore it to work this morning. I have enough left over to make one for my Dad for Christmas.

This was my airplane and holiday knitting. Due to the flake out/total destress/in a heap nature on my holiday I'm very sad to report that there are no fantastico by the pool looking sexy avec la sock photos. But I do attest that some sexy by the pool fantastico sexy avec la sock knitting did take place. It was thououghly enjoyed by both me and the sock. Between the flights and the lounging, this is how much I managed to get through:

One and a half socks. Not bad going when you factor in all the sunbathing, swimming, park visiting and shopping. Not to mention the odd drinkie. Odd. Definitely odd. ok?

It was a great break, once I managed to let go.

I can't tell you how stressful it was, not knowing whether I was going or not until the afternoon before the flight. My poor Dad, he felt so guilty for getting sick, and my Mam? Oblivious.

There is a whole heap more to this story, if you want to know, feel free to ask. I just didn't want t0 clog the knitty place with any more personal stuff. Suffice to say that I spent most of this holiday either on the phone to Mam & Dad or the hospital workers, or worrying about them. I figure this will be my last holiday until they pass.

So I now have been given my Christmas orders. Hubby wants a new sweater that doesn't have "boobies" (see previous posts) and Alice wants a matching hat and mittens set, but the hat "HAS" to have ear flaps as they (her ears) "get really cold and I can't learn in school coz all I think about is my cold ears", plus they're COOL. OK so, a hat with ear flaps it is.