I came home Monday night from a wonderful holiday with an Elderhostel group in Italy. We stayed in Assisi the first week and in Siena the second. I did lots of walking - mostly up or down as there is very little flat space there. The food was plentiful and delicious; we had feasts of many courses on Christmas Day and New Years Eve. The weather was quite chilly so I was happy to have my hand-knit wool socks to keep my feet warm. The big surprise was five to six inches of wet snow in Siena where it reportedly only snows every ten years. It was a beautiful sight with everything covered with frost and snow.
While in Siena, I managed to find a yarn shop. It was rather small with most of the yarn out of reach behind a counter. However, some of it was more accessible and I found a medium brown tweed worsted weight wool I liked. The woman in the shop spoke no English and I can speak no Italian so conversation was limited. In order to get her opinion on how many skeins to get, I drew the outline of a vest on a piece of paper. Where there is a will, there is a way :-)
There were more than 1600 messages waiting for me in the NG so it will take awhile to catch up. My best wishes to all of you who have celebrated birthdays and anniversaries.