Finally finished Christmas and New Year!

Well that's me back home and finished with all our gallivanting over the festive period - from home to OH's mum's in Dundee then to my family then home then back to Dundee then home then a quick New Year surprise trip down to my mum at Stranraer. Whew. No wonder I'm tired and have spent today kind of faffing about before starting back proper into all the things I need to do! No pics of all the fun things like playing with younger nephew's new pool table and being rubbish at Wii games though...

View from the living room window a couple of days before the big day...

 Dinner table reindeers and cake...

 The Christmas knitting revealed! A herringbone neckwarmer and wristlets in Rowan Big Wool for mum:

 And a Noro Transitions cowl and wristwarmers for my sister:

And of course snowman and the felted tree came with us on our travels!

It's getting close to Christmas! knit knit knit....

And I always think of red - probably my fave colour - is such a Christmassy colour. I did this Lacey Baktus for a present for my partner's mother - who's in hospital just now. It seemed such a cheery colour and might hopefully ward off any draughts round the neck! The wool is from the stash - it's Fyberspates BFL sock wool which I got a job lot of 6 skeins last year and have just about got through them! I find although the socks are lovely I wear holes in the bottom of the heels which is kind of depressing so wanted to try  something else with the yarn instead.

Blocking it was a bit problematic - I didn't like all the little pin scallops I got or the way it was all kind of skew whiff so used the Yarn Harlot's method of thick string and pins - with a couple of needles in there for fun as well! I quite like the string idea but will need to get some blocking wires too I think!

Christmas knitting! (And beyond...)

Well the pressies have all been given out long ago now so here's a few things I made for family this Christmas: This was a bowl I made for Mum from the felted (intentionally!) remains of Colinette jacket I knitted when we were on holiday one year, but it just kept stretching and growing and was pretty heavy so I flung in the machine to see what came out, and what came out was pretty thick! I also made a brooch out of hand dyed tiny skeins I got on Islay one year, with alpaca yarn for the leaves. Also lurking in there is a small 'stand' I made using my lucet for a large African egg which will now not be rolling all over her dressing table!And this a handbag for my sister - made of Noro Kureyon and kind of a booga bag but not exactly! I put in a snap fastener in the middle and hid it with the felted flowers on either side. And so to me.... draughts are now excluded from my flat! And I have regained a large area of the cupboard previously full of quilt polyfibre wadding stuff which is now fulfilling a useful function in life. And of course, another pair of socks - for me these ones - yay - yarn is blue face leicester from Fyberspates.

He's back!

It's December now.... so guess who sneaked out of the cupboard? Well I guess he's had a long sleep so is full of energy now! I'm not going to try to journal my christmas this year as I'm still on the road quite a bit for another week and don't really need anything else in my life that would make me feel 'behind' but at some point I'll do something - an A-Z maybe though I think some of those letters might be hard to find something for.

Where did November go?

It just wented ... so fast that it's all a kind of blur. I've been on the road a lot with the job so I guess that explains it. But it's almost December and I've booked a table at a craft fair on the 13th (eek two weeks tomorrow!!) so need to get cracking and felting and sewing and allsorts. But first I have to tidy up - I noticed spiders' webs on the kitchen windowsill today, the new iron I bought inOctober is still in its box, I can't find anything (and certainly not the carpet) but hey, I have done all the christmas shopping ! (well okay I still have to buy for OH but he's just awkward) So of course I am putting off the massive tidy up operation by 'tidying up' my pc and webs and stuff. Hhmmm. But here's a wee reminder that it'll be Christmas card time soon!!

Solstice Celebration

Well all the winter wonderland scenes of the last post have kind of set the scene I guess, so now it's the shortest day of the year. I've had a few days off and sorted and cleaned and tidied, and even decorated the heart wreath and put a few other decs out and cards up. I won't be here on Christmas day itself so am not putting the tree and all the decs up but one or two have sneaked out of the cupboard! OH is coming over for dinner tonight so it'll be a solstice celebration I guess!

Christmas is coming...

We came, we saw, we shopped! My sis and me went to the craft fair at the SECC yesterday, lots of stalls to look at and stroke and touch and poke and deliberate and try to choose things, but we managed and came home with a few bags between us! Some stamps from Clarity stamps (for Christmas cards!), some patchwork (for Christmas too, but my sis is not saying which Christmas...), some wool, and all sorts of odds and ends. A lovely day out.

And the penguins are on parade! I made another one for an online pal, so he's all excited about going off in the post soon...

Finished!

Phew! Got into gear later on today and managed the last 5 los to finish off the album - that's 30 in all now, and a great record of Christmases over the year. Here's the remainder....

Wild wet and windy - a day to stay in and scrap!

Mind you I haven't actually done much yet today, apart from finish the journalling on one lo. These are the latest additions to the Tales of Christmas Past album, which is now up to 25 los! And I am so hoping I can get it finished soon and move on to something else, though it has been great fun and very satisfying considering I've had these pics for so long now......

Those old Christmas pics

Well continuing the old pics album I've been firing through these los - I find if I'm working on a theme I can go quite quickly - not sure if that's always a good thing though!