Post Christmas

 I hadn’t posted anything before Christmas although I had a draft post worked out, I had been quite busy so my last post here as you will have seen was a Christmas greeting.

Anyway all over now and looking ahead to the New Year.  Unfortunately our Christmas was marred by David’s illness as just before the day he suffered a tummy upset which carried on past Christmas and is only just feeling better today (29th December). We visited our daughter and family but we weren’t able to catch up with our sons, which was disappointing. If it was a virus we would not have been thanked for passing it on, so staying at home was our only option.

On the run up to Christmas we celebrated our 48th wedding anniversary on the 10th.  I looked after my granddaughter for a few days soon after and had the privilege of seeing her school play, which was lovely. A busy few days catching up with shopping, both present and food.

I managed to finish a few things in time.  Last month I went with some ladies from TG to a pottery painting session in Poole and painted a couple of decorations for the granddaughters - these Bambi style decorations. I was really pleased how they turned out.

I managed to finish off a cardigan for Cecily, in ‘Mermaid’ colours.  The pattern is King Cole 3902, the V neck version and knitted in Wool Warehouse’s Yarnsmiths Lagoon.  The yarn isn’t tightly spun so it have a tendency to go a bit thick or thin in some places, but it did looks lovely when finished.

Another 2 finishes were a couple of embroideries for my Mum and my sister.  They own Cavalier King Charles spaniels so I bought a pattern earlier this year to sew.  This is from an Etsy seller Em-Bea-roidery (as her name is Beatrice) which has several dog ‘heads’ included for the breed of dog.  The tops of the heads were not included in the design, but I got carried away and linked the top of the heads were not with the ears. These are the embroideries I made

This is what it should have looked like (with different dog ears shown here)

But then that difference is what makes it my interpretation of her design.

Quite a few ‘vloggers’ post videos each day before Christmas as part of Vlogmas.  I don’t know how they are able to do that on the run up to Christmas as it’s just to busy a time, but I’ve watched a couple. I pay a subscription to The Bakery Bears, which I’ve done for a few years now and enjoyed their Advent Vlogs. The project this time is a large shawl (which was too big to get done in advent, but a good relaxing knit to do over the holiday period and into New Year.  It’s called The Wild Wood Shawl, a triangular shawl which has 10 stripes (pattern uses 5 colours) followed by an eyelet stitch pattern.  As usual I am using what colours I have in stash as I have some larger remnants of yarn from several blanket makes and my choice of colours has an autumnal vibe.  

Above is at 14 December, below at 21 December (sorry, it was a bit dark)

I am now at stripe 8 and the stitches are now gathering up on the needle, but I have another circular needle that I can add when the stitches to get too much. You can see that it matches the blanket on the back of the settee.

There’s a thing on You Tube about the 12 Cast Ons of Christmas, casting on new Knitting and Crochet projects between Christmas and the end of January.  I think 12 is a bit much but it seems that I’ve got 3 already! One is a crochet scarf in granny stitch, the picture below was taken on Christmas Day. No pattern just making up as I go.

Another two I have sorted with a ‘Sophie’ style skinny scarf from the Power of Three pattern by Twinset and Purl.  I’ve used a hand dyed yarn from Demelza’s Delights.  I was going to add some kidsilk yarn but it was too much, and the finer yarn became tangled, so had to start again.

I’ve also cast on a pair of socks in West Yorkshire Spinners Signature yarn in Butterscotch.  They will be mushroom socks pattern by Stone Knits, which I’ve just cast on and knitted three rows to get started.

That’ll keep me going for a while.

Being at home due to (his) sickness meant I had some time to sew too. I only meant to get some pieced blocks together, but somehow I joined those blocks to the larger owl print ones, which then became rows and now a quilt top.  It’ll need a good iron but this is how it looks, draped over my desk chair. It’s a Project Linus kit that my friend collected for me earlier this month.

Blimey, this has been a longish post, must be making up for not posting much.  

I’ll take this opportunity to wish you a Very Happy New Year 🥳. Have a lovely time however you celebrate it.