Christmas and wrapping up

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas or festive season this year



It's not been so nice out there recently...  The grey gloom reminds me that January is almost here and all the twinkly decorations will soon be gone, my least favourite thing.

Without a doubt staying indoors is the best plan but we're going to have to venture out later, although we'll be spending it in someone elses indoors so that's ok.

We spent Christmas down at my parents this year.  I treated myself to a Christmas Cactus and inevitably it flowered while we were away, but it still looks lovely!  I made a fairly nice table setting although as usual forgot to take any photos of us!



Some of my favourite decorations came down from the loft.  I love unboxing them and remembering the things put away from years ago which I'd forgotten about

And some new!



Last year I made this for my mum but completely forgot to take any photographs of it.  I can't remember where I first saw it but I've been able to trace the design back to this blog and discovered she has loads more adorable embroidered hoops!  I'll definitely be making some of these for the house...



I think there's just time for one last cup of tea before getting ready to face the cold and New Years Eve! Stay safe & keep warm!



x x x x

Not bad for a morning!

I'm definitely not what one would call a morning person, but since having the cats I've forced myself out of bed at least once a weekend to feed them, resisting the temptation to lie in.  I even fed them last Saturday while nursing a nice hangover!  If I get up, I usually stay up, so this morning between 8.30 and 10am I got down to some knitting...

They're knitted up from a lovely simple pattern on a blog called Flowerpot. I've made them in the 3 and 3-6 month sizes but I wanted something in between so I cast on 20 stitches and improvised the decreases.  The yarn is Cygnet Kiddies Couture Aran.

These were for Nephew#3 but I've made two sizes for one of my best friends babies and as they're super quick to knit I can see more on the horizon...

I've finished my Christmas wrapping, apart from one thing that I'm still waiting to arrive.  Hmmm.

One of my presents to a friend is the Death Star, in all it's crochet glory!  Kinda appropriate as there's a trailer out for a new film.

My friend asked for one but I don't think he thinks I've made it (confused?) so I'm hoping it's a bit of a surprise.

I just have to say that I'm laughing at I type this, I've been feeding Moggie her favourite Dreamies and she's licking my fingers clean. And then she typed this to you all (I think it means hello)

C47 X9000DFR

She also has the last laugh as J dressed her brother up like this...

Merry Christmas if I don't post before Thursday! 

x x x x

All of what's been going on

I feel a bit like I've lost my blogging-mojo and I want to find it.  I've been really busy when it comes to making things but when I look at my photos I'm not feeling inspired...  I'm just going to give it a go.

I've finished my Solstice cardigan but I haven't managed to take any photos of it yet, although it's been in almost constant wear since casting off.  I think these were the last photos I took but it shows you something I guess...

I had to do the sleeve again because my needles were a size smaller than the pattern said so it was too tight, but I'm really glad I did and I'm very happy with the fit.

I made some rather cute baby mittens for a friend and I forgot to photograph them.  I'm one hand into making some mittens of my own and I've only got a WIP photo to post ,but lets have it anyway

Lets see...  Oh yeah, my Uncle wanted a rag-doll style Dr Who so this is something else I've been hooking

He is meant to be the Eleventh Dr Who, although obviously he shouldn't be bald and hopefully at some point he'll have a mouth and a fez.

Christmas decorating began in earnest on the 1st, I've heard a lot of people say the start of December is still too early to think about Christmas but I want to make the most of it, so there ♥

I also wanted to see whether the cats would destroy the tree so for the first week I only put a few Ikea baubles on, but low and behold we have ANOTHER cat success story and that is they're not remotely interesting in destroying my tree.  Huzzah!

I've even managed to bake some mince pies (and I remember to do them in cases instead of straight into the tin...)

And I've been enjoying hot chocolate in my varying festive mugs.

And as with most years since discovering them I've been enjoying the Christmas Markets in town, made even better by the fact that I only work down the road now...

And a couple of weeks ago I got reaquainted with my sewing machine and made a cushion from an lovely off cut of fabric I found in John Lewis.

I realise that's a bit of an info overload but I think I needed it!

x x x x