Happy Christmas

I hope that you all had a Happy Christmas. I had a great day spent with my Brother and his family and extended family. It's probably the one day of the year when the family are all in the same place at the same time and to me that is what Christmas is all about. It's lovely to give presents and to receive them but I would trade all of that for a family day any time. I was invited to my son's house but as they have all of the children and grandchildren there plus all the animals they already had a full house. My eldest step grand daughter's central heating boiler burst all over her kitchen floor just before Christmas so she and my great grand daughters have been living at my son and daughter in laws house until the boiler and the laminate floor gets fixed after Christmas.

I did see my son on Christmas Day and he brought me a most welcome present of the exercise pedals. My physio had recommended that I got some to try to improve the mobility in my knees. I have then set up in the front room so that I can crochet, pedal and watch the TV at the same time. I like multitasking. I can't bear to sit still and watch TV.

My family know me well and I got a wonderful array of knit and crochet books, a DVD and a couple of Cd's along with a new red hooded jacket. I also got an assortment of toiletries. My niece knows that I have inexpensive tastes and would rather have a box full of everyday toiletries than an expensive gift box of perfumed bath bottles that I can't use because of my eczema. The slightest hint of perfume and my legs flare up and are very sore.

I just love the present that my niece's husband's mother made for me. I love anything handmade and it's rare that I get anything as everyone knows that I knit and crochet. It is a picture with a tiny knitted scarf and tiny knitting needles made from cocktail sticks with a bead on the end to simulate knobs. The verse says 'If I should knit while I'm asleep, I pray the Lord my gauge to keep, And if I die before I wake, I pray I may my knitting take' It must have taken Renee ages to make it for me and I think that it's lovely.

I am going to plant my Hyacinth bulbs today. My Mother always had a Hyacinth growing in the window every Christmas so it brings back lovely memories of my childhood. I love the scent of the flowers. The Narcissus that my Sister in Law bought me for my birthday is just starting to flower. I have three white flowers so far but lots of buds. I keep them on my kitchen windowsill. It may seem a strange place to put them but I get pleasure from seeing them every time I wash the dishes, make my dinner or even a cup of coffee. My lounge is a little bit too warm for flowers and bulbs. They grow and fade too fast in there.

I think that all of my presents were well received and I can now start to put some photos of my finished garment presents on the blog and update my Flickr and Ravelry. I was afraid of spoiling the surprise by putting them on before Christmas.

Today I am just going to relax, listen to my new CD's and work some more on the crochet jackets for my great grand daughters that I didn't have time to finish off before Christmas. Now the mad rush is over I can relax with my knitting and crochet now. I was crocheting until 2am on Christmas Eve and even on Christmas Day I was crocheting a band and sewing on a button. I cut it very close this year. I still have a couple of things that I would have liked to make for people but they will have to be 'after Christmas' presents now.

I may be having Buster, the family dog, for a few days. As I mentioned before my son's house is a bit crowded at the moment so one less dog will be a help to them Buster is 10 yrs old now and somewhat lacking in patience with the small ones. I would have him back with me permanently as before but I am always sad for him when he can't get walked as he should be. Apart from that he is lovely company for me and I love him to bits.

Oscar the cat has made his usual appearance this morning. I didn't see him yesterday. I think that he was staying at home close by their turkey. He won't like it when Buster comes to stay as the two of them don't see eye to eye so I can't let Oscar in the house.

I know it's a bit late but Happy Christmas to everyone and I hope that you have a relaxing Boxing Day after the Christmas rush.

Another All Shawl

I am making a Christmas present. No I am not starting early for Christmas this is something that I should have thought of last year.

Each year I go to my brother and sister in law's for Christmas Day and for the last two years my nephew in law's mother has also been invited. I should have thought that she would give me a Christmas gift but of course I completely forgot that she would be there. She gave me a lovely present of the amaryllis, the egg cup and cosy and the book of knitted cakes and I felt rather embarrassed as I had nothing to give her in return.

She admired the things that I had knitted and crocheted for my family but as I don't know her well enough to know her taste in clothing I decided that I would make her an everyday shawl. I know that my sister in law has found hers very useful for those chilly evenings or for reading in bed. I always tell people when I give them a shawl that they are not meant to be kept in a cupboard they are meant to be worn everyday for extra warmth. I wear mine most days. If I feel a little chilly I put one on rather than crank the heating up another notch.

As I have not been able to brave the elements to buy some wool I decided to have a rummage in my stash and I found 300 grams of Jarol Heritage Prints Double Knit Shade 123 which I had bought to make a shawl for someone else but had subsequently changed my mind over the colour and bought some more wool in a different colour.

I am using the All Shawl pattern by Doris Chan which is a great pattern for making a quick easy shawl. It is a free pattern if you are on Ravelry and I have made several of these over the last couple of years. My resolution for this year is to make a couple of these to keep on standby for those forgotten presents that sneak up on me over the year. I hope that Renee likes the colours in the shawl. She was wearing a sweater in the same green as one of the colours in the shawl so I hope so. The top photo is the closest colour match even though it was taken in electric light last night. I took the second photo in daylight this morning and it has come out very pink and totally unlike the actual colours.

I have to make the edging border but am hopeful of finishing it off tonight. I then have the problem of getting it to her as I don't know her address but I will cross that bridge when I get to it.

The snow has turned to shiny ice so I am staying firmly in the house once again today. Thank goodness for freezers and long life milk. I still have plenty of food in the house so have no need to go out anywhere. Hopefully there will be a thaw before the weekend and then I can stock up again.

Happy Christmas Everyone

Happy Christmas. I know that I am a day late with my wishes but I somehow didn't find the time to blog yesterday.

I had a great day at my brother and sister in law's house. Loads of good food and good company. I almost didn't make it there as my niece's car refused to start and she had to wait for the repair man to come and sort it out. My brother came to collect me instead.

I think that all of my presents were well received although I must confess to finishing my nephew in law's scarf off whilst I was there. It is a bit on the short side so I will make him another one and post it down later. I have seen a nice crocheted aran style scarf in one of my crochet magazines that I will use. I still have a couple more baby sweaters to make but they did get presents from me before the day and are now in Ireland on a holiday so I will finish them off before they get back home.

I got some fantastic presents, some of which I have photographed. I got a new set of phones but they are charging before I can use them. I got well received slippers ( my old ones were very shabby), an amaryllis, a cake knitting book, and egg cup and cozy, a subscription to Crochet Today and a wonderful hamper from Marks and Spencer.

The hamper had all kinds of goodies in it. Wild salmon, coffee, cheese and cracker plus chocolates, after dinner mints, pear and ginger biscuits and a mini bottle of Chablis. There was even an individual piece of iced Christmas cake which was good as I hadn't bought one. I also got a selection of toiletries. One year I asked my niece not to buy me one pot of an expensive cream but just to get me everyday items and each years since she has made up a pack of shampoo, conditioner, face creams, body lotion and E 45 etc all of which come in extremely useful. I am not an expensive toiletries kind of person and if anyone buys me things I tend not to use them for everyday which is rather stupid I know so everyday items are far more useful to me.

This is the first time that I have ever had a hamper. I have given them to other people in the past. When my father and mother in law were alive I used to make up my own hamper full of tinned things, coffee, tea and long life milk so that I knew they could put them in the larder and use if they got snowed in etc. I also used to make one up full of luxury goodies for my, then a single mum, friend who used to find it hard at Christmas to buy more than the necessities as she was not working at that time.Nowadays my circumstances have changed and I am with one without the wage so it was nice to be on the receiving end this year especially from M and S. I love their food. I always used to joke that I would know that I had made it in life if I could do all of my weekly shopping at M and S. Of course I never got there but I can still dream that one day I will win the lottery.

Today I am going to catch up on the much neglected house. I had put housework on hold whilst I finished off my presents and now it is time to wield the duster and hoover with a vengeance and work off all of the food that I consumed yesterday.

Santa came

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas Day. I did. I went to my brother and sister in law's house for a lovely cooked Christmas dinner and of course ate far too much. I used to wonder what my mother meant when she said I always enjoy a meal cooked by someone else. Now as I have to cook for myself every day I know exactly what she meant. Somehow it tastes all the better for not having to cook it. The company was good and we all had a good time. My two nieces were there and my niece's soon to be husband was also there and I also got to meet his mother so we had a full house.

My presents this year have been wonderful. It might seem strange to have a tin opener and jar opener as a present but it was exactly what I had asked for. I am a practical kind of girl. I got 3 new crochet books and a new Crochet Calendar with a pattern for every day. I also got some face day and night creams (again another request from me) and some Anais Anais perfume which I absolutely love.

One present that brought tears to my eyes was the photo frame complete with photos of my grandchildren and great grand daughters. My son married into a ready made family and so I don't see as much of them as I would like and this is the first time I have had photos of them all together.I shall be finding the right spot to display them with pride.

I still found time to knit even on Christmas Day as there is a bit of a rush on for these 80's style leg warmers that my niece wants to take back to London with her for a themed new year party. I managed to find a suitably stripey pattern and have made half of one so far.

I hope that Santa left you great presents as he did for me. Enjoy the rest of your Christmas holidays and if you are going to the Sales - Hang on to your purse in more ways than one!

My play mats have arrived

No I am not aged 3-8 and going to start doing hand stands on my new play mats. They are going to be used, of course, as blocking boards. I bought 2 packs as they were such a bargain price and I will need more than 4 squares to block a shawl. I had to try them out but discovered two problems.

One - I couldn't find my glass top pins they must be somewhere in my work box stored at the top of the pantry. I needed far more pins than the yellow daisy pins that I bought recently. I had to search about in drawers but could only find ordinary pins which aren't ideal.

Two - I couldn't bend down to use the boards on the floor and so I had to try to pin out with the boards leaning up against the wall which isn't exactly ideal as they wobble. I hope that I don't have to do much blocking until my back has recovered a bit more as today my back has not liked the blocking experience at all. I hope that my efforts make this cardigan super special as it's a present for Christmas.

Last night I fell out with my knitting and only did a few rows. I am going to have to give in and start some crochet soon. It's just not me to sit and just watch TV without something in my fingers. The only problem is that most of the crochet that I have planned is for gifts so there will be few photos on here or Flickr as my family and friends would see things and so spoil the surprise. Stand by for photos of other things. The squirrels were not obliging today nor was next door's cat. They all came for a visit but vanished as soon as the camera came out.The cat is getting very brave since Buster has been at my son's house.

I am going to start making my Christmas present list (yes I know - big groan but it's not that far away if I have to make things) as I am determined not to finish up in a huge knit and crochet frenzy in the last couple of weeks before Christmas as I did last year. I probably will though as I seem to gain more people for presents every year and being on a budget I have to try to do as many home crafted presents as I can. I like to think that by making something it shows that I have thought more about what I am giving rather than just going into Superdrug and buying loads of toiletry sets or searching online for something suitable. I may be up to the hurly burly of Christmas shopping in town for the first time for about 4 yrs but just in case I had better start early.

Decisions

I still have the edging and the fringing to do on the granny square shawl. I finally managed to sew in all of the tails last night. It was a marathon task. I am going to mark the right sides of my squares and sew the tails in on the wrong side as I go along on my next one. Hopefully there will be photos of the finished shawl tomorrow.

I have so many projects whirling in my mind and so much stash to choose from that I am really undecided what my next project will be. I am still on the first toe up sock for my niece so have those to finish before I go in hospital but I do like to have some crochet on the hook as well as knitting to give my wrists and fingers a break. Hopefully it will all come to me in a blinding flash as I do my housework or when I walk Buster. I work out some of my best projects in my head whilst dog walking. I have bought some colours to incorporate with stash for another granny square shawl but am unsure if I feel like starting another just yet. The colours I am playing with are in the top photo. Maybe I will finish off the cardigan I started a couple of years ago and then stuffed in a drawer and forgot all about. I have almost finished the back of it. Another reason why I should stay untidy and leave things lying around. For some reason I fell out with crocheting it and just pushed it into a bag. If I can find the pattern I might have another try at finishing it off. I like the way the stitch looks but maybe I didn't like crocheting it - I will find out later no doubt.

I am already trying to work out my Christmas knitting and crochet projects. Who would like what etc. I crafted myself into a frenzy last year so am hoping to take a bit of pressure off this year by starting earlier. I did buy 4 mugs from Dunhelm as stocking fillers but they only had 4 of our family's names so I could not get one for everyone.

The day is miserable and windy. I have pegged my throw on the line but had to use 8 clothes pegs to prevent it flying into next door.

I have coloured my hair today as my friend Caroline could not come to do it for me this weekend. My dark roots (well maybe they are grey by now - who knows) were making me look like a Coronation Street extra.

I just read an article saying that people who knit and crochet are happier and healthier than people who don't. I don't know about the healthier although apart from my back I don't suffer many other ailments that people my age do. Anyone who visits our Knit Out will vouch for the fact that we are a happy smiley bunch and there is always lots of laughter in our corner of Costa Coffee. I did try to post a link to the article on our web site but for some reason it would not work after I posted it. I will try it again on here and see if it works

http://www.curlsofsunshine.tipzu.com/people-who-knit-and-crochet-may-be-happier-and-healthier

if it doesn't work as a click link maybe you could copy and paste the whole title onto your search browser.

Last minute frenzy

My friend Caroline came yesterday and helped me to wrap all the presents (except hers of course) and put them under the tree. I have still to stitch up Kath's cardigan but I did manage to finish off crocheting all the pieces last night so that will be done - Yeah. I have today and tonight to try to finish knitting the doubled hat. Sounds easy but I am finding it very slow going slipping one and knitting one on one row and then picking up the second colour slipping a different stitch on that row and purling. All it needs is a moments loss of concentration and I knit when I should purl or I slip when I shouldn't and I have to unravel again. Argh!

On Saturday I finished off the food shopping. Whatever I don't have will stay un bought and I will work around it. I felt like I was queuing to join a queue in Tesco and it really is true that ALL the mums (and Dads) go to Iceland!

On Sunday I polished and hoovered the house, washed bedding, dog's bedding, cushion covers and throws until my washer and dryer were shouting "Mercy" so that didn't leave much time for my crochet or knitting. With the help of my friend and her son we managed to heave a very reluctant dog into the bath for his Christmas bath. To say he was not impressed is putting it mildly. He let us bathe him, dry him with the hair dryer but then curled in a ball sulking for the rest of the day as if to say I smell like a girl now!

This morning when I took him out for his walk he has rolled in all the mucky leaves he can find - Ah well he was nice and clean whilst it lasted. We had unexpected company on our walk. A heron swooped past us and perched in a large stagnant pool of water just by the side of us. It was like a tableau in slow motion. The heron stood perfectly still on one leg just like the plastic ones in people's gardens. I stood still so as not to scare it and even the dog just stopped and gazed at it. We all stood frozen in time for what seemed like ages (probably a minute actually) and then the heron took off again and disappeared into the woodland. I have only ever seen one before in there but that was standing still and sort of in hiding in the reeds. It is the first time I have seen one in flight. An old guy came shambling along with his dogs and I motioned him to stay still and pointed out the heron and he was so drunk (at 9.30am!) I doubt if he could focus on his dogs let alone a heron.

I am going to have a final push at finishing off the cardigan and hat but firstly a drink of coffee to get my strength up. I am using my new "Christmas present to myself "mug and I might break open the Christmas biscuits to go with it