I can't really ignore it any longer. Christmas is coming. I have less than 5 weeks to get all of my Christmas knitting done, and I've not so much as cast on a single stitch.
I know what I'm going to be making, mostly, and I have the yarn I need, but somehow other things keep getting in the way.
Like these:
Last weekend I went up to Newcastle to visit the family, and delivered the boot-toppers to Gemma. As you can see, they were immediately put to good use, and I've been asked to make another pair for Vikki. Vikki has fancy wellies though, hers are pink and purple, so this is the yarn I've chosen to make hers in:
I don't think these can count as Christmas knitting, but I would like to get them done as soon as possible.
I'm not going to talk about the actual Christmas knitting, because people might read about what they're getting, and that's not allowed!
I also need to finish these before I can cast on anything new:
That there is the first of Stephens socks. I'm at the cuff now, it's nearly finished, but then I have a whole second sock to make!
Yes, I could be knitting it now, but for reasons, I'm likely to have knitting time tonight, but not access to my laptop, so blog post time now instead.
On the plus side though, the approach of Christmas also brings with it many penguin related items available in the shops. These are my latest acquisition, and they're super cute:
Hello again my darlings. I have returned to Internet Land from the isolation of the North Yorkshire town of Whitby, where phone signal is intermittent, and internet is new-fangled arcanery. However, it's also a place of atmospheric beauty, so we'll let it off:
It is also home to a lovely yarn shop inside a beautiful old building, called Bobbins. After Yarndale, Bakewell, and 2 Countess Ablaze Caesar updates in one month, I can't say that I had a lot to spend, but I had a nice time chatting to the girls who run the shop, and I came out with some lovely Drops extra fine merino to make a sweater for Gemmas 3 year old son, and some pretty sock yarn. I actually went back a few days later and bought more of the Drops Delight, thinking that I was choosing a different colourway, but actually I'd just chosen 2 more skeins of the same colourway, but with more of the purple shades on the outside of the ball. I figure that this just gives me more options about what I can do with it:
Holiday Knitting
You may recall me saying that I had no intention of working on any WIPs, or high-pressure knitting of any sort while on holiday. It turns out that I sort of lied.
As I hadn't actually cast on any of my holiday knitting before we set off on the drive north, I decided to just continue working on Kellys socks. With the result of me finishing them just after we arrived:
The advantage to this being that Kelly then had an additional pair of warm socks to wear for the holiday.
It also meant that by the end of the October WIP-down challenge, I had finished 5 of 11 projects, and made significant progress on a further 2. Not too bad I feel.
So obviously that meant I could cast on 3 new projects over the next few days...
Starting with some sparkly boot-toppers for Gemma. She and her family spend a fair amount of time working on their allotment, which necessitates the use of wellies. They're not the coziest, or most comfortable of footwear, so a variety of leg-warmer, or sock-like patterns have been written to solve this. The one I chose was supposed to be a hand-sewn felt inner bootie, with the knitted section being purely for decoration. But I decided to use the knitted section as a base for a leg-warmer style boot-topper:
Yes, I've only finished one so far. I decided that the ribbing bit was a bit boring for holiday knitting, so I cast on a hat for Gemmas elder son instead of the second boot-topper.
Gemma loves the colour grey. You might have noticed this from the amount of it in this post!
Finally, I also cast on Stephens socks in that gorgeous semi-solid green by Countess Ablaze:
This is far too nice to rush, so I've not actually managed as much of it as I'd hoped, but I have another few weeks to get them finished.
The really real world
It was a strange sort of holiday, and most of the reasons for that don't need recording in a blog about knitting. But it did end with the journey north for Myras funeral, and today is the 2nd anniversary of us losing mam. So I've been left feeling really rather odd, and somewhat fragile. I'm sorry if that comes across too much in my writing style.
But... Penguins!
"One cannot be angry when one looks at a penguin." - John Ruskin
They make it harder to be really sad too.
During this holiday, Kelly bought me 2 new penguins for my collection:
This one is from Whitby glass, home of the Lucky Duck.
This one is from a tiny little shop called One-o-five. I was inside the shop perusing the silver and jet rings when Kelly came in and said "I may regret telling you this; but there's a jet penguin in the window..." I don't think he really regrets telling me, he knew what the result of him saying such a thing would be!
Mostly, it made me smile :)
On top of that, this week John Lewis have released their new Christmas advert, as well as a Christmas gift knitting kit, designed by one of the girls who frequents Knit Nottingham.
