Originally, it had been my plan to write this post much earlier, but events conspired against me, and it turns out that it wanted to be a Christmas update, as well as a report on the wonders of the Countess Ablaze Saturnalia party.
So the format will be totally different from usual, but none of the content should be lost!
Saturnalia
Last year, Countess Ablaze ran a year long dyeing project based on the Twelve Caesars book, by Suetonious. Each month, she released a new selection of limited edition colourways inspired by the life of a Caesar, as reported by Suetonious. The project was a great success, and has been followed up this year by a similar theme, based on Homers The Odyssey.
In homage to the Caesars, and because there are so many mid-winter festivities that are actively celebrated these days, it is difficult to choose one without feeling you marginalise somebody, The Countess decided her winter celebration would be a Saturnalia party.
So on the 12th December, in pouring rain, and howling gales, knitters from all corners of the UK flocked to a little shop on the edge of Manchester.
I need to thank the very lovely Amy, of Curious Cat Craftiness at this point, as she volunteered to do all of the driving for our little crowd from Sheffield, despite the standing water, and horrible spray all across the Pennines!
The party was a great success, and it was fantastic to finally put faces to some of the names I see on my screen every day. Everybody there seemed to get along very well, hardly surprising, given our shared interests I suppose, but I do love an afternoon in the company of marvelously geeky knitters :) James, of DancingGeek fame, lead a raucous game of Cards Against Humanity, supplemented of course by the Knitters against Swatches expansion pack. So glad to see him happy and smiling, as the winter often takes its toll on those of us with fragile constitutions. But it's not that surprising that he was smiling, as he demonstrated a singular talent at the "Invent a name for a Countess Ablaze Colourway" competition that was running all afternoon. We were allowed to make as many entries as we could think of, then The Countess herself picked her favourites to receive a prize from the large collection that had been donated. She doesn't promise that any of them will actually become an official colourway, but you never know! If there is a new colourway inspired by this game, I'd give even odds that the person responsible for it is James!
Next time, I'm hoping to get more of a chance to talk to Bev, of Boo Knits. Not only did she donate an entire collection of her stunning knitting patterns to the prize collection, she also gave everyone there one free pattern from her entire range. I chose Hazy Daze, and I'm really looking forward to getting a chance to knit it.
Of course, there was also yarn shopping. In fact, most of us spent the first couple of hours alternating between browsing the shelves, and chatting to new friends, gradually building higher, and higher piles of yummy smooshies on our tables. Eventually, there came a point when there was wine, and food, and we all decided to pay for our selections, and put them away, for fear of accidentally spilling something sticky on them. I believe that one or two people may have still gone back for more even after this point though!
Here is my little collection from the day:
From left to right, this is The Curious Observer Lace, in the colourway Temptress, Viscount of Spark, in the colourway Eccentric Geeks, and The Exotic Traveller, in the colourway Earth Tones.
I haven't even got around to updating my Ravelry Stash with these yet, I've been so busy since then!
I'm a little sad that we had to leave fairly early. Although I was tired, and it's very important that the Designated Driver feels safe to drive, it's impossible not to feel a little wistful about missed opportunities when you see photos like this posted after you leave!
Next time...
Finally, all of this fun was also beneficial to those less fortunate, as our wonderfully generous Countess donated the price of all tickets sold, plus 20% of all sales on the day, to The Mustard Tree, a charity that helps people who have fallen on hard times to find their feet again. Together, we raised £600 of much needed cash that will help to see many people through a very tough time of year.
Thank you Countess Ablaze for organising such an amazing event! Thank you to everyone who helped make sure that our Countess wasn't overwhelmed, by sorting food, drink, guest lists, prizes, tidying, and suchlike. And thank you to everyone else who turned up and made it a fabulous day :) See you all next time!
Christmas
Oh my, but it's been a busy one! It's not even over for me, as I get a second Christmas when I head up to Newcastle to visit my Family in a couple of weeks.
When I started my Christmas knitting back in October, I was feeling very virtuous and organised. Even though I knew I'd set myself a challenging goal with the sheer number of gifts I was planning on knitting, I figured that having over 10 weeks to knit them in would be fine. It probably would have, had it not been for The Great Medication Experiment. As I mentioned in my last update, my doctor insisted that I try some different medication for at least a month, and this lead to me losing the equivalent of 3 weeks of knitting time in a haze of pain and exhaustion.
The result is that I only barely managed to get everything finished by Christmas day that needed to be done by then, and many things that need to be done by the 8th January are still in yarn format.
Here are some things that I did manage to finish though:
One Griffindor cowl, finished, and sent to its new owner in time. There should be a second one of these, but I just didn't have the time to get it finished :( Hopefully I'll manage to get it done in time for my friends birthday at the end of January at least!
The yarn for this was Sublime Extrafine Merino dk, in the colourway Red Pepper, and Women's Institute Soft and Cuddly, in yellow. The pattern is Duotone Cowl, by Orange Flower Yarn.
One very small, very cute, knitted friendly penguin, finished, and sent to his new owner in time, along with a little felted penguin bauble. I spent most of my time at our Shefknit Christmas Party (Thank you again for hosting a brilliant day Katie!) sewing this little chap up, and needle felting the bauble penguin.
The yarn for this guy was various shades of Rico Design Essentials Merino DK, and the pattern is "Friendly Penguin" from Baby & Toddler knits made easy.
Just barely finished on time, this hat looked somewhat different just 3 days before Christmas:
By staying up until 3am 2 nights in a row to get the spinning and plying done, then making a game of caking the yarn while looking after my 4 year old niece on Christmas Eve, and knitting every spare minute I could, I managed to get to the stage where all I needed to do was the decreases for the crown, and add the pompom by the time I went to bed (at about 3am again) on Christmas Eve/morning.
The last bits of knitting and finishing off were done while visiting Kellys mum on Christmas morning, and the present was wrapped while Liz was actually in our house making cups of tea in the kitchen!
However, she loves it, so it was all totally worth it :) And I am super pleased with how the yarn came out, despite the speed spinning, and with how the pattern works, so I'm going to write it up and publish it early next year.
So the yarn for this was handspun, chain-plied, roughly DK weight, made from blue faced leicester fibre, dyed by Countess Ablaze, in the colourway "All night debauch".
Things I'm still working on include the last couple of Christmas stockings, the cupcakes for one of my godsons, a shawl that is also to be a gift, and this:
I've hardly done anything with this, as it's been my selfish project for December! You can see it's a little bit further on than last time though, although the beads don't seem to show up very well on my camera phone.
This is on the way to being an Alberta shawl, and the yarn is Gleem Lace, by Fyberspates.
I've still got 2 stockings, 2 hats, and 2 cowls to go, and none of them have even been cast on yet!
Stash Acquisition
No yarn based presents for me this year, although I have got a bit of Christmas Cash that might be used to buy yarn. However, there are a couple of things to show you that in a shock move, did not come from Countess Ablaze!
One is the mustard yellow merino DK that I've been waiting for, along with a half price skein of Juniper Moon. I think I'll use this to test knit that hat pattern after I write it up.
The yellow is SMC Select, extra soft Merino, and the grey is Findley DK dappled, by Juniper Moon. Both of these came from Black Sheep Wools.
This is a Christmas special yarn that was on sale when I was feeling particularly dispirited by my lack of progress on gift knitting, and all the pain of the Great Medication Experiment. I confess that when I received the shipping notification email, I couldn't even remember ordering the yarn, as I'd done it late at night, while laid in bed, perusing instagram on my phone. I was so miserable and tired, and this was so beautiful, I just went straight through to the site and clicked buy without engaging any sort of higher brain function that might have said I should be saving that money to buy presents for other people!
It is "Mulled Wine Spice", on a sparkle merino sock base, by Mothy and the Squid.
Penguins
Yes, there are more penguins, of course there are! MANY more penguins!
This is Inflata-penguin. He was a gift from Heather, one of the regular Countess Ablaze forum contributors, and a most excellent friend :) Here he is guarding my new skeins the day after the Saturnalia party.
While searching for stocking fillers for the children, I found myself in Penguin Corner. I did buy a pack of the bubble-blowing pots, which was enough for all of the children, plus a spare one for me! But I also ended up with a new toothbrush, and 2 pots of hand cream. If you twist the head off the blue penguin, he is filled with lavender scented hand cream, and the pink chap contains rose scented hand cream. I use a lot of hand cream in an attempt to keep my fingers snag-free for delicate yarns and fibre, so with the exception of the toothbrush, this was actually an entirely sensible shopping trip, honest!
On Monday afternoons, we have a little routine where my childhood friend, and fellow knitter Krissy, my sister, and I meet up at my place, and have lunch. If they aren't at school or nursery, then the kids will be there too. The tradition is to go to the shops at the top of my street, where we will buy fresh made roast pork sandwiches, then head to the bakery a few doors down, and buy gingerbread biscuits for the children, and something a little more indulgent for ourselves. My sister bought me a chocolate crispy cake. At Easter time, these usually have a collection of mini chocolate eggs on top, to make them look like nests, but as it's Christmas, they had cute winter characters on the top instead, and when you dig them out, they turn out to be plastic rings!
There were Christmas markets in town for a few weeks. One stall was selling all kinds of tiny fimo characters made into jewelry and ornaments. I already bought a badge from there a couple of weeks ago, but on her last day there, I saw this tiny charm. I think you're supposed to hang them from your phone, but to a knitter or crocheter, this is totally a stitch marker!
This lot is what I received for Christmas. I am so spoiled! As you can see, my friends and family know me well, as there's a bit of a noticeable theme to many of the gifts in that pile.
The wooden plaque, and plushy at the back were gifts from my 2 oldest godchildren. The penguin sweetie jar, and necklace/earrings set were from Krissy and her husband, parents of afore mentioned godchildren.
The glowing ceramic light with the penguin pattern, the smooshy, stripy penguin socks, and the set of 4 brightly coloured penguins were all from Kelly. The teeny, tiny penguin in a bell-jar was from Kellys mum.
The red penguin socks, the fimo penguin necklace, and the amazingly gorgeous set of 12 (12!!!) penguin stitch markers were all from my lovely knitting friend Helen, who I have been working on the Alberta shawl with. I don't know for sure, but I strongly suspect that she hand made all of those tiny fimo penguins herself. She is an amazingly talented lady!
Finally, the penguin photo frame, and the grey socks, plus another pair of red penguin socks, that I'm afraid went straight onto my feet without passing the camera, were from my sister, brother-in-law, and my 2 nieces. Yes, that right, 2 nieces!
The best present
If you've been reading my blog for a while, you'll be aware that my sister has been expecting a new addition to the family for a while, and that her due date was scarily close to Christmas.
I saw her and my elder niece on Christmas Eve, and all seemed normal. 12 hours later, I had a new niece! Born in the wee hours of Christmas morning, strong, healthy, and home in time for breakfast and presents with her big sister. When I received the phone call I was bursting with joy! Absolutely the best present that anyone could wish for :)
I'm afraid you don't get photos. Family privacy surrounding children is something that I absolutely will not violate. But you can be sure that I was pleased I'd made a stocking and presents for the newest member of our clan, just in case!
So that is all for 2015! Have a very happy New Year my dears, and I'll see you again in 2016!
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