December 22nd - 27th, plus inevitable Flop.

It was bound to happen sooner or later, I'm just grateful that I managed to hold it off until after Christmas day.  My body gave out on me, and decided that I needed to spend the better part of 2 days in bed.  I don't think that I'm out the other side yet, not by a long way, but I have a brief burst of energy, so I'm going to use it, even though it is currently 05:45 GMT.

So, for fear of the brain fog rolling back in, and fatigue stealing control of my limbs, let's get on with what we've missed in the last few days...

Advent

December 22nd

On the 22nd, my Advent of Change donation helped:

ABF The Soldiers Charity who help veterans and their families in any way they can.

Behind the doors, and inside the packets of self-indulgence I found:

Lindt - mini Lindor truffle

Hotel Chocolat - tiny chocolate slab with Santa Claus on it

Charms - flying dove stitch marker

Yankee Candles - Snowflake Cookie scented candle

Imperial Candles - white soy wax melt

Cath Kidston - Hand cream!  I can't remember the name of the fragrance, and the tube is now in the bedroom, where Stephen is sleeping, and I don't want to disturb him just to find out the name of a smell!  It's a floral scent though.

Bird and Blend - Banana Bread Chai

Made by Penguins - the bottom mini-skein, in the colourway "Polka Dot Splash".

Vicki Brown - the top mini-skein, in the colourway "Sea Monster".

Gamer Crafting - The middle, sparkly mini-skein, with gorgeous green speckles.

My baby boy being gorgeous and patient.

December 23rd

On the 23rd, my Advent of Change donation helped:

Child Rescue Nepal, who work to free children from child trafficking, and prosecute those responsible.

Behind the doors, and inside the packets of self-indulgence I found:

Lindt - mini Lindor truffle

Hotel Chocolat - tiny chocolate slab with a snowman on it

Charms - Stitch marker made of a bi-convex disc with "Christmas" written on it

Yankee Candles - After Sledding scented candle

Imperial Candles - red soy wax melt

Cath Kidston - Bath fizzer, that went straight into Stephen's bath, and turned it pink!

Bird and Blend - Spiced Pumpkin Pie flavoured tea

Made by Penguins - the bottom mini-skein, in the colourway "Fizzy"

Vicki Brown - the top mini-skein, in the colourway "Lacewing"

Gamer Crafting - the middle, sparkly mini-skein, with black and teal speckles

We just couldn't have ever hoped for a more wonderful dog than Finn!

Stephen chose to leave his last door on his 12 days of Sockmas calendar until Christmas Eve, even though up until this point he'd been opening the sock calendar on odd numbered days.

December 24th - Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, my Advent of Change donation helped:

Baby Lifeline, who provide essential equipment and staff training to neonatal units across the UK.  Equipment and training that in a fair society, and adequately funded NHS, would not need to be supplied by a charity, but as things stand, this charity is vital in helping to save lives, and reduce the number of preventable infant deaths.

Behind the doors, and inside the packets of self-indulgence I found:

Lindt - Large Chocolate Santa Claus

Hotel Chocolat - Large chocolate slab with a penguin, Santa Claus, and snowman on it, saying "One more sleep to go!"

Charms - Santa Claus stitch marker

Yankee Candles - Christmas Magic scented candle

Imperial Candles - Large pale green soy wax melt, with the words "Happy Holidays!" on it

Cath Kidston - Large tube of Christmas Village Hand Cream

Bird and Blend - Apple Strudel flavoured tea

Made by Penguins - the bottom, sparkly mini-skein, in the colourway "I saw mummy kissing Santa Claus", plus a metal notions tin containing wooden buttons, and tiny metal "Made with Love" tags.

Vicki Brown - the top mini-skein, in the colourway "Grandfather Snail", plus a chocolate coin, and a £5 gift voucher.

Gamer Crafting - the middle, sparkly mini-skein, with dark purple and blue speckles.

Finn was so good with his advent calendar that I actually bought him an entire bag of these "bones" wrapped in chicken.  He's not always as good when I open the treat bag as he was when I opened the advent calendar!  I guess we're too soft with letting him have treats normally, and don't always make him sit before we give him one.

The box in the background is my cardboard recycling crate, in case you're wondering.  All of that advent calendar packaging can, and will be recycled.  Even the few that had plastic trays inside, I'm pleased to say that that type of plastic can be recycled in Rotherham.

As the grown-up Hotel Chocolat advent calendar didn't have anything exciting for Christmas Eve, and the Lindt advent calendar contained the same as mine, Stephen didn't think you needed to see those, but here is his completed Millennium Falcon, and his last pair of socks.  He was overjoyed by these socks, as his favourite animals are Tyrannosaurus Rex, Bears, and Dragons.  Oh, and of course Dogs!

This was hidden inside the soy wax melt from Christmas Eve.  Stirling silver, with cubic zirconium.

December 25th - Christmas Day

The full 100g skein at the top left, is my Made by Penguins Christmas Day yarn, and the colourway is called "Penguins after Midnight".  It's just perfect!  Goth penguin yarn!!!  I also got a black project bag with a shiny silver Brian the Penguin on it.

The full 100g skein on the right is my Homespun Wonders Christmas Day yarn, and the colourway is called "12 Days of Christmas Wreath".  I love the contrast in styles and interpretation between these 2 brilliant dyers!

The mini-skein in the middle of the photo is the First day of Christmas yarn from my Homespun Wonders 12 days of Christmas calendar.

The mini-skein at the bottom left of the photo is the day 25, and final yarn from my Gamer Crafting calendar.  I am so glad that I won this calendar, the yarns have been beautiful.  Assuming that I survive 2020, and have money available to spend on myself, then I will definitely consider buying myself a Gamer Crafting calendar next year.

This is everything else that I opened on Christmas day.  Including gifts from friends and family, as well as little extras from my Homespun Wonders 12 Days of Christmas box.  As usual, there's a lot of penguins :D

December 26th & 27th

These are the Second and Third days of Christmas yarns from my Homespun Wonders 12 days of Christmas box.  Technically I could open the Fourth day now, as it's now 07:05 on December 28th, but I think I'll wait until after I've had a couple of hours sleep at least.

Regulars

FO's

I finished my 24 baubles using my Made by Penguins advent yarns.  I realise that there are only 21 baubles in this photo, and that's because I chose 3 of them to gift to friends and family who like to fill their Christmas Trees with decorations that evoke memories, rather than fit a particular colour scheme.

The pattern that I used is Scrappy Christmas Baubles, by Rachel Kluesner.  My baubles are between 4cm and 6cm in diameter, as the foam balls that I bought to fill them were not all a nice uniform 5cm in diameter!

WIP's

I promised myself that I would cast on a selfish sweater before Christmas.  Technically I cast this on on Christmas day.

I did this on the 23rd.  These 4 yarns came packaged together.  I bought them at Woolness 2019, from HeyJay.  I knew I wanted to make a Fade type sweater with them, but it took me a while to find a pattern that I like, as most Fade sweaters have round necks, presumably it makes aligning the fade easier, but I hate tight necklines, they're uncomfortable, and don't suit me.

On Christmas Eve I did this.  It's half a tension square/gauge swatch, which is just about enough to check that I had the gauge I wanted.  I had intended on actually casting on the sweater on Christmas Eve, but I was lazy, and did this:

After half a bottle of wine it's not wise to be placing the stitch markers that will determine every increase you make for your raglan shoulders, so I decided to wait, and cast on sober!  Incidentally, this is also what I was doing rather than writing a blog post on Christmas Eve.  I'm not even sorry.

So, the yarn is 4 different skeins that together form a nice fade, all by HeyJay, and the pattern is Ground Pepper, by Suvi Simola.  I'm making size XXL.

Finn

Because he's so adorable, and I can never show you too many photos of him.

Just before he went for his evening walk on Christmas Eve, I filled the stockings for him and Stephen.  He very quickly realised that there was something in there he might like!  

Stash Acquisition

Nothing I'm about to show you is actually new.  These are the full 24 days of advent yarns all collected together for you to see in all of their glory:

Made by Penguins - day 1 top left, to day 24, bottom right.

Vicki Brown - Day 1 on the left, to day 24 on the right.

Gamer Crafting - Day 1 top left, to day 24, bottom right.

Knitting Adjacent

These are all of the stitch markers that I found inside my various advent calendars.

Penguins!

I did the vast majority of my Christmas food shopping as late as I could get away with on the evening of Saturday December 21st.  I was the last but one customer leaving Sainsbury's before they closed at 10pm.  It's the only way I could think of to be able to get my shopping done without it being busier than I could tolerate.  However, inevitably there were things that I forgot, due mostly to rushing around trying to get everything before closing time.  So on  Sunday 22nd I went to the Tesco just down the road to get the things I'd forgotten.  It was pandemonium.  But there were penguin socks, so that's ok.

This was included in my Christmas Day photo, but I wanted to show you it in detail, so you could see one of the many reasons why shopping with small independent brands is so brilliant.  This was in my Homespun Wonders 12 Days of Christmas box.  Katie knows who I am, and little details about my life, so she was able to make the box that she sent to me so perfectly personal, and it was a complete surprise to open this on Christmas day, it actually brought tears to my eyes.  I will treasure this forever.

That's all for now my dears.  I'm definitely flagging, and need some sleep. No matter how crazy and disrupted my sleep patterns are likely to be until I make it through this particular flop, I will do my best to keep doing updates as often as I can until the 12th day of Christmas.

December 18th - 21st

Hello again my dears.  I'm sorry for going AWOL, but I've come perilously close to a full "Flop" over the last few days, and I'm afraid that as a non-essential energy use, my blog updates have had to be sacrificed for the greater good of keeping us fed, getting Stephen to places he needed to be, making sure that Stephen had all of his eye drops, and making sure Finn had a reasonable amount of exercise.  I'm pleased to report that Stephen is slowly improving, and although he still has significant blind spots, he can now see shapes and colours again, and even just about read really big writing!  He's doing his best to help me out, but because of the posturing he has to do to ensure that his eye continues to heal, he's limited in what he can do.  He can now take Finn on short walks though, which is a HUGE relief for me, as this was taking the most out of me of everything I've had to take over these last couple of weeks.  He can also just about do his own eye drops, which means he can allow me to have a lie in when I'm struggling as badly as I have the last few days.

However, once I passed 3 days without having done an update, the stress of knowing how big the next update would have to be was beginning to get to me.  So tonight, I've cancelled sorting my nails in order to get this update done.

Advent

December 18th

On the 18th, my Advent of Change donation helped:

Wildlife and Welfare, who work with other animal welfare, and environmental protections charities to fill in the gaps that aren't covered by the larger, more prominent charities.

Behind the doors, and inside the packets of self-indulgence I found:

Lindt - mini Lindor truffle, with a milk chocolate shell, and white chocolate ganache

Hotel Chocolat - tiny chocolate slab with Santa Claus on it

Charms - ice skate stitch marker

Yankee Candles - Evergreen Mist scented Candle

Imperial Candles - pale blue soy wax melt.  I think I'm just going to give up trying to identify the fragrances!

Cath Kidston - Christmas Village Lip Balm

Bird and Blend - Carot Cake flavoured tea.  Yes, this genuinely did taste like carrot cake!

Made by Penguins - the bottom mini-skein, in the colourway "Denim", plus a button badge like a stylised ball of yarn, and a dolphin stitch marker

Vicki Brown - the top mini-skein, in the colourway "Pesto", plus a Three Ginger herbal infusion

Gamer Crafting - the middle, sparkly mini-skein, in shades of yellow.

Finn waiting patiently for his advent treat.

December 19th

On the 19th, my Advent of Change donation helped:

The National Autistic Society, who work to improve understanding of autism, and help those who are autistic to navigate a world that isn't a comfortable place for many autistic people.

Behind the doors, and inside the packets of self-indulgence I found:

Lindt - chocolate square

Hotel Chocolat - tiny chocolate slab with a snowman on it

Charms - candy cane stitch marker

Yankee Candles - Cinnamon Stick scented candle

Imperial Candles - pale pink soy wax melt

Cath Kidston - Christmas Village Body Lotion

Bird and Blend - All Nighter naturally high caffeine green tea

Made by Penguins - the bottom sparkly mini-skein, in the colourway "Sugar Mouse", and a beautiful snowflake stitch marker

Vicki Brown - the top mini-skein, in the colourway "Glacier", and a sachet of Soak, which is a special wash for anything made of wool.

Gamer Crafting - the middle sparkly mini-skein, in a colourway that I'm really very fond of, white, with red and ginger speckles

Finn the adorable, being adorable.

Significant progress has been made on the Millennium Falcon construction!  Also, I think that secretly Stephen quite likes the Christmas decorations, as he seems to have made an effort to include them in this photo of his advent haul on the 19th.

December 20th

Yesterday, my Advent of Change donation helped:

Forward Trust, who work with people combating addiction, and people who have been released from prison, to help them overcome the difficulties that caused their destructive behaviours, and move forward into a more hopeful future.

Behind the doors, and inside the packets of self-indulgence I found:

Lindt - mini Lindor truffle

Hotel Chocolat - tiny chocolate slab with Santa Claus on it

Charms - Penguin stitch marker!

Yankee Candles - Pomegranate Fizz scented candle

Imperial Candles - lilac coloured soy wax melt

Cath Kidston - Cuticle cream

Bird and Blend - Belle's Breakfast black tea with rose petals

Made by Penguins - the bottom mini-skein, in the colourway "Rainbow Moonstone", with a beautiful crystal rainbow stitch marker

Vicki Brown - the top mini-skein, in the colourway "Ink"

Gamer Crafting - the middle, sparkly mini-skein, in my favourite GC colourway so far!  A beautiful semi-solid burgundy red!

Close up of the penguin stitch marker, just because it's a penguin!

Finn, the goodest boy!

December 21st

Today, my Advent of Change donation has helped:

Winston's Wish, who help grieving children come to terms with their loss.  This one means a lot to me, with this time of year being heavy with my own grief, I can't even imagine being too young to properly understand, and having to deal with these emotions.

Behind the doors, and inside the packets of self-indulgence I have found:

Lindt - mini Lindor truffle

Hotel Chocolat - tiny chocolate slab with a penguin on it

Charms - faceted yellow crystal stitch marker

Yankee Candles - Candlelit Cabin scented candle

Imperial Candles - pale green soy wax melt

Cath Kidston - Christmas Village hand cream.  This is gorgeous!  it makes my hands smell like I've been walking through a pine forest.  I know this isn't necessarily a fragrance that everyone would love, but it reminds me of camping with dad.

Bird and Blend - Cherry Bakewell herbal infusion.  This is one of my usual go-to teas that I always like to keep a stash of at home.

Made by Penguins - the bottom mini-skein, in the colourway "Fizzy Splash"

Vicki Brown - the top mini-skein, in the colourway "Biscotti"

Gamer Crafting - the middle, sparkly mini-skein, in many shades of green

Last night Finn was re-named Farty McFartyPants.  These emanations I'm certain have nothing to do with his advent treats, and more likely something to do with his habit of finding things to eat on the ground when he's out for a walk.  None-the-less, the effect was to leave our home temporarily at risk of being banned under the Geneva Convention, and for the occasional comedy moment when the sound of his own fart startled him.  Fortunately, the ill effects of his most recent sneaky scavenging seem to have been limited to gaseous emissions only.

The Falcon is almost space-worthy, and a Cool Yule is to be had this Longest Night by a somewhat demented looking penguin.

Regulars

FO's

I finished the fluffy socks for my youngest niece.  If you look very carefully, you can see that I had to use a different colourway just for the toes.  I don't think that my niece will mind, because they are soooo soft and fluffy!

I am desperately running out of empty branches on the tree, but Stephen wants to save the chocolate decorations for Christmas Day, so I'm having to temporarily hang some of my knitted baubles at the slightly more sparsely decorated back of the tree.  This is also why I've had to use flash for this photo.  There are 4 new baubles in this photo that I hadn't finished before my last update.  I'd be happy with this average of 1 per day if I weren't 4 days behind!  As it is, it's causing me rather more stress than it should.  Sadly, whenever I have spare time just now, I'm falling asleep, so it's unlikely that I'll manage to catch up before Christmas Eve, which is when I plan on casting on my new sweater.

WIP's

This is bauble number 18, in the colourway "Denim", and I'd hoped to finish this before starting this update, but my bauble knitting today was hampered somewhat by someone wanting extra attention and snuggles, getting himself comfortably installed under my left arm, and falling asleep there:

I did manage to finish the bauble you see in this photo (colourway "Violets"), and it was in my FO photo, but it took at least twice as long as it should have, as I held my arms in a very unusual position in order to avoid disturbing the sleeping pup (everyone knows that you absolutely cannot move if you have a sleeping dog or cat lying on you!)  my left arm was extra sore, and shaking from the effort by the time I finished too!

Stash Acquisition

I've done it 3 times now, so it's officially a tradition - when I take Finn to the groomers, I have to leave him there for 1-2 hours.  If I've driven there, then I could just go home and wait, but sometimes I walk, and it's about my limit for how far I can walk on a good day, so I have to stay near by and wait until Finn is done.  Conveniently, just around the corner from the groomers is my LYS - Haberdashery, and a lovely little coffee shop called Aroma is right next to the yarn shop.  So I pop in to say hi at the yarn shop, buy myself a little something because it's good to support local independent businesses, then go to the coffee shop to do a bit of knitting and have a nice hot chocolate while I wait.

Dinnington is a classic little working class town, it's amazing that it has a yarn shop at all, but most of the local residents are unlikely to buy expensive artisan yarn very often, so most of what they sell is aimed at lower budgets.  Every yarn has a use though.  Even the cheapest acrylic can be used for silly seasonal decorations, or pet blankets to donate to cat and dog shelters.  There are also increasingly some nice, soft, but inexpensive yarns available.  I'm unlikely to ever buy a lot of acrylic, because in the end, no matter how soft, it is still plastic, but for many people, it's the only option available to them, and even that will go if we don't make an effort to support our local yarn store.

I bought these with a project in mind.  I recently saw on Instagram a woven cushion cover that someone had made using a small rigid heddle loom, very similar to mine, using a technique called "Clasped Weft", and it looked amazing!  So I'm going to try this new technique, using inexpensive yarns to begin with, next year.

These are Stylecraft Special DK, in the colourways "Charcoal", and "Peony", plus a little blue faux-fur pompom that I just really liked.

These are the 2 balls of Peter Pan Cupcake, in the colourway "Fizz Wizz" that I ordered in case I ran out of yarn to make my niece's socks.  Of course, I only ran out just before the toes, so now I have most of 2 balls of discontinued fluffy yarn that I'm not sure what to do with!  Still, I have a niece who loves fluffy things, I'm sure I'll find a use for them!

Penguins!

You've probably already noticed this, as I've been wearing it to splodge around the house in for a couple of days, so it's already appeared in a couple of photos.  It's a nightdress covered in penguins.  I saw it in a fat girl shop at least a month ago, but told myself that I couldn't justify buying it, as I'd already bought myself a new penguin nightshirt for Christmas Eve.  Then a few days ago it appeared in the sale, most sizes had sold out, except for the smallest size (Fat girl shops never sell out of the smallest sizes, because most people who fit into those sizes can still shop in "normal" shops, and why would you want the stigma of going into a fat girl shop if you don't have to?) and also my size (I am not the smallest size that fat girl shops sell).  So, at less than half the price, and too exhausted to keep up with the laundry, plus Finn has stolen and chewed a hole in one of my pyjamas and is now using them to line his bed, I could suddenly justify buying a penguin nightdress.

This is my Christmas Eve/Christmas Morning nightshirt.  It's a tradition started by my mam when my sister and I were very little, that every year we would get a single present to open on Christmas Eve, and that present would be new nightwear.  The idea being, that we'd be wearing brand new pyjamas in the Christmas Morning photos of us opening our presents, instead of one of the more disreputable garments that we tended to get overly attached to, and refuse to throw away despite them having become too small/tatty.

Anyway, I went searching for new penguin pyjamas about a month ago, and discovered that the current fashion in pyjamas is not one that I would find comfortable (mostly unreasonably short tops that will let in a draught at the waist!) so I had to settle for a nightshirt/short nightdress that I can wear over leggings, or other pyjama bottoms.  

Then I forgot to photograph it and share it with you!  I've just read through the last 2 months worth of posts to be sure!  While doing that, I've also discovered that I never did share a photo of my mitred squares blanket progress before the couple of photos of it folded up, although I'm certain that I took a photo that I'd intended to share.  I've also discovered that I never explained what actually happened with Stephen's eye!  It was such a big thing in our lives, that I didn't realise I'd not already written about it when he went for his operation!

<Tangent>

So, in case you're wondering, Stephen managed to detach his retina.  He'd been having a few very minor issues with his left eye for a couple of weeks (floaters, sensitivity to glare from oncoming car headlights) then on the day that I went up to Newcastle he had an unusual aura, which he thought might be a migraine starting, then a few hours later he went completely blind in that eye for a few minutes, but it seemed to recover after a while, leaving just the aura.  Expecting a really bad migraine, Stephen took some pain killers and went to bed early.  The next day he'd lost peripheral vision in that eye, and he began to worry that it might not be just a migraine after all.  By the Saturday when I came home, he had a large blind spot, so he went to the opticians to get them to take a look, having googled his symptoms, and decided that he had glaucoma, cataracts, and bird flu, and that he'd be dead before Monday.  

The optician told him that he's an unusual case in that there was no visible haemorrhaging, but he'd definitely partially detached his retina.  Apparently sometimes it just happens spontaneously.  Usually to people in their mid 40's, who are already short-sighted, and have high blood pressure.  Anyway, he was booked in to the ophthalmology clinic in hospital for the Monday, which was the earliest possible appointment.  He still ended up in A&E on the Sunday, as despite following all of the opticians rules about lying on one side to prevent further damage, his vision had got much worse.  Sadly, there was nothing that could be done in A&E that the optician hadn't already arranged.

I took him to the hospital on the Monday morning, without letting him have breakfast just in case, and left him there not knowing what would happen. Sadly, there were insufficient staff available to cope with Stephen, and a couple of emergency cases that also arrived, so he was sent home, and told to come back the next day, also having not eaten anything.  By the time he actually had his surgery, he'd lost 3 quarters of his field of vision completely.  

The surgery involves temporarily replacing the vitreous inside the eye with a pressurised gas bubble, that pushes the retina back into place, and holds it there until it begins to heal.  This does have the effect of causing complete blindness in that eye until the gas gradually escapes naturally, then his vision won't settle until the vitreous completely regenerates, and the retina heals.  Even then, he will have permanently lost at least some visual acuity in that eye, as those floaters he was seeing weeks ago were actually the light sensitive cells called rods and cones that cover the retina coming loose as the retina tore and began to lose adhesion.  Hopefully though it won't be so bad that a change in his glasses prescription can't give him full vision back.

</tangent>

That's all for now my dears.  I have a lot to do tomorrow, so I may not get to do an update, if not, then I'll do my best to post on Monday.  

Sweet Dreams on this Longest Night.

December 16th and 17th

Hello again my dears, time for a quick update.

December 16th

Yesterday, my Advent of Change donation helped:

The John Lewis Foundation, who work with disadvantaged communities to help more people into meaningful employment.


Behind the doors, and inside the packets of self-indulgence I found:

Again, I'm very sorry that the photo is out of focus.  I'm mostly too tired to hold my phone steady unless I can rest it on something.


Lindt - mini Lindor chocolate truffle, with milk chocolate shell, and white chocolate ganache

Hotel Chocolat - tiny chocolate slab with a snowman on it

Charms - plain chain necklace for attaching charms to

Yankee Candles - Christmas Magic scented candle

Imperial Candles - blue soy wax melt, not certain of the fragrance

Cath Kidston - Christmas Village Soap

Bird and Blend - Deckchair Dreaming herbal infusion

Made by Penguins - the bottom sparkly mini-skein, in the colourway "Golden", and a stitch marker made with purple and turquoise crystal beads.

Vicki Brown - the top mini-skein, in the colourway "Violet Storm"


Gamer Crafting - the middle sparkly mini-skein, in a beautiful dark green colourway.

Finn being adorable, and very good.  

December 17th

Today, my Advent of Change donation has helped:

Marie Curie, who as you know if you've read my previous updates about the Marie Curie Sock Quest, help people with terminal illnesses, and their families, to cope with the added difficulties such illnesses bring on a day-to-day basis.

Behind the doors, and inside the packets of self-indulgence I have found:

Lindt - mini Lindor truffle

Hotel Chocolat - tiny chocolate slab with a penguin on it

Charms - 5-pointed star stitch marker

Yankee Candles - Christmas Cookie scented candle

Imperial Candles - Spiced Orange fragranced soy wax melt

Cath Kidston - Liquid Soap

Bird and Blend - Dark Choc Chilli  Chai

Made by Penguins - the bottom, sparkly mini-skein, in the colourway "Violets", and a sweet penguin sticker by Kate Elford.

Vicki Brown - the top mini-skein, in the colourway "Elder Berry".

Gamer Crafting - the middle, sparkly mini-skein, in this bright mix of pinks and purples.

Finn is just the goodest boy!!! 

I asked Stephen to take a photo of his new socks from his 12 day of Sockmas calendar.  He sent me this.  Love my boys!

Regulars

FO's

2 more baubles finished using my Made by Penguins advent yarn.

WIP's

This is as far as I can currently get with the fluffy socks I'm making for my youngest niece.  I've ran out of this yarn, so now just waiting for the different colourway that I've ordered to arrive.  I've only got 1 more centimetre to do on each sock before I start the toe decreases, so I don't think they will look too silly.  The most important thing is the fluffiness anyway.

In case you're interested, the pattern is my own unpublished adjustable sock pattern, and the yarn is Peter Pan Cupcake, in the colourway "Jellybeans", although as I've said before, sadly, this yarn is discontinued.

Stash Acquisition

Remember how I said I was extra miserable a few days ago, and that when I'm miserable I comfort shop?  Well just about that time Made by Penguins added some new items to the shop, including these yarn baubles, in random colours, and with beautiful hand-made stitch markers attached.  It's hard to see the stitch markers in this photo, but if you zoom in on the pink and cyan bauble at the bottom right, you can see one of them.  I'm actually going to gift this particular bauble to Becky, as the colours are so very her!

If you zoom in on the shiny silver bauble in the middle of the photo, you can also see my reflection, as I stand in a strange position to try not to block the light from the window, dressed in my super stylish pyjamas.

Also from Made by Penguins, I got this brilliant money box, to help me save for yarn shows!  It has Brian the Penguin on the back, and a randomly coloured mini-skein inside!  You can also get mugs, but I already have plenty of mugs, because I can't help but keep buying mugs with penguins on them.

Penguins!

For *reasons* I was searching for "snowflake" pin badges.  I meant pin badges with the word "snowflake" on them, as a means of claiming the name.  Since being a snowflake seems to mean caring about the feelings and well-being of other people, I am very proud to be a snowflake!  Anyway, what I found was a lot of brooches in the shape of snowflakes, but the little pin badge that you can barely see in the bottom right of this photo caught my eye, mostly because it's a charity pin from Cancer Research UK, and I'm sure anyone reading this knows exactly why this charity is close to my heart.

So I followed the link to the snowflake pin, and then somehow a few days later an order arrived that was full of penguins.  I told you I comfort shop when I'm miserable!  However, at least I can say that the profit from all of these items has gone to a good cause, as they were all bought from the Cancer Research UK site.

That is all for tonight my dears, thank you for reading, and I'll be back again in another day or so.