Advent - days 5-7

Sorry for the brief absence, too many things to do, and too little time to do them in.  I find myself burning the candle at both ends somewhat, and there hasn't been time for even miniature blog writing.

Today I have time because my poor daddy is feeling a bit off colour, so I sent him to bed early.  Now I'm watching Love Actually and trying to pay attention while I write.

However, today is also almost a "proper" blog update!  I've got WIPs, and FOs, and Stash Acquisition, and even a Penguin!

FOs

Not sure if I should call this one FO or 2 to be honest, but here are the last 2 Christmas Stockings of 6 that I've knitted in total.  The first 4 I managed to finish in time for last Christmas, but having completely over-committed myself, my 2 Geordie godsons have had to wait until this year.

I also need to apologise for misleading you all over the last few days, as I've been confidently telling you all that the yarn I've been using for these stockings is King Cole Shine, but I found the ball band for the last ball a couple of days ago, and actually it's King Cole Glitz in the colourway Christmas, and King Cole Tinsel, in the colourway White.

WIPs

I've had to put this project on hold for a little while, because mysteriously a whole ball of King Cole Merino Blend DK in French Navy has disappeared!  I've searched every bag that I brought with me, in every corner, and under every cushion.  I can only assume that I've either left it back in Sheffield, or I've dropped it out of a bag somewhere.  I'm visiting Sheffield for a couple of days for a meet up with old work friends, and for a friends birthday, so I can at least check if I did leave it there.  If I didn't leave it there, then I can probably get away with buying a replacement, as the placement in the pattern means any dyelot miss-match shouldn't be too obvious.

Now I've started on a present that wasn't originally in my Christmas Queue.  I know, I said I wouldn't add anything because I didn't think that I would have time to do anything else, but this is just a little quick present, and knitting it has helped me to write a really simple pattern that I'll be using to teach one of my godsons how to knit.  This is because he asked me if I would teach him how to make a hat for Mr Bunny, and it had to be done.  He's a bright, and attentive lad, so even though he's only 5, I'm fairly confident that he will at least be able to master the garter stitch that forms the brim of the hat, and possibly even manage the stockinette and decreases.

Now of course I'm not just making a hat for Mr Bunny, but a whole extra outfit - hat, cardigan, and booties.  The hat and booties are improvised, but the cardigan is adapted from Jack and Jill Premature Baby Jackets, by Marianna Mel.  The yarn is Sirdar Snuggly Crofter Baby Fair Isle Effect DK, in the colourway 0174.

Stash Acquisition

Obviously, I have 3 days worth of advent calendar yarn to show you:

But I also took another trip to Ring-a-Rosie's in Whitley Bay looking for suitable yarn to make the full Bunny outfit, yarn for my godson to learn with, and maybe a couple of extras for myself, even though I really, really shouldn't be spending money on anything non-essential right now.  Still, it's just a couple of balls of DK to be included in the crochet memory blanket, and a couple of balls of sock yarn, because I need to replace the 3 pairs of my hand knit socks that walked off into the sunset last year.

So here we have: Louisa Harding Yarns Cassia Prints, in the colourway 508; Woolyknit DK Classics Colour Splash, in the colourway Rainbow; Schoppel Wolle Admiral R Druck, in the colourway Magic; and Schachenmayr Regia Design Line 4-ply, in the colourway 03653; and Sirdar Snuggly Crofter Baby Fair Isle Effect DK, in the colourway 0174.  

Penguins

I've not even seen this in real life for myself yet, but Kelly sent me this photo of what he's done to the doorway to my bedroom:

How brilliant is that?!?  

I think it might be bed time now though, so sweet dreams my dears!

Advent - day 4

I've had a lovely Sunday today!  My dad, my step-niece, and I, all went for a walk along Tynemouth Longsands with my step-nieces mischievous little pug, who had a whale of a time playing chase with other dogs, and digging many, many holes in the sand.  Then we returned to dads house for a traditional Sunday roast, and an afternoon watching movies, and sorting through a few more bits and pieces.  My step-mam was also an avid knitter, as is my step-niece, so we spent a while looking through a big pile of knitting patterns.  Dad assures us that there are even more awaiting our perusal.

In among all of that I've not actually done much knitting today, but I am nearly finished the final Christmas stocking for my godsons.  Just need to finish the trim, add the heel, and sew in the ends.

Today's calendar door opened to reveal this little monochrome beauty:

That's all for today my dears :)

Advent - day 3

December 3rd has been a little more relaxing than the last couple of days.  Only one relatively short meeting this morning, then a day of looking at old photos and having a good laugh with dad and my step-niece (It's weird somehow thinking of a grown woman as being my niece!)

I started the day continuing to work on the last stocking, but I forgot to pick up the last ball of King Cole Shine before I went to see dad (I'm staying in my old bedroom at my step-dads house), so I had to stop just before reaching the heel as my yarn ran out.  I'll get past the heel marker tonight now that I'm back at my step-dads with my mini stash.

So without the ability to work on the stocking, I picked up the other scandi style bobble hat that I'm working on for my friend Dave.  

Finally, today's smooshy advent gift:

Back again tomorrow my dears :)

Advent - day 2

Day 2 mini update, and among sorting mountains of paperwork, and meeting up with a friend I hadn't seen in over half my lifetime, I managed to finish one xmas stocking:

Not the greatest photo in the world, as dads fireplace is currently acting as temporary storage for a multitude of the afore mentioned paperwork. But you can see how it looks, and get a rough idea of how big it is at least.

The fluffy white trim is King Cole tinsel in the colourway White, knit in garter stitch.

The final stocking has been cast on:

I also opened door number 2:

This is definitely the best advent calendar I've ever had!

Advent - day 1

I know that technically speaking Advent began on Sunday, but these days I figure most people count the first day of December the start of Advent. Certainly that's when we all get to open the first door on our Advent calendars.

I showed you my advent calendar in my last update, and I intend on doing a mini update each day just to show you how I'm doing with my Christmas knitting, and what was behind the calendar door that day.

Today I'm working on a Christmas stocking for one of my godsons. The nurses at the hospital were fascinated by me sitting knitting while we talked through dads pre-op assessment.

The yarn I'm using is King Cole Shine, in the colourway Christmas.  The pattern is a basic afterthought heel sock, just bigger!

What's behind door number 1?

Beautiful!  I love this colourway! 

Each mini-skein is 25g, so once I've opened all 24 doors I'll have 600g of lovely sock yarn. I don't know what I'll do with it yet...

That's all for today my dears :) Back tomorrow!

42

Life, the Universe, and Everything...

They do say that the best way to make the gods laugh is to tell them your plans.  They generally have something a bit different in mind.

I can't write this update without first telling you something of what has happened in my life over the last few weeks.

If you're a regular reader, then you'll know that I had planned on going to Bakewell Wool Gathering, then on holiday with my friends, then writing an update before diving into Christmas preparations.  I guess those things have happened, and I'm grateful for that.  However this blog update was supposed to be followed by a holiday with Stephen to celebrate his 40th birthday, then a nice relaxing couple of weeks to get Christmas knitting done, maybe a visit to Newcastle because I've not been up to visit for a few months.

Instead I was woken on the day I returned from my holiday in Whitby by a phone call from my sister telling me that our step-mam had been admitted to hospital, that the lung cancer we thought was in remission had in fact returned, and spread at incredible speed, and there was nothing more the doctors could do.

As if that wasn't bad enough, while we were there my dad received the results of some tests he'd been having, and we learned that he has Pancreatic cancer.

Through all of my life I have always loved autumn.  It's a beautiful season of the last few warm days, giving way to crisp, frosty mornings.  Stunning colours, rolling mists, and a quality of light that makes everything seem supernatural.  These days I am beginning to dread autumn.  At this time 5 years ago my mam was recovering from major surgery to remove Ovarian cancer, and the shock news that it had spread much further than previously thought, so could not all be removed during the operation.  4 years ago we were grieving the loss of our mam, and worrying about our step-mam after she suffered a heart attack. 2 years ago we were mourning the loss of a family friend so close we count her as family to advanced breast cancer.  This year we lost our step-mam, and our dad received a cancer diagnosis in the same week.  I can't even decide how I feel.  My mood is cycling between crushing grief, stupefying worry, practical repression, guilt for not being there now, and a sort of dull numb feeling.

However, our family deals with stress and pain by doing things to keep our minds off whatever is bothering us.  We all do it.  Not everybody understands it, but it's our way.  I also always need to voice my feelings.  Not everybody understands or likes that either.  But I can only be me, and I am learning that I don't need to apologise for that.  So you're getting the update that I promised, but you've also had a little look into my life and my brain right now.

FOs

OK, so on with the regular stuff.  

I carefully worked out my timings and plans to be sure that I could work on purely selfish projects while on holiday, but get right into the Christmas preparations as soon as I returned.  I've tried my best to stick to that, although I'm currently behind schedule.  However, as I'm no longer going on holiday with Stephen for his birthday I gain an extra week of time, and I'm fully expecting to have plenty of spare time while dad is in hospital for his surgery.

I received the sweetest facetime message from one of my godsons last month.  He has a cuddly toy bunny that reminds him of his marmar, and he sleeps with it every night.  He worried that the approaching winter would mean Bunny gets cold, so asked if I could knit him a sweater.  How on earth could anyone turn down a request like that?!?  After a little discussion we decided that Bunny would need a cardigan instead of a pullover (his head is bigger than his body!) and that it should be green.  Annoyingly I had just 1 button in my button jar that was the perfect size and colour, so I had to settle for some that weren't exactly the right shade of green in order to get a set of 4.

The yarn for this is King Cole Smooth in the colourway 887, and the pattern is adapted from Jack and Jill premature baby jackets by Marianna Mel.

This is a gift for Stephen's cousin's dog.  Although I confess that she may be less impressed with it than her humans!  Unfortunately I have no real dog of my own to model it, so it's being modeled by my plushy corgi from Windsor Castle, and since it's designed to fit a greyhound, it's a bit big for the corgi.

Obviously, all the best dressed greyhounds will be dressing up as unicorns this winter.

The main yarns that I've used for this are Knitting Essentials Sparkle, in the colourway White Sparkle, and Twilleys of Stamford Goldfingering in the colourway Silver for the horn.  The pink for the inner ears, and the blue-purple for the mane were both leftovers from my stash.  The pattern is heavily adapted from To Humiliate the Dog by Amoena Online.

This is the first of my Christmas gifts that I've finished, but the recipient knows exactly what it is, and that he's getting it, so I feel safe posting it before present giving day.  Stephen and Dave have been playing a computer game called Division.  It's the usual post-apocalyptic setting, where everyone runs around with guns killing each other, because that's totally the best way to recover society after a massive catastrophe.  However in this particular game there also seems to be an inordinately large amount of time spent collecting knitwear, especially Scandi style bobble hats.  

The yarns are King Cole Merino Blend DK in the colourways French Navy, and Slate Blue, and Wendy Merino DK in the colourway Brich. The pattern is Duskelue/pompomhat by Tina Hauglund, adapted for 3 colours, DK yarn, and 4mm needles.

WIPs

This is the selfish project that I was working on while on holiday in Whitby.  I chose it mostly because it's pretty, but simple enough to knit while under the influence of a few Bellini's and G&Ts.  Also, it's about at gothy and halloweeny as any knitting project can be.

The yarn is Rye, a merino and silk 4-ply by Batat Hand-Dyed yarns that I bought at Yarndale a couple of years ago.  The pattern is Trailblazer, from Knit, Play, Colour, by Louise Zass-Bangham.

I was working on these before going to Whitby.  I wish I'd got them finished now because it's blimmin' freezin'!!!  I cast them on on impulse because I wanted to use the yarn.  It's one of the yarns that I bought at Bakewell, and I just had an urge to use it straight away.  The stitch markers were bought at Bakewell too.

The yarn is handspun merino and sparkle by Emstead Leicester Longwools, it's roughly light-fingering/heavy laceweight, and the colourway is called "Enchanted Forest".  The pattern is Wood Elves Gloves by Christelle Nihoul.

I'm also working on a second Scandi bobble hat, but so far it's just a circle of dark blue ribbing, and not terribly exciting to look at.

Stash Acquisition

With the exception of the green handspun that's already become half a pair of gloves, this is what I bought at Bakewell Wool Gathering.  This is an actual sweater quantity of luxury yarn for me from The Knitting Swede, it's Charisma heavy lace, in the colourway Dark Science.  Then there's a skein of Merino sparkle sock yarn by Rosie's Moments, in the colourway Anemone.  A skein of Merino sock yarn by Peak District Yarns, in the colourway Fireworks over Brodwell.  Then there are 2 undyed skeins from DT Craft & Design, one DK singles of BFL/Masham, and one 4-ply BFL sock yarn, I'm intending to use these to continue my adventures in natural dying.

Holidays have to include souvenir yarn, and Whitby is no exception, even though I've been there nearly every year for 15 years.  Last year Bobbins moved to a new location, and this was the first time I've been there.  It's sort of weird not going into the old church to buy yarn, but I can't deny that it was nice having the shop closer to where we were staying.  I didn't really need anything, so I just picked up 100g of purple 4-ply pure wool for making socks with pretty cable patterns, and a ball of Debbie Bliss Fine Donegal, in the colourway 54015, that I think will make a lovely textured shawl.  I also picked up some sweet rainbow buttons, and pink elephant buttons while I was in there.  The rest of this haul were actually gifts from Kelly, who spotted the recycled sari silk, and the wooden animal buttons while he was out and about.  I've put the buttons in this section, even though they're also penguins!

This is comfort shopping, plain an simple.  After one especially distressing visit to the hospital dad and I were driving home when he declared that he'd like to go for a drive along the coast to clear his head.  As my favourite North East yarn shop is Ringarosie's in Whitley bay, I figured we could make that our destination, and then meander home afterwards via the scenic route.  I went straight to the back of the shop, past all of the acrylic, past the inexpensive wool blends, this was a level of distress that only the good stuff could help.  

So here we have a skein of merino sock yarn dyed by the lady who runs the shop, in the colourway Heads or Tails, 2 mini-skeins of her hand dyed 4-ply singles in lovely tonal purples, and greens, a crazy Zauberball in the colourway Charisma, and 2 Opal mini-skeins, just because I have a strange fetish for mini-skeins of sock yarn.

This is my advent calendar. It's huge!  It barely fits in my lightbox.  Knit Nottingham got these in in October, and I had to have one.  Now it's going to get me through what promises to be a very tough December as I open a window to yummy smooshies every day.  

I'm going to use this as my touch-stone with the real world throughout December, and do a mini-update as often as I can, every day if it's possible, sharing with you all what's behind the door I've opened that morning.

Penguins

I actually forgot to put this in the last update, but that there is my favourite place in the world.  My lovely, warm, comfy, penguin covered bed, that I finally got to sleep in again for the first time in over 3 weeks last night.  The penguin bedspread is new though, my others all have stars on them, but this one is fleecy, and warm, and perfect for the current sub-zero overnight temperatures.

This is not a badly photoshopped penguin, this is a penguin shaped cushion that was a gift from Krissy to say thank you for my giving her a lift to Bakewell. He now lives in my nest.

Christmas is approaching, penguins are everywhere, including in the supermarkets when I'm doing my food shopping.  That's just cruel.

Hospital entrance halls these days resemble airport departure lounges.  There's always a coffee shop, and a newsagents, and a florist, and a little shop run by a medical charity that sells cuddly toys.  This one is from Rotherham General Hospital where we'd gone for Stephen to be fitted with a prosthetic to help him breathe better at night.

Awkward Penguin!  That's his name forever.  My sister, my elder niece, and I were shopping in Meadowhall and we found a stand of cuddly toys on 3 for 2. There was an incredibly cute dragon with a sad face who I felt needed to belong to Stephen.  There was a pink puppy with blue and orange splodges that my niece loved, and there was this fellow for me.  Except he didn't have a bar code, so when I took him to the checkout they couldn't scan him.  They went back to the stand to find the number to enter him manually, and the number wasn't there.  They tried pushing every button on the till to find him, and couldn't!  Eventually they found a way to put him through just because he was effectively free, but I'm sure they had all kinds of faff later to make sure that their stock count was correct!

I got back to the cottage in Whitby one day to find this on the coffee table in front of the seat that I'd claimed for the week.  Kate had spotted it while out, and decided that I needed it.

This is what happens when you put a penguin lover under stress for a fortnight in the run up to Christmas.  Some of these things were bought for practical reasons - I needed more than one set of PJs if I was going to spend many nights sleeping on my step-dads sofa, it's not a big surprise that I chose some with a penguin in a top hat on them.  I only took a couple of days worth of clothing up with me, partly because I packed in a hurry, and partly because having just returned from holiday, more than half of my regular wardrobe was in the laundry, so I supplemented my wardrobe with a trip to the supermarket to buy pants and sweaters, including one with skiing penguins on it.  As for the rest?  Pure therapy.  2 from the hospital shop in the Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Care building, a couple from supermarkets, and a tumbler from Starbucks where I had a lovely meet up with Deborah, a school friend who I've spoken to on Facebook, but haven't seen in person for 23 years.  I'm looking forward to meeting up with another school friend next week too, so aside from an excuse to spend my entire Christmas savings on yarn and penguins, there are some advantages to the current situation.

Well, sorry for the rather downbeat tone of this post, here's hoping for happier times ahead!  So I'll end on a cheerier note, with this yummy penguin biscuit lollipop that Kelly bought to welcome me home :)

WiPs and Penguins

I'm back!  I said I would be!  Only a week since the last update, and here I am with the promised conclusion, in which there are many penguins.

However, you have to see the projects I'm working on first, oh, and the one that I finished during the week.

FO

This is what this project looked like when I did my big round of photographs last week.

And this is what they look like now!

It's Socktober!  This means it's practically a legal requirement for me to knit some socks.  I also needed something brainless and portable to be working on when the giant beaded shawls weren't an option. So these were cast on on the 5th October, and cast off on the 16th.  

The pattern is what I call my "Work-a-day socks", and uses the Fish-lips-kiss heel by Sox Therapist.  The FLKH provides a sizing method, and a heel-turn method, which can then be used with pretty much any stitch pattern you choose.  I use a 3 & 1 rib for my basic socks, with stockinette on the sole.  What I especially love about the FLKH method, is that it has a convenient section just above the heel that I can use for the increases that I need to accommodate the vast difference in size between my skinny feet, and my fat ankles/calves.

The yarn is King Cole Zig Zag, in the colourway Thistle.

WIPs

This is my main current project.  It's the Celestarium shawl that I cast on back in February as part of an epic Shefknit year-long KAL.  I of course cast mine on at the first available opportunity, and then left it in a project bag for over 6 months, totally untouched.  When I picked it back up again it took me about 5 rounds to decide that I wasn't happy with the work that I'd done back in February, so I frogged it all and started again.  Much happier with it now though.

In case it's not clear, this project is a giant beaded circular shawl, and each bead represents a star in the night sky, visible from the Northern Hemisphere.  Obviously only major, and largely static celestial bodies are depicted, otherwise this would be an impossibility, but the creation of this pattern is still in my opinion a pretty impressive feat!

I'm finding that it's messing with my head a bit right now though.  The logical part of my brain is well aware of how much my yarn consumption will increase as the circumference of the circle increases, but I'm looking at how much of the first skein I still have left, and how many charts I still need to work, and wondering how this can possibly need 1200m of yarn!

The yarn by the way is Sparkleduck Galaxy, in the colourway Figgy Pudding.  These particular skeins are a little unusual, because not only are they 150g skeins, they also have gold sparkles rather than the more usual silver.  The beads were bought at Bakewell Wool Gathering last year, and they are size 6, round, gold, but I don't know the make.  I chose them because they are such a perfect match for this yarn.

My next most active project is this scarf.  You may recall that this is one I've designed myself as a beginner project for learning how to work lace and cables.  This is the test knit, and sample to be photographed for the pattern.  I'm hoping to get it ready to release this winter, but I won't make any promises on that, as I'm not really in control of my own productivity.  Whenever I try to be, my body starts saying "TroLLOLLOLLOLLOL!"

The yarn I'm using is Sublime Yarns Lustrous extra fine merino DK, in the colourway Inkling.

It may not feel much like it right now, but over the summer it was really hot and sweaty at times, and I didn't want to touch any of my wool based projects for fear of felting them.  Mostly during that time I worked on the baby blanket you saw last week, but I wanted something smaller for working on in the cafe when the girls met up for a knit and natter.  So I grabbed the nearest ball of mostly cotton DK, and my favourite crochet hook, and made another square for the Memory Blanket, even though that was supposed to be on hold over the summer.

The yarn for this square is Rowan Purelife Revive, in the colourway ironstone.

This is another blanket square, and I don't know if it will be used for it's original purpose now to be honest, but it will be used somehow.  

I couldn't make it to Shetland Wool Week this year for a number of reasons, but mostly because we would have stayed with Stephens parents, except they are currently staying with us here in Sheffield so that they can visit their new grandson (remember in the last post I said that Stephen had become an uncle?)  This is relevant because this year at Shetland Wool Week there was a community project being worked on to create blankets for the From Shetland With Love charity.  The idea was that visitors would knit a square, in any yarn, any pattern, then sew it into a blanket when visiting the wool week hub.  Sad that I couldn't contribute, because I wouldn't be there, I contacted the organisers to see if I could make a couple of squares and send them up.  I began working on my first square while waiting for a response, but I haven't had a response :(  So instead this will probably become a little charity project of my own.  I'll make random squares when I have spare yarn, sew them together, and donate the finished blanket to a cause that needs it.

This is an experimental spinning project to see how stripes turn out when spun in this fashion.  I've split 2 braids into sections of roughly equal length, and I'm spinning them alternately to create singles with long colour changes, then I plan to chain ply the singles.  Hopefully this should result in a yarn that has purple sections, white sections, and short barber-pole like sections where the 2 colours are plied with each other.  Then we'll see how it knits up after that!

Both fibres are custom blends by Countess Ablaze, in the colourways Ice Queen, and Gothika.

Finally, this is my Alberta Shawl.  I think I might have knit about 4 rows of it since I last showed it to you.  So my grand intention of having it finished by the end of the summer has not worked out.  I am currently doing my best to insist that this is not an issue, and I can knit whatever I want, at whatever speed my body lets me, and it's not a big problem if some things don't get finished when I wanted them to.

The yarn is Fyberspates Gleem Lace, in the colourway Peacock.

Penguins

Yes, here's the bit that I'm reliably told you all like the best!  Much of the colony this time have been rescued and sent to me for re-homing by my amazing and wonderful friends.  I don't know what I've done in a past life or something to deserve you guys, but I am genuinely grateful!

These are Mercury and Taylor, my Fat-Bottomed cruet.  I don't usually name my penguins, unless they come with names already, then they tend to get descriptive names (Fat penguin is basically spherical, Freak Penguin has great big scary eyes), or they are just called "Penguin".  The microwavable penguin that lives in my bed is called "PengWing", because I'm childish.  Anyway, these 2 have names because look at those butts!  

They were a birthday gift from the lovely Carey.  I was a bit overwhelmed by this to be honest, because Carey is a friend I don't actually see all that often, and I don't even expect gifts from my family, so for this to show up out of the blue just because she thought of me when she saw them brought tears to my eyes.

My favourite mindfulness colouring book!  Another birthday present, from the very lovely Liz, and possibly one of the best creations in the world in my opinion.

This fellow appeared in my house without warning or explanation.  I had no idea who was responsible!  I had to put a call out on social media to discover the identity of my mystery penguin benefactor.  It turns out that this was another "saw this and thought of you" moment from my very good friend Cis, who had simply forgotten to message me and let me know that she'd posted it through my door!  Cue another round of baffled, happy tears about why people would do such lovely things for me!

I made this myself!  I sewed!  With a sewing machine!  I broke 2 needles and had to hand sew the final edge.

Even this though was largely thanks to the kind thoughts of a friend, who spotted the fabric in a local haberdashery shop and immediately let me know!

The plan is to make a bigger one to be a knitting project bag, but I decided to do a small scale practice run, and make a dice bag, because I'm a great big geek.  I don't know if that comes across among all the crafting and the cuteness, but it's true.

HE'S SO HAPPY!!!

So, that geek thing.  Turns out that tabletop roleplaying has changed a bit in the 6 years since I was last part of a regular campaign.  Instead of piles of paper, pencils, and the GM carrying around an entire library of reference books, everyone now keeps their character sheets and gaming books on laptops.  My main laptop is more of a desktop replacement really, a bit big for carrying about on a regular basis.  So I decided to splurge on a little notebook style laptop (which is great! I can update my blog from my bed when my body is being recalcitrant! I've now even been able to put the big one away most of the time, without a permanent laptop table in the way, our front room looks much bigger!) Anyway, little laptop needed a protective case for use during transport.  An inordinate amount of time spent searching the internet narrowed my choice down to a purple flowery case with a handle, or this fellow.  Most people said I should choose the one with the handle, but Stephen pointed out how much the happy penguin would cheer me up, even though he doesn't have a handle, and that I would only end up putting the laptop and cover in my knitting bag anyway, so it didn't really need a handle that much...

Stephen was right of course :)

Glass penguins are really hard to photograph!

I was given this by my sweet friend Lottie, because I am the penguin mother!

Due to reorganisations within the company they work for, Stephen and our friend Kate have recently had to move offices.  During the move, many strange items were uncovered.  Stephen claimed this penguin for me.  For reasons that I shall never quite understand, it is apparently a requirement of his adoption that he lives on top of a bottle of gin.  So here is Gin Penguin, looking rather stern, perhaps because he's got a bottle of Bombay Sapphire up his bottom!

Many of my friends are great fans of lego.  I think my sister and Brother-in-law might actually own more lego than our local lego store.  It's not unusual for lego related items to appear on my facebook feed, and recently my friend Sally showed me some lego items that she found in mystery mini-figs bags.  That very night I dragged Stephen to the nearby lego store intending to buy as many mini-figs bags as I could afford until I got the 2 penguin items.  Before buying piles of lego at random though, I asked the shop assistant if there was any way to tell which bags might contain the penguins.  She brought out a bag from under the counter and told me that during break times the staff often sit in the back and poke at the bags to try to work out what's inside them, so they have a few put aside that they are pretty sure are particular figures.  Unfortunately, only one of the penguin related figures was available, and this is the one.

This is the other one!

I shared a photo of the lego wildlife photographer on facebook, and mentioned that I couldn't get the penguin costumed boy.  So Sally was especially wonderful and sent me one of her penguin boys all the way from America!  Another round of "my friends are so good to me!" tears ensued.

Can you tell all of these last few photos were taken on the phone camera, because these penguins have entered my life since I did my proper photographs, and I don't feel up to getting all the gear set up again just now?

Remember Heather, who I mentioned a lot in my last post?  Well Heather volunteered to do something amazing for me this year.  She took away a huge pile of my old dancing and goth kit that I know I will never be able to make use of again, and she arranged all manner of ways in which to sell those things on to people who could make good use of them.  I could never have had the heart to do this myself, but it needed doing to be honest, I invested far too much into my dance outfits to be able to just give them away for free.

Last week she surprised me with a pile of cash that she'd raised for me with all of her effort. She is a total hero!

Most of the cash is being saved for use at Bakewell Wool Gathering this weekend, then my holiday at Whitby at the start of November.  But I decided to have a mini splurge with it straight away, and I bought myself a penguin cushion, and some new snuggly PJs for winter evenings on the sofa with my knitting.  The somewhat startled looking Pug cushion is Stephens, I just thought he deserved to be in the photo as well :) 

Stephen went out to buy wood for the fire, and came back with a singing and dancing penguin for me!  See, I have the best friends, and the best boyfriends in the whole world!  And I love winter, because there are penguins everywhere!!!

That's all for now.  All being well it won't be too long before I'm back, because this weekend is Bakewell Wool Gathering, and I am unusually flush with cash thanks to the incredible efforts of Heather.  Then I'm off to Whitby with several of the many lovely friends who I've mentioned during the course of this blog, and there I intend to drink a lot of wine, and gin, and sit in a quaint little cafe with my knitting for long periods of time, and eat a lot of tasty food, and enjoy time with some of the greatest people on this planet :)