Recovery

See, I said I'd be back soon!  

I'm pleased to say that my health continues to improve, although my throat and lungs still aren't ready for me to face attempting to run or anything daft like that yet.  So still plenty of time for knitting!

For most of the last couple of weeks I've been binge watching Dr Who.  Amazingly, I had never watched a single episode of the "new" Dr Who, and by "new" I mean anything since my 12 year old self had a crush on Peter Davidson!  It's good for knitting along with, so I've been reasonably productive.

Before I show you what I'm currently working on, and what I've finished since last week, I have rather a lot of yarn porn for you...

Stash Acquisition

I've effectively got 3 months worth of new yarn to show you now.  And not just any 3 months, 3 months that have included Christmas, the January sales, and a month when I could benefit from the perks of being Admin Assistant to one of the UKs foremost independent Yarn and Fibre Dyers.  So, grab a cuppa, lock your kids in their rooms, send your other half out on some errand, and protect your keyboard from potential drool...

OK, so I didn't actually get any yarn as a Christmas gift, but I did get a little bit of cash. Some of that was spent at my LYS during the first week in January.

They had a huge pile of patterns for just 50p each!  So I picked up one for a sweater with a penguin on, and one for a mans sweater that I like.

The Peter Pan Cupcake you saw knitted up into a fluffy star cushion in the last post.  The other yarns there are enough King Cole Opium to make a simple drapey sweater, in the colourway "Purple", and Rico Design Superba Las Vegas, in the colourway "004".  Las Vegas seems to be a new yarn, and it has a strand of sparkle running through it, in this colourway, the sparkle is also purple!

There's also some very long sewing needles there, designed for doll making, but very useful for certain aspects of making knitted, or felted toys.

I wanted to buy this fibre when I was at the Saturnalia party, but got distracted by too many other smooshies, and forgot!  I also fell in love with the yarn, but as it was still before Christmas, I was being good (relatively speaking) and sticking to a strict budget so that I still had pennies left for buying gifts for other people.

The Fibre is the red from the blackened rainbow that is Nerds prefer their rainbows darker as a fibre collection.  You can buy a full rainbow of these, a "Nerd Herd"!  The yarn is The Exotic Traveller 4-ply, a gorgeous blend of baby camel and silk that glows in this colourway - "Big fish in a little pond".  Both fibre and yarn are obviously from Countess Ablaze.

Aren't these the cutest little things?  25g balls of sock yarn, designed to be used for baby and childrens socks.  They're by Schachenmayr Regia, and called "My first Regia". Unfortunately, I get the impression that this may be a line that is being discontinued.  My evidence for this is that everywhere seems to have it on clearance at present, and I can't find a link to it on the website.

This pile actually came from 2 different places.  Half of it is from John Lewis, where these were just 50p per ball!  And the other half were from Wool Baa 2, which sadly has now closed down.

If they have colourway names, then I don't know them!  They are labelled by number, and probably too hard to find now for it to be worth my listing them all.  Snatch them up while you can though, they're perfect for things like colourwork, sock yarn blankets, and of course, baby knits!

This is the rest of my little haul from the Wool Baa 2 closing down sale.  I suspect that they spread themselves too thin by selling both fabric and yarn.  They may have been better just sticking with one or the other, or perhaps we in the North simply haven't recovered sufficiently from the economic crisis for small businesses to be safe expanding, we may never know.

I can't complain though, I have a fat quarter of penguin patterned fabric that I intend to use to line a knitted bag that's been in my queue for ages, 2 large, furry pompoms (the pink one will almost certainly be claimed by my niece!) and a couple of balls of Ella Rae Cozy Soft Prints, which is a great yarn for kids knits, being DK, brightly coloured, and easy to wash. They're another brand with a nearly useless website, and boring colourway names!  So I've got colourways "05" (blue-green), and "13"(purples).  

 An early January update of regular colourways on the Countess Ablaze site provided me with the opportunity to get hold of a base I'd never tried before.  Both yarns are Lord of Silk DK, and the colourways are "The beautiful people", and "Zombie princess".  This yarn is a mix of silk, and merino, but because of the way it's plied, and the different ways that the wool and the silk take the dyes, you end up with this lovely marled effect.  I suspect that The beautiful people will become a test knit of a cabled hat pattern that I'm hoping to release in a couple of months.

The fibre is superwash merino, and the colourway is "Attack!" dyed so that it can easily be spun as a gradient.

 Somewhere around about now I realised that I didn't have enough of that first ball of Cupcake to finish the cuddly star.  So I went back to my LYS to get some more, but sadly they had sold out of that colourway.  I chose these 2 as potential replacements, plain white, and pink/lemon.

In the end, the reverse of the star had one point knit in the original pink/lilac, 2 points knit in the white, and 2 points knit in the pink/lemon.  Normally this would bother me, but it's unique, and it's loved, so I don't care!  Also, I now have enough left of both of these to make another couple of baby hats.

These are all from the Odyssey update at the end of January.  Also, I'm particularly pleased with this photo.  Countess Ablaze yarns are very photogenic anyway, but the colours look right in this picture, and that's not always easy to achieve.  

The yarn in the middle is Lady Persephone, a 4-ply BFL sock yarn, and the colourway is "Stored them away out of the smoke".  I love it because it's so perfectly monochrome, if you photograph it on its own then it looks as though you're using a grey-scale filter.

Both of the other yarns are The English Gentleman DK.  On the left is "Secret in my designs", and on the right is "In the confidence of his amazing possessions".  Given my love of purples and greens, it's easy to see why I chose Secret in my designs, but perhaps you might question the other, as it's a lot more orangey than I'd normally choose, but I think it looks like fire, or burning embers, and I think that Stephen might appreciate something made with this.

This was naughty of me.  I was directing a friend towards laceweight gradient yarns when I found this.  Not only is it just shy of a kilometre of red/black gradient, it's also made of silk and cashmere.  Who could resist that?

This is by Violet Lynx Dyeworks, the yarn base is called Aurora, and the colourway is called "Bloodraven".

I have a commission!  Well, I have 2 actually, but this is the yarn that I've got for the first. There are really 6 of the dark grey cotton 4-ply, but the pyramid worked better this way! This commission is for a pair of military style leg-wraps, so it's not going to be a complicated knit, just two very long strips of stockinette.  The fabric can't be too stretchy, which is why I've chosen cotton, even though it's certainly not my favourite material to work with.  Cotton yarns are usually associated with summer, so they tend to be available in either bright colours, or pastel colours.  I needed a dark grey, and I was worried I wouldn't find it, but this is perfect!  Another new yarn I think, I've certainly never seen it before, this is King Cole Giza, and the colourway is simply called "grey".

I have until May to complete this commission, and because it's for a friend I've refused to take any payment beyond the cost of the yarn, and being bought pizza!

Oh, the pink yarn isn't part of the commission by the way.  I don't think it would really work on the 6'4", well built chap that the grey yarn is for!  That is there because this lot came from Deramores, and they offer free shipping on orders over £25.  So adding the tiny ball of regia to add to my pile of mini sock yarn skeins actually saved me some of the postage costs!  

Shortly after the yarn for the first commission arrived, I was given another!  Again, for a friend, so I'll allow her to pay for yarn, and make me tea when I visit maybe, but I won't ask for anything more.  Apart from anything else, she's mother of 2 of my godsons, and quite frankly I'll do just about anything for them!

But Deramores send a discount code with each order, so I went looking straight away for the right yarn.  Blue to match the curtains, and grey because it's Gemma!  And again, a tiny ball of Regia to save me the postage cost!  There's actually another yarn missing from this order, but I was warned that it would ship separately.  It's a sparkly yarn, with sequins, that I may, or may not decide to use alongside the other colours to add a bit of starlight.  I got a free pattern with this order too!

So this yarn is Rico Design Essentials Merino DK, in colourways "28" and "35".

Last, but not least, these two are a result of me spending too much time on Instagram when I'm feeling sorry for myself.  The one at the front is a plain merino sock yarn in the colourway "Cosmic", and the one at the back is a sparkly merino sock yarn in the colourway "Nebula".  Both are by Yarny Love.  Just the sort of thing I love, and exactly what a girl needs to cheer herself up I feel!

WIPs

As always, I have a lot more on my needles than I will show you here, but these are what I've been working on recently.

Socks, in that purple sparkly Rico Design Superba Las Vegas that I bought in the January sales.  I'm also trying out tiny circular needles for the first time with this project.  The cable and needles are only 9 inches long, so you can make socks without needing to use the magic loop technique, but you do need to get used to working with needles that are only and inch and a half long!  I found that working a heel-flap was way too fiddly, so in the end I frogged that bit and put in a scrap of waste yarn to make an afterthought heel.  Yes, I have knit significantly more than you see in this photo, but also I packed the light-box away before I remembered that I didn't have an up-to-date photo of this project!  It's still just a plain stockinette sock, so not that exciting.

The start of something truly epic.  This year the Shefknit girls are running a year-long Knit-a-long with the aim of encouraging us all to push our boundaries as knitters.  The only rules are that the project must involve at least 1200m of yarn, and be something that we consider challenging.  Some of the girls have chosen cabled jumpers, but many of us have chosen Celestarium, by Audry Nicklin, a huge circular shawl, or blanket, with a chart of the stars of the Northern Hemisphere picked out in beads.  If you know your star charts, then you may just about be able to identify 6 stars of Ursa Minor in the section that I've already knit.

I'm using Sparkleduck Galaxy, in the colourway "Figgy Pudding", and this particular batch has gold stellina, so I'm using gold beads.

I really need to concentrate on this one.  The start charts are nothing like a standard repetitive lace pattern, you constantly have to count your rows, and your stitches, so I'm expecting progress to be slow!

This on the other hand should be super fast.  This is the second test knit of my Beginner Beanie pattern that will be the follow up to the Learn to Knit Mitts.  It's knit flat, because learning to join in the round, and magic-loop techniques, are definitely for more advanced patterns!  This one teaches basic increases, decreases, and how to read a pattern that is written with multiple size options.

The yarn is Juniper Moon Findley Dappled DK, in the colourway "108 - Grey", and the pattern should be released in a couple of weeks.

FOs

Errm, so there was only supposed to be one item in this section, that being the thing I refused to show you last week.  It never occurred to me for a second that I'd finish 2 more projects in less than a week!  So this section is a bit more lengthy than anticipated.

This is what I couldn't show you last week.  It's a shawl/scarf that was a very delayed Christmas present for Gemma.  

I cursed this project more than once while it was on the needles.  At first because it took me 3 attempts to get it started without making mistakes, then because it was such a pain to 'read' my knitting when it was a long, thin, curly annoyance on a curly, annoying circular cable.  Then later because I had to pick it up and work on it when I really didn't feel much like doing anything except crawl back into bed and stay there until the heat-death of the universe.

However, this is also the project that saved my love of knitting, and therefore helped me crawl out of the pit of despair I'd fallen into.  Once the pattern is established it becomes enjoyable to knit.  Soothing almost.  And when it's finished it's so lovely that it becomes worth all the effort.

The pattern for this is Sunrise, by Susanna IC, and my version is made with Rosie's Moments Sparkle Sock, in the colourway "Night Sky".

I've had this pattern, and this yarn, in my queue/stash for two and a half years, and never found the time to actually make it.  But for a little while I found myself free to choose a project entirely selfishly, and to work on it as much as I wanted to.  The pattern is simple, repetitive, and effective.   There is a suggested number of lace repeats in the pattern, which I ignored.  I simply worked until I ran out of yarn.  I'd expected with the long colour changes to have to cut a fairly large section out of the yarn when I joined the second ball, but miraculously it started exactly where the first ball ended, and after my cast-off row I had just 7 inches of yarn left.  

The finished article is a very long, narrow, decorative scarf.  I've not measured exactly how long, but in the region of 3 metres.  Perfect for spring accessorising.

The pattern is Falling Water, by Bonnie Sennott, and my version is made using Katia Darling, in the colourway "205".

My most recent finished object is this beanie hat.  It's the first test knit for my Beginner Beanie pattern, and this is the child (5-12 years) size, as modeled by a very cute plushy dog that I bought for Stephen on my way back from Newcastle last weekend.

The yarn is Ella Rae Cozy Soft Prints in colourway "05", and the pattern should be available in a couple of weeks.

Penguins

Just one week since my last update, but I've still managed to acquire a new penguin!  As well as numerous people sharing this heartwarming link about a penguin who was nursed back to health by a kindly old man, and returns every year to see his friend and saviour, I also received a surprise gift from my lovely friend Heather:

Isn't he cute?  He's like my own little woolly gentleman, bringing me love and roses!

Heather was one of the people who joined in with the little knitting workshop that I ran a couple of weeks ago, and I'm so happy that not only did everyone enjoy their evening, also several of them are still knitting now!  I keep seeing peoples progress pop up on my facebook feed, with people saying how much they're enjoying this new hobby.  Heather herself is now working studiously on producing scarves and blanket squares for everyone!  I love it!  I'm so pleased I could share a little bit of the joy and serenity that knitting gives to me.

Here's wishing you all a little bit of joy and serenity too.

TTFN my dears!

I Aten't Ded!

Hello my dears, and Happy 2016!

You'd be forgiven for thinking I'd crawled into a hole and died because it's been so long since I last posted an update.  I may have wanted to a couple of times, but I haven't, and although I have no idea where to start explaining the last 2 months, I have to do it soon, or it may never happen.

I'm going to split the regulars into 2 posts, because there are far too many things to include in just one.  So later in this update you'll see all but one of the things that I've managed to finish since last time, and a fair number of penguins.

But first, my long absence needs some explanation, as does my slightly unstable mood.  So here we go...

January

I'm struggling now to recapture the hope, enthusiasm, and excitement that was most of January for me.  Stephen said I was a different person for a few weeks, like I used to be before I got ill.  The reason for this was largely due to an offer that I received from Countess Ablaze.  She asked me if I would be her Virtual Assistant!  

Well, you all know how much of a fan I am, so of course I was overjoyed!  Working for someone I both like, and admire, being able to work from home, not too many hours, and permission to work whenever my body allowed it, rather than forcing myself to adhere to standard working hours, it seemed perfect!  

For a few weeks it was great, then reality started to creep in.  The unhelpfulness of the DWP, the abysmal government website for registering as self-employed and self-assessment of taxes, the fact that working whenever my body was willing didn't actually fit in with meeting deadlines, immense self-doubt over a particularly large project that I was put in charge of.  I was doing my best, but The Countess is a hard act to follow!  You simply can't comprehend how hard she works, and I was so afraid of damaging her success in any way.

Self-doubt and stress are old companions of mine though.  I was fighting them, as I always have...

February

Then I caught what I thought was a cold.  I worked through it, that's what you do when you've got a cold, right?  Except it turned out that it wasn't just a cold.  The exhaustion I was feeling wasn't just my usual fatigue, the headache wasn't just my usual cluster migraines.  I ended up in hospital while they checked that I didn't have meningitis, or pneumonia. Fortunately it turned out that I simply had a bad case of flu, and that the nausea and sore throat had combined to prevent me from being able to swallow, so as well as the fever, pain, and fatigue that flu causes anyway, I was severely dehydrated, and couldn't take my regular meds half the time.  I couldn't even sit up for more than a couple of minutes.  It was terrifying.

I developed a secondary respiratory tract infection that had me coughing up blood, and unable to speak for 2 weeks.

I lost the entire of February to illness.  I still have a sore throat, and tire even more easily than normal now.  

I also lost the contract with Countess Ablaze.  

It wasn't just the fact that I couldn't work for a month.  She needs someone more reliable, both physically, and mentally, than I can ever be. 

For a while I thought I'd lost even more than that, as I was so low, both physically and mentally, that not only could I not find the energy to knit, I didn't want to.  I thought I'd lost my defining hobby along with everything else. That was really scary.

However I had projects that I'd started before succumbing to the flu that were gifts.  A sense of duty made me pick up my needles as soon as I could bear it, and work on getting those finished at least.  Somewhere in among finishing those gifts, I realised that I was enjoying it after all.  That the old sense of peace and accomplishment had returned.  Here, at least, is something that I can do.

March

I can't imagine that I'll ever come to terms with not being able to work at all.  I imagine that I'll keep searching for options.  I hate being useless.  For now, I'm working on a few patterns that I'd like to publish.  I've just released a free Learn to Knit tutorial (you can download it here), and I'm working on a follow up to that, as well as planning to release the pattern for one of the hats I made as a Christmas gift, and starting work on something I've been meaning to write for ages.

That's a lot of writing, with no pretty pictures!  So how about some finished objects?

FOs

I made 2 of these in early January.  Christmas gifts for a couple of lovely Geordie chaps, hence the black and white stripes.  The yarn is Rico Design Essentials Merino DK, and I didn't use a pattern exactly, I just sort of know how to knit beanies!  However, this is the same as the Beginner Beanie pattern that I'll be releasing as a follow up to the Learn to Knit Mitts.

This is a lovely smooshy cowl that I made as another Christmas gift, delivered in January, to the Aunt of 2 of my godchildren.  The yarn is Fyberspates Scrumptious Aran in the colourway Teal Green, and the pattern is a slightly modified version of Windchill, by Melanie Gibbons.

I know that you've seen something very similar to this already, because I made one of these before Christmas.  This is a cowl in the Griffindor colours, and it was a birthday gift for a friend of mine, to match the one I made for her daughter.  The yarns are SMC Select Extra Soft Merino in the colourway Mustard, and Sublime Extra Fine Merino Wool DK in the colourway Red Pepper.  The pattern is Duotone Cowl by Orange Flower Yarn.

I bought this yarn at my LYS when I popped in to see what they had in the their January Sale.  At the time I was thinking I might use it to make something for my new baby niece. Then my older niece saw it, and loved it so much, that I asked her what I should make with it.  She said I should make a star, so I did!

Actually, this photo is a little bit of a lie.  I ran out of this lovely pink and purple colourway while I was knitting the back, and my LYS had sold out.  So this is a very unique star, with 4 points on the reverse that are different colours to the rest of it!

The yarn is Peter Pan Cupcake in the imaginatively named colourway "827".  The pattern is Rachel Murray's Star Pattern.

These are the AQUA BUNS OF LEGEND!  Apparently.

They were just named Toy cupcakes for The Bug, (The Bug being a pet name that we have for one of my godsons) until The Bug and his sister got hold of them, then they were miraculously transformed into items of great power that could protect one from burning in the lava (my living room rug) while battling the Lava Beast (The Bugs sister).

Originally they were going to be Christmas gifts, but I ran out of time to finish everything, and since The Bug also had plenty of other gifts in his stocking, I figured he could wait a while for these.

The yarns are a selection of various different brands of DK merino,  These were a bit of a stash-busting project!  And the pattern is Cupcake by BeeBec.

These are examples of the Learn to Knit Mitts that I've just released the pattern/tutorial for.

The pair on the right were my first test knit, deliberately using cheap acrylic, and the sort of needles that you get free with knitting magazines, to prove to myself that it is possible to make something nice with very basic equipment.

The pair on the left are made using more of my extensive stash of DK merino that needs using up.  

There is one more project that I've finished in the last 2 months, but I'm not going to show it yet, because I want to give it to its new owner first.  I'll include it in my next post, which hopefully shouldn't be very long in coming!

Penguins

So, January.  That's when the sales are.  Especially sales of things that were designed to sell well over Christmas, but people are less keen on when they're looking forward to spring and summer.  Things like penguins!

Oh, this is probably also a good time to introduce my new toy.  Not all of my photos are taken using this set up, because I'm a real human person, with stresses, and insecurities, and a tendency to procrastinate that results in my not always having time to take a proper photo before handing things over to their new owners.  You might notice from the quality of the photos above that several were in fact taken on my phone at the very last minute! 

Penguins though, they are mine!  I get to keep them, and photograph them at my leisure, so there is a greater probability that they'll be photographed under better lighting, and with a cleaner background than most of my knitting.  Don't expect professional results though!  Not even close!  As you can see, I'm not using some fancy DSLR, just a rather aged IXUS, and I don't have photoshop, just Microsoft Paint, so any "re-touching" is going to be exceptionally basic and amateur, at least for now.  Maybe one day I'll consider getting some photo manipulation software, and learning how to use it, but today is not that day.

So anyway, yes, penguins!  In the form of belated Christmas presents, get-well soon gifts, and January Sale Mania:

Attack Penguin!  A Christmas gift from friends, this fellow is a fairly hefty bean-bag that can be hurled across the room at people who are being worky-tickets!

Silly gift from Stephen because he saw him on the way back from visiting his folks on Shetland over Christmas.

A cheer me up gift from Stephen, because I was feeble and fragile during a physio appointment, and a lady was selling cuddly toys for charity at the hospital, so on impulse he bought this chap for me.

January Sales penguins.  The rectangular cushion unfolds into a small fleecy blanket, the cuddly toy is actually a wheat bag, but I can't bring myself to put him in the microwave! and the glitterglobe/star is actually meant to be a photo frame, but why would I want to replace the penguin with a photo?

My new favourite mug :)  Full of life-giving tea!  You can dress the penguin in all sorts of silly costumes with a re-useable sticker pack that comes with it too!  This was a gift from my friend Krissy and her kids (2 of my godchildren).

Lovely soft wrap that I bought on a whim, because sometimes you can find things that are ludicrously inexpensive, but excellent value on Amazon.

Christmas gift from my friend Heather, but I'm not using him as a coin purse, I don't want him to get damaged being carried about all the time.  Instead he is where I keep those lovely penguin stitch markers that another friend made for me.

Probably the most random, and unexpected penguin gift I've ever received.  My step-dad was having coffee and watching the world go by at his favourite coffee shop when he spotted this on a charity stall!

I wish I could get a better photo of this, but no matter what I do I just cant get the sheer shiny, sparkliness of this to show.  This was my Christmas gift from one of those Geordie chaps who I made a hat for, and fellow disreputable Aunt Tori.  

Private, and Rico!  My own Penguins of Madagascar!  Private was my Christmas present, and Rico was a get-well-soon present from my lovely friend Tony :)  Private is a little squashed, because I fell asleep on the sofa using him as a pillow more than once during my bout of flu :/

Last, but not least, Windmill Penguin!  This was a little craft kit that The Bug apparently insisted that his mummy bought for me while I was poorly.  I built that windmill myself, while recuperating, this may explain why the blades are slightly skew-wiff, and it won't spin for very long!

That is all for now, but all being well, you'll get the missing sections next week.  Take care my dears.

Saturnalia and Christmas

Hello my darlings, I hope that you all had a very lovely Christmas!

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!