Living with Daddy

I meant to post this last time that I was back in Sheffield, but life and EDS got on top of me, so I didn't get around to it.  Still, somewhat later than advertised, I'd like to tell you all what it's like living with my dad again as an adult, and how brilliant it is for my crafts!

This is my dad.  Peter Lynn.  Big P.  Pa.

In this picture he is patiently fixing a mess that I made.  I was plying the singles on this bobbin with the tension too high on my Lazy Kate, I reached a bit where I'd spun the yarn too thin, it snapped, I lost the end.  I went searching for the end, and pulled off a bunch of loops that weren't the end, which coiled up on themselves because I'd over-spun enough to 3-ply.  I got frustrated.  Dad made us dinner, then after dinner he took over searching for my lost end.  I'd all but given up this bobbin as lost, but he saved all but about 1 metre of it for me!

This is exactly the sort of thing for which he has endless patience.  However, give him a bit of computer based technology and he has the patience of a demented gnat.  If it doesn't do exactly what he wants it to do, exactly when he wants it to, then that bit of tech has a high chance of finding itself propelled at significant velocity into the nearest solid wall.

Crafting with dad

We are a crafty family.  We all like to work with our hands.  Grandma did embroidery, crochet, and knitting.  Dads brother was a joiner. My sister makes hand-made cards, and home baked cakes for every school and church event. I knit, crochet a little bit, do beadwork, and spin.  Dad carves things out of wood, makes his own knives, and makes jewelry.

Living together means we both spend a lot of time watching each other work, figuring out what we can do that might be useful to the other.  Now there's not a lot in the way of fibre crafted items that can be useful for woodworking, other than a nice warm hat and scarf for the days when dad is collecting his materials:

However, there are lots of wooden items that are immensely useful for knitting and spinning purposes!  I think dad might have set himself the challenge of making all of them!

Travelling Spinners

I can't remember where we saw it first, but somehow we found out that on the first Saturday in February there would be a group of spinners at the Rising Sun Country Park.  Although we also had a booking for a family meal that afternoon in celebration of dads birthday, we decided that we had time to pop in and chat to the spinners for an hour before going for lunch.  My friend Krissy, who I've known since we were 13, but who now lives just across Hillsborough Park from me in Sheffield, and is also a crafty type (knitting and weaving), was up north visiting her own family at the time, so she joined us for our trip to meet the spinners.

Dad immediately got talking with one of the spinners who also does woodworking herself, finding out all that he could about how to go about making things useful for spinners.  He had already made me a lovely little light bottom-whorl spindle, which I took with me and used to spin up some locally produced fleece that had been provided for people to play with.  I also got talking to some of the girls, and explained why I was up in the Northeast, and that I missed my spinning wheel down in Sheffield.  Immediately I was offered the loan of several "spare" spinning wheels!  Some of these people had multiple wheels, so many that they can't possibly use them all!  Unsurprisingly it turned out that most of the group were on Ravelry, and that they have a group on the forums too.  Stephen calls Ravelry the "Knitting Illuminati".  He thinks it's funny how I always manage to find other "Illuminati" members with out secret yarny handshake where ever we travel!  I think it's brilliant, it gives us a safe way to exchange contact details with people who are basically complete strangers, and that's exactly what we did.

As a result, a couple of weeks later I found myself happily working away in my dad's front room on this:

This is either a Haldane Hebridean, or a Haldane Lewis spinning wheel.  I can't find enough detail in any of the online descriptions to tell the difference, and many people seem to use the name Hebridean by default.  Regardless of the exact model, I love it!  It was loaned to me by a lady named Sue, who also dyes her own fibre, and has a stunning collection of drop spindles that she kindly let dad and I examine, and told us anything that we wanted to know about.  I love it so much in fact that dad bought it for me last week, because Sue was planning on selling it anyway.  I'm determined to pay dad back for this, but he's being stubborn about letting me!

In the background of that photo you can see a large cardboard box.  Inside that box is the brand new shiny red lathe that dad bought for himself.  He is hoping to be able to make bobbins for both of my spinning wheels, and perhaps even for other people who have difficulty in finding affordable bobbins to fit their wheels.  Unfortunately he hasn't been able to get out to play with his new toy as much as he would have liked, because he sets it up in the Summer house, which is, errm, not well insulated to say the least! and the weather has been too cold, and because his chemo makes his fingers tingly when he gets cold, he finds that his dexterity is adversely affected.  He has been able to get some work done on it though, and in the meantime he has also learned how to get YouTube on his TV, and has watched every video you can imagine on making spindles and bobbins!

When it's too cold to work in the summer house, or in the shed, you'll find dad doing this:

I'm sure that Trish would have disapproved of the production of wood shavings and sawdust in the house, but as you can see, dad spreads a large drop-cloth all around, and we hoover up afterwards!  We're not turning the house into a big shed!

In that photo he's working on making me a sunflower swift:

I already have one of these that Stephen bought for me, but that one lives in Sheffield, and it's currently on loan to a friend anyway.  This one is for use when I'm up north, and the base will also be multi-functional.

Here you see the same base in use as a Lazy Kate.  This is actually only partly finished, but even without the finishing touches it still made plying these singles much easier than my improvised method of a shoebox with knitting needles stuck through it!

This is that same yarn plied, and wound onto a gorgeous little niddy noddy that dad made for me.  This particular niddy noddy forms 40 inch skeins, and dad has even carved 40" into the wood so that I never forget and need to work that out again, as well as stamping this with his own mark, so that everybody knows it was made by him.

Currently I'm hand-winding centre-pull balls of yarn using a nostepine that dad made for me, but he is even working on the possibility of a winding device after seeing one in action during a recent visit to Ring-a-Rosie's!

All The Things

So, what do we currently have that dad has made for me?

- Large drop spindle

- Small drop spindle

- Nostepine

- Niddy Noddy

- Sunflower Swift

- Lazy Kate (not a self-descriptive term!)

What is he also in the process of making?

- Blocking frame for scarves

- Bobbins for the Haldane Wheel

- Bobbins for the Herring Wheel

- More drop spindles

- Yarn winding device

Do I have anything else in mind for him to make?

- Small, very basic weaving loom/large weaving frame

Last time I was back in Sheffield, talking to some friends, one of them jokingly accused me of being a slave-driver, that clearly I'm not visiting him in order to care for him during his treatment, but instead I'm forcing him out in the cold with just a pair of cheap gloves with holes in them, in order to make stuff for me!  I pointed out that it's even worse than he thinks, because dad also makes me breakfast in bed every morning when I'm up there!  Seriously though, all of these things are what dad wants to do.  In the same way that I would be miserable without my knitting, he would be miserable if he wasn't creating things too.  He's never happier than when he's engineering something to make someone's life easier.  Also, he cut the holes in those gloves himself in an effort to be able to work outside when it's cold without losing too much dexterity!

Enabling

Because dad is all about being happy, making other people happy, and crafting all the things, he's a massive enabler when it comes to my yarn stash!  Over the course of the last 4 and a half months I have managed to create a new stash that lives at dad's house.  Obviously it is nowhere close to rivaling my home stash, but it has none-the-less become significant in size:

Pretty much regardless of what the doctors say, I think dad has to live forever, because I've got nowhere to put all of this if I ever have to bring it home!

He also let's me borrow his car so that I can continue to visit the Travelling Spinners when they meet at different venues all over Northumbria on the first Saturday of each month.  I've had a brilliant time whenever I've gone along so far!

Basically, what I'm saying is:

I have the best dad in the world!!!

Swings and Roundabouts

Yet again February has flown past at such speed that I failed to get a post in!  But I've got 2 lined up for the next couple of weeks to make up for that!

The first is all the regulars, and even though it's only been a little over 5 weeks, you'll see that I've been a busy bee!  Definitely some progress on the WIP-down effort, however, also a certain amount of undoing my own good work, by casting on yet more new projects...

FO's

This is my daddy :)  Of course he can't just pose normally for a photograph!

Last time I'd only just cast on the hat from this set, so you could't really see just how lovely it was going to be.  Dad was warned that one of his chemo drugs would make him especially sensitive to the cold, so a nice, warm, woolly hat and scarf were recommended.  Of course the first thing I did was take him to a yarn shop to choose the yarn for these things.  By the end of his first session I'd already finished the hat, and by the start of the second session the scarf was ready too - all 6 foot of it!  Dad definitely likes both the hat and scarf, but he doesn't actually wear them all that often, because although the first chemo drug they give him does indeed make him sensitive to the cold, the second one makes him hot and sweaty, so by the time we leave the hospital with drug number 3 installed on it's 48 hour pump, dad is usually boiling hot and grateful of the cold early spring breeze!

The solid colour on both of these is Wendy Pixile, in the colourway 3376, and the variegated yarn is Stylecraft Life Vintage Look, in the colourway Indigo.  The hat pattern is adapted from Irish Hiking hat by Blackhorse, and the scarf uses the cable pattern from the hat for the contrasting panels at each end, but the rest of the scarf is simply worked in 2&2 rib.

I'm very annoyed with myself about these, and not just because the photo is especially awful.  Believe it or not, these are actually green! But I specifically wrote in my project notes that I would be doubling the length of the cuff, because I don't like that cold air gap you sometimes get if your sleeve pulls up a bit.  On the first glove, I doubled the length of the cuff, as intended.  Then I took a break in order to get Christmas knitting done, and forgot about doubling the length of the cuff when I made the second glove.  Of course I didn't notice this until I'd already knit 3 of the fingers, and by that point I just wanted the project to be finished.  I couldn't face ripping back.  So these gloves don't actually match, and there is potential for a draught up my right sleeve, although to be fair, when I do have my coat on, you can't see that there's any difference.

I think if I were to knit this pattern again, then I'd not only ensure that the length of the cuffs matched, but I'd also work the entire cable pattern through the back loop. I think that would give it much better definition.

The yarn for these was handspun by Emstead Leicester Longwools, and the colourway is "Enchanted Forest".  The pattern is Wood Elves Gloves by Christelle Nihoul.

These are incredibly addictive!  I'd only intended on knitting 3 to begin with, but in the end I think I made 8.  5 went to the Oncology Day Unit at Rake Lane, along with a 6th that was made by Yasmin.  The ODU has the Owl as their mascot, and the day that I knit the last couple of these while sat in there I received a lot of interest in what I was doing!  The very first one that I made ended up being claimed by my eldest niece, because she thought it was so cute, and once I'd made the ones I gave to the ODU, a few of my friends commented that they would like one, so I made one for an Owl-o-phile (Is that even a word? Remind me to look up the proper terminology for this phenomenon once I have internet access again! - edit: I looked this up, and couldn't find the proper term easily) and I made one for another friend to give as a gift.

All of these owls were made using scraps of DK yarn left over from other projects, and any DK yarn will work.  I bought glue dots to secure the felt eyes and beak, and used tiny buttons for the irises.  The pattern is Owl Puffs by Jenna Krupar.

Every year Innocent runs this charity drive in aid of Age UK by putting tiny hats on their smoothie bottles, and every one that is sold results in a 25p donation to the charity. Although a few of my friends have done this before, I never have, but I had all of these little bits of DK left over from making owls, and squares, and preemie items, just when the knitting magazines started publishing patterns for the tiny hats.  It only seemed logical that I make a few!  I actually made 10 in total, and Yasmin made another 6.  I've just packaged them up to send off today.

The pattern that I used came from the March issue of Let's Knit magazine, where there are also charts for some of those little fairisle type patterns.  But there are also patterns available in other knitting magazines, and on the Big Knit website.

Technically this isn't really finished, because it hasn't been blocked yet, but that's something that I'll be talking about in my next update, and has been delayed deliberately for Reasons. The knitting part is all done though, and at present this is 5' 6" of super simple lace and cables patterned scarf.  Even though it's completely the wrong time of year to be releasing scarf patterns, I hope to have the pattern for this ready for release within the next month, complete with tutorial notes for those learning lace and/or cables for the first time.

The yarn I used for this is Sublime Lustrous Extra Fine Merino DK, in the colourway "Inkling".

As you can see, that's great work for just one month, at least for me it is.  2 projects that were on my long-term WIP-down list, 2 great stash-busting projects, and 2 really useful items for someone I love!  

So I ended February feeling accomplished, and ready to tackle some more of those old WIPs...

WIPs

Then I started working on these again.  Nothing but the deepest of friendships could have kept these on my active project list.  As you can see, I still haven't taken a new photo, because this is still the most exciting photo I can imagine of this project, with the exception of the point at which there are TWO complete leg puttees to photograph together.  The second one is about half way finished, and I have added about another 6 inches to it over the last couple of weeks, but neither my hands, nor my brain are enamoured of this project, so I tend to do a couple of inches at a time, then put it down for a few days.  It WILL get finished, just slowly, and not as my primary focus.

These have no pattern, they are simple stockinette for roughly 2.5m, followed by regular decreases down to 4 stitches, then about 50cm of i-cord.  The yarn is King Cole Giza, in the colourway Grey.

I've been asked by a friend to create a hand muff for her grandmother.  At first I thought this would be the quickest, and easiest of commissions, but then I thought about it more carefully, and realised that just 1 layer probably wouldn't be warm enough.  So I'm using 2 colours of super fluffy yarn and the double knitting technique to create an extra thick, soft, and warm fabric for this muff.  This has the added advantage of making it reversible!  So one side is pale blue, the other is white, with loose green cuffs to ensure that no cold draughts sneak through.

I'm not using any particular pattern for this, although I may write it up later if people seem interested.  The yarns that I'm using are; King Cole Smooth dk, in the colourway 887, and King Cole Cuddles Chunky, in the colourways "White", and "Sky".

These are sort of progress towards a long-term WIP, but it is a WIP that I'd classified as "So long-term I'm not going to try to finish it this year".  These are crochet squares for my Memory Blanket.  

These are just your basic 7" granny squares, and the yarn is Lousa Harding Cassia Prints, in the colourway "Feisty".

Another square, for another blanket.  Originally I started making squares to be sent to Shetland for charity blankets, but because I couldn't get to Shetland myself, I couldn't take them along, so instead I'm slowly making more squares to sew into my own charity blanket. This project lives at Stephen's house, so I'm only getting to work on it for a day or 2 once every couple of weeks right now.  Even that should be enough to finish a full blanket by the end of the year.  

Each square will be knit in whatever pattern I feel like doing at the time, so this one is just garter stitch worked from corner to corner.  This particular square is actually made from Trish's left over yarn, and there was no ball-band, so other than it being DK, I have no idea what it is!

This was a pure compulsion to cast on some socks, just because it's what I felt like knitting at the time.  Socks are also perfect train knitting, and I really didn't want to be working on the leg wraps while crammed into a crowded carriage.  

I'm not even sure that I really use a pattern for my own socks any more, but I guess the closest is probably A Nice Ribbed Sock by Glenna C, and the yarn is King Cole ZigZag in the colourway "Bilberry Pie".

I'm not actually sure if I'm allowed to say exactly what all of this is for!  So I'll settle for these are part of my contribution for a group yarn bombing project, and I very much look forward to being able to share photos of the final installation.

The hearts and flowers are all crocheted off the top of my head, and the one square that I've made so far is a simple checker board pattern.  The flowers are all made using King Cole Flash DK in the colourway "Fruit Salad", the hearts and square are made from The Women's Institute Premium Acrylic, in the colourways "Light Purple", and "Yellow".

For reasons that will be fully explained in my next update, I'm doing quite a bit of spinning at the moment, and this is one of the projects that I have on the go.  I'm intending it to be a true 3-ply, gradient yarn.

The fibre I'm using is 100% Merino, dyed by Countess Ablaze, in the colourway "Attack".

This one will be a chain-plied 3-ply yarn, and quite unusually light for me, but I just loved the sparkle, and the really subtle colouring.

The fibre is a blend of Cheviot, and trilobal Nylon, dyed in Northumberland by Sue's Crafts, in the colourway "Cherry Blossom".

Errm... I think I might just have too much on the go right now!

Stash acquisition

I'm starting my stash section with this, because these are my reward for backing a kickstarter campaign last year.  Isobel of Izzy Lane keeps the UK's largest slaughter-free flock, and last year she decided to start producing yarn from that flock.  I have to admit, I'd expected the yarn to be a bit on the 'rustic' side, given many of the sheep are older, and a mixture of british breeds, which usually aren't known for the softness of their wool. However, this is actually a rather lovely, soft, and quite bouncy yarn.  I'm really looking forward to knitting with it.  

The yarn is 100% wool 4-ply, and the colourways I have are "Forest Green", and "Natural Grey".

This was very naughty.  I did want a skein of this colourway at some point, but I had intended on waiting until I'm not spending the vast majority of my expendable income on train fares.  However Jillian regularly runs giveaways on Instagram, usually scrummy yarn, tasty tea, and a pretty project bag.  This particular giveaway included a penguin patterned project bag.  Now you get one entry for sharing the post, but you can get additional entries by buying yarn and/or stitch markers with the giveaway code.  I was determined to maximise my chances of winning that project bag, but sadly I wasn't successful.  

The yarn is Superwash Sock, by Mothy and the Squid, in the colourway "Deadly Nightshade".

Another naughty, which I'll justify because buying it supports a friend's business, and I get a discount!  Katie shared a selection of her yarns on Instagram (Instagram and insomnia, my downfall!) and I just loved the contrast of these 2 colours together in the same skein.

The yarn is Variegated 4-ply Merino, by Yorkshire Dale Yarns, in the colourway "Lenten Rose".

I had a hankering to make socks, I needed the right size of needles, and I needed a 4mm crochet hook too.  I also wanted to visit Barbara at Ring-a-Rosie's to see how she was doing, as she's had a similarly dreadful winter to mine.  I picked up this yarn while I was there just because it was so pretty, but inexpensive.

This is King Cole ZigZag, in the colourway "Bilberry Pie".

I needed yellow for the yarn bombing, and yellow is not a colour that you'll find a lot of in my stash.  In fact basically the only solid yellow has come free with magazines, or was bought in small amounts to be the beak and feet of penguins.  Hobbycraft provides, with their regular 3 for 2 offer.  I achieved the almost impossible on this visit to hobbycraft by leaving having only bought 1 thing that I wasn't intending to buy before I went in!

So these are all Women's Institute Premium acrylic, and the colourways are "Light Purple", "Teal", and "Yellow".

I have borrowed a spinning wheel while I'm up in Newcastle, and the very lovely Sue, who loaned me the wheel, also dyes fibre for sale.  I chose these 2 to get me started.

On the left is a blend of Cheviot, and trilobal Nylon, in the colourway "Cherry Blossom", and on the right is Jacob Humbug, in the colourway "Sunburnt Zebra".

Another fibre dyed by Sue.  I went along to a meet up of the Travelling Spinners, and Sue had a range of her fibre there, including a few braids that had lost their labels and therefore ended up in the bargain bin.  I think this one looks like fire turned into fibre.

As I said, this braid had lost it's label, but it looks and feels a lot like the Cheviot/nylon blend that I bought earlier.  It didn't have a name of any sort, so I've called the colourway "Like Fire".

Penguins!

I've got a few to include here that were actually Christmas presents, but I hadn't had the opportunity to get photographs, so let's start with those:

My Christmas gift from Stephen's parents was this beautiful little personalised penguin tealight-lantern.  I haven't had the opportunity to use it yet, but it will be used to give my bedroom a lovely cosy glow :)

Two of my godchildren chose these for me, and they're amazing!  Those little blue things are whistles, and when you whistle the penguins sing and dance, but best of all, you can set them to sing as a 'choir'!

Consumables make the best presents I think.  In this day and age those of us priviledged enough to have been born into a developed country have a tendency to put far too much stock into objects.  Among my friends of late the theory of minimalism has been growing, and a lot of people have been donating their excess Stuff to charity.  Christmas often doesn't help with this urge to Own Many Things, as people have a desire to make people they care about happy, so they spend time and money that could be used for better things just to demonstrate their affection.  Often by mid-January we have already realised that we are never going to use the gimmicky gifts that we recieved, and they are added to the clutter at the back of a cupboard.

Now obviously when your friends have obsessions and hobbies it is much easier to find a gift to please them.  I am never going to find even the cheapest and tackiest of plastic penguins to be wasteful.  But if you can combine an obsession-based gift, with a consumable, that is the greatest thing ever!  Hence my belief that these penguin biscuits from my friend Krissy and her family, were one of the best things possible to buy for me.

Yasmin drew this for me.  She has some exceptional artistic ability, and for her this was basically a doodle.  I love it, and I've stuck it to the side of my main penguin storage unit.  I should point out that I have absolutely no artistic ability what-so-ever, and as proof of this I'll include one of my own penguin doodles at the end of this post.

Yasmin also texted me with a photo of a penguin bedding set when she was out shopping one day.  As the shop that sells this bedding was very close to a shop that sells woodworking tools it was quite easy to convince my dad to take me there and see if I could find one for myself.  I was very lucky, not only was there just 1 double duvet set still available, it was also in the post-Christmas sale, because apparently as spring approaches people want butterflies and cherry blossom, not penguins and polar bears.  Foolish people!

There's a little museum in the Winter Gardens in the centre of Sheffield, and they often sell items with this brilliant quote from John Ruskin in the gift shop.  There is probably a reason for this, but I don't know what that reason is.  I'm just glad that they do!  The quickest way to the train station from the centre of town is directly through the Winter Gardens, so last time I was heading up north I was distracted by my new favourite tote bag :)

Also at the museum in the Winter Gardens they sell several different cuddly penguins.  I really wanted a lovely knitted penguin that I saw there, but it was definitely too expensive, but this little chap was affordable instead.

Can you imagine a more perfect valentines card for me than this one, with felted penguins, and crocheted hearts, and red glitter!  Thank you Kelly :)

Note:  Stephen, please don't feel bad!  If I loved you for your ability to follow social conventions as regards the sending of greetings cards, then our relationship would have problems.  Fortunately, I am not foolish enough to base my trust in your love for me on your memory of birthdays, or interest in commercialised 'romance'.  Also, you have bought me many other random penguins ;)

Yes, it's a tissue box.  I've had several boxes of tissues with penguins on them over the years, and even just over this winter, but this is definitely my favourite, and worthy of an entry in my blog, just because it has little fold-out wings and feet!

That's all for now my dears, I'll be back soon with interesting tales of living with my daddy :)

Here's that doodle I promised you:

Progress

Happy New Year my dears.  I hope that you all had a lovely Christmas.  It's amazing to me to think that it was only a month ago, so much has happened since then.

Following his surgery, my dad has made an excellent recovery, and is now preparing to begin his chemotherapy next week.  I have stayed up here in Newcastle with him, and I'll be back every other week over the course of the next 3 months for each treatment session.

I've been staying here for over a month now, and we've settled into a little routine, with plenty of time for the many appointments and errands that we've needed to deal with, but also with plenty of time each evening for watching a movie, or a few episodes of Blacklist, and getting some good knitting time in.  As a result, I'm really quite pleased with my progress so far in 2017.

I've set myself a resolution to reduce the number of WIPs that I have.  Not counting spinning projects, or projects intended to be long-term, I started this year with 18 works in progress.  Not only that, but last night I was reading through some of my old blog posts, and I realised that 4 of my outstanding items were also on my WIP-down list in October 2014!  I really do need to get them finished soon!

So let's get on with the regulars, and see how I'm doing:

FOs

This one doesn't count towards my 2017 WIP-down, because I finished it in December.  This is a little Ballet Wrap cardigan for my baby niece.  The pattern is from Baby & Toddler Knits Made Easy, and the yarn is Lody Long Cherub DK, in the colourway 9195.

Technically these do count as part of my WIP-down, because they were on the needles before January 1st.  I only cast them on on 30th December though, and they were finished by January 2nd, because I really needed some warm woolly socks before we went to Ashington Woods for my dads weekly volunteer course.  The pattern for these is Comfy DK Socks, by Laura Schickli, and the yarn is Jarol Heritage DK, in colourway 03.

I felt the need to knit some premature baby items to give to charity, just as Trish would have been doing at this time of year with the yarn left over from her Christmas knitting.  I cast these things on in December, and finished them on the 3rd of January, so this little set also counts towards my 2017 WIP-down.  I use this pattern a lot, for both charity knits, and knitting clothes for toys, it's very easy to adjust and adapt, but this particular version is knit exactly according to the pattern.  The hats are knit just off the top of my head, from a sort of internal basic hat pattern.  

The cardigan pattern is the Jack & Jill - Premature baby jackets, by Mariana Mel.  The yarn is Peter Pan Moondust DK, in colourway 3010.

I felt it was unfair of me to knit a new cardigan for my younger niece, and not also make something for my older niece.  She loves pink and girly (she also loves pirates, and adventuring!) but I thought she might like this very pretty cardigan design.  It doesn't count for my WIP-down, because I didn't get it cast on until January was already upon us.  The pattern is Dirghagama Girls Cardigan, by Henriette Roued-Cunliffe, and the yarn is Sublime Yarns Extra fine merino wool DK, in the colourway "Frappe".

This definitely counts for my WIP-down, because this was the entirely selfish project that I cast on for my holiday in Whitby back at the start of November, and completely abandoned as soon as I got back until after all of my Christmas knitting was finished.  I'm particularly enamoured by the way this colourway has pooled on this project, those bright green criss-cross patterns, and the alternating grey and purple triangles, I just love it!

The pattern for this is called Trailblazer, and it's from the book Knit, Play, Colour, by Louise Zass-Bangham.  The yarn is a 4-ply merino and silk blend by Ba'tat Hand-dyed yarns, in the colourway "Herman Munster".

This is my final finished object for this post, and it's also the WIP-down project that I'm most pleased to get finished so far, because despite being so small and simple, this has actually been on the needles since November 2015!  I simply had no urgent reason to finish this, so it was put to one side while I worked on other things.  In case it isn't obvious, this is a phone cover.  It's simple moss stitch, which I think looks gorgeous in this colourway, with a cable motif that is called Endless Knot Cable, by Melissa Walshe.  The yarn is King Cole Zigzag, in the colourway "Emperor".

WIPs

I am continuing to work on some older WIPs, but I only brought a handful of the smaller WIPs up to Newcastle with me.  I'll need to pick up some more the next time I'm back in Sheffield.  This is the last of those that I brought with me.  I cast these on immediately after Bakewell Wool Gathering, and put them to one side when I went to Whitby, mostly because separating stitches for fingers while under the influence of a few glasses of gin didn't seem to be a terribly wise move!

The pattern for these is Wood Elves Gloves, by Christelle Nihoul, and the yarn is a roughly 3-ply merino and sparkle handspun by Emstead Leicester Longwools, in the colourway "Enchanted Forest".

Perhaps I should feel bad for casting on new projects, but I can't feel bad about this one.  When we've been visiting the Oncology day unit for various pre-chemo procedures, we noticed that there seemed to be a large number of owls featured in the decor.  So I asked what the significance of the owls is, and it turns out that they are the unit mascot.  Of course this means I want to knit a little family of owls to add to their collection.  This is the first of at least 3 that I intend to make.

The pattern is Owl Puffs, by Jenna Krupar, and the yarn is just little bits of left-over double knit.  Although as you'll see later, I may have also bought some inexpensive new yarn that I intend to use some of to make this fellows brothers and sisters.

One of the likely side-effects of dads chemo is increased susceptibility to the cold.  Dad is a pretty hardy creature, but it's pointless to let him suffer when it's so easy for me to make a nice hat and scarf for him.  So we went to the nearest LYS and he picked out some yarn.  I'm making him a classic cabled beanie, with a contrasting folded brim.  The pattern is adapted from the Irish Hiking Hat, by Blackhorse, and the yarns I'm using are Wendy Pixile in colourway 3376 for the brim, and Stylecraft Life DK Vintage Look, in the colourway Indigo for the main part of the hat.  I'll be using both of these yarns to make a matching scarf later.

Stash Acquisition

I'm trying to be good and not spend money that I'm going to need for travelling between cities on buying yarn, but there's been a couple of inexpensive things I've bought for specific reasons, plus one bargain I couldn't miss out on, and one middle of the night comfort shopping online incident.

This is the Jarol Heritage Tweed that I bought for making the warm comfy socks I needed for cold days in the woods, or walks on the beach with Sybil the adorable pug.  Inexpensive, but it has just enough wool content to actually really keep you warm.  The colourway for this is "03".

This was my bargain.  10 balls of Sirdar Snuggly 4-ply for just £10!  That's a sweater quantity for me!  For a tenner!!!  I can't decide between a lovely, drapey, long-line garter stitch, cowl neck sweater, or a long, intricately cabled cardigan, but this is going to become one of those patterns.  Oh, the colourway is 0444, in case you're wondering.

This was my moment of weakness and comfort shopping.  One night when I couldn't sleep, and I'd allowed myself to think too much about recent events, and what is yet to come, I distracted myself with instagram, and saw a new batch of "Fizzy Blue Raspberry" was available on sparkle merino sock.  I didn't even engage my brain before I found myself on the Mothy and the Squid Etsy page.  It was more-or-less the definition of "shut-up-and-take-my-money".  While browsing the page in search of that purple and turquoise speckled beauty, I also spotted "Dark Star" on sparkle sock, and my finger slipped on the 'add to basket' button.

These are what we bought when looking for yarn to make dads warm hat and scarf, and more owls for the Oncology day unit.  That's 3 balls of Wendy Pixile, colourway 3376, and 1 ball of Stylecraft Life DK Vintage Look, colourway "indigo" for the hat and scarf, 2 balls of Hayfield Bonus Glitter, one in colourway 222, and the other in colourway 226, and 1 ball of James C. Brett Misty, in colourway R8 for owls, and other similar silly projects.

Penguins

I have to confess that not all of my penguins can be included this month, because there's a few down in Sheffield that I forgot to photograph, so they will have to wait until next time.  Still, I don't think there's any real lack of penguins to show you...

See!?!  There was a bit of a theme to my Christmas presents.  Basically Gin and Penguins.  Represented here are gifts from dad, Kelly, Stephen, my sister and her family, family Milbanke, Liz, and Ferret.

There was a fair amount of chocolate too.  But even that was often also penguin related.  This one was from Cis and Steve.

Yes, I did manage to make myself eat them!  No confectionary is so cute that the need for chocolate will not over-rule my reluctance to bite it's head off.  These were from Krissy.  Her kids (2 of my godchildren) also gave me penguiny gifts, but they are among those still in Sheffield to be photographed another day.

One last thing...

Yasmin spotted a link to buy these, and it needed to be done.  In case you're having difficulty reading what's written on the mug, it says: "I'm not anti-social, I'd just rather be knitting than talking to idiots."

Quite apt I feel given how much of my social media is currently filled with discourse on the subjects of Brexit and President Fart.  But talking (or writing) about knitting is also fine :)  Although I really must apologise for the continued poor quality photos.

Be excellent to each other my dears!  Back again soon.