All Fingers and Thumbs

I'm rubbish at the lovely end of year posts I so like on other people's blogs but I was enjoying looking at my photos and found that what I think of as a year that missed out on its full craft potential was actually still quite delightfully crafty - and I learnt to crochet! And sew! (Almost!!) I found a Picasa collage feature and here's how it made 2011 look. Hope it's been a good year for you and wishing you a wonderful 2012.

It seems that I did so well making a secret gift for my beloved that I have now wiped it from my mind! Luckily I remembered to give it and the beloved seems to love it. Pattern:  Skye Rib Hat  by Louise N Yarn: Fyberspates Chunky Scrumptious - Biscuit Needles: 4.5mm circular Ravelry page It's tricky making a surprise gift for someone you live with but there was a conference he had to attend in late November which gave me just enough time to squeak in this little beanie. It was worth the rush for the happy surprise on Christmas morning. Third time making this pattern. Still a winner in my eyes. And in his.  As he is known to tell me  plaintively  from time to time he gets relatively few hand knits compared to the amount that leave this house.  Bad neglectful me! It would be hard to imagine a more appreciative recipient. Often seen wearing a pair of his socks about the house. Cold weather rarely sees him without his...

Just three knitted gifts given this year and, as I finished the last one today in the car on the way to see my friend, that seems like just the right amount! Ravelled: here  Starting with that one, it was a knit I was delighted with all the way up to when I tried it on at the end to find that it was on the large size, particularly in the arms which are quite Mr Tickle-ish in proportions! Snapped here with the ends still needing sewing in, a perfect job for a car journey. Exemplary planning in action. Happily my friend is the sort who is simply delighted to receive a hand made gift and was sportingly keen to roll up any amount of excess armage. I choose the recipients of my knifts wisely! Spring Forward socks were finished on Christmas Eve, barely off the needles before happily cosying toes. I used a cotton stretch yarn - the kind that is constructed as a tube with an elastic thread within. I didn't love it to knit because it has a somewhat corrugated feel, but it's n...

Whatever festivities you are partaking in at this time of year I wish you all every happiness and much light xxx

 The Christmas spirit rolled on in this weekend and as soon as I started having more fun the energy came on with it.  I made a ton of sweets - and let the creative chaos reign! I've made three  kinds of fudge - these two are in the shortlist for the go to recipe . Caramels . Peppermint Bark . Candied Orange Sticks underway.  I even saw a bit of my inspiration Willie Wonka this evening with my Christmas movie loving cousin and the delightfully soppy Mrs Miracle 2 with sock knitting in hand. This has been everything I could have wished the weekend before Christmas would be. Why is it so easy to get caught up in the must dos? Do the want tos shall be my new motto! 

It's been a beautiful weekend and a beastly one. Some lovely time with friends and the Mr - eating out and tripping round the Christmas market and relaxing at home and then some grumpy time that I wish would just go away. I wonder whether I'm always a little like this in the run up to Christmas. My calm just strains at the seams until panic peeps out? Something about trying to just stuff in one too many activities. It's not the gift makes really this year. I'm just about on schedule. Though a bit more seaming and a bit less playing with crochet blanket squares might get me a little closer to the wrapped moment! It was the thought of putting up decorations that sent me over the edge today. More specifically tidying and cleaning and finding the decorations. There's something about this time of year which makes me want to do more and make more at a time of year when I have less and less energy to spare. Each short day as we head to year's end I feel a little...

I've got some very special yarn tucked in my stash. Jade Sapphire silk/cashmere 2ply. It was love at first sight/stroke when I was lucky enough to win it a long time ago now . I've written about its treasured status  before.  I've been waiting to find a pattern that I thought would suit it, show it off, be special but not so special it shouts over the yarn. I thought for a while that it might become a very simple basketweave scarf like I made for my Mammy's birthday this summer . That thought never became action though and this weekend I think I found the yarn's destiny. Fernfrost by Anne Hanson I think it was the Yarn Harlot's version I was admiring. Then I was imagining it in a darker colour and wondering whether I had anything suitable stashed. Then I hopped over to Anne's site Knitspot  and f inally when I saw the words  Jade Sapphire Cashmere/Silk Laceweight the penny dropped! I'm impressed at my patience as I haven't actually ca...

This yarn is Good. In arriving with me it has generated a wonderfully tiny carbon footprint, it comes from an independent business with aims and policies that I fully support and I feel a little reflected glow of Goodliness about using it and pleasure that I put my money where my heart is. I'm also a little concerned though. It's rather delumptiously woolly and rugged feeling, traits I admire and covet in yarns for certain items but I'm making a cowl with it. A snuggly next to the tender underchin skin gift of a cowl. Hmmm understand my concern?  I went for the 50/50 wool and alpaca blend as I'm using it in place of the 50/50 wool and alpaca Blue Sky Alpacas bulky yarn. I was intent on using that yarn as that is what the pattern is written for and I had a specific request for this precise cowl. My Auntie picked it from the book she kindly gave me last Christmas. I love gift knitting when I know it will be appreciated so I was really focusing on getting it ...

.. it feels like all I've done is work though as I uploaded my camera card to find the picture I wanted to accompany this post I found these before and after shots of our kitchen cupboard so it looks like I've been present and domestic-ing in the house without even realising it!  There's something about taking a before photo of tidying up that makes it so much more bearable for me. It still looks much more like photo number two and I'd forgotten it ever got as bad as number one so these were a nice surprise! I have also been gently knitting away on a chunky cardigan that is getting close to the end - rather thrilling though I still dare not call it a Christmas present for fear I will curse my fingers. Still I was feeling a bit too much work makes Jack a dull girl and then I had a rather splendid crafty weekend. On Saturday I spent four hours dedicated to THE dress - it's really nearly there now - metres of hem to be hand sewn will surely flash by! ...

We're just coming to the end of a fortnight off work, it's been such bliss, a fortnight feels like a real luxury and definitely helped us really relax. We've been flitting around a lot: we started in Bath, then stayed on a farm just south of Bristol, from there to Dorset though I don't remember much of that as I was stuck in bed with a bug - boo! We went up to near Manchester to visit our friends and their two handsome little boys and from Manchester down to south Wales to see more friends and their scrumptious little girl. Phew! We've been home a couple of days and for such total homebodies as us this has probably been our favourite part. A gentler pace in my brain is definitely my favourite souvenir but as we've shopped in most places we stopped we picked up a wealth of more tangible things too. The car boot was straining to hold it all by the end! I've  made a start on some Christmas gift shopping (minimal Christmas knits this year!) and picked up ...

By Sunday night it was the rewind button I was after, I savoured my weekend but it still went past too fast. Ah well, happy memories made and it'll soon be Friday again. On the crafting front there was a great discovery. The Mr is happy to sew in ends on granny squares! He's done most of them while we were sofa loafing. He even seems to quite enjoy it. Hurrah! That left me free to begin sewing the squares together. I've loved making my squares in large part because of the fun of choosing of colour combinations and deciding who nestles next to who is more of the same kind of play. Sometimes it's easy to pick out the next one and at other times I found I needed to look from a distance or place a different one and come back to the gap in question to feel happy about settling neighbours in. It's growing from the centre out and I love having the squares spread out around to choose from but I'm wondering whether I should have left my final few squares to ma...

Somehow we're at the weekend again - where is that pause button? I'm certainly trying to push firmly on it right now. I love love love the feeling when I finish work and have the whole weekend ahead of me.  Today everything is aligned for the optimum Friday evening experience. It has been the most glorious weather here today. The moon was still showing in the fresh morning sky when I left for work and it has been my absolute, number one, favourite type of weather all day. Clear bright blue sky and sunshine with an apple fresh crispness to the air. More of the same forecast tomorrow I think. It's begging for a scrunch in some leaves. I've got butternut squash and blue cheesey pasta in mind for supper, no doubt to be scoffed in front of an episode from The West Wing box set. I might even manage a row or two of knitting. Then we have little planned for this weekend, a lovely lunch out on Sunday and just lots of time to do what we fancy. It really stre...