Time to Celebrate!

It’s been a while since my last blog, mainly because most of my recent activity has been in preparation for Christmas, and I didn’t want to spill the beans before everyone had their gifts. You may notice a slight change to the post styling this time round, mainly because I’m giving a new blogging software programme a go, so we’ll see how it goes.

It was my birthday in November, and my brother and sister-in-law kindly gifted me some wool. What better at this time of year than a crochet hat and scarf! I used a chunky skein for each piece, and although the scarf is skinny, it wraps twice round and is toastie warm!

We have some friends who got married on the Winter Solstice this year, and in exchange for knitting supplies, I agreed to be official photographer for the day! It was a lovely day, particularly being led by Morris musicians to the reception venue in the snow. I didn’t pass up the opportunity to fashion a new outfit, and here it is in it’s component parts. I made a shift dress from the ‘Sewing is Easy’ Alexander Henry fabric I mentioned before, and paired it with my scarf I finished for the last blog. I also constructed a fascinator using two small Christmas decoration glittered birds from Gisele Graham, and some knitted squares with a crochet carnation to match the scarf. I was really pleased with how it all went together on the day. Snow and ice meant that I gave up on wearing pretty heels, particularly if I was going o be walking backwards taking photos outside, but that did give me the excuse to wear some of my favourite knitted socks.

And so to Christmas presents. I’ve shown a couple of presents in previous blogs, but here are the rest. Firstly I made some ‘Crobots’ for M and my sister.

I made socks for both Mums, and used decoupage to decorate boxes to present them with, the idea being that the boxes were also gifts in themselves.

Other lucky friends and family received fresh home-ground ras el hanout with rose petals, marmalade, elderflower cordial and various jams. Everyone seemed happy and I was thrilled to become the proud owner of two Daniel Clowes graphic novels amongst other lovely gifts. Our Christmas meal has evolved over the years to incorporate a number of homemade favourites including gravadlax, brown bread ice-cream, soda bread, stollen and mince pies from M, and a festive gammon and figgy pudding from me. It was lovely!

I hope you have all had a great Christmas too!