A walk, very muddy and windy, blasts of fresh air, perfect post turkey and Christmas pud etc on Boxing Day. Seven miles of revitalising and invigorating walking. Happy!
Wandering around the sales. I bought this really cute Christmas tree decoration. Who really can resist a clothed rabbit on a mistletoe bicycle? Well, not me anyway. Also, earrings from Accessorise (traditional purchase post-Christmas, 50% off. Why buy any the rest of the year?!) and a really nifty card purse in mustard yellow. I just can’t wear the colour as a main item, it makes me look jaundiced, but I do like it for accessories like gloves and for useful things like purses.
Knitting! I did some knitting! We were watching The Repair Shop at Christmas (BBC) the other night and as usual I was deeply impressed seeing the skill of the crafts people, not to mention their patience as they tackle the trickiest of items. Then came the Secret Santa sequence and there was a little shot of one knitting a dog coat for another. Something ignited and I jumped up to grab my stripy blanket and find my needle ends. I can’t remember the last time I knitted this blanket. My poor little hands have been working so hard rolling out dough for Chelsea buns, lebkuchen and using an icing bag, wrapping presents, baking and cooking, chopping vegetables for soups… they’re tired and achy. But I thought I would do a little with the old knitty sticks and see how I got on. I LOVED it.
A train trip, this photo taken as we sped past Honeybourne, Worcester. It was a really quiet train, I don’t think trains heading in the opposite direction to London were in the slightest. We picked the right way to go. As we travelled I listened to an Uncanny podcast about a mother and son renting a very spooky, noisy house with a mirror coming off the wall and scrambling footsteps going upstairs at all hours, plus a lot more.
Gloomy on the outside, Worcester Cathedral has a Christmas tree festival in full swing, it was full of sparkle inside. And much creativity.
The main areas of the cathedral are decorated beautifully with Christmas trees and fresh floral displays. I bet Carol services sound fabulous with the acoustics of the building
A much needed sit, a cup of tea and a tasty salted-caramel crispy. A chilled three quarters of an hour before the train left. My sparkly Christmas nails captured as I looked through my photos.
Visiting family and enjoying a glass of champagne, a late Christmas celebration, I was waving my hands around as I chatted and dropped a hulahoop straight into my glass. Did you do anything silly like this?!
Some more knitting, two nights running. Wow! We listened to John Sessions reading Charles Dickens The Signalman (on Spotify Premium) the log burner roaring away, many candles flickering, choccy cookies to share, mugs of lemon and ginger tea for me, whisky for Someone else. Perfect Crimbo Limbo evening.
I love this week between Christmas and New Year, where if you’re lucky enough not to be working the days and nights blur. It’s a time to get out and enjoy some fresh air and exercise, with a little bit of wandering around the shops without any pressure and stress of necessarily doing any shopping, spending some more time catching up with family, hunkering down in the evenings to watch festive tv and films, read, listen to music, audiobooks and do a little craft, or just stare into the flames. Perfect.
Yesterday I had an email with my blog stats from the last year. I realised this morning that this blog is nearly a teenager. I started it 12 years ago today! I had a goal to learn to finally learn to crochet. As blogs were HUGE in 2011 I thought I’d join in with my own online diary charting my progress. I also secretly fancied being included in a crochet magazine, but never admitted that to anyone. I achieved both of those goals, and far more. Then dibbled along carrying on posting, bit by bit, year by year. Suddenly it’s a dozen years later. The stats tell me that although I’ve only posted 17 times during the year, there have been many, many thousands of views. It is absolutely staggering to see the number.
THANK YOU so much for continuing to read and for taking the time to comment, or message me privately. I really appreciate this and know I wouldn’t have carried on without the interaction, or knowing people are still enjoying what I have to write and like to see my photos, even with a reduced amount of crochet and other craft.
I’m not sure what the last day of 2023 will hold, I suspect a lot more rain as I listen to it patter against the windows. What are your plans? Whatever you do I hope that you’re feeling well and happy, and that you’ve had a good Christmas and Crimbo Limbo week.
Here’s to another year. See you on the other side! 2024, already. Aren’t we lucky?
Reading: A Literary Christmas – a lovely collection of writing and poems put together by The British Library. It was delivered last night
Adoring: no-knead sourdough cooked in my charity shop treasure. The moisture in the bread means it cooks in its own steam. You then take the lid off for the last bit to burnish the top. It needs to be just this side of burnt for the flavour and crustiness.
I’m so pleased with my appropriately Easter egg shaped find!
The joins make me think of those foam play mats we have for blocking.
I’ve spent a bit of time playing with my yarn leftovers and planning out my next strip of moss stitch (aka linen and granite) blocks. I thought it might be easier than trying to do it in the pub at Knit & Sip, in the semi dark. We ended up not meeting anyway this week, but no matter; it’s quite nice to have a plan. The fewer brain cells used during the evening, the better I find. It’s not my brightest time. Nor is very early in the morning. My optimum time seems to be between 10-3pm! This isn’t new either. I’ve always been the same. Are you at your best in the morning, evening or middle of the day?
I can bear to show you this Hitchhiker again now. I undid about two thirds of the finished scarf. It was all ready on Christmas Eve to have the ends darned in, wrapped up and given the next day, until I noticed something rather strange. It was not a missed stitch, but a vertical row of 8 or so little stitches like plant shoots reaching up for the light. An alien encounter! I can’t believe I hadn’t spotted that and it was impossible to correct, without leaving a big hole. I must have picked up a stitch where there was none. I felt sick, so it’s been bundled away for weeks until I felt I could redo all that garter stitching. I’ve made good progress adding a little at a time. I took it to Knit group at the pub this week and knitted and knitted until I realised I was holding a mere 3″ of wool. Oops! I have more, so that’s ok. As much as I love this Tosca Light by Lang, it is pretty tricky to undo. It’s fluffy when knitted, so like trying to rip open brand new velcro shoe straps. In the end I got so fed up that I grabbed my scissors several times and ended up with about four balls. I’ll forget about those for now and start a new reserve ball.
Isn’t this well put together? It could be a set for a Country Living type of magazine. I did subscribe to that at one point, but had to stop as I found it made me so envious of all the amazing properties and hugely expensive furniture! When I win my huge lottery jackpot I’ll be subscribing again. 
Now I look at the photo above I think that I should have sat the teddy up a little; he looks uncomfortable. 
There was something about this little chest of drawers which drew my eye. It’s funny really; as I think most of us would feel we needed to strip and sand it, had it got into this chipped and peeled state. But here it is and on sale for £65!
Such a pretty painted chest of drawers. I am always drawn to pink and flowers. This is probably why I like so much of the Cath Kidson range year-round. I just didn’t realise how pink my yarn choices often are, until I updated my Ravelry projects page and saw it’s the dominant colour. This is despite my favourite colours actually being red and blue. The right sort of red yarn is not easy to find. I’m always looking, but often they’re too orange or verging on pink. When I see it, I’ll know it and make a cowl. They’ll have to wrestle the hook and yarn off me in the yarn shop and grab my credit card….
Really? £55 for an acrylic crochet blanket in those garish colours!
This is what I’ve always called a kitchen sink post; since it feels like everything’s included except the sink.
As I wandered the streets around Covent Garden on my quest, I couldn’t help taking a few photos. What a lovely row of window boxes this building had.
At the end of our hour long solo walks our little group met back upstairs in Le Pain Quotidien for hot drinks and to share our experiences. I can’t say I got particular insights regarding the question I asked, but I really enjoyed the afternoon. I always find meeting new people interesting and with events like this anyone can turn up. The experience reinforced the fact that I do tend to notice what’s around me and always end up talking to strangers. I do try to appreciate the little things and look out for little acts of kindness. Even in a big bustling city like London you’ll see everyday, ordinary acts of kindness, with good manners in action and people generally behaving decently to one another. I shall sign up for another Street Wisdom session one day, it was fun. Maybe I could lead a group at some point too.
Mum’s dahlias. Perfection.
I also got another fix of the seaside, albeit courtesy of the North sea. It is not, it has to be said, as pretty as the Atlantic sea which surrounds West Cornwall, but it is good to walk along to Sutton. I certainly felt I needed to walk at least 5 miles! We walked 8 by the end of the day.
My cousin hosts several BBQs from early summer to mid-autumn for family and different groups of friends. We try to go to one, or maybe two, each year. They’re always good fun, with everybody mucking in. The informal rule is that every time you go to and from the cottage, across the tiny lane to her field, you take something. I have to admit that the (huge) glass of champagne I had on arrival went straight to my head, so the only thing I initially managed to take across was another glass of champagne! But if this was hash-tag land I’d probably be typing #winwin.
As you know, I disliked the feel and look of the Stylecraft Special DK when it was knitted, so swapped to a lovely soft DMC Creative World merino I had in my stash.
We all know swatching is important, even vital, but it seems a drag – not that I’ve ever actually done it before. The honey cowl is meant to be 12″ in width, but mine was actually looking like 10″ which meant I was knitting a neck brace! I didn’t think blocking would make 2″ difference so after pondering the inevitable I undid it all. It is best to do this quickly, rewind the yarn into balls and stuff it into a bag out of sight, out of mind!
I can choose a new audio book on Friday when I get my new Audible credit, do you have any recommendations? 
The next is better; I sewed up my headband. It only took 2 weeks or so after finishing it. Improvement, yes? Here it is with a little card, ready for posting. The P.O has put in self-service machines and for some reason I really got flustered trying to gauge the size of the packet, type in the address for a proof of posting certificate etc. It was all too much but the new cheese counter take-a-ticket-wait-for-the-number-to-be-called wait was far too long.
The friend who sent me Clara Parkes knitting book also popped in two balls of yarn. This one was bought in iknit, London, she was going to make an entrelac something or other but ended up unravelling it without keeping the yarn band. It feels like wool, or a good wool blend, and is sock or lace weight (are these really so similar in weight that they are virtually the same?) 
I like using a really fine thread, it’s different.
came out last year I loved the look of the owl mitts and mug cosy, but was all about crochet at the time. On Saturday I spent some time flicking through old issues to find a mini project to satisfy those itchy fingers, and ended up whipping up the owl mug cosy designed by Estonian knitter and designer Tanya Antonova.
It was fascinating seeing all the different people who popped in during that time. You never knew who would come in next and what they would ask. I loved it!
There was a woman who asked for a knitting starter book as she wanted to make something for her baby (v v cute.)
A guy who works along the road who needed a yellow nose for a toy his g/f had made. I suggested felt which he bought. He also ended up buying a Creepy and Scary Creatures to Crochet type book. We were both saying how cool crochet is and how there are many male crocheters and knitters. Well, sort of there are I think?
Yes! I’m knitting a deformed cat! It’s the stripy one you can just see on the book’s cover but mine’s obviously not stripy. I’ve been having some trouble with holey M1s (I grew up, like most, knitting into the front and back of a stitch, not fiddling about picking up strands) but think I’m getting betterish.
Fully lined, machine and hand sewed. 
The Little Room of Rachell 
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