Crimbo Limbo

Posted on December 31, 2023 by The Little Room of Rachell

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

Like this a lot but I was itching to tidy that stray book up

A fishy Christmas tree made by the Worcester WI for the Clean Rivers campaign

I could have spent hours looking at all the items on this tree

A very old letterbox outside the cathedral

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?

Sit down! She’s tried knitting again

Posted on May 16, 2019 by The Little Room of Rachell

Apologies for any shock experienced – but I wanted to quickly pop in (twee blogging cliche alert, sorry) to show you what I tried yesterday!

I knit two rows of my stripy garter stitch blanket and my hand felt fine during and after. This is the first time I’ve knit anything since last July.

I’m not going to push it any more than two rows at a time for now. They’re long and I’m going carefully, so it probably takes me between 10-15 minutes which is fine.

I’ve always really liked the saying: Slow Progress is Better Than No Progress and it feels particularly apt today.

Anyone who’s followed the lament of my hand injury since last April (I know, it’s been over a year now…) knows this is big news. BIG NEWS. Yep I’m shouting.

Striping

Posted on February 19, 2018 by The Little Room of Rachell

I’ve dug my Stripy blanket out and actually it’s nice to be adding to it again. Isn’t it bright though?! I kind of forgot how much it’s a bit in your face. It took me aback when I saw it again yesterday, which was a very lazy Sunday afternoon.

I’m reading Y is for Yesterday by Sue Grafton at the mo. I’ve had it from the library for more than a week, but getting into it has taken a while. It’s an absolutely brick of a hardback. If you need a doorstop, this is the one for you. Having read a whole chunk yesterday made me feel more engaged with the story. I think I know exactly how one storyline will play out, but I’m not going to say anymore.

I was really sorry to learn of Sue’s recent loss, her books have brought pleasure all around the world. It’s sad too that this is the premature end of the alphabet series, however I’m glad a ghost writer is not going to be brought in to write Z. I’d rather it was the original author, or nothing at all.

As you know, I always have an audio book on the go too, after the compelling Three Things about Elsie by Joanna Cannon I fancied something completely different. My Audible library has contained Danny Baker’s 2012 autobiography Going to Sea in a Sieve for a long time. I bought it after enjoying the BBC tv adaptation Cradle to Grave in 2015. If you’re outside Britain I’m not really sure you’ll ever have heard of Danny Baker, but it’s still worth watching for the entertainment value. Peter Kay plays Danny’s Dad with only a bit of accent slippage! I’ve only heard 35 minutes of the audio book, with Danny narrating, and Ilove it. After the prologue I found myself repeating the story of the burning car and the game of chicken, while Someone made some smoked mackerel pate for lunch. Then I felt compelled to rush into the dining room to wave my iPhone in the air and play the bit about Nigel Slater’s ‘lamentable’ book Toast (I sort of agree about that) while he was trying to eat lunch and catch a bit of the Winter Olympics. I can feel myself trying to remember other little snippets to repeat later. This is always the (painful for others) sign that I’m loving a book. It’s just so cheery and authentic that I want to ~~over~~share.

What are you making and reading?

I’m joining in again with Ginny’s now monthly Yarn Along.

Playing

Posted on October 6, 2016 by The Little Room of Rachell

These unruly piles of crochet blocks have grown without a real plan. I selected a bag of leftover balls of Stylecraft DK and started to play with stripes and blocks of colours. I would love to buy a few of these colours again, to carry on with a proper plan in mind but this would be against the rules. I have full balls of DK, chunky, sock and 4 ply yarns of various quality yarns, after they’re used up I want to go back to only buying specific yarn,for specific projects. I didn’t go to any wool shows or festivals this year, because simply put: I don’t need anymore yarn.

This week I’m listening to A Hundred Pieces of Me by Lucy Dillon. I’m enjoying the concept of keeping only one hundred personal items and discarding the rest. It’s an interesting way of structuring the story, while revealing more about the main characters, as Gina sorts through boxes of her possessions following a life changing event.

I’m joining Ginny’s Yarn Along once again.

Save

Bright Stripy Blanket….finished

Posted on June 10, 2015 by The Little Room of Rachell

Bright Stripy Baby blanket

Stylecraft Special DK: Lime Petrol Emperor Raspberry Silver Pale Rose

4mm hook

Starting chain: 148 + 3 (148 trebles)

Stitches: doubles, trebles, half trebles

Border: I made trebles into the space after 2 stitches on each side of the blanket, 1- 2 trebles in each row depending on the thickness of the stripe. The border is 6 rows in total: 2 of lime and 4 of petrol. (2 tr, 2 ch, 2 tr) in the corners

Dimensions: 38″ W 40″ L

Weight: 544g

As you see, I decided to crochet stripes of varying thickness including quite wide blocks of colour. It’s a purposely large baby blanket as his big sister’s Jewel blanket is still in good use even now she’s over two years. A little hanky sized one is too quickly grown out of, though I note with amusement that big sister has been covering the baby with the Catherine Wheel stitch doll’s blanket I made at the beginning of the year. It very cute to see.

Tip: find the brightest spot, as you can probably tell it’s the top of the stairs today, and drop the finished blanket. This makes for a very natural looking photograph. With top tips like that perhaps I should be adding one of those slightly awkward ‘Buy me a cup of coffee’ PayPal gizmos?! Ha!

The End

Posted on October 8, 2012 by The Little Room of Rachell

A hot water bottle cover for Vikki, as requested.

Saturday morning: Bake 2 Devil’s Food cakes

Saturday afternoon: Darn the ends in (lots of them!) and crochet the two HWBC pieces together. Find buttons. Arghh! I have mainly white, black and navy from old shirts etc. Nothing funky or bright. Use little transparent flower shaped Mollie Makes giveaway buttons. Write ‘buttons’ on my Christmas wishlist.

Saturday evening: Drop off the cover (plus the hot water bottle I’d borrowed from Vikki last weekend, so it fit perfectly) at the stage door of a West End Theatre in London making my best ‘It’s a VERY cool thing in a jiffy bag actually’ face. Three minutes later get a call from V saying thank you, she loves it. Phew! Very bright stripes may not be for everyone so I’m relieved.

Run to the tube with S. to meet friends and go to the Hammersmith Apollo for a charity comedy gig for tigers with ZSL .

That was a very good day. :-D

Posted on Facebook this morning with the caption “So, Rachel crocheted me this yummy water bottle cover, and it was immediately stolen by the cat. Predictable.”

If you want to check out V’s blog I recommend it. It’s a mix of writing and craft. Not the usual ‘everyone’s making X and so I am too’ stuff, most are unique creations. It’s cool. Very cool. Well, what do you expect from someone who works on one of the hottest London shows doing pyrotechnics and stuff?