At Last: Bláithín

I notice, as I leaf lazily (and metaphorically) through my blog, that I haven’t written anything about knitting since August. This came as quite a surprise, as I probably spent more time knitting last autumn than I did sewing. There was the purple cardi, which I sort of finished, and then decided needed the button band re-doing (it’s currently sitting on my sofa with the button band removed but not replaced), a couple of baby presents, but mostly this cardi – Bláithín by Kate Davies.

Two cardis, you think, that doesn’t sound like so much. Oh if only you knew, dear reader, the sorrows I faced. Perhaps I exaggerate. Not sorrows, then, let’s call it frustration.

The Remains of 2014 – Bow Ties and Eye Masks

When you’re in the middle of knitting a jumper that was meant to be for a birthday in the summer, worrying about a jumper that was given as a present but turned out far too big and trying to plan Christmas presents, you want something fairly quick and simple to be going on with. I landed on a bow tie for The Boy and (with a helpful suggestion from a little bird) an eye mask for my father.

Starry starry night

This should have been a Christmas post, but you know how it is just before Christmas, particularly if you’re the sort of person that draws up a list of presents that you’re going to make, and then leaves it until the last moment to actually make them.
And anyway, I still have a few of the spares, and the ones that went wrong, and they do nicely as non-Christmas decoration for me: who said stars are only for Christmas?

Painted Gift-Tags

I’m back in my little flat, after 2 lovely Christmas / New Year weeks in England. It was a nice quiet one, which is all you need really when time with your family is so limited. The drama was limited to losing power the night before Christmas Eve with no guarantee that it would be back in time to cook the turkey on the day,

Boxing Day

And the little black and white job is entering into the spirit of things.

We’re having a lovely Christmas, I hope everyone out there is as well!

A Christmas Tree of Bits and Bobs

I love Christmas.

But (there is always a “but”)

One of my least favourite things about it is that, in the outside world, it seems to start immediately after Halloween, and by the time the actual day arrives, you’re sick to the back teeth of the cheesy music and decorations.
When we were growing up, and still now in fact (our parents would dispute whether we ever actually grew up, and we would possibly dispute whether they had either,) our family put up the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. The warm sparkly Christmas feelings started the day before Christmas, and lasted until

A Swiss Christmas Market

There is nothing to get the Christmas feeling going like the smell of mulled wine (or, the German Glühwein which sounds rather less appetising to my English ears!) Christmas music, yes, that works too, and a wander round a Christmas market in the freezing cold (with regular mulled wine breaks to warm up.)

I was first introduced to Christmas markets only a few years ago, when I visited a friend on the Franco-German border during “(tis) the season”.

Needling

This little ball of felting wool:

I’m starting early, because Christmas is the time of (amongst other, more significant, things!) being seriously behind-schedule.
This is not a Christmas blog post, one of my biggest annoyances is when the decorations are up in towns and shops, and the Christmas music is playing by the end of September, and you’re already sick of it, even before advent starts. So this is about craft,