Flibbertygibbet

Oh my dear...

**Edited to add - these are all gone apparently, according to the nice man at Paperchase's mail order department**

Further to yesterday's rampant consumerism (today was even better, actually, lots of pretty clothes) I have a favour to ask...

I am trying to track down some Paperchase decorations. I've tried Tottenham Court Road (the flagship store) and Covent Garden to no avail.

Not the best pic, sorry, the tag says '"22.5 cm Reindeer Head Ornament" and they come in black or white, with a smooth finish (not part of the flock range they had been doing)  I'm looking for two more in any colour/s - if you spot any in a Paperchase near you, would you let me know and I'll get right on the phone?  Thanks!!

Making a list, checking it twice

So how was your Christmas?  Mine was the most subdued ever, which wasn't a bad thing and was the way that I planned it.  Just family and food, thoughtful presents which were mostly very grown up - posh moisturiser,  some requested knitting stuff, and some cash towards a 'big' pressie - which was procured today in a very good deal...looking forward to working out all the fun stuff that it does.  All the knitted presents went down well though my Dad's socks were clearly 2 inches too long, just as I had expected, and my mother was frankly bewildered - I'd asked her to measure the socks I made Dad for his 60th in July, and she told me, with the immortal words "A foot is a foot" that they were twelve inches from toe to heel. So I made him things that looked like they should have been dangling from the mantelpiece waiting to be filled by Santa rather adorning my father's feet. The surreal thing was that when we measured his old socks, depending on how you folded them, they measured either 10 or 12 inches... so I ripped them back on Boxing Day and fixed them.  I wrapped up my mum's cashmere scarf still on the needles and with the yarn attached so that I could check the length with her, and it did need another few rounds.  Then it was washed and blocked on the pulley clothes drier in the kitchen which worked a treat.

Back to my second home on Friday. On Saturday I went to Helen's to collect the furry monsters. Helen and Steve deserve much kudos for looking after the mogs as they were mostly antisocial (hiding under the floorboards, in the bathroom wall - gnurrgh, I do despair of them most of the time) apart from the 4am - 8am shift when they were ready to play... In hindsight - oh dear Lord, only in hindsight - it was funny trying to get Shrimpton in the cat cage, with Helen and I crawling under opposite sides of the bed to try to grab her, though I couldn't actually hold her for long enough to get her in the carrier before she starfished herself and craned back out.  Yes, I have the scars to prove it.  A grown woman is no match for an ornery cat, I have learned my lesson.  Luckily Steve suggested the pillowcase trick (Put cat in bag/pillowcase; resist temptation to tell cat that she's lucky she's not going to the river; put cat-in-bag in box; retrieve pillowcase later on once it's safe to put your hand back in there) which worked like a charm.  They seem to have forgiven me for two bouts of incarceration in the cat cages by now.  Well, almost.  Thank you again Helen for picking us up, minding the mogs and dropping us back - you're a star!

Today I went sale shopping, with a list and a friend to keep me sane in the sales madness.  I found everything I wanted, which was all housey stuff like a coffee pot, a colander, a calendar (but no coriander, which my shopping companion thought sounded like it should be the next thing on the list) and a camera.  Tomorrow I'll be looking for plates, a plant, and a plantain...

So what else has been going on?  Well, a little bit of mental stock taking and there's still a lot to be done.  2007 sort of passed in a blur, looking back.  I am much more excited about the thought of the new year, and 2008, than I was about Christmas this year.  Though it's normally Santa's speciality, I did decide that there are some lists to be made. Wishes, goals, things to do.  When I'm finished the lists I might mention some of them on here - just so people can chide harrass encourage me to complete them.  Mainly I'm going for the traditional favourites of happiness, health and wealth.  So what are you wishing for in 2008? Whatever it is, hope it comes to you in the very near future.  Have fun seeing in the new year, however the spirit takes you xxx

Just in time...

...to wish you all the very merriest of Christmases, or whatever particular holiday it is that you celebrate at this time of year. Still working on the decorations, just a little done so far - but will be doing some updating over the next few days, and of course on here too. But my first Christmas present-come-early is the return of broadband - yeehaw!  xx

Drowning AND Waving

**Edited to put in the photos!**

The drowning part refers to the tides of mucus that have been threatening to overwhelm me (yes, yes I know, far more information than you could ever have wanted but frankly I'm through with being stoic about my lurgy - 10 days and counting -  as I'm BORED OF IT by now) and the waving is 'Hello. I'm not actually dead.' Not physically anyway.

Would you believe that there were approximately seven minutes of clear light on Sunday afternoon in murky London town and I had my camera to hand albeit with a dying battery which nevertheless lasted through about twenty shots and there was actually enough clear space by the window to pile up yarncakes and finally take photos?

If BT weren't such a shower of shits I could possibly show them to you.  Basically even though they have now removed the 'tag' from the line which would enable me to get broadband, (after the requisite two weeks that they are 'allowed' to take) or will do tomorrow, it can take another two weeks for my chosen broadband supplier to get my service up and running, because BT can prat them around, as far as I can make out.  Of course, if I'd chosen to go with BT, they could have connected me straight away...  I told the woman I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole.  All so very very dissatisfactory.  Hence no photos so no blogging.  At some point this may revert from being a whinge-misery blog back to something with a little relevance past my navel.  Well, you can only hope.

So: so far we've got about 70% of the Christmas crafting done. [Imagine the pictures. You're creative.].

Dad's specially requested bedsocks - long and stripey and fun, just need the Kitchener stitch treatment. Oh who am I kidding, it will be a three-needle cast off, most likely.  These were - ahem - created in two different Lana Grossa yarns because one kept splitting - annoyingly, once I got to the heel of the second sock.  I've probably mentioned that I usually knit both socks to the heel flap stage and then turn both heels together so was really peeved about this.  I thought I'd have to start over - then decided to join in another ball which actually works quite well as they have a marled blue and white stripe in common.  They are bedsocks so I don't think he'll object though they do look like they should have a satsuma and a 50p piece in the toe, as is traditional with Christmas stockings.

Maternal Granny's Clapotis - I bought Louisa Harding Kimono Angora in the orange/pink/purple-grey colourway to make a clap for my aunt.  This was before I was informed that orange is her favourite colour (WTF? Seriously, what happened to the passion for pink?) and it all kept going horribly, horribly wrong and though everyone was trying to rescue it, it wasn't get any better much faster. 

So rather than beating that particularly dead horse, I started on one in Debbie Bliss pure silk in that perfect pumpkin colour, in the second lot of yarn that I bought specifically for my aunt. Using stitch markers and the fact that you can clearly see the drops etc in the silk seem to have clinched it and it went swimmingly. The angora one is now finished too, and will be for my granny. 

Paternal Granny's bedsocks - toe-up, no less, in scrumptious plum coloured Blue Sky Alpaca Silk.  I'm cheating and doing an afterthought heel.  They are 70% done.

 

After that, it's a simple lace scarf in Colormart cashmere for my mum.  She asked for something light but warm so I think this will fit the bill.   However I think it's going to have to be presented unwashed and unblocked - i.e. still oiled - so it won't have the full cashmere bloom until after it's been washed, though knowing my mother she'll be 'ooh now don't be bothering with washing it...'

Then something for me - possibly the feather and fan scarf in the Knitwitches silk and mohair (bought at the I Knit Stitch and Bitch Day - the yarn is lovely but luckily I didn't hold my breath waiting for her to put the patterns she was touting up on the web, as they're still not there) that we wound together when the girls all descended on Tash's for the Bloc(k) Rewind party some weeks ago now.  This was before I got my own ballwinder and swift, the procurement of which is another story altogether...

I also have great plans to make little gifts for my friends - everyone getting pretty much the same thing, though of course I have now lost some confidence in that idea and so may have to head out next week to go shopping instead.  Urgh.

Still job hunting, still battling to get a working washing machine.  The latter may now be in situ, thanks to my lovely friend Helen who camped out for a couple of days, pretty much, so that I could pretend to be waiting for the service engineer yesterday when I was actually off on job interviews, and when the engineer screwed up yesterday she came back today to wait for him so that I could go to work.  Little star that she is.  I did make her supper including dessert as a small thank you - still loving the new Nigella cook book. Still slightly bemused by the tv programme.

There's some jewellery on the go; Christmas presents; a make-swap with someone whose work I adore; and the letterpress needs to be cranked up.  And a baby quilt and a baby present-yet-to-be-determined.  And then someone tells me that apparently it's mid-December? Cancel Christmas.  I can't quite get my head around it this year.