Non Advent Catch up

 well I did say there wouldn't be another post before last Thursday, so to that extent I was right....

We've been really busy recently, so here's a quick whistle stop tour.

First up was our trip to North Yorkshire to celebrate our friend C's 90th birthday. C is a member of the group of Dorothy Dunnett readers who used to meet regularly in Leeds, or Lincoln. Amazing to think we have known one another for over 40 years. Doesn't seem possible. I am the baby of the group, but I was pleased to see that the others were all hale and hearty despite being older, and in some cases, considerably older than me. We have all slowed down but they are all still lively minded and engaged with life which is heartening. 

Because of the distance involved, we had opted to drive down the day before, stay overnight in the hotel where the celebration lunch was being held and then drive back after that in the late afternoon. This worked well, certainly better than it would had we not moved, as the weather was so bad that the ferries were all disrupted. So glad we don't have to factor that sort of thing into our plans anymore. 

We arrived in the late afternoon and had a lovely room which was cosy-warm and the bed was extremely comfortable. 

It was a very nice place altogether and the food was lovely. I won't post pictures of the event as a) readers won't know anyone on them except me and b) it would be an invasion of the others privacy ( although I don't think they'd care, although you never know) but we all had a good time. We get together so seldom that it was so nice just for us all, bar one, who was poorly, to be together. Lots to catch up on. C had asked for no presents but we had organised a collection and donated the money to a charity in her name which she was pleased about. 

So down to Yorkshire on Tuesday, back to Alloa on Wednesday. I had had Thursday free but just before we left for our trip south a friend had asked if I would like to go to a Society of Arts talk in Stirling  with her ( on Charles Dickens and his evolving ideas about/influence on Christmas celebrations) and then have lunch with her and two friends. The talk was very interesting, four of her friends came in the end and we all went for lunch at the Smith Gallery in Stirling. This was about as satisfactory as it ever is, which means really not very. Despite saying twice that I did not want my sandwich toasted, once quite firmly in response to the woman's assertion that 'we usually do it, I do recommend it' when it arrived it was toasted. I didn't want to make a fuss so I ate it, but I did say something to her on the way out. Every time I go there I think, never again and this time , unless it's just a for coffee,  I shall stick to that. 

On Friday I went up to Edinburgh University for a symposium on female Scottish and Irish women writers of  children's books. It looked good, and indeed it was, it was very enjoyable, but as it started at 9.30 I had a very early start, which my constitution is no longer as amenable to as it was when I was in my twenties. Never mind, I made it. I cut the last session because had I stayed I would have been very late home, Saw a couple of people I already knew, chatted to one or two others who I didn't. I know I keep saying I have drawn a line under my involvement with academia, but every so often something pops up and I think, that looks interesting, and go. 

And then we entered a quiet time which has lasted until today. I have a hair appointment, after which we are going off for yet another try to by a tree topper for the new tree. Tomorrow I get sparkly nails and then life looks to be busy again until Saturday - at which point it's almost Christmas.

Advent catch up incoming - possibly tomorrow, no promises. 

Giant Lanterns at Edinburgh Zoo and Advents 6,7 & 8.

 Jams, before I forget were raspberry and redcurrant (runny but delicious), pear and cinnamon,(also very nice but a bit on the sweet side) and todays was salted butter caramel so the OH will be eating that one on his own because my views on salted caramel, are well known. Possibly not on the blog, but I shall confine myself to saying that I'm not a fan. 

Stickers

6  Sortof Oriental

7 Landscape? Travel? who knows? 

8 Fairy tales

Yarn 

It's really not apparent on the photos but they are getting lighter and brighter. I have decided on pattern to use them in but I will need a contrast. There was a complementary skein  but it's too dark for what I have in mind so I am havering between undyed or light charcoal, both with the silver sparkle. OH says undyed, I prefer the light charcoal, because grey is one of my favourite colours, so the jury is out on that one. 

On Friday evening we went up to the zoo in Edinburgh to see their giant lanterns, themed on the sea. It wasn't quite what I had expected, I was thinking something more like the light installation that we saw in Skansen a couple of years ago but this wasn't quite the same. That said, it was spectacular. Naturally I took a shed load of photographs; here are a few 

We really enjoyed it. It was dark and cold and the lanterns were beautiful and we were surrounded by lots of people all having a great pre-Christmas treat. The only thing that spoiled it was that we couldn't quite bring ourselves to pay £6 a pop for hot chocolate. It would have been welcome as it was definitely a -hot chocolate sort of experience but not at that price. 

The OH and I are going away tomorrow for  a lightning trip to North Yorkshire; we are importing Son no 2 to look after The Cat Cosimo. So there will be no blog posts until at least Thursday and possibly not until Friday depending on how tired I am. It's for a nice thing and we're looking forward to it. I note that had we still been living in Orkney we would have spent the last 3 days constantly checking the weather forecast and worrying that we wouldn't make it to North Yorkshire as the Northern Isles have been plagued with very high winds and, of necessity, ferry cancellations. I'm glad I don't have to suffer that sort of uncertainty any more. 

Advent Days 4 and 5, plus Tree the First

 The jams were cherry and violet leaf yesterday and  pineapple vanilla and rum today. Couldn't really taste the rum, not that it's a favourite, but if they promise me rum I'd like to know it's actually there! 

Stickers day 4 

Woodland themes. When I do the autumn page in my journal (accent very much on the when with a light lifting in tone that maybe implies 'if') they will be very useful. 

And day 5

Gardening. I should perhaps say that the stickers come with a choice of - aesthetic? possibly too posh a word, but you can opt for vintage, cute or pop anyway. Mine are vintage. And that's the 5th and final envelope design which I'm quite relieved about really. 

And the yarn

Day 4 - 

- and day 5

Since we are still very much in a blue zone, I am wondering if this is  a series of short fades within a few different colours rather an overall 24 day one. Time will tell. 

Our trees and most of our decorations are up. Much earlier than normal but neighbours have had outside lights and garden decorations installed since before the end of last month and we were certainly not the first people to have their trees up. I'm not saying we felt under peer pressure but the OH was keen, as always, to put the tree up early so we did. In fact it's trees, as we have a second one now - honestly, who do we think we are - royalty? More on that another day. The second tree isn't quite ready to be photographed because it has yet to get something for the top, two places have already let me down badly in this regard 😀 but we'll try the Christmas shop in Stirling on Monday. 

Anyway here is tree 1 

you will see our Scandi village has had to be placed on a tabletop this year as we don't; have the wide window sills we enjoyed in Orkney. Here's  a close up. There's a new tree in the forest this year as well, the collage type one in Harris tweed. 

I did that yesterday and today the OH is trying to find space for all the hanging up things we have - again there seems to be a  a lack of wall space, although that is largely to do with picture placement and needing to leave room for the cards. 

We are going out later this afternoon to something which I hope will be really enjoyable - report in due course. 

Advent days 2 and 3 and the November Wool Stats

So, starting with the not so good news which is the wool stats. These would have looked better had I not gone to East Neuk Knits, but there you go, I went. Wool in 450, wool out 326, net decrease for the year down to 5214 . On the upside I finished three projects;

Christmas socks for the OH and Son No 2 

the top ones are the West Yorkshire Spinners Christmas colour for 2025, and I got that skein and used it more or less straight away. The green and white ones are from a sock set I bought at the Lay Family Yarn retreat back in June. There's only one skein left of the ones I purchased there,  so that's heartening ( although there is also the skein I dyed and the 16 miniskeins pack, one form each attendee ... oh well) 

I also finished the new Christmas bunting

on the previous one I did I followed the instructions and added well over 230 beads to the tie. The tie then curled over so that you can't ever see the beads which is a massive waste of effort really. This time, in an attempt to stop that happening  I abandoned the idea of adding beads and just knitted tithe tie, adding a row of alternating white and festive red stitches. I then gave the whole thing a very ferocious block but sadly the curling problem persists. Oh well, at least I didn't waste time and effort on putting in what would become invisible beads and once it's up on the wall the curling won't matter. I don't see me ever doing bunting again but I suppose if I did, I might do the tie in all garter stitch which would be firmer. Live and learn. 

Jams

Day 2 was chocolate hazelnut spread and day 3 was apple caramel and cinnamon spread. (I think I might be eating the latter one on my own.) It occurs to me that 24 pictures of small jars of jam don't really add anything to anyone's life since they are all the same except for the colour of the lid so I'll content myself with simply recording the flavour. 

Stickers

Day 2 

and day 3 

There are only 5 different envelopes which get repeated in sequence so not too many more pictures to be taken of those. The photo of the sticker sheet from today is a bit over exposed, I must do better tomorrow, but anyway it's old letters, very much my thing. More so than yesterday's food ones anyway. 

And finally the yarn. This is obviously going to be a fade so I shall enjoy watching it develop. 

Day 2

Day 3 

although I have to say on the monitor yesterday's and today's aren't; looking that different! 

Right, I am off to help the OH  with the trees - yes, trees plural, of which more anon. 

Advent Day 1

 So, here we go. 

Jam - apricot with honey

Stickers

front of envelope

back of envelope

sticker sheet

Week 1 of my weekly advent from Beth at Beehive Yarns. The overall theme for this collection is La Vie en Rose and this skein is called Vintage Bouquet. It's beautiful. 

And the main event. This is the 'special for early orders' box from Yarn Unique, more or less closed ...

...and this is it open showing all the little boxes inside

Todays yarn - an inky blue. And there were extras today in the form of a set of three stitch markers

I was going to do my November wool stats today too, but I've got something that I need to weigh, so that will be another day. 

East Neuk Knits

So, the East Neuk is a coastal district in Fife and East Neuk Knits is a new yarn show which is taking place this weekend at the Bowhouse in St Monan's. It has a connection with the Channel 4 show The Game of Wool in that Di Gilpin is common to both. If anyone was wondering, yes, I have been watching The Game of Wool and yes I will be ranting about it in due course. But I thought I'd wait until it was over and I had an oversight of the whole thing. Incidentally the website for ENK said filming and photography for Series 2 of the Game of Wool would be taking place over the weekend which is  I suppose good or bad news, depending on what you think of the show. It seemed to me that if they were filming Series 2 already this meant that they wouldn't have had time to reflect on the reactions of knitters to Series 1 and make any tweaks they thought might be necessary in the light of that, but then I'm not a TV producer, so what do I know? ( More than the producers of the show apparently know about knitting, that's for sure ). 

I did of course buy stuff, because what is the point of driving for 90 minutes, parking in a muddy field, freezing yourself between the car and the venue, waiting an unconscionable time for the delivery of lunch ( which in any case wasn't the desired scone as they had 'run out' of scones by 12.30)  if you don't then justify the trip by making purchases. 

Here's what I got

The project bag I had decided to buy before we went, having seen them on the website and deciding I'd like something a bit more structured than my usual floppy drawstring ones. This was from Wild Wood Stitches and you can find their website  here, definitely worth a browse. I was so excited about buying it that, to my shame I totally confused Loch Ness where they are based, with Loch Lomond where they are definitely NOT based. I do know the difference but I was just a bit carried away. It wasn't cheap but it has leather handles, the bottom is Harris tweed and it is beautifully made so it was good value for money. And I love it,  which is really the only justification for buying anything - although it was quite difficult to decide which one to have.

The single skein was a pick by the OH and is for me to turn into socks for him in due course. I knew that if he was let loose in a wool show he would pick some wool for socks so that wasn't really an impulse purchase either. The other two things, the pattern and the miniball fade from Wee County Yarns ( Website  here ) weren't planned purchases although I have looked at that pattern multiple times on their website. I'm only planning to make the mitts. 

I also picked up a card from a vendor who does sport weight yarn with a high natural fibre content because that's what some of the patterns in Kalevala II call for and I want to knit a couple of those this coming year. And I had a nice chat with the lovely Clare from Cookston Crafts ( again website here ) where I didn't buy anything but made plans to buy some of her yarn in the new year to make a sweater that she has a sample of. After seeing the sample previously  I've thought about getting the pattern before,  and I've decided that now, or at least 2026, is the year to give it a go. More about knitting plans later I expect, but possibly not until after Christmas because  tomorrow is the 1st December and the blog will be full of advent opening for the next 24 days! 

Cinderella

 It was lovely. We both really really enjoyed it. No pics sadly because I forgot my phone although you're probably only supposed to take pictures of the curtain calls, and that's a shame because the sets and costumes were magical and you'll just have to take my word for it. Unless you've seen it yourself of course. 

We hadn't been past the reception desk at the McRobert Centre before and the cinema wasn't easy to find. Possibly because all the spaces are designated by the use of the word 'house' on the end; playhouse, woodhouse, filmhouse and various others. Once you know then filmhouse makes sense as a cinema as playhouse makes sense for a theatre but it's not really obvious. However once we found it it was warm ( thank goodness, it was bloomin' bitter out up here on Tuesday evening) and comfortable, and the sightlines are great.

We had braced ourselves for the continuity person and annoying featurettes that the ROH will insist on inflicting on audiences during the intervals of their filmcasts, but we even enjoyed those this time. I wonder if the ballet ones are generally more acceptable than the opera ones? The man introducing it all was a former dancer himself and was quietly knowledgeable and informative and the three little features were all interesting. The least interesting one was Darcey Bussell talking to the two principal dancers but it was OK. The second one was a conversation between the two men who danced the stepsisters and the third one was the set and costume designers talking about their inspiration. So no rants from  me on that  topic this time. We thought about going again for The Nutcracker but it's in December, naturally enough and December is looking quite busty so we probably won't.