New Year Treat Box

A little while ago I reported on the cheering properties of the November Treat Box from Cookston Crafts and mentioned that I had ordered the Hogmanay one as well. It being Hogmanay today I have opened the box. And here's a photo.

Wool ( I had the choice and opted for DK),  a pattern, bath salts, a scented candle, a New Year card and a packet of mixed shortbread biscuits. There's a cast on for the pattern being held on Facebook this afternoon which I thought might be fun to join in, so I have wound the wool in readiness. 

The colours (which the photo really doesn't do justice to) were inspired by the torchlight processions held in some places in Scotland at New Year, so on Ravelry I shall probably call the project something pretentious like the  Up Helly A' cowl. Photos of that will doubtless appear in due course.

Meanwhile a Happy New Year to all when it comes. I am hoping very hard that 2021 will be better than 2020, but trying not to say anything that might jinx that very understandable wish. 

The Sparklies Number 1

I'm generally not much of a one for sparkly stuff, especially when it comes to wool but I've got  a few bits of sparkly wool around and a few sparkly projects underway. Here's the first one to be finished.

I'd like to say that these were as complex to knit as they look but they weren't really. I enjoyed making them and they are fun to wear - I finished them yesterday and tried them out on a chilly walk today. You'll have to take my word for it that they sparkle, there is some silver stellina in there but it doesn't really show up. 

We feel we should get back into the habit of daily walks which we managed more or less all the time during the first and most serious lockdown but which have become less regular recently - although not abandoned  altogether. The problem is that circular walks that don't involve walking on surfaces other than roads are few and far between in Orkney; lots of rough ground walking available which I don't like and lots of long linear walks which are no good if you have to drive to the start and walk for miles there and then do the same walk in reverse (I mean that's not the end of the world, but I prefer circular ones). But we were listing some of the ones there are and we could probably do a week locally without repeating ourselves. So we'll see how that goes.  

As far as the mitts go, I had expected them to use up most of my skein of wool, but they didn't. I have enough to do a matching hat if I can decide on which pattern to use. But that's not a job for today. 

A Tale of Two Cakes

I didn't make a Christmas cake this year. There didn't seem a lot of point. Son No 2 doesn't like it and the OH, although he will eat the cake part always leaves his marzipan and icing for me. Even if you eke the cake out over several weeks, that's a lot of sugar for one person. And a lot of hard work for very little payback when you think about it. So I didn't make one. However I couldn't contemplate Christmas without one altogether so when the OH went out the other day to do the last minute shopping I asked him to get a 'small' Christmas cake. Which he did, and very pretty it is too. Tesco's finest!

The December box for the baking subscription, a Winter Spice Cake,  came a few days ago, and I have managed to do that before Christmas. After a fashion. Here's my version - 

This is not quite the version on the recipe photo. In addition to the cake, you were supposed to make a spicy biscuit dough, cut out various Christmas shaped bits, cook them and use the resulting biscuits to decorate the outside and the top of the cake. Well the spirit was willing but the cookie dough was not. It didn't seem to matter how long I left it in the fridge to chill, it just never got dry/robust enough to cut. So I gave up, grated some dark chocolate over the top and decorated it with a sprig of artificial holly. I think it looks very nice. And it will 'do',  in fact more than 'do', as a birthday cake for the OH on 27th of the month. 

Niles!

 A title that probably only makes sense if you are familiar with Kenneth Branagh's film of Henry V. If you're not, I'd highly recommend it. 

Anyway last week I went off to my lovely local nail decorator and got my nails 'done' for Christmas/winter. 

Snowflakes, trees, holly and leaping reindeer on a sparkly red background. I love them And it's as well to have something to cheer us up these days, eh? 

And talking of

the cross stitch orament, here it is! 

OK it isn't the most exciting or complex piece of stitching I've ever done, but after the problems I had earlier in the year doing cross stitch I was just pleased to be able to tackle this. It's on aida with a largish stitch count so not the sort of thing I would choose to to work on normally, but it was quick and relaxing to do and hopefully Son No 2 will like it enough to hang it up. 

Baking Subscription November

 

This was butterscotch popcorn cake.

I was a bit wary of it because my sister, who took out a subscription to the same baking club a  few months ago,  got hers done first and reported that they hadn't liked it at all. Which was a bit off putting. 

However I've done it now and I have to say that we did quite like it. I got to make brown butter sauce for the first (and probably last time), ditto the popcorn. We're not fans of popcorn at the best of time and putting it on a cake seems a bit odd. But actually it was fine.

Naturally the butter cream, which was made with the brown butter, was supposed to be piped on in rosettes and equally naturally I just got out my big spoon and palette knife. It wasn't  day to try piping rosettes - but then when is it ever? 

Do I See Some New Wool There?

 

Yes you do. Well spotted. It was like this ....

It was the Glasgow School of Yarn in November, a wool festival that had been planning a triumphant return after a few years 'off'. As it turned out, 2020  wasn't the best time for that, was it? It changed, like so much else, into a virtual event. This was a good thing in many ways as it meant I didn't spend any money and I didn't acquire any more wool, both of which I would have done at the real life event if it had happened. 

The virtual event did however bring to my attention a number of very talented Indie Wool Dyers/Sellers of Wool and Knitting Related stuff based n Scotland and  that I hadn't known about before. I drooled at the pics of their stuff on the GSOY website, visited lots of  individual websites and signed up for a lot of Newsletters. 

And after a wee while because I was feeling a bit grey one day I ordered a Cookston Crafts Treat Box, which was going to contain wool and - er- treats. The clue is in the name. You can opt just to have the wool, but if you're on a mission to brighten up your life sometimes it takes a little bit more than just wool. No really. It does. 

I did wonder if, when it arrived,  it might be a bit of a let down or I might feel I hadn't got value for money but in the event it was quite the reverse. In addition to 100g of wool and some pattern suggestions for using it, there was: a small cross stitch kit for a Christmas ornament (which I have just about finished and which I'm sending to son no 2 for his tree), a bottle of raspberry lemonade, two huge fudge bites (I let the OH have one of them which I thought was a bit above and beyond to be honest) , lip balm and body wash from Shetland Soap, a sachet of Soak for handwashing wool, a colourful postcard and a beautiful bar of hand made soap. 

The whole thing was indeed a treat. 

And I've ordered the one for Hogmanay .... 

Gordon Bennett, where have the last four days gone?

Have a picture of the completed tree

In real life I am finding that the lights rather overpower all the other things on there, but perhaps that's my eyes? Anyway it looks very nice, and Christmassy.

Today is 'get Christmas wrapped up' day; it's not an annual thing but I just decided yesterday that by the end of today I wanted all the cards written and posted, and all the parcels for foreign parts that hadn't already gone sent off, and all the stuff that we're now going to have to send to Glasgow because Son No. 2 can't  get to Orkney for Christmas, wrapped and ready to go to the post. 

I'm almost there. I have to say that, after a run of fairly relaxed Decembers, Christmas stress has re-manifested itself with a bang this year, which is probably why I want as much of the prep finished as soon as possible. We have been perilously close to the pre-Christmas meltdown on several occasions and I really would like to avoid it if at all possible. 

And now I must go and write notes to go in cards. Only six still to do. 

More Knitting. And coming as a surprise to no-one -

 - it's more socks.

Rachel Coopey's pattern Thornfield, which I have had for ages knitted in toshmerino light which I have also had for a long time. 

These are destined for Son No 1 as his second pair of birthday socks. I'd done  a pair ages ago, but when his wish list came and it had socks on it then  I decided I'd see if I could get another pair done. Unlike his father and brother he is not a fan of brightly coloured socks, so the grey seemed a suitable choice and I'm hoping he won't think the pattern 'too fancy', especially after the hours I spent knitting it. Although it's not as complicated as it looks. 

In other knitting news the Debbie Abrahams mystery blanket, abandoned for a while for Christmas knitting, edges towards completion. I have three and a half more squares to complete, then a million and one ends to weave in, strips to sew together and then a multi row edging to attach. That sounds a lot, but believe me the end is in sight. Although I can't see me ever tackling  Japanese short row shaping again. 

100 Books to Read Poster - No 23

So, this one was The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks. 

This is a well known account by a world famous neurologist about some of the patients he encountered and as well as giving a description of their various conditions he uses their cases as the basis for brief meditations on the nature of what it is to be human, whether there is such a thing as a soul, and how the rest of society should treat those who suffer from what he describes as neurological 'deficits and excess'. 

It's quite an old book now (1970s) in terms of science writing and it shows. It was written as a popular science book but compared to say  Ben Goldacre's Bad Science, which was about the fourth book I read from the poster, it's a lot less accessible. A lot of technical vocabulary, a lot of references to doctors who went before, without a precis of their work, which would have been helpful, and a lot of assumed knowledge which the lay person would not have. 

Interesting and I'm glad I have read it just because it is so famous, but in places it was just unfathomable for me, so I have to rate it as a miss. I didn't get an awful lot out of it, but to change a common phrase slightly, 'It's not the book, it's me'. 

 

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

 

So yesterday we put up the tree and got the lights on. Today we'll put on the decorations and that way I get two blog posts for the price of one! 

The OH was quite discombobulated by its size. We have always considered it to be a large tree, and indeed it is, but it is totally dwarfed now by the coffee tree. Very disconcerting! 

It's Advent!

 

And I bought the OH an advent calendar. We don't usually bother with chocolate ones but somehow it seems important to make a little bit more of Christmas in this Covid Year than previously. I am hoping that there will not be too many of those 'eclairs' lurking behind the windows as neither of us likes them. 

Meanwhile I have one of the inimitable Jacquie Lawson advent calendars on my computer, this year with a Nordic theme. 

Making more of Christmas also accounts for the fact that I have allowed the OH to put up the tree today - far too early in a normal year - and the lights are on, but not the decorations yet. That's tomorrow's job. He has also dug out a Christmas jumper and no doubt these will be rotated from now until Christmas. I should probably take photos of those too.  Today's is a Blue Jays one, bought for him as a Christmas present several years ago by Son No 1. 

Happy Advent everyone!