Done and Done

I'm sure I must have used that as the title for a blog post before, but I've got a bad head and I can;t be bothered to try and think up anything more original. 

I suppose I could have used 'Who dunnit? I dunnit' because the first thing is this. It's a jigsaw of Agatha Christie showing her in her study at Greenway, which we visited last summer. It's full of nods to her life and books, 90 in total, There's a crib sheet included, I found the first 45 this morning before deciding I needed to go and do something a bit more useful since my sister is arriving tomorrow evening for a few days stay. I'll do the other 45 later today. This wasn't the easiest puzzle I have ever done but it wasn't  too difficult either; I enjoyed it. 

And the other project I finally finished, after several fits and starts since May (!!) was these socks. 

The pattern is called Rivendell and I saw them years ago on a knitters blog and wanted to knit them so badly. So badly indeed hat I taught myself to knit socks so that I could make them. Well we all know what a rabbit hole learning to knit socks was for me. I bought the pattern a long time ago and then a got the wool in a swap, also years ago, and I thought it was ideal for these, being autumnal like Rivendell is in the books. Back in the spring I looked out yarn and pattern  and cast on. 

Wot a let down! I can't remember the last time I encountered such a badly written pattern. Honestly if I hadn't knitted more socks than I've had hot dinners I would have been totally lost, and as it was I went hunting through the notes other people have made on the project on Ravelry just to convince myself it wasn't me and everyone else had swanned through them. It wasn't just me and I was very grateful to the other knitters who had said what a pain the pattern was and especially to those who hade made modifications to the pattern so that it worked and wrote them down so other people could use them. They're nice on, but it's not a pattern I will repeat!