Wools Stats and Projects for November - And A Word about Advents

Well this isn't too bad. I actually got a decent amount of knitting done this month and I also sold some of my 4 ply. The result was that 1803g went out of stash. Hooray! 

However, with the money from some of my sales I bought 1000g of Stylecraft Special DK so that I could make blanket squares for Woolly Hugs, a charity that donates mainly blankets, to various good causes such as children in care, refugees, old folk etc. Plus there was that 150g that I bought in Chambery. But there was still a net decrease of 653g in the month and the net reduction for the year is 7422g. I suspect December will make a mockery of that number, but we'll see. 

Meanwhile here is what I made this month

first up a cross stitch decoration for son no 2's tree, very Scandi

I didn't just buy the wool, I  actually did make  some squares for Woolly Hugs. One  12" granny square from each of the ten colours I bought. They specify what colours to use for some of their projects.

 

And after that it was all about the socks; two pairs from the Colours of Australia yarn I bought last month

one pair made from some Halloween themed yarn from Giddy Knits

I made so many mistakes knitting these I'm never using Halloween themed yarn again, it obviously carries a jinx

And last but not least Christmas Socks for the OH made as always from West Yorkshire Spinners Signature Christmas Colourway. This year it's called Yuletide and I think it may be my favourite. I just love those narrow dark green stripes. 

I will be sharing my advents as I open them, but as 24 photos of a tea light, a small jam jar and a 10g mini skein of yarn might start to get just a tad repetitive, I will be blogging about other things as well through December. 

And Now - A Proper Post

 I don't think I said but the reason for our brief visit to Leeds at such an odd time of year was so that we could attend the closing ceremonies for the church where I used to worship when we lived there. Sadly an ageing and dwindling congregation and the escalating costs of keeping a large building in good repair meant that it was no longer  viable, and they had taken the very difficult decision to close. 

I don't know whether I have ever mentioned this but since we left for Orkney I have, at the editor's request, written an article every quarter for their magazine, mainly about life on Orkney. I've been pleased over the years to keep this link with the church, and it was as a result of this that we were invited to the thanksgiving lunch and final service. 

It was a bitter sweet day, especially for those few still in the congregation who had been part of the building of the church in the first place, but the emphasis was very much on what had been achieved, rather than seeing the closure as an admission of failure. 

A few photos

lots of familiar faces - I was pleasantly surprised by how many people I had known were still alive and kicking!

There was cake - although we had to leave before it was cut and served!

I was a member of the Business Committee there for many years and oh! the stramash over the acquisition of this table. 

The congregation made a wall hanging to celebrate the life of the church at the millennium. I was allocated The Bible as my subject and this is what I did. Like a lot of the needlework I did years ago I am probably prouder of it now than I was then! 

It was a long way to go, even though we also managed coffee with a couple of friends in the morning, but I am so glad I went. 

What We Bought in Chambery

 which apart from meals, wasn't much.

There will be more details of our time in Chambery in a later post; I am yet again running round in circles playing catch up at the same time as trying not to exhaust myself or really annoy my knee, which was not impressed with the steep streets which are inevitable in small towns in the Alps! 

On a wander around the town we were attracted by the look of  a small shop. We walked in and the OH said ‘this is a bit like that shop in Finland, there’s probably wool at the back’. Since we were navigating an aisle with loose teas on one side and beautiful kitchen tins on the other I said ‘I don’t think so’. And then we got to the back of the shop and ... there was the wool. 

As you will see I restricted myself to only three balls. It's sport weight which I haven't used before and I've looed out a few patterns to choose from. 

We also treated ourselves to a new Christmas mouse - couldn't resist her. We have yet to agree on a name; it has to be French and female and suitable for a mouse. Minette is as close as we have got but although we both like it neither of us is 100% convinced that it is exactly right. 

Tomorrow maybe a more substantive post but please  don't hold your breath. Christmas is coming and I'm trying to be all done and dusted by 8th of next month. Hope springs eternal! 

Well, that was a nightmare

 

We had a lovely time away and I was beginning to think that the Travel Gods had turned a blind eye to us daring to actually leave home again, but they were just lulling us and as we started our return trip they decided to throw Storm Bert into the mix. 

That photo is part of the queue we had to join when we landed back at Heathrow ( after two hours on the ground in Lyon waiting to be given permission to take off in the first place ). By this stage our Glasgow connection had been cancelled, rebooked, new flight cancelled and rebooked again, at which point the BA app crashed (hardly surprising) and we joined the queue. 

After over an hour in that during which we moved approximately 30 yards a variety of announcements gave us permission to leave the queue and 'seek assistance from any BA member of staff'. Need I say that these were thin on the ground,and many had perfected that technique, beloved of waiters, in which they silently signal they know you're there, and have no intention whatsoever of catching your eye lest you expect them to actually come and do their job. We ended up with a hotel voucher for one night ('but we need two nights, our rebooked flight is Monday evening' 'you'll have to talk to the hotel about that when you get there', instructions to catch a coach and pay for it ourselves to the hotel concerned, and a doubtful face when we said we needed our hold bags, given that we don't usually do cabin baggage and hadn't this time. We learned a useful lesson there; don't pack charging cables for your phone in your hold baggage and the OH also learned it's a bad idea to pack your medication in there too. 

On the upside, no passports were lost and no permanent injury done to joints so I suppose you could say we were on an upward curve. 

Since our arrival home was some 52 hours later than anticipated, we finally got back about nine last night, I have a lot of catching up to do today, hence the short post. Much more to follow over the coming days. 

Au revoir

We are going away on a trip that reads like something from The Before (Covid) Times. In preparation for this I had my hair done this morning and I think I've persuaded myself that that will be the last time I have it coloured. Time perhaps to let it go grey with grace. 

Anyway we are spending tonight on the ferry so that we don't have to get up at stupid o'clock to get to the other side of Orkney to catch it before it sails at 7.00 in the morning (check in an hour before and a 40 minute drive, I'm sure you can do the sums.).  Then Glasgow,  Leeds , Glasgow again,  Chambery in the French Alps then back to Glasgow and then Orkney again. Ten quite hectic days, although I hope there will be some fun in there too. Fingers crossed there will be some bloggable stuff in all of that, but in any case no more blog posts until after we're back which, weather permitting, will be 24th of the month. 

Would you believe it - some good telly at last!

We're well into autumn so it's competition telly time, which is generally good news for me. 

There was a weird thing recently called Dressing the Nation which purported to be looking for a new designer to join the team at M & S. This has to be a gimmick as I'm sure M & S are regularly overwhelmed by applications from people with the appropriate qualifications and relevant experience wanting to join them but it made for an entertaining programs. The putative designers all had quite = er - expansive personalities and some of the ideas they come up with even wearable. Although some weren't. It passed the time agreeably, sort of filled the gap left by Sewing Bee and was a short series. My favourite moments each episode were when they let what they assured us were 'genuine M & S customers' in, to comment on the clothes and made the designers sit and watch what appeared to be a  real time live feed of the customer reaction. 

As far as current offerings go I do not go near Strictly, whose delights escape me, although  I realise it's very popular. I am watching Bake Off, but with only half an eye as I've got bored with it and I don't like Alison Hammond as a presenter, or all the stupid double-entendres, or the dressing up at the start.  It doesn't seem quite so focussed on decoration this time around, thank goodness, but there's till time for that to turn around. 

Also on a culinary theme we are of course watching Masterchef the Professionals and I am still of course bemoaning the spoiling presence of Greg Wallace. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I have no idea what this man is doing anywhere near this program, he brings nothing to the party that Marcus  Wareing and Monica Galletti do not bring themselves - and more expertly wrapped at that. However there is a lot of enjoyment to be had from watching people who are very good at their job to start with getting even better,  even if, when faced with some delicious looking main the general refrain in this house is 'but where's the potato?'

Over on Sky Arts I have been celebrating the return of Portrait Artist of the Year. I am currently obsessing over whether the male judge, Tai Shan Schierenburg ( spelling?) has had a hair transplant or just adopted a rather drastic new hairstyle. His hair currently looks like the fuzz that used to adorn the head of the Action Man Toy when they stopped just painting on his hair and replaced it with some sort of fabric-y stuff. There is a bijou problemette with PAotY here in that the OH has a distressing habit of walking through the living room when it's on and saying things like 'None of them know how to paint' or 'That look nothing like the subject'. The latter comment is actually sometimes true, never better exemplified by the winner's portrait the year the prize was to pain Lenny Henry. The resulting picture looked nothing like Lenny Henry, If you didn't see it, Google Images is your friend here.  I would have defied even his mother to have recognised him from it. But that's not a common thing and I like watching how the different artists work, seeing which medium they choose and how they approach the task of producing a portrait. 

Moving away form competition TV tonight sees the return of Wolf Hall, or more accurately the start of the The Mirror and the Light, Hilary Mantels sequel to Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies. I'm currently trying to work out some time to finish my rewatch of Wolf Hall (one episode to go) before the new series starts this evening. 

In late summer I did find a few drama series to watch, courtesy of Amazon Prime/You Tube. On Amazon there was a very entertaining legal drama called Newton's Law; much input from the people who brought you Miss Fisher 's Murder Mysteries so that was a good start. Sadly there was only one season of Newton's Law but it was a fun watch. Another Oz drama I enjoyed was Winter, one series, one made for TV film, both very good I thought, if a bit grim - especially the film. On You Tube I called up a thing called The Brief, an old ITV drama starring Alan Davies. I had totally forgotten that I had ever watched it, in fact I had forgotten it altogether, but I came across a reference to it in an old letter from a friend - can you tell I've been doing some clearing out of Very Old Stuff that should probably Never Have Been Kept? I was intrigued by her sentence 'I too am watching The Brief, mainly like you for EP, unfortunately I was away for the episode with DJ and CV'. I was totally bamboozled by these initials so went off to IMBD to discover they referred to Edward Petherbridge, Dominic Jephcott and Christopher Villiers , three actors both she and I admired at the time. And after that discovery I had to see if I could find the program and remind myself abut it and there it was on You Tube. Again not very many episodes and more serious in tone  than Newton's Law, but it was a bit of a trip down Memory Lane. 

And now for a couple of small household chores before I settle down to lunch and the downfall of Anne Boleyn and Co. 

 

Another Sad(dish) Farewell

I said goodbye this week to my Rivendell socks. You can read all about why and how I knitted them in this blog post  . And see a bit more of the finished article. Not my happiest ever knitting experience. 

They looked lovely when done and I enjoyed wearing them, which is why I was sad to say goodbye to them, but the soles had felted, the rest was pilling, the colour was leaching out of the yarn .... basically in an overcrowded sock drawer they could no longer justify taking up space. If the pattern had been better written I would have knitted a replacement pair, but it isn't, and there's just no reason to put myself through all that pain again! 

Following on from an earlier post I succumbed yesterday and bought the JL Advent Calendar. Despite my doubts, I like the Parisian street scene and although I wouldn't describe the 'apartment' (where the games and activities are) as cosy - and to be fair the JL people themselves call it 'chic' - the colours are much more to my taste than last year's Edwardian Country House ones. So an improvement on that  already! 

Wool stats and projects for October

 This isn't pretty!

My quarterly clubs arrived and I went to the Glasgow Yarn festival and then there was the Australia themed sock yarn ... so the grand total in was 1250g. It was another unproductive month knitting wise as I only managed to finish three things. So wool out was only 243 g which means a net increase for October of 1007, and the reduction for the year is down to 6769. 

The projects I managed were 

the last of the baby cardigans from who knows when - still awaiting transport to the charity shop. 

Poppy's new blanket with the leftovers.

and this is a project for a Christmas swap. Since it was largely lace it gave me a lot of trouble but I managed in the end. It's a Victorian style muff and obviously I wouldn't knit one of those for just any random person but my swap partner is a regular attendee at Victorian/steam punk events so this seemed perfect. The yarn came from the cardigan kit that I disassembled, it was perfect, being the right weight for the pattern and also the right colours for my partner who loves autumnal shades. 

Not entirely sure why productivity was so low this month although going away didn't help, and I did a non knitting thing that took ages and isn't quite finished and there was something else that I had a lot of trouble with which I mostly knitted in October but doesn't count because I didn't finish it until yesterday. 

Numbers for November are looking a bit better so far, and I hope I might get more knitting done than I've managed recently. Certainly hope so! 

Advents

I know, we haven't got Bonfire Night over yet, how dare I mention something associated with Christmas? There again I had an e-mail from Jacquie Lawson last week saying their Advent Calendar is now on sale  so I'm assuming we can talk about them, even  if it is just November. 

I daresay I will get  the JL one although I had a few issues with it last year. At least this year they claim they have some new music, which is a great relief because they have been using the same few carols over and over for years now, and some of them I am very sick of. The calendars are fun and I do look forward to seeing what each day brings, but  occasionally I think I have  just got  a bit too used to them and no longer have quite the same joy in them that I did when the first few came out. The wonder is gone. And that is not the fault of the team at JL, it's a fault in me, because I've got  blase. That said the colour palette last year was horrible and I'm not particularly taken with the this years setting - 'a chic apartment in Paris'. 

We do already have four advent things in the house. One is the yarn advent that the OH traditionally buys for me for Christmas; this year it's from a dyer called The Yarn Artist themed on the paintings of Van Gogh and that's still in the box the postie brought it in. I'm not sure whether to open that day by day in December or leave it all until Christmas Day. The jury is out on that one.

Also yarn related is the weekly advent from Lay Family Yarn which I treated myself to. 

Four parcels, on the theme of Winter at the Christmas Market,  one for each week of December, and each one containing the yarn and pattern to make a project small enough (in theory) to be finished in a week. All I'm saying to that is -  It's December and Christmas is coming, who on earth is going to have the time to knit a project a week?? But I'll give it a go. 

Next up is this one 

the Bonne Maman Jam advent. Some may remember I got this one last year as a one off and I wasn't going to repeat it, mainly because it had 5 or 6 days when instead of a small jar of jam you got a little chintz bag filled with dust which was supposed to be tea. As far as tea goes, if it doesn't look and taste like a relative of Yorkshire Tea then I'm not inclined to call it tea at all, and I'm certainly  not venturing to pour boiling water on a set of crushed-almost-to-extinction leaves which aren't even admitting to what they are, and then drinking the stuff.  It seems I wasn't alone in my low opinion of the tea option, as this year we are promised 24 small jars of jam. Plus, by buying direct from the company,  we got a large jar of their chocolate spread  which we are already using. The OH seemed a little it unsure about this, it not being December and all, but as I pointed out there are 24 small jars behind 24 numbered cardboard doors for December. The big jar is therefore non month specific. 

And finally is one that has become a bit of a fixture recently and that's the Yankee Candle Advent Calendar. The one we have this year looks like this. 

There was much bigger one that was twice as expensive which I assume contains votives rather than tea lights. Anyway the past two years the TC advents have had 18 tea lights, which I have always thought was odd, and they just sat in the box waiting for you to choose which colour for today and with a generic list of five scents on the bottom the box with no indication of which colour which scent related to. This year they have upped their game. There are 24 tea lights and they are each concealed behind their own little cardboard door and there's a little infographic on the bottom of the box telling you the scent for each of the eight colours. I feel that personally  I could live without a Christmas Cookie scented candle but it is an American company and Americans do strange things where cookies are concerned; scent their candles, put the raw dough in ice cream etc etc And anyway, who knows? they might smell all spicy and lovely. 

So that's our advents for this year. Last year we were away for the first week of December for our Stockholm Christmas Markets trip and although that was lovely and I wouldn't have missed it, it meant playing catch up with a lot of the advent stuff whihc spoiled the fun a bit. This year we are planning to be at home for all of December so I should be able  to get into a routine of opening /marvelling/ eating/ lighting and knitting as each day begins. 

But before that, two birthdays, Bonfire Night, a trip to Leeds and the Alps, presents to buy and the cards to get written. After that though, it will all be relax relax relax. (Yeah, probably not that last bit!)