Meet Vanessa - Not a Kitten!

 

The rather unfortunate angle at which this photograph was taken does make her look rather like a loo seen from above, but actually this is Vanessa the Vacuum Cleaner. 

Very long term readers may remember Robbie the Robot who the OH bought as suitable only for spares from e-bay and  repaired. For several years Robbie trundled about the house hoovering the carpets but he became more and more erratic and eventually succumbed to old age, fatigue and too much fibre wrapped around his innards. 

For a while, several years in fact, we just  swapped to using an ordinary vacuum cleaner that relied upon a human being to push it around. The OH did most of the heavy lifting on that to begin with as I have had, since childhood, a deep aversion to the sound of hoover motors which tenses me up physically and mentally (unfortunate but there you go) . That said I did do my share especially over the last six months or so. 

We sometimes had rather desultory conversations about replacing Robbie with a new model but these things are expensive and the hoover that needed pushing about was doing perfectly well. And then not long before Christmas the OH found one that was on offer and after a bit of a chat we ordered it. 

My word, these things have come on since Robbie's day. Vanessa the Vac  can be infinitely programmed to do different bits of the house at different times. She has a voice and tells you what she's gong to do just before she does it. She not only hoovers but washes floors as well. (If only she could wield a duster I could rest safe in the knowledge that my housework was in safer and more regular hands then mine. She originally showed a tendency to bossiness, often commanding the OH to empty her dust collector in a very firm tone, nut he has since invested in a little accessory - her very own dust bin into which she can automatically discharge all the stuff she has picked up from the floor. 

I have to say that she's also quite quiet which I am grateful for. As is the cat, although he still regards her  with a mixture of fear and suspicion. You know those little videos you see on You Tube of cats merrily riding around the house on top[ of automatic vacuum cleaners? Not happening in this house! 

Happy Mail

 And no not yarn! 

I bought these in the Emma Bridgewater post Christmas sale and they arrived this morning. New winter mugs for self and OH and a pretty jug for me 'just because'. (Just because I like pretty jugs, no idea why)

EB had never been on my radar particularly until a friend did a referral/recommendation thing, mainly so that she could get some money off an order, sort of like pyramid selling but for the purposes of extending the business' mailing list. I've not actually had an opportunity to use the money off code they sent me in relation to that because the thing I wanted to buy was out of stock and isn't back in yet, but the e-mails keep coming and the post Christmas sale was particularly attractive. 

I know we're supposed to be decluttering but as a result of these new mugs several others are earmarked for the charity shop so the mug count will be showing a net decrease which is a plus, yes? 

A Good Morning for a Hanging!

 Several months ago I managed to get a very precious slot at the local picture framers and I took three pieces of cross stitch in to be framed. Some of these had been languishing unframed for literally years and I still have a backlog of finished pieces, not to mention all the ones that are yet to be finished - or even started! However, let's not dwell on the negative. 

Just before Christmas I got a call to say they were ready to be collected. I pointed out, quite genially, that it was the wrong time of year, because I knew it was going to be expensive, but there you go. We went in and picked them up and waved the contactless card at the machine and came home with these 

So this one I remember working on on  a train going to see a friend in Edinburgh. Our younger son would have been about 3 or 4 and he's now 33. I think it was already finished before we moved to Orkney in 2005, but I cold be misremembering. 

This is the youngest of the three as I bought it as a kit by mail order after one of our trips to Australia. This is the waratah, which is the state flower of New South Wales. At the time I had grand visions of doing a complete set of the state flowers which would have been seven in all.  That's obviously not happening, I love this one now it's finished though. 

This one was partly completed when we moved here in 2005 and hung about until I had the courage to chart 'Orkney' to replace the 'Country' which was on the original chart. After I finished it it hung about again waiting to be framed. 

We didn't hang these up as soon as we brought them home because in this house pictures get taken down to make way for Christmas decorations so putting up new ones was out of the question. However we had a relatively smooth time this morning getting them hung. I say relatively smooth because we didn't  enter into any interminable arguments about what should go where. And here they all are in situ. 

We also replaced a battery in  wall clock that's needed done for years as well and I filled a box with stuff for the charity shop. A good morning's work. 

A New Year Sort Out or

 ...start as you'd like to go on.

We're hoping to move in about 18 months time and I think before we do that we need to do some serious decluttering/divesting ourselves of stuff. There must be oodles of things in this house that it's not worth paying to move. 

Like many people who craft I also have a lot of tools and supplies that I don't use or haven't used for a while or haven't yet got around to using, so with a move on the visible horizon, this year has got to be the year I make serious inroads into all of that. 

I'm starting with the wool because that is what takes up most space, and what I'm most likely to be motivated to use to be honest. Most of my yarn lives in six large plastic boxes in my study and I aim by the end of the year to get what is left into three of them. This still leave a little bit of wool in a couple of other places but not in vast amounts. So the goal is to deal with one box every two months. I'm not expecting to use up all the wool in each box in two months, but hopefully by the time they have all had a good 'go-through' what is left will actually fit in three boxes. 

So last week I had a look in box 1. 

This was it when I started

Received wisdom is that you start by emptying your box/crate/drawer out onto a flat surface so that you can see what you've got, so I did that. All out on the bed. 

The next stage is to sort it out into three piles; to keep and use, to sell,  and to donate. I had four other piles; - works in progress, abandoned for whatever reason, empty project bags which shouldn't have been in there in the first place, project bags with cross stitch projects in them which  shouldn't have been in there either and projects which had lingered on the needles and which weren't ever going to be finished.

So the empty bags got put away, the cross stitch projects got moved to where I keep the cross stitch, the projects that weren't ever going to be finished got pulled out and the wool was either kept to be used or put into one of the other piles. 

And when I had done all that the box looked like this

Several WiPs, some large and some small, and some wool including  a lot of small amounts for charity knitting, and some earmarked for other projects. And quite a  bit of spare space at the top!  I hope there will be a lot more spare space by the end of February. We'll see. 

Christmas Socks

 Well I wasn't going to bother this year, because I am a bit Christmas sock-ed out, but in the end all three of us had new socks for Christmas.

Mine have already featured here because I made them several months ago but kept them for Christmas; these ones 

And I talked here at the end of November about deciding to do the OH some socks in the West Yorkshire Spinners Christmas colourway  - Nutcracker - and they turned out like this. My shawl in the same colour is nearing completion, another 16 rows and a very fierce block still to do. 

Son No 2 wasn't going to get any but then I got some wool in an advent parcel and decided that I would use that to make him some. In the event they weren't finished in time for Christmas Day but they weren't too late and he was happy enough to model them

Tardis coloured stripes! 

Shall We Finish Up Stockholm?

I think we'd better as we have just booked hotel, flights and opera tickets for our next visit there which is in March. Seems like a good idea to finish writing up this trip before we embark on another one. (I do know March is quite  a long way away, but we've been filling in the planner this morning and the year is staring to look busy). 

So, what have I not covered? The marzipan boat

This sails into Stockholm at the end of November and moors up in the major quay area of Strandvagen to sell Christmas marzipan to the good citizens of Stockholm. For those who may not know, marzipan is a huge traditional thing in most Scandinavian countries and often takes the form of a pig. I have no idea why. Oddly enough, for something that has been going on for 28 years or so, there seems to be widespread ignorance of the boat's existence. The receptionist in our hotel looked very blank when we said we were off to find it; he'd never heard of it. It was lovely and we bought stuff, on the downside we got Whammageddoned on there. Annoying as I didn't hear the song anywhere else all December!  

The traditional Swedish dinner or Julbord at the hotel. This was six courses and there were several timeslots. We chose the last one at 8.00pm  which was a mistake in retrospect as gannets had been at the buffet and also the staff were wanting to clear up when we were on about course 4. However there was certainly a huge variety of food and I did enjoy it. I even ate some herring, apple cured, and quite enjoyed it. If we did it again, which we won't because wild horses would not get me back to Stockholm in December again, we'd definitely do it earlier in the evening,  but I did take some pics. 

yes there is some herring in there, honest.

much much food 

and even more 

this was my dessert choice. There's a candied fruit jelly, some traditional rice pudding, a passionfruit flavoured tart, some chocolate covered almonds and I forget what the thing in the blue case was, but it must have been delicious because wall the dessert stuff was. 

No pictures from the opera naturally as it's not allowed, but we saw a very good performance of Rigoletto. As I said to someone, it was a shame the tenor took the whole of Act 1 to warm up and, unless he was taking his calls in character he wasn't nearly as good as he evidently thought he was. The Rigoletto was good; powerful and moving, but the star of the show was undoubtedly the Gilda. It's a role with a  lot of very high notes and not once did I worry she was going to miss one.  Or - even worse - shriek on them. 

There were a few other small things we did that wouldn't be of great general interest, but we did have  a lovely time. 

Beannachadh

 

When I was doing my Ph D I had a lot of help and encouragement from another scholar who had edited a complete collection of Hay's poetry. I always intended to give him a thank you gift as I had to George's friend and editor who had also given me a lot of help, not only with my thesis but also the fundraising and publicity for the Makar's Court stone. You can read all about that gift  here

I knew what I wanted for this one, but, having had a recommendation from a friend for a calligrapher and entered into some e-mail correspondence with her, she suddenly ghosted me ( not that I knew ghosting was even a thing at that point) Then we had covid and it all got put on  aback burner. Recently I had another attempt to find a calligrapher, this time with more success, and the piece was commissioned, made and delivered to me before we went south to Glasgow on our way to Stockholm. And while we were in Glasgow we managed to meet up with the recipient and hand it over. I think he liked it. 

I know the photo is a bit odd. But the lady in the shop where we bought the frame put it in for us  and then wrapped it up very thoroughly to protect it and I hadn't; the heart or the nerve to unwrap if to take the photo. And actually it is quite clear. 

Anyway the reason I'm blogging about it today is that it seems appropriate for the new year. Beannachadh is the Gaelic for blessing and the translation of this one is

May the King of the stars and the white sun 

Shield you from want and sickness

May he shield you from tempest and turmoil

and may you have peace where you are for ever

That seems a good place to start 2024.