Signing off for Christmas

So here we are again at the end of the year. It's really been an eventful one for me. A new home, new job (sort of) more Ph.D stuff. Nothing stands still. At times I've felt like I'm racing to catch up with myself. I think this has been the busiest year I've ever lived - there suddenly seems to be so much more to do.

It's been a good year though, with so many things I am now grateful to have, and so much to look forward to next year.

It might be 2016 before I can finish this cardigan...it's coming along fine, but I'm about to go away for Christmas, and there's no way I want to cram this in my bag to take with me. It's knitted in the round, top down, and there are about 3 different circular needles attached and sticking out at different points at the moment. Not exactly portable! So instead I'm starting a smaller crochet project instead - something more portable...more on that next time though.

In the meantime, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I'll be spending Christmas relaxing, enjoying a break from the whirligig...and daydreaming about future crafty projects!

Take care xx

Winter solistice

...yes, winter solstice is nearly here. I actually really like this time of year, although I do find my 6 am starts in the pitch dark a little hard to take by this time. The weather here hasn't helped. It's been consistently muggy, damp and dank here in London. I've been beetling around still wearing a jacket instead of my big winter coat (which is normally donned sometime in November and then out of necessity not forsaken until March). Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the warm weather in a way. At 5 foot 1, winter coats tend to swamp me (you have no idea how hard it is to find a petite fit winter coat - trust me, I have tried!), so they are not my favourite thing. 

But, I am really missing the crisp, clear albeit freezing days which we do sometimes get during winter. I would really love to see a little but of frost, just for a day or two, just for Christmas! Ah well.

Mr Owl here isn't really a Christmassy decoration, he stays on the mantel all year round. I love him, so I thought he deserved a spot here, with his creamy-glowiness.

It's the time of year when hyacinths start to appear in the shops, which I love. I love seeing them bloom, and the amazing smell. I don't know what colour these will be, but I am kind of hoping for white to match everything else on the mantel.

I can feel my thoughts are already turning to spring. As much as I am enjoying our new home at the moment - it's still a novelty to change things around as the seasons change. I am very much enjoying having a slightly Christmassy mantel, and a tree of my very own in the living room. I am gradually sneaking in bits and pieces of decorations elsewhere in the house. So far S is not complaining, which I am surprised about!

Crafty wise, there is a lot going on. My head feels like it might burst as it's so jam packed with thoughts of things I want to make. I seem to have fallen head over heels in the last 24 hours for this crochet top. This worries me slightly though, as I have a bad track record with crochet garments. I don't know why, but they always come out too small! Clearly it must be my tension. Weird though, as I never have this problem with knitting. I must be more relaxed when knitting! 

I also want to make more cushion covers - the bedroom needs new ones, the living room does too. I have ideas for colour and pattern already. A new throw for the living too I think....Then there are the knitted garments I want to make... another version of a striped boatneck top I made a few years ago.

This is not to mention the cardigan I am currently working on. Worryingly I have issues with that too - colour related ones. I thought I was picking a nice neutral, creamy colour in the shop. But when I got home and started knitting, I realised the yarn I have chosen looks more of a dirty peach pink. Now don't get me wrong I actually like peachy pink...but maybe not to wear, not for me. I have brown hair and eyes, and am thinking peachy pink near my face may make me look jaundiced! Hmm, well we shall have to see. Maybe another version of the cardigan will have to be knitted in a different colour - because I really do love the pattern and the idea of the finished garment.....

Drifting....

2015...what a year. It has been pretty crazy for me. A lot has happened and I am still playing catch up. And now it's December - it's getting to the time of the year when you reflect on everything that has happened.

Well it has been a good year, but a busy one. I've sort of drifted along with everything that has happened - a little like being swept out to see sometimes, but all ok really. I think life is like this sometimes, you have to just go with the flow and wait until you are washed ashore again...hopefully somewhere calm.

Anyway, I am rambling.

It's starting to feel a little Christmassy. I am so excited about decorations this year. I don't know, there's something about having a new home, especially a new home that is more of a home because it is a home you make with someone. If that makes sense. Unfortunately because we are starting from scratch in terms of decorations I can't quite justify the expenditure necessary to justify all my decorative wanties! I guess Christmas decs are the sort of things you build gradually over the years. I keep thinking about the decorations on my parents tree, and about how we always had those same old ones year after year, ones I remember from when I was very small, as well as ones bought more recently.

I hope S and I will be able to gradually build up a store of memories like that, now we are together.

Crafty-wise I have sorted of plodded along. I sometimes criticise myself for never finishing things, but then I look around the room and think, and realise that actually, there are a few things I have made and managed to finish this year - I haven't done so badly after all!