Merry Christmas and Book Review! ★★★★★

Hello all!

Merry Christmas!

I hope you are all having a great day and have been enjoying the festivities. I am greatly looking forward to Downton on the telly this evening, accompanied by the mountain of puddings we have in the fridge and this champagne cocktail from The Londoner that we are going to give a go.

I thought I would still post a book review today as I have fallen behind in the midst of the holiday run up (it is a busy time as I am sure you will all understand) and I have been wanting to review this particular book for a while, so if you fancy a bit of classic Christmas to have a read of over the next few days, give this one a go.



The timeless tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens tells of his journey from Christmas humbug to generous friend and colleague, the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future help a miserable old man open up his heart to the joys of christmas and learn the error of his ways and how to share with those around him.

I find it hard to review classics, because lets be honest, I don't want to be the one who just doesn't "get" certain classic authors, but if I am honest I really don't enjoy many of them. One particular author whom I have always struggled with is one Mister Dickens, studying Great Expectations completely put me off him as an author and although I often try to get into his novels I find I really cannot read them. One day I will accomplish them, maybe when I have less books to read that I consider to be more interesting.

For now though the only Dickens that I can easily read and regularly do is A Christmas Carol. I generally read this story once a year around the holidays in order to take some time to relax, it is so well known to me (and I imagine to most of yourselves, be it through muppet renditions or a more traditional version) that I find I do not have to focus particularly hard on what is going on. There is a distinct lack of Dickensian waffle (as I like to call it) and the story is so heartfelt and warming that by the end I feel all warm and fuzzy.

My particular edition (which I have had a few years now) comes in at just under 130 pages including illustrations, and I can often read this in one sitting during an evening winding down. It is perfect for after the presents and dinner but before Downton comes on, or for a boxing day when you still feel a bit too full but aren't ready to get out of the house to work any of it off yet.

If you fancy being reminded about what is really important at Christmas time, after the shine of new gifts has worn off, I highly recommend giving this a read. And then if you are so inclined, watching the Muppets version straight afterwards.

 ★★★★★

P.S. I always think a book that you are planning to read a few times should be a nice copy, so here, here, here, here and here are a few of my favourite copies for if you can't get your hands on the Acorn Press edition.

FO: Ice Queen

So my final knit for the year 2010.

I finished at twenty minutes to 11 so I was cutting it fine, and this was actually supposed to be finished for Christmas so it was already late.
I knit it for my mum after a bit of a fiasco with some Rowan Big Wool. I was aiming to knit something which resembled the headscarf that Judy Garland wears at the end of Meet Me In St. Louis when she sings Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. My Mum told me when she was little she had always wanted one just like it, so I set about to knit something similar with the Big Wool and some Kidsilk Haze I had in my stash. I knew exactly how I was going to do it, and I knew it would work (I wont say more because I will re-attempt this for the future) however the yarn was far too heavy for it to work and so on the 23rd of December I ripped it out and started Ice Queen.
This has taught me several new techniques, which I will list later, but the best has been knitting with beads. I actually made a little video of me knitting a couple of beads which I might post at some point, but I learnt to hook them on with a tiny crochet hook, and it is so cool! The effect is great!

FO Report:
Name: Ice Queen by Rosemary Hill
Yarn: Rowan Kidsilk Haze in cream
Needle Size: 5mm and 3.75mm 16in. circulars
Problems: I love the feel of Kidsilk haze, but I hate to knit with it, it is so fiddly! Other then that this was actually a pretty speedy knit once I got down to it. I also hate picot cast offs, so much work for each stitch!
Modifications: No modifications, I knit the chart A version of this in stocking stitch.
Skills Learnt: Knitting with beads, picot cast off, knitting with crazy mohair silk blends (yes that is a skill)
Knit Again?: Yes I think I would, it really is very pretty, I think I would add more beads though.
Score: 8/10 because it is so pretty.

Happy Holidays!!

Happy Holidays everyone!
I hope to have a couple of posts over the next week of one of the presents I knit and also progress on the couple of items on my needles.
For now I will leave you with an image I have just snapped as I am watching the latest Agatha Christie's Poirot :)

Snow day!

I have been beavering away with University over the past couple of months, but I have been knitting, and as today is a snow day (more images of that at the end) I have a chance to actually take some photographs and show you!

First up is another Robin's Egg Blue Hat, for my sister for christmas.

I knit it up in Rowan Cocoon and grabbed the button from John Lewis. I did make a couple of modifications to the pattern, I changed needle sizes for the stockinette portion as I felt mine didn't have enough stretch, going up to 6mm, and I like the way it has come out. It is waiting to be blocked at the moment so hopefully it will still be great after that!

Next up is Marian. 

I first came across this pattern when I was browsing Ravelry for hats and discovered all of Jane Richmond's designs (which I love, and have purchased). Marian is a simple chunky weight cowl knit in seed stitch and I am loving it, this picture was taken at around noon today and already I have knit a lot more, it should in fact be finished this evening. I have made some modifications to make it bigger, which I will go into in more detail when it is finished, but suffice it to say, I LOVE it and can't wait to wear it!

               

The next item to share hasn't been started yet.

These are the ingredients I intend to use to cook up my Mum's christmas present (he kidsilk haze there is from the shawl that I frogged at the beginning of december, it just wasn't going anywhere). She told me the other week that she always wanted Judy Garland's head scarf thingy from Meet me in St. Louis when she sings "Have yourself a merry little Christmas" so I am having a go and designing one for her!

Finally is my Eric Socks, which I have been meaning to knit for aaaages!

As you can see I haven't gotten very far, and that is purely because these are meant to be my traveling socks and I keep forgetting to pack them in my rucksack :S

I am still very happy that they are started now though as I got the yarn way back in March. 

These socks have brought to my attention that I do like to hoard yarn though, and I do always seem to have a pattern in mind for it when I get it, so I suppose it isn't as bad as if I were to just buy it and have no intention of knitting with it, I am going to say though that for the foreseeable future I am only going to knit from stash (I have all the stuff I need for christmas present knitting). We shall see how long that lasts. 

Have you ever tried to go on a yarn diet? 

Snow pics, as promised:

Yesterday afternoon when it was starting to get heavy

This afternoon, not at the deepest point because I didn't want to get my jeans wet, but that is over a foot and a half of snow on our back patio!

Deep deep snow, a lot of it, in a rare moment where it had stopped my Dad was desperately trying to clear the back so we could get the car out, but it is snowing again as I type!!

Let me assure you, this is incredibly unusual for England, My part of England anyway. We thought last years snow was bad, we have so far had over twice as much and it hasn't stopped, and it is earlier in the year! Mad!

Round up

Hello!

It feels like it has been ages since I blogged about any knitting content, when really it has only been a week, strange! I think it is because it has been a very busy week for me, and I have only managed a couple of little posts about the holidays. Well it is time for knitting content.

First up! The Bella's Mitten's for my sister's christmas present were finally finished today. I finished the main body yesterday evening but couldn't bring myself to fiddle with the DPN's for the thumb until this afternoon. My sister doesn't like modeling things for me so I only managed to take a picture of one what with holding the camera with my other hand, but here it is:

I really like them I have to say, if she doesn't wear them I might just steal them back, they are really smooshy and warm because I held two strands of the Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino together. I like the colour too, purple is my favorite colour but it doesn't really suit me, it is just the right colour for my sister though so I hope she enjoys co-ordinating them with her outfits.

All I have to do now is finish the scarf. I decided to stop doing the scarf so that I could use what was left after knitting the mittens at the end of the scarf and get a bit of extra length out of it. Well it turns out there is quite a bit left so I should get a fair few repeats extra and I am rather glad that I wont have little bits left in my stash.

So:

Pattern Name: Bella's Mittens

Yarn Used: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in 013, around 3.5 balls, maybe a little less.

Needle Size: 5 mm, 100 cm circular, magic looped.

Problems: The yarn became a bit splitty when I was doing the decreases, I think this was a combo of juggling two strands and my knitting getting a bit tight, the needles just kept going through.

Modifications: I chose to do the moss stitch palm pattern again as that is how the originals are Tonia likes things to be correct.

Skills Learnt: I magic looped this, and this is the first project I have done that on, I did a trial swatch a while ago but haven't used the technique throughout a project yet, it was much more enjoyable than managing the DPN's. I had also never held two strands together before and although it wasn't particularly enjoyable it was torturous either.

Knit Again? If you look back through the blog I am actually half way through a pair for myself!

Score: 7/10 I liked these but the little things that frustrated me made me bring the score down.

Now for a few things I have acquired. As presents I got a couple of knitterly things. Two more Harmony stitch dictionaries (I only need the edging one now, which is on order) so that I can start getting creative with colourwork, which is something I haven't done yet, and try out some more cables.

I also got the Cath Kidston 'Sew!' book which has some great things to make in it and even comes with the fabric to make a little shoulder bag.

I only got this one skein of wool for christmas, though I did get money to spend on more. I had been wanting to try out Noro but it's price and my lack of creativity had always stopped me from getting some, Mum jumped in though so now I can see if I can find something that will make the colours knit up nicely, I am thinking maybe the Noro Hat or maybe a shawlette so that I can really show off the colours. It is the sock weight Kureyon and a lot of shawl patterns seem to work with a skein of sock yarn so I shall hunt. I have a couple of other sock yarns at the moment too (and two more to come in the post, stay tuned) so I wont be detracting from my sock knitting abilities by doing this and I want to make this into something more then socks as it was a christmas present, and is therefore special.

I have recently signed up for something on Ravelry called the Harry Potter Knitting and Crochet House Cup, basically you sign up for a term, get sorted into houses and then take classes, each class has a requirement for homework and your homework is a project which you propose and then finish within the time frame for points. Points obviously win your house points. I am a big harry potter fan and so I am looking forward to this, I literally can't wait to be sorted. I am hoping that this will be something to keep me from losing my mind now I am job hunting again too. Hopefully I will be able to make my skein of Noro into one of my class projects.

A couple of other things that arrived via the postie are these lovely balls of yarniness:

These came from Loop, that fab shop in Islington which I rave on about quite a lot, on top is a skein of Malabrigo Worsted in Ravelry Red to go with the Blue Graphite colourway I already have which I am going to use in my first ever colourwork project. I am planning on making these Herringbone Mittens only without the pom-poms (I am not fond of pom-poms, see Koolhaas hat for why, a crime against knitting my Dad made me commit there, he did like his hat on Christmas Day though!)

A couple of weeks ago I managed to get a Blue Duffle Coat with red toggles and red tartan lining. I have been after a blue duffle coat for a very long time, I have Paddington bear calendars and always wanted one. I have also always wanted red wellies and this year Santa brought me some red Hunter wellies for christmas, well a red and blue outfit requires red and blue mittens, so I finally decided what I would do with the blue Malabrigo I had bought. The colours match my coat perfectly, a really dark navy and a really bright red. I am waiting to cast on though to see if it will fit into my HPKCHC projects!

This next yarn is some very nice Cascade 220 in Chocolate. Another yarn I have never used before and one lots of people talk about so I am looking forward to using it.

A couple of weeks ago I said I was going to knit these French Press Slippers for my Mum's birthday, well this is the yarn for them, It will be my first felting project so I have been reading up on hand felting as I don't trust my washing machine. The needles I need are on order and now it is just a matter of waiting until the post gets back to normal after the holidays.

Hopefully I will have a Bella's scarf FO post soon, I am looking forward to getting back to not present knitting, and an update on recently ordered things next week, especially something winging its way over from the U. S. of A. which I am a little excited about!

Merry Christmas!

Just a quickie to say Merry Christmas and that i hope you all have a wonderful day whatever you are doing to celebrate.

Also, my sister's present didn't quite get finished but she got to unwrap one mitten with a note saying the other is 2/3 done and she was happy.

Have a great day everyone!!

Georgina xx

Snippet

So. Pretty.

P.S. Bella's Cable Scarf for my sis is ALMOST done, prob wont get the mitts done too by thursday but she has a birthday in January so.

Let it...

Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snowww.

Today while I was pottering away in the kitchen I looked out of the window and saw the above, a blizzard had appeared out of nowhere. Unfortunately it was a bit off and on and didn't really settle very much, there are supposed to be heavier snow storms tomorrow though, typical as I wont get my red wellies until Christmas Day! I hope it snows after Christmas too (I am not holding out for snow actually on Christmas day, but that would be cool Mother Nature if your reading)

So what was I doing in the kitchen when this blizzard appeared? I was making these:
Red Velvet cupcakes from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook. They are yummy.

This is actually my second attempt in as many days, the ones I did yesterday didn't go right at all, somewhere in the mixture I added way more liquid then necessary and the mixture was like batter. I think these look very festive with their Christmas trees though!

If you have never had Red Velvet cake before you are missing out, it is bright red obviously and has a subtle chocolate taste, and the cream cheese frosting is great. One of the things I miss about London is not being able to go and pick up one of these cupcakes from one of the Hummingbird Bakeries dotted across the capital (or one of the other fab cake places I know). After a long day of shopping treating myself to a cake was a nice luxury.

On a knitting note I finished my Grandma's Ripley hat, here is my Mum modeling it for you!

I think it looks great and it only used up just under 1 ball of the DB Cashmerino Aran I got, so I may have to make one for myself, or maybe I will use Malabrigo for mine.

The ends are all weaved in now, all I have to do is add sequins, I am not really sure whether to add any because my Mum thinks my Grandma might not wear it, but I really want it to be a special spangly hat and so I think if I add any at all they will just be dotted around the edge.

(So forgot this bit)

Pattern Name: Ripley in size small.

Yarn Used: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in 009

Problems: None, just my own confusion about the pleats, couldn't understand where they were on the picture it at first!

Modifications: None, possibly some sequins.

Skills Learnt: Pleats, picking up and knitting stitches.

Knit it again?: Yes, for me!

Score: 8/10

In other Ysolda news I also got my copies of Whimsical Little Knits and Whimsical Little Knits 2 today in the post! I did the Ravelry download option in order to get the Ripley pattern and then decided to do the print add on option so that they are always safe in my Ravelry library and in my library at home, having the print option is also nice because they are such cute little booklets!

With this finished I only have one present left to complete, it is a big one however, my Sister's Bella's Scarf and Mitten set, I haven't even started the mittens but the scarf is not far off, and if the mittens don't get finished they can be for her birthday which is in late January.

Speaking of birthdays, my Mum the lovely head model there has her birthday only 3 days before my sister (who refused to model the hat for me, such a spoilsport) and I am going to make her a pair of these. They are the french press Felted Slippers and I came across them on Yarn Harlot's blog, she says they can be made in 90 minutes, my knitting skills are obviously no where near as good as hers so mine will take a lot longer, and I have never felted before so this will be my first go, but Mum really liked the pattern so it will be worth it. I got a bottle of Sock Stop to make them non slip so they should be ok for everyday wear around the house for resting her hard working feet. Now I just need to decide which colour to make them, Mum isn't being very helpful about this, so I shall just assume she will like whatever colour I choose!

Just a parting shot to explain why I have gone from no Christmas feeling to lots of Christmas feeling, we put up our decorations last night, FINALLY!

The Hat Monster

I absolutely LOVE this Ripley hat pattern, but I think currently it looks like a very grumpy monster! The pleats on the back of the hat which give it the cloche styling look like a downturned mouth, I will not however be using the sequins to turn it into a face with eyes.

Although it doesn't look like much this only took me a couple of hours on Sunday night and it isn't that far from being finished, there is one more pleat and then the crown decreasing. I think it will be done by tomorrow at the latest, and that is only if I get bored this evening. I didn't get any done yesterday because I fell asleep at 7.30pm and didn't wake up until 6.15am, half an hour late getting up for work, I still made it to the bus though.

I treated myself to these yesterday:
I also got the super cool icing set from Lakeland that has squeezy bottles instead of piping bags, much better after considering my recent escapades where I managed to split 2 piping bags.

Hopefully some time soon there will be more cupcakes to show, really nice ones, top of the queue is red velvet cupcakes :D

And in second place...

comes this post, because I have been up to planning knitting stuff and purchasing stuff and just have to share it!

My main purchase was these lovely things:

More Debbie Bliss, 'I just can't get enough' (The Saturdays is ringing in my ears) of this stuff, it was so nice for the Koolhaas hat that I decided it would be nice for my Grandma's hat too. After showing my cousin some patterns we went with Ysolda Teague's Ripley pattern, in the smaller cloche style. I went with grey because its nice and neutral and this grey has an almost silvery tone to it which I really like, and I am going to pop some pretty sequins on it in a flower pattern to spangle it up and make it really special.

While I was visiting the lovely Tricot to purchase that, I happened across something new they had in, this lovely ethical twist yarn. It was a bargain at under £5 for 240m and it is made with 85% organic wool and 15% baby alpaca and so is nice and squishy soft. It is another one that I just had to have and don't have any plans for yet, maybe a hat for myself or something similar would be appropriate.

My next two purchases are not of a knittingy nature, but they are fab, today I came across the Clarks sale and get this pair of wedges,

I have been eyeing up these wedge heels that Clarks have been doing for ages and have never managed to get a pair, so today i got these for half price! They are super comfy and flexible too, which makes a big change compared to my normal heeled shoes!

I also got what I actually went in for, these amazingly light and comfy slip ons. They really are so light you wouldn't believe it from looking at them because they have quite a thick sole.

My main pair of slip on shoes have started to show that they have been worn far too many times and so it was time for new comfy shoes for work, I haven't taken them off since I put them on for taking this picture! What do you think? I think they actually make my feet look not as big as shoes normally do (I have quite wide feet).

On the learning of new skills.

Today was my first whole day without unavoidable distractions since the thing with the Irish boy and I was determined that today would be the beginning of operation no more tears, and I have so far succeeded! I am quite proud of myself, I used to be a very strong person but my Mum said she had noticed I was not the strong person I used to be any more, and so I want to get back my confidence and things.

So, today, in order to maintain the no more tears plan, I distracted myself with knitting. Last night I finally started knitting the christmas puddings I am hoping to give as little presents this christmas. I basically have used the Little Cotton Rabbits cupcake pattern that I have used before, only with some tweaks. I used the top half of the cupcake pattern and knitted it backwards and then forwards so that I had a whole cake that would be separate from the case. I also didn't tie up the bottom of the cake, I left a hole big enough to put chocolates in.

Don't they look cute?! Each one has 4 chocolate christmas puddings tucked inside, and the little case means they don't fall out of the hole. I also didn't use the Little Cotton Rabbits holly pattern because I was getting an indentation in my finger from trying to do all the complicated twists with my sharp but not quite pointy enough needles.

I think they will be great as little gifts, and they don't take too long so are great for when I just want to sit for a bit in the evenings.

I do however need to make a few more, I want to give one to each of my family members that I normally give gifts to. I also need to figure out how much stuffing would be needed to keep it poofy after the chocolates have been eaten so that I can put it in little baggies for them.

So, some technical details, I am using some DK weight acrylic blend for the main body of the cake, I got a slightly tweedy one so that it looked like the orange peel etc. I am using hardly any per cake as they are small, knitted on 2.75mm needles so I should still have loads left over when I am done. Maybe I will make more charity things. The brandy sauce is 4ply mercenised cotton, as is the berries, holly, and cake case. Again I should have loads left, maybe I should tuck them away for making more next year.

Another thing I started working on today is this:

It is the Koolhaas hat by Jared Flood. I decided I would make this pattern for my dad's christmas present. My Dad is very short on hair due to the progression of time, and in his youth used to have thick dark brown hair so I thought a nice thick brown hat would be appreciated for when he is tramping around the garden doing Dad like things. To add a bit of luxury that his current woolen hat doesn't have (shop bought so has a high acrylic content, ick) I am using Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran. I have said before, and demonstrated in how often I use and purchase her stuff, that I love Debbie Bliss Cashmerino yarns, they are really soft and when knitted feel incredibly lightweight.

It is this hat that is teaching me new skills today. I have never knitted from a chart before, and this pattern has a chart. A lot of the explanations for reading charts seem to say that after you start knitting with a chart you will prefer it, but I don't so far. I am not sure if it is because I don't know what each symbol means without looking it up and it would maybe be better once I do, or whether because it is quite late and I get frustrated easily by mistakes at this time of night, but right now I prefer to read written instructions.

Another thing this pattern is teaching me is twisted knit stitches. I watched a video tutorial on the twisted knit stitch a couple of weeks ago on this lady's blog and it was great, I hadn't actually had to do one since then however so today I hunted down the video again to make sure I wasn't imagining how stupidly easy it was and started doing the twist!

Unfortunately my picture doesn't show the stitches very well, I may try and steal my sister's camera on sunday and take a better picture in better light, I am really proud of my progress today though. It is one of the things I love about knitting, that I am constantly learning something new. I haven't managed to cable without a cable needle yet though, that I think will be Sunday's day off challenge!

Squashhh

Soup that is, Butternut squash and sweet potato. Yum.

Here it is, in the pan, lots of chopped squash and sweet potato, with some stock and spices, nice warming spices.

And here it is after I had had a little bit and suddenly thought I had better take a picture before eating any more.

This really perked me up today, I haven't been feeling too great, I know its just a cold and things but you know how they can really get you down, there's nothing better then home made soup on a cold day to fix that.

Not much knitting content I am afraid.

My haven scarf is now over 140cm's long, I'm onto the 16th pattern repeat so over half way now :) I love knitting this scarf but it's now getting heavy and i really want to know if I will have enough yarn to knit my mittens!! No picture yet though.

I DO have a picture of some bargain yarn I got lately.

I got some hand dyed and tweed and some cotton all for bargain prices like £2 when it was supposed to be £10, and I did some sums and realised I have saved over £30 by buying yarn from websites with sales and things going on!! Fab!!

Also got all the stuff for my little christmas puddings, the brown wool is only some acrylic stuff, which I usually hate using with a passion, but I am going to be making quite a few of these and I can't afford to spend loads on them so it will do. Also got some nice coloured cottons for the brandy sauce and holly, and the right sized needles came through over the weekend, I am sure the woman thought I was crazy because I rang and requested specific colours, I like pretty things :) They are more of the great casein needles, though because they're so thin they are reallllllly bendy, hopefully they wont break on me!