January - started well by picking up the stitches for the feather and fan section of the Hap Shawl, I soon got bored with rounds of 600+ sts so it ended up in the wip pile until later in the year. I started and completed the Sienna cardigan using Jaeger yarn bought in Liberty's sale!
Matt had to go into hospital for surgery and proved to be a difficult patient!
February - the ExCel show was one of the highlights as I discovered Knitwitches yarn - I hate to add up how much I have spent with Eirwen since then!
It was also the final month of SP9 and I discovered that I was being spoilt rotten by Sarah
March saw me in Glasgow at one of my favourite shows - favourite because of the company I meet up there! It's always a real pleasure to do this show and one of the highlights was being shown how to use a Shetland Knitting belt.
The yarn discovery of the month was Jamie Possum's hand painted yarn
April saw me visit a LLama and Alpaca farm and become addicted to the patterns in Lace Style
May saw the closing of the Art Bar Cafe at Liberty's and the loss of our favourite waiters. It also saw us make a trip to Wonderwool Wales where Matt fell for Badger Faced Sheep
I also spent many hours sewing squares together for the Knitted River campaign and the March through London was one of the most enjoyable days out I had all year.
June was marked by the finishing of Tailored Scallops, family days at the seaside and a trip to Bovey Tracey for a wonderful craft show
July started with the KCG AGM and some inspiring talks and competition entries. It also saw me pick up the Hap Shawl again
August started with a wonderful week in Devon and a trip to Coldharbour Mill, morris dancing at Sidmouth, visits to old friends and much loved family. The month ended in tears as Matt's Mum was fatally injured whilst crossing a road
September is a blur - I remember very little about the day to day events but do recall the most wonderful messages that Matt and I received and the support given by knitting friends worldwide.
October is the biggest knitting month of my year with lots of shows - Ally Pally was a real buzz with our biggest stand to date and the wonderful Prudence Mapstone and Xenobia Bailey amongst the volunteers.
I spent far, far , far too much money and enjoyed every penny of it!
November will always now be remembered as knicker month - for an explanation check out Wye Sue's blog!
December - I finally got down to some knitting for friends and family and promptly forgot to take photos!
It also saw the highlight of my year - a new niece to knit for!
My thanks to you all for your support during this difficult year and I hope 2008 is a better one for everybody!
Yet another girl in the family!
Olivia Grace was born in the early hours of the 28th - she waited until her big sisters had arrived home after the pantomime before deciding to join the party.
The girls are thrilled with their new sister and Auntie has been given instructions as to what to knit - do the words pink and frilly raise any surprises?
Auntie's choice has been to cast on some pale grey cashmere/silk 2ply to knit a vintage matinee jacket.
Matt and I escaped London to spend Christmas in Wales. We had a very quiet and restful time - just what was needed!
It was fun to arrive earlier than usual and have a few days to go shopping with his Aunt - she is so well known that shopping with her is like a marathon with everyone stopping to catch up on news. This time we avoided our usual haunts and managed a trip to Borders at FForestfach so that Matt could buy me the annual cookery book (Rick Stein this year) and then his Aunt took me to her LYS.
I wasn't expecting a great deal from the shop but was very pleasantly surprised, The Wool Shop in Sandfields had a great range of most of the UK's best known names, a huge range of patterns and a very knowledgeable owner. I came away with a bag of oddments to play with and a new stash of patterns!
Santa was good to me and I have two wonderful shawls knitted by two very special friends, a shawl pattern and yarn to knit a faroese style shawl and lots of other goodies.
Such a shame that I have to go back to work in the morning!
ps the knitting was finished for xmas but will hit the post office tomorrow - the girls will enjoy opening new packages after the excitement of xmas day - I think it might take my sister a while to forgive me for the paint your own fairy wings!
to complete the xmas knitting in time for the run north but I am hopeful of getting it finished and in the post later this week!
One bolero is done all barr the sewing up. The second is halfway through and the scarf is nearly there - about 20 rows left to do!
Had a good day out with Mum and Kate on Saturday despite them arriving later than planned as they'd got on the wrong train! My thanks to the customer care teams on Hull railways; National Express Trains and Grantham Station for being so understanding and supportive to them - they arrived in London less than an hour late and without having to pay any excess fares ( they had a non-transferrable ticket).
We started in Borough Market where Mum soon warmed up with a mug of mulled wine. I was telling them that one of the things I miss about being home in Yorkshiire for xmas is the lack of hearing our "local" carols (our villages have a championship winning Male Voice Choir and Brass band) when the Salvation Army band switched from playing Rudolph the Red Nose reindeer to "Hail Smiling Morn" - the song I most associate with xmas at home - the 3 of us stood there belting out all the words and at the end one of the players commented it was the first time they'd seen anyone recognise the tune let alone sing along!
We continued down the South Bank through the Frost Fair where Kate and I introduced Mum to churros and chocolate sauce and then took her to one of our favourite restaurants in Covent Garden before I put them on the right train to get home!
A few years ago we seemed to have so many xmas commitments that we didn't enjoy ourselves and began a tradition of having a 2nd xmas break with friends - usually the 3rd weekend in January although in one infamous year we held it in Monmouth in June!
I'm thinking of reinstating this
to put my head up over the parapet?
Sorry for the lack of blogging the past few weeks have been the stuff of nightmares with problems and long, long hours at work; health issues; family issues and very little knitting!
I escaped briefly last week for the annual Liberty secret santa and had a magical evening with the Liberty kids - so wonderful to see Beth and sister Ellie, Hugo and Pete.
There has been very little xmas shopping which means a mad rush on xmas knitting - I'd said I was not doing any this year but my nieces phoned on Sunday and placed their requests. Six days to knit two lace boleros for a 4 + 7 year old - will I achieve it?