Getting to the end of all the things I have to get done before our trip including making these little dingle-dangles for the Ornament Swap… must… keep… going…

The U75 walkers hit the Peak District this w/end.. fueled by an amazing rum cake, ale and the thought of the view from the top, we crossed about a mile and half of *very* wet marshland, scrambled up scree and hid behind a wall* at the summit of Stanage Edge to drink tea from a thermos and eat home-made flapjacks!…

Can’t wait to get my boots back on in the New Year

*realised the importance of shelter as almost 90mph gusts blew!

Wow – received my first one already! I’ll have to re-think my pinecone-stamp-on-felt-idea though… (I think this one is gocco’d)

* why am I wearing mittens in these photos? here’s why...

So… I gave up on the first mitten – the yarn was too thin and I got dispirited with my ladders.. Gave up on dpns and went back to the teeny tiny Japanese circs I got from Purl.. This and some thicker wool = much better

What was weird though is it made me realise I have very long fingers! I had to repeat the rows they gave for the middle bit before decreasing loads more times than they suggest!

Knitted on size 4 needles, a mixture of random brown wool (Rowan Cork?), Green BS Alpaca and Lana Grossa – Bingo Chiné (Turquoise)

Woohoo! Nicole and Kathleen just mailed out our groups for the swap… [waves at anyone in group 10]… All of the other people are in the US or Canada so I better get going…

So funny to see our pics of our craft club in the December 06 issue of Crafts Beautiful Magazine…

Started to make a mitten using some more of the pink alpaca and also some schoeller & stahl self striping yarn I got at the K&S show..

I remember now why I’ve never tried socks… ladders!
I’ve tried all the ways to avoid them; knitting the last and first stitch on each needle tighter than the rest, knitting the fist and second stitch tighter than the rest, but to no avail. Even shifting the stitches around the needles just makes for a spiral ladder.

It’s a shame because there are loads of sock patterns I’d like to try – do you think the more I practice, then eventually the ladders will go away?? (crosses fingers!)

Oh, and Misty Garden scarf-let is finished (I only had one ball of the Be Sweet) … it’s *so* snuggly..

Woke up too early again this morning so did a bit of painting before breakfast…

The pear’s a bit floaty and the flowers look like they’re in a cup of blue tea but it was fun to do them…

Ok, it’s probably a bit of a fashion victim kind of bike, but I love it.. it’s exactly the kind of bike I would draw if I just closed my eyes and imagined it (although it would have a wicker basket on the front!)
yum….

You know that feeling that your day is already full and you couldn’t possible squeeze in another minute to do anything? and yet somehow there *is* time to do everything… Other days you have ages to get one tiny thing done – and don’t… time is a mysterious thing….

So anyway… I was up at quarter to seven doing some drawings for Singapore Airlines magazine – and because they are 8 hours or something ahead, it meant the deadline was deadlier than I had supposed – phew! all done now though… back to the real work I’m doing for UKTV…

Just a bit of time to post up about some craft though; the ornament swap I’ve signed up for (just think – 8 surprise packages from around the world will be sent, and arriving – exciting mail again!). And also the book the lil birds are in – look, one even made it to the cover – yay! Got the proofs back for my section so it’s looking like it’ll be out soon..

Lastly – tonight the Actionettes will be over at The Bethnal Green Working Men’s club dancing at Legal Tender…we’ll be on about 10ish so come shake a leg and say hello!