and.sew.to.knit

The lovely Cara gave me a letter, M, so here goes.

McLellan- this was my maiden name which I kept for 21 years until I got

Married- which I will have been for 20 years this coming Halloween, thats a long time!!

Mother- this I have been for over 17 years and it is a constantly changing, challenging job which I love mostly, though there are days when I want to change my name from “Mum” to something more ME!!

Males- Since being a teenager I have lived in an all male household, except for a short spell with a cranky old female cat called Sally, who unfortunately got run over by a car one foggy morning.
I am determined that my boys will be fabulous partners and one day someone else will appreciate the time it has taken me to educate them in the ways of all household appliances, even when I know that doing the job myself will be easier, quicker and less painful than nagging them to do it, I will continue to ask nicely, ahem NAG!!

Mornings- I am a complete morning person and I love to have peace and quiet to drink my tea and contemplate the day for at least 1/2 hour before anyone else gets up, my friends know not to call me at night as the conversation is rubbish as I can’t think straight after 9.30pm!
This is this mornings sky.

Mates- My friends are scattered all over, they are all very precious to me though I have to admit at sometimes being REALLY bad at keeping in touch.

Myopia- I have been short-sighted since I was a teenager and wear glasses to watch television and drive, at all other times I view the world with a very blurry edge, I kinda like it that way.

Matching- I do have a thing about colour co-ordination, which I have passed on to at least 2 of the boys, much to my husbands displeasure The matching and symmetry thing does have its downside though as even when I am trying to do random, a pattern starts to form, usually when beading.

Mascara- an absolute Must, can’t leave the house without it and if I do, to walk the dog, take out the rubbish, I just hope I don’t meet any neighbours.

M’s I hate, moths and marzipan, bleuch.
M’s I love,
Macaroni cheese, my all time favourite dinner, with ayrshire back bacon, yummmm.
Merlot, or most other reds, I am really not that fussy!
Marmite, on toast and I am the only person in the house who eats it.
Markets, my idea of a blissful sunday morning trailing the local markets for
something for lunch.
Movies, especially musicals, though I don’t enjoy going to the cinema.
Magenta, or any other shade of pink.

Two matching berets from the latest IK, one for me and one for my friend Margaret, one of my favourite M’s.

Well I hope you all had a fabulous holiday and wishing you all the very best for the New Year. Thank you all for your comments to my last very harassed, stressed post, I did breathe and take it easy and left quite a lot of things undone and nobody noticed.
We spent the holidays in my friends fabulous house on the side of the hill and this was my view the other morning.

We had a very peaceful holiday, watching television, knitting and fighting off dogs for my share of the sofa. They did reclaim their space just about every time I left the room.

My friend returned in time for Hogmonay and Jims birthday so there was 10 of us for dinner then 13 of us for lunch the next day and much fun was had by all. I cooked the xmas pudding from Decembers Olive magazine and it was fabulous as was the White Chocolate Torte.

The boys are back to school on Monday and Jim starts a new shift pattern this weekend and will be working every weekend in January. I have no idea how this will work out as it means he will be home all week, so I may need to find a job for either of us, as I think that much time together might be just a little much.

I am trying to find time to finish all the end of year stuff, I still have a couple of parcels to post and my New Year cards to go to all my aunts but I am trying not to stress about them too much.

It has finally snowed so the boys and Jim spent this morning skiing and snowboarding, its the first outing this year so they are all suitably sore and tired. So good Scots Broth for lunch and lazing around is on the cards for this afternoon, sounds like a great plan……

Tomorrow is the 22nd December and things are still decidedly un-christmassy in this house.
I am not organised or packed and we leave tomorrow, I am only driving 20-30mins up the hill so I can come back for things I know that I will have forgotten but thats not really the point.
I, Me, Moi am not organised, you see this doesn’t happen, I am always organised at least in my head or on my list but not right now. The house is untidy, I have no idea what we are eating for christmas dinner and the shopping really needs to be done tomorrow morning or we might be having pasta!

Knitting, not much of that going on either, I found the missing sock this morning, Jim has lost his hat and scarf from last year, so I need to knit him a new one as its really cold outside, though still no snow! No sign of my Interweave yet so am really, really p’d off and I still haven’t found yarn for the fairisle from the fall issue. I want to knit Juno from the latest Rowan but don’t have yarn for that yet either. I’ll just have to knit myself another little shawl, I bought some Alpaca to match a shawl pin that Yvonne bought me for Christmas, lovely aqua colour so maybe that will cheer me up. I will be better by tomorrow, my Mum arrives to stay so now I just need to find a bag to pack my clothes in and I’m done.
So if you are someone I usually send a christmas card or present to then I apologise they are all still here, mostly not wrapped or written and nowhere near the queue at the Post Office.

I hope you all have a great holiday however you celebrate it, me I will be fighting off the dogs for a place on the sofa in front of the telly with my knitting, Merry Christmas………

There is not much knitting going on this week, I have trapped a nerve, kind of at the top of my back/shoulder area, so doing anything for any length of time is a bit painful. This also means that food shopping and carrying heavy things is out of the window too. Though my lot would love me if I starved them!
So what am I knitting, this bag in Kid Classic in a purply colour and I just bought dark grey to trim it with. It is for my sister-in-law she saw it in John Lewis and liked it, I still have Jakes other Fetching to finish, em start, and I have lost a sock in progress, its for my Dad and is on 2 circs so I have been struggling with it and I have no idea where I last had it, it better turn up soon or it will be for his birthday in February instead.
Don’t let me fool you into thinking that is all the wip’s, its just all I am thinking of working on right now.
Tomorrow I have to take all my packages for the UK to the post office, they are REALLY late.

So here is a pic of my brothers socks modelled by someone else they are not identical but I like them anyway and my little Forest Canopy Shawl in Plassard Alpaca which I love.

I’m back, had a fabulous time in London, did some bead shopping, had tea at Libertys, did some shopping at Bluewater, had tea and cake with Yvonne, went to visit Santa, haven’t done that for a few years! Went Orla Kiely handbag shopping, book shopping, chocolate shopping of course and last but not least did a little food shopping for the essential, sausages, cranberry sauce and mincemeat. I unfortunately did not make it to Stash this visit, which is a bit sad, I did not get Malias cardi knitted as I cast it on, knitted a few rows and it was way to big and I didn’t have time to do the maths and fix it there, so the wool came home with me. She loved her pinafore and tights and we managed to find a top that met with her approval, so that is good.
Now I have to get this christmas thing all organised…..

At last there is some snow on the mountains although I can’t see it right now as the cloud is so low. All the skiers were getting a little worried as the slopes were supposed to open a couple of weeks ago and really the weather has been very warm. Today is the first really rainy cold day we have had for a while. Apparently the weather in London is to be cold and wet too, so have to pack warm weather clothes, of course my bag is all packed and ready for tomorrow….not!

Well there is one project I have to take as I have finished the pinafore part of the pressie but the cardi is still some balls of wool unfortunately!

Yesterday I got a lovely surprise in the post, my birthday present from my brother and sister-in-law and it came in this box and I love it, the guys in this house need to take note……..

Yesterday one of the Grenoble Knitters left us to move back to Oxford, so anyone who knows of an Oxford knitting group let me know and I can pass it on. So at the Knitting Bee cafe we had a little champagne celebration much to the delight of our waiter, who really thinks he is getting a pair of socks sometime soon, he needs to join the queue…

So I am off till Tuesday, see ya….

This little man, got himself out of bed early to do some knitting before school, this is very early as he leaves to catch the bus at 7.20am. Aahhh, but take a look at what he is knitting, this is Jakes first project on dpns, his last knitting project is still unfinished as he became a little disillusioned at the amount of counting he needed to achieve the look he wanted. He wanted the front of his jumper to be all cabled and it was really a little to much, when really all he wanted to do was pick it up and knit away, without thinking and counting!
He is enjoying knitting Fetching, he says he likes knitting on small needles AND he wants to know if this means he can knit socks! Absolutely it does, I think we might need some more sock yarn for christmas…..

So what do you think the attraction was? The smell of wet wool? The damp towel? Or the jaggy pins?
This project is done, daylight pictures tomorrow as I spent daylight hours today helping a friend clean the rented house she is moving out of. It is all fun around here.
So tomorrow starts the mad panic of packing christmas presents to take to London, packing projects to take, for me and for Malia, lots of glue-sticks and shiny things to stick!!
Have to write out yardage amounts for future yarn projects in case I escape to visit Stash.
Get the boys to finalise their shopping lists and score off all the unnecessary items like doughnuts! Not a lot really…..

Okay, I have no idea where this year has gone and now its December and I am soooo not organised for Christmas. I had my first sale this year on Thursday and it was a great night, but as usual the first one always takes me a little by surprise and I am always really worried about how it is going to go. So Thursday did see me running around like a headless chicken planning to finish oh so many more things than I had time for. I did finish up one more bag and sold it that night so that was good.

On the knitting front I just have the toe of the christmas socks to finish and the petrol coloured knitting has grown a little but still looks the same.
This morning was spent christmas shopping with 2 of the boys, though they were more interested in looking at clothes for them! So I still have lots to do, more list making is on the cards, talking of which I still haven’t made any christmas cards, later or tomorrow maybe and what am I going to take to wear in London, do I have time to make something new? Probably not…….

We have in this house a very strict, no dogs on the couch rule, but this morning at 4am this was the scene I found in the living room.

He didn’t even have the decency to slink off guiltily, he woke up a little as I took the photo and then went promptly back to sleep, snoring his little head off!