Christmas is in the air.......

Yep, Christmas really is in the air now! After a mild Autumn, the weather has turned chilly, with a few frosty mornings making it feel more like December. So, I have been prompted to get on with the Christmas preparations. Christmas cards are all written and waiting in tidy little piles to be posted or hand-delivered and pressies are bought or homemade. But the biggest and most enjoyable job this weekend was putting up the tree - and VOILA!

All it needs now are some gifts around the bottom...... So today's enjoyable task is to get wrapping!

So here I am with a table full of paper, ribbons and bows in a range of colours and textures and surrounded by gifts lovingly made or chosen and now to be lovingly wrapped. This is my FAVOURITE bit - next to watching people open their gifts that is! So the fire is glowing nicely, the tree is beautifully lit, the Christmas music is playing and I even have a little traditional glass of sherry! It is after noon and it is only a teensy little glass so that's ok!

I'll be back to finish this update in a few hours............

 As you can see, I like plain crepe or tissue paper in festive colours all tied up with festive ribbon.

And here they are under the tree........

.....  which finishes it off very nicely.

There are quite a few still to wrap because I do like to take my time doing this, but there is no rush now that there are a few under the tree. And some of my favourite decorations have been unwrapped, dusted off and scattered about the place too  - like these two characters which were a gift from a Canadian friend a couple of years ago and which she said represent me and P!

On the craft front, the last couple of evenings I have spent some time working on unfinished crochet projects but I've also felt like doing some knitting. And so I started a Rainbow Strip Hoodie to match the two blankets that I have recently finished. It's growing really fast! The back and one front were finished in just a few hours. As you can see I still haven't learned the lesson of working in the ends as I go along!

Well, darkness has fallen as I have been writing this update and it's time to make something warm and nourishing to eat! See you again soon, Tricia xx

Christmas is coming!

What a busy week this has been! Of course, it is THAT time of the year again. I'm glad to say that I have managed to avoid all of the shopping chaos, which I find increasingly unpleasant, by doing most of my Christmas shopping online, making perfect but unplanned purchases in small local shops as I go about, or making Christmas gifts myself. I find this a truly pleasurable and easy approach to Christmas gifts which suits me, rather than fighting with the hordes. Anyway, gift shopping is pretty much all done! So, since my man P is abroad for another week and I'm home alone, I have decided that this week is the beginning of the Christmas season proper in our house starting TODAY! As soon as I got up to this beautiful, crisp, frosty and gloriously sunny morning I just felt IN THE MOOD. So this weekend will be spent writing Christmas cards, wrapping gifts and putting up the tree and decorations! I must confess I NEVER do this so early but it just FEELS right, so I'm going with it - and when P gets home at the end of this week Christmas will have begun in our house! I must say I'm really quite excited!

Other people are obviously getting all Christmassy too this week and I have sent several of my hoodies and blankets off to be Christmas gifts for Littlies in the UK and USA, including my last remaining Rainbow Ripple Blanket - which means I may just have to get rippling again! I can't tell you how much I LOVE wrapping up something that I have made in lots of pretty, bright-coloured tissue paper and ribbon and posting it off to a new home somewhere in the world! I've just realised I should have taken pictures to show you! I'll do that next time! 

I always feel incredibly pleased and humble that someone likes my stuff enough to buy it as a gift for someone they care about - and a bit anxious too. Will it arrive safely? Will they love it, like I do? I SO hope they won't be disappointed! Even though I've been sending stuff all over the world for a couple of years now, to friends, family and paying customers, with nothing having gone astray and lots of lovely feedback I still can't wait to get the messages informing me that yes, it arrived safely and, so far anyway, that it is better than expected from the pictures and they do love it too! Sometimes I have even been sent photos of the Littlies wearing one of my hoodies which gives me a real THRILL.

As well as posting some things off to new homes I have been finishing some projects this week. Like many others I have been joining Lucy in her Crochet-A-Long at Attic 24. But whereas Lucy is making one beautiful big blanket I have made several small ones! I must say that I did get just a bit addicted to my rainbow stripes, in the same way that I was addicted to rainbow ripples previously! So much so that I have just completed my THIRD such blanket - two Rainbow Striped ones and another that I haven't got a name for yet!

I must say the Rainbow ones are my favourites - and the favourites with my customers too!

As you can see, this one still needs all those peskie ends working in because I didn't follow Lucy's excellent advice to do them as I went along!!

But this one is ready-to-go! And so is this one

 - but I have started knitting a hoodie to match this one so they can be a set or individual gifts.

And this one is finished apart from its little wooden buttons and crocheted loop fastenings.

This one reminds me of a beautiful sky - so I'm going to call it that! 

Sky.....

And it has a matching blanket which has a knitted Moss/Seed stitch centre, exactly like the hoodie, and a deep hooky border with rows of Double Crochet, Trebles and Puff Stitches.

I must confess that, despite finishing so many this week, I still have lots of projects on the go! At least 3 hoodies in various sizes and yarns, plus two or three blankets including this one,

And this one!

 And this one!!

I just can't help myself! Last night while watching TV I worked on THREE different projects in turn, knitting and hooking to my hearts content and changing when I felt like it. AND, shshsh... don' tell P, but I have more yarn on the way! I can't wait! I wonder if there is a 12 step programme for people who are addicted to YARN?!!! 

Well, Christmassy things are calling and it's already lunchtime so I'd better get cracking on with those cards!! Pressie wrapping and tree decorating will have to wait till tomorrow I think!
Catch you later Hooky Mates, Tricia xx