Gearing Up.....

Pinch, punch 3rd of the month! I had a lovely blog post lined up for publishing on Sunday and hey presto, I clicked a wrong button and the whole lot disappeared, so back to the drawing board, so to speak!

Anyway, here we are with the calendar page turned to December and trundling on towards the 25th at a rate of noughts. There's no getting away from it now, unless you live on the top of a mountain or some faraway outpost, where there are no other inhabitants, phone, broadband, wifi or anything else which might disturb your solititude and force you to go shopping!

Talking of which, I decided to hone back my spending this festive season (aided and abetted by rather a large and unexpected car repair bill and a somewhat smaller laptop repair bill - full retirement is beginning to seem like a pipedream to me at the moment but let's not dwell on the negative!) and try and do as much handmade stuff as I can possibly get away with so armed with the remainder of the courgette harvest from work and the bounty from my little apple tree in my garden,  some chutney was in progress.

I think it turned out ok but the proof will very definitely be in the pudding. I'll make some Christmassy labels for the jars soon, hopefully.

Then I found a lovely cat pattern in the little wool shop where I work once a fortnight (more of that later). alongwith the appropriate yarn for the job (not cheap but I get a small discount since I work in the shop which helped with the cost) and set to with the knitting needles and this is how he/she turned out.

Hope you're not laughing too hard! My embroidery skills aren't exactly top-notch but he/she's soft and squishy and completely cuddle-able so I'm sure the recipient will love her/him. I'm in the process of knitting a teddy bear now but have opted to use shop-bought eyes for authenticity purposes (plus, I got a discount on them too). I'll hopefully be able to show you the finished teddy soon.
Continuing on with the handmade theme (eat your heart out Kirsty Allsop!)I've also got some chocolate truffles to make and shall put them into lovely little glass jars which I purchased from a well-known Swedish Furniture Store recently.

I've also been doing some baby knitting with the news that my eldest son and his wife are to become parents next Spring (first child for my son but second for my daughter-in-law who has an 18yr-old son from a previous relationship). Everyone is delighted for them all and of course, it goes without saying how super-excited I am at the prospect of a third grandchild.

My sister requested an Aran cardi for her Granddaughter so more clacking of the needles is ensuing as we speak. It's been ages since I knitted anything Aran and I'm glad it's just a baby garment!

Been doing some crochet too - the ubiquitous gnome for the Xmas mantle - doesn't he look cute beside his little deer friend (given to me a while back by my best bloggy pal Betty who is on her exotic travels to India with her hubby at the mo and who I'm sure will be journalling her journey on her Magic Carpet Travels blog very soon. Check it out via the link. Can't wait to read all about it, Betty).

More crocheting, this time for a wallhanging. The pattern was actually for macrame but it's been so long since I did any that, after studying the pattern, it became quite clear that I would have to improvise so crochet it became!My sister admired it when she spotted it hanging on my wall so I caved in and let her take it home for her new house!

This is my little 'Saturday Night at Nana's Knitting Club'. Popcorn is compulsory, especially whilst watching 'Strictly'. 

How are your Festive preps coming along? 

xoxoxoxo

One day at a time is my mantra at the moment so in the meantime......

or crocheting!

Thank you for being here.

xoxoxo

Footnote : Betty's back from her travels! Read all about it here.