Warm off the needles

 A couple of knitting projects.

I started out by making these elbow-length hand warmers for one of my nieces. She is into photography, and I know from personal experience that in colder weather, either fingerless mitts (or better yet, flip-top ones) are the way to go. She liked them.

So then I decided to knit a shorter pair for my aunt, with the remnants of some beautiful blue-faced Leicester wool, hence the blue-faced sheep on the tag.

And I'm currently knitting a pair for myself in a dark blue wool, not quite as nice a wool as either of these, but with the merit of being machine washable :D. Not that I have ever found mittens needed washing that often, it was purely that I was out of nicer remnants in the right weight.

But before I started mine, I used up some of the chunky pink from my recent jacket to knit a cowl for my sister. It's  a chunky (bulky) wool, 80% merino with 20% angora, and it's wonderfully soft and cosy. 

She gets a pink sheep on her tag. The main photos of the cowl, the colour of the wool is pretty true. I took the tag late in the evening, because I need to wrap this up and take it to work to post on the way home. In that case, the colours in the tag are pretty true, but definitely not the wool. 

Ever since I went back to work on the 3rd, I have been seeing tree-pruning going on all the way along the central avenue through the park. They start early, even though it's still dark. And often when I'm coming home, I see them all sitting around on chairs and whatever they have gathered at the back of one of the trucks enjoying a warm mug of tea. A workers' tail-gate party, as it were. Anyway, with the moon this morning and a very stormy cloudy sky, I stopped to take a photo. It was pretty windy, I would not have liked to be up in that cherry-picker. 

December Favourites

 Can legitimately include a couple of Christmas cards...

The sentiment behind the gate reads "Trust in your potential, enjoy the process, try something new, explore possibilities, but most of all believe", which I thought played well with the butterfly/caterpillar theme.

No very exciting photos from January 2022 - knitting, baking and marmalade. So the header comes from January 2021 when we obviously had a very cold snap. 

With wishes for good health, peace and contentment for 2023.

Christmas wishes...

...for a peaceful, happy and healthy Christmas and holiday season.

Hot off the needles

 I bought some of this wool in a wine colour to knit a sweater for C - I got half of it knit while he was over in Maine, but I have had to sneak it up to the attic to sew it up up here. He also had some cough/cold, and was allowed not to go into work at all for two weeks so I haven't had a day here without him. Anyway, it was a beautiful soft wool, 80% merino, 20% angora, so even though pink wouldn't have been my colour of choice I was happy to take pink rather than nothing. Being bulky it knit quickly, but I had the sleeves, fronts and back (without the flower petals) finished when I decided I would really prefer to take it up a size, and I'm glad I did because now it will fit over a light sweater.  The pattern is Sylvi from Ravelry, and I added the pockets because I think pockets are indispensable. 

I was hoping to get C to take some nice pictures yesterday when we were up at his dentist in the north of Ireland - but his appointment ran late and being the shortest day of the year, the sun had gone down behind the mountain across the bay by the time he got back to the car. The first photo of the oystercatcher has that odd colour because the setting sun was reflected in the sand and water. I enjoyed watching them and a couple of flocks of sandpipers till it became too cold and windy, when I returned to the car to wait there. So, instead of a lovely scenic backdrop, I just used my remote control out behind the house :D. 

November Favourites

 Thin on the ground, as I said. I'm including a couple of Christmas cards as we are now into December, but even on that front I didn't get much done in November. I still need cards for C, my sister and aunt and a couple of the ladies in work, so the pressure is on.

I have had the origami Christmas stamp for a good number of years now, and have at least twice in the past included a little origami helmet as an add-on, but this is the first time I put it on the little boy rather than just using it as an embellishment on the card front. 

I have had the origami Christmas stamp for a good number of years now, and have at least twice in the past included a little origami helmet as an add-on, but this is the first time I put it on the little boy rather than just using it as an embellishment on the card front. 

No photos from December 2021, so the header is a frosted borage head in the garden the previous December. 

Wild Lights (photo heavy)

I do have just a couple of cards to share later this week. November was NOT a productive month. I seemed to be busy with work, not doing much creating and sick both at the end of October and again now. We did go to Wild Lights in the Zoo this year, after having given the previous two events a miss, so here are some photos from that. The theme was biodiversity, and it was so well done. We both thoroughly enjoyed it and would almost go back again. 

This is a selection. If you want the full length show (well, not quite. I've culled it down from about 300 to 166 photos), there is an album HERE. In view of the fact that I still haven't had time to edit and upload any French photos, I decided to upload these unedited). 

October Favourites

 Very thin on the ground. And it's not even as if I'm holding back on Christmas cards, I'll add one in here.

The first card is one of my Tyvek pieces - it was for a challenge to incorporate stitching, and I knew it would be easy enough to sew, even though I can't find my good thimble anywhere. 

I think the second one will go as a Christmas card to C's friend in Maine who isn't really into Christmas. C saw a woodpecker when he was there early this month, and though he didn't come back with a photo to prove it, he did come back with a couple of the tree where he had seen it, complete with multitudes of holes. 

The  third one was a variation on the salt technique for a watercolour background, calling for colouring the salt first. I think I probably made both my watercolour paper and the salt too wet, because the piece wasn't ready to use the next day. It had been intended for a Christmas card but my green got totally subsumed by the colours in the salt, and it more said "sea" to me. 

Assorted photos - the deer were the first morning it was cold enough for there to be a ground mist in the park. It was more visible on my side of the road, looking into the sun, but it was still worth stopping to take a shot of the deer. The rainbow is over Dublin. Thankfully there wasn't much rain that day, as I had about 22 miles to cycle each way, and really there was only a brief shower just as I was leaving my friend's house. A couple of weeks ago, on the other hand, we had amazing thunder and lightning and rain all one afternoon. I left the building in work thinking I didn't need my rain skirt, and I would just pack it so it would be accessible if I did. By the time I got to the bike sheds, the storm had started.  The mass of tiny mushrooms was also in the park. At first as I cycled past I thought someone had dropped some kind of textured bag, so I stopped to look. I've never seen them clustered together so closely like that before. They turned darker brown over time - I was going to take another photo the day after C got back from Maine, but it turned out to be the day they mowed the verges, so they were all gone. The day before I'd been rushing home to get some bread made and hadn't wanted to take any time to stop. My mistake...

I will have some photos from the little seaside town up in the North where C is getting his dental implants. With no Covid restrictions this time I was able to accompany him when he went for his extractions, and I took some good photos but life is busy. And the booster shot seemed to knock me sideways, I took my first sick days from work since some time in 2019, and still feel pretty wiped out. 

The header is some type of seed head, taken on a trip to Farmleigh last November.