The Goldilocks zone

No, nearly, yes.

I don't know why the one on the left just didn't work, whether it was just because the yarn was slightly thicker. Or the colour was off - it's a beautiful blue but just didn't look right on the wreath, hence my debating whether to include them at all.

The middle one, the yarn is finer and is probably pure wool with a slight lustre, so maybe that's why it looks better, but the stem was wrong.

The one on the right is fine and I'm just going to go and knit another few stems. I also incorporated a stretchy bind-off which lets the bell flare out a little more. I just came upstairs to find yellow beads for my blackbird's eyes. I hope he'll fit on the wreath, or maybe even hang in the centre. He's turned out very well. 

The home straight

Back in Christmas '14 I finally finished  a woodland wreath as a Christmas present, using a pattern from Ravelry by Frankie Brown. At the time I bought two of the polystyrene wreaths, because I knew I wanted to knit one for myself. And ever since, I've been buying odd balls of green and brown wools any time I saw them.

Well, come the end of October this year and we suddenly had an unexpected house guest for nearly a month. I knew she could knit, so I suggested some knitting as something to do that would be therapeutic and relaxing, found her a couple of patterns and some wool and pulled this out to start for myself.

I just have some flowers to add - I've finished some pink and yellow ones, and am in the process of deciding whether I want to add the bluebells or not. Just because they're in the pattern doesn't mean I have to! I'm also planning to knit a blackbird from the book Lorraine gave me and see how he looks on it. C thinks the scale would be wrong, I don't think it will matter and I'd like to see what he looks like.

So I'll be back in a few days with the finished project - when I've added the last details and found somewhere to hang it.

In the meantime, here are a few work-in-progress shots.

Basic wreath with a garland of leaves, ivy and oak

Add the holly and some colour starts to give more life to it

And the mistletoe looks good too

Here I've added the toadstools and little pinecones.

Now the fauna - hedgehogs and owls.

December favourites

Most of my December stamping was for Christmas, as I still needed a last few cards - but there was also one special birthday in there and I finally turned a very late "new house" card  (I originally stamped and coloured the main panel back in October) into a combined New Home and Christmas one - and received a WhatsApp video of the boys excitedly discovering the light-up element.

The old pier stamp did indeed work well for a foggy scene (though I messed up the masking and had to change it from being a one layer card) - looking forward to making a more summery scene with it soon. Thank you, Lorraine.

Ring out the Old...

...Ring in the New

Thank you, Lorraine - your gift was perfect to use to make a card on Monday to ring out the old year and ring in the new. It was such a dark gloomy day that I didn't manage to capture the sparkle on the leaves and the gloss on the berries.

Merry Christmas

Wishing a peaceful Christmas to you all.

We went to Wild Lights on the 21st - more photos to follow whenever I get a chance.

This year's Bûche de Noël

November favourites

Despite November being a month which, for various reasons, left me with far less time to stamp than usual, and less energy, I found that I had plenty of favourites at the end of the month...

I've been collecting various "on the way to work" photos, I just haven't found time to upload and edit them yet but hopefully that will come soon.

The first card uses one of the first stamps I bought - and I'm thinking it must be 25 years ago as the Knitting & Stitching show celebrated its 25th anniversary this year - the little palette stamp. 

I was nearly going to use a photo from the Wild Lights at the zoo last year (we booked for this year, with an ocean theme, as soon as the booking opened), but in the end I went for a sunrise one December morning last year as I waited for the bus to work. 

October Favourites

I think I was starting to feel a bit better after being off work for a week in September...there certainly seem to be more cards I really liked to show for October. The last one is a 9 "x 7" (ish) canvas, and all the flowers and the bird were cut from assorted scraps.

There weren't many photos from last November to choose a header from - a few from the bird reserve in County Wicklow, and a few from a frosty day in the park - so I went with the reed beds in the reserve.

Old Cork...

We took a trip to Cork yesterday: I spent the afternoon with my sister and C visited a friend. I was partly going to visit an art exhibition. As we were walking over, I asked my sister about the Elizabeth Fort, since I'd spotted it the night before on Google Maps when doing some planning. She and her husband said that they'd looked at it once but it wasn't really worth visiting - however, as we were passing the bottom of the street it was at the top of (literally, Cork is full of hills), we swung by - and it definitely was worth a visit. It was a very grey overcast day just turning to drizzle and not very suitable for photography but we enjoyed a walk around the walls and they enjoyed picking out all the landmark buildings.

Right beside it is St. Fin Barre's cathedral - and the golden angel and just-turning beech foliage were a great match.

It was also interesting to see all the different rods used for cleaning and loading the cannon.

The top one with the hook was for cleaning out debris left from the previous firing. The next one down with the sponge was used for cleaning the barrel prior to re-loading again. The scoop was for putting in an accurate measure of gunpowder, and finally the ramrod was for tamping it in. 

Someone appears to think that good knots won't hold in the current windy season! This was the base of the flagstaff. 

I have often seen this vintage store as it's just across the road from where I used to get the coach when I was visiting my dad. I've even been into it more than once for a browse around, and I knew it included a coffee shop - but for some reason I never noticed the Italian coffee pot on the shop front before. With major roadworks on the quays it wasn't even possible to get a good photograph of it. 

No tricks, just treats

We were lucky enough to have a quick trip to Giverny this week. C found out he still had seven days annual leave which he didn't know he was entitled to, and with the luxury of being able to take a day off midweek we were able to check the upcoming weather forecast and  get super-cheap flights to Beauvais, from where it's only a little over an hour's drive. It was a wonderful sunny day, and we had a little mini-holiday. Since the option was a day-trip to Clare/Galway to look for more sloes which we don't really need, and blackberries which it's probably already too late for as it was an early season this year, I think we made a good choice.

Here are a very few of the photos - I have  culled my two-hundred and fifty or so photos into an album with just seventy-two  HERE if you would like to see some more.

This plant fascinated me. They look like something from a fairy garden. These open up onto a white flower, and then when the flower fades leaving a star-shaped seed head, it almost closes back up into a pod again. I think I took at least a dozen photos just of this one plant.