Great minds yet again!

Hello there! What a miserable day it is here in North Norfolk. It's so dull outside that I haven't turned the lights off since breakfast! I have a wonderful ta-dah moment to share with you, so I won't waste another minute. Earlier this year I discovered the wonderful, colourful hooky world of Lucy at Attic 24. If you haven't yet popped in to visit her, then you absolutely must! Her blog never fails to cheer me up, and has inspired me (along with a lot of others on the Phoenix Knitting Forum) to have a go at crochet. We depleted Kemps of its stocks of Patons Sorbet in order to crochet a bag. Mine has been off the hook, so to speak, since September, but as I wanted to line it, and my sewing skills are not great, I was waiting for a chance to see my friend Sally, whose sewing skills are brilliant! Yesterday afternoon Sally helped me to line it, so without further ado, I proudly present to you my Atiic 24-inspired bag!

I put some webbing on the back of the straps to help reduce any stretching, and I just love the fabric it's lined with. It's going to become my crochet project bag and, oh look! It's got some yarn in it already!

Twelve balls of Debbie Bliss DK cotton to be exact! They just fell into my arms when I popped into Norfolk Yarn yesterday to get my spinning wheel checked over. I'm planning on starting off with a cushion cover from one of the patterns on Lucy's blog. You can be sure that I'll let you know how I'm getting on. My spinning wheel is all set up now and raring to go! I treated myself to some Corriedale tops to move onto once I've had a go with the fleece. There were lots of colours to choose from, but I settled on this trio.......

I'm busy knitting another pair of socks, this time for my friend Charlotte. She started to knit this pair of socks over a year ago, and hadn't progressed beyond the first cuff. I offered to knit them for her, so want to get them finished before the start of term next week. The yarn is lovely, Solemate from Violet Green, and the colour is very rich. But perhaps not the best colour to use for your first pair of socks. I'm struggling to see the stitches at times! I've finished one sock so far.

Whilst I was in Norwich yesterday, I called in to see my good knitting pal Snoopydog, and exchange Christmas gifts. Now I think that Snoopydog and I have a bit of knitting ESP, as several times we have bought the same yarn or the same book within a matter of hours of each other. We set ourselves a budget for presents, and I was feeling pretty pleased with myself after visiting the Knitting Goddess and ordering some mini skeins of yarn for Snoops, just perfect for her sock yarn blankie. So imagine my surprise when I opened an almost identical set from Snoopydog for my birthday, a couple of weeks before Christmas.

A little bit of questioning gave me the answer I was dreading - Snoopydog had done what I usually do when buying a gift - one for josiekitten, one for Snoopydog! AAAAAAAAAAGHHHHH! I had to do a good bit of jigging around of miniskeins to get together a gift for Snoops that didn't involve duplication of skeins! We swapped parcels, unwrapped gifts, and laughed! Snoopydog gave me some more mini skeins from the Knitting Goddess, and a fantastic book to knit and crochet flowers.

And I am now the proud owner of a magnificent mountain of mini skeins! (not sure what the collective noun is!) Look!

I was well and truly spoilt, as the Misses Snoopydog 1 and 2 also gave me a wonderful gift of a Debbie Abrahams blanket book.

I think it will come in very handy next year. I'll tell you why another time. Bye 'til then!