The joy of swaps!

Well good afternoon to you! Thanks for popping in! Very little on the knitting front to share with you I'm afraid. There has been a lot of box packing going on, and not much else. I have knit a small amount of a sock, it's an easy pattern, so it's nice to relax and do a couple of rounds in the evening when we have had enough of parcel tape and packing paper! Florence, as you might expect, is still keeping an eye on proceedings for us.

 

 

 

 

I packed up my craft room yesterday. I won't show you any photos of exactly how many boxes there are - let's just say that the new craft room will be well insulated!!

 

 

I have been busy finishing off the bunting that my knitting club has been making at school. I managed to get a few parents involved too, and the corridors are now festooned! It certainly brightens up the place.

 

 

 

 

Our kitchen is rather steamed up at the moment - here's a clue as to why!

 

 

Can you guess? No? Ok, here's another clue then!

It's Stir up Sunday, the day when traditionally, Christmas puddings are made. We make one following Delia Smith's recipe, it's delicious. It has a couple more hours to steam today and will then be packed away until Christmas Day.

 

 

I have had two rather lovely parcels in the post this week. The first was from Judi - part of the ThreeBagsFull group swap on Ravelry. We had to choose a bag from Michele's shop for our partner, and then add a skein of yarn and some goodies. Judi chose me a really cute owl bag, and spoilt me with lots of lovely treats. Some sock yarn from SweetGeorgia Yarns, a bag packed full of miniskeins for my (rather neglected) sock yarn blanket, jars of rhubarb jam and apple butter made locally to Judi, white chocolate peppermint bark (delicious and sadly all gone!), chocolate covered pretzels (saved for Christmas!) and a handmade button. Thank you Judi!

 

 

The second parcel was from Beki. She and I swapped parcels earlier in the year. I asked Beki if she could send me some of her lovely stitch markers that I wanted to give as part of another swap gift in exchange for some yarn.

 

 

 

Well imagine my surprise when a rather large parcel arrived in the post. Not only had Beki sent me three pots of colour-coordinating stitch markers, but also lots of other lovely, lovely things. Three different braids of fibre that she picked out for me at local fibre festivals, some Corriedale and Targhee fleece to work with, along with some sachets of fleece scourer, a really cute knitting bag (made by Beki herself I think) and a cat tin with a couple of badges that really made me smile.

 

 

There was an absolutely beautiful card too - from Linda Dufurrena photography. Scroll down the page and see if you can spot which photo made me go all gooey! I think that I am going to have to get some of these cards for myself.  It's called Take Love Where You Can Get It. Don't you think it's just a lovely photo?

 

 

Apologies if you have been experiencing difficulties accessing my blog. I was alerted by a couple of readers that their virus software advised them not to visit  because it was linked to another blog which might pass on a virus. I have removed all links to that blog and am happy to report that all seems to be well now.

 

 

Have a good week, whatever you are doing. xxx