5 sleeps 'til Santa

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! It's freezing here! I've been out and about doing various jobs this morning, and I haven't warmed up yet! We had a few flakes of snow again last night, and the daytime temperatures are so low that the snow is refusing to melt. It hasn't got above zero here all day! I took this photo in the garden this afternoon - this little chap sits on our garden shed all year round. I love his frosted edging!

I've picked up my knitting at odd moments, but have nothing completed to show you today! I'm still feeling optimistic that by Christmas Eve, I'll have five (yes, FIVE!!!!!) finished knits for your delectation and delight! I must just show you one of my latest stash acquisitions - my Secret Santa gift from school! Someone who obviously has a great sense of humour! Fancy giving me yarn in Norwich's colours when they know I'm a Portsmouth fan!! Needless to say, this is going to become a warm hat and scarf for Mr JK! On the ball, City! Keep warm! xxx

6 sleeps 'til Santa

I'm in full Christmas mode now that school has finished! All the cards have been written and posted, presents wrapped and delivered (well, almost all - more of that later!) and tomorrow I'll be making sausage rolls and mince pies! Mr JK is getting some mulled wine on the go too. We're going to have some when we get back from church this evening. It's the Nine Lessons and Carols service, and I love to go along and join in the carol singing. No matter how many times I hear them, Christmas carols always give me a tingle!

I know that I said that I wasn't going to start any new projects until I'd got some of my long-standing ones out of the way. But I decided that I had to knit a couple of Christmas presents! I'm a huge fan of Anne Hanson's patterns, and last week she tempted me into buying this pattern. I knew that it would be perfect for Charlotte, my teaching assistant, who often suffers from a bad neck. Just the thing for keeping your neck nice and cosy, without the bulk of a scarf. It only used one ball of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK too! I think that I'll definitely be knitting more of these.

Nothing much else to show you on the knitting front, I'm afraid. I've got lots of things that need finishing before the Big Day, so I'll be back with a daily post to let you know how I'm getting on. In the meantime, here's this week's Innocent Smoothie Hat of the week, using up the remains of the cashmerino yarn. See you tomorrow, and keep warm! xxx

A spot of festive vinyl

'Oh the weather outside is frightful,

But the fire is so delightful,

And since we've no place to go,

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!'

Good afternoon! Are you feeling Christmassy yet? We've had yet more snow, so have decided that the only thing to do is to stay at home in the warm, and relax! Neither Mr JK nor I are great TV watchers, but we do like listening to music. Being a 'wild-child' of the 1970's, Mr JK can only be described as a vinyl junkie! His collection of LPs and singles is one of the reasons why I never need to feel bad about the amount of wool that I have! Great stuff! Do you want to take a look?!

There's even more still stored up in our loft! In the foreground you can see one of his other passions - guitars! Well, one of them is actually an electric mandolin, but you get the idea! I'm not quite sure exactly how many guitars he has - possibly seven. So I just tease him if he raises an eyebrow when new yarn arrives. I mean, how many guitars can he play at any one time, eh?! Whereas it's quite possible to have more than one knitting project on the go, isn't it?!

At the start of Advent, all the Christmas music gets taken off the shelves, and we have a 'pot-luck' listen through them. Some are old favourites, like Bing Crosby and Andy Williams. Others are more unusual, like Christmas with Pinky and Perky, and The Wombles' Christmas Party! It certainly makes for some interesting listening! Here's a little selection of some of the music we'll be singing along to this year!

How about you - what will get your toes tapping this festive season? xxx

What a week!

Good evening! Thanks for calling by. What a week I've had! At this time of year, school is always manic, with all the preparations for Christmas! It's a fun place to be, especially the age group I'm currently teaching (8 and 9 year olds) as they still want to believe in Father Christmas, and enjoy making all sorts of decorations. Basically you can make even the dullest activity seem exciting if Santa gets a mention! Picture the scene in my classroom on Tuesday - Christmas cards started, calendars started, origami Santas done, decorations for the Christmas Fayre on Friday started. The whole room was awash with glitter and glue, when we got 'the phone call'! OFSTED (that's school inspectors) were coming in on Thursday and Friday! So Christmas had to temporarily be put to one side and 'normal' lessons taught. I still snuck Santa into one of my maths lessons, because we were studying 3D shapes, so we were sorting out some packaging problems for Santa's elves!! Fortunately, the insepction went well, and we all breathed a sigh of relief when they left the building on Friday afternoon!

It was my birthday on Friday too! The school caretaker does a great line in birthday cakes, and I think he surpassed himself with this festive sugar burst!

I had some lovely presents, and Mr JK really spoiled me with some truly beautiful fibre. It certainly brightened my Friday morning when I unwrapped this little lot!

I can't wait to start spinning with it. He also gave me some Rowan Felted Tweed yarn to make Peasy - a cardigan that I've been wanting to make for absolutely ages. The colourway is called Scree, and it's bluey-grey. It goes perfectly with the buttons I brought back from France earlier in the year. The buttons are so pleased that they're finally going to be used, that they're making a big buttony smile!

We had a great time at the football match yesterday, and much to my delight, Portsmouth beat Norwich 2-0! I had to restrain my celebrations, seeing as how I was sat amongst the Canaries supporters! But hearing the Pompey chimes echoing around Carrow Road did make my heart soar just a tiny bit! I used to go occasionally with my Dad to watch Portsmouth play at Fratton Park, and you just can't beat watching football live for the atmosphere. I did take my sock with me, but it only came out for a photo!!

I had a thank you card from Innocent Smoothies this week, which was a nice touch.

The only knitting I've managed this week has been my Innocent Hat of the week - or hats of the week to be more precise. Seeing as how I was at the football this week, the hats have a football theme. Belinda is wearing the Pompey hat, while Betty models the Canaries one! I hope that this week will be a little more profitable!

I shall leave you know with a photo of my birthday tea, courtesy of Mr JK - homemade crumpets with lashings of butter! Yum! Have a good week! xxx

A visit from St Nick

Although Mr JK grew up in the UK, both his parents were German, so his family celebrated a number of German as well as British customs around Christmas time. One of my favourites is St Nicholas. In Germany, children leave a slipper or shoe outside their bedroom door on the night of December 5th. When they awake they rush to look in their slipper, and if they have been good, they will find some sweets, fruit and a perhaps a little toy, left by St Nicholas. I suggested to Mr JK that we might celebrate St Nicholas' Day this year, and he was happy to humour me! So when we woke up this morning, we found the following gifts .........

For Mr JK, tickets to go to Carrow Road this Saturday to watch Norwich City play Portsmouth. (Clever old St Nick must have known that he had to deliver these before December 25th!!)

A book for me, to make the house a vision of gorgeousness!

And for PD, a special supporter's scarf! Mr JK will be supporting Norwich City, and as Portsmouth is my home city, I'll be supporting Pompey! Poor PD is rather piggy in the middle, so I knitted him a dual team scarf!

I'm off to dig out my thermal long johns in readiness for the match! See you soon! xxx

In the bleak mid-winter .....

Good evening! Hasn't the weather been awful? The novelty of snow has worn very thin, and we haven't even had it that bad here in Norfolk. It's rather embarrassing how the first snowfall of winter always seem to catch the country unprepared, so that everything grinds to a standstill. Our worst time was overnight on Thursday, and I had a rather interesting drive to work on Friday morning, trying to get up a hill with wheels spinning! I made it in the end though - just as well as my boss never shuts the school! This was what it looked like when I drew back the curtains.

You can just about make out the blue lights twinkling away on our tree - it's celebrating its third Christmas this year! I love being able to see it from our kitchen window in the evenings!

The snow and ice have kept me indoors all weekend, and I've managed to get a bit of knitting done. I have another pair of socks just started for my friend Michele's Dad. He wears them as bed socks to keep his toes all toasty at night. I'm using a Regia yarn that I bought on a recent visit to Bremen.

I've also made a start on the Sheepish cardigan for Snoopydog's grandaughter, Sophie. I won the yarn kit from Yarn on the House a couple of months ago. So far I've done a little bit of colourwork, and learned how to do an applied I-cord bind off! Most of it is knitted in one piece, so seaming should be kept to a minimum! My colourwork is by no means perfect - I think that I should have carried the yarn across the back a little more loosely - but as the sheep motifs are only on the pockets, I don't suppose it matters too much!

Here's a closer look at one of the little sheep. You can see the applied I-cord edging on the pocket too, although it all needs tidying up!

I have a couple of Innocent Smoothie hats for you too - hat of the week for week 4, modelled by Belinda, is a stripy Rowan number, whilst Betty is wearing week 5's orange offering with a fun fur trim! They both wanted to wear that one!!

I have a little Christmassy bargain that I must show you too! When Mr JK and I were out and about last weekend, I spotted a set of tins in Tesco. The dear little characters on them have been made out of felt, buttons and yarn, so I just had to have them!

Do you want a closer look? Silly question!! Here you are then .........

Aren't they just so sweet? I might even have to keep the tins in my craft room, and not put them up in the loft with all the Christmas things.

Apart from knitting, I've been baking this weekend. I tried out a new recipe of Sarah Raven's, for chocolate and mincemeat brownies. I thought they were rather delicious - really chocolatey and gooey, but Mr JK wasn't so keen. That's bad news for my waistline! Mr JK also excelled himself in the kitchen with a rather splendid cottage pie - perfect fare for such a wintery day. Don't you wish you had a fork so you could tuck in too! Keep warm! See you soon! xxx

We have some winners!

Slightly later than anticipated, I have the three winners from my celebratory giveaway. Mr JK was the drawmaster, and Henrycat acted as independent adjudicator! The first name drawn at random was Clicky Needles who chose the Jojoland sock yarn. Second came the Crafty Geek who opted for the Louisa Harding Kimono yarn, and third was Melissa over at the Knitting Sandwich who will be getting the Regia Pompon yarn. Many thanks to all of you who entered, and especially for all those blog recommendations. It's been great discovering some new places to visit! I'll be getting your prizes in the post as soon as possible. Possibly not today though, because outside it looks like this .........

......... and I'm planning on staying inside in the warm and knitting! See you soon! xx