Advent socks ta dah!

You might remember that I blogged about this yarn in my daily Blogmas posts, way back on December 2nd. I worked on them every day throughout Advent and on Christmas Eve I added the afterthought heels to two pairs of Christmas Lights socks. I had to use a different mini for the second pair, but I absolutely love them and wore my pair on Christmas Day. The second pair were a gift for my friend Julia who is very appreciative of anything handmade. The yarn is from The Yarn Badger and is absolutely gorgeous! Liz dyes such stunning self striping yarns. I have a couple more sat waiting in my stash to be knitted up. I think I will declare 2021 to be the year of stripy socks! xxx

 

Blogmas Day 25

 🎄🎄🎄 Day 25 🎄🎄🎄

Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones! I hope that you have a wonderful time and thank you for your company this December! xxx

Blogmas Day 24

 🎄🎄🎄 Day 24 🎄🎄🎄

I have a group of Instagram friends and we decided to brighten up this festive season by giving each other a Christmas Eve box of treats. It was a secret swap so your partner didn’t know who was gifting to them until it was revealed in the parcel! So instead we spent time stalking each other’s Instagram feed to get an idea of likes. I think my partner did a great job with my parcel and I feel very spoilt! We’ve already decided that this will be an annual tradition! Happy Christmas Eve! xxx

Blogmas Day 23

🎄🎄🎄 Day 23 🎄🎄🎄

I’ve just wound my yarn all ready for my Christmas Eve cast on. I’ve chosen Ellie Jones’ latest sock design called ‘Mistletoe Kisses’ and treated myself to a sock set from Ellie too. Ellie is Craft House Magic on social media. I dug out a festive project bag from Three Bags Full, the pattern is printed and I’m using the sweet little mistletoe progress keeper that was part of Day 1’s goodies in Ellie’s Mistletoe Kisses Advent calendar. I’m looking forward to some selfish knitting over the next few days. Have you got your Christmas Eve cast on sorted yet? You can buy a copy of Ellie’s sock pattern here (caution - Ravelry link). It would be lovely to have your company. xxx

Blogmas Day 22

 🎄🎄🎄 Day 22 🎄🎄🎄

It wouldn't be Christmas without some bunting! Over the years, I've sewn quite a few strips of bunting. Most of them have been for gifts, but I do have a couple of pieces for me. Sadly they are up in the loft, so I'm not able to hang them up this year. I had intended to sew some more, but just haven't got round to it. I do plan to sew some to decorate the garden next year. It's very easy to make as you just have to sew two triangles of fabric together (right sides facing), turn them the right way round and then sew all the little flags into some folded tape, so the raw edges of each flag get hidden inside the tape. I just need to work out how long to make each piece for the garden, and what I'm going to attach each strip to. The felt Christmas tree bunting was made from a kit that I bought, and the hessian bunting I made at a craft workshop the first Christmas after Mr JK died.  xxx

Blogmas Day 21

 🎄🎄🎄 Day 21 🎄🎄🎄

I thought that I'd share Tante Gerda's Christmas biscuit recipe with you today. Tante Gerda was one of Mr JK's aunties and we stayed with her many times when we visited Bremen. Sadly she is no longer with us, but her recipe lives on. She used to make these using an ancient metal biscuit press that had come from Mr JK's Opa and Oma, but we bought a biscuit press back here in the UK. It's like a cake icing set, but bigger. It comes with all kinds of fancy nozzles which are supposed to create different shaped biscuits, but I could never get them to work! This recipe makes a mountain of biscuits, so we used to always quarter the quantities and that still made plenty.

German Christmas Cookies

250g flour

125g caster sugar

125g margarine or softened butter

1 egg

1 packet of vanilla sugar or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking powder

(Do not add any liquid!)

Basically you mix all the ingredients together to make a dough. We then chilled the dough as it made it easier to handle. Use a biscuit press to make the biscuits or roll out and use a cutter. Place the biscuits onto a non-stick baking tray or a tray covered with baking parchment and decorate with nuts and cherries. Bake for approximately 10-15 minutes until golden at 180 C. Cool on a wire rack and then enjoy! You can also dip in chocolate which I can highly recommend! xxx

Blogmas Day 20

 🎄🎄🎄 Day 20 🎄🎄🎄

One thing I have really missed since having to shield is my choral singing. Especially at this time of year, when we would have been giving carol concerts. I love lots of the Christmas carols and never get tired of hearing them and joining in. Mr JK and I always enjoyed the 9 Lessons and Carols service at our local church, and had fun harmonising as much as we could! One of my very favourite carols is The Angels' Carol by John Rutter. It was Mr JK's favourite too and it was one of the pieces that was played at his funeral. I must admit that the first few times I sang it after that, it was a struggle. But it is really beautiful. I'll share it with you here and I hope you enjoy it. xxx

Blogmas Day 19

🎄🎄🎄 Day 19 🎄🎄🎄

I saw a really lovely idea for a Christmas card and tree decoration on Instagram. It’s made by foundation piecing and is very straightforward, even if you’re totally new to this kind of sewing and there’s a really excellent video tutorial that guides you through the whole thing. Of course I’ve left it far too late to make them as cards and gifts for this year, and I don’t really have the energy right now either! But perhaps for Christmas 2021! I had a go at making one, just to try it out and to add a decoration to my tree. Instead of sewing it onto paper, I traced the pattern onto some interfacing so it felt slightly more padded. I didn’t have any thin red ribbon either so had to make do with what I had. But it looks lovely (I think!) and it’s perfect for using up tiny scraps of fabric. You can find a link to the video tutorial here. Let me know if you give it a try! xxx

Blogmas Day 18

🎄🎄🎄 Day 18 🎄🎄🎄

‘Robins appear when loved ones are near’

Many people think that when they are visited by a robin, it is a sign that a deceased loved one is visiting them. I am not sure that I believe this, but still enjoy seeing a robin in my garden and always say hello to it. Once, when I was visiting Mr JK's tree, I had the company of a robin the whole time too. It was comforting and nice to think that it might be Mr JK just checking that I was ok. Since he died, I seem to have started collecting robin Christmas decorations, so thought I'd share them with you. Do you haave any themed decorations? xxx

Robin Bobbin from Catherine Daniel Ceramics

Wooden robin decoration

Ceramic robin - a gift from a friend

Glass robin - a gift from a friend

Rainbow robin from Emma Verner Designs

Ceramic robin (close sibling of other one!)

Fused glass robin from Cornish Fused Glass

Blogmas Day 17

 🎄🎄🎄 Day 17 🎄🎄🎄

Another traditional Christmas bake for you today - stollen! I had never eaten stollen until I met Mr JK and then it became a staple of our Christmas fare. Baked with marzipan inside, brushed with melted butter and sprinkled with icing sugar, just like Mr JK's mum made. We never came across her recipe so we have had to make do with one from Paul Hollywood. The first time we made it, it was an absolute monster and barely fitted onto the baking tray. So from then on, we made it into two smaller ones. It's delicious... and impossible to eat just one slice! xxx

Blogmas Day 16

 🎄🎄🎄 Day 16 🎄🎄🎄

The Christmas bedding is on! I bought this set from Next a couple of years ago. It’s brushed cotton so it’s super-cosy and because it’s not an overly festive design, I don’t have to limit its use to Christmas. That meets with Flo’s approval as she likes to snuggle on it too. Do you have bedding especially for Christmas? xxx

Blogmas Day 15

 🎄🎄🎄 Day 15 🎄🎄🎄

Since I was sent my little Christmas tree by my group of knitting friends, a few decorations have also arrived in the post. This sweet little mitten decoration was sent to me by Deb. It's a free pattern from Brooklyn Tweed that you can download from the website here or from Ravelry here. You still have time to knit some for your own tree or as last minute gifts. xxx

Blogmas Day 14

🎄🎄🎄 Day 14 🎄🎄🎄

It wouldn’t be Christmas without reading ‘A Christmas Carol’. This copy belonged to my Mum who was an avid reader. I love the cast list at the start of the book and the colour plate illustrations. This one shows Bob Cratchit and his family celebrating together. Can you see the dogs on the mantelpiece? I’ve got one of those from my Auntie’s house. I don’t know what happened to its partner, I only remember there ever being one! xxx

Blogmas Day 13

 🎄🎄🎄 Day 13 🎄🎄🎄

As my Christmas decorations are in the loft, when my little tree arrived last weekend, I decided to treat myself to a couple of new decorations. I’ve been following Kirstyn from Cornish Fused Glass on Instagram for a while now and love her work. So it was the perfect opportunity to support a small business and buy some really beautiful trinkets. xxx

Blogmas Day 12

 🎄🎄🎄 Day 12 🎄🎄🎄

Mince pies and sausage rolls will always remind me of Christmas time. We made a batch of both to eat over the festive period. At Christmas, it's nice to indulge yourself and have plenty of yummy treats to snack on. Delia Smith's Christmas was our go-to cookery book. I don't think I've ever had a failure when I've followed one of Delia's recipes. If you don't have a copy, you can find them online. Click here for the mince pies and here for the sausage rolls. Enjoy! xxx

Fibre 4 Fibres Giveaway preview 37

Welcome to the last raffle of 2020! What an incredible year it's been. When I had to put my fundraising on hold at the start of lockdown, I never imagined that by the end of the year, I'd be anywhere close to reaching my target of £10,000. But with luck and your help, I should hopefully get there on Sunday as I think I need £333 to hit £10,000. Thank you so, so much for your support. I know that I say this every week, but I really do mean it. Every single time my phone pings with a notification from Just Giving, my heart glows and it brings a smile to my face. If I was able to, I'd definitely be doing lots of happy dancing too! But this is not the end of the Fibre 4 Fibres raffles. I plan to carry on with them next year, as I still have lots of prizes to give away. I am in touch with the charity with the hope that your donations will be able to fund a specific research project. I will give you more information as I have it. Things are a bit difficult at the moment because of COVID, as many of the doctors are having to spend more of their time working in the COVID wards rather than doing their usual work. But as the vaccinations get underway, hopefully things will get back to some kind of normal.

This week's raffle is all about pampering yourself! I have two prizes of Christmas Eve boxes for you. Each box contains a skein of festive yarn from Felt Fusion, one in the Vintage Christmas colourway and the other in the Whoville colourway. These have been very generously donated by one of my Instagram friends Jo. There is a signed copy of Christmas short stories, a mug and tea towel, all donated by one of my favourite authors, Katie Fforde. There is a project bag and notions case sewn by me, with a Christmas progress keeper on the zipper. Also included is a copy of the West Yorkshire Knitters Christmas Socks pattern book and a ball of their Signature 4ply sparkle yarn in the Fairy Lights colourway. There is a festive scented Yankee candle and some edible treats to enjoy too - a selection of biscuits, a hot chocolate shot donated by Gnaw Chocolate and some sachet of tea, donated by Yorkshire Tea. Thank you so much to everyone who has donated a prize.

 

I'm sure that you know the score by now, but I'll tell you how to enter anyway! You have a chance to win one of these two Christmas Eve boxes for a minimum donation of £2! Are you tempted to try your luck? Here's everything you need to know. This giveaway will run this coming Sunday 13th December, closing at 23:55. To enter, go to my JustGiving page here and buy your virtual raffle tickets by donating £2 or more. £2 gets you 2 tickets, £3 gets you 3 tickets, £5 gets you 5 tickets and so on. The more you donate, the greater your chance of winning. You will need to leave your Instagram or Ravelry name, or tick the box to share your details with me when you make your donation, so that I can contact you if you are the winner. This is really important as I have no way of knowing who you are otherwise. Each week, I still get donations where no name or email is left, so if that person's number comes up in the random number generator, I have no idea who it is! All your donations go the Myositis UK to help fund research into this incurable muscle disease, so thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your support. Every single donation is important. Let's see how much we can raise this weekend! Can we get to £10,000?! I'll be taking a break then from fundraising, but will be back on January 1st to share the first prize of 2021. Stay safe and well everyone and thank you again for all your support. xxx