Ringing it out

Well, that’s all over and done with for another year. Mine was fine, how was yours?

We had further snow on the 24^th and there was of course no road clearing on the morning of the 25^th. Luckily we have 4WD, so we managed to get oot ‘n aboot just fine. In fact, despite a forecast which had led us to believe that only a cursory outing would be possible… the stillness of the day mitigated the temperature and it actually felt just fine. We could have had an entire picnic, though we settled for coffee cake and cheese.

We had opted for Cata Sand as being the most likely accessible area for walking and although the beach was covered in snow and the tide was coming in fast, we managed to give the dogs a good run. Nell was slightly bothered by the apparent absence of stones to play with — but she did solve the puzzle. (I have an .avi file to prove it but at this moment lack the knowledge of how to share it with the world. Something to learn in 2011 perhaps.)

A brisk walk in the direction of Tresness, and return,  and then we were ready to sample the cake and Wensleydale at an ice-encrusted picnic bench.

When we returned home, we set a match to the already-laid fire and went to clean out the chooks. Port (pink!) and lemon was sipped in front of the flames thereafter and we dined on tomato soup and sausage rolls and listened to the radio. We made it to the cheese and biscuits in time for Kenny Everett and wallowed in both port (Special Reserve)  and nostalgia.

Most of the rest of the holiday has passed in a haze of knitting (for me) and track-laying (for him). The Bridgewater shawl has made fine progress and will be ready to block sometime next week, I think.  The edging constitutes more than 20% of the whole (my spreadsheet tells me that there are almost 20,000 stitches in it!) and it is altogether more of a chore than I had expected. Normally I enjoy a knitted-on edging but this one lacks the satisfaction of obvious dentition to count progress by. There are 13 stitches and 8 rows to each repeat and 48 repeats on each side – only one of which is complete at the time of writing (New Year’s Eve) No doubt about it, it is a big job.

I had hoped to tackle a new weaving project this holiday. Indeed, I got out my Knitters Loom and proceeded to take a run at the project already on it. I reckoned that I might complete that and warp up  for the new one… as it turned out, I managed one session and then got up the next day to signs of cat-attack.

Yes, I lost heart… but I will come back to it at some point. Right now I just want the heady achievement of completing my first ever square shawl.

What of the coming year? Resolutions are not really my thing but I am hoping very much that I will feel that I can enjoy a steady progress to reducing the UFO pile. It would be great to maintain a ticky list and to see it fill up over the coming months. There are new projects that I particularly want to see started (and finished!) – a cardigan or two for me, a jumper for Mr L… but mostly I feel that I want to dedicate as much time as possible to spinning, weaving, and to designing a few of my own knits. I would like 2011 to be just that little bit more creative and original. I would also like the next  12 months to see something of the dye pot about it.

No resolutions then, just an idea that I want to develop my skills and extend them —  and perhaps a target to spin some fleece into yarn, dye it myself, and then knit it into a wearable of my own designing. Shall we set that target and ask me to pin a photo of it here on this day in 2011?

Feel free to niggle me about as the year wears on 🙂

No knitting today – it is our wedding anniversary. Dinner plans are in progress.  Tomorrow will be a quiet day and may possibly be slightly hung-over. On Sunday I shall be working on the Sanday Spinners site with Gill. Sadly we need to increase some prices as VAT goes up early in January. I need also to add some photos of new items  for  sale and then I need to block my handspun shawl and write an article about the pattern that I used. After that, some breathing space… and perhaps some time for some blog posts here. The old place is showing signs of dust and neglect. I seem to get half way to writing a post then be interrupted by other demands. For instance – here’s a photo that I took for a WIP Wednesday post recently..

An aran weight hat commissioned at the Christmas Fair, ferry socks converted to birthday pressie and knitted in a hurry, and the mysterious handspun shawl. All now completed. Have we had FO posts? No, we have not.Not even a WIP Wednesday mention…

And the commissioned buttons (plus a few spares)

Part of the problem has been that our uplink was practically unusable throughout most of December. Blog posting has been… challenging – to say nothing of work. My, there have been tantrums about the old homestead.

I shall attempt to be more efficient next year.