Christmas is ages away, right? There's still l-o-a-d-s of time? Yes? What's that you say? No, no, I'm not speaking in a high-pitched, hysterical voice: I've just... got a bit of a cold, that's all. But everything's under control round here. Absolutely everything. Far be it for me to play chicken with the last posting date before Christmas... again... More seriously, thank you for all of your kind words after the shock and sadness of last week's fatal fire. Everyone at the hospital (patients Continue Reading
The Week My Knitting Needles Fell Silent For A While
It began with a birthday: mine, as it so happens. A few days ago. How old? Let's just say that my age is a number that provides the twinnage with the impression that they're geniuses for having successfully counted so very high. Yeah, thanks boys. In my head, I'm still down wiv da kidz. But then, my 96-year-old grandmother said to me the other week that she still feels young until she remembers that her own daughter is now a grandmother. That fact makes her feel very old indeed. (None of us were Continue Reading
Semi-Actively Christmassing
If you're on Facebook then you'll know about that feature where they show you things that you posted on this date however many years ago, and then give you the option of making a nostalgic repost of your drunken shenanigans or baby photos or heartfelt plea for the rights of narwhals. Well apparently, this exact time last year I was grudgingly acknowledging that I would need to begin thinking about Christmas at some point this month. Plus ça change. (No, I didn't accept the repost option today: Continue Reading
Christmas Decorations To Knit And Crochet
Now, being a finger-on-the-pulse sort of blogger, I'm well abreast of all things sparkly and nowish. Oh yes indeed. (I'm also immeasurably modest.) I keep my ear so close to the ground that earlier today I was head-butted by a worm. But you'll be completely gobsmacked to learn what I've discovered this time. Honestly, this one is big, so big that it was almost worth enduring the worm-butting. Almost. Are you ready? Yes? Knitters and crocheters of the world, apparently it's nearly Continue Reading
More Crocheted Christmas Decorations
OK, here's one for those of us who are - ahem - not yet quite fully sorted on the Christmas festivity front, despite the fact that guests are starting to arrive tomorrow and the house is a squalid tip. Also for those at the other end of the spectrum who are so blisteringly well-organised that you're already getting busy with coordinating the table ornaments for Christmas 2017. If you're a member of the latter group, please understand that I'm ever so slightly scared of you, so if I don't quite Continue Reading
More Unfeasibly Easy-To-Knit Christmas Decorations
Hmm, I never expected this knitting blog to embrace Christmas quite so enthusiastically (we're talking kisses-on-both-cheeks-and-a-hug levels of enthusiasm, right now). But here is the third and last of my posts on ridiculously easy-to-knit Christmas decorations. And just to reassure all those tinsel-deniers out there, I'll be back to normal by next post. Continuing in the vein of festive decorative knits for beginners and children, and those who just want their decorative makes to be Continue Reading
Knitted Father Christmas
What? What? More Christmas makes? Well... yes. Because now that the TheTwistedYarn has turned on the festive ideas tap, it just won't stop dripping. Somebody call a plumber. So, assuming that the easy-to-knit Christmas trees were on the favourable side of tolerable, here's another easy decorative knit for Christmas. I'm deliberately creating the simplest, most beginner-oriented designs, involving nowt more taxing than a garter stitch square. And in case even that sounds daunting to complete Continue Reading
Knitted Christmas decoration
I had to share this with you. Look! Look at the cables! Look at the stockinette! It's about eight inches wide, and I found it in an unprepossessing-looking card shop in a town near here. T'was far too expensive for what it is, and one tumble on to our hard floors will undoubtedly shatter it, but I couldn't resist. Continue Reading
Knitted Reindeer Head
Well, operation Christmas is in full swing. The tree is up:- I've begun Christmas shopping. I've started replying to emails asking "What do you want for Christmas?" The stoic spouse has experimented with a different form of roast potatoes for each of the past seven nights, ahead of his culinary efforts on the big day. And the reindeer head I knitted a few months ago has been brought downstairs and adorned with baubles:- Other than writing my cards, tidying the entire house, Continue Reading
Christmas decorations
Oh all right, I admit it, but only grudgingly. Christmas is almost upon us. 'Tis the season of curmudgeonly old grumps like me cheering up. I need to stop knitting housey stuff and apply my mind to gifts, and guests, and grub. Actually, the grub's covered because the stoic spouse is already engaged in his annual mission to source the best turkey in Western Europe. But I do need to think about the rest of it. We have a tree! I've put it up in the slobbing-around-room next to the kitchen, Continue Reading