What I did for Christmas...!

On Christmas Day Robert does all the cooking. This doesn't mean that he doesn't cook at any other time of the year but I am rather proud of the way in which I have managed to persuade him that it is tradition for him to cook every Christmas Day.



I was sent out to get the veg from the garden so we had beetroot...



...brussel sprouts...plus our own tatties. How ace is that!



Starter was some mushrooms cooked in truffle butter with black pudding. Fine (and no, we're not vegetarian)!



Main course was a roast duck, roast tatties, sausagemeat stuffing, roast beetroot, brussel sprouts with crispy bacon and smoked garlic, and cranberry gravy.



Of course, just because my honey cooks it doesn't mean that he's very good in the cleaning up after himself as he goes. Think he takes after Hugh in that department.



We even managed to get some stock out of the duck carcass which has been made into roasted parsnip soup (I like roasting veg in case you hadn't guessed).



So - pressies. I did pretty well but as I've found it does help to tell folk exactly what it is that you'd like and that saves an awful lot of hassle. Robert got me some Louisa Harding wool which is being transformed into "Heather" from the Louisa Harding book. Very pretty.



From my Mum I got a drop spindle (need lessons from Theresa on how to acutally work it like)...



A weaving loom...well, when your surname is Heddle you have to have a piece of craft equipment that is named after your family name. It's like a no-brainer really isn't it?



She got me a learn to crochet book as well. The dyeing book is from Vicki. I just need to start collecting bits and pieces to start dyeing with.



And Mum got me some sparkly eyelash yarn as well. I foresee gauntlets. My Dad did get me a dressmaker's dummy but that's going to have to go back to get swapped for another one as they sent the medium size and I'm more of a petite. I'm going to be having a majorly crafty year ahead of me.

Happy New Year!

I had big plans for this afternoon. I was going to update all my photos and tell tales of everything I've been up to over the last couple of weeks however my hangover appears to be kicking back in again so instead I'm going to go upstairs, claim the furry blanket off the sofa bed, bring it back down, and curl up on the sofa with a steady supply of water, dips, unhealthy crisps and chocolate. A snooze might be in order too!

It was a very good New Year. Hope yours is too...

Happy Hogmanay!

Happy Hogmanay tae a'body awey. Hope you're having a right stooshie wharever ye are.

See you in 2006. Hid's bin richt grand.


Stonehaven fireballs

The teuchter that cam fae Skye...fae Skye...fae Skye...fae Skye...!

Almost sorted...!

It's only now I've photographed everything I've been making over the last wee while that I realise I haven't been sitting on my basket doing sweet Fanny Adam after all. I've been a regular Mrs Beeton with all my craftiness! I dug out the brambles from the freezer and made a whole stack of bramble jelly. Pish easy to do and if you make jelly rather than jam you get all the seeds out of it. So fine to have a dollop of jam in amongst some fine rice pudding - mmmmmmmmmm!



This had to be followed up with a gaggle of sticky toffee puddings for handing out to folk as their Christmas presents - haven't had any complaints yet since I started doing it. The only complaint I get is that they want more sauce - greedy buggers!



Then we had a night over at Eli's, with the girlies, making our Christmas decorations. Of course mine had to be knitted so I had a lot of fun experimenting with electrical wire first...



Then I played with an old top of Eli's that I hacked to pieces and this was the result...



It improved slightly with a bit of a tidy up. We'll call it "the development stage"?!



Next is some Kid Classic gloves from Leigh Radford's book "Alterknits" - they're for *****.



I managed a pair of alpaca bedsocks for ***. Hope she likes them.



She's also getting this loopy scarf. Might be a bit sophisticated for walking the dogs though!



And finally, it's somebody's birthday just before Christmas so they're getting this lacey shrug.






And since it's a marker birthday she's getting a loopy scarf as well - not forgetting a sticky toffee pudding.



So after all that I don't feel quite so lazy after all. Time for some rice pudding and bramble jelly I think...mmm!

Finally finished something for me!

Finally finished something for me the other day after lots of Christmas knitting i.e. stuff that can't be photographed just in case folk look even though most of those getting the presents aren't exactly computer literate! I used the Cat & Dog Hip Knits silk and a pattern from the latest Interweave Knits for a Chanel style cardi which is more of an evening thing. No fastenings and I shortened the sleeves to 3/4's. I like it! Had to have it ready for going out with the girlies on Sat night after all.







Taking some stuff out with me offshore but don't know if I'll have much of a chance to do it. I don't get out there until about 7pm tonight so might only be doing presentation all day tomorrow. They might have one lined up for 8pm tonight - we'll see. I'm wearing about 5 layers - the recommended amount is 3 at this time of year. It's pigging cold and choppers don't have fancy heating like planes do.

Our weekend trips got postponed until next year and although the money would have been nice I'm quite relieved in some ways as I have plenty other stuff to crack on with that will pull in a reasonable amount of money by the end of January. It gives me more time to catch up with friends and family as well which suits me fine. Might even make it down to Mum's before Christmas rather than her have to hoick her bones all the way up here. I'll suss it all out once I get back on Thursday.

Feeling all hyper after having an email read out on Jeremy Vine this lunchtime. I know that makes me a sad case but it was more that he described as their email of the day! Just a wee story on a customer we had in Owlies who complained her soup was too hot and expected to get a free meal out of it - we told her to blow on it!. Considering I've been sending emails for the last 18 months I'm quite chuffed to get one read out.

And to finish...a pretty sunset from the other week. Yet another reason to try and stop the "Cooncil" trying to spoil things round about here by building even more rubbish. Why spoil a pretty view just to have more office buildings that will be left empty as there's no one around to fill the office space. The fight starts here...!

Eek...what next?!

It's all about to go a bit dolally for me now. Six offshore trips between now and Christmas starting with a 5.45am check-in tomorrow morning. Three of them are overnighters, one is for a couple of nights and the other two are over 2 weekends in December. I'm obviously getting old as I'm not that bothered about missing out on nights out - thinking of the cash instead to be honest. We've a few things we want to finish off in the house so the money's going to be a lot more useful than a couple of lost weekends.

It's all a bit up and down as we've found out now that not only are Scottish Enterprise going to build in the fields on our side of the track (eventually, well 3 or 4 years time anyway) but that the "Cooncil" (lovely folk) rezoned the land on the other side of our track a couple of years ago and want to take over another couple of fields to make another small industrial estate. So much for Green Belt - that obviously means sweet fanny adam! Just makes it a bit of a pain for when we come to sell as it might put off a few folk. We'll have to tread very carefully. It doesn't actually make spectactular sense for all this building of office space and low-level industrial units as demand for that sort of space will certainly go down rather than up as the oil industry downsizes over the next 30 years. There's loads of empty office space in Aberdeen - why build more! It doesn't really make sense to me.

Something else is going on which is driving up the wall with distraction but I can't say anything about it as it might not come off and while it's a bit scary it's also potentially very exciting. It could mean huge life changes - and no, it doesn't mean I am or I'm about to get pregnant. That's not scary or exciting - that's a whole other realm that we don't even want to enter...

So have I found time to knit even with all this work and other stuff going on? Like duh! Course I have. Finished the bedsocks for my Granny so just need to get sommthing else to send with it for her birthday. Hopefully she won't destroy a pair of cute bedsocks but I will make sure that careful care instructions are sent. She does have a habit of killing woollen items! I've also finished a loopy scarf (Colinette Isis) for Lou's birthday and I've nearly finished a lacey shrug (Artesano Alpaca and some discontinued Kaffe Fassett Kid Silk) for her as well. Just need to do a pair of wristwarmers (Rowan Kid Classic) to complete the luxury set as I've used all really plush yarns. She likes her luxury does our Lou. I've got to a do a couply of loopy scarves for Secret Santa type pressies and then I've got a pair of bedsocks to do for Mum as well so that should complete the Christmas knitting for this year.

Better go and find my clothes for the next couple of days. You have to dress in layers offshore as you never know what the hell the air-con is going to be like. It's going to be freaking cold...

I've been a busy bee...

I have been rather busy knitting up all my Ally Pally purchases. I just couldn't keep my hands off most of the stuff - the only thing I haven't played with yet are my beads but then I can't take them offshore. Considering that I've been a tad busy with lots of stress presentations and workshops it's been rather fine to have lots of luxury yarns to play with.

First up - the angora/kid mohair mix hat. So soft, so cosy, so lush. Think I should make one for George?

Angora/Kid Mohair hat

Then I made a "Flora" (sans flower) with the chunkier angora. It is so gorgeous to wear and I spend half my time just sitting stroking it it's so fine.

Flora

Think George likes it as well...

George modelling Flora


Finished sock number one for Granny's birthday at the end of the month. I just hope she doesn't ruin them in the washing as they are alpaca and she has a a habit of shrinking natural fibres to hell and back. About to start another pair for Mum's Christmas as well in some lovely chocolate brown alpaca.

Sock from above

My Kaalund is being made up into a gorgeous wee jumper from a People's Friend supplement from the 1940's. I think it suits the wool perfectly and it's rather nice to have something rather delicate and lacy.

People's Friend jumper

The HipKnits silk didn't last long before I had to start knitting that up into a Chanel style cardi from the Interweave Knits special "Knitscene". I'm making it slightly smaller than the original as I know the silk has a tendency to drop with wear and since I'm not exactly blessed with the broadest of shoulders or biggest of boobs then neat fit is best to start with.

"Cat & Dog" Chanel Cardi

And finally...Vicki taught me how to crochet a Granny Square at the weekend however I think we can safely say that version no 1 kind of missed out on any resemblance to crochet. We laughed at attempt number 1!

Granny Square no 1!

However attempt no 2 was much more successful and does bear some resemblance to real crochet. Starting to get there. Don't think I'll turn totally to the other side but I do like the embellishments you can add to things once you've got the hang of it.

Granny Square no 2...

Stitch'n'Bitch tonight - time for a catch-up since I haven't been in ages.