Santa came early!!!!!

I've been taking part in a decoration swap on the forum this month, my decoration is yet to be finished, but others are far more organised than I!!!!!! So postie knocekd at my door this morning with a parcel:-) I knew for once I wasn't expecting anything that I'd ordered so knew it had to be my decoration swap:-)

All gorgoeusly packaged, with a lovely hand made gift tag, I'll be using this as a book mark, its so pretty!
And then inside...........

The man himself!!!!!!!!!
I'm absolutely in awe of Farmgirl who made this for me, he's brilliant!!!!!! I'm not feeling so confident about my own efforts now though *blushes*
Thankyou so much Farmgirl, looking forward to getting my tree out now so I can put him on display:-)

Buttons for Buttony!!!!!

I'm getting on quite quickly with Buttony, I've been knitting on it for a little while after work each night, and its been great as work is really busy at the moment, and a little easy knitting helps me to wind down (along with a little glass of wine!)
I've used 7 of the 10 balls of cashmerino chunky I bought to make this, and ended up buying a second pack of the yarn today from Janette, I only have three balls left, and I think I will run out, actually, I'm almost certain I'll run out!!!!!! Of course, with an extra pack, I'll probably have 9 balls left, but I thought I could make an Irish hiking scarf and include it in the parcel for my sister. I've been looking through my button box to see if I have any suitable buttons to use. All of these are from Scandinavian knitting design and I like them all, so a bit undecided as to which I need to order, as I don't have 12 of any of them?! What do ya think?????

I've been to chatting to the lovely, but sadly Blogless Pictish, about my stash, and thinking Of attempting a yarn free year!!!!! I know it sounds ridiculous, and I hear whispers of "she'll never do it".......but, I think I could. Tell you why! I will be getting a yarn parcel every other month from the soctopus club, which is already paid for.So that will give me somthing to llok forward too! And if I manage the year, I will buy something special for myself as a reward. Maybe some Buffalo Gold yarn!!!!!!!! Gorgoeus or what, and I bet its just so cosy on cold feet:-)
I joined the sweater a month group on ravelry. I'm not going to join in until January, but I'm quicker at bigger things than I am at socks, so we'll see how that one goes! I'll stil be attempting to make socks each month aswell, so far this year I've averaged a pair every other month, which isn't too bad, but I'd like to get the twelve pairs in 2008.
Today is the first of three days off, so I'm going to knit knit knit!!!!!!!!:-)

Felting fun!!!

I bought the kit to make this bag From Pavi yarns last month, and decided to start it yesterday. It's knitted up so quickly, and has already been through the machine, and is now drying! I'm thinking this will be a christmas gift. Just need to find some nice material to line it, and maybe a metal clasp to click it shut.
Here it is pre felting....

and after.......

I've got some lovely handles to finish it off with too, I'm really pleased with it:-)
The last installment of my Yarn yard merino sock club came today. Gorgoeus as always!

I'm having difficulty deciding what to do about my sock club memberships at the moment. I think I will renew my standard yarn yard sock club, but not sure about the merino one, as I've yet to actually knit any of it up! I joined the Soctopus sock club, which is a yearly club, the first parcel will be due in December, so now thinking that perhaps one sock club is enough.......but I LOVE the yarn yard colours:-( I think even if I DO decide to renew my current membership, I'll have to make sure that thats the only woolly purchase I make!!! My stash is growing quicker than I can knit, and its all getting a little ridiculous tbh, so new year, new spending habits!!!!!!!! I know I've said it before, but I almost have enough yarn to stock a small shop.....hmmmm!!!!

Chasing time!!!!!

I love this time of year, cosy nights snuggled on the sofa with my knitting or a good book, but somehow, the time seems to trickle by so much faster than in the earlier months of the year.It must be the darkness I suppose, but I never seem to get as much done in the dark months leading up to christmas. Over a week has gone by since I blogged, with little to show on the knitting front really:-( I do have a few other things to share though!
I took part in the crafty threads autumn secret santa, and my gift arrived last week from the lovely LoobyJ, who I think is blogless??? Some lovely aracunia sock yarn and a sock pattern, along with some Noro Daria Multi to make a belt, bath melt form Lusg,and candles and sweeties as almost obligatory in these swaps! I always worry a little bit in these kinds of swaps, both that my present may not be well received, or that the present I send may not be well received either, but none of that this time round, I was thrilled with my goodies:-)

I pledged to take part in the Pay it forward ethos on my blog, and have to admit, although I have thought og what to make for my receivees, I've yet to start anything. Aknita however, is far more organised than me, and this gorgeous Forest canopy shawl also arrived last week. Its made in Colinette cadenza, and its so snuggly! I didn't really think I was a shawl kinda girl, but I've worn it lots already! I think the colour is hard to see in the picture, but its a gorgoeus mossy green, even DH was impressed, which is quite something!!!!Thankyou so much Joy:-)

My sister and I went christmas shopping on saturday, and having never visited the haberdashery department in John Lewis before, I thought I'd pop in for a quick look and see if I could find anything which I don't already have in stash! And look.......

some lovely DK merino, which I think I will make a hat with, and......

Some baby Llama, which is soooo soft, I think this will become some mitts for me:-)
And just to prove I did make SOME progress on the needles, here is my latest sock wip, just a plain pair of socks for me in the kaffe fassett designer line regia yarn, which is lovely!

I need to get a move on with a handcrafted christmas decoration for another swap on the crafty threads forum, the deadline is the end of the month, and I've yet to decide what I will be making *blushes*

Monkey Love!!!!!

My monkeys arrived on saturday. They're brilliant:-) All the way from the netherlands, and made by Eve! Aren't the colours gorgeous! They're just so perfect for this time of year:-) Eve is the recipient of the monkey socks made by me, so I'm hoping she likes them as much as I like the ones that she sent here! As well as the monkey socks, eve sent me the twisted flower sock pattern by Cookie a, along with the most gorgeous green merino superwash yarn to make them in! A handmade dpns holder in monkey print which is great! some chocolate, a mobile phone monkey charm, and some cinnamon tea! There was a little box in the parcel which had three lovely monkey stitchmarkers inside. Made by the same lovely lady who I bought my weimaraner stitch markers from:-) A great swap, I really enjoyed it, and I love the monkey pattern. I think there will be a few more monkeys appearing around here soon:-)

Check-ed Neck-ed!

Pattern: Check-ed neck-ed
Yarn: Tess Dawson merino aran, 3 balls
Colour: Teal
Needles: 5.5mm Boyes straights

I've been working all week, so not a lot of knitting to show tbh. I cast on for this scarf a couple of days ago after seeing a lovely natural coloured one made by Clarabelle, I even attempted an arty finished piccie too:-) This is for me either to wear for walking to work or out walking the dogs, and despite its simplicity, I really like it! Great mindless knitting to wind down after a long day at work:-)