Christmas Knitting

If you remember, I only started this project in October - it should have taken me a week at the most to make, but I finally finished it on Christmas Eve, just in time to wear on the 25th.

Leftie, by Martina Behm.  It only took me so long because I had to keep spinning more of the white yarn.  I enjoyed knitting this, and enjoy wearing it too - I can see another one in different colours in my future.

The other thing I finished was this scarf :-

This is the One Skein Tapestry Scarf, and it really did only take one skein.  It also only took one night to knit, thankfully, as this was needed for Christmas Day too.  We'd been invited to our friends' house for the day, along with 18(!) other people.  Everyone had to take a small gift which was put into a "lucky dip" basket.  Each person then picked out a package from the basket.  This scarf was my contribution.

A little bit of detail

There was one more knitted project I made but, as I haven't taken photos yet (it was only finished yesterday and is still drying), I'll show you that next time.
  

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

AND A VERY HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS

NEW YEAR

With extra-special thanks to Caroline, who characterised my cat perfectly on her Christmas card to us.  I like the hunting trophies wrapped up at his feet!

Intruder

For the past five or six days, Jak has had an intruder in his garden.  An intruder that's making him very unhappy and insecure - another cat.  We think it's one of the farm cats from about half a kilometre away.  It's attacked him twice, mostly causing very minor injuries, but it did manage to pull a large mouthful of fur out of the side of Jak's face (must have been really painful at the time) and he has a large bald patch which is now scabbing over.

Enough's enough!  This cat has got to go!  We spoke to Tammy and Rob, our neighbours, and it turns out that one of their cats has been attacked by it too.  They will not miss the cat and, apparently, neither will the owners of the farm buildings where the cat lives.  We decided we needed to catch it and take it on a little journey, somewhere far away, where we can release it.

So, yesterday we went to visit Joseph and Beatrice, our other neighbours.  Joseph has a trap for catching small animals, so we asked if we could borrow it.  Last night we set it up outside the house with a bowl of cat food inside.  Then we locked Jak's cat flap so he couldn't get out, and gave him a litter tray (he usually likes to go outside but does know how to use one).

Cat Trap!

This morning I checked the trap and yes, lo and behold, there was a cat inside!!  Err, wait a minute, that cat's the wrong colour!  Yes, it was Jak!!  He'd managed to push up the lock on his cat flap and escaped during the night.  Exit one very sad and soggy (it rained during the night) moggie!

He'd actually dried off quite a lot by the time I took this photo!

Oh well, we'll try again tonight, but this time we'll make sure our little escape artiste has no chance of getting out!  At least we know the trap works.

Christmas Preparations

Just so you don't think I'm sitting here idle, here's a little glimpse of what I've been doing recently (but there are things I can't show you until after Santa has delivered them).

First I made the Christmas cards :-

Well, they weren't "made" as in "made from scratch", they were more recycled from cards we'd received in previous years.

Then I made the Christmas tipple.  This is Limoncello, an Italian digestif, (recipe stolen from The Italian Dish - you can find the recipe if you click on her blog at the right hand side) made from vodka and lemon zest left to soak for 7 days, and it then has a sugar syrup added.  Looking forward to trying this.

Then there were the decorations to make

and spinning, there's always spinning!  This

and this

and some of this

but I can't possibly show you any more.  That would be giving too much away!

Modelling Job!

A few weeks ago a friend of ours, Colette, asked me to take my spinning wheel to her art gallery and model for her art class.  Eric thought I might catch a chill spinning naked, but thankfully Colette insisted I keep my clothes on (thanks Colette!!!).  Anyway, today was the day.

Sunday I spent all afternoon carding up batts on my drum carder to take with me to spin.

I haven't a clue what most of this fibre is as it was part of my "floor sweepings" that I bought from World of Wool in the UK.  I mixed all the very dark colours together, then topped with blue and a mix of different blues/white, and a bit of sparkle (Angelina fibres).

The class was a mix of French- and English-speaking students, one of which was 98 YEARS OLD!!!!!  She really didn't look it, and there was obviously nothing wrong with her eyesight either.

No, this isn't the 98 year old!!

They started off with three 10-minute sketches, one of the wheel, one of my face, and one of my hands.

After that we had a little break, and then they had a final hour drawing the whole thing, or just what they wanted.

The morning sped by incredibly quickly, and ended with a "critique" by teacher Colette.

The 98-year-old is second from the left!

I know I shouldn't have had favourites, but this one I thought was just gorgeous :-

She's made me look like Dusty Springfield!  Wish I had her voice.

I liked this one so much that she gave it to me at the end of the class.  Apparently she doesn't keep anything she does in the classes.  That amazed me because, if I could do anything as good as this, you wouldn't be able to see my walls!