BACK IN CONTROL?

Ahh, at last a short time to sit down. This weekend seems to have been a constant round of in and out of the house. Nothing very exciting has been going on, I can assure you. It has just reached that stage in the pre-Christmas run up, when old Snoops has realised how many jobs still have to be done and had a major PANIC! So, in order to begin to remedy the situation, little forays out and about have been necessary, so that she can at least feel back in control of the situation. It's always good to be in control! I'll show you a little sneaky peek of one of my 'port of calls' a little later.

Knitting has progressed at a moderate rate this week, a little bit here and a little bit there. Most little bits have been sandwiched between assessments and all manor of other boring paperwork tasks that take up soooo much teacher time, but just have to be done...... apparently! As you can see, I have finished Mr Snoopydog's Christmas hat. At least he has a present now! It's the Aran Watch Cap from Charlene Schurch's book 'Hats On'. The pattern worked really well, but the Rowan 'pure wool aran' has pilled a little. I'm not sure if it is the yarn or the fact that my hands have been rather rough from the cold this last week or two. Lavishing hand cream on them doesn't seem to have made much of a difference.

Spot the Oscar hairs!!!!!!!  Whoops! They get everywhere.

The six row pattern was very easy to memorise and I loved the way all the shaping took place over the last four rows, so none of the gorgeous pattern was lost. Hopefully, it will keep his head and ears toasty when he is walking Oscar. 

I've made quite good progress on the socks for my son, in as much that a second sock has been started. At least he is almost guaranteed two feet cosies now, rather than the sad only one, that it was looking likely he would receive prior to this weeekend. So, a little bit more control back on board there too! 

I must show you a new skein of sock yarn that accidentally slipped into my online shopping basket last week. Megan, over at 'The Thylacine', was having a pre-Christmas sale. Her yarns always look beautiful, but this is the first time that I've purchased from her. What do you think?

The yarn is 80% superwash merino and 20% bamboo. It's incredibly soft. The colourway is Bicheno. It's slightly more turquoisey in places than the photo shows. I just love, love, love it! Thanks Megan.

Snow has hung on all week in our eastern parts of the UK. Today has been the first day with clearish pavements, as well as roads. I snapped these shots from the car as we came back from Oscar's hydro yesterday.

Grey skies and rather misty, but helping to add atmosphere to the shots. The city centre, where we live was much clearer.

Today, by contrast, I snapped these........ eerrrmmm....love them or hate them? Ha ha!

We drove out to a nearby garden centre to collect a small potted Christmas tree, to sit in the front window. We have a very much larger 'not real' tree in our sitting room. The place is massive and a huge area is given over to the most twinkly, glitzy, fun, Christmas displays imaginable. Santa's band were busy playing their instruments and the flashing reindeer and sleighs were busy burning up goodness knows how much electricity. But taken in the spirit of festive fun for little ones, I guess it worked. Mr Snoops walked rapidly away, when I told him that I really did need to take a couple of pics, to show you all this evening. I found him back in his comfort zone, looking at seeds and wellie boots! We did get our little tree though and he's now settled into the greenhouse for the week, before coming indoors next weekend. 

So, let's see! That's a knitted present finished and another 'getting there', some shopping done, some cards bought, a little tree collected, quite a few 'confirm purchase' buttons pressed online, a secret Santa gift bought for school, a ball of green yarn purchased to make some little stockings ( I have some oddments of red, white and silver left from last year)