A little shopping.

On my trip to the Stitching and Knitting show not only did I enjoy the exhibits, I also enjoyed the shopping. I didn't buy very much as John and I will be visiting my favourite quilt shop in early December and I have plans to buy fabric for a quilt. Katy and I stopped to look at Christmas decorations made with beading. Katy loved a small bauble decorated as a Christmas pudding whilst I chose a larger one with Father Christmas on it. Please excuse the reflection on these photos but I didn't want to take it out of the packaging until I'm ready to start work on it.

I've not done any beading before but how difficult can it be? I bought a couple of cute advent cards. The people who will be receiving them don't read my blog so it's safe to post them here.

This reminds me of past Christmases when I was a child. A fire in the grate and the dog lying in front of the fire, presents under the tree. Central Heating just doesn't give you the same effect.

Father Christmas is always a winner, whatever your age.

We'd almost finished checking out all the shopping when we came to a stand selling patterns for knitted elf slippers. We couldn't resist them as a joke present for someone special. You can see the picture on the pattern and this is the yarn I will be using. They shouldn't take very long to knit up.

It's a good job I'm in the mood for knitting at present as I've been busily working on John's jumper. We also bought some twine for making a macrame plant holder. I love the colour.

Katy has never tried macrame and was really keen to have a go. It's been years since i did any but we do some knotting at Guides to make bracelets.

Whilst on a theme of Christmas I remembered that I was given this book last year. There are a couple of ideas that I might try if I have some spare time. No I'm going to be positive. There are some ideas I will be making next month.

I've been beavering away at John's jumper over the weekend and I'm now up as far as the yoke. I've even started the cable pattern for the yoke.

You can see on the pattern how much I have left to do.

I am hoping to finish the jumper this month. As it's knitted in one piece there are still a lot of stitches. I'm managing to knit about 8 to 10 rows in an evening before my fingers and arms get tired.

Yesterday I spent quite a bit of time rearranging my sewing cupboard and sorting out my stash. The boxes are now all labelled so I can find the fabrics I want. In addition I ironed some of my scraps and tomorrow I will start the job of cutting them into useful sizes. I still need a lots of two and a half inch squares so that will be my main focus.

Lyndsey