A bit of this . . . and a bit of that :)

Not a very original title for a blog post, but I've been busy doing lots of bits and pieces of things lately!  I seem to be a bit overly relaxed about Christmas this year - enjoying my crafting experiments so  much, but I have lots of crafty bits 'n pieces which will no doubt find their way into some Christmas parcels, so it's all good :) :)

The socks are finished - Van Gogh's masterpiece on my feet - who'd have  thought, hehe . . .

They are quite toasty, especially if you warm them  up on the top of the heater first - good for warming up the tootsies on a cold day . . .

The beach-ball is stuffed (but still not in the shop, maybe soon though, so difficult getting good shots on these darker days!) . . . 

I think the colours worked nicely together though - you really need to eat your porridge before stuffing these beach-balls, it's a bit of a feat of  strength and sheer determination!  I'm happy how it turned out though :)

(. . . and, yes, I had my porridge this morning, hehe!)

This week I'm onto a quick project of a knitted beanie, for ?????  Whoever it fits, most likely, and it seems to fit 'Little S's' head quite well so far (so it's a small beanie!) - he was quite obliging about letting me try it on him with the knitting needles still in place!  I love the colours of this yarn, but it's a devil to work with, like knitting with candy-floss, slips and slides all over the place, I'm using a free pattern from Ravelry knitwear designer, LoveHestia (you can see it here though) called the Hurricane Hat as  it has a spiral pattern, quite contemporary I think - we'll see how it turns out :) . . . 

I bought the yarn (Mochi Plus) as I'd been looking for some camouflage-type colours over the last year, and this is the closest I'd seen - I think it's more fern/forest-like, but interesting to work with. 

What . . . ,. Christmas is two weeks away!!!!  Don't panic, it's all in hand - she says optimistically :)  I'm not sure that I can stop knitting for long enough to complete all  my preparations - it's cool though, it's a very good way of keeping calm throughout the madness.  Hope your prep is all going well too :)

I'll leave with you a pic of the beautiful sunrise we had  here today . . 

Please excuse the bit of washing-line in the foreground!
Alison x