Happy New Year to One and all :)

Sorry, I missed the post where I was going to give a little countdown to Christmas and wish you all festive greetings!  The countdown went at a stupendous rate, preceded by a little vist to Glasgow to catch up with family and then travel back home with my eldest son for his Uni Xmas break - proceedings gathered pace as soon as I got back and it was Christmas day before I knew it - pheeeew :)  And, as everyone knows, once you are caught up in the festivities - well, you've got to hold tight, and jump in with both feet - so we did!

Our break has been smattered with family visits, meals aplenty, long lie-ins and late nights.  I decided to take up a little knitty project at the beginning of the hols so I would come out at the other end with some sense of achievement, other than long hours spent in the kitchen, overdose of chocolates and other such festive delights, ahem . . .   

While in Glasgow I visited a little yarn shop near eldest son's student flat and picked up a couple of balls of yarn in an earthy copper blue/green shade (yes I did go to Glasgow and come back with only two balls of wool, and no other shopping - what an achievement!!)  I set to making this pattern which I'd got on Ravelry last year, and had a notion for . . . 

Really enjoying making this although I wish I'd chosen a more feminine colour (I must have been homesick for the Outer Hebrides when I purchased it in the Glasgow Yarn Shop!!).  It's my first time following a knitting chart as opposed to written instructions, so a really good learning experience too.

Here's where I'm at with it today . . . 

Clock the little lego figure at the top left of the pic - actually there's only half of him left, hehe :)

Very traditional Celtic/Hebridean/Scottish etc. - liking it a lot!  It has a 3 button fastening, so looking forward to choosing some nice buttons to complement the pattern/colour :)

We've had a very relaxing break in between dashing back and forward to Stornoway to replace food supplies!  (OK, and drink!).  The weather here has been great just up till the New Year - and now we can just curl up in front of the open coal fire for a day or two before going back to work.

We took a relaxing stroll along Gress beach on Boxing Day, that's about the sum of exercise, but it was very nice!

It was mobbed with people, haha! . . . 

We did a little beach-combing or beach-scouring . . . 

crab shell amongst the seaweed . . . 

and clock the lovely turquoise colour of the lobster pot washed up on the beach . . . 

I hope you all had a lovely festive time over the last couple of weeks.  Ours has been fab especially with eldest being home on his hols - we'll be a bit down hearted when he goes back to Glasgow next week :(  I'll have to keep going with crafty projects to cheer myself up!

Well, off to have left over fish pie from New Year's dinner - yum!  It was very nice yesterday and should be even better today :)

All the best for 2015 - let's hope it's full of health and happiness . . . . . . and creativity of course!!!

Sorry, no resoloutions yets - I've been too busy on holiday-mode, perhaps next week :)

Bliadhna Mhath Ur from the Hebrides!

Alison xxx