Spitting Yarn

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I nearly blinked and missed it. One minute I was frantically searching for judgments commenting on the effect of synergy in a consideration of inventive step, while simultaneously chasing my missing Amazon Christmas order, and – *blink* – here I am a couple of pounds heavier, significantly more relaxed and feeling post-tinsel-tastic.

That was a long break from blogging, wasn’t it? Many apologies. In my defence, I can only say it has been all go here. I feel only fractionally better for knowing that many of you have also taken extended festive breaks from your blogs.
I hope you all had a lovely Christmas. Mine was wonderful. DB and I whizzed about between relatives, but we were richly rewarded with food, gifts, fizzy drinks and fine conversation (although catching up with the reles and spending a decent amount of time away from the office were great gifts in themselves). That’s not to say I didn’t get good tangible presents, too!

DB was kind enough to give me a new puter. I love it! Our old PC is rather crumbly (though reliable) and lives in our cupboard of doom from where it acts as a wi-fi ‘server’ for our dinky laptop. As it happens, this coming year I’ll be needing a decent home office set-up and the dinky laptop just wasn’t going to cut the mustard, hence the new flatscreen loveliness.

As of nearly the end of January, I will no longer be in the employ of my current workplace. I have resigned! DB and I have taken on a development project which may involve building a whole new house and certainly involves refurbishing an existing house. I am giving myself a year or two to work on the project, spend more time being crafty (in the make-and-do sense, rather than the sneaky sense), and to do some courses. The first course is this one, which should come in handy with the property project. It begins in the middle of January. If I like the course, I may do the year long one. I also plan to do a sewing course. All so very exciting!

Since I last wrote there has been very little knitting or craft going on Chez Spitting Yarn. In addition to the Christmas craziness, our flatmate moved out, so we have been able to reclaim her room as a craft room/study. If you ever meet anyone who has visited DB and me, they will tell you that we are not tidy people (and they will be speaking in significantly understated terms). Well, not anymore. I have spent a lot of time spring-cleaning the house (mainly throwing stuff out), so that we can finally declutter the rest of the flat and have a coherent place to work/craft. Despite hours and hours on the job, it’s still not done, but we’re getting there which is heartening.

Having said that, DB’s log cabin blanket has grown a little. I have lovely Liberty print fabric ready to sew as a backing to the blanket. I’d also like to edge it with a trim (e.g. cotton tape or bias binding), but I’m having trouble finding something wide enough in 100% cotton and preferably in blue, although I can dye it if I can find something that is white/light-coloured.

I’ve also been knitting a garter stitch scarf in a ultra-chunky wool which DB brought back from Singapore. The scarf, which is quite narrow, will need a little something when it’s finished – possibly a fringe, or I was thinking of crocheting a simple edging in a complementary colour around the whole thing. What do you think? Any suggestions?

Gosh. I’ve got so much to share, but I should save some of it for another post. However, I can’t go without correcting a serious omission. I have yet to show you the lovely cards that came from parts 4 and 5 of the Christmas card swap. These two came from Claudia over at The Crafty Weasel. I am led to believe that she used a similar technique for her wedding invitations.

And lastly, but not leastly, Manic Kitty’s cards.

I was particularly taken with the little snowflake cut outs on the cards. I must try and get hold of the same punch before next Christmas. Thanks for participating, everyone! It was great to receive the cards and send them out to worthy recipients.

More soon, but in the meantime – Happy New Year!