Første Desember

I love Christmas, one of the reasons I love Christmas is all the traditions. Usually people like to change things around, I don't, I like to do things the same all the time, but at Christmas everybody agrees that they will do things like last year, like every year, James.

When I was little I got these cheap advent calendars of chocolate, so I still do, I love the feel of that awful chocolate in the mornings, they feel so stolen and childhood-like. 

When I was a teenager my aunt started buying my mum and me lottery ticket advent calendars, and she still does, only now M gets one too. I love tradition, and I have won a tiny bit of money from them before, which makes it a gift that keeps giving.

 Boyfriend gets a Finnish Scout Christmas calendar from his family so that is a tradition now too, it doesn't really do anything, but the pictures are always cute and Christmas-like, so I guess it helps to get one into the spirit of things...

And new this year is this tea calendar, I bought it half off last year to start this year, and so far I am loving it. Much more healthy than chocolate, but equally fun. M also borrowed an advent calendar book that we are going to read each day. (Jostein Gaarder, Julemysteriet, which I know some of my friends have as one of their traditions, I wonder if this too will turn into a tradition?)

Something that I hope will turn into a tradition is me finishing things, my mother just like me, have a bit of Start-itis where starting new things become too alluring and finishing things gets forgotten. The socks I found in her treasure chest almost done I quickly finished them and then mine as well. 

Yay me...

I still have three hats to make before Christmas, and I need to get a move on, things are going very slowly these days because my fingers are really hurting, my wrists, elbows, knees and shoulders are hurting a bit too, but it is the fingers that hinders me to do anything, but it gets better further into the day, so in the evenings I can craft a bit. I find it weird that they seem to hurt on both sides, usually when I have crafted too much it is just the right side that hurts...

So maybe I will start tomorrow with a chocolate, my new tea of the day and reading "Julemysteriet" until my hands are more mobile. Holding tea seem to help a bit too.

While we wait

Advent is here.

Today we light the first candle.

We opted for LED candles this year, but it is cozy none the less.

I've spent some days at my mothers house in preparation for her birthday party we did some de-cluttering and decorating and in the process found a chest full of table cloths but also a lot of half finished projects, my mother gifted me some of them so that I could finish. I got three cross-stitch kits, one almost half done, and one two thirds of a knitted sock and some yarn.

I finished the sock, she even had knitted all the way down past the tricky heel.

I hope she will feel inspired and finish some of the projects still in her chest.

 I know I shouldn't be on my high horse since I still haven't finished sock number two, but mine is progressing a bit, I am at the start of the heel;)

I finished the socks!

I should finish some of my things first.... but I am cross stitching the lady and her cat. >.<

But December is not even here yet, so I have loads of time still?

Happy Halloween

I gave bribed the bunnies with a lofty and I got to take a few pictures.

Want to see some of the Halloween-y things I am making?

 I made a small ghost from Simply Crochet magazine, don't remember the number though, I plan to make more in scrap yarn and make a garland or something....

M and I have this cumbersome duvet cover that was broken, after mending it but making the hole too small to fit the duvet in I decided to repurpose it. It is now our Halloween table cloths;) I just ripped it in the pieces I wanted and we now have four table cloths and a spare thing that I draped over a chair. Our house is looking very festive.

This is my dentist yarn. I have bought some more as prizes for going to the dentist, would you believe I had four cavities one on each side so the dentist recommended we took them one each time, good thing too because last time I had to have five shots of painkillers, I shudder to think what would happen if I did all teeth at once, I would have 30 shots:O

This will turn into a table runner. the pattern is free from red heart. I hope I will have enough yarn, and maybe next halloween it will be finished,

Picture from red heart.

Some other things I did to make the house more festive was to use some paper and make appropriate figures and mount them in the window. When the light is on you can see them as dark shadows on the windows. I thought that looked rather fun. I found that idea on the internet, as well as my next one.

Idea number two also involved paper, a rather inexpensive way to make some festive sights, I made a ghost and a skeleton face on some of our sliding doors. I loved this idea and we have had it like this for the past week. I like to decorate after the seasons, but tomorrow I am taking it all down.

Oh, and my first knitting adventure is finished! I made a pair of socks! They are almost identical, they fit the recipient and I have yarn to spare! Now there's another gift done in time for Christmas, and I finished within socktober too. 

I have started my next pair already, I will master this knitting of socks skill.

My knitting adventure

On Ravelry in my rabbit-group the ravelers there decided to do a knit-along because of Socktober and knit socks. Most of them are good knitters and are making beautiful socks, I and a couple of other forum-members are starter knitters and we were encouraged to join too, so I did. I started a sock!

My friend *Kio kindly said she would help if I needed in house help and went out with me to buy yarn. Sock yarn I have learned need a bit of nylon to help with the wear and tear of walking.

I bought green and purple.

Then I started. The internet and forum members said I should cast on 56, and I did, and I managed to make it in the round as well, later I learned I had done so in a very round-about-way, but hey, at least it was round! And unlike in my swatch I didn't loose or add any stitches! So far so good. But then, I had come to the dreaded heel. So I asked my friend if I could come over after my dentist appointment, and she and her dog met me and we walked over. She showed me how to make a heal whilst simultaneously make a sock with the purple yarn, she only cast on 44 stitches I think it was and I think that is what I will do next time, because that means on our feet for two socks you only need two balls of yarn! 

But look! I have a heel!

And although 56 stitches might be a bit much, since apparently my feet are thin, they do fit and don't fall off. So now all I need is to make it long enough and then there is the toe left. But honestly do I really need toes? (I think I might run out of yarn you see, but Maybe I just have to find some leftover yarn from somewhere and make a funny looking pink toe?)

I am crocheting some presents as well. Here are a stripe blanket made mostly from leftover yarn, and a sitting-mat to take with you when going on walks, also made from scraps of wool, although I need another ball of red after all. But neither is finished, the sitting-mat I had as a travel project and that is from waiting at the dentist for two appointments, I hate the dentist, so I got a present for being good and going. Two balls of orange yarn that I will make into a table runner for Halloween, maybe not this Halloween though. And yes, I DO have plenty to do that has a to-do date, that I am not currently doing, but I am sure with some frantic crafting about at the last minute will get finished like always, right?

These guys agree.

And sonce I haven't been that much home lately they have been walking at my heels all day and I have no idea how many times I have almost sat on them. I think they prefer it when I am home.

But whilst I am going out later for a meeting with my friend their bundad will be home with them, and he better not sit in the study!