Baby it's cold out there

Yes, after the warmest December on record, we are finally having some winter.  Here in Northamptonshire it is down around freezing, and the puddles had thin skins of ice when I walked to the station this morning.  Our old house is generally not too cold down to about 5 degrees C outside, but now there are icy drafts snaking around my ankles and I am typing this wrapped up in a quilt and a knitted shawl. I'm also sleeping under three of my handmade quilts at night to stay warm. Luckily my feet are fairly warm in  my latest pair of Arne and Carlos felted slippers.

These are knit in Lett Lopi again, and the duplicate stitch embroidery is in a triple strand of Jamieson's 2 ply jumper weight.  There is a chart in their book but I adapted it to just do the rose motif, plus I went a bit wrong so have ended up with an individual design.

I missed posting on this blog last week as my return to the office exposed me to the lurgy making the rounds, so I wasn't feeling great plus I was quite tired after we packed DS up and took him back to uni.  After we got him unpacked into his room, he took us to the History of Science museum which was surprisingly interesting, full of antique scientific instruments some of which were objects of beauty in their own right.  Then we took him for lunch at his latest fast food find, a Mexican burrito place which was fairly good, before bidding him farewell for another term. On the way home we made our customary stop at the big antiques centre in Brackley, where DH picked up a book and I found a nice table centre and a framed Victorian engraving.

Just in time for the cold snap I finished my attempt at a warm windproof hat in Jaeger Natural Fleece.

It is surprisingly hard to take a picture of the

back of one's own head

As well as a deep, ear-covering ribbed band, I knitted the body of the hat by stranding two ends of wool, alternating two stitches in each (I tried one stitch but it made the fabric too stiff). The idea was to make the hat windproof by plugging up all the holes with the strands. It was partially successful: the hat is quite warm but still lets some wind in.

We took the Christmas tree down last weekend, so last Thursday I made myself finish the second Torchon Lace Christmas star and stiffened it.  It went on the tree for a brief moment so I could take this photo, before the tree went off for recycling.

I've 'cast on' (sounds better than 'set up') for a little dollshouse mat in fine bobbin lace. I've already broken one of the thin threads by tugging too hard and had to replace it. The mat is about the size of a postage stamp so I am having to use a clip-on magnifier to see what I'm doing.

Commuter knitting continues to be the Basket Check sock.  Sofa knitting, now that I've finished the third pair of slippers, is now another hat.  I know I said in the last post that I wanted to knit more from my stash, but then I promptly fell off the wagon and ordered more yarn to knit a Baa-ble Hat.  This was the free pattern from this year's Shetland Wool Week and is adorable. One Raveler described embarking on this project as "drinking the Koolaid" due to there being over 3,000 projects for it on Ravelry. In fact every UK site I tried for buying the wool (Jamieson Shetland Heather) was sold out of some or all of the colourways for it.  In the end I was able to get the colours from one site then substitute a black and a white yarn from Blacker Yarns for the sheep.  So I've cast on for that and am currently knitting the ribbed band.

Dollshousing in the cold basement room is not an attractive pasttime but I did do some work this Thursday on renovating my 1/24th scale thatched cottage.  It needed a good clean, some broken items repaired, and I've re-arranged the rooms somewhat to improve the appearance. I put together a simple little wooden cabinet kit after staining it, which made me realise how out of practice I am at building things.

I've  put together the central panel of my Let it Snow quilt now and am quite pleased with the cheerful colours (although less pleased with my not entirely accurate seam allowances). I'm currently deciding what to do about the snowball border because I am going off piste from the pattern yet not entirely happy with how the quilter whose scrappy version I am using as inspiration decided to tackle hers.

I hope you are staying warm and enjoying wrapping up in your handmade knits and quilts.