Post Christmas Catch Up

After Christmas you always think that you’ll have loads of time to do all of those things you’d promised to do in the New Year, like getting round to starting that project, go to the gym or in my case writing some more blog entries. Clearly I have failed as it is now twenty days into January and this is the first chance I’ve had to sit down and write!  The cruel hand of January wins again.

There are two projects that I finished over Christmas and didn’t get a chance to blog about. The first was the completion of the vintage leaf scarf which I made for my good friend Kat. She chose the pattern and yarn so all I had to do was knit it.

Over all it was an enjoyable project however the embroidery on the leaves, once the knitting was done, was quite tedious for me; I clearly am a knitter and not an embroiderer. I only made one modification which was to make the scarf longer upon Kat's request. The finished item looks lovely and I’m pleased with it. Kat seems to enjoy wearing it too so if she’s happy, I’m happy! I’m working on the second of her birthday knits now, but I’ll save that for another blog.

Florence needed a cardigan to go over her dress for Christmas day and instead of buying one I thought I’d whip one up. Although in the grand scheme of things it only took me nine days to make, I always feel like giving yourself a deadline ruins the enjoyment you get from the knitting bit. To make it worse it seemed to be quite big on her despite me checking the finished size on the pattern and making sure I got the right gauge. The good thing was that the tie front meant that I could just drag it in more to make it fit her a bit better and at least it will fit her for more than just that one day.

We had a really lovely Christmas this year. As Flo gets older and starts to understand a little bit more of what’s going on the magic of Christmas just grows and grows. Next year I expect she will understand it all and as a consequence we’ll all explode in a cloud of fairy dust. New Year was similarly exciting as we rented a town house on the sea front in Margate with friends. Lots of big hearty meals round the table together, crazy German board games and walks on the beach with Flo made it another one to remember.

Oh, and if you’re thinking – Margate is rubbish – you’d be wrong! The old town has a while host of cute vintage shops and the amazing tea room called The Mad Hatter is to be recommended. We also loved the new Turner Contemporary Museum there which had a great free exhibition on about teen culture. We even were able to get Flo involved in a free kid’s art club that was going on and were able to bring her ‘art’ home with us.  Margate is the place to be!