Christmas Socks (FO)

2013 is proving to be fairly productive, and there is another FO to show even before the first month is ended! (2012 what *were* you doing?)

Some socks - for me. This yarn was a Christmas gift from my MIL, (although the labels got a bit muddled and my son ended up opening it...), and I thought it would make good winter/boot socks, so I rattled some off.

Pattern: generic top down socks

Yarn: Wendy Roam Fusion 4 ply (about 60g) in 'Heath'

Time taken: started and finished January 2013

The colour is truest in the bottom photo, a pleasant pinky, orangey-yellow heathered yarn. I've worn them already, and can report a pleasant squashy and warm experience just right for snowy January days. it's noticeable how much thicker and bouncier these new socks are compared to the rest of my (handknit) sock collection. Then again, I notice that I made this pair - the oldest socks in my current collection - in 2007! No wonder they are getting a bit thin (but still no holes). 

Snow on snow

The white stuff has been with us for a few days now, coming and go-ing as the temperature rises and falls, but never quite disappearing completely from our garden.

At the weekend, we had an inch or so of fresh and fluffy snow to play with, and we enjoyed time in the garden scooping and sweeping and failing to make a snowman. The jelly bean wasn't quite sure whether she liked it or not, and came inside a few times to watch the fun happening outside.

The best game, it seems, was one involving snowballs being thrown at you - but only when you are safely inside and there is no danger of anything cold and wet slithering down your neck. I'm with you girl.

It seems like work is snowing on me at the moment. As soon as I sweep up one snowdrift another one engulfs me. So this is how Sisyphus felt...

Quick, quick, sloe

We went furtling at the week-end. Furtling and rootling and rustling the leaves and hedgerows for sloes. Searching for treasure.

We had seen them last winter, in the depths of the snow and ice - and made a mental note about the location. Sloes are a bit like hen's teeth in Scotland. And, if you know anyone that has a supply, they usually won't tell you where they get them from. Not like my native Herefordshire, where every hedgerow and every lane and every winding path has sloes and rosehips and blackberries/brambles in plentiful supply.

Anyway, we were in luck - the birds and other sloe hunters hadn't yet stripped the bushes bare. So we picked enough for our needs and left the rest for the birds. I'm looking forward to sloshing them around with sugar and gin and waiting for the delicious rosy red colour to emerge. I'm not sure it will be ready in time for Christmas, but perhaps in the new year?

As for this - it's hard to believe this was the scene in our street at the end of November last year. The bean keeps asking when it's going to snow....

Soon I tell him, soon...

At least this year we'll have the sloe gin to keep the grown ups warm!

Snow on snow on snow...

After what seemed to be a very brief autumn, winter arrived with a vengeance. It is now almost 2 weeks since the first snows fell - and although the temperatures are now just above freezing again, there is still a thick layer of snow covering the city. Edinburgh is a dry city, close to the sea and snow of this magnitude is really unheard of. We have at least 18 inches of accumulated snow in our garden, and I cannot remember such deep snow since I was a child. [It makes you feel really old when you start to reminisce about hard winters 30 years ago when you were a 'girl'!]

Anyway, although I love, love, love snow - the realities of getting to work, covering/arranging childcare when buses are not running, and being stuck at home with two small children are beginning to take the edge off my delight at the snowy vistas outside my windows each morning. It hasnt been a good week overall: DH slithered into the back of a lorry on Monday morning and dented the car quite a lot (although noone hurt, the car was driveable and he didnt get stuck for hours and hours on the gridlocked motorways of the central belt); on Tuesday I managed to kill my mobile phone by washing it in the washing machine and yesterday our boiler froze up. We've been there before with the boiler, so knew immediately what to do to restore the situation and our friendly plumber is coming this evening to check things over. I hope that's the end of the bad stuff for this week, and things get better from here!

On the plus side all this time at home has been good for some things. I have managed to finish a few little projects, details coming soon...