Now, I know you’ll going to look at this and think, NoooOOOh, don’t even mention the word, but I’m going to anyway…Christmas!  Yes, Christmas 2010.  Last December in the midst of the preChristmas panic, I got out the little note book in which I put my Christmas lists and found a little piece I had written in 2007 about my lack of organisation at Christmas, and how the next Christmas was going to be different.  Actually, I’ve been saying the same thing for decades, and haven’t cracked it yet.  I excelled myself in 2009 by not even getting my cards posted so I know I have to do something drastic.   The plan is, a monthly ‘Christmas’ day. Every 25th of the month I have to spend some time thinking ahead, buy a present, make a present, design a card and put it away in a designated place that I will remember.  (I lost Christmas cards bought in the January sales for two years once).  I have a lovely place to keep it all, an empty hamper left over from Christmas 2009, which will go on a shelf in the new studio.

I let myself off January 25th, I’m sure I don’t have explain why, but on Thursday 25th February I applied my mind to the dreaded subject.  One  little idea which had popped into my head in the night was written down and tucked into the hamper awaiting the time when I have more room for creation.   My second was my usual fall back position, when in doubt, apply wool.  Last week I was travelling around blogland and found this on Knitting Iris…

Who sent me from Montana to Norway for this pattern… from which I made this…

It’s really simple, can be knitted in a couple of evenings with just two of balls of wool.  The pattern is called Baktus and is an elongated triangle which wraps and snuggles beautifully.  I’ve added my own spin with the tasselly ends and made it in a thicker wool than the sample in the pattern using slightly bigger needles than recommended on the ballband to make it softer and more drapy.  I’m pretty sure that popping a couple of these into the Christmas hamper will solve some present dilemmas in a few months time.

Our local store supplied these balls of yarn…

…and I soon had the first scarf underway.  I’ve been amazed at the colour variation, I’ve knitted an entire ball and can’t find a colour repeat.

Now a studio update for those of you asking about developments.    I managed to get past the stapled plastic over the doorway and into the studio this morning.  Work went on late on Friday to get the rest of the plasterboard on the walls of the studio part of the building ready for the plasterer on Monday.  The window frame is awaiting glass, but even with black plastic over the door and window, I was really pleased to see the amount of light coming in through the Velux roof lights.

xxx

The doorway behind Tim goes into the store on which I have designs at a later date, but I shall take one step at a time!  I’m hoping this next week will see the bulk of the work completed and that next weekend will see me wielding a paintbrush!