Shadows cast by a street lamp along my path after work. I love the absolute quiet of this picture.


The beginning of the end for our gingerbread houses. This recipe is so good - they're still spicy.


I made a new batch of laundry soap. I love using this stuff; your clothes come out clean and smelling like nothing. I'd never realized how much smell my unscented detergent had until my sister gave me a bottle of this stuff.


Paper craft tools. Hanging out on my desk.


Friends of ours are having a baby this spring. I heard that the Mummy half likes hats with ears and went looking for this pattern. So cute! 


I cleaned out my stash the other night (do I get bonus points for putting the laundry away first? I needed the basket to sort yarn). This is one old project back on the needles. I'll mail a bar of chocolate to whoever guesses what it is; if more than one person guesses correctly I'll draw names. You've got until midnight (my time - mountain) on Tuesday; I'll get the chocolate in the mail on Wednesday.


I took down the tree (don't laugh - it's not going to be light here after work for almost another month - the tree is cheerful). I got this ornament box a few years ago. It has two layers of little compartments to hold all sorts of things. Most get wrapped in tissue for an added layer of protection.

Pattern: Ishbel from Whimsical Little Knits by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: Squoosh Alpaca Silk and Cashmere (Fingering)
Size: Small
Yardage: ~ 275 m (300 yards) or 3/4 of the skein
Needles: 4.00 mm bamboo circular


Here we have another case of procrastination - not of finishing but of posting - I finished this shawl in time to wear it to my staff Christmas party in mid December. It took me a little while to get a nice sunny, uncluttered day when I could get some nice pictures of it but really it was the writing that was taking me ages.

A whole post of "it's just so wonderful" didn't seem like a very useful review but it's really all I've got to say:


The pattern is lovely and well written. Ysolda offers both text and charts (my preferred method for lace) and two sizes to accommodate your wishes and available yardage. The cast-on is the cleverest thing in the world and completely disappears into the top border.

This yarn is sublime - so soft - a little more prone to slipping along your needle than plain wool but it's a compromise I'm very willing to make. The colour is warm and shifts ever so slightly between lighter and darker shades - just enough to make the stocking stitch interesting but not enough to distract from the lace pattern. Perfect for this project.


I love wearing this shawl. It tucks around my neck like a scarf and keeps me just the right temperature. It's  fantastic at making an otherwise plain t-shirt look a little bit dressy and pushes whatever I'm wearing into the "outfit" catagory.

I started this sock ages ago but stalled out part way through October when I couldn't settle on a good colour work design ... and then I left my knitting around too close to floor level and Abby made a mess of it (fortunately my needles survived). The ball of grey wasn't too bad to untangle but the blue is so dark and difficult to see that I kept putting it off.

I finally got around to it over the Christmas break and was able to test the pattern I'd worked out in November (don't let it be thought that my knitting languishes because I never think about it). I'd originally been thinking of stars for these socks but snowflakes seemed more appropriate. It went surprisingly quickly - I finished the colour work and picot edge all in one sitting - but I think for the next sock I'll carry the blue in my left hand instead of my right and see if it pops a little better.


The picot edge is giving me a bit of trouble too. I love the dainty look of it but am not sure what to do to stop it from rolling. These are the options I've thought of so far: 1) knit a deeper border of the main colour before doing the edge in order to control the flaring caused by the colour work, 2) do a few quick decreases after the colour work to achieve the same result without making a taller sock, 3) knit the edge deeper so that it holds itself in place better, or 4) block it and pretend that will work. Thoughts and suggestions would be most welcome; this is the first time I've worked a picot edge.