Hoarse Greetings of the Season

I had intended to leave a seasonal greeting here sooner, but I have been felled by one of the worst sore throats I've ever had. I can remember sitting in a hospital waiting room and asking my mother what E.N.T. DEPARTMENT meant, and she explained that it was the department for Ear, Nose and Throat conditions, so I go a long way back with these. I was one of those honking adenoidal children; when I wasn't honking, I was barking, and it's been like that again this week. Yesterday I sneezed so hard that I bit my tongue. Three times.

However, one of the comforts of these things is that you know they're just going to work through themselves and once the requisite number of days is past, it will be gone. I am recovering my appetite, which, given the date, is the main thing.

The Angora Triangle has been blocked and sent on its way. It's 12 repeats, 48 inches by 22.


I didn't dare block it very rigorously because the fibres pull apart quite easily, but it's very pretty.
I knitted a Felicity Hat. You know how you think you're sort of keeping abreast of what is going on on the knitweb, and then you click on something you've never seen before and discover that Everybody has been knitting it? That happened to me with Felicity. Now I've done a navy blue one with some of the Mirasol Miski that Spinning Fishwife led me to in November;

I've done a bluey greeny brown one with some Cherry Tree Hill Possum Paints Worsted;
I've started another in some terracotta Miski;
(why, yes, one of my dpns is a very long circ - have you never done that?) and I plan to do another dark blue Miski one.

I plan to do a black one and a purple one too. It's excellent Christmas knitting, because if you're talking, or watching films, or drinking, it doesn't matter too much if the odd stitch or row is missed or added. It's a wonderful shape: the only thing I would say is to use much larger needles than the pattern suggests and, if you're in any doubt at all about the size, add 7 stitches to the cast on. I used 4.5mm and 5.5mm for the first one, and 5mm and 6mm for all the subsequent ones.

I hope I can get photos of some of these on heads after everyone's opened their presents.

Jean and I managed to get together last week for lunch in between my sucumbing to this and that. We went to Vittoria, which is one of my favourite places ever - it's like going to Italy for lunch. I usually go there with one or another small children, who get made a great fuss of, and get spag bol everywhere, so it was bit strange to go with another adult and not get beamed at. The last time I went there with a small person, she ordered macaroni and cheese and when the waitress bought it she pointed at the broccoli garnish and said, 'I don't want that', to which the waitress said, 'Nobody ever does.' Jean and I ate everything on our plates, however, and drank everything in our cups and glasses. Model diners.

I've changed my blog photo, from one of me yelling my head off in my pram in Pilrig Park to one of me carefully choosing the right word on my Dad's typewriter. The biscuits, for those who need to know, are digestives and a Tunnock's Caramel Wafer.

I've been watching out for a seasonal LOLCAT to leave you with and this is my fave.



Merry Christmas to all of my readers, or any other sort of seasonal wish which makes sense to you, and I hope the next few days bring you good company and good cheer - or as much good cheer as is reasonable to expect in these changing times.