Yesterday I didn’t think I was going to knit the Winter Olympics this time around – the last few months have been full of deadlines and I don’t really fancy another one.

However W’s jumper (above) is looking very loved, and very tatty and I’ve been promising him that I’ll knit him a new one for the last two years.

Last time it took me 9 days. Mind you about two days of that was while marathon watching Black Books (which seems like a good excuse to hunt them out again, now I come to think of it!), and this was before FB was a twinkle in my eye. This time around I think it’s going to take a bit longer.

And have stripes.

As I said in the 2009 round up post, in the midst of Christmas preparations madness I recklessly abandoned all my jobs for the night and got to grips with crochet. This is the lovely flower motif by Sarah London – the first of many. (The pattern was lovely and this novice got on fine!)

I also made a few stars, following the tutorial by The Royal Sister. (Check out the rest of their free tutorials on the right hand side of the blog.)

I was hoping to make enough to use as coasters, though really I think they’re destined to be a garland. I might even use them for the rest of the year, to cheer up a forgotten corner somewhere.

On an unrelated note, I was inspired by this to recycle the christmas cards we were sent this year into next year’s gift tags. After umming and ahhing about whether to buy a large circular punch (I will eventually since it will be great for labelling re-used jam jars), I ended up using my round corner punch instead. (This made for a very good project while up and about with FB at 5am this morning.)

One project I managed to get mostly finished was our family stockings. They are knit up from my handspun* and were really simple, but really enjoyable knitting.

At this point I know whos is whos’ but they don’t have any identifying features on them yet. We did use them (unblocked) on Christmas Day, but here they are in their blocked glory.

I just have to decide how to name them. (Another winter job. Not that I mind.)

Tomorrow will be my last Christmas related post. But it’s one I’m looking forward to. :)

My plan back in October was to knit tiny mittens as an advent calendar for FB. However what with house selling stuff, and then most of November being taken up with illnesses of one sort or another, I got to ten (and a bit) mitts and realised that it wasn’t sensible to run myself into the ground for something that FB wasn’t old enough to understand.

At that point I was doing it for me, and I was fine with letting it go for this year.

That said I really should take some time over this winter to get them finished and packed away ready for next December. So I’m going to leave them in an obvious place to nudge me to get it done.

(I was hoping I could post every day this week, since there is alot to write about. But there has been house stuff, and now a water leak, and somehow it’s wednesday and nine days to Christmas…)

However… in the autumn I was busy beavering away on a pattern, and it was released today:

This is Cirrus – for the Winter issue of Petite Purls. It’s knit in Rowan Felted Tweed, which I love.

(Did you know there is Aran and Chunky Felted Tweed now? <3)

Anyway Cirrus is kinda special because the yoke is knit as one piece – even though the sleeves are a different colour from the body. This amuses me a great deal. Also it gives a very neat edge where the colours meet. And because you knit the main part of the sleeves first, that gives you a place to put your yarn when you’re not using it.

This makes me happy.

I don’t think there are enough patterns out there for boys. But the upside of that, is that you get to go out there are make your own, and then share it. I’m hoping to do that again some time. :)

So there you go. And here’s the Ravelry link – since I haven’t put that up yet.

(I feel a bit bashful about this to be honest.)