If you haven't noticed it is very chilly just now , you may be on holiday in the Sahara! Temperatures in Scotland are well below zero , reaching almost -16deg celsius! Brrrrr .
However , the metres of snow that are being experienced everywhere in Britain , have somehow missed Sunny Gourock...... see the picture, Argyll Hills looking beautiful with just a sprinkling of snow , but nothing else!
The snow did come , melted, froze , melted , snowed, froze again , so we are left with large areas of ice , clear frosty areas and.....that's it! At least my DH is getting good use of his Rowan Cocoon sweater , nice and cosy and aptly name Frost .
Still , contrary to the many adverts at present extolling diets and Gyms and way too much exercise for folk trying to keep warm , I prefer to exercise my Cook books and dig out warming recipes for cold wintry days . Visiting the supermarket I bought a lovely piece of beef for roasting, however on reading up my many cookbooks , there are NO recipe's on the best way to roast beef. Plenty for Chicken, Turkey, Lamb and Pork , but not beef! Hmmmmm....
The one exception was Tana Ramsays' cookbook , which has a "timetable" for a Sunday Roast (beef) , so that will be the one I will follow , except I am not doing Roast Potatoes and Yorkshire puddings , I am doing Pappardelle pasta with a stir-fry of red onion, chestnut mushrooms and roasted red pepper!
Remember I told you I was a good girl at Christmas (hey I am ALWAYS a good girl!!) , well here is some of what Santa brought..... Fyberspates Scrumptious 4ply , one in Red , the other Gold . Now what to do with them ?
I think the Red may become another shawl , and the gold a wee camisole top ! But that is just now , who knows in a few days or weeks the plan may change .
The plan for this yarn, however will not change. I treated myself to a beautiful skirt from Monsoon in the January sales. It is black with a waistband of Rust embroidery and gorgeous square black beads . Across the main part of the skirt are "stripes" of rust coloured embroidery designs . So this fabulous orange shade of Kidsilk Haze will go perfectly , the pattern I will use is Marianne by Sharon Miller from one of my Rowan books .
I cannot wait to start , but wait I must as I still have a sock to finish (Christmas gift) , and a baby gift to do too . Must knit faster , must knit faster (get off this blessed computer then!) .I want to finish it for my Birthday (February) , but feel my in-laws Golden Wedding anniversary in September may just see it finished!
Talking of babies, two more friends have announced they are to hear the patter of tiny feet again this year , lovely news indeed and a lovely start to the New Year!
So I managed to finish (almost) the important gifts for Christmas!
Mum got her Ishbel shawl in OMA alpaca/silk yarn, Ysolda colourway .
Sis got her mini Scroll Lace scarf in Teohandspun Angora, in a glorious hand-dyed red colourway .
Aunt got her Ishbel beret in some NDS dyed Unicorn yarn , green colourway (forgot the name)
MIL got her Ishbel beret in Possum paints Waitomo colourway (she got her mittens just before New Year too!)
FIL got his Noro Silk Garden muffler , and his Beanie just before the bells (midnight hogmanay) !
Friend got a mini-Kiri shawl in unicorn yarn and ONE sock (other still on needles )
Poor Dad got a bottle of red wine instead of his wine-coloured Jaegar aran scarf .....
So , not too many disasters , thankfully , although pulling my back out just after Christmas did slow down the finishing up of some gifts .
Christmas was fun , not too quiet, not too mad, all my pictures are of the kids and their gifts (and are STILL on the camera!)
We had a lovely time with family on Boxing Day , then spent a few days in the Arctic Tundra otherwise known as East Kilbride (800m above sea level , and that was just the snow!). The in-laws had a wonderful time with the kids and it gave DH and I time to do grownup stuff too , like eat in a restuarant, go to grown-up shops , speak to each other !
Oh , yes , was I a good girl and did Santa Claus visit me ? YES , I was VERY good , list of wonderful gifts as follows....
Kim Hargeaves "Amber" pattern book with 21 designs
Fyberspates 4ply Scrumptious , one in red the other in gold
Fairisle Hat knitted in Orkney Angora yarn, (hopefully gettingmitts to match for birthday , hint hint Sis!)
A bag from Nessbypost.com - and I can squeeze my project bag in it too!
There was lots of other non-knitty stuff too , I was thoroughly spoiled!
Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas , and I hope 2010 is a fabulous year for you!
