That In-Between Time of Year

 Yesterday was our fifth wedding anniversary.  FL insisted on (a) wearing his kilt and (b) keeping it on all day even though his knees must have been freezing.  I have no words.

Equally stubborn, I have kept on knitting an Acorn Mitt (from Issue 15 of Knit Now magazine) even though my Zauberball is not striping quickly enough and it just looks as if I got the cuff dirty.
And there is blatantly a bare patch where an acorn ought to be.  This is what comes of following the instruction “keeping acorns pattern correct…” either side of the thumb gusset.  Would it have killed them to print the whole chart?  I suppose it would have taken up too much space.  Slapping on the grading “Advanced Knitter” is just a trick to make me feel stoopid when I can’t get it right.  I expect I will be ripping it back later today.  Herrumph.
 
But look what arrived in the post to cheer me up in my incompetence?  A bar of exciting chocolate all the way from New Zealand! And a copy of the pattern I failed to win in Joy’s giveaway?  Far too kind.  Seriously.  Bloggers are the best. 
And now I feel guilty for not showing you other things that have arrived from blog-pals in recent months – but you know who you are and I hope you are feeling all warm and glowing inside because yes, I am talking about YOU! :D
And when I come to use the fabric, the patterns, I won’t forget where they came from.

While I am showing my incoming post…
I keep neglecting to blog about my Skein Queen Club yarn.
The November skein is called “Fairy Hoax” and the colour was inspired by the novel The Unseen by Katherine Webb.  I am just about to start reading the book, which I reserved from the library.  I’m not sure what I will knit from the yarn – it looks like it wants to be a delicate shawl.  It has intriguing dollops of Donegal tweediness through it, which makes me think of insects trapped in a spider’s web.  In a good way.

This is the December yarn, which arrived this morning.  Look at those colours!  Absolutely gorgeous, merino and silk.  Again I am thinking something shawl-like, but perhaps cabley and oblong… more of a stole?  Definitely inspiring.  I’m so glad I signed up for this club again.

You can tell I’m a bit drifty can’t you?  The Boy went home to University yesterday and The Girl goes back to London tomorrow.  We’ve had a lovely quiet time of it, but I am starting to feel the need to get going on some major project or another.  It’s been good thinking time.