Colour is overwhelming me at the moment. For the past couple of weeks I have been footering about with my idea for the fairisle but so far haven't come up with anything that makes me really happy.

Well that's not quite true - the beautiful yarn makes me happy so I am determined not to waste it.

A lot of this is because I took a long hard look at my wardrobe and if I'm
honest, I tend not to wear overly complicated things. I wear a lot of single colour or very lightly patterned things. So I've moved my thinking from an entirely fairisle piece made up of peerie patterns to thinking of something a little simpler. A little more straightforward. And probably using only one or maybe two fairisle patterns, interspersed with stripes.

Whilst I am mulling this over, some neutral knitting is on the go. I finally got round to casting on a Cerus scarf for a certain someone. It's a free pattern on Ravelry if anyone's interested, very simple linen stitch but very effective in a self-striping yarn like Rowan Tapestry. I'm doing mine in Leadmine which I had in the stash from a failed project.

There's something incredibly soothing about a simple stitch in a neutral colour I'm finding. It doesn't make the same demands that you constantly check the colour balance - I use Emma's highly technical scrunch-up-your-eyes-and-squint method - neutral just meanders along.

When I need a little burst of excitement, I do a few rows on my Earth Stripe Wrap

and then settle back down into neutral.

I'm not going to do a round up of 2009 because, frankly, it sucked and I'd rather not dwell on it. But I will give you a little glimpse into our Christmas if you like.

It snowed a couple of days before Christmas - which was lovely because it meant we had a proper white Christmas - but as the temperature hasn't gone above freezing since then AND there's been more snow (another 2 inches last night), the garden still looks like this.

I actually don't mind the snow but I could do without the -5 degrees during the day and the -10 at night ! I've never taken so many baths as it's the only way I can get heat into my bones sometimes.

There are certain things that make Christmas for me.

Our angel lights at the window

The silver and blue tinsel star on top of our tree - which I bought with my mother in Jenners when I was about 7 years old, so it's seen a lot of Christmases

And in more recent years, the wreath made for me each year by my sister. She doesn't knit (I think she might be adopted ...) but she makes a mean Christmas wreath. Each year is different. We've had hot pink and crystal and pearls and this year it was snow white and sleigh bells so it tinkles each time the door is opened.

Mainly though, it's just the joy of spending time with family and friends. I know a lot of people find Christmas a really hard time - especially because of the spending time with family bit - but I love it.

Childhood christmases involved a lot of family, sometimes up to 16 of us at the dinnner table, all fighting NOT to be the one sitting on the piano stool or at the "leg" of the table. There are fewer of us these days. The older generations have largely gone - does that make me the older generation now ? Surely not at 43 ? - and there are long distances between those of us still around but it still feels like a special family time to me.

I love that I can see the "traditions" that are important each year to my girls - the annual trip to the fair in Edinburgh, the wooden sleigh ornament which MUST be placed in the same place, sprinkling reindeer dust on the doorstep - because I know that in years to come they will be the things that they remember.

The most memorable night of our holidays this year was New Year's Day. Our closest friends dropped in with their wee girl to first foot us in the afternoon and finally left close to midnight, scrabbled together dinner and several bottles of cava later, declaring it universally to be the best party they'd been to over the Christmas season. I like unexpected socialising, there's so much less pressure.

But today the decorations are coming down and tomorrow I'm back to work and normality. Keeping my spirits up though with a little bit of knitting planning. I have in my head a picture of a fairisle hoodie. I've started sketching it out and hopefully will start swatching it at the weekend but in the meantime, I'm just petting the yarn on regular occasions.

Guess what girls ? - I'm back !

To one and all the very happiest of HAPPY NEW YEAR'S.

Kiss the craptastic noughties goodbye and say Hello Honey to the teenies.

See you all on the other side of my hangover.

“The proper behavior all through the holiday season is to be drunk. This drunkenness culminates on New Year's Eve, when you get so drunk you kiss the person you're married to.” - P.J.O'Rourke

Goodness - doesn't time fly ? I'm going to stop making declarations about how I'm going to try to blog more because I think it pisses the Fates off and they step in to put a whole load of barriers in the way.

There have been health issues. I can confirm that I am the world's worst person at being not 100%. I bitterly resent every second that my traitorous body refuses to comply and engage it in a battle of wills until we see who backs down first :0)

There have been work issues. Really interesting, stimulating, mind challenging issues which I love every second of - but which are undeniably slightly all consuming and more than a little knackering.

And of course, there's been knitting. Lots of knitting. When I'm really up against it, knitting is the still, calm place in my head - so the more stressed I am the more I knit. Something had to give and it was blogging. Again.

Onto the knitting. Those who know me well know that I can get a teensy bit obsessed with the colour pink and oh boy, there has been a Lot of pink in my life lately.

My Cashmere Apres Surf Hoodie. And I adore it. (Click to embiggen on Flickr)

Me - who doesn't knit lace - adores knitting an almost entirely lace sweater. I'm just about to cast off the body (I knitted it in the round instead of 2 separate pieces) and if this one doesn't fit there will be a major hissy fit !

The yarn is Knitwitches Laceweight Cashmere. I bought a skein at Woolfest last year and Eirwen kindly agreed to dye me 2 more. When I use it doubled, it knits up as a 4 ply. And the yardage is great. And it's CASHMERE - so it's fabulous to knit with.

The only thing I can't share properly with you is the colour. It's so hard to capture. It's much more a crimson pink than the magenta pink it appears in the photo - it's called Raspberries. And it's an almost solid. Not even a semi solid I would say. The variation in colour is so slight but it adds a beautiful depth.

I'm knitting this for my Wester Ross holiday in July and I have all these images in my head of walking on windswept, empty beaches wrapped in my glorious pink cashmere. Wester Ross is the other still, calm place in my head - I think there's a theme building up here :0)

You up for more pink ? Well, there's this

A mini Clapotis (yeah, I know - late to the party as usual) - a gift for a dear friend whose birthday is coming up.

This may look pink but it's really a fabulous mixture of hot pink and orange

It's Skeinqueen's Kimono Silk Aran in Phoenix - another truly gorgeous yarn to knit with. The sheen, the depth of colour, the yardage, it's got it all :0) (I only used 1 and a bit skeins for this mini-clapotis so if anyone is interested in my other 1 and a bit skeins, you'll find it in my Ravelry Stash for sale !)

But do you know what fascinates me about this ? Check this out

A beauteous pair of Cheer You Up socks from the wonderful Emma - knitted in Skeinqueen's Plushness in PHOENIX ! The exact same colour but soooooo different on a different yarn.

I now need some very clever person to step in and tell me intelligent things about the way different fibres soak up dye but at the moment I'm just happy to ogle and say "Cool !" a lot :0)