Ho Ho Humbug.

Compliments of the season from all at Mog Towers. We wish you a peaceful and happy 2012.

Magnus isn't very good at being festive.

Shiny.

Jam and dodgy socks

Old leaves - may be responsible for drabness.

There are times when making something is a slog. The awfulness of the slog is tempered with the knowledge that the end result will make everything worthwhile. Many hours of knitting stocking stitch round and round and round is forgotten when a Cobblestone or a Peasy. is created from them.  Then there are the times when the slog and the end result are equally awful. Take these just finished socks for instance. Please take them.

Maybe I should iron before taking pictures?

 These socks are part of my plan  to use up every scrap of my handspun no matter how scrappy that handspun might be. They were an absolute pain to knit, being made made from the sort of thick and thin yarn that only an enthusiastic but skill-free new spinner can create and then dyed with a variety of sticks and leaves and old tea bags. Combined together, the yarns look like something that Magnus might throw up, minus the distressing bony evidence of whatever he ate to make him sick in the first place. Before synthetic dyes were invented there was a colour named drab. I may have unwittingly made the drabbest of socks.

They are knitted two yarns to the row in Lice Stitch creating a double layer which hopefully cancels out the worst of the thick and thin and whatever else might be wrong with them they will keep my feet from freezing at night and so prevent marital disharmony. For that I will be thankful.

Checking the jellification of the jam.

In other news I emptied the freezer and made jam with the last of the summer's raspberries and redcurrants. The jam is beautiful and tasty without a hint of cat sick or drabness.

Wooden spoon is no match for the stain powers of raspberries.

Gatecrashing London.

London was glorious, we divided our time between Richmond and Deptford, two very different riverside communities. Deptford was our base and I quickly became very fond of it. There is a proper sense of community on the water as well as on land, a cat called George who lives outside a  grocer's shop and a friendly postman called Peter.  Other highlights include the Waiting Room Cafe with the Elvis Shoe Superloo and the best ad hoc Christmas tree I have ever seen.

Richmond was home to the Literature Festival. We learned a lot from the many writers that we listened to and in particular we learned to pay more attention to our surroundings. Our downfall came after a romantic walk along the Thames prior to attending a talk in a Boutique Hotel accompanied, according to the programme,  by specially blended cocktails. Instead of walking in the front door like normal people, we took a short cut from the river through the garden and found ourselves in a room filled with wonderfully dressed people. We were equally wonderfully dressed in big coats and beanie hats and may have stood out a little. However the sight of a table full of cocktails reassured us. That is, until I noticed the other drinks, the posh canapes and the uncanny sense that we were the only two people in the room who didn't know anybody else.  My companion and I hastened to the exit and didn't stop until we were in the main reception with two signs in front of us.

One sign pointed to a room on the left and it said: Richmond Literature Festival, Hallie Rubenhold and Rosie Thomas.
The other sign pointed to the room we had just fled and it said: Catherine's 50th Birthday Party.

Must pay more attention.

The incredible Elvis Shoe Superloo.

My favourite tree. I think this qualifies as Outsider Art.

In other news - if you haven't already, rush over to Wovember to have a look at all the brilliant pictures in their 100% Wool Photo Competition. You might see some of mine too. I was going to enter this picture of my pre-Winter scarf washing but I realised that many of the items are so old that they are 99% acrylic.

Not many natural fibres here.