It's just shy of 10am and in a move that will surprise no-one who's read this blog, I'm just back from a trip to Tesco. It was deserted, and I picked up some burgers, some chicken, some fancy cheese for bear and some potatoes - all of them except the cheese were full price. But it means that I can do a 'nice' meal tonight with the extra tray of fancy prepared potatoes that I have needing to be used, and depending on what bear is doing New Year's Eve (which is extremely unlikely to be inside our house), I can do a decent chicken in sauce of some sort. I've got plenty of options for sauce, including ready made and ingredients to make my own from scratch, so I can see what calls. I'm not sure how delicate bear will feel on New Year's Day after a night on the town, but I've got an itch to try sausage and mash pie from What's for Tea. I haven't tried it yet, but it seems like wonderful comfort food.
This Christmas has felt a little flat. I haven't felt much joy. I've never really been one for Christmas, as my parents used to battle when I was a kid - you can see it here on my blog, which sort of explains it. Bear has been happy to be home, but he's been doing his own thing which includes a fair slice of studying. This means that knitting has happened. I should be working on the impossible jacket, but I thought that my brother could use a scarf and started this.
But then I was browsing eBay (which is always a bad start) and saw an extremely inexpensive knitting kit. The box turned up battered.
And it was part of one of those subscription knitting things.
The pale blue stuff is for a lacy stole. I cast on, got to the pattern, swore, struggled, swore some more and a load of stitches slid off the needles. It's that crazy fluff stuff and it drove me nuts.
I absolutely did not feel confident picking up lots of stitches as the dratted yarn stuck to itself as well as the box, my arm, my sweater and everything else it touched. I started again, and while it's a mare to knit, I think the plain knit wide scarf will be lovely and warm as well as light and pretty. I'm not sure what to do with the other balls of yarn. It's meant to be half of a cushion, with the other half coming in a previous box. I'm not sure about that. I could make it up and use a fabric backing, but the colours don't call to me. They don't look like they'd be warm as part of hats and scarves for the Mission for Seafarers either. I'll keep thinking. The kit was extremely inexpensive, but I still have a feeling that I've wasted my money.
Writing stuff - authors are encouraged to market their work and at this time of year, all the marketing gurus are enthusing about showcasing plans for upcoming work. I haven't got a clue what's going to happen. I refuse to try and predict anything. The latest instalment of The Guest went up yesterday on my blog here and that's all I'm will to guarantee.
I'm also posting a lot on Substack. I started on there as you can use it as a newsletter, but I'm adding a few of the posts from my blog, so apologies if you've subscribed and are getting hammered by notifications. It should settle down soon.
Hugs and good health to all.
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