Big pictorial catch-up

So, as previously noted, I've been doing a bit of travelling. The week training in Paris was quite draining and as I've done quite a lot of sightseeing there before on other trips, I was happy to chill out in the evenings. However, one night I did venture out to see Sacre Coeur, which was very beautiful despite being in a less than salubrious part of town.



And another night I visited an old school friend who lives just outside Paris. It was of course lovely to see her, but also nice to see another old friend - a picture I painted when we were all 21, adapted from another painting (I can't remember what it's called though!) where I changed the characters to become myself (in the window), Sarah (on the settee) and Clare (being elegent and matriarchal in the chair). There are some glaring problems with the painting, the arches over the window don't match and the nets aren't level, and the cat (based on an old family cat) is proportionately too large, but there are also some pretty good bits, and I'm still quite impressed with my 21 year old self for persevering and finishing the thing. I think it took a couple of years to do in the end! It's nice that Sarah framed it and still loves it.

One thing I was trying to do in Paris was to finish some knitting projects, which I failed at miserably. I think I only did 8 inches of one sleeve of the baby cables jumper!

I have a question to you knitters though - for the sleeve that's done, what about the finishing? At the point I've got to, it should be bound off. I'm not sure it's long enough for me (clearly I'm a gorilla), so should I just do a plain garter stitch cuff, or should I do another cable repeat (which might make it too long)?

I think it only needs another inch or two, and I prefer my sleeves a bit longer so they cover the backs of my hands.

So, decisions.

Anyway, here is the yarn that I bought in Gothenburg - 300g of a sprucey dark green supersoft merino from Deisy Designs.

I also got some black cotton Paris yarn from Drops to make those hot pants, and (why, for the love of god, when I've joined the Socktopus club this year?) some more sock yarn. And some dpns that look like Knit Picks but are called Knit Pro, in the same layered multicoloured laminate.

Some other things from Paris - an Asterix comic book in French, and a very small Eiffel tower to go into The Man's new office fish tank. Obviously.

Oh, and I wanted to show you this, which The Man's mum gave us for xmas. The initials, I mean, not the cooker hood. They are just plain white plaster, but you can paint them. I was thinking of painting them gold, or perhaps (a bit too ambitious?) gilding them. What do you think?

Some more bits - moose things from Sweden! I had some more groovy things, but they've been given away as presents. A big swag bag of moomin things for Clare, some xmas decs for The Man's mum (special request), and another of those candle convection whirlygig things with moose on for mum.

So, we have a moose tray and coasters, and a branch pot stand, and a whirlygig thing with snowflakes on. I love the expressions of the moose on the tray.

Right, we now have a SPOILER ALERT!!!!!! Anyone in the Socktopus club who has not yet received their January parcel please look away now.

This was a very fragrant parcel as it was full of foot spa goodies! The pattern for the socks looks pretty complicated, I'm glad we get two months before the next one. Yikes. Well, they always say that a challenge is good for you.