Twinkle, twinkle little star...

December already and tomorrow it will be only three weeks until Christmas! Am I in the festive mood? No, even though there has been a little Christmas activity going on here. Knitted Christmas decorations, no less.

At the top are three little twinkling stars knitted from this pattern. They are rather cute, only aobut 5 cm from point to point, and take so little time to knit. There are only five rows, knitted flat with a tiny seam to sew up. In my stash inherited from my late mother-in-law there was some white acrylic with a lurex thread plied with it - Sirdar's Super Prelude which has been long discontinued I would imagine. No way would I want to wear this, it being rather scratchy and just not me, but it was just what I needed for these stars. Knitting up as a 4 ply I have made these three dainty little stars so far. More may follow. I may adjust the pattern slightly and make one or two larger stars as well. Perhaps.

Why am I knitting stars? Not for our Christmas tree, although they may make an appearance on there as well, but for a tree our Spinners and Weavers group are entering in a local competition. Not because we think ours will be the best but to lift our profile a little. Every bit of publicity counts. A lot of decorations were made for our Open Day in May but I have since found out that some of these have been given away (!!!) even though members should have known about this competition. So, in case we are short of decorations, I have been busy.

The other two photos are of a simple kumihimo braid also destined for this tree. All members at the last meeting were given 7 lengths of yarn to make these braids to add a bit of cohesiveness (and traditional Christmas colour) to the tree. Kumihimo, I have decided, is not my favourite occupation but this braid was simple enough and made up fairly quickly. At least it is now done and not waiting for me to make it at the last possible minute as I usually do!

Last weekend was the local A & P (Agricultural and Pastoral) Show. Again to keep up our profile, the Spinners and Weavers had a very small display in one of the tents (a rather out-of-the-way tent, unfortunately). Three of our members, including myself, sat with the table throughout the day. Not a totally wasted day as this is what I accomplished while I was there. The best part, though, was meeting Stella and her two children! This is the second time I have had the pleasure of physically meeting someone I have got to know online - both lovely ladies.

Through the week I also finished knitting the pieces for the Cabled Baby Jacket. Back, sleeves and fronts are finished with the front bands now needing to be picked up and knitted on before sewing up.

You may notice that I have chosen to use a tubular cast on for the bottom bands. I am hoping this will look neater, and be a softer edging, than my usual longtail cast on. I used a provisional cast on for the fronts as the front band is picked up along the curve at the bottom. Of course, I didn't realise this at the beginning (does anyone else not read the entire pattern before launching into the knitting?) so maybe I now need to research into the best cast off to match the tubular cast on.

There were other events which occupied me over the last week - a family dinner to celebrate several birthdays, the Rose Festival and D's birthday as well as the end-of-year lunch with our Spinners and Weavers group. Tonight is another dinner out - with friends, this time. Another birthday celebration. There seem to be an extraordinary number of family-and-friend birthdays during November/December as it is our Grandgirl, L's, birthday on Thursday as well. She will be a whole two this time! We'll celebrate this one with a bbq in Ashb on Saturday. It looks as if the busy times will still be here for a while!