This was the scene when I got out my stash to look it over and decide what to knit next. Mr H came into the room, took one look at this lot and disappeared upstairs muttering about an early night.

There are 364 sock patterns in my Ravelry library, so it took quite a while to narrow it down. I’ve added a few more sock patterns to my Ravelry Queue:

• Herringbone Rib Socks
• Leyburn Socks

Both of these are good for variegated yarn. However, I decided I wanted to knit some semi-solids and I have cast on Tintern Abbey Socks. This has a whole new (to me) toe and heel construction – The Sherman Toe/Heel – and is from Brenda Dayne’s ongoing ebook, Welsh for Rainbow.

Way back when, I resolved to knit (and wear) a pair of socks in pink. I’ve put it off long enough. Here is the first toe. Strictly speaking this is the second toe, since the first one I knit using the instructions for a Sherman Toe bore no resemblance whatsoever to a toe. It turns out that if you follow the instructions (without questioning them and doing what you think they mean instead of what they actually say) then it works fine.

In other news, I have been baking:

Fresh croissants for breakfast is something I probably shouldn’t get used to.

It has been a busy couple of months. Here are the highlights, because I guess it is better to write briefly than not at all.

• I finished my old job just after a very hectic Christmas
• We’ve moved house
• There was trouble with the kitchen floor (but I’d really rather not talk about it in detail and it is all ok now)
• The little girl started walking on moving day
• The little boy has settled into a new school with very little fuss
• We had snow and snowmen and sledging in our lovely new garden
• There are still cardboard boxes, although not many of them now (and I’ve done nearly all of mine)
• I started my new job this week
• I am excited, apprehensive, overwhelmed and loving it all at the same time

So, that’s what has been happening outside the knitting world. You can understand why knitting progress has been slow. It has not, however, been non-existent.

• I finished the socks for the Mr in time for Christmas (no photos yet since it was a close-run thing and he only found them in a box yesterday night)
• There was a lot of knitting goodness in my Christmas present pile, but I’ll come back to that
• I have knitted two thirds of a sock and I’ll come back to that too.
• I have cast on a Swirl. 545 stitches. Oh boy. At least I knew the trick of using two ends of the ball for a long-tail cast-on. Imagine getting to 544 and running out of yarn. Don’t expect this to be finished any time soon.

Now, in an exciting turn of events, let’s move beyond knitting.

• A friend of my Mum spent an evening teaching me to spin on a spindle.
• She gave me the spindle and some Icelandic wool to practice with
• Then she lent me a spinning wheel for a while. It’s (or are spinning wheels, like steam engines always referred to as ‘she’?) an Ashford Traveller
• Last week, someone from one of my new parishes rang me out of the blue offering babysitting and asking if the rumour was true that I was a knitter. She then said she was a spinner and would I like to try it.
• There is also a spinning group that meets once a month in an adjacent village. I met the lady that hosts it while taking my daughter to a toddler group. She noticed the hand-knit jumper that J was wearing (thank you again to J’s lovely Godmother).

I think that’s enough for now. I’m determined to have some of the evening with the needles and something relaxing on tv.

I think I may well have a shot at this:

The sleeves of the cardigan are growing. It looks as though one ball per sleeve will be sufficient, so no faffing about with dye-lot changing.

This week I am reading:

• Heartless by Gail Carriger “A novel of Vampires, Werewolves and Teapots”.
• Little Women by Louisa M Alcott – a re-read of a favourite from my childhood
• Third Way Magazine

I am contemplating giving up shouting at the 3yo for Lent, imposing a 10p charity fine for each lapse.