2011 END OF YEAR HOTCHPOTCH

Jonathan has tinkered about with the computer to try and make it go slightly faster so this is all hit and miss on an unknown format for Blogger.
Anyway, I bet you are either beginning the slog in the kitchen or gathering everything to go visiting - my Christmas was 23rd with Stuart and his family and yesterday with Teresa and Jonathan so I'm back to normal, whatever that means!
A few days before today my parcel of wool arrived from a lady I found on eBay but this was, in effect, a private purchase. I'm pleased with all these bright colours and can't wait to start using them...

This is my current crate of wool which is holding the remains of already used balls so the colours above are a real boost.

These are four balls 'in waiting', so to speak, including two of those multi-coloured efforts; I don't know what the trade name is for these. The muddled one at the top right is something Kath gave me before she moved, a ball of oatmeal/beige which I use to crochet the strips together on knitted blankets. I had to make a new band to hold it together as the previous one was spoiled. I'm always taking in tucks on the bands so they keep holding the outsides together - I start from the middle - being Lazy Libra I know this means the wool unravels (usually!) without any problem such as falling over or needing to be twitched back into place. James, Stuart's son, gave me 5 balls of wool to add to my stash, bought by himself, too, very brave for a 22 year old lad...

This is a batch of 48 Granny Squarres which have d-o-z-e-n-s of tails waiting to be stitched in and then, when I can find enough wool of one colour, will have an edging round each before I try crocheting them all together in an 8 x 6 formation to make another blanket - plus an ouside edging, of course.

Here's the afghan/throw I made for Sarah's Christmas present after she said how much she liked the charity blanket I made. It measures 40 x 52 1/2 so larger than the previous one, and it has a fancy edging, too. Didn't take long, crochet grows exceedingly fast...

Now for something completely different -

This morning I went down to the bottom shed in the gloom to fill up some of the sunflower seed holders and saw these signs of spring arriving - a few spidery crocuses just poking through here - and

daffs under bracken with an out of focus spray of cat mint- and

some pretty and tiny fungus growing on a stump, left over from when Gillian and I chopped down a viburnum  but couldn't get out the last few inches of the stump (which, cross fingers, hasn't resprouted, yet).

More daffs by the badgers hole under the fence and

the ones I spotted first, beside the shed door, which made me look for more signs of Spring-come-early.

Finally, I have to finish on another notice with a problem...

Have a good day, see you again later.

Just a quick 'Hallo, Ria' to Jonathan's Mum who doesn't speak English but looks at the pictures - she's really into the gardening side of things, but I hope she sees her name and knows she's remembered.