A Hogmanay post. Contains wool.

 From this...

 .. to this..

..via this!

Thanks to my parents, who gave me some money for Christmas, my new toy is a ball-winder! (I'm sure I've spent Hogmanay winding wool before; slight deja vu here.) I have a nostepinne but I can never wind a ball evenly, so the ball-winder is fantastic! And so quick.... Plus it entertained the kids. And the little cat was fascinated too.. No pouncing though, thank goodness.The bigger cat is more inclined to pounce on things like that but he's asleep upstairs.

We're at home for New Year this year, for the first time in about seven years I think. It feels a bit strange. In fact I don't even know what happens at midnight here though we've heard a few fireworks so I'm expecting more later on. We're usually in the Highlands staying with my parents (watching the village's organised firework display from the upstairs landing at midnight), but I left it too late booking the cattery, so here we are. However as I've had a chest infection and Miss M has a cough it's possibly just as well.  We've spent the last few days generally doing as little as possible, which has been nice but I've been losing track of the days a bit. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

I have no idea what I'll knit with that newly-wound ball of wool. I picked the skein from my stash more or less at random (it's Malabrigo Sock in Primavera) just to test-drive the ball-winder, but it's so lovely and soft I kind of want to cast on now. I have a cowl to finish first though, so I think I'll go on with that this evening. The kids are deciding whether they want to stay up until 'the bells' (it's 9.55pm now, past their usual bedtime, though not necessarily their usual sleep time). To be honest I'm pretty tired myself so I'm not that fussed about it. But happy 2017 to everyone!

Time travel

Hello world, I'm still here! And enjoying a few lazy days after a hectic couple of months.

Dad was getting rid of some books a while back, so I acquired a vintage 60s Penguin copy of The Divine Comedy, Part 3, i.e. Paradiso. I'd read bits of the others but never this, and I've got to say it's hard going. I'm just dipping in and out really.  But aside from that, it was interesting to find Dad's bookmark from when he was reading it - a Sainsbury's receipt.  Instant time travel to Croydon, 1965! How exotic..

Using the power of Google I've discovered that that address is still a supermarket, but it's a Waitrose now. Which isn't what you'd call stunningly interesting, I must admit! But one of the pleasures of second-hand books is finding tiny snippets of social history in the form of random improvised bookmarks.

I'm trying to write this while the kids are watching television so my mind is wandering rather a lot, so I'll just wish you a happy New Year in case I don't manage the Hogmanay post I'm planning!