Catching up... with pix

I'm taking a break from knitting this jumper for Thomas. It's from a "Dale of Norway" book - the finished project will (hopefully) be like a cricket jumper. I say 'hopefully' because it's annoying me. I think I've counted the right number of stitches but it doesn't want to play nicely with the central pattern.



Speaking of Dale, here are the finished socks for another Dale. I'm spoiled being a size 5 - knitting these size 9s was a shock to the system.



Back over on the Dark side, I finished the curtain - despite my inability to use a sewing machine, and this is the world's smallest curtain.



My hand-sewing is pretty neat even if I do hate sewing up my knitted stuff.



Can't see me hand-sewing a full set of proper curtains, so I bought a sewing machine, because I would quite like to have a bash at making some for our house - the small windows, mind.



I forgot to show you these purchases from Ally Pally. What do you think of these? I think the gingerbread men may go on something for Thomas, though I'm not sure what while the ducks and ladybird will be for Bump. I have a cunning plan... I'm going to make a hat shaped like a flower and sew the ladybird to one of the petals.



Right, we're up to date now - best go and prime the ensuite floor for tiling.

My lovely stepdad is tiling my kitchen and bathrooms. Yes, we are those people who rope their parents into DIY... though in our defence, we asked Peter to show us how to tile and he decided to do the job. He's such a star. My Mam didn't give the male species a second chance until I was 24, so it's not as if he raised me which I think makes his help even more appreciated - we're not his kids.

I mention this as we were in a shop buying tiles and the assistant sympathetically asked: "Is it your first house?"

No, it's the second but the professionals we paid last time did a lousy job!