Almost Christmas

Someone mentioned yesterday that it was only four days till Christmas...again, I was surprised at how close the holiday was.

Wasn't Thanksgiving Just Last Week?
Maybe it's because the days are shorter and shorter up through December 21st, so Christmas just seems to come way too fast?

That's the theory I'm going with.

Kiwi James must be extremely organized, as he again sent a lovely package of international goodies this year.



Up top is a lovely tea towel that James purchased while in Ireland. It has descriptions and symbolic meanings for various Aran stitches. At the bottom is the best Cadbury candy, Jaffas...an orange candy-coated chocolate. And my favorite gift, is the lovely Vintage Purls sock yarn, custom-dyed specifically for his yarn store, Joy of Yarn (check out his new web site if you need some of that sock yarn!). This will be tons of fun to use.

Thanks James...you've made my Christmas delightful already.

Current Knitting
The Henry scarf got quite a bit of attention this past weekend, and it will definitely be completed in time for Christmas.



This progress pictures shows what the scarf looks like after knitting 158 rows. Yes...just 10 more rows to go and it's finished.

Current Spinning
Focusing most of my time on Henry has not allowed any time for spinning lately, but that won't stop me from showing off my latest Black Bunny Fiber club installment of roving.



This shit is gorgeous. It's a 50/50 merino/tencel blend and the soft, silky lustre of the fiber is perfectly matched with Carol's dyeing skill.

Readers' Comments/Questions
Mand writes, "Surely that's not cured navel beef - surely it's cured naval beef?"

No, it's really called "Cured Navel Beef", and stop calling me Shirley. I tried looking around for what it really means, because it's not a cut of beef from the belly button.

Also speaking of the boiled dinner, James writes, "That looks like what we call "Corned Beef" her in NZ."

We have corned beef here in the states as well, and the cured beef is similar...it seems to be a different cut...corned beef is usually the brisket and this definitely isn't that...it seemed to be more like the meat around the short ribs. The brine is different as well...cured beef has nothing but salt, while corned beef has other pickling spices.