Countdown to Christmas!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Well almost. Since becoming a knitter, I have started to slowly start planning for Christmas knits well before the date appears on the horizon (by which I mean 4 weeks... oops). But because my birthday is right at the end of November, before that date it's definitely NOT Christmas! I'm heading into London later today to go ice skating as a delayed birthday social. I spotted this ad at an underground station and couldn't resist despite a historical lack of affinity with the ice. I'm about as able on ice as a newborn bambi so if you fancy a laugh, feel free to come along and watch. Amateur gymnastics on ice coming to a rink near you!

Birthday gift stash enhancement

My lovely mum went to Peru for a three week holiday and came back just before my birthday. I asked if she could bring an alpaca back with her and although she couldn't bring back a whole one, she came close! She bought 10 50g balls of luxury DK baby alpaca in cloud grey. So squishy....

I cannot wait to choose a project for this. Interestingly baby alpaca isn't from young alpaca, it's the inner layer of their pelt which keeps them extra warm in the chilly Peruvian mountains. I've heard alpaca has a lot of drape and stretches massively during blocking so will have to be careful when choosing a size. Any tips?

I also received two cakes of 4ply yarn in unknown fiber. Definitely part alpaca but less soft than the grey yarn. It's still soft enough to wear next to the skin.

There's about 150g of each and I'm thinking of a shawl maybe? The yarn doesn't break easily so I could also weave with it. Decisions, decisions...

I have another yarn gift from my boyfriend's lovely mum but that's back in Plymouth. I will add a quick post when I head back to the coast. In the meantime, here is the parcel as it arrived:

Is that the end of it? No no no....

Back in April, yarn dyers started advertising their advent calendars for this year. Despite being ridiculously in advance, I know advent calendars sell out really fast. I hadn't bought a yarn advent before and after researching a few, I pre-ordered a DK advent from For the Love of Yarn. I have a kit from this company for a Stephen West MKAL from last year which I still need to finish. The box arrived a few weeks ago:

I was strong and didn't open any of the individual parcels but I couldn't resist opening the box. It's like a mini sweet shop for yarn. Yum!

And today I could finally open the first bag!

And now, I can safely say - it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Hope you're having a great weekend, Charlotte and Harvey x