Winter Warmers

Happy New Year to all. I hope that 2011 brings you a sense of being in the right place, doing what you are meant to be doing. As I write, it is a beautiful, sunny afternoon here in Oxford and it is so wonderful to see the sun after all that grey and rain over the past few days. And the cold is back too, which makes it feel more like January again.

Here are some pictures of things I made last year to help keep body and soul warm. The first image shows a pair of photographer's mittens I made my Other Half for Christmas. This is my own design and I have called them Falklands' Dags. Falklands, because they are based on a traditional Falklands Island cable pattern I found in Pam Dawson's Traditional Island Knitting and are knitted in 100% Falklands wool that OH brought back from there in 2009. And Dags because the shape is derived from the traditional Shetland fingerless mittens known as Fisherman's Dags described by Elizabeth Johnston at the In the Loop conference last year. If anyone would like to knit these, please contact me for the pattern - I also have some of the Falklands wool, if you would like to buy a ball to knit them with.

The other pictures are of a Debbie Bliss blanket I made for baby Lincoln who arrived in the world on 6 January. A big, big welcome to him and blessings to his Mum and Dad.