Shoeboxes 2011

Operation Christmas Child has been happening around here again.

This year, I have been a little more organised and started gathering little gifts, notepads and some toiletries since mid September.

Oh and we bought lots of sweets - and toothbrush with toothpaste.

I went to our local yarn store and got some nice yarn to knit hats and mittens. I managed to find a nice super wash 100% merino Aran yarn by King Cole.

I first knit the hats and then decided I still had enough time to knit the mittens. Miss T choose the "Hello Kitty" button for "her" hat. The colour of the button is an OK match.

One of our shoeboxes is aimed at a 4-6 year old girl and the other is for a 11-14 year old girl.

But mine had great fun trying on the hats and mittens and to look for all the stuff we put in the shoeboxes.

This year, I have been able to put in a barcode and hopefully we will receive an e-mail telling us where our boxes have been sent.

Miss T wants some mittens to, I have started to knit her a pair of navy mittens.

I have already knit a snood and some wristers for Miss N. Hopefully I will remember during daylight hours to take some photos of her.

My new do

This morning I joined the rush hour commute and visited the hair dresser.

The lovely Christophe from France cut around 16 inches (40cm) off.

See!

He was very touched, that I donated my hair to The little Princess Trust.

After I had a head massage and had the hair washed and conditioned, he went to work.

Here is the result.

Still the same me what with new hair.

It is shorter than I anticipated.

I think I am in need of a scarf and a hat. Anybody got any ideas on patterns?

Last time I had my hair cut short was when I was around 13 or 14.

Since then I only ever had my hair trimmed.

I have posted the pony tail off to the little Princess Trust.

My Just Giving page will stay open until January 2012.

Now you see it, soon you won't

2011 has been a bit of a difficult year for us.
My Dad died in April.

He had told me in October 2010 that he was suffering from lung cancer.

I tried and spend a bit of time with him.

Of course we had big hopes that treatment would work and that he could watch his grand daughters grow up.

Somehow through all this, having a hair cut (for me) was the last thing on my mind and my hair grew longer and longer.

I have never had my hair this long. Since June, have I been thinking of having it cut.

Then in July a friend died and shortly afterwards we heard from another friend that his little daughter is suffering from cancer.

I had heard somewhere about the Little Princess Trust and how they have wigs made for little girls and boys.

They need about 10 inches of hair to make a wig. It has taken me a while to get used to the idea of having shoulder length hair.

I have over the years collected a lot of points by buying a certain brand of Shampoo.

I have turned all the points into a voucher for a hair dressing appointment.

Today, I have plucked up the courage and booked an appointment.

THURSDAY is the big hair cutting day.

I have set up a Just Giving page to help the Little Princess Trust.

Bloom

Miss T loves her new dress. The pattern is called Bloom.

I knit this with 4.5 balls of Louisa Harding Kashmir DK.

I think I bought the yarn on sale when Miss T was just born.

Talk about hoarding yarn!

The pattern is very well written and different sizes are achieved by using different yarn qualities.

I knit the version in DK yarn and it should be size 6 months to around 4 years.

As Miss T is already 4, I knit the yoke a few rows longer and I added one more pattern repeat to the skirt.

The photos were taken last week, it was a lot warmer than now.

The yarn is lovely and soft. For once we were lucky and found a perfect ribbon at our local yarn store.

The pattern includes a bonus pattern to knit the same dress for a doll. As I still have around 1.5 balls of yarn left, I think of knitting one as a Christmas present.

Miss T loves pulling funny poses.

Claude for 12in2011

Claude has been finished a few weeks now. I started wearing it instantly and then we had a lovely heatwave and I put Claude in my wardrobe.

This week we are back to almost normal autumn weather.

Today I am wearing Claude and the husband is home in time to take a few photos.

Asking to have photos taken of me in my own knitwear always seems to be a big burden.

After all the problems knitting Claude I am very pleased with the result.

I got two finished sleeves and I am happy with the length. Of course they could have been a little longer.

I am not complaining, I finished up another pack of yarn.

10 balls of Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora. I had bought the yarn a few years ago on ebay. The pattern is Claude by Anna Bell.

I did modify the pattern, I knit the body as one piece up to the armholes, I raised the back and front neck area to give myself more coverage, shorter sleeves with only a narrow cuff.

Since i finished Claude, I have been busing with more stash yarn knitting.

Look at us ladies wearing new hand knits.

This brings the total of my 12in2011 projects to 8.

Still a bit behind. But I did knit some other projects.

At the moment I got another dog coat for Nowzad on the go.

I will be meeting the author and a lot of dogs rescued from Afghanistan end of next week.