I started working on a hat design yesterday and cast on what I had calculated to be the correct number of stitches for the medium size. After about four rounds on the brim it was looking very small (admittedly it was on a 40cm circular needle, but it looked barely larger than a sock cuff), so I ripped it out, changed my numbers about and cast on again with more stitches. This seemed better. I finished the brim, changed needle size and worked two and a half repeats of the pattern on the main part of the hat.

On Sunday I sang at the Advent carol service at the church where I am a member of the choir. There was quite a bit of plainchant (we did the Palestrina Advent Responsory and the 'Great O Antiphons' as well as the much more modern The Lamb by Taverner and some good solid advent hymns. Before the service began the rector said there were some children in the congregation in Christmas jumpers and that perhaps they thought they were going to get Christmas carols rather than Advent carols. They are very different!

If you are a monthly newsletter subscriber you will have received an email yesterday telling you about some website issues I have been having. My contact form has been the target of spam bots and it's been causing me a few issues that also affected my email list. Late morning yesterday I asked for assistance from the "Happiness Engineers" at Wordpress, specifically asking for help from a person rather than an AI.

I can hardly believe that it's already Tuesday again. The weeks are spinning past. Sometimes I wish I had a regular structure to my blog as my wife does. She always starts with what the morning smells like, describes the photo she is using to accompany her post, writes her main section and finishes by sharing a poem. However, my blog doesn't have that regularity of form.

Recently I have been enjoying the simplicity of crocheting a large granny square with a set sequence of colours. I can relax and as long as I can count to three it pretty much sorts itself out. Mind you, the counting bit isn't foolproof! It's steadily and slowly growing which is good. I'm still not entirely convinced whether or not the two darkest shades of green are in fact the same colour - I think they might be, but as long as I keep to the sequence I've chosen it doesn't actually matter.

The main pic on today's post is a poppy brooch I knitted a couple of years ago. Last week I saw the lovely display of knitted poppies on the railings outside my mum's care home to which Mum contributed about four, but I wasn't able to get a photo of that without including lots of cars in the car park behind so I will just share this single poppy here.

This weekend I did some baking for the first time in absolutely ages. I made biscuits that are the simplest things ever and they are lovely. The recipe suggested dividing the mixture into three and…

POET, COACH. COACH, POET.     This morning a swirling wind makes an incense of its own as it mixes the soft dry scent o...

FOCUSING This morning the air brings the smell of old carboard boxes, and I do not set off the alarm ca...