A quick catchup

Christmas is only a week away now, can you believe it? Although I've been knitting throughout the year in preparation, I'm still shocked that it seems to have crept up on me, I mean where did Autumn go?

It's been all go for me the past week, which is of course why I haven't had time to update here. I did make an effort and post to the Knit-wits blog last week, having remembered to take my camera out for our Christmas meal (well I just about remembered, as we were about to leave the restaurant). Richard commented that there hadn't been anything posted there for a long while so I was stung into action... We are after all still meeting up regularly, we just have our own lives to get on with which means we don't always have time to post on blogs.

I also had my team Christmas Lunch last week, which saw us going to the Coconut Lagoon in Kenilworth. I didn't take my camera along as that would have gained me some odd looks I think. On route to the restaurant, I did spot a wool shop on Kenilworth's high street, which I'm going to have to return and have a proper look at when I get a chance.

Last weekend was the AscendancyLRP Christmas bash, held at Unstone Grange in Derbyshire. It was the first time we'd used that site, so I approached it with some trepidation. As it was, I needn't have worried - the house itself was a quirky, sprawling maze of rooms and staircases with a decent sized kitchen, heaters in each bedroom, central heating downstairs and blazing open fires in the main sitting rooms. The place seems to be run as a communal project, mostly maintained by volunteers and run on a shoestring budget. It's a lovely old house though.

I did have one mishap, in the form of mistakenly placing my boots at the end of my bed on Friday night as the heavens opened outside. As it rained and rained and rained, I slept on oblivious but in the morning, when I went to put my boots on I discovered they contained an inch of water! Closer inspection revealed the carpet and the dresser at the end of the bed to be rather soggy as well, so although I didn't see any drips the roof was obviously leaking. No one else had a similar problem, so I must have been really unlucky with where I chose to put my boots that night.

Fortunately, we were indoors and in a warm house with large radiators... I found a radiator in an out of the way place and my boots spent the morning drying out. By early afternoon they were dry and I had nice toasty toes.

The event itself was an interesting one; not at all upbeat or cheery in the way traditional for a Christmas party. Moral dilemma's abounded and I'm still not sure I fully understood what was going on.

I did however drink lots of tea and sit by the fire a lot. And I got some knitting done... Very unusual for an event, but I can sit and talk while I knit, which is what I spent quite a bit of the time doing, so in all it was a pleasant and relaxing weekend for me.