A little bit of Christmas and a hoop sale

At last the rain has stopped and the sky has brightened.  Over on the station platform everything seems to be ready for the Santa Specials when they begin running next weekend.  I love the station sign – and judging by the weather forecast it’s going to feel a little bit more like the North Pole here by the end of next week.

Of course it will be little Alfie’s first Christmas, but I’m not at all sure that Santa Paws will be visiting the young fellow – at the moment he’s definitely on the naughty list!

Last Thursday I couldn’t understand why he kept disappearing behind the sofa, and after a while I got up to investigate.  To my total surprise (and horror!) I discovered a partly unwrapped and nibbled block of butter on the floor hidden away out of sight and reach of everyone except the youngest and smallest member of the family.  He must have stolen it when I left the fridge door open while I was putting the milk on my cornflakes!  It is hard to scold him though when he looks as cute as this while asleep cuddled up to Rufus….

The other reason it’s hard to scold him is because he can’t hear anything.  Yes, we discovered soon after he joined us that he is almost completely deaf.  This doesn’t stop him enjoying life, and all three dogs are quickly learning canine sign language. One sad fact is that we won’t ever be able to let him run free when we take them out on walks as there’s no way we could guarantee being able to call him back.  He understands the hand signal for come, but of course he has to look at us first and that’s most unlikely if he’s immersed in the exciting scents and sights of a woodland walk. His breeder did offer to take him back, but we’d already fallen in love with the little bundle of mischief so he’s staying!

What can’t stay as it is though is my stack of pattern samples.  Last week when I opened my cupboard, a large quantity descended (via my head) to the floor.  So it’s time to let at least some of them go and I’ve listed the first few on Etsy….

I will be listing some more, but it took me rather a long time to work out what to do – I’m more used to listing patterns than actual finished items!  You can find them in the Posted Items Section of my Etsy shop and all prices include tracked postage.  There should still be plenty of time to receive them by Christmas, but I can’t absolutely guarantee that due to the Royal Mail strikes that are still ongoing.  Somebody told me that tracked items have priority so fingers crossed all will be well!