I didn't have the best of starts to today! I had an appointment at the Borders General Hospital - a follow up to a previous appointment for the 'face ache'. Malcolm came with me, as he knows I really don't like hospitals! The first annoyance was not being able to find a parking space (we had to park outwith the hospital grounds - probably about quarter of a mile away - not a problem for us, as we're fit, but not much use if you're really ill). Then, we sat and sat ... and sat! Although my appointment was for 9.40, they were already running an hour behind!! I saw the consultant for five minutes - how are you, much better thank you, that's fine I don't need to see you again .......
Never mind, things got decidedly better after that, when we called in to the tearoom at the Old Melrose Furniture Studio . There was a welcome fire burning in this marvellous old range
On the shelves behind my chair were just a few of the wide selection of antiques and collectables available in the adjoining shop
And of course, there was food and drink!! Malcolm had a wonderful cup of coffee, I had an excellent pot of tea, and we both had a toasted teacake with butter and jam (the eagle-eyed among you may notice that Malcolm had already tucked into the jam before I took the photo!!)
I'm sorry not to have answered the questions about the shawl before now, but I kept forgetting to take a note of the pattern number and the yarn when I was in the studio - for several evenings I have sat down with the laptop to write this drivel informative blog and thought 'oh bother', I forgot that info again! So here it is .... the pattern is Sirdar3983, the yarn is Patons Fairytale 2ply (baby) and as for how long it took me .... I didn't work constantly at it, and I did do most of it on holiday - I suppose it took me eight weeks of knitting in the evenings.
So, what is the thing that is under wraps, as mentioned in today's title? This afternoon I baked my Christmas cake - but it was only just out of the oven when I was ready to do the blog, so you will have to wait until Saturday (because tomorrow it's Weekword) to see how it turned out