So this morning all the children went back to school.  The house is quite but due to horrible weather it is almost totally dark still even though it is 9.30 in the morning!  I’m slowly starting to realise that I dislike the darkness of winter so much more than the cold.  I really think that our body is designed to just sleep through winter :-)

I had a lovely finish to Christmas visiting my sister in Amsterdam at the end of last week.  She had a little girl a few weeks ago and this was my first time meeting her.  She was so very tiny and alert, watching everything that went on around her.  It’s quite amazing how quickly little people want to join in.

It’s actually been several years since I visited Amsterdam as my sister and her family have been coming to Ireland so there was no need.  I always forget how much I enjoy the city.  As a foreigner it’s very easy to navigate, there is enough English that language isn’t a problem and amazingly for someone who is very, very bad at learning other languages a lot of dutch conversation is understandable once you know the starting point!

I dragged my sister and little baby to a yarn shop on Saturday (of course!) and much to my amazement I bumped into a fellow designer Nancy Marchant.  Originally from the US, Nancy has actually lived in Amsterdam for over 30 years.  We originally met a couple of years ago in Scotland (at the event that shall not be named…) and this year she also started  a Craftsy class.  Don’t you just love the fact that as a knitter you can go into a yarn shop in a strange city and bump into someone you know!  Nancy suggested getting in contact with Penelope Craft next time I’m going over to teach a class.  So if you’re in Amsterdam and would like a class just let me know … I’m only 2 hours away and I love visiting :-)

I don’t have any knitting photos to share with you but I’ll add a bonus baby photo from my phone …