Beaded mohair cowl

I am just taking a few minutes out of busy Christmas wrapping to show you this. It's the only thing I have knitted this year and I'm proud of the fact that I actually managed to finish it, as I do have to confess to having several knitting projects on the go all still with needles in that may possibly not see the light of day again.
I love Rowan Kidsilk Haze and have always wondered if I could make anything meaningful with just one ball of it since it's so expensive, and the answer proved to be yes. I did a bit of internet searching and came across this pattern on the Knitty site which was perfect. I don't wear it up round my hair but just keep it round my neck, it just folds over at the top then so it's in two soft layers rather than one big tube - it's nice and cosy and better than a full length scarf for keeping on inside the house or office.

I thought I'd buy some beads first and then take them into John Lewis to match some wool up with them, and found some olive green silver lined ones which catch the light really well.

I've never knitted anything with beads before but in this pattern you follow a chart and use a crochet hook to hook the beads onto the required stitch as you need them rather than trying to thread hundreds of them onto the yarn before you start. I've never done a lace pattern before either but after making a few mistakes with winding yarn over the needle I got the hang of it.
It's made on a circular needle - my tension is really loose so I downsized the needle as I was worried I'd run out of wool otherwise - that was the right decision I think as I finished up with only a couple of metres spare.
So there we are, a small crafty achievement.

Elsewhere I've managed to sell all except about 30 of the oldest books at my mum's so that's brilliant - very emotionally hard to get rid of things that belonged to my parents and that I grew up with, but all necessary. I'm taking a break from the house till after Christmas now.

Leo and Monty are being very silly.

Here you can see Leo's reaction to his first Christmas tree - a bit of a blur of excited paws! He's also been squeezing himself ontop of the radiator in the kitchen to try and keep toasty warm, but doesn't quite fit.

It's been interesting wrapping presents as they're SO obsessed with ribbon. I shut Monty in the utility room yesterday to give myself a bit of peace while I got on but he climbed up the flimsy net curtain that hangs across the door using his claws - all 5 and a bit kilograms of him, and he was nearly at the top when I decided I'd rescue the curtain before he completely shredded it. I tried explaining to him that he was NOT a small kitten but he didn't look convinced.