I left you just over two weeks ago with the announcement that I was off to war: sock war.

This was the first time I’ve competed in sock wars – it won’t be the last. The patterns were released on January 15th and sock knitters the world over (203 of us) cast on and began to knit socks as fast as our little needles could click. We all knew who we were knitting for, but the mystery of who was knitting for us remained. My assassin revealed herself via email before the patterns were even released, so I knew the socks that would kill me were coming from Tennessee. I was knitting for someone in California (with very small feet – hurrah), so the outcome of our section of the war would mostly depend on the efficiency of the postal service.

Having cleared a whole Saturday (except morning and evening prayer) for knitting, I got fairly far through the first sock, but with horrible cramp in my right hand. Does anyone do a class on the ergonomics of knitting? After that, I made sure that there were at least ten non-knitting minutes in every hour. On Sunday I resisted the temptation to knit during Church, but got to the end of sock number 1. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were busy with work. Despite encouragement from the vicar, (he was worried about ending up with a dead curate on his hands) I didn’t knit during the archdiaconal training morning – it was too interesting! Wednesday evening saw them finished and they were dispatched on Thursday. The waiting began.

I knew that my assassin had been even quicker with her knitting and had posted her socks to me on the Tuesday. A week later they arrived. Rusk was a little alarmed to see his Mum killed by a pair of socks, but happier when he realised it was just for as long as a photo took.

If I hadn’t finished my socks, I would then have posted the unfinished ones off to my assassin to finish, but since they were already posted she would have to wait until someone further down the line was killed before finishing. She would then get their socks to finish for their target.

My socks finally arrived with my target yesterday. Phew! Sock Wars is over for me, but there are still 103 people alive and knitting.

Next – the Knitting Olympics. An individual challenge to exceed your expectations for what you can achieve in knitting while the Winter Olympics are on.

My lovely W.I.S.E. parcel arrived well before Christmas (well before my offering had even been sent off – oops) and contained instructions to open straight away. Inside there was a lovely Snowman Christmas decoration (with the name of a city on) and a smaller parcel with instructions to wait until Christmas Day before opening it.

The snowman hung on our tree (indeed for some days it was the only decoration on there – December was right busy here) and entertained Rusk. The smaller parcel contained Scottish tablet – yum! Excellent choice all round.

I meant to take pictures over Christmas including the decoration and the parcel, for display from the 25th onwards. I appear not to have done so and the decorations are now packed away in my wardrobe. So there is the lack of WISE on my part. You will have to take my word for it that it was most tasteful.

The question is… who to thank? I’m going to go out of a limb here and say … is it Surfing? If so, thank you very much. If not, do let me know who you are.

In other news, I am competing in Sock Wars, starting tomorrow morning (well the patterns go up at 1am, but I need some sleep), so for the next few days I will mostly be knitting socks.

I’ve sat down to blog several times in the last month, but ended up enjoying all the previous wibsite posts so much that I’ve never actually got onto the writing.

I am now getting near daily comments from Mr F about it still being Advent on my blog, so here we go. I officially declare that Christmas is over (and has been for some days).

I realised this week that I have been ordained for six months now. Time really flies. In supervision today we had a look at my working agreement and have found some areas for me to concentrate on over the next few months. More visiting, more school, some website stuff and other things as and when they appear. Should be good fun.

Anyway, I’m heading off to one of the local hospitals this afternoon, so this really is a brief post.

Coming soon – pictures from WISE (and I think I’ve figured out who you are – thank you)

Just popping my head over the parapet to affirm that there is life after the dissertation…

I always knew Advent was going to be busy in parochial ministry. Now I really KNOW it is busy.

That being said, I have a relatively clear day today. The Vicar and I are off to the local old people’s home this afternoon to bring seasonal cheer and the Sacrament, but after that (and evening prayer), I think I may have a free evening. Tomorrow we make the Christingles (with the help of the Brownies and Guides – eep!) and then Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve is a bit of a marathon. Two of the Churches have joined together for their evening service, but that still leaves three ‘midnight’ services running from 8.30pm to 12.30am. The Christingle is at 4.30pm and may be the biggest service of the year. The puzzling thing round here is that people don’t want a Christmas morning service. We only have one Christmas Day service, at 9.30am and then that is it.

Advent has been lovely – watching the candles in the Advent rings light one by one, (I think we lit the pink one in the wrong week, but no-one seems to mind), going through advent reflections and services. The really jarring note has been all the Christmas services and concerts – I love Christmas carols and definitely value the integration with the community, but it is the mental effort to return to an advent frame of mind over and over again that is the struggle. It is sort of like – “He’s here” “No he’s not” “Yes, here again” “Still waiting for Him”. But then on a larger scale, I suppose that is what happens with every turn of the season. Bit different when it happens twice a day for a month.

What can we do as a Church? Do we give in and announce Christmas early? Put the twelve days of Christmas starting on the 14th? If we ban all Christmas carols and celebrations until after the 25th then it becomes difficult for people to see the joy of Christmas within all the ’stop that’. A previous incumbent here tried that approach and it did not go down well. There is part of me that wants to object that Christmas is ‘ours’ – it belongs to the Christians. In reality, of course, the midwinter feasting is probably older than Christianity, so the secular celebrations are as valid, if not more so. The only way that I can see to be Christian about it all is to join in, be glad that people still ask ‘the Church’ to be involved in celebrations and take the opportunity to share the good news. Waiting for Jesus is not meant to be easy.

… to think very carefully before taking on another degree or other significant piece of writing.

The MA was submitted on Friday. I even took a screenshot of the mouse about to click the ’send’ button, just so I would know I hadn’t dreamed it. I am not proud of the last-minute dash to the finish, but at least it is done. I just have to wait to see what mark it gets.

The last few days was not helped by something that happened the week before. I was at a curates’ training day, introducing us to MA level study. (I know, I have just finished an MA. Why was I doing that? Well, it is a module covering stuff I’ve not done before and my diocese recommends I do it. I’m not actually doing another MA – that would be silly) The lecturer was explaining various bits and bobs about how to write at MA level, then pointed out that we were all working full time, so not to worry if the occasional essay wasn’t up to scratch. I was liking what I was hearing there!

Then came the problem. The MA dissertation, he said, is one of two things. Either it is the jumping off point for a future academic career (MPhil, PhD etc.), in which case it needs to be the best work you can possibly do, because this is how you will be judged when applying for funding. Or… it is the pinnacle of your academic achievement, in which case it needs to be the best work you can possibly do, because this is how you will be judged (I don’t know who will be doing the judging here?).

This is a good thing to say to people at the beginning of an MA course, when they are still full of hope and optimism and the MA dissertation is a couple of years away. However, less than a week before my deadline, I can’t think of a single worse thing he could have said. Always inclined to perfectionism, I would rather write nothing than write something of lower quality. My goodness the week was a struggle with that hanging over me.

Anyway, following on from my previous post…

Yes Tractor Girl, you are on the right lines, although I wouldn’t say it was from a feminist perspective. The topic was looking at the effect first pregnancy and the first year or so of motherhood has on spirituality. Mostly looking at the Anglican perspective. My longest chapter was on Churching – I’ll be happy to send it on once I’ve had the mark back.

JTL – I’d definitely recommend the third book (Priya) – very readable and interesting. Trible I find a bit hard going, although an interesting perspective. The first one is a bit of a blur!

I’m sitting in my office/spare room, surrounded by piles of books. The dissertation is nearly at an end, but the final few days are proving to be hard going.

Since I can think of nothing else to write about that won’t take up valuable thinking space, here are the books that have reached the top of various piles of stuff on my desk:

• Deadly Innocence: Feminism and the Mythology of Sin – Angela West
• Texts of Terror: Literary-Feminist Readings of Biblical Narratives – Phyllis Trible
• Birth Traditions & Modern Pregnancy Care – Jacqueline Vincent Priya
• The Book of Common Prayer
• Families in Britain  – Ed. R.N. Rapoport et al

A question: Can you guess the topic of my dissertation?

So, I am meant to be writing my MA as fast as ever I can, along with doing whatever work needs doing. So how did I end up here instead? Well, I’m also writing a sermon for tomorrow.

The sermon is about the parable of the lost sheep. I find that after reading the passage through, I need to let it percolate for a little while to see what associations it brings up. Hmmm… sheep, that brings me onto thinking about wool and then knitting. Before I know it, I’m starting to think about all the things I’m going to knit as soon as I finish off this MA writing. Hang on, aren’t the winter olympics in 2010? Yes they are. Oh good, that means a knitalong for the Knitting Winter Olympics. What shall I make?

It is possible that I need an MA-along instead. I could post the file sizes of the chapters each day, to give you an idea of how it is going.

Anyway, I think I have the theme for the sermon, so I’ll make some notes before evening prayer (19 minutes to go – better be quick)

Just saw this on Tall Skinny Kiwi and thought you would appreciate it.

Very busy writing the dissertation. Back later.

[Edit - well that didn't work - here is the link instead.]

[Edit again - think I have it this time]

I took a cursory glance into my baking cupboard before sending Mr F out to the supermarket this morning, but discovered later there were some key ingredients missing for making Nigella’s Chocolate Guinness Cake (very easy cake – from Feast). No Guinness and very little cocoa powder. Not to worry, I have improvised. Half a bottle of Old Peculiar replaced the Guinness then I replaced the dry weight of cocoa powder that was missing with extra flour, then grated in some dark Divine chocolate to add extra chocolate flavour. The cake is now cooling and I am drinking the other half of the OP to avoid wastage. It seems to be OK. I’ll keep you posted.

I’ve been tinkering with a post on the Roman Catholic announcement this week, but I think I’ve decided some things are better left unsaid. I will just have a quick link: Dave Walker (@davewalker) drew my attention to this article by Frank Skinner in the Times. Very interesting point of view. Go have a quick peruse.

The other thing going around the web today is the whole BNP – Question Time thing. I’m sure most things have been said but, having stayed up to watch it last night, I was left wondering at the use (overuse?) of one particular word: elite. The “politcal elite” was mentioned by the BNP leader more than a few times, meant in a derogatory way. What does it mean? Presumably those in the main political parties. Do you know what? I think I want the country to be run by the political elite – those who are best at it, those with the skill, experience and talent to sort things out. Inverse political snobbery perhaps on his part. There are of course many other reasons for not voting for them.

Rusk is having a few troubles with the next tooth. Our normal sunny little boy is replaced by a grumpy, moany person. So sweet. I’m hoping the worst will be over before his baptism on Sunday. It’s going to be quite a party. Lots of lovely people visiting, much cake and generally a lovely weekend I hope.

On a related note, there are more vegetables in the kitchen than there have ever been. It is going to be quite some stew on Sunday.