...and so to bed

.......... is that a line from a book or something? It sounds very familiar?

Anyway I digress!

and so to bed with 2008.  It's been a mixed year, a wonderful holiday in Wales, a few good nights out, some wonderful walks with my Spot-dog, my sister and her family buying a house just a few miles from me (that's  a high not a low point!) which means she can't escape for a year or two!, new chickens.... and later chicks. But financially it's been tough, and is getting tougher. The comapny I work for seemed to come to a grinding halt at the end of August, having just completed our biggest year ever, we have started a new financial year with hardly any work and the probability of laying everyone off in the New Year.  It was really like hitting a brick wall, no gradual down turn for us..... loads of work one minute and absolutely none the next.  We've kept paying everyone up til now to see them through Christmas, but it has taken all our last years profits and we've now run out!  I have worked and re-worked cash-flows so many times that I now dream in numbers!!  but, we are not the only ones, and there are worse things happening in the world, so shoulders back, head up and on we march...........

So next year I will be back to growing more in the garden (and praying for better weather than last summer so it actually grows!), wearing more clothes to cut down on heating (I look like Michelin Man at the moment - my heavens isn't it cold??) and being more frugal if I can.  I may be blogging a little less, cos let's face it there are only so many chicken pictures and knitteds you all want to see.... but I'll keep you updated on all the important things, and there'll be little photos here and there.

Have a Healthy and Happy New Year everyone, and whilst I doubt anyone's will be Prosperous as such, I do hope that you all find a way to manage as best you can through the next year without having to give up too much in the way of yarn!! :)

25 December 2008

MERRY CHRISTMAS To all my Friends and Family, thank you for reading my blog through the year and I hope you all have a happy and peaceful couple of days x

Jazz in Hastings

This is a ridiculously useless photo of last night’s brolly parade at the 1066 Jazz club in Hastings, where we went to see Gentleman Jim McIntosh and the Jazzaholics.**

Taken on my phone cos it hadn’t occurred to me to take a camera.  It’s a fair old way for us to travel – over 2 hours to get there and 1 and a half back (no traffic on the M25 at midnight!) but it was a lovely fun evening.  The regulars had dressed up in all manner of fancy dress, and there was even a little girl there, probably only about 2 or so, who had her very own lacey umbrella – a really tiny one, it was so cute. She out-did everyone by dancing almost all night – from 8 to 11pm!

So that’s about it for jazz for a while – the next scheduled outing is Feb 15th at the Preston Cross to see the Bennett Brothers.

**If you have landed on this page by searching for Jim’s Jazzaholics or varations on that theme, then I am sorry that he STILL doesn’t have a web-page  , despite me telling him that I get quite a few hits on my blog as a result of having seen him around and about.  But if you are looking for gigs or CD’s then leave me a comment with your email address and I will pass your details on to him

How do you have yours?

Bagels that is?
Somewhat spurred on by a couple  of hairy blokes on TV the other night, I have today surpassed myself and made bagels. The photo isn’t good, but it’s dark and there’s no way they’re going to be here long enough to take any photos in the light!
 
They are totally yummy  - soft and light and not dense like shop bought ones.  The only problem is not eating all of them at once.  And the worst thing is that I am out of cream cheese!  Tragic! (Although not tragic enough to stop me eating these!) – I made 10. I doubt they’ll be any by Monday!

The Christmas tree is up and Spot seems to think she would make the best present ever – well she’s not wrong is she? Bless her.

The weather is quite frankly biblical today. The downpours are endless and my garden is flooded. The chicks are under cover and I’m afraid have been left to their own devices today. I expect they will survive. 
On the knitting front, I am making my sister’s Christmas present so no photos of that. But I am also knitting a shawl for my 87 year old neighbour, who has no central heating, and my utmost respect and admiration for even getting out of bed on days like we have had recently. It is Anni Designs Two of a Kind shawl, but knitted BIG! in New Lanark Aran.  Hopefully it will take the chill out of a few of those winter mornings!

Love is........................

...........................


some women get chocolates........


.







...............

Some get flowers............






..........








...........






I get  venison for my freezer!

Flicca

It’s been a while since we had any knitting content on here. This has been finished for some time just waiting for some buttons, but finally here in all its glory is…. Flicca! 

 

I love it!  It needs to be worn and loved a bit so the ribbing at the bottom opens out and drapes a bit more.  It is made in Jaeger Extra Fine Merino Chunky in colourway Alaska.  Mods to pattern:  Changed top section from 1 x 1 ribbing to stocking stitch.

Makes my bum look a bit on the wide side, but what do I care, it’s snug and soft and warm and wonderful. I love it!

Poor Mum

Poor Mum (that’s her in the middle!) The chicks are now as big as she is, but still they want her to keep them warm at night – you should have heard the cheeping as they tried to get her to huddle them up!

Today

• get up (late) (very)
• go downstairs in PJ’s, dressing gown and wrapped in a handknit blanket….
• let chicks out
• replace chicks water cos it’s frozen
• get muddy slippers……
• trip over dog…..
• give dog biscuit filled bone which she slobbers all over the floor….
• . make very strong coffee…….
• log in to work to find many many invoices needing doing……
• do them still in PJ’s….
• make more strong coffee…
• get dressed……. now am missing blanket….
• go back and get blanket and wrap round over clothes….
• sun is out momentarily so rush out, clean up after dog, clean out chicks, and grown up hens, feed all, … sun gone in…
• *thinks* might as well get knitting out and light a fire!

 

How’s your day going?

Trying Windows Live writer

Just trying something out to see if it’s better than bloggers composer – not that I think there’s anything wrong with blogger, but I like to try new stuff.

It has some interesting features and make make formatting posts easier, including a nice and easy table feature which is how I did the photo above.

 

Hmmmm, we’ll see how it looks on the blog.!

Sundays...............

 

See, told you we'd be handsome!

We are 5 weeks and three days old today.  Mum has taken loads of photos but we move too fast for her camera and she says they're all blurry.  Mum has been lovely to us this week and bought us and our big sisters a whole bale of straw which she put in our runs.  We love it so much and after she has let us out in the morning and we've had breakfast (porridge if we're very lucky) we snuggle down in the straw and sun-bathe.  Mum says we're beginning to look like real grown up chickens now. She says we're pretty but we knew that already!  Daddy put us up a proper perch this week too.  We already knew how to perch cos we've been practising in the house and keep flying out at Mum when she lifts the lid -(it makes us giggle)  It's nice to have something high up to sit on, it makes us higher than that soppy dog, so we can look down on her!

My My haven't we grown

Today we are 4 weeks and 3 days old.  We're not too handsome yet, but we think we will be! ;-)

Today I ..........

Patchworked (is patchwork a verb??) and Quilted!!!

 

It was a kit bought a year or so ago from an EBay shop - Material Pleasures.  I haven't really done it total justice, as I have discovered I don't really have the patience for patchworking.!! so there are a few crooked lines. But it'll make a lovely cushion cover, and it's all quilted too so will be extra comfy!

It's funny really, I have no patience issues with knitting, I will knit jumpers and long coats with no problems whatsoever, but once I get a sewing machine out I expect to have a finished object in 2 hours or less!!! Ah well it's good to know these things about ourselves I guess.

  

November already???

How did that happen?  Seriously I know they say life travels faster as you get older, but I swear it was only 2 weeks ago that it was last Christmas??  (Luckily the magic of re-reading my blog prooves this is not the case and in fact I have had a good and quite full year!)

So just quickly.  Flicca  is almost finished (you didn't know I was making that did you!)  I changed the very top from 1x1 ribbing to stocking stitch as I knew I wouldn't like the rib at the top, and it is gorgeous! Made in Jaeger Extra fine merino chunky.   I haven't done the second button band as I haven't managed to find buttons to work on it yet and I want the button holes to be in the right place - and fit!  but it's all done apart from that...... photos as soon as buttons present themselves!  (Do you think if I wait in, they'll just knock on the door and say "Hi, we're the right buttons for your cardi!")

have started a long pullover in some green aran wool/ acrylic mix from a Noro book. I couldn't decide what to make and that yarn has been sat in my stash (which is now somewhat depleted) for sometime since I bought it from Melody, so it sort of decided itself.

Chicks are growing great guns and are getting their feathers.  No photos today cos it's a bit nippy to let them out, but sometime this week I'll show you how they've grown.

Spot is adorable as ever, I have taken to lighting a fire in the sitting room over the weekend as it was sooooo cold, and we sat on the floor together all snuggled up (mind you I always ended up furthest from the fire!!)

So there you have it, all is well and snuggley chez noo......... now if we could just slow down time a bit!

hmmm still no more skating

I bought £70 of meat this morning which needed bagging and freezing, no great shakes I went to the butcher for that purpose......... got home to find that my chicklies can fly!!!! *shock* so am cunningly trying to come up with plans to keep them IN the house whilst I clean it, and not in Spot's mouth.......... this could take a while! :)

Just look at their feathers!

 

  

 

Back to the chicks

I know, I know I was reminiscing about skating and I said that would be the next post, but this is SO sweet!  :)





We moved the chicks and mum today to a place that gets more sun so they could have a little bit of time outside when the weather is nice, and immediately she taught them how to dust bath.  It was so lovely to watch.


Altogether now........................... AHHHHHHHHH!!!!

A change of subject (finally!)

What kind of things did you get up to when you were a teenager? (no I don't want to know all the details!!!!)

My social life revolved around Richmond ice Rink.  Although I had great friends at school, I kind of moved around in different circles depending on what was goin on at the time, orchestras, folk groups, mass (it was  a convent!), revising, skipping PE! so I never really stayed in the same group for long. I started skating when I was 7 years old (according to an old family poem written by my Uncle), Mum took me as a friend of hers took his daughter who was a few years older, and so started a whole childhood of Saturday afternoons at the rink.

There are so many memories entwined with the rink and my days there that it's really hard to know where to start. I skated every week until I was about 20, so it spans a pretty great period of my life.

The reason for this sudden nostalgia is that I found a group on facebook (and consequently the slide show on the Richmond link above).  I had never thought to search facebook for Richmond Ice Rink! No idea why, it just didn't occur to me.  So having had that particular thunderbolt hit on Friday, and having found a group, I spent 2 hours pouring over photographs and Oh MY..... how those photos pulled at my heartstrings with sudden rushes of memory and feelings. My first crush, my first boyfriend, my first drink (!) my first job........ oh it's almost too much! :-)

So, as much for me as anything else I'm going to scribble down some probably disjointed memories over the next couple of posts.  I will try to keep them in some semblance of chronological order, but hey they're memories and up until Friday I didn't even know I had them!

So it all started when I was about 7.  I went one week with my Mum, and a friend of hers and his daughter - Alison.  The idea was I would give it a go and see if I wanted to carry on. Well I think it was only about 3 or 4 weeks until I had my own boots and lessons booked. My first teacher was a lady called Jenny. She taught Alison too.  At Richmond there were two rinks - unimaginatlively called the big rink and the little rink.    Most people only got to see the big rink, the little one was for people like me who had lessons or it could be booked for a private party.  So at 2:30... I can't remember the signal for the start of the session, but we all used to crowd around the breaks in the barrier waiting for it, and then hurtle onto the ice when it went - maybe a whistle or an announcement, I can't remember....... I would have a 15 minute lesson. It started with just learning to skate forward (like a penguin!!!), and do a T-stop.  Then went on to learning drags and three turns.  I would then skate as much as I could manage at my young age until the session ended at 5pm.  For the first while Mum stayed and watched me.  Then as I got older and stronger and less inclined to come off the ice early, she would saunter into the shops in Richmond and leave me with some pennies for a mid session coke and cake, and come back later. By this time I had met plenty of young friends, and even when we cleared the ice at 5 we would go into the ladies at the back of the little rink where we had lockers, and still be practising jumps and landings.  It was a big changing room with rubber floors and lockers all around the outside, and in the middle a large rectangular clear area with a patchwork of red and blue rubber squares where we would jump around, and fall over, and try to get enough turns in to qualify for an Axle!! :-)

I should actually qualify at this point that I was never  any good as  a skater. I loved it, I tried hard, but I was quite frankly crap!  In my spins I would travel half-way round the rink. My edges made that awful grinding sound as I scraped my toe-rakes round in tight circles, and I was scared to death of falling.  My jumps had about as much spring as tigger in a coma, and if I ever did manage to land on one foot gracefully all the teachers would applaud as it was such an unlikely occurance!  But I tried and I loved it!

Into my life came new young friend Liz Miller and later her brother Richard, a young steward Adam (who is my aforementioned first crush! - and taught me how to hockey stop on my figure skates, it is a testament to my figure skating ability that I was better at that than anything my teachers tried to teach me, and could shower my friends in ice at 10 paces!)

I got better enough (that is -"Not a lot better" but "a little bit better!") to have to come in earlier for lessons as it was no longer appropriate to try to shimmy round public skaters gathering enough speed to take off for a full revolution jump (especially when there was little hope of you landing it), so after passing my prelims I went for lessons on the free ice before the session.  I think this started around 1pm, and meant that my Mum could no longer take me to the rink as she was working (she owned a wool and fabric shop for all you knitters who are now thoroughly bored, see there is knitting in everything!) So dad would now take me, and my sister joined in too.  I would guess I was around 12 by this time?  There were two changes that happened around this time and I'm not sure which order they happened in. One was the already mentioned progression to the free ice, and also I started learning the compulsory figures on a patch in the little rink.  The little rink would be divided by a scored line in the ice into 5 strips, each one the full width of the rink. You would then move through the disciplines of skating figures of 8, with each circle having to be on a set edge and equal in size to the other. as you progressed you learnt different figures, loop, three turn, bracket...... each being a shape that was to be drawn in the circle by shifting of edge and weight..... and supposedly with only one push off from the join in the middle of the 8 each circuit.  I was even crappier at these than I was at free skating! :-)  My teacher by now was Jackie (or Jacquie?) and she frequently used to have to come round and push me back to the start! You weren't supposed to push yourself off as you upset the pattern on the ice which was disected and studied by all and sundry to know how well you were doing (or in my case what they could laugh about this week!)

Actually as I am remembering that I think the compulsory figures came first.........

Right this has taken far longer than it should so I'm taking a break and will continue in my next post..... with the next installment!

and then there were 2.

 

  

There was a third, but it didn't make it out of it's shell :( No sign of any more at the moment, but two is good - nice and easy for mum to look after. She is doing very well and snuggles them up under her wings next to the other eggs, and talks to them all the time. There are 7 more eggs so I will wait another day or two - I think the people in the know reckon day 25 is the last day it's worth waiting to which will be Monday.

First Out....

So this is my first-born!   By tomorrow it will be all fluffy like an easter chick! - I'll take photos.  Two more eggs are cheeping (that is truly a weird experience) and one has pipped, so by morning there may be brothers and sisters.  This little one seems quite strong, he/she was cheeping away so fingers crossed all will be well, mum has obviously looked after them well.  Are you bored yet?

Oh My......

Just held the eggs up to my ear and three of them are cheeping!!!!!

Wet Sunday....

Silkie still sitting on eggs ~ less than a week to go :-)
Shed and Greenhouse still clear, which isn't bad for a week!
Wii has been played and played and played (and my muscles have stopped aching now!)


Today has been a day of absolutely torrential rain, so I've been camped on the sofa, checking up on some family history (though not checking too much as my ancestry.co.uk membership has run out ) and watching the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe on DVD.

I am a woman of few words at the moment, because not a whole lot is happening, at least not stuff you can blog about. And I'm quite busy getting ready for possible chicks (though still trying not to get my hopes up too much as it is really quite cold here), and a few other autumn garden chores. The spring greens and all year cauliflowers have been planted under cover, and other tidying up has been done.  So I expect the next you will hear from me is when I either am or am not a grandmother to chickens!

May be gone a while

Silkie still sitting on the eggs..........................

Shed and greenhouse cleared out............................

Some autumn veg seeds to plant..............................

and I just got a wii....................


busy busy busy :)

Award! (aren't I lucky)

The lovely Joy has awarded me this:-

The rules of the award dictate:
1. Post this award on your blog.
2. Add a link to the person who sent you the award.
3. Nominate at least 4 other bloggers, and add their links as well.
4. Leave a comment at the new recipients' blogs, so they know they got an award.

But as you know i was never one to follow rules! - I read around 50 blogs and i love each and every one of them for all sorts of different reasons. So if I read your blog, then this is yours (cos surely I wouldn't bother if I didn't lovel it!), and how do you know if I read your blog? Well if you update it, and it appears in the list right, then I do....... but be quick, only 5 show at a time! :) And if I don't read yours, then leave me a comment and I'll do my best to rectify the situation.

Silkie is still sitting pretty........... one week down, two to go :)

All better now

The drama is over - I've forgiven myself for being a clutz, and life has moved on............. in fact new life will be moving in very soon. My little silkie has gone broody, ain't she a doll? 

These were taken yesterday when I hoofed her out of her nest to eat and drink.

I've bought some Sasso x Light Sussex, for no reason other than they were a good price and will be good as table birds. It's not really a good time of year for hatching as the weather gets colder, but we'll give it a go, she seems happy enough to have a try so who am I to stop her?!  - If anything hatches it should be 21 days from tomorrow.  Fingers crossed.

Not a post for the sensitive

Curse words........... I mean serious, serious, blue curse words.

I have completely felted Muir :(

Please don't comment on this post I can't take the sympathy I will probably cry, and if you are feeling honest, I can't take the realisation that I am completely and utterley stupid.  I am so totally mad with myself....... and have told myself off in no uncertain terms!

(in case you are wondering, I couldn't get the machine oil and associated smell out of the yarn with handwashing - it really did smell like a diesel engine. - so I popped it in a laundry bag, and washed it on my most delicate 30deg wool wash - delicate my arse!)

Seriously don't visit for a while.................. I will be swearing for some long while yet.

Not Knitting!

Thought it was time the girls got a look in.  They haven't had much glory lately, and to be honest, they won't be photographed much more this year, cos (a) it's permanently raining, and (b) as you can see from Molly below, they have started to moult and won't look very attractive.
Primrose:-

Dorothy:-

 

 Molly (awwww!):-
 

And Big Bea (who refused to come out from behind the Bay tree 'cos I was wielding a tub of red-mite powder):-

No pics of the silkie today cos she's in another run and really doesn't look her best with all the rain (think white with mud patches) plus it was piddling down and I'd had enough of getting wet.

I am still consistently getting two eggs a day from the 4 big hens, and occasionally 3, I would assume Molly has stopped laying for the winter (looking at the state of her) and Bea will soon follow suit.  Much as I love them I am not sure at the moment whether to pop these two in the freezer now :(, It's a long winter to be feeding them (prices have shot up) and not get any eggs now until next March. The two hybrids Dotty and Primrose will stop laying for only around 6 - 8 weeks I think later in the year, and I may get two more hybrids like them to see me through winter.  I can't decide though!

Oh MY GOSH!

I'm in a photo on the Yarn Harlot's blog! I AM FAMOUS! (well ok i'm not, cos the photo was about natalie as well it should have been after the competition she ran on her YarnYard site to try to raise awareness for the Yarn Harlot's charity of choice Medecins Sans Frontieres - go take a peek) but that's me, in the Tempest cardi on the right hand side of n....... I may need to lie down for a while!

Yarn Harlot rocks!

OK I was a fool! - I didn't take a camera!!, I had the headache from hell, and I didn't buy anything except the Yarn Harlot's new book.  BUT it was the most awesome day.

I met loads of people from the CTnY forum (and didn't meet nearly as many! - seriously I must have been walking round in a daze). I stroked yarn, and perused a few books, I stood in a queue for a book signing for a while, whilst people knitted (that was cool), I was a complete ditz when it came to my turn and couldn't think of anything to say (I was SO in awe!),I saw a little bits of some of the fashion shows and I watched the hundred different ways that people knit - I swear I didn't see two people holding their yarn the same way.

... and then there was the Yarn Harlot talk.  Well it was the most enjoyable way to spend an hour and a half. I laughed far more than I thought I would, and I actually learnt a lot too!  Apparently knitters are about the cleverest people on the planet - along with monks!! (OK it wasn't quite as simple as that, but I like that precis so I'm sticking with it!)  (and I knitted my sock too!)  Stephanie was so entertaining and engaging and deserves full credit for standing in front of that many people and not running out!! :)

As for the event itself, well I personally thought the venue was much better than last year - there was much more space and air (although it was very hot) and it never felt too crowded, which for me is quite important. However the increase in space did mean that it lost a wee bit of it's personal  feel, and the impromptu party atmosphere which has been at last year's IKnit was sadly missing a bit this year.  (I'm sure I remember music/singers) I think last year's venue benefited from having the bar area in the same hall as the market place and fashion show - it allowed people to sit with a drink and watch the world go by, and although there was plenty of seating this year, the cafe/bar was downstairs so was removed from the event. Having said that, you obviously can't please all the people all the time, and for me I think the increased space and "non crowding" won over the slight loss of atmosphere.

So, Craig/Gerard...... what you doin' next year then?! ;)

I don't know what to take to knit

It's IKnit tomorrow and the only knitting I have on the needles is Muir, and I don't think that's train friendly?  I'll just have to start another pair of socks!

(Sorry to all those who are sick of reading about people going to IKnit but not having any knitting to take is traumatic!)

This was not the way this was supposed to work

 

As I am now the owner of an abundance of chicken wire, I thought I would catch Spot out this year and fence in the plum and apple trees.............. this was not the way it was supposed to work. I popped upstairs for 5 mins and when I came back down this was what I was greeted with! - If it's a clicky picture, the one above is worth clicking on to see her face............... do you think she cares that she's locked in?

At least she has the decency to look forlorn in this one!

All a bit quiet

Well I absolutely love my new car.  I'm not a confident driver, and it's not something I would choose to do  as a "passing the time" kinda activity........ well it wasn't! But all of I sudden I have the urge to get in and drive - anywhere! I've only been about locally so far, because there is the cost of the fuel to consider, and the weather has been atrocious, but it's really comfy, easy to manoevre and visibility is good.  Plus when I started it up at my sister's the other day Mr4 (my DNphw) said "Oooooh what a lovely sound the engine makes" - See diesels are good!! ;)

The socks were very well received - which is great.  I was worried as they weren't black, but apparently they will be worn! :)

Not much else going on round here due to rain, more rain and even more rain.  It's got so serious I have even done a bit of housework!! *shock*

Having Hope - Having Faith

 

I've had this yarn for ages - 2 skeins of Bushcraft that I bought in the early days of the Yarn Yard.  When n sold this yarn she donated £1 from every skein to the Everyman Cancer charity, and that is a charity close to my heart in the last couple of years.  After staring at it in my stash for the best part of 2 years, finally the perfect pattern came to light.

Having Hope was designed by Diane Mulholland, and the pattern is being sold in aid of Cancer Research.  (It's also available on ravelry here)  

These have been knitted for a birthday present for a very special friend of mine, and there are a thousand reasons why this has all worked well right now.

Tee Hee!

Only a wee picture til I pick it up............ but this is my new baby! A Peugeot 206SW with dog friendly bootspace (and also chicken feed friendly and heavy shopping friendly)  Diesel engine with a whopping 64mpg, and only £35 RFL cos it's so small.  The test drive proved it does actually travel uphill under it's own volition (better than old diesels then - and indeed my micra!) so the deal was done.  Very happy, very skint... and now looking round the house for things I can sell...... anyone want a Spaniel!?????

Do you Backup?

I very rarely advertise products or services (apart from yarn, obviously!!! ;) )   But, in the search for an online automatic backup service (automatic being the most important bit!) for some financial records, I found this  Mozy.com..... and just thought that some of you might find it useful for backing up...... well, errr Knitting patterns???!!!!!

It's a free service for up to 2gb home use, (click on Mozy Home at the top, then look on the left hand side for the free service), or $4.95/month for unlimited and I also have to tell you that the link above is a referral link so if anyone does sign up I get an extra 256mb free. However, I don't need the extra space so that's not why I'm telling you!

You download a  little piece of software to your PC/MAC, select files or folders you want to backup (it also starts by suggesting some "backup sets", including your internet favourites, emails and contacts, and your My Documents folder, but they can all be changed) and how often you want it to backup - it suggests once a day.  The first backup obviously takes an age, but subsequent ones only seem to take around 5 mins.  It's not a file-share service so no-one else can access your data, unless you give them your password, and it's run using 448bit encryption and then 128bit SSL transfer, so it's pretty secure.

Backup is something most of us are notoriously bad at, and only when disaster strikes do we realise we should have been more prepared.

Anyway, just thought I'd mention it!!!! :)

Yarn Yard strikes again

My dear friend Piglottie sent me a voucher for the Yarn Yard for my birthday.. and finally I got round to choosing something delicious to spend it on.

 

On the left is 100% superwash Blue Faced Leicester, and on the right 75% wool/25% Bamboo.  I decided that as they were a gift I wanted to try two fibres I hadn't tried before. Also, although the greens mix is very much my normal colour choice - I also wanted something different and special for some lovely socks (or maybe something else) and chose the brighter pink/purple mix - which I have to say is gorgeous.

So, my dear friend, thank you so much for your wonderful gift. I will enjoy knitting them up immensely and in the meantime, I'm just going to hug them for a while! :)

Bit of a spring clean

Decided it was time for a new layout cos I had this lovely picture of Spot (actually looking reasonably intelligent for a change), and needed to get rid of some of the rubbish in the sidebars. I will put back links in time, but at the moment I am enjoying the more minimalist look! :)

Another post to follow in a minute due to arrival of a parcel! :)

How to beat rising fuel costs..

...... Knit a blanket! :)

Pattern: Hemlock Ring Blanket by Jared Flood
Yarn - New Lanark Donegal Silk and Wool Aran - Colour Swinford (gifted 3 1/2 skeins - thanks Mum! - bought another two to make blanket a bit bigger)
Needles - Boyes Interchangeable size US10.5 (6.5mm)
Mods - Did crochet bind off as didn't have enough yarn to do the knitted one.
Size - Around 4 1/2 ft across widest point.

For some reason mine won't block flat - but then it's a blanket so it's never going to be flat anyway! - Bah who needs the heating eh? :)

Summer!

Well the sun is finally shining, so we've been doing a bit of this:-

and listening to this:-

and knitting like a woman possessed:-




(The blanket thing is acutally nearly finished now but no point taking any more photos til it's blocked cos it's all scrunched up on a circular needle!)

So, obviously no time for blogging! :)

Whoa!!!

Who switched on the pollen???????

There was me ambling through this so called summer, happy as a pig in..... well whatever pigs like! - and bamm! went for a run this morning with my sister and now cannot move my head. I feel like I'm carrying a bowling ball on my shoulders, and one that hurts every time I move!

So I have taken painkillers and anti-histamine. I'll be in a coma right about supper time.

Will be back to my perky self soon (or maybe October!)

We are such stuff as dreams are made on...... (Tempest Act IV, Sc I)

Tempest: Knit in Yarn Yard Bonny, Colours Bushcraft and Mossy Logs, on US7 Boyes (Yep should have been 6's !!!! *rolls eyes*) 2nd Size. Knitted the hem on the way up instead of picking it up later, and if I made it again I wouldn't slip the stitches on the edges cos it makes for holey seaming and picking up for the bands. It still needs buttons but I knew if i didn't photograph it soon then it wouldn't get done!!

I absolutely love it, the colour is great, it's quick to knit, easy to keep track of as all the shaping is done at the beginning of a stripe, and the sock yarn knit on bigger needles gives a really lovely fabric. I don't normally make things twice - but I could make an exception here!

I'd like to say one more very special thanks to Terri who swapped the Mossy Logs and made it extra special colourwise!

So, I wonder if Lewis Hamilton was such stuff that dreams are made on this weekend. I wonder if somewhere a little boy watched that race and dreams of doing that when he grows up. Just as Hamilton did himself when he used to watch Senna......... It was a really great race, and did show Lewis for the talent he has, and good old Barichello getting 3rd - what a great result for him and Honda (I have a feeling Mr Brawn may do some good things with that team!!!)

I daresay the tennis produced some dreams too (maybe just of the game actually finishing!) but I'm not really into tennis so I'll leave that there!!

And the Tour de France has started too..... I can't begin to understand it, but whilst trying to avoid the tennis this weekend I did watch the first two days' highlights, compelling stuff!

So, it's Monday and work beckons. I've also decided to start trading again. It took a back seat when I had to take on some more part time work, but now that I have a good routine with that I feel I have some time to get back into trading. Plus the markets are doing a little more of what is expected now!!! I'm going back to trading the Dow Jones, which was always my preference. I'll spend a bit of time re-aquainting myself with the charts and getting back in the swing of it, and then we'll see what happens.

Have a good week everyone.

Back to reality!

There's nothing like spending 45 mins brushing your dog's teeth to bring you back home with a bump (and incidentally remind you who's boss - and it ain't me!! :) ) Luckily with Spot positioned in front of the chicken coop I can do pretty much anything to her, so spent time scraping the plaque that brushing hasn't dealt with, with my finger nails!!! - oooooh lovely job! (and thanks to the genetics of my family I have nails easily hard enough to do this! )

Obviously the last 2 posts were a blow by blow account of what we did on holiday, but I just want to add a few points that didn't fit in with the "left here and went there" kind of posts.

Wales was beautiful! - It had an essence all of its own which was somewhere between the cornish coast and the wilds of Scotland (given its geographical location I guess that's no surprise). The sea was just the most beautiful colour though - a real turqoise blue - especially at Abersoch where I think the depths must change quite significantly off the long flat beach. Honestly, you could not have hoped for a more beautiful setting if you were in the South of France. All the villages were picturesque and everyone was friendly and helpful. There were small cafe's and plenty of places to sit out in the sun and enjoy a coffee or an ice cream (have you noticed the plentiful mentions of ice cream?) and often quite a mediteranean feel to the menus - often including dressed crab and other seafood delights. And do you know the best part ??? NO McD's or Tesco's or KFC............ what a triumph for the welsh coastal villages...... and there were real honest butchers and little Spa's that reminded me of my Grandfather's grocers too many years ago to mention, that stocked normal everyday groceries without all the frivolities we've got rather too used to in my neck of the woods! It was a revelation! I also found it pretty sad that I noticed, despite having a hatred for McD's and all things that commercial, I can't believe that I have become so accustomed to That Logo, that I noticed it was missing!!! grrrrrrr.

There were no motorways (although occassionally the locals seemed to want to drive as if there was one) as life seemed a little more relaxed and pleasurable than it is round here (I am currently listening to some buffoon with his hand on his hooter presumably because someone hasn't moved off from the lights promptly enough.)

We saw loads of buzzards - and both remarked that Welsh Buzzards must be a bit more "show-off" than their English counterparts as they were far more often seen low and close to the road - properly showing off that amazing colouring they have underneath them, often hunting or having a bit of a set to with crows or kites, rather than the high altitude gliding that we only ever seem to see them do around these parts. Maybe it was just because of the kind of roads we were travelling on, but it was awesome to see, they are so utterly beautiful.

Right - I must think about putting on some dinner!!! - anyone got any suggestions?

Wales 08

Will write up the blurb later when I have caught up on sleep lost by staying 2 nights in a tent when apparently the Welsh coastline became a wind tunnel experiment!! :)

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Off for a week!

Going to Wales for a week........ and looking at the weather forecast it's going to be fairly typical welsh weather!! :)

We are starting with a weekend in Abersoch for the annual Jazz Festival, which will be great fun. and then we decided to extend that into next week and just mooch around the general area with a tent and an inflatable bed (Well I'm 40 now you know - I can't sleep on the ground!)

So in a minute I'm taking Spot to the kennels. We did think about taking her but if the weather does get hot I worry about her in the car, and she's not the best at drinking. Plus it ties us to places where dogs are allowed.... and it would be nice to have a little "us time" for a week!! - She doesn't seem to mind the kennel, in fact last time I picked her up she didn't even run to me in the office when they brought her out - she ran straight to another man (a stranger) who was eating a biscuit!!! - She's only loyal to the consumer of food!!!!

We've also got all the bits to set up an auto-drinker and a 12kg feeder for the chooks. So, although my neighbour will come in to get the eggs, she can please herself (and avoid the wet weather) as they won't actually need anything as such. So that needs to be done this afternoon.

I have started knitting Tempest, and it's beautiful (Thanks Sarah!) but I don't think I'm going to take it away. I think I'll start some socks instead as they are infinitely more portable. I have a plan to do more express lanes for a friend of mine in Opal rainforest (snake)

So, best get on with it then. Have a great week whatever you're doing, and good luck to all my friends who are running their race for life over the weekend.

Look Mum.... A Collar!!

OK there are plenty of mistakes - and "could-be-better"s but it's mine and I made it and I'm Proud!!!

In other news I got a birthday present today from my Great Aunt! - It's a fab Willow trug and a Arbutus Unedo

Lookie what does fit in the trug!!! (and yes there is more upstairs!!!! *blushes*) Well that makes a pretty picture til we get some summer and I can use it to bring in my veggies (if they ever grow!) In fact the way the girls are going - I could use it to bring in the eggs!!!! ;)

Ah well best go tidy up now - all this sewing doesn't 'alf make a mess!!!