Bitten by the Crochet bug

I never quite thought it would happen, but yes I have been bitten by the crochet bug! It's not that I haven't crocheted before because I have, but it never really amounted to very much. The skills didn't increase, the will didn't come and it was just set to one side as a lot of things are as you go through life (lets not even deal with the painting here as it takes up too much space).

As a child I could crochet the basic stitches (in UK terms) chain, double crochet, half treble crochet, treble crochet and so on, and although I loved the rhythm of the stitches as they were created I didn't feel able to create an actual item from them.

I'm not quite sure what happened recently, but it must be a mixture of looking for a simple project, needing to use up lots of stash before a house move and a couple of babies arriving on the scene. I sat down one weekend and started looking at crochet blankets!

If you're looking for crochet inspiration then look no further than Lucy at Attic24 who has fantastic tutorials, beautiful pictures and is so inspiring. I spotted her Granny Stripe blanket and knew I'd hit the spot! I had a quick look at the instructions, had a play around and realised quite quickly that I needed a bit of a refresher. After searching t'internet I found maybematilda.
Her crochet tutorials are great; simple, clear and perfect for me to follow. In fact I loved the blog altogether. With an hour or so of practice I was off and running and able to go back to Lucy's pattern and start, wee hee!

These are the first two. Cute and such good fun. Perfect pram sized, chuck on the floor snuggly baby sized blankets. I'm itching to hand them over but I'm ahead of the babies being born, so need to wait. Hmm, yes, wait? Now that's an interesting concept. No, what I normally do is just start another one! In my defence there are many reasons why:

I'm trying very hard to get my house ready to put on the market, this is a) Very hard work physically b) quite hard emotionally for lots of reasons and c) quite therapeutic. A strange mixture, but whatever way you shake it, it's tough and I need distraction in the evening when I'm too tired to do any more. Add to that the enormous amounts of coloured dk yarn that keeps emerging from my house whenever I start digging and you can start to see why I started the 'big one'. It's a stash buster 'honest guv'.......

There is a plan. I will need to have a double sofa bed at my next house for use during Uni holidays, and this is it's cover. Goodness me I'm loving it. Crocheting has a different action, so after knitting on the Relax for so long it's helping my shoulder which can get a bit sore with relentless stocking stitch. I think it's approaching a third done so moving on well and it will be my house warming present to myself :)

Hmmm, nice....

I'm linking up with the lovely Nicole of FrontierDreams today. So hop on over to see lots of inspiring projects. Happy Saturday x

Round and round we go, where it stops........

Following a short stop off in Stratford on Avon a month or so ago I wandered into a shop called The White Company. A tiny bit out of my frugal price range if I'm honest but a lovely spot nonetheless. They stock a beautiful range of clothes and homewares which frankly made me feel a bit scruffy and dishevelled! I was on a long coach journey on a freezing cold day so not unexpected.

The colour palette, smell and general display in the shop appealed to me on so many levels that I just didn't want to leave. I did at least manage to pick up a little catalogue to make me smile. They had some beautiful, simple knitwear, loose fitting styles, batwing sleeves and a lot of exposed seams. None of which are design features that normally appeal to me, but as an overall look it certainly did. Consequently when I was back from my trip away I spent the following few days searching Ravelry for possibilities. That's the great thing about being a crafter, you're always looking for how you can 'make it'! In the end I settled on Relax published in Amirisu Spring 2013 for its simple, clean lines. Admittedly the thought of that much stocking stitch in 4ply did make me gulp slightly, but having converted it to knit in the round felt a little less daunting :)

Hence the title 'round and round we go....'. I am enjoying it, despite the fact that I picked yet another wool/alpaca blend. When will I learn that I'm allergic to alpaca and it gives me a sore throat and runny nose to knit? Honestly get a grip woman....

Good grief it fits...

I hardly dare believe it but I have finished my Atelier and it fits! Yay, so excited and so pleased. It's not that I'm unable to knit a cardigan, but lately I seem to have been singularly unable to knit one that fits me properly. Having finally listened to lots of advice about measuring myself carefully and realising that I'm actually considerably smaller than I thought I was (particularly in the bust area :( ) and also doing as I'm damn well told and knitting swatches, it's worked! Phew...

The pattern was so enjoyable, interesting construction, plenty to keep you moving on, yet lots of mindless stocking stitch to watch TV by. With a slight unintentional variation to the pattern, ie I picked up more stitches for each front than I was instructed to meant that I ended up with the xs size to start with but with s size fronts. Hey ho it looks good still.

I just love the way the fronts look.

Getting decent pictures that really show a project is a tricky one for me, as my 17 yr old son thinks I'm a complete twit and refuses to photograph me and he's the only other person in the house at the moment. I intended to get a pal to do some at knit night last night but as I hadn't been for a while there was just so much catching up to do, so of course it went right out of my head!

I've literally been wearing this all week. It's comfortable, warm and a great length, one happy lady :)

Notice the nice flowery background? My new cotton lawn fabric ready for me to dive in to a simple dress project. Well simple to others maybe, but I'm feeling a bit nervous! I'll keep you posted.....

I'm linking up with Tami for FO Friday, with Linda for Creative Friday and with Wonderwhygal for Fiber Friday. Check out all those other great projects. 

Have a great weekend x

Bunnies and books...

A couple of years ago I knitted two Bunny Blanket Buddies for a friend's new baby and her slightly older brother. They were knit in Rowan Bamboo Tape which whilst to me was and is an awkward tape yarn, it is in fact lovely and soft for a baby cuddly toy. These bunnies went down a storm and became both in turn the constant companion of little Isobel. The family subsequently moved back to their native New Zealand and it's always wonderful to see their latest exploits and news on Facebook especially when Izzy is still carting around bunny. She's two now and absolutely gorgeous like her big brother, but I noticed an appeal last week on Facebook from her Dad and I quote...

"Dear Codicote friends, can someone please ask Tracy Rogers to help....rabbit (2 of 2) is on his last legs (not that he had legs to start with). Prospect of Isobel without rabbit is daunting..... "

How sweet! Of course I immediately sent a message back saying ok two balls of said yarn left which means two bunnies can be made. One now done and the other is two thirds through, so my challenge is to get them both ready to be posted off on Thursday to make the long journey to the other side of the world. Ah makes me feel all warm and fuzzy to provide a cuddle blanket for a little one growing up in this world :)

I finished 'Private' by James Patterson this week and although I made it to the end, enjoyable it was not. Didn't like the writing style, far to formulaic as i've said before and frankly I expected more from an author with that much practise, anyway you live and learn, moving on this week I'm reading 'Started Early, Took My Dog' by Kate Atkinson. I've read her previous Jackson Brodie novels and really enjoyed them, so I'm looking forward to getting my teeth into this one. Hop on over to Tami's place for lots of other WIP Wednesdays and to Ginny's place for crafting and great reads.

Routine service madam!

I'd already decided that before I use my new sewing machine a full service was in order. After all the poor old girl is nearly as old as me and as I said before a bit of sewing machine oil to the knees would be most grateful.

So, armed with the original manual and various maintenance instructions I'd found on the 'Tinternet' I decided to start my servicing. Honestly my Dad would be proud of me, screwdrivers, oils and brushes at the ready. It felt a bit scary dismantling the main body of the machine, but I was determined to remove all the fluff, lint and dust accumulated over many years before I started oiling. It's in remarkably good condition and my goodness it's a solid heavy thing, even just turning it over was a bit of a challenge!

So I carefully followed my instructions, found all the little places where the oil should go and did my service. 

 Before I started

 Revealing the top of the machine

 After almost giving myself a hernia lifting the machine up!

Phew, it felt quite scary, but I'm so pleased with myself. I threaded her up and tested the stitch and she goes like a dream. I set a challenge and I achieved it, one happy lady here :)

What direction is this going in please???

I am loving the Atelier that's on my needles, but honestly I'm still not absolutely sure how this works. Having read lots of project notes on Ravelry I realise that its quite an unusual construction, and lets face it I'm pretty obtuse myself, so the fact that it's not glaringly obvious what direction I'm going in does kind of appeal :)

The thrill of just following the instructions and going with it is quite refreshing, I'll certainly keep you posted! At the moment I have to be honest that it resembles a pair of old mans combinations (or long johns in todays speak). What do you think?

Joining in a little late with the fabulous Ginny for  Yarn Along and Tami for  WIP Wednesday .

My book this week is a bit of a departure for me. Despite loving action packed, thriller type books for a long time, I've never read a James Patterson book. My Mum is constantly saying how good he is and how she's read every book he's ever written. Now I normally trust my Mum's reading judgement, but it's not working terribly well for me. I'm not enjoying the writing style, it feels formulaic, sensationalist and frankly not that interesting. I'll try and push on as I know from vast experience that my impression of a book in the first part does sometimes change. I'm up to page 89, lets see how it goes.....

My new arrival!

She's here finally, my lovely new sewing machine! Well bless her she was new once, probably sometime around 1970, which frankly still makes her younger than me. I'm sure she'd appreciate a clean up and a bit of oil, again a bit like me as I'm sure a bit of sewing machine oil would do my creaky knees the world of good. She's obviously made of strong stuff as I could barely carry her into the house and up the stairs, portable machine she certainly will not be, but that's fine as the idea was to get a tough, all metal workhorse.

 

 

She's mighty lovely and I'm very pleased. Now just got to be brave enough to plunge in and start sewing. You know what this means don't you? Yes, more craft, more addiction, more stash! There I am trying hard to clear the stuff from my life and now I've just added more.....

Ooh hello, remember me!

I don't really do telling myself off for not posting, as sometimes life just gets in the way and there's no point making myself feel bad is there?

So anyway moving on from that, I've had a really interesting few weeks following the New Year. Plenty of knitting going on, trips taken, new craft love developing and turning over a new leaf... That is quite a mixture even if I say so myself.

The knitting is ok, if a little lacking in over the top enthusiasm, which I would like to say is nothing to do with the projects themselves, but more to do with my general indecision over what to knit. In cardigan land I finally settled on the gorgeous Atelier, mainly due to its interesting construction method. Watch this space to see how it moves on, I'm hoping if I follow and believe, that all will be well :)

My other project is the Buttony Quilt which I'm loving as an ongoing 'knit it when you need a little change' project. I'm knitting it in dk weight rather than 4ply and with a 3.25mm needle, so each of my squares is about 50% bigger than the designer's. Hopefully it will grow a bit faster and also helps me use up the huge amounts of dk that I have, either as leftovers, odd balls, or even larger quantities that I bought some time ago and now no longer have any ideas for. Its great, I love it, even the sewing!

That last comment brings me on to my new craft love. Sewing. I have technically sewed since I was a child, taught by my Mum, using both a machine and by hand. It just never grabbed me, it was never my best friend. I could alter clothes in a basic take a hem up, run a seam in, sew on a button way, but I never actually enjoyed it. Bizarrely as soon as Fiona has disappeared off to Uni with our shared sewing machine I get the urge to start sewing! Sods law they call it :) So I've been searching the treasure that is ebay for a second hand solid machine to let me have a bash at some projects. Very excitingly I 'scored' a Frister Rossmann this afternoon, and will be happily going off to collect her on Sunday. More space to watch it seems, although its more likely to be 'upcycled' projects rather than new items from me.

Turning over a new leaf is a pretty common occurrence at New Year, so initially I didn't have high hopes for my new determination, but hey its so great and helps me so much that I'm hooked forever. Yes my friends it is 'meal planning'! I know, you're disappointed I can tell, sorry about that. But honestly its fabulous. No more wondering what on earth I'm going to cook when I finally get home from work, much better and more interesting food on offer, and it saves me money, as I go through my fridge, freezer and cupboards before I write my shopping list. Its deadly simple and brilliant. So you ask what's on the menu for tonight Tracy? Well, erm, actually I'm off to visit my parents and they're feeding me tonight bless 'em......

Lovely to be back amongst you. What new leaves have you turned over?

'He's taken the knife out of the cheese, do you think he wants some cheese?'

I just couldn't help the title. We've got a new chap at work in the office and he's a similar age to me with a very quirky sense of humour. We do end up reminiscing rather a lot about old (80's ish) films and TV series that we knew and loved, which is really entertaining if a bit childish. The up side of this is that I do keep giggling to myself now about snippets I'd almost forgotten. After my last post, having a giggle about anything is a thing to be really chuffed with, and believe me I am chuffed!

The film that came flooding back to me today was 'Arthur' starring Dudley Moore, Liza Minnelli and the sublime John Gielgud. The rather odd title above is a line from the calamitous 'almost' wedding in the film, where the Father in Law to be finally loses his rag with Arthur. Oh it took me right back to my friend Paula, who would happily quote this line in a slurred perfect Dud voice whenever us girls about town were out and about. Thanks Craig for reminding me, thanks Paula for all those laughs and thanks Dudley for being so funny. That is all x

Who am I?

It's a strange title I know. If I don't know who I am then how on earth are you supposed to! Of course I know my name, where I live, what my job is, even the fact that my son and I need feeding on a regular basis, but what I'm finding peculiar is the fallout from my daughter leaving to go to Uni.

I haven't blogged for a while as frankly I didn't know where to start. I can talk about the huge amount (for me) of knitting I've completed. There's nothing like a major life change to get those needles going. But what I couldn't do is get to the bottom of why and how I was feeling all lost, unfocused and peculiar? If I step away from myself and look back I can now see that it's not strange at all. Half of my children have left home, and whilst I have always had lots of interests and an active social life, they have been the pivot of my world for nearly 19 years! 

My migraine, my regular companion for the past 32 years increased in frequency, the boiler finally gave up and died adding to the general stress levels and everything just seemed so ridiculously hum drum. Now I'm slowly emerging from the fog I can see it's obvious, I've been depressed. It is something that occasionally comes over me, not in 'a hits me like a brick' kind of way, more in a slowly moving wave that creeps over me unnoticed. For those that truly suffer I don't claim to be on a par with you at all, but the few episodes I have had certainly give me a small insight into that world and it is a difficult place. I take my hat off to every single person that manages somehow to fight through depression and live a day to day life. Quite frankly you are heroic in the true sense. My fog is gradually lifting. The ability to make a decision is coming back and I've now managed to get some effective medication for my migraine, so slowly does it. I have knitted so much over the past two months that my shoulder doesn't know whether it's coming or going! There are many FOs. 

A brief recap of those FOs:

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/WoollyWorld/chunky-comfy-jumper

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/WoollyWorld/lanesplitter

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/WoollyWorld/susie-rogers-reading-mitts

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/WoollyWorld/cabled-hat

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/WoollyWorld/birch-leaf-shawl-aka-bottom-up-birch

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/WoollyWorld/dane-shawl

Oh my goodness, I honestly didn't realise I'd done that much! I've also got two Christmas gift cowls and a shawl on the needles too. No wonder my hand's sore. Apologies for the links rather than pictures, but I seem to have deleted all the photos from my phone - slaps forehead . 

I'm truly looking forward to getting back to blogging more regularly. I've missed you all.

Much love x

Bursting with activity and joy!

Well not exactly, but I've not had such a productive couple of weeks for a while. Very little of it is knitting related unfortunately, although more of that later, but most of it relates to my darling daughter getting ready for University.

Summer was pretty much consumed with waiting for her A level results and the not knowing if she had achieved the grades needed for her first choice University place. The 16th of August finally came round (results day and her brother's 17th birthday!) and she finally knew she had achieved what she wanted and needed. I cannot explain the sheer joy of that day, not just that she had gained the grades, but more that she had got what she had worked so hard for for so many years. Fiona is and always has been a real grafter, a quality that I admire hugely in her and I am so very, very proud.

Leaving home does come with a massive amount of gathering of household and personal items though, so this is what's taken all our time and energy in the last few weeks. Yesterday it was almost like getting her ready for the first day of school again, trying to find a good winter coat and shoes as she's off up to Leeds and I keep being told it's colder up there than it is in our little corner of Hertfordshire :)

I think the practical preparations are done, now for the mental ones. My baby is going out into the world and I couldn't be more excited for her, go for it my girl, blossom, work hard and most of all enjoy every minute!

Back to the only knitting part of my post, I've been working on a snuggly blanket for Fiona to take with her. To me it means that when she's chilly, tired or a bit fed up she can wrap herself in a Mummy hug! I know, soppy but true....

 

Linking up with the lovely Nicole at Frontier Dreams today - Keep Calm and Craft on.

How productive am I?

 Extremely this week it seems! I've managed to finish up a little cardi for my new baby Great Niece Emily Rose, along with a gorgeous pair of bootees to keep her little tootsies warm!

I'm absolutely delighted with my Gold Leaves on the Line shawl which I made with Fyberspates Scrumptious Sock yarn, my first foray into Fyberspates and what a pleasure it was...

 

Gorgeous gold colour, wonderful soft feel and such a handy item, I've already worn it many times.

Neither of those projects come under the Ravellenics banner as I was already working on them, but I'm progressing really well with my Ravellenic Laura Jayne sweater, which is a lovely taupe cotton slub, sloppy joe number that I honestly can't wait to wear. It's absolutely ideal to knit whilst watching the Olympics as it's all reverse stocking stitch knit on 2 different needle sizes, so I can happily scream along with the rowers, runners, long jumpers etc and not lose my place. Helps with the stress levels too.

I hope you're all enjoying the Olympics and crafting along too. I'm off to watch Andy Murray (sadly on the sofa and not at SW19) in his two finals and I can see me finishing this sweater with all the frantic clicking that'll be going on here. Wishing you all a wonderful Sunday and joining in with the lovely Nicole at Keep Calm and Craft on and Linda at Natural Suburbia here.

London 2012...

Ooh I couldn't be more excited if I'd won the lottery! Well, maybe, but hey it feels like winning the lottery having the Olympics here in my country and in mine and my childrens' lifetime.

A group of us gathered at a friend's house to watch the opening ceremony and party the night away and all I can say is Wow, definitely with a capital W. It may not have been to everyone's taste, hey 'Trainspotting' wasn't either, but intense, powerful, moving, funny and beautiful I certainly thought it was.

Honestly James Bond and the Queen, we were all squealing with delight that it was actually her! Obviously not parachuting out of a helicopter, we're not mad, she's an elderly lady for goodness sake, but oh it did make us all laugh!

Sending out apologies to all of Mark's neighbours for being so loud, but I think we all hoped they'd be watching the same thing as us so I'm sure we didn't upset too many people :)

Being the avid sport watcher that I am, its absolute heaven coming home from work, switching on the telly and choosing from the massive array of BBC Olympic channels. Feeling very proud of Team GBs women's footie team, go girls! The Team GB women's volleyball team won last night (actually early hours of the morning, ooh I'm so tired!) which is their first ever Olympic match win, so proud of you girls you were awesome. The Gymnastics have just been stunning and Team GB Men winning their first Olympic medal since 1912 was beyond wonderful. 

I could just list on forever but I really mustn't, I'm sure you know what events there are, lets just suffice to say that I can barely contain my excitement for the athletics and particularly the prospect of the men's sprint finals, ooh man that's going to be a good 'un.

One of my favourite parts of the whole ceremony was the innovative and truly beautiful Olympic Cauldron. As a little sign off here's a picture from the Daily Mail as a reminder Olympic cauldron 2012. I just found a video clip to show my daughter as she missed seeing it on Friday as she was away on holiday and honestly I went goose pimply all over again.

I hope you all enjoy our Olympics, all the drama, spectacle, super human effort and drive and that you find something there to remember forever.

What a beautiful day...

Despite my last minute brolly buying panic (my darling daughter seems to run off with all of mine!) Rachael and Tom's wedding day wasn't the rain soaked affair we thought it might be. 

All dressed in our finery a large group of us set off from the village in our coach. Unbelievably even that got caught up in the RBS banking debacle. There we all were thinking we'd paid our contribution to the cost of the coach, however when the driver got to us we realised that the transfer Rach had sent through to the coach company hadn't arrived! Oops. He didn't actually say it but I think the general gist of it was without payment they weren't going to take us anywhere! Fortunately one of our number is a friend who is what I would describe as 'comfortably off' who managed to dash home and find £295 cash to hand to the driver, bless his little heart.........

We did get a bit of a soaking when we arrived at the venue, but clearly they are well set up for British Summer weddings and had large baskets of umbrellas to hand out as we stepped off the coach, how thoughtful! This rain was the last we saw until late into the evening happily.

It was a truly beautiful day, full of laughs, happy tears, good friends, new ones, wonderful food and gorgeous piggies!

I haven't lost the plot honestly! The wedding was at a fantastic venue on a farm. Whilst they were taking their vows you could hear the cockerel crowing in the background...

Even though the weather was grey and forbidding looking it was still quite warm and sticky, hence the bridal shawl wasn't really needed. She did however have it with her in pride of place on the top table which was lovely. We took a couple of pictures just to prove it was there.

Yes that is me with the beautiful bride, I'm possibly the most unphotogenic person I know, but at least I've got my eyes open in this one :))

Rach and her very proud dad.

Bet you've never seen a Yorkshire parkin wedding cake?! She's a true Northern girl at heart...

Ooh and a lovely groom in a kilt too!

Altogether a wonderful day full of wonderful people. I wish them every happiness, they deserve it. Oh and boy did my feet ache the next day, haven't danced that much for years x

I have finished honestly!

I've gone and done it again, when will I ever learn? Yes I've lovingly worked on my latest Ishbel and completed it in time for my friend's birthday last weekend. Did I photograph it, doh slaps forehead, no foolish woman you didn't! There's something strange about the excitement of completing a present that blinds me to the flippin' obvious ie what about some nice photos for the blog and Ravelry? Ah well I will try and take some photos if I ever see her wearing it. As a knitter who has given a fibrey gift I do feel a tiny bit stalkerish looking out for those projects!

The Birthday Ishbel was knitted in Posh Yarn Sylvia in the Cotillion colourway and as I've said before this yarn was a complete dream to use. My first foray into merino/silk and certainly not the last. Although I sadly don't have any completed pictures and the shawl has moved on to its new lovely owner, here are a couple of pictures of that gorgeous yarn and colour:

I'm off to cast on for a test knit for the lovely Faye at Buttons and Beeswax now so I wish you all a wonderful day! For lots of other fibrey goodness please pop on over to Linda's place and Tami's place.

Progressing slowly....

It's been an interesting week, busy, slightly stressful but ultimately turning out well. Fiona has taken her last two A level exams and has now finished school! We've all suffered with her through this last couple of weeks of revising and trying to keep well and I'm so relieved we've come out in one piece. She can now officially start her summer which is so well deserved after all her hard work. It's an exciting prospect for her with the year 13 prom (a party on a boat on the river Thames no less!), leavers supper, founders day at school and her theoretically' adult' first holiday abroad with the girls. Oh be still my panicking heart I shall have to organise an awful lot of things to do that week to keep myself from thinking too much. How exciting for her to be on the threshold of all those possibilities I'm thrilled for my girl....

Knitting wise I've been progressing slowly with the Ruby Tuesday cardigan and its lovely. Mostly stocking stitch which is a little mind numbing and does make me realise how much of a process knitter I am rather than a product knitter!

Thoroughly enjoying the Drops alpaca and I do seem to be suffering less problems with the escaping fibres drifting up my poor nose! The only thing I can't seem to capture accurately here is the colour. It is a lot more green, a real dark petrol colour. Even the picture of the ball seems more blue.

There's lots of great sport for me to watch whilst knitting, so even though the French Open has finished (congratulations Rafa, what a massive star you are) there is now the tennis at Queen's club and the Euro 2012 football to savour - yes I am an avid sport watcher. So just bring on Wimbledon and the Olympics and I'll be in absolute heaven.

Book wise Madame Bovary is moving on very slowly, but that is not the fault of the book particularly, more I've had so much going on in my life. Alongside Madame Bovary I'll be starting our next book group choice this week which is 'Painter of Silence' by Georgina Harding. Having seen the synopsis and read reviews I'm really looking forward to it. Has anyone read it yet?

Well off I go, much housework, gardening, lifts to give and food shopping to do, I must remember to fit in some knitting time later when I finally sit down. Hope you have a very happy day.

As always for lots of other fantastic projects on the go and books being read please pop on over to Tamis place and Ginny's place. Also I've found this other lovely blog with a link for Keep calm and craft on what a lovely thought!

Tickly 'Tuesday' french style!

Not Tuesday as in the sense of what day it is of course, rather the name of the cardigan I cast on over the weekend is the Ruby Tuesday a really straightforward top down seamless cardi with a yoke increasing in size with rows of eyelets. 

It's an interesting construction and actually the first top down seamless adult garment that I've made. I'm using Drops Alpaca which creates a gorgeous light, fuzzy, warm fabric, but I have to say it keeps getting up my nose, literally! I've used alpaca blends before and not had any issues, but I'm having to stop every five minutes or so for a furious nose rub. I don't think I'm allergic to the alpaca I just think its the loose fibres floating up my nozzle - I know, not a nice image sorry!

I'm thoroughly enjoying the knitting though and as the French Open is on at Roland Garros at the moment and I'm a mad keen tennis fan I've managed to get quite a lot done. Not ideal when you're watching Andy Murray as nerves and frustration can cause all sorts of unpicking to be done. Easy peasy when Rafa's on, as it tends to be more smooth sailing watching him, bless his little tough, feisty, hard working heart :)

If you read last week's post you'll know I was reading The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. All finished now, even though I tried very hard to prolong it and I enjoyed it very much. Ernest Hemingway is a person I knew very little about and seeing his early years as a writer through his wife Hadley's eyes was fascinating and very interesting. I'll not give anything away, but I really felt for her.......

Having just read a book on my Kindle and once again enjoyed the process enormously (think it's great with my dodgy eyesight) I decided to return to an absolute favourite of mine 'Madame Bovary' by Gustave Flaubert. It's a book I haven't read for some years so it will be interesting to see my view on it as a considerably older woman.

Can you see the totally unintentional French theme, peculiar, but there you are, sometimes you must just go where the mood takes you. 

Happy Wednesday to you all and I hope you have a good book and a lovely project on the go.

For lots of other great WIPs and books being read please pop on over to Tami's place and Ginny's place.

A little bit all over the place...

Having finally decided on the Baby Cables and Big Ones too as my next project the weather took a turn for the better and boy oh boy has it been hot! Once again I'm not complaining at all as it's been simply lovely to get out in the garden and really tackle some long overdue jobs. The only problem being that my hands were too hot and sticky to knit with the wool/alpaca blend I'd chosen. 

 

That's it so far! All I've managed is the cast on, then the second round which places markers for all the cables. I know, bit feeble! The next round needs you to place markers for the raglans as well, so whilst waiting for some more stitch markers to arrive in the post I came over all fickle!

Rather than get all hot and bothered and irritable with the jumper, I decided to cast on another Ishbel in a merino/silk blend. This seems to slip through my fingers a lot more easily and goodness me what a joy this has been so far. The colours are beautiful and it's my first time using Posh Yarn, certainly don't think it'll be my last! I've properly raced through so far and just like reading a good book, I really want to slow down and make the enjoyment last a bit longer. 

Interspersed with the knitting I've been reading 'The Paris Wife' by Paula McLain and I can honestly say it's been as much of a pleasure as knitting with the merino/silk.

Smooth flowing writing added to my love of reading on the Kindle has made it a complete joy. I'm honestly trying to slow down the knitting and the reading to make it all last at least until the end of the weekend, but knowing me that will be tricky.

Apologies for this being a little late, unfortunately the day job just intruded a bit too much yesterday! I hope you're all enjoying your knitting and current book. To keep up with lots of other lovely WIPs and books please pop on over to Tamis place and Ginny's place. 

I've ended up with a reading list almost as long as my Ravelry queue thanks to the yarn along which I'm delighted with for the summer.

So proud, but so emotional...

Its a strange day, my baby girl has gone in for her last official day at school. All the girls had decided to go in wearing their old school uniform which they haven't had to wear for the past two years. I cannot explain the huge lump it brought my throat to see my beautiful grown up 18 year old dashing off to school all excited in her school togs :( She does have to go back next month to sit her last two A level exams, but then schooldays are done and hopefully off to Uni. All I can see in my mind's eye is her little scared face on her very first day at Primary school as a cute, curly haired, very shy 4 year old and I just want all that time back please? It can't be too much to ask surely? 

Ok deep breath, I had a little cry on her first day and now I've had a little cry on her last, enough now. She's grown from that shy little girl into the most confident, funny, bright, entertaining, talented, hard working, gorgeous young woman and I'm so proud of her I could burst. I bet she'd be surprised to hear that, I'll show her this one day. I know that it basically means I've done my job properly, so on we go to the next phase of her and my life.............

Hooray Henry it's a Hat!

Well knock me down and call me Shirley I've managed to finish yet another project! I can only assume that it's the encouragement given to me by all my lovely readers and the prospect of sharing the news with you all via Tami's FO Friday and Linda's Creative Friday linkys. Thanks so much ladies for giving me the gentle push I need to keep on going and I so love sharing what I'm doing with you all.

Will's beanie is now complete just in time for 29c heat to descend on us. Honestly it's no wonder us Brits bang on and on about the weather all the time; we've gone from a frost at night a week ago and temperatures of about 10c to blazing heat and sunshine. I mean don't get me wrong it's glorious and I love it, but we're never ready, there's never a gentle rise in temperature and a lead in to it, just bang 'there you go Summer, that's what you wanted wasn't it?'

Here in the South East of England along with many parts of the country we are officially in 'drought', we have a hosepipe ban, despite having about five weeks of solid rain through April and early May so getting out and doing the gardening has been a bit of a challenge. It's either rock solid ground or so muddy you can't do anything with it, anyway today I've achieved. I've cut grass, weeded, pruned, emptied pots, put up the hanging basket and does it look any different (well apart from the grass) no! It's been a gorgeous day though and I'll round off with a special few pictures for you.

 Me, totally rocking the sunglasses, gardening clothes and woolly hat combo, lovely jubbly! to round it off though I popped outside our place at work on Wednesday to eat my lunch as it was so warm and lovely, just to show how glamorous the view is....

Pallet heaven!!!

Wishing you a very Happy Friday x

For lots of other lovely FOs and Creative Friday posts pop on over to Tamis place and Linda's place