"swishing and swooping, tumbling and turning"

Hello, 

Do you watch 'The Apprentice'? This is one TV show that all the family in our house like. 

For those of you who do not know the programme, over a period of weeks candidates

 vie to become the business partner of Lord Alan Sugar (he of Amstrad and Tottenham 

Hotspur fame). The candidates divide into two teams and take part in a variety of 

challenges, such as selling pet care items at a pet show or developing a new brand of shampoo, 

and each week the team that makes the least money loses and at least 

one member from that team is fired). 

In a recent episode the candidates were charged with writing and printing a children's book. Team Connexus wrote a tale about a dragon-elephant hybrid creature named Snottledink  - it was really very good. Team Versatile opted for a story about Bizzie the Bee's search for honey. Poor Bizzie got blown about by the wind all over the place and one of the candidates memorably kept repeating, while swaying her body - 

"swishing and swooping, tumbling and turning". 

This is exactly how my mind has been feeling lately. 

There are many changes afoot - mostly related to that fact that my family is 

becoming more independent. It is a fact of life and I wouldn't have it any other 

way but it does take a bit of getting used to. After 20 years of three main 

elements to my life: children, work, home, my life now seems 

much more: work, home. 

 I feel my life has changed much, even over the last 2 months. 

Younger son left for University last year and elder son is in his final year so you 

would have thought I would be accustomed to their empty bedrooms, but I think 

because this year both of them are much more settled and established in their lives 

away from home that their combined absence has only now really hit me. 

I miss their lively conversations - the house is so much quieter. 

I miss their bodies not filling the space. 

I miss the coming and going of people. 

I miss that I no longer have to fill my brain with things to remember to do 

and that I no longer juggle transport for after school activities 

I despise myself because I find myself enjoying the fact that the house stays tidier - grrrr! 

Daughter is still at home of course, and misses the boys, frequently 

complaining that she does not like being an only child!

  

So I have been doing much soul searching, readjusting, trying to see 

this all as an opportunity and not a threat. You know, trying to think 

positive about it all. Realising that maybe the time is approaching for me to regain 

some of my independence after 20+ years of daily hands-on child care.  

As Thursday was such a beautiful morning I took myself up to a local wood for 

a bit of restorative fresh air and cogitating space. This is one of my favourite 

places local to us - it is just 3 miles away, I even cycled to it! 

Well, ok, it is a while since I have been on my bike so I cycled 

down the hills and walked my bike up them!

 I was so glad I went out, soon after I returned home the sun disappeared. 

Sorry, this is a bit of a self-indulgent post. Sometimes I just need to 

write my thoughts down to help me sort out 

their "swishing and swooping, tumbling and turning".

I've considered and debated with myself at length!  
If you have got this far, thank you for sticking with it and it has all helped.

And you know, I really think it might be time to start planning new adventures for 

that time when daughter leaves home. It might even be time to start saving 

for that longed-for campervan and a map of the world.  ;-)

xXx

PS. Thank you for reading. 

I'm not looking for sympathy, please save that for those around

 the world who really need it. 

Whitlam cowl

Hello

Earlier this year I bought myself a buff (this isn't a sponsored post by the way!). 

A buff is basically a tubular piece of material, with no seams, that you slip over your head and wear round your neck. There are lots of fancy things you can do with a buff, for example, make it into a head covering but I only wear it round my neck. I bought it 

initially to wear when I am cycling (not that I have done much of that just lately, 

but thereby hangs another tale!). 

Often I don't want to wear a thick scarf when I am cycling because I would get way to 

hot after I'd been cycling a while, but I want something just to keep that cool 

"wind chill factor" from going down the front of my jacket.  

Anyway I discovered that I loved my buff! 

It was so good for keeping warm, and not just when I was on my bike. And as the 

first buff I bought was mainly yellow to match my fluorescent yellow cycling jacket 

I rather naughtily forked out for 2 more buffs - one mainly red and the 

other mainly blue to match different outfits. 

Oh but my love for having a warm snuggly neck did not stop there. 

I saw this Whitlam cowl from Baa Ram Ewe and realised how much use 

I would get out of one of these. 

This cowl is thicker than a buff so would 

be useful in the cooler months but not so thick as to be cumbersome.  

I bought Baa Ram Ewe's Titus yarn (again, no sponsored link). 

Balling the yarn - this takes me back many years, helping my mum to ball yarn. 

Sadly I had no helpers so had to use the back of an old chair that had been discarded under the car port as the seat was broken (maybe I'll have to keep it now for balling yarn?)

The colour way I chose is Yorkstone - a muted, unusual choice for me as I tend to go for 

bright colours but I thought I might wear this quite often and thus I played it safe 

and chose a neutral colour.  

I carried this project around with me in one of my favourite project bags. For me 

the whole experience of knitting/cross stitching is heightened by a pleasing project bag. 

This project even came to Exeter with me for a 2 day conference - I can always manage 

to find a few minutes knitting time, even if it is on the train. 

This was quite a straight forward pattern but I am a bit frustrated because I made

 several silly mistakes which I couldn't rectify easily as it was a lacy pattern. 

I think I just wasn't in the mood for concentrating properly sometimes but 

generally the mistakes are minor and probably, as is often the case, only I can see them.  

This cowl grew quickly.  

I knitted for 44 inches. Blocking it highlighted the lace 

pattern and also softened the wool.

And here is the finished cowl, prior to joining the ends. 

You could use this as a scarf too - it has pretty scalloped ends. 

And here is the finished article in situ - note how I artfully stretch my neck 

to iron out wrinkles!!

 

 And just to prove the neutral colour was a good choice this time, 
here it is with my blue coat.....

my red coat....

and even my turquoisey coat!!

Yes, I'm very happy with it - I know I shall get a lot of wear out of this. 

And I can see me knitting this again. Now which colour yarn to choose next...

Goathland? Endeavour?

They even have one called Filey, one of my favourite seaside resorts. 

Fantastic names aren't they?

xXx

A weekend in June ...

... in photos

Friday

• A day spent in Ashbourne with a very old friend and a trip to the wool shop to buy her daughter some yarny gifts for her birthday (oo, such fun, her daughter will be 12 and it is great to have the chance to encourage a young budding knitter)

• While I was in the shop I spotted these balls of DMC Natura cotton, a yarn I love, and as they were reduced to £2 a ball I bought 3. Oops, when I got home I realised I already had  the coral and blue but I bravely did not let it dampen the joy of my purchase!

• In an effort to lose a little bit of weight gained over the last few sedentary months in my new job I am trying to make sure I do at least 10,000 steps a day, this often means a walk up to the woods every evening. This was the view we had on Friday - stunning!

Saturday

• Early morning coffee: we do love going in to town early and treating ourselves to a coffee and croissant in Caffe Nero. The cafe is in the centre of town and on a Saturday morning you have the added bonus of watching the market come to life - a very relaxed start to the weekend.

• Finished this little dress for my office colleague who is expecting a little girl in September. 

• the colour is actually more of a denim blue. It's quite a pretty pattern but I'm a bit concerned that the neck hole is a bit small for a baby's head - they might end up wrestling it over her head!

Sunday

• Sunday morning cycle ride: this is such a restorative to me. When I set off I thought I would do a short half hour ride but ended up cycling for almost 2 hours - covering about 18 miles.

• Looking towards Bradgate Park and Old John. 

• Views from Cropston reservoir to Bradgate Park. 

• Feeling so good to be outside in the country. 

• Letting my thoughts wander - mainly on how to deal with my job which I'm finding far too stressful. 

• Slightly apprehensive this week as last Sunday I came the closest ever to being knocked off my bike. Thankfully I am very aware of traffic and make every effort to make eye contact with drivers to ensure I know they have seen me. However this particular driver slowed down as she came towards the junction and then proceeded to speed up straight towards me as I cycled up a main road. She did stop, to her credit, but her excuse for not seeing me was that she was tired (it was 9.30am Sunday morning) and it had been raining! I wear a bright yellow fluorescent jacket - how can she not have seen me? 

•  A lovely open road to cycle along....

• And a tunnel of trees to cycle through....

• I finally blocked this table runner, but now I've finished it I think it looks too wintery so I'm not sure how long it will stay on the table 

• And a final walk up to the Outwoods on Sunday evening, my photos are testament to the number of beautiful clear sunny evenings we have had over the last few weeks. 

Thanks for getting to the end of this post - as you can see, nothing very exciting happened with me!!

I hope you had a great weekend. 

Wishing you a good week!

xXx