Whoosh...this is the summer going!

Hello,

Have you noticed? Or is just me that feels the summer, as always, is flying past! 

My job is a '52-weeks-a year' job so I do have to work over the summer, although I try to 

save as much of my annual leave entitlement as I can for the summer. I find myself trying to squeeze in days out and away with family and friends around work commitments. 

I do love the summer, I relish the opportunities to sit outside to eat meals  - eating 

breakfast outside feels so decadent, especially at 6am before I go to work, why is that?

I have to make the most of the longer (and hopefully warmer) days and spend as much
time as I can out of doors.

I am having fun knitting Rachel Coopey's Hartwith hat using Baa Ram Ewe's 

Titus yarn in Goathland. This is 4 ply yarn so for me it will take a while to complete this

 knit but there is something very soothing about knitting this cabled pattern.

 I have almost completed Susan Howatch's 'The High Flyer'. This is the second in a trilogy 

but silly me read book three first so I have in effect nearly finished the trilogy. It has been 

an interesting read although I have found the end of book 2 a bit laborious and tedious. 

This trilogy is being passed to a friend when read so that will be 3 more books off my 

shelf - YAY!

.I am joining in with Ginny's yarn along - please have a look at her great blog. 

Happy summer holidays to you all

xXx 

Five on Friday - garden

Hello

Well my 'Five on Friday' hosted by Amy at Love Made My Home follows a similar theme

 to Amy's, it's all about my garden but somehow mine doesn't feel quite so calm and

 ordered. In fact I originally considered titling this post "Five surprising things in my garden" 

but managed to find some 'neater' photos in the end to balance out this post.

 So here goes. 

One: Balls, all 58!!

Two children love sports, especially football, and our garden is always littered with balls. 

Every so often I have a round-up. I did this last weekend and managed to fill 2 old dustbins 

with 58 balls including table tennis, tennis, golf, soft, hockey, lacrosse and 

of course, footballs! We get through so many footballs we buy them in bulk!

"Doubtless I will find more balls once I get on with the weeding" 

(she says shyly, see photo 3)

Two: Bedding plants in flowerpots!!

"Bedding plants in flower pots? What's so special about that?" you might ask. 

Well, it is quite a few years since I have put flowers in pots, and the reason is because of 

photo 1 above. Yes, balls! With so many balls flying around the garden my bedding plants 

were frequently dead-headed whether they were ready to be dead-headed or not! 

In fact, dead-stalked would probably be a better description. I did point out to daughter 

that I'd planted flowers in pots this year and that I was hoping that as she is now 17 she 

should be a better shot and could thus avoid my pots! Only time will tell, and my 

flowers have the long summer holiday to survive yet when 2 more young people will 

be back home from University and playing ball games in the garden. 

"Take cover plants!"

Three: (weeds)

Yes, I mention that word quietly. 

Life has been pretty busy bringing up children and 

working so the garden has been neglected over the last few years. But both sons are now 

at University, and daughter passed her driving test a few weeks ago and has suddenly 

become very independent, in fact I feel she has grown a whole 12 months in just one day!

So, sadly, we do have more free time and I think I have 

probably done more gardening already this year than I have in the last 5! 

But this bit of garden at the bottom is one part that I have yet to tackle and I have 

decided that I want to start again with it. 

However, I did think the bluebells looked pretty against the ornamental grasses 

(for 'ornamental grasses' read 'weeds'). 

Four: More balls, ball games

Daughter is revising for AS-levels and so spends many hours sat at a desk. This is quite 

challenging when you are someone who likes being active. Every so often we take her

 outside and throw a few balls for her to catch, and as you can see she thoroughly enjoys

 this and literally throws herself into the activity!

Five: Matching the bluebells 

I have just started knitting my next pair of socks, and I think this might be my

 favourite colourway yet: Regia design line Kaffe Fasset "Frost". 

This was one that I was so tempted to buy some months ago and 

eventually gave into the urge and I am so pleased I did - it was definitely the 

right decision. In fact, I'm thinking of purchasing more yarn to knit gloves and a scarf, 

not that I am intending to wear them all at the same time. 

Please head over to Amy's blog. Thank you to Amy for hosting "Five on Friday"

Wishing you a good weekend - and where has the sun gone?? 

xXx

Yarn along... stripy socks and Atonement

Hello

Here I am joining in with Ginny's Wednesday yarn along. 

I recently finished a pair of socks for me 

(I hope this link to the photo on my instagram account works!) 

Younger son seemed particularly taken with them and asked for a pair of very bright 

hand knitted socks. And of course if someone actually asks us to knit something for them, 

we get very excited, and so I rushed off to scour the internet for suitable wool and came
up with the above. Yes, son approved, wool was ordered, arrived 2 days later
and off we went, socks cast on - weeeee........ 

But I am having to knit a larger size than normal and making a few other adjustments. 

I tried them on his feet yesterday and he was wiggling and giggling like

 a toddler - he's nearly 20!! But I am enjoying knitting these - those bright colours

 can hardly fail to lift the spirits can they?

As for my book, well I have read a couple of Ian McEwan's books and really

 enjoyed them. We are reading his 'Atonement' for our book club. Sadly, I haven't read 

far into the book yet as my mind has been distracted by family events, you know those

 sort of 'children-related' events that occur every so often and that stress the heck out of

 you. Anyway, given time, as with all of life's little ups and downs I'm sure our 

present bumps will soon be smoothed...

I hope you are enjoying your current read!

xXx

Sock knitting and sock supplies!

Hello,

Today I'm coming clean about my love of sock knitting!

I know there is a whole community out there of keen sock knitters, and I am proud to be one of them. As many have said before, and in fact as I have also said here and here, socks are a great knitting project for taking with you when space may be at a premium. 

So train rides, weekend breaks, or even day trips all offer me the chance to get a 

few rows done. 

This is the first pair I knitted - smartly commandeered by daughter and as you can see, well used. 

I started off with some Regia 4 ply yarn and followed the pattern supplied with the yarn.

More Regia yarn followed. As you can probably guess, I like this yarn. It is hard-wearing but also comes in a great range of colours and patterns such as this latest one by 

Arne and Carlos. 

Other designers for Regia sock yarn include Erika Knight and Kaffe Fassett. 

So besides a healthy stash of sock yarn (all will soon be revealed!) I have also accumulated a few sets of DPNs (double pointed needles), small circular needles 

(which I absolutely love!) and er, one or 2 books.  

Well, actually 4 books in total which I feel is pretty restrained. 

But I do find all the lovely sock yarns hard to resist.  

Such gorgeous self-striping, self-patterning yarns. 

But also for a diversion I have some charming plain yarn waited to be knitted up too!

And some gorgeous yarn from West Yorkshire Spinners that I received as a 

Christmas present. This was sold as a Christmas special and the yarns are called 

Holly Berry and Cherry Drop. I am aiming to get two pairs of sock from these balls, 

using for each pair one ball as the main colour and using the second ball as a 

contrast for the cuffs, heels, and toes.  

And finally some old balls of Regia that I bought several years ago when it was 

on  offer - this yarn is at last on my needles and I'm trying a different pattern this 

time, one with an after-thought heel as I used this method on my Osen Christmas

 stocking and found it very easy to do.

 (This photo really doesn't capture the true colour of the yarn at all).  

And here is my sock yarn stash in all it's glory 

(well at least as it was yesterday).

So quite a few "pairs of socks" worth of yarn there, but alas, there are just

so many tempting sock yarns. I posted recently about how I was desperately 

resisting the urge to purchase more but as many of you guessed 

correctly, I eventually caved in to temptation. 

Let me introduce you to Delphinium (left) and Frost (right). 

Definitely a 'blue' theme going on here don't you think?

And finally, this pair of socks have just come off my needles and need to be finished. 

Clearly these have been on my needle a while as I was knitting them on this day trip to Matlock in May 2015! 

Well, with all that sock yarn in the house I'd better get knitting. 

And if you are on Ravelry please pop in and see me - I'm Caz3, and here is the link to see more of my projects. 

Are you a sock knitter? Do you have a favourite pattern? Do you knit cuff-down or toe-up?

So many choices....

Wishing you an enjoyable half term!

xXx

It can't all be good...

Hello, 

'An enjoyable few hours spent in Sheffield on a beautifully sunny afternoon, 

all in the company of elder son.'

'A late afternoon, wintery walk up to The Outwoods - when we came out of the woods

 it looked like Christmas lights were on in the town spread before us.' 

As some of you may know, I reduced the number of days I work each week a few 

months ago. 

There have been some unforeseen benefits of this.

1. I drink fewer coffees. 

At work, a mid-morning trip to the coffee shop provided me with a bit of exercise and a bit of a treat too to keep me going through the rest of the day. Sadly, a bag of crisps often accompanied my coffee purchase - not a good thing for either my expanding waistline or rising blood cholesterol!

2. I've cut my wine intake

I have never drunk copious amounts of wine but I did find that a glass or two, several times 

a week was a particularly satisfying way to relax. I'm not proud of this; it is just the way it was. 

I think in celebration my liver is having a party, but obviously an alcohol-free one and 

most probably a slumber party!

 It's having a long-awaited and well-deserved rest from alcohol!! 

It is said that when you reduce your alcohol intake your skin improves, so in a couple 

of weeks time I'm hoping to look 20 years younger! ;-)

3. I've bought fewer magazines

As with the wine, I've never bought many magazines, but again a bit of a treat for me was

to browse the shelves of the newsagent, viewing all the craft and home magazines, 

dreaming of all the projects I would start (and finish!) when I had the time. 

And sometimes feeling that I could justify spending £5 for a magazine as 

"I'd worked hard this week"!

Magazines are pretty extortionate in price now aren't they? 

It's not uncommon for magazines to cost £8 - and I can't help thinking I can buy a 

book for £8!

4. So, as a result of 1, 2 and 3 above, I'M SAVING £££s

So all in all, this is looking very positive. 

But it can't all be good can it?

I am finding it hard to stick to my resolve to cut my spending on yarn. Again, I don't think I'm outrageously extravagant but I do have a few balls sitting in bags waiting to be knitted. 

And at the moment I'm so tempted by more sock yarn! 

And I can't help thinking that I can justify buying a couple of balls because of the 

amount of money I'm saving on coffees and wine! 

Oo, I can't decide between iceburg, frost or delphinium......

(this is 'iceburg' below)

Well, writing this post has distracted me from the wool website for a little while 

(thank you!), I'm now off to tidy the kitchen and then to bed, 

so delaying hitting that 'checkout' button for another day.

I hope you have been enjoying the wintery weather and the 

excuse it brings to snuggle up in front of a fire.

Best wishes

xXx

'A Man Called Ove' nearly over, and Osen continues...

Hello,

Once again, joining in with Ginny's yarnalong. 

• Book progress: 'A man called Ove' nearly finished. I have enjoyed this more than I anticipated and it hasn't at all matched my preconceptions of it. It has even brought me to the edge of tears in a couple of places, the moments when Sonja puts her finger in Ove's palm. Why do I get so upset about that??

• Osen Christmas stocking: this is progressing quite well, helped by a long drive south last Sunday for daughter's football match. The slowest part for me is now knitted - just rows of stocking stitch mainly to come, with a bit of interest to be found with the after-thought heel.

• and why the use of bullet points and subheadings in this week's yarnalong post? Because I feel this is one piece of advice that I give over and over again at work as part of my role. "It's helpful to use bullet points, subheadings and white spaces to make it easier for the reviewer to read your sections". Yep, I've got the white spaces too. Clearly bringing my work home with me. Mmmm, maybe I need to get out more!

How is your knitting progressing? Are you enjoying your current read?

Hope you have a good week - daughter and I are crossing our fingers for some snow, even a bit of sleet would be very exciting, but I think we may be looking to the skies in vain.

Best wishes

xXx

Ove and Osen... yarnalong!

Hello,

Joining in with Ginny's yarnalong.  

Making slow progress with my Osen Christmas stocking. 

I think this is mostly due to my need to up my exercise and shift a few stubborn pounds, so when I have a few moments,

or half an hour, I take myself out for a short/slightly longer run/walk. I can't even blame Christmas for the extra weight 

I'm carrying because I did make use of the extra available time 

over the festive period to get out and exercise and as I was also very constrained with my Christmas nibbling, I didn't 

add any weight to the scales over Christmas - yippee!

At our book club we are reading 'A Man called Ove'. I really wasn't impressed with our choice of book and nearly didn't bother downloading it, but when I realised the kindle version was 

only 99p I thought I would give it a go and I have been pleasantly surprised by it. I'm not saying it is one of my top 10 favourite 

reads, or that it even makes my top 50, but it is amusing 

and surprising in parts.

 (I won't say more in case you decide to read it). 

Thank you for all your kind comments on my last post - no imminent changes as daughter still has 18 months left at 

school, but no harm in planning ahead. 

And finally, daughter passed her driving theory test, just needs to get practising her practical skills a bit more!

Best wishes

xXx

And here we are, 2016!

Hello!

Happy New Year to you all!

And here we are back to work/school etc. 

Although there is a distinctive holiday mood still lingering in our house as both sons are
still at home from University, albeit that we hardly see them, except when they need food,
as one has 3 assignments to finish and one is revising for exams. 

Compared to some universities, term (or semester) is late starting, but then they did 

finish late, on 18th December. 

 (I spotted this primrose in the front garden when I was taking down the fairy 

lights on Sunday morning) 

As with others, I do not make new year resolutions but I do like to take stock of 

the past and forthcoming years. 2015 was a pretty stressful year for various reasons but 

much of that is in the past now. Reports have been written, submitted and in some cases 

published and working hours reduced temporarily at least. 

I blogged a couple of months ago about how life is changing here as children develop and grow into independent adults. I do feel it is time for a change - we have been doing the childcare/work/family thing for almost 22 years (in 16 days time!) so it is about time. I'm not suggesting anything too drastic, after all family is still the most important thing for me, but it is time for me and DH to start considering new opportunities, new places, new ideas - it all requires some creative thinking, but I'm always doing that anyway. Usually my ideas are dismissed as unworkable and a bit far-fetched!!

But maybe now the time is right for some of those 'crazy ' ideas......

(Finishing off a HUGE bobble for my second cabled, bobble hat on New Year's Eve) 

So for a start (and representing a relatiovely small change for now) I have applied for a new job today - not to replace my current one but as an extra day. I currently only work 2 days so I can easily fit in a third day. It feels quite empowering to start the new year with a new job application! Who knows where it might lead - especially as it is based some distance from home (remote working is allowed - I'm not suddenly considering a huge commute). Fingers crossed that I get an interview!

"Word of the year" seems a popular idea and I do like Angel Gem's word 'aspire'. Justine's word is 'simplify', which I also like, and I thought I should go for a combination, even if this only means I 'aspire to simplify'! (I know, a bit corny isn't it?)

I have written a diary for many years, and as the years have passed I have chosen bigger

 diaries, finally for the last few years buying A5 size diaries with one page per day, as 

I found I had more to write each year. 

But last year I struggled to keep up with it. It became more of a burden and a 

chore to be completed at the end of each day rather than a pleasure. I'm even attempting to go back and fill in gaps, hence all the pieces of paper stuck in it, reminders of events that took place on particular days. 

So this year I bought a smaller A6 size and I feel so much happier with it already. Each page is full at the end of the day (although to be fair we have only had 3 full days of 2016 

so it's a bit early to start boasting at how well I'm doing at keeping up with it don't you think?)

This diary travels around with me quite a lot, especially when I go away, so how much easier it will be to carry this smaller one! There, that's my first,tiny step to simplyfying!

Here is my final make of 2015 - and this is what that big bobble was destined for!! 

It is identical to the one I knitted earlier here, but in a darker grey. The first one I gave to 

younger son's girlfriend as a Christmas present. I was unsure whether she would like it but 

younger son visited her over New Year and very kindly sent me photos of her wearing her 

hat when they were out saying that "she loved it"!  

It is a lovely pattern to knit, the hat seems to expand to fit any head size, and I do like the wool so I doubt this will be the last that one I knit...

watch this space!!

And as to my current 'on the needles' project, well that will look familiar as I'm knitting 

another Osen Christmas stocking! We were chatting on Christmas Day and the 

children/young people decided that as of Christmas 2016 when we will have no 'children' 

in the house )all aged 18+ years), they felt they would like to do things a little differently. 

As the first Osen stocking was so well received in our house and is big enough to take several gifts (even if not strong enough, it has to be laid on the floor once gifts are added),
the children decided that next Christmas we should buy each other little gifts to go into
stocking and then a large secret Santa gift for one other person.
So I then received orders for 4 more stockings!! 

I thought I'd better get started! I realised by swapping the red and green for
main/contrasting colours I had enough yarn to knit another stocking and then I will have to
buy some more titus yarn to knit 3 more and mix and match colours.
I'm looking forward to see what colour combinations we arrive at. 

And finally for today ....

I do love drinking tea from an elegant cup that keeps my tea warm so on my birthday recently, when I spent the day in a local city, I treated myself to one of these PiP mugs. 

Look, it even has some of the design inside the mug!!

Now I really am in love with this mug - but not so much the family as it is neither 

dishwasher or microwave proof. 

So when I next visited the city with my daughter to have a mooch around the sales, I didn't buy anything n the sales, but a matching mug came home with me!

Just perfect!

Best wishes and wishing you all a good week.

xXx

Worth their weight in gold....

Hello,

Oops, I've been absent from here for a while. 

I feel a bit devoid of words at the moment, I'm not sure why so I will let the photos do most of the talking - with a few words for explanation where necessary. 

Fabulous fungi growing on coconut, found in a packet in one of my kitchen cupboards 

(cough, cough!)

A few of my Christmas makes - a scarf for daughter,bobble hat for son's girlfriend, 

my Osen Christmas stocking.

Son's brass band played at a carol concert at St Matthew's Church in Sheffield. 

This was the only concert that son played that we attended this year. 

Before son went to University we used to attend many band concerts this time of year - we thoroughly enjoyed our one brass band outing this Christmas! 

Only one child is, well, still a child but we continue with the old traditions of pillowcases

 for a few gifts from Santa, newspaper, port, carrots and Santa's muddy footprints. 

Sons enjoying a virtual reality experience - they are on a roller coaster, using an app on their 

mobile phone. I love this sequence of photos while experiencing a 'loop the loop'.

I reduced my work hours 3 months ago, I hardly saw my daughter and as she has only 18 

months left at school we decided it would be better to reduce my income but spend more 

time at home for those last 18 months. I do appreciate that this isn't an option for some and so am grateful that we have the choice. 

One of the benefits of reduced hours means I have more time to bake and this year I made 

a Christmas cake for the first time in several years. M&S have been supplying our 

Christmas cake for the last few years. 

Younger son saw me putting the marzipan on the cake and said "I wanted to ask if 

you had made one this year but didn't like to"! 

Older son saw me icing the cake and said "Oo, homemade cake, so much nicer than shop bought".

Those two comments were worth their weight in gold, and every penny of income lost because of my reduced hours - in years to come I know the boys will remember the Christmas cakes I made - they would never remember "Oh, yes mum used to work 4 days a week"!

Yarny Christmas gifts -

 Cherry Drop and Holly Berry from West Yorkshire Spinners. 

I have plans to knit socks with this yarn. 

And yarn from Jamiesons of Shetland for my baa-ble hat. This is a free knitting pattern

 from Shetland Wool Week 2015. There are lots of finished examples of baa-ble hats 

here on Ravelry.  

What a super label!

Indulgent evenings spent reading craft magazines (more thoughtful gifts from children) and 

wearing my new pyjamas. 

I have wanted to buy snuggly pyjamas for several years but just never actually bought any. 

 I saw a pair reduced to half price just before Christmas and decided this year was my time to buy a pair, and I LOVE them!  

2015 has been a hard year, not so much for me directly but several friends have experienced

 quite difficult bereavements. I don't wish to say more on here. My thoughts have 

been with them over this Christmas period. 

For many, Christmas isn't the happy, jolly time portrayed all around us. 

I do hope that 2016, and the passing of time provides some relief.  

I do hope you all had a super Christmas and I send you all my very best wishes for a 

prosperous 2016!

And as always "Thank you for reading!"

xXx