Will there be enough to sledge?

Good afternoon,

Well today was a mixed bag of weather. This morning we started with rain for almost two hours......

then it started to hail, thrashing small white stones against our windows........

which quite suddenly turned to heavy snow.....

so I quickly texted my daughter as we both get VERY excited about snow and always hope that even one flake of snow is a harbinger of a heavy snow storm, or at least enough snow for us to go sledging.

Just look at those flakes on the sleeve of my fleece, caught while I momentarily stepped outside to capture memories of the best snow so far this year....

But sadly, if not unexpectedly, all too soon the snow stopped, but it left behind on my windowsills a pretty temporary memory of what had gone before .....

and gradually the memories disappeared...

while the snow on the road  portrayed its own stunning but short lived beauty before fading until next time.....

People parcels

Hello

This parcel arrived today,

and with it came a few more little people to live in our house. As of today our house is a little more crowded.

Some of our new residents look decidedly ferocious....

others look rather menacing and raise all sorts of questions......

and others you just know not to argue with!

What adventures will these new inhabitants bring to our house?

 Happy Lego adventures!

Portable projects

Hello,

I am one of those people who finds it difficult to be sat doing nothing. Waiting in a queue, waiting to pick someone up and give them a lift in the car, sitting in a queue of traffic etc etc etc - it is all quite frustrating for me. I live a fairly busy life with children (or 'young people' I think is a more appropriate term now) and I occasionally wonder that if I added up all those minutes spent waiting and used that time really productively just think what else I might achieve.

Thus, I rarely go anywhere without my book (just in case an opportunity presents when I can read a page or two) and I always take it to to work with me. But if I'm venturing out on a longer trip, especially with other people when I know I shall be chatting, I like to take something else with me to do. Now clearly this something else has to be highly portable and possibly something that does not need too much concentration either; the something else has almost to be a background activity to whatever is the main event.

And for me the solution is ...... sock knitting! I love sock knitting for so many reasons:

1. the lovely colour combinations of sock wool.
2. the small amount of wool needed to knit a pair of socks.
3. the cosy pair of socks you produce at the end.
4. knitting with 4 small double-pointed needles fascinates people and they look askance at me.
5. people are so impressed when you admit that you knitted the pair of socks you are wearing.

 So here is my portable project

This little bag measures just 20 x 14 cm with a zip opening. It is just the right size for my wool, needles, pattern, and notebook. It is a pencil case one of the children received years ago when we went on a package holiday to somewhere hot. The fact that it is see-through is an added bonus because it means I can see what is in it immediately - so many times I have run upstairs and grabbed this little pack before rushing off somewhere.

In the photo above you can see my current socks on the needles - love that blue. You can see the label in the bag - yes, I like to use Regia 4ply. So many colour choices.......

Do you hate having idle hands? What is your favourite portable project?

Happy sock knitting!

it's too late now!

Hello,

In an earlier post I showed photos of the stripey blanket I'm crocheting. Here is the latest photo of progress - I am just over half way.

But I am a bit of a perfectionist and so to my horror noticed that a few stripes previously, somehow I had miscounted how many rows I'd crocheted and a limestone stripe was narrower than is should be!! Arghhhh!

In my defense, I think it is quite easy for me to miscount rows because I'm usually crocheting while doing something else, such as watching television, talking or even driving - well, not me driving but while on a car journey. So last night was THE BIG decision - do I pull out about 10 rows and correct the mistake? A plan came to mind..... I asked my son whether he could notice something odd with the blanket. In turn he asked "Is it something to do with the width of the stripes?" "Yes", I replied. "Ah", he said, pointing to a stripe about 30 rows back, the pink one isn't as wide as the others".

Double argghhhhhh! TWO ERRORS!! But, there is NO, way I am unpicking 30 rows. Husband suggested I started making the rows random in size to disguise any errors but I think it is a bit late for that. So I will just have to continue crocheting, concentrating a bit more on my row counts to prevent any more imperfections. But to be honest, when it is complete, I doubt anyone will notice.

Now here is a little test - can you see the 2 offending stripes in the photo above? I think one is more obvious than the other.

Oops, starting to get low on blanket yarn supplies - time to buy more!

Happy Friday evening!

Paper treats

Hello

Are you an avid magazine reader? Do you have a subscription to a magazine? Is there one magazine that finds you searching out your local newsagents as soon as the latest issue is released?

I have to admit to liking magazines - I see them as a treat to me! I guess, as with most people, I have my favourites and one that I have been buying for quite a few years is Cross Stitcher.

In fact I think I first starting buying a cross stitch magazine about 20 years ago - how can it be so long ago?? I love the design of the cowboy shown on the front of the February issue above - it is exactly the project I would have undertaken a few years ago for my younger son. I stitched knights and footballers for him but never a cowboy. I really like the wooden floral keyring free gift too - although I have as yet to start this one.

Another crafty magazine I enjoy is Simply Crochet. I have talked about Simply Crochet before in this post. I have been crocheting summer blooms for some joyful bunting.

 

The other genre of magazines I indulge in from time to time are home style magazines such as Country Homes and Interiors and Country Living.

 

The homes and style ideas in these magazines appeal to me and in fact it was in this recent post that I showed a photo taken from the Country Living magazine - I loved the stripey blanket.

I'm lucky in that we have a market stall trader who sells out of date magazines for £1 each - I consider that a bit of a bargain! Unfortunately, whereas he used to regularly sell Cross Stitcher and some knitting magazines, he rarely does now - but he always has a good stock of home style magazines so I purchase most of mine for £1. However, I don't buy any magazine without a quick perusal of the pages first - if there is nothing that is of interest or nothing that appeals to my crafty side I don't buy it. This caution by me ensures that I am not swamped at home by magazines, as I do find it hard to throw magazines out. And it also makes it feel that my occasional magazine purchase (as opposed to a regular purchase) is a treat. And I often look back at old issues for inspiration and project ideas.

Are you a magazine hoarder?

Happy browsing!

Scrummy yarn

Good morning,

As my little "about me" section proclaims on my blog, I love to crochet and knit. I have been knitting for as long as I can remember. My mum taught me and I remember once as a child knitting a lemon-coloured vest for one of my toys and finishing it by myself one morning sat in bed. I proudly took it to show my mum, who, if my memory isn't playing tricks, made me feel as if I'd achieved something quite special - thanks mum.

My mum was a skilled lady at a range of crafts including wood working but one thing she couldn't/didn't do was crochet, so I taught myself with a little help from a nearby neighbour, Mrs Andrews. Although my default woolly craft is knitting, over the last few years I have taken on more crochet projects. My most ambitious so far is the stripey blanket that I'm about half way through and which I introduced in an earlier post. Just for my own delectation (and hopefully yours too) here again is a recent photo of said blanket.

I'm crocheting the blanket in Patons 100% cotton DK - a scrumptious yarn with many colour choices and a fantastic stitch definition. I LOVE the yarn. But I confess........ I have another yarn love too................DMC's natura just cotton. 

Oh my goodness, once again the colour range is extensive so it's easy to find just the one you want. Or in my case "ones" you want. Here are some of the colours I have.

 
Don't you just want to dive into those balls and immerse yourself in a world of colour? And what have I been using this yarn for? To crochet a pile of these .....

.... taken from the popular Simply Crochet magazine and issue 7 in particular.

And here is my little pile of summer blossoms, perched atop another make of mine ( I will tell you more about that one another time).

As you can see I have yet to complete my little rounds of summer goodness into gorgeous bunting - the trouble is I keep finding more colours of the natura cotton that I think would just look so good with the colours I have already. I think I'm addicted!!

So another photo of my crocheted blooms.

And another of my pile of yarn, "sigh". With so many colour choices it is impossible to restrict yourself to just a few.

 

Have a good day - the sun is shining brightly here!

Saturday's shoes

Hello,

So I wonder, what is your typical Saturday? Do you have a lie-in? Do you catch up with household chores, or with friends, or do you manage both? Is your Saturday just not a Saturday without some retail therapy? Or sport? Or do you prefer to spend some time at home with your family?

Or are you like us and do a bit of everything?

Most Saturdays for us include some running, and in particular cross country running by the younger members of the family. With all the heavy rain we have had this winter, this season's cross country has been a particularly muddy affair, and most Saturdays we return home with a pile of shoes like this:

So here are running spikes and walking shoes waiting for the boot fairy. And of course there is the pile of muddy clothes to accompany said muddy shoes. But we all come home happy - it's a great reason to get out of the house and into the fresh air on Saturday mornings. And what a great excuse for the young people to get muddy!

Last year the cross country runners were contending with snow, and the national cross country championships held at Herrington Country Park, Sunderland in March provided the runners with some particularly challenging and novel conditions - 6 inches of snow which soon became churned up into several inches of mud once a few hundred runners had stamped their way through it. They finish their races exhilarated and puffing in the cold air.....

In a slightly different vein, but still related to shoes I took my younger son into town on Saturday to buy a new pair of school shoes - he had complained that his socks were getting wet even when it is had only rained a little. So we had a short shopping trip in the afternoon and purchased a pair of shoes from Clarks. When we got home my son had a rather closer inspection of his school shoes and realised why his socks refused to stay dry - the reason? A hole somewhat larger than a 10 pence piece in the sole and lining of one shoe and a similar size hole in his other shoe, with just the inner lining protecting his socks - hardly waterproof!!

We now have one happy young man in the house - eager to where his new shoes for school.

And today I'll leave you with a photo of my amaryllis. This was given to me as a bulb for my birthday in December - isn't it a beauty?  The colour is a deep, stunning, red with an orangey hue too.

Hope you enjoyed your Saturday!