Author Archives: penny
FollowTaking out Stitches…
…or ‘frogging’, as it is sometimes called. If you’re wondering why, as you unpick your precious stitches, you will, ‘Rippit, Rippit’!
Today was the day Henry went to be frogged! He was not impressed…
I took as a good sign just how MAD he was about the whole thing. Only 4 stitches but the fury, the spitting and snarling …phew! We’re both glad that’s over…
Higgins checked out the crate…
…and the patient…
…a risky business with that cold nose!
so Henry went to bed, and I had a soothing cuppa, and did some therapeutic baking.
When my children were very young we lived for a few years in Pembrokeshire, in fact my daughter as born there. We were very rural and I didn’t drive, so we were very self sufficient, and any treats were homemade or foraged. Jam was always blackberry, although as the children complained about ‘lumps’ it was bramble jelly, there was a freelance apple tree, and one amazing year the biggest field mushrooms I’ve ever seen.
I was always baking to feed these hungry mouths and a favourite was Welsh Cakes. I haven’t made any for years, and was amazed to find I could dredge the recipe up from memory (this is the memory that never knows where the car keys are!)
If you’d like to try them out, I’ve added them to the Recipe page which you’ll find at the top.
I have a knitting project on the go too, some birthday socks for a dear friend. Hard wearing and colourful was the key, and I must extol the wonders of Twitter again. I tweeted for recommendations and got an answer back from the lovely Pip of the Sock Yarn Shop. I wizzed over and had a really hard job to choose from all the lovely yarns and colours but finally settled on a Kaffe Fassett design for Regia. I ordered in the afternoon and was unwrapping the parcel at 8 o’clock the following morning!
…and I got a free bag to keep it in!
I think I’ve been creative enough today to join in with Handmade Monday, despite the feline frogging! Have you heard about it? You’ll find a guest post explaining it on Craft Blog UK which is well worth a look in itself if you’re a fellow blogger.
So I think it’s time to get back to the knitting needles if I’m to finish the socks by the end of the month, and offer a warm lap to Henry to make up for the indignities of the day.
See you soon…..x
Silent Sunday
A Nature Walk…and a Ta-Daaaa…!
Did you go on Nature walks when you were at Primary School? I can remember being marched along the pavement in a crocodile, hand in hand with my best friend, collect leaves and nuts for the Nature table. All my memories seem to be Autumnal, I’m sure we went at other times too.
Higgins and I went for a walk yesterday which turned into a nature walk, although I did all my collecting with the camera. I’ve just been turning them into a mosaic and I liked it so much I though I’d share it with you…
It’s amazing just how much there is to see in quite a small area of countryside.
And the Ta-Daaa? Well, I’ve finished the Boneyard Shawl, which I wrote about here (and that’s despite making all those pompoms!)
I really love the colours…
and it’s lovely and soft and snuggly…
I used 4 balls in the end so it’s quite a good size…
Although I don’t what it was with the shaping, it must be me…it looks a little like a sting ray!
One of the compensations of the end of the summer is going to be having an excuse to get all wrapped up in knitting!
Well, the prickling of the hairs on the back of my neck tell me…just let me have a peek… yes, as I thought, I am getting a HARD STARE…it’s walkies time again.
I’d better get the lead …
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More Hearts…More Pompoms…
Hello!!! Is it Thursday already? This week is galloping by. Firstly, because I know you’ll want to know, Henry is still doing nicely. The medication has been finished, and as I write he is snoring contentedly, in his bed. This is a relief, as when he first came back the only place he wanted to be if he couldn’t have a warm lap was a warm keyboard.
The only little cloud on the horizon is the visit to vet next Monday for the removal of the stitches. This will probably require the entire squad of nurses and maybe one or two brave volunteers from the waiting room as he will NOT be a happy bunny!
Oh, and some hair restorer…
His tummy was shaved for the ultrasound, his head was shaved for the spinal tap, patches were shaved on his legs for the drips, and his throat was shaved for the operation. Thank goodness it’s summer, I don’t think he’s be happy in a jumper, however beautifully knitted!
But pompoms, I hear you cry, you said there were pompoms!
There are SO many pompoms! I found this wonderful gadget…
Do you remember the Heart and Pompom bunting…
…which I made in January?
I still love it, but I made the pompoms with a little gadget which my mum had given me because she wasn’t very happy with her results. Well, I tried really hard with it, and made so many pompoms using up my leftovers…
but they were never as firm and fluffy as I wanted them to be.
Now I have found this gadget…
…and it is wonderful! The smallest sized one makes a beautifully firm pompom in just few minutes and it is so compulsive I had to pack the gadgets up and put them away as there was a danger that my entire stash would be used up!
The solution was to make a larger version of the Heart and Pompom Bunting – the tutorial for that is here. I just worked the last row in the pattern in the main colour and added an extra row in the contrast colour to make the hearts bigger and made the joining chain slightly longer between the hearts so I could use slightly bigger pompoms.
Would you like to see?
It was hard to find the best way to show you. When I hung it up inside I realised how much my house needs redecorating, and the light wasn’t right so here it is outside the studio…
There’s actually a bit too much light here, it rather bleaches the colours, but I’m not going to complain about sunshine! (If you can’t find the pompom maker locally I got mine from Clothkits thank you, Kaye!)
Now we have another sunshiny day I’d better get out into the garden. All the strong wind over the last couple of days has blown my little plastic greenhouse and flowerpots all over the garden. (Higgins has done his best to round things up but the toothmarks are a problem…)
Talking of Higgins, he’s rather had the spotlight taken off him with recent events but if you were wondering…he’s fine…
You see…?
