Author Archives: pennygj

Tuppence…

…well, two Pennys anyway! Our trip to the south coast meant I could catch up with a new friend, one made in blogland and another Penny.

We met here, at the De la Warr Pavillion…

Which is a lovely place to sit on the balcony, drink tea and have a natter while gazing at the sea. Penny’s blog is L is for Love and as we have been following each others musings for a while now we knew we had lots in common. Do pop over and have a look, and also to see the beautiful teacosy that Penny has made because she kindly gave me the pattern. And no, Penny, you didn’t talk too much at all!!

I have taken SO many pictures of the sea, the sky, the view along the coast I could fill several posts so I am going to be a little selective (you will be relieved to hear!) We were really fortunate to have glorious weather, if a little chilly, in contrast to what was going on back home. I made myself quite unpopular with my boastful phone calls about sipping coffee by the sea while everyone in Norfolk was enduring hailstorms…Sorry!

I think I was overwhelmed by how clean it all felt. After the muddiness of our little lanes the washed pebbles and glittering sea was wonderful, especially as the sun was coming up…

As usual I found a lovely shop selling gorgeous sewing bits and pieces. This one is The Owl and Sewing Cat, tucked away in Bexhill-on-Sea but with another branch opening in Eastbourne very soon. Do look out for it if you are in the area, it’s really worth a visit, and I’ve just discovered, they have an online shop too, so I don’t have to wait until my next visit…Woopee!

I bought some ric rac and pompom braiding…

Yes, more pompoms! And a card of assorted braids…

Which has a distinctly Christmassy feel don’t you think? It must be nearly time to be allowed to think about it now, surely?

This being so, I’d better step away from the computer and get on with being creative while it’s quiet. It is very quiet too, as Higgins is STILL sleeping off the effects of being on the go non-stop with two little boys for a week. He was scared to take a nap in case he missed something!

Actually, while he is asleep and can’t be embarrassed, want to see some cute baby pictures?

All together now…Aaaaaah!

Hello, Hello!

We’re home from our hols… The first holiday we have taken all together as a family, me and Higgins and the boss (so Higs and I let him think….ssssh!) The little country dog has been to town, and done shopping, and hot chocolate,

and walking along the Promenade.

and when he is not doing all that he has been with his Boys…the Big One and the Little One, having so much fun. Today has been the first day back and has been devoted to sleeping, some sleeping and a little bit more sleeping…

There’s lots to tell you all about so please call back when you can, I should have sorted my photos out soon!

Taking a Break…

…and taking advantage of a lovely day Higgins and I went for a little hike. I also wanted to test out my new fingerless mitts. The first pair I made were the largest size and are just a tad loose, my hands are long rather than wide. I used the pinky colourway of the wool I bought last week, it’s really pretty.

A much better fit, the middle size on the pattern which you can find on Ravelry, and of course, even quicker to knit.

It’s quite hard to find quiet places to walk amongst all the arable land in our bit of Norfolk but a lot of the fields have unploughed verges…

… and in places there are maps of the permitted footpaths.

Eventually we came to the lane leading to our local broad. Did you know I live on the Norfolk Broads? It’s a area of waterways linking large shallow expanses of water which are thought to be ancient flooded peat diggings. The only way to see them really is by boat, the road network scarely links up with it at all, but we have a small broad in the area which is isolated from the river system and is protected for the wildlife.

I’m ashamed to say I haven’t been there for years, you know how it is when you live near something. However, our little womble took us to the end of the lane and it looked very inviting…

…at the end of the lane we found this…

At the end of a small boardwalk is a reed fence panel overlooking the broad which acts as a hide for bird watching…

There’s a footpath running round part of the broad which we will explore another time, but time was getting on and it was time for Higgins supper…

This morning I had a lovely surprise. Isn’t it exciting to have a present when it’s not Christmas, when it isn’t your birthday, and you really aren’t expecting anything. Lovely Sarah, who won the pom poms sent it as a thank you. It was beautifully wrapped in a recipe with a letter on flowery paper, and a sweet crochet flower to finish it off…

… and inside…

…a notebook and pen, bluebell smellies for the bath, and a dear little fairy cake brooch which went straight on, it exactly matched what I’m wearing today!

We’ll be taking another break soon. Higgins and I are going to the seaside. I’m not sure whether I will be able to post much over the next week or so, but there’ll be plenty to see when we get home again. I’ve had lots of lovely comments and also questions about some of the things I’ve been doing so I will be doing my best to answer questions, and also to get to grips with some tutorials, zigzag crochet and the white crunchy bunting to name but two…

Look out for a postcard from the sunny (I hope) south coast of England!

See you soon…

Frogging…

When I mentioned ‘frogging’ to a friend the other day I was met by a blank stare. However, when I then said ‘Rippit, Rippit’ the blank stare turned to enlightenment, and sympathy.

There’s been a lot of ripping involved with my latest cushion. It’s not that I haven’t knitted fair isle before, but I’ve not had a palette of seventeen colours, and I wasn’t changing the background colours as well as the pattern colours. I’m blaming Kaffe Fassett and his book Pattern Library. I think he has a special sort of brain that doesn’t get boggled, because boggled my own brain certainly became.

The crochet cushions are the same back and front, but I didn’t think my sanity would last long enough to knit both sides, so I dug out some needlecord in a really pretty blue and some gorgeous red wooden buttons which I think work well.

Too late I noticed I’ve got the nap of the needlecord running both ways which makes one side darker than the other, but I’ve decided it’s a design feature!

So, would you like to see it? Here’s a little hint…

…and another…

This is the reverse side!

…and that’s quite pretty too, but here is the finished article…

I have two more little cushion pads left so I’m having a ponder about what I do next. There are the lovely grandala ideas over on Crochet with Raymond, I could do Lucy’s granny stripe, zigzags might be fun…

In the mean time I have been resting my eyes from all that colour with some pristine white cotton crochet, another bunting experiment. I have resisted so far because I’ve seen lots of other versions of crochet bunting but I deliberately didn’t look too closely at anyone else’s so I could invent my own take on it. So far, I’m liking it…

Well it must be time to finish blogging, if only because Henry the cat has come to sit on the keyboard and I can only access some of the keys. Have a lovely weekend…x

All Better Now…

Thanks you all so much for all the lovely messages of concern about Higgins when he wasn’t well. He really enjoyed all the kisses and cuddles I had to pass on and it seemed to work. He’s finished all the pills, and is back on form, full of bounce and mischief. As you can see…

He really isn’t supposed to sit on the studio sofa, given that he’s eaten all the corners off the indoor cushions, but somehow, using that ‘bottom that’s made out springs’, he gets there.

After a big walk this morning I tucked him up in bed so I could sneak off to Norwich for lunch, a gallery and a little retail therapy. The King of Hearts is a lovely destination for all of those things and it’s such a shame that due to lack of funds it’s due to close very soon. After a bowl of warm and spicy soup we had a look round the Twenty by Twenty Exhibition, an eclectic mix of East Anglian talent covering print, sculpture, textiles and mixed media.

The retail therapy came courtesy of some of the little independent shops which are popping up in Norwich which is making it more amd more exciting, interesting and dangerous to the purse! Mrs Bobobun wrote about this one a little while ago but I only got there today. It’s lovely!

It’s full of all the stuff I love. I limited myself to a present for my daughter, and as it was so prettily wrapped up in tissue I can’t show you what it is yet!

Can you guess?

And I also indulged my wrapping paper fetish. I’m always falling in love with gorgeous paper, and then can’t bring myself to use it! This is double sided, so twice as nice…

Then there is The Book Hive…

..an extremely dangerous place for me since it’s full of books!

And you know what I’m like around books. I bought this one….

I’ve dipped into it , there’s another blog post in my head already!

I had to drop in to see the lovely wool lady on Norwich Market… Really. I had to. I found two more lovely colourways in the wool I used for the fingerless gloves in this post…

and some lovely bright sock wool.

I really need to knit myself some new socks. All my old faithfuls have started to go into holes, possibly helped by having my toes chewed…need I say more?

But I mustn’t start anything else until I’ve finished my latest cushion. I’ve done the granny squares…

…but the latest one has been a bit more ambitious, and has required a degree of ‘frogging’ to get it right. It be all ready for my next post.

Oh dear, there’s a beeping from the kitchen. Time to remove the Blogger hat and put on the Chef’s apron. I’ll leave you with the rose I rescued from the garden before the last bout of nasty weather…

Sssssh….

We’ve got to do the prize draw. Higgins was really looking forward to it. We were going to have fun with the hat, and interesting pieces of paper and possibly running round the garden trying to read the piece of paper before it got too soggy.

But Higgins is a poorly little pup…

We had to spend some time at the vet’s today because he couldn’t eat his breakfast biscuits and spat out his cornflake at Granny’s. And when he barked at the post lady, he squeaked. It seems to be a sore throat. I have been poaching chicken to serve with rice and he can manage that. No walkies, and no playing with friends…and Higgins can’t do that either!

So while Higgins sleeps off the injection and the antibiotic tablets, I am quietly enlisting the assistance of the online Random Number Generator (which isn’t quite so much interactive fun)

I gave everyone a number, pressed go..and…

…it’s…

Sarah Hickman!

Congratulations Sarah! Your Pompom Bunting will be in the post next week, I hope you enjoy it. Meanwhile, I shall put my nurse’s hat on again and go and check out the sick room…sssssh….

Planet Penny

Crafts, Crochet, Patterns & Tutorials