Category Archives: Knitting

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…

The End of the Summer

I don’t think there’s any getting away from it now, do you? I’ve hung on to the bunting for as long as I can but it’s looking awfully frayed and windswept now and as I sit here in the studio listening to the wind howling and the rain lashing on the roof I can see all my little flags are wrapped round and round the tape like little sausages.

I’m trying really hard to be positive about Autumn. I’ve been looking at lovely blogs with gorgeous autumny images so I know lots of you out there enjoy thi time of year, but today isn’t one of the better days! Still, I musn’t grumble. We’ve just had a couple of days in the west and the weather was glorious and I have some great pictures of Bristol and Bath to show you soon.

I’m rather happy to discover I can knit in the car! Reading makes me queasy so I hadn’t bothered to try before but because I’ve had a hook or needles in my hands so much lately I found I was horribly fidgety on the car journey so I gave it a go. I’d already had a panicky moment when I realised that heaving a basket containing 17 balls of wool across the country to someone else’s house might be a step too far. I had a couple of balls of this lovely wool…

…which had been part of a birthday pressie, it makes me think of blackberries and heather.

I also really needed a new pair of fingerless gloves. (Somebody small and black and four legged having eaten my last pair…)

: Friendship fingerless mitts by Sophy T O’Donnell

I was happy to find this pattern on Ravelry and it works very well. Number one was knitted up on the journey there – and in odd moments when I wasn’t having delicious cuddles with my newest little cousin, and the second one polished off on the way back!

I do have a little flowery prettiness to show you which I captured before the rain and wind set in today. I have some wonderful sunflowers which have been in a vase for days and are still going strong…

The cosmos grew to ridiculous heights before deciding to flower but they are lovely now and also last well when cut.

Next year I must get more Zinnias. They are so jolly, and just go on and on…

Dalias too, although there is the slug problem as you can see….

A great big pompom of hydrangea…

…and fuchias too…

I can see there is a bit of overkill on Planet Penny pink going on here but I discovered a self sown nasturtium hiding in a corner…

I’ve been really pleased with the sunflowers I grew this year. So much better than the single flowered monsters which are a novelty but don’t do much else, the multi flowered ones have gone on and on despite the wind and rain.

…and I still have roses. I hope the remaining buds will open and not get spoilt by the weather.

While I’ve been typing this, Higgins has given up completely on the great outdoors. He really doesn’t like wet weather and hides in his bed if anyone mentions walkies. Like this…

Yes, he’s really there. Under two blankets and inside the mattress cover. You’d never know. But, if I say the magic word…’Bickies’… he suddenly appears!

I’d better go and get that bickie now don’t you think? And one for me too…and a cup of tea! Enjoy the weekend, and don’t forget to enter the draw for a chance to win a jolly pompom bunting garland to brighten up your day! x

Fairy Cakes and Bunting

Where has the week gone? I do seem to have been dashing around, hither and yon, but even so I managed a little hooking and knitting as I went. I’m still loving my new knitting book and have been going a little mad on teeny weeny socks. They’re all packed up now and winging their way as I type to keep tiny toes warm but I’m sure it’s ok to give you a little peek…

Aren’t they cute? And I love the yarn which is merino wool, cashmere and silk, lovely to work with…

I’ve also made a scarf from this pattern…

Which is incredibly cosy and warm, and very quick to knit.

I’ve also done a spot of baking. It was the first birthday of our very swish Eco built village hall and everyone was invited to the party. It seemed a fairy cake sort of occasion and I’d found some polka dot bun cases…

…and some gorgeous little mini smartie decorations I was longing to use…

They did show up rather well on the cake table!

It was a lovely excuse to meet up with friends for a cuppa and something sweet and sticky (I’ll get back on the Weightwatchers regime tomorrow- honest!)

As I said, I have been hooking too, but with all the little socks I’m not quite ready to show you what I’ve been up to just yet, so I’m going to talk about bunting again. This bunting…

Lots of lovely people have been leaving nice comments about the pompom bunting I made with my leftover wool and Vanessa over at Do You Mind If I Knit was kind enough to mention it and link to Planet Penny. It made me think I’d like to do something a bit special for all of you who have been visiting over the last months so I have decided to do a …

GRAND POMPOM BUNTING GIVEAWAY!

Would you like to join in? All you have to do is leave a comment on this post, and to be in with more of a chance if you put a link from your blog to Planet Penny I will put your name into the hat twice! The bunting is several metres long so will make a really pretty decoration, and being multi-coloured it will match most colour schemes. I’ll make the draw on Saturday 2nd of October so there’s plenty of time to enter the draw.

I’m looking forward to hearing from you all…enjoy your weekend x

P.S.I’ve just realised this post is enough to give you spots before your eyes!

Four and Twenty Blackberries…

…to bake in a pie! That seems to be all I can find. Just enough berries to colour an apple pie prettily pink. Certainly not enough for jam or jelly. I know they are late this year but an awful lot appear to have shrivelled and died before even ripening. Higgins doesn’t like blackberry picking. HE likes to decide when we stop and start on a walk, and he’s not going to climb into prickly places with HIS short legs, Oh no!

Still, I might just make the most of these by making Blackberry and Apple Crumble Icecream. I’ll report back on that later so bear with me.

I’m happy to be able to show you the latest baby gift before it goes off to my great nephew. ( Why does being a Great Aunt feel so much more aging than a Granny?)

I’ve also tried one of the patterns from my new knitting book. (You didn’t think I could wait ’till I’d finished everything else did you?) Remember these?

Being an American book I had to find alternative yarn, but I was more than happy with what I got.

Cashmere….Merino wool….Silk…Machine Washable! It’s lovely, really soft and cuddly…

It is Sublime baby cashmere merino silk DK which I bought in Norwich for £4.50 for 50gms but I’ve since ordered some other colours online from Shadow’s Discount Wools at £3.90 a ball. I’ve had a sock thing for ages, as you might recall, so these are perfect to add to my repetoire for present giving.

Finally, there’s the blanket. I’m SO near to finishing. Remember this?

Well, this is all I have left…

Just three more rows of edging to go and I’ll be ready to show it off, Hooray!