Tales of the knitty

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T15:52:00.005Z

Last week, when there was lots of snow, I saw this on the roof of the fifth floor at the office:

The colleague I was talking to took a photo - I am sure things like this don't happen that often. I am always astonished by what is around us if we only look. A perfect heart in the snow! Isn't nature amazing - the snow must have melted this way over the manhole cover and it looked beautiful. Happy Valentine's Day!

I have been knitting quite a bit but have been flirting with too many projects to have much to show for it. The one project I have finished are these lovely Berry Hill mitts, using this pattern, for a friend who does a lot of ice skating.

She gets cold hands and I thought these would be perfect! She can express herself artistically and stay warm at the same time. She has red hair and wears a lot of green so I loved this colour for her. The pattern was lovely to knit and the yarn I used, Possum Paints from Jamie Possum, was gorgeously soft. It did shed a bit while I was knitting, but the mitts are soft and luxurious and once knitted up the yarn did not seem to shed too badly. The mitts are so cosy:

Red and white

2009-02-03T12:25:00.010Z

I finally got the bit between my teeth and decided to finish the Debbie Bliss ribbed cardigan that I started about two and a half years ago. I had procrastinated about finishing it largely because I had been convinced that it would not fit, but then I decided that I couldn't bear having it sitting there tormenting me, just waiting to be sewn up. I decided that I would simply give it to someone else if it didn't fit. So, I finally finished it a couple of weeks ago and, to my amazement, it fits!

I am really pleased with it too. It is great for work but I could also wear it out as it is such a great red (not done justice by my camera). The front (with its sparkly vintage buttons):

and the back (which I love)

I am so delighted to have finished something - I seem to have lots of projects on the needles but none near completion. I feel inspired to go on with the finishing!

I have been distracted from knitting too by birthday celebrations - Ellen hit double digits last month and I made fairy cakes for her to take to school:

I can hardly believe she is 10 - it seems so grown up!

And this week, England seized up completely because of snow. When I woke up yesterday this is what the world looked like outside:

This was our walk to school:

Very pretty, but there were no trains into central London, no Tubes and no buses. I took the children to school only to find that half the classes weren't open because the teachers couldn't get in and then the school decided to close at 12.15. My nanny was stranded in Kent so couldn't help out or collect the children. Instead of thinking, like any sensible person would, that I should just stay home, I was very worried about work and so embarked on a journey into the office with the children. To my amazement, the trains had started running again and so we made it to Waterloo and then walked across the bridge:

I managed a couple of hours work before the issue of health and safety (ie no children in the office) meant that I had to go home. But I was given a laptop allowing me remote access to my desktop and so was able to work from home the rest of the day and today, when school was closed altogether.

What has amazed me is how London has simply ground to a halt because of the snow. I am particularly amazed that there were no buses yesterday - it seems a sad state of affairs for a European capital city. But today the sky has been blue and the world is still pretty and things haven't seemed so bad:

While very frustrating, it is not often we get to see snow like this. One aspect I have enjoyed is the extra light it brings - I have been feeling very daylight-deprived, and although I know rationally and can see that the days are getting longer by a few minutes each day, I do not yet feel that it is making a difference to my winter glums. The reflective light from the snow is welcome relief from the dark days of winter:

Isn't it beautiful?

The weather outside is frightful...

2009-01-11T09:51:00.011Z

This past week, it has been freezing, even here in London where we are insulated from the worst excesses of the weather. The children went back to school on Monday and when we woke up there was snow on the ground. Reluctance to get out of bed turned to excitement and we had an enjoyable if slippery walk to school. My walk to the station was picturesque:

It really was a winter wonderland:

I have managed a bit of knitting on the train, although the world of work has returned to its usual cycle and things are busy on the trains again, so despite the fares rising 8 per cent, a seat is far from a certainty. I have started a hat for a friend (a belated birthday present) - another Periwinkle beret

I am pleased with how this is coming out, but am also very tempted to knit a slouch beret - there are so many lovely patterns around. I like Porom and Relm from Brooklyn Tweed and I also like Ysolda's Icing Swirl pattern.

In the meantime, I have started some chevrons of my own:

Yesterday, my wonderful local newsagent had a copy of this, a new magazine from Future Publishing. I bought a copy, and I was pleasantly surprised. There are some interesting patterns and it is a move away from the run-of-the-mill knitting magazines that can be so uninteresting. This magazine is also printed on fabulously glossy paper, and feels very different from its competitors. I would say it is aiming more at the Vogue Knitting, Interweave and Rowan magazine market:

It is good to see some new activity in the magazine market, despite the constant economic gloom that seems to permeate every aspect of the media. Good news seems thin on the ground, so I was pleased that Future have chosen to invest in a new publication. It certainly brightened my day!

This weekend, in the spirit of my new decluttering, I had a major assault on Edward and Lily's room and feel so much better now that we have cleared out some things. Lily was very good about going through her things and I feel that the toys they have they will now be able to access more easily. Edward too was able to decide that there were toys he no longer needed, and so we managed to give a load to a local charity shop. I felt worn out afterwards, but very pleased with the end result. There is a lot more I want to achieve. I figure that if moving is not an option then we can make the house feel bigger by sorting out everything in it!

Christmas goodies

2009-01-03T13:17:00.013Z

Although most of my family doesn't take my knitting obsession seriously, I did get a couple of knitting-related presents for Christmas.

I was lucky enough to get a set of these gorgeous Knitpicks gold-plated knitting needles, which come in a lovely box and even have the sizes marked on them - hooray! I love my Knitpicks needles but have found not knowing what size they are without measuring them very frustrating - it is great that these are marked (and in case you are wondering - there is something on the 3.50mm needles already!):

And Sabine knitted me a gorgeous scarf. I love chevrons and she knows it:

It is knitted using Alice Starmore yarn - I feel very spoiled! She also gave me a couple of balls of Kaffe Fassett Regia sock yarn - gorgeous!

Now that my Christmas knitting frenzy is over, I am going to try to finish some things off and get ahead on some baby knitting. Several friends are expecting babies and so I wanted to be prepared. I have started this lovely vest in the Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino book 3:

and am planning another couple of baby garments, possibly even a blanket.

I also want to knit this for myself:

Charm, from the new Kim Hargreaves book, Amber. I managed to pick up enough Rowan Felted Tweed that had been reduced to half price in the Liberty sale just after Christmas, so am looking forward to casting on. My priority is to finish some things off first, tempted though I am to cast on for another new project...

Twas the knit before Christmas...

2009-01-01T15:38:00.024Z

...and all through the house, not a creature was stirring (except for Ingrid, who still had some last-minute knitting to finish off).

I know it is ages (half a year!) since I blogged, but I am still here, still knitting. The job I started at the end of February is taking up a great deal of time and the little time I have left over is given to the children. Knitting has to fit in to the small windows of opportunity I have - on the train on the way to and from work (when I can get a seat) and in the evenings when the chores are done.

This year has been quite eventful - other than my going back to work full time after a 10-year break (very scary, but definitely the right decision, particularly given the current economic woes), I have been in hospital twice (all fine now!), and we have tried (and failed) to move house. After giving up on moving for the moment, we have tried to content ourselves with moving things around a bit at home and now have the computer in the dining room, which makes life a lot easier. We are also planning for us all to move bedrooms, but we need to get some minor work done first.

I am optimistic that I will be able to get back to blogging now that the family has settled into a new routine around my job and the computer is easily accessible. We have also upgraded the computer so we now have one that works properly - our old computer was so creaky that everything was difficult on it!

Despite the demands of work, I still decided (at the last minute!) to knit the usual scarves for the teachers this year and made three of these:

Yes, it is the Misti alpaca ribs and ruffles scarf, an excellent free pattern.

One of the children's teachers this year already had one of these from me (from a previous year) so I decided to make her some fingerless mitts and used the Fetching pattern again, this time in Jamie possum, which I bought in iknit. I was really pleased with these - they were lovely and soft and the colours came out beautifully evenly:

I knitted another pair of mitts, this time from the Martin Storey's book of men's knits, but felt that this was a less successful pattern:

I also knitted my mum a Forest Canopy shawl in Malabrigo laceweight, which I was really pleased with:

The colours of this also came out beautifully and my mum was delighted with it:

All in all, it was a very pleasing project:

I did manage to complete everything I had planned to, and had a good Christmas - everyone was pleased with their gifts.

This coming year I want to try to make some small adjustments to our life. I want to be more organised with the cooking (this has been one area that has been very hard to keep on top of with my new job). I have bought two books which I hope will make a difference to the meals that I plan. The first, How to Feed Your Whole Family a Healthy Balanced Diet, with Very Little Money and Hardly Any Time, Even If You Have a Tiny Kitchen, Only Three Saucepans ... - Unless You Count the Garlic Crusher... by Gill Holcombe, I have had for a while, but have not used. Today, I made apple cake from it and plan to use some of the more general principles in it to plan our weekly shopping and eating. I have also bought The Kitchen Revolution, which, although I don't intend to follow it to the letter, has some sound principles in it. Despite our unsuccessful attempt to move house (it would be great to have a bit more space) I am well aware of how lucky we are as a family and how comparatively privileged we are.

Like everyone else in the current credit crunch, however, we need to make some economies, and this coming year I plan to do what everyone recommends you do to economise - keep track of where all your money goes down to the last penny.

So, like Sabine, who has been reading my old copy of Not Buying It by Judith Levine, I intend to downsize my wool stash. I shall buy yarn only for specific projects or for gifts and try to use more of my stash. I also intend to sort out the books in the house and all our clothes - I have already started down this road and have been thinning out the children's clothes considerably. There are some great ideas in Levine's book (although she can come across as slightly irritating sometimes - she still runs two houses and two cars in the book), and it is certainly thought-provoking. I have also recently read Kath Kelly's book on how she lived for a pound a day, which, in a similar vein, gives food for thought. While Kath Kelly's year holds much to admire, I think it would be hard to live like this with three children to feed, although I am tempted to use some of her ideas.

If moving is not an option for us because the housing market is so stagnant, then decluttering certainly is. As those of you who know me are well aware, however, I am not the tidiest person in the world, so this will be a real challenge for me. But I feel that with the economy the way it is and the uncertainty hanging over us all, we should make the most of what we have and I certainly have a lot to be grateful for. So, one step at a time, 2009 will be a journey for me into a more thoughtful and considered way of life. One incentive for me is to see how I feel about each purchase if I keep track of everything. I have done this before (when I was saving for my first flat) and actually found it just as satisfying as consuming.

But having a family is different. I hope that we will all learn from the coming year, whatever it may bring.

Happy New Year to you all!

Knitting idyll

2008-06-13T06:56:00.001+01:00

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Originally uploaded by knittingingrid

The girls had a Brownie outing last Sunday and so I had a lovely day just with Edward. So the two of us took a trip to the London Transport Musuem and had great fun, travelling back in time in the lift, looking at all the trains, pretending to drive a Tube train and sitting on the top deck of trams.

There were some great posters of places you could go on the railway or the Underground and I particularly liked this advertisement for Golders Green, complete with knitting in the garden - doesn't it look lovely! A family idyll.

Two girls in a boat

2008-06-02T20:50:00.002+01:00

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Originally uploaded by knittingingrid

Because today's INSET day was tagged on to the end of half-term I wanted to do something special with the children on my extra day off, so we went to the Psycho Buildings exhibition at the Hayward Gallery. This was a great show for the children, and although we were disappointed to find height and age restrictions for some of the installations, we had the surreal experience of boating on one of the terraces - what fun!

Another baby, another kimono

2008-06-02T15:42:00.001+01:00

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Originally uploaded by knittingingrid

A colleague who I used to do freelance work for was due to have a baby in May so I managed to finish this kimono over the weekend and it is now in the post - I hope she likes it! I still haven't got bored with knitting this pattern - it is so sweet and simple and everyone I have made it for says how easy it is to dress a baby in!

The children have a day off today - an INSET day - and so I have taken an extra day off work to be with them. I must say that going back to work will be difficult tomorrow after over a week off. I have really enjoyed being with the children and am feeling bad about being at work again from tomorrow. It has been bittersweet spending time with them over the holiday - I am fretting about the whole work thing but hope it will settle down again once I get back into the swing of things.

Dorset life

2008-05-31T21:21:00.001+01:00

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Originally uploaded by knittingingrid

We have just had a lovely week away for half-term and managed to get to Thomas Hardy's cottage this year. It really is pretty, with a lovely cottage garden, although with just three rooms upstairs and three rooms downstairs, it is hard to imagine how life must have been with six members of the family in the house!

Knitting knearly done

2008-05-31T20:59:00.004+01:00

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Originally uploaded by knittingingrid

I am a few days behind but I have nearly finished this scarf for ISE6. The pattern is the Lace Ribbon scarf from Knitty and once I got used to the pattern it is great to knit (although I went wrong a lot at first). The yarn was hand-dyed for me by Nic and is a silk/cashmere mix. Could this be for you?!...

The wonders of modern technology

2008-05-03T12:50:00.001+01:00

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Originally uploaded by knittingingrid

I have been coveting one of these since they came out in the UK and when I started my new job I found it increasingly difficult to manage evrything. So, I decided to get one to try to make life run more smoothly. With the aid of my new gadget I can now do the shopping, check my email and keep up with life generally in transit. Fantastic! It has taken ages to get my new toy working - I have has to update Windows on my computer, iTunes and the software that came with the phone but think I have finally cracked it. The marvels of technology are all very well but can be very frustrating! I have been trying to figure out how to blog using it and think I am getting there...

I have finished my beret, which I am very pleased with. The motherlode colourway is so pretty - I just love those colour combinations.

April (snow) showers

2008-05-03T12:30:00.003+01:00

We had half a day of snow last month - enough for the children to build a snowman in the back garden. It was the first time there has been enough snow and for them to be old enough to make a snowman on their own, so here he is for posterity:

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Originally uploaded by knittingingrid

Spring things

2008-03-19T22:20:00.009Z

Well, my new full-time job is taking up most of my time, particularly as the Easter week is always the worst week of the year on a weekly (the only time when we have two bank holidays and do not do a double issue, as we do at Christmas). Still, I am thoroughly enjoying being back in the role, even though it feels simultaneously alien and familiar. Already I have done three issues, so time is flying by.

I am finding time to knit on the train, but have not managed to photograph any of my knitting yet! I have signed up for ISE6 and am excited to have got my match, so am already planning what to make. I love the look of this. I am confident I'll be able to make something in time as I do manage to do some knitting while in transit.

I am pressing on with the shawl for school and hope to finish that this weekend (I need to!). My goals for February have been abandoned, and my goals for March have passed me by, but I plan to give myself this month to settle into work and then try to post more regularly next month. At the moment I am working quite long hours but hope things will settle down after Easter.

The children are doing OK, although they have had a few wobbles and I have had some guilty moments. But, I hope they will adapt and that we will all get used to it. I think we all need to try this new routine for at least a few months before we know how it is going. It is great having all my work in one place and not having my days so fragmented - I like having clear blocks of time devoted to work and home. I also like not having work cluttering up the house. In many ways it makes things more straightforward. But it obviously means I cannot be there for everything too. I did make it to Ellen's swimming gala heats to watch her compete (and Paul took her to the finals this week - she came fourth in her race - I am so proud!). Another mum kindly took her and then I met them there. Unfortunately my friend had a flat tyre which she realised once she had arrived, so I was able to call the AA and help her get it fixed. To thank me, she gave me the most beautiful posy of roses, which smelled divine:

We have also managed a spring visit to Bockett's Farm, where these two little lambs were being fed by their mum:

and these sweethearts were dozing in their pen. Look, more twins!:

I love spring!

Early days

2008-02-28T22:13:00.009Z

So, two days into my new job and I am beset by technical problems at my desk. Things will get better, but these first few days of getting to grips with a new computer system are always a bit frustrating. The good news is that I am enjoying dressing up from my refurbished wardrobe and also feel that I will be able to make a difference so that things will run more smoothly - time will tell!

I had a lovely send-off from my old job and was given some wonderful gifts, including some delicious Jo Malone shower gel - lucky me. The polar bear is a little reminder of the fun we've had on the desk there (so sweet!):

Before I started my new job I managed to finish a shawl I have been knitting for a neighbour recently diagnosed with a recurrence of cancer. I know you get cold and need some comfort when you are undergoing chemo so decided that a shawl would be a good gift:

I again used Susan Pierce Lawrence's Forest Canopy Shawl pattern, which is a great stand-by for an easy but very attractive knit. I made the shawl larger than in the pattern, and used about two and a half skeins of Koigu, which was so lovely to knit with - the colour changes as the yarn runs through your hands, and as you make every stitch, are so absorbing to watch and pretty to look at:

Sabine emailed me to let me know that sign-ups for ISE6 are open, so I have signed up for another round - I have been knitting on the Tube and hope that I can keep it up! Let's hope that the tech problems at work are ironed out soon...

Tidying fever

2008-02-12T20:19:00.001Z

Well, I have been most remiss about posting to my poor blog. I think it is because I have been trying to finish off all my freelance projects and because of general tidying fever which has gripped me since I accepted the offer of my new job. My knitting has been rather neglected in the face of my wardrobe overhaul (got to look the part) and determined efforts to sort out the clutter. This week I took six bags to the charity shops and am still sorting. I do feel good about it but tomorrow is Paul's birthday and I have not managed to finish his waistcoat from the fabulous Classic Knits for Men, which is a lovely book. I am knitting the cover project:

Part of the problem is that you really need to knit this in daylight, as the yarns blend together in the general evening gloom. Now that the days are getting a bit longer I am hoping to finish this off before too long. It is also one of those projects where you can be knitting and knitting and no progress seems to be made!

I have also been doing some reading. Margaret sent me this brilliant link to a book called Hungry Planet. It is absolutely fascinating what different families around the world eat and the huge variety in quantities and types of food from one country to another.

So, rather belatedly, how did I do on January's knitting goals?
1. Finish Daphne's baby cape by 12 January. Done - slightly later than hoped for, but finished, and very cute it was too!
2. Start a waistcoat for Paul for his birthday. Started but it won't be finished in time.
3. Knit a beret for my friend Chris. Done - the brown one.
4. Knit a beret for another friend who loves my Flames beret and wants one in a different colour. Done - the blue one.
5. Finish sleeves of Debbie Bliss cardigan. Not done.

What does this tell me? Smaller projects are obviously easier to complete than big ones, and as usual I seem to be able to knit for others but not for myself. I would really like to finish some things I am making for myself, though, as I want to wear them to work! So, although we are halfway through February, I am planning to finish some things for others for the rest of this month and then in March hope to do more 'me' knitting.

Goals for February (what's left of it) are:

1. Finish another beret I am knitting for me.
2. Knit a shawl for a neighbour who is ill with cancer.
3. Knit a shawl for the school raffle (yes, another one!).
4. Make some progress on Paul's waistcoat.
5. Knit something for a friend's baby.

And half of February has elapsed already - help!

Daphne's baby cape

2008-01-28T12:43:00.000Z

I seem to have been knitting Daphne's baby cape from Knit 2 Together forever. I started it ages ago and then got completely bored with it as it starts off with about 260 stitches and is just garter stitch. I should have read up on the internet about other knitters' experience of the pattern more thoroughly as well because once I got going in earnest over Christmas, I soon figured out that three skeins of Cascade 220 was going to be woefully inadequate to complete the project. I am not the only person to have had this problem.

But, despite the tedium or endless garter stitch and the irritation of having to buy another skein of yarn in a different dyelot (grrr!), I finally finished it, and it is lovely. No baby was available to model it, so I borrowed Edward's teddy:

I added some vintage buttons - I like the detail of the two close together at the neck:

The hood is nicely shaped at the back:

and I decided to do the optional loop trim around the hood - and it is so pretty, I'm glad I did:

Of the fourth skein there is very little left:

This pattern seems to be so out on quantities that I have emailed the publisher and am waiting for a response. If anyone out there is planning to knit this, you will need four skeins of Cascade 220, not three!

All the hassle was worth it, though, as I think it is so cute and am very pleased with the finish and the detailing of the shaping on the cape.

There has been an unexpected victim of this winter's norovirus. One of Edward's friends threw up all over her poncho, and her mum, in her panic, put it in the washing machine (along with the loose covers for the sofa). Oops! Felting disaster! Edward's friend was distraught and her mum asked if I would kindly knit another one. They don't take long so I agreed:

I only have enough yarn for one more - I think it will be a relief to stop knitting them, although they are very popular with the children's friends!

Lily has also been doing a bit of sewing:

As you can see, she is still in her pink phase, but her little purse is so sweet I couldn't resist posting it!

Distracted from knitting

2008-01-27T15:20:00.000Z

Sabine sent me a fantastic parcel just after new year and just look what was in it! I am now the proud owner of this sheep-dog:

and these gorgeous, just-my-colour twisted-stitch gauntlets:

They are just beautiful, and fit perfectly - thank you so much Sabine!

It has been so dark and gloomy lately that I have been struggling to take decent photos. There are some better photos on Sabine's blog here.

As Sabine knows, I have been well and truly distracted from my knitting this month. In the second week of January I was offered a full-time job and had several days of anxious decision-making while I decided what to do. Sabine and I had a very helpful email exchange which was very useful in clarifying my thoughts. It is fantastic opportunity for me and I am thrilled at the chance but also very daunted at the prospect of going back to full-time employment (I haven't had a full-time job for almost 10 years!) and anxious about not being with the children so much. I had reached quite a good balance of work and home, with two days out of the house and the rest of the time freelancing at home, but my work patterns have always tended to be rather erratic and deadlines never respected school holidays. I always ended up working at weekends and in the evenings and hate having work around the house too.

After much agonising I have decided to give the job a go. I think I would be crazy to turn it down and I also think that it will be very good in terms of future prospects for me, career-wise, and for the children in terms of their future too. I will be earning more, but my main motivation for doing it is to get back into the world of work in management terms and to help secure my long-term prospects in terms of pension and so on. I figure that if I don't take it, I will always wonder about it and if it all proves to be wrong for the family, then I can always change my mind. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

So, I have spent the past few weeks refurbishing my wardrobe and getting a working wardrobe together, tracking down my P45 from my last job (it has been filed away for a decade!) and alternately panicking and feeling excited. I start at the end of February so have a bit of time to finish off my last freelance projects and sort out childcare and a new routine for us all.

In the midst of my angst I have been knitting - and finding it a great comfort. I have made two berets, a lovely brown one in Knitpicks Shimmer. Here is the gratuitous shot of the nub (I can't resist!):

And a blue one in Lorna's Laces Sport (colour Icehouse) for another friend:

and again, the nub (so cute!):

I didn't manage to finish Daphne's baby cape from Knit 2 Together in time for the 12th but finally finished it this week. Pictures in my next post!

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T19:29:00.000Z

I always like the first day of the new year as I enjoy reviewing the year that has been and anticipating the year to come. Before looking back at last year's resolutions, I thought I would do a quick review of December's goals:

1. Finish ISE scarf and mail it by the end of next week at the latest. Done! This was a bit of a struggle, but I managed to get it done, and, even better, Janice loved it - phew! It took forever to knit because for some reason I simply couldn't memorise the pattern - Louisa Harding's Divine scarf. I knitted it in Silkwood's lovely angora yarn, which was so soft and cuddly!

The lace pattern is very pretty:

2. Knit yet another baby kimono for someone at work - by next week if possible. Done!

3. Knit the Forest Canopy shawl (I am now planning to give this to my stepmother for Christmas, so I had better get going). Done - just in the nick of time before we went to Ireland to stay with my Dad and stepmother for Christmas! I am very pleased with this:

And a close-up, showing the leaves better:

As everyone says, this is a great pattern - and so pleasurable to knit. This is knitted in the gorgeous Casbah Dorene gave me - and it was beautiful to knit with and so pretty when finished. The colours and sheen of the yarn are just gorgeous. My stepmother loved it! So, thank you again, Dorene!
4. Knit a secret something as a gift. Done! This was a hat, but I omitted to take a photo (although I knitted it in the same yarn as the kimono) - sorry!
5. Knit some wristers for a friend's mum. Done! I knitted these in Cascade Handpaint, and they turned out beautifully! I managed to knit them on the M6 on the way to Ireland - amazing what 430 miles of travelling can achieve!

6. Knit three scarves for the children's teachers. Done - all in Misti alpaca, like last year!

I didn't have any time for blogging what with all the knitting, but am slightly amazed that I managed to get it all done. We also had the school fair on the 15th and the craft stall raised £588, which was fantastic - all that knitting paid off in more ways than one.

Everyone liked their knitted Christmas gifts, so I am delighted. I also got a fantastic final parcel from my secret pal, which had the most gorgeous skein of Yarn Pirate yarn in it and a beautiful Lantern Moon needle case:

I don't know how Dorene managed to get hold of this yarn as it seems to be a rare and wonderful thing, but I love, love, love it and am really looking forward to making something with it - possibly a hat. Here is some of its lusciousness:

Thank you so much Dorene! You have been a fantastic pal and have thoroughly spoiled me!

On looking back at this year's goals I have not done so well. Following FlyLady did not happen as I had hoped and planned, although the past month I have been gradually thinning things out and plan to carry on with this. I am determined to make some progress on this and figure that I am now more motivated than before.

And, again I have spent a lot of time knitting for others and have still not finished the Debbie Bliss cardigan for me. I am knitting Daphne's baby cape from Knit 2 Together at the moment, which, I have to say, is driving me a bit mad as it is all garter stitch and rather tedious, and I am convinced that I will run out of yarn. Looking at other blog entries, I see that this has been a problem for other knitters too. How frustrating!

So, here are January's knitting goals:
1. Finish Daphne's baby cape by 12 January.
2. Start a waistcoat for Paul for his birthday.
3. Knit a beret for my friend Chris.
4. Knit a beret for another friend who loves my Flames beret and wants one in a different colour.
5. Finish sleeves of Debbie Bliss cardigan.

As I also have a set of proofs for a book on my desk to work through, this may be over-ambitious, but I can try to achieve all this and will keep you posted on my progress with FlyLady! Here's to a happy and healthy 2008 and thank you all for reading - I appreciate every comment! Happy New Year!

Goals for December

2007-11-30T09:25:00.000Z

Well, every year I forget how busy November gets and every year I take on too much. I imagine it is the same for most of us out there, but somehow I forget and blithely agree to things in October and then find myself swamped. Work has been very busy and I have been very preoccupied with the craft stall for the school Christmas fair. Hence the lack of blogging.

Today is the last day of November, so how have I done on my goals? They were:

1. Make a poncho by Sunday for one of Lily's friends - eek! Done! (and she loved it - even better!)
2. Finish Clementine for Secret Pal and post final parcel by the 15th. Done!
Here is Lily modelling for me:

and a close-up of the front edge:

3. Finish scarf for ISE5 and mail. Still frantically knitting - will get it done in the next few days.
4. Knit 20 hair decorations and 20 corsages for the school fair. Other people are helping with the knitting too but I need to get these under way or it will be a panic. I have done 24 corsages and 18 hair bobbles, so not bad. I have also made 22 of these korknisse, which are so cute!:

5. Start Forest Canopy shawl (thank you, Jill, for this recommendation!) in the gorgeous Casbah Dorene gave me. Not started yet...
6. Block and donate Birch to school. Done! Here it is blocking:

and with Ellen modelling it:

and a close-up of those lovely leaves:

So, overall, not too bad, although I must finish my scarf and mail it next week.

My December goals are:
1. Finish ISE scarf and mail it by the end of next week at the latest.
2. Knit yet another baby kimono for someone at work - by next week if possible.
3. Knit the Forest Canopy shawl (I am now planning to give this to my stepmother for Christmas, so I had better get going).
4. Knit a secret something as a gift.
5. Knit some wristers for a friend's mum.
6. Knit three scarves for the children's teachers.

These all need to be done in the next couple of weeks and then I can get on with some old projects. I have picked up my Debbie Bliss cardigan again and will probably take that with me to knit in the car at Christmas (we have a long journey):

and I might dig out another project to take too - maybe something lacy.

Last night I got together with a few other mums from school to make up more goodies for the craft stall. I was going to make peg dolls, but Brigid gave me the bright idea up making up kits for the dolls to sell (cutting out a lot of work!), so last night we made up 50 kits, which was fantastic. I spent yesterday morning making some prototypes and writing the instructions for the kits and was very pleased with the products. Here is Santa, complete with knitted hat:

and an angel

Would you like me to put instructions on here for them?

Time is not on my side

2007-11-12T23:01:00.000Z

This month seems to be flying by and when I am not with the children or working I seem to be running around sorting out the house and frantically knitting for the school fair. The corsages are coming on, although they are quite time-consuming and I am trying not to think about how much time they are taking in relation to how much we will raise for the school. I am having fun choosing the buttons for the centres, though, and am pleased with the results:

I managed to make a poncho for Lily's friend, which was a popular gift, but then Lily also had a great time at the party, which involved a trip to the cinema to see Ratatouille and a meal at Pizza Express (lucky girl!):

In between all the chores and general chaos I received a lovely parcel through the post. My ISE5 pal surprised me (and put me to shame - I am still knitting the scarf for my pal!) by sending my scarf just in time for all this cold weather we've been having:

Thanh has knitted a beautiful scarf in baby alpaca and it is gorgeously soft to wear, and a great colour - I just love it. Also in the parcel were all sorts of goodies, including a fabulous Burt's Bees hand-care kit, some lovely stitch markers that Thanh made, some cute teapot decorations:

and, because she is in Florida, a seashell Christmas ornament and some shells from the beach, which I just love:

The scarf is so pretty with a lovely lace pattern:

Thank you so much Thanh - I feel thoroughly spoiled!

I did manage to get to the iknit stitch'n'bitch day on Saturday, where there were plenty of stalls offering temptation and I bought some gorgeous hemp yarn from House of Hemp. But, before casting on a new project I am determined to finish off some longstanding projects and I am still working hard on my November goals. I want to finish Clementine this week and then I want to finish the scarf I am knitting for my ISE5 partner. I am snowed under with work too and after taking time out on Saturday had one of those Sundays that seems to revolve entirely around chores - cooking, cleaning and ironing. Still, it was worth it to bunk off on Saturday to be with Jill, Linda, Mary, Jill and Jacinta, and to spend a day fondling yarn!

November planning

2007-11-01T19:27:00.000Z

So, how did my plans for October go?
I wanted to
1. Finish the shrug for my sister's birthday. Done! And she loved it - success!
2. Do 10 repeats of Birch on the shawl for the school raffle. Done! I finished all the knitting on this on Tuesday and now need to block it before giving it to the school, so I'm really pleased with my progress.
3. Knit 10 flowers for the school fair. Not done - experimented with designs and I now know what I'm doing, so I've knitted around 5 - a start.
4. Start scarf for ISE5. Done! But I need to get cracking on this to get it in the mail on time! Will show pictures soon!
5. Start gift for Secret Pal. Done! I have started another Clementine which I think will be a relatively fast knit. I hope so as I want to get it in the post in two weeks' time!

My plans for November are a bit ambitious:
1. Make a poncho by Sunday for one of Lily's friends - eek!
2. Finish Clementine for Secret Pal and post final parcel by the 15th.
4. Finish scarf for ISE5 and mail.
5. Knit 20 hair decorations and 20 corsages for the school fair. Other people are helping with the knitting too but I need to get these under way or it will be a panic.
6. Start Forest Canopy shawl (thank you, Jill, for this recommendation!) in the gorgeous Casbah Dorene gave me.
7. Block and donate Birch to school.

Looking at that list it all seems a bit scary as I also have a book and a journal to edit and the Christmas shopping to do! At least there is this to look forward to...can't wait!

So cute!

2007-10-31T20:09:00.000Z

Yesterday I got home from a busy day at work to find the cutest package waiting for me:

My secret pal has done it again - she is so great! The sock is so adorable on its mini blocker and in such lovely colours - just up my street. It was sent from this etsy store - so sweet! It went straight on to my keychain and has been with me everywhere! Thank you so much Dorene!

We have a meeting at school tomorrow about the Christmas fair and I have been working on some ideas. I finally finished the knitting on Birch for the raffle last night and now need to block it. I have been flirting with some ideas for knitted things to sell and made a hair bobble with two flowers, which I am pleased with:

I am also planning to have a go at some corsages tonight to see what I can come up with. It is not just me doing all the work, but I am doing a lot of planning for the stall so hope that it all comes together in the end!

While in town yesterday I managed to pick up a copy of the holiday issue of Vogue:

which looks to have some great patterns in it. I haven't had much of a chance to read it yet - that is a pleasure to come once I have done a bit of test knitting for flowers tonight!

Half-term break

2007-10-26T22:56:00.001+01:00

We took advantage of the half-term break to use a raffle prize I had won at a summer fair for two nights' bed and breakfast in a Young's pub. Rather than stay somewhere on the South Circular (most Young's pubs are in south London), we investigated locations further afield and plumped for Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset. The Dunstan House Inn offered reasonable accommodation and Burnham-on-Sea was a good base for exploring:

Only a few miles away are the famous Wookey Hole caves, which I remember visiting on a school trip. Since I last went there, they have turned the legend of the witch of Wookey Hole into a bit of a theme park and I felt disappointed that the guide told us scary tales of witches in the caves, frightening the children. The caves are scary enough and I think people sometimes underestimate the power of children's imagination - why feed them tales of witches when the caves would be enough on their own? The first cavern is beautifully lit with pink and blue lighting as you walk into it and it looked quite magical as we went in. The caves are still used for maturing cheddar cheese (the constancy of the temperature means that they offer the perfect environment - although the smell is very strong on the way out!). There is a paper mill adjacent to the caves and the children were able to have a go at making paper too. The paper is made using cotton rather than wood pulp, which means that it has a lovely quality to it and is guaranteed to last at least 500 years without yellowing. (I managed to leave my camera in the car for much of the holiday, which is why there is a dearth of pictures!)

We also visited Wells cathedral, which was beautiful, and the service that was under way at the time added to its tranquil atmosphere. On the way back we visited Avebury, a truly wonderful landscape, and part of Wiltshire's exceptional neolithic heritage:

Much of the original excavations were funded by Alexander Keiller, who made his fortune from marmalade.

On Thursday I took the children to Claremont Landscape Garden in the drizzle just to get some more fresh air. We thoroughly enjoyed doing the Halloween trail around the grounds, which were very picturesque even on a cloudy day:

I had many plans for my knitting over the weekend and made some progress on Birch for the school raffle in the car:

I did get distracted (as usual!) and decided that I would knit my Mum something for her birthday - rather last minute as it was her birthday last week! We went to see her today, by which time I had finished this (please excuse the poor photos - it seems very dark at the moment!):

A scarf in the handspun cashmere I bought at Ally Pally. The pattern is a variation on the Misti Alpaca Ribs and Ruffles scarf, although I used more stitches on the width. It is soooo soft and has a lovely quality when knitted up, although it is quite fuzzy and has not got good stitch definition. She loved it, and has just bought a new coat, which it will go with perfectly!

More Ally Pally goodies

2007-10-18T09:31:00.001+01:00

Today is the first day I seem to have had to catch my breath and I need to knuckle down to get a journal edited before half-term next week. But before I do, I have realised that I forgot to post a photo of the Habu I bought at Ally Pally. Easily forgotten, as it is squished into the tiniest of parcels, I bought two balls of their lovely hand-dyed cashmere and should have enough for a decent-sized scarf, although it is hard to believe from the tiny balls!

I also ordered the kit for Plisse from Kangaroo, as I have had my eye on this Hanne Falkenberg kit for ages. I ordered it in aubergine but wanted to see the colours for real before I made my final choice - Ally Pally was a great opportunity to do that!

It was also great to see the knitted river from iknit, which has grown since I last saw it - it really is a hopeful statement to try to change the imbalance of resources in the world:

Somewhere in there are squares Hila and I knitted last year.

I did make it to Stash to knit yesterday and was given this lovely skein of Knitwitches yarn by Jill and Tessa for driving them to Ally Pally:

And Fiona gave me a gorgeous Diptych candle - such luxury - I feel quite spoiled! Thank you, all.

Nic has kindly pointed out that she didn't design the Miss Potter mitts on the cover of Yarn Forward - it was another Nic - sorry both of you for the error!

Knitfest

2007-10-16T21:45:00.000+01:00

The past few days have been frantically busy but have also been great fun. Sabine and Kris came over from Berlin and Munich to go to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace. Kris came to stay after she had been to the show but Sabine and I went together, along with three other knitting friends, Jill, Fiona and Tessa. I had such a great time!

The morning Sabine arrived I was spoiled rotten by my Secret Pal Dorene when the postman brought this fantastic skein of Handmaiden Casbah through the post, sent by Socktopus. Everything about this parcel was wonderful - the silver package, the pink tissue paper, the utterly luxurious cashmere and wool yarn, and the completely adorable stitch marker, which I just love to bits! I had never seen this yarn before and the colours are so intense and the yarn is so soft that it is just gorgeous! Thank you so much, Dorene!

This was the start of a yarn-filled weekend. Before we even got to Ally Pally Sabine gave me some gorgeous chocolate (which we ate before I could take a photo), some wonderfully aromatic coffee and some fabulous shawl patterns, including the Mountain Peaks and Seraphim shawls, which I have been eyeing up.

Ally Pally was just wonderful. There was a really fantastic range of stalls and so much to see that we barely managed to look at everything we wanted to in the time we had (and we had the whole day!). I even met Alice from Socktopus while we were there - the stall looked fabulous - so much temptation!

I was very taken with the Knitwitches yarns and couldn't resist this silk:

There were all kinds of yarn I hadn't seen before. I resisted the qiviut but succumbed to the yak yarn by Shokay, which I am planning to knit the Baby Yoda jacket with:

The Natural Dye Studio had some truly wonderful colours and both Sabine and I couldn't resist the silk - it has a fantastic sheen to it and each strand is so beautiful. Mine is now a hot contender for the Seraphim shawl:

Sabine designs patterns and has had a few published in both Magknits and Knitty and so we visited Kerrie at the Hipknits stall, where I couldn't resist the new issue of Yarn Forward, which looks great. I just love Nic's mitts on the front cover!

And I simply couldn't resist this handspun cashmere from Shilasdair:

Kris came to stay on Friday night (she went to Ally Pally on Thursday) and Sabine, Kris and I had a lovely day knitting and chatting with Michelle, Nathalie and Zoe at Stash. Here I am with Kris and Sabine:

Kris also brought me this fabulous yarn from Wollmeise - some laceweight and some sock yarn, and the cutest project bag which she had made herself:

While at Stash I managed to finish my shrug for my sister, and tonight I met up with her and gave it to her (it is her birthday next week). She loved it! I am so pleased, and it is a great fit - it really suits her! Here is a friend modelling it before I wrapped it up:

I can cross that off October's list!

Very Mooreish

2007-10-08T13:49:00.000+01:00

Yesterday the weather was beautiful in the morning and, as Paul was heading off to work, I decided to pack a picnic and take the children to Kew. There is a big Henry Moore exhibition on at Kew at the moment - the largest outdoor exhibition of his work ever held in London. I must admit that Kew is a perfect setting for his curvaceous sculptures, which sit quietly in the landscape, looking stunning:

Although I like his figure work, particularly the imagery of mother and
baby (like this one),

I love his sculptures that play with space and shape, like this one, based on an elephant skull:

and this one, which is a representation of a totem head

We didn't manage to see all of them, but the exhibition is on until March and we can go plenty more times as the seasons move on. I think the idea is to see how the sculptures alter in the changing landscape, so it will be interesting to revisit them many more times over the next few weeks and months.

Already, it is colder and the squirrels are already becoming braver in their quest for autumn snacks. The children kept trying to give this one bits of their lunch and nuts they found in the gardens:

My sister's shrug is making progress - I have almost finished the body and hope to finish it and pick up the border for the ribbing tonight. The yarn is so pretty and is lovely and springy - it is great to knit with and the colours are beautiful:

More SP goodness

2007-10-04T12:17:00.000+01:00

Hot on the heels of my secret pal's first package was her second, which I excitedly ripped open to discover this:

Wrapped inside the beautiful scarf (knitted in Elsebeth Lavold's silky wool using the Midwest Moonlight pattern, which I love, from Scarf Style)

was this lovely yarn:

Some lovely cotton (for all my baby knitting!) and a simply gorgeous skein of silk in wonderful shades of purple - so pretty! I love it all, especially the beautiful scarf which I have been wearing a lot since it arrived! I have to confess that I have been doing a little bit of research and have tracked down my pal - thank you so much for this wonderful package Dorene!

Rather belatedly, here is an update on September's knitting plans:
1. Finish baby present for a friend. Done - this was Nic's kimono for Pete!
2. Start and finish another baby gift for another friend. Done - she is coming home today so I will be able to give it to her tonight. I knitted yet another kimono, this time in a gorgeous shade of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted

and found this pretty ribbon on our trip to Tunbridge Wells that I think sets it off nicely:

3. Plan and start my sister's birthday present. Done (although I need to get on with this - her birthday is on the 25th of this month!). I have decided to knit the Dream in Color shrug

and have started it and have knitted three repeats of the zigzag pattern, so some progress has been made.
4. Complete 10 repeats of a Birch shawl for the school auction. Not done. I have started this and knitted one repeat but have got sidetracked by a few other things that were more urgent.
5. Finish fronts of Seville bolero for me. Not done - I have worked on more pressing projects instead.

Knitting distractions this month were the Koigu cardigan, which I have made some progress on and find rather irresistible (although it is quite slow going as the yarn is so fine). But the yarn is so mesmerising to knit with that it almost makes me want to be monogamous to this project! I have, however, been able to tear myself away to knit something for my cousin's new baby:

and again have used some lovely new ribbon:

And I found time (just!) to knit a poncho for one of Edward's friends who had a birthday party last weekend:

This is knitted in Rowan Big Wool with Colinette Chicago for the fringe.

I have been busy making plans for October:
1. Finish the shrug for my sister's birthday.
2. Do 10 repeats of birch on the shawl for the school raffle.
3. Knit 10 flowers for the school fair.
4. Start scarf for ISE5.
5. Start gift for Secret Pal.

Looking at this list, I think I am probably being optimistic about how many hours' knitting time I will have as I am working more hours throughout October and November and also have the distraction of the Knitting and Stitching Show next week. I am so excited about this, especially as Kris and Sabine are both coming to stay with me. I can't wait!

Secret Pal

2007-09-24T12:51:00.000+01:00

After a busy weekend I was again hoping to get loads done at home today but, having just spent two hours waiting in the doctors' surgery, I have had a very frustrating start to the day. I was hugely cheered when I got home to find that the postman had brought me a wonderful parcel from my Secret Pal. This is what was inside the envelope:

Ooh, what could it be? When I unwrapped all the goodies, I was thrilled to discover these:

Some wonderful Crabtree and Evelyn bath products in a sweet little handmade bag, a perpetual knitting calendar with a different stitch for each day, and a lovely lavender bag! Thank you so much, Secret Pal!

We may have had a packed weekend but we also had a long car journey so I had some knitting time. I am helping to make a group afghan and frantically knit away on my allotted squares for the lizard ridge afghan from Knitty. Although I don't usually like Noro owing to its unpredictable colourways, it is very effective in this pattern:

and I can see the appeal of the yarn:

Yesterday we visited Tunbridge Wells, and drank the spring water from the famous Chalybeate Spring:

The water is high in calcium and iron so is very good for you, although it does taste very metallic - we all quite liked it, though! The sun was shining on the Pantiles, and it was a lovely place for a day out:

And now back to the chores...

Headless chicken

2007-09-21T12:45:00.000+01:00

This week, I feel a bit overwhelmed by everything that needs doing and hardly know where to start. So, I figured that I would write this entry and try to get some order in my life afterwards! I have had unexpected extra work this week, which means that my plans to sort things out at home have gone awry yet again and I am feeling as though I have so many things that need doing that I cannot start anything. I even feel that way about my knitting! I keep looking at my knitting plans for September and feeling like I am making very little progress. I have finished something, though. Nic has now received this, so here is the kimono (yes, another one - I can do them in my sleep now!) I knitted for Pete:

I did make it to Stash to knit this week and was delighted when Nic came in in person with Pete. I didn't have my camera, but Pete was surrounded by adoring women the whole time he was there - he is gorgeous!

I have also been playing around with ideas for the school Christmas fair and have just made these flowers which I think would be popular. I knitted these two in Regia sock yarn, which I think is so pretty. I have adapted them from a Nicky Epstein pattern. I have a couple of questions for you - do you think it is OK to sell them just with safety pins, or do you think I need to get proper badge pins (which will add to the expense of making them)? And how much do you think we should sell them for? Here they are on their own:

and on my cardigan as a corsage:

I have also starting teaching a friend to knit and while we were at the local yarn shop, I couldn't resist this Regia Kaffe Fassett yarn - it was great to see it in person and see the colours for real:

This week has been busy at school. After-school clubs have started up, as has homework, and I am struggling to fit everything in! Before the onslaught of the week, Paul was working last Sunday and I did manage some fresh air at the Wetlands Centre with the children. The flowers lend beautiful colour:

and I have always liked this slate:

The tranquillity such spaces bring make me wonder what I am doing in such a big city sometimes, but at least I have the escape of such urban wildness close by.

Circle of friends

2007-09-14T13:53:00.000+01:00

The past couple of days Edward has been very under the weather and is off school again today, so not much knitting has been happening. I have today managed to get my work done which has been on an overnight turnaround and am now going to keep him company while tackling the ironing mountain that seems to have erupted while I have been working so much this week. As I haven't made much progress on anything the past couple of days, here are some photos I took of the blanket we knitters at Stash made for Nic's new baby, Pete (formerly known as Peanut), which I can safely blog about now that it has arrived (thanks, Jill!). We used the Joelle Hoverson Circle of Friends baby blanket pattern from Last-minute Knitted Gifts but didn't have enough of all the yarns to follow it exactly, so came up with this variation:

Mary crocheted beautifully around the edge:

And little Pete seems to like it! It was lovely doing this project with a group of people. We planned it and gave everyone a diagram and a little kit with the yarns they would need so that seven of us knitted seven strips and then sewed them together at Stash one Wednesday morning before giving it to Mary, who did such a great job of finishing it. A fun project and a lovely gift.

Oh the temptation!

2007-09-13T13:31:00.001+01:00

I finally made it to Stash this week - on Monday night I went to do some knitting for Brigid's appeal. I took along all those kimonos I've been making and I didn't quite finish the final thing I was knitting, but have now finished my last hat and it is ready to be posted off to Brigid:

And yesterday I finally made it to the knitting group. There were only four of us there: me, Fiona, Jacquie, and Lesley, but it was lovely to see everyone and Michelle and Diane, and catch up with what was new at the shop. In fact, the new yarn was so tempting that I couldn't help myself and have bought yarn for three projects! I have had my eye on this pattern from Magknits and there was a new colourway of Koigu just in:

Buoyed up by the knowledge that I had my birthday voucher to spend, somehow I managed to justify to myself the cost of the yarn (it is so luscious, I didn't take that much persuading), and went a bit crazy:

The Dream in Color (on the left) is to make a shrug for my sister for her birthday and the Misti Alpaca (the red yarn in the middle) is to start my Christmas knitting - yes, more scarves beckon!

On my September goals I am making some progress although, in typical fashion, my plans have gone awry this week. I managed to finish the journal I was working on on Monday and then was in the office all day Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon and evening, and my grand plans to sort out the house post-summer holidays and catch up with the many tasks I need to get on with have been thwarted as Edward had a wakeful night and was feeling very unwell this morning. So, he is off school and my plans are still on hold! Maybe tomorrow...

The Koigu was so irresistible, and was calling to me from my bag, that I simply couldn't help knitting my tension square last night - and I might even have to cast on tonight, although I am trying to decide whether to change the bottom edge of the cardigan and have something different from the rolled edge...but here is how the yarn is knitting up:

Gorgeous!

I am trying to be good and, as they say, stick to my knitting (for September!), but the temptation might just prove too much. Watch this space!

Aaaaargh, spider!

2007-09-02T14:19:00.000+01:00

The last few days of the school holidays have been spent making the most of our freedom, as well as getting haircuts, trying on school shoes and sorting out everything in readiness for tomorrow.

We had another trip to Kew Gardens where the lily pads were in flower:

and the Alpine House was looking lovely (I just love these plants and the rock garden, which are full of pretty flowers and beautiful leaves):

And the Bug Man was there with his creepy-crawlies. Ellen was feeling brave:

Taking a leaf out of Dawn and Polly's books, I thought I would start listing knitting goals for the month.

So, here are September's knitting plans:
1. Finish baby present for a friend (secret so no pix yet).
2. Start and finish another baby gift for another friend (due to be induced on 22nd).
3. Plan and start my sister's birthday present.
4. Complete 10 repeats of a Birch shawl for the school auction.
5. Finish fronts of Seville bolero for me.

Maybe this is too ambitious but I have a way to go if I want to finish some planned projects by the end of the year! I was longing to go to Stash tomorrow for Wednesday morning knitting (the summer has been tough to get through with no knitting company!) but have been asked to work all day owing to the Tube strike. So, it is time to pump up my bicycle tyres and be patient for another week.

Tiger Island

2007-08-31T12:28:00.000+01:00

The past couple of weeks have whizzed by and although we have been back from the Isle of Wight for a week I seem barely to have had time to draw breath. We had a lovely week on the Isle of Wight, where there was something for everyone in the family to enjoy. We saw model trains at Fort Victoria, real steam trains, the girls had a horse riding lesson and there were tigers galore:

The Isle of Wight Zoo at Sandown has the largest number of tigers in one place in Europe and they were beautiful. Even though they are in captivity and far removed from their natural habitat, they are at so much risk in their natural habitat that at least here they are safe. There was a white tiger, Zena, and Diamond, a beautiful tiger who has no black stripes owing to a form of leucism (the gene which cause the white colouring):

We managed some swimming in the sea and went to see The Needles, an iconic view of the Isle of Wight:

Carisbrooke Castle was another fantastic visit, with plenty to keep the children entertained and you can walk right round the ramparts, which is quite unusual:

I did loads of knitting in the evenings. Baby kimono fever still has me in its grip and these three are all for Brigid's appeal. First up we have one in Rowan Designer DK (a yarn that has been long discontinued):

and then one in Lorna's Laces Shepherd worsted:

and finally one in some handspun cotton left over from another project:

We all thoroughly enjoyed our time on the island and plan to go back before too long as there is so much to see and do:

More baby knitting

2007-08-16T19:42:00.000+01:00

In between entertaining the children - here they are (with a friend) on the slide at Horton Park Children's Farm:

and on the big swing at Palewell Park:

I have been catching up with more baby knitting in the past week and finished another kimono in the lovely pink and green (very trendy, I gather) Artyarns supermerino for Ellen's Year 2 teacher who has just had her first baby. It is so cute!

I have also put the yarn left over from Clementine to good use - it was enough to make a baby hat for Brigid's appeal:

I have now heard from Anne, the recipient of Clementine, and she loves it - phew! I am so glad it has arrived safely and that she likes it!

This round of Secret Pal I have already heard from my new upstream pal and have been in touch with my downstream pal, so I am excited about the possibilities over the next few months.

Today has been spent in a packing frenzy as I am off to the Isle of Wight with the children tomorrow - I have unearthed the fishing nets, beach mats and beach tent; done some food shopping, finished the ironing and sent back some work; and, most of all, fretted about what knitting to take and what books to bring too. I plan to finish all my baby knitting on the go - yet more kimonos (I do hope I'm not boring you - but it is such a lovely pattern). I am hoping I might find a yarn shop or two while I'm there but have packed enough to keep me busy for far longer than the week we are going for! I doubt that I'll be able to blog from there, so I'll see you all in a week! Let's hope the weather bucks up its ideas!

Secret Pal 11 questionnaire

2007-08-12T22:35:00.000+01:00

Here we go with another round of Secret Pal! And here's my questionnaire:

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
I love wool, silk, cashmere and alpaca and also like cotton, especially mercerised cotton. I do not like any synthetic yarn or anything that feels scratchy or itchy when you wear it (mohair, for example).

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
I have a couple of lovely old knitting needle boxes and also store needles upright in tins. I also now have the Knit Picks Options set.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
I have been knitting for about 30 years, but only obsessively since I was at university. My mum taught me to knit but I couldn't get the hang of tension when I was younger and just found it very frustrating. I retaught myself at university. I am probably an intermediate to advanced knitter.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
I have an Amazon wishlist.

5. What's your favorite scent?
Lavender and pretty much anything by Space NK.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
I love chocolate and fruity sweets. I hate coffee-flavoured sweets (although I love a good cup of coffee!).

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
I do some patchwork and have done embroidery and tapestry. I used to have a spinning wheel, but no longer have it (maybe when I have more free time I'll take it up again!). I like making small fabric gifts for people, such as lavender bags.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
I like some classical (particularly Bach and Mozart) and some pop, although I listen mostly to the radio (BBC Radio 2 and 4). I also like some jazz, particularly Miles Davis.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?
I loves purples and reds and some dark greens. I don't really like blues or yellows - yellow makes me look ill! I prefer vivid, rich colours to pastels.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
I am married, with three children - Ellen, aged 8 and twins Edward and Lily, aged 6. I have one cat, a ginger tom called Max Jaffa.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
I wear scarves, hats and mittens and I have one poncho I knitted myself - but I think one is enough!

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
I love knitting presents for people and knit a lot of ponchos for the girls' friends as birthday gifts. I also knit a lot for friends' babies. I like knitting scarves and am getting into shawl knitting. I knit socks occasionally and usually have at least one cardigan or jumper on the go for someone!

13. What are you knitting right now?
My two main projects on the needles are a cardigan for myself (which I have had on the go for a while) and numerous baby projects both for friends and a charity appeal. I am also planning to knit the Montego Bay scarf in the next few weeks.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
I love it!

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
I get a more even tension on straight needles, although I like Addi turbo circulars when they are needed, particularly the lace needles. Since I have got my Knit Picks Options needles I have used them pretty much all the time and would love some of the smaller sizes. They are a perfect weight in my opinion and I really like the feel of them as I knit. I may be a permanent convert to circs (although I knit socks on DPNs and cannot see this changing). I also collect vintage coloured metal needles - they are so lovely to knit with and so pretty on display.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
I own a swift but not a yarn winder.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?
Er, about 15 years.

18. What is your favorite holiday?
I like some bits of Christmas but can find the build-up a bit too frenzied and get stressed out every year! Although not strictly speaking a holiday, I probably like the freedom of the summer holidays best - I love the beach!

19. Is there anything that you collect?
Other than vintage coloured needles and yarn, I have a thing for vintage buttons too - I like using them on my knitting, as they make it really special.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
I would love to try some yarn by the more indie dyers like Hello Yarn, Yarn Pirate or some of the European dyers. I have a subscription to Rowan, Knitting magazine and to Interweave Knits. Interweave is probably my favourite magazine. I usually buy Vogue Knitting too, but can get this in the local newsagent. There are some great new books coming out this autumn!

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?
I would like to learn twined knitting and improve my lace knitting.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
I do knit socks, but have very strange feet - high insteps and quite wide. I am an adult size 7 (EU 40). Let me know if you need more details!

23. When is your birthday?
26 July

24. Are you on Ravelry? If so, what's your ID?
Yes, although I haven’t put very much up there yet. My ID is knittingingrid

Summer fun

2007-08-11T12:42:00.000+01:00

The children have reverted to squabbling a bit as the summer holidays progress and so I have this past week used my tried and trusted technique of taking them out every morning to give them a good run. We have usually taken a picnic and then come back in the afternoon, when they have got rid of their excess energy and play better together. I enjoy going out, but my ploy to wear them out is wearing me out too, particularly as I am working a lot and seem to have a million things to do! This past week we have been to Richmond Park, Kew Gardens and the Wetlands Centre, which are all within easy reach of home (lucky us!). And now that summer is finally here, what better way to cool down on a hot day than running under the raining clouds at the Wetlands Centre:

All the outdoor play that has been going on means that I have grabbed every opportunity while they are entertained to get out my knitting. I have finally finished this baby kimono which had been languishing because I ran out of yarn (I am using Artyarns Supermerino and I just love the colours). I managed to find some more on eBay and finally finished it and gave it to a friend at school, who was really pleased. Again, it is the baby kimono from Mason-Dixon Knitting, a pattern I love and which is perfect for a newborn:

So perfect, that I knitted another one for Brigid's appeal:

I plan to knit a couple more over the next couple of weeks before sending them off to her and hope to manage a hat or two as well. I also want to devote a bit of time to thinking about crafts for the school fair as I have been asked to help with this. Does anyone have any ideas about good sellers that are relatively quick to make?

I have been rather bogged down with work, so much so that I am now having to turn down jobs (the summer always gets very busy, as does Christmas, which is always hard to factor in to everything else) - not that I am complaining! I am so looking forward to going to the Isle of Wight next week for a bit of bucket and spading.

I seem once again to have put knitting for myself on the back burner in my efforts to knit for others. I will take some knitting for myself to the Isle of Wight, but want to finish all the baby garments first. Dawn and Polly have the sensible idea of posting lists of planned knitting on their blogs at the beginning of each month - perhaps I should join them (lists are my kind of thing!) next month.

We went to a family celebration (golden wedding anniversary) last weekend too and here is Lily the party girl (wearing the gold ribbon from the cake in her hair) enjoying herself immensely (and that is Coke she is drinking - not merlot!):

I have signed up for another round of Secret Pal and am looking forward to meeting some more knitters. I have so enjoyed the last round - it has been fun to meet Sabine and Melanie!

Gifts galore

2007-07-30T15:41:00.000+01:00

We are now back from Paris, where we climbed the Eiffel Tower:

sat in cafes, savoured the sights, and enjoyed the city tremendously. It is a long time since I have been to Paris and it was such a treat to go back there, and to introduce the children to the city:

Notre Dame was a must (Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame being uppermost in their minds!)

and our visit included climbing to the top of one of the towers and checking out the gargoyles:

I even managed to find this mosaic, which is a real landmark from previous trips:

We walked miles (as you do in Paris) and the children are worn out, but I think they will remember their first visit there and we all thoroughly enjoyed our few days away.

Just before we headed off to Paris I received my final parcel for Secret Pal 10. And what a fantastic package it was! Sabine had sent me the most amazing gifts. First, there was a wonderful assortment of sweets, skincare products and soap, and some lovely handmade stitch markers (not to mention a few water bombs for the children and some other treats which they have secreted in their rooms):

and a great new bookmark (hope it doesn't make Max jealous!)

Sabine had made this lovely heart lavender bag from Interweave Knits (which I have always liked but thought might be very fiddly, so haven't attempted myself!):

And then, the piece de resistance, the Melon stole from Victorian Lace Today. Here is Ellen modelling it:

And here it is in close-up:

and with the postcard of Knut Sabine sent:

Thank you so much Sabine! I absolutely love this wrap - I have loved this pattern since I bought the book and can't quite believe how much time and effort Sabine has put into my final parcel - I am thrilled with everything!

As if all that wasn't enough, Kris sent me this hank of lusciousness for my birthday too:

A skein of Handmaiden seasilk in just the right shade of purple! Thank you so much Kris!!

Temptation away from knitting

2007-07-21T14:36:00.000+01:00

Today's the day this came out:

I have picked up my copy from the local bookshop but cannot start it yet - I have a journal to edit first (groan!). But at least I have my hot little hands on my copy and it is sitting waiting for me to begin.

Wearing my Tour de France KAL green jersey has been a great inspiration to complete two big projects (Beau and Clementine) and I now have some more relaxing summer knitting ahead. I want to get on with some baby knitting for Brigid's appeal too and plan to pick up Seville and the Montego Bay scarf over the next few days (if I can resist the lure of HP7). Over the summer I have also been asked to make some things for a craft stall at the school Christmas fair too, so want to think about what I am going to do - Elizabeth Zimmerman's Christmas fiddle-faddle from Knitter's Almanac appeals...

Rowan Exchange

2007-07-20T21:33:00.001+01:00

In a nicely symmetrical bit of timing today, I received a fabulous parcel from Louise, who has been knitting for me in this year's Rowan Exchange. I can't believe how much time and effort she has put into the parcel - it is fabulous. First, I am now the proud possessor of a Diamond Fantasy shawl, knitted in a lovely silk/cashmere mix:

And as if that was not enough, Louise also made the Forest Canopy shawl:

And she included hand cream and chocolate - I am so spoiled!

Thank you so much Louise - I love everything and really appreciate the huge amount of time you have put into the exchange for me. I shall wear them with pride!

Because the weather was unbelievable today - torrential downpours, thunder and lightning for hours - I spent a lot of the day knitting as I turned off the computer just in case, with so much electrical activity outside! I finally finished the Clementine shawlette, and am delighted with how this turned out. The yarn (from Posh Yarn) has knitted up beautifully, with a lovely evenness of colours. Here is Lily modelling it for me in a brief moment of sunshine this afternoon:

And here is an arty shot on the wall:

and another of Lily:

I would knit this again - it really has turned out well and I think it will be a useful addition to my Rowan Exchangee's wardrobe. I hope she likes it!

I heard from James today and Beau fits and he loves it, so I am thrilled. He said it was the only bespoke gift he received and that the last jumper anyone knitted for him was a purple mohair one knitted by his granny in the 1970s! I am so delighted it fits and that he likes it! What a relief!

My yarn for the baby jumper has not yet arrived so that is on hold but I am planning my knitting to take to Paris and am going to take an old project (remember this?)

and a new one. I am planning on taking the Montego Bay scarf to knit. I see Kris has started hers - and it is looking great! And have you seen her gorgeous Vista Mare socks - I hope she does put the pattern up - they are simply beautiful!

Allez, allez, allez!

2007-07-13T11:29:00.001+01:00

End-of-term events have taken over the past couple of weeks and the girls gave a lovely ballet show. Lily looked adorable, as always (not that I'm biased or anything!), concentrating hard on her steps:

Ellen was elegance itself (I just love those character skirts - they are so pretty!):

The weather has been dodgy, to say the least, resulting in Ellen's sports day being a movable feast. It was finally held yesterday and, despite the ominous black clouds, it didn't actually rain. Ellen competed in the high jump and the 4 x 400m relay, and she did really well, coming second in the high jump (those long legs help), and her team won the relay, which was great.

The one good thing about the dire weather is that there are quite a few of these around:

And there has been a lot of knitting! In between attending all these events and working and the usual daily routine I have been frantically knitting, pressing and sewing up, and finally, this morning at one o'clock, we had Beau:

I found some great buttons, which suit the style well:

I am so pleased I managed to do it in time! Paul has gone off to work with it and is then going to James' birthday party this evening. I am taking the children to another event at school tonight so won't be seeing James, but I really hope he likes it and that it fits! I am very relieved to move on to some other knitting now, as I was a bit fed up with the seemingly endless green tweediness of it, and now plan to carry on with my speed knitting to finish Clementine. I am running late with this (I was supposed to finish knitting it yesterday) so need to get cracking. My aim is to get it in the post before we go to Paris. What do you reckon? I'd better limber up and get going! I also want to finish a baby project by the end of term (Wednesday), but have just had to order some more yarn as I am about to run out - will it arrive in time? Oh, the suspense!

A vos marques, pret, partez...

2007-07-07T14:04:00.000+01:00

I am successfully signed up for the Tour de France KAL and will be wearing a green jersey - the sprinter. I am quite excited about this extra incentive to finish Beau, as I need all the help and encouragement I can get at this stage. The prologue starts in less than an hour! It is great that London is hosting a stage of the Tour this year - and we shall be in Paris for the finish too!

I am off to warm up...

A small achievement

2007-07-06T23:30:00.000+01:00

Having had serious doubts about whether to go into town today, I decided to brave it and it was surprisingly OK. It helps that the country's terror alert level has been downgraded to severe (although that sounds bad enough) but because I enjoy going into the office I was working at today I am pleased that I managed it. The journey in was worse than coming home as I was stressed about getting in on time and was running late because Edward fell over badly on the way to school and needed a bit of first aid, but coming home was much better. Although it is a small achievement, I feel proud of myself, even though I know most people do it every day!

I made some progress on Beau on the way there and back and I am hoping to join the Tour de France KAL with Beau as my project, wearing a green jersey (sprinter). Time is running out! This week I have a lot of commitments workwise and otherwise, but I am still optimistic I will finish on time! As we are in London for the start of the Tour and coincidentally will be in Paris for the end, I am hoping I can join the KAL!

I don't want to photograph Beau in progress yet again, so here's a gratuitous shot of Max sitting in a bag (in typical catty fashion):

(please excuse the laundry in the background!).

Have a good weekend.

A round-up of the past week

2007-07-03T13:22:00.000+01:00

My final Secret Pal 10 parcel arrived safely with Melanie so I can now reveal my secret knitting - the Retro Redux Shrug from Lace Style (kindly given to me by my lovely upstream secret pal, Sabine - there is a nice symmetry there). Here is Ellen modelling it before it went off to Canada:

On the current knitting front I am stranded on the sleeve island of Beau, but am nearly finished (hope to finish them tonight) and then it is on to the front. Time is critical here, though - it is James' birthday on Friday 13th - will I make it?! And I am making slow progress with Clementine - which has the same deadline!

I am trying hard not to get distracted with other projects and have been pretty faithful to these two for the time being as I really want to get them finished on time.

On a more sober note, I am a bit freaked out by the recent terrorist activity in the UK, having had a close shave with the Docklands IRA bomb in 1996. This is what was left of my office (I was inside the building at the time of the explosion and escaped just with cuts caused by flying glass, which, looking at the building, I find incredible):

Today, I hear there was a controlled explosion at Hammersmith (where I work two days a week) and on Friday I am heading into town to work, which I am anxious about to say the least. I know that people commute into town every day but I am still worried about it, and am not a believer in the saying that lightning doesn't strike twice. While I appreciate that things here are not nearly as bad as elsewhere in the world, the threat of the unexpected strike frightens me.

On a less gloomy note, I managed a trip to John Lewis in Kingston this week and checked out the yarn sale. I couldn't resist the Debbie Bliss Cathay - hugely reduced, and such lovely colours:

And in between the showers, we had sports day at school. Lily did really well, coming third in the sprint race (red sticker) and second in the distance (blue sticker) - I am so proud of her!

Where does the time go?

2007-06-21T12:14:00.001+01:00

Another week gone in a flash and little blogging has been going on here. When I haven't been working, I have been helping out with some reading at school, and doing all the usual "mummy" things like taking the children swimming, tackling the K2 face of the ironing mountain and generally straightening out the chaos at home. Today I am having a catch-up day but have work arriving later to be turned round by tomorrow too! And all that is before I go on a school trip tomorrow morning with Ellen's class.

There has, however, been late night and early morning knitting. I finally finished my secret knitting - and here is a clue - any guesses?

All will be revealed soon. I have just wrapped it up and sent it off to Melanie in Canada, my secret pal this time round. Hope she likes it!

And I have nearly finished the back of Beau and am still knitting the first side of Clementine. I have also been distracted by thoughts of something Kris mentioned in an email:

Again, I hadn't really paid much attention to the Montego Bay scarf by Amy Singer when I saw it in Interweave Knits (is it just me?!), but having seen it here I thought, mmmm, that looks good. I am tempted...but must finish something first (although I have yet another present I need to make for someone and this just might be the perfect project)... so much to knit, so little time...

Once Beau is done, I want to get on with some knitting for Brigid's appeal for Kisiizi Hospital in Uganda, which needs clothes for babies. I want to knit some things for that and Stash are collecting the clothes for Brigid to pick up. The deadline is the end of August, so if anyone else fancies contributing something, all garments are gratefully received.

Agent Zigzag

2007-06-14T11:58:00.000+01:00

Not much blogging may have been going on but there has been some knitting. I have started a jumper for our heroic Knitpicks courier (who has a special birthday coming up) and have made fair progress up the back. I am a bit worried about finishing this on time, however - I have only a month to do it and it is a big project (I am knitting a 44" size and have to add on for height too!):

And I have been distracted by other things. Kris, my secret pal from SP8, very kindly ordered this yarn from Knitpicks for me, which her parents brought over to her in Germany, and then she posted them on to me. Even with all the postage they were very reasonably priced!

I am full of ideas for this lovely yarn, but still have not yet decided what to make.

Kris has started a podcast (which is very entertaining - tune in if you get a chance!) and on the podcast blog I saw this. When I saw the Clementine Shawlette by Michele Rose Orne in Interweave Knits I just glanced at it. It didn't really grab me as the picture didn't really do it justice:

But once I had seen Elemm modelling it I couldn't help casting on:

This is a great knit. It is knitted in two halves and then grafted together. I have finished the shaping at the tie end for one half of it and am now motoring along on the body. As you may have gathered I have a thing for chevrons, and this fits the bill perfectly:

I am using Amelia DK weight yarn from Posh Yarn which is lovely to knit with and I just love the way the colours are coming out. I am knitting this for my Rowan Exchange gift - I hope my knittee likes it! Although she says she is unsure about variegated yarns (she says they always look better on the skein than knitted up), I think this will convert her - it is so pretty!

Talking of chevrons, have you seen this in the new knitty? I so want to knit it - for Ellen and Lily. It is so cute. I am quite tempted to make one for me too, but don't think it would be very flattering!

I have been working extra hours, which will continue throughout June, but there are compensations, as I sometimes come home along the towpath, which is always a great cycle (despite the midges!). This photo is a bit gloomy - it was raining on the way home last night - but gives a taste of the tranquillity:

Safe arrival

2007-06-05T22:17:00.000+01:00

My ISE4 scarf has arrived safely with Kristen! Check out her blog to see the entry on its arrival! I am so pleased she likes it! I have really enjoyed this exchange and loved getting together the parcel for her, which I can post here now she's got it:

As well as the scarf, I sent some cashmere/merino yarn in a toffee colour, a copy of Yarn Forward, a copy of Taking the Chequered Flag by Lucy Neatby (Kristen is a knitwear designer so I wanted to give her something useful that she might not have read), some tea from Orange Pekoe, a charming tea shop near where I live, and I also included some Green and Black's almond chocolate (how could I resist - it is my favourite!) and a toy for her cat! I've had great fun with this exchange, and am already looking forward to the next one!

Stormy weather

2007-06-03T16:06:00.000+01:00

We arrived back from Devon yesterday, predictably coming home in bright sunshine after a week of very mixed weather. Sunshine and showers were the order of the day, with some high winds thrown in for good measure. The sea was wild at times, but I love it when it is crashing on to the shoreline:

We did have some sunshine which meant time on the beach for the children, which they loved. The coastal reinforcements at Lyme Regis have finished and there is now a good deal of sand to play in around the harbour:

I love Lyme, with its pretty houses along the seafront:

Last year when we went to Lyme there was a wool shop, A Stitch in Lyme, and I was disappointed to find that this had closed down, although it is now on the internet as InTo Knit, stocking Bergere de France and Opal yarns.

On wetter days we visited some nearby attractions, and I think my favourite was Forde Abbey, a beautiful former medieval monastery with lovely gardens:

It boasts the highest powered fountain in England, which shoots up water to a height of 160 feet. The spray travels a long way!

Well-fed chickens roam the grounds, which here are sheltering from yet another shower (clever things!):

We visited the fabulous Riverside Restaurant at West Bay on a stormy Sunday, and had an exhilarating walk on the beach to work up an appetite:

Because my mum was with us I managed to get lots of knitting done in the evenings and yesterday evening finished off the Debbie Bliss cardigan. I could have finished it on holiday but had not taken a brown ball of yarn with me as I was undecided about the trim. In the end I decided to do the contrast trim and am really pleased with the result:

How cute is that? This was a lovely knit, made lovelier by the fact that some Addi Lace needles I had ordered from Get Knitted arrived the day we left so I knitted most of it on those. They are great to work with - smooth, pointy and make manoeuvring stitches easy.

Sabine asked me whether I had seen Saartje's adorable bootee pattern and of course I checked out Saartje's blog for a peek. How could I resist?

My friend's baby will be well kitted out now and I am done well before the deadline for her C-section! And now I need to finish my mystery knitting and get on with a jumper for James, master purveyor of Knitpicks Options, who has a big birthday coming up in July! I plan to knit Beau again as it worked out so well for Paul:

I have lots of other knitting plans in my head, and also need to decide on what to knit for this year's Rowan exchange. I'll keep you posted...

And the winner is ...

2007-05-26T00:03:00.000+01:00

...Kris! Paul has just pulled your name out of the hat! Congratulations - Knitting Under the Influence will be in the post tomorrow! Hope you enjoy the read!

That was the week that was...

2007-05-25T16:09:00.000+01:00

This week has gone by in a flash, with seemingly very little time for anything outside work and domestic tasks.

Last weekend we had a family celebration for my dad's 70th birthday and I had to bring pudding:

Yet another chocolate cake, this time with strawberries and blueberries (my dad's favourite). Delicious!

I have unexpectedly had more hours of work this week which has restricted my time available for everything else (although I am not complaining - it is good to be needed!), but I have been determinedly knitting on the scarf for ISE4 and finally finished it today:

I have now washed it and blocked it and it is just drying ready to send to my pal. I was very pleased with how it came out. The cashmere is so soft now that it is washed and I like the simplicity of the leaf lace pattern (rather washed out here because it was so bright, but you can see the lace really well):

I shall be able to send it off before we go away tomorrow for the half-term week. I have gathered together a few other goodies, which I hope she will like. How I love making surprise packages!

The children had an INSET day today so as well as getting together my scarf package, I have managed to get all their school uniforms washed and dried, get half-term haircuts done and vacuum the car ready to pack in the morning. I even got a couple of hours' work done this morning before they got up, reading the books pages for the magazine I work on.

The weather this week has been fantastic although with this coming Monday being a bank holiday, in typical British fashion it is forecast to rain! But this week we have had perfect weather

We are off to Devon and I am so looking forward to going to the seaside. The one thing I haven't managed to do today has been pack but I am sorting out my knitting tonight and plan to take my Knit Picks Options needles which I tried out for the first time today. Julie was fantastic in sending these on to me. I wanted to finish my scarf before I started something new so today I used them for the first time, and I have to say I am impressed. They are certainly very pointy and have a perfect weight in my hands as I knit. The cables seem well designed and don't seem to have much memory, which is good. I have chosen a project (secret for the moment I'm afraid, as Melanie, my secret pal I am spoiling, knows who I am) that will give them a good test run.

As well as my secret project I am taking a baby project, this time the Debbie Bliss jacket from the new Vogue Knitting, which is adorable:

The date for my friend's C-section is 15 June - do you reckon I'll do it on time? I am going to knit this at the same time as Sabine, my pal who is spoiling me for this round of Secret Pal, who also wants to knit it for a friend.

I doubt I'll be able to blog from where we are staying, so have a good week! I will draw for the book and post the winner before we go!

We have a winner, and a new book on offer

2007-05-19T09:13:00.000+01:00

My husband has just picked a name out of the hat and the winner of the draw for the Friday Night Knitting Club is Shelby! So, congratulations Shelby. Please send me your full mailing address and I will dispatch the book off to you!

Commiserations to everyone else, but do not despair. I have another book up for grabs:

Knitting Under the Influence is an enjoyable light read and a good distraction if you are a knitter. So, again, please leave me a comment on this post by Friday midnight if you want to be entered for this draw. Good luck!

Seven things

2007-05-17T09:54:00.000+01:00

I’ve been tagged by Nic and Kris.

"Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write in their blogs 7 facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and to read your blog."

Here are my facts:

1. I love animals (especially tigers) and would love to have a dog (although my husband thinks I'm crazy!).

2. I am quite unlucky and accident-prone (major events include: I have been through a car windscreen (from the outside in - I cycled into a parked car when I was 16); my office was blown up by the IRA in 1996; I had a ruptured appendix which was undiagnosed for almost a week!).

3. Throughout my childhood I weirdly believed I was a twin (with no evidence at all!) and was not that surprised to now be a mother of twins myself.

4. I am very indecisive when it comes to big decisions.

5. I worry incessantly - about everything.

6. I don't eat meat. (I only eat what I could kill myself -and I am too squeamish to kill even a chicken, although I can kill fish!)

7. I love potatoes (in almost every form) - must be my Irish roots!

I tag Melanie, Brigid, Julie, Hila, Caroline, Sabine and Mandy.

Richmond May Fair

2007-05-14T12:27:00.000+01:00

Saturday was the Richmond May Fair, which is always fun for the children. Unfortunately, this year the weather was showery but we decided to go despite the black clouds threatening overhead. In the end, although it rained off and on, the children still thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

There was the miniature steam train, which is there every year, and which Edward absolutely loves:

They all had a go on this amazing bungee trampoline, and Lily even managed a few somersaults while up in the air! Here's Ellen flying through the air:

And there was Lily's favourite ride, the carousel (which I have to admit is my favourite too - I just love the horses!)

Here is Lily in her element:

And the helter-skelter provided a few thrills too!

I didn't have a chance to look in the craft tent, which was a bit disappointing, but this is always the first fair of the season and so there will be other opportunities during the next few months.

On my own craft front, I did manage to finish a few things over the weekend. I have been knitting another beret to Grumperina's pattern, again in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport, in the Flame colourway, and here it is in all its fiery glory:

I just love the nub - I kept knitting until I got that little maroon bit on the end!

And I have finished the Debbie Bliss baby cardigan, which turned out really well, although it was a bit of a pain to sew up:

I also knitted a hat from the leftover yarn I had, which is so cute:

So, I have just posted these off to baby Reuben in Leeds. I think he'll look gorgeous in them!

Friday night giveaway

2007-05-11T22:16:00.000+01:00

This week I have been rather swamped with work (two days in the office followed by a very intensive two days of editing at home). My knitting time has been sadly limited, although I did make it to my knitting group on Wednesday, which was as relaxing as ever.

I have just put parcel tape around the journal I have been editing to send it back to the publishers tomorrow, so to celebrate I thought I would give away my copy of the Friday Night Knitting Club. Apparently the film rights to this have been bought by Julia Roberts (a keen knitter, as I'm sure you know). I have read this copy, and did enjoy it although I found the ending a bit surprising and rather abrupt. It is good to read if you like knitting but it isn't 'literature' by any stretch. So, if you hanker after reading it, leave a comment by midnight BST next Friday and I'll put your name in a hat for a prize draw! Please leave an email address where I can contact you. I'll send the book anywhere in the world, so don't be shy!

Have a good weekend!

Spoiled rotten

2007-05-07T15:50:00.000+01:00

This weekend has been one taken up with ferrying the children to various parties and friends' houses. We had a bit of a treat on Saturday when both Ellen and Edward were with friends so Paul and I were able to go out with just Lily. It is so rare that we have only one child with us that it is a real treat to be able to give some undivided attention for once. We used the opportunity to go shopping for bunk beds for Edward and Lily and they are both very excited at the prospect! It is the only way to maximise the space in their room and should give them a bit more floor space to play. We took Lily to a cafe for a bit of a special time with us too.

I had a great weekend for parcels! First my package arrived from my ISE4 partner. Inside was this gorgeous scarf:

It is the Tiger's Eye scarf pattern knitted in Knitpicks dye your own yarn, which Michele dyed a rich purple for me. It is perfect and I love it! Thank you so much Michele.

And that was not all! Also in the parcel was this fabulous tiger tape measure (can you see a theme here?!), which I just love - it will be my tape measure of choice from now on! The tail is so cute!

And there was more! Michele sent me this book, which I have been wanting for ages - Nicky Epstein's Knitting Beyond the Edge:

Thank you so much, Michele, for your wonderful generosity - I am so thrilled with everything. You have been a great scarf pal!

And as if that parcel was not enough excitement for one weekend, this arrived from Sabine, my (not so) secret pal

I have been wanting this too and it was a complete surprise when it arrived on Saturday. I have been looking through the patterns and there is a lot of inspiration there! So much choice, so little time... Thank you so much, Sabine. I feel thoroughly spoiled by both of my pals!

Glamour girl

2007-05-01T10:09:00.000+01:00

At the weekend I knit determinedly on Tiffany's and finished it at last:

I am really pleased with the fit of this - it is a great, slightly glamorous knit and I am looking forward to wearing it. It will be less of an everyday cardigan and more of a 'night out' knit! It is of course too hot to wear it at the moment, but it will be perfect if I am going out in the evening.

I am also making good progress with my Debbie Bliss knit for my friend and have done the back and one front and am on the second front. I really like the two shades of blue I am using (part of my haul from my trip to Get Knitted):

At the weekend my friend also brought round a very exciting bag full of these:

Yup, Knitpicks Options sets! He was fantastically kind and brought these back for me and some members of my knitting group from a trip to New York. Unfortunately one set was missing, but Julie has stepped into the breach and so my set will be arriving a bit later. We are all very excited about trying out these needles as we have heard great things about them. Knitpicks do not ship directly to the UK so trying to get hold of them is a real saga but my friend and Julie have been kind enough to help! Thank you so much!

On Saturday I gave the last class for the girls I have been teaching to knit for their Duke of Edinburgh Award and they gave me some delicious Neuhaus chocolates as a thank you gift - so yummy!

And the children were very excited this weekend to find their very own Charlotte's web in the shed. I couldn't get a very good photo but there were hundreds of baby spiders all making their way out into the big wide world!

On a more sober note, this week has been a fairly awful one for our school. Last Wednesday I was sitting at my desk before heading off to my knitting group and could hear endless sirens. I even commented to Fiona at the knitting group about it. It wasn't until I got home from work that evening that I discovered that a friend of mine, her mother and her 2-year-old daughter had all been hit by a bus at the 209 bus station near where I live. Her mother was killed and her daughter has had to have one of her legs amputated below the knee. My friend needs surgery on her legs although she has not broken anything, but they are badly damaged. We are all shocked at this terrible tragedy and I have been able to think of little else. Everyone in the area uses the bus station all the time and I walk past there most days. That three generations of one family can be devastated in this way is just too awful for words. We are all thinking of them and hoping that they will be able to come to terms with this terrible tragedy. Please think positive thoughts for them all.

Birthday part II

2007-04-26T09:59:00.000+01:00

On Saturday we had Edward and Lily's party. They were each allowed to invite six friends (for their sixth birthday) and we played party games in the garden and had hotdogs for tea. All the children had a great time, although Paul and I were shattered afterwards! Trying to manage 16 children is a challenge! I persuaded Edward and Lily to share a cake this year, so we had a chocolate cake with six pink candles and six blue ones (with strawberries because they are Edward's favourite), which was all eaten by the end of the day:

We played traditional games, including musical statues - can you tell who was the last one out here?

Since then I have been occupied with work and trying to do a bit of knitting in any spare moments. I have three babies to knit for and have started this cardigan for a friend who has just had her third child, weighing in at nearly 10 pounds! None of the newborn things I often knit will fit him so I have decided something more special is called for:

Progress on Tiffany's is slow but I just have the buttonhole band to knit and the final seams to sew up - pictures soon!

More cakes than most

2007-04-19T14:08:00.000+01:00

Today is a special day in our house. Edward and Lily are 6 today! I find it amazing that they are 6 already - time seems elastic - parts of it seem to go slow, other parts go very fast! They were due on 19 May and arrived exactly one month early, much to my surprise! Because they went back to school today I spent yesterday morning making cakes for them to take in today. We had fairy cakes as far as the eye could see:

I managed to get the cakes done before I went to work yesterday and had three willing helpers who decorated them and finished off the contents of the bowl afterwards:

So it is back to reality after our short stay in YHA Bath. We managed to leave on Friday afternoon so did get away eventually, if rather later than planned. From the outside the hostel looks like an Italian villa (although the accommodation is a bit more basic on the inside):

The great thing about this hostel is that it does catering so I had a real break from the cooking, and the gardens offer perfect surroundings and materials for building a den:

We did the tourist bit and went to see the Roman baths (and drink the obligatory glass of warm spring water - yuk)

Ellen has been studying bridges at school and so we looked at Pulteney Bridge, one of only four bridges in the world to have shops on both sides:

We also walked round the city and looked at some of the beautiful Regency architecture, including The Circus

As part of our bridges tour we also visited Clifton suspension bridge in Bristol and climbed up to the camera obscura (the only one open to the public in the UK) and down to the Giant's cave for a visit, which was great fun:

On the knitting front, I am on the second sleeve of Tiffany's and about halfway through the scarf, so some progress, mostly in the car on the way there and back. I am itching to start something new but won't until I have finished at least one project on the needles! Watch this space...

Flowers and leaves

2007-04-12T17:16:00.000+01:00

What do you do over the Easter holidays when you are trying to entertain four children? (three of my own plus a friend)? Answer: visit Kew (along with the rest of south-west London!). The gardens are busy but there is still space in them and there is plenty to see at this time of year. The rhododendrons are starting to come out, although they have a few weeks to go before they are at their most stunning. This one has come out already and is simply beautiful:

And the formal planting near the Palm House is gorgeous - if only Blogger had smellivision:

I have been doing some knitting and am now on to the sleeves of Breakfast at Tiffany's (back and fronts done). I have also been fretting over what to knit for ISE4 and have ripped out what I originally started. I found it hard to settle on a pattern and yarn but over the Easter weekend finally plumped for this Falling Leaves pattern from Jan Eaton's book 200 Ripple Stitch Patterns in some of Richard's lovely cashmere yarn - in a sort of grainy rich brown:

I am quite pleased with how it is knitting up and have made good progress over the weekend:

We are supposedly off to Bath tomorrow for a few days but Paul has just phoned to say that he may need to go to work tomorrow. I am a bit fed up to say the least, especially as it is our wedding anniversary! Let's hope he can get through what he needs to today. I shall be packing my knitting and hopefully with make some progress on the scarf and Tiffany's in the car and over the weekend! See you when we are back.

Happy Easter!

2007-04-08T14:17:00.000+01:00

The Easter bunny visited today and the children were thrilled with their Lindt bunnies (I always used to get Lindt chocolate when I was little so I am following a tradition here). They are so cute with their little bells on:

Yesterday I got the most fantastic parcel from my secret pal Sabine (although she is not-so-secret any more as I have managed to guess who she is, which is actually really nice - I love knowing who is sending to me!). Just look at all the fantastic things the postman brought:

Once all the packages were unwrapped, the children had these (notebook and pencil for Ellen, pirate tattoos for Edward and horsey puzzle for Lily):

Paul had these beautiful Easter chocolates (look at the lambs!)

and I had a fantastic assortment of goodies (including handcream for my poor hands, some lovely soap for the new bathroom and lots of other goodies including beautiful sock needles and point protectors):

The yarn is a gorgeous colour - just perfect for me!:

and I couldn't resist these delicious fruity chewy sweets - the packaging is so great that I couldn't help arranging them for a photo:

Thank you so much Sabine - you have thoroughly spoiled me. The children are very pleased with their gifts, as was Paul - how lovely of you to include everyone!

We went on a little excursion yesterday to Winchester, where I spent my adolescence. To my surprise, it hadn't changed hugely, even though I haven't been there for about 15 years. We visited the cathedral (famous for having the longest nave in Europe) and took the children round:

and also couldn't resist seeing King Arthur's round table:

The high street is one of the oldest in Europe and is still pretty:

It was a good day out and lovely to see a familiar place, although it is equally pleasant to be spending today pottering about at home!

One step forward, two steps back

2007-04-03T09:46:00.000+01:00

Well, my relatively relaxing week (working only two days and having a bit more time at home while the children are at school) has gone by in a flash and I haven't achieved everything I hoped. I have sorted out some papers (although still have more to do), done the ironing (although my ironing pile is now back to where it was and I need to tackle it today), and cleaned up some of the building mess, but I still have loads to do and the children break up for Easter tomorrow! I feel rather overwhelmed by everything on the domestic front and don't feel like I am making much progress as while I am cleaning and tidying one room, the children are playing (code for getting everything out and not putting it away!) in another!

The week has partly been occupied with attending end of term events, including "watching week" at ballet. Ellen looks very graceful:

and Edward and Lily's class is very sweet:

I have done some knitting and have finished the beret, knitted to Grumperina's pattern, which turned out really well. Here is Ellen modelling it:

I love the subtle gradations of colour and the circles you get with the decreasing; and I particularly like the little nub in the middle. It reminds me of a school I went to when I was nine where we wore berets and I remember getting mine "christened" (the central nub pulled off) against my will. I was upset about it as it meant there was a little hole in the middle!

I really like knitting hats - they are relatively quick and very satisfying!

I am still enjoying my daily walk to and from school with the children. Reminders of spring are everywhere, even though the weather today is a turn back towards winter. Here is another tree in blossom we walk past every day:

Beautiful!

WIPs

2007-03-26T10:15:00.000+01:00

I thought I would post about my current works in progress. These are the ones I am knitting on (although I have a couple that are languishing and waiting to be worked on too - namely my Debbie Bliss cardigan!). First up we have Kate Gilbert's Union Square Market Pullover published in the Fall issue of Interweave Knits 2005, which I have been wanting to knit since it was published but had real problems finding a suitable yarn:

I finally found a source for the yarn actually given in the pattern and can now get going. I have chosen a rich purple with a pink trim and it is lovely to knit up - I even bought myself a Rosewood circular needle from Scottish Fibres to make the knitting more pleasurable. I love ebony needles too but thought the yarn would be difficult to see against black! I haven't got very far yet, as it is very fine yarn and there are nearly 300 stitches per round, but it is very soothing to knit and I like the feel of the yarn when I am working on it - so soft and smooth:

Also in my knitting basket next to the sofa is Breakfast at Tiffany's. The back is done and I am working on a front:

This is quick to knit but the strand of lurex in the yarn keeps catching on my hands (which have been very dry since this new colder weather started after what we all thought was the beginning of spring!) and I needed a diversion - hence the Union Square Market Pullover.

And I have also started a beret using Grumperina's pattern. This has an interesting tubular cast-on, which I have not done before, but is one that gives a very stretchy start. I love this green. This will be a gift for my Secret Pal when it is done:

I have to confess that I also cast on for the scarf for ISE4 and a new ballet cardigan for Ellen too at the weekend - so I have rather a lot going on!

After a very late night on Friday (2.30am) I managed to finish the journal I was editing and this week have a bit of time to sort out the house - it certainly needs it. I want to get everything back in the bathroom and try to deal with the dust that seems to be everywhere after the building work! It is good to have some catching up time before the next lot of work arrives next week! I am still going to the office as usual but I find the work that I do at home somehow takes over. I work in my office in the loft and find that the work hangs over me - both literally and metaphorically. It is great to know there is nothing calling out to be done and I have a few days' grace!

Cat heaven

2007-03-22T19:44:00.000Z

I had to take Max to the vet this week for his boosters and he hates going in his basket so much that he miaowed all the way to the Vee Ee Tee (as readers of Mog will understand!). To cheer him up I bought him a rather classy catnip cigar - does this cat look stoned to you? I just love the label!

And here is Max, well on the way to being in the same state:

And we are nearly there with the bathroom. It has been a long five weeks and I am faced with endless dusting, but what an improvement:

It is astonishing how much space you can create by knocking down a partition. We now have the complete luxury of a walk-in shower:

Bliss!

Happy Mother's Day

2007-03-18T13:21:00.000Z

Thank you for all your kind comments on the T shirt - it was a great knit and Ellen loves it, which is the main thing! I'm glad some of you will be knitting one too - I hope you enjoy the pattern as much as I did.

I hope all you mums out there are having a good day and that you are being spoiled, as you deserve. I was given some lovely cards this morning - Edward had made a card at school and Ellen went out with Paul to buy one for me. She also bought me a dog (something I really want, but this one is just a tease of the one I want (I would like a real, live chocolate Lab)):

Edward and Lily had also made these lovely boxes at school which came with a teabag and an After-Eight mint - yum!

Ellen may have been ill this week but she has also been busy - it is not quite finished, but she has been making me a bookmark, which is so sweet!

And I have done a bit of knitting. Having found out that it is my Secret Pal's birthday soon, I have whipped up a pair of Fetching in this lovely green Malabrigo and they will be going off to her with some other goodies tomorrow!

Ta da!

2007-03-15T12:25:00.000Z

Ellen was unwell over the weekend and I have kept her off school for a couple of days as she can't shake off a nasty cough. I was sad to miss my knitting group yesterday (especially as I hear Jill brought in cake - Happy Birthday, Jill!) but managed to finish Ellen's T-shirt and persuaded her to pose for a photo:

This was a great knit from Magknits. I changed the neck slightly, as Ellen needed a bigger gap to get the T-shirt on, so I stopped a decrease before the pattern instructed, but other than that followed it pretty much to the letter. I am really delighted with the way this knitted up and can't quite believe the whole thing only took a week from cast-on to finish!

And I was thrilled to find out not only who my secret pal who I will be sending to is but also to get an email from my secret pal! How exciting! My pal has told me quite a bit about herself and I am really looking forward to finding out more about them both as this round progresses.

A woman obsessed

2007-03-12T11:08:00.000Z

It was a beautiful day yesterday and I was very keen to go out with the children to the farmers' market and the playground. But, confronted by the antics of an obstreperous five-year-old who refused to budge, we didn't get out into the lovely spring weather (other than to take this photo):

I was very disappointed. So, what do you do when stuck inside with a mountain of housework and still surrounded by bits of plumbing? Answer:

And I knit obsessively on Ellen's top - I am addicted and very keen to finish it! It is proving quick to knit up and I can't seem to stop working on it! It is a great pattern and I am loving the way the yarn is knitting up this time:

On the school run

2007-03-09T13:14:00.000Z

A big part of my days is the school run. Even when I am working in the office I still take the children to school in the morning, and pick them up most days too. The urban landscape around where I live has touches of real beauty and this time of year everything is blossoming. On the school run at the moment I walk past these beautiful flowers each day, and each day they brighten my mood. Magnolias are so perfect:

And the camellias are equally pretty:

It makes the endless walking to and from school interesting and even cheering!

One thing I hadn't bargained on is quite how addictive this pattern for a T-shirt for Ellen is:

I am really enjoying knitting this and am also loving the way the yarn is coming out. Last time I was knitting with this yarn, I was using two balls at once and this time I am doing it one ball at a time and I much prefer the way the different colours are working out this time round:

Maybe frogging the last piece was the best thing I could have done!

And I have other distractions. Yesterday I got my first parcel from the Rockin' Sock Club, and I just love it. I don't want to spoil anyone's surprise, but here's a taster:

Change of plans

2007-03-07T09:42:00.000Z

Last week I taught a couple of friends how to dye yarn using food colouring, as taught to me by the inspirational Nic. We used undyed Trekking sock yarn from Get Knitted and the results were very pleasing. This is my hank, which is so pretty!

I am really pleased with how this turned out and cannot wait to see how it knits up! I have also checked out the new Magknits and this pattern (Very Berry T-shirt) caught my eye:

I am very taken with the design and thought it would look great in this yarn that Nic dyed for me at Christmas:

If you remember, I was originally knitting a cardigan for Ellen but she was being so difficult at that time that I just couldn't enjoy knitting for her and abandoned it! Things are going a bit better now and so last night I ripped out the nearly finished back and have decided to make this top for her instead. And I have not abandoned Breakfast at Tiffany's - I finished the back last night and plan to start one of the fronts tonight! So, we are making progress!

Grrrrrrr!

2007-03-05T13:21:00.000Z

Thanks for all your suggestions on what to do with my charity shop find - I am still undecided but maybe a Kaffe Fassett waistcoat is the way to go...

A few weeks ago, Edward's teacher asked me to knit the class teddy a red jumper and I agreed, brought home the teddy and then promptly forgot about it as teddy got buried under a pile of work. On Friday I was reminded and so on Friday night I sat down with teddy and my knitting needles and came up with a little sweater for him:

Cute!

The weekend was taken up with more building work - the tiling has started and we are making progress. What was two rooms is now one and the revamped bathroom is starting to take shape:

Yesterday I knew that the weather forecast was for rain, rain and more rain and so I decided to go to Oxford with the children to see my mum. Paul needed to work, the builders were plastering and I needed to get away from the disruption. So, we went to Oxford and had a lovely lunch and then visited the Oxford Museum of Natural History after lunch to see the dinosaur bones and the stuffed animals, some of which you can touch, including this rather fierce lioness -Grrrrrr!:

And this week I want to make some progress on Breakfast at Tiffany's and try to sort out the house a bit, as it is slowly disappearing under a layer of dust...

Eat your heart out, Audrey Hepburn

2007-03-02T13:56:00.000Z

Well, my 10th commenter on the last post was Megan and this lovely skein of Curious Yarns sock yarn (complete with contrast yarn for heels and toes) went off to her in the post yesterday:

Congratulations, Megan - hope you enjoy it. And thank you to everyone who took the time to comment - it is great to get feedback.

The bathroom is coming on - the wall is demolished, the new one built and the plastering nearly finished - just the landing wall to go. In the meantime, the bath is in and the tiling has started, so we are getting there. There is, however, dust everywhere!

I am trying to ignore the dust and to console myself with some knitting and have started making this:

It is 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' from Cherry Tree Hill. I bought the pattern from the Woolly Workshop and the ever-helpful Gill, and was really pleased to find a pattern for the yarn. The yarn is Oceania, a 100% wool boucle with a strand of lurex running through it to give it some glitter. Mary and I each bought a skein from Get Knitted when we went down there and mine is in the Martha's vineyard colourway:

I have never knitted anything sparkly before and it is fun! It took ages to wind into a ball but it is knitting up quite quickly on 5.5mm needles so I am hoping it will not be too epic a project! It is for me, and my track record of finishing things for myself is not as good as finishing things for others!

And I wonder whether anyone knows whether this might have been a kit. In one of my local charity shops I found this:

Loads of Rowan's Kaffe Fassett kid silk and some long-discontinued Designer DK in gorgeous colours. I cannot quite believe that I found this treasure trove and have no idea what to make with it. Any ideas out there?

And, as ever, Dawn is very on the ball as far as exchanges go and, taking a leaf out of her book I, too, have signed up for International Scarf Exchange 4. I am really looking forward to finding out who I am knitting for!

Centenary

2007-02-25T13:55:00.000Z

I can't believe how the time has flown since I last blogged - nearly two weeks! But, in my defence, I have been working (too late into the night for the past couple of weeks), and building work has started on our bathroom. Our bathroom was two rooms:

and we are having it knocked into one, with the wall extended out to incorporate the bit of landing in front of the old loo to give us one room. It involves a lot of work (and dust!) and I have been preoccupied with clearing out the old rooms, moving everything off the landing and generally trying to deal with the house in even more of a mess than usual. I shall be so glad not to have those navy blue tiles any more - they show every splash and mark!

To compound things, it was half-term last week (the builders started on the first day of half-term!) and so I have been trying to keep the children out of their way too. As part of my 'getting them out of the house' scheme we went on a trip to Fishbourne Roman Palace last week. Ellen is doing the Romans at school and I thought we could go and see some Roman artefacts first hand. We went with some friends and I have to say how impressed I was with the activities that were laid on for the children. Fishbourne is the most intact Roman villa in Britain and there are beautiful mosaics to see, which were discovered only comparatively recently, in 1963:

The floor undulates as the mosaics were found in a field, and they have subsided over the centuries. The children were able to dress up as Romans and Lily got stuck in to most activities, building a coiled clay pot and baking bread. It really was a fantastic day out, and the children really enjoyed it as well as (hopefully) learning a bit about the Romans.

I had a surprise package from Kris, who was my Secret Pal in SP8 - she sent me this gorgeous yarn in greens and purples which she found in a German store she has just discovered - thank you so much Kris!

I have managed a bit of knitting over the past couple of weeks - another baby kimono for Edward's teacher who went on maternity leave recently, knitted up in the gorgeous Lorna's Laces sent to me by Mindy!

And this is my hundredth post! To celebrate, some sock yarn is on offer for the 10th commenter from this post! Please leave me your email address so I can get it touch!

Birthday boy

2007-02-13T21:37:00.000Z

I haven't posted for a few days because I have been knitting obsessively (even more obsessively than usual) since my last post and very late last night/early this morning finally finished Paul's sweater, just in time for his birthday! And here is the birthday boy wearing it:

I am really pleased with how this came out. It is a lovely pattern - well thought out like all Kim Hargreaves' patterns, and the shaping and details make the jumper special. The sleeves sit well in the armholes and the detail on the yoke is simple but effective. Paul was very pleased - I had abandoned trying to knit it in secret but he never asked what I was knitting so was very surprised when he unwrapped it!

I got quite a bit of knitting on it done on Saturday because Mary and I headed off to Bristol to check out the new Get Knitted shop. Mary very kindly drove (in her very groovy Mini - it really was a Mini adventure!) and I managed to get quite a bit of the jumper done in the car. Once we got to Bristol, we took a wrong turn but once we had established that the shop was on the A4, it was easy to find (they really do have a huge sign!):

Inside the shop, everywhere we looked there was yarn. Here is the Lorna's Laces:

and some Debbie Bliss, with tables piled high with sock yarn:

There was a good selection of Patons, including some lovely cottons and the Sublime yarns, which were very tempting:

I loved this stole and was lucky enough to find some reduced Cherry Tree Hill laceweight which I might knit it in:

We must have spent about four hours in the shop - it took that long to look at everything properly and decide finally what we wanted. There were supplies of tea and coffee (and chocolate chip cookies) and sofas to sit on and decide what to buy. Here is Mary surrounded by our bags of wool:

We had a great time and I would highly recommend a visit to the shop - a perfect way to spend a wet Saturday!

SP10 questionnaire

2007-02-09T13:01:00.000Z

I have been steadily knitting away on Paul's jumper. Will I make the deadline? - I don't know - I think it is still touch and go and may involve some sleepless nights over the weekend if I am to get it done.

In the meantime I have been working hard on various publications for work, and have just finished compiling my answers to the SP10 questionnaire - I am looking forward to another round!

So, here goes,

1 What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like? I love wool, silk, cashmere and alpaca and also like cotton, especially mercerised cotton. I do not like any synthetic yarn or anything that feels scratchy or itchy when you wear it (mohair, for example).

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in? I have a couple of lovely old knitting needle boxes and also store needles upright in tins.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced? I have been knitting for about 30 years, but only obsessively since I was at university. My mum taught me to knit but I couldn't get the hang of tension when I was younger and just found it very frustrating. I retaught myself at university. I am probably an intermediate to advanced knitter.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list? I have an Amazon UK wishlist.

5. What's your favorite scent? Lavender and pretty much anything by Space NK.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy? I love chocolate and fruity sweets. I hate coffee-flavoured sweets (although I love a good cup of coffee!).

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin? I do some patchwork and have done embroidery and tapestry. I used to have a spinning wheel, but no longer have it (maybe when I have more free time I'll take it up again!). I like making small fabric gifts for people, such as lavender bags.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD) I like some classical (particularly Bach and Mozart) and some pop, although I listen mostly to the radio (BBC Radio 2 and 4). I also like some jazz, particularly Miles Davis.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand? I loves purples and reds and some dark greens. I don't really like blues or yellows - yellow makes me look ill! I prefer vivid, rich colours to pastels.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets? I am married, with three children - Ellen, aged 8 and twins Edward and Lily, aged 5. I have one cat, a ginger tom called Max Jaffa, and a goldfish.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos? I wear scarves, hats and mittens and I have one poncho I knitted myself - but I think one is enough!

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit? I love knitting presents for people and knit a lot of ponchos for the girls' friends as birthday gifts. I also knit a lot for friends' babies. I also like knitting scarves and am getting into shawl knitting. I knit socks occasionally and usually have at least one cardigan or jumper on the go for someone!

13. What are you knitting right now? My two main projects on the needles are a cardigan for myself and a jumper for my husband - which I am knitting to a tight deadline - it needs to be done by 13 February! I also want to cast on a lace project for a friend’s birthday.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts? I love it!

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic? I get a more even tension on straight needles, although I like Addi turbo circulars when they are needed and I love bamboo needles. I also collect vintage coloured metal needles - they are so lovely to knit with (very pointy!) and so pretty on display and they are probably my favourites. I really like old Boye needles and vintage English ones too.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift? I own a swift but not a yarn winder.

17. How old is your oldest UFO? Er, about 15 years.

18. What is your favorite holiday? The summer holidays - seaside and sunshine!

19. Is there anything that you collect? Other than vintage coloured needles and yarn, I have a thing for vintage buttons too - I like using them on my knitting, as they make it really special.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have? Socks that Rock, Sock Hop yarn, anything slightly out of the ordinary. I would also like to find some z-plied yarn for twined knitting. Other than that I would love to try Knit Picks Options needles and love Knit Picks yarn (they don’t send to the UK - boo hoo!). I have a subscription to Knitting magazine and to Interweave Knits. Interweave is probably my favourite magazine. I usually buy Vogue Knitting too, but can get this in the local newsagent.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn? I would like to learn twined knitting.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements? I do knit socks, but have very strange feet - high insteps and quite wide. I am an adult size 7. Let me know if you need more details!

23. When is your birthday? 26 July.

Tagged for the first time - and more snow!

2007-02-08T10:29:00.000Z

The weather forecast was right and we woke up to more snow this morning. It is still snowing as I write this but this time it seems wetter and is quite sludgy. Still, everything looks so pretty (although Max is running for the door and the warmth in this shot):

The camellias on the way to school have had a bit of a shock:

Nic has tagged me - my first time! - and the challenge is to use all the letters of the alphabet (except x, y and z - although I am going to have a go at those too!) to describe myself.
So, here goes (this could be a bit revealing):
A - anxious (sorry, Nic, stole this one from you). If there is something to worry about, I’ll worry about it and if there isn’t I’ll find something to worry about! I have spent many sleepless nights worrying about anything and everything and often have to get up at 4am if the worrying is out of hand.
B - bloody-minded. I can be very determined and pig-headed sometimes (and when I see this trait in the children I feel I cannot really criticise!). It can be a mixed blessing as it can help you achieve great things but can also prevent you from achieving other things.
C - cyclist. I love cycling and try to get on my bike at least a couple of times a week - even if it is just to go to work.
D - dog-loving. Well, I love all animals but I would love to have a dog. Paul is more reluctant but I am hoping he will agree in the end - he did say I could have one for my 45th birthday!
E - editrix. I earn my living by copy-editing or sub-editing. I work a lot at home and also work for a magazine in an office two days a week. When Paul went off to register the births of the twins I jokingly described my profession as editrix - he took me at my word, and that’s what is on their birth certificates!
F - fearful. This ties in with A - I am fearful for my children’s future, the future of the world, polar bears, tigers - you name it, I fear for it. Oh, and I still don’t like the dark!
G - generous. I like giving people presents and sometimes go a bit over the top - but I love giving people things! That is why I like Secret Pal so much!
H - I have a high pain threshold, which is not always a good thing - I did the school run for three days with a ruptured appendix two years ago, knowing that I felt really ill but stupidly believing the doctor’s diagnosis of a urinary tract infection. (I also had all the children with no pain relief, but that was probably something to do with B!)
I - impatient. I can be very impatient when waiting in queues, on the phone, for the bus, but conversely have loads of patience when it comes to handiwork.
J - jumpy. Loud noises make me leap out of my skin (a side effect of my being in an IRA bomb-blast 11 years ago this week).
K - knitting mad (well, what else?!)
L - loving - I love my children, my husband, my family, my friends, my pets - it makes the world go round.
M - maternal - I like nurturing things, although am better with animals and people than with plants - green fingers I have none!
N - needlewoman - I like sewing as well as knitting, and prefer hand-sewing to machining.
O - over-sensitive. Sometimes I take things to heart or take things the wrong way and fret about them for ages. Sometimes I feel it would be good to have a thicker skin.
P - perfectionistic - I like things to turn out the way I plan, which while leading to a lovely result can be painful when I am getting there!
Q - quixotic - I can be somewhat fanciful and rather a dreamer, but I try to keep my wilder notions under control!
R - risk-taker - I can be a bit reckless sometimes (I have been on a hang-gliding course, after all!).
S - single-minded. Once I decide to do something, I am usually quite determined to pursue it until it is done.
T - tearful. I cry easily and often, and since having children this has got worse! The news regularly sets me off!
U - easily upset - see above!
V - vehement - when I decide on something I can be very intense about expressing what I feel!
W - workaholic - I do push myself to work very hard sometimes and it seems that no matter what I do I find it hard to give myself permission to ease up, even when I need to.
X - exuberant (if that counts as an X!). When I get enthusiastic about something I want the whole world to see how great it is!
Y - yarn-hoarding. Yup, I have a monster stash!
Z - zealous - particularly when it comes to knitting!

I now need to tag five people, so I am tagging Kris, Caroline, Hila, Julie and Mindy!

Surprise!

2007-02-06T16:28:00.000Z

The postman brought me some lovely goodies today. First, my Rowan 41 magazine finally arrived. I haven't had much chance to look through it yet owing to work commitments but am looking forward to leafing through it tonight:

And not only did my Rowan magazine arrive, I got my final parcel from my Secret Pal. Mindy has been a great pal and this parcel was full of lovely things - a lace book, some gorgeous Lorna's Laces, some lace mohair and a Chibi! Aren't I lucky? Thank you so much Mindy!

Edward has been having a good week at school - he got a Headmaster's Award yesterday for writing some of the Gruffalo:

What a proud mum I am!

I am thrilled with all my goodies but am still feeling overwhelmed by all things domestic and the volumes of work I seem to have. I finished one journal today and am about to start on another, but have so much else to do. Flylady is helping but I still feel overwhelmed by everything and suffering from a serious time famine! Max does his best to help with the never-ending laundry, and at least makes me smile!

Got your goat

2007-02-04T20:44:00.000Z

Another beautifully sunny Sunday, another trip to a farm - this time Odds Farm Park near Beaconsfield. Lily liked the rabbits, who were obliging enough to sit still while she stroked them:

As always, I liked the goats, especially these three, who I thought were great - such wonderful beards and fringes, and horns!

Ellen agreed with me and enjoyed feeding the goats too

Odds Farm has a small collection of rare breeds and this beautiful British White cow was enjoying the February sun:

On the knitting front I have been trying to make progress on Beau and am hoping to finish the sleeves in the next couple of days. No pictures I'm afraid as it is just more blue knitting! The back is done and so I want to get going on the front this week. It needs to be done for the 13th - I hope I can do it! As always, when I am knitting a garment this time-consuming I am thinking about what I want to do next. I have another baby thing to knit - probably another bolero and then I think I want to carry on with my Debbie Bliss cashmerino cardigan that is languishing in a bag! No sign yet of my Rowan 41 magazine, which I understand is out already - something to look forward to next week!

Let it snow

2007-01-24T09:27:00.000Z

When we woke up this morning and looked out of the window, we were so excited! Snow! It is not often that it snows in London, and Lily had been very confused about why there was no snow at Christmas. She assured me that it would snow in January, so maybe a meteorological future beckons! Everything looked so pretty:

Before we went to school there was just time to make a mini snowman, but it now seems to be melting fast, so may not be there by the time the children get home from school.

Still, we had a great walk to school in our wellies and getting up was no problem this morning as we all just wanted to get out and play! I noticed a couple of days ago that the mornings don't seem quite so dark and gloomy, so I am hoping we are over the worst in terms of lack of light - I find it such a struggle to get up at this time of year and feel I should be hibernating! The light cast by the snow is so lovely, it makes getting up less of a struggle!

Fee fi fo fum

2007-01-23T20:46:00.000Z

On Saturday it was Ellen's birthday treat and she had her friend Kitty for a sleepover. We went to Jack and the Beanstalk at Richmond Theatre and then out to Tootsies for dinner. I don't usually enjoy pantomime but this one actually made me laugh - largely down to the talent of Tim Vine, who was excellent as Jack's one-bean-short-of-a-bushel brother. Richmond Theatre had a great enticement on the front of the theatre (what child wouldn't want to go in after seeing those boots!):

The children thoroughly enjoyed the show, particularly Lily, who was shouting out 'He's behind you!' at all the crucial moments and going Ssssssss! with gusto when the baddie appeared!

I finished off another Mason-Dixon baby kimono, in the mixed berries colourway again, for Kitty's mum's new baby, but forgot to take a photo of it before giving it away. And I have also knitted this lovely purple one for another new baby:

Now that my urgent baby knitting is done I must press on with Paul's jumper. I have been making very slow progress with this, largely due to the baby knitting taking priority, but I must get on with it now otherwise I will run out of time! I'll keep you posted...

Any colour you like

2007-01-18T14:09:00.000Z

Yesterday members of our Putney knitting group had a dyeing workshop with Nic. Mary very kindly hosted the workshop in her kitchen - and we just needed food colouring, plastic sheeting, loads of cling film and a microwave:

Nic explained to us all how to do it and provided some undyed sock yarn for us to experiment with and then we set to work with the food colouring:

Everyone in the group has very particular colour preferences and we were all hoping to achieve our desired colours. The results were amazing. Here are (L to R) Mary's incredible rainbow and mermaid skeins, Jill's beautiful pink and green ones and my wine-coloured ones:

We were all thrilled with the end results and I think I may be on to a new thing! Here we all are in Mary's kitchen proudly holding our skeins! The colours are stunning - look at Felicia's sunset skeins and Linda's mossy green ones! Lesley (on the left) and I have very similar colour preferences - can you tell?

It was a fantastically inspiring morning and I feel very motivated to go on and do more! Here is my end result (which went to work with me yesterday afternoon and dripped dry in the office!), all dry and soon to be wound into balls to knit!

Birthday girl

2007-01-15T23:09:00.000Z

It's hard to believe, but Ellen is 8 years old today. Happy birthday Ellen! I am amazed at how quickly and yet how slowly the time has gone - like time was bizarrely elastic in some way.

I made fairy cakes for her to take into school to give to her class (I always feel this is a bit nicer than just buying a party bag of sweets for her to hand out at home time, even though the sugar content is probably fairly similar!). In true Nigella fashion, I decorated these ones with dolly mixtures:

Because yesterday was at last a sunny day we decided to take advantage of the fine weather and headed off to Bocketts Farm for the day, taking a picnic with us. The farm is great for the children, with lots of friendly animals (the goats are my favourite!):

and life in all its richness - this little calf was born on Sunday, just before we arrived - he is called Casper, and was so sweet!

The children had great fun and I was very relieved to get out and about. I have felt very cooped up in the wet weather and have been longing for some open space, so it was lovely to see some animals and get some fresh air:

A friend of mine also had her fourth child today (Ellen is thrilled to share her birthday!) so some more baby knitting beckons!

Out of my life...

2007-01-12T14:48:00.000Z

A clear desk makes me happy! I finally wrapped up the book on Tuesday afternoon (literally and metaphorically) and it was collected by the publisher. I have since had some good feedback about all the work I put in, so I am delighted not only that it is not on my desk any more but that what I have done has been appreciated (a rare quality these days).

Since then I have done a bit of knitting, including starting Beau, which I am making for Paul (the photo doesn't show up the yarn well, but it has lovely green and purple flecks, which are very pretty):

and how could I resist the lure of Koigu in Stash (answer: I couldn't!) as a reward for finishing my work project:

I had started a cardigan for Ellen for her birthday in the lovely yarn Nic gave me, but have decided not to pressurise myself into doing it, particularly as Ellen has also been so difficult the past couple of weeks that I don't feel inclined to knit for her at the moment! Her best friend at school left just before Christmas and I feel that she is reacting to that but I also think that she cannot use that as an excuse for general bad behaviour! I will make her a scarf but that is all I can manage at the moment!

I am feeling a bit Januaryish, not helped by the weather and the dark mornings which make you feel like you are getting up in the middle of the night. Still, it is not as bad here as it is in Finland, where daylight is in short supply. Like Lene, I keep telling myself that it is getting lighter by a few minutes each day, but I still don't feel that it is making a difference in the mornings, when I am trying to prise the children out of bed! My general gloom has not been helped by taking antibiotics all week for unidentifiable abdominal pain, which I hope will clear up soon, as it has been going on for a couple of weeks now.

Tomorrow I am starting to teach some girls knitting as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Award, so am quite excited about that, and am looking forward to the challenge over the coming weeks.

You say you want a resolution...

2007-01-07T13:52:00.000Z

At long last I have found time to post my resolutions along with a bit of knitting I did over Christmas and new year. I have been bogged down in The Book again and am now in the final stages of collating the editors' corrections with my own and tidying up all the loose ends - I'm hoping to finish it tomorrow.

My aspirations for 2007 are simple really. The house constantly exhausts me and I find the endless tidying and chores incredibly wearing on top of work and everything else. Three children seem to make an incredible mess and I find it very frustrating having to tidy up endlessly with no real result.

I believe that one way to improve things would be to declutter. In itself this is a huge task, so I figure that it needs to be done in stages - baby steps. Although I have known about and followed FlyLady half-heartedly for a while, I have not been doing it assiduously so I figure that this year I will. Let's hope it achieves the results I crave. I specifically want to declutter the kitchen and have a serious cookbook cull!

I saw a friend of mine yesterday who is going to South Africa next month and is taking some clothes for children and babies so I also plan to look out some things for her to take that my children have grown out of. We have so much and others have so little and I would really like the children to appreciate that, particularly after the excesses of Christmas, but I know it is not something that they will necessarily understand at this stage in life.

I also want to finish some things I started knitting last year that have fallen by the wayside as I got distracted by other things (mostly gifts for people!) - namely,
1. The Debbie Bliss ribbed cabled cardigan (I wanted to get this done for Christmas but was knitting so many presents that my knitting for myself was put aside!).
2. The bolero I started when Stash opened.
I also want to knit some lace, specifically the Wings o the Moth shawl and Kiri.

Over Christmas and the new year I made a couple of extra small gifts:

Fetching again in Malabrigo for someone at work who suffers from cold hands and liked my pair; and a scarf adapted from the Misti Alpaca scarf pattern, this time in Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk aran and without the frill as it was a gift for a man:

My knitting is not quite on the same scale as my Aunt Adelaide's, who every year knits all the children something for Christmas. The number of her great nieces and nephews is now in the teens but every year we still get some lovely Christmas knitting! Here are my three wearing this year's gifts (with Max in on the photo too!):

So, farewell, 2006

2006-12-31T17:03:00.000Z

We had a good Christmas but I think the children missed being at home as we drove to my mum's on Christmas morning for a couple of days after spending Christmas Eve with my sister and my dad and I feel we did a bit too much rushing around. So, after a busy Christmas period, we are settling down to a quiet new year. We have some friends coming over for lunch tomorrow (mostly to play trains with Edward and Paul!) but are staying in tonight as going out on New Year's Eve when you have young children is difficult as babysitters are thin on the ground!

I went to work last week and only managed a bit of knitting, mostly Wristers. Here are two pairs in Malabrigo, in the velvet grapes colourway, which is luscious:

Although I didn't get any knitting-related gifts, Margaret was destashing and thought of me (lucky me!), and I received this wonderful yarn in the post after Christmas: some skeins of long-discontinued Rowan Grainy Silk in a lovely dusky pink colour and some Fox Tweed in an oatmeal colour

Thank you so much, Margaret - I haven't decided what to make yet but have lots of plans going through my head.

And Kris had been kind enough to offer to get me some yarn from Knit Picks as she is in Hawaii for Christmas, and look what I chose: two skeins of laceweight for a scarf or wrap and some alpaca for scarves and the brown and chocolate yarn I plan to make a chevron scarf with - yum!

Before the rain set in this afternoon we took the children to the playground for some much- needed fresh air - I have been feeling a bit cooped up and decided it was high time to blow away those cobwebs. Here are Edward and Lily at the top of the spider's-web climbing frame:

Now, another year beckons and I have been thinking about resolutions. I have not finalised what I plan to do, but I have been very inspired by Lain's recent writings on the subject of simplifying, which was something I was moving towards before we had children. Now is always a good time to take stock and plan for the year ahead and that is exactly what I intend to do. I will keep you posted!

Have a great new year celebration everyone, and see you in 2007!

Santa Special

2006-12-24T09:44:00.000Z

Yesterday we headed off to the Watercress Line for the Santa Special. Edward loves trains (as does Paul!) so this was our Christmas steam train treat. As ever, the trains were fabulous beasts, with smells and sounds evocative of the past:

On the train, we were visited by a certain gentleman from Lapland:

who gave all the children a small present and reminded them to be asleep tonight so that he can visit! Ellen doesn't really believe in Father Christmas any more, but Edward and Lily still hover on the brink of believing in him and they really enjoyed seeing him.

The Watercress Line is in Hampshire and so I had some good knitting time in the car and managed to rustle up this hat (from Louisa Harding's book Hats, Scarves and Gloves) for my neighbour (I thought she would appreciate a new hat for dog-walking!) in the Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted I bought last week:

And when we got home I headed to the kitchen to make these apple tarts as we are headed off to my sister's today for a festive meal and the first round of gift-giving:

Happy Christmas everyone!

On the home run

2006-12-21T21:22:00.000Z

Well, after reading it for most of my waking hours (and some of the ones I usually spend sleeping!) when I am not with the children or in the office, I finally finished the preliminary read-through on the book I am working on:

Now I need to wait for the authors to get back to me with the answers to my queries and for the editors' proofs to arrive...

So, in the meantime, I have been making some Christmas preparations. Paul bought the tree and the children had free rein to decorate it:

A lot of the decorations are ones they have made over the years, including the star at the top and the Hama bead decorations, which kept them busy last Christmas holidays! I even bought a wreath for the door:

Depressingly, it is so dark that my flash goes off even in the middle of the day! Still we are at the shortest day today and I feel so relieved - these dark mornings really get to me after a while. I have even squeezed in some knitting - and finished yet another alpaca scarf last night - 6 have already been given to their recipients (mostly the children's teachers, who all loved them!).

I have also been thinking about upcoming birthdays and planning ahead. It is Ellen's in January so I have been swatching, thinking about what to make with the lovely yarn Nic gave me:

I want to make a simple cardigan so might just go for it! Do you reckon I have time? And then Paul's birthday is in February and he has been asking for another sweater, and I saw Beau from Rowan Vintage Knits on Elli's blog and thought what a lovely pattern it is:

and found the yarn on ebay, so, in a fit of enthusiasm, am planning to knit it for Paul in this pretty colour, called Hero

As if all this wasn't enough, my copy of this arrived today:

and I am excited about planning a project in the Knit Picks yarn I just got from my Secret Pal! Victorian Lace Today wasn't the only exciting post I got today. This arrived from Alex. Do you remember the pincushion I made? Well, I entered her competition in the first issue of Proud to be Crafty and won! I got some lovely goodies: some Peace Fleece buttons, which are really pretty, with little stars on, and some stitch markers, a pen with a pen topper and a great stripey scrapbook. And, my copy of PtbC was in the package too! It has quite made my day!

Knit Picks!

2006-12-18T17:52:00.000Z

Time is flying by and I am fast running out of it! I am now on page 299 of the book and plan to do some more tonight, so I am making progress, which is good. I shall be glad when the bulk of it is done and I am not stressing about it so much. Virtually no knitting has been going on here (or blogging, or writing Christmas cards for that matter) as I have been working late most nights in a bid to break the back of it. In the midst of the work frenzy, the children have been having more parties at school, requiring more fairy cakes:

The children all played the piano in a concert organised by their piano teacher on Saturday. They did fantastically well, especially when you consider that they have only been learning for a few months, and Paul and I were so proud of them. When leaving the house to get there I managed to forget my camera so no pix I'm afraid, but I did squeeze in a trip to Stash on the way there as I needed one more skein of alpaca for yet another scarf and also succumbed to these:

two skeins of Lorna's Laces worsted and one of Malabrigo, to knit hats, scarves and a baby bolero! How I thought I was going to get all my Christmas knitting done, I have no idea, but the scarves will be done and then the rest will be post-Christmas presents! Nic was in the shop and was fantastic with the kids, especially when Lily's wobbly tooth came out in the middle of my wool choosing! Nic valiantly found an envelope to keep it safe and the tooth fairy came that night!

And just look what my secret pal has sent me, in time for Christmas, when I hope I will have some time to knit:

A copy of Knit Simple, 3 cute M&M's men for the children (how incredibly thoughtful!), a box of grown-up chocolates for me (which I shall need to get me through the book) and some delectable Knit Picks laceweight. Look at how pretty it is:

It is quite interesting, as this is not a colour I would normally choose, but it is calling to me in a most peculiar way and I am itching to knit with it! My Secret Pal asked me if there was anything from the US I wanted and of course I said Knit Picks yarn, and it is lovely - soft and so pretty!
Thank you so much secret pal - I love it all!

Catching up...

2006-12-11T22:20:00.000Z

Many apologies for the lack of blogging here. Apart from the inevitable piles of work, ironing, etc, I have been busy with other things too! Last Monday evening I went to a talk given by Debbie Bliss at Stash about her career to date:

It was very interesting hearing about her designs and her yarns. She brought along a huge selection of garments from her recent books and we all had great fun trying them on. Here's the chaos at the end of a fab evening:

On Wednesday we had a lovely Christmas party for the knitting group at Stash,

and Lesley made everyone these pretty flowers (here are mine, in my favourite colours!):

Michelle also organised a secret santa, which I have never done before, and just look at the amazing yarn I was given by the generous and talented Nic:

I still can't quite get over Nic's generosity (although she says it was under budget!), all beautifully dyed by her in these pretty colours of pinks and greens. Gorgeous! I feel incredibly lucky!

On Thursday it was Ellen's big production of The Snow Queen, which she has been working on at school for weeks:

They did an evening show and it was a late night for everyone, so we have had some tired children here!

This week, I have a heap of work to get through - a 400-page book which I need to get done before Christmas, not to mention other work too! Help!

The icing on the cake

2006-12-04T13:57:00.000Z

It has been a bit hectic around here lately. I have been busy making cakes for the Year 1 cake sale at school (pink, naturally):

We managed to raise £230 for Edward and Lily's classes, which was fantastic, and the children will really benefit from the equipment the teachers will be able to buy! And we had four performances of the nativity play last week, where Edward was a star (back left):

I can hardly believe that this year will be the last year I have a nativity play to go to - they move on to different things next year as the nativity is reserved for Nursery, Reception and Year 1 children. It feels like the end of an era in their childhood. Edward and Lily did really well, and I felt very proud (and teary too!).

Work is still monopolising my time, but I have managed a bit of knitting - the wristers craze that has been going around the knitting group at Stash has hit me too. These are knitted to Fetching (I saw Michelle's and wanted some too!), from Knitty, and I am pleased with how they have turned out - they are cute!

And today a surprise came - my long-awaited scarf exchange parcel arrived - yippee! I knew it was on its way, and, as Lain said, it was worth waiting for. Inside the parcel, as well as this lovely velvety scarf:

were all these goodies, including some Knit Picks yarn! Lucky, lucky me! Lain very generously sent me some Knit Picks Shadow and some sock yarn, the latest Vogue Knit Simple and a cute notebook, some gum and a sweet washcloth. Thank you, Lain!

And now back to work ...

On schedule

2006-11-25T18:30:00.000Z

Last night I finished the poncho for Lily to give to her friend today and I was pleased with how it came out. I knitted it using Rowan Big Wool, but had rather less than two balls so supplemented it with a bit of Colinette Chicago which I also used for the fringe. I think it is rather pretty:

And then I carried on with the 'Heartbreakingly cute baby kimono' from Mason-Dixon. I had a bit of a panic this afternoon as I thought I was going to run out of yarn, largely because I had amended the pattern slightly, knitting the back higher before breaking it for the fronts and making the sleeves slightly wider, as recommended by Jill and Dawn, which meant that I was using more yarn than anticipated from the original pattern. I had to keep on knitting until I found out whether I had enough yarn, and just had enough to finish it. And here it is:

I am really pleased with how this worked out and love the pattern, particularly the minimal sewing up!

It is now in the post to its intended wearer, so I hope it fits!

Busy, busy, busy!

2006-11-24T13:36:00.000Z

I have been really busy, but in a good way!

On Sunday Kris, who I sent gifts to for secret pal 8, came to stay for a couple of nights. It was so great to meet her and to get to know her properly. She had come to London from Munich to do some Christmas shopping and shopping for her boys' birthday. While she was here, we went to Stash where we had a lovely morning and Kris enjoyed choosing some yarns to take back to Germany with her:

She also helped me a bit with my blog, putting some more links on, which was great! Now it seems easier to do and I won't be so daunted! I really enjoyed having her to stay and getting to know her in person rather than just through emails!

School stuff has been busy lately too - three costumes for the school plays to get together last weekend and now I am trying to organise the nails and temporary tattoos stall! But when not working or doing school admin I have also been knitting. The alpaca obsession is still with me and I have finished another couple of scarves, one brown and one in eggplant:

I just love their frilly ends!

So, five down, several to go (every time someone sees one they want one, so it is all getting a bit out of hand!). This weekend, I need to finish a poncho that is going to one of Lily's friends for her birthday tomorrow, and I want to finish this:

which is the baby kimono from Mason-Dixon Knitting in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted, Mixed Berries colourway, which I am knitting for my stepsister-in-law who has just had her second child, a little girl!

If only there were a couple more days in the week, to get everything done!

More alpaca goodness

2006-11-17T13:33:00.000Z

Yesterday evening I went round to a friend's house to knit. It is amazing what three hours' knitting can achieve!

Yes, it's another one off the production line, this time in a gorgeous baby pink! I had cast it on before I went but obsessive knitting while chatting yields fast results with this pattern. My friends thought the yarn was so lovely that I think they may start knitting this scarf too! What have Jill and Dawn started?!

Before going out last night, when the children came back from school we made this - the spiced apple cake from the mix sent to me by my secret pal. Even today the whole house smells divinely of apple cake and the cake itself is delicious - thank you so much, secret pal!

Soft and cuddly

2006-11-16T10:37:00.000Z

Although I have been working the last couple of days, I have done a bit of knitting in the evenings, and last night I finished this scarf, knitted with one skein of Misti chunky alpaca, which I shall be sending off to my friend today. It is so soft - the perfect thing for a Yorkshire winter!

So, one down, five to go! (or maybe more, as they make great presents!). I think I'll start the pink one next...

Yarn Tasting at Stash

2006-11-14T21:44:00.000Z

Last night I went to a great event - Stash Yarns were holding a Lorna's Laces yarn-tasting evening. Here are (left to right) Jan, Dawn and Jill all discussing the merits of different types of Lorna's Laces yarn (among other things!):

When we got there, laid out on the table were luscious-looking goody bags filled with beautiful little balls of yarn. Drinks and nibbles were provided and we swatched:

Here we have (left to right across the top) Swirl DK (which was surprisingly nice to knit with, quite smooth and forgiving on the hands - I am tempted!), Helen's lace, Shepherd worsted (gorgeous), Shepherd chunky (a firm fabric, but a bit too bulky for my taste), Shepherd sock (fun and so soft!). The long stripey swatch is Lion and Lamb, which came out very differently depending on who was knitting with it. It was luscious to knit with, but I think you would have to choose your pattern carefully to avoid unintentional striping!

I was glad of a trip to the yarn shop because I am now in hasty Christmas present mode and, so taken am I with the Misti Alpaca scarf, I splashed out on several more skeins. (I have a long list of gifts!) First scarf off the production line will be a birthday present for a friend, though, which I hope to send her this week (I'd better get knitting!). I also couldn't resist a skein of Lorna's Laces Shepherd worsted in Gold Hill - just beautiful and very in keeping with the season!

What a great idea for an evening - it was lovely to meet some knitters I hadn't met before and to spend time in the company of other women, doing what we like doing best while exploring new yarns!

Super furry animals

2006-11-13T10:18:00.000Z

On Sunday, for the first time in ages, I was clear enough of work for us all to enjoy a day out together. We decided to go to the Horniman museum to see Great White Bear, an exhibition of photographs of stuffed polar bears in the UK. This might seem a slightly macabre subject for an exhibition, but it was fascinating. The artists, Bryndís Snæbjörnsdóttir and Mark Wilson, spent several years trying to track down all the taxidermied polar bears in the UK and then photographed as many as they could. (And with a name like Snæbjörnsdóttir (Snow bear's daughter) I think I might have a slight obsession with polar bears too!) There are 34 bears in the exhibition (there should be 35, but the Horniman's own bear was sold in 1948 and its whereabouts is not currently known).

As you walk into the exhibition you are greeted by an impressive, fierce-looking creature standing on its hind legs, which towered above us all, making us realise how enormous these beautiful predators are. One photograph features a very sad bear, stored on a shelf next to a bicycle, but there is also David Puttnam's bear, who looks beautifully fluffy and furry, and who graces the Puttnams' London home.

Famous bears include the one owned by the Fox's Glacier Mint factory owner and who greets any house guests wearing a hat and carrying a bunch of tulip fairy lights. I wasn't able to take any photos of the exhibition, but Jill sent me this great picture of one of her holidays a while ago - she didn't see any polar bears, but this sign seems to indicate they might be around:

Other than polar bears, we enjoyed the museum hugely - the music room, where you can listen to a huge range of musical instruments, was particularly popular with the children. And I was even able to do some knitting in the journey across London and back!

Today I managed to post off my outstanding 'work-at-home' typescripts and now just need to catch up all all the housework I have been neglecting for the past few weeks (groan!) ... before going into the office tomorrow and Wednesday.

Diversionary tactics

2006-11-11T21:56:00.000Z

To my relief, I finally got through most of my work (for the moment) today and will definitely be able to meet my Monday deadline. To celebrate, I took the evening off and made this pincushion as an entry to Alex's competition:

It is just made with felt (although the geometry was a bit of a challenge) and I hand-sewed the pieces together and stuffed it with a mixture of sawdust and lavender, so it smells heavenly!

And, I confess, there was some knitting late last night and tonight, when I finished this scarf knitted to a free pattern and made with one skein of Misti Alpaca chunky:

Jill was knitting this on Wednesday at Stash and I've seen it on Dawn's blog too so, not wanting to feel left out, I thought I'd get in on the action! In fact, I'm quite taken with the yarn and the pattern and feel some Christmas presents coming on...

Still no knitting

2006-11-07T21:59:00.000Z

Well, I have been stuck in front of my computer for hours it seems and am trying to focus on the job in hand (now on to journal number two) while trying not to get distracted by thinking about knitting and reading all those fabulous blogs out there.

Even when I am not actually knitting I am thinking about what to knit next, and my fingers are itching to pick up my needles.

But I must concentrate on work for the next few days and once my work is finished, I will enjoy picking up my needles all the more. I did manage to send a package off to my secret pal yesterday as I needed to go to the post office for work and it seemed like a good time to get the first parcel off to her. I hope she likes it!

Remember, remember...

2006-11-05T18:39:00.000Z

Not much knitting has been going on around here as I am very bogged down in work. I have two journals to edit and am still working my way through the first one. The deadline for both is looming! But, because I work largely from home, life must go on as normal and I have to fit work in around everything else! So, the weekend has been spent trying to work but still being interrupted to cook casseroles, take children out on Rollerblades etc. Oh how I wish I worked in an office sometimes!

We celebrated Hallowe'en on the 31st and went trick or treating along with most other children in the neighbourhood. Here are Lily and Edward looking a bit creepy:

And here's Ellen looking fierce:

And while we haven't been to a firework display tonight, Edward drew one all of his own, which gives a good impression of the sky right now:

Happy Bonfire Night!

A week of cakes and surprises

2006-10-30T20:42:00.000Z

Our week away in the Cotswolds was lovely. Here is the cake I made for my Mum (a yummy concoction using a lot of Green and Black's organic cocoa) . I used a new recipe this time and it was a big success - moist and light (I tore it out of the Guardian newspaper a couple of weekends ago - the recipe is for Rachel's chocolate cake):

While we were in the Cotswolds we had a good time exploring the area and, as is always the case when you are on holiday in England, there was plenty to do. We went to Snowshill Manor, a beautiful house with an extensive collection of fantastically eccentric objects, including Japanese suits of armour, musical instruments and a huge variety of apple trees. The gardens are Arts and Crafts style and very rustically charming:

Continuing the Arts and Crafts theme we climbed Broadway Tower which was used by William Morris as a country retreat and has fabulous views across to Wales (although it was sadly too cloudy to appreciate the full vantage point the tower occupies):

We also had a lovely autumnal walk around Batsford Arboretum, which was absolutely beautiful and we could not have visited at a better time of year. This tree was amazing, with every shade of yellow and red imaginable - the trees on either side looked almost blue next to it:

Henry VIII's last wife Katherine Parr also lived in the area and we visited Sudeley Castle, her former home, which again has beautiful grounds (the house is privately owned by Henry and Mollie Dent-Brocklehurst and is not open to visitors), including some fabulous topiary:

I even managed a visit to the knitting and needlecraft shop in Shipston-on-Stour (linked to the shop in Burford) and purchased three books and some much-reduced Rowan yarn (earmarked for something for my sister - it is just her colour!):

I did do some knitting over the course of the few days we were away and have now finished the back of the Debbie Bliss cabled cardigan I am making for myself. I have also started the sleeves, and am making slow progress up them as I am doing them both at the same time, as is usual for me. I am very keen to wear this and am really hoping it will fit OK - it is hard to tell because of the ribbing!

I came back to London to find that my ISE3 scarf has arrived safely and that Julie likes it! Check out Julie's blog for a full report! I am so pleased that she likes it - I really enjoyed making it for her and loved getting together everything for the parcel I sent her. Check out her blog for some great recipes too!

I also got a parcel today! I thought it might be my ISE3 scarf but to my surprise it was a package from my Secret Pal. Look at what she sent me:

Some gorgeous Claudia Hand Painted Yarn in a beautiful purple autumnal mix of colours, called Purple Earth, some Crystal Palace dpns, which I have been wanting to try soooo badly, and a cake mix which smells heavenly and will probably be turned into a cake by the weekend! Thank you so much Secret Pal - what a fantastic surprise and what perfect choices! I am such a lucky girl!