A cold, yoyo yarn, yoyo the cat and hoops!

Let me tell you a wee sad story; this time last year my daughter's beautiful cat, Truffle, died. He (and she) fought a long brave battle with his kidney failure, but in the end we had to kiss him goodbye.

I cannot tell you how we have grieved and mourned, but on Sunday these two tiny kittens (the picture makes them look much bigger than they are) became adopted by my DD. They had been found, worm infested and flea ridden with two other cats, one of which was dead. A kind soul associated with an animal charity took them in, and made them better. Now they are about 10 weeks old and gorgeous. They are a colour that is somewhere between faded apricot/rose and ivory.

The one looking at the camera (YoYo) is a gorgeous shy girl, while her brother is a bounding ball of excitement (and called Hoops). So, as DD was at work on Monday, I had to drive for an hour (and a bit) to her house, to kitten sit! Boy do these little monkeys like knitting. They love the needles, they love my arms moving, they love the yarn, and they love the ball band. I laughed more than I have done for ages - I very nearly stole them! Watch out, I may yet.

Anyway, back to my knitting of the past few days ... I have had a cold (only a girl cold, but still rubbish). So I knitted and knitted. I have finished my recycle jumper, but couldn't sew it up (my eyes have been streaming) and my icecream sweater is gorgeous, but I needed something to take my mind off the continual sneezing and eye watering.

So, for my second ever pair of socks, I fall in love with the Slip Stitch Delight pattern, (Thanks Terry L Ross) and decide I will knit them for my DD as a wee gift at Christmas. I decided I was knitting this with classic rib top (cuff) and not with fancy X top; I adore the mock tweed rib, which is gorgeous. However I was more than a bit dismayed at the poor quality of the Noro K sock yarn, which is a bit like a yo-yo dieter -veering alarmingly from way too thin, then ok, then way too chunky, back to way too thin, etc, etc. The colour is gorgeous … but don’t know whether this is just a duff skein or whether this is typical of the sock weight yarn (although I have shared these feelings with another user who is suffering the same weight issues!).

Once they were finished I took a snap and decided I am a better knitter than photographer … the socks look weird in photo and ok in reality .. perhaps it is being short … I can't get the perspective right.

Then I actually decided to reinforce one part of first sock with duplicate stitch, as yarn went almost invisibly thin on one part of sole and I know it would wear out in a heart beat. :( I cannot believe I am now pre-darning socks.

As a quick win I moved on to the Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf by Karen Baumer, which I am knitting in Lang's Mille Colori. I have to say this yarn is gorgeous … having just finished the socks in Noro K sock yarn where, quite frankly, the yarn was all over the place in thickness, this yarn is beautiful and, consequently, the scarf is going to be beautiful. Despite being all knit stich (and I DO get bored VERY EASILY) I have mentally ordered several more scarves from myself as Christmas gifts … well, perhaps the diagonal knitting will stop me from hanging myself with 50% wool/50% acrylic.

I did see something similar in the Per Una range in Marks and Spencers at £25 … YES that’s £25!!! and that was 100% acrylic or poly. This will take 2 skeins and work out at £6 ish. (shop around and if you can't find it for that price email me and I will give you the name of my source.

Wherever you are and whatever you are knitting, I hope a laugh or two bounds into your life to make you smile.

Sending hugs
x

A sugar rush

I recognise the signs when I am stressed; I want to cook or knit or drink wine, or do all three (which in the past has led to some pretty inventive cooking - like the raglan spaghetti sweater in red wine*!)

Today we did gardening and gardening and gardening, when suddenly I got the urge to dash inside and cook brownies and teacake. Now I only do cake/dessert cooking once every decade or so, usually when I find out I am pregnant or redundant or about to remarry. None of those apply (fingers crossed), but still the urge for bakery was fierce.

The brownies are deep, dark and decadant; seriously heavy cocoa content, really soft, chewy, thick and deep deep chocolate, with chocolate chunks and dashed with chopped pecans, almonds and brazils. The teacake has sultanas, raisins, prunes, apricots and pecan. I now have a sweetly swollen tummy curve from the trialing, tasting and testing. If I am not to swell up like a balloon I need to find something hugely complex to knit. The wine was Blossom Hill, a californian soft red and dinner was slow braised lamb, with flageolet beans and small cherry tomatoes.

Tomorrow I know that, as all tomorrows shall be, I shall be good and eat nothing but salad, run miles, exercise hard and only drink water! Except that tomorrow is Wednesday, which is mad mother day, so perhaps tomorrow will start on Thursday!

Is the love I gave in the past
Gonna be enough to last
If tomorrow never comes

So tell that someone that you love
Just what you're thinking of
If tomorrow never comes

Possibly

And so, after a great couple of days away, it is back to the grind of trying to catch up with everything. We finally finished painting the outside of the house last week ... and it was a lot of house.

However, we are late with everything this year: when hubby put his back out for 4 weeks it put everything on hold. So it is now time to return to trimming the laurel hedge, and there are miles of it... and the garden is in serious need of some TLC as the weeds are the bully in the playground and threatening the gentle pretty plants. So I am about to wage war on bindweed and nettles, thistles and dandelions, as well as speedwell, daisies, rose bay willow herb and buttercup. "Wild flowers" sound far more attractive when they are in a wild place ... in my garden they are just a huge nuisance!

I won't however do weedkiller ... so I am forever disturbing a surprised frog or toad as I scoop up leaves and pull up weeds. Occasionally a newt will peer at me, I am sure it will be praying I am not a predator (I'm not!) before I pick it up and move it closer to the pond.

I finished knitting the recycled sweater tonight ... tomorrow may be a "finish off" day ... or it may well be a "cast on and hang the sewing" day. I have to start planning what I should be doing, rather than letting my excitement persuade me into knitting something that may not help the Christmas gift situation.

Here I want to say that despite the fear that hubby's pension pot may have dissolved into a puddle of mud; despite the fact I am 200+ miles away from my twins, son and Dil; despite the fact that mad mother is not going to get better, and despite the fact that I miss my daughter immensely and fear she is working too hard; despite all those things I feel happier tonight.

I think it is the belief in possibilities. There is a possibility I will meet up with DD for a girly morning on Sunday; there is a possibility I may see the twins at the end of the month, sometime over half term; there is the possibility that the worst of the dreadful stockmarket may have happened and this could at least level out; and finally, even though mad mother is not going to get better, she was happy on the phone tonight and possibly she will be happy tomorrow.

Meanwhile, decision made, I think tomorrow WILL be a cast on day!

When the night has come
And the land is dark
And the moon is the only light we see
No I won't be afraid
No I won't be afraid
Just as long as you stand, stand by me

And darling, darling stand by me
Oh, now, now, stand by me
Stand by me, stand by me

If the sky that we look upon
Should tumble and fall
And the mountain should crumble to the sea
I won't cry, I won't cry
No I won't shed a tear
Just as long as you stand, stand by me

How much do I love them? Let me count the ways

Well, how lovely, the jackets were a success. They put them on as soon as they unwrapped them and they wore them all evening. Then, in the morning, they pulled them on over their PJs and wore them all morning.

I knitted the size 7/8 for their 6th birthday so I thought they would be over big ... but no, they can grow some and they will still fit, but they look lovely now.

Modelling the version in Sea spray is Beth and her puppy Lucky. She also smiled despite being a little concerned that she is waiting for her front teeth to grow back.

She would like a real dog, but for now she has to make do with Lucky!



Modelling Purr is Ellie, who is kitten like and curled, smiling because she thinks I'm a little bit silly. It's a jacket, it's keeping her warm and I don't usually take photos of her clothes.

However, they were both completely impressed that the knitting I had been doing when I last visited had metamorphed into jackets. They have taken up their needles and rather tangled bits of yarn with renewed vigour, knitting and dropping stitches with great enthusiasm.
Meanwhile I had a hoot after they had gone to bed last night, watching Mamma Mia (truly cheesy and wonderful) and drinking just a little more wine than I should! Actually, I was impressed with my knitting today ... no major bloopers! (so not too much excess wine!)

My second sock is progressing well and I am just decreasing for the instep ... on the home straight and I have enjoyed the socks ... guess I may just be tempted into doing some more ... this would be a good thing as I accidentally bought some noro sock yarn ... whoops!

As for my twins ... well they quite fancy hats and mummy is going to look around and see what she would like for them from the shop, take photos with her mobile and send them to me! I think that's success.

So night night all, have a great day tomorrow and may all your knittings be miracles!

xxx

PS a touch of poetry for the twins, a sprinkling of a little Coleridge, snippets from Frost at Midnight -

Dear Babes, that slept cradled by my side
whose gentle breaths heard in this deep calm ....

My babes so beautiful! it thrills my heart
with tender gladness, thus to look at thee ...

But thou, my babes shalt wander like a breeze
by lakes and sandy shore, beneath the crags
of ancient mountain and beneath the clouds ...

all seasons shall be sweet to thee
whether the summer clothe the general earth
with greenness, or the redbreast sit and sing
Betwixt the tufts of snow

Lady of Shallot, onions and leeks!

So, in a far distant and somewhat dusty corner of the universe, someone posted a line or two of William Blake to describe their Roaring Tiger yarn. Gorgeous ... just gorgeous ... so I went to check out the yarn and in doing so I left the website and ventured google wise to find said yarn. In a poetic frame of mind I then thought:

She leaves the web, she leaves the loom,
She makes three paces through the room, she sees the waterlily bloom,
She sees his helmet and his plume (no sniggering here girls)
She looked down to Camelot

Out flew the WWWeb and floated wide
The mirror cracked from side to side
The curse has come upon me cried (again no sniggering here girls)
The lady of Shalott

(Alfred, Lord Tennyson)

And what the heck it is true (not the whole sailing on a barge like a dead thing issue), knitting is rather poetic. It needs to ring true, it needs to have balance and whilst people admire the
"off the wall, freeform" style, traditional metres, patterns and styles have a soothing and recognisable value.

And, if that all sounds too highbrow, then let me say

There was a fine lady who knit

She'd sit and she'd knit and she'd knit

She knew she should dust

and clean if she must

But still she would sit and she'd knit

Meanwhile the little garden bed on the RHS is now pretty, a little picture of lavender, climbing rose and edged with box. My nails now look like claws, my facial pores are filled with grit, despite several attempts to clean and exfoliate, but the garden looks good.

Tomorrow I'm off to deliver the little jackets to the ever growing maniac twins, how much do I love them - let me count the ways!

If I don't chat tomorrow have a fantastic weekend.

Meanwhile

Who is this and what is here?
And in the lighted palace near
Died the sound of royal cheer
And they crossed themsleves for fear
All the Knights at Camelot
But Lancelot mused a little space
He said "She has a lovely face
God in his mercy, lend her grace
The Lady of Shalott"

OO I do like that .... a lot!
xxx

The insanity of gardening

Apart from knitting (and cooking and drinking wine, but bear with me here), apart from knitting - Gardening is one of my real pleasures. Don't get me wrong, I loathe weeds with a passion; hate the wrong kind of weather; detest slugs and snails; would totally eradicate bindweed/convulvulus from the global memory of the planet in a heartbeat; get annoyed that grass will grow strongly and unbeatably anywhere and everywhere - except on a lawn, but all that said, I enjoy gardening.
So, today, I was planting up a new bed. Last year, on the LHS of the drive, I planted up a lavender bed, edged with box. This year, throughout the year, it looked lovely. It is two tone (I like colour combining), in a soft pink and a warm purple. When the flowers were out, and the sun was shining, the scent was gorgeous; the bees droned, and honestly it was a lovely area where before grass had struggled to survive.
So this past week on the RHS I have dug up some dead (well they are now) and dying (well honestly they really were) shrubs, raked over the soil, and set about putting in a matching bed of lavender edged with box. Hubby went to golf today, which I thought was a GOOD thing. I do like a few hours just to pootle, poodle and do whatever.
However the "whatever" today involved a lot, yes A LOT, of swearing. The wind was blowing, and the weed suppressing membrane I was laying wasn't (laying); it was flapping and waving and moving and not staying still. The most stupid thing is that you lay the membrane, get it sorted into places (like lining up stitches, or decreases) then you hold it down and cut ruddy great holes in it. Then you do this whole "shy" thing whereby you fiddle around, under the membrane, digging holes in soil you cannot see, then plant lavender in holes you hope are large enough (you can't see), then try and bed them in with spare soil (which YOU STILL CANT SEE), whilst trying to hold the membrane down in a wind (which unsurprisingly you cant see), and you hope that the end result (which you very clearly can see) is perfect. Huh!! A lot of swearing. Then, just for fun, I throw on a couple of hundred spadesful of shingle ... and tonight I am only half way ... so I have just as much pleasure tomorrow to look forward to.
When I came in, to chill out and knit a few rows, I finished off a front .. just a few rows. So I moved on to the socks, when I hit the divide for heel, so migrated and I knit a few more rows of the surprise Christmas swap thing, before I needed to integrate a fairisle or is it fairaisle ... I don't know, well a dual colour pattern section, so I moved on to my 4th project ... and now I have hit the arm decrease area on the RHS front of that ... so I am about to find something mindless to cast on ... either that or I'll just go and read (with my unemployed fingers twitching) for 10 mins before bed.
Wherever you are, and whatever you are doing, have a good day .... my aching legs and butt are off to bed ... and joy of joys, the weather looks good for tomorrow, so I guess I'll be outside again - whoopiedoodie!
XXX

What if the world goes bankrupt and other such questions?

Wednesday is MM day (mad mother); every Wednesday she catches her local bus and I drive into the little local market town, where we meet. Wednesday is market day and in the little local market town there is one of the largest and most diverse markets in the UK. Every Wednesday we convene at a local cafe for tea (which is wrong - it should be a cafe for coffee and a cosy for tea!)

This Wednesday the global economy has dissolved into a puddle of mud. MM tells me that she was born on 5th May 1929 (which I know) and that was the day the great crash hit the US (which I need to check - she has a habit of mostly being wrong then, just to upset me, occasionally being right). Note to self - check details BEFORE blogging.

So, MM asks me what will happen if Iceland is bankrupt - not too much to affect you, I say, unless you are invested in whale blubber (Note to self - apart from banking - what are principal economies of Iceland?). What happens if world is bankrupt, asks MM. Well, I replied, I will dig up my lawn, plant vegetables and keep chickens. MM laughs, but honestly I have no idea, however the planting vegetables and keeping chickens may be a good start.

Meanwhile recyled cardigan proceeding well; socks have had a few more rows added .. nearly at heel on 2nd sock; accessories for christmas swap gift have arrived ... fabric and things, and we had salmon en croute for dinner.

I have promised MM that I will help her make sense of her banking - which is a good thing because it will save me sheepishly accompanying her to the bank every Wednesday to get confirmation of what I know and MM has forgotten :(

Meanwhile, what if the world does become bankrupt? .... well I have some very fine stash, some of which I am willing to barter for some vegetable seeds and some chickens.

Chat soon
xxx