Understanding Friends

You know when your friends start to understand you fully. This arrived this morning from very non-knitting friends who are on holiday in Jersey.
On the back they have said they have signed me up for this - little does she know I've got my grandmother's patterns of War Knitting !!!
No idea where they managed to find it but it will have pride of place on my fridge !

Bagged

Before.....
100g sock wool for scale



After two washes, a lot smaller and usable.
I like the way the Freedom wool has pooled it's colour.

Same ball of wool for scale.




And I just found this growing next to the pond, a squash plant, could be a courgette or pumpkin, or butternut, cant remember what I grew last year. And I dont know how it got there but it will be interesting trying to pick whilst hanging off the decking trying not to fall into the pond !!

Decisions

I'm exhausted, too many decisions in one day.

My MOT is due in a few weeks on my car, and as he is getting old I decided I needed a change - and a bigger boot so I can fit this in the back easily !
I don't usually like car salesmen and they put me off by quoting too many facts and figures at me - all I want is a car that will get me from one place to another with enough space for supplies, be they woolly or compost related. But I found someone who I could talk to, and I think I got a good deal, it being end of the month.
So soon I will be the proud owner of these And as my usual way it is not a new car, but just over a year old with 15,000 on the clock.

I should get him either on Thursday or at the weekend. So before then I've got to be really careful and not drive through the lanes like a woman possessed !
But it does mean that I can take him on his first adventure to Chester via the special bad place in Wales and have more space for any purchases people want on the way :-)

French market bag has had two trips in the washer, first one at 40C second at 60C, he is resting in the conservatory and will be photoed later. He is still looking large, but at least a more manageable size...

The Cat Sat.....

Because he can and does.
This is one of my boys sheltering from the rain.
When he sits here he can see the fish in the pond and the birds drinking from the pond.


This is the first lot of decent rain we have had for weeks. My runner beans will be very happy, they are in flower, and I saw some large (flat) pea pods last week. Yellow cougettes are growing well and the cucumbers are taking over the greenhouse !


I was going to show the progress on my Pomatomus socks, but the pictures were all fuzzy.. I'll try again tomorrow.... I was knitting them at the hairdressers last week, the girls were amused, they thought I was knitting for a baby, coz I couldn't possibly be knitting socks for an adult !!

Well, I've finished the sleeves of my cardi. Going to finish the front of a jumper before I tackle the rest, hoping to try and get it done for KCG AGM on first weekend in July.

And by the end of tonight my French Market bag should be smaller, cant believe how big it is, I know I used thicker wool, but.... currently got one and half handles to knit.

I've been in one of those 'cant be arsed' moods this week, I'm sure more has happened but I just cant remember...

Let me introduce you....

To Parisienne.
For those who have the latest Simply Knitting mag, she is inside the back cover.
She is 70% Kid Mohair, 30% polyamide, comes in 25g hanks and is 221m long.

Due to my rush to send finished things off I forgot to photo a lot of things, but this is a wonderfully light summer cardi from the new design book - only takes four 25gram hanks...
I've started it in a mis-dyed colour I got last week. It's easy to knit as long as you dont have to frog, and I wouldn't recommend beads, unless you have the patience of a saint ;-)


The green yarn above was meant to be Sea Breeze but they couldn't get it to work - some was really blue and this is really pale green. They are going to be selling mis-dyes in the shop only.


This is a design that I'd like to try, if I can learn how to crochet without loosing/gaining stitches....

Most of the patterns in the book are wearable, only one tie at the front thing!





And this is something I remembered to photo - actually I was re doing the pattern and had to check it was the right size.... hence the label attached so I could work out which size needles it was knitted on. And the reason I knitted three wristwarmers...
There is a matching five foot scarf, at least you would be easy to find in a crowd..


And just to prove I do buy from other places, this a from Woolly Workshop.
I've been interested in trying the Diamond Wrap for a while.
And some sock wool from Tess at Silkwood.

Patience

....is a virtue,
Virtue is a grace,
Grace was a little girl who didn't wash her face.
(So my grandmother taught me)

According to Sam (son of Colinette) new yarn will be out 'next week' I saw the web pages looking ready to be updated and sorted out some of the stock for them.. I did go up stairs to the store room but came down empty handed, even managed to walk past last few boxes of four ply...


Main talk of the day was if Wayne would play tonight, we thought that if we were playing against him we would go for his foot... There was lots more suitable girlie footie comments, can't remember what there were now, which is probably a good thing...


They had just put this out, but it did not tempt me, must be the heat....


This is the remaining of pure wool 100g hanks for £5.50, Might have got colours a bit wrong but think its: monet, blue parrot, Moroccoo, moss, dont know the brown colours :-( towards the bottom the light colour is Tosca, bottom shelf Jay or Neptune, and Florentina.
All available via a phone call, say Mad Sue sent you and they will understand !






This did come home with me - it's going to be a summer scarf, just shouted to be let free and out of the short hank boxes.

I did get some yarn for my Secret Pal as well, and I'm sure she will love it. It's so good to be sending to someone really enthusiastic :-)

I also came away with some more yarn for samples - think I talked myself into making them as well. So now got even more knitting and pattern altering to do... but it is enjoyable and I do get yarn money so don't mind opening my big mouth again...

They are debating whether to open on a few Saturdays a year, do you think people will travel to deepest mid Wales ? Also what colours would be good for baby knitting ? Personally I tend to go for non pastels...

The Root of all Evil

And I'm off tomorrow to sit amongst wicked yarns and hope some of them stay in the shop - and most definitely *not* going up to the store room, no matter what bargains there are....

Exam and Hole

Thanks for all the good wishes for my exam - it is now over and I can relax ;-)
It was a really hot day, and we managed to find Wills Hallwhere the exam was being held relatively easily, its near Bristol Downs, if anyone is interested. On arrival hours early (well you have to have time for knitting before hand !) we went and had a look round - it was a *bit* posh as you can see. We had lunch at the burger van and sat and watched the joggers go by. Now when you are nervous it is not recommended to smile at the strange men or pull faces at the really ugly ones. We did get some funny looks, Emma was smoking pacing and trying to calm down and I was knitting a sock....

The Hall's air conditioning was working over time, thank goodness for our cardi's. Now it is all over and we know what to expect next time. Think it will be a shawl for summer exams (but not WRS, before you say anything Susoolu!)Dont know how long they take to upload marks but will have to wait and see.



And on to different things. I've been for a few walks round the block recently. I feel a bit like this tractor held together with string.. having seen better days....







I got quite excited when I saw this sign.
Not sure if the sheeps are included but it is very close to the river....







And because life has a habit of hitting me when I think nothing else can go wrong....




This is my newly decorated hall ceiling.
There is water dripping down the beam and the dehumidifier is working over time...


Sorry it is a bit blurred - think it was the reflections on the water....

And what do you think is above it ?





Yes the immersion tank...

Deep joy....

Plumber just arrived with lots of hose pipes....

Think I should go out while the going is good.....

30 things

In honour of Kerrie's 30th birthday she is holding a competition to win GBP30 of HipKnits yarns. Details can be seen here.

So here goes here is my 30 things.....

1. I am an orphan.
2. I threw my husband out the weekend Princess Diana died.
3. I have lived alone since then.
4. I will only talk about my marriage in detail when drunk.
5. I grew up in Liverpool.
6. My doctor was in Penny Lane, he was called Dr Endbinder and Jewish (honestly !)
7. My first job was knitting for a wool shop, I was 16.
8. I went to private school and hated every moment.
9. I always wanted to be a nurse.
10. I ended up working in IT support.
11. I won two handicraft cups at different ploughing matches last year.
12. I have two ginger tom cats.
13. Every year I say I will not watch Big Brother, every year I end up watching it.
14. I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.
15. My mother made my school clothes.
16. I have more four ply wool then I will ever use.
17. I like to collect old books.
18. I don’t like mowing the grass.
19. I love pruning trees and shrubs.
20. I have more power tools then most of my male friends.
21. I like living in the countryside.
22. I passed my driving test first time, six months after my seventeenth birthday.
23. I started school on my fifth birthday.
24. And on the birthday theme, I will be forty this year, but think I’m still in my twenties…
25. I can’t swim.
26. I have recently started an Open University degree in Health Studies.
27. My paternal grandmother’s father came from a village less than forty miles from where I live, I didn’t know this when I moved here.
28. My friends are more important to me than my family.
29. I like to grow unusual varieties of vegetables.
30. I will eventually knit a wedding ring shawl, even if I end up in a padded room on serious medication …

Busy doing nothing

I wish !!!

And for the second time today I try and post to Blogger, I'm hoping he doesn't eat it and spit it out this time....

I know there has not been much knitting mentioned but I have been knitting furiously. So far my Colinette count is :-
One oversized beaded beret (takes a *very* bad photo)
One extra long scarf and three matching wristwarmers (was trying to get the size right, honest...)
one 42" cardi.

Two silly hats,
One sillier frilly bag
One wrap over/round waistcoat.

The first lot is done in yarn soon to be launched, should be next week I'm told - then I can post some photos, yipee ! I was sent the pattern book yesterday and there are some good things in it as well as the usual tie at front cardi that increase stomachs. My next door neighbour wants the same cardi as me in the same colourway - will have to see what jumps at me next week when I go factory shopping. Good thing about said cardi is that it is easy to knit and only takes 4 balls with lots over, so there could be another feather & fan scarf monster under construction (knowing the hell I went through with the last one I really don't think so....)

The rest of my time (when not out partying) has been spent either reading books, making notes or writing essays in readiness for exam Monday. Think I know what I'm doing but the last time I did a three hour one was nearly twenty years ago and it was mainly numbers with greek symbols... Worked out that I should probably write three sides of A4 per answer, so that's twelve sheets.... beginning to panic just at the thought ;-)

Monday night and it will all be over (apart from the two short courses I foolishly started, I can either finish them by the end of July or I can defer to October)

Maybe some day soon I can relax and knit without any pressure ....

One hundred and Eighty

And I'm not talking darts ;-)





Nora was 100 years old yesterday. I'm friendly with her grand daughter, we try and sell stuff at craft fairs.


She had a huge party, lots of flowers and farmers without their tractors - her son is/was European vintage tractor ploughing champion.





And this is my nextdoor neighbour, Mollie.

She was 80 last Saturday.

She had a surprise party arranged by her daughter.

She really didn't know anything about it, so difficult to keep quiet and not tell her anything...

We were wondering if anyone knew of another birthday party next week....
There was another lady in the village who was 100 the week before, there must be something in the water, or in the air ;-)

And now I'm going to try and finish one of the fronts of a waistcoat. This afternoon I'm going to sit at a table and try and write for three hours, practice exam, real exam a week tomorrow... it's the sitting still for three hours that is bothering me, it's different when I'm knitting but on an uncomfy chair without the use of needles...

Secret Parcel

Woo Hoo I got my first SP8 parcel today :-)
It arrived while my camera battery was charging so I had a bit of a sneaky look and then took this... the smell was lovely and helped my morning study session ;-)
Look at the colour of the parcel bag, shiny gold, how come I cant find things like that :-(

And inside was a wonderful tiny jumper, I'm going to have to find something suitable to wear it ! A bag of lavender, a very stroked ball of green Alpaca and two balls of Jamesions double knitting - I think I can feel a pair of Mrs Beetons coming on - and yes I do know it is nearly summer but you can never tell when it is going to be cold !




Thank you very much Secret Pal, they are great :-)


And finally it has taken me ages to get blogger to upload these (and it just uploaded two copies of all the photos... )



Walking round the pig pens we noticed that the pigs had a certain shine to them, just like they were being made oven ready.... What could have caused this, yes 'Pig Oil' I wouldn't like to think what it has in it but it does exist and available in large cans by the look of it !
And it looks like they need a new brush to apply it....








Some times sheep dogs round up sheep and other times they play with ducks !
These were at the Smallholders Show in Builth Wells a few weeks ago....






And now I'm off to cast on a waistcoat, been told they want to take it to USA on Friday next week, so no pressure ;-) Remembered to take photos of latest knits so will post when I'm allowed.... Think there is a new yarn being launched next week, problem is I was so pleased to finish articles I didn't photos them - will try and remember in future....