Busy needles

Lots coming off the needles at the moment. 

I finished my 28's cousin 53 scarf, will upload a pic when I take one in decent light. 

Loads of Innocent Smoothie bottle hats for Age Concern, Rachel and I are off to a Knit In this evening to hand them over and knit some more. Will take my camera and get some photos of that too. 

A Rugby romper suit for Rufus to match the cardigan I knitted for Beck, though this has multi striped cuffs and collar to add a bit of bright.

 So busy busy busy............

Gorgeous boy.....

opened up my hotmail account this morning and look what was there for me, wearing his Breton jumper that I knitted him too.

I didn't mean to laugh!!

Peter got a bit of a surprise this morning.  Dressed ready for work, standing in the bedroom stroking the cat, chatting, suddenly he grabs the seat of his trousers "oh my god I've been stung, there's something in my underpants".  Frantically he pulls his trousers and pants off and there is a queen wasp!!  She has stung his bottom!!  The only thing we can think is that she flew into his pants on the washing line yesterday, I bought them in, folded and put in the airing cupboard, and the rest you know.  He just called in to pick up his wallet left in the commotion earlier, I enquired on the sting, "its sore" was the reply.  Guess it will be uncomfortable as he has to sit on it all day, we will both be checking our underwear for a while.....

Baby its cold outside

for the 2nd morning this week we have woken to a sharp frost.  It's cold, but sunny which I don't mind, do we need the frosts so early?  Scarves and gloves have been pulled out, the heating finally on.  Thoughts turn to casseroles and dumplings, warming soups and hot puddings to fill our tummies - and thicken our waistlines!!

All week I have been trying to stave off a cold but I think my body has finally said, its ok, its the weekend you can give in now, nose is running/sneezing and I'm shivery, well thanks for nothing, hate being ill in my own time, its just not fair.

Autumn leaves.....

Yesterday we spent a lovely day in London. We met with our good friends Judy and Stephen, had brunch at the Sepentine Bistro in Hyde Park. Wandered through Hyde Park, Green Park, saw the guards at Buckingham Palace, along the South Bank to check out the Cheese & Wine Festival and back again collecting leaves along the way. Sat in the sunshine and put the worlds to rights. It really was a good day.

More handsome by the week

Rufus is now 17 weeks and I'm sure you will agree a handsome lad.  Of course I am biased and I really don't care.

Tenby - finished at last

Yesterday evening I put the final stitches on the Tenby cardigan.  I'm very pleased with it, even though it has taken a month to knit.  Admittedly there have been some evenings when I didn't pick it up.  I really hope the eldest likes it, if not, well it fits me ok!!

Next project is a scarf/shawlette called 28's cousin 53!  Basically a 53 row scarf, knitted on a circular needle in 4ply yarn.  28 is a ....yes you got it 28 row scarf knitted in double knit yarn, quite a bit longer but a simple knit.

'He's a very nice man, a very very nice man

that was Neil the AA man who came to my rescue this afternoon. When I returned to my car I found a note saying I had a rear flat.  Call was made and he was with me within 15 mins.  Many thanks Neil, especially for not making feel like I should have changed the tyre myself.  Not that I would have had any idea how to do it, its what we have men for right?

Weekend report – or oh my aching limbs

It’s been one of those weekends, you know the kind, go out to do a small job and end up spending the whole day at it. Such was my weekend.
On Saturday morning, I popped out the front of the house to sweep leaves, and ended up clearing my whole front garden; you see we had bark chippings over most of it and they have composted over the years and the weeds were growing out of it. So I have removed all the membrane, compost and weeds, and now have a naked garden, a clean slate so to speak. The decision is what to do with it, more membrane/bark or a complete change. I will leave it for a bit before I decide.

Other Saturday news -

The youngest is back on the saddle again, yes, they went into town on their bikes – result.

Peter cooked Biryani – enough for 6 people, it was very good though, took him all afternoon

On Sunday morning, I went out to dig up snowdrop bulbs from the front of the barn – the barn is soon to become a garden room watch this space. I had already cleared the plants and went in search of bulbs, as this was in the shade, I decided to go and help hubby on the veg plot and warm up and stretch out the limbs from Saturday. Veg plot now looks very tidy, the runner beans and courgettes are just about finishing but the root crops are doing well, as are the squashes. Anyway back to the bed in front of the barn, with hubby to help the bulbs are found in quick time, he also dug up lots of roots for me. Alongside the bed is a nut tree which we usually keep coppiced, it’s not been done for a few years so has got out of control, hubby decides to play lumberjack, complete with saws, ladder and chipper we spend an hour going through the smaller stuff, along with ivy that have also taken over the tree. He then decides to tackle the bigger stuff, not such a good idea, there were a few heart stopping moments before he decided to call it a day, neighbour came out and offered to help while we were clearing up!! So a plan of action is needed for the remaining larger limbs! This has taken us all day; we missed lunch and settled on a cup of tea and a couple of biscuits mid afternoon. Our day was completed with a visit to the Wok & Grill for dinner, followed by an evening at the Corn Exchange listening to Joe Bonamassa – I could hardly move by the end of the evening!!

On the knitting front – our visit to the Knitting & Stitching Show went well, though I came home yarnless!! Never been heard of, hubby was shocked.

Progress on Tenby is slow, just have 3 stripes left on the last sleeve, then sew it all up and knit the front band – not looking forward to that; 400+ stitches to pickup and knit.

I missed seeing Rufus this week due to the show, hope he didn’t miss me too much, but he did send me a text with a picture attached just so I wouldn’t forget what he looked like.....bless him xx

Out with the old ......

today has been the annual cull of the youngest's wardrobe!! She likes clothes, lots of clothes, she also likes to hang on to clothes, lots of clothes. I have managed to convince her out of 3 bin bags full, one was just shoes and boots alone.  All her clothes are now nicely sorted, all her work clothes in one side, coats in another, casual in another.  The middle section of her wardrobe has all her bags, sports clothes and craft stuff neatly stacked and tidy.  She even has her own yarn stash, in fact more yarn than she realised, obviously taking after her mummy!  After lunch we attacked her garden, cleared her veg patch and got the grass cut.  A busy and productive day

Tomorrow we are off to Ally Pally for the Knitting and Stitching Show, we expect some stash enhancement to take place (more on that another time), we will round the day off in Green Lanes for a lamb kebab, the husband is jealous..........

You've got to be joking.....

last night - October 4th - we saw the first Christmas toy advert on TV. For goodness sake people its only October!!!

Bah humbug

I don't like Mondays.....

my normal 15 minute commute took me 55 minutes this morning, not a good start to the working week, plus it was raining!

Staying with Granny....

We have had the pleasure of Rufus and his mummy staying over last night. We've had lots of cuddles, he was such a good boy. Slept in his travel cot from 7pm to 4am, then was fed, changed and back to sleep by 4:30am, then awake at 7:15am. We got to have early morning cuddles too. Rufus comes with lots of baggage, how does one little boy need so much stuff?

The poor cat is still beside herself, not only was there Rufus and Beck staying over, Rachel was here too, along with 2 guys fitting our new wood burner. Audrey's normal place to hide is the barn, but we were all out there, I got the girls to sort all their stuff which they have stored for years. She keep stalking around sniffing and won't settle, she really hates her normal quiet house being taken over. Not sure how she will cope once Rufus starts running around. Leave home I would think!