Weekend - a poorly boy, some knitting and a birthday

This should be entitled "vomit is not a good look on me".

Poor Laurie was sick all over me on Friday evening, to be honest as I was carrying him downstairs and he started to retch, my one thought was not on the stair carpet, so I chose to take the lot.  We had a really rough night, high temperatures and restless, needless to say I didn't get much sleep, it was like trying sleeping with a very hot water bottle.  His Mummy came and collected him early, putting pay to their quiet weekend and left Rufus to continue his weekend with us.  I can't remember the last time we had just Rufus, it was nice but we all missed Laurie.  Kids are funny, normally they are both vying for individual attention but on his own he did miss his brother.

We did lots of work in the garden and Rufus was building an extension for the chicken run and planning where Pops is going to build a treehouse and play area.

Knitting - I just finished this hooded poncho for Jess, the pattern is Hooded Baby Poncho by Lion Brand and the yarn is Stylecare Aran.  The buttons were chosen by Rufus, apparently the the large heart is me, the yellow star him, the dragonfly Laurie and the pink heart Jess.

Today is Jess' birthday, one today.  She will be coming over later for cake.  Here is a picture collage of her first year, such a happy smiley little girl.

and some of her modelling some of her knitwear, she really is a great model and I am so happy that her mummy loves handknits.

Happy birthday Jessica and get well little Laurie xx

Gardening - the great tidy up starts

Yesterday afternoon was glorious, so I decided that I needed to get onto the garden.  The chickens have had free reign of it for a while and they have been throwing stuff all over the place.  They are actually quite good at kicking the leaves about but it was high time for a tidy.  Their area is now restricted as I'm finding lots of new shoots with pecked ends, hubby blames the deer but I'm not so sure!

Here are some of the lovelies I uncovered, I know I show you these every year but I just love hellebore and once all the leaves from last year are clipped back they really come into their own.

I have lots of clumps of snowdrops too

The frost is taking it toll on the brickwork to the patio wall - pretty moss though

The hat for the Sailors' Society is finished and in the post.  Can't say I enjoyed the pattern that much and it seemed like an awful lot of stitches, perhaps sailors have big heads!

I'm currently knitting a hooded poncho for Jess, no photos to share right now, but its this pattern 

It will be a busy weekend - collecting the boys tomorrow for the weekend and Jessica will be one on Sunday, can you believe a year has gone so quickly.

Knitting - FO Friday

I finished my WIP from Wednesday, I am so pleased with it. As is my little model, its a little bit big for her but at least it will last for a while.

A reminder of the pattern details - Sugar Plum Cardi from Sublime, with long sleeves.  I really should have remembered to add a few more garter stitch rows at the bottom as it has started to roll, so annoying.

This is my first Friday with Jess while her mummy is at work. Currently she is napping, having watched me chase a mouse around the lounge, she seemed to think it was very funny.  Needless to say I didn't get it, the cat is sitting guard by the TV unit but I can't see it there. It freaks me out to think its still in here.  I do have a set trap guarding my dry stores drawer so hopefully that will be safe.

Jess has been a real trooper this week, coping well with nursery, she even stayed here over night and slept all night.  We've been and fed the ducks and visited great grandma and uncle Pat and when she wakes I will take her down the fen to see the cows.  Fun day

Knitting - its Wednesday again

I am always surprised when I find its Wednesday. I get to say have a good weekend to the boss, he's off on Thursdays and I don't work Friday, so my week seems to fly by. Wednesday is WIP day so I had best show you what I'm up to.

This is another cardigan for Jess, thank you for the nice comments about her brown number. The pattern is Sugar Plum Cardi from Sublime and I'm using Sirdar Country Style which was languishing in my stash leftover from another project.  I decided to make the yoke striped to give it a pop of colour.  I also made this with long sleeves rather than short.

Have you spotted the finger plaster in the second photo?  I'll tell you about that!

I call the photo below "The knife always wins".  Yesterday morning I was up early, too early for handling hefty knives.  I was giving it a wipe with a cloth but had the blade towards rather than away from me, so as you can imagine it cut me. Its a very sharp knife, hubby likes to keep a good edge on our knives!!  I ran my finger under the tap, grabbed some paper towel and then tried to get open a sticking plaster, why do they make those things so difficult?  Finally managed to wrap one round the finger only to have the blood pour out top and bottom, called for hubby who dealt with it swiftly - observing that the kitchen looked like someone had been massacred, blood in the sink, over the granite worktop, on the window sill???!! - binding it very tightly the bleeding stopped.  I've not looked at it yet, had a bath last night with my hand in a plastic bag!  Managed to wash my hair one handed this morning.  My main worry was that I wouldn't be able to knit.  No problem, I just cast on a hat for Woolly Hat Week, with my finger stuck out! Bit uncomfortable but doable.

I removed the outer dressing, lets face it you can't really hide that white covering.  I will change the plaster later and see how bad it looks.  It hurts to bend as I cut diagonally across the top joint, guess it could have been worse could have taken the whole top off.....

Knitting - All the nice girls love a sailor

This week is Woolly Hat Week, a fundraiser for Sailors Society.  You can make a donation or raid your stash and knit a hat, there's even free patterns to help you along.  I decided that a hat was the perfect thing to start knitting when I go to my Tuesday group this afternoon, especially as my current WIP is getting a bit unwieldy.  I'm making a yoke cardigan, and am at the point where I need to bring it all together and start the yoke. I don't have any photos as yet but will share when I am done.

Talking of done, here is my latest project off the needles. This is for Jess who starts nursery on Wednesday when her mummy goes back to work.  Can you believe she is nearly 1 year old.

Pattern - Lucy from Patons Nursery Days, I think this must be the 5th time I've used this pattern, its a classic with two neckline options

Yarn - Sirdar Denim Tweed DK - an acrylic and cotton mix

I have been doing other knitting, but as yet, I cannot share with you.

Winter break

We are back from a long weekend break in Southwold. Yes, I know, we could have gone somewhere else, but we love it. Rather than book a hotel we took advantage of the winter deals on cottages through Suffolk Secrets, basically you can more or less decide when you want to go, rather than being fixed to whole weeks.  We stayed in Tittlemouse House, its a cute comfy cosy cottage and a great base for a couple or a family of four as long as they are small children, the house is small.

It was cold, but we managed to get a good walk to Dunwich in on Saturday.  We had all weather really, bright sun on Friday, sunny intervals and then snow on Saturday evening as we sat in the Boardwalk Restaurant on the pier, very pretty but a messy, slippy walk back! Black clouds and rain on Sunday, not that it kept us in, just required us to take cover in the pub......

Here are some pics of the weekend, as you will see we had a great time. I did a bit of knitting, finished a book and actually read a Sunday paper

We popped into Aldeburgh on the way down on Friday. Had fish and chips for lunch, it was too cold to take photos of them. I didn't actually think about it till I was halfway through them, and who wants to see a half eaten meal plus a seagull was eyeing them up too.

Walking to Dunwich on Saturday

Sunday, changeable weather

cheers

Afternoon tea with the Sunday Times, how civilised

This was found in the house when the wallpaper was removed from the wood panelling. I love that they have preserved this bit of history

So there you have it a great weekend, just hubby and me