It's that time of year again

The Knitting & Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace.

As usual, Rachel and I will be heading off, hopefully we will be restrained.  I have checked my stash - decided that really I don't need anything....... who am I kidding.  

this actually isn't all of it, there is another basket full in the garden room

I do need buttons for Beck - she needs to make another Christmas Stocking for Laurie.  I will post again on Saturday with what we purchased .........or not....... wish me luck.  

Oh, by the way I get to go in Rachel's new car, she got it today.  Its very red 

Weekend Review

Happy Monday, the sun is out and the birds are singing. 

It was a good weekend, starting out on Friday with the Creative Stitch & Craft Show at Olympia.  I bought yarn, 1500grams of Sublime Baby Cotton Kapok in shades Milkshake, Beaker and Tin Soldier - thats cream, pale blue and mid blue. Have plans for some of this so it won't by languishing in my stash for long.  After the show we headed over in the direction of Traflagar Square to the Texas Embassy Cantina for happy hour (2 hours) - margaritas were had, many margaritas were had, they were sooo good. Not sure what I ate, something in wraps with beans and rice, I do know that Rachel finished it off.

Sluggish start to Saturday, but we went over to Ely Market picked up flowers for the various Mum's for Mothering Sunday, then popped in to my brother's to see my Mum - her and Dad were down for the weekend.  We had some rain so gardening was out.

Sunday dawned bright and dry so after breakfast in bed - cooked by hubby, we headed out into the garden for a few more hours clearing up.  Then a walk up to the youngest's for afternoon tea, which was lovely, scones and jam, coffee and walnut cake and tea in bone china cups and saucers, very civilised.

I missed Rufus last week due to the show, but hubby went to look after him, they had a good time, and he did manage to get a few photos.

Factoid & Quote of the day

I've not given you a factoid or quote for a while, so these on are my calendar for today -

1892 - The first escalator was patented

The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do


I am still plodding on with my cardigan and ten stitch twist, the urge to start something new has never been greater but I am still resisting

Stitch & Creative Craft Show at Olympia tomorrow - all that lovely yarn to squish and buy...........

They say confession is good for the soul

Knitting & Stitching Show October 7th 2011


My Alexandra Palace purchases

 

Sirdar Denim Tweed DK - 1000grams/3720yds/3400m - acrylic/cotton/wool

Sirdar Country Style DK 1000grams/3480yds/6580m - acrylic/nylon/wool

The yarn below was in a goodie bag which I got when I purchased a years' subscription to Handmade Living Magazine.  The bag included, 3 magazines, 3 knitting pattern booklets and this yarn

Sock yarn - 100grams/420m - virgin wool/acrylic/nylon

Boucle Chunky - 150grams/174m - 70% Black Hills wool & 30% mohair produced in South Island of New Zealand - feels lovely

Buttons and sequins purchased on request by eldest - hope they are what she's looking for!

 

Fabrics for christmas decorations which the youngest and I plan to make - we just need to get started. 

So all in all a good day out; we thought the attentence was down on last year, but of those there they all seemed to be spending, especially round the Black Sheep stand, thanks boys good bargains as usual, see you next year.

Stitch & Craft Show - confession time

What a lovely day we had yesterday, Rachel picked me up around 8am, we drove to Stuart's flat and parked then walked through to Huntingdon train station where we were in time for the 9am train. Arrived in London at 10am. Caught the tube over to Olympia which is a bit of a trek, especially when you are too busy talking that you get on the wrong train, who knew that 3 different lines used the same piece of track?

We eventually got there around 11am, first stop the ladies, then coffee. We had already spied Black Sheep Wools on the way in with their usual huge pile of yarn packs, so knew we were in for a bargain! A quick look round the lower ground floor then elbows sharpened we headed into the melee. The good thing about having Rachel with you is that she is happy to wade into the pile, and was soon retrieving packs of yarn for the other ladies. As you can see from below I scored 3 packs of Sirdar Click Aran with wool. I have no plans for any of it but as it was £12.99 per pack which is half price I felt it would be a good addition to the stash - all 3,240 yards of it - thats 1500grams - oh dear more in than out this month, unless I pull my fingers out.

In addition to the yarn I picked up some embellishments and also some craft ribbon which was another bargain at 3 meters for 25p each, all suitable for christmas projects. A couple of packs of glass headed pins completed my haul for the day.

This show doesn't have the same element of knitting as the one later in the year at Alexandra Palace, but was much better than the last time we attended.  There was an exhibition of knitted art headed by redindian aka Sue from Ravelry which was amazing, they normally exhibit their work at the Customs House South Shields, very talented ladies.

Once we had had our fill of the show we headed out into the sunshine and walked up to Kensington High Street, then hopped onto a bus to Piccadilly Circus/Leicester Square where we decided it was time for a bit of fortification, 2 large white wine and soda's and a packet of crisps. We talked nonstop all day.  For dinner we decided it had to be Gerrards Corner in China Town, we go here all the time when in the area, there are so many other resturants in China Town but the one time we went "off piste", we were disappointed so Gerrards it is.

Our homeward journey was delayed somewhat by a "one-under" - London Transport's term for a platform jumper - what makes someone do this?  Anyway, we managed to get our train with a few minutes to spare and Peter was waiting for us when we arrived back at Huntingdon. 

All in all a lovely day out, which was my birthday treat from Rachel.  I am so happy to have this type of gift and also to be able to spend time with my daughter, I feel truly blessed that my girls are happy to spend their valuable time with me - thank you.

We are now off to spend time with Beck and Rufus.

Stitch & Craft Show... or a danger to my stash

It's a nice short working week this week.  We are off to the Stitch & Craft Show at Olympia tomorrow.  Not sure that this will be good for my stashbusting but I have been very good so far this year, and feel that I deserve a bit of retail therapy. 

I've been to the hairdressers this afternoon and providing that its not foggy tomorrow I should hit London with tidy hair.  If you had seen it this morning after our walk, looked like I'd had my fingers in the socket!!

I'm still battling on with the ten stitch blanket, its amazing how much brown/beige/cream yarn I have in my stash so I'm just going to keep on till I run out.  The only problem now is that it makes me really hot whilst knitting it as there is so much on my lap.

My garden is slowly taking shape, still loads to do but the weather this weekend is looking ok so I should be able to get some more tidying done.  The lights have arrived for the garden room, so they should be in place over the weekend too.

Wish me luck for some self control tomorrow. I will photograph my purchases for approval

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..........