Maison Bleue

St Antonin Nobel Val, Tarn et Garonne was the location for our French trip 2016.  The venue Maison Bleue - for more internal shots of the house check the link.  I confined most of my photos for the exterior and garden.

A perfect couples house. The owners Bruce and Bonnie have done a great job sympathetically restoring the old house, whilst providing everything you could need for a leisurely holiday, nothing left out. The top terrace was a perfect place to sit and knit or read, the views wonderful, in fact so good that you actually didn't need to do anything other than sit and stare.  The local cats put in an appearance from time to time, enjoying the odd ball of yarn!  The house is well stocked with books and CDs, Peter managed to read 12 books whilst we were there, so he was more than happy with the choice.

The St Antonin was very interesting and I will do another post with the photos of that and the area. Good shops, bars, bakeries and restaurants, walking, cycling, the river, something for everyone

Thank you again Bruce and Bonnie for sharing your lovely French home with us, I'm sure you miss it whilst you are away, I know I would.

while I was away.........

.......I did some knitting.  I never need a break from knitting, so I was happy to fill a bag with yarn and needles for those quiet times between walking, biking and enjoying the food and wine of France.  We had a great holiday - more on that in another post - but I thought I'd show what I made and what I am currently making.

You may remember a request from a friend a few weeks back, well this is what I have made so far.

Composite by Pekapeka patterns

Two strands of Regia sock yarn held together for this oddments hat

Leftover yarn from the Composite top

Hundreds also by Pekapekapatterns

made this little hat to match the Hundreds cardi

I have now cast on a couple of patterns yet another Pekapeka design

Then a Debbie Bliss unisex coat for Jess

Gus is growing so fast that I have been given back  sweater I made him to have extra length added to the body and arms!!  He's going to be long and skinny.

Whilst on the making front, I have been doing some preserving - 16 jars of damson jam and 4 of Delia pickled spiced runner beans

I have plenty to do and that's a fact, more preserving, gardening, cleaning ..........and on it goes.  I now need to sort some photos for the next post

Knitting - something for me is done

Two and half weeks of knitting and I'm finally done.  So so happy with the end result.  Lots of lovely comments on Facebook and Instagram, thank you.

Here are some of the photos hubby snapped before work yesterday.  The pattern is Ellen by Amy Christoffers .  The yarn I used was from Aldi - Kirkton House Craft Aran - £4.99 for 400 gram ball, this used less than 2 balls, and the fairisle work was done in an assortment of yarn from stash.  So a lovely cardigan for around £10.  So happy with the fit.  I added 2" to the length and 1" to the sleeves. If I made it again, and I might I would do 3" on the length.

Well its back to baby clothes for me for awhile

Always knitting

Hello Friday, start of the weekend, well for me anyway.  I love my 3 day weekends. Thank you for the comments on my last post, still finding it so annoying that I no longer get email advice and have to remember to come looking, so apologies if you don't get a reply very swiftly.

Here's a little update on my projects.

My cardigan is at the sleeves stage (actually further along than this photo), and Kristie its fits beautifully so I can't see me not wearing it!!  It will look much better once blocked.

My bicycle is getting a makeover, have utilised some of the wedding bunting and sample flowers to pretty it up.

I plan to make some smaller flowers to put in between the hearts, then I think it will be enough, what do you think? I got hubby to move the reflector from the top of the basket, which I think looks much better.

 A knitting request from a new mum-to-be - enough projects to keep me going for some while - luckily the baby isn't due until November.  I have changed out some of the yarn on the Hundreds pattern, and may change out some of the others as I go along. This was just a first pass over my stash cupboard.  There is also a cot blanket and elephant to do, for which I have ordered some yarn

Plans for the weekend - visit my mother - pottering around the house and garden - pop into Cambridge for a coffee - not much else planned.

Btw all the chickens are now laying so we are egg central here.  Made an amazing frittata  yesterday, sorry no photos we'd eaten most of it before I remembered.

Enjoy your weekend whatever you are doing

New wheels for the weekend

For what seems like forever my husband has been trying to get me on a bicycle.  I have one, but its getting on a bit (like me) and only has 3 gears, not great when you are trying to keep up with someone who has 24!!  It creaks and clunks (again a bit like me), its days were numbered.

Peter and Rachel have done numerous cycle races, and I think Peter is missing his riding buddy now that Rachel is otherwise engaged with young Gus. I have been going out on Rachel's old bike and have to admit I quite enjoy it, more gears definitely make life easier.  I actually think the promise of coffee and cake at Tom's is the draw rather the the cycling.

Anyway, I decided that if I was going to try this cycling lark seriously I would need a new bicycle.  I wanted something vintage (pretty) looking rather than a road bike.  We found the Bobbin Brownie which fitted the bill and wasn't too expensive compared to the Pashley bikes.  Mine is in colourway Blueberry, and Peter has fitted it with my old bike basket.  I am thinking of adding a basket on the back, and plan to pretty the whole thing up with so knitted accessories!! As Rebecca says its very Instagrammable, I can see it with the basket overflowing with yummy yarn or bunches of flowers, french sticks and bottles of wine, you know anything to make an interesting shot.

I have been beavering away on my cardigan, currently have the body cast off and the left front band knitted.

The garden has needed some attention, we have had some really windy weather and that has wreaked havoc on the buddleias which have had to be cut right down. Lots of dead-heading and general tidying. With the hot weather the grass isn't growing much so that has been one less thing for Peter to do. What veggies we have managed to grow are coming along slowly, really is a waste of time and effort. We do however have a crop of Stinkhorn (Clathrus ruber) fungus, and boy do they stink!!!

The 2 of new girls have started laying so we have plenty of eggs these days. They are fairly skittish still not wanting to be touched unlike Scruffy who is happy to be picked up.  They are getting better though and like to come up to the house whenever they can.

I hope you have all had a good weekend and are ready for another week.