Spring!

Berry tasty

We have been making the most of our newly-acquired japanese wineberry bushes lately, so pleased with them!

I'm picking berries every few days and this morning's crop (teamed with some blackberries from a few carefully saved brambles) made a fantastic accompaniment to an oat granola and honey breakfast. 

Delicious!

Nature's colours

Decommissioned

It's time to call it a day for the old mini-greenhouse.

This has been worth every penny - I've lost count how many years we've used it!

I can look forward to treating myself to a new one next Spring.

A late bloom

Look what finally appeared in our garden!

These seeds were potted up in a named brand compost that I bought this spring. I won't be buying that one again. 

Every pot filled with that compost this year was stunted and the plants have barely grown - and there were a selection of different types, so I would have expected something to thrive!

These sunflowers finally started growing when I gave up and planted them directly in the garden, not thinking they would survive the slugs and snails. 

I'm so pleased they did.

Happy sunflowers, happy me!

Local wildlife

We've not been short of new wildlife spottings in our back garden this last week.

Firstly we found this huge fella under a plant on the rockery!

Quite a scary looking chap but apparently it is the caterpillar of an Elephant Hawk Moth.

It's very common in Britain, although I've never seen the moth or the caterpillar before.

Then this morning we spotted this beautful Peacock Butterfly basking in the sun on our new wall around the lawn - another big specimen!

I expect to see a few of these as we have stinging nettles growing in the area behind our Cornish hedge, which is the primary source of food for these caterpillars.

Mmmmmmmuffins!

I seem to be doing more baking these days. Is that good or bad?

The latest batch are these skinny chocolate & cranberry muffins - delicious.

They use yoghurt, milk, and oil instead of butter but taste wonderful.

The mixture made 12 but only 11 photographed - well I had to check they were ok..

Last time I used chopped dates instead of dried cranberries - equally gorgeous.

We also have our first indication of Spring - this sweet little narcissus (I think!) has grown in a pot on our kitchen windowsill.

Feeling sunny

I seem to be fairly obsessed with sunflowers at the moment, so I decided to put together a treasury of sunflower-themed items from uk etsy sellers to share.

Take a peek - it'll brighten your day!

Sunday Showcase

I am very pleased to find that I have been featured in a Sunday Showcase on the fabulous Gifted Designs blog - take a peek!

Shannon has included my Flora Crochet Coaster Duo in a lovely bright selection of items from different Etsy sellers.  Great full summer colours!

Garden colour

I am pretty useless in our garden as it stands at the moment. I have no idea what most of the plants are! 

They were either there when we moved in or have been brought to us by Mother Nature (thank you).

But I do know that they are looking pretty stunning at the moment, so we're enjoying them anyway.

Mission accomplished

Phew! After much manic crocheting and mini-skein winding, I've finally sent off my parcel of 70 promotional items today. Hopefully the receipients at the We Make London craft fair in Chelsea next month will like them enough to take a peek at my shop.

It was good fun to see what I could come up with. I've already told you about the mini-skeins, which I have fallen in love with.

Here is a selection of the colour graduated mats and coasters I have included. Suitably summery I think!

I still love the red colourway the best, and those are the colours I tend to wear.

I have also been taking pics of the gorgeous flowers we have around the garden at the moment. 

The aquilegias inspired me to crochet another mat in the pink-green colourway. 

My daughters love it, and I have to say it does make me smile.

Late Summer Garden

There is a dye-along on the "I'd Dye For Britain" group on Ravelry at the moment with a theme of "Inspired by flowers". I quite fancy taking part, so I took some pics in our garden yesterday.


They reminded me how lovely the plants still look, even as they turn towards autumn.

Toe-footsies

This time of my own variety.

I've finally finished the daughter socks that I wanted to design to use up the Tofutsies yarn remaining from my Kaibashira socks.

I found an easy but pretty lacy rib stitch pattern, and worked out a p3-k3-p1-k3 rib to match up with it.

I wanted to use the standard heel stitch to give a little more padding here, so it was cuff-down.

(I've since found a recipe for knitting toe-up with this kind of heel, so that's next on the ToDo list.)

When we got to the toe, I was instructed by DD that a separate big toe was in order so that the socks can be worn with flip-flops.

So I checked out a few patterns and can up with this modified toe-rib type affair.

You know I'm pretty pleased with the whole thing, and quite amazed at how easy it was to come up with my own sock pattern.

So here are the finished Toe-Footsies - complete with toe-post for wearing with flip-flops.

Well we do live by the sea now.

One more thing - Poppy Cottage asked about the needle thing. Yes I do use magic loop for socks. I'm sure it must sound horrendous to read about (I can't vouch for that as I was lucky enough to be shown it in person), but just dive in and try it.

I think it's by far the most portable and child-friendly (and therefore parent-friendly!) method of knitting socks, so it's my most favoured method.

And finally...

One small oasis of beauty in the garden that seems (for now) to be rented to the builders yard.

I do love DH's camera.

Just wish I could remember the name of the darn shrub. ;-)

Photo frenzy

Well we're heading back to full health just as DH gets the sickness bug. He doesn't seem too bad though - luckily he doesn't suffer from man-flu. ;-) Hopefully he'll be over it before we head up-country to visit my relatives for a few days from this Friday.

Anyway, as promised, a photo frenzy follows. There - you have been warned!

Firstly the beaded jewellery:






Then the crochet hairbands:






And finally the beautiful calla lilies in our front garden right now.

That's the lot for now. More when we get back next week!

Busy beading

I got the beading bug this evening.

This is the "Fresh" necklace; a double strand of lime green wire with glass beads in zingy spring fresh shades of turquoise, lime, and very pale lilac, with a lobster clasp fastening.

This one is the "Blue Lagoon" necklace: 2 strands of turqoise and lime beading cord with glass beads and a shell disc in similar colours knotted along it, with a lobster clasp fastening.

Look out for them on sale in my Etsy shop soon!

The garden has been busy too.

This miniature azalea in a pot by our front door has never bloomed this well before. I guess it likes living further south. :-)

This lilac is doomed to go when we have our extension built. It's a beautiful colour but very old and woody, so we're enjoying it at it's best. Along with that fantastic blue sky. :-)

Just about 2 miles in that direction is Perranporth beach, where we spent a good deal of the weekend once the sea mist had cleared. The tans have commenced!

The knitters friend

Films are a knitter's friend. Especially when the knitter is producing endless amounts of stocking stitch, like sleeves.
We watched a good film (but not so good I couldn't drag my eyes away) at the weekend - and I ended up knitting and crocheting the second sleeve of the Beachcomber Tunic in record time.
I'm now on the lower crochet half of the front. The finish line is in sight!

The Beachcomber Tunic is too big to be easily portable now, so I have a new work lunchtime project - my first pair of commissioned socks!
Instead of cash payment I'm bartering services with the recipient. I'm getting a big jar of chilli olives in return for the knitting, and of course the recipient has paid for the wool.
I'm using the same Irish Wellington Socks free pattern, with the Big Fabel yarn in the green colourway - as chosen by the recipient. Very nice it is too.

I also managed to summon up the energy and enthusiasm to tidy up our building site back garden a little at the weekend. I planted some violas and pot-bound plants, so we should have some flowers soon.
Just look at the garlic! Hopefully I'll be able to dry those off and start eating them soon too - yum. :-)
Hanging baskets are next. We will have colour!

Discovery and other fruits

I've made a discovery whilst knitting away at my sleeveless neck-down summer top - Midriff Island.
It's similar to Sleeve Island, but involves one continuous tube of magic double rib. Why magic? Because it starts to look like it might be long enough, so I try it on (long live neck-down garments!) only to find that it has shrunk as it stretched around my (not so small) torso and is actually a long way from "decent" let alone "finished". Ho hum.
** One more row; repeat from ** ad infinitum...

On the beading front, I've made several new necklaces and earrings for myself, and started gathering supplies to fulfill my mum's request. There are far too many photos to add here, so I'm adding a link to the Galleries section in the right-hand bar.
I've made some green beaded stretchy jewellery for eldest DD's school sports day stall, and also finished crocheting the summer tote bag.
I decided to make a plaited strap, which I've sewn to the bag edges and left a small tassel dangling down from each lower corner in true 70s style. ;-)


As for the other fruits - tenuous link there - our courgette plants have their first flower!
I've never grown courgettes before but love eating them, so this was an exciting find.
I directed the whole family outside at breakfast-time to inspect it, and DH thinks it looks quite prehistoric - I tend to agree.

Vegelicious

We didn’t get chance to enjoy the glorious weather this weekend as my youngest DD was quite poorly with a fever. I did carry her outside for a short while on Saturday though, to sit on a comfy sun lounger in the lovely warm sunshine and listen to the birds singing to her. It helped lift her spirits, and gave her something else to think about briefly – she even managed a little smile. :-)

Whilst she was having a little sleep, I got round to planting some garlic in my new garden. I’ve never grown it before, but we do eat a lot of it and it’s supposed to help keep pests away from the other plants. Each clove grows into a new bulb, so we should have plenty to keep us going.
I’m also going to try planting spring onions and my new favourite – fennel. As you can see, I have pretty much a blank canvas to start from!

I have some herbs (basil, sage, parsley and oregano) already enjoying their sunny position in the kitchen. The very helpful lady at our local garden centre phoned me at the weekend to let me know they now have some rosemary plants in stock, so I’ll be buying one of those soon to keep the garlic company.

We also got the juicer out at the weekend and made out own concoction including 1 jaffa orange, 1 Royal Gala apple, 1 large carrot, half a bulb of fennel, and a handful of red grapes. The result? Delicious!

All this is actually me trying to start to become fit and healthy. The last time I visited a gym was before my eldest DD was born, and now I'm driving myself to work, sitting in front of a computer all day, driving home, then sitting down knitting in my leisure time. Combine all that with the fact the I adore food, and you get the current situation where I want to lose 2 stone before I scare the holidaymakers on the beach.. ;-)

I've been checking out the details of the local fitness classes.. watch this space!

Oh yes - the Hedera sock is growing too..