Show excitement!

Last weekend our local village "Horticultural and Domestic Show" was held at the Community Centre. The local school children could enter some of the show categories; my DDs entered in:
- shell craft
- decorated stone
- edible jewellery
- 4 crispy buns on a plate

There was much rushing about the night before they were due in, to get the entries finished. Of course, we'll be better prepared next year (famous last words?).

It paid off though, as they both came runner up in one of their categories!

What I hadn't realised previously was that there were categories for everyone to enter. Next year I'll be going for the "Handicraft - Open" and DH will be entering the "Photography - Open" ones.

There was a brass band, coconut shy, bouncy castle, and refreshments stall - selling Cornish cream teas - a cup of tea and a scone with strawberry jam and clotted cream. Of course we had to try them - and very delicious they were. ;-)

The whole atmosphere was so very different to the City Show were we were living this time last year - tiny, rural, homely.. just lovely.

We had a great afternoon, and DH has now become involved with the village committee as a result - so he's helping to sort out the village barbeque next week. Another local highlight in our social calendar! :-)

Spinning help required please!

As always I am mentally several projects ahead of my current WIP - as is the way with most crafters I reckon.

Thanks to my recent purchase of llama fibre, I now need a drop spindle and instructions. I have absolutely no idea about how to do this or what I need, so can anyone help please?

What kind of drop spindle is best for a complete novice?

Have you any recommendations for where to purchase one from?

All advice and ideas gratefully received!

A quick watery update

Another week gone - and finally a sunny weekend!

We spent today at Fistral Beach watching our nephew in a surfing competition there, and both DDs enjoying the waves on their bodyboards.

DH then took us all to Ocean Magic, where our niece is working, and bought DDs new rash vests and booties (the ones to wear in the sea) - and bought me a wetsuit and booties too! I guess there's no excuse now..

Busy bee!

I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since my last post- where does it go?! As a result this is a picture-intensive post - you have been warned!

Yesterday we took a trip over to Trago Mills at Falmouth and had a great couple of hours despite the rain.

Trago Mills is the most amazing store - a rabbit warren full of everything. I managed to get hold of a pair of bag handles - and some beads which were 59p per tube! I resisted the yarn on this trip..

Today we went to the open day at Llama Lland, just 5 minutes drive from us.

Here I am with my rapidly-growing DDs - see there are llamas behind us!

Note the wellies and coats - just what you need for this great British summer we're having.



Here's one of the ones in the pens - can't remember the names..

And here's a beautifully-coloured llama - showing off it's better side?!


I bought 2 bags of llama fibre, as I really fancy buying a drop spindle and having a little play at spinning some of it. Any tips anyone?

I also bought a 64g skein of hand-dyed handspun llama wool for £2!





I've been having another go at dyeing myself, and did these skeins on Friday.

There are 5 skeins of laceweight cashmere - soooo soft!


Also a couple of skeins of sock yarn - I played around to get some pretty good bark-like shades!

Oh yes and knitting.

The Wedding Bolero is progressing well - I can tell as my hands are starting to ache.

Both sleeves are finished and blocked, and the back is almost done too - should be finished tonight I reckon. Just a couple of small shaped fronts after that, plus an edging and beads. I'm really pleased so far.

I feel the need.. for speed..

Which justifies a New Project Alert before the neck-down chevron rib top is finished - haha!

You see we are attending a(nother) wedding in August - this time for the actual daytime ceremony as well as the evening party. And everyone knows that a girl needs new clothes for such an event!

Well there are 3 girls in our household, so I'm buying new outfits for both DDs (matching - so sweet!) and part buying, part making new items for myself. (I did ask DH too but he's not really into new clothes and has a very nice suit already - see, I'm not being mean.)

I have a great linen skirt and co-ordinating top for the day - but it's crying out for matching heeled sandals and a pretty lacy bolero with beaded edges. I'm investigating sources for the sandals (involving lots of shoe shopping - fab!) and have started on the Summer Wedding Bolero.

It involves an easy lace stitch pattern, a small quantity of crisp white mercerised DK-weight cotton, some matching beads for a crochet edging, and a pretty clasp - oh and a pattern created (following swatching of course) from my Knitware Sweaters program.

So with 2 months before the wedding, why the need for speed? Well I need a black one for the evening party too.. ;-)

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.

What a fantastic weekend!

I don't usually work Fridays, so I spent the day relaxing at home, crocheting and beading in the sunshine. I really needed some time out, so decided I would do nothing more strenuous than transfer washing from the machine to the clothes line and then to the ironing pile - where it still is...

The resulting items are for my DDs' school sports day; they have been asked to take in things to sell on their team colour's stall. I decided to crochet a purse and bag, and make 4 strung beaded necklaces in each colour – red and green for my DDs. I've used the plastic beads and elastic beading cord for the necklaces, and painted over the knotted end with clear nail varnish to make them more secure.

I found a ball of tomato red Patons mercerised cotton DK which I've used for the purse, and an odd ball of grass green Rowan Summer Tweed which is now becoming a dinky little shoulder bag.

Back to the weekend activities – we spent three afternoons and evenings body boarding in the sea, which led me to the conclusion that I have to buy a wetsuit. I'm totally amazed – I never thought I would want to get one myself! Yesterday I even swam in the sea (wearing my bikini – brave but cold!) – which I haven't done for around 25 years!

The lasting picture of the weekend in my mind has to be from Friday evening at Perranporth – unfortunately we didn't have a camera with us, but imagine this if you will: me and DH having a drink of Jack Daniels and coke from The Watering Hole, relaxing on the sand in the warm early evening glow of a fabulous sunset, listening to a couple strumming guitars gently, watching my kids playing happily on the beach and a horse dancing around in the waves at the edge of the sea… Just what the doctor ordered. ☺

Testing times

There has been a distinct lack of activity here on the blog for a while now, but I wanted to let you know that I'm still around.

We're having a particularly stressful time right now, involving house sales and purchases as well as fairly major family-related problems which are currently being sorted out.

With all this going on, I've felt quite depressed and exhausted a lot of the time, and simply haven't had the enthusiasm to update the blog. Migraines with disturbed vision and daily bouts of acid indigestion have indicated the extent of my worries; thankfully these have been helped recently by a little progress in matters and an encouraging message from afar. We do seem to be over the worst now (hopefully) and I'm sure things will work out fine, but we're still in the process at the moment.

I have been doing a little knitting - the top-down summer top from Rebecca magazine that I had to frog several times has now thankfully made it to around 75% complete. However I've found that when I knit I still run through problems in my head and don't feel relaxed.

Instead I've been beading as it absorbs my attention more, which is what I need at the moment. I've made a few more necklaces and been asked by various relatives to re-thread broken ones - even my dear mom has asked me to make her a pair of earrings, which quite astounded me as she's not really into crafts.

Hopefully soon things round here will return to a state more akin to normality (whatever that is) and I'll be up and running again with lots of pics.

What's the difference?

Well we went back up country, visited everyone, and gladly travelled back down to the South West. It's a lovely place to come home to. Della asked what the differences are between living here in "the pointy bit" (nice one!) rather than in the Midlands. Hmm, well I guess:

1. The general feeling down here is more relaxed; it's more rural and right by the coast, so it feels less hectic


2. We don't worry so much about security - we're living in a little village and feel safer; fewer people means fewer crimes


3. As we're so near the coast, we feel like we should make the most of it and so tend to go to the beach whenever we can - and there's not much to get stressed about there


4. The school is half the size of the previous one our girls went to, and has much more of an outdoor emphasis - they have a science garden, after-school gardening club, and outdoor learning spaces


5. As we're outdoors a lot more, we're all looking fairly tanned already - everyone back in the Midlands on this last visit said we all looked really healthy!


6. I need to drive to work and can't walk around the city centre to do my shopping at lunchtime so I had to find other ways to get exercise: now I go to fitness classes twice a week & thoroughly enjoy them, DH does most of the shopping so he appreciates the time & effort it takes now, and walking up and down the beach and cliff steps does wonders for the legs and cardio fitness levels!


7. Although I only drive when I have to, I am enjoying the freedom of having my own transport available


8. I had 2 migraines whilst we were back up country last weekend - a common occurrence for me - but have had virtually none whilst down here


9. I'm learning to swim better (after all these years) as I want to be able to swim in the sea with our girls


10. For whatever reasons we seem to be going out more as a family - we go out together every Friday evening, and are currently planning several visits to local events during the forthcoming half term break


11. DH gets to see his little sis regularly as we now live near her!


12. There is a big focus down here on environmental issues and also crafts - both of which interest me greatly

I think that's enough to be going on with! As you can probably gather, we're enjoying it down here.

On the craft front, I've been beading again! I went to a bead weaving class at the Red Elephant Bead Shop on Wednesday evening, and had a great time.

I discovered that I prefer stringing beads rather than weaving them, so I came back and made myself 3 necklaces.

A black and white one specifically to match this top - it reminds me of licorice allsorts!

Then a pinky-purply one to go with most of my outfits..

And finally a slightly longer one with some lovely stripy blue glass beads that I bought from ebay several years ago.

I'm really pleased with all of them!

Toward family and food

We're headed back to Wolverhampton this afternoon for a visit to family and friends whilst DH goes on a friend's stag weekend in Dublin. No doubt the 5lb weight I've managed to lose so far will rapidly re-appear, but it'll be lovely to see everyone again. I can't believe it's been 3 months since we last saw them all!

The motorway journey should be great for my knitting as DH will be driving most of the way. :-)

Of socks and parcels

You want socks? You got 'em! Announcing the gorgeous Hedera pair, finished just 3 hours ago.

Great pattern (Knitty), great yarn (Cherry Tree Hill merino), great socks. Now they have to go into hiding until the weather turns cooler - hopefully quite a while away.


And the parcel? Well it's my prize from Maggie's Crafting - plus a little extra.

I received the stitchmarkers I had chosen plus a sunny little card, an extra pair of lovely handmade stitch markers, and a bag of honey bear chewy sweets for my daughters!
Of course I had to try them first, just to check. Thanks so much Maggie!

I had a second parcel too - but that's another story..

Beads, dyes, and new shoes!

First up - the Beaded Jewellery day course!
It was fab. There were 6 of us plus the teacher, and I wasn't the oldest. ;-)

We could choose from the bead selection there and shown how to make various types of necklaces and earrings. These are mine, and I'm quite pleased with them.

I've given the earrings to my SIL as I don't tend to wear dangly earrings much - they just get tangled in my hair. The necklaces have been claimed by both of my DDs of course, but I may have to borrow them back now and again.

I have plans for some other necklaces to use up some of my bead stash now, so I can make ones to match my various work outfits.

Secondly - the yarn dyeing. I managed to get time to do some this week - wahay!

I dyed 3 skeins of sock yarn with Kool-Aid reds, yellows, and oranges - not the best photo but you get the idea.

Finally the new shoes! Flip flops of course considering our new home location. I wore them on the beach this afternoon, and they're very comfy ;-)

I have to include a link to my favourite song atm too - "New Shoes" by Paolo Nutini - a fab happy tune. :-)

Other events

Feeling sad today - I found out this morning that my brother and his partner have lost their expected baby. They went for the first scan this morning (at 12 weeks) to find that the foetus had died at around 9.5 weeks according to the measurements.

Obviously this little one was not meant to be, but it takes a while to get your head around it. They do have a lovely little son already who is almost 2 years old, and I'm sure they'll be fine after a while. In the meantime we're sending them lots of virtual hugs and loving wishes to help them along.

High on sunshine

Oh I love sunny weather. It was great today being able to get back from work and diving into my shorts & T-shirt to soak up the last warm rays of the afternoon. Bliss!

Look - I found some beads for the croppped aran lace cardigan! I wasn't sure if they'd be the right colour/size/weight/etc as I got them from ebay rather than seeing them beforehand, but I'm thrilled as they're perfect.

I just need to sew them on now :-)

The Hedera sock is progressing nicely. I'm now on to the straight part of the foot, so not long to go now.

My workmates are not sure what to think of me - nobody has seen anyone knitting a sock before apparently!

I get to sit in the car and knit a few rounds before I go into my fitness classes too; I need to get there early to get a parking space so it's the perfect opportunity. :-)

Time flies when you're having fun!

Phew! Where have the last 10 days gone?

This week we’ve had DH’s parents staying with us; they are planning to move down here as soon as their house has sold. We've had lots of beach outings and picnics, making the most of the brillliant Easter weather which has just broken.

I’m getting excited about the Beaded Jewellery course now – less than 2 weeks to go! I’m really looking forward to it.

I’ve had very little time to do much knitting, but I have nearly completed the Cropped Aran Lace Cardigan.

I just have to graft the small gaps under the arms and sew in the ends, then it’s all down to the beads.

I need 14 machine washable reasonable weight (but not heavy) beads with holes going side to side, so I can sew them on to the hemline points (shown here) to stop them flipping up. Time to find out the bead stash!

Oh yes, and as you can see from this close-up of the sleeve, it all needs a light blocking to open up those lovely lace patterns.

The first Hedera sock now has a heel flap and is progressing nicely along the foot. The Cherry Tree Hill yarn is lovely - soft and squishy with fab colours.

We'll see how they wash as I've heard sometimes there can be colour bleeding.

As soon as I’d finished knitting the cardigan, I started on the bargain cotton/viscose blend yarn from Lidl.

I’d found the perfect pattern for the yarn in an old copy of Rebecca knitting magazine – the issue with the Apricot cardigan in that I so adore (yes of course it’s on my To-Do list!). The top is knit in the round from the neck down and is pretty simple.

Unfortunately the German to English translation is not so brilliant, and 20-odd rounds into the design I found that I’ve been working too many increases in each alternate round – since round number 2. Ho hum. Into the frog pond – actually stuffed in a plastic bag in my storage pouffe in the lounge until I can face frogging it.

Better carry on with those socks!

Time to use some energy

Just as I was getting into a routine of updating this blog twice weekly, life gets in the way. But not in a bad way. We've had 2 lots of friends visiting Cornwall this week as the children are on Easter holiday from school.

So we've been very busy meeting up with them; DH has taken the girls swimming with their friends whilst I've been at work, then we've been visiting various family-friendly local pubs in the evenings. It's been lovely to see them all, but I'm glad we can still stay here in Cornwall after the holidays instead of going back.

As for the fitness classes I mentioned last time, I've signed up and been straight from work to "Bums and Tums" and the "Swiss Ball Workout" - which I can't stop calling the "Swiss Cheese" workout - can you see where my focus is?!

I can feel the effects of both classes - mainly in my torso and legs, which is great as it must be doing something.

Our fitness class teacher, Helen, is a lovely (and very fit!) lady who makes the classes good fun. She's told us we can eat plenty of chocolate this Easter weekend. I don't know whether she's saying we don't have to feel guilty as we're working out, or just guaranteeing plenty of customers for the forthcoming classes.. Either way I actually enjoyed both classes and I'm not the oldest or biggest there, so I feel better about that.

Another thing which has caught my eye is a one-day course in Beaded Jewellery at the local college on Saturday 28th April - which I have enrolled on!
I've been messing about with beads since last autumn when I had a go at making beaded stitch markers, so I'm really looking forward to it – but I wonder if I'll be the oldest one there..?!

On the knitting front, I'm now into the hem edging and cast-off for the cropped aran lace cardigan; not long to go there and we should have a FO - yippee!

The first Hedera sock in the work-lunch-break project has now reached the heel flap; I have to be careful with this as I could easily become totally engrossed and wildly over-run my allocated lunch break time..

Anyway, I hope everyone has a lovely chocolaticious Easter weekend; it looks like we may even get good weather which is very non-British for a bank holiday period. We're hoping to make the most of it on the beach - after we've eaten the Easter eggs that is.

Happy Birthday Sarah!

My youngest DD is 6 years old today!

Here she is with her big sister, trying to eat her birthday cake in one go! She has a party organised with her new school friends this weekend, and is getting lots of telephone calls and pressies through the post from our relatives and friends “up country”.

Thankfully she's feeling much better from her fever last weekend - it turned out to be short-lived I'm glad to say.

She’s so different from this time last year – much calmer, and managing to read a lot of her own birthday cards. My baby is growing up.

Happy Birthday darling daughter. :-)

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..

On the needles

I realised that I haven’t shared any WIP pics with you for a while. There are just 3 on the go atm – amazing with my track record of start-itis!

Here is the oldest WIP first – the aran lace cardigan started in September 2006. It’s moving along nicely again, since I allocated it as my “home” project. The construction is quite unusual as it’s knitted in one piece from the neck down to the armholes, then the sleeves are worked in the round, then the lower half of the body and fronts are worked in one piece to the hem.

I’m now halfway through the second sleeve, and trying to work one or two lace repeats every evening to keep up a reasonable pace on it.

I have about 4 balls of the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran left to complete it, so hopefully it should work out ok.

It’s a lovely design and interesting to work on, with quite easy lace stitch patterns.

Next is the Crochet Fitted Jacket, which I half-heartedly started not long before we moved. I was inspired by the fitted jacket in the Happy Hooker book, but wanted to use a cone of 4-ply lambswool/alpaca that I’d stashed away from ebay a while back. I’ve created a pattern using my Knitware Sweaters program, but didn’t really think about exactly how much work is involved in crocheting such a garment in 4ply yarn,not am I convinced that I like the yarn once it’s worked up. What do you think?

Finally – the newbie on the block – a pair of Hedera socks using the beautiful variegated emerald green Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn I bought from Little Knits last year. I wanted a small portable project that I could work on in short bursts as I get chance during my lunch breaks at work, so it had to be a sock. I like the look of the easy lace in this design, which is different to any of the other socks I’ve done up to now. The yarn looks and feels yummy too!

As always, I’m enjoying these projects but impatient to move on to the next ones at the same time.. I really need a smart brown cardigan for work, and I have some lovely aran-weight bluefaced leicester in the perfect shade bought from ebay calling me from my stash. But then the weather should be warming up soon, so should I wait until the autumn? So many decisions to make.. ;-)

Yarn in.. Garments out..

Not quite that quickly of course!

Have you seen the fab offer on at Lidl stores around the country atm? I managed to grab some of their goodies in the Newquay store last week - and DH paid for them!

I got a couple of packs of the cotton/viscose solid dark blue yarn - each 150g pack cost £1.99 - plus a couple of packs of the variegated cotton, which cost £3.99 per pack of 300g. Bargain!
I was very restrained as there were loads of different colours of both sorts.
I see a dark blue lacy bolero and a variegated cotton top in my near future..

I've finally got round to posting a pic of the Patons Reef yarn which I treated myself to on my first visit to Truro Fabrics, my LYS.

It's a beautiful yarn, very similar to Colinette Giotto - and again I'm hoping to make another bolero.
I'm fairly keen on them as I got so much wear from my Lacewing Bolero last summer, and often wished that I also had a long-sleeved version. Hopefully soon I will!

Now for the FOs..

Here's my Calorimetry in all her glory. I don't think headwear does much for me, but this item is warm and fits well, and I love the colours.

I've worn it already on Mother's Day afternoon when we visited Padstow and stood outside (very cold) eating delicious luxury Cornish ice cream made at Callestick Farm near us.

The yarn was part of a gift from my good friend Fiona, and there's still plenty of it left.

Next up, a proper pic of "Fortune" - although I'm not quite sure was I was doing with my hands.. This is already becoming a mainstay of my wardrobe.

And finally, the Lacanau beach sandals knitted in 2 shades of Rowan Summer Tweed.

I still haven't found anywhere to buy readymade soles, so I'm watching ebay to see if I can get some leather offcuts to use.

I guess they won't really be a FO until the soles are on, but never mind.