Here's a pic of the slippers, I put them together yesterday but they definately need an touch more adding to them and despite making the small size they are rather loose, so I may add some elastic so I don't fall down the stairs again with slippers falling off (most painful that was!) Not as pleased with these as previous projects which means a concerted effort is needed to finish them or they'll be consigned to the some time or other pile while I get distracted by the next project!
I received a lovely surprise parcel from Max http://www.noodlesanddoodles.com, they came to stop recently and she sent me this as a thankyou and a welcome to blogging! I've got several plans for the wool - it'll be perfect to add a corsage to the slippers I'm knitting first then some corsages I'm planning which she's included some backs for and I may well knit the cable hat in the Rowan pattern book in it! And I've got a monkey purse as I've seen on her site! and 3 fab monkey buttons! got to find something special for them to go on! Thankyou very much Max and well done to Emily who shows great design talent already as she chose perfect stickers for the card (a ginger cat like Tiggy, a leaf and a ball of wool) most impressive for such a small person!
funny couple of days - unravelled half the slipper and redid it and now it looks like a slipper, garden's going mad with the sunshine, Bob the bunny's got a new lease of life (his arthritis must be better in the warm) he's eating veg leaves at an alarming rate and after living on only one floor of his three storey hutch he's up and down like the clappers. Tiggy the cat has been to the vet with a repeat of the allergic reaction she had last year to goodness knows what (resulting last year in a £250bill!!) and is scabby and now has to have lots of tablets (not an easy task). I had to tidy the under the stairs cupboard because I couldn't get in anymore! And great nan finally died at the grand age of 109!
God bless Great Nan.
the slippers I'm knitting are not looking quite right, I think I may have miscounted a row somewhere and consequently got the shaping all wrong but it' s very hard to tell so I'm thinking I may have to put the right slipper on a stitch holder and knit the left one carefully and then compare them to see if I need to undo the right one - very frustrating. The problem is I sit knitting and watching tv until late and get tired and forget to turn the row counter - crucial error!
Tiggy the cat is treating this like a hotel - with the very hot weather she's only coming inside for biscuits and I'm feeling very unloved!
here's a pic of the finished tank top, it seemed to take ages to knit as it was all rib but I'm very pleased with the finish and it will be very useful.
I'm so excited I've had my first comment from someone I don't know! I started blogging a week ago and have been merrily blethering away instructing people I know to look at my blog and hoping someone out there in blogland would find me too - and they have! thanks to my very good friend Max http://www.noodlesanddoodles.com this blogging can be compulsive, you can wile away hours going from blog to blog - I'm hoping I'll get one of those columns where I can list links to sites I like soon but I really don't like to bother my best ex-flatmate (sorry Steve but you've not made me a blog!) Woz because he's incredibly busy supporting a wife, 1 1/2 children and a garden makeover!
For Sunday dinner Paul gave me a shopping list for the garden - carrots, peas, potatoes, broccoli, beetroot and strawberries so off I trotted with my trug and Tiggy who insists on overseeing the process, it's so very satisfying to get all that veg straight out of the garden and it be especially tasty and no chemicals involved! The sweetcorn is coming on very fast with more hairy bits each day which we are presuming are the start of the corns, I'll have to go and purchase some of those forky things for eating them straight off the cob covered in butter!
on a desperate dash to get 1 more ball of wool to finish the tank top (how annoying was that to run out with 3 inches left to do?!) I've found the most fantastic wool shop not too far away - it was like an Aladins cave of fabulous wool (much more fun than having to buy it on the net and hope it's as nice in reality) needless to say I came away with a bag of stuff and several more projects, on the go now I've done the tank top are pink slippers!
Our neighbour Nicci knocked on the door last night to say we might want to come and catch some plums?! Very sadly the old plum tree in their garden with a large branch hanging over which is laden with plums this year - which I had great plans for crumble and wine! had rather excelled itself and the weight was cracking some branches so we had to pull most of the fruit off to try and save it! So I spent an hour last night on a stool picking very unripe plums - anyone with ideas what to do with several pounds of them let me know!
How weird is this, found it on my small silver birch tree, this leaf must be particularly tasty!
My meeting finished early today so I've got home 3 hours earlier than normal Hurrah! time to potter in the garden leaving time later to try to get my knitting finished, I've nearly finished a sleeveless jumper (it's a tank top really but that sounds a bit naff!) but I'm running out of wool and just hope I have enough to finish and as my Nan (my knitting mentor) said you have to knit really fast when you're running out because you somehow think if you knit faster you'll get to the end before it runs out!!??
Found a bargain in the bookshop the other day (yes the bookshop - I was confused too) fancy wool in lots of colours, and mum sent a pattern for knitted brooches so that could keep me busy for a while!
here's some earlier knitting projects,
Tasty peas and lovely smelling sweet peas! Rather pleased with the photo of peas in the colander - although the novelty of shelling peas wore off halfway through the trug and you seem to end up with far fewer peas than you expect from the amount of pods (although the amount that popped off and disappeared goodness knows where and the ones that looked particularly tasty may account for it somewhat!) I was never really a fan of peas until I grew them but pop open a pod of small peas and they are really sweet and delicious.
Come to look at it I never really ate much veg. but once you get excited about growing it you end up eating it because you have to taste what you've grown and also because Paul can't manage an entire vegetable plot on his own (even with a little help from Bob the bunny)
Well this seems to be going okay so here's the beetroot!
With all the rain and then lots of sun the beetroot went into overdrive and a lot has had to be pulled now as it's already beginning to reach monster proportions. Paul had planned on pickling it as last years attempts at storing it in sand didn't go too well, however after filling every jar he could find and running out of pickling vinegar we still have an awful lot of beetroot! Linda from next door however came to the rescue and photocopied instructions on how to freeze it from her Good Housekeeping Manual! (perhaps I should have one of these?). So the extra freezer we had to buy last year when we ran out of space for cabbage is filling up already - will we be needing one of those catering size chest freezers?
here's some of the beetroot posing beautifully in my trug!
This is Tiggy helping with the gardening!
Well, here it is - My Blog! there you are pottering through life doing a spot of gardening or knitting and getting excited when you pick your first home grown pea or finish your first jumper, not for a minute thinking that anyone else could be interested enough out there to read about such an occasion - and then you get into blogging!
So now all of you still living down south (where we moved from to sunny Scotland), my very very good mateys in Ireland (without whom blogging would still be a mystery!) and goodness knows who else can see and hopefully enjoy my hobbies with me!
I will now attempt to upload a photo of the above mentioned peas! and if it goes well the beetroot is looking forward to a mention next!
