August 2006 Archives

We've had some friends to stay over the weekend and went to the countryside fair at Blar Atholl castle where they sampled the local delights of Arbroath Smokies, which I think look quite revolting but are an incredibly popular local dish. here they are being smoked

This morning I noticed that the moth chrysallis by the back door I'd been watching was empty, he'd flown overnight and left his empty case neatly in place.

Paul meanwhile is starting on the plum tomato processing, now he's perfected the sauce recipe and lots of toms are ready he's cooking up batches to see us through winter!

I've finished 2 projects!! here's pics of the finished slippers complete with strap to keep them on and the wrap thingy I'm rather pleased with and it was soooo easy!

I've been looking around blogs and like this flashing of rooms I saw on http://www.colorfool.net/2006/08/15/the-dining-room so thought I'd put mine on too as I do like my dining room and we are so good - we use it for every meal (although having a telly in there helps).

we were very impressed with ourselves today - enough plum tomatoes had ripened to make sauce for the pasta and added to garlic, herbs and basil all from the garden it was very very tasty! we need to perfect the recipe to freeze lots to keep us going ( I say we but I have nothing to do with the cooking I just grow it and wash up while Paul creates - a very healthy balance I feel!)

Keep getting distracted from my knitting by the urge to learn to crochet and my new books arrived today - crochet for beginners, Stitch and bitch and the happy hooker! I'm struggling though, can't seem to get my fingers right for crochet, I'll post some pics when I finally produce something.

last night I put straps on the slippers (ignoring the husband who kept laughing as I fitted them - he reads rav4 and star trek sites so really can't chortle at my knitting!) they are a lot more secure, I'm going to add some flowers to finish them and I should be safe from falling down the stairs!

the garden needs more attention, it had reached the stage of gathering and not needing a lot more but some things are needing pulling out as they're at the end of season - how sad is that, summer coming to an end!!! but still waiting for the sweetcorn to ripen - had a peek earlier but it's not yellow yet, I can't wait to eat it straight off the plant and still on the cob! Bob (the bunny) says the carrots are great but the broccoli's got a few too many caterpillars which get in the way! - the price of being organic when the daft cat keeps pushing open the netting that keeps out the butterflies so she can sit in the shade of a cabbage?!?

here's a link to my new flickr page with more garden photos!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/87656684@N00/sets/72157594232218090/

I finished a project tonight! I made some more of the rosettes and joined 3 together to make a brooch, I'm quite pleased with it although the photo didn't come out very well.

I really will try to finish the slippers tomorrow!

sorry Max it would have helped to explain - the pink thing on last nights post is really simple but very effective, you cast on 30 stitches and just knit until you get to the end of the ball than cast off and wear it as a shawl/top type thing with a pin and because it's knitted so loosely it should fall nicely, (the helpful lady in the shop showed you could wear it as a sarong as well but I was a bit unsure about that). I have to admit though I'm getting sidetracked with making rosettes to put on the slippers and planning to make straps for them but then ended up making the first 3 rosettes into a brooch and then got excited about crocheting and started that too - I need to focus and finish something!

here's some pics of work in progress with the pink ribbon wool (now wound into a nice neat ball) 15mm needles are a bit tricky to hold but it knits up very quickly.

I got very excited about the new Rowan pattern book out last week but I need to learn to crochet as the trend this season is apparently to put crochet edging on most patterns so until I learn I can't knit their lovely new patterns!

Well I had been so good at posting so regularly and now realise after a hectic week that I've not posted in a week!! but between head office visits at work so several late nights working, spending my day off flying down to great nan's funeral and my in-laws arriving this week has gone by in a blur!

I did try to start my knitting project with the lovely pink ribbon wool and large needles but I learnt a very important lesson - don't try knitting directly from a loose skein of wool! I've just spent 3 hours trying to untangle a horrible mess and roll it into a ball! Hopefully I'll be able to post some more constructive progress on this soon.

I've also been worrying about my first blog swop (books arranged my Max http://www.noodlesanddoodles.com It's supposed to swop books I've read and have lying around but I'm worried that my book swop partner will be unimpressed so I picked up a couple of bargain books from work, then thought that's not the idea at all, but wanted to put something in with the parcel so it was a bit nicer than a few (rather wrinkled from bath reading) chick lit books, I hope I've got it cracked now and she likes my parcel when I get it sent off, this blog swapping is a great idea but a bit of a concern when you're new to it!

Anyway here's to a more constructive week next week and back to regular posts.