Recently in Knitting Category

Goodness - 2 posts in 2 days!! how long I'll keep this up I don't know but here I am with some knitting progress, I'm on gloves for me!! I have to admit I'm a selfish knitter and like it best when it's a project for me and these gloves are going very well - they're to match the hat I did a while ago and wear a lot, I did photo it to post however Paul's not here so I plonked it on the nearest thing that it'd fit over which happened to be a small chocolate fondue pot??? needless to say it looked decidedly odd when I uploaded it so I'll wait until Paul's back to photo. me with the hat and gloves in the right places.

Tomorrow my plan is to go and buy The Tree - normally we do this together but as Paul's not here and I'm at work all weekend next week I'm going to get it on my own (hoping there's a nice man to help me fit it in the car - and there's the thing - fit it in, without the voice of reason from my more 'anal' other half (he likes straight lines and matching things) we just know I'm going to come back with a tree that's far too big but heyho that's just far more fun! I've warned him I won't be able to resist and I have far more decorations than I can usually fit on so the only problem should be bending the top over to hang the star from (as opposed to balancing it on the top) and squeezing it up the corner so we can still light the fire without lighting the tree!!!

Then of course I'll have to wait until he come's home to help get it out of the car and erect it in the very straight manner he likes, unless, as I've done before - impatience gets the better of me and I attempt to manhandle it all by myself into the living room leaving a trail of destruction in my path.....

Look he's finished! got legs and everything! And he looks quite pleased with himself too! Just what should I call him?

Here's the monkey so far - he's a bit concerned that I've not finished his legs yet! Not quite monkee maker's standard (she does something clever with the faces!) but I'm fairly pleased with him!

In response to Pauls "why the hell is there wool everywhere in this house?" I thought I'd sort it out as all the 'bargains' I'd bagged on ebay had arrived, plus the pile from John Lewis's bargain box....... and I have to admit I'd managed to leave wool in most rooms! so I tipped the contents of my stash boxes on the living room floor - unfortunately Paul walked in just then and I guessed from his " Oh for f***s sake" he didn't really understand the fabness that I'd realised my stash has become! It really has grown and I have at least 4 projects lined up!

The best news was when having screamed in frustration that I was going to run out of wool before finishing the latest project (a long discontinued Debbie Bliss line) I tracked some down in Norfolk! and amazingly when it arrived it was the same dyelot!! Okay so now my bargain shrug made from a lucky find in a bargain box how now increased in cost rather a lot, but at least I can finish the last 20 rows of 392 rib stitches - eventually!

Very pleased with my finished felted bag - I got a round of applause at knitting group before I'd even got the beads on! So here it is now complete with beads.

Here's a bit more detail of the flowers.

Thought it was about time I updated you on what I'm up to, on the knitting front it's a felted bag from Nicky Epsteins Fabulous Felted Bags - the Fuschia one. Here's how it is so far (lots more leaves to knit!)

On the gardening side we have a major problem - Vine Weevils!! evil little b*****ds they're everywhere so I have spent £30! on nematodes so fingers crossed they sort it out and it all recovers. The Cauliflowers and Broccoli are suffering the most, but here's a pic of the one cauliflower doing okay - it's lovely how the leaves wrap it up inside to protect it when it's little!

Some fab news, Max and Warren (not to mention Emily and Harrison) are coming to stay! Warren says he'd like the nice Chinese we had last time they came - I think he's still a salad dodger (like he was at uni when we flatshared) and is alarmed by the mention of us having an awful lot of lettuce to eat!!

Lots of progress to fill you in on! on the knitting front the Phildar cardigan is doing well I've done the back and both fronts and am on the trumpet sleeves - however I have rather long arms and get a bit bored doing the long straight bit of sleeves! hence why I often knit sleeveless tops! here's the first sleeve in progress:

And on the gardening side it's all been coming on very well with the sun and all this rain too! here's the greenhouse which has an awful lot of tomatoes in it and also the pots ad baskets settling in before it's warm enough to put them out, and they seem to be loving it in there! they get bigger every day.

and here's the first of the lettuces in their box - we'll be eating them soon the rate they're growing!

The blackbird family are having a bad day - they decided to teach the fledglings to fly today, they never learn that every year we all have a stressful day as they fly around screeching in panic and I run round trying to catch Tiggy the killer cat who leaps madly on all the poor dazed little baby blackbirds until I catch her and shut her in and put up with the banging on the cat flap all day! It started at 6am this morning when she spotted we had forgotten to lock the cat flap last night so she went and brought the first one in which thanks to the loud screeching we woke up and released, the next one wasn't so lucky as I didn't spot her in time as she ran up to the bedroom with it! Then the 3rd one was this afternoon while I was in the garden - cue mad dash by all parties concerned - Tiggy is now banging on the flap periodically coming in to me to shout loudly while Mr & Mrs Blackbird are flying back and forth trying to show the daft fledgling on the floor how easy it is (it's been an hour now and he's not moved!)

here's the cute flower brooch I've knitted for my Nan's birthday (from my lovely new knitted flowers book) I'm okay showing you now as Nan's not got a computer so won't see it (Maureen if you're looking sssshh!). I'm supposed to be getting on with the Phildar cardigan but I've been getting distracted trying different flowers with different wool.

On a gardening note this lovely sunshine and showers is wonderful for the little plants! they're all getting excited and doing well, here's the nasturtiums in hanging pots over the salad boxes ('cos you can eat them too!)

Rather embarrased yesterday I stepped into the greenhouse with the words "hello everybody how are you doing?" meaning the tomatoes, bedding etc (they honestly do grow better when you chat to them, but it's not something I do in company!) unfortunately didn't realise the neighbours were just behind the fence and I think either thought I was talking to them or decided to humour me as being quite mad!!

I must plant up my baskets and summer pots soon, I intended to grow my own bedding from seed but after a slow start I bought a few plugs and now have got carried away everytime I see bedding plants I buy more and my own are now getting going! should have a good show this year - although I still feel I need more height for my pots so I'm bound to wind up at the nursery this weekend buying more and then needing more pots for all the bedding to fit - because of course it's cheaper to buy trays of it!

Well after a lovely Sunday afternoon in the garden that's everything planted, On Sunday I put the sweetcorn out in their square bed (thought it might be a bit early but they were trying to climb out of their pots so out they went, cabbages (normal and red) and cauliflower are in the plot, I pricked the salad leaves lettuce out into one of the new boxes and the Basils into another one. The tomatoes in the greenhouse are coming on very well and the runner beans will go out to their canes very soon. So now it's sit back (apart from a regular hoe and water!) and wait for the harvesting!

We did have the first harvest of Rhubarb on Sunday, unfortunatly Paul left it in the oven while chatting to Nicci next door and when he came back half of it had glued itself the the oven floor!! So we had small individual Rhubard crumbles in ramekins - very yummy they were!

On a knitting note my very lovely new book arrived - Nicky Epstein's Knitted Flowers, which I fell for when ordering the also lovely Fabulous Felted Bags (as seen at knitting group where Laurence is knitting from it) by the same author - Amazon did it's 'if you like this..you might like...' and I fell for it but they are very lovely books.

oh no, oh no, oh no! it was bad enough ripping the whole hat, then last night it struck me that the Phildar cardigan I'd started really was very 'light' indeed. It came with Phildar Aurore (71% mohair - very nice!) anyway I have the Phildar book plus the translation and after about 4inches I became concerned and looked again at the pattern, the tension square instructions (which I ignored this time - doh!) said knit with 2 strands, the pattern however made no mention of 2 strands, I think I know really I need to rip it and start again with 2 strands of yarn but I e-mailed Phildar just to be sure - but no reply yet!