birthday

I had a birthday last week which unfortunately I had to spend at a meeting in Birmingham, so I had an official birthday the day before. I had saved a 2 for 1 voucher from Gardener's World magazine so went with my mum to Arundel Castle for the day. Its a pretty spectacular place - I dont know anything about the history because we were cheap-skates and only went into the gardens.

Beautiful wisteria.

And I think this is an apricot.

lacy crochet

I crocheted a small bag to keep my crochet hooks in so I dont lose them. I used some thickish black cotton thread and the pattern is adapted from the hook case in Lacy Crochet - Kyuuto Japanese Crafts. The result is a bit short and also the the hooks fall through the holes. So, not well thought out overall (totally my fault for not bothering to follow the pattern properly and nothing to do with the lovely book). Luckily its exactly the right size and shape to keep my ipod in to stop it getting scratched in my bag. The evenings are light enough now to go the allotment after work for an hour. Still a fair amount to dig over and weed but we have potatoes, onions, broad beans, carrots and parsnips in the ground. Tomorrow I will take some pictures. In the meantime here are some tiny cauliflowers... aren't they sweet!

welcome

My new niece is a week old. Welcome to the world Katerina :-)

Of course this means that the tiny blue cardigan will need some pink flowers attaching.

beans

Broad beans on my kitchen windowsill.

I baked a cake today, in my new breadmaker. Its a bad idea - dont try it!

Also, I have been doing some knitting. Its a pale blue/green baby jumber. I will post a picture when its finished. My stocking-stitch always ends up in stripes of uneven tension. So on the back I tried to even it up by knitting the purl rows more loosely. Then for some reason I tried to knit the knit rows more tightly on the front. Im not sure why I thought this was not going to have some kind of bad effect on the overall garment. Tension is a tricky isnt it? Sometimes I think I should relearn how to knit from scratch but it seems like a lot of effort.

day off

Lovely! Day off work today. I got a haircut and did some shopping. This morning I threw some bottles into my recycling bin in my front garden. My neighbour thought someone was smashing a window to break into my house so she called the police. She was just a bit jumpy after I got burgled a couple of months ago. I was pretty embarrassed when 2 police cars turned up a few minutes later. After all the excitement I cleaned my kitchen and dusted this shelf above the fireplace. I made the 2 crocheted jug covers ages ago. These are really handy, quick items to make for presents. My friend Nic gave me the tiny cup and saucer and the tile comes from my Great Aunt.

green

All sorts of things are springing up in my garden. This clematis is growing at an incredible rate. With a bit of luck it will have big purple flowers in the summer.

I went to a willow and hazel garden structures course with my mum on Saturday. It was fantastic fun. Really hard on our hands though, my thumb nails are suffering this week. We made tall plant supports. The hazel provides the uprights and the willow twigs are bent round them and woven to hold the whole thing together.

The willow twigs were soaked for a couple of days beforehand to make them easier to bend but it was quite warm in the room so after a few minutes work they started to dry out. Here is my mum weaving one of the circular ties. We had time to make one of these teepees each and a sort of basket type plant pot.

So the clematis now has a hand-made plant support to grow up.

I will take some pictures of the finished articles in my garden soon.

pink

I walked into town this morning. Along my road there are a few small apple and cherry trees clipped into hedges. They look so pretty. This one has been allowed to grow a bit more wild. I took a few photos at the beach too but the sun had already got quite high so they didnt come out too well. Might try to get up early tomorrow and give it another go.

In town I found a really great dress and a top in Monsoon - neither in my size. So just came home again.

yellow

Tiny daffodils brightening up my dining room window.

I have been planning holidays recently. First is a trip to visit a friend in Holland. I'm hoping the bulbfields will still be looking good in May but they will probably be over their best. After that, a long weekend climbing Snowdon and then maybe a week away in the sun in June. I have to fit in a trip to Sweden to visit my new niece or nephew in there somewhere. The last couple of months have been very long and it feels great to have a few things to look forward to. Its going to be busy.

yarn

Stardustshoes is having a giveaway of some really beautiful yarn and these handmade bags. Go over and have a look!

red

My amaryllis is celebrating red nose day.

I have frogged and re-knitted the sleeves of the tiny baby vest. Now all it needs is a ribbon threaded through the eyelets around the neck. Will it be blue or pink??

Phew! thank goodness its Friday. And payday too. I have a horrible deadline at work in 2 weeks which is taking all my brain-power. Roll on the end of March.

I spend all day at work helping people, busting a gut and apologising if something is half an hour late. Today I asked someone at head office for a small bit of information. He didn't reply, just sent an email to a colleague complaining about me, and copied me in!!! Enough ranting, I'm going to get a glass of wine.

auricula

Spring is coming, and my Auricula is flowering. I have been looking out for more of these in the garden centres around here but they seem to be quite rare. I love the contrast of colours in the flowers. They look like they are made of wax. I finished a tiny knitted baby-vest in white cotton this weekend. No pictures because I'm pretty sure I have to redo the sleeves even though I sewed it up already. The pattern says decrease over several rows towards the tops of the sleeves. That can't be right can it? I checked the pattern several times but I think I have to redo them anyway or the vest will cut off the baby's blood supply to its arms.

pants

This morning I bent down to tie my shoes and my trousers split. Unfortunately I didn't notice until I was at work. I would have been less embarrassed if I hadn't been wearing bright purple pants. So I have spent the day walking backwards out of rooms and letting people past me on the stairs. The nice young man who sits opposite me drew a smiley face winking and stuck it on the partition. Oh god. This little chap is brightening up the geranium on my dining table. I am trying to resist putting plants outside. Some days are quite warm but then suddenly it gets cold overnight, frosty even down here on the coast. Its probably just about time to start planting seeds under cover though so I might get going on that at the weekend. Broad beans - yum!

cross-stitch

Or to be more accurate: books about cross-stitch. I havent made anything from these beautiful La Croix et La Maniere books yet, just looked at the pictures. I saw them on Linnet ages ago but the postage from Japan is too much, so I eventually ordered them direct from the author (Monique Lyonnet)! And she signed them for me too. I have some pale grey/blue linen which is going to be ideal for a small stitched object.... need to look at the pictures one more time before I decide.

pancakes

Maybe I should take some pictures of knitting from a bit further away! This is the beginning of Ishbel by Ysolda Teague. The yarn is pure wool and quite scratchy and thin. Hopefully it will soften up a bit.

My mum has come to stay for the weekend and brought lemon pancakes from Waitrose. Yum.

three on friday

We went to a cafe after work. Beer/white wine for the grown-ups, icecream with chocolate sauce for the birthday girl. Izzy wore her new blue cotton cardigan with four tiny sparkly flower buttons . . its a perfect fit.

Saturday was the first warmish day this year. A good excuse to get down the allotment and start digging. We dug up our raspberry canes from the old allotment, trekked round to the new one with the plants in a wheelbarrow and planted them again. Hopefully they will thrive away from all the couch grass. Keeping fingers crossed.

i'm ready for my main course now

alpaca

My first time knitting with alpaca wool - this was 4 ply 100% alpaca from Yllotyll in Uppsala which I bought last year. Here it's in the process of becoming a pair of fingerless gloves. The gloves have since been joined by a 2x2 rib scarf which I made with the left overs so its a bit short. I love wearing them, they're really soft and warm,but I think overall I prefer knitting with cotton. The alpaca has quite a lot of give which I found annoying - probably just need to practice. The gloves are from Weekend Knitting by Melanie Falick and the scarf was inspired by Tiennie's 2x2 rib items.

Another first! This is the first pic with my new camera. I bought a panasonic with a good macro lens but its also small and light.

no photos

So I was all ready to post some nice photos from my new camera... the burglars have taken the lead to connect to the computer! They left the camera but took the lead, dammit. So I have to go and buy a new one tomorrow.

i'm back

Finally. I got burgled at the beginning of January so have been without a laptop for a few weeks. The insurance company have come through with the money now so here is my first post from my brand new one! Its fab. And very shiny :-) No photos yet as Im only just up and running. More soon, including photos of knitting.