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.

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.

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.

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.

socks

Finished my first pair of socks (we wont mention the brown socks started somewhere around 1978 but never finished). I cast these on very tightly and after a couple of rows had some problems moving the stitches along the needle. Ripped and restared more loosely and now they are v baggy! They are more like slipper socks and are very warm being made of Rowan Tapestry which is mostly wool. I like them!

Em is feeling better today. She had to stay in all yesterday and was very cross about it!

baby jumper

I finished this little baby jumper last week... not sure what happened to blogging between then and now! Things have been busy here with a wedding party for my brother and his wife, and trying to keep control of my allotment and garden. There's another wedding tomorrow too, the allotment girlies have been embroidering some serviettes for the happy couple. Just finished at the last minute, and discovered we have been working to different thread counts. Oh well. The jumper is from Special Knits by Debbie Bliss. Good fun to knit, especially the patterened band. I cheated a bit and just used 2 colours. Debbie's version is much more complicated and beautiful. The colours look very washed out in the photo - really must make more effort with the camera. The recipient doesnt know whether she is having a girl or boy... obviously Im hoping its a girl or its back to the knitting shop for me. Em is doing a lot of lounging at the moment. She had a cat sitter last week and was fed far too many biscuits :-)