I am still tickled pink by Jenny’s lovely giveaway that I think that it is time to return the favour.

The giveaway will run until the 30th April and then I will pick a name at random.

What is in the giveaway I hear you ask, well I thought as it was my first giveaway a skein of Wollmeise would be in order. I’m not sure which colour, mainly because I couldn’t decide which one to put up. So if you really favour a colour or hate a certain colour this is for you as we can talk if you win. And there will be a few other bits and bobs that I find put into your package.

And what would I like you to write about.

What is your favourite fruit or vegetable and your first memory of it?

Mine is tomatoes, barely a day goes by that I don’t eat a tomato, either a cherry tomato popped into my mouth as I’m passing in the kitchen as they have been sat on the windowsill gently warming in the sun. Or cooked in a sauce or stew, or perhaps just a dollop of chutney on the side. I love tomatoes, my days would not be happy if I did not have tomatoes in my life. Seriously, if I became allergic to them, well, it doesn’t bear thinking about.

I love tomatoes even more than I love peas. And I like peas alot.

When I was very small about four years old, my grandfather had a large vegetable patch in his garden which had a greenhouse. And in this greenhouse my Grandfather grew grapes and cucumbers and tomatoes. His grapevine was very old and gnarled I loved it. But it was the tomatoes that really took my attention. And every time I visited him and Grandma I used to toddle off to the greenhouse, I was only allowed into the greenhouse if I stood still in the middle of it because greenhouses are not really safe for children to play in. So I used to sit on the floor. Always being a child that was safety conscious. And I used to stare at the bright red jewels on the tomato plants and beg my Grandfather for a tomato. He always said “no, the tomatoes are for Grandma.” And it made me sad, because I loved tomatoes. It was a very long hot summer, the sort that goes on forever in childhood and I was often to be found sitting on the floor of the greenhouse staring at the tomatoes, never daring to pick one. I watched the tomatoes ripen and disappear. (I am sure Grandmother gave me tomatoes in salads, I just can’t remember that part of the story) Then one day when all that was left on the plants were just a few leaves that had seen better days and and lots of tiny, tiny red tomatoes no bigger than your thumb nail and many were only as big as your little finger nail, Grandfather said I could pick them and eat them. And I sat on that sandy hot floor in the greenhouse carefully picking these warm and sweet tiny red jewels and popping them in my mouth, they were absolute heaven. I think I was there for at least half an hour before other grandchildren came to find me and they too were overjoyed that Grandfather had said we could have the tomatoes and they helped, although I didn’t really need any help, to strip all of the plants bare.

Good Luck.

Not everyone is on Ravelry, although I have no idea why they wouldn’t be.

I am just having a silly moment so I thought I would share with you some information about a project that I am just starting. I was going to photograph the yarn cake I had made and realised that would give away some of my surprise to the expectant Mum.

Project Info.

Name: Project code named Baby Bear.

Pattern from: Ravelry, after long consideration, many hours and lots of cups of tea.

Craft: Knitting

Made for: Baby Bear.

Size: Baby Bears Size.

Notes
The yarn (I can’t say what obviously) has taken five, yes five hours to wind up. It got into the most dreadful knot which I had to fight my way through but eventually I managed to free it and make it into the most delightful cake.

Pat a cake, pat a cake, bakers man,
bake me a cake as fast as you can,
pat it and prick it and mark it with B
and put it in the oven for Baby Bear and me.

It feels ever so nice to knit for a baby, I’m quite giddy about it all.

Firstly I have been sock knitting, it was quite weird to start with knitting with these cocktail sized needles compared to the 5mm I am using for my Lizard Ridge blanket and it has taken me the best part of a sock to get into my groove. But now that I have I feel much better, it was quite blissful kitchenering (is that a word?) a few moments ago. I really enjoy the rhythmic spell of that particular task.

These socks I started for myself, but as soon as I started to knit them they told me they wanted to belong to hubby. Hubby is still not sure about woolly socks as they can make his feet too hot, but these socks have Insisted that they belong to him and they fit him beautifully, so what is a girl to do. And this yarn seems slightly lighter in weight than his last pair so that may do the trick on his feet overheating.

The photographs are taken at night, but they will give you an idea of what the yarn is like. I think they look like a manly pair of socks, don’t you? Although I do love them and I think I have something similar in my stash for me.

The colours are just divine and the yarn is blissfully soft. This is a skein of hand dyed from Babylonglegs, sock weight, Blue Face Leicester and nylon and is called Apples and Pears.

And,

I have a confession,

for I have sinned….

Its all Alice’s fault.

Alice from Socktopus announced that she had finally sorted out the Fiori di Zucca sock pattern and put it up on her website. Its here if you wish to click. Whilst telling us this on Ravelry she also announced that there were seven skeins of Gelato di Pistacchio in Smooshy, Dream in Colour left. “Seven”, I hear you say, “yes, just seven”.

And this all stems from my knitting pal, who was a part of Alice’s lovely sock club and knitted up Fiori di Zucca not just once, twice.. (which actually drove me to distraction because I couldn’t get hold of this pattern and she’s a lawyer so I couldn’t ask her to copy me one over!!!, ) So when Alice released the pattern I was practically first in the queue by some happy coincidence. Which also meant, I was practically first in the queue for a skein of Gelato di Pistacchio. Was I a happy bunny. I thought the marriage of yarn, colours and pattern was perfect and as someone that often thinks things through far too deeply on whether things will work before casting on, you can imagine just how pleased I am.

Alice included a couple of sachets of Soak, always a nice treat, thank you Alice,

and me, well, I’ll try to be less naughty!

Many people have asked me what I am doing this Easter. Often they talk about holidays to far off destinations or visits to relatives not often seen. As our only surviving parents live locally, Easter does not put so much pressure on us these days. However, the allotment does, although we like it like that, Easter is the time when it is make or break.

We have been lucky this Easter, it was forecast to rain, rain, rain, but we have had a lovely day today, I have fingers crossed for tomorrow. So what have we been doing, well hubby has been planting spuds, lots of spuds, and before he was planting spuds he was planting onions. We may have a surplus of onions this year, its not my fault honest! Well, what happened was, last year we bought one bag of onion sets which were in the size range of 5 to 7 mm, although they were mostly in the larger end of the spectrum. There didn’t seem to be many once we had planted them out, so on that basis I ordered two bags this year. This year they came more into the 5mm range and so we have not only had double the number of last year, you could probably add half again. Hubby has planted ten rows with thirty onions in each row.. That in a perfect world is 300 onions !!! And… I’d ordered some Mammoth red and white onion seed and started them off, I should have about fifty of those too. Its a good job we like onion soup and its also good that I most often cook from scratch, thankfully we tend to use an onion a day.

I struggled to find paper and pen at the allotment, but I did manage to make notes of what is either in the ground or in the greenhouse. We haven’t worked hard, it just comes in spurts, you do need to be able to water regularly though, that is important. I and hubby have sown into the ground and have seen signs of life, parsnips, carrots, beetroot, radish, broad beans, potatoes, fruit trees that are already established, strawberries, garlic, shallots, not forgetting the onions,

When I say we haven’t worked hard, weekends do need to be set aside in March and April, they are the two busiest months of the year. Hubby has had the help of the rotovator and two sturdy boys (otherwise known as son no.1 and son no.2) who really like playing with the rotovator. That really helped this year, last autumn when I was happily engaged in tidying up the plot, we had rainstorm after rainstorm, it was dreadful, many people, not just us had to leave their plots half tidied up for winter.

In the greenhouse we have early purple sprouting, a black Italian cabbage perfect for minestrone’s called Black Tuscany, Peas 🙂 both Onward and Hurst Greenshaft, eight varieties of tomatoes, cauliflowers, lettuces, spring cabbage, leeks, marigolds, pansy, busy lizzie, sweet peas, brunswick and red drummond cabbages, chillies and peppers, chives, dill and mint and spring onions.

I’m sure there are vegetables that I have forgotten or overlooked. As soon as it warms up a little there will be the cucumbers, sweetcorn and various pumpkins to think about, not forgetting the ongoing planting of peas and lettuces.

But until that time, let us start with the photographs of todays visit.

I think this time we will start with a photograph that I often put into the middle of the photographs and I think often gets missed. Here is an unsung hero, hubby, he has kept this plot going for the last 12 months. Look how lovely plot number 1 looks, that really is wonderful for this time of the year.

Next let us cozy up in the greenhouse which is my domain, its often the nicest place to be at this time of the year.

sweet peas in their pots planted in January, their root systems are fantastic, I should have lots of gorgeous flowers this year.

tomatoes falling from replanting, fingers crossed, chitted potatoes just waiting to be planted and various brassicas in the background.

Purple sprouting, just another few days before there is enough to cut for a delicious supper. I am really looking forward to it. Lots of butter and black pepper me thinks.

It might look like brown earth to you, but to me and hubby its rows and rows of planted spuds, and we are very happy to have these in the ground. – hubby has worked very hard on this.

Broad beans,, this is such a quandary for both of us. We both have similar taste buds and we both don’t think we like broad beans, but then we both haven’t had young broad beans freshly picked off the veg plot since we were children. So we are trying them this year.. time will tell.

The shallots are coming up.

and just look at the garlic, isn’t it wonderful?

Yummy tender rhubarb.

and peas, I love peas.

raspberry canes coming to life.

and a picture of blue, well actually I tried to photograph a helicopter, but missed! But it is a nice blue for today and it only lasted a short time before cold and windy clouds came through.

What Easter compilation would be perfect without sheep. Look at those twins aren’t they just a perfect pair.

And this little chap caught my eye, “come in number seventeen” this little chap was tiny and if you look carefully you can still see his umbilical cord, (trust me he was a boy, there are other photographs to identify this) I’m sure he has only been out for a day, he was strong but very hungry.

and this was taken at some distance, but well worth putting in, it looks like a baa lambs play pen, trust me they are free to come and go as they please, very funny and very cute.

I just wanted to wish you all a Happy Easter. Lets hope the weather improves for us allotmenteers today. Hubby has planted half of our spuds the earlies and the first earlies as traditionally potato planting is on Good Friday. He’s hoping to get the other four trays in today, the second earlies and the maincrops, I have an awful lot of pricking out of vegetables to do.

The reason for the very early post its 12.44 a.m. at the moment is just to say that I managed to keep to my promise for Lent and did not cast on anything new. I found it quite an interesting experience. On the one hand it was nice to get ahead on some projects and to finish a couple of projects which then gave me the pleasure of wearing and using them. On the other hand I have been very grumpy in the last few days. The reason, I haven’t had a plain sock to knit. You see when I am feeling grumpy and my level of pain is creeping upwards at the moment, knitting a vanilla sock is very relaxing to me, its almost like taking a soothing painkiller. (not quite but almost) And not having this to hand has just made me even grumpier.

Did I find anything out about myself apart from that I missed sock knitting during lent? I did actually, I found out that my projects always take longer than I think they will to complete. That I do need variety because this eases my muscles as they can get very stiff and painful within a short time doing the same activity but also within this that I can spend too much money. – shocking I know!!! If, I looked hard at my stash of both materials and yarn, I have enough projects to keep me going for a good while yet and I think that is something that I am going to continue to address this year and most probably next year. (although I am going to find books very difficult to give up, and to be honest I don’t think that is ever going to happen) Just as an enabler, have you seen the William Morris In Applique – 6 stunning projects and over 40 individual designs, (Amazon have it in at two prices at the moment, I have no idea why – my book has the same cover as the more expensive version, but the ISBN of the cheaper version, hows that for a puzzle) Its a gorgeous book, absolutely stunning, I bought mine at The Bramble Patch, which is a lovely place to shop, hubby took me out on an afternoon excursion, I spent three hours looking at their Easter exhibition, books, materials and notions, I could have spent longer and I now have all the wear with all to make a beautiful cushion and I’m looking forward to starting that next week. Seriously if you are lucky enough to find this book in your hands you will understand why I have fallen hook, line and sinker for it.

Another lesson was, that when Really Good News is announced, its Very Difficult not to cast on. (you know who you are!!!)

So the plan for today, after a sleep, is two fold, one is to cast on a sock with whatever comes to hand from a lucky dip stash dive, and to knit for a few minutes and the second part of the plan is hubby is carting me up to the plot to sit in the sunshine (I can dream) dressed in several layers of clothing, so that I can prick out the vegetables I’ve been growing whilst he is planting spuds and peas. You never know I might even do a little light hoeing, should the mood take me.

A short time ago I won a blog giveaway that Jenny was running. The prize was for sock yarn and all my readers will know how partial I am to a ball or two *cough* of sock yarn in my stash. So I entered not thinking anything more about it, well, I won! (and became quite giddy that I had won) Jenny told me that she had posted it yesterday and to be on the lookout. It arrived today, not bad at all from Scotland.

Fully expecting a package weighing 100g or thereabouts, I realised that the box the present(s) were in was very heavy and (as all good present unwrappers should) upon shaking the box it rattled! Now, I don’t know of any sock yarn that Rattles!

I became quite giddy, I unwrapped the first layer and came across a beautiful black box, already I have plans for it. Its just such a nice box on its own. And then I carefully unpacked that beautiful black box and lots and lots of purple packages came out of it.

Don’t they look pretty, it was so exciting. I unwrapped them slowly savouring each and every gift.

Firstly there was a beautiful Easter card, so pretty.

Look at it all out of the box, how on earth did it all fit in.

There is beautiful sock yarn, Regia designed by Kaffe Fassett in a colour suitable for a boy or a girl. Jenny had offered to knit socks for the lucky winner but I had asked her if I could knit my own to get double the pleasure of the yarn. It will be lovely to knit this and remember my excitement at receiving all of these gifts.

An absolutely gorgeous linen tea towel by Portmeirion, far too posh to dry tea cups with. I shall save it for special picnics to wrap crusty baguettes in, it really is beautiful. And there was chocolate, I love chocolate through the post when you least expect it. All plans to be good are quickly forgotten as the first whiff of cocoa hits your nose and your hands greedily pull at the wrapping to just have one taste. As son no. 2 was with me and I was explaining how this blog giveaway had worked, (he was feigning interest but really he was drifting away) he thought the chocolate was an extremely good idea and practically claimed it as his own.

and yet more presents, Rose Petal Salve by Rose & Apothecary, I’ve just opened it and its evocative of the smell of crystalised rose petals that my grandmother used to make and use on her cakes and trifles. Its just lovely. There is L’Occitane soap with 20% shea butter and a tube of Orange Flower Botanical Body Wash by Liz Earle, I shall really enjoy using them, such lovely luxuries to spoil myself with. There is a smelly candle, which is fun because I can’t exactly work out its scent but I am sure I am getting orange and cloves. Some pretty Cath Kidson tissues, just perfect for my next cold!

I nearly forgot to mention the pretty postcards, one of Greyfriars Bobby, I love the story of that little furry terrier.

I have tears streaming down my face as I watch this clip, it was one of my favourite films as a child. Who knew it was in colour, I thought it was in black and white and its only just hit me that this was because we only had a black and white television. Oh how times change! (giggling quietly to self)

And then there was a fierce Scottish pussy cat postcard and a lovely shaggy highland cow.

And last but by no means least, a new variety of courgettes to try this summer. That will be fun, they do look tasty.

I think I have remembered everything!

All crammed back into the beautiful black box.

Thank you Jenny for spoiling me. I’ve loved every moment of it. (and will enjoy it all again and again and again as I use these lovely gifts)

Many moons ago, I made a panel of beautiful patches at my first workshop at The Quilters Den in Warwick called nine patch for beginners. I fully recommend taking a class like this because it gives you the confidence to handle your cutting mat, ruler and ever so sharp rotary cutter. It also shows you how to make pretty triangles. I liked that part the best.

I made this blog post about it in October showing you what I had achieved up to that point. And to be honest I didn’t have the confidence at that time to go much further. I have learned many techniques since then and felt able to complete my cushion cover this weekend. To be absolutely honest – you know me so well, I was also searching for sewing jobs to play with my new toy with.

Eric had to get in on the act, this cushion cover already has a light dressing of cat hairs on it, mainly because the cats thought it was comfy whilst I was trying to finish the binding with hand sewing.

And a pic of it in situ. I love it, these colours just make me break into a great big smile.

Me, that is. Spoilt. To the extreme.

And, I am silly excited.

Because, well, hubby (who I wish I could work out when he is feeling generous because I am female and I would use this to my advantage!, but after twenty odd years I still haven’t figured it out!!) has bought me a supa dupa brand new quilting sewing machine today.

The story goes like this,

I went to my sewing morning on Friday and showed the girls the blocks I had sewn for my quilt and bag. They liked them but observed that my sewing machine needed attention. I told them about the troubles I had had with it recently. To give you some history I bought this sewing machine second hand off a girlfriend of mine over twenty years ago, I think its probably about 26 years old. It has its grumbles but is generally a good solid machine if you don’t ask it to do something too tricky or buttonholes, its never done buttonholes, the part for the button holes on the machine had broken a very long time ago. But I loved this machine and it has made lovely waistcoats and shorts, curtains and quilt covers, and all sorts of odds and sods for the parents and teachers association in two different schools. At Christmas for fairs and panto’s you could see the smoke coming off it.

Anyway it needed a service and on the way hubby asked me whether it really was worth servicing and getting up to speed, bearing in mind that they probably won’t have the parts available, re button hole part and rickety sewing table (a plastic plug that stabilises the table had long since broken away).

And I could see what he was saying, but thought well actually, spending on a machine at the lower end of the price bracket is going to give me a machine that is of a much less quality than the one I have now. So I explained that to him. (I think that might be the key – impart information to your husbands so that they can come up with the same opinion as yourself!) And to be honest I had started reading around about machines so I knew what I was starting to look for.

So we took my lovely Singer Serenade in and it was as we feared, the parts for the button hole and table were unavailable and if something needed replacing whilst it was being serviced it would either entail a pricey part or.. no part at all. You could hear the death knell ring loud and clear.

So we looked at machines and after hubby had recovered slightly from how expensive they really can be. He started to look seriously at machines, which left me slightly shell shocked as just half an hour previously I was taking my rickety sewing machine for a service, not thinking about a new machine. I needed time out and access to the Internet. We came home, drank tea and chatted whilst looking at sewing machines on the net. Then a phone call was made to see if the shop would price match, which they would and we were driving back to buy a supa dupa does everything you could ever imagine (and more!) quilting sewing machine.

I’m still in shock.

I’ve spent about six hours, probably eight, reading the manual, threading the bobbin and the machine and doing silly things with it. But the thing I’m most proud of, are my buttonholes…

There are ten types of button holes on this machines – you could go giddy just thinking about that!

Here are just three.

I don’t know whether it will make my 1/4 ” seams any more accurate, but it really is going to be fun trying.

Oh and I get to have a days free tuition with it as well.. How glam is that!!!!

As some of you may remember I am not casting on over lent. This is proving more difficult than you might imagine. Firstly because I am tired of knitting Lizard Ridge squares, there is beautiful sock yarn calling to me and not least a newly pregnant friend.. (who I am itching to cast on for). There is a summer top that I could continue with as I’ve only started the ribbing, but again its a lace pattern and I have to be in the right kind of mood to struggle with it before it becomes easy to me. And there is a cardigan that needs blocking so that I can sew it up before continuing with the button band, and somehow I’ve lost my knitting mojo for this particular project.

So I was stuck.

When, I was rescued by my monthly quilting class.. This month we were making log cabin squares. I’ve always wondered how these clever little squares came together and now I know.
Carie (otherwise known as Speedy Gonzales – Arriba! Arriba! Andale! Andale! the fastest mouse in all of Warwickshire) sped on and produced this in just two hours..

Impressive isn’t it! Its nearly finished!

Me, well, I’m built for comfort not speed, and I really enjoyed learning how this magical square comes together.

Mine, with quite a way to go.

But the sewing bug had caught a hold of me and wasn’t going to let go anytime soon. So, after a quick consultation of what my promise actually was at the beginning of Lent I realised that it was about casting on, not sewing. Ha, ha, the devil is in the detail, so with a clear conscience and my spirits raised immeasurably, I’ve spent a few lovely hours hand sewing and cheerfully engaged in work at my sewing machine.

Firstly I finished my tumbling blocks, (I always want to call them building blocks for some reason)

They came out quite nice, I can see the errors, but I think I have worked out my mistakes.

Then whilst the instructions were fresh in my mind I finished my log cabin square.

and so I have three squares towards my quilt.

And then the patchwork bug really took hold and I made some squares towards a tote to carry my cutting board in.

I picked up these beautiful fabrics at the Stitch and Creative Craft Show at The Three Counties showground in Malvern. My knitting friends Ronnie, Janice and Janet had very kindly taken me along and I had had a lovely time.

I was practicing my triangles, I like triangles they are fun.

Then I made another log cabin square.

There is something very interesting about the two log cabins. They are cut to exactly the same measurements and both pieced with a 1/4″ foot, but on different machines. They have come out completely different sizes. Obviously its human error (me!) I have seen how to check a 1/4″ seam in several books, I will have to do this just to see how inaccurate I really am.

And then I asked hubby to choose my next square and he chose this.

He liked the tumbling blocks and thinks it would look nice on a bag.

Florence thinks so.

So, the story goes like this, I’d finished the 24th square of my Lizard Ridge blanket a few days ago and decided I would photograph this momentous occasion for my blog. I’d laid the squares out on the kitchen table and started to photograph them.

one click, two clicks, three clicks,

Four clicks. Florence lands on the blanket, looking slightly awkward.

She lands, looks slightly awkward and lays down almost immediately. With a “oooooh wool” look on her face. Trust me I know this look.

Just making herself comfy to have a backrub.

“Do be careful Florence, you’ll slip off” As Florence is swiftly falling into a yarn filled trance.

Yep, completely stoned!

Absolutely drugged up the eyeballs with the yarn fumes – Can I have what she’s having?!

Oh Wait, there is a plan.. note the extended paw.

At this point there was a pause and Florence was looking all around her debating her next move.

And then an innocently stretched out cat… or is it ????????

“If I just keep a hold of some of these squares …”

“and pull them towards me…”

“I could have a supa dupa cat bed/blanket/woolly mountain to sleep on”

I was going to say something sensible about the Lizard Ridge blanket, but I think Florence has stolen the show and said it all. I have just over 600g of scraps left, I’m still knitting squares, I’m not sure how big the blanket is going to be when I decide to finish it, only time will tell.