I am at the start of a new adventure, my first lace shawl. I’m attempting Kiri designed by Polly Outhwaite. I’m not finding it easy, for instance, today, 2 hours, maybe more were spent knitting, then I found a fault, but I’m not adept enough at reading the stitches to work out exactly where or what the problem is. So, today I have accomplished one row of knitting for two hours work.

I’m hoping it will get easier.

But, there is a plus. We have a lovely new bead shop called Beading Crafty. They used to be located at Hatton Country World and they have moved there bead shop to Kenilworth. Which is wonderful, as I then get to look at beads whenever my heart desires, without a loving husband, looking bored to tears in the background.

And as we know, I will need lots of stitch markers to try and keep track of where I am on my very first shawl.

So in between the showers, I popped up the town and bought the necessary tools and beads to make my very own stitch markers, mainly starting with a mixed lot of beads in which I found some lovely treasures.

Do you like?

I fear, I have much to learn.

What luck, I seem to have a Sprite residing in my home. He has been bringing me strawberries every morning. The first time this happened he delivered them to me in an old plant pot and left them for me before I woke.

When I woke I was quite shocked and just a little giddy at the sparkling fruits before me and I gobbled my share of the fruits up very quickly.

Then the next morning I found the Sprite had left me a huge bowl, full to the brim of strawberries,

and this time I managed to control my eagerness just long enough to add a few to my breakfast.

But then this morning,

well,

I found these little gems in my fridge,

He is a very clever Sprite.

I must look after him very well.

This is Pip,

Pip is a Lurcher, we rescued him, we love him and he loves us. Pip was very badly beaten as a young pup and is terrified of putting a paw out of place. (he also doesn’t like his photo being taken). As time has gone on, Pip’s character is developing, rather than being frightened of just about everything and shaking in the corner.

And one of his little ways that he has developed is to become the resident Yarn Monster. You see Charlie (golden retriever) is the resident bamboo/wood needle muncher but Pip just loves yarn. And in this way, I know who has been taking a keen interest in my knitting if I carelessly leave it within reach. Within reach are the key words in that sentence, Pip can reach a very long way.

What happens is this, I finish my knitting for the evening, carefully place knitting on top of the other yarn/knitting that is residing on the buffet (posh word for very old cupboard) there may be slippage, (we have discussed my house keeping abilities before, haven’t we?!) and toddle off to bed.

Come the morning, hubby makes me a cup of tea and brings it to me in bed. Then he starts his morning routine and generally whilst he is in the shower, I found out that a) he’s left the living room door open and b) Pip has found my yarn. The sound of a herd of gazelles leaping around my living room comes drifting up to my bedroom. At which point, depending on the complexity of the current knitting project there may be an exclamation come from my lips whilst I (as quickly as humanly possible bearing in mind I’ve probably only been awake for three minutes) crawl out of bed, find specs and amble at a rather quicker rate than I really wish to down the stairs and into the living room.

Depending on how quick I am will determine the level of damage. Generally if I’m reasonably quick its rescuable, however, there are times when because the living room door has been left ajar (this is a teenagers pet project) when Pip has had a lovely afternoon playing with yarn.

This is not a good idea, a) because I think its quite dangerous to allow dogs or cats to play with yarn unattended and b) because it destroys my yarn.

So when I say, this next pair of socks is something I have no idea what the yarn is, that Pip played with the yarn for a full afternoon, that it sat languishing in my stash for over a year because it was far too pretty to just throw away, and then that it took me three hours to wind enough for a pair of socks, I’m sure you will understand.

There has been other sock knitting,

a nice thick pair of grey socks to keep my tootsies warm in the winter. These are made from Schoeller & Stahl Limbo colour 2523 with a 52 stitch cast on using 3.00mm needles.

and a finished pair of Spring Forward to Sunny Days by Linda Welch. I knitted these in Wollmeise 100% sock yarn, colourway Baba Jaga using 2.5 mm needles. I think the pattern is lost in such a variegated colourway, but it was a wonderful experience to knit them. The pattern is lovely, nice and simple and very well written, the softness and smell of the yarn was heavenly and they are wonderfully cozy. What more could a girl want!

For my birthday this year I decided I really wanted to see the deer at Charlecote Park.

Hubby has always persuaded me that this might be a bad idea as the deer are notorious for disappearing across the river so that all you ever see of them is in the distance. But after twenty years of marriage I thought I would just chance it and see what I could see.

First there was a Heron,

and then we saw deer (across the river!)

and then there were cows,

and then we found the herd of Jacob sheep.

(swiftly followed by another photograph of Jacob sheep. I thought they were very pretty.)

We watched the Jacob sheep for about twenty minutes and just as we were about to turn around and head back to the house, look at what came around the corner…

A herd of Fallow Deer. We froze and they continued to get nearer,
and then (and could it really get any better) a White Hart came into view.

contented deer drifting nearer.

and nearer

and nearer, this deer must have been as near as 12 feet.

We eventually left them after half an hour as rain clouds were gathering. Of course we viewed the house and gardens, but you all know that what really made my day was my close encounters with the Fallow Deer.

A quick snap of the birthday girl

and the birthday girls lovely hubby,

before I leave you with a video of just close the deer were and how we were very nearly surrounded!

I awoke very early on Saturday morning to find that it was still raining very heavily. I’ve had some of my best adventures in the rain so this didn’t deter me in the slightest, I was more than just a little giddy so a little drop of rain wasn’t going to dampen my spirits. After a false start or two we were off, I completely forgot my camera, which was so annoying when I eventually remembered that I’d forgotten it. There are plenty of photographs on the net of knitters laden down with shopping, stopping to chat in the pouring rain. I not sure that we even noticed it. Its only when you look at the photographs that you realise quite how damp things were.

First port of call was the outside shopping, so much to choose, so many lovely sock yarns. I bought from Babylonglegs, Old Maiden Aunt, Artists Palette and The Knitting Goddess.

I also found New Forest Mohair, we immediately recognised each other from The Royal Show and Francis showed me what she had been dying. At The Royal we had talked at length about Francis trying an autumn colourway and she had dyed some beautiful baby kid mohair in a gorgeous colourway. It was a trial of six skeins and two had already sold. I fell instantly and deeply in love, she’d taken my ideas and developed them into something truly beautiful. I bought the rest, there was no way in this world I was walking away without them. This photograph doesn’t do them justice, when I’ve made them into something beautiful I shall take the time necessary to photograph them in good light and show you all just how stunning they really are.

Once inside the church I was nearly knocked off my feet as Jo launched herself towards me with a Very warm welcome and I then found Cheryl and Tanisha together. We had a lovely chat, I haven’t seen them for so long.

Diane and I bumped into each other and wandered up the stairs to see what we could see and found more stalls! Diane is a very good enabler and was thrusting ideas at me left right and centre, but I had a secret plan. I’d read that Jo was selling Knit Pro needles and my plan was to purchase a pair or two. As you can see from the pictures it may have been just a little more than a couple of pairs. Fortunately my boys have come to my rescue (financially) and offered to buy them for my birthday present.

On my travels I met the girls from Coventry Knit Wits and we oggled each others purchases.

Hubby and I had coffee and a delicious toffee cake and then it was time to go. It really was a lovely day and Jo should be very proud of herself.

Remember the strawberry, the first strawberry that was going to ripen..

This strawberry in fact..

Its gone, its been pinched! (We were just left with an empty stalk, very upsetting it was) By what we do not know, its not slugs as they dig in have a feast and leave fruit damaged, not pinch the whole thing. It could be a bird, again the whole thing has disappeared there are no little tiny bits of fruit lying around. It looks suspiciously like another human.

I have this view in life, if someone pinches a cabbage or a few spuds then its probably because they need it and if they need it that bad they can have it. But for someone to nosy around my plot and then pick the choicest of morsels (and the First! which is the main thing really) well that’s a bit mean spirited. There is also the wandering about my plot in the first place!

Hubby has now found a padlock to lock the gate with. So they will have to climb the fence if they want to pinch my strawberries. Which is easy enough to do, but its easier to spot by the other plot holders and then question why somebody is climbing a fence to get in.

That I should not have a knitting and allotment blog together…

That they should be separate, they are not in any way attached.

Oh, but if you lived my life they are..

So, in the words of Frank Sinatra,

I’ll do it My Way……

if thats okay with everyone?

Its the end of May, already! Where do the days go.

I like this time of year very much, just before it gets unbearably hot and dry when I’m always at the plot watering, (although I did spend two hours just watering this evening) and there is still so much young and vibrant growth.

These are a few of our treats for this year. The list could go on and on and on, you would really be surprised just how much I can cram into a plot or two.

Our chives are in flower, such a pretty addition to a salad. (or sometimes just to pick and munch if you feel like it)

Our lettuces are coming along, I have lettuces at all stages of growth to try and keep us in salad all summer. These are Little Gem,

and these are an Iceburg called Blue Lake.

A visit from the allotment cat. I have no idea if this cat does have a home, it certainly acts as if its feral and I’ve never got near enough to see if its a boy or a girl, but if female (which I think she is) I think she’s been spayed as I’ve never seen her pregnant. She’s as fit as a flea, can jump a five foot fence from a standing start, without her paws touching the fence, and she’s a fantastic little hunter, often to be seen keeping the rabbit population down.

The spuds are coming along nicely,

and no blog post would be complete with out a picture of my peas.

The strawberries show great promise,

with one strawberry just about to ripen.

Sweetcorn are being planted.

And a visit from a bird hunting.

Do you remember I grew globe artichokes from seed last year, they are beginning to flower.

Raspberries are forming.

Tiny little courgettes.

And hasn’t my cherry tree done well for its first year.

And this little dicky bird was singing with such passion this evening, I thought I would try to record it for you. The microphone picks up the cars on the bypass (or as my sons and hubby have said since seeing this it sounds like wind) which my brain filters out and I never notice. (I’m sure they are not that loud) I can’t bring you smelly or taste vision but I can bring you this, a Blackbird in full song.

I think one of the worst things as a grown up mum of two that I have experienced, apart from when medical people are called in to play are exams. Its such a tricky arena to walk through. I’m of the school, perhaps through experience, that I say as little as possible whilst gently cajoling a child, sometimes just to see what that child is or isn’t thinking or doing.

Egg shells, yep, lots.

I think we are surviving, or should I say I am. Just.

I have respite care, half term, and then it starts again, think of me won’t you.

Boy no.2 seems oblivious to this, which is a good thing.

I don’t have photo’s this weekend, which makes things quite dull, sorry about that.

The plot is looking fabulous, even if I do say so myself. Hubby has done a wonderful job at keeping up with plot 1 and getting to grips with plot 2. He saw the blue tits in the birdbox at the plot fledge in the early morning one day last week, I would love to have seen that. We have cleaned out the birdbox, to discover that all of them had fledged, which was a huge sigh of relief from me as we had disturbed them earlier. Perhaps we can entice another late breeding pair in, last year we managed to do that, it would be nice.

We walked to the Abbey Fields this weekend to feed the ducks. I love ducks, I do, they amuse me. Whilst watching the ducks play silly beggars, the main game the youngsters were playing was how far can they swim underwater, (its so much further than you think!) we spotted a Heron looking for fish at the other side of the lake, we were quite mesmerized. Just when our attention was taken away by a friendly rather nice looking spaniel the Heron disappeared. We looked and we looked and said to each other that it must be in the reeds. And we kept looking but to no avail. Soon it was time to go and we gently walked back towards home along the lake, only to find, the Heron, sat on the ‘No Fishing’ sign, which is placed in the lake. If ever there was a moment, when you wished you had your camera on you, this was it. Hubby took a photo on his mobile, which is why there are no photo’s on this blog post. Both are of us are completely inept at blue tooth and are waiting for son no.1 to come home..

Getting back to the plot, its very difficult to talk about the wonders that are going on without the benefit of a photograph. I planted our courgette plants out today, they had the tiniest of bright yellow courgettes on them, that must have been all of 3mm long, they were exquisite.

There is so much going on down there, you know I love it so, and I shall share with photo’s.

But there is one momentous occasion that I wish to share with you all.

Today, I did a little bit of Digging..

I can’t say, I dug and I dug and I dug, because that would be a lie.

But I did Dig..

And for that I am very grateful.

Time for a treat.

I was lucky enough to squish a fellow knitters hard won stash the other week and in her stash was a skein of BFL superwash sock yarn from Spindlefrog. The memory never left me, I would say it haunted me.

So in the end, I had to buy some, and it is just as soft as I remember. Its really very nice. So just to share, so it can haunt you too.

I’m nice like that.