When I knitted the first hat from this pattern for son no.1 he was tickled pink not least because the snow on the ground was at least two inches thick and he needed something warm whilst he was tinkering with cars. He proudly wore it to work and his boss exclaimed that it was indeed a very fine hat and was very impressed that his mum had knit a hat like that. I felt quite warm and perhaps just a little smug.

Fast forward four months, just breaking into spring and the ‘boys’ at work played a little game of hiding the hat, which culminated in the new boy (new that day!) putting the hat in the microwave and turning it on. The hat burst into flames in two area’s but being wool self extinguished once the microwave was turned off. We were left with a very burned hat and were very annoyed – I am being polite here!

I was asked to knit another hat that the boys at work would pay for. So I quoted the full price for yarn, minimum wage and approximate hours it would take, all that cabling does take time. The message came back via my son that they wouldn’t pay that, I think they were a little shocked at the price, and by this time we had calmed down somewhat, knowing that it was just boys being boys, so I said okay a bouquet of flowers and the cost and postage of the yarn. This was deemed fair by the boys at work and I left the knitting of it until the weather turned colder.

Son no.1 only had one request, that it must be identical, absolutely identical in every way.

Thank goodness for Ravelry as I had recorded everything I needed to be able to achieve that. Although if I am honest, I think the tension is just a gnats whisker tighter than the previous hat, although I think this may be because of the reasons above of why I was reknitting it.

Son no.1 proudly wore it into work, only to be told that only black hats were allowed these days, – back to the drawing board!

This was knit in Rowan Pure Wool Aran in Grey from a pattern called Knotty but Nice by Natalie Larson.

Two Sundays ago we were racing into Birmingham to see the Lost in Lace exhibition that I spoke about in my last post. Unfortunately we didn’t make it in time and had to see that the following weekend because we realised it had been far too long since breakfast and we needed somewhere to eat. Out came the iphones and we thought we would give Yo Sushi (we are addicted at the moment!) a go in Brindley Place as we had never been there before.

Wow, what a space! Its wonderful. So much of interest, we got their late in the day so didn’t have the time to appreciate all of what it has to offer, we are going back sometime soon. There were many restaurants, art galleries,


canals,

fountains

and small boys paddling at the end of October.

Interesting architecture,

in the shape of a very interesting cable pattern.

A happy hubby full of sushi,

and a contented Mandycharlie debuting her latest hand knitted hat,

made from a pattern called Simple Pleasures Hat written by Purl Soho in Berroco Ultra Alpaca in purple. Its very cosy, yet soft and light, perfect for the autumn.

Brindley Place has such a great vibe, it was the tiniest of city breaks but we came back home completely refreshed and eagerly planning more adventures to come in this wonderful space.

Last Friday we trotted over to Birmingham to see the Lost in Lace Exhibition at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. For the first half an hour we stayed firmly entrenched in hubby’s car as the rain drops were so heavy they were bouncing up six inches after they had hit the pavement. Eventually we got into the museum, the boys went off for another look at The Staffordshire Hoard whilst I had a look at the lace. This gave me the time that I find is necessary to slow down to a pace which engages the arty side of my brain. I rather like it when I can just, if I listen very carefully, hear my own breathing, rather than the clod hopping sound of a boisterous teenager bouncing around a wooden floor whilst making audible sighs as to just how long his mother is going to be. It gave me time to appreciate the art of lace on a completely different scale.

I will show you just a couple of exhibits as it is a small show and I can’t give everything away. I thought this was rather spectacular, and immediately saw the use of it on a commercial scale where it could be used for partitioning of open plan buildings.

And I loved this, envisioning the garden on this side, the allotment end of the garden on the other.

And then the boys came back, there was this one exhibition where you entered a very small room which then went black as ink and waited for the lights to shine upon the lace with different colours and angles. I thought son no.2 might like this and he did, but only because I was trying to take a photograph of him in the pitch black and he kept moving. So the game at which he giggled was to catch him in camera shot whilst he moved as silently as a ninja. It was great fun, I did get this photograph of him.

Which is quite arty in its own way.

The best part was because he had giggled and enjoyed himself, he then went around the exhibition with renewed interest. Perhaps that is the secret to bringing younger people into the arts, sneak a few unexpected twists in and they won’t even realise how they have been drawn in.

Thursdays is market day. In the summer I wander around the market purchasing the odd seasonal beauty, although to be honest our allotment more than keeps us supplied. Unbeknown to you all what I am really doing is waiting. I wait patiently during the summer, dreaming of long almost forgotten days that were in the middle of last winter and silently I wait. I say nothing to nobody, it would simply make my agitation worse. Slowly the seasons change, the colours of autumn appear, grow vibrant and then start to fade, the days become colder, I drag woollies out of my wardrobe to pull ever closer around me to keep warm. And still I wait. The days become shorter, making it more likely to be returning from late afternoon shopping trips in the dark, and it is at this point that I can wait no longer, the time is ripe.

I casually wander up to the fish mongers in the market, inspect his wares and then jump into the fray of men and women bustling around his stall. It looks busy but we all know where our place is in the queue.

It was worth the wait.

For the first bountiful feast of these dark blue beauties.

They were clean, tasty and very plump, and came all the way from Cornwall. They say mussels should only be eaten with an R in the month, but modern methods mean you can have them all year around, my self, I think they need the cold to plump them out and recover from breeding. From November to late February or March if the weather was like last years is the perfect time for mussels. And what could be better in the dark and dismal days of winter in landlocked Warwickshire than the smell of the ocean tantalising your taste buds as well as your memory. And then just for good measure adding the tang of a splash of malt vinegar and a little sea salt on your hot crispy chips, making it tricky to decide which mouthful to have next, the crispy, hot, salty with a whiff of vinegar chip or a plump, fat, mussel dripping with a buttery, winey, slightly garlicky liquor accompanied by the clean fresh ozone smell of a winters day walking on the beach.

I just want to say thank you to everyone that sent all good wishes and those that prayed for our son. All I can say is, it worked. I thank you from the deepest recesses of my heart. I also thank the good woman that sent cake and preserves. We were absolutely shattered had very little in the way of ready food and were just about to head out the door again. That sugar boost was most welcome.

The boy does well. He came to knitting today, no amount of persuasion will convince him that knitting is indeed a fine hobby and one he should take up immediately if not sooner. Shame really because he has such a good eye, that if he were to take it up I am sure he would be brilliant at it and probably become one of those famous designers we would all like carefully tucked away, just there to answer questions or give us inspiration.

Then we hopped onto a bus which took us the few miles to our nearest City and had lunch at the Noodle Bar, huge portions, he managed his better than I managed mine! Bought books at Waterstones, and hopped back on a bus which brings us straight back to our very own door. It was peeing with rain for most of our trip and I swung from being absolutely giddy with delight to having the odd break down and sobbing in the street. The flashbacks from everything that has gone on are vivid, the what if’s and images of nursing and letting go of a dying boy are particularly vibrant in colour in my imagination. When I sleep my dreams are full of hospitals, operations and images of the pain the boy was in. Its awful, not as awful as it could have been, but pretty bad, I am hoping it will get better. Maybe more trips out with the boy are what is needed.

Thank you all again,

love Mandy.

Son no.2, hubby and I have been to see the specialists today and it has been confirmed that it is not cancer, turns out it was auto-immune pancreatitis. Even though they tested for auto-immune pancreatitis, the decision came back it was cancer, it was not. We have been reeling and have been reeling for a couple of weeks but didn’t dare say anything until we had it confirmed today. We are Very happy that he doesn’t have a cancer with such a low survival rate, but are still stunned and wake up because of nightmares of just what he and we have been through, watching your youngest child go through such major surgery is deeply shocking to your very soul.

We get to have our boy back, for that we are grateful.

I was dreaming of fruit cake and wondering why we had to wait until Christmas to enjoy a nice fruity slice long before I spotted Carie tweeting that it was National Baking Week. It was all the excuse I needed and decided to try a new recipe for fruit cake.

Son no.2 and I weighed and measured and beat and mixed and sieved and grated and greased and lined in happy companionship and then gaily put the almonds on the top together before popping the cake in the oven for the required time.

And I tested it and then I gave it another half an hour, and then thought it was done.

And took a photograph whilst the cake was cooling down.

And then as I was trying to get the cake out, it all fell apart. And at that point it became evident that there was a half an inch base that wasn’t cooked but which hadn’t revealed itself to my skewer. I saved the cake part of the mixture, the boys picked whilst dinner was being cooked and

hubby dashed to shop for custard, (it is one of our sins, we do love Waitrose’s custard) and all was well in our world again. The cake is extremely rich, this small portion defeated me and hubby had to help me out.

I shall try again soon.

I have been waiting for inspiration on what to teach the boy this week, first there was the idea of muffins, then the idea of a steak and kidney pudding as the boy insisted that nothing savoury could be called a pudding, and then there came the attack of the munchies in sushi form, which the boy was wolfing down. I thought Sushi would be a good thing to teach the boy, not least to save himself and I from bankruptcy because of the price of it ready made.

The boy especially likes Maki, and the last time I made those I couldn’t get the rolls to stick together, since then I have been watching the masters at Yo Sushi and realise just how much they press the rice firmly onto the seaweed, it seems that was the magic trick I was missing.

We have also bought a rice steamer, which makes the rice soft but not soggy and we use the correct Japanese sushi rice, which is sticky and sweet. You must make sure you season the rice with Sushi vinegar after cooking, either home made or already mixed in a bottle.

There are no vegetables in the making of this Maki, the boys just wanted fish and rice, I think a little grated mouli on the side just to lift the palate makes a lovely addition, we served the Maki with pickled ginger and wasabi.

Ingredients at the ready,

and I am off to a good start.

Rolling complete and

now sliced. Over to the boy,

Doing an excellent job of placing the rice on the seaweed,

He has a very nice knife action. You need a knife with a good sharp blade, these are very old knifes with a carbon steel blade, they rust like buggery but are worth it, because you can hone them to a really sharp edge, simply not achievable with stainless steel knives – which you will notice we tried in the previous pictures before settling on this knife.

Rather excellent for a first timer don’t you think? One more tip, if the knife starts to stick and drag, wet it.

And then the boy experiments with how much fish can he put into one roll. (I am not sure the Japanese would have mixed their fish, but it was yummy none the less)

Ta da, two big plates full of Sushi,

enough for supper for all of us and a midnight snack for the boy. They were lovely.

Who knew that having a Whipples would impact upon the tastebuds of the boy. Apparently its quite common for foods to taste quite different after this procedure, who knew!

The boy is doing very well, the drain site has just about healed up now and he hasn’t been sick for a while and is maintaining his weight, mostly through a never ending supply of fruit juice, milk and sushi – he simply craves it, we are making our own this evening. Because of the change in his taste buds he has gone off eggs! Which has completely foxed the chickens who had between the three of them been doing a gallant job of keeping up with our families needs all summer. Normally as the days darken chickens go through their moult and have a few weeks of haphazard egg laying and then stop, and you won’t see another egg until well after the new year. But these being a hybrid called White Stars, well it looks like they are determined to keep going, at present we are still seeing three eggs a day.

So, earlier this week I was sat looking at nearly 2 dozen eggs, just over a weeks supply and started to look through ideas on the net, a few ideas appealed, such as curds or baked custards or ice creams, but they would all take more effort than I really wished to put into preserving them at that moment, when I came across the idea of freezing hens eggs. I thought that was quite a brilliant idea, and then I can use them in my Christmas cake or a Victoria sponge. So I beat them and bagged them in batches of 3 eggs, they may not be as wonderful as fresh eggs, but come mid December when the hens will undoubtedly have stopped laying, they will still be more of a treat than anything I can buy in the supermarket, and you never know the boy may start to enjoy omelets again.

And later on in the day I heard some very good news. A friend of mine is having a baby, which was wonderful news, and as a knitter it is doubly good news, as we get to dabble in baby knitwear. When I first became a knitter I came across the pattern of The Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann. It all ended in tears, I simply couldn’t follow the pattern well enough, but this time there are tutorials on youtube from Lorilee Beltman at Knitting Nuggets and a Wiki Page on Ravelry which supplies you with more information than you could ever imagine possible for one little baby cardigan. And somewhere along the line in my knitting career I had already come across Dawn Adcock’s notes so printed those off. So I sat and watched the video’s, rummaged through my commercial sock yarn box, of which I found DK wanting, but then found a beautiful yarn from Regia and cast on yesterday morning.

I think I have cracked it!

(I would have tried this pattern for Kitty, but her Mum could teach masterclasses in this pattern, so I decided it would be best if I chose something different)

I had a wonderful time at Alexandra Palace Knitting and Stitching show yesterday, this show just gets better and better. There was more yarn here than in any previous year, I was really spoilt for choice. I had such fun squeezing all of the different yarns and my head is simply spinning with new ideas. But I also knew I was on a budget as I was a very lucky girl to be here in the first place what with the expense of the last few months, but my husband and son no.2 (Mum, just go!, go!) decided I needed a treat, I am spoilt, what can I say. So dosed up with paracetamol and hankies at the ready, due to a pesky virus and a babysitter organised for son no.2, a quick check on him at 7.30 a.m. and he was fine and off we went. We arrived at 9.30 and bought our tickets and waited around and then all of a sudden we were in, it was amazing, as you enter the hall the number of brightly coloured stalls takes your breath away. Hubby wandered off to find coffee and cake whilst I enjoyed the quiet of those first few moments and started to shop.

I was tempted in many directions, Fyberspates had some gorgeous purple creation that was creating a serious temptation and The Crochet Chain had some very gorgeous (and cheap!) Drops Nepal that was calling to me in my acid greens. There was yarn to cover all types of yarn emergencies, in various ranges of price, colour and fibre.

Eventually I settled on a kit from Colinette,

I have been resisting their kits for three years and I firmly believe that if something has been continuously calling to me for three years, then I probably should have it and just had the problem of choosing the colour. After two attempts, once in the morning, once in the afternoon, I eventually settled on….

Rustic,

I know you are laughing, because anyone that knows me would have been able to walk up to that stall and it would have been the first one they would have picked for me. Trust me, when faced with so much beauty, it is really tricky to make sure you have picked the one you love the most.

I also spent a fair bit of time looking at Jamieson’s of Shetland wool and kits. And in the end decided to settle on their

colour chart. I can imagine some lovely evenings putting together creations of mittens and hats from this.

Hubby is cooking the dinner, I have wound the yarn into cakes and as I am still pretty tired I am settling down for the evening to gently cast on a few stitches and see where the pattern takes me.