I have been tardy about updating my blog of late, mainly because of lack of will. Apologies.

I finished my *summer* top a few weeks ago, just when the weather turned colder. Also its a little bit snug, what with the steroids I’ve been on for over a year the weight has galloped on. I have the metabolic rate of a slug, hey ho, lets hope slimming world does me some good.

It is pretty and I have high hopes for it next summer.

So may I present Amaya which also needs a light blocking, made from Rowan Bamboo Tape (bought from Kemps at a ridiculously low price) in Amethyst.

Thank you to the girls at knitting who helped me get my head around the collar, I had been fiddling with it for a couple of days before bringing it in and they quickly worked out the problems and helped me fix them.

Next I finished a pair of Christmas socks for my dad. (he doesn’t read the blog so we are quite safe)

These are Wollmeise 100% merino superwash in Zenzi.

They colours remind me of giraffes on the Serengeti, let us hope they make Dad as elegant and light footed.

Last but not least, I was sitting at my computer one evening when Eric came home and was extremely loving to me. This cat is quite amusing, he will completely ignore you during the day but come 7.30 to 8.00 p.m. he comes bumbling in at quite a rate of knots and it really doesn’t matter what you are doing, it is time for ear and belly rubs. I love this quality time almost as much as he does.

So as he was laying on my lap deliriously happy and purring louder than he can meow. (he has an extremely quiet meow) when I felt this gush of maternal, – caternal? – love and decided to look at cat beds on Ravelry.

And found this… Cat Bed. My heart sang.

Not least because of the use of Knit Picks, Wool of the Andes and it would give me a good opportunity to track some down. Which I did, and found some in France at Tricotin web site.

A couple of hours later with some help off the Tricotin’s on Ravelry because of my very poor school girl French, I had placed my order, full in the knowledge that I wouldn’t get hammered by customs this time as last time I looked France was in Europe. (Would it be that obscure to take up French lessons just because you want to buy yarn from within Europe? – I am considering it!)

And it arrived this morning.

I think its lovely.

I shall be casting on just as soon as I have finished my Lizard Ridge blanket only seven more squares to go!

As you all know, I have a bare bonce, and therefore my scalp feels the first finger like shivery caresses of autumn. I often shiver at the early part of September but what with a late summer and the odd warm day it seems too early to don a cozy warm hat, no matter how much I want to. October comes, and I feel very cool quite often, but I wait, as much as I can.

You see, there is one thing to be bald in public, but its quite another to be donning woolly hats in weather others might deem to be quite warm, they may still be in long shorts. It just means I receive even weirder looks and comments, (and yes, the public isn’t quite as friendly as you might imagine) than is usual.

And at this point I start to dress in warmer clothes, its the only reason I started to knit. I wanted to feel warm, with woolly items about my person, I needed to feel warm because I simply don’t have any hair, anywhere.. And that hasn’t changed.

Recently on a trip to Birmingham I found Silk Twist Rowan in a colour I will love, Ruby caught my eye.

I didn’t particularly like it on the ball, it didn’t look like it was ever so lovely but then I saw a garment knitted up with it, and instantly fell in love. I then hovered around the balls of Silk Twist until one particular colour caught my eye with which to make a woolly hat. It was Ruby 668, my friends most probably completely understand the colours that haunt my soul.

I used the pattern of Seaman’s Cap but I used the next needle size up. so. 4.5 and 5.00 and the size down from my head which would have been the largest to the middle size head. I felt that this yarn would be lovely and soft at that needle size and if the needle size were smaller it wouldn’t allow the yarn to be everything it could be – warm and soft and snuggly.

Fortunately I was right, it is warm and gorgeous and snuggly, pretty with a hint of tweedyness, which I also love. As I said to a good friend earlier, it is yum, there are so many factors about this yarn that I love. The silk and the merino twisting into tweediness, the brightness of the silk, the warmth of the merino and the slight haze of the mohair, which feels warm and cozy. It could almost make one giddy and when one wears it on a bald bonce, trust me it does… I will be buying more of this yarn, it is yummy. Depending on how this wears as a hat I am seriously considering sweater quantities.

So, photo’s to follow…

Isn’t that hat yummy.

And because my hubby is a rat bag and always takes photo’s just for fun, here are the outakes. Mandy at her finest!

Enough to frighten the children with!

I have been meaning to blog about this for a while but this last month has been hectic. Trust me when I say it is not normal behaviour to cancel crafting days but I simply couldn’t fit in the Warwickshire Area’s Quilting Day, nor could I fit in the monthly meet of the Quilters of Forest of Arden, and I didn’t fit them in last month either! Looking at the diary things are definitely settling down in the next couple of weeks.

Anyway to get back to where we were, Jane Crowfoot came up to see Kenilworth Knit and Natter again (hurrah!) to show us a few techniques that might be needed on her Crochet Club course. I am afraid that I didn’t take any photographs this time, and I had my camera with me. When I say that I was burning the midnight oil to learn double stitch and treble stitch the previous week and half treble stitch the night before!, you might get some understanding as to why, just keeping up with the group was enough for me to think about. – which is why I completely forgot to take photographs.

We had a lovely time, and a lovely lunch!. Jane took us gently but swiftly through many of the techniques. I like the way Jane teaches, she is very intuitive when someone is struggling and has a very gentle way of sending them off back in the right direction.

Fortunately Jackie bought her completed and ends sewn in sample the next week. Mine is on the left and Jackie’s on the right. You can see how I didn’t manage to keep up but I did master most of the techniques, I am very pleased. And Jackie’s is lovely, – I am sitting next to her when we start this course! We are all eagerly waiting for the course to begin, the snippets we have seen look absolutely stunning.

So that left me burning with desire to make something pretty with my new found crochet skills. And there was one little girl that might (although not for long knowing her mother!) have a dearth of pink hand crafted outfits in her wardrobe.

Think Pink!

Firstly I looked for pink yarn in my extensive yarn stash and was shocked, shocked I tell you to find that I didn’t have one skein of a pretty pale pink in all of my stash. A journey was required to squish gorgeous wool so hubby took me to Shipston on Stour to the most wondrous of yarn and needlecraft shops, if you are ever in that neck of the woods it is worth a detour. And there I found the prettiest of yarns Cashsoft Baby DK by Rowan, which is buttery soft and machine washable. What more could a new mum want. I then found a pattern which would suit my newly learnt skills, i.e. simple. I can’t seem to link it from Ravelry, it is called Babies/Childs cardiganpatt No. 173

And immediately cast on when I arrived home and soon had this..

Actually there was a two day pause when it came to make the flowers. I simply couldn’t follow the instructions and paused whilst my brain had time to assimilate the information that I was indeed stuck. Fortunately whilst chatting to a lady at Ally Pally I happened to mention my problem and she suggested using utube, why I hadn’t thought of that before. So soon I was merrily crocheting away with utube on and a video of crocheting flowers being played backwards and forwards very slowly, until I had remembered it.

And I was able to crochet these pretty pink flowers which are adorable. One quick photo call later and I was able to hand the cardigan over to Mum of the soon to be Pink Princess, who gurgled away quite happily through our patchwork class. I must tell you that she is the prettiest of baby girls that I have ever seen, with lots of lovely dark hair, pretty rose bud lips, gorgeous chubby cheeks, a button nose, tiny pretty ears and huge dark eyes with lovely long eyelashes and the longest fingers I have seen. And along with that, if that wasn’t enough she has the most adorable snorks and snores and sighs to listen to whilst she sleeps. I am completely smitten by her.

As my local readers know I have been organising a coach trip since sometime in June for us to experience the Knitting and Stitching show held at Alexandra Palace in London. I tentatively started to take names at our group to see if we could get the numbers to break even. It was going going well and next Noelle my partner in this venture, enlisted the help of the WI and other crafting groups that she knows, soon between the two of us crafters from all around Warwickshire and the West Midlands were emailing and phoning to see if places were still available and come late July we realised that we could just cover the cost of the coach and entry tickets. At this point I phoned my bank, realising that Kenilworth Knit and Natter needed a separate bank account from myself, I knew it would prove to be too complicated to have money filtering into my account. The bank came good and offered us a bank account that was without charges, which was exactly what we need.

I started to take monies in and was able to book the coach soon after. As more names came forward and paid, I breathed a sigh of relief that all costs were going to be covered and booked the tickets, with the understanding that people will get a refund of what is left. I still have to work out exactly what monies can come back to everyone, (give a girl a chance) as our trip was non profit making.

This morning butterfly’s were in my tummy as I checked I had all the necessary documents and phone numbers in hand in case of emergency. Earlier in the week I had forwarded a full list of the names to Noelle who did a grand job of putting them into alphabetical order as she is the Prefect of our knitting group (and has a badge to prove it! given by me for previous endeavors) and is wonderful at organising people. My trust in her was spot on and she did a fantastic job, those in the know must congratulate her on her methodical way of ticking people onto the coach in both directions, we didn’t lose or leave anybody. (always a relief!) Along with her witty but very informative use of the tannoy system on the coach, she did a grand job and I am most grateful for it.

Our coach was due at 8.30 a.m. and I was at our meeting point shortly after 8.00 a.m. with Noelle coming up the rear soon after. Soon after everyone arrived and we were all there before the coach came and we started off soon after 8.30 a.m. Result!

It was a slow journey, we got to Ally Pally at 11.45. Ouch!

Fortunately we are organised women and I noticed that many of our ladies had decided to lunch early on the coach, to give them maximum time shopping, wise women that they are.

We bounced out of the coach and I took one photograph of Noelle in Ally Pally’s magnificent foyer and that was the last I saw of anyone for three hours!

Even though we arrived late I have a theory in life at shows, I walk to the furthest point and work backwards. This has stood me in good stead for many shows. And I managed to see and purchase from the first three rows in about an hour… I had noticed Jane Crowfoot and said hi and when I got back to her an hour later she said to me, “is that all you have done”, “yep” I replied, “I do like to see a show” of which she laughed and agreed.

And then I continued on my quest for lovely things around the show. I bagged a few items, I will share tomorrow.

What do I think of the show? It was magnificent, truly wonderful. It is just mind blowing. It was Not a disappointment. The only problem with this show is, your stamina lets you down before your mind is ready to give in. And so many workshops which I have never even tried, because even if you came at 10.00 a.m. as the doors opened, it only gives you enough time to look around and purchase, and then to look at the wonderful pieces of art. What you really need is a two day experience to enable you to take part of some of the lovely Learning Curve workshops, which are tasters, for an hour or two and are reasonably priced.

I managed to steer myself away from the shopping to look at the art. It was tough, so little time, but I did it for you.

Here is a snap shot, seriously, the art, well, you could just go for that. This is such a small percentage, but I ran out of time to look at all of what was on offer.

We left at 4.30 p.m. and got back to Kenilworth very late, the traffic was congested practically all of the way back home. Here are some of the girls, we had a coach load of 36 but as it was dark the idea of taking a lovely photograph was taken away from me and this is just a quick snap of some very happy ladies.

I know there will be times when this project will need to come home to be washed and have the odd stitch straightened out. Maybe it will need to be blocked and lay down to sleep for a while to become whole again. But this is as good as I can achieve with the materials given to me oh so many years ago. And really is this type of project ever completed, it will always be something that I worry over.

Son no.2’s first day on campus at his chosen University.

He is off on adventures new and we are very proud of him. And yes I did cry for most of the journey home, it was difficult to leave what I still see as a puppy not quite grown into a mans skin. All big boned and not quite sure of himself.

I rang him today, I suspect I may need to ring him most nights if only to make sure he is ticking off the required things to do, registering with doctors, dentists, bus passes etc. etc. He seemed happy when I rang so I chatted for a while and then asked him about whether he had any fruit today, his reply, “Well I had some strawberry flavoured cider, does that count?” I laughed and said I didn’t think that would be included in one of his five a day.

And son no.1 came down to lend some brotherly support, although we ribbed him that really it was to see if there was any nice totty around.

I can’t tell you just how quiet it is here, its really very strange.

There is a point in knitting where you have chosen a pattern, then found the yarn of your dreams, then knitted squares to get gauge. Sometimes, and I have been guilty of this, you might have knitted several gauges in all different sizes. And then you stop and you ponder, and you hope that you have got the right gauge.

And this is where I am in life.

Son no.2 is off to University next week, I’ve certainly chosen his pattern in life, I’ve carefully chosen where he lived, his schooling, his extra curriculum activities, along with our use of bribery and corruption on pocket money which was worth twice the amount if he bought reading books. (that worked incredibly well)

There have been many times that we have thought that the gauge was off, it was too wide, or it was too long, or was not knitted up tight enough so that all the loops understood each other. And sometimes I didn’t think it was right but it was as good as we can achieve at that very moment.

I myself am pretty tired, three days worth of wandering around and purchasing ‘stuff’ for “his nibs”

But within that, that purchasing of everything a child might want, and most probably all that he might need if he was to get ill, cold, hungry or need money, let alone clean clothing or giving him enough that he can find his way home again quickly if he so needed to.

Sometimes there is a just a perfect moment of looking at a gauge. When you know its right. And sometimes that gauge looks back at you and says that it is happy to be a jumper or a shawl or a hat. Knitters know when that happens, it makes their day much brighter.

I am hoping, after all of these years,

that I got the right gauge and that my boy is happy.

As some of my local readers are aware due to the steroids and in not anyway the extra cake I have put on a considerable amount of weight in the last year. The time had come where it was buy a whole new wardrobe full of clothes or bite the bullet. I don’t lose weight very quickly so I won’t wow you with my weight loss.

But I will wow you with this.

Diet Food.

Scotch eggs before going in the oven,

and after. Yum, yum, yum.

Actually I was stuffed and had to save a scotch egg for later, what with the jacket potato with it as well. And how is this trickery performed I hear you ask. For one scotch egg you need one sausage of the be good to yourself ‘extra lean’ Cumberland, one egg, an extra egg beaten up to dip the scotch eggs in and then 1 oz of breadcrumbs will do four scotch eggs and some spray light and pop in the oven. And this adds up to less than one syn per scotch egg. (if your going by slimming worlds) its surprisingly low in calories and very filling. Which is exactly what a girl needs when she is trying to lose the weight.

Firstly we are all waiting for this little star to be born,

I think Mum is doing wonderfully well at coping with the tardiness of her baby and the sheer level of pains and aches when your 9 1/2 months pregnant! On a positive note Mum was able to come to patch working this weekend which was an unexpected gift and we all had a good giggle at just how big Mum was. Fortunately she giggled with us and has allowed me to post this picture so you too can see how big the bump is and perhaps have a little giggle with us – or those who are pregnant their knees might go a little bit weak!

We are all sending positive thoughts for a quick and speedy delivery and next time I see her she will have a baby mewing in her arms.

Onto the patch working, we worked on Anita’s star (as named by Carie and carried on by Mandy)

Which is amusing as we both chose the dark red for the same pieces,

and Jackie’s which will be fun with her lovely bright sunflowers.

I’ve sewn it together and I can see many faults with it in the morning light, which will mean I will be ripping some of the seams to resew them to try and get a better result, so this star hasn’t been born yet either.

But I have other news. I have been trying to catch up on some of my other patches. One of which is called Roman Stripes.

and last night, I made this. Which is truly awful, here’s a close up.

I have no idea what I have done wrong. But there is no way that is going into my quilt as it is. I could start completely again, but bearing in mind that this square has been sat in my bag for quite a while I was worried that the redoing wouldn’t happen. So I undid one seam and turned it around and came up with this.

Which is not in anyway as pretty as what I was trying to achieve, but it doesn’t show any major errors and once it is in the quilt it will be fine. But there will always be a small part of me that is annoyed that I didn’t manage to complete a Roman Stripe patch properly, so watch this space because I will try again when I next have a moment to play. I am playing catch up on quite a few projects at the moment, not least son no.2 has decided he would like the quilt to go to University with – eek!, after Thursday I will will be working on that constantly.

At last I can reveal the counting to six post. You see one of my lovely friends is (and I hope I’m not revealing too much) is just about to undergo a stage in her life that is not very pleasant. It played on my mind, I love her so, and wanted to send my best of all best wishes to her.

I realised I wanted to give her something lovely and soft along with something that would keep her warm and comfortable in her darkest of days, along with cheering her up to bring her gently to her usual sunny position.

I’d found a pattern for a shawl that I had just knit for my Mum, but I wanted it bigger and warmer and in colours that I knew she would adore.

So at some silly o’clock time in the morning, I started to talk to people on Ravelry and sure enough there are people as insomniac as me, and I had a starting point, I looked at the yarn’s suggested and quickly found a yarn. What happened was the choice I was looking at sent me giddy with delight, the colours were perfect for what I had in mind. Credit card in hand, the deed was done by four a.m. and I went back to bed, dreaming dreams about how pretty it would all be. (or how one hoped it would be)

Sure enough Fyberspate Scrumptious DK in colourway Blue Lagoon arrived within a couple of days and I cast on. I’ve been chugging away at it ever since, hoping I would get it finished in time. I did, just.

On Monday I finished knitting Multnomah by Kate Flagg and set about washing it (the advise is that there will be bleeding from this yarn, keep rinsing until it runs clear) gently softening it, spinning it (ooh ahh – but I needed it to dry that day) and using my blocking wires.

Son no.2 helped. He was very good actually, in a manly technical sort of way.

It certainly made life easier to have two involved.

And I might add he picked up any errors in blocking I was making.

Not bad for a boy who refuses to knit. We were both pleased with how it was blocking.

And then I didn’t catch chance to photograph it in sunlight, so boy no.1 came into action..

He is almost like a blue moth,

just unveiling itself whilst its wings become firm enough to fly.

Fly, fly away, enjoy the the moonlit wonders of the night.

I wrapped it carefully last night and gave my friend this gift today, I think she was very happy, which makes me glad.

One fiber cuddle just ready to be stroked and wrapped warm in, accomplished.

I’ve always loved pumpkins. We didn’t see many pumpkins as a child, marrows yes, pumpkins no. American soaps and sit coms were in full flow during my late teenage years often with the story line of family’s sharing pumpkin pie and I would peer at the small television screen very carefully to see if I could see what was being eaten. Strangely I still haven’t made a pumpkin pie I think mainly because my taste buds much prefer a savoury dish. I’ve made handmade ravioli with pumpkin and a sage and butter sauce which were delicious, there have been butternut squash risottos, pumpkin mash with and without cheese, various soups, chunks of roasted pumpkin with roasts, but no pie.

During the last couple of years we have been trying various varieties. Although some of the varieties were interesting last year I felt that there was something still missing. That we hadn’t reached the heady heights of the most flavourful pumpkin. So with a little research we have a couple of different varieties in the ground one of which is Crown Prince.

Isn’t it pretty. I love the mark where the flower would have been.

And I must show you this, I am very proud.

We tried a new variety of pepper this year. (I’ll need to look in my seed catalogue to identify it) What a whopper, I’ve placed an average sized lemon next to it to give you some perspective.

I then gave son no.2 a lesson in how to cut up a chicken into eight pieces, as cooks we know that a whole chicken is much cheaper to buy than the equivalent pieces of the bird, and eventually one will tire of plain roasted chicken, where pieces can take you to all sorts of recipes. Tonight we just cut up a lemon and with that scattered garlic cloves in their skin, salt, pepper and thyme, gave it a good stir around with our hands, covered it with foil and popped it in the oven on a low light.

Just a quick aside, Son no.2 is doing extremely well in his cooking, he can knock up many savoury dishes now, bolognese, chilli’s, curry’s, pasta sauces, cottage pie, fajitas, chow mien etc and he understands the basics of soup from homemade stock and how to make a salad dressing. Although he hasn’t mastered pastries and cakes, (although he does make very good pancakes), and hasn’t done a roast from start to finish and has yet to master a roux sauce, he won’t starve.

Getting back to pumpkins.

I’ve just dribbled some olive oil over them, lightly scattered them with salt and pepper and then grated nutmeg over them. I love the warm notes of nutmeg with pumpkin.

I am not worried about vegetables with this meal as we will be starting with fresh (they are being picked as we speak) corn on the cobs, which we have been eating for a just over a week now and they are delicious. There has been much eating from the plot, just not much blogging. I have been trialling another variety of tomato at the plot which is just proving so yummy that as soon as one is ripe its eaten.. I am sorry about that, I must try harder…