Anniversary Waltz?

21 years! We've been married 21 years and boy, has it flown!

To mark such an occasion, my dear hubby bought me a beautiful bouquet. I've always wanted one of those bouquets in a 'bubble' of water! No doubt there's a proper florist-y term for the bag of water , but my knowledge of floristry is minimal!

A very talented friend called Judith, makes fantastic figures from Fimo clay, in a range she calls Jobsworthy. Take a look at her blog http://claggybitz.blogspot.com She made a figure of Ian for me! Ian loves walking with his beloved dogs and so she made a hiker from clay, complete with packed lunch and a thermos in his back pack! I love it and more to the point, so did Ian!

The detail is fantastic, even down to his favourite rugby shirt!



This week also saw the delivery of some Handpainted yarns. They look fab, and really for the price, you can't be robbed! Carrie Anne and I clubbed together and chose 3 yarns each. These are the ones I chose, 2 lace weight and one I want to try felting with.

I've also been tagged by Kat of Knitty Kitty Kat Chat. Thanks Kat!
I have to write 7 facts/habits about myself on my blog and tag 7 others to do the same. As I'm always one for breaking the rules, if you would like to have a go, consider yourself tagged! Here's my fact/habits,

1. I got married at Gretna Green! So did Ian! Isn't that a coincidence!

2. I'm very tall. Just under 6ft actually. I HATE clothes shopping cos nothing is ever long enough! Thank goodness for Long Tall Sally! But occasionally I do feel small, especially when I stand next to my 6'8" son!

3. I am a craftaholic ! I love loads of different crafts and would love to try loads more. I don't make as many cards as I used to, as the yarn has taken over, but I still design and make card samples for Graphicus.

4. I am a qualified nurse. I qualified in 1983, which feels light years ago! But due to quite severe back problems, I am no longer able to nurse. :( I loved the hustle and bustle of the wards and Ian thought the uniform was OK too!

5. I passed my driving test first time, though you'd never guess by watching me reverse!

6. I used to be a really bad nail biter, but finally kicked the habit about 10 years ago. I would love to have lovely shaped and polished nails, but I'm terrible for not wearing gloves in the garden or when washing up.

7. I used to play the flute at school and would love to have a go again. I would also like to learn guitar, but my memory is sooo bad, I don't know if it's possible!

Hope I haven't sent you all to sleep! Thanks for all your lovely comments too. If there's anyone who hasn't commented before, please do!

Dyeing Day.

What a fab day I had when Acrylik invited me to play!! Dyeing yarn is something thats been on my 'to do' list for a long time, but as with most crafters, there just never seems to be enough time to try everything. So when Carrie Anne asked me if I wanted to join her and try dyeing yarn, I had my pinny on before you could say niddy noddy!

We prepared all the ingredients ready for dyeing. Carrie Anne explains this really well, so I'd take a look at her Acrylik blog to get the details.

Putting the first colour on was exciting, and I think I got a bit carried away with dyes on the first skein! I was definitely a bit 'heavy handed' especially with the blue dye!

I just had to add a bit of red to the mixture and sloshed ,., I mean carefully placed a bit around the skein!

This is how it first looked, but after a few minutes, the colours became more muted. When I bought the spinning wheel, the lazy kate had yarn on the bobbins, so I plied this up and this was the yarn I used for the first attempt. It still had a lot of grease on it and was goodness knows how old. I don't know if this was why the colours were more muted, perhaps someone with much more dyeing experience can tell me why. As you can see in the next pic, the colours changed dramatically, and a little more colour rinsed out, though not a huge amount. I quite liked these earthy shades. The mix of olive, terracotta and muted yellow was beautiful.

The next skein I tried, I was much more controlled with the dyes! I still had to use all 3 dyes though! The result was much more vibrant on this yarn. It was one I'd bought from DT Crafts at Woolfest, a DK 100% wool. There was no dye at all in the rinse of this yarn and the colours stayed true.

We had such fun documenting each others attempts, and did get a bit silly at times, as you can see from the next photo! The incredible bearded lady!

I was really pleased with the finished results. The yarns look so different its hard to believe that the same 3 dye colours were used on both! So here are the finished articles, ready to use.

As I said before, I've skimmed over the process, so do please read Acrylik's blog. I really do wish I'd tried before as it was not as complex as I'd thought. As messy?.......yup!

I've still got a red thumb! Wonder if Carrie Anne's fingers are still purple?!

How Does Your Garden Grow!

Quickly, I think the answer is! I can't keep up with the speed things are growing and seem to spend loads of time repotting things into bigger pots. Unlike the balmy South, Ooop North we can't put tender plants outside yet, so the greenhouse is looking decidedly cramped!

It really feels as if the garden is coming alive again after the long winter sleep. Lots of flowers are blooming, despite Paddy and Alfies best attempts to eradicate them, either by trampling or eating!

Unlike the garden, things have been quiet on the knitting front. I'm progressing slowly on the Regia socks. I love these colours, they are so cheerful and put a smile on my face each time I look at them.

I couldn't resist sale bargains at Hipknits either, I think it was the colours that called me again.

I really shouldn't buy any more yarn for several reasons,

• I have plenty in my stash to last me years!
• I'm going to Fair Isle to learn to spin, so I can make my OWN yarn.
• I'm also going to Woolfest and should be saving, instead of spending!

BUT

• There are some gorgeous yarns out there.
• Even when I can spin, I'll have to learn how to dye to get some of the yummy colours!
• Knit shops keep having sales!!
• I NEED to try different yarns, patterns, books, magazines.............!

There's more things in the second list, so I reckon that means I'll just HAVE to keep on buying!

I don't know, life is SO tough!

Wool And Walkies!

I've been soooo bad lately, in keeping up with the world of blog. I hopefully will soon be able to catch up with everyone's blog! I hang my head in shame!!

We had a wonderful few days in the Lakes. The weather couldn't have been better, with unseasonally hot sunshine to relax in. We stayed on the shores of Lake Coniston, which is beautiful and not as busy as some of the other lakes. This is an early morning pic of the southern end of Coniston.

We stayed in our caravan, which is going to be put to good use again in June. Five of us County Durham knitters are going to 'caravan' at Graysonside camp site , in order to visit WOOLFEST!! Woohoo!!

As you can see, the caravan isn't massive, it's going to be very 'cosy' at Woolfest!! Please excuse the pic of topless hubby, he was slaving over a hot stove at the time!!

I finally got my shawl blocked, and persuaded my dear daughter to model it!

I'm really pleased with it, the border really made a difference when I FINALLY sussed it out. I'm still not sure if it's on backwards, but it looks OK!


I also knitted a couple of the Booga bags, which are drying post-felting as we speak. This is what one looked like before felting.



I've also been playing with my new toy, the swift! It's absolutely brilliant! It winds a skein in no time. I wound three yesterday, Two Jitterbugs from Colinette and my precious Socks That Rock! The colours really complemented each other and I couldn't resist taking a photo.

I'm knitting socks in Regia 4 ply at the moment, I started them at last Fridays KnitnNatter, which was a lovely morning as usual. Bev gave me two of the dinkiest pens I have ever seen! Thank you again Bev! I've always been fascinated by miniatures. I love the mini wheel that Artis-Anne recently bought too!

Speaking of gifts,inkyartitude gave me a belated birthday pressie of some beautiful metallic acrylic paints, in gorgeous colours. Thank you again Lynn!

Aren't they beautiful? Can't wait to use them! Just need more hours in the day!

I'll leave you with some pics from our garden, after a light shower. The spooky thing was, Carrie Anne showed me some pics she'd taken of flowers and they were the same flowers that I'd taken pics of! Spooky!!
I've put the photo of the Grape Hyacinth on, even though it's blurred, just so Carrie Anne can see the coincidence for herself!

P.S. Thanks for all your wonderful comments, they really mean a lot.

Is It Christmas?

The postman knocked this morning. I opened the door and he said,

'There's a few parcels for you today!'

Then he added,

'In fact all the parcels I've got today are for you.'

So he gives me 4 parcels. My heart starts pounding, I feel like a kid at Christmas!

All these are for me?

Parcel number one: My belated Easter pressie from Ian, my longed for swift, woohoo!! Thank you darlin', much better than a choccy egg!!

Parcel number two: Noro Kureyon destined to be a Booga bag for my sister in law. Lovely colours!

Oops forgot to rotate photo!

Parcel number three: Not for me :( , a book Ian ordered on CBT for work stuff. Boring!

and then Parcel number four. The cutest little sheep finger puppet from Craftydramaqueen! Thank you Andrea for this gorgeous pressie. It was a lovely surprise and is sooo adorable!

Have you seen his little heart feet, aawwww! It really cheered me up to get his little woolyness!

And as if I haven't been lucky enough to get all these lovely pressies, we are off to the Lakes for a long weekend.

I better get back to caravan packing! We always take far too much, I'll be ready for a break by the time we get sorted!

Happy Easter!!

Warning: LONG BLOG AHEAD!!
Long time no blog! Where does the time go?
The garden has been calling the loudest these last few weeks. I think the sunshine definitely helps. Ian and Tom have got most of the veggie garden ready for the new growing season, and yesterday saw Ian plant the tatties, just before going to watch Newcastle Falcons rugby team win!! Woohoo!

The veggie garden is never pristine like some gardens, like our neighbours gardens ! But I don't like it perfect, I prefer it a bit rough around the edges, more lived in. We grow the veg organically and in the photo I see I've captured the bucket of chicken poo!! Nice!

My brother and sis-in-law visited on Saturday, and we went down to the Food Festival in Auckland Castle. What a fab morning we spent, wandering around the food stalls and craft marquees. We bought organic meat and veg from local farms and some yummy cakes, breads and teabreads, most of which we ate the same day, as another one of my brothers called with his girlfriend . I think they smelled the food cooking ! We spent a lovely afternoon, having a BBQ, in the sunshine, eating gorgeous food and slugging some wine, with some pleasant company. Bliss!

All the yomping around the Food Festival, plus the pathetically small amount of weeding I'd done on Friday, meant I was out of action yesterday. But every cloud has a silver lining and I cracked on with my knitting.

I FINALLY finished my second sock. The Piece of Beauty yarn was a dream to knit and I love the Boathouse colour. I'm desperate to start my STR, but I've also got 2 lots of Jitterbug that I got before the STR yarn and I would like to try that too! Decisions, decisions!!

I also started the border on the shoulder shawl I've started from VLT. Now I've had real problems with this, but I think I've finally cracked it. I know as a novice knitter there are loads of things I don't know, but I thought that there would have been clearer instructions about attaching the border. I think it's the one thing about VLT that I'm disappointed about. I think I may have knit it on back to front, but I'm carrying on anyway!! I'm just round the point, so it should soon be finished.

I was up early yesterday due to the various aches and pains but I was rewarded with a beautiful view from the back door.

Well I apologise for the photo-heavy post, but I MUST put some photo's of 'the boys' in. They have had a whale of a time in the garden this weekend and have slept like babies each evening!


This is Alfie, after he found some shade, and Paddy is drying out after a pond dipping session!





All those with of nervous spinning disposition, look away now! This is the result of my first spin on the wheel. It's very slubby, but I did get better as I went along! Not that you'd notice! But I plied it up with some yarn that was on a bobbin that came with the wheel when I got it and this is the result.

It actually doesn't look as bad as it does in the photo, but I wanted to document the NUMERO UNO, no matter how bad!

Oh I forgot to say, my DH has ordered me a swift for Easter! I think he got sick of holding the skeins. So along with the woolwinder I got from E-bay, I should be able to wind some tidier looking balls of yarn!

And finally, I promise this is the last photo! Last but not least.

My Dad died in June 2004 and I miss him so much. So when Tom found some'forgotten' about photo's, I was overjoyed. They were taken only a few weeks before he died and despite him being very frail and in pain, he still smiled and joked as usual. So I'll leave you with my Dad.

Doing It With The Lights On!

OOOh, behave! I meant knitting of course!

Last night,myself, CarrieAnne, Becky,Bev and Andrea joined the knitters of Teeside to watch the film 'Notes On A Scandal', with the lights on so we could knit!! And what a lovely evening it was. The film was really good. I'd read the book a few years ago, but I couldn't remember much about the story. It was brill being able to knit, though the lights were a little dim. Luckily we'd all prepared for the occasion and had taken easy 'straight' knitting. I saved my sock knitting for the purpose! Just going round and round the foot didn't distract me much from the film.

The Arc in Stockton is a lovely modern building and after the film we retired to the cafe, where we nattered until we were asked to leave! Poor bloke wanted to go home!!

So I got a fair bit done on the sock. I'd left it as I said for the cinema, but I must admit the shawl is calling me more! I'm really enjoying the pattern. I've made a few mistakes, silly ones mostly, but not as many as I thought I'd make!!

The yarn is Ullcentrum, 100% wool. Its a bit rough, but I do like a bit of rough! I think it will be fine as an everyday type of shawl, which is what I wanted. I love the fine, cobwebby types too but I'd end up keeping it for 'best'! I'm at the 10th pattern repeat, so only another 5 to go! AND then the border of course, sigh....it may take longer than I thought!

I haven't done as much knitting this week as I've been making card samples. I seem to be taking longer and longer to make any card that looks half decent, and end up taking days and days to make just a few crappy cards. I don't know if having to make them within a time limit hampers my creativity, but I find I'm struggling a lot of the time.

Thank you for all your comments on my last post. I'm trying my best not to have ironing guilt! I saw a brill quote somewhere about housework. It said

The only place housework comes before knitting, is in the dictionary!

My new mantra!

Mothering Sunday

Mothers Day in our house has always been a low key affair.

The kids have always bought small gifts and cards, which I really appreciate. I get totally pampered for the day too, having all my meals and coffees made for me. It is a day of rest and relaxation, which is unusual for me.

I wish I could get rid of the feelings of guilt I get if pick up the knitting needles when the ironing is building up in the corner. I've even tried putting the ironing out of sight but still the guilt niggles away. I don't always give in to it, sometimes I just say Sod it and pick up the needles. But then the fingers of guilt start creeping round my head and I'll end up putting the knitting down and doing some housework. Now it's not that I'm houseproud, by any stretch of the imagination! I think it's a self esteem issue, not feeling as though I am good enough to allow myself to do something pleasurable, when theres other stuff I should be doing. That sounds really heavy, I don't know where it came from but its true! Does anyone else feel like this ?

On to nice things!

I seem to have avoided second sock syndrome, and have got cracking with my 2nd Piece Of Beauty sock. I'm really enjoying this yarn, as I've said before and would definitely recommend it.

Progress on the sock has been a bit slower because I decided to push on with the bag. I eventually got used to knitting with the rough Kureyon, the colours are beautiful and somewhat make up for its coarseness. I haven't lined it yet but this is how it looks so far.

It has felted beautifully, but it's smaller than I thought even though I followed the felting directions on the pattern. Andrea has knit this bag before and said hers is much bigger. I guess it's all the practise I've had of felting any woollen garment that I get my hands on!! Queen of Felting, the Fulling Princess!!

My Victorian Lace Today book came this week too and it's beautiful. The photography alone is gorgeous then you get the delicious lace patterns on top! I love the historical angle that the author has used and recycled the patterns so that todays knitter can use them. I think it's fab and can understand why the book has been sooo popular! I have just started this one.

I'm using the Ullcentrum yarn I bought at Harrogate. I'm being very good and using from the stash, mainly I must admit cos we are skint! I am trying to stick to the No yarn til Woolfest and due to our financial state, it's not too difficult at the moment !! But it means I'm using stuff I'd forgotten I'd bought, it's quite exciting!!

Friday was KnitnNatter day with the multi-talented CarrieAnne! ( She'll kill me for that one!) It was a lovely group of folks as usual and all the group fees went to Comic Relief too.

Happily, Tom's back is slowly starting to improve. Thank you for all your well wishes. And a huge thank you to everyone who has commented lately. Your support and kind words really do mean a lot. And if theres anyone that reads my blog but doesn't leave a comment, please do, it's lovely to "meet" new bloggers!

Stitch And Bitch

Last night I had a wonderful time at CarrieAnne's stitch and bitch!! We ate well, drank well, talked and laughed well and even fitted a bit of knitting in! Thanks CarrieAnne!

I took the socks in progress and the yarn for a felted bag I've wanted to knit for ages.

I almost finished the socks, but when I got to the toe decreases, I thought it wise to put them down and cast on for the bag!

I actually finished the sock this morning, so one down one to go!

For the bag, I'm using the Noro Kureyon shade 164 that Ian bought for my birthday.I love the colours, but it feels so rough, especially after using the Piece of Beauty sock yarn. It's like knitting with rope!

Speaking of birthdays, yet another book from DH came this week.

" At Knits End " has some humerous bits but 2 of my favourite bits were acronyms.
The first, I definitely have problems with;

W.H.A.C.O.

Thats Wool Housing And Containment Overflow! The removable bath panel comes to mind!

But I have yet to achieve the second acronym;

S.A.B.L.E.

This stands for Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy!! It explains that if you didn't buy another ball of yarn AND knit full time until the end of your time here on earth, you still wouldn't use all the yarn in your stash!! I wonder if anyone out there is at this stage already?

Stand forward and be counted, or at least post a pic of your stash!!

What A Week!

It's been a pretty s*%t week, and thats putting it politely!

First we had The Bed Drama.

To cut a VERY long story short, the new bed we'd got Tom wouldn't fit up the stairs ! That is, until Ian came out of the garage wielding a large hammer and saw! After some minor adjustments to the banisters, which included knocking out all the spindles and sawing through the newel post, the bed was finally installed!

Then was The MRI Scan-dal.

Picture the scene. Dear son, virtually bedridden with back pain visits GP who wants him to have an MRI scan. But because he's been ill at the end of the financial year (not recommended!) theres no money to allow him to be scanned until the middle of April. Result; one very angry mother and one hefty bill for private scan because we just couldn't watch him struggle any longer.

And the latest was on Monday; CarrieAnne and Kaths Unexpected Adventure!

We'd had a lovely morning at Spennyknit. Lots of knitting, coffee,cake and chat. So far so good. Then all five of us went en masse to a local shoe shop, where we tried on DM 's and generally drooled over shoes. Lovely morning. Then after saying our goodbyes we got into my car and headed home. And then BANG!

Part of my exhaust snapped and got trapped under the car. We pulled over and tried to pull the offending part off, but neither of us had eaten our Shredded Wheat and couldn't manage to remove it!

So I had to phone Mayday rescue and we waited. And waited. Thought about getting the knitting out. Waited some more. The guy eventually turned up, and after about 5 seconds, pulled off the broken bit! Job done!

The annoying thing was the number of cars that passed us but didn't stop, including 2 police cars! Poor CarrieAnne! I felt awful, offering her a lift, then the car falling apart around us!!

But the worst was yet to come. When the garage put the car on the ramps, they found that I needed 3 new tyres, so yet another huge bill!

I'm thinking about standing in the street with a begging tin! Or I suppose I could make more of the dreaded bags to sell ! NNOOOOOOO! End of moan!

Knitting has been brilliant at helping to reduce my stress levels. My Piece Of Beauty socks are coming along nicely. I'm hurtling down the foot at the moment.

Its beautiful to knit with, I'm really enjoying it, even though I'm just knitting the bog standard pattern. I would like to try Monkey after seeing CarrieAnne's, the pattern looks even more beautiful in the flesh!

I also got a belated birthday pressie from Ian. Sorry about bad pic. Theres some lovely

patterns for accessories in this book.

And speaking of books, Ian ordered Victorian Lace Today from Amazon last month, but they can't deliver until April! I've looked at loads of sites for it, but no luck. I wonder if this print run has been sold out and shops are waiting for more to be printed?

Could I ask a favour?

If anyone knows where I could get one, would you let me know as I'm desperate to get my hands on it, I've heard so much about it!

Housemaid's Knee!

Well, I haven't actually got housemaids knee, but I should have!

I know it's hard to believe, but I've actually tidied my craft room! And because I knew you wouldn't believe me, I took a photo to prove it!

It's hard to imagine that this was the same room that I tried to shame myself into tidying by putting a pic on the blog! In fact the old one was in such a mess, it wasn't a room, it was a skip!

I lost count of the number of full bin bags I took out over 4 days, yes FOUR days. Because of my dodgy back, it was a starty/ stoppy affair and at one point I thought I'd never get it finished, but it's done. Thank God. And I am going to TRY and keep it tidy. Promise! ( I'll just lock the door so I can't get in to make a mess! It's about the only way it will stay tidy!!)

I was sooo pleased when I sold my first felted bag and even more pleased when someone saw it and asked if I could make them one. Now, after I've knitted this pattern for the sixth or is it seventh time I'm sick of it! It's not that I mind knitting them but the pattern is so simple and I would like to knit something else! Here are the latest two, minus handles!

The major side effect of this situation is that I now have a mountainous yarn stash that needs some urgent attention! Especially before Woolfest, or I'll have no excuse to buy more. I know, I don't need an excuse to buy yarn!

In an attempt to address the stash mountain I've started on the yummy Piece of Beauty sock yarn that Carrie Anne bought me for Christmas. It's called Boathouse and I love it, it's so soft and feels lovely to knit with.

I just need to sit with my feet up, knitting in hand and rest that housemaids knee! Poor girl, hope her other knee's ok!

Just A Quickie!

Before I burst with excitement!
Last night, Carrie Anne gave me my birthday pressie! Wow, Wow, WOW!!!



Yes, its Socks That Rock yarn! Just the yarn I've drooled over for sooo many months! And in a fab colourway called Cracked Canyon. Thank you Carrie Anne, thank you, thank you, thank you!!

And if that wasn't enough, Bev gave me a fantastic card, which she knitted using sewing needles and sewing cotton. This is the card,

But the close up shows how incredible it really is.

It's unbelievable just how Bev knitted let alone cabled. I think it's fantastic and just had to show and tell!!

Thanks Bev, you are a genius, a genius with bad eyesight now, but a genius non the less!!

Thank you!!