Reasons to be cheerful

There is a new baby next door.
I dont ever knit the smallest size of baby outfit, I think I could have done with these - they might fit him when he is one !!

I was glad to see that I got the colour right as his babygrow matched when I delivered them :-)







There has been lots of knitting over the summer, two jumpers one in my handspun, a tank top, and several pairs of socks.....

But in the last month I have mainly been knitting with thin green


The centre of my wedding ring shawl is complete. I am now on the border, which does not photo well...


I was hoping that I might finish it before the end of the year but have been told that I cant wear green for my wedding which should happen sometime next summer. Yes, I have got engaged to Trig's Dad, and for those that know, I will end up with a silly name (the final frontier, for those that want to guess...)

This is a close up of the centre complete with mistakes that I'm hoping only I can see...

And this is now much of the first ball was left before I picked up for the borders. It is a lovely knit, not as complicated as I thought, especially now I've got the correct number of stitches.

So for my actual wedding shawl I've got some lilac yarn (from Estonia) and think I need some beads... I've been looking at a lot of pattern books and have decided on two of the patterns but cant decide on a border...
Good job I bought some other colours that I can swatch with, and the right border has got to be in one of my many books....

Autumn Colours

I seem to spend a lot of time driving to and from the forest (as well as decorating while I'm there - bathroom nearly has walls, the shower works, the basin still isn't connected...)

This was taken on the home a few days ago, near where I saw the back end of a wild boar and some deer ....







This is a tree near Canop Ponds

I never realised that trees do hug themselves !!!
















And this is my favourite tree, very twisted and old, and the leaves are just turning....

It is by the side of the road, covered in moss.

Looks like several creature should be living in it - or perhaps they are :-)












Yesterday morning we took the elderly dog for a walk - I didn't realise how short his legs are and that he doesn't like to go far...

So we had lots of time to admire the view on the way back - the sky was very dramatic

The polytunnels not so pretty...

This one looks like large worms are coming over the hill....

And that is it for today - next time there might be knitting or tales of sea travel ...

I have managed to upload all my holiday photos they all can be found off here hopefully in the correct folders....

Local Wildlife

My dizzy ear sea sickness lasted into October - nearly seven weeks of feeling drunk was not a pleasant experience ! The doctor told me not to go on a boat again, advice that I had already figured out for myself !!



Now that I'm on dry land (and have a day at home) I thought I would update this poor blog...


We went out for lunch at a local pub by the side of the Wye last week. Noticing a huge number of swans on the river we decided to take a closer look on the way home... this is some of the 50 that I counted !!

















And a lone one showing off - there is a reason for his puffed look....





















It wasn't the cat who was enjoying some fuss when we got home..... one of these days he will fall off the step and roll into the pond...


















This was the worry for the swan - if you click to enlarge you should be able to see an otter swimming in the river !!



He was not easy to photo, but did enjoy diving and resurfacing where you didn't expect him to...



We think we saw his holt, so might go and sit and wait to see him again....

The Motion of the Ocean

Is still with me, after nearly four weeks of being on dry land I'm still suffering from motion sickness... last week saw me going to the doctors and getting some tablets, they made me even more dozy than usual... Back to the doctors this week to see if my ear infection has cleared up (which I dont think it has....)

In some of my awake moments I have uploaded some of my holiday photos, (nearly 250) taken around St Petersburg... If you are having problems sleeping and want to see just how much gold leaf is on show and how wet it can be in Russia, they can be seen here

photos for friends

Sorry I've been missing for a while... things have been very busy... cant totally remember what I've been up to but lots of knitting and spinning has happened, decorating, and clearing out, helping my neighbour move (a frightening experience, I now want to clear out everything from my house that I dont need..) And I have just come back from nearly three weeks away with TutleyMutley cruising around the Baltics.

More details later on what we got up to but here are some of the nearly 800 pictures I took..



In Copenhagen there is a statue of a fishwife so this is for Isabella
















Then just to show you how bizarre some of the Russian dolls are - look at the second shelf - I had to open the one of Ozzy,and it did have smaller ones, I stopped at the third...

It was 8.30am in St Petersburg - strange place Russia...







I managed to take a picture of the Russian Police - they do like a smoke...

This is by the square next to the Hermitage - a huge art gallery










For Lixie - I think this shop was in Amsterdam (but I may have got that wrong... been to so many countries in the last few weeks)











For all Londoners a red bus.

I think this was Helsinki, but it could have been in Stockholm, both were lovely places, both were wet, both we landed away from the city and had to walk or get a bus ...









For Gill - a statue wearing a plastic bag. It was near the red bus so Terri will have to remind me where it was....










And for Rosie, a frog holding up a building - this was in Helsinki in the rain next to a square with a post office...










And another for Rosie - in Russia they have red squirrels - we were excited, this one ran right up to me... the Americans with us didn't understand why we were jumping around until we explained about their evil grey squirrels...

I did suffer from major dizziness while I was away, mainly when on dry land - my head has been better today so I'm hoping that the worse is over and my ears are getting used to being on land.

I'll try and post again soon with some of my purchases and a most wonderful unexpected birthday present I got today....

Woolfest planning

We have a van to sleep in, but it is not very big so an awning has been purchased - it is huge (and so is my front garden luckily!!)

The dog seemed to like it as well which is good !!

The neighbours were a bit confused, but we were good entertainment for them on a boring Sunday afternoon :-)

I'm going to be on the Kindred Knitters stand at Woolfest.

One of the demos that I will be doing is shadow knitting.

It is not the easiest thing to photograph but hopefully you can see what is hiding in the scarf that is going to be in the sheep auction (a bit of a hint there!)

And this is a shot of them hiding..



My job for today is to finish the scarf - another three sheep required and then do a sample for the demo.





I'm starting my Woolly adventure tomorrow afternoon (once I've made lots of cake)

I've checked the space in the van and there is lots, and I get to sit in the back with my feet up and knit all the way north - not been able to do that for many a year !!



And if anyone wants to make a sheep while I'm gone here are the instructions:



Shadow Knitted Sheep.

Shadow knitting is an illusion effect where patterns appear when viewed from different angles. For each charted row four rows are worked, two in each colour.

Cast on 24 stitches in background colour, then follow chart below.
Each row on chart represents four rows as follows:

Knit all stitches in background colour.
Knit blank squares, purl X squares in background colour.
Knit all stitches in sheep colour.
Purl blank squares, knit X squares in sheep colour.

Cast off.

Notes:

All the counting is done from the wrong side

Each row on the chart represents four rows to be worked.

Row ‘sets’ and stitches are numbered on the chart.

(Hopefully you can click on the chart to make it readable - if not if you Rav or email me your email address I can email the full instructions on my return)

If anyone is at the show, please come and say hello - we have been promised lots of chairs so you can rest your feet at the same time !!

Deep in the Forest

My camera took a holiday for a few days in the Forest....

And these are a few things it saw whilst there...



There were strange moss covered trees













A very pretty butterfly - a friend of the one spotted by a moggie recently ?

And the light was bright (when it wasn't raining !!)

I also helped rip out a bathroom - well when I say a bathroom - it was more wall and ceiling removal... the bath stayed where it was but it is now on the landing (nice!)

The paper we found was interesting

And some of the paper was very old...

Did you know that you can get twenty bags of rubble in the back of a belingo car/van?

It will be great when the first house is clean, tidy and ready to sell - at the moment we dont get much time to sit knit & paint...

Nasty Foot & Pretty Yarn

When I went to Liverpool I had got more than I expected...

This is my foot four days after I was bitten by an insect on my arrival on Friday afternoon...

It was itchy, swollen, red and not very nice at all - after a week it has now returned to 'normal'...







And I found out that I can spin with a cold compress on my foot....

This is the batt I brought at Skipnorth ...all spun up and ready to be transformed into a jumper

Once my yellow lace collar is completed it will be on the needles...






And then I decided that I needed to spin something 'interesting'

This is plied with sequins - not that many but they are bright pink....









And this is fibre that is wrapped round a core of cotton....














And my favourite.....

Yarn with bells on :-)


And now I'm off to try and design a shadow knitted sheep, with a bit of luck it will look vaguely sheepish and people will enjoy making a flock at Woolfest...

Meeting of minds

These were taken last week ....

It is the cat's garden

The dog just visits...















Trig was having a good explore....

But had a problem when he came back up from what is meant to be the veggie plot....















Eventually they realised that they could get past each other with a bit of moving about...











Then the cat had to go and see what was now the bottom of the garden...












And then the stand off continued...

If only they had been so good today !

We had hisses (at me & the dog)
And growls at everyone...

And the odd claw shown in anger...











Thanks to everyone for their good wishes.

And if you are curious about what the bloke looks like - here is a photo taken today....

I've got an exciting end to week - I'm getting one of these on Friday on the way up to Liverpool for the weekend...

And the spinning is going well - I've nearly finished spinning up the batt I got from Winghams at Skipnorth....

Knitting is on a bit of a slow at the moment, but hopefully when the batt is done the clicking will start...