Blocking

The Carnival cardie has been finished, sewn up and had it's buttons put on. I've washed it in soapflakes and it is now blocking. Photo when it's done.

Not sure what to do next. Do I carry on with more of the Welsh sheep jumper, make the cashmere top and leggings or start on Clapotis? Ooh decisions....

Why we put throws on our chairs

Pud in a rare moment of activity

Ho Hum

Well, after a couple of evenings of measuring, re-measuring, scribbling on pieces of pieces of paper, frogging and knitting, I am back at 50% complete.




Such is knitting.... well, it is when I'm doing it anyway.

Work in progress

Opal Carnival baby cardigan: about 50% complete

Baking bread and made fish pate tonight, so I shall eat well tomorrow!

Feeling alright....for a Monday

I was thinking earlier about how my knitting gallery doesn't seem particularly full - considering that I seem to always have something (or even a couple of somethings) on the go and came up with the following list of other recent projects (well, from this year...so sort of recent-ish) which I didn't take pictures of:.

Debbie Bliss Moss Stitch border baby cardy (from Knitting issue ?) for Beth

Wine bottle cosy from Knitty.com for Lisa

Opal Lollipop socks, my first try at making socks, for Kirsty

Sirdar cabled hoodie in Snuggly 4 ply for Samuel

Sirday cabled hoodie in Snuggly DK for Jared

This doesn't include the mitten experiment that went wrong, the tiny socks which would probably fit a teddy bear (or maybe a preemie???) and numerous other non-starters...

The Welsh Sheep Wool jumper: work in progress
(taking a back seat to the Opal Carnival cardy atm)

Sunday Stroll...

Today got off to a slightly shaky start when I discovered after my first mouthful of breakfast cereal that the milk had gone slightly funny tasting. EEeewww. Am annoyed that the milk that didn't even last beyond the display till date, let alone the use by. Breakfast plans changed to toast and marmalade. Black coffee was rather nice.

Went for walk up on the moors around Black Hill and Wessenden Reservoir - about 10 miles. Lovely day - quite hot - and the heather was out in all it's glory.






Unfortunately so were millions of big irritating flying bug things. They're even multiplying on my blog - I only uploaded the photo once and three showed up.... I deleted the other two as they are nasty..







Gratuitous sheep shot











Today's lesson in the Way of the Pud.

(The carrier bag in the bottom of the photo is from Trefiw Woollen Mill in North Wales where I bought some wool to make a jumper from 'real' wool from 'real' Welsh Sheep... this is a work in progress, more later)

Lazy Saturday

Yesterday evening we went to the Kings Arms for our tea - and may have had a couple of drinks too - including some on the house for agreeing to move tables when a party of 6 came in and they wanted to rearrange the tables. This was cool, as the table we moved to was by the window and more pleasant. Some strange men came in wearing waistcoats (one even had a DPM kilt on - not a sight seen often around these parts) and there was speculation as to whether they were the local chess club or strange academic / historian society. They started dancing - with pieces of metal that looked suspiciously like metal files - very energetically to the bagpipes and recorder (played by said kilted man) and then came round collecting money. When questioned one chap said that he could place no historical significance to their dancing, just that his wife wouldn't let him come out drinking otherwise.... she must be *really* strange.

Anyway, so today has been a stay at home day. Did some much needed tidying around the house this morning, baked some bread to have for lunch and then got some knitting done. Pud kept to the Way Of The Pud - slept on the washing pile till teatime, then sat on the sofa.


Knitting progress: not bad.















Pud: doing what Pud's do best















Steps: woefully lacking today (although did the 10,000 yesterday) and the Government will be extra disappointed as there may well be red wine to drink with dinner... which is going to be braised beef stew and mashed potatoes

A gathering we will go...

...only I didn't have to go far, and it didn't take very long.

Plums from the tree in the back garden! Yummy too, if a little small...

Still this is a vast improvement on last year's harvest and to say the little tree is only 3 years old and has some vicious winds to contend with, I think it's done us proud.




On the knitting front, I bought a the September issue of Simply Knitting yesterday. It came with a handy blue plastic carry bag (which smells just like those arm bands you use when you're a kid learning to swim) which I thought looked rather useful for my current Opal Carnival baby cardy project. Almost immediately I spotted the flaw in this plan....











I am quite proud of myself at the moment, because I have just come in from mowing the lawn. So the 'About me' description is wrong for the time being, but it will soon correct itself. No doubt sooner than it should...

I wore the pedometer while mowing the lawn and discovered it takes me 2000 steps (with a very quick go over with the rake as well)... which reminds me, I have another photo related to the trip to High Street which I took before resetting the pedometer (it has been proudly displayed on the bookshelf for the last few days!)



Woo hoo!

So, about this knitting....

As any hillwalker will know, sheep are a common and often amusing form of life. They also have another purpose, beyond baahing eerily in the misty hills, eating grass and pooing just where you think would be a good spot to sit and have your lunch. They make wool... and wool can be knitted...

Here are some of my previous creations:


The Fisherman's Sweater from Debbie Bliss' book 'How To Knit' - knit in Rowan Handknit Cotton. Very nice it was too.



Learning to cable with Debbie Bliss (I did this in Courtelle - v stretchy acrylic, which was not the recommended yarn, but I wasn't paying Rowan prices for something that had the potential to go horribly wrong). It didn't go *horribly* wrong, but it wasn't exactly the perfection that I'd hoped for.





(Slighty more advanced cabling to make huge throw - very warm and snuggly, but was getting tedious to knit by the end of the 17th pattern rep)


"Dolly" by Jaeger - made from Jaeger's Baby Merino 4ply. Lovely to knit with. Partly scary pattern, but I got there in the end. Made for my cousin's baby. Hope she liked it.... and bootees made to match, but I decided they weren't practical enough for a gift. They are on the bookshelf even now. I really ought to decide what to do with them. I might sell them on ebay.

Let's get it started then...

Okay - so after some thought, I have decided to add some more stuff. Obviously we are not going to be going into much detail about the first 3 decades, but I suppose we have to start somewhere. Like last weekend.

We like walking and camping and buying gear for walking and camping .
So... off we went to Brotherswater in the Lake District and set off walking up to High Street (828m)

It rained.
















And then the sun came out and we dried out. Met a friendly local...

















A good time was had by all, and we rounded off the day in proper style

Was this a good idea?

Well now. I was having a look at someone else's blog when I got a bit carried away and clicked on a button which started creating a blog of my own. So here I am, blogging. Although it remains to be seen whether it gets any further than this.

I suppose it might be useful as a kind of personal diary for things such as walks we've done and knitting projects (which is what I was reading about while my blog accidentally got created - so Bronte, this is your fault) - and random ramblings about life. Not that I do any of that. Oh no. Not me.

Already I'm not happy with the layout I've chosen or the font this is appearing in. Things may change... but I'm not too sure at the moment how...