Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Knitting Peer Pressure

I gave in. I made the hat. But I'm not sticking the pom pom handles on the bloody thing. No way.
















It was quite a nice little knit to get on with over the bank holiday weekend while we had visitors, as I could pick it up while they were watching kiddie films and football. I don't mind the odd match on telly now and again, Rob supports Newcastle United, so I see some of their games and Match of the Day is ok by me, but I'm not prepared to sit and join in supporting Chelsea. No way, Jose. We did manage to prise the kids away from the telly and out of the house for an afternoon, and managed a walk and picnic, which was almost shared by some interested locals.













Yesterday we visited Dunham Massey. The house is being renovated at the moment, so you can't see the front, but the insides were very impressive (although they had lots of paintings done by people that patently couldn't do dogs or horses and some of the humans were a bit suss as well....), the gardens were lovely and waterwheel operated sawmill, complete with Old Ripper (and custodian bemoaning about how they can't use it properly these days due to bureaucratic Health and Safety Regulations stopping everyone's fun and how there were almost never any accidents or limbs removed) but the best thing was the deer park. Acres of beautiful old oak woodland complete with antlered deer roaming was just the thing for a quiet afternoon fantasizing about being Lady of the Manor.

14 comments:

Badger said...

Pompoms! Pompoms! Pommmmmpommmmms! You know you'll give in eventually ;)

Hellbelle said...

Get thee behind me, Badger :)

Auntie Noo said...

Hey what's wrong with Chelsea!!! - My family have supported them for 3 generations!! (Mind you they used to be an english team didn't they!) - and it's always nice to see Frank Lampard! The walk sounds lovely, I love a good deer park myself and the hat looks lovely - though I agree - only put poms poms on if it's a child you don't like!!

Piglottie said...

The hat looks great, but maybe a couple of pomspoms would add that finishing touch...

Badger said...

See? Piglottie agrees with me! ;)

Seahorse said...

Cute hat!

Did you get a guided tour involving 'scandal and romance' at Dunham Massey then? :O

Anonymous said...

I don't know what to say now :'(

Anonymous said...

Dogs and horses are actually very difficult to paint, so you're wrong to criticise. The problem is that they get extremely fidgety when you apply the brush to their more sensitive areas. I only knew one great horse painter who could guarantee 100% coverage everytime and he was made of sugar cubes.

Anonymous said...

On the other hand, horses make pretty good paintbrushes provided you have a suitable handle and some way of attaching them.

Anonymous said...

The Sistine Chapel was painted using spaniels. Strange but true.

Before that the tradition had been to use medium build ponies, but it turns out for upside work there's nothing better than a spaniel.

Not one of those really floppy eared ones though. The paint splatters all over the place with them.

Anonymous said...

Never try painting with cats. They have no sense of humour about it. And their fur doesn't hold a lot of paint anyway. And it's tricky getting them onto the roller handle.

Kate said...

It has a tiny umbilical stump. Very biological, or something.

I found dipping hamsters into paint, throwing them at the walls and letting them roll down slowly is a good alternative to rag rolling. Mind you, that's going out of fashion now. Might be best just to superglue them there and have it as a feature wall.

Anonymous said...

It's cheaper than buying a piano.

acrylik said...

Go oooon, make the pompoms - you know you want to ;)