One Giant Babette Square

(details of yarn etc here on ravelry)

Love it! It has been sent to and received by Mary to wrap her in love for when she has her big op next week and afterwards while she's convalescing.

Lily's is growing and I shall show you hers soon.

I have joined Mystery Stole 4 this year!!! I have swatched and bought mega expensive beads that I'm now not sure about, so am in the process of winding balls into skeins and dyeing them (I've got the bug!!) grape colour. Will keep you posted.

Have a good weekend. Apparently this is the last of our summer.

WHAT summer?????

Dyeing to show you..........

...what I received from my SP12 pal.......a Kool Aid dyeing kit!! I've always wanted to have a go at this and today decided, while it was sunny, to go for it.

First you soak the hank of yarn..

Then you put the dyes you want to use into small bottles
Then you squirt them onto the drained yarn....




Then cook it in the microwave....

Hmmm, not sure about the red, but I love the blue and green and it might look better when dry and wound into a ball.

I now just need to rinse it and dry it. Then ball it.

OK, at long last, here is a glimpse of what I have been doing over the last few days... I finally got the solid granny square (I can't tell you how many times I watched the bloody tutorial on You Tube) and I can do it! And it looks like the Babette squares on Ravelry!!!!! I am trying to make myself wait until the Knitting and Stitching Show in October until I buy the cascade I need for Babette, but in my head, there's a little voice telling me I might have forgotten how to do it by then and I should get it NOW!!!!!!!!



I'll show you the thing in its entire glory tomorrow before sending it to it's recipient tomorrow. SP, you were so right to have faith in me. I really doubted that I could do it, but I can and I'll show you how well tomorrow!

I have also taught Lily how to crochet the solid granny and she is creating a blanket as I type. Only stopping to eat and wee.

SP parcel arrived

I went out and when I came back, my UKSP had been to my house!!!!! How weird is that? I wish I had been in a I wanted to meet her in person, but I think she comes from Cambridge, so I am hoping I will meet her at a K2TOG meet soon.

She left a box in my porch!!



Check out what was in it... I took the photo in the garden as the theme for my swap was my garden!



Wow, she sent me some lovely things. She made that gorgeous bag at a Debbie Abrahams workshop!!!! Sweeties too, cool yarn, soap, and amongst other things, a Rowan Classic pattern book. I love Rowan designs and have my eye on these 2 so far....




The yarn is to make this sweet bag



I have also had another parcel, from my SP12 but I'll take a pic later, when I take one of my GIANT BABETTE SQUARE

Oh yeah....prepare to be amazed......

Lily's Results

I just wanted to be proud mum for a sec, and tell you all what Lily got in her GCSE exams. She got 4 A*s and 5 As. A straight A student. I always wanted to say that!!!!!
It won't mean much to some of you, but it's an amazing result. Brains AND beauty. And I made her.
I'm puffed up with pride!!!

WIPs Update (Knitting and Growing)

All of my wips are coming along now. The felted bag needs some tlc..



but I think it redeemable.

I am knitting the Debbie Abrahams Flower Power blanket too, my first go at beading in knitting!




And the Waving Lace sock is coming along now that I have the right needles!



All are being stored in my new aquisition....



Cool, hey?

On the vegetable front, things are getting bigger,
tomatoes


aubergines (eggplant)


and French beans (look hard!)




Tomorrow I am off early on a 3 day training weekend with WW, so looking forward to that! I am taking the socks and also the Babette squares which I have nearly mastered! Have a great weekend!

Last Weekend

We spent the day on Saturday with Mary and Mark at the Brailes village show. True to tradition, it poured all day, but we had fun. I didn't enter my bag as it didn't come out as I wanted and will require alot of fiddling with, which I didn't have the time for so never mind. If you'd seen the shit that won, I'd never have stood a chance, but don't get me started on that subject. The judging was done by a mentally challenged person who lived in another continent and didn't bother coming to the show, but I'm not bitter. My dog didn't win prettiest bitch and is now coming out of an ugly depression with the help of therapy.

Elegant, hey?.........




As promised for some time,pictures of Mary's amazing mosaics on her table and chairs outside. The chairs all represent a season. I think they're amazing.

UK Swap question 7

Films is the topic this week:

Do you prefer to watch films at home or at the cinema?
I prefer to watch them at the cinema. Only because I am a bugger for falling asleep if I'm home! Also, much nicer popcorn at the cinema (salty of course) and sorbet!

What is the last film you saw?
X Files (such a disappointment)

Have you seen any films more than 10 times? If so which ones and why.
No. For the same reason I ever really read books more than once...I like the end to be a surprise and I can't understand why you'd read/watch it if you knew what was going to happen?

What film do you recommend that people should see?
Saw 1, K-Pax, Philadelphia, Devil Wears Prada, Man Who Fell to Earth, probably my most favourite ones!

If you could be any character from a film who would it be?
Difficult! I'll get back to you on that one!

On the knitting front, I have a load to report in from this weekend, downloading the photos now, so I'm hoping to post all that later. Also pics of Mary's mosaicing...finally!

Also....WAIT FOR IT......I may have a Babette square. Don't get too excited. I have joined the Babette & Hexagon Blanket Crochet Anonymous Group on Ravelry and there is loads of help for novice crocheters like me and also loads of links to tutorial videos, so I am going to attempt it!!!!!! Look out SP, I may be able to do it after all!!!!

Check out some Babette colour inspirations here WOW!!!!!!! 3 pages of beauty.....

Hearts and Bags

A friend of mine is leaving the UK to go and work in Saudi on a 2 year contract, teaching in the international school. We have her leaving lunch today and so I made a her a little gift to go with the pile of jazzercise goodies we got her to remember us by! She loves lavender, so I made her these



they are filled with lavender from my garden and smell lovely (even though it's not my favourite smell.)

I have finished patchwork squares bag (at about 1am this morning!) and it is in the machine felting as I type! I hope it comes out ok. It's my own pattern and I got a little bit carried away knitting the band that goes around the whole thing to form the bag bottom, sides and handle, and when I put it over my shoulder, it reaches down past my knees! I've never hoped to shrink something quite so much!

I put a cd next to it to give you some idea of the scale



The bag brings me on to question 9 of SP12.
Have you ever entered your knitting (or anything else) in the fair?

Would you ever consider it?
Ths weekend, funnily enough, we are going to visit Mary in the Cotswolds. Her village has a fair every year, have a look here
We have entered Floss before in the horse and hound competition. Let's just say she had a small nervous breakdown, obviously unsuited to a modelling career, and the Jack Russell who sat on the lap of the girl riding the horse that won was obviously cheating. Not that I'm bitter. NO!

I am hopefully entering this year the "I knitted it" class with this patchwork squares bag. I say hopefully because it needs to dry, be lined and decorated before Saturday EARLY. We shall see. So. I'll let you know the answer to that SP question after the weekend!

A Taste of Summer!

Blackberry Sorbet
No pips
Delicious

Boobs and Blackberry Sorbet

Told you I would let you know what I was knitting today....

..and there you go!

There was a request on Ravelry on one of the forums from a health visitor. Apparently, knitted breasts are the best way to teach new mums how to breastfeed, and she asked if people would knit one. There has been a great response from the sound of it! If you fancy getting involved, check out this Ravelry link
Basil liked it

and here's some idea of the size. Pretty boob size, maybe not the same shape! It's the shape I'd love to have!

We've had a lovely weekend. Yesterday, I went for coffee and cake with Rob and then made some delish meringues filled with strawberries from a local farm, on vanilla cream and drizzled with chocolate sauce! They were for a barbeque we went to yesterday afternoon which went late into the night in the end and I had a lovely time eating some of them!

I also did some knitting yesterday

It's te Waving Lace sock, knitted in Blue Sky Alpaca. My favourite yarn. On too big needles....and this is what happened next...

Bugger. It wasn't going to happen on those size needles, so tomorrow when I order some stuff for my SPs, I shall get the right size ones.

Today we're all tired, so we went for a long dog walk. We picked loads of blackberries and tonight we're making blackberry sorbet. It's such a simple recipe.


Soften with sugar, then pass through a sieve, then mix with a glucose syrup then churn in the ice cream maker. Then eat!

I'll see if I can get a picture when it's made. I think I'll have to be quick!

Re: Spooky...All is Revealed

OK, I know I'm blonde, but sometimes I can kid myself it doesn't affect me.

When I received the swap parcel, I saw the UK postmark and just assumed UK Swap. What I didn't remember, was that my SP12 upstream is also in the UK and I am thinking, thanks to Rosie's comment on my Spooky post (no, I didn't think of it myself!), that it was from my SP12 pal! Makes sense, right?

Anyway I have emailed her to thank her, and unless she/he emails back "WTF are you on about" then the mystery is solved!!

Thank you, SP, I love the package, and so sorry for the delay in thanking you. UKSP, sorry for panicking you!

BTW, Secret Pal, can you give me a clue who you are? Just one little one? Pleeeeaaaase?

OK, all is sorted, and now relax.

Wait til you see what I'm knitting today! You'll love it!

SP 12 Question 8

What is your favorite supper for a hot summer evening?

Hmmm, difficult. As a food lover, I of course, have more than one answer.

1. Grilled halloumi cheese with a big salad, followed by a meringue with strawberries and cream on top.
2. Baked camembert (my downfall) with garlic stuffed in the top, with some crusty bread and crudites to dip in, followed by tarte au citron.
3. A big garlicky salad with french beans, grilled halloumi, asparagus, broad beans, rocket and tomatoes from my garden, with a jacket potato, followed by Ben and Jerry's chocolate fudge brownie frozen yoghurt(low fat of course!).
4. Aubergine moussaka with a green salad , followed by baked nectarines and some sweetened marscapone cheese.

Get some kind of idea of why I am a weight watcher? This is all stuff I love to eat and cook!!!!!

I love to eat any of this stuff as long as it's outside in my garden, my favourite place to eat during the summer.

Spooky......

In my last post, I told you I had received a package from my UK swap pal.

Yesterday, I received an email from Ruth, the swap co ordinator.

She had been contacted by the person who is my swap upstream to say she hadn't sent a parcel to me yet.

So who is it from?

Good Times:
A) I love it
B) I'll get double goodies at this rate!!

Bad Times:
A) Does it mean someone is without an upstream? Surely they would know by now?

Hmmmmmmmmm...............intriguing.............