Still here! (Somewhere!)

Hi Everyone
Wow, it seems like an age since I was here, and every day I think I must come here and then the day goes and I lay in my bed thinking of all the things I wanted to do and didn't make the time for. So tonight, instead of going to bed, here I am, having just painted my radiators, which is another job keeping me awake at night!
What is it about Christmas coming that makes us want to get everything done, even if it hasn't been right all year? It's crazy, but I think we're all the same.
Please say we are, just so I don't feel like the men in the white coats are waiting around the corner for me!!!!

On the knitting front, I have been plodding on with Breezy, and on the crochet front, I have been very busy. Small Summer Squares Blanket is now finished and in use, and I have made some little birds as christmas gifts, which I will share with you after christmas, just in case any of my nosey friends are reading this!

On the Silver Belle front, all has gone to pot a bit, as I tried and tried to decipher the peplum pattern and failed miserably. I am intending to try again when I have more time but in the meantime it is relegated to the bag where it seems to have spent the majority of it's sorry life!

I have also started a tapestry, but OMG, that is SLOWGOING!!!!!! Very frustrating for me, I have to say.

Well, I hope you are all happy and ready for christmas and I shall check in, hopefully with some pictures, before the big day!

xxxx

Silver Belle back on!

I said I had new found love for her, and here she is so far!
Both sleeves are now completed and the front of the top half, and just the peplum to go. I need to cast on 480 sts for it, so appreciate my procrastination!!!!! However, I intend to start tonight.

Other news, we're having a bit of an Indian summer here and so my tomatoes are finally going red. I've been blackberry picking and made some sorbet, with sweetener, so pretty much zero points which is a bonus!



I'll keep you posted on the progress of my Silver Belle!
.Stacey...be prepared to be amazed!!!!!

My August!

Happy September to you all!
Just a few pictures of my fab August, spending time with my sisters, holidays in France, road trip to Cheshire, days on the beach and more!

Hex is finished and a new project is started!

My beautiful Hex is finished. I love it. I edged it with 3 rounds of treble crochet and hoped for the best, doing ripples in and out on the sticky outy bits. It worked ok for a beginner like me!!!! It lives on the sofa in the study, like it was born to do it!






Here's what the balls of yarn turned into on my holiday.
It's inspired by Lucy's blanket (have a look at Attic24) and I love it because it's a bit quilty as well as crochety! 100 squares to do in all, and then some granny edging. There's my hand next to it so you can get some idea of scale.




France was, as always, fab. Laying by the pool in the morning, on the beach in the afternoon and some crochet before going out to eat in the evening. I do have some pictures which I will share soon.

I am off to Manchester tomorrow to meet up with some girlfriends I shared a house with some 16 years ago. We haven't seen each other for 2 years so I am sooooo excited about that!

Have a lovely Bank Holiday weekend.

Hex is Finished!!!

Yes, my true love is finally complete!
I absolutely adore this project.
Thanks to Ruth from Rooknits, I have edged it and laid underneath it with my dog.......

Now for a few photos showing the agony of sewing in ends, the can't-wait-til-I-finish pain of making half hexes to neaten the sides up, and then the ecsasy of the edging. Unfortunately it is so wet and grey here at the moment that I can't take a photo that will do proper justice, so you'll just have to make do with a few teasing pics!!!











I went to Cambridge last week with my sisters and we had a lovely afternoon


I'm off to France tomorrow for a week and here's a sneak preview of what I'm taking with me!


Have a good week....photos of holiday project and full pics of Hex when I come back in a week!

I Heart Crochet!!!

Please don't think I've turned my back on knitting forever, but at the moment I am sooo loving crochet!

June and July have been a bit manic for me so instead of going on and on, I thought I'd share with you a collection of photos that describe the last few weeks!

Hope you're all enjoying the summer. If you're in the Uk, hope you haven't either drowned or contracted swine flu!!!!

Here we go.......

Update

I'm not sure if it's the time of year, or just me, but my posts are a little few and far between at the moment, so sorry for that.



I have been busy, both work wise and also craft wise and this weekend I went back to sewing. This is something that I have been half heartedly thinking about and playing with for a while now, but yesterday I got a little serious with it and today I am going to actually half finish it, or finish it. Rob wants me to make him a meditation cushion, but that will be the only interruption I have. Oh, that and a bike ride we have planned for later on!

Other news. Last weekend we went to a wedding in Oxfordshire. It was the most beautiful and most English wedding I have ever been to, in a National Trust derelict barn, with pale pink peonies and blue delphiniums, with Morris dancers and a welly wanging competition, and letting off night lanterns in the dark. This was a view from where I was sitting in the barn.



Yesterday I went to a work bbq. The theme was Abba. Here's me and my lovely friend Lorraine before we went

check out Flossie getting in that picture!!!!
ok, I know I look like a shire horse in that outfit, (it didn't hide anything....)but we had a fab time, singing along to Mamma Mia!!!

Father's Day in the UK today, so I shall leave Rob and Lily to bond and get on with some sewing and being outside.

Have a great weekend.
xx

Totally in love...

with hexagons.

Holiday Hexagons

I'm back!!!
We had an amazing time in France and I did loads of my hexagon blanket...pictures in a mo!
It was lovely just to sunbathe, read, eat and relax and be with my sisters and family.

I did, of course, make some great purchases....
firstly, a beautiful bag from a shop in Eymet


Front and back views.
I love it, and if you like it, have a look on their website here
They had so many beautiful bags, it was really hard to choose one.



So I bought two!!!







Here's the other one.

I found a FAB use for it....

Ta da!!!! My Babette is perfect for it!

Also in Eymet, I saw an older man sitting there in the market knitting!!!! Not just plain kitting, but cable. So I made Lily stand behind him so I could take a photo. If you are the man, and you're reading this, I hope you don't mind being on my blog!!!!

ok, here's one of me in action with the hexagon

And here it is so far..


On other fronts, I am surprised to tell you that all my holiday washing and ironing is done and put away! While we were on holiday, there was a tennis court at the Chateau and we all decided we wanted to be better at playing. I for one play with my eyes closed and I am totally hopeless.
So we found a tennis coach here, Ben (very handsome and young) and today Rob and I had our first lesson. I don't think Ben believed me when I told him how rubbish I was, but by the end of the lesson, he knew!!!!!! I'll be at Wimbledon before you know it, though at this rate!!!!!! (What's the age limit???)
This afternoon we went to Strawberry Fair in Cambridge to have a wander round and it was great!!! Just a mass of stuff to see. And a chocolate crepe. Well, rude not to.
Tomorrow, having knackered my arms today playing tennis, I am off back to spinning to knacker my legs.
At least I will be symmetrically in pain!!
Have a good weekend.
x

Competition Winner

OK I have drawn the winner tonight and..........
drumroll..........
the winner is..........


christine from cpurl17!!!!!


Congratulations you!!!
If you let me have your address I shall have a little delve in my stash and also bring you something home from my French hols.

I'm still not packed and we leave in 9 hours. Oh well. Always better under pressure!!!

I am taking only crochet with me this time. I want to finish Babette and also my hexagon blanket, so it's a good opportunity for that. The Debbie Abrahams mystery blanket that I don't like has caused me to lose my knitting mojo a bit, so I'll make the most of it and get some crochet done!!!!

See you in a week when I shall hopefully be rested and fulfilled. (Hopefully not with camembert!!)

I'm older....I'm back (and a little prizedraw!!)

Sorry for my absence. I have been so snowed under with life in general, everything else has gone to pot. I haven't even done much knitting, sewing or crocheting,just breathing sleeping eating and working really.

I did, however, go on a 2 day NLP course, and that led me to a little reassessment of my life. Instead of thinking I have too little time to do what I love, I need to make time for what I love. So I am doing.

If you want to know more, click here. I would definitely recommend it. Those of you who know NLP, I know would concur. Amazing stuff for both business and personal life.

Yesterday, I turned 44!!!!! I cannot believe it, as inside I am still 20! Still, my gift to myself is to do more of what I love and also take more pictures as Rob gave me a beautiful little blue camera. So watch this space!!

In celebration of my birthday, I am having a little competition. Well, I didn't have a blogoversary one, so this is it....

I loved being 11 as I was living in South Africa, happy and settled in school, with great memories of that time. I didn't much like 22 or 33, but I think that 44 will be my best year ever.

What I would like you to do is leave a comment telling me your best age ever and why.

I shall have a search in my ever expanding stash for the prize and also visit the sweet shop!

So what are you waiting for??? Get commenting!

Deadline for entry is Tuesday 19th May at 12 midnight GMT. I shall draw prizes by the Thursday before I go to France.

Belated Happy Easter!

Sorry for my absence recently. Lily went off to America and Rob and I decided to decorate. We have jiggled the downstairs of our house so that it is more open plan and painted anything there was and had new carpets laid! It's like being in a new house! Well, we've been here nearly 10 years from new, so it was about time really. I can now see my garden at the back of the house while sitting in my lounge at the front of the house, so of course, I has to do the garden as well!

With all of that, as you can imagine, I have had little time for anything creative, so last night was my first time crocheting for a while. It felt nice to be back doing it though.

We had a lovely Easter, with my sisters and their families here, and Rob's parents as well. We all ate too much as usual! I seem to have lost a bit more weight though, although it will probably find me again this week!

Nothing else much to report. I am off on my hols in 6 weeks time, and we are all very excited...can't wait to lie in some sun and read some books, and hopefully work on the Mystery Blanket that I have gone off!

I hope you all had a lovely Easter with those you love. Back with some proper knitting and crocheting soon!

Teresa's Scrappy Flappy Hat

Teresa is a wild American friend of mine who is sadly moving back to the US next Wednesday.

She is the loveliest person, absolutely full of life and laughter and my sort of person, the sort who opens mouth and then engages brain some time later. She has a cabin in Quebec and I thought she'd like this hat to remind her of me and how much I love her. We will all really miss her here when she goes back.

Lily went to New Jersey at 4.30 am this morning. She was sooo excited. It is really odd here without her, but I know she will have an amazing time.

Other news, I met up with the Cambridge knitters last weekend, and that was nice. Introducing myself as Liz meant nothing, but when I said Fluffyknitting, they all knew who I was!!!! It was a most surreal experience, and I felt a little as if I had gone through the Looking Glass, but it was nice and I shall meet them again, except that someone accidentally took my 10 balls of DB cashmerino aran, and I haven't got it back yet, but that's a whole other story......

As promised that front and the back of the plate I bought Rob for his birthday. How cool is this? Check out the website, she makes some lovely stuff and sells it all over and you can buy off the site too.




Right, I am a lady of leisure today, lunching with a friend and then afternoon tea and scones with another....perfect day!!! Having been up since 3am to get Lily sorted, I am expecting to crash and burn at about 8pm tonight, so I shall make the most of the day!

Knitting with Miss Whiplash

Lily and I were in an accident last week. We were shunted really hard from behind by a car who had been hit by a big van. We thought we were ok, just shocked, but throughout that day, and subsequent days, we have suffered with very odd symptoms which have now been diagnosed as whiplash, and Lily has a trapped nerve in her shoulder.

Apparently I also have whiplash of the ankle.

You knew I'd have something odd!!!!!

Anyway, the good news is, I need to keep moving, so jazzercise and walking are good, and I'VE STARTED SPINNING!!!!! Have you been? It's amazing. Hard, but rewarding when it's over. And it uses 700 cals in the 40 minute session!! (2 Mars bars if it wasn't chocolateless Lent!)

The bad news is that knitting and crochet for more than 10 mins at a time make my neck worse, so I haven't achieved much these last couple of weeks on that front. And so does sitting on the computer, so that explains my recent quietness!

I did buy something beautiful for Rob as it's his birthday soon, from Cambridge market, which I shall try to photograph later for you.

And exciting news...this weekend, I am aiming to go to Cambridge to meet up with the Knit2Tog group for the first time. Can't wait. I shall take my sad and neglected Babette, and also the Scrappy Flappy Hat I'm supposed to be finishing for a friend moving back to the US on Wednesday. (And starting it!)

Lily goes off to New Jersey next Friday. I am sending her with room in her suitcase, so any local yarn shops in that area, let me know and I can send her with a list too!!!!

My Beautiful Babette

I am in love with the new colours and doing this makes me so happy!

No more words really needed! I have done sections 1-4.

March is Meat Free Month..and that includes FISH and CHICKEN

This month is meat free month, so I wanted to take a couple of minutes just to be a little evangelical about something close to my heart.

As you know, I am a lifelong vegetarian. Whilst I am all for live and let live, I cannot understand even a little bit, how people can bear to eat the body of something once so beautiful.

What makes me really angry, is the people who feel that their conscience is spared by calling themselves vegetarian but eating fish or even sometimes chicken!! Why would you say you don't eat flesh if you blatantly do? Why even say you're vegetarian? It's so silly. Even if you only eat it once a year...HELLOOOOOOO, sorry to disappoint you, but you're not a vegetarian. You can have a name thought. If you eat fish and no other flesh, you are a pescatarian. If you eat chicken, you're a demiveg. There you are, you can have a name! But please don't call yourself a vegetarian, you'll give us real ones a bad reputation!

There are so many good reasons, both health wise and planet wise to become vegetarian. Even if you're a confirmed meat eater and you cut down to only eating it once or twice a week, it's got to be a good thing. And if you really have to buy it, make sure that it has had a happy life and as decent a slaughter as it can be, by buying freedom foods and free range eggs.

Lastly if you would like to know more about the benefits, read here. No gory pictures, just information.

Thank you for listening! Now, go and cook that aubergine bake!!!!

Pinch, punch, first day of the month....

Happy, happy March to you all. We here in the Northern hemisphere, are rolling further towards Summer and I for one, can't wait!!! The bulbs are springing up and the sun is getting warmer, but apparently we are forecast snow for next week, so I won't get my bikini out just yet!

I am doing more sewing than knitting at the moment, but the Mystery Blanket rolls along. I'm not that enamoured with it at the moment, so having a little rest and hoping to get some mojo for it back soon. I thought I might have a bash at my Babette again tonight, new month and all, but I'll let you now how it goes!

Enjoy what's left of the weekend!

PS I completely forgot to celebrate my 3rd blogoversary back on the 12th February, so I shall be belatedly celebrating it this month when I can think of a good way to do it!

Hooray! Some knitting pics at long last!

As you know, I have been knitting the Debbie Abrahams mystery blanket, of that I am hoping to take some pics tomorrow, but for now, here are my 2 knitting companions..



As you can see, it's a relaxed environment!!

So, over the last few weeks, I have knitted 2 neck warmers. Firstly, for me, the Caera Cowl which I found over on Zebraknits. I knitted it in some lovely Malabrigo silky which Stacey kindly sent me, and I put it on as soon as it was off the needles, without even sewing in the ends...ssshhhhhh! (which I have now done!)


Then I knitted Lily one in worsted weight malabrigo, from Exercise Before Knitting design pages here.
It's Ridged Lace Cowl. I am naming mine Purple Haze. The yarn, again, was a gift from Stacey, and praise indeed that Lily will wear it as she is sooo sensitive to anything even REMOTELY related to itchy, but she loves this. The first picture show the pattern better and the second picture shows a truer colour.





It has even gone to Paris with her!

I have also knitted Tiennie's Scrappy Flap Hat, but mine is called Scrappy Flappy Hat.
What a cool design...go over to Tiennie Knits to check out the variations!
Here's mine blocking



Let me first impress you with the neat inside...


Then after sewing on the bobbles, which Lily made




And finally, being modelled by it's owner (it's also gone to Paris!)




Excuse the teenage bedroom scenery!

We love it! Thank you, Tiennie for the pattern.
Rob already has an order in for his!

Finally, I'll leave you with a photo of me and my 17 year old baby on her birthday. Can I just say in my defence, I had had a minor op that morning and it was snowing heavily, but we still made it out 20 miles away to the best Chinese restaurant around.
Where there's a will, there's a way!!!!