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!!!!

Fearless Knitting

Although I have been a rubbish blogger, I can at least try to impress you and excuse my absence with my knitting news!

I have finished something, a hat I found over at Tiennie's blog, and which she has kindly made a free download and I love it.

Here's the one she made


Lily is off to Paris for a few days on Wednesday and she wants to take it with her. We are in the process of making pom poms for it and I shall show it off when it's truly finished. I don't have a pom pom maker (unlike some, Stacey!!) and so we have had to revert to the cereal box method, of olden days!!

I also joined the Debbie Abraham's Mystery Blanket in January and am now on the second set of squares. At first I wasn't too impressed, but I am starting to love them, and am on number 6. They are a good way of stretching my knitting ability, rather than staying in a safe zone, as I have done cabling, swiss darning and beading, to name but a few techniques. I promise to show you soon.

My Babette is horrible, I don't like the colours in the way they are in the pattern, and so have decided to restart that, and make the colours work as I go along. I trust my eye for it more that the pattern I think, so I am hoping it will work.

Lily was 17 last week, and sadly for her it has been so snowy that she hasn't been able to get out driving, but hopefully she will be able to when she comes back from France.

Valentine's Day was yesterday and we had a lovely day and then tried to go and see Slumdog Millionaire, but it was full :( So we rented In Bruges instead and had a cosy night in with some popcorn.......!

No much else to report, really. I am also making a quilt which I am loving. I will try to take some photos this week so you can see my efforts!

Hope you are all managing to stay warm!