Stop and Look

There are many reasons to 'Stop and Look' the main one I'd say is when crossing the road as part of our hectic lifestyles. Sometimes the world around us has plenty to offer when we simply stop and look.

It's taking the time to stop and pay attention to what's going on around you. I'm not sure if you've ever done the same but on more than one occasion I've jumped in the car going somewhere or another and been half way down the road before I've realised that my 'Autopilot' has kicked in and I'm busily headed off to work or school when I was supposed to be going to somewhere else in completely the opposite direction.

My time lately has been taken up with an awful lot of sewing and very little knitting at all. The main culprit has been this:

Butterick Retro pattern B6582 - the really full skirted option and not the 'wiggle' dress. I've not disliked the experience - on the whole I've really been enjoying it all and have got the sewing bug again. But my life seems to have been swallowed up whole by this and my brothers upcoming wedding (10 days to go now!!) and as such I've noticed very little else.

Until today when I was out in the garden and low and behold the huge Lime trees that back on to our garden have the beginnings of leaves on them. Not buds but fresh spring green leaves shooting out and lots of them too. Now when did that happen?! I see then everyday from my lounge windows and have only just noticed. Either Spring moves at light speed or really I'm seeing without seeing if you catch my drift.

So I made the time today to Stop and Look and saw with fresh eyes how everything has developed and that the buds on my lilac tree, which I think will have a wonderful display this year, look about set to flower.... right over the weekend of Wonder Wool Wales. Hmmm... I hope there'll be something left for me to enjoy once I get home on the Sunday.

Anyway - if any of you get to Builth Wells this weekend for a good old dose of Wool Fumes like I intend doing, I hope you all have fun. If not then I shall tell you all about it next time!!

I'd best be off now - the other thing I spotted when I stopped and looked was that I need to hover and dust the place!!

Spring is in the Air

And doesn't it make a difference? As the weather gets nicer I've been spending more and more time in the garden which has been a bit neglected of late. Gradually it's getting a good seeing too but first off it's a good old hack back of all those died back plants and such. We had a lovely shrub at the end of the yarn which gave a lovely splash of colour to see from the lounge window but this extreme winter seems to have been too much for it. One day it was full of leaves then next they'd all fallen off - it left such a gap as well as such a huge pile of leaves. Out came the rake and once they were gone there was plenty of other emerging plants revealed. With the addition of some new plants relocated from elsewhere in the garden such as bluebells, cowslips and chocolate foxgloves I can at least be promised some colour and interest later on.

Gardening may be hard work but oh how it seems to lift my spirits - seeing all the plants coming up and buds beginning to form is all so full of the promise of Spring and Summer. And the birds seem to think so too. There's a pair of Blue Tit's looking to nest in next door's bird box (conveniently easy for me to see as well) and the trees backing on to our gardens are full of life from fluffy tailed squirrels (grey) to Long Tailed Tits which are so sweet.

We have a flock of them that go from tree to tree searching for insects to eat and I could watch them for hours (if they'd stay still long enough!). Today there was one lonely one along with a Greenfinch hopping about. Still it's enough to entertain me and make me get my slippers dirty for!

My urge to go out and garden may be one reason why my latest knitting project is progressing so slowly. This is pair number 5 of my planned 11 in 2011 - the first 4 seemed to fly by but this one is p l o d d i n g along. I think also I'm just trying to make myself do too much right now. The list is huge and a bit overwhelming. This weekend though Mum is coming up to try and help me out with one item on the list - a pair of flower girl dresses for my brother's wedding. The bride-to-be was going to be coming to help but we managed to pick the weekend of her Hen Party/Weekend so it'll just be the two of us sitting in amongst piles of very pink tuille. Not too complex a dress to make, just time consuming. The complex one on the list of things to do is mine which is a reprint of a 1960's dress which I've some bronze/gold silk for. It's mostly cut out and ready to sew but I'm a bit worried that I've bitten off more than I can chew. Still I've a back-up dress so no real worries!! And I've a month to make it in.... plenty of time?!

I should also add my Thanks to you all for the welcome back to blogging you've given me. It really is nice to be back and to be back reading all yours in return :)

And finally finally I've just got to make some of these - don't you agree?!

Doesn't Time Fly?

Life seems to whizz by.

I don't know if having a small child in the house makes it go quicker but it seems as if the weeks disappear as soon as they arrive. I was going to say before you know it it'll will be March.... oh dear! Proof that I am loosing my grip on the awareness of the passage of time if ever I had it!

Of course I do know it was St Davids day yesterday. I'm Welsh therefore how could I not know! Yesterday was also the first time that spring seemed to be marching closer to us (no pun

intended). Seemingly everywhere I went yesterday there were fields being mown, or mowed which ever is right, the smell of cut grass was in the air and the sun was warm on your back.

Shame I can't say the same today, the wind is biting so it'd not quite time to put any mittens into hibernation yet!

This Winter, despite saying that time flies by, seems to have dragged. Now I like Winter, to a certain degree, because as a knitter it is a season that seems to justify the purpose of being a knitter. I will not be cold - I will be wrapped in as many layers of hand-knit woolliness as I can manage for I am a knitter! But after a while the novelty wears off and I've missed those fresh new leaf greens which are only now just starting to show themselves. Still, we're not going to have one of those Narnian Winters that last for hundreds of years, Spring is coming so I shall keep my eyes peeled!

Spring as we know is a time of new life and new beginnings. As I type I'm currently having new glass put in our windows - a new era for our little old house! No more rotten frames! And I've been embracing new ideas and joining Mum in trying out some Art Yarns - no pictures today but really good fun to play with.

My lovely knitting friends have also been dragged into this era of newness with a little bit of dying as Birthday treats. Both recently had Birthdays and a hand-dyed present seemed a novel idea and something they were excited to try. So last Sunday we invaded Nadine's kitchen and got the dyes out...

The results are lovely and each of them are happy with their efforts (I dyed one as a demo and then let them dye their own) and rightly so. I think there may be some people buying dyes at Wonder Wool later this Spring :)

And the new skill learning didn't stop there. Last night Jude tried out spinning with a spindle after having tried, and not enjoyed, spinning with a wheel. And she went for it!! The concentration was immense and before long she'd nearly filled the spindle. I think there might be a new spinner out there now!

The only thing we could do with now is more practice, both in spinning and in skein winding....

I'd like to say that Tilly the cat helped but I can't! Still it looks lovely wound into a cake and is now ready to knit which is all that matters.

On a final note I'll go back to it being St Davids day yesterday. One of the items in our Etsy shop was featured in a St Davids day treasury which is a lovely compliment and I love how it looks in amongst all the other lovely green Welsh themed items.

So to my Welsh readers (if there are any other than my Mum!) I wish you all a belated Happy St Davids day and to everyone else Happy Spring watching!

Brushing the Dust Off!

It seems odd not having posted for ages but I've been contentedly knitting and spinning away and blogs have been far from my thoughts. Maybe it's the faint promise of Spring and the lengthening of the days that's drawn me back but here I am (admittedly it's too cold for me here so I'm wrapped up with Agatha!).

I've always wondered how some people can manage to knit so many socks in relatively short periods of time so I surprised myself by knitting and casting on for three pairs of socks in three weeks. Admittedly there are only 2 pairs and one lonely Elfine so far but I was distracted as I'll explain shortly. Obviously if you've read my previous post you'll know about the first of my finished socks which are my hand-dyed Plumkin Pie Chevrons. The pattern is one of the Chevrons from 'Sensational Knitted Socks' which isn't to hand right now or I'd give you the exact details! Nice comfy socks - shame about the bit of pooling around the heel flap but other than that I'm really pleased with my home made self- striping socks even if they are a bit like tiger feet!!

Next up was a first try of my Colinette Jitterbug stash in the Gauguin colourway which I got on holiday last year in Devon. The pattern is 'Lorelei' from 'Lets Knit!' a month or so ago which was done in the exact same colourway so I thought I may as well give it a go and try and avoid the odd pooling the Jitterbug sometimes seems to do as the socks in the photo looked great. And mine done on the same size needles? Weird purple stripe that turned into blobs on the soles of my feet (a Paul Simon song if I'm not mistaken!!) which made me think of either birthmarks or grape pickers feet! And the pooling on both sock was different to the other. But as for the sock - lovely and squishy and comfy but I think I'd have rather do them on smaller needles for a bit more of a snug fit but that's just being picky!!


Finally the aforementioned 'Elfine', a pattern I've been wanting to knit for ages now and have have wool set aside for ages specifically for it. I'm of a mind that I need the right colour sock yarn to go with a pattern sometimes and Elfine screamed greens to me. Now my wool looks nothing like the photo below the blues and purples are more vivid than shown but as Mum rightly says you can't really see the pattern for all the variegation of colour. All the same it's pretty and I like it. It also happens to be a good variation for me (like Lorelei) in that it's a toe-up sock but this time using a figure of eight cast on which is a bit fiddly to start but lovely and neat. the trouble is I need to be fully awake and have my brain in gear before I start the next one and lately I've just been that little bit too tired of an evening to gear myself up for a bit of work.

I'd finally decided that it was about time that my Japanese Feather Stole was finished off as it was far too simple a pattern for it to be neglected. So Elfine number two was delayed for the moment whilst I slogged on with the stole which grew quite quickly once I paid it some attention and thankfully it's that straight forward enough of a pattern that I was able to do it whilst DD was around which says a lot seeing as she's definitely going through the Terrible Two's (BTW what's next - Frantic Threes; Fearful Fours?) and I could even knit it at our Knitting evenings albeit slowly!!

I'm not sure if it's a Spring Thing but I've cast on for another shawl with Summer in mind. DH mentioned how many weeks it was before we'd be off to sunny Pembrokeshire for our hols and I decided to cast on to make sure it's be finished in time. It's Norah Gaughan's Medallion Shawl from Vogue Winter 07/08 which involves knitting up 15 separate hexagons which is actually quite satisfying to knit up. So far I've 9 knitted up in some Jaeger Alpaca 4ply in a cream shade making it look like little snow flakes (so much for a Summer shawl!!) and 6 more shouldn't take too long to do but I think the crocheting together of them all may be a bit testing of my meager crochet skills!

I shall leave you with photos of the extremes of the month. First off is a shot of the mountains from the moors behind Mum's house (one is probably Snowdon but I'm not too great at remembering the names of them from a distance) which was taken this Monday. And the final shot for you are some Dog Tooth Violets which appeared in one of my plant pots last year and are providing a beautiful shot in today's bright sunshine - definitely a month of mixed up weather!

Anyway I'm surrounded with piles of raspberry fluff to be spun up so I'll leave you for now and attempt to return with more news as soon as possible, hopefully within weeks and not months this time!

Finally FO's!

Well Butterfly has finally spread her wings and joined the list of FO's and I'm so pleased with the results! Admittedly the photo isn't brilliant and the collar still needs pressing to get it to stop rolling but other than that I'm really in love with this! It's shorter than the pattern states as I'd only got 500g and not 550g as the pattern needed and I could have taken some length off the sleeves had I actually really thought about how long my arms were compared to the sleeves - as you can see this should keep my hands warm on cold days!! The colours seem to be quite hard to capture accurately - this detail shot is a bit more realistic in that the lavender blue section on the collar is not as purpley as it seems above! As for the yarn - so soft and cosy, a really good buy as far as I'm concerned!
I'm still debating which stash project I'm going to start next - there's yarn set aside for 4 jumpers, 2 patterns decided upon but still needs some narrowing down before I'll be happy to cast on yet. 'Melon' is still calling me from 'Victorian Lace Today' and would be a great way to really christen my Boyes needles but it will probably take need more concentration than my brain is possible capable of right now! So just for the ease of it and to keep those fingers knitting I've cast on for (and knitted the first of) some Horcrux socks from the Six Socks Knitalong. I've got until the end of the month to finish them by but I've no worries about that as sock 2 is on the heel already and flying along! It's a comfy sock as well - very elastic and I'm sure there will be no Nora Batty sagging here!

In amongst all the madness of Birthday Parties (which was really more of a get together than a party and went really well!) and new bathrooms (also going well but still chaos!) I've also been getting some spinning done. Again I've not been able to get a really good photo of this, try as I did I could not get a really good close up unblurred shot. But you should be able to get the idea from what you can see which should end up as completely OTT socks. I'm spinning the colours in the same order each time but I'm not really convinced I'll end up with blocks of colour as there's been no real attempt to have equal sections. So there should be a bit of a mix of colours which I hope won't be too bad on the eyes! As soon as its plyed I will show you the results (unless truly horrible!)
I've been meaning to post for ages now but things do seem to have been hectic lately and by the end of the day my head has not been up to sitting in front of the computer so I apologise for the huge essay and heap of photos I'm inflicting on you all. I really couldn't leave without sharing these glimpses of Spring which I've seen over the last couple of weeks.

I just love the effect of the light in those last photos lighting up those shady woodland plants - so easily overlooked but so beautiful.

And of course some bluebells - it's been such a fantastic year for them so far and I just love the way they've tinted so many hillsides blue.

Anyway back to the knitting, thanks for the continuing support and all your comments even though I'm being a slow blogger - I will try harder!!

I'm still here - honestly!

Where has the month gone? I've been meaning to post for ages now but have been so tired of an evening that I couldn't face sitting at the computer and so I've sat and knit instead. Saying that though I've not really had a load of time to be able to knit as gone are the days when Emily would have a nap so I've less time to be a everything in. I really want to get some spinning done as well soon so I'll have to make myself put my knitting down one evening!

Spring has arrived in our village and brings with it the impressive avenue of cherry blossom with I just love. So Emily and I have been out admiring the blossom in between playing on the cricket field (yes it really is like a stereotypical English Village with cricket on the green!) and we thought you may like to see it for yourselves!

I do have some knitting content for you as well in the form of a progress shot of 'Butterfly' form 'Noro Knits' (I think). I'm using my American Noro-esque yarn which is lovely to knit and the colours are lovely as well. And wouldn't you just know it - the pattern for this is virtually the same as for Jaywalkers!! Speaking of which since I made them I've seen about 5 or 6 Jays and I've not seen any for years before now - magic socks!
You can also see the kind gift from my wonderful benefactress (Mum) of a set of Boyes of my very own!! And fabulous they are too! Anyway I'm keeping this short and sweet today as I'm hogging Mum's computer to update this for you and we have plans afoot to venture out into the rain for some food shopping and maybe some beads in the new local bead shop - fingers crossed for beads large enough to spin with!!

Projects and Photos.

Rummaging in the stash mountain I came across this combination and have been trying ever since to decide if these two yarns go together or not. I've even knitted up some small swatches to see how they look knitted up. So the question is - do they 'go'? At times I say 'yes', then change my mind and think 'no' the green needs a quick bath in some blue dye to take the edge off it a little....
I may make my mind up at some point. And what is this all for? This is Poppy. The pattern was in one of the UK Knitting mags (Knitting - if I remember correctly!) and the original was done in Noro Silk Garden and Cash Iroha (spellcheck says this should be IRA!! LOL)- well I've no such luck to have a stash of Noro to use. (I do have a ball each of Silk Garden and Kureyon but then I want a jumper for me not one of Emily's dollies!) I have enough of the green to do the sleeves of Poppy with the body being variegated and am not sure if this would work or not - can you tell I'm desperately trying to get my stash yarns to play nicely with each other and give me something wearable?



FO-wise I've one sleeve to go so not too far off now! I will get cracking tonight!

Anyway - as we've had some beautiful spring days lately I suppose I should change the subject and let a little light in.


These following photos were all taken not too far from where I am in a place called Eastham Woods. There's a lovely coastal path that follows the banks of the River Mersey to the woods which were formerly a Victorian Pleasure Garden complete with Bear pit and Water Splash (an early roller coaster) which nature has now reclaimed but remnants are still to be found like fountains and rhododendrons in amongst the trees. It's a bit like finding the lamp-post in the woods of Narnia but not quite as magical as you're under the flightpath for Liverpool Airport so you get loads of planes taking off and landing not so far above you. Anyway I didn't get as far as the fountains etc but enjoyed natures display of blossom, catkins and fresh green leaves so thought I'd share these with you. Doesn't Spring just lift your heart? It always does for me!