My Stash Has Increased

Wow ~ another chiller.

It was -5 degrees when I left home this morning and much the same at school.

It didn't get much over this due the big wodge of fog that sat on us all day ~ still I was lovely and warm my Herdwick Jacket.

As promised pictures of the new things I obtained on Saturday.

Firstly sock yarn.

Lana Grosa Multieffekt.

There's a bit used from this small (50g) ball of Regia but the colours were so pretty...........

Rowan Big Wool Fusion in Gooseberry. I've got some blue and pink in this ~ it's super squishy.

150g of Artesano Hummingbird in Sunbird colourway.

(Alpaca sooooooooo warm.)

Rowan Cotton Jeans - enough to make a summer cardi!

And some roving....

a grey/natural mix.

And lastly this blue/green mix which has silk in it as well.

The roving will hopefully be spun on my drop spindle. When I last used my drop spindle things didn't go too well ~ but this time I have a partner in crime ~ my friend M so we might do some spinning together.

All in all I'm very pleased with my haul, all I need now is the time to make it into things ;-).

We're weather watching now to see if we do get snow although just a degree or two warmer would be good.

Keep warm.........Clicky Needles.

Brrrrrrrrr! Sunday 28th November

Hello!

Cor it's cold.

No snow for us for a change but lots of ice and it's teeth chatteringly cold.

DS's rugby was cancelled today as the pitch was frozen.

We've been doing the only thing you can in the circumstances ~ make brownies, light the wood burner and stay toasty warm.

I've got a TA~DAH.

The Herdwick Jacket is finished. As you can see the sleeves stayed on in the end.

I am really liking this one.

As I'm sure I mentioned before the yarn (Nature's Way Chunky) came from Kemps and this has cost me ONLY £12.00 to make. I think I shall be wearing it to work tomorrow as we are predicted a high of 1 degree.

The Chunky Waistcoat is finished and blocking and I've started another waistcoat, in King Cole Riot ~ a self striping yarn and in a totally different colour palate than I'm used to. This is very Autumny, I'm not entirely sure that I like it but we shall see when it's finished.

This Saturday was the last meeting before Christmas of the Butterfly Garden Knitters. We had some mulled wine, a beautiful Christmas cake and nibbles.

We also had a stash clear out and sale ~ and managed to raise an amazing £237 for the Butterfly Garden. I will show you tomorrow what I got.

It is with great sadness that we found out today that Bertie, B and S's dog died. He had a tumour on his heart. In spite of his slightly fierce appearance he had a very gentle nature and was a lovely boy.

I'm so sorry B and S, he will be missed by us too.

On that sad note I'll say bye for now. Clicky Needles.

P.S. Several people have said to me they are unable to leave comments on my blog. You will need a google account to do this. Google haha! 'Google accounts' and set yourself an account up. They will send you an email which you then click on to verify. You can then change your profile and add a name that you'd like to be known by. After that you can add a comments to blogs by selecting google account and doing the weird letter recognition thing. Hope this helps!

Christmas Shopping has started.

Hello again.

Well the Christmas shopping has been started.

I spent a good 4 hours trooping around Cheltenham and got a few bits (and a few things for me!) I had jolly sore feet at by the finish and had to give them a soak and a bit of TLC when I got home.

I also bought a few new decorations.

To me Christmas is all about the house looking pretty and spending time with the kids snuggled around the fire playing board games and enjoying each other's company.

I L~O~V~E decorating the house at Christmas and this year me and DD have decided that the main theme will be pink/purple/blue. I say main theme ~ this will be in the living room.

Other areas of the house ~ hall and kitchen will be different.

I do go a bit wild ~ it takes me a good few days to get it just right ~ and NOBODY is allowed to change anything on the tree. :-)

I've had a bit of a tidy up in the garden, the Clematis Cirrhosa which flowers right through winter is looking lovely. Nature never ceases to amaze me.

I found these Echium Pininana seedlings under the Buddelia.

Not very interesting at the moment but the picture below shows the last time we managed to get some through the winter. I'm sure I have a better picture than this but I have (literally) taken hours trying to find this one.

This has told me two things:

1. I need to organise the photos better and

2. I must ask Father Christmas for a digital photo frame so we can actually view the (thousands of) pictures that are sitting on the Mac doing nothing.

What this picture doesn't show are the stunning blue and pink flowers that appear between the leaves when these flower. I've wrapped up the seedings with fern leaves hoping they will survive the winter. Watch this space!

On the knitting front I've nearly decided that the Herdwick Jacket will be better as a waistcoat so I'm going to take the sleeves off.

I realised why I haven't added the buttons to the Purple Garter Swingy Jacket ~ I don't like it, I'm not sure why because I really liked the pattern and love the top down construction but I've tried it on and poked and prodded but can't make it look any better. I've another pattern in mind for the fabby Rowan Aran Wool and will knit straight from one to the other.

I'm also making a really chunky waistcoat in the Stylecraft Life Super Chunky that I got other the day so hopefully it'll be done soon.

Hope you don't get too much much cold weather and snow this week.

Have a good week. Clicky Needles.

Remembrance Sunday

We will remember them.

Today we have joined many people across the world in an act of remembrance.

On this damp and cold morning DD joined her platoon for first time at the Stroud Remembrance service.

These four young Cadets were Honour Guard around the Memorial and stood like statues the whole time.

As DD has not yet 'passed' she was part of the Gate Guard.

This is the rest of her platoon marching.

And the wreaths that were laid.

The two minute silence gave time for reflection and those words

"For your tomorrow, we gave our today"

spoken by a Young Cadet brought tears to my eyes.

Reading the blog of my friend Burgundy Dreamer she has been to two services today, and has a poignant story to tell, have a look.

On Friday I went to a crochet group at where else? ~ my favourite local yarn shop Along Came Polly ~ and took the Squeaky Blanket that DS has claimed. One of the ladies was really taken with it and said it 'was inspirational' ~ I'm very flattered.

I've been sewing up the Herdwick Jacket and the swaps are coming along a pace too, so I'm feeling quite happy with them.

I've got to get Christmas Shopping started and to that end I shall be spending Friday this in Cheltenham so wish me luck!

As always have a good week whatever you do.

Bye for now ....Clicky Needles.

Missed another post.

Hello there.

How rubbish am I?

Another Sunday post missed.

Well to be honest there's not a lot for me to tell at the moment.

The Warwick Castle Trip managed to stay dry, although it was a bit windy.

It was a fabulous place to visit, history was brought to life by the guides dressed in full costume and full of information.

Everyone children and adults alike enjoyed it very much.

This weekend was a quiet one - Mr Clicky Needles, me and DS went into Stroud for a meander around and came back with some yummy cakes from a local baker.

We had a load of wood delivered so we're very toasty of an evening now.

I also decided that a chimney sweeping would be a good idea. I do enjoy sweeping the chimney ~ partly because it takes me back to when I was a little girl watching my Dad do it.

As it turned out it wasn't too sooty, but a job worth doing nevertheless.

I popped into Along Came Polly on Friday and bought some yarn ~ a new delivery to ACP

~ Stylecraft Life Super Chunky.

I had had a pattern lined up for some time so was delighted when this came in. I got home and cast on straight away and then stopped and gave myself a good talking too.

As I mentioned last week I'm in two Christmas swaps and I really should be getting on with sorting them out. So I stopped the casting on and got down to the swaps.

I've nearly got the knitting for the Secret Santa Swap finished and I'm loving it.

Of course, I can't let you know anything about this ~ although I'm itching to share.

Friday night saw us going to the school bonfire and fireworks night.

It was raining as we left home but when we arrived the cloud had also sat on this particular bit of the Cotswolds so visibility was only about 30 metres.

No great for fireworks then.

Not that mattered too much because everytime we tried to look upwards we got a face full of rain.

My mulled wine gave me small comfort but the rain kept making plop, plop, plop sounds in it.

By the time I'd reached the bottom it was cold and watered down.

We tried to stay cheerful as we watched the cloud glow very prettily but it was such a disappointment.

We came home, changed into PJs and cuddled up by the fire.

A confession.

I got this really vibrant ball of Grundl Hot Socks yarn at ACP too - am thinking another Baktus maybe. (I've had my eye on this for a while.)

See ~ I told you not much had happened!

Hope it isn't too windy with you this week.

Bye for now Clicky Needles.

Nose to the Grindstone Again.

Hi.

First of all an apology.

No blog this weekend but there is a jolly good reason for this.

B and I were hoping to be going to France to sign papers (and take possession of) our little house.

Everything is with Le Mairie and sadly, at the moment staying there. So in the absence of a lovely girly trip B and S and Bertie came to stay with us instead.

B and me had a 'Fantasy' shopping trip to Ikea in Bristol and the boys stayed at home and did whatever boys do. We did get a few funny looks whilst in Ikea ~ there were lots of girly squeals when we saw furniture that would go perfectly in the house. It was also very reassuring that we both liked the same sort of things and did lots of agreeing.

We had a lovely time with B and S as usual.

I've been down to @Bristol with the KS1 children ~ I hadn't been before ~ if you're ever around Bristol (and who wouldn't be with the lovely Ikea and Get Knitted pretty close by) try and visit, it's really good.

We've another school trip tomorrow ~ this time KS2 to Warwick Castle so pray for the weather to hold please!

Half term is already feeling like a distant memory!

On the knitting front I've finished the Baktus Scarf which although I'm not wild on the colours

I do like. It stays put and doesn't move about too much.

I enjoyed making the Baktus so much I cast on for this shawl using some lovely Fabel sock yarn from Drops.

The yarn name is Candy Mix and I love it.

My Herdwick Jacket is on the making up stage and ......buttons....did someone say buttons?

No? Good. Not done.

I'm also taking part in two Christmas Swaps with the lovely folks on the Phoenix Forum but can't reveal anything about those.

Have fun whatever you're doing this week.

Bye for now Clicky Needles.