Ooops it's Tuesday

Hello All!

What a bad blogger I've been, missed my Sunday post.

Well I'm here now so here goes.

The Granny Baby Blanket has changed a little since I last showed it. I decided after a bit of deliberation, that I would crochet the squares together, which is a great way of doing things.

So It's now looking like this.

The girls at Butterfly Knitters on Saturday persuaded me that it needed another row and it will therefore become a square.

This picture was taken in the garden on Sunday when it was very, very hot.

Monday turned out to be very hot and humid too (some very grumpy children at school) with nasty clouds around which eventually broke and gave us some rain.

DD has now finished GCSEs so is a lady of leisure, evident from the beautiful drawings on the drive which she and BF have been making today.

Self portraits.

Love is in the air.

A lovely cow.....

and piggy.

I've just realised looking at these pictures that I've a blob on my camera lens. It's been cleaned now so hopefully normal service will be resumed.

I've seen a pattern for a cardi from Drops which is getting me quite excited, maybe I can use up some stash, but I'm trying not too think about it too much because I must get off and do those Friendship Blanket Squares (why do I leave it soooo late?)

Hope you see a bit of nice sun in your neck of the woods this week.

Byeeeeeeeeeeee........................Clicky Needles.

P.S. I've just gone to the Drops website to give you a link to the cardi and they've released their Autumn/Winter Collection. Lots of lovely patterns there ~ flippin' 'eck ~ more in the queue.

Forgotten Scarf!

Hello All.

I hope you're all ok.

We've been to another National Trust Property called Hanbury Hall.

My brother and niece came too.

Quite impressive looking, it dates from 1701.

Side elevation!

The weather vane was quite impressive, but as you can see it was a bit of an overcast day.

As it was Father's Day there was a display of birds of prey. The 'headless' bird being a vulture ~ I think they were finding it a bit chilly.

This is Ted an Eagle Owl who was refusing to go back to the handler, as he knew his bit was over and he was about to be caught!

We wandered around and then had a picnic lunch ~ very nice.

When I looked back at my post for half term I thought that it was odd that I'd only managed to make a tea cosy with a whole week off.

Of course, I made something else I just forgot.

I used that wonderful Colinette Point 5 that I got at Woolfest and made a squooshy scarf, modelled here by our South Sea Island Head.

Not that he looks happy with it.

It was made with 12mm needles, so a quick knit!

The lovely yarn is really shown up well by the garter stitch.

I've been carrying on with the Granny Squares Baby Blanket this week and I'm also making the Friendship Blanket Squares for this month.

The weather hasn't been great but the plants don't mind too much.

This Sea Holly, Eryngium Giganteum, Miss Willmot's Ghost is as spiky as it looks. The story goes that Miss Ellen Willmott who became a garden designer in the late 1800s, would drop seeds of this around any garden she visited ~hence the name ~ she's not been here but it's seeded everywhere!

The frothy lime green flowers of Alchemilla Mollis ~ Ladies Mantle..........

....and the fuchsia pink of Lychnis. I love this colour.

Well, I'm off now, as always have a good week.

Byeeeeeeee.....................Clicky Needles.

Hooky Love

Hello all!

Well, I hope whichever part of the world you're in it is nicer than mine at the moment.

As predicted by the weathermen it has rained.

All day.

It has not stopped.

It has however, given me a chance to do some dyeing without the feeling I'm missing out on sunshine, so not all bad.

I've had much excitement this week. I've joined a recorder group!

Before you all start to giggle, we have a full ensemble ~ 1 bass, 1 treble,

3 tenors and 2 descants.

I was playing descant on DS' funky green recorder.

Despite the fact that it is green and plastic it plays just as well as an expensive one and I love it. I stood with trepidation with my green recorder in hand, I'm ok, but not great and the others in the group soon put me to shame, but the overall sound (not helped by me) was really rather good. We played a tudor piece which was just beautiful. I pretended to play (top A B F and G all new notes to me!) and tried to keep up. I left having had a great evening but feeling rather inadequate, I have practised every day since and .............I'm getting better. I've got top F and G, A and B are nearly there. I can't wait for the next meeting!

I've been carrying on with Little Granny Squares and suddenly hit on a colourway that I liked. Not that I didn't like the others, but this combo I really liked.

I carried on adding more rounds.

I had a nose around the Cath Kidson Group on Ravelry and the Cath Kidson website (her blanket costs £160 *ahem*.)

I played around and came up with a few colour combos.

This wasn't quite right......

.......or this.........

................................but this is perfect!

I'm so, so happy with this.

Now, I do like a nice yarn, and to be perfectly honest, would usually turn up my nose a squeaky acrylic, but this square is sending me into hooky heaven.

One of the teachers at school is pregnant so I'm going to make her a baby blankie.

I have 5 of these squares made so far and I'm pretty darn pleased with them.

In the garden ~ the Dragon Arum (Stinky Plant) has flowered. It had lots of flies attracted to it, and for the first time had not 1 but 2 flowers.

It's gone over now, only lasts a few days.

Those alliums are breaking out into flower, all of them self seeded. Don't you just love it when that happens? I do.

Not all in the garden is a success story though. Can you see the beetroot and carrots growing here? Nope. Well nor can I, just a bumper crop of Opium Poppies. I do love poppies and I know these will be stunning when in flower but I like a bit of beetroot too.

Something doing well however is my blackberry. Covered in flowers and berries, Mr Clicky Needles bought me this last year. I L-O-V-E blackberries and have happy memories of blackberrying with my Mum when I was little. Shovelling them into my mouth rather than the bowl, getting stained fingers and then bringing them home and making blackberry jelly. Any extras went into the freezer and saw us good for blackberry and apple crumble through the winter. Home made blackberry jelly tastes sooooooo much better than the stuff I buy in the supermarket.

I'm not sure I'm going to have enough for blackberry jelly but I can always live in hope.....

I'd like to thank Teresa for her lovely comment last week ~ you can come again! I left Teresa a comment, I think that lots of people are planning to visit her ( I would if I was in her neck of the woods.) I imagine hoards of people trooping up her drive, popping in for a cup of tea.

Righto I must get going now...ironing or hooky happiness which shall I choose?

Have fun in your week...............Clicky Needles.

All Re-Charged.

Hello there.

We've had friends, S and B staying this weekend.

We went on Saturday to Coughton Court a National Trust property in the next county up of Warwickshire. A really lovely tudor house with super gardens. We went up onto the roof and had a good look around.

The gardens were great too and contained some fab-u-lous Gunnera in the bog garden.

Here's a rare picture of me (!) so you can get idea of the height. I'm 5"3' and I fitted comfortably underneath it, although I am quite well camouflaged.

We had a picnic lunch and a poke around the National Trust shop and I fell in love with this blanket made from recycled wool which then came home with us.

When we got home we had a jolly nice Cremant with some Creme du Mure and an English Strawberry. Yummy!

B very kindly bought me some citronella candles for the garden ~ just my colours.

Unfortunately we didn't get to use then Saturday night because it was too chilly to be outside.

Instead we played cards and Scrabble well into bed time. So what? I hear you ask.

I got an eight letter word in Scrabble (used an s on the board already) ~ dragnets. This is the FIRST TIME EVER I've managed to get all my letters out and get the extra points. Woop, woop!

As always we had a super weekend with lots of laughs.

I've had a good week off and got the Tea-Cosy finished.

Pre-felting.

Finished.

As you can see I've folded back a brim because it was a little bit too tall. Incase you're wondering ~ yes my tea is hot!

My squares for June's bit of the Friendship blanket arrived nice and early.

Mine will be underway soon.

I need to say a big "Hello" to my Dad who had a hip replacement operation this week. He is back home and walking about, so "Get well soon Dad".

I've had a refreshing half-term break, but today's weather has been miserable, rainy and cold, let's hope it warms up again.

Hope your week is a good one.

Byeeeee.....................Clicky Needles.

May Mosaic

Some pretty pictures from May.

Clicky Needles.