Scavenger Hunt : January

 Here's my pictures for the January Scavenger Hunt.

Soft 

My Granny Squares.

2

The number of feet in my new wellies. 

Blur

A female Blackcap drinking nectar from a Mahonia, she was moving so fast I couldn't get her.

In season

Wild Snowdrops.

In my bathroom

There is a shark.  

Not really, a piece of driftwood picked up from a beach in Northumberland.

Mess 

The garden which needs attending to.

Information

26 degrees inside my car, 0 degrees outside my car brrrrr.

Company

Knitting with friends, what better company?

Warning

I have to admit, this was taken at a summer fete.  It was at the start of a duck race, it made me giggle.

Odd

This chicken lives at our local farm shop.

In the distance

 A plane on it's way to the States.

Entrance

The door to Gloucester Cathedral.

I've really enjoyed the hunting this month ~ thanks Kathy.

Blanket Fever!

Hello!

I need to start by thanking you all soooo much for your lovely comments on last week's post ~ I was blown away by them all.

On Friday my wonderful friend Romain invited over to her house for a cup of tea and a look at her crochet blanket from the 1970's.  To join it together she did 4 chains and a slip stitch from the wrong side ~ in the green you can see, I've still not decided how to join mine.

Romain is a hugely talented knitter and is currently halfway through a Rams and Yowes blanket by Kate Davies.  Have a look here to see Kate Davies' designs.

 I'm sure you'll agree with me it looks wonderful so far.

We had Butterfly Knitting Group on Saturday, so I took my latest squares to sew the ends in.  My little bag was stuffed full and when I counted them there were 42. 

 Not bad for a week's work.

I find it very satisfying piling them all up.

 I laid out the squares (again!) and I've decided the blanket will be 15 squares wide and 23 squares in length, so I've about 60 to do.  Hopefully then, it'll be finished in the next few weeks (!) we'll see.

Thanks to Little Red Dragon and Anonymous for clarifying the number squares I could make. 990. 

I bow down to your superior mathematical brains.

You may of heard about the Beautiful Blogger Blanket which is being organised by Stocki, so I've made some cotton squares for that too.  

And  here are my squares for this month's Phoenix Friendship Blanket.

I seem to be a little blanket obsessive at the moment!

So on to other things, a bit of yarn porn ~ you know you love it ~ some Rico Superba Pop ~ resistance was futile so I didn't bother, love the colours.

And now into the garden and this rather splendid peanut feeder my Mum and Dad got me for Christmas.  I have only just got the nuts from our local farm shop.  It's been up 2 days and the birds have stopped looking suspiciously at it and are now all over it.

Whilst I was at the farm shop I brought this fat ball holder which the sparrows queue up to use!

The weathermen are promising us some snow, we did get a dusting the other day (the first of the year) but it had disappeared by the evening.  There might be more coming in tonight.

No matter.

I've been drinking lots of this lovely brew lately.  I used to drink hot Ribena as a child and this is very similar, but with a kick of cloves.  You can even pretend it's mulled wine if you want. 

Even better it's produced locally.

So if that snow does arrive, I shall be tucked up by the fire, drinking Bottle Green Spiced Berry Cordial and Hooking.  

What could be better?

Have a fun week, bye for now...................Clicky Needles.

Blanket Progress and New Yarn

Hello All.

I've had a pretty much run of the mill week, so I shall launch straight into my Summer Granny Blanket progress.

I tipped all the squares out of the bag...

....... and then laid them all out just to see where I was. I have 230 (ish).   There's still loads more colour combinations to go.  Notice I'm not telling you how many ~ not because I want to keep you in suspense ~ it gives me brain ache to try and work it out.  I have 11 colours, if you can suss out how many different combinations there are, please do.  What I do know, is that no 2 squares will be the same.  There will be a few I don't do, for instance the fluorescent green and lime green just do not go together in a square.  

 I have just added the shocking pink in the middle, which I wasn't sure about at the start, but it really gives the blanket a bit of extra zing.  Laying all the squares out filled me with some heart skippy happiness.  I totally love it.

 Here is all my yarn.  Each ball has a centre pull so I don't need to get any out of the bag, I find that makes life easier.  I'm now thinking about whether to crochet them together or sew.  I quite like the rhythm of sewing up and I don't find it a chore, but I'm wondering if crocheting through the back loops would be quicker ~ the jury's out.

 I've also been dyeing some yarn.

Would you like a sneaky peek?

Of course, you would.

  This is a selection of some Merino/Silk Laceweight.

 And this some Blue Faced Leicester Sock Yarn.  They both have a wonderful 'bounce' and are very soft.  I've gone a bit wacky with some of the colours of the sock yarn this time.  I'm now at my favourite part of the process, skeining it up, so watch this space!

Whilst food shopping the other evening I found myself stood by the flowers, I wasn't sure which to get. 

 Do I really need them?  They be over in couple of weeks.

Then I spotted this Jasmine.  £5.00 for a plant which should last indefinitely.  It is now filling the hall with it's wonderful scent.  £5.00 well spent methinks.

Righto, I'm off to rescue the washing off the line ~ it's very blowy here today and the the washing line has bent!

As always have a super week, byeeee...........Clicky Needles.

Gloucester Cathedral

Hi there folks.

Apologies for not making my usual Sunday evening post.  

I do have a good excuse ~ I was trying to fill in my Tax Form on line ~ the less said about that the better!

Anyhoo what have I been up to?

 On Monday our whole school went to visit Gloucester Cathedral.

As you can see from this picture it is undergoing some renovation at the moment.

Some of the gargoyles have eroded away so stone masons have made completely new ones.

Here he is in situ.  Did you know a gargoyle is a water spout?  

It it doesn't have a water spout like this one it is just a grotesque.

The entrance.

You may recognise the Cloisters even if you have never been there.

They have been used in the Harry Potter films.

There is of course, lots of impressive stained glass.  The East window is not very colourful, but is the largest piece of Mediaeval glass in the country and is the size of a tennis court.

One of my favourite pieces is in the Blue Chapel.  This is only 20 years old and is made up of 3 panels.  Even with a gaggle of schoolchildren the window is very 'noisy'.  I hear storms at sea, winds blowing and people shouting.  It is beautiful.

 This more traditional window is in the cloisters.

The children had a fabulous time and there's not much they don't know about the Cathedral now!

We've had a little bit of cold weather, causing some stunning sunsets. 

 This one I snapped as I left Tesco the other evening.  

The weather has now gone warmer again.  Yesterday -2 degrees, today 7 degrees!  What's going on?

 Most of my time over the last week has been taken up by my Summer Granny Blanket.  I've had a massive sewing in session ~ 6 ends for each square!  I need to lay the squares out again to see just where I am.

I have also been playing "Words with Friends" quite a lot.  It's a free app you can get for I-phone and I-pad and it's also free from the Android store.  

Look at this score!  72!  All seven letters!  Waaaayyy.

If you've got the app and fancy a game my user name is Clicky Needles.  

 I also got a delivery of undyed yarn, so I've been busy with that.  Hopefully I'll show pictures next time.

Have a great week, bye for now..................Clicky Needles.

Spring Flowers and Wellies

Hello folks.

I'm back to work and had some very blustery playground duties this week.

Thanks for your lovely comments on last year's projects.  I did leave some off, what I didn't tell you is that it took some time to make the mosaics, because of this I've added a new page to my blog and I'm putting on projects as they are finished, I think this should make things easier.

My first project of the new year is a Kindle Cosy for 'Miss Sparkle' our reception teacher.  She'd told me she was getting a Kindle for Christmas and she loved the Adriafil Knitcol yarn that I made my Ipad cosy with, so I knew she'd like this.  She made lots of squeals when I gave it to her!

The sun was out today and whilst not hot it was pleasant outside.  I took a wander around the garden and found some Hellebores in flower.

This Primrose has been flowering since the Autumn.

I also washed my (very dirty) car.  Not the most exciting job in the world, but I got to wear my new wellies.  Some of you may have seen Lucy's wellies that she got from Next.  When I saw these knitted wellies I was very excited.  I rushed down to Next and ordered some.

Now I need to tell you, I usually get green farmer's wellies.  They are very boring but there is lots of  room for tucking in jeans, thick socks and large calves ~ the ones on your leg not the sort that moo.

Anyhoo, when the Next ones were delivered they were too tight.  I was very sad.  Boring green for me then.

I popped into the Factory Shop before Christmas and came across these swirly lovelies.  I put in my leg.  They fitted!  How can this be?  I then noticed a label saying 'Extra Wide Leg.' That'll be it then.  I love 'em and proudly splashed around in them, whilst removing the layers of mud that had built up on the car over the last few months.

I'm keeping one of my resolutions already! 

 I laid out all the squares from my Summer Granny Square Blanket to see where I am.  I've made about 160 squares so far, so I've some way to go but this is getting my full attention.

It does look lovely and bright!

Righto off to crochet some more, the ironing's already done, so a whole evening of hooky.  Bliss!

Take care and have fun..................................Clicky Needles