Autumn Walks

Hello Folks.

I've had a lovely half term, bit of pottering, bit of knitting, bit of sewing, late night tv watching and lie-ins.
The list as long as my arm didn't really get ticked off but never mind.  I have however, been enjoying taking the dog for walks through the woods 5 minutes walk from home.

 We are so lucky to have wonderful beech woods so close.  Very English, full of bluebells in the spring and wonderful shades of orange in the Autumn.

 The dog (Tipper) couldn't understand why we kept stopping for photos.

AGAIN??????  I want to explore.

The colours were so beautiful.  I love this time of the year.

See you soon with the sewing that I got up to.

Bye for now..........................Clicky Needles.

More Stripes

 Hello Folks!

I'm wondering when my stripes obsession will end.  It shows no sign of stopping yet.  On my (four) needles at the moment is a scarf.  60 stitches in the round making a dreamy warm tube of Alpaca and Wool.  Yes, it's Drops again.  Come to think of it I have a Drops obession too. 

 The needles are 4mm and the yarn 4ply, so the fabric is open, but that's just fine.  The lovely rhythm of going round and round and round........................  As this is a small project it can also come my emergency knitting for all those times when you are sitting somewhere ~ traffic jam, dentist, lunch time ~ with your fingers itching for something to occupy them.

 Of course, the true joy of stripes, be it in socks or a scarf, is thinking about the next colour and how that's going to look,  "I'll just finish this colour before I go to bed."  We all do it. 

I am making this right now because I snapped one of my needles on my blue stripy cardi ~ which 

co-incidentally is the same yarn as this scarf.  Well I say I snapped it ~ I put it down on the sofa to make a cup of tea and the dog jumped onto the knitting and snapped it.  This is, obviously, completely my fault and  I can't be cross with him.

Half term is here and I've finished off the bit of patchwork I was doing on my new sewing machine.  You'll notice this is not a close up shot because it is a fairly gash bit of sewing and is never going to win a prize.  I made it double sided, shoved a bit of wadding in and quilted it around the hexagons.  Don't really know what I am doing in the world of patchwork, and I'm not entirely sure I should be in it either.

Anyhoo my machine can sit on it and I used up some fabric I've had for 25/30 years so it's not all bad.

So there we are, it's now gone midday and I'm still trying to get Master Clicky out of bed.  I've played Black Eyed Peas' "I've gotta feeling," at him, full blast, but it's not moved him.  Annoyed him a lot though, and that's what being a parent is all about.
 ;-)

See you soon...........Clicky Needles.

A Relaxing Weekend

Hello Folks!

Me and Mr Clicky have just a wonderfully relaxing weekend in a Canopy and Stars cabin in just over the River Wye in Wales.  If you haven't heard of Canopy and Stars they have a collection of quirky glamping stays from shepherd's huts to Treehouses to converted horse boxes and everything in between.

We stayed in this delightful little cabin which was in the grounds of Kingstone Brewery.

















It was a short 50 minute drive from home and we were greeted by Ed who urged us to dump our bags and come and taste the beer!  We complied and after tasting came out with a box full.

Our little cabin was very sweet and nicely furnished.

I loved the cabin bed and the quilt that was on it.

We settled down by the wood burner and read through some of the vintage books (some over 100 years old ~ the language was priceless.)

We were up bright and early Saturday morning and went into Tintern to see the abbey.   It is a truly magnificent place, which, for the first half hour or so we had it completely to ourselves. 


















It sits on a bend of the River Wye and is very 'still' ~ I can see why the site was chosen by the Cistercian Monks to live here.  The Wye was looking a bit brown on our visit ~ lots of silt from the previous day's rains.

The sun shone when we were there however;  the trees on the English side of the valley behind were just starting to turn to their autumn colours.

It was an extremely hard life for the monks but they did have a rather impressive drainage system presumably borrowed from The Romans who had been this way previously.

We left the Abbey as more people arrived, our silence broken, and stopped at Tintern Old Station for a cup of tea and cake.

Tintern was one of the many lines in the U.K. to fall to Dr Beeching's cuts in the 1960s.

From here we had a pub lunch at The Brockweir Inn and went back to our cabin for a cosy afternoon by the fire, cups of tea from the pewter teapot, idle chat, knitting (me, not Mr Clicky) and a few games of cards.

Back to reality now and I've worked 3 days this week and half term has started.  I have a list as long as my arm of things to get done.  I wonder if it I will do it all any of it?

See you soon, have fun.............Clicky Needles.

A Ta-Dah!

Hello folks.  

At last, pictures of my Fabulous Stripy Cardi.  The pattern is Mon Petit Gilet Raye by Isabelle Milleret,  the yarn, Drops Alpaca and the stripes, Drops Delight.

This cardi was started in *Ahem* March 2014 and finished in May 2016.  It was started, altered and ripped back, thrown in the naughty corner and finally pulled out and finished.  

As the weather has got chillier I wore it the other evening and realised I hadn't shown it off yet.  Both the yarns are wonderfully soft and cosy warm and I am loving wearing it.

I made mine longer than the pattern and added extra increases to the yolk which upon reflection, I don't think I'll do again.  

I sewed in a piece of stabilising velvet ribbon in the back of the neck to stop it pulling down too much.

 I've just cast another on, this time in blues and grey.  Should be a quicker job this time but could be famous last words!

Have a fun week............Clicky Needles

Well, I wasn't expecting that.

I woke up this morning not feeling all that great.  I suffer from acid reflux and it payed me a visit last night.  Hugely painful (stomach acid burning your oesophagus) and really annoying in the early hours when you are trying to sleep. 
I was (grumpily) idly looking at Facebook this morning and saw a sewing machine for sale in Stroud.  It had been used once to hem some curtains so was effectively new.  I messaged the lady selling it and got it for £45.  It should be £65 new.

It is so much lighter then my 30 year old Toyota and has a few more stitches. 

I love that you can see the bobbin, so you know when it will run out, you can just drop the bobbin in the case, it has measurements on the base plate and you can convert it from a flat bed to free arm.  All things my Toyota lacks.

Of course, I had to try it out.  I got out some patchwork pieces I have had for years.  I'm sure they will be recognised by some of you.  My very first job I had when I left school was just off Cheltenham Promenade where the Laura Ashley shop was.  I used to spend my lunchtimes in there looking at rolls and rolls of fabric without the funds to pay for it!  I used to buy row ends and odd bits of fabric from the bargain bin and I think the patchwork pack came from it too. 
This is from the Sweet Pea range; I preferred the yellow shades but you could get it in pink too.  It was ubiquitous and eventually fell out of fashion.

 What better thing to test out the new machine?  It is lovely to use and I'm very impressed with it.  My Toyota isn't going anywhere however.   I'm planning to make a double sided piece of patchwork as a mat for the machine to sit on.

At the moment it is living on the desk in Miss Clicky's room.  She has moved out in the last few weeks and has gone to Gloucester with her boyfriend.  It is quieter, and a little less untidy in Clicky Needles towers now.  
So there we are, I wasn't expecting to be owning a new sewing machine today, things didn't turn out quite so bad, after all.