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.

Woot! Half Term

Ahhh time to rest.

I've got a bit of Half Term-itus, sore throat, cold sore (aarragh) and I'm just generally a bit worn out.

We've all been taking it easy and Mr CN has got the week off too, so we're looking forward to some days out together.

My little granny squares are increasing......

....even though Mr CN looked and said, 'That'll take a long time to be a blanket', well yes he is right, but I'm at a bit of an impasse at the moment ~ I'm not sure what to start which is most unlike me. When I finish off one project the next is usually already hatching in my head, but not much is coming up at the moment, so these are filling the void.

I have started a felted tea pot cosy but it won't take long. Now, before some of you start laughing (and you know who you are!!!!) I ALWAYS use a teapot to make tea. I also like my tea strong and hot and unless you have a cosy it'll be strong but not very hot. I've gathered together some feltable wool ~ New Lanark Double Knit (worth checking out if you've not seen it before) which was in the stash...

and I've got going.

I have been finding some inspiration in my latest Amazon purchase. This is a cracking book, the best in the One-Skein Wonders series in my opinion.

There are socks, hats, gloves, scarves, baby clothes and some lovely shawls. I really like these sideways socks might have to have a go at them.

May's squares for the friendship blanket have been despatched. As you can see both of them came from the Vogue Stitchionary Book I got a few weeks ago. I'm rather pleased with them!

It's not been too easy taking garden pictures it's quite grey and windy and the plants are moving too much! I did manage to catch these Snapdragons who have self seeded in the gravel under the patio door.

Well I'm off now ~ no ironing for a change (!) just watching TV and knitting.

Ah Bliss!

Have a great Bank Holiday and a super week.

Byeeee..................Clicky Needles.

I've Rippled it all Up!!!!!!!

Hello!

I'm very excited today.

I'VE FINISHED MY RIPPLE!!!!!

I started it in March last year, when I managed to cut a small piece off my finger and knitting wasn't an option. All of my oddments have now gone.

(Well mostly.)

They've been turned into this.

Ta-Dah!!!!!!!

More views.

I'm so, so, so happy with finishing.

It's very bright and cheery.

There are bits of projects in every stripe, a Clapotis I made ages ago in some Alpaca, the silver on the border, leftovers from a scarf a made for my friend B, another stripe leftovers from a pair of gloves. When I look at it, it makes me smile with the memories of past projects. A feast for the eyes!

The main yarn is Stylecraft Life DK which in itself was leftovers from another ripple I made for a colleague's baby. Here it is.

So, has this finishing made me put down my crochet hook I hear you ask? No. It's made me realise how much I like a bit of hookyness so I got some more (cheap) acrylic and...............

....I'm making little granny squares!

Little piles of hooky colour.

I've also managed ~ at last ~ to get the border on my latest shawl to lie flat. It took an iron and some steam but I got there in the end.

A single ball of King Cole Riot, I bought it because I loved the colours. I'll get the pattern written up soon.

As the weather forecast for today was wind and rain (and it is) I spent yesterday pottering around in the garden. With the recent rain and warmth everything, including weeds is growing at a rate of knots. I had a dig around and added our own compost.

Some lovelies I came across.

A centaurea with a bumble bee.

An allium about to burst into bloom. These are the football sized alliums, that produce the lovely seed heads.

An astrantia ~ I've got red and white ones of these,

and a double flowered clematis.

Well that's me about done for today.

I'm going to work squares for this month as May is creeping away from me.

Have a good week.........Clicky Needles.

All moved!

Hello all!

A fairly quick post from me today ~ the ironing is beckoning. :-(

At last moving has finished ~ we packed up the last two classrooms at school on Friday they've been carpeted and we unpacked them today (Sunday).

Life still isn't completely back to normal but maybe soon.

I had a wander around the garden this evening and snapped all of these Aquilega (Grannies Bonnets). They seed wherever they fancy, cross with each other and produce a super display.

I think my favourite is the pale blue and white one.

I finished off my crochet bag and lined the strap with grosgrain ribbon to stop it stretching so much. I started this in July 2009 and then just forgot it. Anyhoo all done now, it's a bit like a Tardis ~ so much room inside.

I'm very excited at the prospect that my Ripple it all Up blanket is NEARLY DONE!!!!!! I've had a bit of a push on it of late and I'm now putting the border on. I'll give you a little peak but you'll have to wait for the big Ta-Dah.

The last thing to show you a little ball of yarn.

I dropped into my LYS for chat with Lucy and came out having had the chat with this too. Called Jawoll Magic it's sock yarn with a bit of a halo in lovely colours. It seemed to want to come home with me so there we are.

It was DD's 16th Birthday on Tuesday and DS's 12th Birthday on Wednesday and

she had her Prom last week ~ the limo they went in was very posh ~ she starts GCSE's tomorrow so we've all got fingers crossed. (Maybe more scarily, she has now officially left school).

Must go now, to do that ironing.

Hope you have a great week.........Clicky Needles.