The Great Outdoors

So I went with Julie and Al over to the Bridgewater RHS garden last week (having succumbed to an advert in the Gardener's World and joined the RHS). It is a lovely place and being close enough to bike to I hope that it being free to get in means I will go regularly and see it in all the seasons and watch the garden develop over time. It was still very colourful despite the onset of autumn and the sun shone.

The Chinese Streamside Garden has come on quite a bit since the spring.

I had been feeling very grumpy and some time in the out-of-doors was just what I needed.

We pottered gently for an hour not worrying about 'seeing everything', but did spot this magnificent bracket fungus:

Back at home Tish bought some random yarn to make baby socks so we have been doing outfits for our sprogs. Matt and Harshi are due the first week of December and Jacob and Kerri the week after. I have started a toddler sized poncho as well. Getting excited to welcome our new family member.

Stay safe. Be kind. Fingers crossed for safe deliveries.

Seeds and all that

So, we have a covid outbreak in the office so I have not been home much recently, but I did have one day off for what should have been my long weekend and planted some seeds. Some of them came free with my Gardener's World magazine, some that Julie gave me, some that I bought, and some sweet peas left over from last year.

Within three days I had some tiny shoots, and now the sunflowers have shot up and are already two inches tall.

And, even though the mail system is completely stretched to breaking point at the moment I made a couple of impulse purchases; this adorable yellow watering can (from Haws) for sprinkling gently on tiny seedlings:

and some lovely yarn from Totnes Yarns on Etsy after I had a crisis with my project and had to unpick the entire of the pattern I had started and decided the yarn I had chosen was not quite right. Oh well.

Stay safe. Be kind. See you tomorrow.

lockdown yarn shopping

Yes, I know those are books. I bought some books too. Brian Bilston's, who's poem I shared the other day, book arrived, and is already a delight. In the introduction he makes this interesting point about the difficulty of poetry writing: "Secondly, to demonstrate my poetic versatility, some of them do not rhyme. These poems were harder to write as I had to select words from a much larger pool. It has been estimated that there are over one million words in the English language, and so hand-picking each word to go into a poem has proved to be something of a Herculean labour." Also arrived are 'Sillicide' by Cynan Jones, reviewed in the Guardian and bought because he came to the lit festival years ago, and 'Mrs Death Misses Death' by Salena Godden (who also came to the lit festival), that I bought to share with Julie (hi Jules) because I think she will love it.

Yarn buying during lockdown is not such a multi-sensory experience as it used to be. While online yarn shopping is ok, nothing beats the pleasure of browsing and stroking all the lovely yarn, and buying something just because it is indescribably soft. I have started a blanket for the sprog but Julie and I are going to knit 'Gaudi' (ravelry link) as a joint project so am hunting for something delightful to use. This Fyberspates Scrumptious wool/silk is the current favourite, with possibly some 'I played Fortnite With Bill Gates!!!!' from Countess Ablaze.

Am planning a tree watching project, taking regular photos of this lovely tree in the Moss Side Community Park at the end of our street. It gave me much pleasure over last year watching the changes as I rode home from work each day and so I decided to document it this year.

Stay safe. Be kind. See you tomorrow.

Projects old and new

Back in September last year we went to Yarndale and I bought this lovely merino yarn from Woosheeps to knit a Nori dress. Unfortunately I completely miscalculated how much yarn I needed so it is only a  top, but I still absolutely love it. I changed the pattern quite a bit, stopping the increases at the armpits because it was beginning to flare out too much. The partly crocheted top sat in the corner of the living room for some months while other projects too precedence, but I finally finished it just in time for the hot weather. Note to self ... keep a nice summer shawl around when you go out because my shoulders are not used to being exposed to the sunshine.

The socks have been my project at Dunk's. I like to leave my stuff lying around so he remembers to invite me over for cake. They are made with the Undercover Otter yarn that we bought in Amsterdam back in November. I am doing a few hexipuffs with the leftover nugget.

My 'jumper of a million ends' however only took a month to knit. This silly first photo shows all the dangling ends, which I have no intention of sewing in. 

I am so pleased with the finished object. 

I love the random stripes and it is wonderfully cosy. It reminds me of why I loved the yarn and am I looking forward to getting a lot of wear from it this autumn. Dunk's blanket is my main current project, but no sneak peeks, he has to wait until it's done.

Happy Birthday Avocado Tree

I started sprouting an avocado pit this time last year. It was a very slow process to begin with, but our little tree has come on in leaps and bounds since then. I have cut off the larger leaves at the top a couple of times because it became top heavy and the stem is still rather spindly. It gives us much joy to have it growing on the kitchen windowsill.

The 31st of May this year brings my parents 60th wedding anniversary. They are having two parties. One on the day for local friends and neighbours, and a second much larger at the end of June for family and old friends. Claire and I have made cakes to help feed the multitude, that will in time be appropriately decorated. 

When we first moved into the house I had a plan in my head to make a screen for the scruffy board that covers the front room fireplace. It was to be a felted image of a fire. It is amazing that the finished piece that Tish and I worked on for a couple of weeks looks exactly as I envisioned it. You can't see well in the photo but it is also embellished with a scattering of seed beads that glitter slightly like sparks. 

My recycled stripy jumper is coming along well. I am improvising on the pattern to make the raglan sleeves rather than sewing the pieces together. I am pleased with the lovely random stripes, and looking forward to making more use of it than the cardigan got.

All the yarn

Today we took a trip to Yarndale and looked at, and stroked, all the yarn. It took us many, many hours. We admired the needle felting, cooed over the angora bunny, sniffed the unwashed fleece and were complemented on our knitted garments. Then we had some tea. Then we stroked more yarn. There was much debate over whether baby yak or baby alpaca is softer. Opinion remains divided on the subject. We tried to keep track of the stands we planned to return to after our perusal of the entire show, but things never work out as planned. 


I bought some Angus gradient yarn from WooSheeps, to make a Nori dress:

And some Silk Cloud recycled sari silk yarn from La La With Love:

Many, many fabulous yarn shops are out there, and this was a wonderful way to find some new ones, often people spinning and dying their own, here are some that we visited: midwinter yarns, FeltStudioUK, Cat and Sparrow, Pook GB, Tall Yarns (who also do wonderful linen clothing), Blacker Yarns, Fig Tree Yarns, Easyknits, Whistlebare, Injabulo (handwoven baskets and bowls from recycled wire).

Meanwhile back at home projects have been coming along, some more speedily than others.

My Lost in Time shawl is finally making progress, having stalled due to bad stitch counting:

I knit a 'Five Hour Baby Cardigan' in about five hours, and a little hat in about two. These are for a colleague at work who is expecting a baby later this year:

And Claire's grannie square blanket has been completed and dispatched. I was completely thrilled with how beautiful it is; it was meant to be a birthday present but I couldn't wait to give it to her. 

Growing and Making things post

I planted the tomatoes about eight weeks ago now; they have reached the ceiling of the porch (well the big one has):

There are lots of flowers ... and lots of fruits:

They have been joined by a courgette plant and a squash plant; lots of flowers, no fruits yet:

The basil on the kitchen window sill has been joined by a chilli plant, that has sprouted these lovely delicate white flowers:

The avocado pit is coming along well. I have managed to sprout these before but they have usually withered and died once the plant was six inches or so. I have been following these helpful instructions. It did take about six or seven weeks for the root to grow and may take a few more before we get a sprout, the advice is to be patient:

In the garden the apples

and pears are all relishing the sunshine:

I finished my Shalom cardigan in time for Jo and Jan's wedding in May, though it still lacks a button. It is made in Noro Ginga that I bought in the sale from Black Sheep Wools. It is a lovely simple pattern, I have made one previously as a present for mum:

Still working on the grannie squares, more than 100 so far, out of 144:

Still working on the hexipuffs. Monkey has also been making one a day for a while now and I am guessing we are approaching the 400 mark. The pink one with PW on is stuffed with gleaned sheep wool collected on our walk on the Pennine Way. I have a couple of others labelled L and P stuffed with wool collected in the Lake District and Peak District respectively:

Biannual snooze on the sofa day

Life potters on, we read, and make stuff, and occasionally go to work. I took a brief break from the crochet granny squares (which are coming along pretty well),

to make a pair of socks,

and then another Shalom cardigan. 

I made one for mum quite a few years ago, and decided that an upcoming family wedding was an excellent excuse to make on for myself to go with my yellow Gudrun dress. Unfortunately I didn't order enough yarn ... oh what a pity, another visit to Black Sheep will be necessary.

Tomorrow sees Monkey and I settling down on the sofa for the Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon. We have been partaking in this for several years, and although we invariably do have a nap at some point we have cake and snacks to sustain us through the wee small hours. It feels wrong that we need an excuse to just read all day. 

Still Light Tunic

The 'Still Light Tunic' is designed by Veera Valimaki at Rain Knitwear Designs; Julie and I have been making it as a joint project for the last couple of months. I bought some Araucania Ranco at Black Sheep Wools in the sale and the contrast stripes are done in Louisa Harding Pittura. It has these lovely folded in feature pockets; clothing without pockets annoys me, or, like the Bressay dress, pockets that are too small to be of use.

Julie's is done in Drops Baby Merino

We will do a joint photo some time but it has been a bit warm to wear them; today is cooler so I am enjoying just getting used to it. I treated myself to new leggings to wear with.

We ended up waited nearly a fortnight for new needles to do the bottom ribbing. I had purchased circular needles that had come apart, been returned for replacement and then come apart again. I finally returned them to the supplier because the shop in Chorlton had no more of the right size, and the kind people at customer services at Essentials sent me a lovely selection of bits and pieces: you can never have too many needles. I should add that I have bought this brand several times and never previously had any problems with them.

Holiday nonsense

I am not one of those people who jumps on bandwagons; I see stuff on Facebook and think 'that looks interesting', but then I move on. But I was intrigued by the green smoothie thing; I do eat green stuff, but at the same time have had low level anaemia on and off over the years. I like smoothies, and during the strawberry season Monkey and I have made loads, but they tend to be pink. It being holiday, and not having to get up early for work, I decided to have a go at the Green Smoothie Challenge. Ok, they are trying to sell you their recipe book and probably have affiliate links to the very expensive smoothie machines they tout, but they do send you recipes and offer some inspiration and encouragement. I planned to shop in advance and have lots of interesting stuff to put in them, but the first morning I just went with what I had. This one has frozen spinach, one apple, two satsumas and some pumpkin seeds. It was ok. Tasty enough to decide I could stick it out.

This morning's offering is a not-so-green-smoothie. The shopping arrived, so this one has chard (something I have not bought before), banana and frozen blackberries. I decided I had better eat last year's blackberries before the new season arrives with a vengeance. It is a sad fact that I have not made very many blackberry crumbles so there is a huge bag still sitting at the back of the drawer. The seeds in the blackberries make it a little gritty but no unpleasantly so.

Oh whoops! This one has no green stuff in it at all: an Eton Mess Ice-cream Sundae at Fortes.

Dunk and I went for our annual date

to Llandudno on the North Wales coast, home to the Gwynt y Môr offshore wind farm, the second largest in the world.

 Several books have been read in the last week ... reviews to follow I promise; we are resting today after shunning both the tram and the cablecar to climb the Great Orme.

I have not posted any knitting in a long time. The yarn I had to knit a second Bressay Dress is instead being made into a Still Light Tunic (Ravelry link) that Julie bought the pattern for and we have been knitting together. I used this photo because it shows the colours properly, it won't be finished for another week.