Half term - almost gone!

 Well this week has gone by so quickly.  The next few weeks there are going to be huge changes in our household.  Josh is about to start preschool - with one session on a Monday morning and one on a Thursday afternoon when he gets to take a packed lunch to eat with the other children there.  He has spent the last week insisting that mummy is going to preschool with him.  So come Monday we will see how he settles.

Our other news is that Andy and Alex resigned from their present jobs which neither were terribly happy at and are going to start up their own company with a fellow colleague.  So all change there.  Huge changes for all concerned.  There have been many sleepless nights from the grown ups in the house.

Well we had some other good news recently in that Andy's brother and his wife had a little baby boy.  So in the usual tradition in this house they get something knitted.  I made a jumper from a Kim Hargreaves pattern but decided to do it plain rather than have a star on the front as in the pattern and then add a little patch at the bottom to distinguish the front from the back.

Unfortunately red doesn't photograph very well so please excuse the photos.

Here is the patch that I made and also another picture of the whole thing.

As I said not wonderful photos.  Looking through my camera I have realised I haven't taken any pictures for a while  - must try and do something about that over the weekend.

Any way hope you all have a good weekend and I will try and blog again next week.

Morag x

What have I been up to lately?

Well a few weekends ago we went to spend a long weekend with Mother In Law and had absolutely lovely weather.  It was probably the last of the hot weather for this year.  We decided to go down to the beach and Josh had great fun building (knocking down) sandcastles and going down to the sea.

Can't believe it was the end of September and we had shorts and t-shirts on. What weather!  Shame it was short lived.  Back to the usual dreary weather.

Craftwise I have also been busy - trying to make a few pieces for a local sale at our church.  These have been fun to make.

This is 'Bella Bunny' the pattern is by Lucinda Guy.  She was fun to make but seemed to take a lot longer than I thought.

These are some keyrings that I have made from my own design.  They are a knitted rectangle with either a heart, or star sewn on in felt and then backed with felt and stuffed a little.

I think this is my favourite it is some 'Happy Birthday' Bunting or at least it will be once I have sewn it onto some ribbon.  The letters are cut out from felt and then handsewn on the knitting blocks.  I have also made one saying Happy Christmas.

And the last thing I have made are these brooches inspired by Lucy of Attic 24, her blog is so colourful and inspiring.

I have finished knitting my Cria but am not very pleased with it at the moment - so until I have time to change it will not finish it.  At the moment I am not sure when that will be as I have two baby jumpers to make and also see if I can get some more stuff done for the church sale.

Well think that is all for now, must get on and take the dog out.  This blog post feels very rushed but I felt I needed to put something on.  Will try not to rush the next post.

Take care
Morag x

Weather

The weather is all over the place at the moment.  One day it is blowing a gale, the next wet, the next nice.  I don't know where I am as regards what to do and what to wear.

Today has been a lovely day.  Even quite warm.  So this afternoon we went for a walk to the fields near our house.  Josh had a brilliant time running and climbing everywhere, bashing sticks around.

This pig is made from wood and makes appearances in different parts of the woods, you never know where it is going to be so half the fun when we go to the fields is to find the pig.  There were two of them but we only found one this afternoon.

The berries are numerous on the bushes at the moment.  Does this mean we are in for a hard winter?

Even the dog was enjoying being in the fields this afternoon, we spent quite a long time looking for his frisbee which he insisted on dropping in the trees.

The light was just amazing through the trees.  It reminded me of summer. It was very beautiful.

Hope you are having ag good week.  Will try and do an update on knitting projects soon.

Morag x

Recent Purchases!!!

I have been very naughty.  Look what I have purchased recently.

Yes that is right 2 lots of Old Maiden Aunt yarns.

The top one is 'Dreich' colourway and the bottom one is 'bean nighe'.

I hadn't intended to get 2 lots but I fell in love with both.  I originally bought the bean nighe and was going to make this with it.

 From this book by Ysolda Teaque.

But was browsing Old maiden aunt's website shop the other day and realised she had in stock a colourway that I really, really, really wanted.  Not that I needed to add to my stash.  Now I have a dilemma which colourway do I knit Cria in?  I have enough yarn in the Dreich to knit a long sleeve Cria whereas I only have enough of Bean Nighe to knit the short sleeve version.  Dilemma, Dilemma.  Do I knit both!?  And if I do which do I start with?

I have worked out which size to do now and just need to swatch to check my tension.  Best get on with it.

Hope you're having a good week
Morag x

A bit more Gorilla hunting and a bit of cleaning

Last Wednesday we decided we would do a little bit more Gorilla hunting around Bristol.  So we parked near the water tower on the downs and walked across to the Clifton Suspension Bridge and then did a circular route back up Whiteladies Road back to the car, where on route we had to stop for a coffee for me and an Ice cream for Josh.

 I think the packet of sugar that came with my coffee was more interesting than the ice cream!

And over the weekend we made the most of the weather to do a bit of cleaning and tidying.  Andy decided the windows needed cleaning only I think we might have used a bit too much cleaning mixture, just a little too many bubbles.

And of course, Josh wanted to be up the  ladder to help.

Well while that was being done I was inside cleaning. Why is it I seem to get all the jobs that need doing inside? 

Knitting wise this week has just been trying to get a few things done that have been on the needles for a while and catching up on my Debbie Abraham's Mystery Blanket. I have now finished August's squares or at least knitting them, still need to sew them.

I am also working on a little secret project that I can't show you for a while but I can say that I am knitting up some projects for a friend's knitting pattern book which is due to be published later in the year.  This is very exciting well at least it is for me!

Enough for now before I start getting boring.

Morag x

Summer Days

I can't believe how time is flying by so quickly.  Finding things to do at the moment is quite easy - Josh is fairly amiable and is quite happy to go along with what we are doing.  Last week Andy was going to play golf for the first time this summer and was practising in the garden with proper clubs so I thought we ought to get Josh some of his own.  So opted for these.

Of course, daddy just had to have a go aswell.  Not sure we should really play with them inside.

And then over the weekend we picked our first carrot and it was delicious.  It was had alongside some fresh beans from the garden and some broad beans from Mother-in-Law's allotment.  Yum - fresh veggies.

The forecast for the first part of the week was not supposed to be very good so I thought we would go to the museum.  Look what we found in the entrance to the Museum.

After looking around the museum and having a coffee (of course - all part of going out for the day) we decided to go on a Gorilla hunt around the dock area and city centre of Bristol.  There are 60 Gorilla's at various venues in and around Bristol.  We found 15 by which time it wasn't quite so exciting!

Didn't take pictures of them all but they are amazing.  In the end the weather wasn't actually that bad and we had a great day.

Way back in April when we had a heat wave we bought Josh a sandpit and slide, the slide got put up the day it came, unfortunately the sandpit didn't, it has been cluttering up the house ever since it came.  So the other day I thought I really ought to get it out so Josh and I had a lovely afternoon putting it together and then playing in it.  It just means we now have sand in various places over the garden.  Oh well all good fun.

Hope you have a good weekend.  The weather doesn't sound too wonderful but hopefully we might get some gardening done and some more playing in the sandpit! and on the slide!

Morag

Addiction and long term project

It is very unusual for me to leave a project unfinished, in fact I can't start something new until I have finished something else but I have been doing the Debbie Abraham's Mystery Blanket for the last 4 years since she first started doing them.  They are very addictive - I wasn't going to do this year's one but as time got closer I realised I had to do it to have a complete collection.  Does this mean that I will do next years? Who knows?

I will take some better pictures when I have finished it and will also take some pictures of the other blankets that are finished.

Just need to decide what to make next, I think something for me.

Hope you having a good week
Morag x