May's projects

For May's socks I chose the zebra yarn I recently purchased from Biffsugar Yarns in the colourway

Luckdragon - I'm really happy with them.

These are for Mark, I was going to put them away for his birthday or Christmas but he's already tried them on so it wouldn't be much of a surprise.  He is happy with them and I was happy to knit them, the yarn is just so soft, it was a dream to knit with.  

I have another recently purchased skien of zebra yarn and can't wait to see how it knits up.

I finished the body on my Whitmoor jumper/sweater.  (We call them jumpers here in the UK, I just can't get the hang of calling them sweaters somehow)

I didn't want to rush to get the sleeves finished before we go away on Sunday, I will pick it up again once we come home.  I'm just so very happy with it, the yarn is lovely, I love the colour and it fits great, I can't wait to wear it!

The garden is doing very well, I've planted all my seedlings and fingers crossed they will grow bigger and stronger in the next few weeks.  The grass seed is finally taking, and as a result of sunshine and showers both lawns are still looking lovely and green.

Here are some photos from around our garden.

Stevie and Darren get Married next week (eek) and we all fly out to Cyprus this Sunday.  The rest of the week will be taken up with the last of the holiday preparation and hairdressers/manicure's/pedicure appointments, so I've decided to take a little blogging break for a while and a break from the internet in general until we are back home and settled into our normal routines again.

Take care

-X-

The one with knitting, (and a tiny bit of stash)

Here we are at the beginning of another week, we are fast approaching my daughter's wedding, three weeks yesterday we fly and I still haven't got a dress, eek!

I ordered three dresses last week, which have arrived today and I don't like any of them, so they will have to be returned tomorrow.  I did order another one last night, fingers crossed that it will be ok because I'm running out of options and places to look now.

The weather was brilliant on Saturday so warm and sunny and not a sign of the wind we had on Friday and I'm so glad as I had a ticket for the Wool@j13 yarn show.  Mark had said he would come with me so I didn't have to go on my own but in the end I said no, I didn't mind going alone so he stayed at home doing a few jobs in the garden.  As it happened I sat with two lovely ladies when I stopped for a coffee and we had a lovely chat about yarn, projects and this and that, like me, it was their third visit to this particular yarn show which is only small compared to some but packed with lovely goodies.

I was quite selective with purchases, I walked around at least four times looking to make sure what I wanted to spend my money on, in the end this is what I bought.

The little flowery bag Is the perfect size to keep in my bag for hand cream, gel and other bits that seem to rattle around in the bottom of my bag.

The other fabric bag, (I think the fabric is Ikea Rosali), is a traveling pouch, I thought it would be perfect for when we go away.  Some essential notions were also included inside and I thought the price was very reasonable at £15, considering the extras.

I've been knitting away on my Whitmoor sweater for the last two weeks, there hasn't been many days when I haven't been working on it.  The pattern is beautiful and so addictive , I'm loving every minute working on it.

I'm not too far from the ribbing now so put it on waste yarn to try on this morning.  It fit's lovely, not so much positive ease as the pattern calls for, but I didn't want as much as that anyway, once it's blocked it will be just right I think.

I just love the lace pattern, it really wasn't hard at all.

The yarn is Stylecraft Recreate in the colour Rose and It's beautifully soft and lovely to knit with, I'd definitely use it again.  

I hope you all have a lovely week, whatever you are doing, take care.

-X-

Wildflowers update and a great book

I only started this piece last Saturday but I thought If I posted regular progress updates it would keep me motivated to keep stitching. 

 I've only stitched on it twice during this past week and so far I'm loving all the bright colours.

It's been a lovely few days and I spent Friday afternoon in the garden cutting the grass and doing a general tidy up.  We sowed grass seed on the bare patches and applied fertiliser to the lawn a few weeks ago, we didn't think the seed was taking but after all that rain last week it's now sprouting up, there are still some places it didn't take but we can try again after the next cut.  The fertiliser worked a treat, I've never seen our grass os green!

We had all the bushes along the fence cut right down at the beginning of Spring, they were all tangled and a bit of a mess, they are starting to come back again now but won't flower this year, I'm ok with that, at least we can now try and keep them under control.

I've been struggling with my book choices again lately, nothing I picked up was holding my interest, a search on Goodreads came up with this author, and this book had really good reviews so I ordered it from the library.  I'm always a bit wary of rave reviews but in this instance they were justified.  

Set in Cumbria, The Puppet Show, a is a Police procedural and is the first book in a series with Detective Washington Poe as the main character.   Poe has been on suspension but strings are pulled to bring him back to help in the search for Immolation Man who so far has killed three men in horrific burning rituals.  When they find Poe's name carved into the chest of the third victim they assume he will be number 5.

The book is very well written, not too gory and with a great twisty plot.  The characters are very likable, especially Tilly Bradshaw, the geeky techie, she somehow lightens the story giving the book moments where you can't help but smile. 

I'll definitely be reading the other books in the series.

-X-

Happy Bank Holiday

 It's been a very busy Bank Holiday Weekend, starting with our meet up at the Nimble Thimble on Saturday.  There was a meet up last year but I didn't go to that one so I haven't seen these ladies in at least two years, maybe longer.  There was ten of us this time and It was lovely to be in the company of like minded people again and just to enjoy some uninterrupted stitching time.

The Nimble Thimble is situated on the Welsh boarder and just over an hours drive away, it's a lovely drive, mostly through beautiful countryside.  The shop itself is in a lovely place by the river, with beautiful views all around.

The shop is packed full of wonderful stitching goodies, you really are spoilt for choice, although on this particular visit I didn't buy anything, can you believe that!  I have been feeling a little overwhelmed of late with the amount of things I have and to buy yet more charts to just put into stash just wasn't sitting well with me, so I came away empty handed this this time.

I did save my new start for Saturday though,  Wildflowers by The Blue Flower is a chart I purchased last year, the fabric I got at my visit to the NEC in March and as part of my Christmas present my daughter, Jenny had bought me all the threads for it.

I managed to get the first five words stitched while at the meet up plus a bit more over Saturday evening.

My fabric is 28 count and I think it's looking on the large side, the recommended fabric is 40 count, there is no way I would see the holes on that high count, an alternative was 36 count, which I can see but my eyes get tired when stitching on it and I'm not a fan of 32 count.  I'm hoping it will look better when I start adding the flowers.

Stevie and Darren's wedding is getting ever closer, only a little over four weeks until we fly now!  The girls had organised a hen party for her on Saturday so I drove straight from the Nimble Thimble to meet them all at a local Greek restaurant where we had a lovely meal.  Following the meal they were all going on to a cocktail bar, I opted out of that part of the night and left the younger ones to it.

Day two of the Hen weekend was The Bear Grylls Adventure at the NEC.   As the name suggests it's a place to take part in various activities and challenges, there's rock climbing, an assault course, swimming with sharks, zipwire, and indoor sky diving, plus others.

Stevie had said she would like to do some kind of activity but some of the 'hens' couldn't be persuaded to join this part of the weekend so just six of us went yesterday.

The activities are pre-booked and some of them we couldn't do because they were booked up, I would have liked to try shooting, but there were no places available yesterday.  The girls opted for the height ropes.  I'm not a fan of heights so sat and had a coffee while they did this one.

Standing at 65 feet this is the tallest high ropes course in Europe.  It really didn't look very high from the ground but the girls said it certainly did from the top!!

We did archery next and guess who excelled at that, lol.  I really enjoyed archery and would quite happily have carried on for longer than our allotted time.

The girls did hammer throwing next which I sat out but wish I'd done now as they said it was really good then lastly we did the escape room challenge.  I thought I might like this but in reality It was too many people with ideas all talking at once, it wasn't for me.

In between we went on the assault course and I've confirmed that my legs are no longer as strong as they once were, lol, although the instructor said we were the best group he had ever had and had given him a laugh, and we all had a great day.

-X-