Yarny temptations

I haven't bought any hand dyed yarn in a long time but I've been lead into temptation and treated myself to three skeins this month.

I haven't got any self striping yarn so when I saw this from Stripey Cat Yarns I just had to have it.

It's a 50g skein with a 20g mini for contrast heels and toes, this is the colourway Alice in Wonderland.

Biffsugar Yarns have some lovely colourways, it's hard to choose a favourite but this selkie zebra stripe one appealed to me, this colourway is Luckdragon.

I watch Caz's podcast, The Wee Sew and Sew on you tube.  On her last episode she showed the new colourways going into her etsy shop, when she held up this one I had to pause to go and buy it right away, I thought it was so pretty.  This one is called Watercolour Garden and is on a sparkle base, I'm not usually a sparkle girl but I loved the colours so much that I can live with the sparkle.  Caz's etsy shop is called Gardeners Cottage Yarns, the last time I looked there was none of this colourway left but she does have some other beautiful skeins and notions too.

It might seem a bit indulgent to buy myself three skeins in a month but I haven't treated myself in a while and sometimes you just have to don't you :-)

I might have wound one of them up already and cast on some socks, so watch this space ;-)

-X-

All the pretty things

Hello!  

It's been a few weeks hasn't it.  I just haven't been in the right frame of mind for blogging, it's been a struggle to get through the day most days to be honest.  I go through the motions of doing what needs doings but finding little joy in my day.  It's not the time of year, it's not even this new 'normal' that we are all having to get used to, it's just a dark cloud hanging over me, i'm grumpy, irritable and generally not very good company.  

BUT, today I woke at the crack of dawn and despite the grey, rainy weather felt, if not full of the joys of Spring, much better than I have done in quite a while.  I've got all my jobs done, baked some millies cookies, (recipe in the pages at the top of my blog, they are delicious!), gone for a walk and finished listening to my latest audio book, (The End of The Affair by Graham Green).  This version was narrated by Colin Firth who did an outstanding job.

So, with time to spare before I go and pick Oliver up from school I thought I would come and say hello and show you some of my latest purchases.

I haven't bought yarn in quite a while, in fact, I think these may be the only ones I've purchased this year.  When I saw these posted on IG I couldn't resist though and decided to treat myself.

I'm in love with all of them and I have the idea that I want to try again to knit socks.

I haven't been very successful with socks in the past but as the Strictly sock-a-long will be starting very soon I thought I would have another go.  However, I don't watch Strictly and have no desire to, so how am I going to cheat?   

For those who have no idea what I'm waffling on about, Ali, from the  Little Drops of Wonderful podcast host's this KAL every year, the idea is you knit on your socks whilst watching Strictly Come Dancing, those that don't watch, or cannot watch on the night it's broadcast come up with a cheat they can relate somehow back to Strictly thereby allowing them to knit on their strictly socks.  

I haven't been able to come up with a cheat yet, if you have any ideas please let me know, If I can't think of a cheat I might keep them for Friday night knitting, but first I've got to decide which of those pretty yarns to use. 

The pattern I'm going to be using is a vanilla cuff down pattern by Jooles, Sew Sweet Violet.  I just love how neat her socks look.

So watch this space! I could be a sock knitter before the end of the year, lol

Right, I'm off to have a cuppa in my new cup and maybe one or two of those cookies :-)

See you soon

-X-

One Saturday in Edinburgh

I had to bid a fond farewell to my old laptop, it served me well for probably 8 years or more, nothing could be done to save it, but at least the I.T guy managed to get all my files and photos off the hard drive.  It's going to be a task to go through everything and see what i really do want to keep though, something i will have to do a bit at a time.

It seems ages since I was here but I thought i'd pick up where I left off, which was when I was just before I set off to Berwick again.

We have had some really lovely weather the last few weeks and when I set off for my visit to Mark we had been having temperatures of 22 - 24 degrees most days.  I got a shock when he picked me up at the station on the Friday evening, it was only 12 degrees!!

The following day Mark dropped me at the train station just before 8.30 for my train to Edinburgh, it was like a bleak Winter morning, really cold and misty.

Berwick Upon Tweed station. 

(If you are wondering,this is how you pronounce Berwick)

I know some of  our place names can be a little strange and not pronounced how you might think,

the universal English language can be confusing.

Anyway, 40 minutes later i was in Edinburgh, where it was clearer but colder still.

Honestly, i couldn't have chosen a colder day if i had gone mid Winter.

My daughter text me to say it was a lovely 24 degrees at home, and there i was considering buying an extra jumper and a pair of gloves, lol

I decided to buy a tour bus ticket, one of those you can hop on and off all day, Edinburgh is very hilly so it gave me chance to rest when I'd had enough of walking.

I didn't have time to visit all the places I would have liked, and chose to visit Holyrood House rather than the Castle.  Unfortunately you're not allowed to take photographs inside the Palace.  Twice a year the Queen still stays there, it's shut at those times, but when it's open for visitors some of the rooms on the tour are actually used by the Queen.  It's quite strange walking round and thinking that Her Majesty has walked where you are walking. and sat at that dining table :-)

Holyrood is also where Mary Queen of Scotts lived and you can see her rooms in the Palace, and very cold they are too, imagine what they would have been like back then in the middle of Winter!

The Abbey ruins and the gardens are well worth a walk around too.

Edinburgh is also home to the largest monument to a writer.

Normally you would be able to climb to the top of the Walter Scott monument but at this time is was closed for refurbishment, which was probably just as well because i wouldn't have been able to resist the challenge of climbing the 287 steps just to say I'd done it, but my legs and feet would not have thanked me, lol

Walter Scott

The Walter Scott Monument built in 1884

There are plenty of shops selling tartan paraphernalia and shortbread biscuits in various shapes and in every conceivable shaped tin, of course, there would be, and why not, but there is also a lot of history attached to the City, and that's what I'm more interested in, which was why the tour bus is a good idea, the guides are very informative and you get little snippets about the City that you would probably miss otherwise.

I managed to fit in a mini yarn crawl while I was there.  Ginger Twist is a cute little shop about 10-15 minute walk from Hollyrood House and where I purchased some goodies

And later in the afternoon I managed to find Kathy's Knits, another lovely place and another purchase

This is the first time i've ever bought any hand dyed yarn, and i'm loving the colours and have been spending quite a bit of time on Ravelry looking for something to knit.

My train back to Berwick was at 5.30,  I'd walked almost none stop all day, only stopping for breakfast and a cuppa late morning and another coffee stop while waiting for my train, needless to say, I was shattered.

Mark said the mist from the morning had hung around Berwick all day

I was heading home and another long train journey the next afternoon, so although it was lovely to get away, see Mark and do some sight seeing it was a tiring weekend, plus I had Oliver 3 times as well as work last week so I feel like i'm playing catch-up with everything this week.

Hopefully I will get around to some blog reading and commenting at the weekend now I've got my new super duper computer :-)

-X-