Coloured Chevrons

I finished the lovely chevron baby blanket offered on 

The Purl Bee site :-)

I actually finished it about two weeks ago now but I'm playing catch-up with everything at the moment.

The pattern recommendation was for aran weight yarn but the choice of colours in cotton aran was very limited in my local shop so i knitted mine in DK Rico 100% cotton, cast on more stitches and used 5mm needles.

I'm so happy with how it turned out :-)

And the pattern was so simple, not a purl stitch in sight!

I used 7 different colours but kept that lovely silver grey in the middle and repeated the white and the cream on either side.

The result Is still quite chunky and heavy even with using DK yarn and it's a perfect size for a  pram / stroller blanket :-)

I'm totally in love with this trendy baby blanket, and i can see me knitting more of them:-)

Until next time xx

A knitty Finish, and a New Start

Thank you for all the kind comments on my cupcakes, I took them to work for the lads in the office the next day and they disappeared rather quickly, (not the lads, the cakes, lol), so they must have tasted OK:-)

No cake baking this last week, but I do have a finish to share 

with you.

I finished up a small pram/pushchair blanket for Jenny.

I'm pretty pleased with how this has turned out, not your typical baby colour but I showed it to Jenny today and she loved it.  She has chosen a purple pram / pushchair combination, so the grey will be a good match.

I came across this a few weeks ago and thought it so lovely and bright that I really wanted knit it.  The yarn works out quite expensive, and I couldn't find anything similar here in the UK , but after a bit of searching and some help at a local shop I chose Rico cotton, they have a lovely choice of colours but the shop only had DK.  

So, with a bit of experimenting I'm now knitting it on 5.5mm needles using 2 stands of yarn held together. 

I liked the colours used for the one on Purl Bee, so I chose similar colours

I also cast on 128 stitches rather than the recommend 100 to make up for the smaller needles I'm using

So far it's working out OK - I just started on the white this afternoon.

Here's an update photo of the mum-to-be which I took this afternoon.

She is caring most of the weight on her bum and legs and phoned me yesterday and told me her feet and ankles had swollen up - welcome to the delights of pregnancy Jen :-)  

She had a visit booked for a tour of a birthing centre today, James was away at work, so I went along with her.  My how things have changed!  The atmosphere is very relaxing and very low key, this particular centre has three suites, all with birthing pools but mums can't actually book a place there until they are 37 weeks pregnant.  The only drawback is that the centre is not attached to a hospital, there is another centre which is attached to a hospital which they are going to book a tour around in a few weeks and they also have a hospital tour booked at the end of August, so at least they can compare all the options.  Did you know that they only keep you in for 6 hours after the birth now? - wow, I would have been so scared to come home so quickly, what happened to rest!

That's all for now, Saturday night is take-away night and I think my Chinese will be arriving any minute :-)

Missing From The Sky, Big, Round and Yellow, I Believe They Call It 'The Sun'

I'm glad that so many of you enjoyed my photos of our break in Yorkshire, I think that we probably got the best weather the UK has had on offer for a while now, at least the rain kept off for us even if the sunshine was week :-)  

Since we got home i don't think it's stopped raining, seriously, where is the summer!!  If someone is hogging that big yellow thing in the sky, please remind it that it is supposed to be summer here!

David Hasslehoff was on some TV programme or other the other night and came out with a great observation, he said that in the UK we have two Winters, one in the Winter, and one in July!  Well David, you got that right, this year anyway, lol 

I was browsing the books in Tesco this week and came across this gorgeous book on offer.

There are some calorie laden cakes on offer inside, and i tried my hand at one of the recipes this afternoon

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

This is my effort compared to the picture in the book.

Not bad for a first attempt!

Taste wise they are beautiful, i'm not usually a lover of chocolate cake, (I prefer my chocolate to come in a block!) but these are so light and moist, they melt in the mouth, 

I think next time i make any i will use smaller cases though, they were a bit on the large size :-)

If anyone is interested i will put the recipe up in a couple of days (in a separate tab).

Well, that's it, no stitching lately, knitting needles have taken over, but no photos to share, although, remember that Hip to be Square blanket in my last post?  I unravelled it all!!  I tried out the i-cord border, and although every one raves about the i-cord (apparently 'I' is for idiot, as in anyone can do it), i just couldn't get it to look right, perhaps i was being too picky, but one side looked fine, the other side looked odd.  So off it all came and i started again, this time i'm adding a seed stitch boarder as i go.  Hopefully it will look OK this time, i take photos at the weekend and you can judge :-)

Until next time x

Caravan Living !

 I've had two wonderful weeks off work :-)  The second week we spent on holiday in Yorkshire, It's been a long time since we holidayed in this country.  DH's job involves the refurbishment of holiday parks and so he can spend half the year living on holiday parks in a caravan, so understandably he wants something a little different when we go on holiday.  

But anyway the chance to have a relatively cheap get away came up so we took advantage for a change of scenery :-)

(our home for the week)

I must admit that I quite like 'caravan living'.  There is something cosy about it, and of course there is nothing like a cup of caravan tea and a cooked breakfast, lol.

We took in a few sights while we were there, Whitby and Whitby Abbey being one of them.

This was my first visit to Whitby and the Abbey, the town was lovely and the Abbey is just stunning, or it would have been in it's day.  It must have been so impressive, standing there on the hillside.

Love the detail in the stonework

You can get a sense of how tall it is by the people in the photo

This was the high altar

The next three photos are me trying to be arty farty, lol

 Our next stop was Robin Hood's Bay.  Nothing at all to do with the legend that is Robin Hood, this was a small fishing village set on a very steep incline.  Very pretty and well worth a visit.

From the top looking towards the bay from the coastal path

The very steep road down 

Pretty little pathway up to the Church.  There were so many lovely little houses with paths like this, all filled with colourful plants

Down where the fishermen used to bring in their catch

I read somewhere that there are many rocks here from the Jurassic period and fossils can be found

I took along some knitting for the week (much easier to carry than stitching :-)

I found this pattern on Ravelry while looking for pattern for a blanket / throw, it's called Hip to be Square Blanket.

Just simple knit and purl squares that are quite effective when put together :-)

I'm using Hayfield Bonus Aran with 20% wool and I'm using it double.  so far it's knitting up great - and fast!

That's it for now, I've a few more photos of our trip to share next time, and at the rate I'm going with the blanket i might even have a finish to share !

Take care x

Dandy Dreams Winner!

My DH did the honours of picking a winner for Dandy Dreams.

I put everyone's name in a basket.....

And DH picked out...

STITCHERANON!!

Congratulations!  

Sorry but i do not know your name, lol

Please email me your postal address and i will get the chart in the mail to you right away, well not tonight obviously, because it's too late, but tomorrow for sure :-)

I hope you enjoy stitching this one as much as i did :-)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PS. email is hydenseek61atyahoodotcodotuk

A Wednesday Catch up With a Small Give Away

I was tickled to read the comments on my last post about the flower/weed in my garden, i knew that you ladies would come up trumps :-)  I'm greatful to those who told me that it is an Aquilegia or a Columbine, depending on where you live (I think).  Cath let me know that it is also known as Grandmother's Bonnet, how sweet is that!  The flower does remind you of a frilly bonnet when you look close. Thanks for the advice on the plant too Cath :-)  

Katherine also let me know that it is the state flower of Colorado.  So now i'm just going to let it flourish, how could i possible get rid of something with such a pretty name and a one that has a title too!

~~~~~~~

My eldest daughter had her 20 week scan on Monday, I'm glad to report that all is progressing nicely.  Apparently this scan is known as the gender scan, apart from checking that everything is as it should be, they were also asked if they wanted to know what it was.  They were both agreed that they didn't want to know what it was before the birth, Jenny's answer to anyone who asks what she's having is, "it's a baby" !

She will most likely want to kill me for sharing this photo!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I do have a stitching finish to share this time too (about time I hear you say!)

Can you guess what it is?

It's Dandy Dreams by Silver Creek Samplers

I enjoyed stitching this so much, 

once I started I couldn't put it down

Mark, at the stitching shop did a lovely job with the framing again, he even customised this frame for me, he painted the frame to match the green thread i used and distressed it.

Here it is a little closer

This one will have a place in the guest bedroom, 

(which should be finished next week)

The Give Away

Since I enjoyed this one so much I thought someone else might like the Dandy Dreams chart :-)

If you would like your name entered in the draw please say so in the comments only, (not by email), and I will draw a name next Wednesday evening, June 6th.

Oh, and it will be open to anyone, home or overseas :-)

Until next time...

Is It a Plant or Is It a Weed?

It's been such a beautiful day here in the UK and we know that when the sun shines we have to make the most of it because it has a habit of going missing for weeks on end :-)

I've made the most of the late afternoon sun by sitting reading in the garden, such a treat!

Before I came indoors i thought i'd take a few photos to share, if you are a regular reader of my ramblings you will know how much i love my Hostas.

I re-planted these into a huge pot last year, and they are doing well in the same pot this time.

So this spring i did the same with some others.

Hopefully these will grow just as well.

I cleared a small area that's somewhat in the shade and re-planted 3 other plants, thankfully i didn't kill them off!

The raspberry bushes are coming along nicely.  We started off with one bush and have ended up with several :-)

Last year we had lots of lovely raspberry's, i ended up freezing quite a lot because we couldn't eat them quick enough!

I always think it looks cramped in this corner, no idea what the shrubs are called but they are pretty when they flower :-)

 The blue bells are still flowering 

(at least that's what i think they are) 

Now, the one i need your help on is this last one.

It's appeared in several places in the garden and at first i thought it was a weed

I thought i'd leave it and see what it became, and now it is about 12-15 inches in height and has the loveliest pink flowers, and i don't know if it's a very 'pretty' weed or not.

If anyone has any ideas what it might be please do let me know.

I hope that wherever you are that the sun is shining  for you to :-)