Almost finished WIP Wednesday...

This year is running away. I'm at the stage where I just want to jump off for a couple of months, catch up with everything I want to get done, enjoy time doing not a lot with my little family and just breathe before getting back on and it still 'only' being the middle of May.   Next week is half term, the last holiday before the summer holidays and between the two, we go to see my sister in Italy and.....waa!!  My life is a series of lists and taking children here, there and everywhere. 

On the up side, I am getting better at switching off from work (earlier) in the evenings so by 8pm, I have time to relax.  Hence why my top is growing quickly. It is so close to being finished but I have run out of yarn. I did the crazy-old-lady lay-by thing with my LYS again, clearly not learning from my mistakes when I made my Owl jumper. I don't know why I do lay-by. Maybe because it is a crafty way of sneaking yarn into the house; there are only ever a couple of balls kicking around because all the rest are safely stored in the yarn shop.

I tried this on yesterday. It has looked so pretty while I have been knitting it so I wanted to make sure it still looked pretty. Hmm. The lacey holes are a bit holey. It needs to look better when it is finished or I will be giving away to someone!

For more WIP Wednesdays, have a look over at Tami-Amis blog.

Eurovision fun!

Saturday was Euro-vision night.  I love it! I know the scoring is all but fixed and that we don't stand a chance of ever winning but I enjoy watching the crazy tunes and it's a good excuse to get a couple of hours of knitting in on a Saturday night ;)

Mr Nicsknots normally watches with me but this year it was a lonely affair because he has re-ignited his love affair with World of Empires or whatever the name of the computer game is that means he has to build little towns and armies then spends ages fighting with other armies using trebuchets and other medieval weapons.

I used to love watching Terry Wogan, presenting the show, slowly getting more and more drunk as the evening progressed but Graham Norton is growing on me and some of his commentary was spot-on this year, such as when he told people that if they were offended by two women kissing at the end of the performance by Finland, they needed to grow up.  Quite.

I actually thought Finland should have won, their song, 'Marry Me'  was written by the singer to spur her long term boyfriend to marry her.  It didn't work though...clearly snogging her best friend will help her to get over it. His loss!! The song was full of cheese and craziness and reminded me of Aqua.  I thought Malta was good too and the video explains the song a bit more.  Completely different from Finland but I really love it.

And look at all of the knitting I got done...

I've managed to get the sleeves on before Euro-vision, without crying, even though I was attempting to knit using magic loop while squeezed on the settee with two excited children and a husband, watching the Dr Who finale. I can't wait to get it finished now!

Yesterday, I finally got my bean arch made.  I saw the idea on Pintrest and decided it was just what I needed to tidy up the front of the playhouse. I've been waiting for a while for M to build me some containers out of all of the wood he has been collecting but apparently that was much to much hassle so girl-power strikes again and Lou and I made this.   I'm quite proud of it and can't wait for the beans to start growing up the arch..and for the sun to start shining so that we don't have to wear cardis and trousers in May!!

WIP Wednesday.

It's Wednesday already! Thank you to everyone who has entered the giveaway already, it's fab to see some lurkers coming out of the woodwork with the lure of prizes!

Today it is Work In Progress (WIP)  Wednesday and I have been doing quite a bit of knitting recently.  At the end of April, I, stupidly, it would seem,  thought that we might get some warmer weather soon and decided to cast-on a cotton top.   Miss Kitty  is from the latest Louisa Harding book and knitted in Jesse, a cotton denim. It is a dream to knit; no splitting at all.

I am always a bit dubious when think about knitting something for me because I'm worried what it will look like when I'm finally wearing it but as luck would have it, there was a sample already knitted up in the knitting shop so I tried it on and it looked fab.  The only thing I have changed so far is to add an extra pattern repeat on the bottom as it was a little bit shorter than I want it when I tried the sample on.

I've almost up to the adding-on of sleeves and keep having to knit another row, it's fairly addictive.  I'm a little bit scared because it looks a bit confusing in the instructions but I'm sure it will make sense when I get to it.

For more WIP's have a look on Tami-Amis blog.

A Giveaway!

This was the sky above my garden this morning. Beautiful blue.

A wonderful way to start the day but the forecast is for more crazy weather this afternoon with torrential rain and potentially hail and snow near London. Crazy May weather so I think we should cheer it all up and have a giveaway.

Earlier in the year, I made some very special projects bags for the lovely Rachel Coopey, for the launch of her new book. 'Socks', available to buy here, is the first printed collection of her original, beautiful sock patterns.  I bought the book as soon as it was released. In fact. I bought the book, raved about it, took it to show a friend then had to buy myself another copy after it mysteriously disappeared and reappeared at her house.

The book contains ten patterns and when I looked through the book for the first time, I found myself saying 'I *must* make these first, no these, no maybe these....'  I think I have finally settled on these.....

'Saltburn' Photograph by Jesse Wild.

These socks are knitted in The Knitting Goddess 4ply Merino Nylon Sock Yarn. I love the cables and stripes. I just need to choose the colour now and there are lots available in the shop at the moment! 

Back to the giveaway. After I had finished making the bags for Rachel, I had a bit of fabric left. To start with I thought I would stash it away in in the 'must make something for myself' drawer but I knew I would never get anything made and this fabric is much too pretty to be hidden away so I have used it to make another drawstring project bag and a double-pointed needle case and Rachel has kindly donated a copy of the book so one lucky person could win all of this....except the needles in the case, I need those to knit my socks!

  

All you have to do to enter is comment on the post and let me know which one of the socks you would knit first. All of the details are on the book page on Ravelry. The giveaway will close on 31st May. 

Must do better...

I'm just sneaking in here, seeing if you have all missed me... I've been more than a bit rubbish of late and neglected this old blog but this is the week it is all going to change. I promise.

I haven't been sitting around doing nothing. It's just I joined Instagram a few months ago and they say a picture tells a thousand words and....well, it's quicker to post a photo and run.  I'm here if you want to find me and admire my wonderful photography...and eclectic choice of  views of our crazy life.

I've picked a few photos out to post here. Firstly, Spring *finally* arrived in the UK. The cherry blossom came out and the many ferns in my garden started to unfurl....

Last weekend we made the most of the sunny weather, dusted the bikes off and went out in the sun. Mr Nicsknots showed off, Lou followed Daddy and ended up in a big heap. Do we think she has learnt the important 'Never follow Daddy' lesson? Er no!

We have started a positivity book. J still struggles with his writing and the older he gets, the more I panic. He has the ideas but, by his own admission, he hates writing and finds it boring. No matter how many times I tell him that it doesn't matter how boring he finds it, the quicker he gets on with things, the quicker it is over, he still sits at the table, frustrated and annoyed for much longer than it takes him to write the work.

I love reading a couple of blogs (Keep It Simple and I Can See The Trees.), where they post five positive things a day and I wondered if I could get J practicing his writing while helping him see that all of the good things that happen in his day don't revolve around an electrical device.  We've been doing it for a fortnight now and it is getting better. Last week I was feeling like I was doing everything wrong as a parent; we would have a fab family day, do lots of things I thought would make an appearance in the book and he would sit for ten minutes complaining that nothing positive had happened in his day then write 'I played Minecraft for ten minutes' but we carried on and I haven't ever complained about his choice of subject and now it is becoming routine and he is finding it easier to find positive things as well as improving his writing. Fingers crossed it works!!

This was the first day and this comment made it all worth doing because he had wanted to give up on his violin lessons but then he went to orchestra and they played music out of Harry Potter and he now loves it!!

 I have been doing some Spring inspired photo-shoots. I love this print. I bought it for a custom order a while back but I think I will be adding it to my current range. It makes me dream of summer days, ice cream and flowers in the garden.

My sister and her family have moved to Italy!  I'm so jealous of the warm weather and their adventures.  Her husband is in the Navy so they will be based there for two years before coming home.

I'm still trying to switch off from work at the weekends. It is so hard to switch off when working from home, especially when my 'office' is in the corner of our lounge but I am learning. I even sat and read for a couple of hours in the daytime yesterday while everyone else went to a model railway exhibition. I need to read a bit more if I am ever going to get my 52 books read this year though!

So. I think that is me up to date. This week *is* going to be a good one and I shall be back tomorrow with something really exciting.

Just before I go, this week is Cleft Lip and Palate Awareness Week.  My lovely friend gave birth to an amazing, fab little boy in March who has a bilateral cleft and palate. Before she found out, at her 20 week scan, I hadn't really heard much, even though it is the most common congenital anomaly in the UK, affecting approximately 1 in every seven hundred babies born in the UK. The work that CLAPA does to support family and friends and the information they provide is so valuable and I wanted to do my little bit to support them so I'll be baking some cakes for a coffee morning later in the week and I will be donating 15% of sales this week from my Phoenix Cards to the association. 

You can order directly from the the website, from anywhere in the UK or even further afield and the cards are sent straight to you within 3 days so if you keep meaning to get organised and get some beautiful cards, designed and printed in the UK, do it this week while supporting a really worthwhile and sometimes overlooked cause. If you just want to donate, click here to get through to the website.

I'll be back tomorrow with some fab news!! 

Wonderwool Wednesday

It's that time of year again..the start of the run of woolly shows all over the country.  For me, Wonderwool always signifies the start of the season and is generally my favourite show but unfortunately,  I won't be there this weekend.   Luckily though, my bags and needle rolls will still be on sale so if you are lucky enough to be heading for Mid-Wales, have an amazing scotch egg from Neil then head over to Emma at Atomic Knitting who will have a range of my usual bits and bobs.

If you are looking for something a little more different from Nicsknots, hop over to see Deb at The Mulberry Dyer.  Over the last few months I have been lucky enough to work with Deb to make some bags using some very special fabric she has expertly dyed, using her historical dyes.

Deb has been working as an historical dyer since the early 90’s and started dyeing cloth at Warwick Castle during a demonstration of 17^th century Dyeing. Since then she has had commissions from Hampton Court Palace, The Weald and Downland Museum and various other Museums to supply cloth for historical costume.

The wool cloth used for the bags is a diamond twill suitable for mediaeval gowns and doublets dyed with Madder and Brazilwood.  The fabric is extremely hardwearing.  The lining is beautiful Ahimsa Silk (Peace silk) again dyed with Brazilwood with the addition of Logwood to darken it.

 
The linen for the Karrie Bags was an experiment in stenciling using modern extract dyes. Linen was always the fabric worn next to the skin as it was easier to wash that heavy wool.

Have a great time if you get to Wonderwool! 

Go Jim, go!!

It's Sunday morning, the sun is shining for the first Sunday in months and I am sitting in front of the TV watching The London Marathon, getting all excited and wishing we had the Olympics all over again this year!

Over the last few months I have been watching Veuf Tricot prepare for his first London Marathon.  *Just* running the marathon and asking people to donate to Refuge, his chosen charity, was not enough for him so when he hasn't been running and working and everything else, he has also been designing knitwear with the proceeds of the sales of these pattens, going towards the charity.

I've never  going to run a marathon but I will be cheering Veuf Tricot on from the sofa. If you want to donate to the charity, click here.