New WIP

This is a lovely pattern for a lion that I bought from the Alan Dart website. I don't generally like knitted toys, but my brother and his wife are having their first baby and it's a boy. I know my sis in law likes jungle animals, so I am going to attempt to knit this but only the lion.


This is my new WIP (work in progress). It's the same as the beige cardi that I finished a few weeks ago. It was so nice to knit, that I found (ok I bought it) some lovely red cotton yarn. It knits up really lovely. I am trying to finish it so that I can actually wear it this summer. Last time I managed to knit one in two weeks, but this may take longer, as I am easily distracted as you know.

This is my granny stripe blanket. Attic 24 gives a great tutorial. This was my way of being good. Using up all my stash of cotton dk weight yarn. Trouble is I have used most of it and not finished yet. I have been hunting through my stash, and have manged to come up with some odd balls of green, so the colour combination will change a lot. I have run out of the blues now too.

I let the chickens out this morning. Went back in their shed to fill up their water drinkers. One of them (psycho) followed me, I thought she was just thirsty. I started to fill up one drinker, and I saw her looking at my toes (in flip flops), so I pushed her away. Started to fill up the other, and then realised that the psycho was on a mission, she must have thought my toes were worms, big fat stumpy worms. So I was trying to do a little dance, at the same time as tipping up a watering can, and pushing the chicken away. I am so glad no one else was watching. Happy knitting

Another day

Well, joy of joys. Last week I had my youngest son off school all week. Now I hardly ever keep my kids off school, and to be fair they are not often ill. But he was all heavy eyed, and full of cold and bunged up sinuses, and he wasn't eating, so I knew he wasn't too good. I had to cancel some arrangements, but it was nice to have a week at home catching up, and of course knitting.

Now today I have the next son off school, with what might be the same sort of thing, so that will be this week probably out of action. Also my youngest daughter is off school (and she doesn't want to be!!) with conjunctivitus. So off to the doctors later to sort that out.

I have been ruthless and been through my wool stash, and listed lots of it on ebay. There were some things that I couldn't part with, but these things have been in the trunk for the best part of a year, so I thought the money would be more useful for our trip to India. I am seriously going to go through the house this week, and see if there is anything else that I can find to sell. I am sure I have more stuff, if I have a good clear out. It makes you feel good, having a clear out and tidy up. My number one daughter came over yesterday and we went through the plastic cupboards. You know, you buy all those pots, because they will be useful, and basically they sit in a cupboard not being used. I whittled them down to lunchboxes and a few small boxes, and the rest are off to the charity shop. The cupboard is tidy now, and it feels good.

Right off to do some more tidying and sorting, then maybe I can get some knitting done. Bye for now

Early Start

I was up at 6 as my lovely youngest son decided as their is a staff training day today he would get up at 530!! So I have taken some photos. These are of our baby rabbits. The mother escaped 4 weeks ago, and this is the result of her getting out, 3 lovely baby rabbits.

These are our chickens, we live next to a chicken farm, so don't really need the chickens for eggs, but I do like seeing them outside, and eating your own eggs, well your own chicken eggs, is lovely. We have some lovely breeds, and then 4 scraggy ex battery hens, but at least they have a better life now, they dont look lovely though!!

The 2 at the front of the picture are 2 chicks that we hatched in our incubator, its great one cockrel and one hen, so maybe we can rear up our own chicks now.

This a picture of a wild rabbit, right outside our dining room window, I did use the zoom on the phone, but sweet picture

How cute, same rabbit, washing itself.

Mum washing the same rabbit.

Then these are the lovely poppies outside the window in the corn field. They look so lovely

The view from my dining window. Sometimes life can be so busy you forget to appreciate the small things in life.

Today I am going to see my lovely friend, the lady who invested so much time teaching me knitting, so she will always have a special place in my heart. Happy days.

Prem babies and India

My titles always seem a bit random, but hey that's a bit like me. It was knitting group today, which was really nice and relaxing, there were 11 of us there, I tried to persuade two young men to join us (they were my son's age - so relax!!) but they weren't so keen. It's cool for blokes to knit, but I don't think they agreed. Still, you can but try.

After I had finished knitting, I popped into WHSmith and bought knitting magazine. Had a good old read when I got home, and read the back article. The columnist Laura, had a baby with a heart condition, and she had some really difficult times to deal with. It made me remember when we had a prem baby 9 years ago. It is really hard to go home from hospital and leave your baby with other people to look after. We all cope in different ways, but it was a really hard time for us as a family. Sadly, our little boy died at 6 months old, but you never forget.

Anyway, enough of the rambling depressing stuff. Just found out that my husband and I are going to India in November. VERY EXCITING. It's not for a holiday, it's to help. We are going to be going with a team of people to Tamil Nadu, and helping in a school and childrens home. A friend has offered to come and live at our house for 2 weeks and look after our children. This is a once in a lifetime trip, to see a different part of the world. I am nervous, excited, scared and thrilled, all rolled into one. The trip does involve a 16 hour train journey!!!So I am definitely packing my knitting in my suitcase, not sure what yet, probably small things, that are portable. See even then I am planning what wool and needles to take, not what clothes.

Today at knitting group I have been finishing off some baby bootees. They are so cute. They are from a Debbie Bliss book that I borrowed from the library. I made a mistake on them, but it's easily fixed. Once they are finished I will put a photo on here.

Now I am on strict orders NOT to buy anything. Fortunately that was after I told hubby (who is away at the mo) that I had bought a sofa!!Don't worry it was a second hand one, so not too expensive. But no more knitting magazine, no more wool, we need to save the money for this trip. I have put my laptop on ebay, hope that sells, as that will pay for one ticket. I even said I would sell my wool if I had to, but I seriously hope it doesn't come to that. Maybe I could sell the chickens, furniture, bikes and car first!! Happy knitting

Dentist

We had a dentist appointment booked last Friday at 4pm. The children usually get home from school by about 3.25, so it's a rush, but we can make it. This Friday was slightly different. My lovely husband got home from work and went upstairs to have a shower. He had been working with pigs, so believe me he had to have a shower!!I went to the car only to find that the back two seats were still loose. My husband had taken them out a week before, and we hadn't been out since then as a family. Then my stress levels got slightly raise.

I was muttering about flippin man, how annoying, why hadn't he put the seats back in and oh for goodness sake. Then I shouted to one of the boys to go and shout their dad that could he put the seats in the car, as I couldn't get one of them in. Then the girls were faffing around, and one of them was moaning because she didn't want to go. Then the volume in my voice slightly increased, ok, I admit it, I bellowed GET IN THE CAR RIGHT NOW, AND SHUT THE DOOR. By then hubby was outside fiddling around with the seat. He managed to get the seat in, and then said have you got the keys?

By then it was 3.40 and the dentist is 20 mins away. So hubby runs to the shed, grabs the ladder, props it up against the house and climbs, or scurried like a rat up a drain pipe, into the open bathroom window. As he just gets his leg over the top rung, I find the keys in my handbag. I've got the keys I shout, so he runs through the house and back through the front door, by which time I am laughing so hard. It kept me chuckling all the way to the dentist. Then I wonder, why I get so stressed because we get there in time, in fact we end up having to wait 5 mins as the dentist is running late!! Happy knitting

New additions to the family

Today started off like a normal Thursday. Got the children off to school, then drove most of the way to town, and then walked in to go to knitting group. There were only 6 of us today, but we still had a laugh. I have still mainly been doing crochet. I do love the granny striped blanket. I am doing it to use up all my dk cotton that I have. The only problem is (well it's not really a problem) I probably will have to buy some more dk cotton to finish it off!!I have been thinking about knitting, and started a little baby cardi for a friend who is due in late October. Done the back, so it won't take long to get finished.

I am going to knit my brother and his wife a few baby bits. They have their scan soon. They are going to find out the sex of the baby, so I will knit accordingly. I have more pink than blue, but a quick browse on line at kempswools and that problem can soon be fixed.

Daugher number 3 got home from school, and went to feed her rabbit, only to find that the rabbit had given birth. Great. The little minx managed to escape a few weeks ago, and she did come back a day later looking a bit disheveled (guilty), and we got her back in. Now we know what she was up to!!!Just have to make sure she NEVER EVER gets out again. Now we will have to get another hutch. We definitely have one living one, one died so had to take that out of the cage before she realised. There may be more, but not going to disturb them. So our family is growing again - at least it's not me this time!!