Hayling Island

We had five lovely days on Hayling Island at the beginning of the month. My parents took their little caravan down to a beautiful caravan park on a creek (of which we had lovely views) and we settled in as quick as can be.

It was just Mr Roadside, Bethany and me, we did make up the little bed for Bethany but to no avail, she spent every night in with us, thankfully the sofas pull out into a very large bed, Bethany does love to spread herself out.

We packed so much into those five days, fishing for things in the creep with her little pink net, all we caught was seaweed but Bethany loved it all the same, fish and chips on the beach, (well we tried to anyway, there was such a breeze coming off the sea we sat a way back to get some shelter) The funfair was a must of course, and even better was the little train down to the funfair. 

We all loved the trip on the train, as you can see from the very happy faces.

 Myself and the rugrat had a trip up the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth, Mr Roadside declined on the basis that he is scared of heights (wooseburger) we had  a great time walking on the glass floor and looking down, it was a lovely day so we had wonderful views across the harbour and over to the Isle of Wight.  

 We had a boat trip around the Harbour to see all the ships docked around it, Bethany was so enthralled by it all she promptly fell asleep, so the next stop was for refreshments sitting in a boat is such tiring work.

Bethany then captained a little tug called Ella of her own, she had a rare old time and she didn't sink it once.

We did so much more, bowling, trips to the beach, Pepper Pig World (which was packed to the rafters) walking down the side of the creek, lots of ice creams and eating out. We even had visitors one evening, our neighbours popped down and we all went out for a meal. But the highlight of the whole time was at one of the houses across from us on the creek, there were pirates, honestly they had the Skull and Crossbones flying and we could see them coming and going in their very posh boat. ( and who says crime doesn't pay) Bethany was so excited every time she saw them and told everyone she could see about the pirates.
Next year we hope to take her away again and maybe take our Grandson away with us as well, isn't he a cutie.

Changes

I have been so neglectful of my little space here, so much has happened in the last month. I finally cracked at work, after the straws were piling on top of me and weighing me down to the point of insanity (Ok a little melodramatic, but that is how it felt at the time) so I called time on it for good. Great for me personally but not so good for the purse strings.
I now have a little cleaning job once a week and I have an interview tomorrow in Midhurst for a job I have found and adore. I have been filling in time recently volunteering in our local Age Uk charity shop and I love it and want to do it forever. You would be amazed at some of the bits that are donated, and sorry to say disgusted at others, everything from gold sovereigns to dirty underwear (shudder)
We did have a little holiday away, we borrowed my parents caravan and took the grandaughter to Hayling Island for five days, she had a great time and completely wore us out.
I will hopefully be back very soon with more news and maybe a photo or two. x

Memory Lane

Bethany was very excited this evening when a hot air balloon went over the garden, the usual conversation then ensued, could she go in a balloon, I explained she was too young to go in one, but when she was older I would take her. I told her that I had been in a balloon once and we came to look on the computer to find a picture of this balloon because the one I had flown in was very special, at the time it was the tallest air balloon in Europe.

Isn't he huge, if I remember rightly he was about 110 feet tall. I was on my way to work at a balloon festival a few years ago and I saw him flying over me at 5.30 in the morning followed by the support vehicle. At the festival I had a visit from the balloon team, they had seen my van that morning and noticed it again on site and had come to see if I wanted to go up in Bertie Bassett. Did I ! It was one of the most surreal things I have ever done, although you can hear things from the ground, the noises are almost not there, it was so peaceful. To make the experience even more unreal it had been announced that morning by Cadbury Trebor Bassett (the owners of the balloon) that Bertie was being retired so I was one of the last people ever to fly in him.
This got me thinking back to my old job so I googled to find an image of one of the cars I used to drive, not only did I find my car (there were five of them) but I found a picture of my van towing it. I do not recognise where I am parked, we toured with these for five years maybe longer all over the UK, so it could be just about anywhere. I had the best job in the world, selling, and sometimes giving away chocolate, I went to music festivals, the commonwealth games in Manchester after a fifty day tour of the UK on the Queens Jubilee Baton Relay, I went to football games, Rugby matches, the Battle of the Flowers in Jersey, supermarket car parks, you name it we did it.

Most time we towed these little babies, but every now and again we took them for a spin, I went to a wedding in the egg in Blackpool, a surprise for the bride arranged by her family, she was chocolate mad and her wedding was themed around Cadburys. I even drove it behind the hearse at my bosses funeral, he would have laughed his head off. One completely mad day when I had been at Legoland all week and I could not be bothered to go back to the yard to pick up the trailer and go all the way back to Legoland to pick up the creme egg car and load her onto it yet again, I let my colleague drive my dairy milk van (not something that happened very often, I loved my van and was very precious with her) and took her out on the road, this always caused a bit of a stir, people could never believe what they were seeing, but to really stir things up we went home via the M25. How we never caused an accident I will never know, people were trying to take photos of the car while they were driving, one couple nearly went off the motorway altogether, they were so surprised, it was fantastic drive home (not the near accidents obviously) the most fun I have ever had driving it, except maybe our little spin around Glasgow, we had people chasing us down the road, and a cyclist ran a red light overtaking us and nearly took out a pedestrian. (not that, that should be amusing, the pedestrian was ok in case you wondered, but I do have a seriously bad sense of humour) The stories I could tell you, but I will cease my waffling now, but I had such good times.

Poor Forgotten Blog

I could tell you that I have been to busy, that I just haven't had the time to blog, but I would be telling great big porkies. I have been far to lazy, naughty me.
Lots of pictures today.

I got these at a car boot on Sunday.

This was a charity shop find, only the one.

Another charity shop find, I got three of these.

This little set also included the larger sandwich plate as well as the side plate, saucer and teacup of which there are four.

I have had a day of playing with the magic box today, been off work, not the best photo I'm afraid.

A shot of the lining, lovely little mushrooms.

Last but not least, another charity shop find, working and in box with instruction manual, isn't it just lovely, Bethany was very excited when she saw it, shame she is to young. I can just see me and her in the future sitting together whizzing things up with our magic boxes.

 

Pretty Vintage

I have noticed a lot of bloggers and others have been searching out and finding pretty vintage crockery, from car boots, charity shops etc, I have been feeling a little left out, I love stuff like this and while I was doing my usual trawl through the charity shops yesterday I kept my eye out for some pretty bits to fly into my hands, nothing, not a thing, not a bean or even a tea cup and saucer. Oh I saw lots of very nice bits and bobs, but nothing that called my name, I came home feeling quite disappointed.

Now, as most of you know it is Fathers Day today and we had invited my father-in-law around for lunch, and I had a sudden thought as I was laying the table, we had gone to my Mums for dinner last Monday and she had gotten the 'best' china out, when I remarked on this, asking if it was a special occasion I had forgotten all about, she replied 'what was the point in having lovely things that got hidden away in a cupboard and were only bought out and used once or twice a year, why couldn't everyday be a special day'. As usual my Mum is a wise woman, with wise words, and no I did not rush around there and steal her best china, I opened up my dresser and got mine out.

Yes I know, how could I have forgotten about this, I have already got pretty vintage china that has sat all alone in my dresser for about six years, maybe longer. The set belonged to my Gran, she is still alive but suffers from dementia and has been in a lovely care home just around the corner from us for about six years, or maybe longer. When my parents cleared out her house as both they and my Aunt already had 'best china' sets, they thought I might like it.
So today out it came, it was given a bath and set out upon the table, along with some lovely crystal glasses which we do use, (alcohol does not taste the same out of cheap Ikea glasses) I did stop at getting the silver cutlery out though, I was not going to sit there for hours polishing that lot, maybe another day.
Anyway the picture is of one of the diddy coffee cups, the set is by no means complete (so if any of you spy out some Coalport Ming Rose china on your hunts, give me a shout) but it all looked so beautiful set out on the table. My project very soon is to clear off the junk on my dresser and get the china out on display and mostly to use it, as my Mum said, lets make everyday special.

I am Home

The South of England show was pretty good for a week off work, spent some quality time with my Mum and really enjoyed flogging cakes, we had another team (Mr Roadside and my Dad) down at the Royal Cornwall Show and each night we would compare takings, I am happy to say we beat their butts each and every day.
Not that I am competitive in any way shape or form !!!!
Granny Blanket had a lovely holiday in the caravan and kept me nice and warm at night, it was seriously cold in the evenings, not freezing or anything, but boy am I pleased that I was not in a tent.
Not much was done on the cot blanket, but I did crochet a hat while I was there, photo to follow another day, cannot be fagged to get it and take photo's tonight, too tired (back at work this week, yuck).
A couple of pictures follow of a some of the pieces of fabric that I have been collecting in the charity shops, just loving fabric of any kind. Catch up with you soon. xxx

Off To South of England Show

Yippee, I have a week off work, a whole week. So what am I going to do this week, I am working, yes I am working on my week off. This is good though, I will be selling Mrs Crimbles products at the South of England Show, I get to spend the whole week with my Mum in a little caravan. We have packed lots of goodies, along with lots of books, and a few projects to keep us busy. The Granny Blanket is coming along for the ride as well, just right to snuggle under if it gets chilly.
We will be in the food hall, so if you happen to be going I would love it if you to stopped off and said hello..

Finally

 So Granny stripes is finally finished, the border seemed to take forever, but I eventually got there. I sat and watched the TV last night snuggled up beneath it with a very satisfied grin on my face. I have not measured it yet, the tape is in the bedroom and Mr Roadside is still asleep, but it is a little bit longer than me ( I am five eight ) and is as wide as my arm span .
These pictures are not the best, I am crap at photography and the light is not to good outside yet, it is still quite early. The colours are even more vibrant in real life.
In all honesty I would not have chosen these colours to go together, I am much more anal and I would have chosen colours that all toned in together, but I am so glad that I went with Lucy's choice, it is beautiful. I need to made a few matching cushions now, but not yet, I have the magic box to open and I am itching to get it out to play with it.
I tried to keep the colour sequence as random as I could, not easy being as anal as I am with colour, just picking for the next repeat what felt right, I did however undo a couple of repeats because they clashed way too harshly for my over sensitive eyes.
I plan on doing more of these, I know several people that would be enormously pleased to receive one of these, and I may do another for myself at some stage.

Now onto something entirely different, the magic box, as I may have said I have not done any form of sewing since I left school apart from the odd bit of hemming and a couple of rag dolls for the small people over the years. I have an ancient manual Singer up in the loft which hasn't seen the light of day in decades, I inherited it from my nan, and my mums old machine in the airing cupboard which needs some attention. So I treated myself to a new sewing machine a few weeks ago, it is still sealed in it's box waiting for me patiently.

I have of course been shopping around for fabric since I purchased the magic box, so that the minute I got it out of the box I could dive straight in and get going. I have new fabric, the remnant bins have been emptied across West Sussex, and I have been scouring the Charity Shops for treasures.

This is one of the treasures found locally, a bolt of childrens fabric, I would guess from the seventies (correct me if I am wrong). Just over twelve yards (eleven metres in new money) of the most garish, freaky fabric I have ever seen, I love it, it is so naff that you just simply have to fall in love with it.

 What I am going to make with it I have no idea, I think it would give my Grandkids nightmares, especially the clown, he is freaky, and the rocking horse definitely looks like he might have a chainsaw hidden away behind his back ready to cut off the little dolly's head.

There are more treasures awaiting my dubious photography skills, hopefully I will get around to showing you some more soon.

Still Nearly There

All one hundred and ninety-eight ends have been weaved in and I then changed my mind about doing a edging, so I am currently doing an edge. I hope to have it finished by tomorrow night, if I can stay awake that is. If I thought work was busy before, it has gone totally ballistic today and will carry on being that way for at least another week, we are catering for a huge world famous band  and they are very demanding on top of all the other stuff we do. I cannot reveal who they are just yet, we have been sworn to secrecy, but I may let it slip sometime, so stay tuned (if you want to anyway)

Nearly There

The Granny Stripe Blanket is almost done, at last, just a few more rounds and a billion and ten ends to sew in but I am nearly there.
Work has been horrific for the last couple of weeks, completely non-stop and I am totally exhausted, even after having this weekend off, I feel like curling up and sleeping for a week, but hey ho life goes on.
Will try to get a few photos up sometime this week of the finished blanket and some rather lovely purchases.

New Toy

The granny stripe blanket is coming along, it has grown quite alot, still not quick enough, I need to get this finished as quick as I can now.

I treated myself to a new toy yesterday and I am desperate to get it out of it's box and play with it, But I have sworn to myself that I will finish the blanket first. I know that the minute I break the seal on the box I will not be able to control myself.
 I have bought myself a sewing machine, not that I have done any real sewing since I was a schoolgirl, and that is going back more than a few decades. but let me explain, I fancied a trip to Hobby Craft yesterday and they had 20 % off everything, so it would have been silly not to really. Guess I will be going off on a sewing gig now, I have been flicking through my book of Kate Greenaway dolls this afternoon, so I may be running a few of them up in the not to distant future, or something else altogether, who knows what will happen until it does.

Good Luck to William and Kate

I didn't actually plan on watching The Wedding today, but I seem to have found myself kind of  interested in the television coverage this morning, lovely to see all the people from around the globe that have made it to London to watch it first hand. What I do want to see is the dress, will she go for elegant simplicity or the more traditional lace and flounce of past royal brides, I love wedding dresses, something truely magical about a woman in her dress.
Just to add to the theme of the day a picture or three of my baby girl on her wedding day, her bouquet was originally mine from my wedding, I added a few more flowers to it to add a little length, and though you cannot see it there is a little silk frog hidden in there, I do not really know why but when I chose the flowers I saw him and couldn't resist.

I May Need To Change My Blog Title

I can't actually remember when I last knit, it seems like years ago, I have been seduced by speed over to  the hooky side. Like many of you I pop into attic24 to see the beautiful things there, Lucy has an eye for colour that I can only envy. I am also a member of the We Love Lucy group on Rav where I discovered that you could purchase a Lucy pack from several online retailers containing her choice of the Stylecraft Special DK needed for her Granny Stripes blanket. Naturally upon seeing the pack I promptly pressed the buy now button. For a very well priced acrylic yarn I am impressed with how it feels and looks and will definitely be puchasing more.

Anyhow, the hook has been in pretty much constant use this weekend, I have refrained from checking out the colour order that Lucy used on her blanket, trying to bring my own colour sense into it, if you know what I mean. (Harry) Lots of progress has been made, the blanket is a good five feet wide and is getting very warm to be under in this weather, (hasn't it been glorious) but I shall persevere in the name of art. 

                

I hope you have all had a fantastic Easter weekend with lots of lovely chocolate and been able to get the needles and hooks out at every opportunity.

Guess What I Was Doing.

A lovely little pile of ends, yes I spent most of the afternoon sewing in ends, don't you just love doing that. Those are not all of them either, I had put a whole load in the bin a little while before. It was worth it though, when you finally do the last one I always feel like dancing around singing a jaunty ditty to celebrate. I know I am so sad.
I must say a great big Thank You to my first ever follower Clare, I cannot tell you just how excited I was when I logged on and saw that you had clicked to follow me, I walked around with the biggest grin on my face for the rest of the day, I would have put the Chesire Cat to shame. It is the loveliest feeling when you know other people out there occasionally pop in and peruse the blog.
I love reading other peoples, I spend hours hopping from one to the other, I am not very good at leaving comments, I try to do it as much as I can, silly but I feel a bit shy about it, maybe others do to.

This is what all the ends came from, it is only acrylic stuff that I had laying around in my stash from the toys I occasionally knit for the grandkids. I have made this for my grandaughter, she loves to snuggle under a blanket when she watches the telly in the evening and when she first gets up, and I know she will love this as it has lots of pink in it, and she is definitely a pink girl, though she can be partial to a little purple sometimes.
Me, I am a blue person, any shade of blue does it for me, I live and I will die in blue jeans, I even wear them at work even though our uniform is black, I kind of get away with it.

Not New Needles and the Kindness of Strangers.

A couple of weeks ago I was looking through the knitting needles in one of the local charity shops, another customer came in and saw me rooting through them and asked if I knitted and would I like all her old knitting needles.

I picked them up yesterday, what a lovely lady she was, she offered me a cup of tea, which unfortunately I was unable to except (I was just off out), but we chatted for ten minutes or so and she has crochet hooks and odd balls of yarn tucked away somewhere which when she digs them out I am also welcome to. I did offer to buy the needles from her but she wouldn't hear of it, she was just happy to know that they were going to a new home to be loved and used. What a haul, there are over seventy pairs, and lots of odds, plus stitch holders, circulars and needle gauges (old sizing). I had a lovely time sorting through them yesterday. In the front of the picture are some lovely old bone needles, not sure I would actually knit with these they feel so delicate, I might give them a go eventually, but for now I am happy to just hold and admire them. I am getting quite a collection of old (or should they be called vintage) needles and patterns, the needles mostly live in a large glass cup where I can admire them constantly, Mr Roadside just shakes his head in bemusement, he just does not get why I get so excited over what he thinks of as pointy sticks and string, poor deluded man.

Happy Hooker

I have been truely side tracked by crochet, nothing to show you at the moment ( theres a surprise), but have been playing around for the last couple of weeks with the hooks, teaching myself how to read crochet patterns and charts. I had forgotten how quick crochet grows, but also just how much more yarn it uses than knitting.
I have a couple of granny square blankets on the go, and several flowers in different stages of progress, just fooling around with it really. I ordered a couple, oh alright three crochet books tonight along with some aluminium hooks, I do have a few hooks, mostly metal, a few plastic, some wood and one bone one. I mostly use the same size plastic one, with shaped handle, it feeds the yarn through really well, wooden ones tend to stick to the yarn, as do metal ones to some extent, so I figured I would treat myself to a complete set, and ali ones seem to rate quite well with other hookers, and they were half price, at only a tenner for the set I thought it would be rude not to.
No plans for the weekend, just chilling with wine and good food, oh, and maybe a little crochet.

Crochet

I haven't done any crochet for years, but last weekend I was looking through my stash and was wondering how on earth I was ever going to use any of it up at the moment. I needed to do something that produced results quickly, time is still a bit sparse at the moment so anything that can give me almost instant gratification is very welcome. Several of the other bloggers I follow have recently featured crochet and I love Granny Squares to distraction, apart from the fact that is all I can do as far as crochet goes is beside the point
I have never tried to read a crochet pattern or chart, but have found my copy of Happy Hooker and several crochet books I found in the charity shop last week, and I plan to spend the day having a little peruse of them and see if I can make any sense of them.

Here is my little pile of squares so far, I will more than likely make some sort of scarf with them, there is not enough yarn to make any kind of reasonable sized blanket with. Each one is about six inches square, and takes just under an hour to do, most are a single colour, but to use up the oddments of yarn where there is not enough to do one square I have a few multi coloured squares as well.

I went along to our local S & B this week, it has only been running a few weeks, but I had not had the chance to go along to one before this week, it was a very pleasant evening of chatting and knitting (and crochet). I helped a couple of the ladies with their crochet, mostly on how to hold the yarn and keeping the tension. There are quite a few beginners there and it is great to be able to pass on the crafts to newbies, I have tried recruiting several of the ladies in our various charity shops this week, loads of them used to knit but in their own words they have no-one to knit for, as I said, why can they not knit for themselves and there are many charitys out there who would be extremely grateful for knitted gifts.
While I was in one shop looking through their collection of knitting needles a lady asked if I knit, and when I answered in the affirmative she then offered me her collection of needles she no longer uses any more. I nearly snatched her hand off , she gave me her number and I will be ringing her later on, this lady has bone needles, I adore old bone knitting needles and am so excited. Off to study the mystery of crochet patterns now, hope everyone is having a lovely weekend.

I started this scarf for the Grandaughter quite a few weeks ago, last weekend I figured I would get it finished for her, can I find the damn pattern, can I hell. I wrote it out in one of my many notebooks, not just any notebook though, it was one I use for work, one of several. Guess I will have to do a full scale search later today.
Stop press, just went upstairs to get something else and there it is sat on the stairs with some other bits and pieces, Mr Roadside must have found it yesterday when he was tidying up, how good is that.
I found the pattern on another blog, unfortunately I cannot remember which one so I cannot tell you whose pattern it is, it is a nice easy one though.

Back In The Land Of The Living, Well Almost.

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of doing everything but knitting. We have taken over the Diner and things are going really well, loads of great feedback. I am the chief cook and bottle washer, the first to arrive and the last to leave, it is pretty full on and I have been getting in at night and throwing myself into bed to get some sleep almost as soon as I walk through the door. I have given up my other job, even I, superwoman that I am cannot work twenty-four hours a day five days a week, it was a bloody hard decision as I loved my other job and the lads I worked with, but it was only a temporary contract and the Diner is a permanent job.

A few years ago I knitted some socks for my nephew, they were way too small, I had seriously miscalculated just ho

w big his feet were, anyhow, I found them recently and tried them on the Grandaughter, they fit her beautifully. I then showed her my socks in the same yarn, she was seriously impressed that we had the same socks. She was so impressed with her own hand knit socks that she refused to take them off for five days, I had to promise to knit her some more (in pink of course) so we could prise them of her feet to wash them. I even managed to get her to sit still long enough to get a photo of them.
I had a great day at Unravel 2011, and spent loads of money, laceweight mostly, I didn't find anything to do the Maidenhair Shawl in though, will have to keep on looking for that. I shall try to do a post soon with pictures of all that I bought that day.
Today I shall knit, it is my treat to myself.

Free Fall

Life has been a little manic of late, there is so much going on that my head is in free fall spin mode, I do wonder if it will actually fly off my neck at some point. Sleep has been a rare thing, and is likely to get even rarer. My shifts at work have been changed, I work nights, I have been doing three nights a week, which is great, lots of free time to do other stuff, even knitting occcasionally. This Sunday afternoon we were informed that we would now be doing four nights a week on a slightly different day rotation, on our second week rotation we will be doing three on, one off and one on, not good for sleeping patterns. I have also just learnt that the Diner / Cafe that my other boss has been trying to buy is a done deal, so I will be working all other hours there, my OH thinks that I am a complete stranger as it is, we kind of say goodbye and hello in the same breath most days. Looking forward to taking over the Diner though, loads of ideas to improve the menu, it needs a bloody good clean, I wouldn't let my dog eat in there as it is now, and he is really not fussy at all.
On the knitting front I still haven't blocked the cushion cover, and I have cast on a lacy scarf for the Grandaughter, pink of course, everything has to be pink, I was going to post a progress picture but the computer says No.
I have booked my tickets for me and Mother to Unravell 2011 at the Farnham Maltings for 26th February, my Birthday present to myself, I hope to find something suitably gorgeous for the Maidenhair Shawl while I am there and I am sure a few other naughties will find their way into my hands as well.

Just Popping In

Firstly I must say a big Thank You to Jan for leaving such a lovely comment, it is great to get some feedback and know that I am not just talking to myself, as much as this blog is my own little journal about knitting and the occasional blah blah blah about not much at all, it is lovely to know that there are other people out there who drop in once in a while. After all if I wanted to keep my life private I would not be talking about it on the internet.
The knitting has been virtually non existent for the last week or so, life has been pretty hectic and has infringed on my knitting time, in a word I have done none at all. The cushion cover is off the needles and waiting to be blocked and sewn together, not my favourite bit of the process.

Eye Test

I finally had my eyes tested last weekend, they were getting bad, distance is fine but reading has been a struggle especially when I am tired. I had kind of ignored it until I went away for the weekend last September, we were looking at Radley handbags and noticed some great glasses on a little display stand, my friend wears glasses for reading so was trying some on, of course I had to have a go, I love glasses and didn't want to be left out.
I could read clearly, I had tried on the weakest ones they had there, +1.00 and I could see the difference straight away with the little card thingy they had. Naturally I bought a pair and have been using them to read ever since, but of course a proper eye test was still important and I finally went for it, what a difference they make, it is a little weird balancing them on my nose while I knit and read the pattern and then peep over the top to see the telly, but it does make such a difference. I had bought the cheapest pair of glasses in the opticians without all the coatings they try to upsell you and asked for a copy of my prescription, I will get my glasses on line in future, they are so much cheaper, I can see myself having a nice little collection of glasses for all occasions.
There has been knitting, I finished the front of the cushion cover, just need to do the back and then get a cushion pad. I am really pleased with it so far and think I will do another one with the yarn left over but in a different pattern, I may try a cabled one.

Pattern Repeats

Why does the first repeat of a pattern take so blooming long, I spent most of the day yesterday doing the first repeat of a cushion cover, yet it only took a few hours in the evening to do the second repeat.

I am liking it so far, the colour on here is not far off real life, maybe a little lighter but not bad. The yarn is Jaeger Sienna 4 ply, which is 100% mercerised cotton and is really silky. The pattern is taken from one of my stitch dictionaries, The Ward Lock Guide to Knitting Stitches, repeating diamonds, love this book, I picked it up in a charity shop a couple of years ago.
Charity shops are a wonderful place to look for anything to do with knitting without breaking the bank, books, patterns, magazines, needles, yarn, you name it and it is out there somewhere lurking around waiting to be pounced on.  I am lucky to have four shops in the village where I live, one of them being exclusively for books, it is amazing what other people get rid of, and I never have to pay more than a pound for any type of book.
I never did make that hat for my colleague, but I did end up making three for me, so my head is kept splendidly warm at all times, and on all occasions.

Fishermen's Sweaters

I'm afraid first impressions of this book are not favourable, mostly by the fact that there is only one man's sweater in the entire book, maybe I was being too hopeful, but not having seen a copy of the book and only going by the title, Fishermen's Sweaters, I was hoping for a tad more on the masculine side. I am sure that a few of the projects could be knit as a sweater for a man, but I like to see what it would look like on a bloke in the first place. Enough said.
The other bone I have to pick with this particular publication is the quality of the photography, alot of the projects almost seem to be taken in soft focus, so you cannot really see the stitch definition, either that or my eyesight is alot worse than I thought it was.

It's not all bad though, there are a number of projects I would like to cast on, this being one of them.
Kinsale.
This looks like a really comfy winter warmer, long enough to keep your butt lovely and warm, I do like woolies that double as butt warmers.
If I tried really hard I could even imagine this being suitable for a man's knit, (just need to get past the disappointment of being tricked by the title first.)
Most of the knits in this book do look to be on the loose side, maybe all the models used were stick insects in disguise, so everything they wear looks like a sack on them. But I have no great complaint about that, I like big comfy sloppy jumpers, great to slob about in.
In all fairness I have only flicked through the book a couple of times, and have not yet had the time to read through it all properly, the charts are well laid out and easy to understand and there is a good section on the techniques used at the rear of the book. so all in all I am not really that disappointed at all.

Naughty Me

I just happened to be looking at knitting books on Amazon yesterday, like you do, something terrible happened, I spent money, money I haven't really got, looks like I will be smoking tabacco instead of taylor mades for a week or two, ( yeah, I know I should give up the weed. )

Too late now they are ordered and will be winging their way over to me very soon. Number one is this, Fishermen's Sweaters by Alice Starmore, I already have her Book of Fair Isle Knitting and Aran Knitting, both beautiful books and full of inspirational designs. I thought this would be a useful addition to my collection, especially as I have a long term plan to actually knit Mr Roadside a sweater, how long term this plan will be until it becomes an actuallity is the million dollar question, one day, probably later rather than sooner. I am hoping that this book will contain the right amount of manly sweaters to inspire me to finally knit something for him. I have only ever knit him a hat, which he said was not big enough, his loss, I have made very good use of it.                                          

This book just kind of fell into my basket of it's own accord, I have never even really looked at this book, but the reviews were encouraging so I bravely knocked it of it's shelf. Must have a quick look on Rav and see what is said about it on there, I will of course give my thoughts on the books once I have them in my sticky mittens. The new hat it finished and currantly perching on my head keeping me lovely and warm, I seem to be a bit obsessive about hats at the moment, maybe because they are relatively quick projects to complete, it also sounds great to say that I have completed three projects already this year, and it still only the middle of January. God I am good. Long may it continue.

Blog Anniversary

It's four years since I started this blog, I have not been very good at posting, though I have found a renewed interest since the new year, as I have found a renewed interest in knitting, the needles have almost been smoking.
The colleagues hat is still non existent, but I have cast on another for myself, a simple twisted cable rib in a bluey purple. I like blue, it's a cheerful colour, like the turquoise of  the sea on a calm day, the crisp royal blue of the sky on a freezing winters morning, the white blueness of freshly laundered linen, I think you get the drift.

FO

Have you any idea just how difficult it is to take a photo of the top of your head. This was one of about a dozen, the other eleven were deleted, bad, bad photos. It is still not a good photo, but will have to do. This is the hat knitted from The Family Knitting Book, using Patons Diploma Gold DK in shade 6151, which is a blood red colour, not the pinky red shown in the picture. The folded bottom is a Honeycomb pattern though it does not show too clearly in this photo, and the top is a sort of 4 x 4 twisted cable rib.
I even managed to knit another hat this weekend, not for my colleague still, but for the Grandaughter, she saw me knitting this one and demanded that I make a pink hat for her, which being the doting Nana I am, I promptly did, I did take a picture of her wearing it, bad photo, I will try to get another one of her in it soon, and hope that she is not pulling strange faces.
I will start the other hat today, I need to get this done asap, my colleague is home from foreign lands tomorrow, I must find a manly colour in my stash.
If anyone ever stumbles across my blog, please stop and say hello, I am not especially bothered if no-one ever reads it, but it would be nice to know that there is someone out there in the netherworld of Blogland. I have grown quite fond of this blog over the last few postings, it has revived a more intense love of all things knitted, I had been quite lazy over my knitting in recent months, apart from a quick burst just before  my little Grandson was born and Christmas, I had not really knit anything in the last year or so.

The Frog Pond is no more, I spent a very productive evening last night, ripping out everything that was hidding away in it, and there was some stuff that had been hibernating there for well over four years, it is no more, but I now have a large pile of balled up yarn ready to re-enter the stash mound.

There Has Been Knitting

I have actually made time for some knitting, not the hat for my work colleague, but one for me. I was having a little look through my books and patterns for a suitable mans hat and found the perfect one, for me. It is from The Family Knitting Book, which was produced excusively for W H Smith in 1980, it has a lovely Aran section in the back of it and the pattern was crying out to be knit, I am about half way through it and really enjoying the cables, never done them before, bit bloody fiddly at first with the cable needle ( dpn actually, don't have a cable needle as such ) but you soon get into the swing of it.

I love these old knitting books,I manage to get alot of them from my local charity book shop, I never pay more than a pound for them, absolute bargain. Today I picked up thirty knitting magazines in one of the other charity shops for only three pounds, mostly from the nineties, but several from the seventies, including one from 1970 priced up in old money 3s 6d, Woman Treasury of Crochet and Knitting, if only the modern magazines were that cheap.

Frog Pond

There is nothing is my stash for the Maidenhair Shawl, this project uses 825g of yarn and though I have yarn that I could use, I do not have enough of any particular yarn. This of course means I will have to buy some for it, I spent a fair amount of time yesterday browsing the interweb for something appropriate and have found a few possibilities but nothing that jumps up and bites me on the bum screaming buy me, buy me.
The hat has not even been started, got side tracked by something else, that something else is going to be frogged in a little bit, not liking it at all.
Talking of frogging, I have rather a large Frogpond at the moment, not as large as it was, I did do a little ripping out over the New Year, I like ripping, it's like buying new yarn in a way, you get to use a yarn that you coveted enough to cast on with all over again from new. I did not fall out of love with anything in the frog pond, but most of the projects have been lurking around for so long I have forgotten what patterns they are from, and if I can remember what patterns they are, I sure as hell don't remember at what point I have got to in the pattern, so rather than struggle with working out what they are and where I have gotten to, I will just rip it, rip it, rip it.

A Challenge

I have, over the years bought yards of non-fiction books, all bar none are about knitting, pattern books, technique books, stitch dictionarys, you get the idea. I have lovingly and faithfully read them from cover to cover, marvelling over the miriad of beautiful projects and have so far not knitted a thing from them. Don't get me wrong I always have every intention of knitting countless amounts from them, they are full of post-it notes bookmarking the things I want to do, some of these post-its even name the yarns I have in my stash that I can use to make them with. Still they haven't been knitted.

So naturally my challenge is to get off my pondering backside and do some of them. Which one to start first though, now I could spend days once again leafing through all the books, actually make that weeks there are alot of books, trying to make up my mind flitting from one project to another, constantly changing my mind again and again and again. Instead I have elected to start with the last book I bought, Alice Starmore's, Aran Knitting, now there are quite a few projects that spring to mind from this particular book, Irish Moss, Na Craga, St Ciaran, the list goes on, but in my infinite wisdom I have decided on Maidenhair Shawl.

Now all I have to do is some stash diving to see if I have anything approaching suitable for this, if not, damn, I will have to do some shopping for more yarn, I have plenty of overtime this month so I can treat myself to something special to celebrate my good sense in taking on this challenge. And in case you were wondering, no, there is no particular reason for this particular project, it was just the first first one that jumped out of the pages and hit me over the head pleading to be cast on and maybe one day cast off again as an official FO.

Happy New Year

Welcome to 2011, what a celebration we had, we were in bed by ten and fast asleep as the rest of the country rocked their socks off. Mr Roadside has got swine flu so we cancelled our plans and snuggled on the sofa, most of the family have had the dreaded lurgy over Christmas so it was all a little subdued to say the least, as well as the grandaughters bedroom ceiling collasping on Boxing day due to a leak in a pipe that was 'fixed' a couple of months ago, Christmas was not the riot it normally is in the Roadside House, enjoyable none the less though.
Resolutions, I think not, they never make it through the first week. Knitting took a back seat in 2010, I went from having no job to having three, so have been running to keep up with myself. My craft room is no more, it is now the grandchildrens room, sad but necessary.
Today I intend on knitting my work buddy a hat for his 40th birthday this week, he is from Slovakia and I have been trying in vain to find something even vaguely Slovak to incorporate into the hat, but apart from their national flag I can find nothing, absolutely nothing.
I would like to try and blog this year, (no, not a resolution) maybe even get a few pictures of FOs up, we will see anyway.