Knit and Natter Friday

Despite the restrictions on normality, I am finding plenty of things to do and enjoy. I completed the crochet granny square lap blanket I was making in response to the request for some for local care homes. Having unearthed a larger than expected stash of yarn I was happy to make one. Now apparently one care home has said please could they have some single sized blankets-can you guess what I am crocheting now?

Duly delivered a week ago, and it just so happened that it was near my new favourite spot… that hill fort!

Next to a water trough, you can’t beat a good gate photo in my opinion.

And also spotted on the walk this caterpillar which to my mind looks just like the Hungry Caterpillar, but whether he will be a beautiful butterfly or a horrible moth I don’t know- hoping someone might know.

Our son suggested we join them for a family walk to the Cotswold Water Park. Now I have seen the sign for this park on numerous occasions, including when we lived in Oxfordshire for nine years. I had wrongly, it turns out, assumed it was a theme park. I feel very silly indeed. It’s lakes and walks and canal paths and loveliness.

We parked at Neigh Bridge and walked round the lake – twice- once clockwise and once anti-clockwise, because we’d paid for the car park.

As you do- well we did.

I took this pic for Yarn Along but to date there hasn’t been one this month- I can always edit this later if needed. Th elink has come up just as I posted this – Yarn Along can be found

Yarn Along {August}

The book was lent to me by the same son, and the knitting…….well

When I unpacked I unearthed the yarn and pattern for something I had totally and I mean completely and absolutely forgotten about , and it’s really quite a nice colour, and for once it is for me.

Not quite sure what the next month will bring, well none of us do. We had the grandchildren round fot a bit this week. Master T said I always find a positve side to everything his Daddy says so. Now I think if that’s true I am very lucky, and I will look for more silver linings this week.

Have you had any silver linings in your week- love to know.

Be Happy,

Cathyx

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Knit and Natter Friday!

Wasn’t the weather last weekend just wonderful here in the UK? The view from through the French windows  early in the morning with the sunlight playing on the hedge just filled me with joy.

As did my son and Mr B and his fiancée Miss G. They were lovely visitors. Encouraged Mr E ( who is doing well) with laughter and words, and helped me so much in the garden, chopping down ivy from the garage roof where I couldn’t reach and helping me with scary new lawnmower which turned out not to be scary at all. They deserved a cuppa in a local cafe.

After they left on the Sunday I took some flowers to my Dad’s grave. It would have been his birthday this week and I wanted some quiet moments of reflection.

Then I took a walk round the village and browsed an antique shop as you do, and GUESS WHAT. I found a WW1 sawdust heart, priced £75 , way beyond my pocket.

But it shows everything I had been reading about them. The use of preprinted pictures. The circles are called coloured wheels, there are sequins and beads, and the edging has braid and tassels. The only surprise is that it is actually much bigger than the one I have to make.

So this week I have added seed beads to the letters on mine. These just got lost in the felt. Next I tried adding sequins, but try as I might I couldn’t get them legible across the heart, it is too small and if I made the letters bigger the word Remember no longer fitted in , added to which they just looked garish. Out they came. However, I must say I can see why they were used for soldiers with shell shock, pushing the sequins, beads and pins in was very therapeutic.

So I settled for adding yellow to the stitching and made a composite stitch. I added just three sequins on the front, and now I am living with it , to see what I think. Across the back I added a short row of sequins to join the backing fabric together. I very much wanted to have some sequins somewhere, as per the instructions, to pay homage to the occupational therapy for the soldiers of WW1.

Yarn and Pencil wrote a wonderful post about junk journalling. Oh my does it look good , but also such fun. I admired her creativity. I looked at the materials. I thought I have kept oodles of paper and well stuff from other crafts and bits and bobs pulled off everything. Could I make one? Cue, massive rummage through all my boxes of goodies. Then a rummage round charity shops. Then a trip to the craft shops. Now the floor in the guest bedroom is littered with , well , junk. All I need now is the courage to get going.

There are 1000s of You Tubes on the subject, mostly from the USA, so I have been trying to figure out which glue does what. And what is the difference between junk journals, scrapbooking, art journals, smash books etc. I am now over thinking the whole thing. And although there are all these You Tubes, there don’t seem to be any books or very little written down anywhere. I really do like the idea of putting all my stuff to some use. Watch this space as the saying goes. Have you ever tried jounalling and have you any handy tips to pass on please?

Sandra at Wild Daffodil posted an update on her coastal crochet blanket, which is lovely btw, but resulted in a flurry of comments, culminating in a visit to Nudinits webpage. Oh my! I did laugh. Do check it out for a good giggle, thank you Sandra.

From there it was a short hop over to Amazon, where I thought I might buy the knitting book, till I read that only two characters were in the book. But Amazon don’t let you go that easily. “Here are some books others looked at.” they say. WHY, did I fall for that old chestnut? Needless to say two books are now on their way to me, which come on, I really don’t need. Have you seen my cupboards, floors, corners of all the rooms? Do I need some sort of therapy? I wonder is there a book for that…. no, don’t go there.

You see I have a reputation to live up too now. It was St George’s day this week and Little Miss F’s nursery was doing all about St George and the dragon. Miss F just had to take in

You know who. Apparently, and I have this on good authority via the teachers and Mrs T, that Little Miss F said ” MY NanaCathy made this. She can make ANYTHING”.

So of course I need oodles of stuff don’t I?

Which is all a very long way of saying there is not much output to share this week. The Sunday scarf is a bit longer and a lot wider. And the Eastern Jewels tile blanket has a corner and a triangle and part of the next tile.

And a few more ends to stitch in.

A gal can’t do everything now , can I? Unless anyone knows a way of making all the things and have a clean house and food on the table and a pretty garden.

One last picture to finish with.

You just can’t beat a picture of blossom and blue skies. Who knows the rain may hold off a little this weekend , so we can enjoy more of the same.

Love to know your plans for the weekend, mine include,yarn, paper, glue, thread oh and maybe some floor cleaning. That would be me using the stuff I have, it counts as tidying doesn’t it, if I lift it off the floor and do something with it.

Have a great weekend and Be Happy,

Cathyxx

Knit and Natter Friday.

So last weekend the garden was full of snow and a pheasant came to visit.

Then on Sunday it rained overnight and the snow was all gone on Monday. So I treated myself to some daffs.

Then yesterday it did this.

More than a little tired of snow now. Spring ,please. It has gone again today and the sun is shining. Is it Spring? How do the frogs know not to wake up yet, last year they arrived in February, I’ve not seen  a leg or heard one croak yet.

I have been tucked up indoors , and doing family history research. I am amazed at how an entire afternoon can vanish and just how excited I get if I find something new. You won’t believe how excited one person can get at the thought of two death certificates on their way and a nice kind man who says he will help me find an unmarked grave in Leeds, he has a map.

I didn’t succumb to my squishy parcel. Instead I have knitted a bit on the navy cardigan which now looks like this.

Just the buttonhole band and the collar to knit, then sew it up, choose buttons. Now there is another ridiculous thing I get excited about – choosing buttons. Then the squishy bag of yarn shall be mine, another thing to get ridiculously excited about.

Which makes me wonder , what things does everyone else get rather over excited about?

Plans for your weekend, any interesting things occurring, or a lovely quiet weekend?

I shall be happy if I can just go outside for a few minutes without freezing the matronly bits!

Have a great weekend whatever you do, please join in the natter in the post, it really is the best bit.

Be Happy,

Cathyx

Knit and Natter Friday!

I heard about an interesting project into loneliness this week. It is a survey that can be done online, link here  , to look into the causes, effects and ideas to help prevent and stop people from being lonely. Generally speaking I am perfectly content with my own company, my family , friends, the blogging community and acquaintances. I have lots of activities and hobbies I enjoy , but there have been times when I have been lonely. When we lived away from family and I was new to the area and there were  problems to be sorted, then I felt lonely, even if I was a just a phone call away from someone to talk too. Somehow I muddled through those days. So I felt I had something to contribute to this project. The survey was quite straight forward but did take about half an hour to complete. The more people who participate, the better the research will be.

Another wonderful scheme I heard of this week concerns, occupational therapy, craft work, combat stress and sawdust hearts to be decorated. I had hoped the postman would deliver me one in time for this post, but that was not to be. It is a project to raise funds to help combat stress in veterans AND to commemorate the end of the WW1. The wounded soldiers from WW1 and other wars were encouraged to use crafts to deal with what we know now as post traumatic stress disorder. One of the crafts for soldiers included decorating hearts  with pins and then they would send it to a loved one, wife, Mum, sister, sweetheart. Untangled Threads have made calico sawdust stuffed hearts for every day of WW1, and now they need help to decorate them by the end of July. The hearts will then tour the country before finally being returned to their makers. There will be a brochure to accompany the tour and the makers names will be included. The hearts cost £20 to buy and as I said come as a ready-made heart ready to be decorated in any way you like, and with some pins to start you off.  In memory of my relatives who fought and died in this war I decided to take part.

I had a sudden thought -I have seen one of those. And by golly on the front cover of a craft book from the 1980s I have a picture for you.

If you look on the link people have done all sorts already, wet felting, embroidery, pins and sequins in some quite wonderful designs. Now I am hoping I can rise to this challenge.

Meantime there has been a small amount of knitting here on the navy cardigan, and a lot of crocheting. I managed to get four motifs from the leftover weekend bag and they make a smallish lap blanket. Just need to finish this off now.

Bit late posting today, there are reasons including a much-needed trip to the tip with some ivy and a visit to the swimming pool.

Not much going on this weekend which is just a well with a wind from Siberia on its way to end the winter with. Hot chocolate, a log fire and some knitting I think for me. And what for you? A bit of hygge or out and about?

Be Happy!

Cathyx

 

It’s all about the Dragon!

So her she is in all her final glory. Pattern is by King Cole number 9051. Yarn is King Cole Tinsel and Stylecraft DK Colour Grape.

Her final length is 25 inches and wing span tip to tip is 26 inches.

And as for her name, well she quite likes the sound of Belinda , what do you reckon? I expect Little Miss F being a Princess with attitude will have quite her own views on the matter of names.

She isn’t waiting for a Prince to rescue her!

Linking with Ginny for Ginx Woolly Linz party. Do have a look over there.

Now I believe I have an Attic 24 weekend bag to finish crocheting.

PS Does anyone watch Death in Paradise, I can’t help feeling that the dragon’s face looks just like Harry the lizard.

 

 

Knit and Natter Friday!

Good Morning Everyone. February has arrived and with it the promise of Spring to come.

At least up here in the Northern Hemisphere. The snowdrops are popping up on almost a daily basis. Just lovely.

My lion is looking resplendent behind the tubs of primulas.

It’s been wonderful to read the posts from those who took part in the RSPB Garden Bird Count. I meant to include  a picture in my post of the rather ingenious feeder Mr E made from a plastic bottle.

The bottom part  he made on the 3D printer. Just as brillaint is the funnel he made from another plastic bottle with another 3D printed connector to the feeder. Clever chap all told.

He’s poorly still I am afraid with what turns out to be the late-term effects of the cancer treatment he received nine years ago. Long story short, he is due an operation next week to see what can be done to help improve things. Hoping it doesn’t get canceled at the last minute. We only found out the date 6 days ago , so trying to get our heads round it all. Meantime we soldier on.

I have enjoyed reading some posts recently about people who signed up to various craft/crochet boxes. Once a quarter or once a month through the post comes a box of goodies, a little project or two, a tea bag, something tasty to eat, maybe a picture. Oh they look nice thinks I , but I don’t need any more projects, but I can do the rest my self. So I found a nice picture postcard in the newsagents and some hyacinths in Morrisons and an ornament of Mums, so all I need is a mug of Earl Grey , a tasty biscuit and some small project and I am away.

Thanks for all the help with the crochet bag last week. I honestly don’t know where I would be without you. I have stitched in all the loose ends and although the joins are less noticeable I think I shall go with the Snails idea and crochet extra flowers to cover up the seam that isn’t.

Meantime the dragon progresses.

Left wing done. Right wing awaits construction, then back feet and claws front and back. Maybe I will get him/her finished this weekend. Stand by your beds for the big Tahdah moment.

I have been swimming three times in January and have so completed the 17 swims for 2017, just four weeks late. I am still working on 14, but I resolved the 15 books read from the heap by the bed. If you recall I had faltered after 12. I had a long hard look at the ones that remained and bagged them up for the charity shop. Result, no more heap by the bed. I know some brave souls are doing 18 for 2018, how are you getting on? No goals for me this year and that is good, no pressure!

Quiet weekend for once coming up. May get out in the garden. I had an hour outside on Wednesday and chopped down more ivy. The sun was shining but the wind was positively arctic so I gave up and came in.

This morning I am off to the hairdressers, I can’t see out from under my fringe, high time for a trim, and then who knows…..

What are your plans this weekend, do tell please.

I love your comments, please do join in with the natter love to hear from you all.

Have a good day, and Be Happy,

Cathyx

 

 

 

 

Knit and Natter Friday!

Hope everyone has had a good week since our last chat. Can’t believe what a whirlwind of it we have had. Nothing exciting you know, car MOTs, dental check up for me, choosing a new TV, not that my input into that twas much influence. “Oh no that’s too big “didn’t seem to cut the mustard with you know who. Added to which Mr E has arranged for it to be delivered on Saturday when there is the next repair cafe.  And as there are never enough chap menders to cope with what crosses the doorstep , I shall be the one at home waiting for  it to arrive. That’s life.

Now it seems to me that no-one is anywhere near guessing what I am knitting, what about this week, do you know now?

A face

C,mon, Little Miss F is a modern Princess, to quote her “I am not waiting for a silly Prince to come and help”. What do all Princesses need. Bigger hint at the end.

I have started to crochet the Attic 24 weekend bag. It’s much smaller than I expected.

Width ways I mean. The yarn is chunky on a 5mm crochet hook. I can only manage an hour at a time as it makes my fingers ache. So far so good I think.

Did anyone have snow this week? We had some yesterday but it didn’t amount to much. Or maybe you are in Summer and having heat waves, and swimming and ice cream and lots of homegrown goodies. mmm summer.

Today I have the Family History Christmas shared lunch and quiz and get together. I think I prefer my Christmas fun in December, seems all wrong now. Still it will be fun. I shall try not to embarrass myself too much in the quiz.

OK, so how did you get on with guessing what I am knitting.

Has that helped? Any ideas, anyone?

Please…

I hope you all have a marvellous weekend. I shall be telly man waiting for most of Saturday. Wondering how much knitting I can get done. Do tell your plans,

Be Happy,

Cathyx

 

Knit and Natter Friday, 2018

I started these Knit and Natter posts last year when Ginny of Small Things gave up her Yarn Alongs. Turns out she missed them too, and she has re-started them as monthly link ups rather than weekly ones,here . Which is a jolly good thing, but you haven’t got rid of my Friday ramblings as easy as that. I have got far too fond of my own voice, more than that I have got very fond of the Natter that always follows. My Fridays would not be the same without our chats.

My son phoned this week to talk over a work problem. I listened, I spoke calmly, but what I really wanted to do was say ” who is this person causing you grief, I will TELL them!” Which of course would do no good. We are often told in the UK we have low productivity. It seems to me that if people spent less time on office politics and more time doing the job they were paid to do , the world would spin a lot faster, why one wants the world to spin faster I don’t know.   ( Alice in Wonderland I believe). Isn’t it so hard when your adult children have problems?

Meantime the great tidy up after Christmas has begun. Just where do all the spiders live that spin so many webs in the house? Maybe it’s just me they have it in for?

Hasn’t it been lovely to see everyone writing on their blogs this week with posts about the last years highs and lows and aspirations for 2018. I so hope to stop adding to my collection of yarn and fabric and get on and work with it.

Oh, and clean the oven, January’s only goal for me. Yes it does need a clean. And I actually quite like cleaning the oven, all that gunk is so satisfying. Today I will do this.

I have been mostly crocheting this week, trying to add one block a night to the final rounds on the blanket destined for a care home.

I have 14 more to go, so in two weeks they should be done and ready to join and add the border. Maybe finish blanket should be another goal for January. That makes two.

I have started with the Jo Baker book on my January reads. Hey that makes three goals, to finish this book. Before I know it there will be 18 of the beggars.

Not only has Ginny missed her yarn along but so also has Ginny at Ginx Craft who has started a first Monday in the month link up. Ginny designs and knits the most wonderful things you can imagine, there is talk of a book, I will pre-order it if I am allowed.

I have done a little knitting on the mystery project, no-one hazarded a guess last week , and this week is no better I reckon.

It will grow, once the blanket is done. Maybe by the end of January, oh my could that be four goals for January?

Enough, I shall go and clean the oven. Do please tell what you are making, could be anything, a bird house, a widget, a jumper, a blanket, a picture, a cake.. I shall be making greasy gunk this morning!

Be Happy

Cathyx

 

 

Knit and Natter Friday!

Well Gosh is all I can say. And that’s a fib for a start as I have lots to say,, but hasn’t the last week just gone by in a great big flash, and gosh again, it will be 2018 next time I write a Knit and Natter post. So, did you all have a super Christmas? I have loved seeing all the Secret Santa posts this week. It’s clear we all love the research and the plotting and planning and making every bit as much as the anticipating and squealing and squishing and being bowled over by our gifts. And did your nearest and dearest love everything you gifted them I wonder.

Baby J does not look too impressed with my contribution, and as for that dog Coco, he of the unmentionable smells

He had pulled the beak off the duck by tea time, not that I made that but.. well honestly. Dogs!

We were in London with my son Mr J and family and had a jolly nice time. A lovely walk on Christmas Eve on Epsom Downs followed by a Christingle service, which was nice but so crowded, still I did get to sing my heart out and was thrilled that Master H appeared to know all the words and sang like a trooper. But when did churches decide that prams were a fire hazard and all babies had to be removed  from their snuggly nests. Baby Jesus, they sang had a bed of hay, but not so the little children of the congregation, they can just freeze. I mean honestly how unwelcoming is it to be told babies are a fire hazard. Never mind the d**m candles they can be lit, but ….. sometimes you do just have to wonder.

One of the joys of being the older generation is you don’t have to cook the turkey. Oh you can lend a hand with the table, and the sprouts and give an opinion on whether something is cooked, but you get to sit down and relax and then Voila a feast is set down before you. I thought I would miss being in charge and the centre of the steam, but no , not one bit. Being the older generation , and “you just sit there”, turns out to suit me well. I taught my sons well, as the chef was my boy Mr J.

Gifts, did you receive something divine? Mr E had listened to me, which might be a first.

I had really fallen in love with this book from the RSPB, and then I had this too

Oh my, from Attic 24, I have gifted these to others but had never received one myself, so happy.

But first to finish the two crochet blankets. First the one from left over yarn which will be donated to the Repair Cafe as a raffle prize. The speed I was going just in the cafe itself it wouldn’t be finished for ten years, so I have got on and done the granny squares at home, now they just need joining together, after which I shall do the border and sew in the ends at the cafe.

Happy with the red, now not certain about the two yellow squares bottom left.

Last year I rather succumbed to making a lot of yarn purchases, mostly I blame the gremlin in the computer, but some of them were definitely just me. I thought I was over the tinsel yarn madness, turns out I am not.

You will not believe me if I told what these were for. So I won’t, but you can try guessing each week from now on.

Over to you now for some nattering, love to know if your hand-made gifts were appreciated, and if you received something that brought on a happy dance. What are your plans for creating this weekend? I read a blog a week or so ago which suggested we plant more flowers.

That sounds good to me, I have some primroses to put in tubs, am I mad in these temperatures? We have a sprinkling of snow and more forecasted. Never mind I shall just have to sit down and do some knitting or crochet or cross stitch, well someone has to..

I want to thank you all for joining in with my Knit and Natter posts, it is the natter that has made them so pleasurable to me to write and I hope for you too.

All the best for 2018,  remember the night is darkest before the dawn if the year is not starting out as you would wish, and if you are on a high right now, enjoy it every bit .

Be Happy,

Cathyx