This week I got a huge package of goodies from a “swap buddy” in New Zealand. We were partners in a swap-bot swap sometime ago when I sent her a yarn ball wrapped in a rose patterned tea towel. She loved the tea towel so much she asked if I could get more items in the same pattern and we organised a little private swap. I sent her some more rose patterned goodies, some English delicacies (Jaffa Cakes and Batchelors Cup-A-Soup) and some other goodies and in return she sent me all of this -

A tea-towel with New Zealand flowers on it, a squeezy tomato ketchup bottle, “Tiki” salad servers, a copy of “The Listener” a NZ magazine, 2 balls of The Wool Company Utiku Merino Possum Yarn (yes yarn made from possums!), a bath tea-bag, a NZ fridge magnet, button badge, NZ magnetic poetry (lots of NZ expressions I had to have explained), the cutest little brooch with two tiny needles and a piece of knitting, “Twisters” (NZ cheesy corn snack - bit like Wotsits), 2 bars of dark NZ chocolate and a jar of NZ marmite.

Phew! a real slice of New Zealand here in my own back garden in England. The magnetic poetry had to have some translation so here are some New Zealand phrases -

“jandals” = flip-flops in UK, thongs in US/Australia and most of world
“pack a sad” = to react negatively rather than get on with things. You might say “don’t pack a sad” meaning lighten up.
“smoko” = morning or afternoon tea (even if you don’t smoke). Someone will say “lets have a smoko” meaning lets take a break
“piker” = a kill-joy or someone who won’t join in
“rattle your dags” = hurry up
“puckeroo” = refers to something that has broken

I was interested to receive the marmite as I had assumed marmite was peculiar to England, although I was aware that in Australia they have vegemite (a poor imitation). To those of you in the US who have no idea what marmite is, it is a yeast extract which you spread on toast or sandwiches, it’s very salty and has a taste which you either love or hate. This love/hate is used as the advertising for marmite in the UK. Marmite is also used to flavour Twiglets which are baked corn snacks which look remarkably like twigs (hence the name)

Whilst I was putting the NZ Marmite away in the cupboard I realised that I had 4 different jars of yeast extract in my kitchen cupboards. I immediately wondered whether they all tasted the same or if each different variety had its own distinct taste….an experiment followed.

I gathered the 4 jars of yeast extract as follows -

From l-r, Vegemite from Australia, original Marmite from England in the new squeezy bottle, Marmite from New Zealand and limited edition Guinness Marmite (made with Guinness yeast extract apparantly)

Next I got two volunteer tasters (me and J) and armed them with pitta bread with which to tast the yeast extract.

We began with the Vegemite, the texture was much more solid than the other three spreads and the colour is the lightest brown of the four. The taste was quite subtle and not as salty as British marmite

Next was the Guinnes Marmite, I was interested to know if this tasted any different to normal marmite or whether this was a marketing ploy. The texture of the Guinness Marmite was the “runniest” of the four and the colour very dark brown. The taste was different to ordinary marmite but still very strong and salty. I love it!

Third was original Marmite, still the best in my opinion. The new squeezy bottle is an inspired innovation IMHO, I use marmite quite a lot in cooking. I’m vegetarian and when I make bolognaise sauce or chilli with soya mince I often add a spoon of marmite for colour and taste - squeezing it in from the plastic bottle is much easier than scraping marmite from a spoon into the saucepan. Still, I digress - original marmite slighty firmer texture than Guinnes Marmite but still runnier than the vegemite, colour very dark brown. Taste, very strong salty taste - delicious.

Finally, the New Zealand Marmite - of the four this was the darkest in colour being almost black and was only slightly less solid than the Vegemite. The taste was very different to the other three - whilst they were all clearly salty with the Vegemite being just more subtle, the New Zealand Marmite tasted completely different and was almost sweet. I like it but not as much as British Marmite. I will have to try it on hot toast which is always the best way to eat marmite.

So the results are that they all taste, and indeed look, very different.

Earlier in the day we attended the wedding of our friends Ceri & Mick at All Saints Church, Marlow. This is Ceri in her beautiful dress

I wore MS3 for the first time to the wedding and here I am in my outfit including the Mystery Stole 3 (btw that’s a feathered head-dress on top of my head, my hair is not quite that wild or bright pink)

I’m really pleased with the way MS3 turned out and it went perfectly with my wedding outfit. The yarn was Patons Fairytale 2ply and I knit on 4mm circulars. Here are some more photos of it taken in the garden when we got home from the wedding this evening.

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Tags: marmite, vegemite, yeast extract, wedding, ms3

Back in March my DH bought me (amongst other lovely knitty gifts) 6 skeins of Jaeger Extra Fine Merino DK in a shade called “Cocoa” - a lovely chocolatey brown. He immediately went into a slump about it declaring “I made a mistake, the colour’s horrible, 70’s sludge brown…and I didn’t buy enough for you to make anything ….”

I, on the other hand, thought the colour was wonderful and immediately decided it needed to be a v-neck slip-over/vest/tank-top (whatever word you use to describe a sleeveless jumper/pullover)…so I started looking for a pattern I liked. I was unable to find anything immediately and so the yarn got stashed but everytime I see a tank-top pattern I dig it out again to see if it would work….I was on the point of designing something myself (never designed a pattern but willing to give it a go) when I saw this post on Roo’s blog.

The pattern is Ms Marigold available to purchase at Zephyr Style

This is it - it’s perfect! So, I hope Roo doesn’t mind me being a copy-cat (they do say that it’s the greatest form of flattery) but I immediately bought the pattern and cast on yesterday evening. This is how far I got by the time I went to bed last night

and here is a close up showing the lovely way the stitches form up - think this is due to the twist in the yarn which is quite pronounced

I am really loving knitting this - it’s one of the most enjoyable knits I’ve had for ages. The yarn is gorgeous, it is so soft and slips through your hands. The pattern seems perfect for it and I managed to do the increases leaning left and right to for this wonderfully neat shoulder section

Doesn’t show brilliantly in that pic - I’ll post a close up later. Overall I am really pleased with it so far, hope my joy continues and I end up with a lovely tank-top to wear to work later in the year over a blouse!

I’ve also signed up to another swap (I just can’t help myself) this one is the Hogwarts Sock Kit Swap 3, and I’m not even a Harry Potter fan (I have never read any of the books although I have been to the films accompanying my Potter fan hubby) However from what I’ve read about rounds 1 & 2 on peoples blogs it sounds like a fun swap and whatever I end up making I can gift to one of the Potter mad people I’m surrounded by.

I filled in the sign up form so I hope I’m in, I was “sorted” into Gryffindor

Get Sorted By The Hogwarts Sorting Hat!

which is good because if I’m to receive a sock kit to make something I’m going to gift I’d want it to be Gryffindor.

MS3 was completed some time ago but haven’t had time to block it or blog it - just pinned it out on the floor of the spare room as I am off to a wedding tomorrow and I am thinking of wearing MS3 …mind you the weather has perversely for a Bank Holiday weekend turned hot and sunny so I probably wont need a shawl.

Here I am blocking it

and here is a close up of the “wing”

Finally, non knitting activity in my house mainly involves my new chickens so here they are -

this is Morwenna a white bantam leghorn

this is Demelza a red mottled leghorn

Demelza made a bid for freedom on Thursday night, I was putting them to bed for the evening and I am trying to get them used to being handled by people but she slipped through my hands and ran off into the undergrowth in my garden…which is mainly brambles through which I had to crawl to get her as it was getting dark and I didn’t want her out there with my cat and the foxes…..

and this is Tegen a blue bantam leghorn

Tags: jaeger, merino, ms marigold, chicken, ms3, hogwart

I’m hosting a swap on Swap-bot, if you haven’t heard of this site and love swaps then go check it out. My swap is for knitting accessories/notions - so if you fancy receiving some new stitch-markers, row-counters, tape-measures etc then come and sign up. Full details -

As knitters we know that you can never have too many notions/accessories and we are probably all seduced by cute stitch-markers and tape measures. So this swap is designed to feed that addiction.

# Minimum Requirements

Each person is assigned one partner and must send at least 2 knitting accessories/notions totalling at least £10 (that’s about $20) not including postage.

If you want to send more than 2 then that’s fine but the minimum requirement is 2 items.

If you feel you cannot spend £10 then this isn’t the swap for you.

# The Swap

After signing up you can, if you wish, list the accessories you would like to received in the comments. If you want to leave if up to your partner to pick then that’s fine.

Items to send can be anything from stitch-markers to scissors, row-counters to tape-measures, needle cases to stitch-holders.

You can also specify whether or not you’re happy to receive handmade items. I know lots of us love to make stitch-markers and I’ve seen some wonderful beaded stitch/row counter bracelets. Obviously hand-made items should be of a quality you would be happy to receive yourself and the minimum £10 spend requirement still holds so good materials please!

If there is something you would particularly NOT want to get, for instance if you have tape measures falling out of every drawer and project bag already, then mention that in the comments too.

There will be 2 weeks from sign-up to send your items so that should be plenty of time even if you need to buy things online.

Enjoy! Any questions just contact me.

As well as hosting this swap I have just signed up for a Christmas (yes Christmas!!!) knitting swap and there are still a few places left on it - go visit the Christmas Around the World Knitters Swap - to find out more. If you love Christmas, love knitting and like finding out about different traditions around the world this is the swap for you.

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Tags: swap, swap-bot, accessories, notions

Sorry for the break…been on hols in Cornwall so here is a catch up post.

Before we went away my chicken ark arrived and had to be put together

and painted

Then we packed up the car and headed for Cornwall on Saturday morning. We were staying with Js parents in Talland Bay but on Saturday night we were invited to a party being thrown by a friend of our pal Tracey (FairyCross). It was a “tent party” - meaning we were all staying over in tents in Steve’s garden on the night of the party. There are plenty of embarrassing photos on flickr and here are some of my favourites

The host himself -

Some rather drunk people -

Some VERY drunk people dancing (I’m told) to Grandma’s Feather Bed by John Denver - don’t ask it’s safer not to know -

Katy playing DS the next morning -

Pretty pictures of Cornish scenery

I did some reading -

and I did some knitting -

I am in a prayer-shawl swap and started my shawl whilst in Cornwall as I was in a lovely relaxing setting where I could meditate on the shawl. Here I’m knitting in the swing seat at my in-laws looking at this view  -

that’s the sea at Talland Bay.

Arrived back home this afternoon having visited Tracey on the way to collect the chickens which her hubby was letting me have (he breeds them) so when we got home we showed them their new home

and introduced Simpson to his new family members

this is Morwenna - she is a white leghorn and is already proving to be the bossiest and the bravest of the three. The other two are Tegen and Demelza.

Will write a proper post tomorrow

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Tags: chickenark cornwall party

I arrived home from work today to find a parcel on my doorstep - luckily the recent rains have not returned so the package was still safe and dry!

I had already been told by my swap partner that this was on it’s way and had received an email with instructions not to read it until the parcel arrived. I took my parcel out into the garden to enjoy the last of the light….

What a wonderful parcel I found,  there was a fantastic little note with all the goodies and this was the email which Cad Lady had sent (I added in the pictures!)

“the “bio” for your amigurumi:

his journey began in search of a new home after leaving his home planet. politicians and media told him he’d never find a place where people cared about strangers. he didn’t believe them, so he ordered his magic carpet in ostentatious peppermint colors and left. when he landed on our planet he found out about magical pens and papers these Earth people actually still sent real mail to one another! fascinated he collected some examples that seemed to show that these people really DID care about strangers.

moving through the distances he also collected a “space ship” (a rocket-shaped tool for opening sodapop cans without breaking a nail).

nibbling on a comforting foodie treasure that had traveled with him, he found a quiet place to sit and rest and watch this world. there were lots of little square buttons with markings on them (he sat on my keyboard)

and when he wobbled accidentally onto a bigger blank square a view screen bigger than his previous house lit up. he settled back and watched videos until he slept. sometime during that first night he noticed this planet had a moon and it smiled at him. the morning broke with a happy-looking sun peeking from behind a fluffy white cloud.

waddling around, the little alien decided this planet had to be the one he’d been seeking. he rolled up inside his magic carpet and settled in. sometime later he woke up and the trees and grass had changed and he was moving!

a huge hand lifted him and giant eyes twinkled in glee! these people were huge! this one, however, was gentle and put him down on a shelf near one of those big view screens and laid his magic carpet along side him while it looked inside a package. ahe smiled a wise smile. this looked like exactly the sort of place for him to make a new home.

there was obviously a whole lot of caring going on in this world.

the end.”

I showed the alien around his new home - he met the natives

he was a little scared at first but decided they want to be friends. He found a device these humans use for telling time by the sun….they are obviously not as advanced as he first thought….

….however, he decided he’s going to stay for a while.

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Tags: swapbotswap amigurumi

Once again another weekend in the Wendys Woolies household where our feet didn’t touch the ground and we spent a total of about 2 hours in our own home!

Starting on Friday I headed over to my mum’s near Oxford and we then went into Oxford to get the bus to Victoria Station in London. From Victoria we got the train to Crystal Palace to attend the Norwich Union Grand Prix Athletics meeting at the Crystal Palace stadium.

We had been a little worried in the last couple of weeks that we were going to have to sit in the rain watching the athletics but the British summer seems to have finally arrived this weekend and so we were sat in wonderful sunshine all evening.

The athletics was really good -

This is GB sprinter Craig Pickering getting ready for the 100 metres (our seats were right in line with the 100m start line)

this is Jo Pavey after she ran the 3000m

this is the sprinters lining up for the final of the Men’s 100m

This is Chris Tomlinson jumping his way to victory in the Long Jump with a jump of 8.16

Unfortunately this evening didn’t end the best way, it was Jason Gardener’s final race meeting and the final event of the evening was the Mens 4×100 relay. Jason ran a wonderful 1st leg and then Craig Pickering and Marlon Devenish managed to drop the baton on the change over between 2nd and 3rd legs!

Still, the night finished with Jason doing a lap of honour in an opentop car and then a firework display

Saturday we had a lovely lunch with some good friends, my friend Julia is turning 40 on Thursday so invited some friends and family to spend an afternoon with her at the Swan at Streatley, a lovely hotel on the River Thames.

I’ve known Julia most of my life - we used to go to Sunday school together from the age of about 5 and all through our childhoods myself, Julia and Julia’s sister Alison were inseperable…they were my substitute sisters as I don’t have any sisters of my own. Julia is about 18 months older than me and Alison is a year younger than me so we’re all very close.

The beautiful summer weather felt like it had been laid on especially, we started with Pimms on the lawn by the river,

(Yes I know that’s a pint, we don’t seem to have any good photos of actual Pimms being consumed!)

A wonderful lunch in the restaurant overlooking the river

first the main course

followed by dessert

and then birthday cake

luckily we managed to prevent Julia’s hubby from flinging the cake at her in the manner of the Phantom Flan Flinger…..the cake was decorated with a photo of the birthday girl aged about 3 or 4 years old and the revelation actually reduced her to tears she was so touched

After lunch (actually about 4pm by the time we got up from the table!) we took our drinks out to the terrace

and had a stroll along the river bank

We finally left at about 6.30 having had an absolutely fantastic day - good food, good weather and good friends, what more could you ask for?

With all this social activity I didn’t get to see Clue 5 - and the theme reveal - for the Mystery Stole until late on Saturday evening. I printed it out at my mum’s and then sat with J and my brother watching Hot Fuzz on DVD whilst I started on Clue 5.

I got to the end of the first chart on Saturday evening, then yesterday we were driving back from my mums and, having been away all weekend, I had some washing and ironing to do yesterday so not much more progress during the day.

Sunday evening was the final chapter of my busy weekend and it wasn’t an anticlimax - I got to meet up with one of my blog friends, Roo who writes her blog at RooKnits.

Roo lives in the Midlands but was coming down to my neck of the woods for a training course so we went to pick her up at High Wycombe train station

We drove to the nearby village where Roo is attending the course and spent an evening in the local pub with her. We had a lovely evening and it was so nice to meet someone in person whom I’ve been chatting with online for a while.

Roo was my partner in the Sockret Pal swap, she wasn’t my original spoiler but they welched and she was swapped in to spoil me and did a wonderful job….coincidentally at the same time as the Sockret Pal swap we both took part in an Afghan Square swap and she was one of the partners who sent me a square in that!

However, when I got home from meeting Roo I did manage to complete the final few rows of MS3 clue 5 and here it is

The theme has been revealed as Swan Lake and this final section is to be a “wing”, the pattern is a feather lace

I love this idea of a non-symmetrical stole with a wing-shaped curving end and can’t wait to see how this finishes!

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Tags: ms3party athletics crystal palace

Books!

Whilst making a cup of tea this morning and talking with J we were running through the various things that B could stand for in my life…it’s the first letter of our surname but as that’s my married name and I’ve only had it for 6 of my 38 years I don’t really think of it as “mine” yet….J threw out some rather silly suggestions “bananas!”….I pondered Bristol for a while (it’s where I went to University) before realising the obivous….Books!

Books have always been a huge part of my life..I learnt to read very early in my life probably because my parents both read and I grew up in a house full of books. Even now if I enter a house that doesn’t have any books on show it doesn’t feel like a home. When I was very small I was constantly asking my parents “what does that say” going shopping with me must have been very hard work with me demanding to read every sign and label!

As I got older books were an absolute neccessity - in the house I grew up in the bedroom doors had little “windows” above them - I guess to let light into the landing and stairs - and my brothers and I would sneak out of bed to turn on the light on the landing so that we could read in bed from the light coming through. This way we figured our parents wouldn’t know who was to blame and so couldn’t punish any one of us, whereas if we turned on our bedroom light they would know!

My bedroom in the house we grew up in was tiny - just room for a bed and a wardrobe and that was it - literally. It must have been about 7′ x 5′ as there was about a foot at the end of the bed and just room to open the door next to the bed! However I had a book shelf squeezed in at the end of the bed and my dad built me some wall-fixed shelves. I still have all my childhood books- this is one of my problems with books, I can’t get rid of them.

When I first met J I was really pleased to find that he had 3 floor standing huge bookshelves full of books. This became a problem when we got married and bought our house - we had so many books we had no where to put them. A trip to Ikea resulted in this -

we also still have 2 of J’s original huge bookcases, one in the spare room and one in the play-room. Another one of these Ikea bookcases in the study and a bookcase which my grandfather made which is also in the spare room. And we are still buying books so they are stacked up beside the bed, on top of bookcases….everywhere.

My favourite books are -

The Secret Garden - this was my favourite book as a child and I still re-read it at least once a year. I don’t know what it is about this book, the descriptions of the moors and the garden, the relationship between Mary & Colin, the wonderful moment when Colin’s father finds them in the garden….I just love it. As a child I was diagnosed with a scoliosis curve, luckily a very minor one which responded to physiotherapy but as a young teenage girl with all the hang-ups they have about their bodies anyway I used to get very depressed thinking about it so I probably empathised with Colin and his father…the hunchback was probably a scoliosis curve.

The Lord of the Rings - as a child my grandfather gave me a copy of The Hobbit which introduced me to Tolkein. He was a Tolkein fan but my dad was not so I think he saw me as a fresh mind to indoctrinate…whatever it worked and I was hooked. The Lord of the Rings is another book which I’ve read again and again and it always makes me think of my grandfather and the wonderful conversations we used to have.

The Alchemist by Paolo Coehlo - this book was given to me at a time in my life when I needed to regain a sense of self and some purpose in my life. It gave me the final push I needed to go out and do things for myself, I went to Egypt on my own and had my own voyage of discovery and came back a stronger person. Everybody should read this book - I passed it on to another friend who needed some guidance. I think it’s one of those books , a “pay it forward” book.

There are loads more but they are the three that mean most to me.

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Tags: bookmeme encyclopedia

In a bid to make me blog every day I’m picking up this meme from BellaDia to make an “Encyclopedia of Me”. Every day I post something about me based on the next letter of the alphabet so here we go with A

A is for Adoption  

This word seems to have been dominating the lives of my DH and I for ever. We first enquired about the possibility of adopting in February 2006 and since that time we have been on preparation courses, had our house assessed, been interviewed about every aspect of our lives and attitudes to parenting, had our friends and family complete references and be interviewed and we finally feel like we are getting near the end of the process.

We have one more interview with our social worker and then she has to write a report based on all the information gathered to go to a panel of experts (social workers, doctors, teachers, foster carers, adopters etc) who decide whether or not we are suitable.

All being well we should have our panel on 28th September and then we wait to be matched with suitable children. It;s starting to feel a little more real now and we’ve even begun to decorate rooms and child-proof the house and garden.

Wanting and hoping for a family has been such a big part of our lives for so long that it’s hard to imagine now that it might actually happen.

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