Just a very, very quick post to say thanks to everyone for their kind wishes - all those good vibes must have worked because the adoption panel have approved us!

Slightly scary to think we may soon find ourselves with an instant family…..:)

Off to open a bottle of wine with J and celebrate now…catch you later

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Tags: adoption

Whew, just realised it was over a week ago I posted last and it’s not for lack of things to say…quite the opposite really.

So, when I spoke last we were getting ready for our Annual Barbecue, this has become a fixture in our social calender since we invited people round for a barbecue on our 1st wedding anniversary…actually before that I used to have an annual summer barbecue for my work colleagues years ago when I was single and then a second one for my friends. Since Jon and I got married we’ve carried on inviting our friends and family over at least once during the summer for a big get together.

We have smaller gatherings with just a few friends all through the year but twice a year we invite everyone. One of these events is a pre-Christmas Mince Pie and Mulled Wine party for just our friends, not family. We have this on the last Friday before Christmas as a chance to spend time with our friends before Christmas as we are all focussed on our families over the Christmas period. This event is always very relaxed with maybe 20-30 people, we have parlour games and everyone gets a present from Santa’s Sack - it’s a bit like a bran-tub affair with lots of very silly, cheap presents.

During the summer we have our barbecue which seems to get bigger every year, all our friends and family are invited and we provide meat and veggies for the barbecue with everyone else bringing salads, desserts and drinks. It’s a wonderful day every year, a lot of our friends have children so they are running around the garden playing swingball, quoits, climbing our trees or playing on the swing. It’s open house all day from about 2pm so people come and go depending on the age of chidren who have to be taken home to bed, people working and coming over later in the evening…this year over the course of about 12 hours from 2pm to 2am we had around 30 adults and a dozen children aged 10 months to 9 years old passing through our garden.

Here are some of our photos - click to see them larger or to go to Flickr to see the rest -

As you can see from the pictures the weather was VERY good to us, probably one of the hottest sunniest days we’ve had all year…very similar to the weather 7 years ago

As the sun went down on our barbecue it stayed fairly warm and there were people out in the garden till pretty late, we lit the candles and torches and one of our friends put on a show for us with his “Fire Poi”

As usual, a lovely day and not enough time to talk properly to all our friends.

Since then the weather has turned and it’s been cold and today it’s wet and windy so I think we picked the best day!

I’ve been doing plenty of knitting this week but most of it is secret so I can’t show you much - I’m in several Swaps at the moment and I know my partners are checking blogs so can only tell you this much.

This is a project for the HSKS3 swap

As you can probably guess, my swap partner is in Hufflepuff House!

I’m also working on this for my hubby

ok- so that’s just a bag of yarn I know! From the colours the observant amongst you might see the Harry Potter theme here as well, bought this about a year ago for the Gryffindor colours and it’s been lurking ever since. This is being knit into a top secret project for J (no peeking….)

Non secret knitting has been started -

I finally decided between the three projects I’ve been wanting to start - Rogue, Eris and Arwen - and went for Arwen from Interweave Knits Winter 2006. The yarn was purchased specifically for this project (or whichever of the three I decided on) with an Angel Yarns voucher I received in Secret Pal 3. I’ve made a couple of adjustments to the pattern.

As I’m substituting Jaeger Extra Fine Merino DK for the Debbie Bliss specified and this has a lower yardage on the ball band I wasn’t totally sure I would have enough yarn. It was going to be tight anyway so I decided to knit the hem facings with a different yarn, this i an airforce blue Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK I’ve had in the stash for a while. Contrasts well with the baby blue Jaeger.

Also, rather than sew the hem facing up and have to do invisible stitches (and I hate sewing stuff anyway) I used a crochet provisional cast on with waste yarn -

and then when the body was the same length as the hem facing I took out the waste yarn, put the stitches on another needle and then knit together one hem stitch with one body stitch across the row. I think it looks very neat -

I’m knitting this on my Brittany Birch Needles (birthday present from hubby) which I really love using, they are so smooth and so light!

I’ve completed the back of the cardigan and reached the sleeve on the left piece of the cardigan. For anyone not familiar with the pattern it is an unusual construction in just 3 pieces. The back is knit as one piece, then the left front is knit, when the armhole is reached stitches are cast on to form the sleeve, the shaping is done with short rows and the sleeve is then knit along with the body thus knitting up and over the arm. The sleeve stitches are then cast off and the left side of the hood is then knit in one continuous piece with the body. The right side is knit the same.

I’ve knit the left front to the sleeve and currently working my way over the shoulder… I’d forgotten how much I love cables…

More swap news, I recently hosted a swap on swap-bot for Knitting Accessories - send at least 2 knitting accessories (stitch markers, row counters etc) to your partner. My partner was Marie Sierra and she sent me this wonderful parcel

 - includes a skein of Plymouth Encore DK, a box of green tea, a hand-knit wash-cloth, some lavender sachets in this beautiful pink organza bag

and best of all (I actually squealed when I opened it) the book Amigurumi: Super Happy Crochet Cute by Beth Doherty. I have wanted this book for so long, it isn’t sold in this country - I could get it on Amazon but I’d have to pay huge amounts of postage so this was so lovely to receive as a gift

J has already requested the monkey on the left of the picture!!!

That’s about it for now - I’ve just sent off two swap parcels so will write about them when they’ve been received.

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Tags: SP3, HSKS3, barbecue, amigurumi, arwen,

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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Just got back from a lovely weekend break in the English Lake District with DH and BB. We were camping on a wonderful site near Boot in Eskdale

when we arrived on Saturday the site was packed - it has 75 pitches and all were occupied. By Monday afternoon there was just our two tents, two camper vans and two other tents in a different field!!

The weather was pretty good, we had rain at night a few times but only one afternoon when we were actually caught out in wet weather and that was just for the last mile when we were heading back to the site.

Did some beautiful walks along Eskdale - here’s a sneak at some photos, just click to see them in flickr.

I did manage to get a little bit of knitting done in the evenings - working on the Sock Madness sock (I’m out of the competition but still knitting the patterns) This round came out on Friday just before I left so I printed it out and took it with me -

..this is as far as I got, it is a very short sock - the small pattern band is the “leg”, the second larger band is on the foot, the picture on the right is the sole of the foot with the heel to the right (yes there is a pattern on the sole!). The pattern is called Mad for Fair Isle and is based on batik patterns, the pattern is by Tina Lorin

I’m using 4ply sock yarn from Angle Yarns in Denim and Rose Pink and 2.5mm bamboo dpn’s.

technorati tags:sockmadness, knit, knitting, sock

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Thought I’d let you see my current project (well one of them) -

The pattern is by Debbie Bliss from her book Cashmerino DK, however I’m knitting it was published in Simply Knitting in December 2006 which is where I’m knitting it from. I’m knitting it in Merino DK rather than Cashmerino because it was in my stash and I fancied a pillar box red cardigan.

I’m afraid the colour doesn’t photograph well but the lovely cable details do -

the cabling pulls the waist in to give a lovely fitted shape. It looks much longer and thinner than it will be when finished as the ribbing needs blocking out.

However, I don’t think I’m taking this project with me to the Lake District tomorrow - we’re camping so I think I’ll need to take a pair of sock, much more portable. Let’s see how much I can embarass DH and Baby Brother (6′3″ and 35 but always Baby Brother to me) by knitting in the pub in the evenings.

The plan is hill walking during the day, back to the campsite for a wash and a glass of wine outside the tent then pub for dinner. However, looking at the weather forecast last night it seems the glorious sunshine we’ve been experiencing for the past week is about to end - oh dear…

Oh yes, and Star Wars - it’s 30 years today since it was released - I remember to this day going to see the first film, one of the defining moments of my childhood and I still watch the films on a regular basis.

An exhibition of Star Wars props and costumes opened in London today so I may have to drag DH there!

May the 4th be with you!

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I seem to be going through something of a “Purple Patch”, I was uploading photos to flickr and when I looked at them all on the screen it was just a sea of purple! And then this morning I got this -

- my final “reveal” package from my Sockret Pal who turned out to be Ruth, and it’s an extravaganza of purple/blue/pink! Ruth was also my spoiler in another blog and that plus an accidental email she sent me a little while ago had tipped me off that she was probably my Sockret Pal, but that’s ok, I still got a surprise with what she was sending me and she’s really spoilt me this time by sending all this stuff

First, my handknit socks which are just perfect.

Child’s First Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush in Lorna’s Lace “Iris Garden”- anyone who reads my blog regularly will know Ive knit this pattern a couple of times but always for other people, now I have a pair for me and they are so comfy and soft

Next out of the box was this -

Ruth tells me these are from The Yarn Yard, yet another UK online yarn seller she has pointed me at (you’re doing nothing for my bank balance you know !!) They are both 4ply 75% wool 25% polyamide and don’t they look perfect together? Have to find something special to knit with these.

The third package was -

a pencil case - to use to keep my dpn’s, and crochet hooks (Ruth knows I’ve been learning to crochet) and inside a really useful notebook, some Brittany Birch 2.5mm dpns and (the best of all) some sew in labels that say “Handmade by Wendy”.

I’ve been wanting some of these for ever and actually saw some on Ruth’s blog and asked here where they came from!!! - she wouldn’t tell me

My gifted items are going to look so professional from now on.

The next packet out of the box was more (yes more!!) yarn

A ball of Tofutsies which I have been seeing cropping up on blogs and been intrigued by, can’t wait to try. The other ball is the remainder of the Lorna’s from the socks “in case of alterations” as Ruth put it - no alterations needed however…so this could become some more squares in my “memories” afghan I’m planning

The last package was ….

…this beautiful book. Ruth and I were in an afghan square swap a little while ago and I have been talking with her about crochet squares as I’ve been trying to learn so this will be great for practise and inspiration.

Aren’t I just the luckiest Swapper anywhere?

Adding to my purple day is my second try at a scarf for ISE4, the first just doesn’t seem right for my pal….can’t say exactly why but it’s just “not her”. So yesterday on our way home from Cornwall when we stopped at Trago Mills in Newton Abbot for decorating supplies (don’t ask me to explain Trago Mills, it’s a West Country thing!) I had a quick look in their arts & crafts department and found some Patons Spirit mohair blend in a purple self-striping colourway -

I took it along to my Knitting Group when we got back to Marlow last night and cast on with 6.5mm needles and just used a basic “old shale” stitch pattern so it isn’t just straight striped. I’m much happier with this. It’s coming out pretty big - 41 stitches and 6.5mm needles means it’s about 11″ wide and so far with a little bit of the first ball to go it’s about 18″ long. I have 4 balls in total so that would give a completed length of at least 72″. My partner says she likes long scarfs so hopefully that would be long enough!

Despite being wide and long, the mohair and the stitch pattern mean it’s very light and very soft - should be a lovely warm scarf I think.

I was asked about the Old Shale knitting stitch, it is in a really old book of traditional knitting stitches which I have and in that book is used in a shwal. Here’s the pattern for my scarf (such as it is!) knit in any yarn you like using the appropriate sized needles and casting on as many stitches as needed to get the width you want. I’ve given the directions for what I did using Patons Spirit which is a mohair/acrylic blend with a ball band tension of 13sts/17rows to 4″ on 6.5mm/UK 3/US 10.5 needles.

Cast on 40 sts (or any multiple of 6 plus 4 edge stitches).
Row 1: knit
Row 2: k2, p to last 2 sts, k2
Row 3: k2, (k2 tog) 3 times, *(yo k1) 6 times, (k2 tog) 6 times* repeat from * to * to the last 8 sts, (k2 tog) 3 times, k2
Row 4: knit (this gives a garter st ridge which just added a little bit of texture, if you prefer the alternative is to repeat Row 2 and keep the whole thing in st st)

These 4 rows form the pattern and are repeated until (1) the scarf is long enough (2) you run out of yarn or (3) you get bored - whichever comes first!

Finally this post, I promised pictures of the gifts I was given visiting our friends in Cornwall on Saturday. So here they are -

Lucy painted me a beautiful Springtime picture with chicks and eggs, as you can see it has pride of place on our kitchen notice board

She also made me a sequinned Easter Egg which is so pretty and is now hanging on my tealight tree

Lucy is not feeling very well at the moment as she developed Chicken Pox on Monday - right at the start of school holidays for Easter - Get Well Soon Lucy xxx

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Having a lovely weekend in Cornwall - yesterday we went down to my f-i-l’s boat. He is about to put the sails back after the winter and needed someone to go up the mast and re-attach some of the halyards. As I was the lightest amongst the assembled party, I was the one volunteered.

Here I am getting into the bosun’s chair -

and here I am going up the mast -

after I reattached the halyard and came back down, my f-i-l said “I should have got you to take a cloth up and clean that antenna” - see that round thing at the top of the mast? That’s the antenna and it’s covered in green. So, after a cup of tea and some negotiation on price up I went again.

My m-i-l suggested that I should ask for payment in skeins of wool - what a great idea, I told f-i-l I’m sending my next Paypal invoice for online yarn purchase to his email address!!!

The evening was spent visiting our good friends Tracey (Gwelva Kernewek) & Graham and their daughters….I do think of them as good friends, despite the fact this was actually only the second time we’ve ever met. We met Tracey online and have been communicating for a long time and we then discovered she lived just a few miles from J’s parents here in Cornwall.

We had a lovely evening, J impressed the girls with his prowess on Grand Turismo on the PS, we shared Pizza and exchanged presents.

I was given a lovely picture and a handdecorated egg - I’ll post some pictures when I get home. Thanks for having us gang we had a brilliant time….arriving back in the early hours this morning.

Thought I’d share some pics of the other members of the family, the Newfoundland Dogs ;

Bosun-

and Otto -

here I am with the two of them, to give you some idea of their size…yes they really are that big and weigh more than twice as much as me

This lunchtime we went to the Ferry Inn at Bodinnick for a pub meal. I tried out J’s new camera phone to take a panoramic picture of the view across the estuary to Fowey

this is J having a pint of cider in front of the pub

When we got back J and I walked down from the house to the beach at Talland, about a mile and a half straight down.

To our surprise the beach cafe was open and so we had an ice cream

and a mug of tea

it was lovely sitting in the sunshine looking at the sea, just the recharge we both need away from every day life. And, ok so it’s not knitting content on a blog that is supposedly about knitting but it is sort of knittin related - On the walk back up to the house we saw these little guys -

aren’t they the cutest? Of course I’m looking at them thinking “Hmmm, wonder what that would spin up into…?”

Here’s a picture of Talland Bay to finish with - enjoy!

technorati tags:talland, cornwall

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….stays in Camelot!

Except I have to tell you about it…..it was J’s birthday last weekend and I bought him tickets for us to go and see Spamalot in the West End. For anyone who doesn’t know, this is the musical based on Monty Python’s film The Holy Grail.

We are both big Monty Python fans and I love The Holy Grail but we weren’t sure what the musical would be like…..it was brilliant! By the interval we had both laughed so much that our faces hurt.

All the best bits from the film were there …. “are you suggesting coconuts migrate” “not at all, they could be carried” “What? A swallow carrying a coconut?” “It could grip it by the husk!” “It’s not a question of where he grips it! It’s a simple question of weight ratios! A five ounce bird could not carry a one pound coconut”

The french soldiers were wonderful- “I don’t want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food
trough wiper. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a
hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.”

Dennis “Listen, strange women lyin’ in ponds distributin’ swords is no basis
for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a
mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.”

We had a fantastic night out and Jonathan bought me killer rabbit slippers and a t-shirt (I’m not dead yet) for my birthday which comes up in a couple of weeks -

Here I am in my t-shirt knitting socks

technorati tags:spamalot

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This is the scene I awoke to this morning

It is now 10.45 and it is still snowing (not quite as much now as it was) and J and I have just built a snowman !

…rolling snow for his body…

…the artist sculpts his features….

….here he is!

And some arty snow shots of my garden -

….a leaf bud on my hazel bush…

….and a catkin on the same hazel bush…. 

….and snow piled up on another hazel, a corkscrew hazel ….

More pictures onFlickrr of our garden and the park in Marlow.

I’m staying at home today knitting socks! 

…it has been a lovely day. The weather was fantastic - cold but wonderfully sunny with a perfect blue sky.

J and I went shopping this morning in our nearest big town which is something we do very rarely, I’m not a shopper and don’t enjoy fighting my way through busy shops full of people but….J needed trousers and I needed to get some yarn and a pattern for a swap I’m in so….

We left home a little before 9 and arrived at about 9.30 so the shops hadn’t been open long and it wasn’t too busy. J got his trousers in Debenhams and we headed to John Lewis for me to buy the yarn and pattern.

As I very rarely get into an actual shop selling yarn (as opposed to virtual online ones) it was quite exciting to see all the colours together…I had a leaf through some pattern booklets and couldn’t resist buying two Debbie Bliss books-

on the left is the “Pure Cashmere” book and on the right Debbie Bliss Book Seven which has patterns for Soho and Cashmerino Aran. When I was sorting my stash the other week I discovered 4 hanks of pure cashmere in bright red, a bag of cashmerino aran also in bright red and some balls of soho (again in red) … not sure how I managed to buy so much bright red Debbie Bliss but there are some lovely patterns for hand warmers and scarves in the Pure Cashmere book and a pair of bright red cashmere hand warmers sound yummy!

Also in this picture is Rowan 41 which arrived in the post yesterday….I spent last night flicking through thinking “that’s gorgeous, I can see me wearing that” to practically every pattern!

After John Lewis, J and I strolled around the Oracle shopping centre in Reading and I did some serious luxury purchasing. It’s so long since I’ve treated myself to some real goodies so I went to town.

First stop, Hotel Chocolat this place firstc came to my notice about 8 or 9 years ago when they were just a mail order business and ran something called the “Chocolate Tasting Club”. The idea was you subscribed for a number of months for a fee and each  month in the post you received a box of a dozen chocolates, two each of 6 different chocolates I think. These were serious hand-made chocolates and you had a feedback card to fill in which then went back to the chocolatiers so they could try out new recipes and see what the reaction was.

The business grew and a few years ago changed it’s name to Hotel Chocolat but they still sell <i>serious</i> chocolates. Just before Christmas they opened up a shop in Reading and today was the first time I’ve been in there  - talk about a kid in a sweet store!

I bought three little packets of truffles (well, if you bought three together you got them cheaper) and a packet of the most amazing hot chocolate pictured above.

It comes as litle “marbles” of solid chocolate which you drop into a cup and then pour boiling milk over them and stir till they melt. The packet I bought is called Aztec Chilli and is as near as we can guess how the Mayans and Aztecs would have drunk chocolate - very bitter and flavoured with chilli and vanilla. I added a spoon of honey as well.

It’s definitely a differnt taste to Cadbury’s drinking chocolate - J didn’t like it (shame!) but I love dark, bitter chocolate and think it’s wonderful. I’m drinking it as I write this post - you get a real kick in the back of your throat from the chilli and the chocolate is as bitter as it gets. Yummy!

Right next door to Hotel Chocolat is another of my favourites - Whittards of Chelsea, tea paradise! I bought some things in here that are for presents and swaps so no pics I’m afraid. Also bought a jar of instant green tea with echinacea to take to work. I can never remember to take in milk so it’s easier for me to take instant tea or fruit tea, at the moment I’m drinking Rooibos (much to the amusement of my South African colleague!) 

After satisfying my insides it was time for some luxury for my outsides so next was a visit to Body Shop and then Crabtree & Evelyn. J always makes a pilgrimage to C&E at Christmas to buy me lots of goodies and a year or so ago he bought me a gift box containg goats milk products. I now use their Goatmilk Comforting Body Lotion all the time - it is wonderful. Goes on like silk and really does make you feel comforted!

This Christmas he dutifully bought me a gift box of Goatmilk products but it didn’t include the Body Lotion so I bought myself a big bottle today and then some Vitamin E moisturiser and Ginger shampoo in Body Shop.

This photo sums up my idea of heaven - a bath followed by covering myself in body lotion, a box of chocolates and my knitting!

Our final stop was at Waterstones. I cannot resist a bookshop and, despite having at least 100 books in my “to be read” pile, I still buy more. My excuse this time was I needed to buy Secret River which is the next book that my book group are reading …

…and when I picked it up it was one of their 3 for 2 books so it would seem silly not to take advantage of the offer. I immediately saw the Mitch Albom book “for one more Day”. I loved Tuesdays with Morrie (let’s face it, who didn’t?) and so had to buy this. Then I spotted “A Winter Book” by Tove Jansson.

As a child her Moomin stories were my favourite books but I’ve never read anything else by her. For those who don’t know her, she was a Finnish/Swedish writer born 1914 who died recently in 2001. Her parents were a Finnish sculptor and a Swedish cartoonist. Tove is most famous for the Moomin books which she wrote and illustrated - if you have never heard of them go get one and read it, they are wonderful.

This little book “A Winter Book” is a collection of short stories and essays written throughout her life.

And okay, I bought 4 books - it’s been ages since I read a good crime/detective/murder mystery so I bought Minette Walter’s latest “The Devil’s Feather”

I’ll just add them to the pile…..

We finished our shopping by midday and drove back home, I had to be round at my friend’s house by 1 to drive to High Wycombe to see a matinee performance of Swan Lake on Ice by The Imperial Ice Stars.

 We were taking her daughter (my God-daughter) who is 6 and also my friend’s sister was coming with her two girls 5 and 8.

The show was amazing - we were just transfixed all the way through. An ice-dance show in a theatre, can you imagine???!! They had laid ice on the stage (somehow…) and they were doing all these amazing ice dance moves, which they usually do on a huge ice-rink, on a tiny stage.

My G-D thought the best part was when the prince dances with Odile (the Swan Queen) for the first time. She was on a wire so kept spinning up into the air whilst they were dancing. One minute they’d be spinning on the ice, then he would lift her up, then lift her above his head .. then she’d keep going up into the air. My G-D now wants to go flying on a wire….in the woods….

II couldn’t promise to get her to fly (even if I am her Fairy Godmother - very long story) but I got her a t-shirt, and then bought one for myself. Ok, it’s a child’s t-shirt but who cares I think it’s cute….I got a pink one (of course) for my G-D and a white one for me. I’ll get a picture of hers sometime but here’s mine

So, knitting progress today very little although I did sit and turn the heel on my Bayerische sock whilst watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (gotta love Johnny Depp) this evening, followed by Notting Hill.

Off to bed now. I have swap packages to pack tomorrow - very exciting. Magic Yarn Ball swap and Winter Scarf Knit Kit swap to sort and pack ready to send to my swap partners.

I also hope to finish the first Bayerische sock, pick some yarn for my Vintage Sock KAL for Feb/March - Plain Winter Sock - do some more on my UFOs and, if the weather holds, get out for a walk to keep up my marathon training.

Busy weekends….I love them