The box is back where it started ....

There is one thing missing from the picture - the enthralling knit lit The Friday Night Knitting Club. I'm definitely going to have to order the first one from the library as I couldn't put it down, and to be honest it's not my usual type of book.

It was so exciting getting the box, and the incredibly varied goodies in it - you are a supremely talented lot of ladies and I'm honoured to talk to you all via our blogs.

Sarah - thank you so much for the stitch marker rings - they are definitely going to be used shortly as I have purchased via a complicated procedure involving getting a friend in America to accept the kit and then mail it to me, the East Meets West handbag kit - look at it on Ravelry. The most complicated Intarsia and stranded colour work bag I have ever seen. I have a huge plastic bag of oodles of balls of wool from the kit in my living room and the instructions are presented in a little book !!!! The kit is sold by Knit Picks who only mail to the US and Canada, hence the convoluted purchase process.

I'm currently Christmas knitting - Secret Santas, an Aran for my brother, a pair of nordic style mittens for my sister (where the heck have those gone?) There's a shawl still slowly growing in the corner somewhere - put aside in favour of quicker projects, and a baby blanket for which I'm knitting up the squares in odd moments in the hope that I'll get enough of them made to put the blanket together before my colleague leaves work. There's also a crocheted bag and a knitted and felted bag waiting to be lined. When I can excavate the sewing machine from under the yarn drift.

Busy busy busy - I've just got to load Alex's first school photos onto my computer and get some prints sorted, order Amber's last school photos, make a coffee (actually that had better be first) wash all the school kits and work kits come to think of it - knit a few more rows of whatever leaps into my hands first .............

And things are only going to get more hectic :) I love it.

TTFN

Thank goodness I'm going back to work tomorrow.

Having just had one week off with Flu that drained every last iota of energy from me, and then Monday and Tuesday of Half Term off with Alex, as the Holiday Club refused to take him because he can't be trusted on trips out, I am really, really ready to go back to work.

Today I spent 2.5 hours at Kidz Planet in Cheriton which is a massive indoor soft play area on several levels. Alex ran around it with a friend he met there and I sat drinking coffee and tea and knitting the welt on the front of the Aran Jumper I'm making for my brother. And yet it's 6.40pm, Alex is still full of energy and I feel like he's been using my energy, not his !!! That would explain a lot of things come to think of it.

Now Daddy has him for the remaining three days and Amber will be back from her trip to my sister in Bristol with her Grandma, tomorrow evening - which means that he gets an extra babysitter which is not fair - I had to do it all on my own :)

One thing I was struck by at Kidz Planet - the huge number of pregnant women - boy are we in for a baby boom.

Where has the time gone?

I've suddenly realised how close it is to Christmas and I'm only on the first of the many knits I had planned for it.

Having had a nasty dose of Flu, which I'm just beginning to recover from, has put a spanner in the works somewhat although I have been able to devote a wee bit more time to knitting. No effort needed - housework is very tiring don't you know?

Looking out of my window I'm suddenly struck by how lucky I am to be living where I do. It's raining hard and the garden's a mess but beyond that I can see the lovely colours of Autumn painted onto the landscape by the many different trees. Some still defiantly green others shyly yellowing and the big bold here I am red and orange. There's a tree so full of red berries that the branches are drooping under the weight of them. And even the couple of trees that died last year still have their place in the picture I can see - standing out in stark contrast to the leafiness of the living trees.

Here, so close to the Romney Marshes, there are also so many birds. I have had at least two broods of sparrows in my nesting box next to the bedroom window this year. We've been woken so many times during the summer by the cheeping of hungry babies.

We often get a blackbird couple checking out the garden. I've seen Thrushes and Robins, Sparrows in abundance, and Great Tits bobbing around on the remains of the Sunflowers. We've had the ubiquitous Magpies with their raucous calls, unfortunately trying to get the Sparrow babies out of the box, but luckily the neighbour saw them and scared them off. We get frequent visits from collared doves who decimate the brassicas and sit on the fence in the pouring rain looking like feather dusters. They're not the brightest birds to be honest but I love watching them hopscotching in the garden. Next door has white doves and although they look so very graceful in reality they're as thick as two short planks and fly like the aforementioned planks as well.

Now I'm supposed to be doing something, but it's completely slipped my mind now. Oh well if it's important it will occur to me again sometime, probably when it's too late.

First week over .............

I don't know what I was worrying about - as you pointed out to me - he was fine at school - loved it - behaved impeccably - thank goodness.

Next week he's on afternoons and after school club and then he goes full time.

My clever 15 year old did her English GCSE a year early and got a B for Language and an A for Literature. It's given her self-confidence and enormous boost. I want to buy her something as a little prize for doing so well but can't think what to get her. The only thing that springs to mind at the moment is some kind of charm bracelet, then everytime she passes an exam I can get her another charm. The in thing at the moment is those Pandora bracelets - might get her one of those.

I'm having a moral crisis at the moment.

My lovely son, Alex, starts school tomorrow for the first time. Not that he's not used to being with other children all day as we both work full time, so he has been going to nursery five days a week. So why do I feel like I'm failing him?

We've arranged for him to attend the breakfast club at the school, a really good one with a wonderful person in charge. Then I'll be picking him up at lunchtime and taking him back to his old nursery for the afternoon. For the first two weeks he is only doing half days at school.

For the second week he'll be at nursery in the morning and school plus after school club (with the same nice person) in the afternoon.

He's already had a taster session at the school and knows his teacher's name and can't wait for Monday so that he can go.

Recently he's been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome which explains a lot of his behavioural issues. Maybe, that's why I'm feeling so guilty !!! I'm actually having bad dreams now about leaving him somewhere, going back for him and not being able to find him. How bad is that?

Still I suppose once he's got his first two weeks out of the way we will be able to settle into a routine. There's nothing wrong with his intelligence, in fact he is extremely intelligent and I think he will thrive at school. It's his behaviour that can be an issue as his Asperger's means that he doesn't interact well socially. He has loads of friends and knows everybody, but all games and interaction have to be on his terms. So I can see some conflicts coming up at school !!! Luckily the school are aware of his problems so I'm hoping they will have some strategies in place for dealing with it.

Oh God, I'm waffling on here. Can you tell I'm nervous? Alex isn't, bless him. He thinks it is all a wonderful adventure - maybe I'd better go with that.

I think I need a new knitting challenge - to add to the several I already have - to distract me. I've signed up for Debbie Abrahams mystery blanket club which she will be signing on for in October and starts in January 2010.

Wish me luck.

Isn't it amazing what relaxes you?

I've just spent a couple of happy hours - interspersed with getting tea for the children - removing sequins from one of my tops. You'd think it would be boring, but I parked myself in a comfy seat with a nice breeze coming in through the window behind me and patiently picked away.

The top is a really pretty black and white floral print, and it wasn't until I received it that I realised that some of the flowers had been surrounded by small black sequins and beads. It was remarkably uncomfortable to wear. Why don't designers think of practical things when they're coming up with these ideas?

Everytime I rested my arm against my side, the sequins scratched and dug into me. The simplest of tasks was impossible to do without an accompaniment of scratching and itching. Honestly, I sometimes think these people must live in LaLa land.

Anyway I think it's time for Alex to have a shower and go to bed.

Ta Ta

Day 5 - last day of holiday from home and ....

Drusillas Animal Park in Sussex - sort of inbetween Eastbourne and Brighton.

We ummed and arred about driving this far, but it was so worth it. We even managed to get there fairly uneventfully for us. Didn't get lost or break down.

Drusillas is perfect if your children are under 12 I think. Huge amounts of things for them and adults to explore and interact with. The zoo is very cleverly laid out so that visitors are channeled through the exhibits towards the play areas and cafes at the end.

Animal Spotting books were handed out, and the idea was as you saw each animal you found the corresponding stamping station and stamped your book with a big red tick. The last thing in the book was Thomas the Tank Engine and you got a sticker for that once you'd had a ride. And that's what I forgot to mention as probably the main attraction of the zoo for its younger visitors - a passenger sized Thomas the Tank Engine along with Annie and Clarabelle his carriages (plus one more carriage) Much to Alex's delight the Fat Controller was there to personally oversee the loading and unloading of passengers.

The animals at the zoo are mainly small mammals, farm animals and birds. From cows, goats and pigs to marmosets of all shapes and sizes, lemurs, meerkats, flamingos, owls, Penguins, a Serval and so on. I've already managed to forget the names of most of the animals there but they were all cute. And Llamas - don't forget the Llamas.

Probably my favourite animal though, was the tiny baby Meerkat tottering along looking as though if he slowed down his oversized head would topple him over. For such a tiny animal though, he had a fair turn of speed although I'm not convinced he was in full control of his legs. I think he just aimed himself at where he hoped to end up at.

One of the Meerkats had us in stitches as he'd obviously decided that the top of the infra-red lamp was the best and most comfortable place to be.


I've got a fair few, actually 148, photos of today but not a lot of the animal ones are all that good as I was shooting through glass most of the time and the reflections tend to blur the shots. I did manage to get a reasonable shot of the Fennec Fox with his huge ears - spot the difference. Now one of these cute Foxes is in actual fact Alex in disguise and the other one is the real Fennec Fox. Have you spotted which is which yet? There were loads of these photo sets around the zoo and I think they made for a much more special experience for the young visitors.

The zoo did have several shops dotted around, and I managed to restrict my spending to a Drusillas Park cuddly Penguin for Amber and Alex's name made up of alphabet cards with various Thomas the Tank Engine characters on for Alex. Unfortunately the one thing that blew that completely out of the water was the dedicated Thomas shop at the end !!!!! Needless to say the old plastic had to come out for that one.

We left the park round about 3.30pm and headed off to look for the Long Man as I'd seen a brown sign pointing to him not far from the zoo on the way in.


After grabbing the above photo of him, we decided to explore the lane we were in and quite by accident came upon some lovely tea gardens offering cream teas. Well we couldn't very well ignore that could we? So at 4pm we had tea in a Victorian garden - with the wasps.

There was a little gift shop at the tea gardens, and I bought myself an old fashioned wasp trap - we get loads of the little buggers in our kitchen. It's basically a glass rounded jar with a dimpled base with a hole in it. The idea is that you smear jam around the rim of the lower hole, the wasps fly in and become trapped. Not sure what stops them from flying out again, but it works - so I'll give it a try.

After tea we pootled off back to the A259 through Eastbourne - well round Eastbourne - we're not that daft - and past Pevensey to pick up the A27 back towards Hastings. We then proceeded to spend 2 hours stuck in traffic jams which melted away suddenly with no indication of what had caused them !!! Don't you hate it when that happens. Where do all the cars go? Is there some sort of genteel black hole that scoops up all the cars in front of you, when it somehow senses you have reached the end of your tether and are about to hotwire the carhorn to the brake peddle? Does a hole open up and swallow them all? Or are they some form of hallucination created by the local tourist board in order to persuade you to pull over and spend even more money at the local Beefeater? That's what we did in the end, and despite the beefburgers and fries at lunch and the cream tea at 4 we still found room for Rump Steak and chips (OH) and minted lamb with dauphinoise potatoes for me - which was delicious. That, with added drinks and sausages and chips for Alex who at that time was hyper from the jam he'd scoffed at the cream tea, cost us £41. So an expensive day it was although, as far as I'm concerned, totally justifiable.

Anyway that's it for this year. We're planning the odd away day at weekends for the rest of the summer and beginning of the Autumn, but nothing on the scale of this last week. Which I am sure is probably very good news to our bank accounts.

Do keep a weather eye on this blog as I'll update it from time to time with the further adventures of the mad people from Kent.

Day 4 - Row, row, row your boat gently down the canal

Today, we both decided we needed a rest day as the last three days of frenetic up-ing and downing have reduced us both to whimpering wrecks.

However, in the true tradition of our family on holiday, we didn't just doss around at home all day. For lunch we toddled off to Pizza Hut in Ashford to partake of their all you can eat buffet - which probably would have been better if the icecream machine hadn't have conked out.

Ivan packed away 11 pieces of pizza with me coming in second at 6, Amber at 4 (she's slacking) and Alex at 2 and a cup full of sweeties from the defunct icecream machine. (Ok, ok I did have profiteroles as well)

The plan after that was to come back to Hythe and visit the Royal Military Canal whereon flocks of ducks have learned that Alex can bomb them with bread extremely accurately.

But this time I had a cunning plan (Milord) and Ivan found himself in the driving seat (so to speak) of a rowing boat whilst Alex and I pursued the ducks on their own ground or water.

What you need to know here is that Ivan hasn't rowed for probably 30 odd years and the last time was in a canoe. So we spent a lot of the time spinning gently round, to the amusement of onlookers on the bank. We proceeded up the canal in a series of zigzags and collisions with the bank, the bridges, other boats, reeds and tree branches. The only reason we didn't mow down the ducks and swans is that they were obviously very used to inept humans bumbling around and skillfully kept out of harms way whilst staying near enough to field any food that accidentally found it's way into the water.

Further down the canal a lone Cormorant posed on the bank for photos from his adoring public before diving into the water and proceeding to keep ahead of us at all times despite Ivan's frantic efforts to catch him up.

Day 3 - Dover Castle at last

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Not too far from home today, so we had a leisurely drive up to Folkestone Morrisons for breakfast and a little shopping, whilst the nice chappy in the carpark repaired the stone chip in the windscreen that we had picked up on our way to Groombridge yesterday. That done, we pootled up the A20 to Dover.

Now, the problem with Dover is that the only flat bits are vertical, so you have to be fairly fit - and we're not. Well Alex is, but Ivan and I are definitely not. Amber decided to forgo the pleasures of Dover Castle and stayed at home.

Dover Castle is an English Heritage property, so we joined - getting 15 months for the price of 12 which is £75 for two adults. Now that sounds a lot but when you think it would have cost us £35 to get in today, then you can see it won't take a lot to make that back, especially as there are oodles of EH properties within easy driving distance.

There is so much there that we didn't get to finish before the site closed - no matter we can use our card and go back to finish :o) But we did manage to get in a tour of the Secret Wartime Tunnels. So secret in fact, that you're still not allowed to film or take photos in there even to this day!!! Not that that stopped the foreign visitors. Interestingly there were a lot of German visitors in our group!!!

However, I think the highspot of the day was at the Keep when, with a bit of very impressive timing, we managed to stagger back up there just in time for the afternoon audience with Henry II and Prince John.

It all started at the bottom of the Keep with the King's Steward inviting one and all to partake in remnants of the King's meal - a couple of lackies - all in period costume - were handing out dried fruit and nuts!!!

The actors were very impressive and did not drop out of character even when faced with deliberately !! awkward questions and comments. OK, I did try it on.

Anyway, the Keep is very, very, very high and Prince John popped his head over the battlements to find out what the steward was doing and to tell him that he could see Calais from there. The steward promptly told him that he was sure that Calais could also see him, and then invited him down to visit us down and outs littering the castle grounds.

We were all invited into the main hall of the Keep for an Audience with King Henry II ….. and the steps were a killer. I just managed to get to the top and collapsed onto a bench carefully placed to catch unfit specimens such as myself going through cardiac arrest.

The Keep has recently been re-decorated in the style that would have probably been there during Henry’s reign and there are some beautifully embroidered canopies and soft furnishings in there. Some have been done by the Royal School of Needlework, no less.

My son, Alex, fearless as he is, decided to sit himself on the royal dais – much to the amusement of Prince John and the steward. I somehow, don’t think that they expected this to be part of the entertainment but they rose to the challenge admirably. In fact too admirably as Alex wanted to carry on talking to them and had to be persuaded to sit on the floor and watch the show.

The actors must have been boiling in those outfits as it was very hot and overcast today.

Absolutely brilliant time though, even though every slope seemed to be steeper and more precipitous than the last. And there seemed to be considerably more UP than DOWN whilst we were dripping around. I have got to have lost weight this week, even with the icecreams and cream teas and big breakfasts. We didn’t eat too much today, but I spent a fortune on drinks.

Anyway, here are some of the lovely decorations in the main hall and the King’s bedchamber.

Canopy over the thrones – difficult to see in this picture but this is goldwork.

Detail of one of the embroidered cushions in the King’s bedchamber and the box at the end of his bed.

Day two - and we didn't go to Dover Castle ...

Instead we went to Groombridge Place gardens and Enchanted Forest just the other side of Tunbridge Wells.

What should have been a one hour journey turned into a 1 3/4 hour journey because I made the mistake of downloading detailed directions. My other half has the most amazing sense of direction, but even he couldn't make head nor tail of these instructions and we ended up in Tunbridge Wells going round and round, dodging roadworks.

In the end Ivan, ditched the instructions, got the map out and proceeded to use his directional ability to get us there.

It was well worth the effort though. The manor house is moated and privately owned so you can't go in there. But the gardens are amazing. The old outbuildings have been turned into the restaurant and the gift shop, but very sympathetically so the original exteriors have been well preserved.

All around the formal gardens there are very tame peacocks, mainly sitting on the roof when we were there - possibly they'd already been warned about Alex's bird chasing fetish.

The gardens are laid out in themed blocks separated by yew hedges. There was a formal garden with a large pond wherein large hungry Koi try to take your hand off. Water gardens and a knot garden follow, then a new maze which is too low at the moment to be really effective - even I could look over the hedges and see where to go.

To get to the Enchanted Forest you could walk up through the Vineyard and through the gate into it, or take a canal ride a short distance to the other side and start that end. We decided to take the canal ride.

The forest is perfect for active children and to be honest, for lazy adults needing some serious exercise. All of the things incorporated there were made of natural materials, so fitted into the scenery just perfectly. Playgrounds for the children, giant swings hanging from the treetops, a fort and a Tepee. There was a wild west explorer type person telling stories by the Tepee and further up a totem pole.

One thing I've forgotten to mention is that the forest walk gets gradually steeper and steeper. Getting to the Totem pole is extremely steep - you can't take pushchairs up there. Then you climb slightly higher before curving round and starting the trip down towards the Vineyard.







There are deer in the forest, and they are quite tame if the keeper is around. I was able to stroke one of them and his antlers were so soft with the velvet still on them. That was an amazing experience, being able to get so close to a notoriously shy wild animal. He even allowed Alex to feed oak leaves to him - typical bloke - stomach led as usual.

We had lunch in the restaurant there, which was also very nice. Ivan and I both had local sausages, chips and beans - sounds basic - but it was very tasty. Definitely would recommend a visit.

Despite the travel problems - ignore Google and AA directions as they are designed solely to make you lose the will to live - this was a thoroughly enjoyable day out and another one I would recommend. If you are in the area, at this rate you're going to need at least a week to get through everything we're doing and probably a year or so to get through everything that is in the area.

Onwards to Day Three.

Day One of the holiday from home.

Today we went to Diggerland Kent, on the banks of the Medway. From the carpark there were amazing views over the river and in the distance you could clearly see the massive keep of Rochester Castle.

We had an absolutely wonderful time there. My 15 year old daughter got to drive an automatic four wheel drive car with the rest of us in the back and the marshal sitting beside her in the front. She didn't do too badly at all.

Alex got to have a couple of goes on his own as we stretched his age to 5 so he didn't miss out. He has the most amazing eye hand coordination for his age (4 1/2) and managed his JCB digging with less problems than some adults.



However, I have to admit that my favourite part of this visit was getting to drive a large JCB myself. Very bouncy but the steering is surprisingly light.























We thought that would be a complete day but we'd pretty much finished by lunchtime, added to which the park was filling up and the queues for some of the rides were getting very long. There was a large party of men and boys from a religious sect, wearing skull caps with their hair shaved close to their heads except for two long bits dangling down from just in front of their ears. I couldn't think what sect they belonged to although they looked slightly Jewish. However, unfortunately they were also hogging all the rides and making it difficult for others to get on, so we decided to call it a day and move on to Chislehurst Caves.

They were fantastic. They're not really caves as they're manmade - more mines really. They are carved from the chalk and flint landscape and there are 20 miles of them under Chislehurst. The tour took just over 45 minutes and our guide was great. He made the tour such fun, involving all members of the group, telling ghost stories and historical stories. The mines had been used as shelters during the 2nd world war and he had a wealth of stories about them. He even took all the oil lanterns away (no electric lights, lanterns only, makes it more interesting) and left us in the dark for a while.

If ever you are in the area I'd definitely recommend a trip to the caves, if only to talk to the guides who have a wonderful sense of humour.

Tomorrow, possibly Dover Castle - just down the road really and I have been before, but they've just recently re-opened the Keep after doing it up to look as it would have looked during the time of Henry VIII. Alex has never been and Ivan (who's a local and should know better) has never been to the wartime experience in the tunnels beneath the castle.

So far, so good, and I'm managing to keep up with knitting my Mum's cardi. Hope to have a picture for you all very shortly.

Down but not out

OK, so this week of being less than good - gulp - means that I've put on 3lbs. Not that I'm surprised as there has been a distinct chocolatey flavour to the week plus a bit of beefburger and chips and the odd icecream. But am I disheartened? Am I giving up? No not at all - well maybe a bit disheartened but it's my own fault. So onwards and upwards.

I've had to rip back the left side of Mum's cardigan as I made a mistake and the yarn is so fluffy row counting is really difficult. Easier to rip it back and start again. Having said that it was an exercise in patience as the fluffiness kept catching and having to be teased out. So I cast it back on and left it for a bit whilst catching up on the crocheted squares for a bag that I'd forgotten I was doing until I found it yesterday. That'll be coming to work with me today, I think, for lunchtime.

I've bought myself a new cossie - one with a skirt so I don't look quite so beached whale like - and I'm going to start swimming again - ladies night at our local baths on a Wednesday at 9pm. Obviously after the watershed so I don't scare the kiddies too much :o)

It's getting on for 7am so I'd better get ready for work.

Dieting on

One day later than the rest of you, I have stood on the scales with trepidation and have lost the half a pound I put on last week. Now that I've finally got rid of the dressings on my leg, I can increase my exercise so hopefully I'll start to lose a bit more ..... so long as I can counter the munchies I will get from the extra exercise.

Once again dear friends, and I can't remember the rest of that quote!

OK, the box has been re-boxed as the previous one looked a tad foxed although a tad beared, deered or even elephanted might be nearer the truth.

I have taken out three items and replaced them with three more items from my ever encroaching stash. (Do stashes become sentient as they grow I wonder? Mine always seems to know how to trip the old man up on one of his, you've got too much yarn grumbling days) And I am hoping, all being well and everything crossed, to get it into the post tomorrow morning. Here are my choices .....





At some point tomorrow we've got to go target the ducks and swans again as the bread rolls are getting stale. It's only a matter of time before Alex throws himself into the canal as well as his handful of bread. His favourite trick at the moment is attempting to score direct hits on the seagulls and he is scarily accurate at it. (With bread crumbs I hasten to add)

GREAT NEWS .............. the district nurse has finally signed me off - five months after the abcess that necessitated their regular daily visits to clean it, squeeze it, swab it, swear at it and stick all manner of different dressings over it in the vain attempt to avoid the skin around it being ripped off twice a day. It's all better now except for a small crater which not even I will notice. (That's probably because I haven't been able to see that area for at least 25 years)

I'm off to buy a new swimming cossie

TTFN

Goody box whoops

A huge apology to Kaye and Judy as I left them out of the box swap. However, all is not completely lost as I have not had time to unpack it and so I am going to tape it up and send it back out on it's merry way, at the weekend.

On the diet front, we went to the Isle of Wight, weekend before last, and I didn't bother dieting to be honest, although I did do a huge amount of walking. The upshot of all this is that I stayed the same weight last week and put on 1/2 lb this week. Still not to worry - head down and keep on going.

We've decided to have another holiday third week in August, but we're not leaving home to do it. After a lot of searching the net for deals and places to go, and grumpy comments from the other half we suddenly realised that we live in a holiday spot here in Kent. So we're going to have a week of visiting attractions within acceptable driving distance of home. So the money that would have been spent on the hotel - just a glorified wardrobe really, will be spent on extra attractions. There's such a lot in this area that I'm having great trouble in reducing the list to a manageable size.

My shawl is coming along - slowly. I was worried that it looked messy and completely unlike the picture of the completed one - but my Mum told me not to worry as blocking it would sort the messiness. I hope she's right :o)

There's so much to do I don't know where to start. My house is a tip, we're running at full stretch at work and we've got Swine Flu there as well. My daughter's schools has three cases of swine flu so far but as it's end of term tomorrow they're not really worried. What really got me though, was that my daughter said all the pregnant girls had been sent home because of the flu !!! The implication was that there was a lot of them and nobody seemed worried about that !!!

Oh well, now I've unloaded everything here I can make a start on something, somewhere, sometime. Or perhaps just knit a few more rows before I do.

Catch you all soon I hope. Good luck on shawls and dieting and everything else you're currently doing.

Diet - and me too

Well my diet went slightly out of the window over the weekend as I packed the family into the car on Friday after work, and went to the Isle of Wight. A two and a half hour motorway trip turned out to be the best part of four hours due to several accidents and multiple roadworks along the way.

Is it just me, or does there never seem to be any actual work going on inside those cones? We've come to the conclusion that in actual fact they are being stored on the motorway as there is no room for them anywhere else. That would explain why there always seems to be miles and miles of perfectly good road surface coned off. Either that or some evil sod gets their kicks from watching people get frustrated in traffic jams.

Anyway, back to the diet - or lack of. Although I haven't made any attempts to diet over the weekend, I have done a fair bit of walking and my weigh in this morning revealed that I have stayed the same weight - let's hope it doesn't catch up with me next week.

There's a noisy great Chinook helicopter just gone over my house, sounded like it was going to land in the back garden - mind my pots !!!!

I keep looking at the Tilia shawls and then going back to my Mum's cardi. In my defence I need to get this done for her birthday in September and the 16 row pattern keeps catching me out. But I do have my other shawl (see previous post) on the needles so I think I'll take it to work with me tomorrow and get some rows in during lunch. That's the plan anyway. And there's the other mitten needs doing and the colour through gold embroidery in the hoop, then there's the Or Nue to get started, the beaded bracelets, the embroidered bags ...... I think I may have too many projects ongoing !!! Problem is I want to do everything now ..... and I work full time as well. Still it's a challenge.

Night, night everyone

Posh Yarn has arrived .....

Here they are, my very first poshyarns

Matelot



Nabob

I got some ...

I actually managed to get two skeins of poshyarns by 8.05pm. Went back to have another look and it's practically been wiped out. I can just imagine all these manic knitters frantically clicking the refresh waiting to get their yarn. Hope those of you who were also refreshing madly, got the yarns you went for. I missed my first one and I have to say I was hot on the mouse.

The swift that arrived swiftly .....

This swift is worth my weight in gold, I'm telling you. Last time I tried to wind laceweight yarn by hand I spent hours and ended up with an impenetrable birds nest which was unusable.

This time I bought myself a large skein of pure wool laceweight from Astrid's Dutch Obsessions



Then with the aid of my new swift and my trusty Ebay wool winder I proceeded to wind it off into 7 centre pull balls in about 20 minutes. All I had to do was wind the handle and hold the yarn clear of the arms of the swift - so much easier than doing it by hand. I really, really recommend buying this if you buy a lot of yarn in skein form.

Lace along anybody?

I've just very carefully read Sarah's post on lace knitting - many thanks for that Sarah I personally found it very useful and it's inspired me to get on with my second attempt which I am hoping will be successful this time.

My first attempt was last years lace shawl from Hip Knits which, for me, turned out to be a big disaster. My main problem is that I knit left handed which means lace patterns have to be reversed to work correctly. So I have to do SKPO where it calls for KTOG and vice versa. Any more complicated instructions need some serious consideration to make them work properly.

Anyway, I was looking at Astrid's Dutch Obsessions site, which I absolutely love, and she has some wonderful lace yarn on it, so I decided to bite the bullet and have another go.

Along with the yarn comes this lovely lace shawl pattern which, fingers crossed, I am going to have a go at.

If anybody else fancies having a go at this I have the pattern and will willingly share it with you.

The yarn I have is in shades of red and black which sounds tacky but looks quite sophisticated on the skein.

I'll keep you posted on how I'm getting on - wish me luck.

It's started

Well Clara in Maryland has the box and has posted the pictures of her chosen three on her blog. I find it strangely thrilling to see things I've made or donated on someone else's blog giving them so much pleasure.

I'm on the last bit of a white crocheted sun hat for me. I altered the pattern slightly to increase the brim size and I've crocheted the last round in pink for a bit of contrast. I'm currently making some flower brooches for it in the same pink. Once it's finished I'll post a picture of it here.

Also on the needles currently, a cardigan knitted in a dusty pink acrylic/wool mix which I originally bought to make a top from a pattern I'd bought from White Lies Designs. Beautiful top and they'd knitted it in cotton. Unfortunately the yarn I chose for substitution, whilst knitting up correctly to the right gauge, didn't have the right drapeability. Being a large person, I'd spent a fair bit on this yarn and was determined to make something for me rather than it disappearing into the depths of my stash.

I'm also making mittens !!! To be fair I'm starting on Christmas pressies because I work full time so making pressies needs lots of organising for me :o)

I'll be posting pictures of these as soon as they are finished. And starting lots of other projects which are sitting in zip lock bags behind the settee winking at me.

Tales of a bank holiday Sunday

Well there we were having a cracking time in Hastings. We went up the cliff railway and took the kids to the Smuggler's Adventure in the caves there. After that we trotted across the cliffs to Hastings Castle which was the first Motte and Bailey castle erected in Britain by William the Conqueror after he topped Harold at the Battle of Hastings.

Then we went back down the cliff railway and found a cafe to have lunch. This cafe had three waitresses - all young girls - and it was like a BBC comedy watching them. They obviously hadn't been doing the job for long and it was the blind leading the blind. They stood in a row behind the counter, dropping cups, spraying coffee grounds everywhere, doubling drinks orders and then making a right fist of opening a bottle of wine. We were fascinated and it was so hard not to laugh at them. I have to admit to really hoping that something dramatic would happen with the wine, but after a lot of pulling and effort they finally managed to remove the cork without too much drama. They were arguing over who had to clean the tables, and they had this spray bottle of stuff and an absolutely filthy cloth to clean with. However, the meal was lovely, probably because the three stooges didn't have any hand in cooking or preparing it - just had to deliver it without dropping it.

After lunch we went into the amusements, which is lethal really, I don't have any idea how much money we spent on the 2p pushers and I don't want to know. There is this unofficial competition between us to see who can get the most gifts out of the pushers. Getting 2ps is not the goal, it's getting all the little ornaments and other gizmos they put in there nowadays. Alex turned out to be brilliant at it although he couldn't get the hang of the idea that the 2p change machine didn't give away free money and had to be fed with pound coins etc.

We took them down to the funfair as well and they went on the ghost train and the bumper cars and then finally had 10 minutes on the trampolines down the seafront.

So off we trotted back to the car and started on our way home - and guess what? The car broke down - sort of. It kept beeping and saying that the brake fluid needed topping up. So I found a Beefeater just outside of Hastings to park in - make it easy for the RAC to find us and we sat there for 2 hours until they turned up. But it turned out it wasn't the brakes but the clutch slave cylinder that had popped a seal and it was gushing fluid. So we ended up being towed home and getting back four hours later than I'd anticipated!!!! Didn't even get to have a meal at the Beefeater because the first RAC man looked at the car and said it couldn't be driven but he couldn't recover us because there were too many of us to go in his little van. So he arranged for a bigger recovery vehicle to collect us and said it will be an hour before he gets to you. So we went into the Beefeater and ordered a scrumptious meal. Five minutes later I get a call from the recovery to say he'd be there in 15 minutes - so we had to cancel our scrummy meal. I've had to promise the kids that as soon as the car is mended we'll go to a local Beefeater and order the same meal.

So all in all everything went to plan except the last bit ..... But the consolation is that apparantly it's not an expensive repair !!!! Yippee - only a small amount of holiday money to be spent elsewhere then!!! Oh well could have been a lot worse I suppose so mustn't grumble - but it's now 10.50pm and I'm shattered - so night night all - fingers crossed for an uneventful rest of bank holiday for me :o)

And they're off ...............

The box has now been handed over to the Royal Mail and is probably sitting in our local sorting office at the moment, but it's finally on the first leg of it's magical mystery tour.

Don't forget to let us all know when you receive it and when you send it on, and what you've taken from it.

I'm seriously thinking about BBBJ's idea of a box swap as well, at some time. I've seen these before, where you have a box swap buddy - or you send your box to the person upline of you and the person downline of you sends a box to you. The whole thing is started off with a questionnaire for everyone in the group so that you know what everybody else likes and dislikes, so that you can tailor your box appropriately. Then you start knitting and crocheting and crafting and buying things for your box. Lovely idea and like having Christmas early. Let me know what you think.

Anyway, I'd better go and tidy up my bombsite of a garden. I've just started planting out sprouts, cauliflowers, spring onions, carrots, leeks ......... and there are discarded pots and little heaps of soil everywhere. Looks like a deranged mole has been drag racing through the grass.

Hope the weather stays nice for you all.

Under Starter's Orders

The box is filled, taped and ready to go. I was going to post it on my way home today, but haven't been well. So it will definitely be going in the post tomorrow morning. I've had the greatest of fun choosing goodies to go in it, hope you all have just as much fun choosing which goodies you want to take out of it.

Have a wonderful bank holiday weekend everybody - here in the South East it's supposed to be bright and sunny all the way through - with the possibility of thunderstorms on Monday - but we'll chance that. I'm taking my family to Hastings on Sunday to visit the Smuggler's Story in the caves there and we'll have to go to the funfair otherwise Alex will never forgive us :o)

Happy new blog

OK, this is a big deal for me as I've been too lazy to set up a blog before. But now I've started up the second round of our box swap it makes sense to have somewhere to show off our choices. Although as I'm starting it, it means that I'll have to wait til last. Something to look forward to though. I love this kind of thing, like a child waiting for Christmas.

I've had a rough time since February so need some fun. I had a large abcess at the very top of my thigh, too close for comfort too my lady bits :). That was cut out under anaesthetic, and is still being packed and dressed twice daily by the district nurses, who are a wonderful lot. As I'm also a diabetic, the would is taking ages to heal. So I'm on a phased return to work, which means I do five hours on Monday, Wedsnesday and Friday at the moment, and I have to go visit Occupation Health every fortnight for an update.

However, I'm a firm believer in silver linings, and this particular silver lining is the opportunity to knit more. I'm supposed to rest my leg so ideal to slob onto the settee and knit. I keep all my WIPs in various bags strewn around my living room :) which also doubles up as playroom for four year old Alex and computer room for my other half. I also have a 15 year old strop, sorry, daughter, who spends most of her time in her room killing aliens on the PS2 or killing cats on her violin. (Actually that's not really fair as she's making very good progress with her violin lessons even though she keeps saying she's fed up of it)

So the box is coming together slowly as I mentally winnow through my stash. I'll physically winnow through it tomorrow. I'm still waiting for a few answers to my original email, inviting everyone back for the swap, but if I don't hear anything by Thursday I'll send it out. We can always add in late swappers later.