New start

I saw this on another blog and fell in love with it, such a simple design but so pretty.

I do have issues, as much as I love the colours, I will be using yarn from my stash, this is a neck down knitted jumper knitted in the round using double knitting, I only have 4 ply in my stash. I have purchased the pattern and I am now looking at how I can transfer it to a 4ply knitted down pattern I already have, I will make my jumper longer and with long sleeves. The yoke is the area where all stitches are added, I am hoping I can match the number of stitches on this jumper pattern to stitches on the 4ply pattern, which would make this much easier, as I would just have to adapt the lengths. 

 I purchased this hand dyed yarn from Burrow and Soar back in September, it just called to me, so I purchased 200grms, sadly I can't afford to make anything using just her yarns, it would be far too expensive. 

I have stocked up on the lovely shades, with the intension of using them with the hand dyed yarn above, my thoughts had been to make a striped jumper. Baby merino is one of my favorite yarns, and I often use it, so I always have colours in my stash. I am not sure about the navy and dark pink, but the other 5 shades work well. 

This is my 2nd start, I did my 1st with pale blue followed by the mixed colour, but the contrast did not work, the colours blended rather than stood out, I had wanted to start in the off white but I also wanted to use this colour on the cuffs. Having rechecked the design I could see the colours did not follow any pattern, they just sat where they could make the most dramatic contrast, so with that in mind I reset my thinking, I will use the darker blue next, and decide at each colour change what to use next, wish me luck. 

Well it did not take long for me to break my own rules of finishing things this year, except the pattern, I did have everything in my stash, so I'm not a complete failure. With everything going on outside, this virus and the way we are having to live, I needed something to inspire me, fire up my creativity, and sadly hexagons and knitted socks were not doing it for me.  Plus I can sit for hours and knit, I love watching this grow, all knitted on the round, hardly any sewing up to do. 

I have finished one pair of socks and have another pair on the go, plus a bit of knitting for Will's jacket. 

We are sitting out storm Christoph, the garden is undamaged so far, I did pop some of my pots off the table and onto the decking, just in case, they are full of bulbs and are all terracotta. Just tired this morning after a very windy and wet night, hope you are all safe and dry.

1st finish

I love these socks, main colour knitted using Head over heals 4ply by Stylecraft, which is 75% wool, so perfect for socks. The navy is Schachenmayr, Regina a German yarn, again 75% wool, which I use most often for socks. 

I am super proud of the matching colours, before I started knitting the 1st sock I took a photo of the yarn ball, so I could try and match the start point on the 2nd sock, it worked. 

My Amaryllis bulbs, for a few weeks I thought they were not going to grow, the white blooms are not so dramatic against our pale walls, but the flowers are impressive, the 2nd bulb, should have red/pink blooms. 

Another great book, a very different story, a death, and the back story, 2nd library choice book this month, 4th book this year. 

Hubby made an apple crumble cake, it's huge but lovely, a moist apple cake with a crisp crumble topping, brilliant with custard, and great on its own. It took a lot of work and hubby would not make it again for just 2 of us, but a good family day cake or dessert. 

Sunday was a really sunny day, I spent a bit of time outside, I moved my pots around, I have loads of spring bulbs coming through, now I can see the pots from inside. The greenhouse was warm inside, the position is perfect to get all the winter sun. 

The socks are a gift, it's my 1st big 'be kind' of the year, I plan to do many more. I can show them on here because the person does not follow my blog. I am also on Instagram, which I love, one follower of mine, often make lovely comments on my knitting projects. In December she commented, she loved hand made socks but can't knit, and why are they so expensive to purchase, so an idea formed. These are knitted from my stash, using a yarn which would probably sit there for ages, the yarn was part of a gift to me, and I don't wear much pink, so perfect solution. The navy is one of many colours I have in this yarn, I love to make striped socks, I find the stripes much quicker to count and make matching sized socks. I did ask the lady for her shoe size and said I would be making her a pair, but she has no idea how they are going to look. I prefer the lighter pink shades, my 1st sock which I manged to ruin, was the darker pink section of the yarn. 

We had another stay at home weekend, reading most of the time, it has been cold, wet on Saturday, sadly no snow, but we rarely see snow here. Sunday we walked to the local park, hubby is still wearing his boot, but is mobile enough for a short walk, I did some jobs outside, enjoying the sunshine wrapped up from the cold. 

It is so dark most days, I have candles most nights, they fill corners with dancing flames, along with a few coloured tiny lights. January is the worse month of the year, it's dull, cold and often wet and it just lasts forever. 

Thank you for you comments on my last post, it has been a few stressful weeks, hiding tears from daughter and SIL, but with hope, which we always need. It's pure joy for us, we thought our families were all complete, no more babies, and now the thrill of one more baby. 

Expanding

Grandchild number 9, a younger sibling for Will and George, 

due to arrive in July.  

Will and George playing together,  

Daughter had scan 2 days before Christmas it was her 12 week scan and our local hospital was concerned, they listed a long list of things which concerned them, which was heightened because George has Downs Syndrome. Daughter and SIL decided to have private scans and test at a different hospital. Yesterday the results came back very differently, baby has been given excellent odds against many of the issues suggested at 12 week scan. Private medicine is not cheap, but the test are less invasive, and the scans are longer, so time was give to daughter to ensure everything was covered. There may be a smaller issue, but all we can do is wait, the main thing is daughter is now not worrying, she can get on with their plans for moving children's bedrooms. This should have been my happy news for my last post in 2020, but the shock and upset sent me reeling whist trying to support our daughter and SIL. Daughter is not finding out the sex of the baby, as with both Will and George, she is happy to wait, to add to the joy on the day. 

I am so pleased we are in a support bubble with daughter and SIL, it was hard enough to watch them both so upset, families are so important at times like these. We had Will on a sleep over on Tuesday night, he is becoming really angry at not going out, he loves space and running around, and meeting his friends, he was such a good boy for us, he loves being in the garage or cooking with his Grancha. Just the change for one night has helped him, he went home happy and good. 

We are blessed with lovely boys, from Dominic who is not yet a year old to Josh who is now 15, sadly we have not seen much of our grandsons in the past 12 months, like every other grand parents we are missing so many parts of our lovely boys lives. 

So for once good news, have a great weekend.

As another week flies by

One of the best books I have ever read and a new author to me, she has more books to read, I could not put this book down, I normally enjoy Sunday night TV, but I sat reading , 3rd book this year. 

I am doing well with my socks, 1st sock finished, just need to motor on and get the 2nd one done, I have found a crochet pattern which I would like to make for George, so to keep with my list of things to do, I am going to try and follow the simple pattern, the bowls reduce in size and will fit in inside the other. You can find the pattern here,  I am hoping such a simple design will get me going on making crochet designs. 

I purchased these in December, stating there was no need for them to arrive before Christmas, so they flew into my home this week, made by Glassworks who I follow on facebook or her site is here,

My 1st Amaryllis is opening, this is the cheaper one purchased from Lidl's, the expensive one is a couple weeks behind, you can see the flower bud in the photo. I have never before had a white flower. 

Monday I went for a walk with a friend and her dog, we were out for an hour, did not touch anything, stayed apart and both wore face mask, I was trying a clear mask which is attached to a plastic glasses frame, my friend is registered deaf, with some hearing at a poor level, so she needs to see your face as she lip reads. We walked to the shore near our house, hubby is not able to go out for walks, so it was a real treat for me, it stayed dry.

I am thinking this is the year without in the garden, there are so many plants I would love to grow, many I have tried and failed, each year I purchase snowdrops in the green, plant them and then wait, and very few grow. I am using my thinking head this year, and I am NOT getting any more, I have wasted too much money trying to get the wrong plants growing.  I do have things in pots, but I am trying to limit the number of pots and not have many more, I did a post last year on my pots, and have since added a few more. Normally I would tell anyone to look at their neighbours front gardens to see what grows in the local soil, but alas most front gardens are carparks, and many without any plants, unless you count the dead thing in the corner pot. 

I do try and grow loads of seeds, and often give away the plants I don't need, this year, I am only plants a few different seeds, I have decided bedding plants are so cheap locally, with a good mixture of plants, I can get the colour I crave and I can buy stronger plants which I can always get cutting from.  

I have been looking back on old post, looking at what grows in our garden and when, I found this post I did on the evolution, 10 years work, I spend loads of time in early months of the year, remembering what I loved in the garden and more importantly what did not work, these years I have less of the non working areas. Our side garden need winter colour, I won't go to any garden centres in lock down, it's an unnecessary journey, so that will be sorted later this year.