It's been a while!

But I think that I'm just about ready to get back to blogging again.

Life just kind of took over in the summer months ~ what with school holidays, family trips away and trying to keep the small people entertained. And to tell the truth, whilst there really wasn't that much time available for any woolly stuff I really didn't have much inclination to put wool to hook or sticks either.

I am even more ashamed to say that I haven't done anything remotely hooky or even picked up the knitting sticks once since my last post which was WAY back in the middle of June.

I'm not quite sure why! I think that perhaps I had just become a bit bored with all of my WIP's and that maybe all I needed a new project to kick start my motivation again. The project I eventually decided on was this one ~

A lacy scarf designed by Debbie Bliss ~ which I decided to knit in double knitting wool ~ namely Sublime extra fine cashmerino wool in a lovely blue shade called Clipper. This wool is an absolute dream to knit with and very snuggly too which will be just right to keep me cosy in the winter months.

I have also signed myself up to take part in this wonderful Advent swap which is being organised by the very lovely Hookin' with Laalaa.

The idea of this swap is that you buy, make, thrift or share 24 little gifts for your partner to open each day of Advent and then one larger present for her to open on Christmas day. Sounds like amazing fun and I am really looking forward to taking part. There is still time to join in if you like the idea ~ although the closing date is today so you'll need to be quick! :O)xx

Sock ~ tastrophe!

I had been getting on so well with my Jubilee socks ~ in fact I had nearly finished the first one ~ when disaster struck and I noticed I had a dropped stitch!



No problem I thought! I'll just unravel the offending sock until I reach the dropped stitch, pick it back up again and then carry on my merry way.

Unfortunately, the knitting had other plans and that is not how it worked out at all! I did some unravelling and I did try to pick up the pesky little dropped stitch, but no matter how hard I tried I just could pick it up and it would slip further and further down the knitting. At one point I did think about ripping the whole sock out and starting all over again but I just couldn't bring myself to do that.

I think that I have now managed to catch that slippery little stitch up ~ but to be honest with you I'm not totally convinced that I've done it properly and I am really hoping that I don't spot any more ladders in my sock when I get my momentum going again.



Wish me luck and hopefully I'll be back with a fully formed pair of Jubilee Socks sometime soon :O)xx

Jubilee socks

Yesterday ~  I was sitting in the garden enjoying the lovely warm weather and adding a few more rows to my Jubilee socks. I am using a really simple sock pattern which involves absolutely no heel shaping and therefore, absolutely no thinking at all! Just simple knitting and purling (K6,P6 ribbing) in a tube like fashion ~ which is so easy to pick up and put down when my knitting mood dictates. The yarn is 4 ply Zig Zag by King Cole in Jubilee which gives lovely random stripes in red, white and blue. The other thing I loved about this pattern is that it needed 60 stitches to be cast on ~ which is very appropriate for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee too.

Today ~ I am back to sitting knitting inside as the weather has decided to turn a little cooler again and the sun has disappeared behind the clouds. I really do hope it decides to make a reappearance sometime very soon :O)xx

Seasidey homework

Goodness! Where is the time going to just now? It's very nearly the end of May and I haven't posted in absolutely ages ~ which is partly because I have been too busy to do very much hooky stuff and also, to tell the truth there hasn't been much else happening around these parts that seemed worthy of blogging about either.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago my little boy was set a homework task to produce a souvenir of our beautiful little seaside hometown. The souvenir he chose to produce was a calendar ~ which gave us a fabulous excuse to wander around in the recent sunshine and take some seasidey photographs for him to put in his calendar and I thought it might be quite nice to share some of them with you all too.

This is the view of the beautiful West Bay from the appropriately named Anchor Green::

Walking along the beach you can see the buildings surrounding the harbour and the harbour walls::

Going on past the beautiful old buildings and around the corner is the wonderful harbour ~ I just love seeing all the colourful little boats bobbing up and down on the water::

And just for good measure we decided to take another picture of the harbour from a different angle::

These were just some of the photos that my little boy wanted to have in his calendar ~ they really do sum up the beauty of our little seasidey town. Words can't really begin to tell you how lucky we feel to have this all on our doorstep to enjoy as and when we please.

The only downside of living so close to the sea is that the sea mist/haar has only just started to lift now and the sun is just starting to poke it's head through the clouds. It does look like it should warm up fairly quickly so I'm off to prepare a quick picnic lunch to enjoy in the garden when the small people get home from school ~ which should be any minute now!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and enjoy the sun :O)xx

Ten

My beautiful baby boy is TEN today! Into double figures already!  I'm not quite sure how that happened as quickly ~ it really doesn't seem like ten years since he was born. Is it just me or does time really seem to speed up once you have children?

I can remember that moment when the midwife handed my newborn baby to me and said "it's a boy"! I wasn't really ready for that ~ I was expecting to have another girl. A BOY!! What on earth do I do with one of those! The answer is that I love him with all my heart and soul and I really wouldn't have it any other way ~ it is such a joy to have a boy.

He is a very typical boy! An absolute whirlwind of boy energy ~ is never still and never quiet, he literally talks from the minute he opens his eyes in the morning until he goes to sleep at night and sometimes even talks when he is asleep! He likes nothing better than running about outdoors up to his eyes in mud and all things mucky! He loves his guitar and can't wait for the day when we say YES you can get an electric one!

He really is a lovely boy and has a very compassionate nature and is very kind and loving too. He loves snuggling up with his mum for kisses and cuddles at home. And I LoVe that too!

Happy 10th Birthday to my gorgeous boy ~ I hope that you have a wonderful day :O)xxxxxxxxxx

Wet Weather Walking

In true school holiday tradition, the weather decided to take a turn for the worse as soon as the schools broke up for Easter. The lovely sunny weather that we had been enjoying a few weeks previously decided to turn itself wet, windy and rainy ~ and on the odd occasion we were even treated to a few hailstones. A bit of a washout really ~ and not at all what you expect to be treated to in April ~ and of course it does make entertaining the small people a little bit more difficult too.

I not ashamed to say that we did spend quite a few days just lazing about in our pyjamas whilst watching DVDs and eating large amounts of chocolate eggs washed down with equally large mugs of tea and hot chocolate. I can't begin to tell you how much I love spending days like this ~it really is such a treat!

However, as we had planned to get some fresh air ~ and to go out for some walks in the park and along the beach ~ we were not going to let the wet weather stop us! We wrapped up warmly in some wet weather gear and off we trotted on some wet weather walks.

Our local park is a lovely place full of wide open spaces and pretty gardens which are at their best in the summer months. But when we went for our wet weather walk it was deserted and looking rather sorry for itself!

There wasn't very much colour around at all ~ the spring bulbs were nearly past their best, and it has to be said that most things looked more Autumnal than Springlike. It seems that our seasons are a bit out of sorts just now and are really getting more than a little bit mixed up!

If you take a little peek through the bare and brown looking hedgerow, you can just about see the volcanic plug of North Berwick Law which we managed to climb to the very top of last year just after we moved to this beautiful seaside town.

There was a little bit more colour to be seen at the pretty walled garden.

Out of the park and walking down some narrow streets and past this tiny little seaside inspired garden we came to the beach.

There wasn't much colour around here either ~ except for some bright blue and green stripey wellies.

We had been keeping our eyes open looking for some sea treasures ~ but they all must have been playing hide and seek and we didn't find very much at all.

Despite all the yucky wet weather we had a very lovely time on our little jaunt and on our way back home we stumbled upon this lovely flowery boat display ~ isn't it pretty?

I hope that you all enjoyed the holidays as much as we did ~ but let's hope that the weather starts to behave a bit better and sends the sun out to play sometime soon :O)xx

Happy Easter

Just popping by to wish you all a very Happy Easter ~ I hope that you all have a very lovely Easter weekend.

As I have continued to be very unproductive with my hook, knitting sticks and yarn I thought I would share a photo of a little knitted Easter chick that I made a couple of years ago ~ he is very good at hiding chocolate Easter eggs in his little woolly tummy. I am very good at that too ~ although my tummy is definitely not woolly!

Enjoy your chocolate Easter eggs and TRY your very hardest not to eat them all today :O)xx