Christmas 2016

I have spent about an hour trying to break into my blogger account....why does this happen....I blame the small boys who have been using the computer, changed everything around and then silently crept away...I have no idea if I will ever be able to sign back in again, so maybe I should just say everything I have to say now ;-)

So 2017 is well under way and the routine has become the norm again, after the bliss of the holidays. Christmas was good, although quickly over.  There was knitting

22.5 Degrees Martina Behm

and crochet, a corner to corner piece which grew and then turned into rather a nice cushion cover

 I took part in a lovely christmas present swap and received some beautiful gifts from a generous lady who had found out all about the things that made me tick.  It was so exciting opening up gifts from a stranger on Christmas night when the boys were all settled to their own things.

One brilliant gift among all the lovely suprises was a candelabra, which I know is supposed to be used in a cake, but I put it on the grasshopper pie I made on News Year's day when we had family for lunch.

Isn't that the coolest thing ever??

I sent my gifts to America, lots of bits and bobs.... my favourite sort of presents.

I knitted these mitts with some wool I bought in the Cotswolds when we were there in October....and packaged them up too for my giftee, (I'm assured by a genuine Californian knitter that people from California do sometimes have the need to wear gloves etc... (I had a small wobble half way through making and wondered if I'd lost the plot!))

I took part in my second 10k race in two months, which was a fun filled (apart from the huge mile and a bit hill at the beginning) run with other nutty people dressed in christmassy clothes.  I crocheted my hat the night before and managed to keep it on the entire  race, which was an endurance in itself :-)

After the run, the finishers were given glühwein and a christmas pudding to take home....you can't say fairer than that!

And then it was done....just like that...and me being me, started feeling the need for some fresh air and new plans....so that is what has been happening in small amounts.

 No big challenges, or difficult-to-keep resolutions, just some good intentions which will be worthwhile and reasonable......watch this space :-)

Honestly?

See this bag....rather empty hey?  Well....I decided to be honest with myself and pull out all my unfinished projects....hhhhmmmm......dangerous ground.

So first one out is this ten-stitch twist....reason it's in the bag is that I've forgotten how to do it....simple problem easily solved I guess...

Second one....a pair of two at a time socks, put down and not picked up again.....

Last Dance on the Beach CAL.....I have done over half of this ....possibly even 2/3s

This is a re-entry....you may be able to just spot the issue....its a beautiful blanket, but the side has unravelled and I need to remember how to do the stitch so I can fix it again.....so simple, but again, enough to stop me getting on with it.  (Actually, I see that there a lot of areas along the side that look dangerously like they will unravel in time, so I'm actually wondering about sewing a border onto it and catching it all up with the machine, I think the yarn is quite smooth and therefore is slipping out where its been sewn in....ggggrrrrrr!)

This hat has never been near my head, as I could probably fit three heads in it...I was so gutted I just put it away...but brave I must be and unravel....maybe I should choose a different hat pattern altogether now....

Dream Stripes shawl...put down, never picked up again....

Another crocheted shawl which is just s-l-o-w, I like it, but I can see me putting it in the bag as it needs to be about ten times longer!

Another light weight wrap thing....I found the joining method on this so difficult to understand that although I got it right twice with some help, I can't remember how....(notice a theme here?)

A 'made-up as I went along' shawl which is really pretty, but it's a bit small and I need to add some more on to make it more wearable.

A started baby blanket, which stopped when I ran out of the multi-coloured yarn and couldn't find it again...so frustrating...

A Christmas table runner....no idea where the pattern is....

A shawl which I gave up on because the pattern was difficult to follow, although I wonder on looking at it now why exactly as there seems so little detail for so much effort....no idea where the pattern was from.....ooooopppppsss!

My first ever crochet project, stopped as I ran out of one of the reds....if I hadn't already sewn so much together I would add another colour in....rookie mistake...no idea what to do with this....its fairly wide so far, but pretty narrow.

Oooohhh....I had totally forgotten about this one, my temperature blanket with a square for each day showing the lows and highs of  temperature....I think I've done two months....

A last minute whim Christmas pattern which I just could not get my head around....

The cable beginning of wrist warmers....this really was the most fiddly part of the pattern, all they need is the sides putting on and sewing up.....

So that is all the projects neatly folded and sorted back into my big bag.

I've seen a few people referring to unfinished projects and I've always been slightly in fear over what was actually in my big bag....it isn't as bad as I thought somehow...in fact, I wouldn't even feel guilty if I started something new ;-)

But seriously, first port of call is the CAL blanket, as it is pretty close to finish, then I need to bite the bullet and unravel some of the things which I put down as I really didn't like them and then oooohhh, I can start planning some more unfinished projects :-)

Zwischen 2015 und 2016

So for another year, all the sparkly decorations have been packed away.  Christmas 2015 has been lovely......relaxed, good company, good food and happiness.  It has been pretty difficult to 'snap out of it' to be honest.  The run up to Christmas with school age children (in three different schools) is busy to say the least.  We picked up the children from school on the last day of school and took off to Cardiff for the night.  It was such a big treat for us 'countryfolk'!  Hotel, meal out and shops....a welcome break from the same four walls and routine.

Away has gone my advent calendar that I made some years ago.  Despite the lack of chocolate the children still seem  keen to see what will come out next.

New to our family traditions is a big portion of  Sue's Caramel Popcorn (recipe from  Mrs. Micawber blog)  Along with the batch of Ruth's coconut mince pies.

(These are not the only favourite things from other bloggers....one can't blog and not be affected!  )

I've rattled through a few makes, some of which were presents.  The christmas tree hat was for a friend who runs a food and basics bank and at Christmas also manages to give out presents to children who would otherwise have nothing in our county.  Anyway after promising a  hat, this was my offering

This was a scarf I made from Crafts from the Cwtch's pattern Little Bear's Porridge. 

This shawl was a happy skein of yarn from Mothy and the Squid and the pattern was 

Simple Half Pi Shawl

The painting above was a commissioned gift for a young lady who has been doing charity work in Durban, South Africa with young mums and children.

This is a painting  of Chester our beagle for a competition, unfortunately I did not place, but I enjoyed the process!

We've enjoyed some lovely walks in the past week or so, despite the dreadful British weather at the moment.  We have somehow got out of the habit of doing longer family walks, we must get back to it.

Apart from more of the above, I hope that 2016 is filled with  a few more challenges.  I somehow managed to pull off my first race, which was a 10k in September....I ran the whole lot, which I was fairly smug about....not bad for a lazy girl.  I am hoping that this year might hold a half marathon.....although I am realistic that I may not have the time to train.

I am still pressing on with my German (with far too many major wobbles just recently)  I have never found anything more difficult or nerve wracking.  I am supposed to travel to Jena, Germany next month and the idea of it makes me feel pretty queasy!  If I have an hour to work out what I want to say and a notebook I'm ok.....but conversations don't generally work like that!!

Anyway....if I can do these things then so can anyone....

All the very best for you and yours in 2016!!

Catching up....again....

It always seems to me that I'm trying to catch up....ever have that feeling too?

We are now a week and a bit into the children's big holidays, and everything is passing-by even quicker than it was before.

But I figured rather than try and cover all the news, I will at least show you my latest finished shawl.

Der Querdenker  by Petra Neumann....translated into English from German (I think my next German pattern I should try in German, could make the knitting so much more of a challenge!)

The yarns were ones I had on my shelf (I was sorely tempted to splash out though!) the blue and the green were both bought in the Waterfront in Cape Town, both spun and dyed by Nurturing Fibres. The Pink was a bought from Perran Yarns left over from a previous make,,.,,,and there's yet more still to make something else too!

This was a lovely shawl to make with a swing knitting short row technique that I had not done before. The technique made sense, was easy enough and actually to me, was a better way to do it than I've done previously (which was always a bit hit and miss).  All in all, a really nice project.  This is now packed up and winging its way across the pond to a lovely German teacher in America who helped me so much in my recent German exam......but that's another story!

Make-along #2

So two weeks and a bit into Crafts from the Cwtch's Make-along and I am making fairly good progress, I can't tell you how lovely it is to be knitting again....it seems like I've been away for years (which isn't true of course) but it's a happy reunion.  I've even managed to do some knitting-on-the-go, the best thing about doing a small project like this is I can chuck it in the car and hope that I'll find a spare few minutes  to fit some knitting in....and I have!

Der Querdenker

It isn't exactly the best choice of colours, and actually the photos don't really show them as they are....but I am enjoying the design and the colours work with it I think.  I wanted to show you my inspiration....when I first started with the blue and green, they so made me think of the bluebells, although try as I might, I have not managed, on many occasions, to capture the real deep blue I could see.  Anyway....the pink made me think of the pink campions as it started to work in.....

I'm enjoying this one....I'm also looking forward to doing another shawl as soon as this one is off the needles....I think I have certainly discovered my weakness.....I've always had a huge blanket obsession, but shawls are just mini-blankets right?  Comforting, warm, pretty and quicker to make than blankets.....what could be better?

knitting again!

I've been rather 'stuck' in a crochet rut recently, the offending article being a teeny-tiny baby blanket that should have been finished in a week, but actually ran to two months....ooooppppssss!

Anyway, the blanket is now hopefully, wrapped around its new owner....although, I am a little bothered that the weather has vastly improved since I started it!

So with blanket gone, I turned my attention to the yarn I bought in Cape Town....a multi-coloured dk with a lovely sheen....a bit fat chunky brightly coloured yarn....some pink banana yarn.....some deep green merino....

I seem to have caught a bug for knitting shawls at some stage, so I've been itching to break into the green lace-weight, looking for the opportunity, so when Sarah Crafts from the Cwtch  announced her make-along I was there!

So I've made a start, after much deliberation on Der Querdenker  I was tempted to download the pattern in German, but figured I may get myself into a real tangle.  The pattern uses a new-to-me method of doing short rows, swing-knitting, which I will let you know how I get on!

While I've only just begun, I am enjoying the colours so much, the blue yarn, is also one that came back from Cape Town last year when my well trained hubby bought me some back from his holiday.

I will be adding in another colour, but at the moment, it so reminds me of the bluebells in the garden.

After a grey and wet weekend (in which mein Mann decided to do his first trail run competition on the coast paths....28 miles later...wet, muddy and cold) today has been a pretty good Bank Holiday, so we got out with boys and dogs and did a 7-miler.

It has been busy, busy, busy around here....I have both my French and German open university courses finishing this month, with a final examiner assessment.  For the German, I have a live spoken assessment, that if I think about for too long, I start to feel queasy....learning a language is all very well and good....but actually speaking and being asked questions....a whole different ball game!

I've also been doing a huge amount of baking, unfortunately not for us all of the time.  I do love to cook, almost as much as I like to eat...

Anyway, one final picture of one of the puds I've made, lemon, mascarpone, frangipane and cherries....yum!