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Showing posts from 2014

Frozen, New Years Eve walk

frozen crops red berries frozen grass friendly resident red robin (at the bottom of my road) frozen pond (feeding the ducks) I woke this morning to very frosty weather but no snow (yet). I woke earlier than normal. I've had the flu over Christmas so the extra sleep my body needed has helped get me back on the right track. I started my swimming again on Monday this week with use of the steam room and sauna, which is great for clearing nasty bugs. It was good to have a long cold winter walk this morning, looking at the wildlife where we live and feeding the local ducks and red robin and reflecting on 2014. A local resident feeds the robin by hand every day so it was no surprise that he followed me over to the bird table near the pond at the end of our road. We are so very lucky to have access to open fields to walk Moss and we see so many different birds. Living close to a bird reserve we get to see many birds and my hu

hand knitted Christmas gifts

I've just finished another moss stitch snood for one of the girls at my hairdressers, I think she will like it. She requested burgundy to go with her winter coat. I still have yet to finish my grey scarf, but that can be completed whilst I'm on a weeks rest from work! Another project is this one started just over 4 months ago. Last night and previous nights I was knitting until way past midnight, and I only have one row to knit tonight, sew in ends and wrap it up - yeah! I took the photos very late last night so the lighting wasn't too good! I decided to pick up and knit the longest edge adding a new border of 5 coloured rows, it works very well I think. I just hope the recipient likes it!

its looking a lot like Christmas!

White Hyacinth (Morrisons £2.50) in my Orla Kiely herb pot, looks great white carnations and sea holly sprayed with glitter (Sainsbury's) Christmas presents slowly being wrapped M&S Christmas cake, yummy hand-made gingerbread man from my niece Yasmin, red heart made by me!

Moss loves Move Easy dog food

We’ve been a little worried about our dog Moss recently. If he’s been on a long walk he comes home with a slight limp and I've affectionately nick named him Mr Limpy!  Springer Spaniels are thought to be a handful to own and need a lot of exercise so I worried when this started. True they can be quite springy when they are young but with the correct training, obedience and maturity they make the most affectionate clever companions and we were so lucky to have the opportunity to rescue him back in 2010. I guess he’s more than a pet to us and we treat him like another member of the family taking him on family holidays and spoiling him sometimes. But then any Spaniel owner will tell you they take over your life and your heart. The ships dog on the Norfolk Broads with captain Derek Hurrell, October 2014 So off in search of some advice and help with this we decided to revisit a product that we’d introduced into his diet when we first rescued him. He was 11 months old th

merino knitted blanket and makes

I love this time of year, sitting in front of the TV knitting or crochet a blanket. I knit every night when I can and this week these are the things I'm completing. Well the wash cloth I finished on Sunday night, a quick crochet pattern edged with bright pink, all 100% cotton and lovely to use in the shower. crochet wash cloth I'm also working on spa cloths for my mum in DB cotton. I found this colour in John Lewis on Saturday and have almost finished the first one. This blanket started out as a baby one, found here at Purlbee  and I liked knitting it so much it is now almost an adult blanket to be gifted at Christmas (shhh). I love Debbie Bliis wool and this merino one has great stitch definition even when you are just using garter stitch. Its easy enough to stop and pick up again or add to as you find more wool. My plan is to finish it this week then pick up and knit along the long edge to create stripes in the opposite direction. Its very tactile, warm and snu

our spa weekend away

We took off for a spa weekend to celebrate our wedding anniversary (24 years on the 24 Nov) and stayed in the Hythe Imperial, Kent . After reading reviews from previous guests I was a little worried about what to expect with our weekend away; they didn't paint a very rosy picture of the Imperial Hythe. I’m not entirely sure what other people were seeing or complaining about to be honest; they didn't give a fair review and only commented on the negative things they found (some people will moan for the sake of moaning). A good review should have an even balance of information for the perspective guest, good and bad. From the moment we walked into the hotel we were given a warm welcome, with friendly and knowledgeable staff. the Hythe Imperial We were given a junior suite on the 4 th floor with dual aspect windows with sea views, which was perfect for us considering we had booked a standard double. The Romney Suite we were allocated was excellent, tasteful décor and ve

knit or crochet a poppy (Remembrance Day 2014)

my first attempt to crochet a poppy Poppies are everywhere at the moment, the huge display at the Tower of London (Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red). Celebrating the WWI centenary this November. I thought I would join in and knit and crochet myself a poppy, I found this easy to follow pattern of just 12 rows. Or could try the crochet ones instead. I have made donations over the weekend and bought the paper and metal poppies but I plan to wear one of these on my coat. I'm now addicted and have crochet another 8! The other pattern for the one on my coat can be found here  at Addicted to Making blog. You can also find another free crochet pattern here  on the Wendy Poole web site. Easy ribbed poppy pattern Colour A 1 ball red yarn (this will make a lot of poppies) Colour B Scrap of black yarn or black button Body of Poppy Using Col A Cast on 60 stitches Row s1 –10 : K2, P2 across whole row(for a slightly smaller poppy do 8 rows of rib). Row 11 : K

Happy Halloween

It's hard to believe that today is the 31st October, all Hallows Eve, its just too warm isn't it? I took a quick walk outside my office at lunchtime and it is a beautiful day out there. Warm and breezy with such lovely autumnal colours that I am missing from my office desk. fallen leaves some leaves still on the tree outside my office fallen leaves, a sign of autumn I stated my Moss Stitch snood last night, and I've almost knitted through one ball. I love the colour and its so soft. Should have it finished this weekend and I plan to knit another one in a different colour. Enjoy your Halloween, I'm off for a swim, my local pool will be empty! Moss stitch snood in progress

Moss stitch snood (free knitting pattern)

You might remember this post from last November, the free knitting pattern for the snood knitted in Rico Creative Twist Super Chunky. I have finally ordered my grey wool through Loveknitting this week and I can't wait to start. The pattern link is Here   Moss stitch is my favourite pattern, especially on 10mm needles so it knits up super quick. I call Moss stitch little kisses and its so easy to knit, I also use it in my wash cloth pattern. For this snood pattern you only have to cast on 19 stitches, which makes it a great project for a Christmas present! You can find the pattern here at Ravelry its free to join and the pattern is also free!

hand knitted wash cloths

This week on my new Addi 20cm needles from Loveknitting.com are these bright and useful wash cloths. You can also buy the Addi needles in 35cm length (I have both!) I've been knitting mine in Debbie Bliss Cotton DK, its lovely to knit with and great stitch definition. If you can get your hands on discontinued colours it makes it a reasonably priced gift. The pattern for the wash cloth in purple can be found here  at Mollie Makes and its really easy and knits up so quickly, I knitted part of one in about 20 mins. The one in pink is easy to remember too. Here is the pattern.  Cast on 35 stitches, knit the first 3 or 6 rows, then K4 for border, K1, P1, K1 to last 4 stitches, K4 for border. Knit until piece measures 8" then knit the last 3 or 6 rows and cast off knit wise. Sew in ends. That's it. These make perfect Christmas gifts with a bar of soap and gift wrapped with a hand-knitted wrapper. You can print the gift wrapper here

my new Aran cardigan

I bought this Aran cardigan on eBay last week for £19.99 brand new thinking it was probably acrylic and not the real thing; no one else bid and I won at the starting bid. The lady said it was an unwanted hand knitted gift, she was based in Scotland so something told me it might be ok. The picture wasnt very good either so it probably put people off. Similar were selling for far more so omagine my surprise this morning when it arrived at work. It's the same as this without the pockets, bargain of the year I think! Its beautifully knitted and I can't see any joins or seams, now we need some cold weather! We've had our holiday on the Norfolk Broads, I'll update you with pictures and all about it soon. I hope you are enjoying the autumn sunshine, it was lovely at the weekend for walking Moss.

a colourful crochet granny square baby blanket

I did it, I finally got my act together and finished the tiny granny square blanket for Abbie's baby. Abbie is my hairdresser and she's expecting her fist baby in November, so what better gift than a hand-made bright snuggly baby blanket made up of 64 little granny squares. Wow 64, I hadn't realised I'd made that many. Tiny granny square blanket finished Each little granny square is made up of 3 rounds, the 3rd round joining as I went along. I finished off with 3 rounds of pink granny stripes all in Stylecraft Special DK. It's machine washable and could double as a play mat. Sorry about the picture quality, I took them at 10:30pm the other night after I'd finished it! blanket in progress, I changed it to 8x8 I've enjoyed making this blanket so much and will miss it. It was a small project (24" square) but still a challenge. I'm now pretty good at putting the little squares together and now plan to finish my granny square blanket now t

Afternoon tea at Eastwell Manor

On the 4th September we visited Eastwell Manor and couldn't have picked a better day. They even put the red carpet out. Oh ok it was for a wedding. The weather was lovely and the grounds of the manor are lovely too and a harpist was playing for the wedding party.  The cakes are even better! By accident I deleted the photo, sorry. The day was to celebrate my mums 70th and my dads birthday that week. We all had a brilliant time and looking forward to visiting again. mum and dad the entrance beautiful gardens mum & dad the girls the grounds the garden where weddings are held