Conkers McBonkers!

"Take that f*****g camera out of my face women or I'll bite your frickin nose off!"

Actually he was yawning after a long, long kip hidden in his box with the feather duster of desire. He looks fierce though.

Last week got away from me a bit - I did loads, achieved little, blinked and it was gone. This week might be going the same way.

Today someone has stolen outside. I am in the little cream house on the hill wrapped in a blankie of thick fog. All sound is muffled and even the house is quiet. J is reading, M is at work, Ma has gone on a mystery tour (mystery is how soon they get lost in this fog!), cats and dogs are kipping and it is QUIET! Scary! I love quiet and get so little of it that it has great novelty value.

I did some knitting, finished one mitten of the pirate pattern - adapted to suit my needs - finger freedom etc. Must cast on for the second one but have found I don't like dpns for Fair Isle stylie knitting - circs are so much better, so am giving my hands a dpn break for a couple of days. Mind you, found Trillians sock pattern on her blog http://katydidknits.blogspot.com
pattern pdf in side bar - Jack Sparrows Fav Socks - (can't get the hang of linking using url - it never works for me), anyhoo, this pattern is excellent and has queue jumped my 'to do' list - yay!

Have loads of stuff to get on with - but can't be asked to do any of it. So what's new?

J has been busy too. We signed up for a free trial of a kids educational site - he loves it. He's absorbing so much stuff, loving all the quizzes and activities. He's also well into reading at the moment, whenever I see him he has his nose in a book - both fact and fiction - no harm in that. What with skateboarding every spare minute, swimming as often as he can and general charging about - I have to ask - did I ever have that much energy? Must have - want it back!

Now really should shift my arspect and get on.....don't wanna....but *sigh* needs must and the boy wants the computer. Time for chores, soup making, no dog walking in this weather though - she's old and achy and her joints don't like the damp. Perhaps an indoors day - maybe some knitting time later?

Pirate Loulou reporting for duty.

I know, I'm silly! But I wasn't too sure about the previous model, very, very giggly! So I thought we'd go for the mad red eyed Noo-noo look and see if it worked better.
She is a daft old stick. She sat for ages with the hat on - hopeful of course of a biscuit. She is very guts motivated.

Ahhhh me hearties!

'We Call Them Pirates' from Hello Yarns.Here is the lurverly J modelling my new titfer! Two days knitting and look what I did. I normally avoid Fair Isle stylie knitting as it annoys me - but after mastering Continental knitting it was a doddle.
Not only was it a doddle - I didn't throw it once -but I actually was engrossed in and really enjoyed making it. I now have requests from M and J for their own - but I don't want to make another one straight off so they may have a little wait. I used Jaeger Matchmaker Merino in double knit - it knitted up very nicely. The hat needs to be blocked but I couldn't wait to take a picture of it.

Still VERY naughty at

40!

Had a brilliant birthday. So spoilt - lovely. Lots of yummy gifties - even though M had paid for our break at CenterParcs and bought me a new iPod, he hid little envelopes with clues for me to find until I had a £1 for every year of my life - each one was wrapped in a star with a special message for me. He also took me out to lunch and bought me a wonderful pendant and book that I wanted. J saved his pocket money and made me a voucher to buy two album downloads on iTunes - he made me a card from the animals as well. I had a lovely time wandering around the lanes, browsing and shopping, treated myself to some yummy perfume and body lotion - got some fudge from Roleys and just had fun.

I came home to a lurverly birthday cake with loads of candles.

Suemoon sent me choccie and sheepies.

M's older sister did me a posh dinner party - yummy!!

Z & co got me a knitting yarn voucher from my local LYS and a new camping toaster cos our one is useless - I almost cried with laughter when I open it - for me it was the funniest pressie of the day.

Ma gave me yarn money - hence previous yarn porn. M also had given yarn spending abilities.

We were jolly, tipsy and ............well you know - it rounded off the day to a high score of beyond excellent!

If this is what 40 means - then bring it on!!!

Guess what I knitted?

No prizes if you said "Socks!" Pair number one are plain with a twisted rib heel in Opal sock yarn (can't remember the colourway - but is was on sale last year at Get Knitted). I normally have a plain pair on the go as they are invaluable as travel knitting etc.

Finally, not a great piccie, but these Monkey by Cookie at Knitty http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter06/patterns.html . The yarn is the KnitPicks Merino sent to me by Tamara http://ladybean73.wordpress.com/. This yarn is lovely and soft with good bounce and these socks are destined for my walking boots and many camping trips this spring and summer. The Monkey pattern is brill and I look forward to knitting it again...soon!

Right all up to date...finally...so many posts in so many days *sigh*.

I need the weekend to recover. Some chance as I intend to PARTAY all weekend and in the words of Rowley Birken QC (fast show) "Get very, very drunk!" Cos that is the best way to see in the big 40!

Wish me fun and frolics all the way.

Yarn Pr0n - 1st for 2007!

A bumper load of yarn pR0n - with many recent additions not yet blogged about. First up is, freshly delivered today, Colinette Jitterbug in Castagna. I wasn't sure when I first saw this yarn online, but after seeing it knitting up at the weekend, I was converted. And it IS sock yarn and I DO lurve sock yarn.
Lornas Laces mmmmmmmmmmm more sock yarn in Tickled Pink - yummy, yummy, yummy goodness. Destined to be.....wait for it.....can you guess.....yep - socks!
This is berfday yarn from my Ma, purchased at the Knitting and Stitchcraft Show at the Brighton Centre at the weekend (I bought 2 balls of each). The grey one is Regia Bamboo (socks are already underway in this yarn) the multi is Regia Silk - yay more sockies!
Last but by no means least, another purchase from the weekend. This one is pure naughty indulgence - I present to you Hand Maiden 4 ply silk and cashmere is Sangria. This yarn is so yummy it is sinful. I have no plans for this yet other then to pet it and love it and secrete it into my stash and to revel in owning it for a while before it hits the needles.

I also got Vogue Knitting Winter - I feel a severe case of startitus in my near future as there is one pattern I adore and already have the yarn for. Lastly, got some new Brittany Birch 2.5mm sock needles - again I have a pattern in waiting that calls for this size which I can now start!

Handsup4homeed!

Jakob aged 9.
Peri aged almost 40.
Mike aged 45.

Heads up to Dani, Allie, Leo and Pearl at http://www.greenhousebythesea.blogspot.com for this wonderful idea.

The Gov in all its brilliance have decided to mess with something that isn't broken - just for a change. All home-edders in UK need to be aware and get ready to stand up and be counted. This idea is a brilliant way for the home-ed kids to put across their wishes too!

http://handsup4homeed.blogspot.com

Go on - make some hands, make a home-ed wish - let the dweebs hear our voices.

And there's more!

This Squirrel was so tame and bold. I know loads of peeps don't like em, call em vermin, but I love em!
Giant Redwoods. They have 14 of them in this one planting - all just over a 100 years old, so still babies but very impressive. We did a Ranger Ramble - the guy who took us made it very informative and we learnt loads about these amazing trees as well as loads of other stuff and he included a few Ray Mears moments - who knew that gorse flowers tasted like peapods!
Here is the brave little Roe Deer from my previous post - the green leaf emblem is on the patio doors, so you can see just how close he got!

Other News!

We got back to Brighton Friday afternoon and Friday evening heralded the arrival the the wonderfully sparkly Glittrgirl and the serene-but-funny Suemoon from the KnittyBoard to stay for the weekend. They bought us wonderful gifties (no piccies -sorry- remiss I know) I got sockies of rare beauty, a sushi bag of pinky glory for my sock knitting, yummy soap and a tres groovy knitting t-shirt. Glittr also supplied us with Sailor Jerry Rum - Ooooooo heaven in a glass and cocktail cuties for our drinks. We had a great weekend - good food, fun, knitting, a knitting and stitching show and plenty of booze. These two wonderful ladies are very good company and sitting around first thing Sat/Sun am in jammies knitting socks - was a treat :0) A BIG BOLD "Thank You!" to M for all his hard work. Me Darlin Man did everything this weekend - all cooking, cleaning, laundry, child minding, ironing, drink making and general host duties so I could be totally free to laze about and enjoy KnittyPal time - he is 1 in a million - I count my blessings daily - even when he drives me nuts. Without his work this weekend - I wouldn't have had as much fun!

Yarn pR0n piccies of Saturday purchases will follow later in the week - bamboo and silk sock yarn and .......wait for it....... silk and cashmere Handmaiden!

Catching up but not standing still.

We're home again, home again, jiggidy-jig. Had a great time. Did loads. Relaxed loads. Ate loads!
This is our view. We had many visits from Moorhens, Duckies, Thrushes, Blackbirds, Robins, Long-tailed Tits, Bunnies and Squirrels. We also had a Roe Deer come onto our patio and look through the glass door at us - his antlers were still covered in velvet and he appeared to really enjoy the duck dinner!
A very brief snowy moment - all gone by lunchtime but very cold for all that.