Genius.....moi?

Nope. I cheated :o)

Finished my Autumnal Razzler-No-Purl-Monkey socks today. The 2nd one (which suffered from 2nd sock syndrome) was knit in the main yesterday with just the grafting left for today.

The yarn in Duet Sock Yarns - skinny bought from the now defunct Socktopus in 2008. I love the colours - well groovy socks man.

Another Xmas done and dusted and we lived to tell the tale. We had a quiet family time which was lovely. Now onwards to M's birthday tomorrow.

Twicicles as nicicles

These have finally all gone, but they were pretty amazing.

It's all too much

Our smallest ever tree. But it is mad dog proof. Normally we have a real tree about 6ft high but with the way Fergus and Lottie wall of death around the living room, it wouldn't have lasted an hour. I wasn't going to bother at all, but J wanted a tree so much, we got this little tiddler. It came with the decorations and lights - all for under a £10. I quite like it, it's not a dust collector and is rather dinky.

All that playing in the snow has this effect. Lottie and Fergus crashed out at about 6.30pm Saturday and stayed that way until bedtime about 11.30.....or what should be bedtime. M got a call at that time and spent an hour on the phone trying to sort it out and he still had to dash out early Sunday am - never mind he's off call this week on Wednesday and then on holiday till the new year - hurrah.

Fergus smiling cos team c'ola won Strictly - yay!

Snow joke

After lunch fun with boy and babies. Lunch was homemade soup, a twist on ham and pea using Chorizo and a Parmesan rind - melted into the soup, served with thinly sliced wholemeal pittas with cheese toasted on them....yum!

New kind of snow cone.....snow kong.

Snow dog. He loves it. It's mad. Never had a dog love snow so much.

Lounge window view across the downs.

Snow babies

Lottie heading off Fergus round the pond (Fergus is a the back of the picture). Lottie later fell into the pond.

Snow Bogey. His fur got filled with snow balls. We had to stand him in a bowl of warm water and melt them off.

Lottie with her snow mask.

Conkers loving the snow. He was following mouse foot prints! He almost caught his first one the other day (Fergus almost beat him to it) he is now determined to hunt one down, whatever the weather.

J is making a snowman. Happy boy.

Robin's Song

Robins sang in England,
Frost or rain or snow,
All the long December days
Endless years ago.

Robins sang in England
Before the Legions came,
Before our English fields were tilled
Or England was a name.

Robins sang in England
When forests dark and wild
Stretched across from sea to sea
And Jesus was a child.

Listen! in the frosty dawn
From his leafless bough
The same brave song he ever sang
A robin's singing now.

Rodney Bennett.

A bit less cynical but kind of apt for the time of year.

This poem is from an children's anthology given to me in 1979 for Easter by my Mum. It is called 'Time's Delights' and the poems were chosen by Raymond Wilson. It covers weather, seasons, hours and festivals and has gorgeous illustrations. Even now 30 years on I still love this book and often turn to it. It helped fuel my love of poetry and I hope it has done the same with J.

*** edited to say you can still get this book 2nd hand from Amazon - cheapest copy is 1p, a really tip-top is £13.99 - wow- that's so cool.

Deck your balls with spriggs of Holly

Hahahahahahahhahaaaaaaaaaa it serves you right.
Stop being so over jolly
Blahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaa Christmas is shite.

All I want for Christmas is.....

my two front teeth.

Actually all I want for Christmas is for it all to be over for another year - bah humbug!

The never ending adverts for stuff you do not need to have a good Christmas. Since when does a new sofa or TV make Christmas better for you and yours? The never ending blahness of food advertising or Festive Gluttony Brainwashing as I prefer to call it. It is ONE day, you have no need to stock the larder until it bursts or you have enough to feed and booze up your entire street. Then there is the panic to buy all this stuff you do not need. Scary people with more than one overflowing trolley, two weeks before the actual holiday, the actual holiday that is, I repeat, ONE day. The shops are open til late on the 24th and re-open early on the 26th! Why do people feel the need to scramble over packets of fat full biscuits and cheap crap filled crackers. Fook me are a snap, a joke and a naff paper hat really essential for Christmas to be a success?

And all this panic and preparation - it is one day!

OK if your entire family/friend group is descending on you, then I understand the need for preparation and mild panic, but even so when you look at it, it is just a slightly more fancy roast dinner. Do you start your prep for a normal Sunday roast on Monday morning? If you forget the mint sauce is the world going to end? I think not. It is one day and one dinner.

Next whinge. Do people really need all the stuff that they get given that they would never buy for themselves? Do I need a mug (that doesn't match any I own) filled with a sachet of drinking chocolate and handful of stale tasting sweets? Not really. Do I need another packet of overloaded with cinnamon pot pourri? Nope. It is the thought that counts, but how much thought do people actually give in this commercialised buying frenzy. It just adds to the landfill. I'd rather someone gave me a copy of their favourite poem or gave their time for a chat or a meet up and shared a cup of hot chocolate in a nice cafe with me then buried me alive under a pile of cheap tat I do not want.

Finally, back to food. So many of the ads make me shudder. How do some of the retailers sell such large amounts so cheaply? Think of the shop where Bjork might have been born. What quality is the products that they use in the food - just think what sort of life the animals in those products might have had. Ask yourself - what else could they use in this to pad it out? All that cheap food. What conditions/wages are daily life for the people who work for the manufacturers?
IMHO it doesn't bear thinking about....ewwwww and yuck. Yet we are brainwashed into wanting and needing all that excess. Surely less is more in this case. I would rather have less food that is of a higher quality than eat cheap stuff that has been factory farmed, had stuff added I don't want to eat and been manufactured for slavery wages in dodgy factories.

We are made to believe that we need stuff to have a good holiday. We need to have loads of everything to enjoy the festive season and if you don't, if you buck the trend, then you are a Scrooge, a weirdo and a party pooper. That you are not normal.

I therefore am now known as Mrs Scrooge McWeirdo-partypooper-abnormal-Bah Humbug.

Merry Christmas.

Vision

To-day there have been lovely things
I never saw before;
Sunlight through a jar of marmalade;
A blue gate;
A rainbow
In soapsuds on dishwater;
Candlelight on butter;
The crinkled smile of a little girl
Who had new shoes with tassels;
A chickadee on a thorn apple;
Empurpled mud under a willow,
Where white geese slept;
White ruffled cutains sifting moonlight
On the scrubbed kitchen floor;
The under side of a white-oak leaf;
Ruts in the road at sunset;
An egg yolk in a blue bowl.

My love kissed my eyes last night.

May Thielgaard Watts (fl.1920's).

Big girl now

Lottie is 2 today. There have been times when I have despaired of her ever becoming a good girl but (and I'm probably shooting myself in the foot here) the last few months have seen her really start to turn into a wonderful little Border. She's loving and companionable if still a little mad. She and Bogeyboy get on so well and they have complimentary personalities and manage to make me smile many times a day. I think sharing my days with these two little monsters makes the humdrum more bearable.

Cranford Handwarmers

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Originally uploaded by loobles2002

Love this pattern. Have been meaning to make these for ages. Knitted from scrapes of Regia Silk and sock yarn on 2.25mm dpns. These really are an entertaining knit. Well thought out pattern too.

Pattern Cranford Mitts by Jane Lithgow available on Ravelry and at p/hop.
This pattern has been donated to Medecins Sans Frontieres as part of the p/hop project - pattern is free but if you like it than you donate what you feel it is worth - details below:-

www.p-hop.co.uk
www.msf.org.uk/phop

Friendly enemies

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Originally uploaded by loobles2002

That's it you dumbass pooch, just a leetle closer and I'll show you meaning of pain. My purrs are luring you in then BAM you're fuzzy leetle butt will be mine.....all mine!

I know...

two in one day. I'm spoiling you. This is a 100g of Tussah Silk and brown Alpaca.

Navajo plied. It is gorgeous and is destined for someone else. I hope they like it.

Naughty boy! I wondered where he was....on one of my posh cushions.

Oh yes!

Lord Lucas a Tory peer gets Home-ed more than any of the younger Labour idiots appear to. This speech is wonderful. It made me hope (a little).

At last some common sense.

Read it here - http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld/ldtoday/22.htm

Please help

The UK Govt is trying to bring in a law that will give them the ability to 'big brother' how we parent our children's development. It is against human rights.

Please help. Google 'The Badman Review' this will not just effect home educators it gives them a platform to bring this in against all families.

This will fundamentally change the role of the state in UK family life and will put a size 13 foot in the door to having compulsory CRB checks and monitoring of parents.

Please sign our petition - http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Home-ed-families/


Thank you.

And after

I am not forgiven for this.

It is brilliant. Lucy is a genius. No more tangles.....for now.

Before the barbers!

He's there now - hopefully not barking too much!

Phew

Tiny looks fine. This moult was a really slow one and as he is on a high shelf I had to wait till M was home from work before I could be sure he/it/she was OK. I was worried if I'd clambered up to see, that I might have caused a vibration which could effect the moulting process. He looks a lot bigger and very, very hairy, he's dark brown to black with salmon pink flecks, he is still plumping up so can't say for sure how big he is now. No obvious sign of sex though, so I assume he'll have further moults....unless we are lucky and he is a she, only time will tell. I'll attempt pictures once he's fully back to normal but as he is a pretty fierce dude it isn't easy. When we open the hatch he automatically thinks it's feeding time and charges the front of his tank so he needs handling with care as I think a bite from him would be very painful.

Fergus is now 6 months old and is off for his first visit to the barbers tomorrow. His coat is so dense and woolly - he gets mats even though I groom him every day. I'm wondering what Lucy will make of him as he likes to bark when he's away from us (the vets couldn't wait for us to collect him when he went in to be neutered). Still whatever she does will be an improvement on his current woolly Gorilla suit. Lottie isn't going to the hairdressers as M and I got a DVD and learnt how to strip her coat ourselves - she is all tidy and looking very cute.

I'll take before and after photos of Fungus tomorrow. He looks so much like a Scottie that I'm wondering if he'll come home with a Scottie coat tomorrow - all beard and eyebrows.....hmmmm sounds like someone else who lives here and no I don't mean my Mother.

So now I wait

Waiting is not something I'm very good at but when a spider needs to moult then there is no choice but to wait. There is nothing you can do. It (touch wood) has always turned out OK, there can be problems, but if there is then you are helpless really.

A little while back Marmite moulted, we found it on its back on a web when we got up already part way there. Marmite is beautiful with renewed glossy black hair. He/she/it is a small spider, about 3 inches across and the moult seemed over in a blink. Then you wait whilst they pump themselves up again - which can take a few days - when it's completed you finally get to see that all eight legs are there and intact.

Today we awoke to find Tiny, our biggest tarantula, on its back waiting to moult. Three hours later he's still there. We can only be quiet near the tank, make sure we do not bang, crash and thump about near the bookcase where his tank is and wait.

I am hoping that this moult will answer what sex Tiny is but as he isn't full size yet he could have more to go. I get excited to see what happens - will there be changes in colour density or size? Will we see male tibial spurs or it will it still be a game of wait and see?

I know spiders aren't every ones cup of tea, and I know a few friends that actually abhor them and will probably not read my blog for a while in case I post pictures, but I find them fascinating. I'm not into the OMG factor of owning them, what floats my boat is the fact that they are so separate from us and so alien. I can watch them for hours, how they move, hunt and groom is so weird it's compelling.

And relax

Fergus yesterday after being groomed.

Eighteen years

It still hurts and I still miss you.

River Rapid socks - take 2.

r-rapid 026
Originally uploaded by loobles2002

It's been all about getting stuff finished and off the needles. At this moment in time, for the first time in years, I don't have any socks on the needles!.......Wait I feel faint. I am down to 3 knitted WIP's and 1 in crochet, and the crochet one is squares and a very long term doohickey.

I will have socks on the needles by the end of today - I'm sure of it.

Last pair of these I made for Ma. I so liked the pattern I decided to make some for myself.

Pattern - River Rapid Socks by Sockbug - available for free on Ravelry.

Needles - 2.75mm circs.

Yarn - Lorna's Laces Shepherd & Sock in Bittersweet - these took about 1.25 skeins.

Spirogyro Greenies

green babies 004
Originally uploaded by loobles2002

Early Xmas pressie for Ma. She feels the cold and walks a lot so these are perfect and they match her coat.

Pattern - Spirogyro by Lynne Vogel availabe for free at Knitty.com and on Ravelry.

Yarn CTH Super sock in Green Mountain Madness.

Needles - 3.25 and 2.75mm dpns.

Time - in total 2 days but they were on the needles a weeks because I decided after glove one to have a break and finish something else.

My side of the bed.

green babies 003
Originally uploaded by loobles2002

This is what happens to my side of the bed when I get up to go in the shower, every day.

Rhinebeck

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Originally uploaded by loobles2002

Started Sept 2008, finished yesterday.....mmmmm took my time. Actually, although I love this and it's a great pattern, clever but easy - no seams to sew, it is very heavy being constructed all in one piece. So the time it took was due partly to it making my hands and wrists ache.

It's a lovely fit and I know I will wear it loads.

Pattern - Rhinebeck by Lisa Lloyd from 'A Fine Fleece'.
Needles 4.5m circs and dpns.
Yarn Cascade 220 - 6 skeins.

googoogahgah.

*head-desk, head-desk, head-desk* repeat as ness until you start to like the pain.

I've been having a 'meat in the sandwich' time lately. Not nice to live with 24/7. I am so very close to just walking away from a lot of stuff right now - that or maybe I'll just see the Doc get some happy pills and let everything else fade away into a cloud of meds.

Some of it funny (when it's not almost reducing you to tears) and some of it drags you down so deep you loose sight of the surface.

The blog (for now) is one of the things I need to walk away from right now, as it is one of the one too many things to remember and deal with.

Please excuse me for a while. I need space to learn to breathe and cope.

Doggy day out.

cousins
Originally uploaded by loobles2002

Lottie (middle), Fergus (botttom) and cousin Ruby (top) had a family play/walk today.

Such a trio of naughtiness.

Socks for Em

Even more knitting.....OMG could this be turning back into a blog about knitting.

Anyhoo, I knit these Plain Ole Vanilla Socks for my niece.

Knit on 2.75mm circs using Hot Socks - Dream, purchased from the lovely little 'WoolBar' in Worthing.

Pattern is my own aiming for a UK size 6, I was slightly corrupted by the wisdom of Wibbo to try an afterthought heel. She (as usual) was so right. I love this method - so easy, neat and cool.

They are all washed, blocked and ready to cosy up Em's toes through the winter.

More knitting

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Originally uploaded by loobles2002

Shur'tugal Socks.

Serious 2nd sock syndrome with these.

Lorna's Laces - Shepherd & Sock - colourway, Motherlode. Used about 1 and 1/4 skeins.

Knit on 2.5mm KnitPro circs.

Nice pattern but not one I'd knit again. Clever way the heel and toes work out - well thought out.

Milkweed Shawl

milkweed 002
Originally uploaded by loobles2002

Yes, more knitting, at last I finished something.

This is a Milkweek Shawl by Laura Chau (http://www.cosmicpluto.com)

Knit on 3.5mm Addi Turbo circ using Handmaiden Casbah.

I love it. I love the pattern. Thank you Wibbo for inspiring me with yours.

I used 3/4 of one skein in a purple, black and brown-ish colour interspersed 1/2 down with a contrast that has the same colours but also firey ember colurs too. I love these mixes together and it made sure I had enough yarn to cast off with!

(Wibbo's one - which is gorgeous- can be found here - http://wibbo.typepad.com/wibbos_words/ or on her Ravelry page).

Binky, bonky boZzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Mmmm cosy fur throw....just for me.

Rolly rubby lubby fur throw.

Is mine!

Right now - it is very quiet.

No kids, no builders, no lawnmowers (which for around here is bloody amazing) just bird song. So nice.

J is busy. We've been looking at WW1 - he's off researching something. M is at work. The cat(s) are out (Ma's kitty may just be asleep somewhere) the pups are zonked out after their early morning route march. Ma has gone to the IOW for the day with one of her groups. So right now, it is just me and the quiet. Bliss.

Our egg.

Lick the egg.

Mmmm yes lick the egg.

Our yummy egg.

Mah bed

So piss off!

Mah chair

Not Daddys chair.

Nope - it is MAH chair!

Blimey.....knitting!

A plethora of baby socks.

2 pairs of larger size (probably 3-6 mth) the narrow stripe ones were knit on 2.25mm the others which is a thicker yarn, on 3mm.

2 pair of first size (0-3 mth) both knit on 3mm.

The pattern originates from one of Ma's old booklets - which is so fragile, half the pages fall out. The book is 'Beehive Baby Book - knitting for the first 6 months' it cost 1' and is numbered sc34 - I tried to find it online but couldn't. The original was knit on 3 ply on number 13 needles. I adjusted the pattern to knit a smaller sock on bigger needles with thicker yarn. It worked out really well.

Climb on board, climb on board...

for the Double Deckers.

Gosh that's really showing my age, but I loved that programme when I was a kidlet.

They didn't stay like this for long but it was so funny the way Fergus clambered to the high ground. At the moment most times Lottie settles he does this in some way, though right now he's a kip at my feet. I get wafts of earthworm as the little beast is a prodigious digger and is excavating the side path flower bed - I should have named him Dickie.

Everything is still ticking over, very quiet. Lots of reading, me and J. Knitting is all secret stuff so no pictures. No spinning as I have a painful toe (don't ask, it's just too daft for words). Looking forward to a long weekend - just maybe this weeks will be better than lasts - which was pretty abysmal to be honest. *sigh*

My chair and other stories

Not wanting to alarm anyone - spider content ahead but no pictures - if you don't like spider tales.....scroll down,

The picture above is of Tiny's (Salmon Pink Birdeater) tank. That is metal, quite thick metal, mesh. The hole is Tinys way of showing us he/she is bored. That hole took less than 2 hours and was almost big enough for an escape. Tiny is our largest spider *gulp*. He/she is now in a new tank with even thicker metal mesh - he/she has attempted to chew it and has so far failed *phew*. Why don't iPod or Nintendo make entertainment systems for bored tarantulas?

Lottie was actually asleep - eyes open, blue fing ensconced in her maw - when M took this. We removed it, with some difficulty, as she wasn't letting go and she must have had a dry tongue. She looked so funny as she tried to moisten it - lip smacking and chattering her jaw. Bizarre.

My chair. My lovely leather, comfy, perfect for knitting, reading, snoozing reclining chair. Stolen by a Bogeyman! He's still in it NOW. My chair. I love my chair and now it's lost to me....boohoo.

I think it's camo as you can hardly see him in it and he knows it's time to be groomed. Oh well I'll have to sit in M's one - they are identical but I swear mine is more comfy.