Market Squares finally FINISHED!!!

Market Squares bag made in 7 shades of Cascade 220. I am going to make another onein shades of red and pink.

My smart son in his garage uniform!

Latest Bag

Lucy Bag from Two Old Bags knitted in Texere Bella (undyed superbulky) on 10mm needles. When the knitting was finished, I attached the button and then bunged the bag and machine dye in the washing machine. It started off with blue and pink together but I ended up with a grotty pinky lilac colour so I put some jeans blue in and this is the result - not what I was expecting at all!

I will definitely make the bag again but using finer yarn!

Susie has found a new hiding place!

It was quite sunny on Sunday and I noticed Susie making a beeline for the little willow tree in the front garden - she stayed there for ages and was quite happy to have her picture taken!

Really spoilt!

My Ravelry swap partner, Martha (aka knittensill) has been really naughty and thoroughly spoilt me!

I got -

A gorgeous felted bowl

a recycled market bag

stitch markers

WPI kit

Circular needle size tags

Notebook

Namaste pouch to match my Malibu and clutch (ordered yesterday)

Chocolate

Dried Cherries

Cinnamon Hearts

Drink mixes

£ lovely patterns - bag, jacket (intriguing) and felted birdhouses!

Thank you sooo much Martha - you are wonderful!

Amber;s shrug - grrrrr!

I finished Amber's shrug last night and when she tried it on this morningm one sleeve is far too tight! I think it must be the side that I cast off but as the yarn is horribly fluffy, there is no chance I shall be able to undo it!

Managed to ease it a bit and now she's happier with it!

Thank you Continental Cat!

I got a lovely lacey shawl/scarf which I think Amber is after, a really sweet little rabbit pouch/bag which had the gorgeous Weleda Rose soap inside, a ball of Kureyon which I will keep for my Lizard Ridge, some lovely chocolate (Amber has already devoured the white and thoroughly enjoyed it) and some little mice for Susie.

I love everything CC - thank you sooooooo much!

Latest Bag

I've finished the knitting part and felted my Market Squares bag, I have to decide whether to line it or not, and I am waiting for some handles to arrive.

Not too sure whether this one meets my standards either!

Hug!

Teeth!

We went to the hospital on thursday about the problem Amber's has with her teeth. She had some baby teeth out last year as they were showing no signs of coming out on their own, then she had her brac es fitted to make way for the new teeth. One side is fine and the tooth is quite happy growing away but the other side is a different sotry. The tooth has become embedded in the bone so now she has got to have an operation to 'expose' the tooth under a general anaesthetic, and then a small gold chain is to be attached so that the tooth can be winched into place slowly by the Orthodontist.

When I told Ryan that Amber had got to have an operation on her mouth, he asked if she was going to have it stitch up!

Colinette Fandango

Finished my bag - thank goodness! I've got loads of yarn left but I will not be making anything else with the it as my hands are sore from using bulky yarn with 4mm needles, the yarn sheds EVERYWHEREm and I have pricked my fingers and thumbs so many times will sewing in the lining.

I can't decide whether to put a fastening on or not so I am going to leave it for another day and then decide.

The Old Loom Mill

We had a lovely day out yesterday at the Old Loom Mill (Hailsham, East Sussex). There were 8 of us from Knit'n'natter and we had a wonderful time browsing all the yarns and fabrics - lots of which are sold by weight. I bought the above yarn - weight just over 3 kilos, cost £15.60! Not sure what I am going to do with it yet, or even what weight/ply it is but I love the colours!

Yaayyyy!!!!

It looks as though Ryan has got his placement which will hopefully mean that he will go straight into a job when he leaves school next summer (something I am having trouble dealing with!). He is really excited at the prospect and of course, he will be putting into practice everything he is learning in college.

It is going to be a bit of a struggle fitting i n 50 days placement into one year but I think he will manage or at least come close to it.

He is also very excited that his grandfather has offered to buy him a mopen once he's sixtten so that he doesn't have to rely on buses.

Have decided ....

that May will be the month of the bag!

Placement interview

Ryan has an interview tomorrow afternoon for a YA placement. Dad is going to pick him up from school and take him but, if he gets the place, it means Ryan having to cycle or get the bus and walk to the garage. Guess what the over-protective side of me is rearing it's not so ugly head! I must stop being like it as he will be leaving school in 12 MONTHS or 52 Weeks or 365 days!

Believe me it's not that long!

Mmmmm ......

I am currently making my entry for our Village show in July, or at least I thought I was. I am making a modified version of a pattern from Simply Knitting 12 but I am not sure it is up to my standards! I have now decided to do something felted as well and let my knitting pals decide which one they like best - the best one being entered.

Lovely!

Megan is going to a fancy dress part as Stephanie from Lazytown - Ryan got hold of her wig. Need I say more?

Proud? Me? Of course!

Ryan and I went to his Year 10 consultation evening last night and were both pleasantly suprised at the comments we got!

It seems he is doing really well with his coursework and has got good grades in some of the exams he has already done and that's without trying very hard! He is one of these kids who aren't bothered about revising hard and just sails through (he also passed his first exam at college and didn't revise as he wasn't given the revision notes in time). Most of his teachers said he should now start applying himself a bit more to get better grades for his GCSEs but knowing Ryan, he'll just carry on as he is!

While we were waiting to see his Resistant Materials teacher (Technology), Ryan told me what he was expected to do for the GCSE and we talked about ideas. The kids have to design and make something fairly substantial from scratch so I casually mentioned that he could make Megan a dolls' house which he got quite excited about and even discussed it with his teacher!

Ryan, as you will remember is an author in the making and his always writing a book. He has ditched a couple of books he was working on, even deleting the one his English teacher thought was brilliant - she was quite shocked to hear that. He is now working on another and it promises to be very good - in fact he made his girlfriend cry when she read one chapter (one of the characters dies but comes back to life later on), and he told me the outline of the story last night. For his GCSE he has to a piece of personal writing and he is proposing to submit this 'novel'. His english teacher said she can't wait until he's published so she can brag that he was one of her students!

Amber's consultation is on 15th but I think that could be a bit different!

I really don't know ....

.... what to do for the other item in the AY Frivolous Swap. I spent all day yesterday casting on and frogging with LH Kimono Angora which, incidentally, I hate with a passion! I have 14 balls which I am rather keen to offload!

In the end I first decided to start my bag for the village show in July, and then casted on the Provence Baby cardi instead! This is for my hairdresser's new baby daughter and once it's done, I can make the gift for the Ravelry swap, then concentrate on the other things that have priority!

Going back to the AY swap, I have decided to send Anne one of the bags I made last summer in addition to the silly, frivolous item I have just finished. Trouble is this will far exceed the £15.00 max spend - never mind I DID organise the swap so I think I can break the rules!