Freebies, purchases, mags and shawl progress

Progress on Shawl

New bargain bag

crochet freebie

Well how about that for covering all my subjects!
Firstly I wanted to share progress on the Kate shawl and show I am still knitting away! I've started using the 2nd ball of Rowan felted tweed and its fair chomping through the yardarge as it grows.
I'm unsure how far to knit (wide) but as I've got 8 balls in total and have mentally put these all aside for the project I'm prepared to keep kniting until it feels right to stop.
Its a comforting and relaxing knit being so EASY and I can pick up and knit a bit and put down in between .. Arielle has come to the point where I'm shaping and heading to finish the "back" and I'm thrilled with this project and have my eyes out for more of this yarn.  The local HoF has it currently on a good 50% sale but I'm waiting to see if I can do "better"! 
As I'm relaxed about increasing my stash (a/ I don't need more yarn and b/ I can't afford more yarn!) I'm relaxed at the prospect of "mising out" on any bargain - these days if I wants a knitty something or other, I buys it (but nothing beats the glow of a dead good one off twice marked down BARGAIN!).

A good buy, instead, however was the "cat" bag - for a fiver! Two varieties - a dog and a cat themed bag for £5 apiece I bought one just because I liked it!  The opportunity to show off our new furniture means the pic isn't as good as it might have been, but you get the idea - simple bag, lined,  zipped and a small inside zipped pocked just right for shopping trips.

This weekend I've got the current editions of The Knitter and Simply Knitting to enjoy! And this month's freebie on SK is a set of crochet hooks.  Which makes me think I ought to do something crochetey instead of talking about wanting to do something!? x

Sadly my friend knit-pal-Sally is poorly so we're not going to check out the new yarn shop as planned, but we hope to make it next weekend.  At the time I thought we might be going, and with this in mind had managed to resist the temptation to buy some SOCK YARN!  I'd love to get something yummy and pink - very probably I will buy the Collinette Jitterbug - for the Marlene sock pattern, but I came close to buying some bright PURPLE 9354 Regia merino which is soft and very yummy and even closer to buying the pink Regia silk Rose 0035  I squished and squashed both and petted them before settling back into their shelf and walked AWAY .. sigh .. what is it about yarn that makes it so hard to resist? is this how chocoholics feel?

This weekend I plan to cast on for another stuffed heart (to fling at the Cardio whom I've an appointment to frighten on Monday) and will enjoy the new furniture as I knit ..

Fabulous family celebrations

no.1.son

the food scrummy!

baby Arthur tries not to cry!

the Band played

beautiful setting

enjoying the sunshine

moving inside to be nearer the bar!

Scott, Christine and dh, Les

catching up with family

champagne all round!

something in the sky?

dh nephew, Joe with baby Arthur

dh and sister, Christine

dh and me!

my Birds Nest wrap kept me cool & warm!

enjoying the food

me, Scott, Christine and Les

Yesterday we had an invite to attend a family party to celebrate the occasion of one of dh's bil's 60th birthday at their fishery business which complements their family farm.  A "grown ups" "do" our no.2.son elected to stay home as did my other sil's pair of lads who were working that day.
As you can clearly see from the squillions of photo's! we had a terrific time!  The weather was gorgeous, the hogroast scrummy! the puddings to DIE for! and all round a fabulous time was enjoyed by everyone.  Annoyingly our hosts and the main guest are not caught on camera!  how did we manage NOT to do this?   Martin, my dh's bil, did however enjoy his party and they worked very hard to entertain us - they always do exceptionally good parties/celebrations and are a lovely family. x

SUMMER is here!

red sky view from lounge

at last! SUMMER has arrived!  its been a long time coming, but we've enjoyed some lovely sunny (dry!!) weather and its inspired me to do all sorts!  Firstly : to get back on track and LOSE some weight I've gained! and secondly, to look again more closely at some goals I want to set for my craft.

I find the summer traditionally a difficult time.  Mostly because the children are home (and under my feet) which means also that its an expensive time! they eat/drink more! and most notably, we don't have a "routine"!  I don't "do" terribly well left to own devices, without the routine of getting up "for the children" (thats a laugh, they are rising-16yrs and 18yrs! but I admit I do still get up WITH them and it does ME some good in this) I find I don't achieve as much during the day, and can find it disappears quickly into evening before I've a chance to get a grip on stuff.

By the time summer ENDS! I am usually glad of September and a return to "school/normal routine".  But this year will be different.  This year, our no.1.son will - he gets his grades and is offered a place - be leaving us to attend University - this will leave us a huge gap and a hole in our family life and part of me hopes he goes, gets his place and loves it and hardly misses/thinks of us! and part of me hopes he doesn't! he fails, and stays home! under our feet!  its very hard, isn't it?

I thought I'd look, instead, at setting my goals and concentrate on working what I'd like to explore ahead of Sept with the idea of having something in place to concentrate on ..

its CURTAINS! and the pole is cut to size!

Corner showing the walpapers

the pole & finials

closed! the full length curtains

After a full year of working on our lounge, its now very near complete - this weekend we cut the pole to size to fit the new curtains we had made in a triple pinch pleat heading to the floor over our new patio door.  We chose these finials after some deliberation - initially dh was not keen (calling them "glass balls") and wanted some rather plain end caps.  I felt the CRYSTAL glass finials would set off and complement the new ceiling lights .. and luckily for me I mean for HIM, HE backed down, bowed to my better judgement (gave in) and hurrah! I got my way .. but not without some bother.  First, they are discontinued.  Store only had ONE in stock, we had to find another to order and post it, then we discovered a screw missing! fearing we'd had to return the pair, we headed out yesterday back to original store and managed to get a screw from another similar product and thus we could cut our pole!
I'm pleased with the curtains!
First off when you look at the sample wallpaper, curtains, and carpet they oughtn't to "match" but spookily they do! very very well in fact!  I keep opening and closing my curtains which is proving annoying to the family! but its been so long since we've HAD curtains and never such NICE ones!
In the past I've always made them.  But usually I've failed to finish - hems usually! this time I elected to get them made instead and it was worth the money in my opinion and the week or so that we've waited for the finials etc, they've been loosely tied in three positions in their "pleats" and are now behaving nicely and uniformly.  I hope that any slight creasing effect will drop naturally as they wear in and overall the effect of the floral one side of room, passing to the patio/curtains and onto the plain/textured papers is absolutely LOVELY and I LOVE IT!

I think you can see our tv corner? just? we treated ourselves to a nice HD/3D new one, and no.2.son is currently sitting and watching the Mens Finals, Wimbledon slightly cross-eyed with the single pair of specs that comes with the set!  it took us ages to fathom HOW to switch them on, set them up and an hour before we twigged we needed to set the TV! luckily the tennis is going on .. and on .. zzz and on ..
All we need now is for our lovely new furniture to arrive!

Shaun the Sheep cross stitch

My first X-stitch

I'm not prepared to show you my backside! although, to be fair - it IS somewhat neater than I expected and perfectly respectable considering I don't really know what I'm doing!
I was inspired to have a go after I picked this up in a half-price offer and as I love love LOVE "Shaun the Sheep" I couldn't resist!
Originally I planned to make this my sleep deprived preparation project for the test on Wednesday.
However attempting to embroider with WHITE, OFF WHITE and CREAM on WHITE background is not the best of projects to work on at 3.45am esp. when completely shattered AND not to mention totally INEXPERIENCED.
Of course I put out a plea for tips and helpful suggestions from my sew-pals and to be honest, I'm really just going for it and whether its "right" or "wrong" I really don't know and at the moment I don't much CARE!  Whats important is that I'm ENJOYING it!  I love it, and think I'd like to learn how to work on it "properly" - and indeed be as proud to show off my "back side" as well as the design!

Its got me thinking about returning to explore stitch and embroidery in general and I'm determined that once the stress - I mean excitement! - of the newly decorated room is over, I plan to look in more detail about my goals and become more organised - sigh . ?

Otherwise, other knitting projects OTN's are coming along very nicely.  I'm really enjoying Arielle and I managed to complete a fair bit of the back during my over night without sleep! AND I have commenced ball-2 of the lovely "Kate" shawl which is looking really nice and shaping up well.

A day out with some purpose - Coventry

No.1.son & dh

No.1.son & dh

me! and no.1.son

Yesterday we took no.1.son out to Coventry! (and nearly LEFT him there!!) for the purposes of attending an interview session from which we hope he will secure some temporary summer work at his Dad's current place of work - mostly for purposes of earning some ££ prior to going to Uni this autumn (but also to give him something meaningful and useful to do FOR the long summer AND to get him out and about and under my feet! - one down, one to go!).
We shan't know until next week IF he's been successful - but fingers crossed?
In the meantime we had a walk about the old remains of Coventry Cathedral and enjoyed the lovely sunny day.
We didn't in the end go in and around the Cathedral on account of being unsure how long our son would be - in the end he was a full 2.25hrs so we could have! (or, as dh kept pointing out - gone to the nearby PUB ..)
Instead, we sat like a pair of lost lambs on a bench outside the Agency and tried NOT to look like parents anxious to find out how our son had got on!

While we wait for the furniture

Lilly claims her seat!

Quickly followed by Bertie!

Lilly CLAIMS to be fast asleep!

this is where the CATS may end up!

I'll be honest its starting to get a bit tedious now!
At first, we didn't "mind" putting up with one remaining armchair and two folding chairs on account of the excitement about the new carpet and the yumminess of the wallpaper etc while we wait for NEW furniture to arrive.
But after a week - its starting to cause problems!
In the first place, the armchair we've elected to keep which is "officially" "mine" is having to be shared which means I have to share! And you know me and "share"! 
The cats, however, don't seem to mind! and as you can see from the photos they are perfectly HAPPY to claim the "best" seats ..
Excess and unnecessary packaging is annoying - I don't like it when I buy food and other stuff and always try where possible to take my own bags and refuse where possible and appropriate "extra" packaging at point of sale.  But this is RIDICULOUS?  I sent no..1.son out to the local branch of Boots to pick up his itchy-cream which we have to order and IN he clomps with a HUGE BOX!  Hurrah! I thought - initially! - HURRAH! he's bought his Mum a huge box of YARN I mean CHOCOLATES? .. no. he's traipsed home lugging a HUGE box filled with brown paper and filler around his SMALL tube of cream.  Also boxed. 
We keep being lectured about our carbon feet and not dumping rubbish? well WHO is going to tell the SHOPS? ..