Round up of projects

This last few months have been very busy, I've started lots of projects (and finished very little!) and discovered lots of new fads - beads is my latest!  Determined to find some to work with a lovely pattern I am following on a Craftsy class I visited a local bead shop - Armadillos - and the lovely owner kindly showed me two ways to make stitch markers so I came away with bag of beady bits including these lovely gun metal Japanese beads! 

Rowan Fine Lace & beads - shawl

Jam & Marmalade pots filled with beads!

Beady Bits for stitch markers

 Of course I couldn't resist a sock yarn purchase!
Armadillos stock a small selection of knitting yarn and I have bought sock yarn before so I was pleased to see she had something a bit different to the usual Opal and Regia.
I bought one ball for £7 of Katia Ole Rainbow!

from the top!

to the side!

Looks like it will be nice and stripey and fun to knit!

While looking through discount book shop The Works, I came across this! Knits Men Want. And of course being marked down I couldn't resist even if in my family at least, apparently NO knits is what men want here! bah!

Still its a useful book ..
The weather turning now toward autumnal coolness means the cats are beginning to find hiding places to snuggle up to avoid the chill outside and here are some photo's of our cats.

Lilly snuggled up in the duvet

Bertie resigned to squeezing into a shoe box!

finally Bertie gets permission from Lilly to join her on the bed!

Misty is coming along nicely, although SOMEONE - cough - BERTIE! - has somehow got into one of the balls of ksh stripe and had his teeth and claws into it! I normally am good at keeping this away from temptation but left it out last night and THIS is what I came down to!

Bertie gets his claws & teeth stuck in!

the lovely Misty knitting up wonderfully and brightly!

Lastly my latest knitty project is an intarsia cushion!  knit in Rowan british sheep breeds chunky and boucle, the pattern is Lattice Spot Cushion from PureLife Homes and is knitting up well on chunky 7mm needles - I am weaving in ends as I go to keep tidy!

I seem to have gone Crafsty-mad!  Today I signed for another class! they are such good value when discounted and I think I have enough classes now to see me through for years!!
I was lucky enough also to get a birthday discount off one of Liat's super ebook classes too with 50% off the Superstar Knitting - thats me set for winter!

Elsewhere we are missing no.1.son as he returned to his Uni digs at the end of last month and is due to start his term today! we wish him luck and hope he is as successful this year as last was for him.
Our youngest son is off to a political debate today with some of his college classmates - interesting that both our lads are interested in this subject because neither I nor my husband, their dad is!

On tv we are watching a few interesting programmes - Great Brisish Bakeoff reaches the semi finals this week and we can't believe its nearly the end!  Doctor Who is off now until Christmas, but Merlin is back!  XFactor is underway and causing all sorts of wailing and drama and thats just the viewers!!!
Downton Abbey is fun!  We love Maggie Smith!  A new one is Making Faces which features our local Hospital and I wasn't sure if I wanted to watch or not but I've seen half the programmes and they were interesting.
Having had my Mother go through horrid experiences with her malignant melanoma attached to back of her eye its not easy viewing bringing back some unpleasant memories, but the programme is sensitive and its not shocking as such.  The one thing my late-Mother always said was that she didn't want to "frighten the children" to her Doctor and specialist.

Still baking! popular at the moment is my chocolate fudge filled and topped sponge cake!  and now we've turned cool I'm switching to lovely soups for lunch!  current fad is roast butternut squash and spicy chilli and chick pea soup! yum!