Payback time.

On Friday (last week) I was lucky enough to go to 'the world largest coffee morning' at a friends house. I took along a few beady bracelets and a button necklace to add to the craft stall and brought home a jar of chilli relish and some lemon curd plus a lovely handmade notice board for Lottie. It is one of those that has ribbons on to tuck things behind.

The reason I was so excited to go was that back in the summer I was lucky enough to receive a half finished shawl from 'Posh yarns' Dee as she decided it needed a new home - she wasn't ever going to finish it! I asked her what she would like as a thank you and she said that a donation to Macmillan was what she would like best. So it was with much pleasure that I attended on Friday in order to fulfil my promise to her.

What is this shawl like I can hear you asking? It is chocolate brown (like Ted) and has alpaca in it. The pattern is called firmaments and is a circular shawl. Dee had knitted to the final section of the circular pattern 'fountain lace'  but I couldn't work out which row she was on so I carefully took it back a few rounds to the increase where I could start this part from the beginning. There are 517 stitches per round so the going was fairly slow but it kept me company whilst we were over in Norfolk at the end of the summer. The light is amazing over there and I had no problems but back home the dark yarn on my knit pro tips were a nightmare so it will have to wait a while longer to be finished.

I am also doing a spot of shawl testing at the moment in a really pretty pink sparkly yarn but I am not allowed to show you just yet as it is a bit of a mystery but you are going to love it!

I saw my friend again this week and the coffee morning raised over £700 so I think that was a really fantastic event and I hope they do it again next year.

I will try to get a picture of the shawl but it is usually dark when I get the time to blog so will have to try harder - sorry. I will leave you with this though:

This is what happened when I didn't get the new lawn laid because I needed to wait until the scaffolding was done with!

Spinning adventure!

Firstly Lottie was fine on the train - she had her phone and it only takes 1 1/2 hrs from Crewe to Euston and on pain of death her father was there on time to meet her! He brought her home in the car on Sunday so all was well - didn't stop me worrying though!

So Saturday morning saw me rootling through my Ravelry groups and spying a spinning chair for sale here in Cheshire. Saturday lunch time saw us pootling through an Autumnal Cheshire right across to Frodsham and back again in time for the Grand Prix Qualifying. We decided to take Ted out for a drive as he loves to go riding in the car and in the absence of walks is the only countryside he gets to see these days. Sadly the last couple of days has seen a downturn in his wellness but we have increased one of his tablets and are off to see the vet again on Thursday.

I am now the proud owner of a spinning chair and it is just the right height for me to spin at so this means I should be able to do a bit more without feeling like I should be bent double when I get up. What this space...... Other than that I don't have much news to share apart from the fact that I didn't get to go to Zumba in the end firstly Dave booked a loft survey for insulation to be fitted and then my Tooth broke and I landed up at the dentist with a temporary filling and the promise of a root canal filling next week - so much joy to look forward to! This next few days is action packed - log delivery tomorrow, vets Thursday and loft insulation fitting Friday. Next week I have the chimney sweep and the dentist, not sure I can cope with all this much fun!

I will be back with more excitement soon! Sxx

Today I went out!

Sounds silly doesn't it but life is quite restricted at the moment. Today was the first day of the Embroiderers' guild 21st anniversary exhibition - you may remember I was in charge of the last couple of exhibitions but since I am now 'retired' from the committee I was just a spectator and went along today to take a look at the work that was on display. Along with a couple of my own bits of work were some stunning examples of other peoples. Sadly I can't share it with you as it was a 'no pics please' event. There were also about 4 stalls selling goodies - buttons, beads, patchwork and my favourite 'The threshing barn'. I may have happened to make a couple of purchases as it would have been rude to pass by and not, I thought you might like to see!

Looks like I was missing a bit of sparkle from my life so I added some in the form of yarn - each of the above is sparkly but am not sure it shows completely in the picture. Please don't think in any way that I am actually short of yarn because I am not but it is always nice to come home feeling you have something to get excited about. Plus actually going out to something that isn't a vital trip (ie food shopping or taxi service) is a luxury I am a little short on at the moment. I have 1 more trip up my sleeve for Monday - a beginners zumba class for an hour and boy do I need the exercise! If you hear there was an earth quake in Cheshire on Monday morning then you will know who to blame. Also whilst I am taking blame that terrible rain on Saturday was down to me as well - I might have been having a bit of a sing a long to the ipod whilst I was finishing stripping the border in our bedroom and the house was empty aside from Ted and I - Dave drew the short straw and went to visit Nottingham Uni although secretly I think he enjoyed his day out. He also managed a trip to Canary wharf on Monday to visit a customer so he had a really exciting time!

Lottie is off to visit her Dad this weekend - it doesn't happen that often so it is worth mentioning! She is going on the train by herself, a move I have resisted for a while, but in another year she could be off to uni so I had think carefully about that whole independence thing and since I will be putting her on at one end and her Dad 'should' be there to meet her I am hopeful it will be ok? Am I over protective about this or not being careful enough here - your thoughts on this one please?

Happy Birthday Ted & Della!

Today is my doggies 9th birthday - obviously it is also his sisters 9th birthday too!

I have to admit that I wasn't sure we would be celebrating today but happily we are. Della is fine with no health problems other than a bit of middle age spread (think we are sharing that) and here she is:

Time for a nap after her scavenge in the garden for windfalls. Ted is most upset as you can see because I managed to get to the 1 apple that had blown down from next door into his patch. I am sure he will perk up later once he gets his chewy stick.

Happy Birthday to you both! Much love from us all! xxxx

Autumn!

Well I have to say it has been a bit of a shock coming home at the weekend - what happened to that lovely half light at 6am and the 6pm warm breeze? It is still dark at 6am (today the bats were still out) and it looks like it is time to order the logs and light the stove.

I was reading my last blog post again and I must just put the record straight - that amazing view is only available from the top of scaffolding and not in my house, all we have is a small glimpse between the roof tops from our bedroom window. Sorry if I misled you on that!

Today Ted had a check up at the vets again to make sure his kidneys are ok with the new tablets and all is ok except we need to reduce his dose a little just to be safe - his fluid has now all gone from his tummy and he is very perky (he wasn't keen on the heat). In fact he is so perky the little monkey is stealing my green tomatoes right off the plants! I am not complaining in the least.

Knitting wise I am doing a bit of finishing as the project I had planned to do was a) later than expected and b) the pattern was not what I had in mind! I am quite glad to be finishing off a few things instead and hope to be able to show you my progress soon.

Hope all is well? Sxx

Into Orbit!

This week I have finally finished my Orbit shawl which is for Lottie and has been OTN for a few months - the i-cord edge took ages but I really loved doing it.

We have been a bit busy having solar panels put up for the last couple of weeks and yesterday Lottie and I ventured up the scaffolding to take some pictures. It is a good job because today it is raining and so not that great a view.

The view from the top of our house to the sea:

We have panels on both sides of this roof as it is east and west facing

Whilst we were home last week Ted had a visit to the vets for his check up and his kidneys have gone back to normal levels now so they have given him an extra diuretic tablet of a different kind and his tummy has come right down now - he seems happy and although he can't get over excited about things any more he is plodding along so I can't complain too much except about the 6am starts to the day but we have had 2 extra months now and next month will be his 9th birthday - I feel very lucky to have had him in my life this long and take each day as a bonus.

Must dash now as I have scaffolders to make tea for - more soon! Sxx

Iffy Squiffy

So here I am in my favourite place, 'sort of' on holiday - Lottie is in Italy with her Dad and Dave is working albeit from the kitchen here instead of his office at home! Ted made the journey across the country in the back of the car quite happily and has his fan keeping him cool along with a new gazebo to give him some shade in the garden. There will be no walks along the beach and paddling for us as it would be mean to leave him behind and he would know where we were going (he can read minds)!

So my project to keep me company is my Ifigenia shawl kit, somehow I managed to get my first choice - make a plan! I must admit that this is my most challenging knit ever! My first few rows were knitted and tinked so many times but I have found that a magnetic row marker and a highlighter post it keep me on track and I also have a couple of stitch markers placed between the edging / mesh section and the split between the 2 chart pages - the theory being if I have the right number of stitches in each section I only have a partial row to tink back if something is amiss. I have not done true 'knitted lace' before and this is certainly a challenge.

Hopefully I should have more progress later in the week but for now I am going to enjoy the sunshine while it lasts!