A WHIRLWIND OF A WEEK......

Hello there! What a lovely day it's been here in East Anglia; sunny sky with fluffy, white clouds and a warm breeze. It was just perfect for sitting in the garden and knitting. It's been a busy week and I was in need of some knitting time.

I began the little cardi shown above, in readiness for the Anne Hanson class at Knit Nation. We didn't get to actually use the seaming techniques, so I waited until I got home to seam it up. I used mattress stitch and it certainly does give a much flatter and invisible seam Even though I was using the stripey yarn to sew up, you are unable to see the yarn. Great! I just love those pretty little stripes. I think Sophie will too.

I've also completed one of my Knit Nation socks. I took this straightforward pair to knit on the train and at any suitable times whilst we were in London. Needless to say, I talked so much and knitted so little! Same yarn as the little cardi, just a different colourway. It's pretty mindless knitting, but pretty addictive striping, that always makes me want to knit 'just one more colour' before finishing.

I made a little purchase on e-bay a couple of weeks ago. I haven't  looked on the site for months, but had signed on to hunt for some music books for school. Needless to say, I didn't find the music books, but.............. I DID find this little treasure.

I've spotted these little skein winders around on the internet. I had the fun of bidding for it and won! It cost me £5! A bargain I'd say, especially as it produces these perfect little yarn cakes........ so easily........

Guess what that delicious yarn is! Yep, it's my first ever skein of Wollmeise (colour: Lila Ludmilla). It's the most fabulously scrumptious yarn. It has the colour of summer berries and even smelt like them!!!! Do you want to know what I plan to make? SOCKS! Now there's a surprise. Not just any old socks though, oh no. I'm going to challenge myself  a little and tackle Cookie A's 'Pomatomus' design. I've been wanting to knit these for a while, but didn't have a suitable yarn. Yes, I know that sounds totally impossible with a stash the size of mine, but it's true. I needed a special solid or semi-solid dye and I do tend to go for the beautifully colourful, multi-coloured yarns. So, branching out yet again. I now need to stash more soli ........ oh, let's not go there! Here we are then, ready to go....

'Pomatamus' ready to take up to the cottage in Pickering, North Yorkshire, next week. Yippee! I can't wait!

I said I'd had a busy week and a busy weeek it was indeed. I spent my time visiting my little grandaughter, Sophie. My son and his wife have just bought a much larger, family-sized house in Chorlton-cum-Hardy. I have to admit, I just loved the area. It's so bohemian! There's the little cupcake shop, of course, that I blogged about a couple of months ago, but so, so much more; fabulous water meadows, a beautifully cared for park, great schools, and amazing independent shops. We visited the delicious Barbikan deli and the simply brilliant Unicorn Grocery . The co-operative's 'Statement of Purpose' declares that ....  'We aim to trade in a manner which supports a sustainable world environment and economy.  We aim to trade in wholesome foodstuffs and household goods of non-animal origin. We trade in foodstuffs which have undergone minimal processing, in contrast to the steady trend towards a highly processed diet in this country. Specific product guidelines include the avoidance of added sugar, salt and animal derivatives. We strive to sell products of organic standard and maximum nutritional value whenever we can find or generate a market. Provision of food educational materials help in this aim'. It is a real gem of a shop... an organic shop.....in fact,an organic supermarket! You could do a large percentage of your day to day shopping here and for a very reasonable price.

I had a really lovely time visiting both my son and his wife, Sophie and Scott (the dog) and my elder daughter and her boyfriend, who have now bought my son's previous house. Nothing like keeping it in the family. In fact we bought the house about twelve years ago, when our son was a student at the RNCM. He was studying on a five year course, so we knew it made sense to buy. It's helped  to give two of our children a 'step up' onto the property ladder.

 I must show one or two photos of Sophie at ten weeks old, taken this week.

Sophie has the most beautiful little hands, with long, very expressive fingers. Perhaps she'll be a musician, like her parents! I know I'm biased, but she is very, very sweet!!! She has the most 'heart-melting', cheeky smile. Can you tell that I'm smitten beyond all imagination. I love her to bits!!! :)

Oh, I nearly forgot to show you the jam pots Mr Snoopydog filled while I was gone. He picked the blackcurrants from the garden and managed to fill eight jars. I did the the prettying of the jars this morning! Scrummy!

Phew! That's it. The whirlwind tour of Snoopydog's week is at an end. I need to draw breath and spend a day or two on housey things and and a day or two on school 'stuff' this week, as next Monday we are all off to North Yorkshire. Hooray!!!!! Have a good week everyone.

IT'S RAINING! SO GUESS WHAT ....

Hello there! What a gloomy August morning. We woke up to rain, rain and more rain. If it's school hols, if the sun isn't shining, if I can't knit in the garden, if the fridge is about to vomit tomatoes or blackcurrants or gooseberries or ..... , then that means only one thing ........... jamming; or in today's case, chutneying and marmalading with a bit of freezing of allotment French beans last evening, thrown in for good measure. What a busy little bee I've been! I had a very special little errand to complete first thing this morning ... mission accomplished ... sshh! Then it was straight home to get those old jars sterilised and the show on the road. Our greenhouse, as I said a day or so ago, is overflowing with tomatoes! This chutney used up 2.5 kg and I used another 1.15 kg to make a pasta sauce for supper this evening. Talk about being 'tomatoed out', but at least the fridge is feeling a little better now!

Here we are, eleven jars of 'Red Tomato and Apple' chutney. Do you want to see the bits in between? There aren't too many. Well, you're going to have to I'm afraid, because I've taken the photos! I hope you don't mind. Here we go....

That wasn't too bad, was it! I'm no passionate cook (I'd rather be knitting), so the best bit for me is making them look pretty! Yes, I'm happy with those, although the tomato should have been a little smaller and a little higher.

It was still raining, so time to get out the Marmade tin and rustle up half a dozen jars of marmalade, then I could 'pretty' a few more jars up!

Phew! It was a little steamy in there!

That jam funnel is the best gadget eve. It stops all that hot, sticky, gooiness from slopping everywhere and getting stuck solid to the sides of the jars. Great invention! Thank you Mr Snoopydog junior!

I love this pretty Amy Butler fabric ........ such a bonus to live close to John Lewis :).

Mmm the labels are OK too! Yes, I know they are not the important bit, but ....... well you know how it is!

I really should show you some knitting, but needless to say, there were not enough hours in the day today,' to make any progress with anything on two or four needles. I will show you my August socks that are in progress though. The pattern is 'Rib Fantastic' from the book Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarns. My great pal Josiekitten bought me a copy for my birthday last month. It's a lovely book, full of lots of advice and info on how to get the best out of handpainted yarns and avoid pooling. There are some great patterns too! The BFL yarn is dyed by Jenny Cook. It's a gorgeous, really deep colour. I love it! Here they are so far ....

I've also got a jumper/cardi on the go at long last. Mr Snoopydog bought me some Colinette Cadenza last Christmas and I have really struggled to find a pattern that I liked and that would suit the yarn. I have tried two and frogged both! I made a decision at the start of the summer hols, that whatever else I began, I HAD to finish my jumper. At last... or maybe I should say 'at least', it's on it's way.

I've called it 'October Afternoon' after the colourway name, so I'd best get going quickly if it's to be worn in October! The pattern is called 'Bizet' and it's from the small pamphlet of patterns published by Colinette especially for this yarn. Instructions are given for both a cardigan and jumper and at the moment I am undecided as to which I'll end up with. Watch this space!

We are off up to Yorkshire on Friday, for a week of chilling. We have rented a couple of cottages with our three children and their partners and, of course, that scrumptious little bundle of yellow labrador doggy goodness ... Scott! It's lovely to get ALL together once in a while...... plenty of good food, good ale, long walks, relaxing, 'nattering' ...... and of course, some knitting! I've got these three projects sorted ready to take with me. I'll give your more details next time, hopefully with some knitting progress on each project too!


Love these colours. It's a Trekking XXL yarn to knit some Violet Green 'Waving Not Drowning' socks. It's an easy pattern that is quick to memorise and good for car journeys.


I've had this skein of Manos del Uruguay 'Silk Blend' for quite some time now, especially for the 'Drop Stitch Scarf'........ more details later!

See you all when we return on Friday 21st.

JAM 'N' SOCKS!

It really has been a rather pleasant afternoon, at long last. Although there was quite a smattering of fluffy white clouds, they scudded by quickly to let the sun reappear frequently enough, to make it at least begin to feel like a summer's afternoon!

I've been quite busy this week, once I'd put my mind to things and stopped deliberating over which pattern or which yarn or even where and when! My July sock challenge socks have finally been completed....... HOORAY! I kind of lost the will with them for a couple of weeks, because the yarn is very loosely spun and splitty. I have a feeling it will felt very quickly too! It is incredibly soft though and will be very snuggly on the feet. I'll just have to not wash them.... only joking! Splittiness aside, I am bursting with pride over these socks, because they are my very first attempt at dyeing. I used a Kool-Aid kit that was a Christmas gift from my friend Josiekitten. You can see the process in one of my earlier posts. I love the way the colours stripe!



The pattern is 'Daydreamer' by Vikki Harding. It's a great pattern; well written and easy to memorise. It was my first attempt at a short row heel too. I'm not sure I like it as much as the heel flap method, but that may be because I haven't had much practice at it yet. It certainly seems to take less time!

Having griped on earlier in the week about my efforts at jam making and the mess, I grew more and more attracted to those eight pretty little jars that sat on the kitchen work surface. As the weather has hardly been condusive to relaxing in the garden, I thought I'd brave the jam pan again ....... just so I could get to make more little jars look pretty. On analysis of the previous 'jam experience' it seems most of my bad humour had been brought about by the 'topping and tailing' process, so this time it was strawberries. Not our own homegrown, as the blackcurrants were, but grown locally. I have to admit, I had a rather pleasant morning.



Although the strawberries have to be hulled, it is nowhere near as time consuming a job as the blackcurrant preparation. I decided against the red and white gingham metal lids, in favour of Amy Butler fabric covers instead. Much prettier I thought!



John Lewis will sell 20cm of fabric. That's enough for eight or ten lid covers ...... such gorgeous fabrics too! Take a look at the fiinished product ..... scrummy!





I re-lidded the blackcurrant jam pots too! Much better, softer and prettier and made my selfer........ although I'm not sure about the Comic Sans font. Looks a bit schooly! Never mind, it's a learning process. I much prefer the strawberry jam labels, so progress has indeed been made.


Hmm! We have tomatoes ripening by the dozen every day, so watch out for red tomato chutney......... I need to make some more pretty labels and pot covers with that gorgeous fabric!

I've begun my August sock challenge socks too. In fact I've got to the heel flap of the first sock in an afternoon. I love the yarn and the pattern is looking good. You'll have to wait until next time to see progress thus far, but here's a taster...... the gorgeous BFL yarn that I bought in Hay - on-Wye last August. We were in Wales for the wedding of our son and his lovely fiancee. We were made to feel sooo welcome, that this seemed a fitting yarn to choose for my August socks; begun today on their first wedding anniversary! I'm calling them my 'Welsh Hills Socks'.


Progress has been made on my crocheted bag and a couple more squares added to my 'Sock Yarn Blankie'. All in all, a good week's 'work:D' . Have a good week!

RAIN, RAIN GO AWAY!

Hello there! It's Monday morning and a whole week of the summer holidays has flown by already. Not a great deal has been achieved so far, apart from starting my Sock Yarn Blankie and catching up with friends, the house and myself.

Last night we met up with friends for the monthly quiz at our local pub. Rounds on Rock and Pop always mean we are heading for disaster, unless they focus on the 60's and 70's and maybe a little bit of 80's too! Nevertheless, we enjoyed some good Real Ale and some great company. It had been a rather pleasant Sunday afternoon and as Mr Snoopydog gathered the ripe blackcurrants that I had been nagging about all week, I managed to finally finish the little Faye Cardi for baby Alice. I began it weeks and weeks ago and somehow lost interest, when more exciting projects were begging to be started! Anyway, the outcome is this sweet little cardi in Rowan Milk Cotton.


I particularly like the little bobble button made from the yarn. It just finishes it off so nicely.



Just remind me next year NOT to pester for the blackcurrants to be picked! Once picked, they need to be used....groan. groan. My good humour has slowly waned today, as the rain has lashed down, the sun has forgotten to shine and I have spent exactly two and a half hours 'topping and tailing' the blackcurrants and making the jam. Yes, I know, the finished product makes it all worth while and I even found a blog post extolling the merits of spending hours deep in your own thoughts as you nip and snip, with deep, luscious juice squirting all over the kitchen and leaving a sticky mess, not far short of some gruesome murder scene. Okay okay, so I'm exaggerating. Just trying to milk a little sympathy from you, dear reader! I found NO merits, save listening to some great, forgotten tunes on my i-pod as I 'snipped' ...... for, let me you remind you just once more, two and a half hours!



Next step, the cooking of the 'topped and tailed' AND the messiness that I hate.... great, gloopy splurts of it everywhere! But oh the smell. Yes, that has to be the best memory to hang on to, when next year, I once more nag Mr Snoopydog to harvest the fruit before it spoils.


Oh, and of course, the making of pretty labels and the showing off of my efforts and the giving away to family or friends and ..... the eating! Think I'll make some strawberry jam the very next rainy day!

Hope the sun shines tomorrow, because I need to catch up on my knitting :D See you soon.