TREATS.............

 Good evening! Another frazzled Sunday evening has come around again, as I try to juggle schoolwork, planning, cooking, ironing, blogging and squeeze in a little time for some knitting. Can you guess what my little treat is? You can't? Well let me fill you in.Last Sunday evening, after reading Ozzy Blackbeard's post on her blog, I decided the time had come make a small purchase to aid the future woolly adventures of Snoopydog. I have looked longingly at the handmade swifts for a while now and also 'watched' several not so nice models on e-bay. Having ventured over to the Brownberry Yarns home to have a look, I clicked the 'buy now' button without a second thought.

 The service is really excellent and this little beauty arrived very swiftly :) on Tuesday morning, straight from the maker 'Sunflower Swifts and Spindles'. I love it! The swifts are made from ethically sourced hardwood and smell beautifully of wood oil. I haven't used it yet, as I really musn't be tempted to start yet another project just yet.

 Friday evening was time to settle down and knit up the next step of the 'Through the Loop' KAL sock. I've called mine, 'Raspberry Coulis' socks. Here's how the heel worked up.

The Rowan ''Gayle' is coming along nicely. The back is now complete and I have started the left front. On to the fourth out of twelve balls of yarn. I'm just loving those cables and the soft, soft yarn.

Most weekends, we take a visit to our local farm produce shop. We buy whatever fruit and veg we need for the week and whatever we haven't grown ourselves. It's all locally produced. We like that! Yesterday I just had to bring this little treasure home....

I  really like the colour and simplicity of a pumpkin. I love slicing into it and seeing the myriad of little seeds, nestling in their 'blankety bed'. Today, this beautiful specimen..........

.......turned into......

.... delicious pumpkin and sweetcorn soup. It's a Delia Smith recipe and so, so simple. You sweat two medium sized onions, add chunked pumpkin, sweetcor, some milk, vege Bouillon, salt and pepper. Cook for 20 mins and then whiz it all through a Magimix. Just before serving, toast some sweetcorn in the oven for about 10 mins. Serve with fresh homemade bread. It's one of my 'top 5' Autumn Favourites!

Some of you were asking about the 'Lemon Trickle Cake' recipe from last week. Here it is:

Magimix 175g of butter, flour and caster sugar, 3 eggs, zest of 3 lemons and  a pinch of salt. Pour into a greased and lined large loaf tin (1 litre) and cook for 45 mins at 170 or gas mark 3. While waiting mix 200g of icing sugar with the juice from 3 lemons. When the cake is cooked, take out of the oven, leave in the tin and use a cocktail stick to make holes all over the surface. Slowly pour the lemon sugar mix over the surface and leave it to trickle into all those little holes. ENJOY!

Well, that's about it for this week, except for an update on little Oscar. He had a CAT scan on Monday, which showed no problem with his elbow, thank goodness. The cartilage around the long bone in his shoulder is just taking longer to re-grow than was expected. That could be due to the fact that it is very hard to keep him  quiet and relaxed. He is still on restricted walks and is now having physiotherapy and hydrotherapy, in an attempt to help him regain full and pain free movement in the joint. He is still limping, but not quite so badly as he was, so hopefully he is slowly recovering.

I'll just leave you this week with a recent picture of my little grandaughter, Sophie. Her cute little hat was knitted by by her mum. Yes, she's discovered knitting too! The little cardi was made by MEEE!!!!

She's now nearly five months old and extremely active and smiley. I think she is adorable and can't wait to see her during the half-term holiday that is now just one week away.

Enjoy the 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.

BAGS OF TIME.......... :D

Hello again! It's Monday morning and another weekend over and done. It's been warm and sunny here in Norfolk; just perfect for lazing in the garden and catching up with knitting projects that have been lying around for a little too long for my liking! This bag isn't one of them, may I add. I haven't been able to leave this project alone for very long. But yes, I did finish it yesterday.



The bag, I call it my Summer Ice-cream Sorbet Bag, is the fabulous design creation of Lucy from Attic 24. Thank you Lucy! It's brilliant! Attic 24 is full of colour and vibrancy and if you haven't already been, you really should drop in and say hello. The yarn is Paton's Sorbet; most of it bought very cheaply from Kemps. Lucy used Debbie Bliss Merino Aran. Her colours are wonderfully bright, but I quite like these soft summery colours too! I liked the feel and structure of the cotton yarn for a summer bag. So, here it is! Want to see some more photos? I hope you like it!




I made it exactly to Lucy's instructions. She writes them in a clear and very easy to understand way; amply illustrated with photos to help you. It was so easy, I couldn't wait to get back to it. In fact I think this pretty .... I wanted to say 'little', but it certainly isn't a little bag! So, this pretty BIG... or even ENORMOUS bag has rekindled a long forgotten love of crochet. I'm all ready to get on and make another; a smaller version next time, using up the yarn leftover. I bought 3 balls of each colour and have used nearly two of each of my favourites and one of the less used colours. So, plenty left for another bag. If I had used each of the colours equally, two balls of each colour would have been needed. I really like the pretty little flowers, with their layered petals and pointy leaves. I kept them close by yesterday afternoon, so that I could keep feasting my eyes on their prettiness. The bag has a whole host of possibilities for it's use ....... a beach bag to carry all our towels and books and knitting, a bag to take a picnic and knitting project to the park on a warm, sunny afternoon, a project bag for an Attic 24 or Do You Mind if I Knit big blanket project, which I am now determined to begin as a cosy evening project for the winter months, or a storage bag for LOTS of yarn! I think it will be the latter to begin with until my blanket gets underway. I have even treated myself to a new book to try some ideas out. It's full of really pretty designs!



Must go, it's time for lunch. It's tomatoes, tomatoes all the way in our house at the moment. It happens every year. They start to ripen in the greenhouse quite slowly at first, so that you eat them up without feeling tomatoed out! Then before you know it tomatoes have taken over your life! So far there's been tomato sauce for pasta (scrummy, but you need to start the process in good time because sauce the needs about an hour and a half to reduce), tomato on the veg kebabs for the barbecue, tomato and spinach pasta bake and today........



..... a quick, but very tasty bruschetta! Lots of garlic, deskinned tomato, freshly ground black pepper piled onto homemade granary bread and grilled, but not for too long. Yum!

See you again soon, I need to eat!

P.S. There will no doubt be some red tomato chutney, tomato and basil soup and as the season draws to a close, some green tomato chutney; so easy to make and really delicious to eat!