HAPPY DAYS........

Good evening! Hope everybody is happy, happy, happy! I can't believe it's Sunday evening and time to go back to school tomorrow, after the haf-term break. I've had  a lovely relaxing week, with family visiting last weekend, a couple of evenings out with friends, the usual catch up on haircut and dentist and then ....... chillout! Time to catch my breath and get down to some serious knitting. What's new! I hear you cry. Well, nothing, I would agree, but the previous few weeks had left me feeling as though I was whirling around, on a fast moving fairground ride, that didn't ever stop. So, I've taken a deep breath, relaxed, picked away at my reports bit by bit (finished them this afternoon!) and all in all had a thoroughly pleasant week doing not very much. Just how I like it!

The photo above was taken on Tuesday evening as Mr Snoops and I walked Oscar around the lake at our local water park. The sunsets are always stunning over the water, but this one was particularly so. Another seven or eight minutes and the sun and the colours had more or less disappeared. I'm always too shattered on school evenings to go with him, but sights like this remind me that I should sometimes make a little more effort.

Luckily, the sun has shone on us most of the week here near the east coast and so much knitting has been done al fesco. As you can see, I've finished the little kaftan hoodie for Sophie that I began a while ago. This Debbie Bliss eco baby pattern was a very easy knit, albeit lots of pretty boring stocking stitch. It's made from organic pur cotton and will perfect to pull on on chillier late summer evenings.

I love the little side slit openings and the fact that it needed no buttons or fastenings of any kind. The book is one of three I've collected to send up to Sophie from the 'book fairy' in the next week or two.

I was determined to complete one of my WIPs during the week, and once that was achieved, I then turned my needles to what I was really planning on getting going on, Anne Hanson's 'Boxleaf Triangle'. I'm using the gorgeous yarn from my Knitspot 'Autumn in Full Colour' group swap partner Cathy. The yarn is absolutely gorgeous and knits beautifully, with virtually no pilling, but a lovely sheen. It'a a mixture -65% wool, 20% mohair, 10% nylon and 5% silk. It seems to be a perfect combination for shawl knitting. Here it is so far.

The pattern is pretty to memorise once you get going and as you can see, I have put in a lifeline every ten rows or so, just in case I make a major unrectifiable error! I don't leve every lifeline in, I tend to leave two at a time and remove to reuse the bottom one each time, checking for any unnoticed errors first, of course! I'm making the large size, as there is 250g of yarn.............yummy, yummy!

Just to show willing, I did make six jars of marmalade too! Made whilst the sun had gone in!

Washed and ate some strawberries too!

Aaahhhh! Just the perfect way to spend a relaxed half-term at home. So, am I ready for school tomorrow? What do you think? See you next week. Have fun!

AUTUMN COMES A ROLLING IN...

Hello everyone! Another week has flown by and there is now a sharp, autumnal nip in the air each evening. It's not quite enough to need some heating, but definitely chilly enough to make sure all windows and doors are firmly closed by about 5pm. Along with the chillier evenings come delights such as those above. They are Katy apples and a real favourite with certain members of the Snoopydog household. They are crisp, sweet and very juicy, but need to be eaten fairly quickly. Have no fear, these little beauties won't last long.

Tomatoes are still ripening in the greenhouse, but slowing. Mr Snoopydog used two and a half kilos of the little beauties yesterday to cook up a batch of delicious tomato soup for the freezer. I don't have to think too hard about what to take to school for lunch each day, when the freezer is stocked with soup. I'm not a great sandwich fan.

We have quite a glut of courgettes at the moment and along with courgette and tomato pasta dishes and stir fries for supper, we've also made some spiced courgette chutney this morning. I say 'we', it was actually Mr Snoopydog at work again. He does the chopping, cooking and slurping into jars and I come along and pretty them up. Fair division of labour according to Snoopydog. It does smell and taste rather delicious.

 What a lovely way to spend a rather dull and blustery September Sunday morning.

Yesterday was such a fun day, Josiekitten came to visit, laden with yarn to wind and a gift for ME! We chatted and laughed and talked and talked and talked yarn. Here it is... what a fab mug, don't you think?

So true!!!!!!!!

After lunch, Josiekitten pulled several skeins of delicious yarn out of her bag, ready to wind on my new little 'e-bay' bargain yarn winder. Hmm! It's been so easy so far, apart from one little mishap with my 'Lila Ludmilla' Wolmeisse, that I lost concentration with and mangled deep into the 'not so deep' but very inhospitable bowels of the 'not so very big' little machine. I had to cut the yarn gggrrrrr, but I've got over it! This afternoon all those bad feelings came flooding back. It all started off very happily. The sun even came out to join us, as did Oscar :). Just look at these gorgeous skeins....

Winding began and the totally delicious Koigu yarn was safely wound into two satisfying little cakes. Then came the turn of the luscious Handmaiden yarn (second from the top). The colours are really beautiful. I think we must have spent close to one hour winding this little beauty........ most of it by hand!!!! The yarn tangled and twisted in on itself, until it was impossible to remove from the winder without cutting it...aaarrrggghhh! I think you need the brain of a genius to understand how this can happen when at the outset it all appeared soneatly skeined. So, the moral of this story is this; that awesome little wool winder isn't quite the miracle machine I thought it was............ but those yarn cakes are just the best thing ever, even if the odd disaster has to be ridden on the way. It's cool! Thank you Josiekitten for a really lovely day.

I've managed to finish the 'Inca Cloud ' scarf this week. I love it! The yarn is so, so soft and the pattern easy and fun. It's a very quick two ball knit and wraps right around twice! Just right for chilly autumn mornings.

I had a rather lovely surprise when I popped over to see Kathy at Postcards from the P.P. . I had won an award. Here it is...

    
It's always a real pleasure to know that other people enjoy sharing in my little tiny corner of blogland, just as much as I enjoy sharing in their s. Thank you so much Kathy! I felt quite giddy to see my name there on the page when I called in.I now have to sum up my blogging philosophy, motivation and experince in five words. So, here goes...

ENJOYMENT

FRIENDSHP

ADDICTION

SOLACE

JOURNALLING

I should pass the award to 10 bloggy friends whose blogs I love to read. That would be impossible to do as I have a ''favourite' list of places I love to visit , that is much longer than ten! So, if I visit you regularly and you would like to share the award, then please feel free to enjoy. I know some of you out there are 'award free' so this seems like a good way of going about things.

Just before I take my leave to go and pour a glass of delicious red Rioja, let me share just one little pic of Oscar, on his way to recovery (we hope).

He has had his stitches removed and his pain relief drugs halved. His fur has started to grow back just enough to cover his pink skin and he is certainly feeling more like his old self. He still has quite a pronounced limp, but the vet assures us that this is to be expected, as new cartilage has to begin to grow in the gap left by the removal of the floating flap! Please may he be right and please may the operation have worked. He has three nore weeks of confinement, so it's a case of giving him lots of cuddles and contact and making sure that he is kept stimulated with his toys etc, without letting him do what he really wants to do, which is to go absolutely  ballistic!!!!! Your time will come dear Oscar... your time will come.

Let's hope we get some late September sunshine to light up those ripe apples and rosy red berries. I do love Autumn. I love each season in it's turn, which is probably quite a good thing, don't you think :)

Have a good week everyone.