New Season, New Look and an Award

Today heralds the first day of Autumn. It's yet another glorious day, sun shining, blue sky - fabulous. It fair lifts the spirits. Long may it continue, my chilblains will be eternally grateful :-)


My blog has a new look - I've been tinkering with the template over the last few days and I like the way it looks now. I'm not the most technically minded person, but I've learned a lot since I started to blog.

I have been very remiss recently. The lovely Kathryn gave me this award a couple of weeks ago - thank you Kathryn - and I have been very remiss in not doing my bit. As ever with awards there are "rules" - think of them as guidelines if you like - and don't feel obligated.

1. Post this award on your blog.
2. Add a link to the person who sent you the award.
3. Nominate at least 4 other bloggers, and add their links as well.
4. Leave a comment at the new recipients' blogs, so they know they got an award.

I shall try to nominate people who, to my knowledge, haven't already received one of these.

Ambermoggie

Linz

Franney

Noo

Hopefully towards the weekend there will be knitting to show you. I have a busy week coming up, and I'm afraid I'm not being very good about commenting on blogs at the moment. I'll catch up with you all soon.

An Error of Judgement.

Posting on my blog yesterday was probably not the most sensible thing to do! I wasn't thinking clearly and should have known better.

It's amazing what can happen on a blog in a few hours, and I have decided, rightly or wrongly, that in order to stop things escalating completely out of control it would be best just to delete the posts and comments.

I'd like to thank ( almost ) each and every one of you for your generous and positive comments.

You are ( nearly all ) lovely :-)

And I am sorry to say that comment moderation is back "on".

No Purl Monkeys

These Monkey socks have been waiting for me to graft the toes for weeks! I was knitting them in Portugal can you believe. These socks are the no purl version of the Monkey pattern which does exactly what it says on the tin!

Our camera is in it's death throes, so sadly the photos aren't up to much :-( however I hope that you can still see how the pattern just flows in this version.

Pattern: No Purl Monkeys

Adapted by CraftyPancakes

Needles: Lantern Moon dpns # 2.5mm

Yarn: Natural Dye Studio Mirage Merino/Tencel 4ply/Sock

Size UK # 7

I have Kathryn from Knitting Haven to thank for the yarn, which was a lovely gift in a Secret Santa swap last year.

I'm not sure I am done with the Monkey pattern yet...................................... ;-)

I wonder if I should qualify my comment about Bridge Over Troubled Water. It was Art Garfunkel's "Bright Eyes" that did for me and put me off all things S&G.

Sir Duke

Yesterday evening Mr A and I went to see Stevie Wonder at the NIA in Birmingham. Truth to tell I had forgotten we were going as so much seems to have been happening lately one way or another.

When Mr A and I met we had in excess of 300 albums between us, and only two of them were duplicated in the entire collection. One was Innervisions, you will never guess in a million years what the other one was because I still can't believe I bought it! (answer at the end of the post)

Mr A doesn't really enjoy live music, he prefers the purity of studio sound, so he and I going to a gig together is a very rare occasion. So we decided to make an afternoon of it and have a lovely walk around the canal network which runs behind the NIA. Obviously I couldn't take photos in the concert itself, so took a few outside of a part of Birmingham that many visitors don't see.

We then had a lovely meal out prior to the concert, which I think it is fair to say that Mr A enjoyed far more than I did.

Brigde Over Troubled Water

Of Monks and Harlots!

What a lovely weekend :-)

I left home on Friday in the midst of what to all intents and purposes was akin to a monsoon, which is not quite my understanding of what is meant by the term Indian Summer ;-) and travelled down to London. I met DS in Covent Garden and we walked off to Soho and had a lovely meal in the Melati restaurant in Peter Street.

My time with DS went all too quickly and before I knew it, it was Saturday morning and time to meet "the gang" for breakfast at Victoria Station before heading off to the I Knit show.

It was a lovely lovely day which went far too quickly. I met so many old friends and made lots of new ones too. I'm getting old and grumpy and hard to please - the show was wonderful but for me it just lacked a little "je ne sais quoi" and the party atmosphere of last year's show. But the day was about friends and good company, and I'm just splitting hairs I expect, and from an architectural perspecive the Halls and their art deco design were wonderful.

The Yarn Harlot was wonderful too, and a very accomplished speaker to boot. She held her audience well, and was just as good with her off the cuff remarks as she was with her polished talk. And you know, it was just heaven to sit down and give my poor old feet a break ;-) I do hope she has enjoyed her trip to the UK.

And who would have thought that theta waves were pertinent to knitters. Or monks for that matter ;-)

I was very restrained with yarnly purchases. I bought this lovely Schaeffer Yarn in the Toni Morrison colourway

And this lovely Dream in Colour Smooshy from the 300 series the colour is Cloud Jungle

I didn't buy Stepahnie's new book however, as I have yet to read this one properly tbh, and I'd like to thank Sarah for standing in line for me in order for it to be signed.

Also some badges to add to my collection, a lovely Herdy mug and a lovely Yarn Yard fridge magnet! Little things.......;)

And yesterday morning I ordered blocking wires from Loop, who had sadly run out of them by the time I had discovered who was selling them.

Finally, and with apologies to those of you who are unfamiliar with the geography, I had a nightmare of a journey back from London due to flooding on the line. We had to wait in Moreton in Marsh for a hour, because the train in front of us was stranded by the floods. It is only a single track in part between Evesham and Moreton so we had to wait for the stranded train to drive back through Moreton and eventually back to Paddington so that our train could then get to Evesham and then catch a coach to Worcester.

Worcester mind you, not Malvern so Mr A came to collect me from Worcester, only for the coach driver to be told at Worcester he was obliged to take all the passengers to their respective stations. I was home just on midnight instead of 22:20, and very glad to be home I am!

The coach driver was one of the surliest, insolent and downright rude people I have ever met and I have made a written complaint about his attitude to both the coach company and First Great Western. He missed Pershore station out completely and one poor passenger had to walk back there from the middle of the town from where he was eventually dropped off amidst grumbles of "I was only told Evesham to Worcester" Always a pleasure to meet people who enjoy their work

Award Time Again

The lovely Gilraen nominated me for this award last week. I haven't managed yet to successfully shrink it to fit in my sidebar ( I am such a technonumpty sometimes it is a wonder anything ever gets published on my blog ) so I afraid it will have to have pride of place just here for now. I even ticked the "shrink to fit" box ...........

I am very honoured to have received this Gil - thank you. It is always a wonder to me that folk come here to read my blog let alone enjoy it, so things like this give me the confidence to carry on, 'cos I do wonder sometimes what with CTNY, Kniting Haven, Ravelry etc quite why I continue to blog.

The answer of course is that I enjoy it.

Anyway, I have to do something now, and nominate seven recipients of the Brilliante Weblog award. These are the "rules" :-

The Rules:

The rules for award acceptance are as follows:

1. The winner can put the logo on his/her website/blog.
2. Add a link to the person who gave you this award.
3. Nominate at least 7 other websites/blogs.
4. Provide links of the nominated websites/blogs.
5. Leave a message at each website owner that you´ve nominated.

So, here we go and in no particular order I nominate

Ambermoggie
Blog-Blethers
Wye Sue
Kathryn
Queen of the Froggers
Franney
The Cabled Climber

I apologise if I have re-awarded awards to anyone. These are all blogs I enjoy reading, not all of them blog regularly, which always makes it an extra-special read when they do.

I am off tomorrow for a weekend in the "smoke" with my friends for I Knit London. Not quite a year since last year iyswim, but hopefully an equally lovely day. I'm making a weekend of it and staying with my son in his new flat in Herne Hill and am really looking forward to it.

I have a voucher to spend with Socktopus and other than that I intend to be "good" so don't come here looking for yarn PrOn next week ;-)

Spontaneity!

A busy family life at home, coupled with work and other recent family commitments has meant that Mr A and I have had to plan any social events together weeks in advance.

With DD in Corfu, DS2 out for the day, and me with a day off on a Sunday we found ourselves in the unusual position of both being at home with no plans, which is unheard of recently. Usually Mr A is visits his parents, but has been doing so a lot recently and decided a weekend in the garden was necessary. I know I go gadding off here there and everywhere, but time spent in a leisurely fashion with Mr A is rare and to be treasured.

The weather scuppered Mr A's day in the garden yesterday, so without having made previous plans, we went out! The photo below, believe it or not, is of Worcester. Worcester Hight Street is a mass of 60's concrete, yet Worcester is a medeival city, and this is Friar Street, 2 rows behing the High Street. It's a haven of independent shops and charming restaurants and I love it.

We took ourselves to Cafe Rouge for a lovely meal ( Poulet Breton for me, yum yum ) and then went to the cinema to watch The Dark Night. Heath Ledger was mesmeric as The Joker, but overall the film was too long, and disappointed.

Still, every cloud has a silver lining, as Mr A has agreed to come and see Mama Mia with me :-)

I have been awarded an award by Gilraen which was a lovely surprise. As soon as I can work out how the photo fits in my sidebar I will fulfill my part of the award!

By the way - have any of your children's words become part of everyday family vocabulary? For example, we don't go the the cinema, we go to the similar, a fire engine is a firing engine, and the telephone is the teffytone. Or is it just us who are completely bonkers ;-)

Ravelympic Knitting

Thank you all for the messages you left regarding my Wedding Anniversary. We had a lovely evening out together.

Now then, haven't the Olympics been wonderful :-). "We've got another gold" has been a familiar refrain Chez Aknita this last fortnight, and I have to say that the British cyclists, swimmers, rowers, everyone, have been inspirational.

And perhaps now I can keep "proper" hours. I like my sport "live" and Paula - it was my pleasure to stay up with you last weekend and watch a brave and gutsy run.

This last fortnight has also seen the Ravelympics :-) and after a change of project, these are the two knits I started and completed while the Olympics were in progress.

Firstly, this little jumper for my friend Sarah's little boy's first birthday. It was knitted using Sirdar Snuggly dk, and I used UK sized needles 10 and 8, my old favourites.

Isn't the Birthday Boy just LOVELY :-)

He's going to be a real charmer!

And my second project, Monkey socks. I had to knit Monkeys during the Olympics, I have very fond memories of the TV show ( usually watched late at night with the aid of alcohol ) and as the BBC chose Monkey for their trailers, I have every reason to think I had made a good choice.

I tried so hard for a matching pair, alas it was not to be, but my good friend Gilraen has pointed out to me that by not matching they look hand crafted so I feel much better about them.

The yarn was lovely to work with. I was lucky enough to win it in a RFL auction ( thank you Noo and Gilraen ) and had intended it for Binty's RFL prize. But it had to be socks!

Monkey Socks

Yarn: Wollmeise Sockenwolle 100% superwash merino

Colour: Regenbogen

Needles: 2.5mm Lantern Moon dpns

I am left wondering what to make next. Off to investigate the stash for inspiration.

It's my Anniversary :-)

Today is my 27th Wedding Anniversary, goodness, I have been married for over half of my life!!!!!!!!!! I have absolutely no idea where the years have gone. I have three beautiful children, and Mr A isn't too bad either ;-)

It was a VERY windy day and after an age of getting things just right my veil blew right off my head when I left the house! Dad and the photographer did their best, but I had absolutely no idea what I looked like when I arrived at the church.

I thought I'd share one or two photos with you. Here I am with dad. Do you know, he passed away some seventeen years ago now, yet not a day goes by where I don't think about him.

The flowers are awful aren't they? Silk flowers were de rigeur back in 1981 and I do still have them of course, but don't they look dated.



The rest are all self explanatory really.

I don't remember ever being so young!

MIL and FIL to the left, mum and dad to the right.

I like this one in the car on the way to the reception. Five minutes peace and quiet on our own :-)