An early start and some finished socks

Leah decided to get up early this morning - and by that I mean slapping both Richard and I in the face (not hard!) unitl one of us decided we had no choice other than to get up! So I drew the short straw as Richard has work today and got up at 6.25 am!!! That is EARLY for me!

It wasn't too bad, we just snuggled up on the sofa and watched a little TV.

I finished my Monkeys off this morning by grafting the last toe and this is how they turned out. The yarn is from Babylonglegs and is lovely, I just don't think that the yarn and the pattern were quite suited.

We had breakfast at about 7am (still early) and I couldn't resist Leah in her pyjamas and dressing gown eating her Marmite on toast! She looks so cute :o)

I love the bed hair too!! She's now having a nap so I can have a bit of a rest as I'm a little tired also.....yawn.......yawn............

A little jacket for my friend's baby bump

Here are some photos of the matinee jacket I have made for my friend's baby which is due at the end of May. We don't know what sex the baby is until it pops out (!) so hopefully this will be suitable for either a girl or a boy.

Whilst I was making this I didn't think I had made the body long enough, but once the sleeves were set in it looks about 100 times better! I like the lace pattern it uses, very vintage! In fact its from an old pattern and I thought it would be good to do something a bit more traditional for a change.

I used an acrylic yarn as it will be easy to wash and dry, and although natural fibres look better they don't really wash as well.

I really like the picot edging on the neck - something I haven't done before funny enough, but was pretty easy with a good effect. I hope she likes it!

A new horserider in the family?

Just before I went horse riding yesterday I found a certain someone wearing my riding hat! I couldn't resist taking a photo of her as I think she looks really cute haha!

I don't think she would be allowed to ride with her dummy in though (we keep trying to hide it from her but she manages to find it somehow) and I think the horses are a little big for her still. Where I ride the insurance they have says that children have to be four before being allowed on even a pony ride.....what a shame.

I rode one of my favourites yesterday - Puzzle - who I haven't ridden since before I was pregnant, so getting on for 3 years! She was as good as I remember and I had a lovely ride. I also booked a 2 hour hack for Easter Monday so I am looking forward to that now.

The yarn I bought (for Leah of course!)

I had a lovely day out at Olympia II yesterday, although it wasn't as good at the show at Ally Pally. I didn't get much really, just a couple of magazines I hadn't bought yet and also this lovely Debbie Bliss Rialto Aran which I will be able to make something lovely for Leah from.



I have a Debbie Bliss book which has a couple of sweaters which would be suitable - although they are for boys, I think this lovely red would really suit them and so look good on Leah. The one I think I will most probably knit for her is the Hoodie although Ravelry doesn't have a picture!

I do love this yarn so I'm looking forward to knitting it for her.

A busy weekend ahead (for a change!)

This weekend is going to busy for me for a change. it starts tomorrow evening with a night in with the girls at my friend's house. We are having pizza, watching a DVD and I'm going to make a coffee and walnut cake to take round. We should be able to have a good gossip too!

Saturday I'm off to Olympia 2 in London to the Stitch and Craft Show 2009 which I am hoping will be a good day out. I should be able to get some good things to bring home :o)

Sunday is Mother's day and although we haven't got anything planned I am going riding in the morning, so that's my little treat to myself. Hopefully I won't get Jacob again this week as he was a bit of a naughtly boy on Sunday, bucking during the canters!!!

Off to get dinner now, chicken in a pesto and creme fraiche sauce with veg and rice (got to have my veggies!!)

Our fourth wedding anniversary already!

Today is our Fourth wedding anniversary, so I thought I'd share some of our wedding photos. It was a really cold day when we got married, but luckily it stayed dry although it was a bit windy!

We had a lovely day and are still as happy now as we were then (a bit sickly I know!)

Enjoy the photos :o)

This is how it's turning out......

Here is a closeup of the fabric I have knitted for Leah's cardigan using the Sirdar fresco yarn. It is lovely and soft and had a nice feel about it, even if it is a little bright (I should have enough left over to make a vest tp for the summer for myself, but that's a different story).


I decided to post a picture to show how the yarn patterning has varied. To be honest I should have knitted each piece with two different balls and alternated the rows, but I didn't think that the yarn would have such a strange effect. (in fact that's what the pattern for the vest top suggests so I should have known better really - although that pattern only arrived yesterday).

You can see how the left hand piece (the right front) varies from the back and the one on the right (the left front) so I hope once the borders are knitted on it won't actually show up that much. I just hope Leah will wear it as it it will be one of her more 'funky' items of clothing!

Something odd had happened....

On Friday afternoon a strange thing happened which freaked me out a little…..I had said to goodbye to Richard (he went skiing to Austria for the weekend) and Leah had had her nap when there was a knock at the front door. Mum and Dad were there with a pressie for Leah and also told me someone had put some roses through the letterbox. A bit odd – so I asked a few people to see if they had done it, but no one had.

It was ok at first, but the more I thought about it the stranger I felt, especially as I was going to be alone for the weekend. So Mum and Dad stayed Friday night and I am none the wiser to who did it. It was most likely kids, but the roses were in pretty good condition and were lovely if they weren’t left in such a weird manner!

I need help!

Does anyone else have this problem? I have started to make a cardigan for Leah using the Sirdar Fresco yarn I bought from my LYS. Its quite bright, but don’t mind that too much, what I don’t like is the pooling of colour! AArrgggHH, it’s a nightmare! I made the back and the pooling didn’t start until the armhole decreases, but as it hasn’t happened too much it’s not a problem. The same happened for the left from and again not until the shoulder decreases, so it’s something I can live with. Now I have already ripped back the right from once as the pooling was happening continually and it looked down right daft next to the left front.

So any tips how to stop this happening? I tried skipping a bit of yarn to stop the same colour being knitted on top of the previous row, but it wasn’t working. I think it just depends where about on the ball you start and you can’t tell until a few rows in….HELP PLEEEEEASE!!!!!

We went to the zoo

For those of you who get bored with long posts, I am really sorry, I just couldn't choose which photos I wanted to show, so I chose most of them!

Yesterday we went to Colchester zoo for the day and we had a really good time. We took a picnic (which we ate in the boot of the car) and Leah loved seeing all the different animals, in fact we all did.

We saw this little crocodile ( I still wouldn't trust it though).....

...some meercats.....

...and who is this great ape? Not Richard, the Orang Utag of course!! He looks so sad.....

...there was a part of the zoo with familiar animals, so I couldn't resist this lovely goat with her kids...

...and these monkeys had very colourful noses (and most probably bottoms too!)

We saw the graceful Cheetahs....having a sniff here I think....

....and Leah's favourite, the elephant. What a huge beast!

We also have a Zeedonk (only seen in captivity for obvious reasons) and an ostrich....

...some Giraffes having their tea....

... a lovely little zebra....

..,.some big white rhinos (I really like these).....

...a rather close wolf...perhaps too close???

...a white tiger.....

....some African hunting dogs.......

....a great tiger....

....oh, what's this?? Hmmmmm I haven't seen one of these before.....

.... a very odd squirrel with a little girl riding it. Must be a very rare animal! We saw lots more besides, including the lions and leopards, buty not all my photos came out that well. I said it was a long post and took ages to upload!