Sunday 11 July 2010

Full of milky goodness

Hello again! Hope you've had a good week. I've had a busy time, taking my pupils up to high school for the first of their transition days, plus several rehearsals for their leavers performance on the last day of term. I also passed my minibus driver's test, so I can now drive a minibus full of kids! It's been a scorcher of a week here, especially at night. I've found it really hard to sleep right through, waking around 4am and then dozing until the alarm goes off. We are due a day of rain tomorrow, so I'm hoping it will cool things down a bit. We need the rain in the garden too! The mallow has suddenly sprung into life big time, and is threatening to take over the decking. I do love the flowers.

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The veggies are doing well, and we've been eating almost exclusively from the garden this week - salad leaves, rocket, cucumbers, tomatoes and mangetout. Mr JK accidentally disturbed one of the potato plants, and unearthed a couple of salad potatoes. Mmmmmmmm! It won't be that long before they are dug up. I love new potatoes, simply boiled with a knob of butter. The clematis has come into flower this week. It's called Polish Spirit, and we bought it because of Mr JK's family links with Poland. It has beautiful purple flowers ........

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To try and cool down a bit, we went for a stroll down Cromer pier this morning. There was a lovely sea breeze, and we certainly felt more refreshed.

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I went into Norwich yesterday to buy this ......

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................. and I came back with this little lot too!

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Oops! It was the end of the John Lewis sale, and there were many extremely tempting bargains to be had! Do you want a closer look? Oh, go on then! I bought some lengths of ribbon on a card, no idea what I'm going to use them for at the moment, but they looked so pretty, I couldn't resist!

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I also bought some more fabric to make bags (more of this later!) The Amy Butler fabric wasn't in the sale, but as I only needed 30cm, it wasn't very expensive. I bought some co-ordinating ribbon to use as a drawstring too.

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I then spotted the bins with yarn in them, and snaffled 21 balls of Rowan Milk Cotton DK, at the incredible price of £1.20 a ball (it usually retails at £4.95!) I can picture a crocheted blanket, maybe a ripple, or possibly some kind of Granny square a la Attic24. This is the colour range I chose ........

John Lewis sale stash (13)

and here are all the balls together! The yarn has 30% milk protein in it, and feels very soft.

John Lewis sale stash (9)

I called in to see my good friend Snoopydog, to give her a birthday present, and met Oscar for the first time. He's very cute, and well behaved, even though he did keep trying to lick my feet!! (Brave dog!) Snoops had a gift for me too - a bargain she had spotted earlier in the year - a Cath Kidston knitting needle case, complete with needles. A girl can never have too many knitting needles in my view!

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My yarn purchasing didn't stop there! Oh, no! I called in at Norfolk Yarn on the way back up to North Norfolk for some baby yarn. My boss has asked me to knit her two lots of baby clothes over the summer holidays. As she doesn't know if the babies are boys or girls, I'm going to make a stripy cardigan, with matching hat and socks for each, using these yarns .......

Beryl's baby clothes

Once the babies are born, I'll add the button band and some suitable buttons.

I've finally got going on my sewing machine. After a few practises on scraps, I followed this really easy tutorial to make a little lined drawstring bag. It's by no means perfect, and I think the cord is a bit too thick for the size of the bag, but I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself! It's the perfect size to keep my earrings in when I'm travelling. Now that I've made one, I'm going to experiment with the sizing to make a sock project bag. Guess what everyone's going to be getting for Christmas presents now?!

Lined drawstring bag

My knitting projects are progressing steadily. I'm almost halfway through making something for the Summer 2010 swap, and my Teatime Treats swap is all ready for posting, so I should be able to show you what I've been busy making for Ethmay next time. And I'm not going to let myself play with any more drawstring bags until I've lined the two crochet bags, honest! Before I go, I must just show you some yarn that I won this week. Kate had bought a skein of Wollmeise yarn, but when it arrived, she knew that it was just too ORANGE for her. So rather than leave it gathering dust at the bottom of her stash, she very kindly offered it as a giveaway to the person who gave (in her view) the best suggestion of what to make with it. She liked my idea, so the yarn arrived this week, and I shall soon be found wearing my sunglasses, knitting a pair of globe trotting socks for Snoopydog's younger daughter. It does feel extremely squishy and soft, so I hope that I manage to get some at KnitNation. KnitNation is only three weeks away, and I need to learn how to do magic loop between now and then, so best I go and get on with it! Have a lovely week, whatever you're up to. See you soon. xx

Bold
Katy's carrot socks

10 comments:

Lyn said...

All that yarn-you are going to be so busy!
Love
Lyn
xxx

Lyn said...

PS I use to work at JLP and spent most of my wages there-you found some great bargains.
Lyn
x

snoopydogknits said...

Oh what a lovely post! Such pretty things. I just LOVE the colours you chose in both the 'milk cotton' and the 'baby cashmerino'. I am very impressed with your beautiful little bag. Thanks for the link! Now I might be able to line my little crocheted bag. It was really lovely to see you yesterday. Roll on end of term.........and 'Knit Nation' XX

Lynne said...

Ooohh!! What bargains!! It would have been rude not to buy them. ;) I love the bag you made too.

Jennyff said...

I don't think its fair that you get all that heat, it was about 12 degrees here today, and all that yarn, I haven't bought any for ages. Apart from that small whinge, I think you did really well with your purchases and congrats on passing your minibus test. Have a lovely (cool) week.

melissa said...

hooray for eating exclusively from the garden!!

i what a beautiful picture of the seaside...

and oh my - what a lovely little pile of goodies you scored! i've never heard of milk protein yarn - the colors are gorgeous, i can't wait to see what you crochet up!! knowing you it's going to be gorgeous.

Aussie Maria said...

Oh my what a wonderful shopping trip - still drooling

Sue Pinner said...

Hi..what a fabulous shopping trip and wonderful bargains
Look forward to seeing it made up
Hugs Suz x

Helsie said...

Can't wait to see what you produce with all that yarn. The colours are fantastic.
You certainly are having some hot weather aren't you? Hope you have a good freezer that can make plenty of ice for your drinks. Keep in the shade and turn on the fan if you have one - a wet hand towel folded and draped around the back of your neck will help with the heat!
Cheers
Helen

Stadtwaldvogel said...

Haha, that is funny! Sometimes we HAVE to shop more than we wanted to! I mean, otherwise it would be boring. Your color choice is great, so soft. The needle case is cute, I have already admired it on Snoopydogs blog. I'm sure you will sew many wonderful bags.
Julia