Time flies

I knew I should have taken a leaf out of Snoopydog's book when I saw her make her weekend blog post on Saturday rather than Sunday! Silly me thought that I'd have plenty of time yesterday for that! How wrong I was! Despite having been on holiday from school for almost six weeks, the start of term always seems to creep up on me. Although I've been into school several times, and my classroom was all ready to rock and roll, and I've had planning meetings with colleagues way back in July, I still needed to get my head around what we were actually going to be doing in class today! So Sunday was mostly spent sorting out exactly that!
Since getting back from Greece, I've been busy trying to finish all those things that I most ambitiously wrote on my summer holidays 'to do' list! Mr JK always teases me about the lists that I make, but it gives me great satisfaction to cross things off as they get done. However, there were still rather a lot of things left that needed doing this week, which has really cut into my knitting time. Infact, I've hardly picked up the knitting needles, possibly because I'm not allowing myself to start anything new until I've finished some of the older projects! Hmmmmmmmm, I think I've heard that before somewhere! I also have sewing up to do, which I need to be in the right mood for.
Anyway, I promised to show you what I managed to get knitted during my holiday in Greece. Despite the heat, I knitted every day. Mr JK commented that he didn't see anyone else knitting on the beach, but it didn't stop me! Oh no! I managed to complete two pairs of socks, and knit all the pieces for two more baby stripe cardigans, plus two little matching hats, as well as make a start on a lacy shawl. Initially, I'd had very grand ideas about making this a beaded affair, but luckily common sense prevailed, and I started to knit it as per the pattern. Not being a very experienced lace knitter, and only having a photocopy of the pattern with me because I didn't want to take the whole magazine, I wasn't 100% sure that the pattern looked right. I sent an emergency text to Snoopydog on holiday (with her laptop!) in Pickering, asking her to look for any errata. She found none, but I wasn't confident enough to carry on with it, so it got put to one side. On returning home, I was able to see from the photos on Ravelry and in the magazine that I was right! It's going to take me a while to knit, because I can't have any distractions whilst knitting it (Don't ask me how I know that! Thank goodness for lifelines is all I'm prepared to say!)
I made a pair of socks for Mr JK in a Regia World Ball yarn, colourway Germany. I'm going to insist that he wears them when we go over to Bremen to see his uncle at the end of the month!

I also made a pair of socks for my boss's birthday - they are wrapped up all ready to be given tomorrow. The yarn is a Trekking one - they always knit up nicely!

The baby knits still need sewing up, so I'll show you them next time. The first baby, Lily, was born at the weekend, so she will be having the little aqua and cream striped set I showed you before. I found some lovely cream flower buttons that I might use, or else I have some aqua hearts.
Here's the shawl - I've done the intial set up pattern plus three repeats of the main pattern. It needs fourteen all together! I just pinned it out so I could see the emerging pattern more clearly.

I also knitted up a little owl, Hooting Henry, for my school knitting club. The pattern is from Kids Learn to Knit by Lucinda Guy. One of the children in my knitting group brought it in, and I borrowed it from her over the summer! There are some quite nice, simple ideas in there. We are going to be knitting him in garter stitch, as we have yet to learn how to purl! I think that they will have fun decorating them, once the knitting is done!

On Saturday, we made the most of the weather and went out and about. We headed over to East Ruston in North Norfolk, as we wanted to visit a garden there, the Old Vicarage. It really is a most interesting place to look around, and Mr JK and I have decided to get a season ticket for next year. It's packed full of interesting plants, and a maze of pathways leading around.

En route to East Ruston, we stopped off to pick some Victoria plums - 4kg to be precise, and Mr JK has started making some plum wine. The orchards were laden with fruit, the branches almost groaning under their weight.

We also bought some pickling onions, and on Saturday evening, Mr JK produced this little lot, which we shall enjoy over Christmas, with some good cheese and a homemade sausage roll or two!

I've done another yarn swap with my Ravelry friend CathyA, in Ottawa, Canada. We've done a couple of swaps over the past year - one yarn and the second, fibre. This time we decided to swap both, and my parcel arrived super-quick from Canada on Friday. It had only been posted on Tuesday, so it was amazing! Cathy was extremely generous, and her parcel was full of yarny goodness. Firstly, some laceweight yarn with bison in it. It is incredibly soft, and I would imagine will also be very warm. It's a beautiful shade of blue, and I think that it's going to become a Citron shawl. And even better, Cathy has already wound it for me using her new electric ball winder! Thanks!

Secondly, some fibre in lovely purple shades from Waterloo Wools. The yarn is from the Falkland Islands, and feels very soft.

Lastly, there was a fabulous shawl pin. I don't have one, and Cathy thought that it would be useful as I've just started knitting lace. What a great idea! It's really pretty.

My parcel hasn't arrived in Canada yet, so I won't spoil the surprise, just in case Cathy reads this! I did make all my purchases at KnitNation, so that may just give you a clue as to one or two of the things I've sent her!
Righto, I'd better get back to lesson planning now. Hope you have a good week, whatever you're doing! xx