Moving on .......

..........Friday!

 

 

Everything happened in a real whoosh this last week. We exchanged contracts on Tuesday and shall be moving house this coming Friday! I can't believe it's finally going to happen after months of being surrounded by boxes! I shall see you again once we have our Broadband connected! Now please excuse me while I go and pack some more boxes! xxx

Cosy days!

Well, would you believe it? Another snow day!! Norfolk got hit with another downfall of snow overnight and we awoke, yet again, to a world blanketed in white! The forecast looks better for the rest of the week, so fingers crossed things will get back to normal tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

I busied myself yesterday knitting a case for my Kindle. I used the BFL handspun left over from the Creel hat, and used the same stitch pattern too! I had to rummage in a couple of boxes to locate my button tin, and am pretty happy with the results! So my Kindle is nice and cosy now!

 

 

 

 

Mr JK has been keeping us cosy with his wonderful goulash soup and dumplings. It was the perfect meal last night and tasted every bit as good as it looked!

 

 

Florence has also been keeping herself nice and cosy. Mr JK barely has a chance to sit down and make himself comfortable before Flo jumps on his lap. I love this photo of them together.

 

 

 

 

We have just had some rather encouraging and exciting news about our house, so have our fingers crossed. You may not see me around for a few days!! I'll be back as soon as I can! xxx

Snowy days!

I can't remember the last time I had a snow day! But two in one week?! Wowzers! We have had snow on and off since last Tuesday. My usual ten minute journey home took over an hour as the roads came to a standstill. We just don't deal very well with snow here.

 

 

The forecast is predicting a weekend of cold, snowy weather, so I don't think that Mr JK and I shall be venturing out. We'll light the fire and batten down the hatches. I have plenty of knitting to keep me occupied too. I received a lovely surprise package from Beki yesterday. We have swapped yarn and fibre in the past, and Beki sent me a skein of Socks that Rock yarn in a perfect colourway for Mr JK. She thought it might cheer me up after reading about the house sale falling through just before Christmas. What a sweetie!

 

 

She sent this badge too, just perfect for Florence and all her yarny antics!

But what does Florence have to say about it?

 

Me? Play with yarn? No way!! Not when it's making such a comfortable bed for me!!

 

 

 

 

Keep warm and see you soon. xxx

Testing, testing!

Hello! My needles have been busy this week. I was test knitting Creel - a hat, cowl and mitts set from Knitspot. The set featured used handspun, so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to rifle through my own handspun and pull out a couple of suitable skeins. When you are learning to spin, you produce lots of skeins that don't have a great yardage, but are perfect for small projects such as hats and mitts. The mitts knit up superfast, ideal for a quick, last minute gift. I modelled them yesterday when I met up with my good friend Snoopydog and we tried to get some photos. A certain dog had his eye on my biscuit!!

 

 

You can see the stitch pattern a little more clearly here.

Flo didn't want to be left out of the photos either. This was taken earlier in the week.

It is enormously satisfying to knit up yarn that you have spun yourself.  I felt like a proud Mum, watching the colours appear! The mitts are knit with Twinkle, a mix of 75% superwash merino and 25% trilobal nylon. The hat is knit with Burnish, which is 100% BlueFaced Leicester. Both fibres are from Fluff-n-Stuff. I think Marianne's fibres are gorgeous!!

 

 

If the weather forecast is accurate, I reckon I shall be needing to wear these this week! Have a good week and keep warm!! xxx

Savouring every last minute!

Hello there! I can't believe that Christmas is done and dusted for another year. I have already seen Valentine cards and Easter eggs in the shops!! Shocking, isn't it? School starts back tomorrow so I am making the most of the last day of the holidays. Yesterday I finished joining together the rest of the knitted bunting - this little lot is going to be decorating one of the Infant classrooms very soon. It was such a fun project to do, as it not only involved the children, but also their families.

 

 

I also decided on this term's project - little knitted owls and cats. The pattern is easy as long as I knit the first couple of rows which require knitting into the front and back of each stitch. I think that the kids will love them! Firstly, meet Ollie Owl.
 

 

And here is his friend, Kitty Cat!

I knit an i-cord to make the cat's tail, but the children will be able to do some French knitting using a cotton reel. I wonder which is going to be more popular, the owl or the cat?! Which one would you have wanted to knit when you were little? You can find the pattern here.

 

 

Of course, I had my trusty assistant helping out while I was sorting things out. She just cannot resist a ball of wool (even if it happens to be acrylic!)

 

I think that in this photo she looks quite surprised by all the wool on the floor and is claiming to have no knowledge of it at all! Butter wouldn't melt, eh Flo?!

 

 

 

 

I have been working on a couple of bigger knits - my Shilasdair cardigan and the mink and cashmere cardigan, but there isn't a huge amount of progress on either. I am currently doing a little bit of testknitting for Anne Hanson over at Knitspot - some mittens, a hat and cowl, and should be able to share those with you next week. In the meantime, I will leave you with a success story. Florence has discovered her furry igloo!! Have a good week. xxx

 



Well hello to you, 2013!

Yesterday Mr JK and I got up at some unearthly hour to catch the train to London. We were going to meet some friends who were visiting the UK  from France for the New Year. I had some knitting for the journey - I decided to tackle one of my New Year's resolutions head on, and cast on for a blanket. A few years ago, when I started knitting again, I fell in love with the bright colours of Noro yarn, and started buying odd balls of Silk Garden. I originally wanted to make a Lizard Ridge blanket, but found it tricky knitting from both ends of the ball. My knitting kept getting into one almighty tangle. I then switched to the Ten Stitch Blanket, but wasn't happy about how my knitting looked at the join. I browsed on Ravelry, found the Noro group and made my way through the list of blanket suggestions. My final choice was 64 Crayons. It's knit in strips, using two balls of Noro yarn. I chose a mainly green ball and a mainly purple ball for my first strip and soon got started. It's knit in 1x1 rib, but as the rows are quite short, it isn't too tedious. Here's how my first strip is coming along.

 

 

Even if I get odd places where the colour stripes are fairly similar, I don't think it's going to matter too much, as the overall blanket is going to be very stripy! My friend Kim has a stash of Noro Kureyon yarn, so we are going to cheer each other on across the Pond to get our blankets knit this year. I will keep you posted on its progress through the coming months.

 

It was a beautiful crsip winter's morning in London - blue skies and sunshine. We walked through St James's Park to get to Piccadilly, the start of the New Year's Day parade.

Crossing the Mall, we had to wait for the Guards to pass us on horseback, on their way down to Whitehall. I just love all these traditions, it makes me proud to be British!

 

The parade was a huge mixture of marching bands and floats. There were lots of different riders on horseback......

 

....... pearly Kings and Queens from various London boroughs..........

........ Morris dancers ..........

...... stilt walkers .......

......flamboyant costumes .....

....... and balloons!

After a late lunch, we walked alongside the Thames towards Tower Bridge. The Shard looked magnificent in the late afternoon light.

 

Tower Bridge is such an impressive construction.

It looks even more amazing lit up........

There are lots more photos over on my Flickr pages if you are interested. Happy days everyone! xxx