Ends and beginnings.......

A momentous day here at The Deanery - Bean starts college this morning, she'll be getting off the bus about now. this is A Big Thing for both of us - she has been around all day every day (more or less) for the past 17 years, being home educated. She has been looking forward to it for so long, and I'm sure she won't be disappointed, and will give it all she's got. Looking forward to her coming home this evening to ehar all about it. I must learn to stop nagging about bus passes and money and ID cards.................:)

In the meantime, the onion hat is finished; I got it done last night whilst watching a very interesting programme about wreck divers in the Thames, bringing up all sorts of artefacts that revealed a lot about ordinary peoples' lives and work on the river. For me, much more interesting and relevant than grandeur and expensive treasures; more poignant to peep into the lives of those more like ourselves I feel. Anyhoo, here's the hat:



A large part of this afternoon will be spent sorting through my bookshelves - again! I really need to shed some, but it will be hard........ I reckon some 50+ will go; I'll see how close I am with that estimate by the end of the day.

Squaring the circle......

.... or should that be circling the square? I love knitting in the round. There is soemthing meditative about the round and roundness of it all. Hats are a favourite - lots of scope for originality, frivolity and using up odds and ends. This one is from the wool I dyed with onion skins last week, which has come out a lovely shade of gold. The wool was a couple of balls I got cheap ia charity shop, so should be enough for a nice hat. This time, I thought I'd knit with five needles for a change; I'm usually on four, with the three forming a triangle, and a fourth to knit with. Tthis way, I use a fifth needle to work with, working around a square, and when you finish off, the square turns into a round hat. I like knitting with a bit of magic in it :0)
Monday night is knitting night in the pub for our group the Vale Knitters. The pub has recently been taken over by a new tenant, who is still finding her feet a bit. However, she has installed two very comfy sofas, with another two to come, to make a nice "snug" area, which we are welcome to use on Monday evenings. We got complementary nuts too :0) So far, she's doing fine in my book, and might even bring her own knitting next week :)

Bag swap - my effort!

We are doing a cloth bag swap on Creatve Living at the moment, following on from our May campaign http://creativeliving.10.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=2423 This is my effort. Made from a charity shop t-shirt, the type with spaghetti straps; fold in half the opposit way to usual, and seam along the bottom. Embellish as required, and there you go! Mine has a panel that says "Been there, done that, used to be the t-shirt......", and is decorated with buttons.

Post number 300.............

I don't half talk a lot, don't I? :0)

New crochet project

Far back in the mists of time, I saw a very beautiful crocheted cloth in a shop window; it was light green in the centre, surrounded by variegated pansies, finely crocheted in cotton, in just the right colours. I hankered after that cloth for years, and a while back was actually able to find the pattern on e-bay for a few pence. I had been collecting the crochet cotton for years in bits and pieces, but the colours required for this piece eluded me until recently. The lovely woman in the feed store where we get our animal feed had some in her loft, the result of a clearing out of a recently deceased relative. "Do you crochet? You look as if you do.........." was the comment as we paid for the mixed corn :) Some weeks later, several boxes of cottons appeared, mine for the taking:





The green and teh variegated yellow are in there, so I'll add in the pruple I acquired elsewhere. Couldn't resist starting last night, so ahve the first 3 rounds done, looking good so far, the green is such a pretty colour. This is the pattern, and hopefully soon I'll have my own pansy cloth too:

September

September - my favourite month of the year. The Anglo-Saxons called it Gerstmonath (barley month), with reference to the harvest of that crop, the main ingredient of their favourite beverage. Some of the celtic names of the month are also linked to the harvest, though less specifically: The Welsh "medi" means reaping, and the Scottish Gaelic "sultuine" means plenty.

The Morris Minor was launched by Morris Motors at Oxford on this day in 1928 -


Whilst growing up in Scotland, we had a light blue Traveller - frequently packed to the gunwhales with buckets, spades and picnics to go to the beach in, out bramble picking, just "for a run", into town, etc. I remember the "back space" where we sat when all teh seats were filled up! It was called Bonnet by my wee brother and that name stuck; it had a large dent in the right hand side of the rood at the back wehre a tile blew off the roof one winter and hit it on the way down. Mr Beverley our postman in the village then, had a Morris Minor van, in bright Post Office red, ofcourse. I love the distinctive noise of the engine, and the gentle, dignified pace that they demand to be driven at! If I did drive, the Traveller is the car I would have.

So - September. Month of our wedding anniversary - 19 years today. It always seems to have gone fast in hindsight, but happy with where we are now. The month of my birthday too, and several friends and relations, so card organising is a priority this month. Harvesting, pickling, jamming, planting,foraging, sowing and forward planning all underway too, plus thinking ahead towards winter now that autumn is here; livestock housing to repair and secure, beanpoles to take down, running repairs to the greenhouses, winter curtains and bedding to check over before they are pressed into use, alos winter clothing for us, earlier shutting up times for the ducks and chickens, darker evenings to sit and work inside, winter to plan for and look forward to. As ever, busy times. I love September.

New dishcloths

Probably not the most exciting thing to knit, some might say, but I really enjoy knitting them, then using them! They are lovely little portable projects, can be done in a couple of hours, lovely to use, cheer up the kitchen, make washing up more of a pelasure and when done, can be put on the compost heap. Not much more could be asked of knitting, really, could it? The patterns are ones I have done several times, printed off the net and kept in a folder; I usually use bits and bobs from charity shops, boot sales, etc, but for these, I treated myself to some new yarn, caving in completely when I saw these three colours together on the shelves; reminiscent of summer gardens, sweet peas, fresh scents - lovely........



Top is a tulip bud motif cloth, in garter stitch; below is a lovely checky pattern in all three colours again; a simple slip stitch gives the check illusion, like gingham - very pretty.




Top one here is a simple cream snowdrop pattern; requires a bit more concentration, but interesting to knit up; below is a green doily cloth, comprising seven segments, knitted with the short row technique.