I thought I had nothing to say....

Then I took some photos and realised I had lots and lots to post about.
First of all, the chicks. They are MASSIVE and hardly fit in the nest. It can't be long before they are gone :0( I hope I am here to protect them from the nasty cats. They have been flapping their wings and jumping around the nest and making lots and lots of noise. I will miss them when they fledge. The Rainy Day socks were finished just in time, but I forgot to take a picture. So the token knitting content is this, a cricket pullover for Toby who will be 1 at the weekend. I'm making it up as I go along, all seems very easy at the moment as it is just a tube with ribbing and some cables. Who knows what will happen when I get to the arm holes!
Tony and I had a trip to Ikea last week to buy a bookcase to keep all of my crafty thing in so that the living room looks a bit tidier. I need to retrieve my other books from my mom's house, and we need to buy doors for the bottom half but it is looking good. I had to bring the DB Baby Cashmerino downstairs as I think it looks so cool on the bottom right. It is crying out to be make into a blanket! On rainy bank holiday Monday I managed to set up me new sewing machine in the dining room and have a little play. I haven't used a sewing machine since I was very little so I don't thinkI did too badly. It's going to be a crochet hook/dpn holder. The seams are very wonky, I did no measuring or drawing lines to follow as I just wanted to have a play and I only had orange thread!

And finally, there has been no knitting tonight because I've been baking - Chocolate Mole Muffins and Chocolate flapjacks from the Green & Blacks cookbook to take to work on Friday for our cake sale. Ooh and before I go I think I am just in time for the SP questions Bobbi set:
With the weather turning warmer, many of you are thinking of traveling (though some of you have just returned, you can play along). 1) What do you pack to knit? and 2) What do you hope to shop for?
Assume that you will be gone for ten days to someplace "foreign" that is known for having great knitting locations. (Bonus: Where would you go on a "knitting holiday"?)
Well, I won't be going on holiday until my trip to Toronto in September and who knows what I will be knitting by then? However I will probably take a small project, I am guessing socks, and maybe some crochet for the plane. Then, in Toronto, I feel the world will be my oyster in terms of yarn shops. I am planning on doing the Toronto Crawl but I don't think Tony realises this yet. I can't wait to see all of that wonderful wonderful yarn and will definitely be after some Canadian yarns like Koigu and Fleece Artist and boy do I hope they have STR. YIPEEEEEEEEEEEE

Chick Update

They still look a bit weird, but are so much bigger!They don't stay still for very long either, so it is hard to get a good shot. I did manage to count earlier and I think there are definitely 8 of them.

8 Random things about me...

This one seems to be doing the rounds. I've been tagged by Roobeedoo


Rules:
1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged write a blog post about their own 8 random things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog you need to tag 8 people and post their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment to tell them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.



8 Random things
1. I am scared of lobsters. Terrified in fact. However I am getting better, I can walk on the same side of the road as the restaurant with the lobsters in the display and once I even managed to pass money over one at a fish stall in borough market (then it moved and I screamed and felt very silly).


2. Like Kerrie and Dee, I have never smoked and I can't stand the smell of it. I can't wait until July 1st. I think a pub crawl is in order to celebrate.


3. I can't roll my tongue. People think it is very funny to watch me try.


4. I count whilst waiting for the bus. Sometimes I count cars, sometimes I count red cars, sometimes I count cars where people aren't wearing their seatbelt (there used to be lots of these in Mitcham). I try and guess how many there will be before the bus comes. I can't really do that in Wolverhampton as I have to wait at the bus depot... hmmm... need to find a game involving buses.


5. I love Marti Pellow and grin stupidly everytime I hear or see him. He was my first crush, aged about 10, and for some reason I've never got over it.

6. Most of my knitting time is on the bus and the train. Sometimes this sparks conversations, sometimes strange looks. I think both are funny.

7. My crocs are the best shoes I have ever bought. They get funny looks too.

8. I love living in Wolverhampton with Tony, but I do miss my friends. I wish we could all live close to each other and pop around for cups of tea etc etc. I often daydream about how fab this would be and I'm a little jealous of those people who live really near their close friends.

I tag - Bryony, Wendy, Glenda and Lizzy

Birthday Celebrations!

Thanks for all of the birthday wishes. I had an amazing weekend with all my friends. Here is the evidence.
Ruth and Tony, looking cool in 70s clothesShowing off the flares. Lol and Pete; too cool for me

Then the twister began and we were definitely not cool :0)
I also managed to get Kerry to model her skirt. It looks fab.

And finally, my Secret Pal 10 parcel as promised. Beautiful Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud in a gorgeous sea green colour called Tide Pool. I need an easy lace shawl pattern for this I think... any ideas anyone?

Some Stroopwafels (as requested - yum), Blooker Cocoa (I'll make some muffins for work with this), toast sprinkles, bubbles, mini-sellotape and clips and finally the best stitch markers. They are binary, so you can use them for row counting. Genius! Thank you SP, I love everything and I feel well and truely spoilt.

Right, must go and help TT put up the bookcase from Ikea - finally I get somewhere to store all of my books and knitting things. Yipeeeeee!

Hogwarts Trivia

1. Who is the Fat Lady's friend? Violet
2. When the Fat Lady was attacked by Sirius Black and fled her portrait, who took over for her as guard of Gryffindor Tower? Sir Caodgan
3. Usually when Harry is in Dumbledore's office, what are the portraits of previous headmasters doing?-Snoozing-
4. Which one of the Triwizard champions did not go to the World Cup?- Fleur Delacour-
5. Who did Harry give his Triwizard winnings to? Fred and George Weasley
The next two are anagrams. Rearrange the letters to get the correct words.
6. Live gong cram la man (two words) Minerva McGonagall
7. Owl or video - Oliver Wood
8. What author's name appears on the book "Quidditch Through the AgesKennilworthy Whisp
9. What does the Keeper do in a game of Quidditch?- Guards the goal-
10. In the Goblet of Fire why did the Mad Eye Moody imposter put Harry's name in the goblet?-He wanted Harry to be killed during the tasks

The big 3 0

Ruth, aged 1, eating cake.
29 years later, I'm sure there will be more cake to add to a sewing machine and a fabulous trip to Toronto from Tony Tiger.
I'm off to (hopefully) buy a car now. Have a great day everyone.

WE HAVE CHICKS!

You can just about make out one chick in the bottom right, in front of the last two eggs. I think there are 5 chicks at the moment, but it is very hard to see as June is still sitting on them and only moves to give them food. Then all you see are lots of beaks!
What a fab birthday present :0) Right, I'm off to enjoy the last day of my twenties!

Just enough time before bed...

To show you my purchases from Get Knitted on Saturday. It is amazing shop. I was in there about 1.5 hours but could have stayed longer. We have - 2 balls of what I think is Cashsoft DK in blue and pale green from the sale bin for £1 each. Red Lana Grossa Sock wool for my Sockpalooza socks. Some more random balls of Baby Cashmerino for the next baby blanket. Lorna's Laces Shepherd sock an orphan ball of Purple Iris (£4.99) and two hanks of Safari which will make perfect socks for Tony.
Another 2.5mm 30cm addi turbo for my sock knitting. Enough clover soft touch crochet hooks to complete my set and finally some cute rabbit buttons (it looks like miffy playing tennis). So much for not buying anything - Bryony encouraged me.
The train journey down to bristol yielded this Rainy Day sock from Magknits in Sweet Georgia Speed Demon..... It truely is speedy!

And a lazy Sunday afternoon resulted in a finished shawl - with nearly a week to spare before the party.
Pattern: Holiday shawl from RYC Holiday Booklet
Yarn: 4 ply soft in Wink
Started: 22nd April 2007
Finished: 13th May 2007
Comments: I did one less row than the pattern called for, it would have been huge if I did them all. The 4 ply went a long way, I think I used 5 balls out of the 10 I bought including the fringe, which means it cost me £10 to make. Bargain. I have added little gold bells to the edging too, Tony says it sounds like there is a cat in the room! Was really fun to make and easy to memorise. I think I might have to gift it to my mom to wear when she goes on her next cruise after this weekend.

Colour co-ordinated post

Only 6 days to go until the big 30 on Friday! The countdown has begun. I thought you might appreciate this picture, you can see my love of stripes started at an early age! My birthday party shawl is nearly nearly finished, one half motif to go and then a good blocking. The yarn arrived for my Hogwarts Sock Kit Swap.... it is such great gryffindor colours. I'm hunting out beads to make some stitch markers from.
I have another present finished..... it will be gifted tomorrow, but I think I am fairly safe to post a picture here at this late hour: It is "Fever" in Rowan Cotton Tape (sadly discontinued) from It's a tape thing.
An obscenely short mini skirt for my friend Kerry who taught me to crochet and has amazing legs which deserve to be shown off! I have more than enough yarn left to add a few more rows if it is tooooo short. However, I'm hoping it will be perfect :0) Was a very quick crochet once I actually got the pattern. I'm not used to crochet patterns so the front was completely wrong the first time I made it. I seem to have been doing so much crochet lately it was a bit weird to be knitting socks on the train this morning! It is much more of a reddy-pink than the picture shows.
Kerry is having a party in Bristol tomorrow evening, so I am taking the chance to go down early and visit Get Knitted. I am very excited about this, even though there is no way I need to buy ANY MORE yarn... I am thinking the new Interweave Knits, maybe some more of the fab 30cm addi turbos and some clover crochet hooks. Well, I need an early birthday present (or ten)!
No more news on Terry and June. She is still sitting on the eggs, most of the time, and Terry is still bringing her food, so I am hoping all is well.

Terry and June

Have finally got together and created..... 9 eggs for me to worry about for the next 2 weeks.
For those of you who have asked, I am trying to get Tony to write a post about building a bird box with a camera in.....

What some yummy yarn?

Fancy this?

Or this?

Well, go and see Wendy. She is doing the Moonwalk on the 19th//20th May (when I will be partying away for my birthday in the Peaks - I feel a little guilty) and is hoping to raise £1000 for Breakthrough Breast Cancer research this year. She is holding a prize draw on her blog and you get one entry for each pound you donate and you can win some fab yarn prizes. Go do it. NOW!

Sock Preferences

My Sockpalooooza pal has asked for some info on my sock preferences...
I love stripes. Any kind of stripes. Seeing something stripy makes me very happy.
As for yarn preferences, I have loved knitting with lornas laces, STR and koigu... but these have all been knit for others. My current handknit socks are all opal. Tony has some LL and STR and I think the lorna's laces holds up best when washed. Everything in my house seems to get thrown in the washing machine (but only at 30 degrees on a delicates wash - so even the STR has been machine washed and has faded a little) However LL does have a tendancy to pool, which can be annoying depending on what pattern you choose!
Talking of patterns, I will leave the decision up to you! Please let me know if you need any more measurements.

Hogwarts Trivia for house points

"You will have your reward, Wormtail. I will allow you to perform an essential task for me, one that many of my followers would give their right hands to perform..." Who is speaking?
It is Voldemort talking to Peter Pettigrew.

Early Birthday Presents

I had some money in my paypal account that was burning a hole on my virtual pocket so thought I would treat myself to an early birthday present from America.
Socks that Rock, lightweight, in Champagne Springs, Little Bunny Foo Foo and Lucy in the Sky
Little Bunny Foo Foo (although in my world it is little rabbit foo foo) is what I am going to make my Sockpalooooza socks from. I have my match and am very excited. I just have to choose a pattern and find some time to knit them! There should be plenty of time one the latest round of birthdays are out of the way.
Speaking of birthdays, this is the only WIP I can show you at the moment (as everything else is a secret).... my birthday fancy dress shawl, in the apple tree (as there was nowhere else outside to hang it!) It is coming along nicely and is fairly easy to crochet on the train to work as I have the pattern just about memorised now. Do you think it is hippy enough?