Birthdays

Yesterday was Snaterkat's birthday and so Pinkphish and I made a cake. I was in charge of the sponge and the filling and Pinkphish provided the decoration. In the growing tradition of knitters' cakes the sheep were listing to one side by the time we got there. We ate lots of pizza and then massive pieces of cake and ended up feeling quite happily sick.

Whitewater

I don't often revisit the same pattern twice, but when I was sorting out my stash last week I looked at the Debbie Bliss Pure Silk and wondered what to do with it. I knitted a pair of Whitewater wrist warmers for my cousin 2 or 3 years ago now. At the time I hadn't been knitting with DPNs long and it was something of a challenge. I loved the way they looked and felt and Gillian tells me that she has worn them to death, so I felt it was time to try another pair.

I only used 1 skein on the first pair, even though the pattern called for two so this time I made them extra long. I found it much easier to knit them this time and quite enjoyed having a more complicated pattern to work. Since the demise of MagKnits the pattern is no longer online but I found an old print out tucked into one of my stash boxes. So here they are, extra long Whitewater in black.

Making the Most of It

This Summer has hardly been the best. The weather around here has been particularly awful. There have hardly been any rain-free days, which has saved me a lot of time watering but has meant I haven't done much sitting out or barbecuing. For once bank holiday weekend has turned out well. The weather has been gorgeous, particularly yesterday. After cycling to the next village for lunch we sat out all afternoon. I worked on the wall hanging I've been making for the bedroom and finished up with a barbecue tea, with tasty burgers made by my lovely husband (our anniversary was last weekend).

I was inspired by the felted table runners on this Etsy shop and spent quite a bit of time experimenting with techniques. I eventually ended up with something quite different but it is growing on me. The idea of making a large needle felted item had never occurred to me before. So here is my effort mid-progress. I am now contemplating whether to fill the whole thing with circles or to only go half way up. What do you think?

We've had quite a lot of vegetables. Most of the potatoes are gone now and we're working our way through the onions and garlic. In place of the potatoes I planted some winter vegetables. We've also had corgettes, brocoli, carrots, parsnips, french beans and leeks.

The greenhouse is producing a steady stream of tomatoes. I had a problem with rot on the peppers and aubergines. The aubergines have produced nothing at all. Each time a fruit starts to grow they go rotten and drop off. I've evicted the aubergine's from the greenhouse and the peppers seem to have recovered. I think it's been too damp in there but there's not much I can do when it rains constantly. Not bad for the first year.

As far as knitting goes I've been working on a jumper for Graeme. I have now reached the sleeves, which I see as the danger time for running out of steam. It's a mark of how poor the weather has been that I haven't been too hot while knitting this. I had to put it down on Saturday though.

I also knitted this cute toilet roll cover in a moment of boredom a couple of weeks ago. The words 'toilet roll cover' do tend to fill me with dread but they are a quick way of using up odd balls (of which I have many).

FOs

So what did I knit while I was away? Not a great deal to be honest. It wasn't my most productive holiday knit-wise. I managed to finish these Hedera socks, using the pattern from Knitty and some merino sock yarn from Wingham Wool Work (who by the way have revamped their website so it's useable).

I bought some gorgeous Claudia Hand Painted Yarn in the John B colourway from the Knit and Pearl Boutique in Santa Barbara, which looked fabulous in the Californian sunshine. I must say that they look rather orange in the British gloom. There's some pink and green in there as well so it's not as bad as it looks. I decided to make a pair of Jaywalkers from the yarn and I am pleased with the way they show off the patterning, though I can't say I'm impressed with the fit.

Since coming home I've made a couple of other things for wedding presents which I won't show you just now. I also spent some time hand dying with Pinkphish and made this little hat one evening from some KoolAde dyed yarn. I'm not quite sure what to do with the finishing at the top as there's not much yarn left. I'll have to have a think.

My creativity has been experiencing a temporary hiatus while I turn my attention to decorating our bedroom. Because I've been painting the built-in cupboards all our clothes are piled in front of my stash and as I result I find myself unable to make anything without feeling slightly uncomfortable about it. Yes, I do know I'm weird. I've nearly finished now though and am planning to have a major stash organisation in the near future which should help me along.

National Parks

So, by now if you've bothered to read all of this you must be pretty sick of hearing about my holiday, but I enjoyed it a lot so I'm going to write about the last bit today. Feel free to skip it.

After leaving San Francisco we drove inland, heading South East. We passed through loads of flat, dry farmland, where citrus fruits and grapes were growing. It was stiflingly hot. Reaching the mountains was a real relief. We got to Sequoia National Park first and stopped to see the General Grant tree, which is the 4th largest (by volume) in the world. It's so amazing how something living can be so big. (please note the small people standing next to the tree)

I find it interesting how the ecosystem depends on fire. The sequoia trees don't burn well but the forest actually grows better if there's a small natural fire from time to time to allow light to the ground.

We drove through the park into Kings Canyon National Park, where we stayed in a lodge (more like a motel). The canyon is really impressive. We walked about 6 miles from the end of the road up towards the mountains and back. I was petrified about seeing a bear, so I sang and made noise all the way. We didn't see any bears. We did see some deer and they didn't seem upset by my singing at all. G was probably the most disturbed by it. After 14 men went to mow he put his foot down. It was good to get into the wilds for a bit (and not see bears), but in the afternoon it was way too hot for walking. I really am a northerner.

So that's pretty much the end of the holiday. We drove back to Santa Barbara, staying overnight in Buellton, home of the famous split pea soup (no, really), where we had a really good steak at the Hitching Post.

San Francisco

At the end of our coastal journey we arrived at San Francisco. I was fairly sceptical about staying here. The guide book (Lonely Planet California) wasn't very inspiring and I'm not a bit fan of big cities. G had booked us into the Hotel Des Arts which was fairly chilled out and quite interesting. They're still in the process of adding the art so things changed in the foyer every day. Some of the guests were trying really hard to achieve that starving artist look, but the $200 trainers give it away every time. This hotel wins the prize for best shower of the entire trip (tall building = high pressure water supply). This was our room in the hotel. I'm not sure I'd want this on our wall at home but it made a change from the chain hotel chintz.

We didn't try to fit in all the touristy things, but just wondered a bit and did what took our fancy. We went in the Musee Mecanique which has loads of old slot mechines. My favourite was a football (soccer) game where all the metal men had little crochet jumpers on.

We also went round the historic boats in the harbour and on the trolley/cable car etc. We tried to go to the Museum of Modern Art but ended up at the Cartoon Art Museum (excellent Keith Knight exhibition) and Textile Museum instead. We cycled out to see the Golden Gate Bridge one afternoon. The rental place urge you to cycle over the bridge and back, but since I am so rubbish at cycling we didn't make it there in time to return the bikes so we just looked from one end.

On the way we stopped to see the Wave Organ, which is on the end of a pier. There's loads of pipes going out into the sea. The tides and waves cause notes to be played. Surreal.

We also went to the Stinking Rose garlic restaurant, which was amazing. How I love garlic.

Big Sur and the Coast

After leaving Santa Barbara we drove up the coast staying in San Luis Obispo and Monteray on the way to San Fransisco. One of the things I really loved about seeing the coast was the pelicans. They look so prehistoric. I spent a lot of time almost falling over backwards while I tried to take a photo of them flying past.

The aquarium in Monteray was really interesting. While we were watching the deepsea tank a shark took a big bite out of one of the smaller fish and then all the sharks started chasing this poor fish until it gave up and was eaten. The other small fish got really jumpy, swimming and changing direction quickly in their school.

The bay itself was full of seals and sea lions, with the odd sea otter and dolphin swimming in the bay.

Further up the coast we saw a group of elephant seals on a beach, who have returned to the coast after many years of absence. They were enormous, with rolls of fat with rippled when they moved. This time of year only the males are on shore.

Big Sur was amazing to see with its massive cliffs, mountains and beaches.

We stopped at a the Nepenthe cafe on the way, which turned out to be owned by Kaffe Fasset and his family. The gift shop had some of his knitted items for sale. I had one of those moments when I picked up something looked at the tag and realised I really shouldn't be touching it at all. $148 for a pair of entralac socks. I daren't even look at the sweaters. I'm sure they are collectors items, but totally not worth it. I can knit my own socks thankyou. I must say while I admire Kaffe Fasset's ability to select beautiful colour schemes I can't say I like his knitwear designs enough to go to the effort. They remind me too much of the 80s.

The reason we stopped at the cafe was because during the recent forest fires the cafe owners had been the only people who refused to evacuate the area. Shortly after leaving we passed the fire site. It is still burning in the back country.

Santa Barbara

Graeme has been away for a long term and so when school finished 2 weeks ago I was finally able to fly out and join him for his final week in Santa Barbara, California (Yey!). All the time he has been there Graeme has been protesting that "It's actually not that warm". Well I can testify that while not being much more than 25 degrees celcius because of the cooling sea breezes and mists, it was certainly warmer than the 12 degree highs we were treated to in the North East the two days before I left. I was finally able to wear my skirts and shorts which I hadn't even bothered to get out of the winter boxes at home.

It was lovely to see Graeme again after so long and I was finally able to see his charming appartment and to give him credit he had put effort into raising it above the "bachelor level of cleanliness" it was advertised as having. I won't go in to any detail but the toilet stopped working properly the day after I got there, which was more than a little inconvenient and I'm pretty sure the landlord was convinced I'd done it. Anyway, here are some of the highlights of the eclectic decor:

• Poodle lamp in the badroom.
  

• Tasteful oriental lamp in the living room.
  

• This exciting plaque of two knights in combat, just outside the entrance.

While G was hard at work I visted all the sights of the city he hadn't got round to. Santa Barabra has no buildings higher than 4 storeys and the ones in the centre are all build in Spanish Colonial revival style using adobe bricks (dried mud bricks) like this.

So, the whole place feels a bit more European than other American cities. The old mission still exists although most of the original buildings were destroyed during an earthquake in the 1920s.

I also visited a couple of knitting shops although the one that sounded and looked most interesting (Loop and Leaf) was shut because the owners had gone on holiday. How inconsiderate. I visited the Knit and Pearl Boutique and had a couple of good chats with the owner. I was chatting so much I forgot to take photos of the shop, which is a shame as it was my favourite one of the trip. I also bought some sock yarn and some yarn to make a jumper for G which has long been promised.

I visited the local craft store which was fairly sole destroying in a Hobbycraft type way but less up market. I made a brief visit to Cardigans, which was a little out of town. This store looked really charming and had a group of ladies who were sitting round and knitting. Maybe I'm just shy but I felt a little bit like I was intruding here. They talked to me a bit, but I didn't really feel like I could sit and knit with them. The shop had a collection of really expensive luxury yarns, including a lot of British stuff. If money and mass were no object I would have indulged, but I didn't want to blow $60 on some Tilly Tomas yarn when I could get a whole lot more for that. So I just bought some sock yarn and left it at that.

Anyway, that was Santa Barbara. I put all the photos from there here, for people (probably just my family really) to look at that.

Coming soon further up the coast and Big Sur!

Close-ups

My parents visited at the weekend, so on Saturday we drove up to Alnwick to visit the gardens there. I'd never been in Summer and was looking forward to seeing everything in bloom. Unfortunately the weather stuck to form and was drizzly in time for the weekend but we managed to get a couple of hours of dry weather to look around.

I recently discovered how to take close up photos with my camera without upsetting the focus so I tried it out on some of the flowers. I'm particularly proud of this one.

I love the colours of these flowers and of the lupins.

In the grease...

I've been pretty rubbish about posting on my blog recently (well so my mother keeps telling me), but it's more to do with wanting to be doing things other than sitting at the computer than not having anything to write.

A few weeks ago a kind colleague of my mum's gave me the fleeces from her 8 jacobs sheep, which she usually burns. They're now sitting in my garage in sacks. Noone else seems to want to take any off my hands and I was at a bit of a loss as to how to tackle this huge pile. I don't mind washing the fleeces but I hate carding fleece and so hardly ever make time to do it. On a rainy weekend two weeks ago I decided to have a go at spinning it in the grease.

I wanted to see how the yarn would come out and be able to knit a tension square and see how it washed. So I span two singles, plied them and washed the resulting skein a couple of times in washing up liquid and hung it on the line. I started off knitting a large tension square which was potentially to become a bag. Because the wool is jacobs it is relatively corse, but I was surprised that it didn't itch me that much. The square got a bit out of hand and I started to take a fancy to the colouring so the strip turned into a sleeve.

Now I have two sleeves and the bottom half of the back. I'm spinning as I knit which gives me a nice combination of activities and there's something pleasing about taking handspun and knitting with it straight away. Unfortunately this is barely making a dent on my pile of fleece but it's a start. I'm thinking I might try some 4 ply next and crochet something householdy. Maybe some table matts.

Weddings and Wool

I've had a very busy weekend, managing to fit in both a wedding and some spinnging and wooly goodness.

Fiona's wedding was lovely and she looked stunning. Here she is looking like a model from a wedding magazine.

It was wierd going on my own. At one point, when the drinks were coming round, I even looked round to see where G was. Too much champagne.

I also made it to a bit of Woolfest. 2 hours of running round stalls. I didn't buy much but it was really good to see other people's ideas. I ended up talking to a wood turner and his wife who are restoring a wheel just like mine. It turns out to be a Finnish wheel. Mine has been stripped back but the spokes and mother of all would have originally been green and the edges of the wheel and board would have been white with patterns combed into them. It was made pre-1950 from pine (it is Finnish). They're going to send me a photo when they've finished restoring it. So the wheel is no longer a mystery. It's really hard to see the colours on this one, but you get the idea. It's like the big sister of mine which is a small and fast lace wheel.

Construction

I know I'm not on my own in saying that I seem to have lost my knitting mojo at the moment. I don't feel motivated by any of the projects I have on the needles. I tried casting on some new things but progress is incredibly slow. I don't know if this is due to a general inability to sit down and properly relax while G is away, or because while the weather is sunny and beautiful I always feel like I should be doing something else.

At the weekend I took some kids from school to take part in the Creative Construction Competition at Newcastle University. As well as the kids taking part the teachers had to form groups and build a structure for a temporary disaster shelter. Here's my group's being tested.

Shortly after this, when the final weight was put on making 15 kg, the string broke. Meaning our structure is stronger than a piece of string. We beat the kids anyway, which is the important thing.

Afterward Lucy and I pooled our resources and had a barbecue. Better than my last attempt, which left us trying to toast marshmallows on one glowing ember. This time the fire was so hot I managed to change most of the spare ribs into charcoal, but we did some first class marshmallow toasting.

Wallpaper

Over the past few weeks I have been decorating our spare room and finally finished yesterday by putting up wallpaper on one of the walls. I've never done it before and all turned out well so I am feeling very proud of myself. It hasn't fallen off during the night or anything. Today I will be making a forray into the more familiar world of flat-pack furniature.

One of the things I didn't mention about my trip to Sheffield was going to see the Mikado on Tuesday Night at the Lyceum by the Carl Rosa opera company. The performance was excellent and was topped off with the entrance of Sylvester McCoy as the Mikado. I couldn't help giggling to myself and thinking 'it's Dr Who'. I don't get out much.

Mini Holiday

I decided to enjoy my half term holiday by spending a few days with my parent's in Sheffield. It's been really nice to relax. I got chance to see a few old friends. We drove up to Wentworth and visited Wingham Wool Work and Elsecar Heritage Centre, where we got to see this train.

We got chatting to one of the railway volunteers and got a private tour of the warehouse. I got to climb into the cabin of one of the trains, a Sentinel, which had a vertical boiler. This is quite unusual apparently, but it didn't look very efficient to me. Each shovel of coal had to be lifted and dropped into the stoke hole.

I tried not to buy too much at Wingham because I wanted to save myself till WoolFest, but it's nice to have something to spin before then. I did get this very soft 100% wool sock yarn, which I am knitting using the Hedera pattern from Knitty.

I managed to finish the RPM socks, which I am wearing as I write. The pattern wasn't too challenging, although I did make a minor alteration, originally by mistake. I decreased 1 stitch at the end of the 1st round and this means you can knit continuously k6 p3, without having to worry about what to do when you reach the end of a row. A pinkphish pointed out you could have pleasingly symmetrical socks if you increased one stitch on the second sock, forcing the spirals to go round the other way.

I know this seems bonkers bearing in mind the 2 unfinished jumpers I already have on the needles but I cast on a jumper using two strands of the 4 ply crepe I inherited from Graeme's Aunt. I needed something easy to knit and I really do need more jumpers. I'm using the Flower Power pattern from Stitch 'n' Bitch Nation, without the flower. I might change the neck or do some short row bust shaping on the front. I haven't quite decided yet.

I also managed to write 120 reports while at my parents. I now only have 75 more to write in the next 2 weeks. Today it's off home to the decorating. I'll leave you with a picture of my parent's pond in the bank holiday sunshine.

Lots of gardening but no knitting.

Despite it being relatively cold yesterday (13°C) it was lovely and sunny so I decided to devote some time to the garden. Rather than looking like a shallow grave (Graeme really has gone on a work trip) it now looks green and promising. You'll notice in the photo below that I'm not being organic about it. I don't feel like I have time at the moment to hand pick slugs from my plants.

On Saturday, motivated by the special offers, I made a trip to Woolaballoo in Crawcrook. I really like the shop, although they are still building up their stock so it doesn't have everything but the range of sock yarn is quite good and I'm happy to support any small independent yarn shop since we have so few.

I also made an attempt to recreate a delicacy I know from my native Sheffield, Derbyshire oatcakes. They came out a bit thick. I've been trying to do this on and off for years and this is the closest I've got so far. I think I need to try and find some fine oatmeal. I good sustitute for the mean time anyway.