Stuck Inside.

Given my current ‘stuck inside’ status looking out at blue skies and sunshine is akin to torture.  Spring is desperately trying to make an impression in the garden and I simply can’t get out there.

My garden is not very big, but I love it.  There is nothing better than coming home on a lovely summers evening and heading out onto the patio to drink tea and relax.  Ok, maybe there are some things better…… but you get the idea.

The thing is, all gardeners will tell you that you don’t get those lovely wonderful relaxing summer evenings surrounded by natures beauty without laying the groundwork earlier in the year (or should that be spadework).

I’m simply itching to get out there and get stuck in, but since I can’t, I’ve been looking back at previous years and making plans.  These are all photos taken in my garden last year.

My garden has gone through quite a few changes in the last 3 years or so.  When I first moved in it was left to it’s own devices for quite a while.  I needed to prioritise my time and the garden was too far down the list for anything beyond keeping the patio relatively weed free.  However as things have been knocked off the list the garden began to crawl up there.

So about 3 and half years ago it was finally time to get stuck in.  The first incarnation of the ‘new’ garden basically involved clearing the debris away that had been building up and removing the 25 leylandii.  I had no idea what possessed the previous occupant to plant these as they were stupidly large for the garden.  Interestingly, I received a letter about 2 months after taking them outs from a neighbours estate agent ‘requiring’ me to remove them as they were damaging her fence.  I replied rather snottily that they had been removed some time ago, that the fence in question was actually mine and in fact was being damaged by one of her trees!

This incarnation of the garden lasted for about a year before version 2 came along.  This involved removing the small lawn at the side of the cottage and putting in a fruit and veg area.

I had never grown my own food before so this was a new venture for me and I loved it.  First in were strawberries.  Remember the dreaming of those summer evenings?  Well in that dream I’m eating freshly picked strawberries (or cherries) hehe……

Unfortunately that’s when it all went wrong again.  Why?  Hmmm…  One word…… Pebbles! That naughty puppy destroyed everything.  She would steal things from inside, chew them up outside and burry them in the veg beds.  Everything was chewed and she even ate a lilac tree!

And so was born version 3 with Alcatraz.  About a third of the patio was screened off with a raised bed and fence forming a doggie area.  The dogs can go out there whenever they want and any precious plants were moved out of the way.  The fence has been raised a few times but currently seems to be containing Pebbles.

This leaves the rest of the garden for me.  But as I sit here gazing out of the window longingly, I can’t help but start to make plans for version 4.  The fruit and veg area could be better organised and I’m sure I could do something better with the front garden.  Just exactly what I’m not sure.  Hmm perhaps rather than seeing this enforced confinement as torture I should view it as plotting and scheming time hehe……

Someone Please Remind Me

Could someone please remind me why I love my dogs?  I mean what is it that convinces me to put up with all the mayhem they cause?

Why am I asking this right now?  Well I’m just recovering from being ill.  In fact I currently can’t even pop the kettle on without having to sit down from the coughing and dizziness.  (But believe me this is a vast improvement on the two weeks I looked like an extra from a Zombie movie)  So you can imagine how overjoyed I was when Pebbles decided to go on the rampage this morning.  There were casualties, my favourite lamp, two duvets, my sanity……

There was also doggie smell making.  I’ll spare you the details as I’m sure you can imagine.  Mind you, the cats were funny at this point, haughtily demanding to be let out the front away from such offensive gases.

So I come back to my original question – why do I love this fur spreading, possession destroying, attention demanding creature…….

Hmmmm….  must be that cute little face and her ability to convince me that her entire world revolves around me.  At least until her next rampage…..

Branching Out…

Recently I decided to have a look back through all the patterns I’ve bookmarked or highlighted as ones I want to try, and came across this one.  It’s a free pattern from knitty.com called Branching Out.

It’s a pretty easy pattern and given how my brain has been befuddled by my sickness I decided it looked perfect.  So I dug out some silk yarn and cast on.

The pattern is free and is in written instructions and chart form.  I’ve been using that chart and it’s really easy to follow.

Like a lot of lace patterns the wrong side rows are all the same (knit the border and then purl the rest) which makes this a 5 row repeating pattern.

Of course you can do as many repeats as you like and my plan is to just keep knitting until I run out of yarn.

Then I’m going to try spray blocking, which I’ve never done before.  Come to that I’ve never tried to block silk either!  I’ll let you see the results when it’s finished.  Unless of course it’s a complete disaster, in which case I’ll pretend it never happened and the scarf doesn’t exist hehe…

Red Rose Cushion

Last year I bought some James Brett Marble Chunky yarn.  I’m a big fan of this stuff although I know it’s not to everyone's taste.  It comes in 200g balls and you get about 320m per ball.  It is an acrylic but I’m a great believer in there being a place for every type of yarn.  In my case the place this was destined for was home decor given the number of beasties I live with.  Jake the dog in particular is partial to a snuggle with a cushion.

So the plan was to knit up some cushion covers and perhaps a throw to go over the back of the sofa.

Well I finally managed to get started (it’s not my fault I was distracted by other pretty yarns….) and thought I’d share the first result with you.

Now at this stage I would like to point out that the actual yarn isn’t the sort of pink normally reserved for highlighter pens.  It’s much more red in real life.  However, given how tired I have been getting from my recent illness, I simply couldn’t be bothered photoshopping to get the correct the colour.  So you’ll just have to take my word for it.

I started by knitting the main cushion envelope with some rib at the ends to help keep it together at the back.  I’ll admit that this took a lot longer than I’d anticipated probably for two reasons :

1. The cushion I was planning to put in there is much larger than I originally thought
2. I’m knitting very slowly at the moment.  Again I’m blaming the recent flu illness.

Once completed I folded it over, sewed it up and voila - a plain cushion cover.

Next I made a much larger version of the knitted flower design that I used for the silk flowers.  I cast on a much longer row (but still in multiples of 6 stitches) and off I went.  The main difference was that I didn’t pull the yarn through after the last row, just cast off as normal.  This allows much more flexibility on the shape of the final flower given it’s size.

Finally this was sewed onto the cushion cover and placed on the sofa so I could see what it looks like.

The whole thing took one 200g ball and above you can see the tiny scrap of yarn left over.  Oh and Jake the dog snuggled straight up to it…

Basket of Yarn

Tomorrow is one of the (roughly) quarterly Saturday get-togethers at Frating in Essex which is organised by people from the local groups.  It’s a fabulous day that involves knitting, cake, spinning, cake, chatting, cake, tea and cake.  Did I mention the cake?

Well unfortunately given my current lergy infected state (I can’t stand for very long without going all faint) I can’t go.  However one of the other ladies has kindly agreed to take some of my yarn along.  Hence my basket of yarn.

I really do like seeing them together like that.  This is mainly sock yarn in BFL and a Merino/Silk blend.  I’ve decided to keep the Alpaca that’s left for myself.  But it doesn’t make up for missing all the cake….

It’s good to have friends

 

For the last 10 days or so I’ve spent more time horizontal being ill than vertical.  Probably something like 98% horizontal when the sun is up and 100% at night.

Like most people I can usually go a few days with the supplies in the house, but this has been just to much.  Fortunately some great friends have been there to help out.  This has included getting tissues for my streaming nose, painkillers etc and in the case of Mr K, dog food for the ravenous beasts.  It was funny watching Jake the dog’s conflicted loyalties, on the one side he wanted to be with his mummy on the sofa, but, on the other side Uncle K had food.  The food (and Uncle K) eventually won but I don’t mind.  Miss C also brought me flowers to help cheer me up.  Seeing them in the kitchen last night really cheered me up so I decided to take some photos to show you.

Unfortunately a small furry person decided to try and help.

But was eventually convinced to move out of the way.

 

Not my best flower shots but you get the idea…..

Thanks guys….. I owe you one.

Do you ever want to be ill alone…?

As a general rule I don’t.  Of course there are exceptions, when you’re in a state and you don’t want people to see you looking like an extra from Shaun of the Dead.  ‘People’ usually includes anyone you fancy but not people who already love you and long term beloved friends.

Recently I’ve been sick.  No let me rephrase that, I’ve been SICK!  In fact I’m still sick.  For the second time in my life, I’ve got the flu.  Not the type where people stagger into work and pretend they have flu, but are so dedicated they’ve come in anyway (that’s a cold) – the type where you couldn’t get yourself out of bed and dressed if your life depended upon it.  Real flu.  The type where you think you’re going to die but you’re just to sick to care…

Fortunately some of my ‘beloved friends’ came over to visit the horrifying apparition I’ve turned into and make sure I have supplies such as soup and tissues.  I can not stress the importance of the tissues enough.  But these friends have lives of their own and can’t be here 24 hours a day. 

Enter the beasts…

Those musical hot water bottles that never go cold have obviously worked out a rota to ensure I’m never alone.

Whenever I wake up(usually from a coughing fit) one of the cats will be there next to me.  When I stagger downstairs to the bathroom I’m accompanied by a dog.  Flops on the sofa, usually because I can’t face the stairs back to bed, involved them all piling on top to form a living fur blanket.

Fortunately I am recovering (if slowly) but even when I was too ill to knit, or care if I was dying, I wasn’t too ill to appreciate a warm furry body next to me, subtly reminding me that I’m not alone…