Between jobs

I had some annual leave to use up from my old job so I've had a few days at home between jobs, which has been fun, especially as the OH took a week off work as well. I've caught up with some knitting:

I finished off some sleepy socks for my nephew to wear in bed. These have taken about a fortnight, which I thought was pretty good going as I only really knitted them at knitting group and in front of Downton Abbey! They are just plain vanilla socks from the Ann Budd multiple pattern book, using a 52 stitch cast on and took exactly one 50g ball of Regia 4ply tweed sock yarn. It was pretty close as I only had about 10 inches left when I cast off. I have got another ball of this but it seemed a shame to break into it at that point.

It's also fun looking back at my Ravelry stash entry, apparently I bought the yarn in Cambridge in February 2009 when I stayed with Greensideknits and went to the Cambridge ktog one Saturday. Which I seem to recall was around about the time of my first date with the OH!

I've also finished the first of a pair of gloves for the OH, again using the Ann Budd pattern book. Although I've still got to sort all the ends out. This is a boring grey yarn (he didn't want anything remotely interesting) by Rico which I bought last year in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

I have made the Christmas cake, having found the kit I used last year from Waitrose was back again and on sale last week!

And we had a day out to Cliveden, to have a wander around,

 admire the views, marvel at how deep the Thames is at the moment,

 and look at all the pretty leaves in various colours.

Garden at the beginning of September and October 2012

As it's almost November(!) I thought I'd better get caught up with garden at the beginning of the month. Expect many more gardening pictures now I have more time to do gardening from now on.
September:

October:

Possibly the most exciting thing is that the bird feeder is in a different position!

Birthday

Long time no blog! A couple of days after my last blog post I was offered a new job, which I accepted, and I'll be starting it in November. But that has meant a lot of finishing things off, rushing around and I haven't had time to blog since. I have had a fun couple of months though, including wading through mud in Cheltenham, a conference in Sheffield, seeing relatives and even some knitting. The new job is closer to home and also part-time (whooop) so I'll have a lot more time to catch up with garden at the beginning of the month, and knitting projects, as well as the rest of my life.

It was my birthday last week and I had a great day, despite having a cold! The OH took me out for a meal in the evening. Must be a sign of the recession, but we had the restaurant to ourselves.

I had some lovely presents, including new secateurs and gardening gloves, and some sea salt soap from Wales.

A rather funky casserole dish (it looks like one of those cast iron ones, but is aluminium so I can actually lift it!).

And some books.

 Mostly knitting gave me some patterns from my Ravelry wishlist - Liesl (which I've been wanting to make for absolutely ages), the South Seas Stole and Everyone Outta the Pool socks. I can't wait to get started, although I have some more present knitting to finish off first.

And the OH got me a Colin the Chocolate Caterpillar Cake (he tastes great!). Apparently these are a cult item, although I didn't know that!

I have been doing a lot of knitting, most of which I'll blog about soon. The first project was a Beyond Puerperium for my current manager's baby - she'll be going on maternity leave around Christmas but I wanted to make something to give her before I leave the job. I wanted to make it in something special so popped to Liberty's one lunchtime and got some Rowan Wool Cotton yarn. I used Wool Cotton ages ago on a workshop and loved knitting with it then, and I still do now.

I love this pattern - it's in a variety of sizes (the free version, is sized for a newborn), very clearly written and fun to knit. Plus no sewing up! Just a few ends to sew in and buttons to sew on. Highly recommended - I'll definitely be making more of these, especially as I know several people expecting babies at the moment!