I've moved

After nearly 12 years of posting and 559 posts, I have finally had enough of Blogger and moved to Wordpress. You can now find me blogging at:

https://daisychains.wordpress.com/

Blogger seems to lack huge amounts of functionality these days, plus no longer has apps available to use on phone or tablet, which seriously hindered my posting now that I have LO. I have used Wordpress for several years in my professional existence and really like what you can do with it, plus I already had an unused blog over there which I used for a joint blogging thing about a decade ago. The time came to resurrect it, and turn it into my blog.

So, thank you for reading my blog over here, and please come and find me in the new place!

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!

Kreativ Blogger

And I got another award! This one is the Kreativ Blogger award. I was awarded it by Victoria, who I "met" when we were both planning our weddings at the same time, and I've been reading her blog ever since. Thank you!

So, the first step is to thank the person who gave you the award. See above!
Second, I have to tell you 10 things that you may not know about me.

1. I didn't know I liked gardening until the last few years. This was a bit of a surprise. It's amazing how few plants I've killed so far.
   
2. I really hate bread and butter pudding. My work canteen produces an horrific creation called chocolate bread and butter pudding, which I think is a waste of good chocolate.
3. I had my tonsils out when I was 27. Which is the only time I've been in hospital.
   
4. I've never broken a bone.
   
5. I used to be horse-obsessed, until my mid-teens. But I've ridden at some point in almost every place I've lived since then, including in Hyde Park in London and in Windsor Park.
   
6. I've lived at sixteen addresses, for time periods ranging from 1 week to 18 years (and, yes, that doesn't count going on holidays, my shortest time in lodgings was a week!).
   
7. I've been a Christian about as long as I've been vegetarian.
8. I think the smell of bacon cooking is one of the most disgusting things on the planet.
   
9. I used to be a cross stitcher, until I got the knitting bug 7 years ago! I still have some cross stitch I never got finished then.
   
10. I've started three knitting groups...
    

Finally, I’m supposed to bestow this award on 6 other bloggers. I think I'd include the ones that I nominated for the Liebster blog award a couple of weeks ago.

So, that was five, so I'd add ShinyNewThing to my list of favourite bloggers. She blogs about all of her crafty pursuits (she is evidently much better at time management than me, and/or a much quicker crafter because she gets a LOT more done than me!). Plus she does crafts that I don't, and I like reading about them.

If any of those people want to do the Kreativ Blogger (don't feel like you have to - it's entirely optional, but it's a fun way of finding new blogs) just follow the instructions above!

I won an award

So, after rather a long week, which started with the burglar alarm going off at 5am on  Monday (don't ask, suffice to say, it wasn't a burglar...), I was delighted to discover on Friday that I've won a blog award!

This is what it said:

Liebster is German for dearest, beloved or favourite. This award is bestowed on blogs with less than 200 followers but deserve more attention.

What a great way to support fellow bloggers you admire!
Here are the rules that come with this award: 

• Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.
• Link back to the blogger who awarded you.
• Give your top 5 picks for the award.
• Inform your top 5 by leaving a comment on their blog.
• Post the award on your blog.

So, first of all, thank you to PixieMum, who gave me the award. She's one of my fellow Archers Listeners, and also a (retired) librarian. So in other words, extremely cool. 


This is my award:

And my five are:


Nicsknots - which is all about her shop selling handmade bags (which are really cool) and Phoenix cards and the things her family get up to. Oh, and chickens! We used to go to knitting group together, back in my former existence in Lincolnshire. Almost all of my knitting bags were made by her.


BlueADT Knits - who I also know, and met absolutely ages ago at the Knitting & Stitching Show at Harrogate, and who does a LOT of crafty things. As well as blogging about her lovely dogs.


KnitYoga - who I met ages ago. I first started following her blog because I admired her knitting expertise, and she has now branched out into various other crafts. I've linked to her old blog, as she is in the middle of changing blogs.


KnittingontheGreen - yet another blogger I've met! She posts a mixture of knitting, books and there was some gardening a while back, all of which I enjoy. Oh, and she's another Archers Listener and a librarian too...


Bleak Midwinter - I haven't met Katarina, but I did do a secret pal knitting exchange with her once several years ago and have read her blog ever since. She does beautiful knitting, and I also enjoy admiring the yarn from a different country...

Salmon fishing

I have bits of half-written blog posts around. I haven't blogged for aagggggeeeessss, life got a bit in the way. Weird how when I had loads of time there wasn't that much to blog about, now that there's LOADS of things to blog about there isn't any time to blog...


Anyway, I was going to review some books, but instead I'll just mention them a bit:
August's reading group book was Paul Torday's Salmon fishing in the Yemen
which I highly recommend. It really is as crazy as the title suggests - who in their right mind would think of going salmon fishing in the Yemen is the whole premise of the book. The story is told from a number of points of view, using a variety of diary entries, email conversations, narrative, letters etc, which I found straightforward to follow but I suspect some readers might not like the jumping around? It's about daring to believe that the impossible can really happen, with some swipes at politics and mad corporate worlds thrown in too. That also makes it sound deadly serious, which it isn't. It's highly amusing in parts, and also very sad in parts. But I think you have to read it for yourself!

I've also read:
Maggie Sefton A killer stitch another of her knitting mysteries. Not serious reading but a lot of fun.
Patrick Gale The whole day through Again, highly recommended. I love Patrick Gale!

Knitting-wise, I've finished one nephew jumper and nearly finished the other one. Still part way through the Owen socks, then I started Iron Knitter, at which I proved to be a total failure due to lack of time and didn't even complete the first round! Plus my knitting got exterminated by a dalek, which didn't help...

I haven't blogged for so long Blogger has changed the way you upload photos!
This is the yarn I bought at Norfolk yarn on holiday - 900g of Araucania Toconao at half price. It's gorgeous, 100% wool aran weight, all squooshy and soft and I'm thinking about making Amused by Jordana Paige with it.

Then I discovered that FOUR people I know are expecting babies in February or March. Is there something in the water? Haven't started any baby knitting yet but I'm going to have to soon.

A lot of time suddenly disappeared when I discovered that Bloglines, which I've been using to follow blog updates for the last five years was closing on 1st November and I had to shift all my blog subs over to Google Reader. It did give me a chance to go through them (and realise how many people have stopped blogging!) but it seemed to take forever....

We have been doing a lot in the garden. The huge and diseased buddleias have disappeared...

 To be replaced with a nice bit of empty space. I am gradually working my way along the raised bed with the "no dig" method I read about - you put some cardboard on top of the soil, pile compost from the compost heap on top of it and spend the winter drinking tea and eating chocolate in the warm whilst the worms do all the hard work of breaking down the cardboard and mixing the whole lot together.

And a friend of ours gave us two apple trees as a (deliberately) belated wedding present as it is only now the right time to plant new trees. They haven't been delivered yet, but this a picture I took when we went to choose them at the plant centre at the Royal Horticultural Society gardens at Wisley. One is an espalier to go against the back wall, the other a standard shape to go in the lawn.



I think that's all for now. Hopefully it won't be so long before my next blog post, still haven't blogged about more of the books I've read and some of the knitting! I got horribly behind with reading people's blogs whilst transferring all my blog subs over but have been trying to catch up with commenting.

Time

  I've been juggling things around a bit. When I first started reading people's blogs and blogging myself (my first post, a fuzzy photo of some Adriafil Stars yarn, seems to have been towards the end of May 2005), way back in the dim and distant past of five years ago (where did that time go?!) I used to read blogs over breakfast before setting off on an endless journey to the back of beyond, not to return for several days. Now, seven house moves, one job, two ex-boyfriends, lots of books and an enormous quantity of knitting later life is a bit different. I go to work on the train. I rarely get up in enough time to catch the train without running around like a mad thing. I no longer read blogs over breakfast. I used to write my blog on Sunday afternoons, but now I do things like gardening then instead.

  And I miss reading blogs. I hate missing out on what people are doing, especially as I've been fortunate enough to meet many of the people whose blogs I read. My latest approach is to try reading blogs during my lunch hour. I used to go for a walk then, but the latest house move has ensured I now spend 50 minutes a day walking to and from the station, so there's no need to be energetic at lunchtime too. It doesn't work if I've run out to the Post Office during lunch, or gone to get some shopping, or gone into town to meet the OH for lunch. I've been through the usual slightly existential melt-downs about whether to carry on blogging etc and reached the conclusion that I enjoy blogging, and I enjoy reading other people's blogs, and I still want that to be part of my life. Soooo, here we go....

Knitting-wise I've finished the body of Thermal, and have been knitting away on the first sleeve. I started off with the smallest size sleeve, as the body is the smallest size, but the sleeve seemed really tight, so this is progress so far two sizes up from that. It fits, but still quite snuggly, and I'm not sure if I'll have enough yarn to do both sleeves this length. I'm considering starting the second sleeve, but casting on more stitches and making it more of a 3/4 length, then trying on the first sleeve and the 3/4 one and seeing which I like best. I've had a look on Ravelry but haven't found anyone else having sleeve problems.

I am beginning to get slightly bored with the stitch pattern...

Staines Knitting Group is going from strength to strength. We now have 27 members on Ravelry and, although we've never had more than 8 people at the pub at any one meeting, it seems to be very popular and we're now meeting 5 or 6 times a month (we're having a weekly meeting, plus a once-a-month Sunday afternoon one). Sarah has even been teaching Cat, the barmaid, to knit.

I'm amazed at the difference it makes to the week, I spend all of Tuesday looking forward to getting to the pub to meet up with the others. It makes the first two days of the week at work a lot easier to get through with knitting group to look forward to.

House-wise we have finished unpacking! Just don't open any cupboards... I have put all my stash in my old wardrobe, so it's all in one place, the first time ever I've had it in one place!

 We've been busy with the garden too. The OH has been attacking the lawn with moss killer with a vengeance. I've been emptying the old containers (left behind by the previous owner) and refilling with new compost and planting things. The previous owner was quite elderly so I'm not sure when the containers were last looked at, but the soil inside was extremely compacted - I ended up bashing a hand fork in with a mallet to loosen the soil a bit!

I did these three first. One has now been planted with Aubretia, the other two with fuchsias I got from a special offer in the Guardian. They do slightly mad, "order 5 plants get 300 more free!!" type offers. But it seemed a good way of filling some containers. Only the fuchsias have arrived so far, but I've got lavender, penstemons and a hydrangea on the way too.

Think that's all for now!