Knitting update

This is the first of the pair of slipper socks for my nephew's birthday. Only took me a week to knit it, which I thought was good going! The pattern is from Sensational Knitted Socks, and it's DK 100% wool on 3mm needles.

And I had to wait to post a picture of these, which I made last month. I have been busily knitting away on various projects, but most of them can't be revealed at the moment!

The pattern is Polka Dot Bootees and Hat by Zoë Mellor. It's in the book "Adorable knits for tots". Although I didn't use the polka dots this time, just stripes! The yarn is Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. This is for the baby of someone at knitting group, who is due at Christmas. We gave her presents at knitting group tonight, even though the baby isn't here yet! First time I've participated in a "baby shower".

Garden at the beginning of November

Hmm, slight problem. I now don't see the house/garden in daylight on week days. This was my attempt at Garden on the first of November using the flash. But you can't see much out there.

[Incidentally, when the clocks went back last weekend - I remember the days when this was Wildly Exciting because if you were having a sleepover you had an extra hour in which to watch videos. Now that I am ancient it means an extra hour of sleep.]

And the garden this weekend. So we're still in the first week of November, anyway. Again, not a lot has changed. We're having unseasonally warm weather - it's still been in the high teens temperature- wise most of the week, and is only going to be dropping to 14-16°C this week. No sign of a frost yet and it's November! The leaves haven't really changed colour that much either, they've just fallen off, so it hasn't been much of an Autumn. There were leaves all over the lawn earlier that day, but the OH cleared them all off before he took the picture!

We have been doing exciting things in the garden though. We got rid of this HUGE buddleia and two yew trees as they were stopping anything growing around them and were a bit too close to the house. The buddleia must have been planted by the previous owners of the house and hadn't been pruned back in goodness knows how long, so, although it flowered, it flowered at about roof height, which isn't great for seeing the flowers or the butterflies!

Amazing what a difference it makes! I've planted three pyracanthas (in red, orange and yellow) there, and the Silver Hedghog Holly we bought on my birthday instead, plus moved the ceanothus over to that side of the garden too as it had got too big for its original place. I've also planted lots of daffodils, tulips and crocuses here too. The idea is for the pyracanthas to grow up the wall, providing lots of berries for the birds to eat through the winter.

 The ceanothus was bigger than me. We bought it on honeymoon and it was a tiny little thing in a pot, which easily fitted in the footwell in the car then. It would fill the entire car now!

That seems to have taken up most of the weekends recently. It's surprising how fast the time goes when you're outside gardening.

This week I also paid a visit one evening to the Women's Library, in the East End, for a talk and tour. It's a really interesting place and well worth a visit or a look at their website. Their current exhibition is "All work and low pay - the story of women and work".

I also paid a quick visit to Carlyle's House, which is now shut for the winter, but I got to see behind the scenes! ;-) It was most fun and I'm planning a trip back there when it re-opens next year. I have actually been meaning to visit it since 2006, when I read "The Carlyles at home" (published by Persephone Books) but have never managed to get myself organised to go.

One of my nephew's slipper socks is now finished, I'll post a picture later this week when I can do a knitting update!

Cambridge, and some knitting

It probably seems like we've been zooming around the country a bit. We haven't really, it's more that it's taking me a while to update the blog so it looks like we're travelling around in a short space of time!
Last weekend we went to Cambridge to visit some friends of the OH's. It's somewhere I've visited many many times before, but we went to two places I hadn't been to before.

The first was the Sedgewick Museum of Earth Sciences. We dropped in here on the way to somewhere else, but had enough time to have a look at some very groovy dinosaurs, including an Ichthysaur found in Lyme Regis, as I read about in that novel earlier in the year! There was also a display about Mary Anning, as featured in the same novel.
This is a model of the skeleton of an Iguanodon.

The icythyosaur on display.

A display case about Mary Anning.

 And a giant deer, which became extinct about 10000 years ago and is presumably a friend of the one we saw at Warwick Museum in June?

After that we ventured on to wander round the University Botanic Gardens. We bumped into Caught Knitting en route to the Botanic Gardens, who looked very surprised to see me wandering around in Cambridge!

I think I liked the glasshouses best, especially the bananas!

 I started up a craft group at work this week, which seems to have gone well - 17 people interested, which meant we didn't fit in the room I'd planned to hold it in! I've also done some knitting that I can actually blog about. I started off a pair of slipper socks for my nephew's birthday in December. I'm using the blue variegated King Cole superwash DK 100% wool I got in York, on 3mm needles, so had to do a tension swatch.

 I'm pleased with the way the fabric worked out - nice and thick and squooshy, which should be good for slipper socks. So I cast on a pair of garter rib socks for him last night. The pattern is from Sensational Knitted Socks, which I've used before and enjoyed as it goes quite quickly and is extremely easy to remember.

York (part 2)

So, it's a month since we were on holiday in York, so this is just a round up of what we got up to.

We left these two in charge of the house.

We stayed at a cosy little flat, about 15 minutes walk from York Minster. It doesn't have such a dramatic setting as some cathedrals, but is still pretty cool! This shot was taken from the city walls, which we walked all the way round.

Inside was very impressive too.

Although some bits gave me vertigo.

We did a day trip up to Newcastle on the train to see my BIL, who had very thoughtfully researched some wool shops to visit. This is Wooly Minded in the centre of Newcastle, which had a nice range of affordable yarn.

And did some wandering around Newcastle, admiring the views.

Before heading out on the Metro to Segedunum, where Hadrian's Wall starts and there are remains of a Roman fort. Amusingly the Metro signs at Wallsend station are in Latin!

After exploring the fort and indulging in a scone or two, we travelled on to Whitley Bay, where there was another wool shop (Ring a Rosie), which was about to shut as it was 5pm, and some lovely views over the bay.

We spent another day exploring Castle Howard, which had big display about the filming of Brideshead Revisited, and extensive grounds to get lost in.

Back in York, we enjoyed the York Castle Museum, including the Victorian Street, which we had virtually to ourselves.

And next door, Clifford's Tower, which had a LOT of steps to climb.

One day we headed over to the coast to see some friends. This is Flamborough Head, where I did my GCSE geography coursework many many years ago. There were lots of stairs here too. I fell off the bottom one and landed very gracefully on my bottom on the sand, which the OH thought was hilarious.

And there were TWO wool shops in the centre of York, in streets very close together. I visited both Poppy's and Ramshambles (see below) and liked both of them. They have different stock so it's worth a trip to both.

And these are my purchases (I also visited Gillie's fabric shop,, a short walk from the two yarn shops). Mostly for Christmas presents so I can't reveal more at the moment!

Phew, think I'm all caught up with blogging now, which is good as I'm back at work tomorrow.