Look what I just bought...

...Anyone fancy a Matilda Jane KAL?

The pattern is from ysolda. Isn't it stunning?

So near and yet so far

I’m so tired! And I really mean it. On Monday I actually fell asleep in a meeting at work, not so unusual you might be thinking to yourselves, but I was taking the minutes! After it finished I looked back through my notes and about every tenth line the end of a word drifts off towards the bottom of the page, that roughly matches every time my headed nodded forwards and then jerked back up again as I managed to miraculously wake myself up. They really shouldn’t hold meetings on waste licensing, these things are bound to happen. It has been one of those weeks really, today I made a complete idiot of myself by trying to let myself through the security barriers at work using my train ticket…

Do you every wish that you were a 1950's housewife? I know that it is politically incorrect but I would really like to stay at home cleaning, cooking and knitting. Well some days I would anyway.

I have to apologise because I know that by the time I get home from work I’m even more brain dead, which means that perhaps my posts aren’t the immense works of literary genius that they could be. But to make up for it I’m going to point you in the direction of two blogs that have made me laugh this week. The first is a new one on the UK knitters ring and it is so funny and well written you should check it out (the knitting princess and the pea) and the other is an old favourite with a lot of people but a blog I’ve only recently come across for the first time knit and tonic. It is really funny, especially the poses in the FOs photo albums.

You know that I said I was coping with not having the wool yet to finish my bolero? I lied. On Monday night I actually undid the tension square and tied every scrap of wool I had leftover together (one piece was only two inches long) to try and finish it - and I almost did. Almost being getting to within one inch from finishing. I think I‘m even more frustrated than before. I could have cried.

A proper knitting post

I had a small knitting disappointment over Easter with my Debbie Bliss bolero. I finished the knitting and made up the bolero, I chose some beads for the trim and crocheted about three-quarters of it only to run out of wool.

I am a pretty obsessive person, I’ll admit it. I’m a ‘start something and finish it before you start something else’ kind of girl. So I was momentarily in a state of confusion. I could barely think of anything but getting enough wool to finish the top, I even had knitting dreams. I bet that you all have had those too. Don’t deny it!


Luckily I had this to get me through the anguish!

It’s some Debbie Bliss Pure Silk. I LOVE this yarn. It is so incredible soft I can’t stop stroking it. The drape when it is knitted up is exquisite and the sheen beautiful. I said to Clever Monkey that I don’t want to knit with anything else ever again. He gave me a stern look at this, as to be honest the yarn isn’t exactly value for money…

I’m knitting the wrap-around top from the Debbie Bliss Pure Silk knitting book. It is an incredibly easy pattern to knit. You could do it in your sleep.

Knitting with the actual Pure Silk yarn makes me realise why I had some problems using the wool cotton for the bolero top. In the end I think it looks lovely and the trim really finishes it off but the seaming wasn’t easy and looks a little bit bulky. I think that this is mainly because the drape of the wool cotton knitted up is much stiffer than the Pure Silk which the pattern was designed for and the fronts are knitted from side to side and the back from bottom to top.

I have also made a tiny bit of progress on Lisette. Grrrrr (see left).




By the way check out this lovely cardigan from Debbie Bliss on ‘Janet knits’ ‘Janet knits’.

DIY Wedding

Clever Monkey and I have been married for 6 whole months! To celebrate this wonderful news I’m going to do a whole post about my wedding. I’m sorry I know this is a bit naughty on a knitting blog but everybody I know in real life has heard enough about it.


We got married in mid October last year but it was so freakily hot it was like summer. We had a fairly small wedding (80 people – is that really small, it felt quite big at the time?) I’ll focus on the crafty side of the day to try and keep it somewhat appropriate.



This is my wedding dress, I made it! I hand embroidered lots of daisies on it with tiny diamante in the centres. It took me a long time and lots of experiments to decide on the design but I chose daisies in the end as my Mum had daisies on her wedding dress (which she made!) on her wedding day. I was very naughty as I had only started the embroidery in August which meant that there was less than two months to make up the actual dress. As you can imagine I got pretty frantic.

I made the wedding invitations but I don’t seem to have one left over to show you, obviously they were stunning!

Now we get to the real talent of the day, my Mum did all the flowers - church, bouquets, table decorations and button holes. Don’t they look amazing? I absolutely loved my bouquet, I took a picture home to show my Mum what I wanted and she managed to match it exactly. The roses are grand prix, the boys have Romance roses (I think that is what they were called); Romance roses have the most incredible scent.


My Mum also made the cake (baked it and iced it). Check it out, it matches my wedding dress.

We had the reception in the Royal Clarence in Exeter and I would definitely recommend it, the food was amazing, the room looked like something out of a dream and there is a great view of the cathedral.

It was the best day of my life, I didn’t get stressed at all (very unusual for me). It was just amazing to have all our friends and family together in one place. I am still probably the happiest wife in the world and I bet I always will be. I know - sickening isn’t it?

One more mention with regard to talent, my brother was the DJ and played some great music. He even played So Long, Farewell from the Sound of Music when Monkey and I left for the night!

Catch up

It seems like ages since I last posted anything and I feel suitably ashamed of myself but I have been very busy. My parents came to stay with us on Friday night, which was lovely, and we all went out to a great Chinese restaurant in Leatherhead called Pangs Villa. Mmmmmmmmmmmm tasty! Worth a visit if you live nearby.

Then on Saturday we all went to my brother’s new flat for lunch. We all arrived at one o’clock on the dot only to find that he was still in Sainsbury’s – at least it wasn’t raining, as we waited outside for quite a while. Eventually he came back and we sat down to eat by about 3 o’clock!! We had a great time though, his girlfriend is so lovely and my brother is a great cook. We had lemon and asparagus risotto to start, followed by cod stuffed with olives and served with spinach and roasted tomatoes. Then for dessert we had strawberries, ice cream and chocolate brownies! Now the last item on the list was especially delicious because I have given up chocolate for lent but it would have been rude not to eat it when I was a guest! ;-)

The weekend doesn’t end there, we had Monkey’s parents round for lunch on Sunday and I cooked a roast and another French apple flan.

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is I was very busy! However, I still had time to finish knitting the bolero just need to sew it all together now. By the way I have made a decision I am going to finish knitting my guilt jumper. This is Lisette from Rowan 36 (see photo), I started it months and months ago but I just can’t finish it. I don’t know why, I’m usually a fairly quick knitter but now I am going to bite the bullet and actually finish it…

I made these...

Mmmmmmmmmmmm gratuitous picture of cup cakes. We are having a coffee morning at work tomorrow. We have these periods of organised play fairly frequently in my division; I think it is supposed to increase team spirit. Oh well, I don’t care what it does if we get to eat cakes and gossip!

Anyway, besides creating culinary marvels (they taste good even if the icing is wonky!) what have I been up to? I’ve almost finished my Debbie Bliss bolero - I do wish she would give her knits more whimsical names… I need a nice name to bond properly. I just have one sleeve to go now so hopefully I will be making it up next weekend and starting on a new adventure. I can't be bother to post a picture because it just looks like lots of stocking stitch at the moment to be honest, but as soon as it looks half decent I will give you a peek.

I’m still having difficulty deciding what to do next but I am leaning towards Flirty (Rowan 37), as I have the wool already.



Please knit me into a jumper!!!!!

Does he look a right Charley in this? (No!)

Look I finished Charley from Rowan 37! Do you like it? I knitted it in All Seasons cotton in shade 164 (Dusky). I’m really pleased with it and so is Clever Monkey. Doesn’t my husband look very handsome in it?

I’m glad that I just made my target of finishing by the end of March, in the end it was only the seaming that held me up.

I know that it was meant to be a birthday jumper but I couldn’t resist seeing it on him straight away.

The bolero top is coming on well. I think I might have that finished soon too - well ahead of my end of April deadline. What shall I knit next…?

Congratulations!

This is just a quick post to celebrate the fact that Clever Monkey got promoted at work yesterday. See, he is amazing! Sainsbury's-own Champagne and homemade vegetable curry to celebrate. Does it get any better than this?