The house is calm…..

The food shopping was completed a few days ago this year.. Just as well as I decided to fall over and have spent the last few days with my knee elevated and iced with anti inflammatory tablets! Back to driving today.

A lot of my Xmas activities with my mam didn’t quite go to plan. She had a viral cough then a spell in hospital, but all is well now. Yesterday we went out for a Christmas lunch at one of the local pubs and we managed to do all of food shopping in one swoop last week 😳

We even managed to get back to south shields and see the folks in the community centre cafe that they love chatting to.

And I finally completed my Xmas top, shortened the pj bottoms for mam and made her a Xmas top and warm culottes..

Mines a loose t shirt type top made from French terry. I adapted a pattern altering the neck and lowering the front. I’m very pleased with it, but next time I’ve a another minor adjustment I’d like to make to the neck.

I’ve got an overlocker for Christmas so I’m quite excited about learning how to get to grips with that.

My goal after Christmas is to make a shell top and bottom to fit my body so that I can construct a block as well as pad my dressmakers dummy out to my shape

My second goal is to use some of the scraps I’ve accumulated! I’ll probably start with some new face wipes, kitchen roll and kitchen scrubbies. Plus a couple of neck rolls with my stretch fabric scraps.

I’m still using up yarn that’s been in the stash for ages and making progress with the cardigan. All the pieces are knitted and it’s ready for some joining so that I can pick up the borders… But not until after Xmas now! Unless my fingers start to itch!

Today is Xmas Eve and there’s a few foody preps to do. Yesterday I made cranberry sauce and all the layers for my layered veg tart. This afternoon the vegetable tarts will be constructed and cooked ready for re heating tomorrow. Plus an apple frangipane and the meringue and poached pears for the Christmas ring pavlova are on the cooking agenda today!

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/grow-your-own/recipes/pear-and-ginger-pavlova

Wishing everyone and very Happy Christmas ❤️

How difficult is this!!

Having a ‘mare of a time with a new knitting pattern… And it’s about to pulled out and hat pattern attempt MK III will begin tomorrow!

MK III was a bust too, so out it comes… Slightly better tha the previous attempt with less mistakes and neater increases and decreases, but just doesn’t look like the pattern!

Instead, I’ve returned to my trusty favourite slouchy hat and it’s finally complete!

The original reason for knitting this hat was to compliment a neck warmer we bought as a Xmas gift when we visited Scotland earlier in Autumn. The pattern I chose happened to used two yarns to make it aran weight. So I picked out colours that I felt co ordinated well with the neck warmer. I’m quite pleased with the overall effect, maybe could be less blue 🤔

Kefalonia

Hooray! A week into our holiday. This year because of the flight times, we decided to hop around the island a little and started up in Fiscardo for three nights. Stopping off to view the lovely Myrtos beach. The days were spent exploring the local country and beach walks including the venetian lighthouse and visiting Foki beach.

Balhambra suites

Fiscardo marina

Myrtos beach

Fiscardo marina

Foki beach

Last Friday we travelled down to Katelios with little stops at Agios Effimia, Sami and Poros. All ports or fishing villages, all pretty and interesting in their own way.

Agios Effimia

The weather has been a bit hitty missy in Katelios. Lots of rain and cloud in the mountains and a few hours down in the bay. But it hasn’t stopped us getting out and about exploring the local area, in fact the more temperate feel has made our walks more pleasant ie less sweaty 🤣

Today is our last full day here in Katelios, and thunder and lightening are in the weather forecast, we will see how the morning unfolds, as in my experience, back home the same weather forecast is far worse than here!

Ano Katelios church

We’ve been to Kefalonia several times but the earliest was in June up until now. One of the most delightful surprises for me at least was the amount of flowers in bloom. Not just the gardens but in the fields along the road sides and just about in any nook and cranny they could fit into… Clearly theres not a lot of pesticides etc used on the island and the farmers seems to have a healthy respect for their environment.

Tomorrow we are going up into the hills above Skala in the area of Old Skala. For those that don’t know Kefalonia well, it sits on a fault line and has many tremors but in 1953 they had a massive earthquake which destroyed most of the island. As far as I’m aware the only places left intact were Fiscardo and Assos up in the North of the island. Old Skala like most Greek villages was up in the hills and abandoned, now the town is down on the plain between the mountains and the bay.

And on a knitting theme. When I started knitting socks I decided to bring some with me. And I do enjoy a few lines or two

Sock wool I’ve had for years

A little bit of knitting too

I often spend my evenings with a pair of knitting needles or similar being worked in my hands. Lately my eye has turned to the quick fix knitted covers I rushed up 3 yrs ago when me and Fredcat came to live with the other half at the beginning of lockdown. Although they served their purpose at the the time, they’re a bit tatty now. So I dug out my favourite gansey throw pattern and bought old gold aran yarn and have finally completed a throw for the big pouffe.. This was my 4th gansey project and I still have to follow the pattern line by line, as experience has taught me I could be taking back quite a few lines and with 176 stitches on the circular needle… I definitely prefer not to!

Work in progress now complete

I’m so pleased with it, I’ve decided to started on pouffe cover number 2. This time in burnt orange 😊

Summer!

Well, it’s June, so it must be summer, but the weather doesn’t seem to know that. We’ve had really poor late spring weather, with temperatures at 13C over the past few weeks. Plus, the April showers have definitely been present in May! But, it’s brightening up towards the weekend, so fingers crossed. Ironically, pre covid, we would go off for our main holiday in May for three weeks, usually greeted on our return by everyone telling us what unseasonably warm weather they have had when we were away! Be warned, we are going away for three weeks in September this year, so no doubt we will have an indian summer!

The plants are all in, the seedlings are potted on and the little tomato plants are furiously trying to grow, even the over winter cabbage and cauliflower appear to be maturing, finally. Not much left to do, other than hope that the weather forecast is correct and let the plants have a dose of heat and sunshine.

I’ve been tidying my back garden with my son who still lives there and when we were sadly, getting rid of a plum tree that after 11 years, still hasn’t produced any fruit, I disturbed the resident frog. I’d forgotten that we’ve always had frogs in the garden. I tend to leave pots lying around that fill up with water and they seem to find little hiding places under bricks etc. It has always been in the same corner of the garden too, it must be a damp spot. Even though I’ve temporarily and accidentally evicted him, next week we will bring back the water and some housing for him to go back to if he wants. At least there’s not a resident cat to torment him for the first time in years, as Fred the Fearful is living with me and my partner.

I’ve finally blocked my loose top made from 4 rectangles of wool knitted on oversize needles to create a loose tension. I love the colour, it co-ordinates well with my culottes that have china blue pattern on them. I don’t think wool is the right type of yarn for this garment, I think a tape or cotton type of yarn would give it more structure. I’ve blocked it before making it up and blocked it again after making it up. It took forever to dry. I definitely could have knitted it in a smaller size, even though it’s meant to be oversized. I think I will pick up stitches around the neck and sleeves and have a few knit rows similar to the hem, to give it more of a boundary or structure.

I had a few random cotton yarns left over from knitting reusable face wipes, and after a great deal of online searching, I found a website which had more of the colour that I have chosen for my next rectangular top. This time I’ll knit it in a smaller size and with it being a cotton yarn, I expect it to keep it’s structure well.

In the meantime, I’ve started sock knitting again. My son loves 100% woollen hand knitted socks and I’ve surplus drops alpaca to be getting on with. I know he wants me to knit a few pairs of socks in black…. they will definitely be a summer knit, when the light is better for my poor eyes. Good job I kept a record of the rows to knit for his size. There is a lot of ease in this wool and it required adjustments at each stage! But it’s lovely wool, relatively inexpensive and very warm.