Garden Party!

Mr J & I were out and about last night at a 'Garden or Gardening' themed party! Some folk had far more imagination than we had when it came to what to wear! We just did a 'Lord Chatterley and the Gardener' combo.He donned cricket sweater, cream linen trousers, boater & made a croquet mallet out of the tent peg mallet, I wore big straw hat, my gardening apron (very handy for mobile phone etc, rather than seed packets & twine) & carried a basket of produce! There must have been at least four Charlie Dimmock's there (of both sexes!)

The straw man was the host!

The weather was fine which was wonderful. Today has turned wet (again!) and we have been sorting through a load of things that we have deemed surplus to our requirements & have decided to try a 'car boot sale' when we return from our holidays. Part of this was a huge pile of photo/ picture frames that we have accumulated & no longer like/want. Some of them contained photo collages of us, dogs and son & heir when he was small. These are quite precious & yet getting tatty as glue has given way & cut photos have curled. Rather than create another storage problem I have spent an hour or so scanning them via Picasa. I will then upload them to Fickr or a Picasa web album to be safely stored in cyberspace until a fresh copy is required. I also found some things that I had forgotten I had done, like making a collage of memories from both Mr J & S&H's christenings!

On the knitting front, Mr J nearly has a new pair of socks, another baby item is nearly finished - a little jacket from the Knitty.com, in Patons DK cotton. It will not get the daisies, it may or may not get a hood -depends if I need another ball of yarn to finish the jacket. Its simple, its white & its quite cute. Its also quite big! The tension was spot on, but its more 3 months than birth or is my memory letting me down? I think my seventeen year old six footer was smaller, but then again he was a 6lb & 3 weeks early arrival! Good job he doesn't read my blog. I would be in HUGE trouble for this!

See earlier posts for what has happened since! I will photo the jacket later. I bought some really cute Beatrix Potter buttons, half price at my LYS 'Sheepish' in Knaresborough. They had a basket of really cute and unusual buttons all reduced because they could no longer get them. perhaps I do need to pop in for another look. We have an excellent haberdashers locally ('Dutton's for Buttons') but when I went to buy some for the little rainbow jacket I had a nasty shock with respect to price! The selection is excellent BUT I could have easily spent as much as I had on yarn, because it required 7 buttons. At least socks and shawls do not need buttons!

just a Gemini?

A number of projects (apart from work, garden & the like) are spinning but in real time & in my head. Its not my fault, I am a Gemini! Bit of an epic post, sorry -its over a week since I last posted & things have moved on.

After considerable kindness in finding me a copy of the EZ baby surprise jacket I frogged it after about 2 hours work! With all the colour & garter bumps it was too busy. I reverted to the EZ February jacket but just let the yarn do the talking & knitted it all in stocking stitch (apart from garter borders). It just needs a rainbow of tiny buttons & a gentle block before I give it to the Mum to be.

Mr J's Mexico socks are beginning to grow again, despite a disaster with my bamboo circulars! End of the magic loop & back to the beloved Britany Birch's! hopefully it will be replaced but I actully prefer 4 needles (except when one goes walkabout!)

I have also finished the Kidsilk Haze wrap (without a border). I liked it without, knitted about 3 inches of border & still liked it without so it is sans border! I like it. There are too many mistakes. Most are not really visible but I know that they are there & as I was blocking it I found a growing hole where the yarn had split or (more likely) I had missed picking up a stitch (or both). Its darned so only I know its there! I have now bought more stitch markers for bigger needles so there should be less mistakes! I would like to buy some 'proper' lace pins & wires for blocking lace knits but where do I find them? I am not even sure what to enter inorder to 'google' for them!

The little number also modelled on Gloria is the start of a 'peasant' skirt I intend to make. It has three tiers! It might be a bit closer to finishing if the weather gave any encouragement! Its not a bad day here today but its not floaty summer skirt stuff -more 'you don't need a thick sweater or wellies!' This will be my first 'dressmaking' for many a year, but encouraged by the creative folk out there in blogland I have borrowed Gloria from my sister, added a couple of inches to my favorite basic skirt pattern (I am not as slender as the student who used to make her skirts & dresses!) We shall see!

I have started my 'big holiday knit'! The holiday is still 3 weeks away but........ I am using the Jaeger extra soft merino wool in a deep rich brown & knitting a prairie shawl from 'Folk Shawls'. The yarn is wonderful! Sooooo soft & buttery! I have changed the lace from a garter stitch to a stocking stitch lace. The border is still garter stitch & I think that is enough garter stitch. I neatened the edges with a slip first stitch routine. It is an easy knit. I know the pattern already so it is good to go!

These are the 'real' projects I am moving between. There is the not to be taken lightly matter of which sock patterns to knit next and, if that's not enough, temptation is placed in front of me from Ireland and Celtic Memory with mentions of little & big Ganseys! Do I take on the challenge of the French Market Bag? What will I knit with the left over KSH? My mind is as turbulent as the River Wharfe at Grassington! On Tuesday we took Year 10 Geographers to start their coursework. Fortunately we were NOT planning to do river studies!

Just an afterthought or two..... now that I have unpacked the shopping following the visit from the Tesco van! We are trying hard to reduce our 'carbon footprint'. We have added two dustbins beyond the back door (cardboard & plastic) as Harrogate do not collect these (they do collect glass. tins & paper), we use the energy saving light bulbs, have stopped leaving stuff on standby, share lifts when we can & now have started using the home shopping service. The nearest Tesco's is a 40 mile round trip. Asda & Sainsbury's are closer, but they are just not Tesco! Not only does it save fuel but it saves time. So far I am impressed, although I did have a few odd orders -1 courgette when I thought I had oredered a kilo, for example. We use online ordering alot anyway for books, DVD's, yarn, more yarn......... John Kirriemuir has written an excellent entry in his blog Silversprite about the value of online shopping for remote communities. John lives on Bernaray in the Outer Hebrides & there are wonderful photos and tales about this gorgeous little island on his blog.

.....oh yes.....I have finished reading Conn Iggulden's 'Wolf of the Plains'.
Its a novel based on the early life of Genghis Khan. When Bernard Cornwall says of a book 'A brilliant story -I wish I'd written it' you know that you are in for a good read! I knew little of Genghis Khan beyond the 'came from the east' stuff & found it to be as it said on the tin 'an epic story'.

Soggy Saturday

The postman returned with some good looking yarn this morning. The Regia 6 ply in crazy colours is for the Baby Surprise Jacket & the Bamboo sock wool is for..... socks..... for me.....! I think the bamboo will be a road trip project when we head for Scotland next month. The next picture is to show how, surprisingly, the garden is surviving the weather. These little patio roses look really vibrant in the dark, rainy weather. Everything in the poly tunnel is thriving -no problem with bolting due to the heat & I have never had so many flowers on one tumbling tomato plant. This is ONE plant!Some are even turning into tomatoes. Ups.. forgot to rotate the photo first!The rain has now arrived in North Yorkshire. Dog & I got VERY wet on our walk when the drizzle turned to heavy rain. Better go and put some fresh washing to dry on the Airer/ round the Rayburn.......!

A long time since I knitted one of these!

Mrs Z's February baby jacket! For a baby geographer yet to be born! Over 17 years since I knitted a baby item & there were few of them then! My sister was the main knitter. She crafted wonderful fine knits, largely from Phildar so I was less inclined (& too kn********) to try. To our horror, both now as 'born again' knitters, all of our Phildar books seemed to have been flung! The issue of the baby surprise jacket has been 'resolved' so I now need to do a little yarn shopping (tough work but.......!!!!!)

I have been playing with the camera on my new mobile phone. As I was due an 'upgrade' I decided to go all out for having one with a great camera so I would always be able to have a camera with me to point & press. The photos on this post are some of the results. I must say I am delighted with it. It is a Sony Ericsson 800i, with 3.2 mega pixel camera! Its OK as a phone too!

The rose is a 'Climbing Arthur Bell' taken before the deluge! Talking of deluge.... yesterday was interesting! As good geographers both, me & Mr J went back out in the rain at tea time to photo and film some of the floods in Nidderdale.

The film clip is of the River Nidd at Hampsthwaite. The pack horse bridge is over 500 years old & the river is in the field!The video clip uploaded to Youtube was also taken on the phone!I have put photos on Flickr & have some 'proper' video footage waiting to be played with. All to appear in a classroom near here in September!

Is summer over? Nothing to do with the weather but because rugby has reappeared in our lives again! Son & heir is to do his first level refereeing qualifications over the next two weeks & starts training with both school and club!

More of a cry for help!

After posting yesterday a few cogs clicked into place & I realised that if I was to knit something for the 'baby geographer' due just after the end of term, then I had better get cracking! I had some reasonably suitable yarn & Elizabeth Zimmerman's 'Knitting Almanac' so have started on the February Baby Sweater which is making speedy progress. The yarn contains too much acrylic for my liking but its a good 'test drive' however..... I would LOVE to knit the 'Baby Surprise Jacket' (in self striping yarn!)designed by the wonderful Mrs Z BUT I can't justify the £35 needed to buy the Opinionated Knitter via Amazon Marketplace - where else can I get the pattern? Soon? I have found a couple of US LYS's that sell paper patterns but I'm not in the US! Does anyone sell a download? Would some kind soul lend me theirs? I will give our local library a whirl but I am not too optimistic.

Not too much knitting but progress is being made!

Not too much happening on the anything front apart from work! The shawl is nearly complete to the border & Mr J still only has one sock -I may cast on the second before we go a watch son & heir play cricket. It seems so long since I cast on the first toe up it is possible I may have forgotten how! Planning ahead the postman bought me something nice this week though! 10 balls of so soft woolly squidgyness. They are for a shawl from 'Folk Shawls' but the exact project has yet to be decided.


There is the difficult question of what knitting project(s) will accompany me to Tiree in five weeks time to consider of course. The new shawl plus some socks I guess. Socks are good for cars and planes and boats (trains too I guess!)
Five weeks to hols means four weeks until school is out for summer -where has this year gone? I had a week to put the big 'Leavers Celebration' for year 11 together as the Head of Year went on long term sick leave. This has become quite an upmarket affair (for the state sector I guess)after the last core exam, with a marquee, band, silly awards & formal final assembly with proper prizes. When the head thanked me (again!) I think I said (through slightly gritted teeth) "I wont say its nothing, because it was about 30 hours work"! Still it was a grand day. The year group are a good bunch & thoroughly enjoyed it. 'Leave well' was what we asked & that's what they did. Now its catch up with the rest of my Year Teams, plan my bit of a new GCSE course & pick up Year 12 after their AS's & start them on A2. They are not 'my' group either but they will be next year as my colleague goes off to have another little geographer!
I managed to get a day out of school and go on a course on 'Academic Coaching'. It was excellent but now I have to work out a programme to introduce it into school, so thats another plate to get spinning!
We have also booked the first of next years holidays! Another ski trip to Bourg St Maurice & 'Paradiski'! This will be the fifth in four years but the first time in mid-winter. The rest have been Easter jaunts.

Not so much to report!

The KSH shawl is coming on nicely. About 8 pattern repeats to go before tacking the border. Its a handy thing to be knitting outdoors -whilst watching cricket on Saturday it got a little chilly after tea so I was able to wrap it around me! Mr J still has only one sock!

The garden has some real colour now & the new bed that we have created by the gate has flowers - the yellow 'Arthur Bell' rose x 3 and 3 white lupins form the centre of the bed & will hopefully withstand wind, dog & balls! Hopefully I can post some pictures this weekend.

The vegetable plot is a tribute to the bean! Runner & four varieties of dwarf bean! Plus beetroot & courgettes & some more salad crops. The polytunnel is a braccia dominated zone. The downside is they might bolt in the heat, the plus is that they cannot be bird or butterfly food!

Sister & her DH arrive today -a long weekend to celebrate my 'significant' birthday on Monday. Hmm ..... not sure how it feels really! They celebrate a half century in cricket! Pity I have to go to work both tomorrow and on Monday!