I’m knitting a hat – for Daisy???

I wasn’t joking when I said I was going to knit a bobble hat.   It’s Gabby’s fault.  I saw her sporting this hat at one of the 6 Nations rugby matches and wanted one myself, with a big fluffy feathery pompom atop.

So I got busy, found this pattern on Ravelry and a ball of Stylecraft Life DK in Mixtures Denim in the local yarn shop.

I even knitted up a gauge swatch and from this I decided I needed to go up half a needle size, cast on and started knitting.  (I did continue knitting the swatch in the larger needle size to be sure).

But it looks suspiciously small to me.

Very small indeed!  More of an ear warmer than a hat

I cajoled my knitting assistant into trying it on for me, and guess what – it fits her.  Not that she’s impressed, and neither am I for that matter.  It’s never going to stretch enough to fit my head.

I’ve double checked my gauge, and whilst row wise it’s good,  7.5 rows to the inch (not sure how you knit or measure half a row) …

… stitch (width) wise, it’s quarter of an inch smaller than it should be (5 stitches to the inch).

Now I’m wondering dear readers, when measuring swatches, should you stretch rib out a little, or measure in it’s unstretched state – I must have stretched it a little when measuring.  I did cast on more than the 5 stitches and knitted more than 7.5 rows, but I think I should have cast on twice as many stitches for the swatch than I did.

You know what I’m going to be doing this afternoon – yep unravelling and knitting another larger swatch to try and get the needle size right.   

But at least this was successful.  I made a wheat bag yesterday.  I’ve added a couple of handfuls of lavender to the wheat – it’s very comforting when warmed up in the microwave and placed against aching muscles and smells lovely.

Jane & Daisy xx

PS, someone got rewarded with a biscuit for being such a lovely patient model.

Dreary …

… well at least it would be if it weren’t for this

little beauty sitting on my kitchen window sill.  This was how it looked on the 1st February.

This is today – the kitchen smells wonderful, and I’m just so glad to have a little colour around on such a dark, grey, dreary day.

Beautiful isn’t it?  I bought both my hyacinth pots from Morrisons in January when they were £1.00 per pot (they were not on offer).  A couple of weeks ago they were £2.50 per pot and today they are half price at £1.50.  Hmm they seem to have some difficulty on deciding what to charge.  Shame really as I was going to get some more.   I dread to think how much of this yoyo pricing is happening to my weekly shop.

Anyways, I must awaken my sleeping companion, leave the warmth of the wood burner and brave the cold for our daily walk.  At least it’s not raining today!

Jane & Daisy xx

Spot the dog …

Can you see her?  I must admit that during the time of pointing the camera in the right direction, zooming in and clicking the shutter button she had disappeared from sight. Or so I thought!

We’ve not long returned from our walk and it’s snowing again.  Daisy loves the snow on the ground.  Everything seems more exciting and the smells left behind by other creatures are either stronger, or more puzzling or both.

Have you spotted her yet?

 I even managed to film a bit of video of her this morning enjoying herself.  You can find it here

Yes, daft Daisy is here, she managed to get herself down into the field ditch, and was struggling to get herself out, but she managed it after a couple of attempts.  ”Well it’s not easy when you’ve only got little legs and she’s too busy with the black box thingy hanging around her neck to come and help”

Keep warm and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Jane & Daisy xx

Hmmm …

… I’ve finished the Thermis cowl, but

it’s very loose and floppy and I don’t need to undo the buttons to slip it over my head.

Why is that?  Is it because I’ve used a cotton yarn instead of wool?  I would much rather use wool as it always knits up so beautifully, but I know I won’t wear it because of the itch factor.  I used the recommended size 4 mm needles, although admittedly I didn’t do a tension swatch, tsk, but decided to dive straight in and kit up the small/medium size.  The pattern calls for worsted weight which I assume is double knit weight, which this King Cole yarn is (I get easily confused over weights what that transfers into, ie DK etc).  The pattern is available on Ravelry here so you can see how it’s supposed to look.

After it’s first wear earlier today, it seems to have stretched wider across the top band of rib.  My knitting is usually tight rather than loose, but the rib seems to be very loose to me.  I’ve been using youtube tutorials from Very Pink Knits and found this film about  tension on the website which I hope will help.

I must say I really like the waffle pattern, I’m just disappointed with the outcome.  Can you help dear readers with this one?  Should I unravel and reknit on smaller needles, concentrating on tension whilst doing so, or should I undo the top band of rib and knit up on smaller needles in an attempt to bring the top edge in a little tighter.

On a brighter note, Daisy had a visit to the dog parlour last week and although it’s turned cold and snowy, she doesn’t seem to be too bothered about the loss of her shaggy outer coat.  This is where she spends a lot of her time, when not stretched out in front of the woodburner

snuggled up on her blue fleece blanket across the back of the sofa!  I just love how sweet and cute she looks against the blue.

I’m going to spend some time now on my needlepoint panel which is destined to become a cushion some day.

Jane & Daisy xx

Daisy’s got the honky!

Well after feeling decidedly rubbish over Christmas and New Year with a strange virus, I got up yesterday morning feeling much better and really excited about the new year ahead.  (I know I know, late to join the party, again)

This rather strange manic looking creature was Daisy’s new Christmas toy. We called him Honky because he makes a honking sound instead of the usual squeak.

Here are the rest of her toys…

there’s Monkey (who has lost an arm), Chookalook who makes a strange gobbling noise, Pingo, Snowy (new this year), and Bunny lying across the front.   Dolly the orange reindeer is missing from the line up. These toys are lovingly played with on a regular basis, and have had to be restitched on many occasions.  Daisy loves to take them outside for a walk (which can sometimes include being buried) in the garden before bringing them back in through the flap.  Occasionally we’ll find one left under our bed, or out in the garden overnight, but generally they live in the sitting room and have to be put back into their basket every night by ME!  Should have trained her to tidy up – is it possible to teach an old dog new tricks?

After less than a week of playing with Honky (her new favourite) he ended up like this …

There has been a lot of carrying limp Honky round and nudging him to try and make him honk, to no avail. (We had to remove the honker – it’s a piece of tube attached to a plastic bag)

Needless to say, we spent several days picking up little bits of discarded stuffing!

But Honky now looks like this …

Honky was destined for the bin, but someone was so disappointed I had an idea.  Two days ago I got my unpicker out, removed Honky’s head from his body and made him a new body from some fur fabric, restuffed him with the discarded stuffing, put the honker back in.  The excitement, Daisy could hardly bear to let me finish stitching him up.  So now she has her new favourite back in honking order!  The things I do for this dog.

I’ve also finished knitting the mitts

Handed Yes, Fingered No which were a nice quick, easy knit and a free pattern to boot.

You can find my notes on Ravelry were I go as Janiec.

I’ve also finished knitting the Honey Cowl, (another free pattern) I did the short version knitted from Colinette Cadenza which I can’t wear – it’s wool, sob!

Last night I cast on a Thermis cowl which I’m knitting in King Cole Cottonsoft in Saxe blue.   I am intending to knit a whole garment this year, and I’ve got the yarn and a pattern lined up which includes short row shaping – a new technique I want to learn.  At the moment I’m enjoying knitting up small projects that don’t require too much concentration or working out the gauge (eek I’ve just admitted that I don’t bother doing the gauge/tension squares).  Of course, I shall be doing gauge samples before starting on a bigger project – I want it to fit.

Anyways I’m off now to sort out the pattern for a new skirt which will hopefully get cut out this afternoon.

Jane & Daisy xx

Merry Christmas

The Christmas cake is iced, mince pies baked, presents wrapped.

Tonight I lit the last candle on the Advent arrangement.

I think we’re just about ready.

May we wish you all a very happy Christmas.

Thank you so much for visiting.

Jane & Daisy xx

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’ve been away …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

… to the sea –  Abersoch on the Llyn Peninsular in North Wales.

We had some wet overcast days, and some very breezy days.

There were some beautiful sunny days too, with a calm mill pond sea.

Daisy desperately wanted to chase this seagull off, except she doesn’t like getting her paws wet!  She did try running after the waves as they receded, but had to turn tail and run back as the next wave came rushing towards her.

I think she really enjoyed her holiday, with long walks on the beach and lots of new doggy acquaintances.  In fact we all enjoyed it with lots of time to read and relax between walks.

There was some knitting done – I finished my first glove and cast on my second one (must be the angle of the photo, as it looks a rather strange glove) …

… and some granny square hooky business.

I even attempted a still life in acrylics.

I read Maeve Binchy’s Quentins which I enjoyed, and The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan which I could not put down.  A great story to read whilst staying by the sea.

Now we’re back well rested and ready to face the winter.

Jane & Daisy xx

Autumn

Autumn is not my favourite time of year.  Seeing everything die back and the days get shorter makes me feel a little sad, I much prefer the spring.  For some reason, this year I’ve been feeling more lacklustre than normal, hence my lack of posts this month.  

Yesterday I took my camera with me on our walk with the intention of capturing and enjoying the rich autumn colour.

It was one of those misty damp mornings, which eventually turned into a beautiful warm mellow sunny afternoon.

The leaves are beginning to change colour, and the oaks are heavy with plump ripening acorns.

The dew was thick and coated everything with a scattering of sparkling diamonds.  I was hoping to find a beautiful big dewy spiders web to photograph – this one hanging on the fence was the best I could find.

At this time of year we have some wonderfully dramatic sunsets.

Most of the plants in the garden might be dying back for the winter, but some are just appearing for the winter season.  Silk tassel bush (Garrya elliptica) and arum Italicum.

Some of the plants in the garden are still going strong, including these cornflowers, which have been a delight all summer.

I was able to find a bouquet of late blooms.

We both enjoyed our walk, and the sun broke through as we made our way back, and in a few weeks I will be able to enjoy one of my favourite autumn past times – kicking through drifts of autumn leaves.

Happy Birthday Daisy Donut

 

This young lady is 8 years old today.

Here she is at 6 weeks old, we went to see her litter twice before bringing her home.

My late father chose her for us.  Little did we know life would never be the same again!

Because if there is anything curious or different about the place, you can rely on Daisy to go and have a nose around.

She makes us laugh, fills our life with joy and gets me out into the fresh air for a walk, whatever the weather.

I named this blog after her.  Her official name is Daisy Keeper – the lady who bred her knew my father had a small holding called Keeper’s Cottage, and all the puppies in Daisy’s litter had a name beginning with D.  She said we could change her name, but we liked Daisy.  Her sire is called Dinky Donut and we nicknamed her Daisy Donut.

She’s waiting patiently under my chair as I type this, hoping we will go for our walk soon.  It’s going to be a shower dodging day today, and as the sun has just appeared, I think we’d better make a dash for it. xx

Compost and other stuff

The compost bin has been sorted out,

I forked the fresher stuff off the top onto a sheet, took the lovely rich compost from the bottom and then put the fresh stuff back into the bin to continue composting.  I spread three barrow loads onto the veg patch (some of the broad beans were reshooting from the bottom of the old plants – I’ve cut off the tops and left the new shoots to see if there will be a few late beans).

I did find a few strange items in the compost – a missing spoon, a nail brush and the burnt out remains of a candle – can’t think how they ended up in the compost bin though.

Of course, I had lots of help …

Hmmppp I’m sure there’s a mouse in here somewhere!

… it generated great curiosity and enthusiastic sniffling and snuffling.

The chimney sweep turned up the same day to clean the wood burning stove flue.

Another extremely interesting curiosity in Daisy’s mind, such a shame we humans wouldn’t let her poke her nose inside the burner as the brush was being pushed up the chimney.

I’ve also defrosted our two freezers, one is a small chest freezer and the other a tall fridge freezer.  Lots of hidden treasures to be found in the bottom, not least several boxes of frozen fruit from the garden that had been in there quite a while, and which has been made into mixed berry jam (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and blackcurrants).

and redcurrant jelly, completed this morning.

  I’ve run out of jam jars and resorted to using glass ramekins.

I think there will be some Crab apple jelly in the near future as there is an abundance of crab apples on the tree, but I must get my hands on some jam jars first.

I’ve also been sorting out my sloe gin I started this time last year (more details here).  It’s been patiently sitting in a cupboard waiting to be strained and bottled.

That’s what I’m doing right now – waiting for the liquid to strain through coffee filters.

I wonder what it will taste like?

Jane & Daisy xx