Crazy Times

Things have gone crazy in the last few weeks and suddenly everything is happening at once!

We need to move home as our landlady needs our flat back, so I am occupied with finding somewhere to live that will have enough room for all my yarn. The extensive yarn/ craft cupboard I currently have will be hard to beat and I will miss it dearly. I also am slightly worried that the Mr might have something to say when there’s more moving boxes marked ‘Yarn’ than anything else in the moving van.

I’m going back to work in a couple of week, just part time, but the thought of having to use my brain in a logical way again is quite daunting. Trying to slot back into things after a whole year without work seems like an impossible task but I know it will be a positive thing for our little family.

Some very exciting news is that I will be teaching knitting classes again! The Creative Biscuit is a local and very cute ceramics cafe. Apart from having ceramics painting they also run classes like jewellery making, have a book club and importantly serve tea, coffee and cake! My Beginners Knitting Workshop will be the latest edition to their crafty repertoire and we will be learning to make a simple garter stitch hairband. Here it is modelled by me and then by Flo, who wasn't too happy about being a model.

In other news I managed to finish my Hap blanket! I’m really pleased with it and it’s lovely and cosy. The only question now is what to knit next?

The most earth shatteringly crazy thing that’s happening at the moment is that Florence is turning 1 year old next week! It’s so difficult to believe that a whole year has passed since she arrived, but it’s amazing, given her extremely rough start, that she is thriving as well as she is. We will be of course having a party, with cake, next weekend, so it will be all stations go on party food and birthday cake making duties. Phew, crazy times indeed!

Greg Wallace, Now That's True Love

Happy Valentines day!

This year I haven't been sucked into the whole Valentines day present thing and so got the Mr a nice card and a kiss instead of a present. I didn't bank on getting a gift myself, so was totally blown away by a personalised Greg Wallace (of Masterchef and greengrocer fame) apron, which is perfect for my continuing baking adventures.

The Mr and I love to watch Masterchef and are so excited that it's starting up again on Wednesday this week. The best part of the show is when Greg comes out with his amazing one liners which you can read tons of on this amazing facebook page which is dedicated to them. My favourite one so far has to be "Give me a cup of tea and I'll finish it" which is now on my baking apron, spurring me on to bake treats that even Greg would be proud of. Although to be fair I think he would happily tuck into a flan that had fallen on the floor.

This weekend I went on a little road trip with my friend Dr Stitchlove to Portsmouth see our preggers friend Startitis. She's been knitting away for the arrival of her little one and I had to take a picture of this AMAZING creation. I just love the little squirrels around the yolk and the colours work so well with the design. This knit is made all the more amazing by the fact that the pattern was entirely in Dutch! Well done Startitis and thanks for the yummy cakes too.

How did we do?

Pointless was a mixed experience. We spent the first day doing nothing as we were last to know if we’d get on the show or not. I shudder to think that I almost didn’t bring my knitting with me as the Hap blanket has become rather cumbersome of late and I didn’t want the extra baggage. Thankfully my common sense came back to me and so the 9 hours we spent sitting in the green room were well spent making some good progress on the border to the blanket.

On the second day at the BBC we did get on the show but we can’t tell you how far we got, so you’ll have to wait until it’s on TV to see if we won or not! I should know the exact date that the show will be on BBC2 nearer the time, so watch this space around March and see me and my sister in law do our best to get a Pointless trophy.

Oh, and the only on-set gossip I have is that Richard, the guy that sits behind the desk with all the answers, is ENORMOUS. He’s literally a giant, which is probably why they’ve sat him behind a desk.

In other news Flo received a very belated Christmas present from some lovely friends last weekend of a beautiful hand knit jumper. I just love the colour combination and I can’t get over how nicely the sewing up has been done! If only I had those skills. The jumper was bought from a local shop called Knock Down Ginger and was knitted by someone local. If that was you then I’d like to know your sewing up secrets please?!?

Note to self: child safe googly eyes for stuffed toys are not child safe! Wilbur the whale sadly had his eye bitten of this week and luckily I caught Florence before she could choke on it. He will now be a decorative whale on a high up shelf rather than a hands on kind of whale.