Pumpkin time

This is the first year I've grown veg in my back garden and my crowning glory has been this pumpkin. It started as just a little green ball on a very long and aggressive pumpkin vine crawling across my lawn and got fatter and fatter until it went a lovely orange in the last of the summer sun. And here it is! I'm very proud that this grew in my little patch of garden and so wanted to make sure it was put to good use once cut. 

Flo of course helped with the scooping out of seeds and flesh and as you can imagine 'helping' is a very messy word when you're a 2 year old. Then I made a simple pumpkin soup with some onions, stock and spices added in for flavour and texture. Once blitzed up I decided to use the remaining pumpkin shell to heat and serve it in. 

It was rather of the top for a Saturday lunch time with just the Mr, Flo and I but it made me feel like I'd made the most of my first ever pumpkin.

Happy Halloween!

Wool Week

Last week was Wool Week and I couldn't help but notice my wool themed walk to work, just like last year. Please excuse the shoddy pictures, I clearly need a master class is shooting shop windows on a sunny day.

Oasis has a nice display with shelves of large glass jars stuffed with ribbons, cord, thread and of course yarn. 

Jigsaw has balls of twisted metal yarn, speared with huge orange needles, suspended above their knitwear collection display. 

Liberty as always has gorgeous windows. This Burberry display shows off their fair isle jumpers next to large wooden spools, balls of yarn and scissors. There was another shelf with lots of Burberry yarn on it but I couldn't quite get the window glare off enough to show it.

I was also really pleased to see these mittens on strings a few windows down. For some mad health and safety reason you hardly ever see mittens on a string any more. Perhaps I should make some for Flo now the cold weather has arrived. Till next year Wool Week.

I was inspired/ reminded to write this by Travel Knitter. Cheers hun!

Things that happened

Things keep happening and I think, 'Oh, I should blog about that' and then things get in the way like work, kids, food and knitting and I don't get round to it. Such is life. So here's a little round up of all the things I should have blogged about lately, in the shorthand form.

I actually finished a few projects. One is this cute squishy hoodie for my nephew. It's called Ashton and was a joy to knit in garter stitch. It's the second pattern I have finished from the lovely Rowan Miniature Classics book which I bought a few months ago and really fell in love with. The styles are so simple yet modern. The other pattern I made from this book was Starr for Flo and with the cold weather it's been worn a few times already. She grows so fast though it is quickly becoming a crop top. Note to self: always knit in extra length for Flo!

The other project was some initialed washcloths for my second cousins in Scotland. I didn't manage to take a picture of them unwrapped for some reason but there is a 'G' on the baby pink one for my new born second cousin Georgia and 'J' on the other for her older sister Jocelyn. Both have a little soap wrapped up inside to use at bedtime.

It was my 4 year wedding anniversary in September and The Mr spontaneously bought me this vase which Fleur Cotton had mentioned in a comment on one of my previous posts. Apparently the Mr. did not read this comment, but found the vase when searching for knitting related goodies to buy me!
It's from Heals and has little knitted stitches running up and down it. How cute and lovely that the Mr. thought of it without a prompt!

The next few weeks are looking super busy with a crazy work schedule and of course the highlight of my social calendar, Ally Pally taking place next week. I'll be at the show bright and early on Thursday so hope to see you there. Do feel free to say hello and point me in the direction of the bargains!