Saturday 16 June 2012

A basket of happiness

Well that is what Mother in law thought when she was presented with this  on her 87th birthday.Well folks I am so sorry it has been so long since I have been in touch. Just not felt up to doing much at all the last few weeks.Poor Martin had a very uneventful birthday on the 5th of June,we were due to go to Graemes for a birthday barbecue with Kate and her tribe too. He decided he wanted to share the bug I had and spent most of the day in the loo. Also it rained just for a change so plans were changed to a Rib of beef roast indoors. Anyway outcome being we are still not 100% so maybe a trip to Dr next week. I put it down at first to change of meds so me being me stopped the lot. Been told by number one nurse Kate that I should go back on some and go and see the Dr again. Oh my trials and tribulations.
Well despite me saying I had not done anything I do have a finish to show you,this is the Holden Shawlette a free download on Ravelry ,I knitted it in the Malbrigo wool that was called for ,and let me tell you it is just so lovely to knit with, it took one skein and I have almost lost it twice.DD liked it and a friend  I have just ordered another skein to try another pattern , think the stitching is taking a back seat at the moment.




 This is the colour of the next one although I am wavering as to doing another of these in it and ordering more for the other one. Can you see another addiction happening here. Anyway this is Stonechat.

I also was in possession of this magazine ,which I got from Scottish Fibres ,it is American though and most of the lace patterns ask you to follow a chart,which does not appeal to me at all , write it down and I can follow it . I am not a  very neat knitter but even Martin was impressed  . My friend liked it so much (she is very neat) and so she has ordered the wool to do it and her friend also. Sally has also finished it and so we are now sisters in knitting too eh Sally. Had to have this did I not, I mean anything Jane and those mitts are lovely.


Whilst I was poorly my Julie friend celebrated her grand daughters 1st birthday and sent me some pics ,on the same day I had from the same Julie friend a box of flowers which although a week old look as good as when I received them . Thanks Julie ,Martin said thanks for birthday wishes too , you are becoming so special to us. You are like an adopted family.
Well I expect you are thinking I have done no stitching , well I did finish Mrs Darcy a couple of weeks ago and here she is on the wall.Sorry about the flash spot, Martin framed her for me and She is now hanging with the others. I had a where are you,message from my Jane friend Angela ,and so this is a Jane fix for her. She did give me titles of Jane books she has been reading ,so I will be browsing Amazon at some point soon. Oh dear poor Martin will have to carry on doing his two days a week me thinks.
Excuse the bits and bobs underneath ,photo of Ella ,Julies flowers, button box and paperweight rose ,but please do not look at the dust!!
I have finished a couple of bits for birthdays,an exchange and I have stitched a little of Quaker Diamonds.
The latest diamond done is this one. Just loved the deep colours of this one.
I have also been stitching with Sally our Shepherds Bush on Mondays but it cannot be named or shown as it is an exchange piece .
Otherwise no stitching able to show, Poor Elizabeth is crying in the unloved box as she has not seen the light of day for ages now,
I keep looking at the ball of wool I have now wound , with Martin saying as he wound and I held wool, how long is this are we nearly there yet!! Oh I have not wound wool since before I was married when I used to hold the skein for Mum when she knitted. I remember saying or thinking the same thing.
Well on Thursday feeling a little better ,I cajoled Martin into taking me over to the place of my birth and see if we could see any of the Olympic sailing boats. So this is overlooking the Portland Harbour Sailing Academy.
 Sorry for the photo it was a fine but grey day.See the little white dots hmmm they are the yachts. We also saw this ,which was rather pretty , I love Honeysuckle.

.
Also saw some of my dads favourite flower "kiss me quick" , Valerian being the proper name. He used to pick a piece and hold it up and say kiss me quick. It grows wild on Portland as in many other places so not and endangered species. Not sure where it got its local name from,but perhaps you know it as something different. He also used to call a little yellow flower ,Fingers ,thumbs ,bellies and bums. Won't discuss that one though.lol.
This island  holds so many memories for me and I feel my dad is so close when we are over there.
So my dears, I think my tale is told for this time but may I just quickly thank those who mailed me to see if all was well, I really think you are the "cats whiskers" , to my friend Angela (no blog) enjoy your time with Margaret of Solstitches , I am sure you are in for a treat and I hope to hear all about it when you get back.
Martin has met up with Graeme and they are going to see the new Alien film (the prequel) in 3d for his fathers day present after they have been out for lunch. Not my cup of tea , I did see Alien but ooooohh no, I would rather stay home and watch Elizabeth Bennet etc.
So maybe Pride and Prejudice will be on the cards.
 Kate went back to work after 9 months this week. One of the nurses said well where is it?. a puzzled Kate asked what, she said well everytime you have 9 months or so off , there is a baby to cuddle. !!!You can imagine the answer.!!!
Sam has now got a camaflouge plaster on his arm and it is improving. Just remembered another pic.
Him and a grandad painting.
Take care all and from me its thanks for joining me and if you could leave me a little comment (if you were not too bored) if I do not get any I shall know you were and will have to improve !!!
I will try not to leave it too long next time, meanwhile whatever you do -enjoy!
Hugs n stuff
Barb.





14 comments:

Elisa said...

Sorry to hear you have been ill, there is so much going around.
Lovely knitting and stitching as always. xx

butterfly said...

Nice to have you back and sorry you have been ill, hope you will soon be much better.
Lovely post loved all your stitching and photos you have been busy.

Michelle said...

Oh Barb I am sorry to hear you have been unwell. There is so much illness around - its hardly surprising with the weather though is it. Lovely stitching and knitting - enjoyed catching up with you xx

Cath said...

Hope you feel better soon. X
Beautiful stitching , and knitting , I love the shawlette and can understand it's need to go a wandering , lol.
Take care .XXXX

Kaisievic said...

Hi Barb, I hope that you feel better soon - maybe a trip to the doctor is in order after all. It is no fun being sick. Looks to me like you have been a very busy crafty bee. The shawl looks lovely.

hugs, Kaye

Christine said...

Nice to hear from you Barb, sorry that you've been ill.
Your shawl is beautiful and as for those Austen mittens, oh my, they are fabulous.
My girls hide (literally) if I emerge from the study with a hank of wool in my hands. I tell them I used to do it for my mum, but they don't care :D

Julie said...

Beautiful shawl and Quaker Diamonds is coming on a treat. A few ladies seem to be enjoying knitting instead of stitching recently, crochet blanket here needs attention before the winter months.

The flowers look good, I always worry when I send postal flowers, would have been better if I could have delivered them personally, but this way I did escape the germs! Lol.

Portland looks a lovely place, a sailing team not far from us will be there officiating at the Olympics. It's nice you feel close to your dad when visiting.

My dad worked in the hosiery and used to bring end of cones home so I used to help my gran wind them in 4 and 6 ply into balks, I used to love it.

Love and (hugs) xx

Anne said...

Sorry to hear you are not feeling well :( Hope you get better real soon. Love your shawl and that next colour, is so lush and beautiful! Making those little cufflings would be darling! Congrats on finishing Mrs. Darcy! She looks lovely on the wall!! Lovely progress on your Quaker Diamonds too!!

Beaupippin said...

Your Quaker Diamonds is looking fab, are you doing it on the Mello colour fabric?

jane said...

Sorry to hear that you have been unwell, hope you feel better very soon. Great to hear that Kate is back at work at last.
Lovely knitting and stitching and lovely pics too. Great to see a blog post from you

Angi M said...

Sorry to hear you have both been ill, and hope you are better soon. Lovely knitting & stitching too, I have to admit I've been crocheting over the last couple of weeks instead of stitching but finally had a finishing session this weekend and feel very good about that.

angelasweby said...

What a great blog post Barb, so full of news and lovely pictures and, oh heaven...a JA fix...thank you :-) Well done on finishing Mrs Darcy. It's beautiful.

I had a feeling you weren't well, it must be a "twin" thing :-) I do hope you are feeling better now. I'm glad you were able to keep your hands busy as that helps keep the spirits up. I love your beautiful shawlette. No wonder you nearly lost it! I'm not surprised you are itching to make another especially in that gorgeous deep red colour. Oh how I adore those JA fingerless gloves. I saw a copy of the first magazine whilst I was in America last October and whilst it was gorgeous, nothing really appealed but these gorgeous gloves definitely do appeal. Oooh, I love them!!

I loved reading of your trip to Portland. What a lovely photo of Portland Harbour. It brings back so many memories. I adore honeysuckle too but ours is light years away from flowering. Well I didn't know Valerian was called Kiss Me Quick. We had loads of it in our garden.

Not long now till my trip :-) I will have lots of news on my return.
Take care and get completely better soon :-)
Angela xx

Sally said...

It's lovely to see a post from you Barb. I have missed you. I hope you and Martin will be much better soon. {{{{hugs}}}}

Lovely stitching and lovely knitting too. Your shawl looks beautiful. I think we may have started something now! I bought some wool to knit some fingerless mitts for Abi yesterday. I asked DH to take me to the shop!

Gorgeous flowers from Julie.

Clare-Aimetu said...

Gorgeous flowers Barb, the arrangement and garden. Your Quaker Diamonds are growing nicely too. .

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