Going on a trip

Vera and I are very excited. Tomorrow is my one and only day off in the year. No cooking, washing, ironing, shouting or arguing with children. And no standing at the side of a freezing cold or wet football pitch, valiantly cheering for whichever son's football team is playing.

No. We are going to Alexandra Palace. To the Knitting and Stitching Show. Sadly we will be without our trusty Navigator this year so will have to find our own way. But maybe this time it won't be foggy and we won't end up near Peterborough and we won't be chatting so much that we miss all the sign posts. It was a good round-trip last year wasn't it Kathryn?!

I was supposed to be having an early night tonight, but look at the time will you (nearly midnight). I've been busy getting things ready for tomorrow.

1. Bag - check
2. Purse, stuffed full with money - well, sort of check, at least I have my purse, although not very full!
3. Dinner - check
4. Water - check
5. Big bag of chocolate raisins for Vera - check
6. Camera - check
7. Phone - check (this is just for effect, being such a technophobe, I've had to pinch son's old phone and have not yet worked out how to turn it on)
8. Forest Canopy, just in case I get chilly (ha bloody ha, have you ever been to Ally Pally?) - check.

Well that's it folks. Think we're all ready to go. I'll come back with lots of pictures for those of you unlucky enough to be staying at home this weekend.

(Oh, and fingers crossed for England in the Rugby tomorrow. Please don't let us lose to France)

Oliver and Clara

Oliver first and I'll try and answer some of the many questions that seem to be pouring - OK, trickling - in.

1. Squares are to be 4", preferably knitted (or crocheted) in sock weight yarn (4 ply or thereabouts). Any pattern is fine.


2. Leaving ends attached means I can sew up using a yarn that matches, if you don't sew them in, I don't mind, must have something similar that hasn't been moth-ravaged!


3. Raffle tickets are priced at £1 or $2 US. If you do not want to send cash - and I don't blame you - please make cheques out to either me, M Rowlands or Oliver's mum, Emma Magnago-Prime. I am unsure about International cheques, so feel your best bet is to go to Emma's site and pledge directly to Oliver's fund with Paypal and let me know how much you've sent so I can allocate the correct number of raffle tickets. We prefer cash or cheque though. If you don't live in the UK, sweet talk anyone who's been here lately for spare cash. Notes or coins, I'm not fussy. It will all go to Oliver's Fip Flop Blue Wheelchair. Promise.


4. I was hoping this would all be sorted by Christmas, but with the postal strikes am getting a bit doubtful. I will try my very best to get one blanket done and raffled by then and the other one ready for e-bay early in the New Year.


5. Deadline for squares and raffle ticket money will be end of November.

Anything else, please ask! The squares are coming in slowly. We might have enough for a Vera-sized blanket so far.

And now to Clara. We met over a year ago on a Colour Swap thingy (strangely enough, following a link I saw on Emma's blog) and both feel that we are twins separated at birth! Today my internet twin sent me a fantastic package full of goodies. Now I know the whole blog present affair dictates that you photograph all the presents in their beautifully wrapped state, but sorry, after another bad day (yes folks it was yet another shitty one!) I just needed something nice and couldn't wait to rip open the whole lot. The first thing I saw was a bag of Swedish Fish - managed to save some for the photo, but half an hour later and they are all gone. Then loads of dishcloth cotton (you may remember that on a recent 'what type of yarn are you?' questionnaire, I came out as dishcloth cotton) some wonderful lime green fluffy stuff, 4 squares for Oliver (perfect squares in lovely yarns) and woo hoo, some of those amazing multi-coloured knit picks needles. They are everything they promised to be, and I now want to start something using 5mm circulars!

Thank-you so much Clara, my twin, you are very kind - xoxox

Tipsy Tuesday

Sorry I haven't written for ages - it takes some doing to get the children off the computer lately, and as husband forgot to buy a newspaper yesterday, he was on here once they had gone to bed.

So here we have the start of Tipsy's Fair Isle front, taken yesterday. It is now much smaller than this - I pulled it down! Me! Frogging something! All be it just 16 rows, but still, it really is a first! I just wasn't happy with the red and green band, too busy (which is saying something in such a busy cardigan) and I really think there's too much of the white, so back it went. Ah well, never mind...

I will post again tomorrow I promise, with a reminder and an update about Oliver's blanket. But tonight I have a cake to make, 2 cakes to butter cream, a couple of models to make, oh and the Christmas cakes to start thinking about.

Declaring War

Oh heck. Or words to that effect. I found 2 moth holes today in some knitted clothes - one hand knit waistcoat of mine and one bought jumper of husband's. I am in shock. What on earth am I to do? This little lot of death-sentences has cost me over £20 - a mere drop in the ocean compared to the contents of the Stash Basket. Does anybody know of any other cures or ways to murder said little moths? Vera is quaking in her shoes - well she would be if she had shoes - and Tipsy is getting worried.

Not half as worried as me though.

Send advice soon. I need help. And the man in the shop asked if the little blighters had started on the carpets as he had a lot of customers lately who were complaining of holes in the carpets. Yikes. We're being eaten alive.

HELP ME PLEASE...

Home Start Cake

Haven't shown you a cake lately - probably because I haven't done one for a while. But here's one that was collected yesterday. Not sure about it myself - I don't like pale blue and red together and I think children should be children colour, not blue. But hey ho, if that's what the lady wants, then that's what I do. She seemed pleased enough though, so that's all that matters.

The squares are coming in very slowly. And now that dear old Royal Mail are on strike again, they'll be at a standstill until the middle of next week at least. Mum came over yesterday and knitted me a couple and I've been told of some others that are knitted but not sent. Hoping to get them soon so I can start sewing up! And on that subject, I've had the kind offer of help from a couple of people, so if I get inundated Kerrie and Marianne, I'll bribe you over with the offer of some cake (if not chocolate, then what do you fancy M?)

Tipsy Tuesday

Just a little picture today as I promised you an update. This is the second sleeve, almost half-finished. I love everything about this, as I think I've mentioned before. It would grow so much quicker if I didn't spend ages after every row petting it. The only thing I'm a bit concerned about is the colour - I'm just not a green person, suit blues and purples far more. Never mind, I have so much Posh Sophia now that I'll be able to knit another one when this is done.

Now look, about these squares for Oliver's blanket. It would appear that I may have slightly underestimated the amount that we'll get. So maybe, hopefully, there might just be enough to make 2 blankets. If this is the case, how about I raffle one and e-bay the other? What do you think? I don't want to upset anyone, but I'm sure that like me, we just all want to raise as much money for Oliver as possible.

I had originally said that the money would go towards a new car seat, but instead it will go towards a new manual wheel-chair. It sounds fantastic - and Oliver has had a hand in the choice of this - it's going to be 'flip-flop blue'. I love the sound of that colour. I want something made from flip-flop blue.

So here's your challenge Dee - how about flip-flop blue Sophia ready for Tipsy number 2?