At last - knitting news!

Way back in the mists of time, I bought some cashmere sock yarn from Kerrie, gave it to my mum and said 'here you are, you'll like knitting with this' and gave her a pattern. And here's the result! Mum did the main body of the shawl and I made the edging and blocked it. It's the first time I've ever blocked anything - very scary indeed, how that crumpled wet heap can resurrect itself into this finished object is beyond me. The shawl is huge and I love it.

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There is, however, one big problem. I felt sure mum would say 'No, of course I don't want it. I have no use for a shawl. You must keep it for yourself Darling Daughter.' But not so. My mother wants this for herself - and she hasn't even seen it finished yet. Pah. Perhaps I'll get her to make one for me now.

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This yarn is gorgeous - I never thought anything so fine and light could be so warm. But that's cashmere for you I suppose! (I'm only joking mum - if I had a hundred cashmere shawls, I'd gladly give you every one... well perhaps 99...)

Tea for how many?

I've not shown you a cake for a while now, so here's one I've been working on this week. Not very exciting, but I'm hoping it will go down well. My next cake (so far) is a biggy. A real biggy. So big infact that I'm already worrying about it. Won't tell you any more about it, you'll just have to wait for a month for photos. I don't want to tempt fate.

Nothing interesting to report today so I think I'll go and have a cup of tea and a piece (or 3) of Cadbury's Dairy Milk chocolate. Anyone care to join me?

Scrappy Cabins

Have you seen the Scrappy Cabin Challenge at Melly and Me? I've been having a go, sadly ignoring the knitting for a few days and giving my undivided attention to the sewing machine and the iron. I've never done patchwork in this way before and I'm hooked now! I've got loads of material just waiting to become little cabins.

It's that 'starting things' problem again though isn't it? I must get very easily bored. But no, I don't, I never get bored. Ever. There's far too much to do. Perhaps that's where my problem lies. I have too much to do. Advice to self - slow down, take things easy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, as if!

Kathryn (I think you ought to get yourself a blog - Warren would be in his element designing for that!) has lent me the most recent copies of Simply Knitting, and amongst them is quite the most hideous knitted thingy ever - a sort of wrap around, low neck strappy waistcoat affair. Just horrid! Does anyone actually knit things like that? What's the most hideous thing you've ever made? Are you even going to admit to it? Mine was a cardigan using the now discontinued Colinette Chrysalis. I ended up frogging it. And I never frog. It really was so bad it was embarrassing!

Pride and Prejudice

So Dee likes to listen to audio books. Yes so do I (Stephen Fry's Harry Potter versions are my favourites) but I prefer the dvd's. I have watched these two more times than I care to remember. I don't really watch them anymore, just listen to them, knowing what's coming next, anticipating the next scene. I love Pride and Prejudice. Or is it just Mr Darcy I love?

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But now here's the thing, Who makes the better Elizabeth? For me it has to be Keira, she seems much more 'believable' (and so much less make up!). In fact, I prefer all the goodies from this version (although Bingley should not have red hair) and the baddies are much better in the BBC version. Mr Collins and Lady Catherine a la BBC are just so horrible they're brilliant. And Jullia Sawalha's Lydia is inspired.

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But Mr Darcy? Oh Mr Darcy. Heavy sigh. I love them both. Colin Firth is so very much the English Gentleman, whilst Matthew Macfadyen is so misunderstood, I just want to beat Elizabeth up and tell her to stop arsing around. He loves you woman - are you blind?

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So who's it to be? Jennifer or Keira? Colin or Matthew? Come on all you lurkers, show yourselves - decide!

Roses round the door

I wish you could smell this rose. It's beautiful. On its own, the scent is gentle, but when you get the whole plant, it simply oozes delicious rosy wafts all over the garden. We planted this (it's called City of York if you're at all interested) a couple of years after we moved in this house, which means it's now 8 years old. It is so lovely, we bought another one to go on the other side of the corner - you can just see the flowers starting to peep out.

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Our house is about 200 years old, and at this time of year I love everything about it, the garden, the coolness of the solid walls, all the light coming through the windows, the quirky little steps dotted around the inside. We shan't think about the damp autumn days just yet...

We have done a lot of work to get it looking like this, when we first moved in, the front garden was a massive rockery - this turned out to be the old roof with a bit of top soil and a few plants stuck on. We cleared 8 tonnes of rubble from the front - the back was something else! Undiscovered jungle comes to mind!

We've had huge problems and huge bills, but it's been worth it. I love our house. And I always dreamed of having roses round the door.

Baking

My two children decided to do some baking today and this is the result. Clever eh? I washed the car and left them to it. Big mistake.

Mum this says icing sugar, but it looks like flour will it do instead? No. Where's the golden syrup - this is in the same sort of tin, will it be ok to use? No. That's black treacle. Have you got any beaten eggs? No, you have to crack one and beat it yourself. What do you mean beat it? Smash it up. Oh. Is this a teaspoon? No, a tablespoon, big difference. What are rolled oats? Where's the cocoa? Do we cook the biscuits in the pan? No and you have to mix all the ingredients together first. Tell me when 10 minutes is up. Is it up yet? How about now? LOOK AT THE CLOCK WHY DON'T YOU?

I was eventually presented with these beautiful plates of goodies.

Mum when's dinner, we're starving?

I looked around at the room that used to be my kitchen. The mountain of washing up. The dropped ingredients on the floor. The cupboards opened and things piled up in front of them. The completely empty cutlery drawer. The rag rug covered in chocolate. An assortment of baking trays piled high so even Sir Edmund Hillary would have found the assent a challenge.

Dinner? Not just yet boys. Not just yet....