A year

This time last year it was hot and sunny. We went to see my Grandad and I sat in his garden and chased after the boys round the lawn. I took the boys on the local steam railway and it was a definite t shirt day. It was the last time I saw my Grandad, he died a week later and I am always so very grateful I got that last day with him. This year it is cold, the snow is swirling and the wind is whirling round. It is a huddle up at home day. I don't want to dig out the car and I don't want to face the freezing temperature. It is a hats, scarf. gloves, vest, legwarmers and still feel cold kind of a day.

Spring feels late coming this year. Last year it was so early and Spring was then better then nearly all the Summer. I have organised so little for the garden, I have my seeds but I need to get clearing and planting and buy some compost. I'm waiting until this snow has passed before I can do much out there but hopefully the late cold spring will give way to a warm summer and my garden will give me back more then last year. The fruit trees held so little and I'm hoping this year I will get a good crop for jamming and for puddings. Hopefully we will get plenty of salad this year too.


I'm not sure what I want to write today. I have just written and deleted half of it. The boys are currently happy playing in a makeshift den in the middle of the front room. A tunnel, a clothes airer and a couple of blankets seem to be keeping them happy. Oh no, wait, famous last words, they have just found the clean washing basket and emptied it on the kitchen floor. Anyway trying to wean them back off the telly watching we slipped into while ill. It's amazing how quickly they get sucked in, and the more they watch the more they want. When they watch very little they want very little. I must admit I can be similar with the internet. My creativity needs to be sparked a little too, I need to be doing more painting as I miss it so much and the boys love painting too, and hopefully they are getting to the age where it will hold their interest for more then 30 seconds.

I don't have any big knitting or crochet upates at the moment, it has been a bit of one of those weeks when it comes to knitting and the like and I have done very little. However I realise my last post didn't have half the pictures it was supposed to on, for some reason they had broken, so I will leave you with 3 pictures from my last blog. I am just loving these projects at the moment and I am off to do some crochet now.

Normal service has been resumed.

Everyone is finally well in the house and normality has resumed. It feels such a relief to be allowed to sleep and knit and just spend 5 minutes by myself occasionally again.

I have been enjoying my crochet but I'm sure it won't be long until I want to do something beyond the basic granny square so I have treated myself to this book

There are some lovely ideas in there as well as some that just aren't me, but I think I am going to try one of these next. Hopefully they won't be too complicated for me.

 I also love a gorgeous celtic knot square but I think it may be beyond me for a while. As for the crochet I have been doing, I am just glad to pick it up again. I have got another skein of black for my stained glass blanket, so I need to ball that and get on with finishing it. My large granny square isn't too far off done I don't think. And then there is Lightnings blanket that is going to just be 6 large squares. The yarn is King Cole Riot and it is fab.

 Knitting wise I started a new jumper for me a month or so back, but this one is going to be a longer term project for when the boys are asleep. I was surprised how quickly I managed to pick up the pattern repeat.

 
I have tried to get a close up but the picture doesn't do justice to this yarn. It has a slight sparkle to it, I have a long way to go but I love this jumper.

day 9 in sickness house

We have gone from d&v to a horrid fluey bug with a large dose of back molars thrown in. The sleep depravation is starting to show. We never get uninterupted sleep, but most my sleep for the last week has been beyond horrendous. I think the cabin fever has started to show too.

Fortunately my mum is en route with chippy dinner and the husband has taken Lightning to the airport to go plane spotting, he was getting cabin fever too. I think we have more then made our tv licence fee back in episodes of Woolly and Tig and Numtums this week. Hopefully next week will be back to normal!

Big guy and little guy

I stopped using the boys names on my blog a while ago, and have since been refering to them as the big one and the little one or the little guy. I thought I should probably think of something more interesting to call them, so from now on the big one will be called Lightning and the little guy will be called Happy feet. I'll give you one guess what films we watch lots in this house!

Anyway there are very few updates knitting or crochet wise at the moment as Happy feet has been rather ill the past week. He started being sick on friday and has had such a rough run of it. His tummy seems back to normal now but he still has a temperature and is rather unsettled, which has meant very little sleep and very little crafting. Hopefully he will be back to himself soon as it is never nice to see them unwell.

For now I need to get ready to go and take the Lightning to Preschool, then hopefully back for a nap!

Holidays

Excuse the grainy phone pictures, but look what a holiday can do! I am quickly running out of black so I'm hoping I have enough yarn to complete my stained glass blanket. I have the feeling I may run out 95% of the way round. The giant granny is growing quickly, and I got a very small amount of knitting done too.

Other things the holiday brought was the chance to read a book, I got 3/4 of the way through a book in a week! In the past that would have been very slow but nowadays its a rare chance I get to sit and read a book, and when I get time knitting takes precedent. The book I'm reading is 1356 by Bernard Cornwell and it's great. I have read all the previous books in the series so when I saw this in the library I didn't want to pass it over. I also went swimming by myself, not once but twice, and got to do actual swimming. Me and my friend spent half an hour sat in the jacuzzi chatting while the children were asleep and it was fantastic.

We also did loads with the kids but at the same time very little. For February in Britain you could not have asked for better weather. We spent a lot of time pottering around the farm we were staying at, watching the cows being milked, playing on the toy tractors and diggers, swimming and playing in the games room or at the little park area.

The beach was just a couple of miles away and beautiful. Unfortunately the boys weren't a huge fan after the big one accidentally fell in the sea after being chased by the waves. I think the little one just didn't like the noise! He isn't a fan of thing being too loud and the waves were crashing.

One thing they are both a fan of though is defintely ice cream. Especially if it is pink! Criccieth castle is Free to visit mid week in winter. It has stunning views, and best of all, it has an Ice cream shop at the bottom of the hill.

So that's about it for now. We are home with a bump, back to nursery, husband back to work, and me curled up on the sofa wishing the sun would come back!

A new project.

I never bring enough knitting on holiday. So here is a new crochet project to keep my hands busy. My other blanket is well on it's way to being completed but the rest of the yarn I need is at home so here is my start on a cheap and cheerful. The picture doesn't show how lovely the petrol/teal colour really is.

 

Blissful solitude

 

Running barefoot on the beach at 7am isn't a good idea when it is -3 outside, but the peace was wonderful.