Moogsmum

Worth it

2011-11-27T14:47:00.000Z

Oh goodness me - I really had no intention of taking such a prolonged break from blogging. I've missed reading your blogs. It seems strange not to know what you're all up to.

I couldn't quite work out what was keeping me away until I realised I'd convinced myself I couldn't just blog for blogging's sake. I felt I needed something worth writing about rather than just my usual show and tell of all my latest knitting projects.

I've spent simply HOURS on Ravelry just lately and I suppose because I'm always updating my projects pages over there it felt like more of the same if I did yet another knitting post on my blog. There has been a LOT of knitting. My knitting mojo returned with avengeance after it's summer hiatus.

Since I last blogged I've knit:
1 cardigan - for me
1 hat
5 pairs socks
4 pairs mittens
3 crocheted shawls - from the super easy super gorgeous Flying Diamonds shawl pattern

and on the needles right now are two more pairs of socks and a cardi for Minx.

So knitting is very much back.

Knitting is also the reason I finally felt I had something exciting to blog about. Just a few minutes ago I became a knitwear designer. Oh yes indeedy. I'm now officially a published designer dahling.

If you would like to help yourself to my free Misty Morning Mitts pattern, you can do so right now over on Ravelry.

Happy knitting!

Moogs xxx

It's been a funny old day

2011-10-07T20:25:00.000+01:00

Do you know that feeling, when you can feel a blog post building up and sometimes it seems to need longer to stew? I've been blogging in my head for a few weeks but have not, for whatever reason, reached the 'must blog it' moment. There's been plenty I've wanted to share in terms of crafty doings but I couldn't build up the enthusiasm for another knitterly show and tell.

However, quite unexpectedly, that moment threw itself right at my feet today and all because I went out to work.

I spent a good bit of yesterday preparing a Powerpoint slideshow for a school assembly to 270 children, planned for 11.40am today. I made sure I was all packed and prepared for a 'Session 1' - as my colleagues and I call our first visit to a school (this was planned for straight after lunch with the same school).

Pledge pack? Check.

Scrapbook? Check.

Photos of landfill site? Check.

Waste audit kit, including attractive elbow length black rubber gloves? Check.

Recycling monitor badges? Check.

Ready inflated Planet Earth globe? Check.

USB stick with Powerpoint? Check....and double check....five times.

All done. Ready for anything. Especially if it involves brainwashing small children about the 3Rs.

So, I drove to Portsmouth to a very lovely school and was greeted by the Headteacher - this alone should have alerted me, as I'm rarely greeted by a Headteacher or indeed even meet them at any point during my three visits to their school. As I asked if he minded if I finished a little earlier than planned, due to needing to be 20 miles away at Minx's Star of the Week Assembly by 3pm, he breathed a sigh of relief and said 'No that'll be fine - we've got Same Difference coming in for the afternoon and the children will be pretty hyped up....although you might be a little late starting.'

Ok. Whatever. No idea what he was talking about. As long as I do my bit and am out of there in time for Minx's assembly, I'll live to recycle another day.

I was escorted to the school hall, plugged into the interactive whiteboard and within ten minutes was delivering my very exciting Powerpoint to 270 expectant little faces. Heh, you could feel the collective shudder of excitement as I showed them a nice big picture of the inside of the MRF , announced that I'd be visiting this term to do a 'Special Recycling Project' and then showed the photo of other children doing 'exciting recycling activities' with Lesley, the Recycling Lady.

Before I knew it, my performance was done. Technotastic Headteacher had photographed me (on his iPhone) and uploaded me to the school website before I even finished my assembly (!!! - love that...the technology bit not the photograph bit). The children were agog and enthused and sooooo hoping they'd be one of the chosen few picked to work with the Recycling Lady this afternoon and this term.

I was then whisked off to the Staffroom for a cuppa and that's where the day started to get really bizarre. I asked the teacher I was working with 'Who/what is Same Difference?'.

Apparently, they were XFactor finalists in 2007 (here, I've Googled their first audition....snort)! They were coming into school to do an(other) assembly straight after lunch, followed by singing workshops with Years 5 and 6 for the afternoon. The 270 potentially keen recyclers knew nothing of this poptastic surprise. You can imagine the excitement levels in the staffroom as the moment of their arrival neared (and passed....).

Lunchtime over, I was led (again) to the school hall and took my seat in the Royal Box (a weird little bit separated from the main area by a waist height wall) and watched (again) 270 sweet little people file into the hall and sit cross-legged on the floor.....no doubt wondering why on earth they were having THREE assemblies in one day (they'd already had one first thing this morning - before mine) and had Mr Headteacher gone quite mad???

Then, it happened. Mr Headteacher did a quite fantabulous introduction, asking lots of leading questions along the lines of 'Who's heard of a TV programme called XFactor?' (270 hands shot straight up); 'Who's heard of someone called Simon Cowell?' (270 hands shot up even higher); 'Who'd like to be on a show like XFactor? (about 230 hands shot up, while a few wavered and some stayed firmly down). Mr HT then announced that their school was very very lucky as that very afternoon they were hosts to none other than 'SAME DIFFERENCE - XFACTOR FINALISTS OF 2007!!!!!!'.

The excitement levels then went stratospheric, despite the fact that not a single one of those wonderful 270 children knew who the heck Same Difference were. That's not (just) sour grapes talking (thanks to me getting a much less dramatic assembly introduction) and it's also not a reflection on the very lovely Sean and Sarah (brother and sister duo that makes up Same Difference) but it's a fact that in 2007 at least 135 of those children were three or four years of age and their older peers only five or six.

I then sat there and watched as Sean and Sarah raised the roof, getting every child singing their heart out and you could see the spark of little dreams lighting up in those sweet innocent faces - dreams where one day they too would be standing in front of those judges in Wembley arena, making Louis Walsh cry at the specialness of their performance and knowing that they had that all important 'X'. One little dot with blonde curly hair was right there, giving it her all, doing the whole arm thing as she connected with her audience.

I'm such a cynic about the whole celebrity thing. In fact, I'm a right old Bah Humbug about all that kind of stuff but there was no doubting the power of it as I witnessed those children lose themselves in the wonder of real-life XFactor success right there in their very own school hall, where an hour or so earlier some frumpy old dumpy woman in a long grey cardie had tried to get them all gee'd up about saving the Earth by being good recyclers.

If I was them I'd choose celebrity and to heck with Planet Earth.

I'm me. I choose Earth (although I'd win XFactor hands down if I entered of course).

I'm pleased to say that despite the competition I did in fact have a very good, albeit slightly short, Session 1 with my 'Team' of apprentice recyclers and made my way back home to Minx's celebration assembly to hear her teacher extoll the many virtues of my brilliant daughter, beaming in the afterglow of my brush with real live 'celebrity'.

All in a day's work.

Phew!

Did you make it through all that? Sorry it was so long. I needed to get it out of my brain.

Here's some knitting, by way of reward for sticking with me.

Minx in new chunky cardie.

Smoothie hats for this year's Innocent Big Knit.

Augustine scarf that Mrs Stashbasket forced me to knit - in the softest, most buttery wool/cashmere raspberry ripple coloured yarn.

Bloody nightmare Sunshine socks - great pattern, hated the skinny wool, didn't concentrate and have one odd sock 10 rows shorter than the other - to only be worn inside boots and under jeans.

Happy weekend xxx

Signs of change

2011-09-19T15:11:00.000+01:00

There's a definite seasonal shift going on around here. Autumn has its feet firmly under the table with chilly mornings, darker evenings and holes in the lawn where a naughty squirrel has been burying nuts nicked off our twisted hazel tree.

In Moog's House we have our own little signs that herald autumn every year. By far the most important is seeing one of these perched by the dining table. Five wonderful gallons of Mr Moog's homemade Pinot Grigio, burbling away and making my whole house smell like a brewery!

The chilly mornings have led to the heating clicking on for an hour or two, just perfect for drying my favourite type of laundry. Yup, it's time to dig out the handmade socks again - lovely.

This time of year always makes me want to snuggle down and indulge in a little nesting. After a summer of sewing, doodling and sketching I've rediscovered my knitting mojo and I've thrown myself into all things woolly with great gusto!

My lovely knitty friend Mrs Stashbasket was in no small way responsible for the return of my urge to knit, having sent me the most gorgeous skein of Rowan Colourscape with which to knit myself a lovely new winter hat. This is a fantastic pattern - Quincy by Jarel Flood - very cleverly knitted flat, given a little twist, joined and then the crown is knitted. It took me just a few quick hours and is quite simply the best fitting hat I've ever made.

Once I started with the knitting needles there was no stopping me but I resisted the urge to cast on a hundred new things and got cracking on some finishing off. First it had to be my lovely loud Hexagon socks - wearing them right now with a new pair of shoes bought specifically to show them off :o)

Then, it was a matter of a few short hours to finish off some new socks for Monster. These were a gamble. I started them back in May and since then that big boy's feet have grown like mad but luckily they turned out to be a perfect fit!

Another languishing work in progress was my second attempt at an Ishbel shawl. The first attempt nearly ended in tears a couple of years ago but this time I was determined, if a little slow, to finish it. This is knitted in the most gorgeous pink laceweight yarn, very kindly given to me by Maria - it was like knitting fluffy fresh air but oh so gorgeous! This had also sat there nagging me in the WIP pile for several months and naturally took a matter of just a few hours to finish off.

Although no photographic evidence here, that leaves just one knitting project in the neglected pile - another pair of socks that were cast on in May! However, sock #1 has been completed in the past week and sock#2 is now on the needles.

Of course, I now need to replenish the works in progress and have already made a start on achieving that particular goal. This little screwed up heap of knitting will soon be a beautiful Augustine shawl.

And this will soon be a pair of Charade socks - a fabulous pattern that is perfect for just picking up whenever the fancy takes as there are only two rows that make up the pattern so it commits to memory very quickly.

I was pondering this autumnal urge to knit and realised it has a great deal to do with me returning to work and the whole busy school thing starting again for the children. For me, knitting is the perfect manageable creative outlet for times when life is full steam ahead. I can pick it up and just knit whenever I get a spare few minutes. There's no need to get loads of stuff out or clear loads of stuff up in order to produce something creatively satisfying.

I have no desire to add extra work to my day by getting out piles of sewing stuff or paints and pencils which will only need to be put away again when I'm finished. Sadly, the housework fairies don't help out if I ignore the dust and the ironing and they certainly don't help tidy up my crafty doings.

Knitting, and sometimes crochet, therefore wins every time. For me.

What's your enduring creative outlet that you always turn to when times are busy?

xxx

September?

2011-09-06T18:58:00.001+01:00

Well, I hadn't anticipated taking quite such a prolonged blog-break but after my last post our summer got much busier than expected.

We've had visitors, lots of visitors. The children were whisked away to London by dear friends of ours and I was lucky enough to have a whole day all to myself.

Naturally, I ignored the housework in favour of sewing, crochet and doing more sketchbook work.

Minx caught the arty bug and spent many happy hours sketching - talking non-stop the entire time, of course.

In fact, that girl of mine talked non-stop for the whole five and a half weeks!

She even managed to squeeze in plenty of bickering, arguing and niggling with her beloved brother.

She went back to school yesterday, and headed straight off on a whole week residential trip.

It's very quiet here this week!

Despite the noise, she did redeem herself with the odd bit of baking.

It seems I'm all but redundant when it comes to fairy cakes these days, being required only for oven lighting and the fetching and carrying of ingredients :o)

She can do a mean chocolate brownie too, and her ginger biscuits were a resounding success. I've come to realise this girl of mine is at her happiest (but not quietest) when she's busy doing - preferably busy doing with me by her side, lending an ear to the continuous stream of chat that she emits.

We both got rather heavily into making bracelets a couple of weeks ago. This cute daisy bracelet is from a very old beading book that's been gathering dust for rather too long.

It took about an hour, with Minx chit-chatting next to me....

....are you noticing a bit of a theme to my summer?

During my one and only day of silence this summer, I managed to finish off a bag that I'd been crocheting. I was hoping it would be mine but the mother in me ended up giving it to Minx, to make up for her having a poorly day the week before - she must have been ill that day as she was quiet for about three hours!

She loves her new bag.

Hasn't used it once.

If it had been mine I'd have almost worn it out by now!

The penultimate week of our summer break saw us spending a very relaxing, and surprisingly dry, day on the beach with my lovely friend Trashy, while various children and dogs kept themselves entertained :o)

Old black dog, exhausted by the silly puppies.

So, before you know it, September is here. Another lovely summer has been and gone. There's the chill of Autumn in the air and it's back to work for me and back to school for them, although for my boy it's no longer junior school but the big and scary world of secondary education. Yup, my baby started secondary school today. I watched him go into school with his shiny new uniform, looking far too grown up and wandered back home with a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye.

Now, if you would kindly excuse me, I must go and throw the computer through the window - blurry Blogger has gone all 'new and improved' while I've been away and I can't get my words or photos where I want them....grrrr!!!

Happy blogging!

xxx

Trapped!

2011-08-13T19:34:00.010+01:00

I feel it's only fair to warn you that this post is rather photo-heavy!

It's been a funny old week. We're having our driveway block-paved and in our efforts to disturb the workers as little as possible, the children, Merlin and I have tended to avoid going out too much and have spent rather more time than we'd like confined to quarters.

This hasn't been entirely without benefits, as I've had more time to be creative than I have for a very very long time.

First off, I got stuck in to my next sketchbook page. For this challenge, Gina had asked us to choose a portion of one of our potato print images and enlarge it to fill a whole page. I loved doing this and really want to do more - unfortunately I got somewhat obsessed with something else (so unlike me!).

Too much time indoors led to me getting the urge to give some (more) of my cushions a makeover. The crocheted covers I made a while ago were starting to look more than a little tatty, especially as I didn't actually make removeable covers so they were decidedly grubby too.

Initially I only planned to make one cushion cover - a circular Granny cover in Cath Kidston inspired colours, using the fab Granny Mandala tutorial from Crochet with Raymond.

Could have done with making the semi-circles on the back with a little more overlap but no-one will see this bit unless they're being nosey!

Being me, I didn't stop there. I've seen so many lovely crocheted Granny things on Ravelry with a neutral background colour and this idea had been stewing in my brain for quite some time. So, here's cushion number two, again with a little nod to Cath Kidston's colours.

...and the back -again, the overlap could have been a little longer.

By now I was on a roll and as soon as cushion two was assembled and on the sofa, I got stuck into cushion three. This one popped into my head as I crocheted the back of cushion #2 and I obsessed about it the entire time I was finishing off the second cushion!

Luckily all but two of these colours were already in my stash and a quick nip out to the wool shop for a ball of lilac and a ball of blue cotton this afternoon helped me keep the manic crochet going. Mind you, this time I just couldn't face crocheting another cushion back and tried something new(to me) by backing it with fabric.

Here they all are, making my manky old charity shop sofa look really rather gorgeous - if I do say so myself!

It wasn't all plain sailing, however. My first attempt at the circular Granny didn't quite work - a combination of the colours not being quite right and me not reading the pattern - I increased too many stitches on one round and ended up with a very frilly circle.

Not wanting to waste it I set to and blocked and pressed it to within an inch of it's life, turning it into a nice flat circle.

Just perfect for my new jug and bowl :o)

In amongst all this hooking I was forced to take a break for a spot of birthday sewing for one of Minx's 'friends'. Apparently a fiver in a card would not suffice as the little madam in question (and she is a little madam, believe me) had already told my girl that a bag was expected. To make Minx's life easier I agreed to just make the bag....although it wasn't done with much positive energy on my part!

I'm not the only one who's been busy making this week. As soon as Minx saw Jodie's latest patterns she just had to make her very own Smith, with a little help from her Mum. This is Spot Smith - made with some gorgeous fabric given to me by the lovely Kitty quite some time ago.

Thank you so much for the pattern, Jodie - this made my girlie very happy indeed.

All of this creativity has made me so happy this week but the thing that has made me happiest of all happened just an hour or two ago.

A metre of crocheted chain. Minx's very first attempt at crochet. I'm now wearing a turquoise crocheted chain around my wrist - a friendship bracelet made for me by my baby as I was writing this post :o)

Phew! Well done if you made it through all that lot! Here's a little something to end with - one very big, and pointy eared, seven month old puppers.

Wondering where Trashy, D'boy and the little black dog have disappeared to after a very successful visit to Moogshouse on Thursday. Both pups were thoroughly exhausted after a very full-on play session :o)

...and yes, that is one of my beautiful new cushions the little git is standing on!

Happy hooking xxxx

Home again, home again, jiggety jig...

2011-08-07T17:51:00.004+01:00

We're back!

The past week has been by turns both lovely and a bloody nightmare (Locket and Trashy have the texts to prove it!). Luckily, the good bits won out and we ended on a happy note.

We've been thoroughly spoiled by the in-laws, who treated us all to a week at the Manor House Hotel near Okehampton (as advertised on TV, people!!). This was a totally different holiday for us and all eleven of us found plenty to do.

There was indoor and outdoor tennis, badminton, bowls, crazy golf, ten-pin bowling, swimming, golf and even aqua-aerobics, salsa and zumba and falconry. Then there was hot-press printing, t-shirt painting, jewellery making, pottery underglazing, bisque painting, woodwork and pottery transfers.

I managed to make all of two things but both make me very happy. First there is the little jug that I painted with underglaze. I went back to collect it the next day, all shiny and ready for use.

I could have done patchwork, embroidery and drawing and painting but I chose to do crafts that I wouldn't normally get chance to do. The craft studios were so well equipped and staffed by a great team of very helpful folk and we all made plenty of lovely mementos.

I was really thrilled with my jug but the bowl I made in the pottery transfers class is my absolute favourite.

(I've just remembered that I did also make a couple of pendants in the enamelling class but they're still packed.)

I even managed to treat myself to some minx nail transfers, an eyebrow waxing and an Indian head, back and arm massage - according to the therapist my back was 'very tight'. After an hour of kneading, pummelling and stroking it was more relaxed than it's been in years.

I was a total beauty therapy virgin before this holiday but I may have seen the light and will become much more high-maintenance in future!

For now, I'll just make do with a decent night's sleep in my own bed, ready for my next Colour Sketchbook session.

xxx

Colour sketchbook

2011-07-30T10:06:00.009+01:00

Yesterday, after spending five hours grumbling my way through the two biggest baskets of ironing in the world ever - thankfully aided by some good DVDs - I felt I deserved at least a little time to do 'me' things.

As luck would have it Gina had posted the next installment of the Colour Sketchbook project. I totally lost myself for over an hour. Who would have thought potato printing would be the perfect antedote to domestic drudgery?

I did seven pages of potato prints in my sketchbook! All still need to be worked into further but once I'd started I just couldn't stop.

I wasn't thrilled with the first prints as the paint was a bit thick and made the echinacea look a bit heavy - this may change once I work into them a bit more with watercolour washes.

However, after stamping all over some scrap paper to clean the paint off my potato stamps I realised I loved the softer, almost ghostlike images that were made once the stamp was less painty.

So, I found a big sketchbook and did a page with softer looking images.

I've even had to keep the scrap of kitchen paper that I cleaned my stamp on!

Just to finish off, and to get the very most out of my potato stamps, I hauled out some Scrapstore cotton for a bit of fabric printing. Not sure what I'll do with this yet but it's ready and waiting for inspiration to strike.

No post would be complete without a little Merlin Moog snapshot.

photo taken by Mr Moog when he discovered Merlin looking mournfully out of the front door wondering where his Mummy had gone - my boy loves me :o)

Now, I'm off to furtle about in the loft for holdalls - the Moogs are off for a little break and will be back very soon.

Happy stamping xxx

At last!

2011-07-27T16:08:00.005+01:00

This has been a looooong term but finally the children have finished school and I've finished work and we have five and a half weeks (whatever happened to six weeks +??) to kick back, relax and get up in the morning when we're good and ready.

Yesterday was an emotional day for some (me) because my tiny baby boy left primary school for the last time, ready to go out into the big and scary (for me) world of secondary school, come 5th September.

My Monster didn't give into the overwhelming urge to blub and cry (unlike me) as you can see.

Earlier this week I picked this up in Sainsbury's, along with a more boyish version. The idea was that it will keep the children happily occupied during our relaxing break from school.

I sat down with a cuppa and had a browse. Oh my....

Ooh.....I want....

I suggested to Minx that she give me the book but she said a very firm 'No, buy your own!'. Charming!

By that time the shop was shut but the urge was strong - okay, the urge was more than a little overwhelming....

Suddenly no piece of paper is safe....

Most unlike me, I know, but I would appear to have become just a teeny bit obsessed.

So much so that I doodled in my diary all the way through a long work phonecall

and doodled while I waited for my overlengthy work computer log-in to happen

and stopped for a break for lunch and doodled my way through couscous and salad - and coloured in

This morning I was determined to have a bit of a lazy get-up but rather than waste time sleeping I doodled and doodled and doodled some more!

Might still have to buy me the book though - I need to do those doodled teacups!

I'll leave you with a very long-leggedy and suddenly un-puppy looking salty old sea dog - taken last Sunday at Hengistbury Head (yay Trashy - dog's allowed!!!).

Happy doodling :o)

Moogs xxx

Sketchbook

2011-07-23T19:34:00.005+01:00

A few days ago Gina posted about her summer sketchbook project that she will be teaching and invited her blog readers to join in. I looked back over her posts from last summer and decided it might be just what I need to get my creativity going.

The first challenge was to choose a colour, which is to be used throughout the sketchbook. I chose blue so that I could indulge my love of turquoise. Gina then asked us to paint our first page with a wash of watercolour and cover it with clingfilm and leave it to dry.

I couldn't find my watercolours, so I dug out my acrylics instead and made up a juicy wash of paint. Once dry I had some great textured background to work with.

The theme of the sketchbook is 'close to home' and Gina suggested using something from the garden. My garden underwhelmed me completely and I struggled to find anything that I could develop into a good graphic image. Also, my drawing skills were most decidedly rusty so I cheated and photocopied a piece of bracken and blew it up by over 300%.

I then cut out the image to form a reverse stencil and once I discovered that no matter how hard I scribbled my white oil pastel just wasn't going to work, I switched to a darker blue which seemed to be much more promising. However, I wasn't very excited by the image so it was back to the drawing board.

After a good think I decided I'd love to do an echinacea flower....but I don't have one in my garden and cheated even more by using my very close to home computer and downloading some images off Google!

Echinacea #1 - outlined in orange oil pastel (still can't get the white to show up) on a background of Minx's cheapo watercolours.

Echinacea #2 - again on a background of Minx's cheapo watercolours, outlined in blue and worked into with black biro. Starting to look a little more promising.

I then decided to have a little play with some Markal paintstiks and my cut out images.

I coloured each image in with the paintstik and then using the image as a mask on white paper I scrubbed the 'paint' onto the white page with a toothbrush, as I'd seen Gina do on her 2010 posts.

After dinner I delegated the clearing up and got out Minx's crayons and watercolours for a quick play with some wax resist.

Earlier today I was doing some sewing - teachers' presents - and kind of mastered drawing (or rather writing) with the sewing machine and of course this got the cogs whirring so I sent Minx outside to bring in the washing while I tinkered with a bit of free-machine embroidery.

I'm already having so much fun with this and I'm really looking forward to seeing where it goes - thank you Gina for inspiring me :o)

As I mentioned earlier, there was present sewing today too. This year I opted for an apple for the teacher in the form of a pencil-case, for each of the children's teachers. Everyone loves to start the new school year with a brand new pencil-case, right?

Now for the knitting news.....I've recently been suffering a distinct lack of knitting mojo - most uncharacteristic for me. Even having four different socks on the needles wasn't inspiring me. Last night I decided enough was enough and got cracking with my beautiful bonkers Hexagon socks - this is my second pair of these...here's a Ravelry link to the first pair,

I thought you might like to see my current bed-time reading - to round off this suddenly rather miscellaneous post!

I've wanted to do screen printing for a very long time but haven't yet managed to give it a go. I've been looking for local courses but having drawn a blank I did some Googling and came up with this lovely book.

Well worth a read if you feel the urge to print. Not just screen printing but block printing, stencilling, stamping and lots more. I love this book :o)

I'm hoping to squeeze in some more creative moments this summer, once we've broken up from school. We don't break up until Wednesday - far too late as far as we're concerned!

xxx

fun with wallpaper

2011-07-20T10:13:00.006+01:00

Last week I scored some rather fabulous rolls of wallpaper at the Scrapstore, to use with my school recycling groups at work. Obviously I needed to come up with some ideas, so I spent a happy hour on Sunday playing with scissors and glue.

This resulted in a revamped notebook, plus a gift bag...

...and a snazzy new look for my tatty old cardboard-box-clipboard.

I've been scouring the internet for fun and easy 'things to make with wallpaper' ideas that I can do with infant school children but most things seem a bit complicated. I usually work with 12 children plus a teacher and anything too involved usually ends up with me being surrounded by small people all saying 'Please can you do this for me?' Any ideas?

I came home from work yesterday to find an exciting looking parcel waiting for me. Inside it was even more exciting - a gorgeous bundle of goodies from my lovely friend Thimbleanna.

I was very lucky to win Anna's giveaway recently, for these fabulous Aurifil quilting threads.

I've never tried these threads and I can't wait to give them a go!

Anna also included these gorgeous little spools of baker's twine, complete with very pretty scissors.

As if that wasn't enough, all those goodies were wrapped in some beautiful Anna Maria Horner fabric....sigh....

Thank you so much Anna - you really made my day :o)

xxx

Saturday

2011-07-16T20:38:00.003+01:00

Rainy day :oS

Mr Moog took kids to swimming lessons :o)

Sorted out laundry, kitchen and my wardrobe :o(

Finished reading this. :o)

Took puppers for a lovely walk :o)

Went to see this :o)

Now need to re-read this :o)

Mr Moog bought us dinner on the way home :o)

6 out of 8 = a good Saturday.

How was yours?

xxx

Floral Monday

2011-07-11T14:18:00.005+01:00

Just because...

...I thought you deserved something pretty after my last post.

xxx

p.s. does anyone know why my gadgets have disappeared from the right hand side of my blog? They seem to have fallen down to the bottom of the page and I can't work out how to mend it!
It seems they're there if you just open up a single post but not if you open on my home page.

A rude awakening - read with caution...or a bucket

2011-07-06T19:40:00.005+01:00

Maybe this will all be tooooo much information.

Maybe some things are best kept to oneself.

Or maybe I just need to blog it to offload. It's the virtual equivalent of brain bleach. It's my blog.

Maybe I should warn you not to read this first bit if you've just eaten dinner....or anything in the past twelve hours. If you are strong of stomach read on. If not, avert your eyes and scroll on down until you get to a photo of a manky old chair.

Merlie Moog was feeling a little bit squiffy yesterday but, nevertheless, did well at puppy training and enjoyed a run at the park and seemed very happy in himself. It didn't seem to be anything to worry about as he was drinking and eating and bouncing and playing. So, last night, we all went to bed as normal, until....

2.30a.m - Mrs Moog is awakened, thanks to her overly sensitive nose, by the most indescribably awful smell she has EVER smelled - and she's smelled some, believe you me.

2.30a.m and 1 second - Mr Moog is awakened by Mrs Moog announcing (rather hysterically, it should be noted) that a major sewer seemed to have burst all over the hall floor!

2.30a.m and 2 seconds - the now unexpectedly wide awake Mr & Mrs Moog realise that, in actual fact, Merlin Moog has burst all over the hall floor.

Suffice it to say, there was no chance of not stepping in it, as it was the consistency of thin chocolate milkshake and was EVERYWHERE (imagine floor, walls...)
with little by way of a dry route through, so a harsh decision was made. Shoes? None upstairs - they live downstairs, beyond the 'lake of euwww'. Barefeet? Yup (ugh).

I imagine by now you either have the picture or have your head down the toilet.

Then ensued a full forty minutes of mopping, gagging, scrubbing, heaving, more scrubbing, lots of rinsing, stomach churning, scrubbing of feet, more scrubbing of feet, thorough (and painful) hand scrubbing, and an ample bit of air-fresher-spraying all the while consoling a very sad and unhappy (and a shockingly suddenly skinny) little puppy, whose ears seemed to say something along the lines of:

OMG! WTF? WhatOnEarthJustHappened?Help!

Please be assured I DID NOT reach for my camera in the middle of the night - this was taken half an hour ago as those very ears are wondering where all the food has gone.

It transpired that £60 at the V.E.T. on anti-vomit drugs and anti-squitters drugs, plus £10 at the Co-op on best quality chicken breast should get this little (suddenly very skinny) puppy back to a more even eared state of being.

This evening he is much recovered but very confused. How do you tell a 19 week old starving (and suddenly very skinny) puppy that the only reason you're not feeding him more than a tiny spoonful of (best quality expensive) steamed chicken breast and rice, is because the lovely lady V.E.T. told your Mummy It.Is.The.Law.?

Hello! If you skipped the first bit I don't blame you. If you didn't skip the first bit, are you feeling okay now? (Don't say I didn't warn you!).

So.

Chairs.

Much to the dismay of my dear M-I-L we have a motley collection of six old secondhand oak dining chairs. Most women ( I'm reliably told) would, after 16 years of slumming it with a load of tatty old furniture, have insisted on brand new sparkly super posh designer chairs by now.

Some people need to realise I will never be 'some women'.

I always had a plan for these chairs but never quite got round to it. They got new seat covers roughly every two to three years, once the old ones got too stained/torn/sticky.

A rather unexpected burst of homemakerly energy this weekend got me half way to achieving the dream. Much scrubbing, sanding, wiping, undercoating (twice) and overcoating (twice) has started to make a definite impression. They may still be old and mis-matched but half of the six are now of uniform brilliant white eggshell.

Only three more to go and then it's on to choosing some gorgeous new fabric for our bottoms to sit upon :o)

Next up - surprise gooseberries!

'Found' during a mooch around the garden on Monday.

Someone (probably me) has planted a gooseberry bush in the garden and then forgotten about it. I spotted a little green berry whilst playing ~~'please stop grabbing the ball and buggering off with it'~~ fetch with Merlin and of course one berry led to another and then another. Just enough for an apple and gooseberry crumble. Yum.

I think that after the rather gruesome start to this post (DON'T go back and read it if you avoided it the first time!) I should end on a much prettier note.

Rainbow fruit kebabs - deemed 'just about the best pudding ever' even by Mr Moog (!!!) - courtesy of my new found interest in Pinterest.

xxx

Brightening up

2011-07-02T17:26:00.007+01:00

I was beginning to feel that this house of ours was looking decidedly unloved and shabby. Things needed sprucing up a bit, so last night I got cracking with the sewing machine.

It's amazing how a simple thing like new cushions can breath new life into the living room.

Cushion number one - made with gorgeous fabrics gifted to me quite some time ago by my lovely friend Mrs Locket.

Look...look...I piped!! Feeling very grown up and important about that one :o)

Cushion number two - using gorgeous fabrics and handmade crochet trim that I received from Dragonfly, in Domesticali's Seven Day's of Happiness swap way back in February last year.

Doesn't my tatty sofa look pretty? :o)

Of course, by now I was on a roll and cushion the third was not long in the making. Again made with fabrics gifted by my lovely blog friends.

Sigh...

My timing was perfect, as Minx has rested her poorly earachey head on them for the past hour. Apparently they help the pain - love her :o)

Someone else had to get in on the cushiony goodness too....

Don't imagine they'll stay looking pristine for long!

xxx

Best foot forward

2011-07-01T12:32:00.010+01:00

I picked this unassuming little book up during a recent mooch around Hobbycraft, and after a few moments spent flicking through its pages it just had to come home with me.

If you've ever wondered what on earth to do with some of those weird and wonderful feet that have been gathering dust in your sewing machine tool box, then this is the book for you.

I got a job lot of feet with my sewing machine but up until now have only used the basics - straight stitch foot, zigzag foot, zipper foot and buttonhole foot. I've also bought, and used, an open-toed applique foot, a free machine embroidery foot and one of my favorites, a walking foot. I've used all of these for every type of sewing, ignoring the box of odd looking feet that had been shoved to the back of my sewing cupboard.

So, with the help of this book I decided to have a closer look at my feet....my sewing machine feet, that is....not my actual feet which remain too far away from my face for any sort of close scrutiny, and thought I'd share my favourite discoveries with you.

Foot #1 - Teflon/non-stick Foot (recently purchased but unused and neglected)

If you like sewing oilcloth, vinyl or leather then this little treasure will save you many tears, as it helps the fabric glide smoothly through the machine as you sew. If you've tried to sew oilcoth without one, you'll know what a pain it is.

I should have chosen a longer stitch for this but it still looks pretty neat. You can also buy Teflon strips to stick to your standard feet, or you can even use masking tape stuck to the underside of your metal feet but I'm now sold on this little foot.

Foot#2 - Blind Hem Foot

This one came with my machine and has sat there doing nothing whilst I cursed and swore at the tedious termly task of hemming school trousers by hand. Those days are now gone - in fact, I'm looking forward to that particular job come the new school term!

It goes into your machine like this, with the hem on the bottom and the main fabric (wrong side facing) on top, guided by the little plastic guide.

Choose a blind hem stitch on your machine. The wrong side will look like this when you've finished stitching and opened out the 'seam' :

These little flat stitches appear on the right side- hopefully in a matching thread!

Foot #3 - Gathering Foot

Before now, I've used a standard straight stitch foot and the longest straight stitch on my machine to produce gathers in fabric. It's a real drag, as you have to then carefully pull on one of the threads to pull up the gathers and then stitch it to whatever you're sewing.

This foot does it all for you. It looks very unexciting doesn't it?

Simple but oh so clever!

The fabric you want to gather goes beneath the foot, onto the feed dogs, and the piece you're attaching your gathered fabric to goes through the little slot in the foot.

As if by magic, as you sew, this happens:

I have a feeling things might get frilly around here!

Foot #4 - Ruffler Foot - aka Scary-looking Monster Foot

This big beast is like a scary grown-up version of the gathering foot. It took me a bit of playing to get this one to work and I still have a long way to go before I'm entirely happy with it BUT it's a very very clever foot indeed and will take cushion making to a whole new level.

The little slots on the top determine the spacing of the pleats in your ruffle, and another little gizmo determines how much fabric is pleated each time. Coupled with your chosen stitch length you can produce a whole range of gathered and pleated ruffles to adorn yourself and your home.

Here it is on the machine. Ominous looking, right?

Like I said, I do need much more practise but for a first attempt (ok fourth!) it's not too bad.

Pretty :o)

Foot #5 - Piping Foot/Feet - my newest and most exciting purchase

Two piping feet - one for narrow and one for medium piping.

Piping is one of those clever sewing tricks that can make your sewing look that little bit more special. I've always been scared of piping. I haven't even tried it as it looked far too clever for me.

Of course, that was before I treated myself to these miraculous little feet.

No more struggling to keep my stitching straight alongside the piping using a zipper foot. The piping feeds beautifully through the little groove beneath the foot and once you've finished stitching, you take it off the machine and feel like you may have changed your entire sewing world for the better!

Here it is using thicker piping cord:

Thanks to that brilliant little book, I've got a whole load of new sewing fun to look forward to.

Of course, thanks to that little book I now also have to save up for a rolled hem foot, a stitch-in-the-ditch foot, a flat fell foot, a humper jumper, a bias binding foot, and most definitely a pin-tuck foot!!

I made this last weekend, using a purse clasp that came free with a knitting magazine ages ago, and not a single one of my fancy-schmancy sewing machine feet!

Happy sewing xxxx

p.s. there is loads of info about each of these feet on the internet - check out YouTube. I could have provided you with a stack of useful links but that would deprive you of hours of Googling fun ;o)

...and about time too!

2011-06-25T16:15:00.003+01:00

Goodness me, the gaps between my blog posts seem to be getting bigger and bigger! I haven't ventured into blogland for weeks and have no idea what any of my lovely virtual friends are up to. I have frittered away many hours lurking around on Ravelry, however, so maybe it's time to get back in touch with what you're all up to.

I've had quite a few bad days just recently, feeling very low and not wanting to face the world and yesterday it finally dawned on me what all this was about. It's a little thing called grief. I allowed myself to take stock and think back over the past few months and I realised it's perfectly okay and normal to feel this way.

I think we all feel we should just be able to dust ourselves off and get on with things all the time - I know I do and I know I really irritate myself when I give into the glums. Yesterday I let myself work through it and I'm feeling like a cloud or two is starting to drift away.

There's still lots of lifecrap to deal with - work is once more hugely uncertain thanks to two more council reviews which seem more likely to result in our jobs going than the last one, and I have another funeral to attend. My cousin's husband - a really wonderful man - passed away last week after a short but brave battle with prostate cancer. I reckon that'll be enough funerals for one year, they're not something I'd like to make a habit of.

Knitting has been sustaining me through all this. No photos today but I've got several pairs of socks on the go - I don't know what I'd have done without my sock knitting!

Also for the first time in I don't know how long, I've actually done some sewing. Minx has had a couple of birthday parties to go to lately and I was a bit low on funds, so I decided to get making - bags of course :o)

Bright and cheerful and cool enough for trendy ten year olds - at least that was Minx's verdict!

Merlin Moog is doing great. Growing by the minute and being a model student with his training classes - just as you would expect from a super-intelligent Border Collie :o)

He now completely fills his 'cave'...

....and has started to really make himself at home!

We were having big problems on our walks, as little man was terrified of cars but slowly and surely we're making progress and each day he becomes a little more confident and a little more relaxed. He's turning out to be a fantastic little dog and is doing a grand job of trying to fill Moog's very special shoes :o)

I'm now looking forward to a relaxing evening, catching up on some very overdue blog reading.

Love Moogs xxxx

Merlin - 12 weeks and growing fast!

2011-05-22T18:34:00.004+01:00

I thought it was high time I dipped my foot back in the blogging waters and shared some new photos of Merlin Moog - at the grand old age of 12 weeks and 3 days.

It's been a strange few weeks, what with Dad's funeral and starting to sort out his estate but this little ray of sunshine (and lots of sock knitting!) has been the very best distraction.

Thank goodness, he's now had his jabs and is out and about exploring the big wide world. We were all going stir crazy for a while there!

Today has been full of new. Merlin has been introduced to the most beautiful 11 week old spaniel pup called Rosie....and fell in love....amd showed disturbingly early signs of very male behaviour...ahem...

He's had his first foray into the New Forest, complete with wild ponies and their adorable foals, and displayed very Mooglike behaviour when it came to his first experience of a river - straight in, right up to his armpits!

After a 20 minute snooze in the car, we then persuaded him that a walk on the beach was a good idea. He seemed totally unfazed by the huge breakers crashing on the beach and looked totally at home.

It's hard to believe he hasn't lived with us forever. It is also hard to believe just how amazingly fast he's growing - he almost seems to grow as you watch him and is already filling 'Merlin's Cave' (AKA the fireplace)!

He'll soon be going on his first camping trip. Can't wait :o)

Love Moogs xxx

The ball-on-a-rope trick - MerlinMoog at 9 weeks

2011-05-02T17:11:00.004+01:00

He's clearly quite bonkers...

but he's fitting in nicely :o)

xxx

p.s. any tips on uploading a video? I tried through both YouTube and Blogger and neither seemed to work.

our Easter

2011-04-24T21:55:00.003+01:00

This Easter holiday we made the huge trip north to beautiful Scotland. We went on Saturday 9th and the plan was to be there for two weeks and then pick Merlin up today, Easter Sunday.

We had a fantastic ten days in Scotland, showing the children all our favourite places in the Highlands, soaking up the fresh air and stunning scenery. We took them to the island where we spent our honeymoon with Moog, twelve years ago and drew up a most impressive wildlife list, including Golden Eagle, Osprey, Red Squirrels and Otters.

On the evening of the tenth day my brother phoned me with bad news. Our dear Dad, who has fought an incredibly brave battle with a terminal brain tumour for the past five years (since first having it removed in the late 1980s) had been admitted to hospital, gravely ill with an infection.

Needless to say, the need to be with him was greater than the need to finish the last few days of our holiday. Thank goodness, we got back down south in time to be with him and spent his last hours by his side, along with my wonderful brother and his family. Dad passed peacefully away just after 10am on Good Friday.

I cannot tell you how priveleged I feel to have been with both of my parents in their final hours. It's very nearly four years since we lost Mum, also to a brain tumour and I will be eternally grateful that they both passed without pain and distress and with their dignity intact.

Due to the timing of Dad's death we were told we would be unable to make any arrangements until Tuesday - after the Easter bank holidays. So, we decided it would be best to head home.

We had planned to pick Merlin up on Easter Sunday. With a couple of extra days to spare we decided to pick him up early.

So here he is - Merlin Moog.

The fluffiest, cuddliest, funniest little wonder-dog ever.

He's settling in amazingly well and is the very best distraction we could wish for.

I'll be back soon, with more puppy pictures and maybe a few photos of those glorious Scottish mountains.

Love Moogs xxx

Merlin Moog

2011-03-27T20:50:00.005+01:00

In four (very long) week's time this gorgeous little man will be coming to live Chez Moog. His name is Merlin - and believe me he cast a spell on us all today :o) We've all been looking forward to today with great excitement, counting the sleeps until 'Meet the Puppies Day'.

We didn't know which of the nine beautiful pups in the litter would be ours.

It just so happens, I'd fallen for this young man several weeks back when we first saw photos of them, newly hatched.

As luck would have it, he hadn't already been promised to anyone and when we met the pups it was Merlin who made a bee-line for us.....well, okay he made a bee-line for me and I was hooked.

Louise, the breeder ( and a shepherd - how cool is that?!!), was lovely and let us spend a good long time with the pups, while they got to know us, had their tea and then ......

.....flopped exhausted in the sunshine.

We also met their mum and dad, Fly and Breac, both working sheepdogs on an organic farm in the beautiful Cotswolds.

These pups were born just 24 hours before we said goodbye to our Moog and it feels like it was meant to be. We're already counting the sleeps until we can bring him home - only another 28 or so!!

xxx

Thank you

2011-03-19T17:00:00.003Z

Yes, thank you - thank you all so much for your heartwarming comments to my previous post. We all read every comment and they were so much appreciated.

It's been a very strange few weeks, getting used to the house without Moog.

So many little parts of my day used to involve her and it seems to be the little things that we miss the most. Hearing the tip-tap of her claws as she trots up the hallway; coming in from the school run and going straight to the back door to let her out; having a reason to go for a walk; hearing her very special 'pigdog' snore as she sleeps off a busy day; seeing her curled up on her cushion under the stairs.

We decided almost straight away that we can't be without a dog. Meg was such an important part of the family and so much of our family time over the years has been spent taking her on lovely long walks to all our favourite places.

My knitting has been a welcome distraction - no surprises there then!

We are making some very exciting plans and I'm hoping that before too long I can let you in on them. Not just yet though, I don't want to jinx things!

Let's just say....once a Moog's Mum, always a Moog's Mum :o)

xxx

Goodbye sweet girl

2011-02-25T16:26:00.005Z

Nothing can prepare you for the loss of a beloved pet and although our girl was a ripe old age, we are all reeling at the shock and sadness of having to say goodbye.

This precious, clever, funny little dog found Moogsdad and I fourteen years ago (we've had her for most of our nearly 16 years together), when she was a bedraggled, mangey little 19month old mess in a tatty rescue centre. We'd only gone to look.

She came home with us straight away and within an hour was sitting in the dirtiest bath water you ever did see.

From day one she gently trained us in the right way for Border Collie owners to behave.

She brought us a million lifetimes worth of love, fun and joy.

She had her little quirks - like barking at the full moon, hot air balloons and the birds twittering in the garden; never wanting to play with other dogs; avoiding all children apart from our own two.

After a desperately difficult few days we made the decision all pet owners dread. Seeing our dear sweet girl unable to walk, lying sad and uncomfortable brought that decision sooner than we'd hoped.

So it was, that at 9 o'clock this morning our beautiful Moog gently left us and drifted off into a sleep from which she'll never wake. We were with her to the end and leaving her broke our hearts.

Good dog, Meg - we feel lost without you but you'll be in our hearts for ever.

Moogsmum

xxxxxxxxx

The first rule of sock club...

2011-02-12T09:19:00.009Z

....is 'tell everyone about sock club'!

I was reading Yarn Harlot's blog recently and got hooked with her idea of a self-imposed sock club. The idea is to pair up each of those many skeins of sock yarn, lurking in the big box on top of the wardrobe, with a sock pattern. Each sock is then put into a ziplock (or Co-op carrier) bag with its pattern and then the fun begins.

Each month you pull out a bag and get knitting that sock.

That's the theory.

By the time I'd made up fifteen bags and added in the two pairs already on the needles, that gave me 17 pairs of socks!

Luckily I'm already well on my way.

January socks: On-Hold socks knitted from the toe-up.

February socks: finished last night. My beautiful, and challenging, Wednesday socks.

I'm not going to be able to wait until March to start my next pair, so I'll be casting on Pillar socks soon. Who am I kidding? They'll be on the needles before the day is out.

After all, I don't want to get bored or resort to doing the ironing, do I?

Oddly enough, there's more knitting news.

Scrap socks for Minx, finished at last - I cast these on in September, so I'm not quite the paragon of knitting virtue I portray myself as!

Knitted on 4mm needles, two strands of leftover sock yarn held together, cast on 40 stitches, did a very sloppy short-row heel. Every inch or so, I swapped one yarn for another to make the stripiness. A very quick knit......or not!

For those moments when I may be tempted to give in to the lure of feeding my family, or worse - ironing, I've got a couple of other little bits on the go.

Crazy socks for Minx.

Scrap socks for Monster's size 5s!

With Mr Moog being excused from taxi duties for a while, my services are required for swimming lessons, cubs, brownies etc which inevitably leads to waiting time for me. Last Saturday I whiled away the swimming lessons by starting a scarf.

Knitted in beautiful soft Noro Taiyo, using Yarn Harlot's One Row Scarf pattern. Knitted until I ran out of yarn and then sewed the ends together to make an endless scarf/cowl that doesn't fall off when the wind blows!

I've just cast one on for Minx, to get me through today's swimming lessons!

I'll leave you with the pretties on my kitchen windowsill, to reward you for making it to the end of all that knitting!

Now I must run. Should have been in the shower forty minutes ago!

xxx

p.s. sorry about all those Ravelry links. If you can't access them you might just have to join Ravelry ;o)

Socks - at last!

2011-02-01T21:29:00.005Z

I'm not sure what's happened of late. What with all that silly Christmas mitten knitting and a sudden new obsession with tapestry I experienced a major hiatus in my endless sock knitting fest.

Naturally, I could only put off the inevitable for so long and now we're back on track. Normal service has been resumed.

This lovely green goodness is helping me tackle a truly challenging but highly enjoyable pattern - Wednesday socks (Ravelry link). Perfect knitting for those moments when nothing but absolute total concentration to the exclusion of all else is in order!

For the less quiet moments I'm knitting these On-Hold socks, from my 'Knitting Socks from The Toe-up' book. These are my current in-car knit.

A very necessary in-car knit. I've been spending hours in the car of late, as I have a quite silly number of schools booked in for work this term and a little bit of knitting between visits helps the day along nicely.

By far the best bit of knitting though is a very special one-off mitten for Mr Moog - requested by the man himself. He's always avoided my offers to knit for him but even he has admitted that a bespoke broken wrist mitt is just what the doctor ordered!

A mere 23 months after his motorcycle accident, he had the surgery to bolt his fractured wrist back together last Monday. He's going back next week to have stitches removed and a new plaster put on and then - much to his disgust - it's back to work.

Not sure how he's going to get there or what he'll be able to do with only one good hand but at least the TV will get a bit of a rest!

I've got an actual day off tomorrow. First one this year! Apart from the school run, taxi-ing Mr Moog about and taking Moog swimming, my only plans involve a sofa and my knitting needles.

I also have a bit of work news. As they're still awaiting the results of a(nother) review, our contracts have been extended until the end of September and hopefully by then we'll know one way or the other.

I may have to celebrate with a little bit of yarn shopping :o)

xxx

Splash of colour - better late than never!

2011-01-16T11:12:00.003Z

I've really been enjoying Emma's Splash of Colour project this month. So many people have posted bright and cheerful photos, providing a much needed respite to the dull and dismal January weather.

I was dying to take part but my Splash of Colour was taking a while to finish!

Yesterday, I finally got there....just before it got too dark to take a photo but that's now been remedied. So here's my rather loud and colourful Splash of Colour cushion.

My first ever tapestry, inspired by a design in my new Cath Kidston 'Stitch' book. The edging is very very pink due to the fact that I opted to use whatever I had in my stash and what I had was pink.

The edging was a new thing for me. A very simple crochet edging that wasn't sewn on afterwards, or stitched into the seam during making up.

This edging involved first embroidering chain stitch all around the edge of the cushion. It also led to a little swearing and aching fingers.

Once the chain stitch was done, I did a round of double crochet (sc in US terms) into those chains, with only a tiny bit of cussing and gritting of teeth.

The final row was much happier and very simple and very pretty. Also very pink.

Tapestry number 2 is well on the way. I reckon I only have about another 2000 stitches to do and then I can blog it!
xxx

New Year New Craft?

2011-01-04T13:27:00.007Z

Happy New Year!!!

I hope you all had a smashing Christmas and New Year with your loved ones.

I've missed being here in blogland so I thought it was time to remedy that.

Not being one to spend time looking backwards I surprised myself recently by scrolling back through my knitting projects on Ravelry. It dawned on me that, for some strange reason, 2010 proved to be a year dominated by all things wool - and when I say dominated I do of course mean totally and utterly obsessively dominated to the exclusion of all else.

A quick tot up of my projects has led to some interesting results that I thought might be fun to share.

Total knitting/crochet projects completed in 2010: fifty three (or possibly more).

Including:

28 thumb wrestlers (counted as 1 project made up of many parts!)

13 pairs of socks

13 scarves

2 tea cozies

5 hats

2 blankets

3 cardigans

12 pairs of mittens

and 1 elephant!

Phew! As I said.....2010 was dominated by wool!

This is one of my very favourite times of year. For me, new year always feels full of hope, possibility and new opportunity - a whole year stretching ahead to fill with new experiences. Naturally, the new year can bring many unexpected things - some great things, some very far from great and some very sad and upsetting things but right now it's a whole fresh brand new year and that feels so good.

I wonder what 2011 will be dominated by? Right now, there's a chance it might involve rather a lot of this sort of thing....

I blame it on Mr Moog - for letting me make him buy me a lovely new embroidery book for Christmas!

He'll never learn ;o)

xxx

p.s. I hadn't really planned on being absent for so many weeks but after managing to fall downstairs on my backside a month ago I've been nursing a battered and bruised coccyx - definitely not conducive to sitting reading blogs of an evening....and sadly not conducive to sitting knitting either! Don't worry - I've made up for it by lying on the sofa reading books instead :o)

Full circle?

2010-11-17T12:45:00.006Z

Things on the work front are still unclear but the more we hear, the more likely it is that our contracts won't be renewed at the end of March. We should know a little more before Christmas.

This uncertainty, coupled with all the usual life stuff and then a stinky heavy cold (and a MASSIVE scare when I thought I might be pregnant! - I'm not!!!), has forced me into my shell a little of late.

When I started this little blog, I'd just gone through a very unexpected life-changing year and was spending time at home. I was lucky enough to have a whole year at home discovering and exploring my creativity, inspired and supported by my new-found 'imaginary' friends in blogland, until I found a great little job and returned once more into the big wide world of work.

Now, I feel things may be about to come full circle. With the knowledge that my job may end, I've been exploring the jobs market........and the stalls seem to be pretty bare and uninspiring or at least not conducive to family life as we like it.

Once the initial panic wore off, my naturally positive inner voice took over and I'm slowly but surely formulating a plan. A working for myself type plan. A working for myself doing what I love type plan. A plan which, when explained to Mr Moog met with a most unexpected thumbs up!

So, if the new year does see the end of my job, I'll be ready with my plan.

In the meantime, I'm getting through notebooks at a startling rate!

Now for a little bit of a Moog family update.

- After worrying us all sick, my Dad seemed to rally again and is a little better.

- Mr Moog is going through the motions of organising wrist surgery, hampered by much to-ing and fro-ing with insurers. Grrrr.

- This little-old-lady Moog had a visit to the V.E.T, thanks to problems walking. Arthritis has set in and her back legs were starting to give way. At the grand old age of 15, these things are to be expected and up to now she's been a remarkably healthy little puppers.

She's now on anti-inflammatory drugs and, as of yesterday, has started having swimming lessons....or 'hydrotherapy' as it's otherwise known. She did brilliantly and did five whole laps of the pool, surprising not only herself but also the hydrotherapist! Everyone at the pool fell in love with her and no-one could believe how old she was, so she also got a much needed ego boost and a kiss on the nose :o)

Today, she is mostly snoring.

xxx

Imaginary blogging

2010-10-22T15:54:00.005+01:00

Just like Michaela, I've written this blog post almost every day for about two weeks - it's just taken this long to get it out of my head and onto the page. Lots has happened since my last post, so maybe a quick run through would be in order:

- I managed to squeeze a little bloggy meet-up into a working day, last week, when I met the very lovely Quiltygal and her equally lovely daugther for coffee and fabric shopping down by the sea. So good to meet you Claire - hope the long trip home went without a hitch!

- One of my colleagues gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, giving me the most perfect excuse to break out the sewing machine and whip up a quilty playmat with all my favourite boyish fabrics...

......including a very sheepy reverse side......

.....and of course I couldn't resist a bit of baby knitting.

- An evening spent with The Girls and a big pot of glue led me to this:

which then led to some soapy action and this:

- Mr Moog received the results of a wrist scan and it's good news. The reason he's been in so much pain since his accident is that he has a fractured wrist!

Good news? Yes, because now he knows the pain wasn't imaginary and it takes us one small step closer to getting the whole thing settled with the insurance company. Still waiting on an appointment to get his befuddled brain looked at and then there'll be open surgery to pin his scaphoid bone back together in his wrist. Nice.

- My poor old Dad is fighting a chest infection and is showing signs of his brian tumour progressing again. Off to see him on Monday.

- Work has been busier of late and has even taken up my beloved Fridays off. Ironically, with three separate reviews being done by the powers that be, there seems to be a pretty good chance that my contract will not be renewed next year. I can feel a crossroads approaching.

- The beasties and I are now off school/work for a very timely half-term break. Chance to kick back, catch up with friends and family, and start to ponder the future.

xxx

My brother - the craftsman

2010-10-04T21:05:00.003+01:00

My lovely brother has done something he thought he'd never do. He's gone on the webs!

In fact, he has his very own, very grown up website. The things this wonderful man can do with wood have to be seen to be believed.

Here he is - go increase his traffic people!

Oh, and check out the dragon chair here.

Happy carving xxxx

If crochet was an aerobic activity, I'd be so fit!

2010-10-04T14:34:00.004+01:00

Every little moment that hasn't been filled with home, family and work just lately has been spent manically hooking. Hooking like my life depended on it. Hooking like I'm in training for the London2012 Crochet Olympics and am striving for a gold medal!

I'm hoping someone will soon discover that crochet and knitting are the best forms of fat burning exercise. Sadly, my increasingly ample proportions would seem to dash this hope - unless I'm just not doing enough of it yet, of course.......

This is my roundabout way of showing you yet more pictures of stuff made out of yarn.

First, there's a frilly ruffly scarf for m-i-l's Christmas present, started and finished in a few hours, using just one ball of the strangest yarn - a net-like ribbon of yarn. You need to open the net/yarn out as you knit and only ever have seven stitches on the needles, and it's a completely different way of knitting.

Then. there's the beast that has been dominating my life. The Flowers in the Snow blanket.
So far, I've made 150 of the centre circles and have crocheted 30 of these into the beginnings of a blanket. To date, a teddy bear sized blanket.

You may recall I planned to make this into a kingsize throw for our bed. I may have been a little rash there.

We'll see.

Luckily, it's prettiness is keeping me going for now.

Anyway, that's enough blogging for now. I have to get back to my training schedule.

xxx

Hooked

2010-09-24T17:33:00.007+01:00

It would seem that knitting has taken a bit of a back seat this past week. I had an overwhelming urge to finish my big-granny blanket and when I get an overwhelming urge things tend to happen.

In just four days (evenings) I went from 9 completed squares, each comprised of twelve rounds of grannying, to 25.....all sewn together and with a border of five more granny rows!

The colours were chosen with the help of my favourite Cath Kidston handbag and although my squares are not entirely square this little blanket makes me very very happy indeed.

Of course, one thing tends to lead to another and I decided I should finish off my hexagon blanket that has lain neglected for months.

Somehow I just couldn't face making another hundred or so hexagons to make it bigger, so made a management decision to leave it as a small but cosy lap blanket with a few rows of pretty edging to make it look a bit more 'done'.

This is also making me very happy indeed.

Naturally, with two 'big' projects finished there was nothing else for it but to start another.

Flowers in the snow.

I could be working on this one for some time.......the plan is to make a cover for our kingsize bed. Forty circles done so far, of which four have been made up into squares.

I reckon I may need about 400.

Like I said.......this could take some time!

Before I head off to make the most of the children being away at a stayawakeover, I must point you to Trashy's blog. If you fancy getting together for a fabulous sewing retreat with a whole bunch of lovely bloggers next autumn, then please let Trashy know right now.

She's looking for enough of us to make it into a fabulous northern hemisphere version of Sew It Together that our southern bloggy buddies enjoyed this year. So go over to Trashy's blog right now and say 'yes please' on her poll!

Happy weekend :o)

xxxx

Friday

2010-09-17T14:02:00.004+01:00

I couldn't think what to call today's post but finally decided that the wonderful word 'Friday' just about sums it up. It's been a mad busy week all round so there's a certain amount of relief that today is indeed Friday.

In between the madness I treated myself to little moments of calm, most of which were spent in the kitchen.

The sloes are now in a lovely big jar, getting to know the gin and the rosehips have been turned into four small jars of cough-soothing syrup.

I've never made rosehip syrup before and it was incredibly easy. I used a recipe from my River Cottage Handbook. Here's the recipe I used if you fancy having a go.

Monster has had a bit of a week, which started with minor surgery for a very poorly ingrown toenail, followed by a return visit for 'wound dressing' and then a whole day out with his year group to the Southampton Boat Show. He had his first full day of the term in school yesterday - just eight days behind his rather disgruntled sister.

He's been in need of cake all week and somehow I just didn't get round to baking until today. Poor child has had to have fruit or yogurt instead. Can't wait to see his little face when he gets home and sees a tin full of rock cakes :o)

I've enjoyed a visit to the farm shop to stock up on some wonderful seasonal veg. I couldn't resist a beautiful red cabbage and came straight home to try out a recipe from the Abel & Cole Cookbook - red cabbage braised in balsamic vinegar. Very very easy - all you need to add to the shredded cabbage is half a mug of balsamic vinegar, half a mug of sugar and a mug of water. Bring it up to the boil, then simmer it gently for an hour - making sure it doesn't boil dry. Absolutely delicious!

I also bought one of these - mainly because it's so pretty - but I'm not sure what to do with it! Answers on a postcard please.

I needed a very simple knitting project to relax with in the evenings this week. I trawled through all my patterns and mooched through all my lovely sock wool and still hadn't a clue what to do.

Then I unearthed my basket of scraps.

Yarn held double and 4mm needles led to some very satisfyingly quick sock knitting. Sock 1 took a few hours. Sock 2 is well on it's way but this is secret knitting, to go into Minx's Christmas stocking, so finding time to knit it without old eagle eyes about is proving a challenge!

We're discovering the harsh reality of life that is later bedtimes for the beasties. Mr Moog and I get all misty eyed and nostalgic for the days when we actually had an evening - babies fed, bathed and in bed for 7pm......

......sigh.

xxx

Strange

2010-09-12T18:52:00.005+01:00

I have a secret. Something I've learned to keep to myself after years as a 'northerner' living down south.

Having been met with sheer amazement, nay abject horror, when mentioning this particular quirk of mine to the native southerners, I now keep my mouth well and truly shut when it comes to the mention of that very dirtiest of words......

.......autumn.

It's not so much the word itself that causes folk to step back in fear, more the statement that I happen to love this season more than any other.

How could I love the end of summer? The cooler days? The darker evenings? The damp mornings?

Well I do. I love all those things about autumn and more but by far my favourite things are these:

We reclaim our forest from the summer crowds.
We can take poor old Moog out for forest walks without her wilting in the heat.
We don't have to sit in queues of summer traffic for hours on end.
Foraging for freebies from Nature's larder.

The unique smell of the forest in autumn.

Today, Mr Moog was adamant that we should not waste a glorious autumn day at home, so off we headed to a very secret bit of the New Forest where we knew from past experience there were treasures to be found.

We came home laden with rosehips - now steeping in readiness to make rosehip syrup; sloes - a bit early but now in the freezer to immitate an early frost, ready for turning into sloe gin; and of course, blackberries - now bagged up into five generous portions and sitting in the freezer, ready for winter puddings.

Naturally, we had to test some of our harvest just to make sure.

Blackberry and apple crumble, made with homegrown dessert apples, and served with delicious Mackies vanilla ice cream ( BOGOF at the Co-op right now!).

So now, I'm going to say it. LOUD. AND. PROUD.....

I LOVE AUTUMN!!!

xxx

Monday...

2010-09-09T16:26:00.003+01:00

....or as it's sometimes known, Thursday.

This blog post has been ready in my head since Monday, it's just taken four days to hit the interwebs.

Monday was back to school for the naughty ones and back to work for me. My tiny babies have gone up into Years 5 and 6 and to mark the start of his last year at Junior school, my lovely Monster went straight off for a week away on an outdoor activity residential trip.

My week started in the best way possible, with a beautiful swap gift from my totally talented wonderful bloggy buddy Mrs Silverpebble. Just look at this fabulous necklace from the House of Pebble:

I can't even begin to tell you how very much I love this and so many people have commented on it whilst I've been out and about this week. To make a perfect present even more amazing, Emma included some of this delicious goodness:

Thank you so much Emma! This really has made my week :o)

In between schooly stuff and worky stuff, there's been a spattering of crafty stuff over the past week or two. Let's start with the nasty......the August Stashbasket and Moogsmum Sock Challenge.

I'd loved the pattern - Nutkin - for ages and was really pleased to be knitting it. The first attempt was doomed as it was coming out super skinny and had to be frogged.

The second attempt was better in terms of guage. The pattern is lovely to knit, very easy to remember and very effective.

However, even I couldn't ignore the fact that it was twisting like a b*gger. I tried it on and it still twisted. I tried it on a sock blocker and it still twisted. I had a choice to make.

I consulted my partner in crime, Mrs Stashbasket and found she was having the same problems. Neither of us were feeling the love for this sock any more. The decision was made. Frog 'em. Nutkin is no more. RIP Nutkin.

We've also decided to shelve the Sock Challenge for the time being to allow us a little breathing space, and to get some of those other works in progress done and dusted.

It hasn't all been fail on the knitting front. Last night I finished my second Circle Sock. I now have no socks on the needles and a decision to make about which socks will be next. Should be easy. I only have about 80 patterns and one or two skeins of wool to choose from!

A recent purchase of some lovely soft Noro Taiyo was put to good use, crocheting a Queen Anne's Lace scarf for my best friend....

....and one for me too.

I've even had a session on the sewing machine but as it's a secret for now this is all I can show you.

My daughter has now informed me that she would actually like to have something to eat this evening pleasethankyou, so I'd better be off to whizz up a culinary miracle in the kitchen - enough of this blogging stuff for me for one day!

xxx

Change of scene

2010-08-29T18:04:00.005+01:00

For the past few summers we've spent a week with the in-laws in a farm cottage in North Cornwall. After disappointing weather last year, father-in-law convinced us all to head east this year, as (and I quote) 'it never rains in Norfolk'.

This year, we've disproved this 'fact'.

We had some blue sky. We even had sun. We also had 50mph winds and driving rain.....lots.

It wasn't all gloom. We still had fun and spent time exploring this beautiful county, soaking up a bit of history along the way.

Felbrigg Hall was well worth the visit - a fascinating 17th Century home that has undergone many alterations, extensions and improvements throughout it's life. It's final owner, on handing the property over to the National Trust, stipulated that the property be left exactly as he left it, so it's more of a home than a museum.

Another cloudy day led us to Blickling Hall, a beautiful Jacobean manor house with the most beautiful gardens and a very cute house-cat called Meg.

Of course, no day out is complete without a game of croquet.

Whilst they got sporty, I wandered round the herbaceous borders, making plans for the grounds at Moogs Hall.

I totally fell in love with the villages in Norfolk, with their flint cottages, tiny lanes leading to the prettiest houses, and lovely gardens.

Mr Moog and the beasties got active on the water at Wells-next-the-Sea.

One fine and sunny day was spent building sandcastles....

.....and catching an eel!

In all, considering the fact that it apparently does rain in Norfolk after all, we had a great week.

As if that wasn't enough, we really rounded our holiday off in the best way possible - with a visit to my lovely blogging friend, sock knitting partner in crime and knitting guru, Mrs Stashbasket.

I met the Golden Wedding blanket and the Mystery Blanket in person and believe me, they are totally stunning. We also met the very gorgeous and bouncy Harvey puppy and the very relaxed Mr Stressy!

Now, as luck would have it, Mrs Stashbasket is my swap partner in Trashy's As You Like It swap, and presented me with quite the most amazing package you ever did see. Mrs Stashbasket took my theme of Birds and Bees and just look what awaited me:

Isn't this the most fantabulous cake? Just look at all those perfect tiny flowers and those gorgeous little bees!

It was almost sacrilege to cut it but we did have a slice earlier with a cuppa and the inside is every bit as lovely as the outside. According to Monster it's the best cake ever - and he's an expert!

That wasn't all though - there was this beautiful soft and squishy Martha Posh sock yarn...

.....and Colinette 'Toucan'.....

.....and all these goodies too!!

Thank you Michaela, for the lovely cup of tea and cake and most especially for my wonderful gifts :o)

I'm now going to empty and refill the washing machine for the gazillionth time and then I plan an evening of knitting as I have a lot of catching up to do.

xxx

Summer fun

2010-08-09T14:56:00.004+01:00

As always the summer holidays seem to be shooting by but so far nearly every day has been packed with fun and sunshine. Right now, the beasties are away at camp with Cubs and I actually have a little time to visit my poor neglected blog.

Last week we packed the old Moog off to stay with grandparents and Mr Moog, Monster, Minx and I headed eastwards along the south coast to Pevensey. We squeezed a lot into a few days, with early morning swimming in the sea, pain au chocolat on the beach for breakfast, and visits to Scotney and Bodiham Castles.....

......and a quick trip across the channel to French France! We had a very lovely and sunny few hours in Dieppe, admiring the window displays, soaking in the atmosphere and trying out our pitifully poor French on the locals.

With the children safely packed off at camp, Mr Moog and I had a rare day alone together yesterday. So, what could we do? Have a long romantic day out, with a candlelit dinner?

Er.....no. Mr Moog wanted to go to 'Blast from the Past' - a whole day of living history displays and re-enactments at Broadlands, the home of the late Lord Mountbatten.

Mr Moog had a great day. Loved every minute. Revelled in the historyness of it all.

Me? Well, after wandering round for a bit, watching a load of red-faced paunchy men in costume pretend to kill each other in the hot sunshine, I took to the shade of a chestnut tree and cast on a sock!

The romantic meal? A roast pork and stuffing roll and a pint of beer.

Now, we get onto the important stuff. Today I'm home alone - for the first time in weeks and I've done something very exciting!
I've finished my 'Feeling Good' cardigan and I'm so excited! It was beautiful to knit and it fits, which is more than I dared hope when I set out on such a big grown-up piece of non-sock knitting.

I'm also one down and one to go on my circle socks and they're so pretty :o)

The yarn is ready for the next projects. Some gorgeous green Araucania sock wool for the Nutkin socks that Mrs Stashbasket and I have chosen for our August Sock Challenge, and a lovely deep turquoise for my next cardigan project - Minarets, from the cover of issue 21 of The Knitter.

I think I'll go and make a cup of tea and start casting on.

Happy knitting!

xxx

We made it!

2010-07-23T10:13:00.002+01:00

Is it me, or has this seemed like a very long school year indeed?

Not wanting to wish our lives away, I have been really looking forward to today - the end of term....the start of the holidays....at last! In a few short hours the tired kiddlies will be home for six lovely weeks of long and lazy get-ups, meeting up with friends and family, and a whole host of holiday fun.

I've just sent off my last few emails for work and now have something very precious to savour. I have time.

To make the very most of this time, I've unearthed my big granny squares that have been neglected of late and plan an afternoon of gentle crochet.

I may even finish the last few rows on the back of my summer cardigan today. This has been such a fun and simple knit so far. I did all of that knitting with just two balls of yarn!

Sigh. I do love summer.

Hope yours is a good one xxx

What do your photos say about you?

2010-07-20T12:27:00.005+01:00

A few months ago, my friend from work asked me if I'd like to do a craft evening with her friends. We decided I'd show everyone how to make fabric flower brooches. What followed was a very happy evening, with a lovely group of ladies who all agreed this was something we should do more often.

This has given rise to a little craft club - although craft club isn't really the right words as we're not sticking just to crafty stuff. On our second evening together we spent a couple of hours sketching and last week we all got together in Winchester with our cameras.

It was fascinating to see what each of us chose to photograph. It would seem I have a thing for doors and gates and I can't help wondering what this says about me!

Naturally, there has also been knitting.

My choice of socks for the July Stashbasket and Moogsmum Sock Challenge - the fossily sounding Trilobites. A lovely simple knit that zoomed off the needles in no time.

I suddenly found myself in a very rare situation - I had no socks whatsoever on the needles. Not one bit of sock knitting was in progress.

I floundered a bit, tried and failed to choose which socks to knit next, tried and failed with the socks I chose and then opted for a very simple yet very effective pattern - Circle Socks in self-striping Regia sock wool.

The socks have taken a bit of a back seat, however, as I have become hopelessly distracted by something much more involved.

I'd seen the front cover of Simply Knitting magazine, kind of fell in love more than a little bit with the cardi on show and all of a sudden I was overwhelmed with the need to knit it - immediately!

It's years since I've knitted an adult sized cardi and I was loathe to part with nearly £50 for the beautiful Rowan Revive yarn stated in the pattern, just in case it didn't work out. After a little research I opted for a very nice and far cheaper 100% cotton in a summery lime green.

Those who don't know me might be tempted to accuse me of a certain tendency to become obsessed. I do, of course, refute such accusations.

After all, it's entirely reasonable to do this much knitting in two days, isn't it?

Please be assured that no children have starved, gone unclothed or lacked attention during this marathon knitting binge......their mother may be a little sleep deprived but it's a sacrifice worth making.

Happy knitting!

xxx

UB40 and socks

2010-07-02T09:53:00.005+01:00

Last weekend was one of the best I've had in a very long time.

Some time back my friend's husband asked me if I'd like to go and see UB40 at Broadlands with him in June - he's a massive fan and has seen them 15 times.

Where I grew up in Birmingham, was very close to where UB40 started out and I knew loads of people who knew them. I even used to serve Brian, the saxophonist, in the florist shop that I worked in - he lived just round the corner and bought flowers for his wife every week :o)

However, I'd never actually been to a UB40 concert. Now I can't imagine what took me so long!

Saturday night was just fantastic!! The venue was beautiful. The atmosphere was amazing - so incredibly friendly, relaxed and happy. The staff at the venue were lovely. The support band, The Dualers, were awesome, with so much energy and very obviously having the time of their lives and their music was a perfect warm-up for UB40.

As for UB40 themselves - wow!! Not only truly brilliant performers and superb musicians but the nicest bunch of guys who quite evidently love and appreciate their fans. I'll definitely be going to see them again!

I'm not sure what was the best bit of the weekend - going to see UB40 or getting to spend it with very dear friends who we haven't seen for a few years. As an added bonus, their little boy got on brilliantly with Minx and Monster and they're all asking when we can meet up again :o)

Sigh.......

Right then. Back to business.

Knitting.

Having set myself a bit of a challenge to finish a few neglected projects I got stuck into the knitting last week, while Mr Moog watched the football.

Finished: Jaywalker socks

Finished: Monster's new socks

Not bad going if I do say so myself. Of course, I had intended to finish Minx's scarf too but seeing as we're in the middle of a heatwave and she won't be wearing it for at least four months the management and I concluded that it was ok for me to neglect it for a bit longer.

For the first time in months I had no socks on the needles. Shocking!

Soon remedied that. These are my July Sock Challenge socks - Trilobite socks from this lovely book - knit from the toe up.

Mrs Stashbasket and I have discussed this month's challenge and have opted to make it a Freestyle month. If you want to join in, you can choose any pattern you want - as long as you let us know which one!

Happy socking :o)

'You're a drunk ....and a wh*re and an unfit mother...'

2010-06-25T21:08:00.003+01:00

After doing my motherly duties for the day i.e. taking the naughty ones to the school fair and sewing them each a water bottle carrier ready for a long, hot day trip with Cubs tomorrow, I decided I'd earned a little reward.

I asked that naughty Minx to kindly bring me the bottle of wine from the fridge.

This is what I got:

She has style, my girl.

Either that or a great future as a cocktail waitress * :o)

xxx

* ETA - or both -they're not mutually exclusive, of course!

Tick

2010-06-23T19:16:00.003+01:00

WIP no1 in Just-finish-it June - done.

Two more to go.

Knit news

2010-06-21T09:39:00.005+01:00

Normal knitting service has resumed. I think my knit-free holiday did me good.

This little project has been pending for months. Ever since a dear friend asked me to knit her a tea cosy in fact. I got a baaaad case of Knitter's Block with this one.

Luckily, her fast approaching birthday kicked my knitting mojo into gear.

Then there was the Stashbasket and Moogsmum June sock to attend to. At one point I doubted my ability to even cast these on as it all felt like too much effort.

Then I realised, this was meant to be fun!

Believe me, these Rhodie Gus socks are an absolute joy to knit. Deceptively simple but with enough going on to keep a knitter interested. Mine are also rather large thanks to going up a needle size. I'm happy with this though, as I like to allow for a little shrinkage.

I did cables!!

Naturally, I now have an overwhelming urge to cast on a brand new project.

Unnaturally, I've made the somewhat uncharacteristic decision to finish some current WIPs.

So, as far as I'm concerned, the remainder of the month is to be know as Just-finish-it June.

Anyone care to join me?

xxx

Alchemy

2010-06-15T09:58:00.004+01:00

I do love it when a little kitchen experiment goes according to plan.

Unlike a recent dismally failed attempt at creating a sourdough starter, the latest bit of kitchen chemistry is a resounding success.

Homemade yogurt.

Using just a few basic ingredients and a food flask, I have created white gold - creamy, smooth and sweet white gold.

For the curious among you, I opted for skimmed milk (just under a litre), a heaped dessert-spoon of skimmed milk powder and a tablespoon of Yeo Valley Probiotic natural yogurt.

Yum xxx

It's a hard life.....

2010-06-12T17:18:00.002+01:00

......and it just keeps getting harder.....

I do hope you're having a more restful weekend than me :o)

xxx

p.s. I'm NOT being lazy - Mr Moog is indoors watching the footie and I just cannot cope with the noise of the vuvuzelas!!

Doings

2010-06-11T10:05:00.004+01:00

I can barely believe it's four weeks since I last posted. My blogging mojo isn't what it used to be but I seem to get there in the end.

The past few weeks seem to have been busy busy busy. I had a very busy half term at work and there was no let up at weekends either.

We were ready for a holiday and the half term break was just what we needed. While Moog went to m-i-l's for a break, Mr Moog, Monster, Minx and I packed up the car and headed off for a glorious week's camping in Wales.

Our first stop was near Chepstow for a wonderful few days of camping with family - my brother, s-i-l and littlest niece (a very grown up 13!) and my cousins and their children from Mum's side of the family.

Mum's brother and two sisters also came along and it was so precious to spend time with them all - especially as it was exactly three years since Mum passed away (on 31st) and we all got to be together and talk about her. The general consensus was that we all miss her more than ever and are still very cross with her for going off and leaving us far too soon.

After several days of camping in a big group on a very busy but very basic and very slopey site overlooking the beautiful Wye valley, family Moog packed up the tent (in pouring rain) and went deeper into Wales to our favourite campsite.

A total contrast to the first site, we were nestling amid the trees in a flat valley bottom, with glorious sunshine the whole time we were there......and managed to do the laundry and have clean, hot showers every day!

Although missing the chat and fun of big group camping, we did chill out and relax more than we ever have on a camping holiday before. Thanks to the fantastic weather we spent days sitting outside reading, chatting and playing - none of the driving miles trying to find something to do in the rain that we have had in the past.

Whilst there we caught up with very dear friends - my friends of 20 years standing, who came to visit us en camp and Mr Moog's friends of many years who we stayed with on our last night. Both friends have children of similar age to our own and they all got on brilliantly, whilst their parents got slowly sozzled on rather a shocking amount of wine!

On the drive home over the Severn bridge we concluded that this was without a doubt the very best holiday we have ever had.....no doubt helped by the fact that for the first time ever I actually slept well every night whilst camping :o)

You may well be thinking that nine days away camping would have seen an awful lot of knitting being done. I took four knitting projects with me - one Baktus scarf and three different socks.

Shockingly I knitted four rows of the scarf and not one stitch more.

In fact, this is the first proper knitting I have done for nearly two weeks!

The first pattern repeat of Rhodie Gus - the June sock for the Stashbasket and Moogsmum sock challenge. I cast on last night and so far I love this pattern - even the fiddly cabley bit. I'm using some Blue-faced Leicester sock wool that I hand-dyed......couldn't face using any of my posh stuff in case I didn't like the pattern!

If it works out I may end up doing another pair in something more delicious.

Crochet has taken a temporary back seat. After doing 9 ten inch Granny squares in four days I had to give my poor aching hands a rest.

Luckily, I can foresee a whole lot of knitting and hooking this weekend as the little beasties are heading off for a whole weekend away at Cub's camp......of course, I'll miss them dreadfully but will just about manage to console myself with some yarny doings ;o)

xxx

Eye candy

2010-05-14T21:18:00.005+01:00

There's something very precious indeed about a day off.

A day all to yourself.

A day when you can indulge yourself.

A day when you choose to ignore all but the most necessary of housework and laundry.

A day when you find yourself making beautiful things worth sharing.

A day when you can make your bloggy friends scroll down a billion times to find out what the heck Mrs Moog is whittering on about ;o)

The first day since waaaay before Easter when your day off plans have not gone awry.

The next bit may shock you........I haven't knit even so much as a single solitary stitch today!!

I know!!!!!

Who would have thought it?

I have, however, baked.

You HAVE to make this - no really - you HAVE to! Another perfect recipe for those manky eating apples.

Believe it or not this is an apple cake. An incredibly simple, awesomely deeeeelicious, crumbly-sweet-bestwhenstillwarmonlyatinybitleftthreehourslaterthankstoMrMoog-apple cake.

I found the recipe on the internet. I was terribly hi-tech and took the laptop into the (tiny) kitchen (being too eager to stop and write it down) and followed the recipe 'live'.

Unfortunately, my techno-tastic abilities stopped there and I forgot to save the link - although I did remember the recipe and wrote it down ten minutes after it came out of the oven (do wish I could link to the brilliant cook who posted this recipe but I've resurfed and can't find it).

Here's how to make it:

8oz self-raising (all purpose) flour

pinch salt

1 heaped teaspoon ground mixed spice

3oz margarine

10oz sugar OR 6oz if you use manky eating apples

8oz peeled and sliced apples (cooking or eating)

1 egg

Cream sugar and marg. Beat in the egg. Add the flour, salt, spice and chopped up apple. Mix together. This makes a stiff mixture and at this point I lost the faith and added a splashette of milk.

Okay, all topsy turvy in recipe terms ....by now you should have preheated your oven to gas 4 or 350degrees or whatever your oven does AND you would of course have greased and lined a 7 to 8 inch round cake tin.

Then you can turn that big glob of far too dry looking appley cake mix into your pre-prepared tin.

Once it starts to brown on top place some greaseproof paper on top to stop it burning (this bit REALLY worked!!!) and let it cook for 1 to 1 and a quarter hours. Stick something pointy into your cake and if it comes out clean it's cooked....if not give it a little longer.

When I took mine out of the oven I immediately sprinkled sugar over the top.

Have a slice with a cup of tea about twenty minutes later. You might as well cos by the time the bu**ers have been home for five minutes there'll be none bl***y left ;o)

Luckily I have four more manky apples just a-waiting my bakerly skills tomorrow!

Remember that bit about not knitting?

You'll be mighty relieved to know I haven't gone a whole day entirely yarn free. However, I must warn you this has not been a day for posh and natural delicious sock-yarn. Today has been a man-made kind of a day.

Today, thanks to me spending far too much time looking at crochety loveliness on Ravelry in the wee small hours of this morning, I have got my ergonomic hook and my big posh Primarni-darling it only cost me £6!!!!!!CathKidstonlookeelikee (IMHO)-bag of acryliano yarn out of mothballs and have exercised my carpel tunnels with a mahoosive bit of grannying.

Some hours later I have two of these ten inch squares done and another three on the way. We're heading for a blanket here. At least that's the plan!

This next photo is an entirely gratuitous shot to show you just how perfect my little world is ;o)

Happy hooking!

xxx

I may be heading for a fall.....but I don't care.....I'm proud to be proud!

2010-05-10T18:39:00.004+01:00

If you listen really hard to the chorus you'll hear the Sausage Monster and all his friends in the school choir. England are bound to win the World Cup now, with that heartfelt support :o)

Not wanting to let my child steal all the glory, I'm really rather proud of not only finishing these but of even attempting to knit them in the first place!

These are the May socks for the Stashbasket and Moogsmum sock challenge. I was so delighted to have finished them so early in the month but soon came down to earth when my dear friend Mrs Stashbasket kindly reminded me that I'd also agreed to knit these this month.

No problem.

After all, I do only have two pairs of socks on the needles at the moment and I wouldn't want to get bored, would I?

xxx

Es Ee Ex

2010-04-29T20:18:00.004+01:00

There's been major S.E.X. happening round here this month. Maybe there's something in the air, what with it being spring and all.

I actually blame Mrs Stashbasket for suggesting a sock-a-month challenge.

Once the challenge was underway I soon realised my stash needed a little bulking up.

Luckily, thanks to birthday money and payday I have been on a very exciting Stash Enhancement eXpedition. I've explored online yarn stores, real-life yarn stores and have even kept my personal shopper busy and now my sock stash is looking incredibly lovely.....if a little greedy!

Of course, as well as all that S.E.X. there's also been plenty of knitting.

I managed to finish these lovely lacy socks that I cast on way back in January. I knitted the cuff of one sock between January and April and then got stuck in and did the rest in just over a week.

The pattern is Waving Lace from this book.

A recent appointment for work led me so close to a fabulous local yarn shop that is was rude not to pop in. I came back out with three balls of very pretty pastel yarn (plus one or two other things) that was perfect for a Baktus scarf for the naughty Minx.

Not wishing to leave Monster out of the knitted goodies I've got another pair of mindless stocking stitch socks on the go - using my new square dpns. These needles are fab - a bit metallic smelling at first but the squareness of them is incredibly comfortable to knit with and doesn't leave my hands cramped up.

Now, it's onto the real goodness. Some idiot managed to find a lovely looking pattern on Ravelry for The Stashbasket/Moogsmum sock-a-month challenge that was deemed to be just perfect for May.

That idiot would be me.

Mrs Stashbasket, as is her enviable style, got stuck straight into these babies and has already turned the heel on her first sock and is now well on the way to casting on sock 2.......and May isn't even here yet!!

Once I realised this I had to cast on too. Five times, as it turned out!

Don't be fooled - this sock is not as sweet and innocent as it looks. It messed with my brain so very much that I may have sworn a little tiny bit. I may even have felt very slightly close to tears. I endured a most stressful evening of knitting this blessed thing, only to find I'd suddenly found an extra six stitches from somewhere.

As we all know, knitting is a most relaxing hobby .....when it goes right!

It would seem it may be fifth time lucky and I'm very slightly nearly almost just about possibly starting to enjoy them.

Happy knitting........ahem.......

xxx

This and that

2010-04-18T18:50:00.003+01:00

I'm not being terribly imaginative in terms of themes for my blog just lately. So, rather than procrastinate further whilst waiting for inspiration to strike, I may as well just get on with it.

There's been knitting - of course. Lovely knitting if I do say so myself. Beautiful yarn combined with a pattern I now love (after hating it at the first attempt) has led to these delicious socks - my Polly Jeans:

I also finished off some very simple stocking stitch socks and am now onto the foot of some rather gorgeous Waving Lace socks. My sock drawer is beginning to look decidedly healthy!

Some knitters, when faced with a drawer full of handmade socks, might be tempted to start passing on the product of their labours to family and friends. I'm a very selfish knitter, however, and like to keep them all for myself!!

I can always buy new furniture with bigger sock drawers :o)

Other than knitting, the Easter holiday has included visits to family, my baby daughter's big 9th Birthday and several days of me being stuck in bed with a yucky sickness bug (this included Minx's birthday :o( ). We've enjoyed a glorious day at the park with friends, a long and lazy slouching about kind of a day - or two - and a couple of special days out.

Special day out no.1 was spent with my lovely chum Trashy and her gorgeous children. We met up at a weird 'Sculpture Park' up near Salisbury - weird because no-one else seemed to be there, picknicking and photography were definitely not allowed and it was entirely unclear as to where we could or could not walk. Coupled with having to enter the place through a set of electric gates, it was all very mysterious!

We picknicked out of the boot of the car - as is our style :o)

Then we fled the park in favour of a leisurely wander around nearby Stockbridge - where it was much more obvious where we could walk and had both public toilets and locally made ice-cream!

Special day no.2 was yesterday and Minx's belated birthday treat. A day out at Legoland Windsor. We queued lots. We managed a few rides. We walked lots. We queued some more. All courtesy of Tesco clubcard points :o)

The highlight for me was without doubt the fantastic Lego models throughout the park. I love Miniland - with it's amazingly detailed models of London, Amsterdam, Sweden, Italy, the Netherlands, Brussels, Paris and Denmark, not to mention the space shuttle launch pad, Edinburgh and Caerphilly castles and an Abba concert in full swing!!

Monster's overriding ambition is to become a Lego designer when he grows up and a peep through the glass doors into the model makers' workshop only served to strengthen this ambition. He has spent all day today up to his ears in Lego :o)

I''ve spent my day up to my ears in housework and ironing. Is it just me or does the whole house descend into utter chaos when the children are off school?

Tomorrow it's all back to normal. Shoes are polished. The car is loaded ready for work. School dinner notes are done.

I'm now going to round my holiday off with a few more rows of knitting.

xxx

Famous twins

2010-03-31T17:28:00.005+01:00

You may not have realised this....but all the very best people are born on 31st March.

It's true!!

Don't believe me?

Well there's Ewan MacGregor, Angus Young, Al Gore, Rhea Perlman, Christopher Walken, Herb Alpert, Richard Chamberlain, William Daniels, Joseph Haydn and Rene Descartes for starters. How's that for a Who's Who of impressive creative intellectual people?

Not convinced?

This should clinch it then- there's also my twin blogger and me! Yup, look no further for proof that today is THE day on which to be born :o)

Happy Birthday Clara!!!! Hope you've had as lovely a day as I have :o)

My day started very early. I awoke with a head full of sneeze at 4am and finally gave in and crawled out of bed at 4.30am as sleep just wasn't happening. After three mugs of tea and a slice of toast I woke everyone else up to help me open my pressies.

And what fabulous pressies!! I'm totally overwhelmed with the beautiful gifts I've received.

Just feast your eyes on the gorgeous patchwork cushion Trashy made for me - beautifully pieced, stunning fabrics, my colours and a zip!!!

Isn't it fab?! Trashy also made me a brilliant chickeny pouch - that I can keep my sock knitting in - with a zip!!

My special bloggy twin sent me a lovely American quilting magazine and a bar of yummy birthday nourishment!

My fab and funny London roommate, Lucy Locket, gave me these totally yummy treats - a very pretty handmade by Locket bracelet and a pack of the most fabulous fabrics by one of my favourite ever designers 'Basic Grey' - I love their scrapbook papers and remember getting very squeaky on the phone to Locket when I discovered they were making fabrics too!!

Thank you all so much!!! I've had a very smiley day, thanks in no small part to your beautiful, thoughtful gifts :o)

The Minx and Monster each spent some of their pocket money on a gift for me - a necklace from Minx and a set of bangles from Monster. As I'm wearing them - and the very beautiful necklace and earrings from my best friend - I haven't managed to take a photo.

My lovely hubby gave me money to spoil myself, and as I just so happened to be near a Cath Kidston shop whilst out at work today, I had a bit of a splurge on a pretty new bag.

Even work was great! I'm normally either at home, working alone, or out at a school visit on my birthday. Today we had our end of term meeting and, as one of my colleagues is leaving, we all went out for a very nice lunch.

So all in all, a VERY good day and well worth being another year older for.

Mr Moog has now gone out to get us all some dinner and then we're going to tuck into this deliciously gooey cake, that my children so carefully decorated :o)

Don't feel bad if you weren't born on this most auspicious of days. We can't all be perfect ;o)

xxx

p.s. I make no apology for the overuse of 'yummy' 'lovely' and ':o)' in this post. When overtired I'm adjectively challenged.....and besides, it's my birthday!

Running away

2010-03-29T21:14:00.006+01:00

My brain is befuddled with a stupid headcold and I've sat here for ten minutes typing and deleting the first sentence to this post......after three hours of waiting for Blogger to allow me to upload and see my photos!

So, instead of setting the scene or finding an interesting way to tell you I went to London at the weekend to meet up with lovely bloggy friends, for chat, laughs, yarn and cake, here's the photographic evidence:

Cake:

Laughs (and cake):

Gorgeous brooches from Locket and Gina and gorgeous sock wool from Loop and iKnit

The torrential rain didn't dampen our spirits (although a sleepless night and a snotty nose may have dampened mine a little!) and we picked up just where we left off last time we met up i.e. chat, laugh, yarn and cake :o)

It was great to see my sock guru Mrs Stashbasket again (especially as she gave me a fab parcel of her delicious homemade fudge).....although I did draw the line at showing her the bl**dy awful mess I've made of my Polly Jean sock challenge socks and 'accidentally' managed to leave them at home, waiting to be frogged. Glad I did too, as Michaela had her first (finished!) sock with her and it's GORGEOUS!

Here's my version 1 pair. Ugh.....just how much of a mess can a person get into with lacy socks?

Fortunately, Loop came up trumps with the MOST delicious Colinette Jitterbug sock yarn (possibly my favourite sock yarn ever). I made a determined effort to choose colours I wouldn't normally go for and couldn't resist this......'Wasabi Squeeze' colourway.

It seems to have done the trick. Polly Jean mkII is, so far, an absolute delight to knit and much more fun that the scratchy version 1.

Mrs Locket has done a fab post about London, with a lot more detail than mine, so head on over to see her version of events.

I'm now off to blow my nose for the gazillionth time today!

xxx

p.s. there were more lovely gifties but I haven't managed to show them to the camera yet.

Spicy apple muffins

2010-03-19T11:12:00.004Z

A sudden urge to bake muffins combined with three rather manky looking dessert apples has resulted in possibly THE most delicious muffins I have ever made.

I adapted a banana muffin recipe and tweeked a bit, by adding a dollop of homemade rhubarb and apple jam and plenty of spice.

Thought I'd share the recipe.....cos I'm not sharing my muffins!

Moogsmum's Spicy Apple Muffins

Makes 12

What you need:

200g (7oz) plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Ground cloves and ground cinnamon, to taste - I used just under a teaspoon of each.
3 manky dessert apples
1 heaped dessertspoon jam - I used homemade rhubarb and apple but apricot would do
150g(5oz) granulated sugar
1 egg
75g (2 1/2 oz) butter, melted

What to do:

- Preheat oven to 180 degrees C/ gas mark 4. Place 12 paper cake cases in your muffin tin.

- Sift together the flour, bicarb, baking powder and salt, ground cloves and cinnamon.

- Peel and finely chop the apples. Place them in a saucepan with the jam and about a tablespoon of water. Heat gently over a low heat for a few minutes just to soften the apples a bit.

- Puree the apple mixture - I used a handheld blender for this. It doesn't need to be too smooth, just not big and chunky.

- Combine the apple puree with the sugar, egg and melted butter in a large bowl.

- Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and combine well.

- Spoon mixture into muffin cases and bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until springy to the touch.

- Lovely served warm with a hot cup of tea :)

Note: to make banana muffins, substitute three mashed ripe bananas for the apple and jam mixture and omit the spices.

Enjoy xxxx

Knitter's thumbitis

2010-03-18T20:37:00.006Z

My thumbs are getting old.

My thumbs aren't as supple as they once were.

Or rather, my left thumb isn't what it once was.

It would seem that my left thumb is no longer up to the rigours of that most demanding of sports.

Yup, knitting can be bad for your thumb(s).

Unfortunately, having galliantly picked up Mrs Stashbasket's sock-knitting-challenge gauntlet, this thumb of mine is just going to have to grin and bear it.

I have a deadline to meet and no achey thumb is going to stop me meeting that deadline!

Then there's the added trauma of having to buy even more delicious sock yarn.

Sounds dreadful, doesn't it?

C'mon. Join in. If you think you're hard enough ;o)

If you need any further encouragement to get knitting just feast your eyes on this.

I have an actual whole real proper day off tomorrow and all my poor befuddled knit-obsessed brain can think of is 'oooh just think of all that knitting time....'.

As if that's not enough, I will be totally childless after 4.30pm tomorrow for nearly 24 hours!

Watch out Mrs Stashbasket - I'm racing to that finish line!

My thumb may end up in physio next week but at least my feet will look pretty.

xxx

More treats for me!

2010-03-02T18:21:00.006Z

I just had to show you the gorgeous goodies that postie delivered this week. I was so excited when I tore off the paper to reveal this very pretty Spring Swap box and I was even more excited when I realised it was from JennyFlower !!

I love the poem on the lid and will be making sure I keep this.

Once I opened it, things got even better!

Some of my very favourite sweets in the whole wide world - chocolate eggs and chocolate limes.....yum yum yum :o)

Just look at all this fabulous springy goodness! The most beautiful yarn, fabrics, crocheted brooch and pretty hair bands (claimed immediately by the Minx!).

....and just look at this fabulous bag! This must have taken ages to make and I just love it - it's now holding my latest knitting projects :o)

This was such a ray of sunshine in a very grey and wet week and it reminded me just how wonderful the world of crafty blogging is. Thank you so very much Jenny - I am so thrilled with my spring goodies!

In other news, househunting has so far drawn a blank despite taking up just about every spare moment - mostly trawling the same old websites looking at the same houses day after day.

We've viewed two houses so far, neither of which met the very exacting Moogfamily spec - ie three bedrooms (not shoe cupboards), good school catchment, good sized garden to accomodate Moog, chickens and a 12 foot trampoline.

You may be surprised at the details we've been sent for tiny bedroomed houses, in totally the wrong area, with gardens half the size of our current one!

What with that and having to listen to Mr Moog rant to me and anyone who phones/stands still long enough, about the whole buying and selling houses business ad nauseum, I've had very little 'me' left over for crafty stuff or bloggy stuff.

Before I wrote this post, I was about to announce a prolonged blog break. However, I've now had a change of heart as I think I need this little world to keep me sane!! I may not be leaving comments much but I am still lurking around reading your blogs and enjoying all your crafty doings - makes such a refreshing change from Rightmove!!!

xxx

Say what? Another craft obsession?

2010-02-23T19:22:00.003Z

I'm not entirely sure what happened to those times when I blogged almost daily. There was a time when I seemed to have something crafty to show or something to say every single day. Nowadays, I take a more ad hoc approach.

In crafty news, I'm still very much in a knitting phase.

The latest project is a pair of nice plain socks for me......in 'hand-dyed by me' wool.

Of course, one thing tends to lead to another........

.......and I may have unearthed yet another crafty obsession!

In other news, I've spent hours and hours and hours and hours on the internet lately.

Reading blogs?

Nope.

On Ravelry?

Nope.

House-hunting.

Gulp!

We may very well be on the move. Looking to move out of the city in search of better secondary schools. We have 18 months before our tiny baby boy starts secondary school.

We could stay put and hope for the best but, sadly, we're not overly impressed with what's happening to the schools round here, so it's a matter of biting the bullet and moving Family Moog.

Ugh! You should see the c**p we have to clear out of our attic!!!

A very special week

2010-02-09T16:57:00.008Z

Plans to blog on every one of the past seven days seemed to go totally to pot - for no other reason than busy stuff. However, I didn't let the busy get in the way of opening and enjoying my lovely Seven Days of Specialness parcels.

Saturday was a most delicious package. So delicious, in fact, that while Mr Moog and the kiddlies were otherwise engaged, I tore into it before suddenly realising it might be better to take a photo first!!

After a lovely Saturday night out with Trashy, at her most refined and beautifully decorated birthday party, I was awoken at silly o'clock on Sunday morning by my naughty daughter. Luckily, I had another parcel to perk me up.

I just love this!! Believe it or not, I didn't already have one of these. A gorgeous needle case.

Isn't it lovely? I love the colour combination too - it reminds me of some of my very favourite sweets - chocolate limes!

It can't get better than that, can it?

Actually, it can because on Monday morning the week got off to the best start with this fantastic bundle of baking goodies!

My naughty Minx was especially taken with this parcel. We both now have plans for a bit of baking at the weekend.

Just look at these fabulous little hearts.

So then we came to day seven of the most cheering and thoughtful swap. Today's goodies are so gorgeous that I have to keep stopping to look at them. My morning coffee has never tasted so good!

I think this is my all time favourite colour combination - they match my sofa quilt perfectly, so I obviously need to spend lots of time on the sofa sipping freshly brewed coffee!!

To my lovely swap partner Dragonfly I just have to say a HUGE Thank You! Your gorgeous, very thoughtful gifts have really lifted my spirits. This has been the best way to start February :o)

To Ali, who came up with the idea for the swap - Wow! Well done Ali on a truly inspired idea for a swap!!

Now onto other business. I had to go to the Scrapstore for some bits for work today. While I was there I spotted a few things that looked like they might come in useful.

What else would you make from a plastic spool thing, a bit of plastic tube, some dolly pegs and a length of cardboard tubing?

I mean, it's obvious really, isn't it?

Yup, you got it - a yarn swift to go with the lovely new wool winder I bought recently.

It spins like a dream, cost less than £1 to make, can be taken to pieces for storage and is to be fully tested later this evening!

I arrived back from the Scrapstore to find postie at the door with a very unexpected parcel. A fab bundle of books from my lovely bloggy friend Jo - to give me a break from the knitting mania that seems to have taken hold!

Thank you so much Jo - you made my day :o)

I'm now whizzing off, to fetch that naughty Minx from Brownies and when I get back I may be doing something with this:

xxx

The Specialness continues

2010-02-05T21:32:00.003Z

I didn't manage to post about my gorgeous Day 2 parcel yesterday.

I was in meetings all day, including my performance review in which I blarted like a big baby in front of my boss! As always, she was incredibly lovely, supportive and reassuring and gently suggested that maybe next time my life went t*ts up it might be a good idea to mention it.

It was good to come home and open my Special parcel. I truly couldn't have wished for a better swap partner - Mrs Dragonfly has put so much thought into this swap and I feel she got the short straw, having a swap partner who's head was full of porridge at the time!

Here's my yummy Day 2 goodies - THE most delicious soap and a pack of beautiful sweet pea seeds.

Today was equally special. I've really enjoyed getting to know Dragonsfly's blog and am quite awed by her beautiful crochet - and now I have some Dragonfly crochet of my very own.

I was fully intending to use my Day 1 goodies to make me a very special cushion today but have spent the whole day doing some very secret crafting. Talking of which, Mr Moog and I are having a grown-up night out tomorrow, with a certain 40 year old hilltop blogger and the mayor of the hilltop!

xxx

Seven days of Specialness

2010-02-03T13:14:00.004Z

What could be better on a grey and dismal February morning than to open a parcel and see a whole week of goodies nestling in there?

I just know this is going to be a good week - especially if Day 1's gorgeous treats are anything to go by.

Look at that beautiful crochet trim made by my lovely swap partner Dragonfly. The beautiful fabric and trim are already turning themselves into a very pretty cushion inside my head!

Hopefully by Friday afternoon, they'll become a reality, as I now have plans for my day off!

This really is going to be a very special week.

xxx

Hibernacular

2010-01-30T09:50:00.003Z

This has been the strangest January for me. I'm not a person who finds winter darkness and cold depressing. Once Christmas is gone, as far I'm concerned spring is on the way.

This year, it's been quite different. The snow at the start of the month was lovely, for a while, but it disrupted my start of term at work hugely - all of the schools I work with were shut and when they reopened were so busy catching up they didn't want some loon phoning them to blather on about recycling!

We seem to have battled with every 'bug' that's going around. I don't think we've had a week since November, when at least one of us hadn't got the lurgy of some sort.

Again, although it's grotty, this wouldn't normally bother me.

Coughs, colds and stomach bugs are part and parcel of this time of year.

This January, it all became a bit overwhelming. I haven't been my usual positive, upbeat and cheerful self.

That's because I was churned up inside and totally and utterly self-absorbed. I wanted the whole world to leave me alone. I felt sick and scared. I was in tears a good deal. I wanted to hide myself away - hibernating in my own little world of wool.

The reason for this melodrama, was that I had found a lump. A tender, sore very definite lump, on my right breast. After leaving it for a day or two to go away, it didn't.

So, last week, I saw the Doctor. Apparently the soreness is a very good sign - pain is good! I was very thoroughly examined. Lots of questions were asked. The diagnosis is 'most probably a blocked duct' - isn't it great being a girl, with all our tubes, pipes and ducts?! (Maybe I need a plumber!).

For the next couple of weeks, I need to keep an eye on things. Then I'm back for another check-up. I was very reassured that if they think there's even the slightest risk of it being cancer, I'd be in for tests like a shot.

I was struggling with whether to post about this or not but I think this is such an important issue for us girlies to be open about, that I just had to. It really brought home to me just how vital it is to 'check' ourselves regularly.

As you can see, the past few weeks have involved knitting and those pictures above are merely scratching the surface of what I've knitted since Christmas. Whoever said 'knitting is the new yoga' really knew what they were talking about! It's helped me through the fog just lately.

So, with beautiful sunshine outside and family happily occupied for the day, I'll be doing lots and lots of yoga :o)

Love xxx

What to say?

2010-01-15T11:21:00.003Z

It's difficult to find the words to express the horror of what has happened in Haiti this week. Every news bulletin brings heart rending stories of real people undergoing unimaginable trauma and loss.

Standing at my kitchen sink this morning, washing a bundle of handmade socks, I was struck with the irony of it all. There I was washing, rinsing and re-rinsing without a care for where the water came from, safe in the knowledge that I had as much of it as I could ever want or need, listening to Radio 4 and a Haitian father appealing for help, pleading for fresh water, asking to be remembered.

We all love blogland for it's ability to cheer us, to take us away from 'real' life, to escape a little into a safe and colourful world, full of beauty and inspiration. Sometimes, we just can't ignore the real world out there.

There's little we can do other than hope and pray for those affected - and donate to the emergency appeal.

Here are some useful links:

DEC
UNICEF
Oxfam

xxx

A public service announcement: Winter is here

2010-01-09T11:53:00.005Z

For those of you in the north of Britain, indeed throughout the northern hemisphere, who were under the impression that winter arrived weeks ago with the fall of the first snow, I am sorry to disappoint you.

Winter did not arrive until Tuesday of this week, when snow fell on southern England.

There were murmurings on the national TV news for several weeks, that mentioned bits of snow in Scotland and northern England. It's only now, that we've had a full three inches down here, that the powers that be have deemed it worthy of prolonged news coverage.

I mean, so what if that poor chap in Scotland hasn't seen his wife for 19 days, since she popped out to buy a Christmas turkey and couldn't get back to their remote home? That's not hardship! No, hardship is when the Co-op has no milk for a day. Hardship is when you can't wear your Jimmy Choo's for the school run. Hardship is when you have to clear two inches of snow off your driveway!

See, we know ALL about winter down here!

Me, I'm hibernating.

I have some delicious new yarn to snuggle up to, thanks to Michaela's inspired Big Diet Raffle.

Mmm.

Not only that but a fab bundle of fabric too!

I feel it's only right to thank the postman too, as he had to slip and slide his way here on ice-rink pavements, to bring me my goodies.

With school closed for two days, all the schools I work with closed, and children happily occupied bickering and arguing with each other, I had one or two opportunities to snuggle up with my knitting.

Big and bulky wristwarmers to match my big and bulky beanie.

Progress made on a new pair of socks for Monster.

A new start made, after frogging one frustrating project, I moved onto a simpler pattern to use some very pretty, soft and squooshy alpaca yarn.

In the midst of the 'BIG FREEZE' the lovely City Link man also managed to make it through , with the result of a shopping spree on Amazon with my money from Father Christmas.

Take a look at that delicious pile of books. No prizes for guessing what knitting projects I may have in mind this year.

We're in for a weekend of snuggling up - well I am, as they're all off to the cinema later (with hot flasks and sleeping bags) - a bit of baking, plenty of reading, a spattering of knitting and readying ourselves for the next deluge of snow that's due to hit tomorrow.

In the meantime, please spare a thought for all those poor folk who've had to suspend their plans to hit the January sales for a new pair of heels. My heart bleeds.

Keep warm.

Keep safe.

Keep smiling :)

xxx

....and a very Happy New Year

2010-01-04T20:06:00.007Z

I love New Year.

No matter what life has thrown at you in the past year, a brand new year can feel so full of promise - full of potential, new challenges, new adventures, new experiences.

I know 2010 will have some very difficult times. With several family members battling serious illness, we all have some tough times ahead but since losing my Mum nearly three years ago I have taught myself to take each day at a time.

It's the little things that help us get through the big things. I haven't made resolutions. I have lists of things I'd like to do - the majority of which involve knitting, sewing or crochet....and possibly a new kitchen extension (don't hold your breath on that one but suffice it to say that I think I've convinced Moogsdad to turn our tiny old kitchen into a craft room!).

To kick off our New Year, we saw out the old one with a lovely day out at Fort Nelson, sitting high on Portsdown Hill above Portsmouth. This amazing fort, built in the late 1800s, to defend against potential land attack, is now home to a Royal Armouries Museum.

There's a whole string of similar forts throughout Portsmouth and Gosport - with their lovely grassy roofs and forboding red brick faces.

Incredibly, the museum is completely free to visit - apart from a small discretionary donation....

.....and the odd £1 to try out the Bren gun. Very heavy according to my little soldier.

If cannons and heavy artillery (and huge sections of Saddam's supergun - made in the UK!!) are your thing you won't be disappointed.

Especially if you have a liking for pretty Turkish and Chinese cannons.

They even do mass destruction decoratively.

Minx and Monster took part in a great little re-enactment of Henry VIIIs life and loves, with two brilliant actors - the woman actor had made all of the fabulous costumes herself.

Here they are hamming it up as Henery and Catherine of Aragon.

Every day at 1pm, the Howitzer in the parade ground is fired - twice. Unfortunately, it was so VERY loud I jumped out of my skin and my shutter finger jumped too - hence the blur!

We rounded off our visit with a walk through the tunnels that run beneath the entire fort - and scared ourselves witless. They have Hallowe'en evenings down there but there's no bl**dy way I will ever go down there again. Walking up a spiral staircase behind Moogsdad, Monster and Minx, I am sure I heard the crunch of footsteps behind me!!

We talked to one of the staff who told us he didn't believe in ghosts but after a particularly terrifying experience in the tunnels - that he didn't give us the details of - was now less sceptical.

BOO!!

Onto slightly less scary things - here's a hat I knitted very quickly today and for which Anna is entirely to blame. She's also to blame for the fact that, as of about 20 minutes ago, I've also knitted a second one!

Neither hat was on my New Year knit list.

These were though.

Bonkers mismatchy stripey socks for the very naughty Minx.

It's shaping up to be a very knitterly 2010.

Wishing you all a very happy and healthy New Year.

xxx

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

2009-12-23T20:13:00.004Z

Those of you who've been with me all year will know it's been an eventful one in the House of Moog. I, for one, will not be sorry to say goodbye to 2009.

There have been some bright spots, of course.

Learning to knit socks and nurturing a new found obsession with all things knitterly has gifted me many happy hours whilst life goes mad around me.

The latest pair off the needles - in never-to-knit-again Noro Kureyon. Pair #18 - since February!

Two weeks ago we even managed to reacquaint ourselves with the beach. No-one would believe we lived on the south coast if they saw how little we visited it.

However, thanks to my homemade 'do something different everyday' advent calendar we HAD to go to the beach on 'Eat chips on the Beach' day. This, of all things, recharges the batteries.

Especially when beach huts....

....and rocks, are involved.

So, the turkey and cranberry sauce are a'waiting. Mince pies, pigs in blankets and raspberry trifle are on the list for tomorrow. Beds for m-i-l and f-i-l will be made up in the morning. Toilets will be cleaned. Moog's stocking will be stuffed.

Wine will be opened - a bit.

Finally, to spread a little Christmas love here's a treat.

Lots of love and a VERY Happy Christmas xxxxx

Moogsmum's top tips for sewing oilcloth

2009-12-11T12:36:00.007Z

Phew - that was quick! After Quinn said 'yes please' to my offer of oilcloth sewing tips I thought I'd get onto it before I distract myself with inconvenient things like children, laundry and trying to find my home under all the mess.

None of these tips are my invention. They were all found in various places all over the internets but proved so useful that I thought I'd share them.

So here goes:

Top tip #1: Paperclips

Obviously, when 'pinning' oilcloth ready for sewing you really don't want to be using actual pins - these will leave unsightly pinholes that may even be liable to tear. So, to keep your seams together or to prepare folded bits, like bag handles, you can use good old fashioned paperclips.

Just be careful not to push them too far onto the oil cloth as the inside end of the paperclip can catch on and tear your cloth.

According to the internets you can also use masking tape to the same effect and can even stitch over it - and then spend 10 days picking it all out of the stitching afterwards!

Whatever you do DON'T stitch over your paperclips. Your sewing machine won't enjoy this.

Top Tip #2: Stop it sticking to your sewing machine.

Oilcloth - or, as is more likely these days, vinyl coated cotton, does not flow smoothly through the bed of your sewing machine. Quite the reverse, it sticks and nothing those hard-working little feed dogs can do will budge it through the machine.

This tip worked brilliantly. Simple cut a small offcut of oilcloth and tape it, with masking tape, right side down onto the bed of your machine in front of the needle.

Don't cover the needle bed or the feed dogs - this won't help. As you'll see from the picture, I only put a little bit on, over the plastic part of the machine bed. Next time, I'd use a bigger piece which, for my machine, would mean covering the bobbin housing. Even this small piece made a huge difference to the cloth moving through the machine.

Top Tip #3: Start stitching

Set your machine to a medium to long stitch length. Stitches that are too close together may result in the cloth tearing - especially with PVCs rather than vinyl coated cotton.

Your standard sewing machine foot will not like oilcloth one little bit. It'll stick like crazy.

It'll probably cope fine with sewing the oilcloth when you're sewing a seam with right sides together i.e. you'll be stitching on the reverse of the cloth and the reverse of the cloth will be touching the machine bed.

However, when you want to topstitch handles like this

you need to do something with that foot.

You can go to the sewing machine shop and treat yourself to a Teflon sewing foot.

Or

if you have a walking foot like this

it should work like a dream. Mine coped brilliantly with topstitching and I also used it for all seams - mainly because it's a pain in the neck to get on and off the presser foot shaft.

To insert zips you can use your normal zipper foot as you'll be sewing on the wrong side of the cloth.

To topstitch your zips, you'll need to make a little adaptation to your zipper foot.

Here's my zipper foot.

Here's my zipper foot after some very technical adaptation with the masking tape.

This worked brilliantly too. The masking tape counteracts the stickiness factor.

Top Tip #5: Testing testing!

Perhaps this should have been Top Tip #1 but better late than never.

Keep a few scraps of oilcloth handy and test your sewing throughout whatever it is you're making. Each time you change the sewing foot, grab a scrap of oilcloth and do some test stitching. You may need to fiddle with tension or stitch length - test again.

There is NO room for bad stitching on oilcloth. You will not be able to undo any stitching that doesn't work. It will leave a row of horrible holes in your beautiful cloth and unless you're very confident at being able to restitch exactly over where you unpicked, you'll be able to tell it's been unpicked!

Top Tip #6: Needles

I've read all sorts of things about what size or type of needle to use with oilcloth. Most seem to say use a size 16 or 18 heavy duty needle or even a leather needle.

I looked at a size 16 needle when I was about to start sewing my lovely new bag and it looked HUGE. I could just imagine it making mahoosive holes in my beautiful cloth. I chose a size 14 and decided to start with that and see how I got on.

I got on fine.

The nice sharp, strong but not too thick needle coped with every stage of the sewing. From sewing two layers on the side seams to sewing up to five layers when stitching the handles into the seam, it slipped through the cloth without a grumble.

Use whatever makes you happy.

Top Tip #7: Research

You just cannot beat doing a bit of research before you try something new like sewing oilcloth. Personally, I swear by the internet - it's a very handy little thing on a computer where you can go and ask questions about just about anything and find lots of interesting answers and sometimes some rather surprising pictures.

Here are some very useful links:

Sew Mama Sew

Alfa studio

I just love that fabric

HAPPY SEWING!!

I'm now going for a lie down having gone quite dizzy after blogging twice in a day/week!

Bags and bags of bags

2009-12-11T10:18:00.006Z

We're getting into the Christmas groove here in the House of Moog. Feeling in need of sparkly things we set to and got our decorations up nice and early.

Although not as early as the people round the corner who have already had their decorations up for three weeks!

As well as busy work stuff, busy school stuff and busy cubs/brownies/swimming stuff there's been some busy sewing stuff.

Minx's class teacher from last year was so thrilled with the bag we made for her that she asked me to make one for her sister - who loves lady shoes and pink

and one for her Mum, who loves owls - and pastel colours.

Then the Headteacher, who bought the posh black bag at the Ladies' Night, asked me if I'd make two more. I was given total free reign with colours/fabrics and I have to say - it terrified me!

I think I got there in the end though and she said she liked them.

After that little bag making marathon I felt I deserved a reward.

This bag has been brewing in my mind for weeks now and when we were in London recently I treated myself to a metre of oilcloth from Cath Kidston. What with flu and work and life I just hadn't had time or the inclination to make the mental picture come to life.

I think this is just about my favourite bag ever that I have ever made ever in my whole life ever - this makes me so happy! Shame the crubbish photo doesn't show those lovely pleats up so well but take my word for it - this is exactly how I'd hoped it would be.

-big, roomy, stands up on it's own and it's winter proof!

I drew up the bag design for this and the little posh bags myself and they even have zip closures! If I can sort out the technical bits I may put the patterns on sale in my poor neglected etsy shop in the New Year - what do you think?

That's not quite the end of this bag-heavy post. I just had to show you these too. This is what I made for my Rainbow swap partner and I really wish I'd made one for me too!

Making that bag was some of the best crafting fun I'd had for ages and I really hope my swap partner likes it. I don't actually know if she's received it as I haven't heard - I just hope it didn't go missing in the mail as it was sent a while ago and may have caught the tail end of the postal strike.

Here's the rainbowy pouch to match the bag - in my very favourite Kaffe Fassett fabrics from Rowan - yummy colours :)

I think my next post might have to include my top tips for sewing oilcloth - what do you reckon?

In the meantime, I think my next bag is going to have to be made with this.

H1N1 = K1P1

2009-11-30T12:45:00.006Z

It would appear I may have succumbed to the dreaded pig flu. For much of the past week, myself and my Minx have spent our days sofa bound, coughing, aching and watching more kids' movies than I would care to admit. According to the NHS website our symptoms were fairly classic H1N1 but as neither of us saw a doctor, we've decided just to call it flu, as our symptoms were also fairly classic for just about any kind of winter flu.

Although I was too poorly to go to work, do any housework, or venture off the sofa for any length of time, I did manage to muster up the energy to get some knitting done. At least, after the first two days I did - before that my wrists ached too much to knit for longer than ten minutes at a time!

M-i-l's Christmas pressie was finished. A Fan Neckwarmer in yummy Sublime cashmere merino silk.

Next came one for me - a super simple and oh so cosy Baktus scarf in utterly delicious Malabrigo Silky Merino.

Shortly followed by another one for me - a simple chunky ribbed neckwarmer in squishy Misti Alpaca, edged in leftover Malabrigo.

Next on the needles - something far scratchier - simple stocking stitch socks (for me!) in very pretty Noro Kureyon. If this wool hadn't been so gorgeously colourful I would have given up. It's like knitting with rough garden twine and so hard on your hands.

I've christened them my Itchy and Scratchy socks!

To balance out the rough I opted to cast on an Ishbel scarf with the softest, gentlest and cuddliest Alpaca Select 4ply.

In the meantime, I've also been ribbing away on Minx's legwarmers - tedious but mindless knitting that needs to be done for Christmas.

...and if the K2P2 ribbing gets too tricky, I started on a bit of stocking stitch, in the form of some wristwarmers for Monster - also to be finished for Christmas.

With us both now on the mend and back at work and school, I anticipate the knitting slowing down a little. I have a whole load of work to catch up on, orders to sew and have to be very strong minded to resist the siren call of the knitting basket!

It's not going to be easy.

xxx

WHOOPS! I almost forgot to mention that my gorgeous baby boy had a birthday this month - hangs head in shame...

So here's a belated bloggy Happy Birthday to my lovely Monster - now a very grown up 10 year old!

Smiley stuff

2009-11-16T12:59:00.008Z

After the past two weeks of ugh, things have taken a definite turn for the better.
Our very orange sofas, that my husband treated me to on Freecycle a couple of years back, have gone.

...and in their place two lovely blue sofas with washable covers....

....from a local charity shop.

We have an old for old policy in this house ;)

As if that wasn't exciting enough, I then received a parcel in the post.

Now, if something with this on the package turns up on your doorstep you just know you're going to be in for a treat.

Just feast your eyes on this glorious bundle of Rainbowy Rainbow Swap gorgeousness. all made for me by my very very clever and lovely bloggy friend Gina.

Thank you SO MUCH Gina - I LOVE everything you sent! The children were pretty excited too and soon laid claim to the Skittles :)

Minx has been promised this fabulous bunting for her sparkly new white walls.

Mmmm....just the thing to beat the ughs :)

Carrying on with the lovely stuff, here's the low down on a fab bloggy time in London this weekend.

I ran away on Friday afternoon - leaving Moogsdad with the mess and the task of supervising carpet fitting, followed by some shuffling around of furniture and reinstating small people in their very own (and very white) bedrooms.

First off, I arrived at Waterloo bang on time and after a brief text conversation arranged to meet Trashy beneath the clock. Moments later I turned at the sound of Trashy's whistle - she has me well trained...what can I say?!

We then met up with Mrs Locket and headed to Marylebone Lane for a bit of a mooch at the ribbons in VVRouleaux, via Cath Kidston for a spot of fabric shopping.

I failed totally to unearth the camera on Friday but suffice it to say, it was all very pretty and most therapeutic - the antithesis to the home I'd left behind!

After a bite to eat we headed to our luxury hotel for an evening of chat, giggles and knitting - lots of knitting.....never mind the nightclub next door....oh no....we entertained ourselves royally sitting in a row on our beds click-clacking away with our various woolly projects. We didn't need to go to the nightclub anyway as they kindly shared the music and shrieks of hysterical drunken fun for the majority of the night.

I'm getting old.

Saturday dawned bright and breezy and we headed out to Islington for some yarn-filled retail therapy.

Unfortunately, our destination shop didn't open until 11am, so we had to do something to kill the time.

This was the quietest they'd been all weekend ;)

On the stroke of 11 we dashed to Loop - see Trashy there? All blurred due to her haste to be first to dive in? Lucky she'd had that sugar fix or I'd have beaten her!

I got really rather overwhelmed in Loop and not only because of all the absolutely amazing floor to ceiling woolly stuff. One of my favourite knitwear designers, Ysolda Teague, was in there, setting up displays of some of her stunning designs. I eventually plucked up the courage to speak to her and tell her how fab I thought she was and how starstruck I was at meeting her.

She was so lovely - she didn't run away but stood and chatted with me and was so nice. Her designs are just incredible in real life - such a treat to have seen her there.

Whilst in there, Locket's bossy big sister (BBS), lovely niece (LN), and Emma Pebble arrived. Emma, Trashy and I ran away to Liberty while Locket underwent some intensive magic loop sock training.

I oohed and ahhed and stroked lots of things in Liberty but didn't buy anything. I did, however, treat myself to something very gorgeous from the brand new Anthropologie store on Regent Street.....just for me....for being a good girl and not throwing a hissy about the chaos at home....I felt it was the least I could do :)

I love it.

We then reunited with Locket, BBS and LN near Covent Garden and spent an hour or two 'enjoying' a late lunch in Nandos - where the staff apparently prided themselves on being uncommunicative and less than helpful.

A quick trip to the bead shop rounded off the day and we all said a fond farewell and headed off to our various train stations. I do love meeting up with my bloggy friends, especially as I feel we've known each other for years and this weekend was just what I needed.

I'll be back soon with photos of some gorgeous bloggy gifts, some rather lovely wool and two newly decorated bedrooms :)

xxxx

p.s. The craft stall went much better than expected on Thursday and proceeds helped fund my purchases in London. There may even be a little Etsy shop update soon.

......ugh......

2009-11-04T14:25:00.005Z

I know it's going to be worth it.....

.....I know I'll soon have my 'conservatory' (and access to my fabric!) back....

.....I know that Monster will soon have his own room back to make a mess in.....

.....I know that my recently renovated bedroom won't look like this for long.....

......I know that we won't have to keep moving furniture from room to room for ever.....

......I know that this will soon be bright white with more than a spattering of pink.....

......and that this will soon be bright white with more than a spattering of Lego......

......but it still makes me feel like screaming 'I'd rather be sewing.....get me out of here!!'

Right now I feel like this house is trying to swallow me up!

I'm just so very grateful for the uncharacteristic attack of foresight
that led me to get most of my craft stall sewing done two weeks ago!!

For now, I just need to do this:

because it WILL be worth it, won't it?

xxx

Pssst

2009-11-01T15:17:00.004Z

Don't tell Moogsdad I'm here - I'm supposed to be helping!

We're having both of the children's bedrooms plastered this week and I should be helping him find homes for all their stuff!

I just had to pop in to show you these, though....

My Through The Loops Socktoberfest mystery knitalong socks. I have loved every single minute of making these. They are the perfect introduction to knitting patterned socks - much easier than they look!

Ooops....I may have been caught in the act!

See you later xx

As promised....

2009-10-26T18:39:00.005Z

.....pictures of sewing - and a bit of crochet.

The craft stall production line has been in full swing. I've tried to keep things simple in the hopes that the people attending the school's Ladies' Night in a few weeks time will feel tempted to buy.

Lots of flowery brooches.

Little fabric baskets and lavender hearts.

A slightly bigger fabric basket.

Those, and a whole heap of keyrings, fridge magnets and a few shopping bags were all made last week.

Today, with the little people fully occupied at Cubs, I had a full day to sew.

I managed three bags.

The planning took longer than the sewing. I still have another three to sew.

So, here's little posh bag #1.....

Little posh bag #2.

Big roomy posh bag #3.

Unfortunately, I seem to have taken a liking to this one and may have to keep it!

All were made from Scrapstore remnants that I unearthed from my stash. In fact, all of the things I've made have come from my stash. I've had to buy a few zips and some interfacing but overall spend has been kept to a minimum.

I'm feeling rather pleased with myself - can you tell?

xxx

Little things

2009-10-25T15:19:00.003Z

Like many families, our life is a busy one. We often get caught up in the mundanity of the everyday bits and pieces that seem so necessary and important, the things that just have to get done but provide very little food for the soul.

My Mum used to tell me never to forget to 'stop and smell the roses'.

I was at a conference on Friday about Education for Sustainable Development. During a workshop on Outdoor Education we were asked to think about one time when we were happiest as a child.

Out of fifteen people, not one could recall a specific experience/event/material possession but all recalled just being outside 'in nature' playing either alone or with friends, as their happiest childhood memory.

This time of year - for us northern hemisphere types - brings us abundant opportunity for making those memories.

Yesterday we drove up to the in-laws to welcome them back from a five week trip to Australia. This is a journey we have done on numerous occasions. Such journeys often merge into one. Nothing special. Just a case of getting from A to B - albeit through some very lovely countryside and pretty villages.

Yesterday's journey was a good one. One to remember. On the way there was the glorious autumn colour of the trees lining the M3 and A34. Then, there was the enormous hare sitting bolt upright in a big open field - followed by a deer lying down in the next field.

The journey back was equally special. A clear autumn night full of stars. We just had to stop the car and get out so that we could all see this most amazing natural spectacle.

Picture borrowed from here.

I'm so grateful that I had a Mum who encouraged me to appreciate these 'little things'. I just had to share it with you.

.....and to those numerous people who drove past us yesterday, with small people in their rear seats glued to their DVD players......STOP and let your children see the stars!

I'll be back tomorrow with crafty photos - promise :)

xxx

For want of a better title...here's an 'Update'

2009-10-13T09:39:00.005+01:00

There's a distinct lack of theme to this post, so indulge me if you will while I share some randomness from the past couple of weeks.

First off, I received a very lovely surprise package from my bloggy twin WMK.

Some gorgeous Peruvian yarn, deliciously named 'chocolate' - yum yum! Thank you WMK - this really made my day :)

I followed a link on Ravelry recently......fatal! Through absolutely no fault of my own, I accidentally found myself ordering this little bundle of Blue Faced Leicester sock-woolly loveliness from the aptly named Knitting Goddess.

I can justify it perfectly - as it was all on sale......mind you, I'd have bought it even if it weren't ;)

My 'dealer' even popped this gorgeous little knit kit in with my fix....

Talking of all things knitterly, there's been more of that going on too. Three hats - one each for me and the beasties, have been whipped up....but not photographed.....

....and these have been making me a very happy knitter indeed...

Mystery Knitalong socks for Socktoberfest on Ravelry. Using the most delicious wool/bamboo sock yarn and a brilliantly written pattern that's published in stages, each Thursday throughout October. You can find the pattern so far here.

Why the scribbly photo?

They need to stay a mystery until they're done!

Adding to the random theme ( I knew there was a theme in here somewhere!) - there has been sewing!

I know!

I've actually hoisted my (happily decreasing in size) bottom up out of my knitting throne and shuffled over to the sewing machine!

Having agreed to have a stall at an upcoming 'do' at the childrens' school, I have been forced to rediscover my sewing mojo. My intention is to keep it simple and small - nothing too complicated or stressy. Fun sewing.

Like monsters made from repurposed clothes.

Little zippy purses made from pretty remnants

- and a whole lot more to be getting on with.

In desperate need of something interesting with which to round up this gallery of randomness, I felt I should make myself useful by passing on a little advice.

If it's a while since you last used your sewing machine; if it's a while since you last cleaned your sewing machine; if your sewing machine makes a loud and worrying thump every time the needle descends......

......you may want to get your little brush out.....

......just in case there's a little bit of dust in there.....

.....changing the needle is good too :)

Happy sewing!

xxxx

p.s. after a very stressful Sunday afternoon with a purchase from PC World, the House of Moog is now wireless in the broadband department.

The reason I'm telling you this is that there's now an increased likelihood that I'll get round to catching up on all your bloggy doings - whilst sitting in a much comfier chair.

Done!!

2009-09-29T21:22:00.003+01:00

I'm in trumpet blowing mood here! I know, I know that pride comes before a fall and all that but I just cannot help but feel more than a tiny bit of smug self satisfaction that I've ventured into the scary grown-up world of Fair Isley knittage and made something wearable!

Mitten #2 was completed last night :) :) :)

Due to the colour stranding my tension was far tighter than usual and I was concerned at the snugness of these babies.

Then I 'invented' myself a pair of 'mitten blocks' (patent pending ;-) ), using some very hard thick card wrapped in clingfilm. The mittens were then stretched over the Moogsmum Mitten-blocker MKI (pp), dampened, shaped and left to dry overnight.

The result was a pair of perfectly fitting, rather loverlyifIdosaysomyself, mittens (with wibbly wobbly unblocked thumbs - mitten blocker MKII required?) .

All I need now is COLD COLD weather and lots of it.

You have me to thank for whatever the coming winter throws at us ;-)

xxx

Doing as I'm told

2009-09-25T18:19:00.003+01:00

I was under no illusions as to what I had to do on this, my day off.

Minx had stated quite categorically that it was about time I got on and sewed up the dolly I cut out over a month ago.

Who am I to disobey orders?!

So here she is - on the right - Amelia. Named after the character of Minx's favourite book .

Tilly has made her new BFF most welcome. They've compared dresses.

Played climbing on the cushion mountain

and chatted about all the exciting things they've got planned for Minx.

One or two of you out there may even recognise their dress fabrics :)

Of course, when I picked Minx up from school I pretended I'd done no sewing at all today. Therefore, I got a nice big squeal of surprise when I sent Minx up to her room to fetch me 'something' I'd left on her bed - and a lovely big hug when she came back down with her two lovely Kinder girls.

After all that excitment, I'm going to settle down for an evening with my knitting.

So far so good :)

Have a lovely weekend xxx

Baby ripples and some ripping back

2009-09-18T14:11:00.004+01:00

Is it me, or has this past week flown by?

The stitching that I did last Friday has been very well received. My s-i-l phoned me to say how thrilled she was with her new knitting bag :)

This week has been all about hooking and knitting. Last night, I finished the baby ripple blanket for Moogsdad's colleague's new, soon to be born, baby girl.

I'd have liked it to be a bit squarer but I ran out of yarn and as the baby is likely to be here before payday, I made a 'design decision' to have a slightly more rectangular blanket.

Although this is an acrylic yarn - Patons Smoothie - it has great stitch definition and a nice sheen. It's also beautifully soft and, most importantly, easy to wash!

I used Lucy's Neat Ripple pattern and it was just what I was looking for - lovely ripples and really quick!

Something that really pleases me about handicrafts of any sort is the tremendous scope for learning new skills. It seems no time since I thought I'd never be able to knit a sock and here I am 10 months and 11 and a half pairs later. I've taught myself to crochet and, to date, have crocheted 6 blankets, numerous cushions and several toys. I've learned how to insert a zip!

Most importantly of all, I've learned not to be scared. Not to listen to those little voices that say 'oooh no, that looks far too complicated...you'll never be able to do that'.

My greatest help during these moments of self-doubt has been the internet - from all your fabulous blogs, to sites such as Ravelry and YouTube. The endless inspiration and also evidence of 'normal' people just like me who can make these fantastically beautiful, scarily complicated, things gives me the nerve to just give it a go.

Over the past week I've lurked - for far longer than is healthy - on any website with even the tiniest smattering of Fair Isley type knitting. I've scoured every book and knitting magazine I own. I've bombarded my Knitting Guru with endless 'shall I/shan't I' emails.

It would seem I have a need for a new challenge - which is odd, as I always shied well away from anything involving multiple strands of potential knots in the past. It's very scary. There are tension issues. Don't even get me started on trying to follow charts.....

.....but I've dipped my foot in the water.....

.....and now I've plunged right in at the deep end.

With some beautiful Araucania sock wool.

To make the challenge even more 'fun' I'm even going to try knitting my first ever pair of mittens at the very same time - these ones for you Ravellers out there.

This little bit took just over an hour.....

.....and has since been ripped out as I was pulling the yarn far too tight.

I didn't even swear.

I just sighed, ripped and prepared myself for 'First Attempt at Mittens and Fair Isle MKII'

Watch this space!!

xxx

My day

2009-09-11T14:37:00.003+01:00

Ooh I have enjoyed myself today :)

My very own day off, spent with my little sewing machine.

Making pretty things.

A knitting bag, needle roll and little zippy pouch for my (nice) s-i-l who has recently rediscovered knitting. These are very late additions to her birthday present but I think she'll like them.

After all, this knitting habit needs encouraging and nurturing, right?!

Talking of knitting, this is my latest WIP.....

......like them?

xxx

Cheeky enough for you?

2009-09-10T11:15:00.003+01:00

Loving this hat :)

So soft.

So big and floppy.

So quick!

I quite fancy making another but even sloppier, by maybe knitting a few extra rows before starting the shaping.

I just know I'm going to love wearing it this winter.......all snug and cosy in my Cheeky hat :)

xxx