Sneezes and snakes

I have been keeping in the warm for a few days, sneezing my head off. No real cold developed, thank goodness, but my head was full of soggy cotton wool. I was so pleased to wake up this morning, albeit late, to find that coherent thought and speech was not a problem.

I have been knitting away, so much that I needed to take a break and dig out the crochet.

Not too much to show, just a little snake so far.

It will become a lap blanket and is loosely based on Lucy,s (Attic 24) pattern. I have just cut random lengths of DK yarn, from leftovers, and made balls using the magic knot. I have the yarn in a wooden bowl on the coffee table and it makes a pretty ornament.

A simple pair of mittens, in Aran weight, for Fran just flew off the needles. I intend to knit a few pairs of these up.

After finding Skeindeer Knits again my colourwork lust jumped to the forefront and I found these for a very good price. The Christmas balls will hoover up lots of scraps and are on my list for next year.

After the Tree hat I was itching to have another go, and work on my yarn management. Very Pink Knits was my light bulb moment and I finally nailed it. The stitch pattern is from Knits from the North book, I just tweaked it to DK weight. I do intend to use 4ply but want to iron out the wrinkles with a thicker yarn. The first band of colour work is a bit tight, I was constantly switching the yarn around my fingers trying to settle on a method that was comfortable. I managed it with the arrows but the ribbing is a bit too loose. I will be making it again with less stitches for the rib and a larger needle for the colour work, I also want to modify the decreases, that gathered look is in the pattern but I am not too keen on it.

I am going to riffle through the stash and find yarn to make a pair of colour work mittens, that will be my Christmas Eve cast on this year. There is an a amazing pattern for long socks in the book but it has lots of shaping, I feel that it is a bit too much for a first project.

I am woefully behind with blog reading and replying to comments and I apologise. I have been sleeping almost twice as long as I usually do and am sorely missing those hours. I hope that once this bug has left my system I will be back to my usual routines.

Otherwise Ben is well but Rufus is out of sync. He has been nagging at one of his paws on and off and his general behaviour is off. Just to be on the safe side we are off to the vets later.

I broke my self imposed rule yesterday and bought a new cook book. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall,s Much more veg, after checking on the Tesco web site ( which told me that it was not in stock in this area) I picked it off the shelf in Ammanford for £12.50. I consider it to be free as I used my points, most of these were accrued buying petrol, the cheapest in the area, and my RTC food shopping. I do buy some essentials there as long as they are the cheapest. The bulk of my shopping is split between Lidl and Home Bargains. Spices and seeds mostly come via the internet, there are some good offers out there if you look. Quite often it is cheaper in the long run to pay a little more and get free delivery.

I think that is enough for now, I am going to collate the ingredients for tonight,s dinner. A recipe from my new cook book for a casserole with root veg, sprouts and chestnuts, roasted and then cooked with some fresh herbs in a cider sauce As we don't have cider I will use some Elderflower cordial and water and add an apple to the veg. To counteract the sweetness I will add celery and extra swede to the mix. Oh while I remember vac packed chestnuts are £1 for 180 gram pack in Tesco. That,s a really good price, I fancy making some of them into a stiff puree and using as the middle layer in a nut roast, I also want to try using smoked tofu.

I am off now to ferret round the pantry for the necessary ingredients.

                      TTFN                                           Pam