More Excitement

Remember the me of a couple of days ago saying that not much excitement happened here, I made her go and wash her mouth out.

Yesterday morning the postie delivered a parcel, chock full of goodies.

I won a giveaway from the lovely Ellie Jones of the Craft House Magic podcast. Ellie lives in Norfolk, not too far from my home village, I found her via the Tilly Trout Podcast, another Norfolk girl. I am waffling.

Any way I was absolutely delighted to take part in the knit along, the first one that I have entered photos in.

Imagine my shock when Ellie read my name out on her last episode, I almost choked on my tea.

She is fast, I only found out on Monday and the prize arrived Thursday.

I carefully unwrapped the parcel ripped the parcel open to find these delights.

A set of lush mini skeins from Rainbow Cloud, once my yarn diet is over I may well be paying them a visit.

Some little extras from Ellie, the Fizzers were fun.

The Bag, what can I say, it is padded perfection personified. I do like a bit of alliteration. Love the pattern and the colours, as it is sock sized I may well go into overdrive and zoom through my sock yarn.

There is a pocket for spare cable and stitch markers etc and Ellie's label. The zipper has a ribbon pull and a little flower progress keeper, I will show that on my next socks.

As if that was not enough excitement, the SO found time to make a start on the Strawberry Table. Now I must gather small pots to root all the new runners, I may even go really mad and buy a few new plants.

Food was again a haphazard affair, I must pull my finger out and stop that, it is far too easy to eat too much if it isn't planned. I had a bagel, cinnamon and raisin, mid morning as my tum was grumbling and then mid afternoon a slice of crustless quiche. It was quite late before I thought about dinner, all this sunshine has me popping in and out to the garden, and it was more rumbles that woke me up to the time. I made a pasta salad, I had some roasted peppers, celery, onion and garlic which had been diced and tossed in a little oil and some Moroccan spices. To those I added a good handful of baby plum tomatoes just halved, some peas and sweetcorn, I mixed a good dollop of mayo with a smidgen of Weapons grade chilli and mixed the lot together. I had a cooked chicken breast in the fridge so diced that up and stirred into half the pasta mix, perfect fast dinner, BUT, there's always a but.

My new neighbour gave me a breadmaker the other day and I tried it out. Oh My Word, the loaf looked and smelled amazing. 

Well, we just had to cut it, a very thick slice was cut and we had half each.It was every bit as good as it looked, but it made for far too many carbs. Today will be carb free. 

Then, to make matter worse, I had a slice of the Mud Pie with single cream. I knew it was wrong, it wasn't even that wonderful. My mind took over and my brain went to bed.

I have put it behind me and today is another day.

Now I have to get a wiggle on, Ben needs walking and I have to dry my hair first. It is cooler today so hopefully will be perfect for my day out with Chrissie.

                    TTFN                                                   Pam

Things are changing

My body clock seems to be confused as to where I am in the world. I have started waking up progressively later each morning, then of course I am not ready for bed till later. It is a spiral that I need to snap out of, I like my early morning start particularly in the summer.

Last night after spending over an hour watering all the planters and the thirsty plants I settled down on the sofa. Nothing much on telly so had a look on sky box sets and spotted Deadwood. It is very gritty and quite a bit sweary, I am certain that some of the language used was not common parlance in that time frame.

The ubiquitous Ian McShane was there, this time playing a nasty piece of work, and several other familiar faces that I couldn't put names to.

Anyway, I watched the first two episodes and while I was sat on my btm I picked up the sock that was tormenting me. I was intending to frog it and cast on a new one, but persevered and the first one is almost there.

I used a stitch pattern that I knitted years ago to give a clearly defined ankle section, now I do like that pattern just not in this yarn.

I couldn't find a solid colour that I liked with the greens so heels and toes are in this self patterning drops fabel, left over from another pair.

I have started the toe decreases and will get it off the needles today. I may knit the second sock with a different pattern, they are for me so I don't mind at all, it may start a new trend.

I was pretty much useless yesterday, couldn't settle to anything for more than 30 minutes. I did start to shuffle fabric around and just need to spend another 30 minutes this morning finishing that off.

Ben had the time of his life for a couple of hours late morning, we were at Rufus's house and all 14 dogs from the new neighbours came in as well.

That brings a Dolly Parton song into my mind, They're having a party 2 doors down, I shall be singing that all blasted day now.

Ben absolutely loved it, they are all smaller than him which was a complete change. Rufus looked like a giant among them.

We were there because the SO was fixing a mesh cover over the gate that divides the back yards, there is an access path running behind our row of 4 houses. There was a solid panel but is was causing a problem with the little dogs trying to crawl underneath and Rufus trying to mountaineer over it. Now they can see each other, touch noses and socialise.

Needless to say I didn't get the cardigan fronts cast on, I didn't touch any knitting till the evening. Well that's not entirely true, I did carry it into the garden and then I carried it back.

I have no plans for today other than draw a diagram for a new thing for the garden. The SO has offered to make me a Strawberry table, long enough to hold around 48 plants in double rows, that will free up one of the raised beds for something else.

If I plan this carefully it can sit above a raised bed, giving it some shade and making perfect conditions for salad leaves. Then a raised frame work on the table will allow me to have a net cover keeping lots of insects out of the salad. Not to mention the blasted crows and jackdaws off the berries.

I am off out tomorrow, I will be picking up Chrissie, the one armed bandit, and hopefully paying a visit to Aberglasney. (spell check wants this to read fibreglas!)

It will be a real treat but I must take a hat or the sun will have me prostrate in no time.

I have reduced the stash (oops haven't posted that yet for June) by 700 grams today. No I didn't knit all night, I have sent it, along with a pattern, to my younger sister for her birthday. She is a very talented knitter and a BIG fan of Tennis. That means that she will sit and knit while watching that little ball bounce around for hour after hour after hour. By the end she will have kitted through her stash, or almost.

 Now for June records, not much change really as I was sewing mostly. Just 700 grams out of stash but no additions, so it's not too bad. Although that doesn't seem much so I better check through the blog and see if I forgot to record something.

The clever Tina from Loobylou Yarns (have a look at her website, she has some gorgeous stuff on there) is spinning her Alpaca fleeces and I really really want some, I had some of her handspun and it is amazing to knit with. So I need to shift some more from stash, perhaps I should begin a new crochet project as that grows so much faster than knitting and uses more yarn. Must think on that idea, I have a couple of crochet shawl patterns. On that note I must get my shawl soaked and blocked.

Not quite yet though, a cuppa is overdue.

Oops, nearly forgot. I had a funny day for eating yesterday, I wasn't hungry at all till around 3:00 and had a roll with a slice of crustless quiche, very not Haute Quisine, but altogether yummy. Then of course I was not hungry at dinnertime, well just what my Granny would call "nice hungry" so I had a small(ish) slice of Mississipi Mud Pie, from Lidl. It was disappointing, a very dry biscuit base topped with a bog standard chocolate sponge and then topped with a fluffed up chocolate mousse that was more air than chocolate.

Not a day of great nutrition but not to worry, I did have an apple and grazed on strawberries while in the garden.

I will just put it behind me and move on.

And now for that cuppa, enjoy your day whilst you can, we could have thunderstorms in the UK today.

                     TTFN                                                  Pam

Oh What a beautiful morning.....

I woke far later than usual, probably because Ben decided that 1:35 was the ideal time for a jaunt round the garden.
Not his usual dash out and back in before I had time to get the door fully open, and then be on his bed and snoring by the time I got it shut and locked.
Oh No. last night he did the full tour, and of course I then had to to towel him dry and pull various bits of undergrowth from his coat.

I crawled back upstairs to find him On The Bed, and On My Pillow pretending to be fast asleep.
When I went to pick him up to move him it was PLAYTIME! at least that is what he thought.
He is such a determined little dog and although old loves a little play so I gave in and five minutes later he settled down, on his own bed, and went to sleep. 
I, though, was fully awake and desperate for a cuppa, it was almost 3:00 by the time I was back in my bed. Ben was still sound asleep.

Anyhow, I am up now, if not fully awake and alert, I have a cuppa and there is a new Cherry Heart Podcast to watch.
I may be doing what the lovely Mandy calls negative knitting today. I cast on a new sock last week and am halfway down the foot. I love the yarn, a WYS 4ply, and the pattern but not together. I struggled to knit a few rounds and cast it aside in disgust. 
I had another look at it this morning and NO, I do not like it at all.
Methinks a little frogging is on the cards.

Knit and Natter was fun yesterday, I picked Chrissie, AKA The One Armed Bandit, up and we sailed off to Llandeilo. Lunch was enjoyed very much, we had a pot of tea and a vegetarian sausage roll, an experimental recipe, with some smoked mushroom chutney. That was a combination made in heaven and the wonderful proprietor shared the recipe!! Double Whammy for Pammy.
Guess what I will be making soon.

I took my Snuggly to work on and made decent progress but today I will be casting on the fronts of the cardigan, I have a birthday party to attend soon and would like to wear the new cardi, and maybe a new dress.  That would be the one that has been cut out for a couple of weeks at least tut tut.

Dinner last night was a haphazard affair, Sweet  Potato baked in the skins, cold chicken and salad and a dollop of my carrot and garlic chutney. I need to make another batch of that, it is a Sophie Grigson recipe that I make frequently, it is very heavy on the garlic and is divine but needs a year to mature. At least that is when I like it best.

I will be mainly playing in the sewing department today, I have my stack of stretchy fabrics that I was sent, the correct needle ready to put in and a selection of various threads to try out. I will also be trying out the overlocker.

Dinner tonight will be shepherds pie, I love it and while freezer diving found a pack of Lamb mince. Oh Yum, I will make a mash with root veg with a dollop of whole grain mustard instead of butter and cook shredded leeks and cabbage to have with it.

Oh yes, I forgot to tell you that I started a batch of Amish Friendship bread last Sunday (or did I tell you? no matter I don't mind repeating myself). Today I added to the mix and should be making the first loaf next Monday, I only made a half cup size starter because it does grow quite substantially. I had a batch going for a long time, well over 5 years, in Tydd but it did not survive the move.  By chance I caught a You Tube video about it last weekend and Bingo, I was off to the kitchen to get the starter made.
It is looking healthy and starting to develop the "beery" smell of sourdough. I will keep you posted.

I have Rufus coming for a weekend soon and am looking forward to that, he is the perfect house guest. He never complains, eats everything that is put in front of him and doesn't interfere with the day to day running of the house.

There is nothing more that I can think of today, like most of us I don't have heaps of exciting  things happening on a daily basis, my life is slow, reasonably gentle and as happy as I can make it. 

OOH that was nearly a lie. Something exciting did happen yesterday. The Marvellous Mandy custom dyed some yarn for me, brace yourselves for a blast of glory.
She took her inspiration from the families goldfish, How brilliant.

Isn't that just fabulous? The remit that I gave her was, mmm a bit on the vague side to say the least. "Orange, bright, speckles or stripes" I am so glad that Mandy speaks vague. You can find her on Etsy as ToDyeForYarnCo. (hope you don't mind this Mandy)

Once my yarn diet is over we will be planning a sweaters worth, it will not be quite as loud as the Goldfish, much as I love orange it is so not my colour, RATS!

On that blaze of glory I am off to get the kettle on and singing.I have sunshine outside and it is in danger of being overshadowed by my Goldfish yarn.

Oh Oh Oh, I have not broken my diet, this is a gift for someone who has inspired me to really expand my sock knitting and try new patterns and variations.

And now for that kettle.

                                 TTFN                                     Pam

(I nearly signed off as Mandy then. Do you think I am starstruck?)

The Path that I Tread

 Pumpkin asked me what I am eating, the quick answer is "about half of what I was".
But that would not only be a bit rude but of no help whatsoever.

I have cut down to 2 meals a day, I was only eating toast at breakfast time to take my meds. I found that once I had eaten that I was feeling hungry after about 2 hours and would often carry on snacking all day.

Now I have a meal around 12:30 - 1:00, low on carbs and high on veg. My rice salad has at least double the amount of veg to rice, I also add a fair amount of protein in the form of pulses or use Quinoa in place of rice. I have a cereal dish of this and drizzle some balsamic vinegar over it.

In the evening I eat somewhere around 7:00, this meal I like to add carbs to but keep the fats to a minimum. It can be Vegan, Vegetarian and have eggs or a be meat based meal depending on what I fancy or have in. I still make up at least half the meal with veg or salad.
Sometimes I cut the carbs right out and have a small pudding.

I like to eat 3 pieces of fruit a day, if not I will cut a small carrot and a stick of celery into batons and eat those. I also like to have a dish of baby plum or cherry tomatoes in the kitchen and will have one when passing. It feels like a treat as at room temperature they are sweet.

Really it all comes down to How Much and of What. A small bag of crisps, a bottle of pop and a small bar of chocolate will do nothing for you at all, just empty calories.

Swap those out for a dish of chopped salady things with some beans, a piece of fruit and a cup of tea or coffee or a glass of sugar free squash or plain tap water and you are on the right track.

Next time you shop have a look at the "diet" food, read ingredient lists and get ideas. I use lots of herbs and spices as I like them and many are beneficial. Tomato ketchup may contain salt and sugar but also has good properties and a dollop stirred into a cold  pasta or rice salad gives it an extra level of flavour. That doesn't mean use half the bottle, a couple of teaspoons full will do.

Before I had to reduce my dairy intake I would make a big smoothie with of a pint skimmed milk, a scoop of porridge oats (not instant) a banana and some red berries, frozen or fresh. Whizzed up I would have a glass in the morning and one at lunchtime. Quick and healthy and surprisingly filling.

A tub of carrot, celery, apple and red onion all chopped up can be snacked on or added to a bowl of leaves as a meal. A FEW pumpkin and sunflower seeds give some crunch.

It is all a case of "suck it and see", we are all different, my lunch would have Francesca feeling nauseous and turning green. 

That concludes the lesson for today. I hope that you find an eating plan that helps Pumpkin, have a trawl round the internet, there is a myriad of information at your fingertips.

Yesterday was a lovely sunny day, some knitting yay, some sewing yay, some housework duh, some gardening and pottering Yay.

The SO was at a loose end so I now have two very smart wooden gates and the old mismatched ones have been recycled. One has been turned into a work bench for the head gardener, that'l be me then. The other will become an extension of a fence, soon I am informed.

I have knitted 6 extra lace rows onto my shawl and still have plenty of yarn left. I will knit the garter stitch border and add to that and then perhaps do a picot bind off. Any yarn left will go into one of the scrap jars and at some point I will make a start on a scrappy something or other. At the moment the 4 ply leftovers look pretty on my shelves.

Lunch was tomatoes, a small piece of nettle cheese (from the food festival) and a slice of bread.
Dinner will be a chopped salad with cold meat and new potatoes from the garden.

I picked more strawberries and added them to the salad, they give a different note and a little bit of black pepper really livens them up.

I told you that I wanted to learn to knit with stretch fabrics and was going to do a charity shop hunt for garments to hack.

Well, I had an email from a long time follower who very kindly offered to send me some scraps to play with. These scraps have arrived and there is a multitude of various weights and amount of stretch. I have set myself a play date on Wednesday. I am really looking forward to it.

We had rain overnight again but it should clear and be a decent day again. Wednesday is supposed to be reasonably hot but I will be sewing in the cool, I just need to clear the debris from my sewing cabinet. I have been going through some of the scrap bins and there are a few heaps of fabric that need pressing, folding and tucking away again.

I am off now to drink my tea and do a row or three on the shawl.

                        TTFN                                        Pam

Ugly, no, Fuggly no, SNUGGLY!

There is something lurking in the corner of shame in my craft room. It is white, quite large and is bulging at the seams.
No it isn't the fat that I have shed, it's far too big for that.
It is a bag of balls of DK weight yarn, all acrylic in just about every colour under the sun.
As I am making reasonable progress on stash reduction I feel that this area needs to be sorted as well.
What to do, that is the question?
I had a light bulb moment the other day.  

I watch the Little Drops of Wonderful Podcast and Ali is making what she calls an Ugly Blanket. She just makes a large ball of random yarns, no regard to colour or weight, using the magic knot and adds them to a large Granny Square.
I am copying this idea but just using my DK weight acrylic yarns, all odds and ends, from long finished projects. I  made a start early afternoon after getting a big ball wound. 
As I progress I intend to get the complete bag of bits and bobs wound into balls. When I have worked my way through this lot (or the blanket is large enough) I will buy or beg a ball of something to make a small border. 
Most of the yarn that I am using up is Stylecraft Special DK which is available almost everywhere.
 It just so happens that Debs has nearly every colour in her wool shop.
Now isn't that handy.

The beginning, I hope that this grows as I shrink. I have wound another 3 balls of yarn, just pulled out of the bag and joined with the magic knot.

Onto more mundane matters, I caught a glimpse of the weather forecast yesterday morning, mmm, not wonderful. So, bed stripped, towels changed and 3 loads of washing blowing in the sunshine.

All was dry in good time and ironed and put away, it seems so painless when it all happens in a few hours.

I did a good bit in the garden and Ben had some strolls, not walks it was too hot.

Dinner was indeed Iffits, there was a slice of pie, some cold roast pork, various bits of salad just chopped or sliced and a dollop of spiced peach chutney. Very nice, no pudding needed just a few grapes later on.

Some mindless telly while I played with the baby snuggly blanket and wound balls of yarn.

A reasonably early night and 7 hours sleep, sweet, I would possibly still be there if Ben hadn't woken me up. Needless to say he went outside, came back in and went straight back to his bed and is dead to the world.

I have no plans for today, just the normal routine tasks and some more adventures of the yarny kind. I will finish the shawl today and get the cardigan fronts cast on. The Snuggly will come to knit and Natter on Tuesday, perfect project to enable me to enjoy all the conversations happening at the same time.

That brings me to a perfect spot to say toodle pip and get the kettle on again. I am pretty much useless till I have the second cuppa of the day.

                             TTFN                                         Pam

The Only Way is Down.

Down down,.deeper and down.

I have the pleasure to announce that the scales have shown a loss of 4 kg in total. I haven't taken measurements yet as it is a bit too soon,that will be next Sunday, providing there is a further landslide drop in weight.

I watched the last four episodes of Mount Pleasant over the past 2 nights. It is a series that I enjoyed but in small doses and to help keep the momentum of this weight loss I have 2 sheets of paper on my fridge door.
One has the name LISA in big black capitals on it.
The other has the name Pauline in delicate red capitals on it.

Do not be deceived, I think that Sally Lindsay is an attractive woman and I also think that Paula Wilcox is a bit too skinny. So in the gap between the 2 sheets of paper there is a golden star, that is where I want to be.

I was 80 Kg and am aiming for 70, then after a rest I will push for a further 5 Kg loss as 65 will see me at a comfortable weight, I think.
If, however, I feel that I start to look too thin, or feel in any way ill, I will reign back and reconsider.

I heard on the news yesterday that children as young as 4 years old are being treated for eating disorders.
You can not force  feed a child but there are ways of hiding calories in small amounts of food.
You can however deprive a small child of food, both in the size of meals (or the absence altogether) or by going down the low fat and carbs route. That has been reported in parts of the US I seem to remember from news bulletins, but it is not the norm.

Just as the severely obese who become house bound and bedridden can not and do not shop and cook for themselves. Some person is at fault and that person is responsible for their actions.

The SO is still sleeping so I have no weight for him as yet. I think that he may be in for a reality check. He has had a few "Chocywokydoda" moments this week and a bit of a pig out last night. 
That is his prerogative, I am serious in my journey, I have to be.

On a different note, my shawl is coming along. I am still on edge over the yarn usage though. I have 13 more rows and the cast off left and 38gs of yarn, I think that I will be adding a few rows to the final garter stitch section. I will be checking on Ravelry before knitting any more, I really do not want to play yarn chicken.

The day has dawned bright and sunny, so I will be answering the siren call of the garden again today.
There is a car boot sale just through Pontardawe and I may go and have a look, then again I may not.

Ben is still gone with the fairies, as is the SO, lazy pair! I will be clattering around shortly and will make sure to dislodge them both.
Right now I am just enjoying the peace and solitude.

By the way, I found a way to dim any food cravings yesterday. At around 11 in the morning I sat down with a cuppa and had the "I need a biscuit" thought. Instead I turned on the laptop and logged onto Facebook,  an hour later I had responded to messages, sent a few more off, laughed at some posts and drooled over fabric and yarn. Most importantly all thoughts of food had gone without trace. I did have a small bowl of the rice salad, that's finished now, another hour later.

Today will be more of the same, I do not want to fall down the rabbit hole of  "I've had a good week so I'll treat myself to ???? today".  
That is the way to undo the good work in one fell swoop.

Now I am off to get the kettle on for my second cuppa of the day.

                   TTFN                                                Pam

Late on Parade

A lovely sunny day tempted me to potter in the garden for "five minutes", 3 hours later and the front and side borders had been trimmed up to look quite respectable. They were very blowsy and the recent wet weather had started to turn the bottom layers to silage. I just have the border in front of the house wall to tidy now, the central bed is still in time out until I decide what to do with it.

Apart from that I have been decidedly idle, not enough laundry to make a load of anything. I caught right up at the beginning of the week.
No sewing, even though I have a dress waiting and a patchwork project started, I just wasn't feeling it.

Some knitting, not my cardigan fronts I'm afraid, but on my shawl. I am impatient to see how the yarn pans out, not sure if I will be playing yarn chicken or if I will have loads left.

A couple of walks with Ben and quite a bit of gossiping socialising with the neighbours.

Now it is time to start dinner, the quiche is cooked (no pastry just filling) and there is salad to be made. I have to go and pick leaves from the garden and greenhouse.

I hope that you are having as good a day as I am.

                                   TTFN                                       Pam