Snowdrops and Lace

I had a few days off this week so I decided to go for a walk amongst the snowdrops.  I headed over to Marks Hall.  First of all I walked by the lake

and along the millennium path where the winter scents are beautiful.

Soon I was at Robin's Grove which is carpeted with snowdrops.

Beautiful, and a sure sign that spring is on the way.

I also wore my newly finished lacy shawl earlier this week - it has tiny beads hooked into it (which are actually more visible in real life as they twinkle slightly).

I can't really wear many hand knitted things for work, but I can get away with nice scarves and shawls - this one will be worn a lot I'm sure.

A flea, some blocking and a battle!

This is a combined/random type of blog post as I've failed totally to manage to post them separately over the last few weeks.

First of all I've discovered a rather lovely, and very cheap, flea market near where my parents live.  We went to it a few weeks ago and I bought all of this:

There are 3 lovely 1950s Midwinter Cassandra dinner plates (I paid £8.00 for the three and they retail at about £20 each online).   The jug is holkham pottery and the Mrs Tiggly Winkle dish is wedgwood.
The bottle says King's Lynn Soda Water on it

All together I paid £30 for all the goodies in the photo (apart from the cat, she was just being nosey!).

Next, several people have asked my about why I block knitting.  Blocking turns a crumpled piece of finished knitting like this

into a defined, uncrumpled item.  I soak mine in water, roll it in a towel to dry it and them use wires and pins to pull it to the shape and size detailed in the pattern.

When it's dry it holds its shape and, it this case, retains the detail of the lace pattern.

This Henslowe shawl has turned out well, its a wool and silk mix yarn from Skein Queen.

Finally I went with Celia to a battle.  A reconstruction of the Battle of Assandun, between the Anglo Saxons led by Edmund Ironside and the Vikings led by Canute.

There was lots of charging about and a commentary telling the story (which was hard to hear), but it was fun and we had tea and cake too.

I'm off to London this weekend to see Kenneth Branagh in The Entertainer - can't wait!

SaveSave

In No Particular Order

A sort of random post today.

When I go up to my parents in North Norfolk I tend to go on the back roads to avoid the tourists (a coast road in summer can be a very slow moving, frustrating journey) and I've often seen this little church through the trees.

For years it had scaffolding etc around it but recently I noticed that it had gone so last weekend I decided to drive up the track and have a closer look.

It has a beautiful round tower and amazing arches.

It was the church for the village of Appleton, a village that has long since gone although apparently you can see outlines of it when the fields are lightly dusted with snow.

I haven't found out why the village disappeared but I hope that one day someone might do some excavations, although I suspect that might be unlikely as it is all on the Sandringham Estate land.

Still - the arches are pretty, I don't know why I'm so fascinated with arches, especially ruined ones!

A few days before I went to my parents I finished my fairisle cardigan.  I ended up having to do a last minute re knitting of one sleeve when I discovered that I'd made a colour mistake on one of them - fortunately very near the top so I only had to unravel about 20 rows.

I'm really pleased with it.

Finally, yesterday I took the afternoon off work and my friend and I drove to the other side of Suffolk, about 1.5 hrs away to Minsmere.

First stop was the Bittern Hide where a bittern was on the edge of the reed bed opposite for about 20 minutes preening, and fishing.  Then he crouched down, puffed himself up and boomed.  I've never heard a bittern boom before let alone watched one do it.  The warden in the hide was beside himself with excitement too as he's never seen it in 20 years of bird watching (red arrow indicates the bittern, looks a long way away but the view through binoculars was stunning).

click to enlarge and nearly see the bittern!

Then we walked to the Island Mere Hide.  It rained whilst we were in here but it didn't stop the bearded tits from flying around and one perched for quite some time on a reed and we got a really good view.

When it stopped raining we walked to the scrape where amongst other things we saw a marsh harrier swoop down and take a black-headed gull chick (gruesome but kind of retribution for the fact that they've taken all of the avocet chicks so far this year!).

After a cup of tea overlooking the sand martins we made our way to the Discovery Centre and then upward through the woods to the Springwatch studio to be in the audience for the live transmission of Springwatch Unsprung.

me, far left

It was just as good as last year!

Minsmere is a wonderful place to visit - during our three hours on the reserve we saw/heard at 11 species, most of which are rare or threatened.  If you're into wildlife and in the area I can highly recommend it.
SaveSave

Three Days Off

Some of you will know that I started a new job in September.  I'm enjoying it but it is very full on (isn't any new job) and, combined with fortnightly trips to Norfolk to my parents, leaves me very thankful for the free time that I have.

This week I took 3 days off from work, and have enjoyed some 'me time'.   I've done some more knitting.

It's been quite a phaff getting the colours right as I changed them from the original.  I've unpicked several sections more than once, but I'm pleased with it now.

I've walked by the river and managed to see my first ever kingfisher.

On one day I met Celia for lunch and a wander round Risby Barns where I bought these two pieces, a little Poole poetry vase and the bigger green vase which is Kensington (part of the Stoke on Trent potteries).

Today I walked back to the river, quite early, in the hope of finding more kingfishers.  I didn't find them,  possibly because the rowing club were practicing,

but I did see a flock of firecrests in the trees, really close, their bright orange head stripes almost glowed! And a flock of siskin (no photos of either).

But best of all I heard the water rail squealing away.  I knew they were on that particular island but had never heard them before.

Back to work on Monday!

A Treat to Myself

I've treated myself.  I've been a fan of Angie Lewin's work for a long time; I have her book, Plants and Places, and have often bought cards (usually to give to other people) so I ordered one of her limited edition screen prints.

When it arrived it was even more stunning in real life than I could have imagined.

It went off to the framers and on Saturday I collected it, and hung it in my living room.

It gives me great pleasure every time I look at it and cheers up the greyest of raining days.

And I've started some new knitting - I'm really loving the colours in the pattern.

Have a good week!

Catching Up

Now that my elbow is almost better I'm starting to catch up with things.

The tank top that I bought the wool for in October at the Knitting and Stitching show is finished,

my second Kate dress is almost made (ignore the all the 'stuff' in the background I really must have a tidy up!

and I'm starting to reclaim my garden in which the snowdrops are emerging.

I'm also about to give the bathroom a make over, more about that another time, but tonight I shall be found knitting my next project - a lovely Brooklyn Tweed jumper -

which may will end up with extra cat hair knitted into it due to the difficulties of knitting with a cat on your lap!

Finally Finished!

This has been the longest knitting project ever.  I started this jumper at the beginning of May, had little break in July whilst I knitted a baby cardigan and by the beginning of August had completed the body (knitted in the round bottom up) up to the division for the sleeves......then I decided it was too small and unravelled the entire thing!

Never mind, I started again and it was all going swimmingly until I tore the tendon in my elbow and was unable to knit at all for several weeks and then only a couple of rows a night for what seemed like forever.

It's a Brooklyn Tweed pattern - Merle, knitted in their Loft yarn - which is very light and airy, and breaks easily if you pull it too hard.  The only adjustment I made to the pattern was that I made the sleeves longer as the pattern was for 3/4 length ones and I decided that in winter I like longer ones.

And today I have finally sewn the last sleeve it - something that had to be done in daylight, one yesterday and one today.

I'm very relieved to have finally finished it - just in time for the cold weather :-)

A Day in London - Knitting, Poppies and Who Are You?

When you work in education the fastest weeks are the holiday weeks and this 1/2 term has been no exception, it's flown past.  I've walked, sewed (more of that to come) and on Wednesday I spent the day in London with Celia.

We went to the Fashion and Textile Museum to see the Knitwear, Chanel to Westwood exhibition.

Sadly there was no photography allowed but it was very interesting - I especially liked the hand knits from war time, and also the knits from the 80s which were very similar to garments both of us had either knitted or worn! It really is worth a visit, and the 1pm talk (on Wednesdays and Fridays) is very interesting.

On route to the museum we walked past the Tower Poppies.  I'd seen them in August when they first started installing them but they now almost fill the moat and are a very very moving sight with each poppy representing one of the 888, 246 British casualties of the 1st World War.  

Our final stop for the day involved a walk down Whitehall in the rain to the National Portrait Gallery to see the Grayson Perry 'Who Are You' exhibition.  There are 14 new portraits by Grayson, some individual, some group, focusing on identity.  

The portraits range from ceramic 'statues'

to silk hijabs

to ceramic pots

and tapestries.

They are all thought provoking and several conversations were had with random strangers as we stood looking at them.

The memory jar, focusing on a couple where the man was suffering from Alzheimer's was the most thought provoking for me.  We stood and looked at it for ages, the shards of photos representing the shards of memories, snippets sometimes remembered and sometimes dissected from the main memory.

These, and all the others, have all been/are about to be features in the channel 4 programme of the same name.  I loved how they were placed in different rooms within the gallery, next to traditional portraits of famous people. 

Grayson's self portrait, the Map of Days, is so detailed and intricate I could have looked at it for hours - you can download the PDF of it from here and watch a video of the man himself talking about it as well.

It was a lovely day, we hardly noticed the rain we were having such a good time!

A Touch of Lace

Whilst sitting around giving the needle eating cat lots of attention and cuddles I've managed to finish a knitted lace shawl/scarf.

It's a beautiful, fine, baby alpaca and silk yarn from Eden Cottage Yarns which I bought at the Knitting and Stitching show in October.

The pattern is from Ravelry (Daisy Chain Shawl)

I've never used beads in knitting before but they were surprisingly easy to do and add a nice weight and slight sparkle to it.  There's one in the centre of each flower and one at the end of each point.

And just as I was wondering what I could knit next the latest Brooklyn Tweed pattern book fell into my inbox, so that sorted that one out - new yarn ordered and pattern downloaded, oh and more knitting needles ordered as despite having a drawer full I don't have the right size ones to knit Merle (how can that be?)!

As for said cat, he's fine, 100%!  Enjoying a little snooze in amongst some fabric earlier on