Spent the weekend in creative pursuits - knitting, cooking and nurturing plants. I am once again attempting to grow sweet peas (pot with wigwam cane next to crazy lily plant):

I never give them enough water - apparently it is impossible to over-water sweet peas! - so they always look a bit bleached out and ragged by mid-Summer, with a meagre flower crop, and I am left feeling guilty at my flower murdering efforts. So, buckets of water this year I promise. The lilies on the other hand, just hang around as dormant bulbs all through the winter with no love at all, and then come bursting into life.

I was invited to Helen's for supper on Sunday, as both our husbands are away in snowy regions, and I offered to provide wine and dessert. Luckily the wine I plucked from the bottle rack in the fridge was one of Helen's most favourites. And as it was a weekend night, I thought that arriving with a Marks and Spencers tart was a bit lazy (but, Cheryl aka Queen of Puddings, a perfectly acceptable mid-week offering). So some Jamie Oliver chocolate pots were made, accompanied by his orange and polenta biscuits. They looked a bit mis-shapen and messy on the greaseproof paper :

But once assembled with a chocolate pot.....

Yummy yum-mah!

I would hate you to think that all this activity got in the way of some serious knitting. The Tommy vest is finished, and just needs some buttons. I am amazed that I don't have two buttons the same in the right size, given the collection that I seem to be building up, so a trip to Liberty is in store.

I also decided not to deviate from my non-blocking technique, so started to pick up the button bands and collar for Maddox. Here she is in pieces, not looking particularly attractive:

Hopefully by the end of tonight she will be her gorgeous finished self. Carolyn - with all the gigs has been attending lately, I doubt that you have caught up! Very pleased that you liked the Decemberists gig though - aren't they just the nicest bunch? And definitely the most attractive 'Colin' I have ever witnessed.

That brings me to the end of my bumper post, except to say that I am hopelessly addicted to a new Aussie drama series called Love My Way on a channel I had never even heard of before - Five Life. I was similarly smitten by The Secret Life of Us, which had the same star Claudia Karvan. Because, of course, they only have about a dozen working actors in Australia.

Easter activity

I reckon every weekend needs to consist of four days - enough time to do all the chores and still have hours for knitting. A much better work/life balance. So apart from gardening, football and rugby watching, and eating lots (curries, chocolate and hot cross buns - great combo), much progress was made on the creative front.

Here is the first sleeve of Sarita:

I wasn't certain about the distribution of colours at first, and thought I wanted the orange to be more prominent, but looking at it as a whole I am now very happy. I think any more would have been too much, and I love the green. Both our Saritas will look very different from the pattern!

I also made a start on this cute baby vest from the Rowan RY Classic Bambino book:

Here is the back, and a close up of the chunky cable and moss stitch. I am making it in the colour shown in the book (for once). The recipient will be baby George - a work colleague's 4-month old.



All pieces of Maddox are finished, ready for button bands and collar. It is quite curly at the edges so I might block it first (major confession - I never block anything I just wash 'em after sewing up...). Does that make any difference? I haven't ever really known, and I don't know what I would block on to anyway. Does one buy a special board for that sort of thing? So, I am giving Carolyn a chance to catch up whilst I agonise over finishing techniques!

Off to Suzy's for knit club tonight, so more progress photos tomorrow. Oh, and I leave you with another installment of the Shell and Roge fruit selection...

A new take on Sarita

So we all convened at Suzy's house for Wednesday night knit club - delicious meatballs, raspberry and mascapone tart, wine, exciting cricket commentary of England's last ball defeat to Sri Lanka on the radio. There is a vicious rumour that 'knit club' is just a front for an evening of indulgence and gossip - ha! To set that straight, here is Suzy's blue/pink Sarita:



A very different proposition indeed. And I've just realised how much these clash with my blog colour scheme!

Shell and Katy

Taking photos of yourself in jumpers is harder than it looks....

So now you know what I look like, and my choice of necklace, and even how Katy complements my skin tone ;)

Then, from one extreme to the other, now you can see how Katy's colouring blends beautifully with our living room...

But now you can see her a bit better, although I had to crop off the 'eyes shut mouth open' face from Jack's photo. That really didn't do Katy any favours.

So on the whole I am happy with her. Sleeves are nice and long, body is just long enough. Neckline a little too low without a vest (seems a bit inappropriate to have acres of cleavage in a fluffy weekend jumper!) and the bottom half is a bit baggy - I did the biggest size to accommodate the bosoms but maybe should have cast on the next size down for the bottom section and done some increases towards the armholes. But that is a general problem with all my tops - I can't blame Katy for an out of proportion body.

Tonight I am going to prepare my skeins for Sarita. Suzy has had the benefit of a long train journey and some creative working practices (which basically seem to involve putting off any impending work in order to race ahead on the first sleeve). I need to catch up! Not that knitting is a competitive business of course, sisters. I will remember to take the camera this time before she winds every pesky skein into a less photogenic ball.

And Carolyn has promised me an update on her Maddox - pictures please!

Too much to talk about

Unlike Amelia who is not sure what to talk about, I feel like there are so many things in my knitting head, I don't know where to start, so I'll just launch into a stream of consciousness and see where it ends up...

1. Katy is finished, and was worn in public on Saturday to see Charlton secure a narrow victory over Wigan and move a step closer to Premiership survival (apologies to any transatlantic readers who don't have a clue what I am going on about). I have taken some pictures and will post tomorrow once I retrieve the camera from husband Roger's desk at work (I don't have more than one husband, I just don't think I have mentioned his name on the blog before).

2. The final sleeve of Maddox is almost done, leaving the rather wide button bands and a sizeable collar. How YOU doin' Carolyn? (That was my great Joey from Friends impersonation - could you tell?)

3. We (Suzy, Dori and myself) had a lovely trip to my favourite shop on Sunday for delicious afternoon tea - oh and some yarn purchasing of course. I bought the remainder of the yarn for Sarita, and Suzy bought all hers, in the winter colours predicted. Photos of that in the next post. I also bought yarn for a cute baby vest, and Dori bought yarn for her first project. Too exciting! She is having her first lesson tonight in Suzy's knitting parlour. I'm sure some red wine will be needed to ease the process.

4. Finally I leave you with an image of my current shoe lust from Camper...