Purls In the Pool

Vegetable Garden - The Plan

2012-01-31T13:17:00.000Z

Taking into account crop rotation, space constraints, the number of cauliflowers we can actually eat and so on, we have produced this plan for the vegetable crops in the first half of this year. Now I need to check what seeds we have already and get the ones we haven't got. I'm planning to sow some peppers and chillies next weekend, a bit earlier than usual, but this year I'm hoping to sow everything a little earlier to give a longer growing and fruiting season.

This plan doesn't include the herb and salad beds, which I usually sow in succession with whatever I feel like through the season. This year I have red and green leaves, rocket, spinach and mustard. I'm thinking of getting a big cloche for the salads in the first few months.

Butterflies

2012-01-28T18:23:00.000Z

Last weekend Braveheart and I decided to walk to RHS Wisley and see the butterflies in their glasshouse. It was a bright winter's day, and a pleasant walk. There was a long queue at and inside the glasshouse, but there were lots of interesting plants to see, and a couple of butterflies escaped from the hothouse and fluttered past us!

Once we were in, we could see lots of huge exotic butterflies, perched on leaves, eating fruit or nectar and flying above our heads. They were amazing, completely unafraid of us. We took lots of pictures.

After we left the glasshouse, we went to see caterpillars and pupae hanging in cupboards, and some of the newly emerged butterflies waiting to be taken to the glasshouse and released.

It was a little corner of the tropics on an English winter day.

What I'm reading:
Last Train from Liguria

The Winter Garden

2012-01-08T16:53:00.002Z

We've got three crops over-wintering this year. In the right hand bed are leeks, which we've done before and which are coming on well. As soon as we have finished the last of the carrots we will start eating these. Or maybe even before...
Two new crops for me are purple sprouting broccoli, at the back by the fence, due to flower in February, and cauliflowers, in the left hand bed, due February/March. I'm looking forward to being able to eat home grown broccoli and cauliflowers, so I hope they do alright.

While I was taking these photos I saw these little narcissus in flower. They are right by the house, so sheltered from the wind.

And here in the front you can see what the wind did to some of our fences! Luckily none of my plants or shrubs was damaged.

A Wild January Night

2012-01-03T19:30:00.001Z

The wind has been blowing hard here since this morning. Three of our fences were down when we got home and we had to go out and put them back up in the dark. I held (and wound) the wind-up torch and Braveheart lifted up the panels and replaced them. One or two of them are nearly just a pile of sticks now but if they can last until the weekend we can send out a repair party.
On the way to and from work the roads were covered with branches and even, in a few places, a tree.

All this makes me very happy to have finished and be snuggling under my Babette Blanket, the perfect companion for this weather. I started this in 2007, I think, and made excellent progress for a few months. In November of last year I decided I would like to put together all the squares I had crocheted, and then I was determined to finish it.

Even though it's January, we have started thinking about this year's vegetable gardening. We bought shallot and onion sets at the weekend, so have now got to work out where they should go to follow the crop rotation.

What I'm reading:
The Bones of Avalon

Worth the Wait

2011-04-26T09:54:00.003+01:00

I started this cardigan, the Must Have Cardigan, in May 2009. I finished the back and started the sleeves by the end of that summer, and then we moved, and I didn't touch it for the whole of 2010. I restarted it this year in March and finished it at the weekend. I love it!

The buttons are from The Textile Garden, I bought them at the Ravelry Day in Coventry in 2009.

The Vegetable Garden - April

2011-04-10T13:54:00.009+01:00

The vegetable garden is really taking shape now, and the wonderful weather we have had for the last week, and the longer evenings, have meant we can get out into the garden for longer and get a lot of weeding done.

On the right you can see the raspberry canes and the strawberry patch; and the second raised vegetable bed is now under construction. This will have peas, beans, pumpkins and squashes in it this year.

On the left at the back are the mounds where the first early potatoes have been planted. We're trying Arran Pilot this year. This bed is also destined to have sweet corn, broccoli and cauliflower in due course. In the raised bed, spring greens/cabbages, onions and garlic and some radishes. Carrots and parsnips will go in the middle.

The greenhouse is now in use, with tomatoes, peppers, chillis and basil on the staging, and on the left are seed trays in which I have just sown the squashes, pumpkins and courgettes, some more sweet peas and marigolds and salvias for summer bedding.

The new trees have leaves! which is very exciting.

Wandering into the front garden, there are already some new flowers in the last couple of weeks:

scarlet tulips, and the first bluebells (and can you spot the Heuchera pushing its way through the patchof bluebell leaves there).

The beautiful creamy blossoms of Viburnum;

and this lovely white-flowered cascade, in the shady bed where I have also just found my hostas coming through. They were smothered in weeds, but are actually doing quite well. A bit more weeding needed here, and I also have some Convallaria and some Hellebores to plant.

The Flower Garden - March

2011-03-27T10:59:00.008+01:00

Time for me to take some photos of how the garden is looking this month, so we can see, at the end of the year, which parts of the flowerbeds could be improved and how to get the best from each season.

There is a lot going on in all the flowerbeds at the moment, the front garden has most flowers, with a lovely show of daffodils and muscari.

There are lots more bulbs coming up and the aubretia is just getting going as well.

Elsewhere, it is mostly leaves emerging for the new season so far.

In the back, there are some lovely tulips now in flower and the alliums we planted last year are coming up but of course not yet flowering, and the primroses I planted in containers are starting to look very pretty too.

Apple Trees

2011-03-13T13:17:00.009Z

As we arrived home at lunchtime on Friday, I said to Braveheart - I wonder when our apple trees will arrive? They are supposed to come between mid-Feb and March. I think I'll phone Thompson and Morgan and see when they are planning to dispatch them.

About an hour later, before I had got around to making my phone call, there was a knock at the door and a UPS guy delivered a HUGE tall box with three apple trees in.

So when we had finished putting the louvres and the last pane of glass in the greenhouse, we set about planting our new apple trees. First we faffed about for a while trying to remember where we had planned to put them. After a lot of measuring and placing of plant pots we settled on three locations which left a suitable space for a fourth tree in due course. We also had ready three large tree stakes, three tree ties, some bags of manure and a bag of bark chippings.

We marked out the edges of each hole as a 2 foot diameter around the tree and cut away the turf. Then we began digging. We measured the depth of the planting hole by placing the tree in the hole and checking that the earth would come up to its previous planting mark with some space for a layer of bark chippings. Once dug, we poured in a can of water and left it to soak away while Braveheart hammered in the stake.

Then we added some manure to the earth in the bottom of the hole, and some Root Grow, before placing the tree in the hole and filling it with earth to the correct depth.

Finally bark chips were added, and the tie was attached to tree and stake.

Our trees are a Bramley, a Braeburn and a Cox's Orange Pippin.

Meanwhile, indoors, the seeds I sowed last weekend are doing well. Tomatoes,

Broccoli and Sweet Pea seedlings are all growing well.

Greenhouse Progress

2011-03-07T16:31:00.007Z

Since my last post on the greenhouse project, we have worked on the construction whenever we had spare time and it wasn't raining, which unfortunately wasn't as often as we would have liked.

We opened up the boxes with the greenhouse bits in and laid out all the pieces on the patio. We counted every single item and checked it off against the parts list!

The first step was to assemble the front, back and sides separately.

Then we put them together and added the roof section.

The greenhouse at this stage is very light, so we carried it carefully across the lawn to its final location, where we placed it into its base, and checked that everything was squared up and that it all fitted.

The foundation was completed with a path, gravel around the edges and we dug over the vegetable beds which will be inside.

Then we fastened everything down.

The final stage was to make up the door and window vents, and to put the glass on. This took a surprisingly long time, and we have so far completed the roof. This morning our new glass roof was covered in frost! It seems to have survived, though.

The Flower Garden - February

2011-02-20T22:02:00.006Z

This year I've decided to take photos of the various flower beds each month so I have a record of what is in flower throughout the year and can use that to decide if I want to change the plantings. This month the snowdrops are out and tiny miniature daffodils are just opening. One thing I can see is that it would be nice to have more snowdrops in thicker groups, so I've begun moving them into clusters as I weed. I think I will plant some more groups for next year, as well.

There are lots of bulbs coming up all over the garden, so in a few weeks there should be a big change in the flower garden with a lot more flowers coming into bloom.

Planning Ahead

2011-02-12T12:50:00.001Z

Although it's still winter, we have started planning for Spring. I'm very excited about Spring this year, and about the garden. This time last year we were still unpacking boxes every weekend, and my entire collection of clothes was stored in a heap of black bin liners handily stacked beside the mattress on the bedroom floor which was our temporary bed.

By the time we turned our attention to the garden, we were late planting most things and all the flowerbeds were out of control. It took us all year to get things back in some kind of order. We did have some successes with vegetables, and also some less successful crops, so we've got new ideas for 2011 as well as some old favourites.

This year we are planning well ahead, and looking forward to starting the growing year right at the beginning of Spring. The key to all this is our new greenhouse!

The greenhouse itself is flat packed and is currently waiting patiently on the patio. For the last few weeks we have been working on constructing the foundations. We decided to make these using concrete paving slabs. The first step was to take the greenhouse base measurements from the instructions and use those to produce a scale drawing of the foundations. The drawing enabled us to see how many slabs of each size we needed and to order them.

The garden is not level, so the base has had to be measured, dug out and levelled.

First the area was marked out according to the plan and the turf was removed.

Then the area was dug over and levelled out, which left some sides higher than others. We decided to put a wooden edging all around to make sure that the edges didn't cave in. To do this the area had to be enlarged and then the edging had to be hammered in with a mallet.

Finally, using sharp sand a level bed was made for each paving slab and then the slabs were carefully placed. At each step the measurements were checked to ensure that when we reached the end there would be enough room for the last slab, that the base was square at all corners and that the base and slabs were level. We invested in the biggest spirit level I have ever seen and it has been one of the most useful tools for this job.

This has taken a month at weekends, but the result now looks a bit like the foundations of a ruined Roman Temple! Some of the slabs need to be levelled a tiny bit more, and we need to put sand in the gaps and some gravel at the back of the slabs, but then we will be ready for stage two - putting up the greenhouse!

Pictures From The Philippines

2010-11-13T09:47:00.022Z

Last Tuesday morning I landed at Heathrow Airport at 5.00 am on a wet, cold and blustery English winter day. I had just returned from 10 days holidaying in the Philippines with Kino, who has been living and working in Manila for six months.

The Philippines is a developing country, not particularly focused on international tourism, composed of hundreds of islands in the Philippine Sea, and close to the Equator in the southern hemisphere. I travelled from London to Singapore and then onto Manila, the capital city of the Philippines, where Kino was living.

Her house was an oasis of calm and green behind a gate in a noisy, hot and dirty street.

My first trip was to a restaurant called Laya in Antipolo, where we had a sensational, six-course lunch of the most superb Asian fusion cuisine in a location overlooking Manila itself and the green suburbs surrounding it.

Afterwards we visited the local cathedral.

It was 31st October, Hallowe'en for us, which is not much celebrated in the Philippines, as All Saints and All Souls are more important festivals. However, in a cafe just along the street from Kino's house, the staff had made some striking and rather gruesome Hallowe'en figures!

After three days in Manila, Kino and I flew Philippine Airlines to the island of Bohol, about an hour away by air. This is me at the airport, I didn't straighten my hair while I was away because of the heat and humidity, so it's wild and curly.

Our first stop was Alumbung Tropical Living, where we stayed in a delightful native style hut in a peaceful garden.

We were a short walk from the beautiful Alona Beach where we spent a pleasant afternoon.

The next day we took a tour of local paces of interest.

A cathedral made of coral

The Chocolate Hills

The Hanging Bridge

The Loboc River

A Tarsier in the Tarsier sanctuary.

These little creatures, the smallest primates in the world, are endangered and the sanctuary is dedicated to saving and supporting them. We walked around the sanctuary where a number of them live in their natural environment but protected from molestation, and were able to take photographs. The Tarsiers are really tiny, no bigger than the size of your clenched fist.

That evening we took photos of the sunset over the beach.

The next day we spent at the pool of a local restaurant

before moving on to our final destination on Bohol, IslaHayaHay.

Here we relaxed by the sea as the resort is right on the shore.

More lovely sunsets

A day spent island hopping took us to a tiny sand spit in the middle of the ocean, from where we watched a storm pass across the mainland

The food was lovely, and we ate at a table outside overlooking the beach.

Three days flew past and soon I was flying back to Manila where I said goodbye to Kino for a few more weeks and caught my flight to Singapore and on to London and home.

The Philippines is an exotic and different country, whose people are friendly and hospitable, and mostly speak excellent English. There is much breathtaking scenery and lots to do and see. It's not a destination that is yet widely known to European tourists, and so much of it is still unspoilt and authentic. I shall not forget my visit in a hurry!

Autumn Is Here!

2010-09-05T12:40:00.013+01:00

Autumn, my favourite time of year, has arrived, time to make chutney, preserves and - er, alcohol. This year's Elderberry and Blackberry Wine is now fermenting. We had four pickers this year as opposed to seven last year, so we have 3 gallons of wine as opposed to last year's 5 gallons. We are thinking of picking some sloes and making Sloe Wine as well, though, which would be a new recipe for us.

Many of the vegetables are harvested now; our onions, red onions and shallots are drying or dried and hung up for use in the kitchen.

The potatoes and carrots are not quite ready yet, and we are still picking courgettes, tomatoes, sweet peppers, chillies and aubergines. We have put in leeks to overwinter (sown earlier in the year in pots) and they are swelling nicely, and we are planning to sow cabbages to overwinter for spring greens, and garlic for early next summer as well.

In the meantime we have turned our attention to the flower garden. A lot of the flower beds looked like this a few weeks ago, choked with grass and some kind of spreading ground cover.

We've dug everything up, cleared out all the grass roots and the runners and tubers of the weeds, and replanted lots and lots of spring bulbs that were dug up at the same time. We've also been planting some new plants and shrubs for next year, so now it looks more like this!

Our next big garden project is going to be building a greenhouse! It's very exciting, and we are doing research at the moment to choose our greenhouse.

In the meantime I'll finish with some photos from my recent stay in North Devon.

We walked along the coast and inland, and also visited the North Devon Bird of Prey Centre, where I took these photos of their birds.

I really love watching birds of prey hunting, they are such amazing creatures.

Sea, Sand and Castles

2010-08-02T20:36:00.014+01:00

I spent last week on holiday in Northumberland. I couldn't believe how many castles there are! We were staying in Bamburgh, so started with a trip to Bamburgh Castle:

The castle looks out over the lovely Northumbrian coast, and is in excellent repair. I was fascinated by the life story of Lord Armstrong, whose family still owns the castle.

The next outing was to the Farne Islands, which lie just off the coast and are managed by the National Trust. We took a boat trip around the islands where we saw the lighthouse

and basking seals,

and then landed on Inner Farne where we could walk around and see the thousands of nesting birds - cormorants,

kittiwakes

and best of all, puffins!

These windows are in St Cuthbert's Chapel on Inner Farne.

Our third trip was inland to Hadrian's Wall, which I had never visited. We went to Housesteads Fort, where you could see the ruins of one of the great forts along the wall,

and then walked along a section of the wall which adjoins the fort. I am now determined to return to the Wall and walk a substantial section of it next year.

On the road back from the Wall we passed Alnwick Castle, which we did not have time to visit this year. And on the road past a big stately home we stopped to look at these amazing dragons heads in stone:

Aren't they fab!

On the last day we drove to Craster, just along the coast from us, and walked out to Dunstanburgh Castle, which was destroyed by artillery bombardment during the Wars of the Roses.

It is perched on a cliff edge and right by a golf course.

We walked out to the castle and then back along the sea shore.

What a lovely, relaxing holiday in one of the most beautiful spots in the British Isles!

Hampton Court

2010-07-10T13:19:00.013+01:00

No this isn't my garden! Not this year anyway...

Yesterday afternoon Braveheart and I went for the first time to the Hampton Court Flower Show. It was baking hot with relatively little shade, and we drank two full bottles of water in the three and a half hours we were there. We were both covered in Factor 30 suncream so no burns, I'm pleased to report!

Most of our time in our garden this year has been spent on the vegetable garden, and all I have done for the flower beds is see what comes up, weed and water them and plant a few new plants. So I was hoping to get inspiration for ways we could develop our flower garden, and I was not disappointed.

We spent most of our time looking at the Show Gardens, and some time in the Rose tent, the Heritage Plants tent and the Flower tent. I had thought I would buy lots of plants, but in the end I decided that I had so many ideas, after looking at the show gardens, that I hadn't thought through for our garden that it wasn't the right time to buy. I was also afraid that with the current weather it would be difficult to get new plants established so I decided to wait till cooler, wetter conditions return.

We took 160 odd photos though, to capture planting schemes, colours and plants we liked, so here is a selection.

Jam Today

2010-07-04T16:16:00.012+01:00

After a few weeks of collecting strawberries and trying to eat them all on my muesli of a morning, we had a huge glut, and I made 5lb of jam. We have also made strawberry pavlova and I still have some left to eat on my muesli, although they are nearly all finished now.

That doesn't matter though because.....

the raspberries are ripening! I'm still eating those on my muesli and I don't know if I'll get jam out of them, but it would be pretty cool if I did.

We've also been harvesting plenty of courgettes and sugar snap peas, which are delicious.

We also have some beautiful flowers - potatoes and runner beans:

The herb and salad beds are flourishing and we have salad leaves and wild rocket, coriander, parsley and chives.

Last weekend we picked 8.5 pints of elderflowers and we now have 5 gallons of elderflower, lemon and raisin wine fermenting in a big plastic bin. It's not very photogenic though!

I've even found the time to knit, and I've started a new project, a cardigan in DROPS Safran (a 100% fingering weight cotton). It seems perfect for the current weather, cool and fresh. It has a body in wave pattern (feather and fan) with a top and sleeves in garter stitch.

First Fruits

2010-06-20T13:51:00.006+01:00

I have one and a half pounds of strawberries in the fridge now, and yesterday we had our first baby courgettes, yum!

Nearly the entire vegetable garden is now draped in nets, to protect the raspberries and strawberries against the birds and to protect the raised bed against cat attack grrrr!

Look at the size of the potatoes! They are like little trees LOL. The broad beans are in flower now and the peas too, so I confidently expect more crops to follow in the next few weeks. The tomatoes and chillies are doing pretty well, too.

Even the flowerbed has some colour in it now, although it's a long way from what I want it to look like. I'll be planting some new plants, bulbs and seeds in the autumn.

I've actually taken an afternoon off from gardening and am doing some knitting today

These socks are knitted in beautiful madelinetosh merino sock yarn, which I received in a birthday swap last year, in a colour called logwood. It is a semisolid in shades of lavender, lilac and dark blue, which reminds me of lavender flowers. The pattern is Evelyn Clark's Raindrop Lace Socks. I'm determined to finish the first sock before doing anything else.

Milan

2010-06-13T17:43:00.012+01:00

Last week I was working in Northern Italy. On Thursday evening the team and I visited Milan for the evening. We took the Metro from the outskirts of Milan and got off at Il Duomo (the Cathedral). It was very hot (by UK standards), about 28C, but the train was air conditioned which was a welcome relief.

Il Duomo was an impressive sight; I thought it looked like lace made of stone:

All the little spires are tall columns each of which have a statue on, and the walls are covered with carvings and statues.

We went to have dinner in a nearby restaurant (I had a courgette flower risotto! and salmon with cannellini beans) and when we came out it was dark. Il Duomo looked just as impressive.

We walked across the square and got ice cream for dessert. It was still really hot at about 10pm.

This is La Scala:

The opera must have just finished, as there were lots of people in smart clothes and posh frocks coming out.

This mosaic was in a huge shopping gallery. Apparently if a woman places her heel in the hole and turns around three times then it will help fertility. Some young women were trying it out as we walked past.

I had a lovely evening, and the next day we finished our work and flew home. I was exhausted and so glad to be home again. The garden was flourishing!

Summer In a Bottle

2010-06-05T20:57:00.003+01:00

As I was driving home from work in the last week I saw that the elderflowers were starting to blossom. The scent of elderflower for me is like the scent of summer, and every year for the last few years we have gone out picking bags of elderflowers in the hedgerows and made wine from them. This summer we plan to do the same.

Last year's wine is now drinking well, and when the cork comes out and I smell the fragrant mix of elderflowers and lemon, it is like the essence of summer captured in a bottle of wine.

Here's to summer!

Strawberries for Tea

2010-05-31T15:36:00.011+01:00

Over the last few weeks, our strawberry plants have come into flower. I had been a bit anxious that there were not enough bees visiting them, but that soon changed, and today we realised that the flowers were more or less finished and there were loads of strawberries starting to ripen!

We'd read up on what to do and had already bought some straw from Pets At Home, so Braveheart got a wheelbarrow full and began laying the straw under the plants.

We found an old fence panel behind the shed, and removed some timber from that to make stakes, and then fastened fruit netting to the stakes using a nail in each one. Now we just have to wait for the fruit to ripen.

The rest of the vegetables are coming on well, too:

I've moved on to one of the flower beds for now, which was already planted up but had got rather overgrown.

Three Bags Full

2010-05-31T14:57:00.003+01:00

Since I last posted, I have spent a week away working in Northern Italy, near Milan. While I was there, our topsoil was delivered, three cubic metres of it, and it was quite lucky my car was parked at Heathrow Airport as it would not have got onto the drive.

The first task when I got back was to begin barrowing the topsoil to the new raised bed. This took about three days, what with having to go to work some of the time. I moved two bagfuls and Braveheart moved most of the last bag - we still have a bit left, which is being used to top up other flower beds elsewhere in the garden. Then the bed was raked smooth and level.

I planted a row of shallots which had been waiting for some space, and we sowed some more broad beans, onion sets, carrots and the last of the seed potatoes.

A neighbouring cat then thought it had found the largest litter tray in the world, so we have had to put netting over it for a few weeks while the seeds germinate and the plants get established.

Job done!

A New Vegetable Bed

2010-05-16T15:25:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we were up at the crack of dawn, all excited because we were going to build a new vegetable plot. We purchased the timber from Travis Perkins on Friday (yes, a Honda Civic can transport 8 ft long gravel boards), along with some stakes for the corners, so we were eager to get started.

We marked out the position of both future vegetable plots on the grass with the timber, and the position of the future greenhouse and future apple trees and future Japanese Maple with flowerpots. We have a Grand Plan, you see ;). Once we were satisfied that the layout was right, I went off to the gym and left Braveheart to begin removing turf from the designated vegetable plot area.

He marked it all out with string and began cutting strips of turf. It took him all day! At the end we had a vegetable plot and a big pile of turf strips.

Today was spent constructing the raised bed. First of all we dug around the edges to loosen the soil and create a channel for the boards to sit in. Then we began hammering in the stakes and attaching the boards to them with screws. We left one open at the end so it will be easier to tip three tons of topsoil in from a wheelbarrow.

We are very satisfied with our weekend's work - but wait! there's more...

I also planted up all the tomatoes, chillies, peppers, aubergines and courgettes.

And I stacked as much turf as I could get into these leaf mould bags, grass to grass and roots to roots. It takes a year or so but does rot down into lovely compost.

We finished the day with a well-earned glass of cider from last year's sparkling batch. And very nice it was , too.

Brrr!

2010-05-12T11:06:00.000+01:00

Gosh, isn't it cold at the moment? There has been a frost almost every day this week. In May! We have had to keep the new plants in the growhouse and keep that closed at night, and keep cloches on the vegetable beds. The good news is that there are pea shoots coming up!

We have also decided that we need a new vegetable bed to take some of the plants and those seeds we have not had space for in the current bed. We already planned to have two more vegetable beds, and had worked out what size they should be and where to place them, but they were scheduled to be constructed in the autumn. The schedule has now been brought forward to this weekend! We have some timber which was left behind by the previous owners, and so only need to buy a little more, and apparently we need 3 tons of topsoil. Seems like a lot, doesn't it? I wonder how many wheelbarrow loads that makes...

On a completely different topic, I have been knitting (my first ever) Baby Surprise Jacket, in assorted Sirdar Snuggly, for a colleague on maternity leave. She had her baby on Monday, so I'd better get it in the post.
I'm also co-ordinating a baby blanket, for the same colleague, for which learner knitters in the office have been contributing squares. I'm currently sewing the squares into strips, and when we've got enough I'll join the strips and add a crocheted border. I think we are only three squares short now. But you know what it is like with babies, you think you have time and then suddenly you are wondering if a crocheted baby blanket is an acceptable 18th birthday present.

The Herb Garden

2010-05-03T20:37:00.000+01:00

Today we focused on getting the two raised beds at the side of the house organised, between the showers, that is. There are two beds, one higher than the other, which had some herbs in, and one longer, low bed with an eclectic mix of (mainly) mint, a few foxgloves and two bluebells.

Starting with the higher bed, the foxgloves were transplanted to another location. Then I spent some time with the secateurs cutting back the overgrown marjoram, rosemary and thyme currently in the bed. Finally, I took some herbs which had been living in a pot for the last two years, and planted them out. On the advice of Braveheart's Dad, we also buried some terracotta pots in the bed , and filled each with some mint.

The second bed was completely cleared and dug over except for the two bluebells - as they haven't finished flowering yet, and I didn't want to move them. We have sown coriander, parsley (although the seeds are quite old, so I think I might invest in some newer ones), wild rocket, mixed salad leaves and spring onions. We've left space to sow further rows of each every few weeks.

Next weekend I think I'll be buying some more herb plants. As there is plenty of space, I fancy some oregano, lovage, hyssop, dill and lemon balm.

All in all we've had a very constructive weekend! Let's hope everything starts to grow soon.

Perfect May Weather

2010-05-02T13:03:00.000+01:00

When I was about 10, a group of us at my school learned to do some Maypole dances, using ribbons so we could weave patterns during the dance and then unweave them as the dance finished. The plan was that we would give a display of Maypole dancing at our school fete that year. The day of the fete dawned - grey, cold and wet. I remember looking at the rain dripping off the empty stalls, which had been left outside, and running down the forlorn maypole onto the sodden grass. It was clear to me that we would not be giving any dancing displays that day.

Today's weather reminds me of that long ago May day. It has been raining steadily since about 10.00 am this morning, and isn't looking like stopping any time soon. The patio is covered with pools of water and rain is dripping off the teak table and chairs and off the shed roof. And I'm delighted, because yesterday was spent sowing vegetable seeds, and the water butt was empty, and this is just the weather the garden needed.

The new house has a long garden, with a nice big patio, a shed and one flower bed. Most of it is laid to lawn, and we are working on a garden plan to be implemented over a few years. At the end of the garden is a vegetable plot (which is approx 31' x 7', including an area set aside for composters - of which we now have two).

This plot had clearly been used by the previous owners for vegetables, as there is a row of what looks like raspberry canes at the back fence, plus a large patch of strawberries. We also discovered a couple of rows of carrots - obviously left from last year - and (while digging over the plot) quite a few potatoes that had started sprouting. We rescued the best carrots - they were very small as they hadn't been thinned out - and made a pot of carrot and coriander soup, which was very nice.

The vegetable plot is the largest area I have ever had for growing vegetables, and we made a plan of what to plant there and bought seeds. Over the last week we have sowed red onions, sugar snap peas, runner beans, broad beans, dwarf beans, carrots, potatoes and white onions. Now the bed is full, and we still have leeks, parsnips and more carrots to sow, and shallots and courgettes to plant out. Oops! I think we might have to construct one of our planned new raised vegetable beds this year. Tomorrow, even.

Onions, peas (under the cloche) and runner beans. Strawberries on the right.

Potato Trench

We did do our display of Maypole dancing in the end, by the way - at the school summer fete, in July. That's the British weather for you!

The Cherry Hung With Snow

2010-04-21T13:23:00.000+01:00

And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.

Well, the hawthorn rather than the cherry, actually.
I moved here in January, when there was snow on the ground. Now I look out of my window in the morning and see the hedgerows bursting with white hawthorn flowers. Beyond the bottom of my garden and my neighbour's garden is a huge, old, tree full of nesting rooks, with a fuzz of spring green just appearing at the tips of its branches. It's spring, and the gardening season awaits.

Moving Day

2010-01-26T22:30:00.001Z

The day dawned....well, snowy and cold, basically. We had already had a panic in case the sellers couldn't move out, a few days earlier, when the snow first started, and the day before the move we weren't certain that we would be able to get the hired van, as it was quite icy and the hire company were nervous about letting it out. We convinced them that as we were only taking it a short distance, it would be OK.

There were six of us moving stuff, with some help from a kind neighbour when the sofa had to be got through the patio doors into the snow without actually ending up in the snow. We did five vanloads and four carloads and it took from 8.00 am to 7 pm. When we had finished there was a filing cabinet outside in the snow which we couldn't fit in anywhere, and the house was entirely filled with boxes.

We were exhausted and cold but entirely relieved that it was all over. Now we could begin the long job of sorting out where everything was going to go!

A White Christmas

2010-01-03T18:26:00.000Z

Well hello there, and a Happy New Year to all. I spent Christmas in Scotland this year, and it was a beautiful white, cold, wintry time. The header photo was taken on Christmas Eve, and the river is partly frozen.

We had a huge family Christmas with Braveheart's family, with thirteen of us around the table. After Christmas we had some lovely restful days just sitting and chatting or walking the dog before flying home.

Once we were home we had to start packing, because next week we are moving, which is very exciting. After two solid days of packing the house is a tip with boxes everywhere. My spinning wheel is buried somewhere behind these boxes. Oh well, it will all be worthwhile!

In Which I Unexpectedly Make Lots of Things

2009-05-11T12:36:00.003+01:00

I uploaded some text to the blog at work today (during my lunch hour, obviously), and couldn't get it to work at all, so I copied the text into a Word file, emailed it to myself at home, and gave up. Imagine my surprise when I got home to find a comment on the post I thought had been deleted. It appears that I had in fact published it three times. Without any photos. Oh well, let's get this mess cleared up....

I’ve done some sewing! I made some bags using the Teatowel Bags link I posted last time, although I used fabric from stash instead of teatowels. I made three large bags and one smaller one to use up the last of the fabric. Finally, something to use my extensive stash of quilting fabric on! I liked the smaller bag, which was for a forum friend, and I plan to make another one for myself. I have a few more I’d like to make next time I feel like sewing.

I also made myself a linen skirt, for work. I like it so much I’m going to make another one in a different colour.

I’d forgotten how engrossing sewing is, though. You can’t pick it up and put it down like knitting or spinning, you have to have a huge work surface, a sewing machine, an iron, an overlocker….Once I’ve started I can’t stop until it’s finished or I drop with exhaustion. House need cleaning? Family hungry? Sorry, I’m sewing. Come back in a few days.

On the knitting front I haven’t done so well. The socks are still OTN and, although they have progressed, a definite effort is required to finish them off.

I’ve been practising my spinning as much as I can, and try to spin a bit each day.

I’ve spun just under half of my Water Lily and here it is, plied and finished.

I’m quite pleased with it so far – it’s still got some thick and thin bits because I was a very new beginner when I began spinning it, but the later parts are much more consistent. The colours have come out nicely, too, with some long colour repeats and some parts where the colours have blended. I’d like to get the same effect for the second half of the fibre, but as I don’t really know what I did to this half that might be tricky! I think I’ll see what would happen if I split the remaining fibre into two lengths across its width (as opposed to lengthways) and put them together. I think the yarn would make a small size leaf lace shawlette.

I’ve been to another spinning class (and I’m booked up for Superspin 2 in June) and have a bag of sample fibres to try out. I carded some alpaca and made rolags,
which I spun into this yarn,
which I made into a tiny knitted square. It was lovely to knit with, too!

I flicked some polwarth locks and have spun them as fine as I could on a cute little spindle from Jesh. I haven’t plied and finished this yet – I’m hoping for laceweight. I’ve got a bag of Polwarth from Southern Cross Fibres in Cockatoo, and I’d like to spin that as a two-ply laceweight.
I’ve got some other sample fibres to try, including Wensleydale locks, merino silk and silk, which I haven’t used yet.

I’ve bought quite a bit of fibre actually, (she said nonchalantly) and one of them is a braid of Shetland in a beautiful pink and white shade called Apple Blossom. I think it would make a lovely blanket, so my idea is to spin it and then make a three ply yarn with itself and some oatmeal or white natural fibre spun to the same thickness. I’d be aiming for about DK weight. Then I’d crochet a giant granny square with it. I think it would be both pretty and warm.

I’ve also bought a couple more spindles: a Bosworth featherweight and a Wildcraft resin spindle. They’re awfully stashable…

And…I’ve ordered a spinning wheel. I have ordered a Majacraft Rose from P&M Woolcraft. I tried an Ashford Joy at the second Superspin 1 class, and it was so fun! I really like spinning.

Easter Holiday

2009-04-14T08:45:00.000+01:00

I'm typing this in bed with a cup of coffee, looking through the curtains at a cherry tree laden with sugar pink blossoms. I have taken the rest of the week off, so it's nice to have some more lovely weather today.

I finished my cabled scarf last week, and very nice and snuggly it is too! It's put away in the cupboard now until next winter.
Over the Easter weekend I have been knitting some socks:

the pattern is an old favourite: Hedera, which is a lovely lacey sock pattern, and the yarn is Lana Grossa Cotton Fantasy. The colours remind me of cherry blossom and sugar almonds. I saw a version of Hedera on Ravelry yesterday with a picot edging instead of a ribbed cuff and it looked so nice I might just have to make another pair to try it out.

I have also been learning to spin! A week ago I went to Diane Mulholland's Superspin 1 class at Socktopus. She had us spinning in about ten minutes, and explained the whole process very clearly. I made yarn right away - and she showed us how to ply it and finish it too. My yarn isn't great, but it is a lot better than my previous attempt!

The class is in two parts, and our homework between the two is to spin a bag of fibre into gold - no wait, into yarn (phew!). I've done half the bag and yesterday I plied it and set it, and here is a little skein of it. I think you can already see the improvement, mainly in consistency.

I rewarded myself with some coloured fibre to spin! I got this from Socktopus after the class, it is Wild Lily from Chameleon Colourworks.

I've ordered another spindle from etsy, and two more lots of fibre. I am finding spinning very addictive, did I mention that? At the next class we are going to try some spinning wheels. I am planning to buy a wheel, so more of that in due course.

Right one more cup of coffee and I'm going to get up and get on with my huge list of projects, which includes gardening, hoovering the car, cleaning the kitchen, finishing my socks, spinning some more and sewing. I fancy having a go at these bags.

Oodles of Cables

2009-03-15T10:20:00.000Z

It is officially spring here at Purls In the Pool. What a beautiful day it is outside; a clear blue sky and glorious sunshine. I thought it was time to put up a Spring picture in the blog header. This season's picture is of a scene in the Bay of Islands in New Zealand's North Island. I was looking back towards the town of Russell when I saw the tall ship and I just managed to capture her as she sped past with a bone in her teeth.

I must go down to the seas again,
to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship
and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song
and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face
and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again,
for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call
that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day
with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume,
and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again
to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way
where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn
from a laughing fellow rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream
when the long trick's over.

"Sea Fever", by John Masefield.

I'm knitting a warm scarf at the moment, which is a bit out of kilter with the seasons, but because of how long it takes me to knit things (on account of having to go to work mainly) this often happens to me. Last winter I was still knitting my Queen of the Waves shawl, which is why it is an unfinished item on my Finishalong list. The warm scarf is knitted in Sirdar Click Chunky with wool, which is a very nice soft yarn to knit with, and it uses the cable and bobble pattern I mentioned previously, which I was given on my textured knitting workshop. I'm really pleased with it so far, although it is taking more yarn than I expected so I think I will need to buy a couple more balls. It's the closest I have come so far to designing something myself, as it is a combination of the cable pattern I was given and Aknita's DD's Scarf.I have also finished my Cable Sweater. It is still qute cold in the mornings and evenings so I am wearing it quite a lot. I love it!

I have just purchased a copy of Wendy Barnard's Custom Knits. This is a lovely book which is very reasonably priced on Amazon at the moment. After reading through it I feel inspired to design some of my own knits. I felt the same after reading the Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns, and yet have never gone on to produce any of my own designs, for some reason. Wendy suggests using existing, shop bought sweaters as a starting point for creating your own copies of them, which I think is a great idea. As I'm knitting several other things first it might be a few months before I start the first one, but I'm thinking about it now and the design process is beginning, I'm getting some ideas already. More of this in due course. Wendy is also the designer of a fabulous cardigan called Something Red. I gotta have one!

In Search of a Nice Warm Sweater

2009-02-16T22:05:00.000Z

Fallen Angels:
In case anyone who reads this blog has lost the Angel Yarns Knitting Forum and doesn't know what has happened to it, this is to tell you that the forum has been shut down by the owners; however a new forum has been set up here. If you are a Ravelry member, you can also visit the Angel Yarns group to find out more.

I'm feeling creative at the moment, and I have a strange desire to knit lots of really warm sweaters. First up is my Bergere de France Cable Sweater, which I have been faithfully knitting since the beginning of January. I am blocking the finished sections at the moment.
The back

The front
and the sleeves so far
It's a lovely design, a very pleasant knit, and the Berlaine is soft and luscious.
That said, it must be one of the worst written patterns I have ever come across, and quite frequently does not make sense, but it is usually easy enough to work out what needs to be done.

Although I'm not knitting anything else (yet!), I have acquired four balls of Tofutsies and some Click Chunky (to knit a scarf - warm, see); and a pack of DROPS Karisma to knit a Must Have Cardigan, which I have just fallen in love with (it looks warm doesn't it?). I could really do with some more warm socks, too, as it happens.

Last weekend I spent the day in a workshop on textured knitting. I was very pleased to find that the workshop was led by Alison Crowther-Smith, the author of Shibori Knitted Felt, whose fun and creative felting workshop I went on last year. I noticed that she had a needle case with a felted cover, and in a flash of inspiration I realised that one of my felted samples from the earlier workshop would also make a lovely needle case. I had to buy a ball of Scottish Tweed to make the inside of the needle case, and as I was choosing it I saw some KSH in a lovely hot dark apricot colour, so I got some of that too. I believe it's quite warm.

We made a square with a lace and beaded heart, did some cable samples with bobbles and I learned how to do a bobble in a contrasting colour, which looks really fun. I have a new idea for my warm scarf, involving bobbles and Kid Silk Haze. There were quite a few people in the workshop doing the Debbie Abrahams Mystery Blanket, and I must say that the squares looked beautiful and fun to do. The only thing I do not like is that they are all in cotton, and I think I would prefer a wool blanket.

Finally this week my Great American Aran Afghan book arrived, and I have been ooohing and aaahing over the squares. I have a vague plan to knit it in the autumn this year.

Then the weather was so beautiful yesterday that I started thinking about knitting summer garments. I think cardigans is the way to go for a bit!

A Snow Day

2009-02-02T10:21:00.000Z

At 6.00 a.m. we had two possible strategies. I thought that our journey was not essential and that we should stay at home, and Braveheart thought that we should leave as early as possible so as to get to work on time. We got up and had breakfast while we thought about it, and then were lucky enough to watch one of the neighbours trying to get his car out. The road was as you see in the photo, in fact the tail lights you can see in the far right are those of the neighbour in question. He cleared snow from the roof of his car, and that allowed me to see that there were about 12 inches. Hmmm, I thought.

He took 10 minutes to back out of his drive onto the road and get stuck in the snow. Then he took 20 minutes, a shovel, two pieces of carpet and five neighbours to get his car back on the drive. His wife stood in the doorway saying "you'll never make it". We watched from the window and took photos discreetly.

Braveheart decided that our journey was not essential and we should stay at home.

We measured the snow depth outside the back door:

and outside the front door:

The garden is a winter wonderland.
Kino and her three friends left for Africa a few weeks ago. She'll be gutted to learn that she missed the best UK snow event for 18 years! She is travelling over there until Easter when she is home for a week before returning to continue her trip around the world. Kino has her own blog, and you can read her articles (and look at some stunning photos) on Curiouser and Curiouser.

A day after her departure I received an email to say she had left her yellow fever vaccination certificate in her handbag and could I send it on by Global Priority mail. Unfortunately, there was no vaccination certificate in her handbag and after a lengthy search of her belongings I concluded that we did not have it. A difficult email conversation followed, as she was absent for days at a time and I had to travel to Paris and had no internet access, but the upshot of it all was that I phoned around her doctors in the last five years till I found the one who had done the vaccination, and then they issued a new certificate, which they posted to me and which I have now sent on to Kino at a youth hostel in Kenya. Here's hoping it gets to her alright!

The Times They Are a-Changin'

2008-12-10T12:29:00.000Z

And so we are nearly at the end of another year. For me, the turmoil and bustle of everyday activities, the world of work and family, the highs and lows of the last year, are gradually stilled as we move through Advent. Christmas, for me, is a time of reflection and peace, where all the threads of life can be laid out, reflected on and their pattern seen before starting a new cycle in January. It is also a time of rest and recovery.

For the last five years, the transition from everyday life to the Christmas season has been marked by driving up to Cambridge to fetch my daughter home for Christmas. Cambridge is a special place for me, where I spent three intense, magical years of my youth, and which is full of memories of people, events and aspirations.

Every year, the drive up is on a cold, crisp, sunny winter morning. We load the car with Kino's things and then go somewhere for a quiet lunch. By the time lunch is over, the sun is setting and we drive home as it gets dark, listening to Christmas music on the radio. After this year, though, things are changing; in January, Kino is off to travel the world for a year or so.

I'm hoping to meet up with her some time, but more of that next year. Time for some more travel, perhaps! In the meantime, next Saturday is the drive up to fetch her, and I'm looking forward to it.

Since my last post (and thanks for the messages of sympathy and understanding by the way) I've at least written my cards, and Braveheart and I have made some progress in the kitchen.

We made some Christmas biscuits:

The Christmas Cake is well marinated in brandy and has been covered in marzipan. It is due to be iced this afternoon and Braveheart has ambitious designs in mind, so watch this space!

As I don't appear to have finished any knitting for ages I thought I would at least show what I have been doing. I have finished my mittens interrupted and the matching scarf (which have been pretty useful these last few weeks).

I have been crocheting some snowflakes. This is the first one, in size 10 cotton. It needs starching and blocking I hasten to add, but it looks pretty cool so far.

I have been slowly but surely getting on with my Babette blanket in the car driving to work. Obviously I'm not the one driving, of course. Here's all the squares!

Here it is so far. I'm loving those autumn leaves colours, which are such fun to do. Only about 10 more to go and then I can start on the final section - Winter!

I have decided to start assembling it, so these squares have been blocked, and I hope to start sewing them together very soon. As soon as I've finished blogging about them and made a few more snowflakes in fact.

I hope all your Christmas preparations are going well!

Review of the Year

2008-12-02T21:54:00.001Z

Stress!

2008-11-29T17:38:00.000Z

It's the end of November and I haven't so much as written a Christmas Present list, I haven't written any cards, I haven't ordered a turkey, my Babette Blanket squares for November aren't finished, I am so busy at work I can hardly take a lunch hour and I haven't made any progress on my cable sweater for two weeks.

I'm stressed!
DSoK the Graduate called last night and he's stressed too, mainly by work, which sounds just as badly run as where I work, so I listened to him ranting about it for a while. We are going walking together tomorrow so I hope that will be nice and relaxing. If not I'll just have to hit the gin. Maybe I'll put some in my thermos now I come to think of it.

I have done some work on my Babette Blanket this month and I'm rather pleased with the results so far. I'm on the 9th block, and there is one more to go, so unless I get a lot done over Christmas I don't think I'll quite get it finished this year. If I can find the time I think I'm going to start blocking the finished squares soon and sewing them together to see how it all looks.

I also have to do about eight more rows on my Scarf Interrupted. It is done with the left overs of my Manos del Uruguay and some Katia Venus which I bought in Mallorca a few years ago. I think it is quite pretty, and I expect it will be nice and warm. Once it's done I can get on with my Cable Sweater.

I also bought a lovely booklet with crochet snowflake patterns in. I just have to send off for crochet cotton, a tiny crochet hook and some little beads and I can begin! I need a new activity I reckon. Probably stress relieving...
Oh yes, I was going to knit the Alan Dart Nativity as well. At night, maybe...

UPDATE: I haven't even had time to take photos of all this stuff, but I did manage to do some Christmas shopping over the weekend, so I'm feeling a bit better. I'll try and take some photos later in the week.

Babette Interrupted

2008-11-09T15:02:00.000Z

Here are some updated photos of my Babette Blanket. I have done eight out of ten sections now. There are still eight nasty little two-round squares to do, in fact, but they don't take long. I am dying to get started with the ninth section, which I am planning to do in some lovely autumn leaves colours.

In the meantime I also started these Mittens Interrupted, by Eunny Jang, from Interweave Knits Fall 2008. I bought the Manos del Uruguay Wool Classica specially, at Alexandra Palace. It is gorgeous to knit with, lovely and soft. I've finished one mitten and am half way through the second. I plan to make a matching scarf with the remaining wool, plus a little bit of something left over from another project.

Like Ghosts From an Enchanter Fleeing

2008-11-01T22:16:00.000Z

Well, I don't know about you, but here the weather has been cold and wild alternately for a week or so now. On Friday we got out a kind of vacuum cleaner for leaves, and had fun blowing them off the lawn into a pile and then hoovering them up. As they danced along in front of the blower they reminded me of the description of autumn in Shelley's poem, Ode To The West Wind.

The lawn looked nice and tidy until this morning, when there was a fresh set of leaves blown down overnight. At least they are all gorgeous colours. Driving to work at the moment is through a wonderland of autumn foliage, and it has made me decide that my next set of Babette squares will be in the colours of sutumn leaves. I've still got nine little squares to do in Waves colours (for July) first, though.

As you can see from the photo above, we have been successful in obtaining windfall apples from a variety of sources, from colleagues at work with an apple tree to free windfall apples at the side of the road, and we have 12 gallons of cider currently fermenting. We should be bottling the first three gallons tomorrow!

I knitted some Alan Dart Christmas decorations last week, for a swap, but forgot to take any photos of them, doh! and I haven't finished anything else yet. However, I have made some more progress with my refurbished duvet cover. I decided to do the overdying in a hot pink colour, so a couple of weekends ago I got out some string and the blue pieces I dyed last time, and got to work tying them up.

After going in the wash with the pink dye they looked like this!

And when the string was cut off them the pattern was revealed:

Here is the duvet cover drying on the line. Now I just have to make some new pillowcases with the dyed fabric and the African Fabric I got at Ally Pally.

New From Old

2008-10-11T19:40:00.000+01:00

Since I moved, I have been sorting through some old bedlinen which I no longer use. I have three sets which I think could be recycled and made really nice. Last weekend I started on the first set. This is made from pure cotton in a pale green and white stripe and spot pattern. It is quite worn and has faded in the time since I bought it.

I originally bought this set in France when I was living there about ten years ago. As a result it has one or two unusual features. Instead of a fastening at the end where you put the duvet in, it has a sort of extended flap of fabric which is designed to tuck under the mattress to hold the cover closed.

The other thing which is unusual is that the pillow cases are square, which is standard for European pillows.

This was OK while I had pillows of the right size, which I did for a long time, but once they had worn out and been replaced, it was not easy to use the pillowcases.

The first stage of the transformation was to cut off the flap and add a poppa tape to the end of the duvet.

Then I deconstructed all the pillow cases and dyed the whole lot a light, bright blue.

I am going to tie-dye the whole lot again with a hot pink overdye, and then the pillow cases will have to be re-made in the right shape with some additional fabric. I bought a lovely langa lapu fabric at Ally Pally in a toning shade which you can see here.

I think the first stage has been quite successful, now for step two!

Hey! I Finished Something!

2008-09-30T22:08:00.000+01:00

While I was on holiday in Scotland this summer, just before I moved, I decided to work on my Babette Blanket, as it was easy to crochet while relaxing or talking to people. The theme for June was Wimbledon, and as we were away at the beginning of July it was close enough! I finally got around to laying it all out this weekend, and here is the blanket so far:

I'm not sure quite where the Wimbledon bit fits in, but I like the colours anyway.

And a close-up of the latest block:

I've started crocheting the next block now, and although there is a theme for September I think I've lost the plot completely and I'm just using any colours I feel like using. Oh, well...
The other idea I had during the summer was that as I was so busy, what with moving and being on holiday and so on, I would knit small things. I decided to finish my Snowflake socks that I started in January:

These are made from Cygnet wool rich 4-ply with the pattern done in Opal Lollipop. I liked the colour combination so much that I decided to do a pair the other way around:

I have got one or two balls of sock yarn, so I am quite keen to carry on and knit more socks this autumn and winter. First, however, I have some gloves to knit - and I am going to do intarsia on the backs of them in the round, for which I got the technique I plan to use from Interweave Knits 2003. More of that presently...

Summer Catch-Up - the Graduate

2008-09-13T20:04:00.000+01:00

What with all the moving, there are lots of things which I did over the summer, including some knitting and crochet, which I have not had time to write about. Here is the first of a few catch-up posts to bring the blog up to date.
On July 14th I set out early from Ratbert's house, where I had been staying, to drive to DSoK's University and attend his graduation ceremony. I arrived in plenty of time and was able to have a cup of coffee and a muffin while I was waiting for DSoK to get his robes. His girlfriend was graduating at the same University on the same day - but in the afternoon, rather than the morning, so she joined us until it was time to go in to the ceremony and then went off to get her own robes.

Here's another photo of DSoK all poshed up

and with his proud Mum (note I am wearing the floral crochet shrug)

and his lovely girlfriend Ruby

The ceremony was in a huuuuge theatre, and there was a choir and a quartet playing. After a while the officers of the University filed in, and my were they colourful!

Afterwards DSoK had a nice certificate. I did try to get a photo of him receiving it, but it was a long way off and he was moving fast, so it came out too blurred to show. Here he is with it afterwards though:

Fans of Mr Knitbert may like to see this cameo appearance

DSoK borrowed the camera after lunch, as I wanted to get home after my early start, and took this nice photo of him and Ruby both in their robes after she had graduated too. All in all a lovely day!

Home Sweet Home

2008-09-02T12:30:00.000+01:00

Well hello there! It's good to be back. Where was I? Oh yes, I was packing. Well, I packed and packed and packed for three days. I was up at 8.00 am and I went to bed at 10 pm and in between I packed and I might have had the occasional meal or cup of coffee. I can't remember now, it's all a bit of a blur.
Anyway on the Wednesday afternoon everything give or take a couple of pictures was packed in a box or bag, the kitchen was sparkling clean, everything else was not, and I set out for my holiday in Scotland. I had a really nice time, did some walking and some chilling and ate some lovely home cooked food, and so on. On the Friday, which was the 10th day after we arrived, we set off for home at 2pm and we reached the flat at midnight. We had been driving for 7 hours (shared between two), so we stumbled into bed and fell into an exhausted sleep. At 6 am the alarm went off and we crawled out of bed, showered and got dressed again. There was no coffee, kettle, plates or cups, so we went to MacDonalds for breakfast, much to the delight of young Cartman(15) who was staying with us to help with the move.
At 8.00 am we picked up a giant Luton van, which one of us drove back to the flat to begin loading while I drove to Surrey to pick up the keys of the new house. At 9.30 am I texted Van Man to say that phase 2.1.2 was complete and drove all the way BACK to West Sussex to help with the loading.

At 12.00 the van was full and set off, followed by me and the Graduate (who also came along to help) in our respective cars, stuffed full of things which wouldn't fit in the van, and it began to rain.

By 2.00 pm we had had lunch and the contents of the van was unloaded into the house, and we set off to the next flat and began all over again except that now it was p***ing down with rain. This time we were nearly all loaded by about 5 pm and decided to stop and do the rest with cars the next day. The rain had been getting steadily heavier all afternoon and it was now also getting quite dark. We drove slowly in convoy back to the house (except I got lost), where we began unloading again. The Graduate disappeared to fetch his girlfriend from the station. When she arrived she was wearing a lovely wedding outfit, but after one look at things, disappeared into my nice new bedroom to change and then pitched in with a will.

Finally at 7 pm it was all in the house, all still in boxes and everyone went to the Indian (except me) to get a massive takeaway and beer. I stayed behind to try and find a table and some plates and forks. I put the table legs on backwards at first and it stood up like a wobbly foal when I turned it over. Half an hour under the table with a screwdriver put that right, and by the time the takeaway arrived I had it all looking quite cosy. Well, very cosy actually, as there were 5 people round a 3ft square table!

After all that I needed to go back to work to recover from my holiday and to get internet access.

We have been in the house over two weeks now and I only have three boxes left to unpack. I have broadband again. And it is a really lovely house!
I am so getting a removal firm next time though...

Purl's On The Move

2008-07-28T16:27:00.000+01:00

A very quick post today because, Dear Reader, I am PACKING. I have been packing since lunchtime and so far I have a mountain of boxes and one tiny room is nearly empty. I have until Wednesday afternoon to pack for the move and then I am on holiday for 10 days and the day after I get back from the holiday I am moving.
I can't imagine how I will get everything into the pitifully inadequate number of boxes I have, or how I can do it in the time available.
Thanks for listening. I'm off to do some more now.

Oh, and last week The Intern became a Graduate Consultant. I have finally got the camera back from him, and here is a taster - I promise I'll sit down and write about it properly in a few days.

Jam Tomorrow...

2008-07-13T08:13:00.001+01:00

...jam today, jam for years and years I should think. We went back to the PYO farm last weekend to get raspberries, and I made them into jam that very day. The next day I defrosted the strawberries and made strawberry jam (and remembered to take some pictures). I decided to get sugar with pectin in, to be sure of a set, as I had read that strawberry jam is sometimes difficult in that respect. I strolled over to Sainsbury's and when I reached the sugar aisle I couldn't get to the jam sugar as someone else was anxiously loking at it. They noticed me hovering and moved aside, and when they saw me putting 3 bags of jam sugar in my basket they asked me if I knew how to make strawberry jam. I most certainly do! I said proudly. I hope my advice worked, otherwise I guess they might be waiting for me at Sainsbury's next week with their ruined jam to pour over me.
So, here's the jam being poured

A row of lovely clean jars being filled.

I ended up with 9lbs of strawberry jam and 7 1/2 lbs of raspberry, (with apologies to anyone who lives in the 21st century. I can do kilograms and all that, I've just never done jam that way). And in case anyone thinks I'm going to be guzzling it all myself, I have started giving it away, but I do keep some for me and very nice it is too.

NEXT TIME on Purls in the Pool: Queen of the Waves update and I also hope there will be some exciting news!

In Which I Finish a Crochet Project

2008-07-07T21:58:00.000+01:00

After six weeks of intensive crocheting, here at last is the Tess Dawson Floral Summer Shrug. It is really a very simple shape, basically I crocheted a rectangle and then joined up the two ends into a tube with more crochet, leaving the centre open to be the body.

I really like it, and it is light and comfortable to wear, too. I could get into this crochet lark. Oh well, now for a knitting project. I'm going to cast on for the Queen of the Waves Shawl by Ilga Leja, using this absolutely gorgeous merino tencel custom dyed for me by the lovely Natalie at the Yarn Yard. *Drool*

Excuse me, I have to go and wind it into balls RIGHT NOW.

Strawberry Fields

2008-06-23T21:31:00.000+01:00

I did a couple of useful things at the weekend. One was to pick strawberries on the way home from visiting my friend Ratbert. It was such a lovely afternoon that we stopped at the local Pick Your Own to see if they had raspberries. Apparently raspberries would not be ready until next week, but they did have strawberries. The reason I wanted to pick the fruit was to make jam, and it happens that I have never made strawberry jam, so I decided to pick strawberries anyway, and go back to get raspberies next week.
We hulled and halved the strawberries, and put them in the freezer on trays of foil to keep until a more convenient jam making opportunity should present itself.

I moved home late last year, and one of the things I left behind at that time was a dresser. It is made from a single ash tree, and was made for me when I bought my first flat. This weekend I arranged to collect it, and with some assistance carried it up two flights of stairs to its new home. On Sunday afternoon I spent a happy few hours organising things in it. I think it looks great, and I'm really happy to have it with me again.

I promised pictures of my felt swatches, and here they are. This one is in Rowan Scottish Tweed DK, and the red and brown background is knitted in stocking stitch;the spiral is embroidered in chain stitch before felting, and the bobbles are made by marbles tied into the knitting while it felted.

The second swatch is in Rowan Scottish Tweed 4-ply, and it has beads in it which were knitted in and then felted; pleats which were tied in before felting, and waste silk which was hooked through the yarn before felting.

I really liked the 4 ply texture and colour after felting, and I had admired a beautiful scarf made in stripes of black 4-ply and Kidsilk Haze, with beads felted into the 4-ply stripes. I thought that a charcoal grey would look lovely knitted into this scarf, so I also bought three balls of 4-ply Scottish Tweed and two of Kidsilk Haze.

At the moment I'm still crocheting away on my floral shrug, and when I've finished that I need to do more squares for my Babette blanket, and I also plan to knit Queen of the Waves, but maybe after that...

Felting!

2008-06-16T14:02:00.000+01:00

On Saturday morning I got up at 4.30 am (yes dear Reader, that's right, before it was even fully light, even in June) and drove from West Sussex to Nottingham to take part in a felting workshop with my friend Sally.

You will no doubt be surprised to learn that I had travelled the furthest to attend this workshop.

It was really great though, and the tutor was Alison Crowther-Smith, the author of the Rowan book Shibori Knitted Felt. She had with her samples of nearly all the lovely things in her book, and boy, are some of them lovely. It really does make a difference to see things in real life as opposed to a photo.

She was an excellent teacher, who was both passionate and knowledgeable about her subject, and under her tuition Sally and I (and the others in the class) made two knitted swatches with embroidery, marble resists, pleats and waste silk inserts. Sally and I rushed home to her house (which is nearer than mine to Nottingham) and felted them immediately in her washing machine. I'll post a picture of mine later, they came out looking lovely and I'm really excited about felting now.

I used to think that it would be a shame to spoil my knitting by felting it and now I think that it can make a lovely soft, strong drapey fabric and I want to do some more RIGHT NOW!

Summer Flowers

2008-06-09T20:27:00.000+01:00

For the last week or so I have been crocheting the Tess Dawson Summer Floral Shrug. I bought the pattern last year and just decided to start it when I discovered some Artesano Alpaca in the yarn cupboard as I was clearing out. I've got to confess that *ahem* I quite like crochet at the moment. I am enjoying developing new skills, and it is quite a sense of achievement when I manage to follow a crochet pattern.
This one is in Artesano Alpaca in Damson or is it Plum? Anyway, it's a lovely deep purple colour which is in fact quite difficult to see in lamplight - that caused some distress at the start - but which looks very nice in daylight.
The design is quite simple, really, it is a rectangle of flower trellis fabric which gets rolled up at each end to make the sleeves. I had a bit of trouble working out how to do the flowers at first and had to make a test strip in a paler colour so I could see what I was doing, but I've got the hang of it now, and it's quite soothing watching rows of little flowers appear.
When I have finished this I want to knit the Ilga Leija Queen of the Waves shawl. That pattern is soooo gorgeous!

On the elderflower front, here is the wine all demjohnned up and starting to ferment. We used white wine yeast and it was amazing, about five minutes after putting it in the demijohn it began fizzing and then glooping and now there are about 30 gloops a minute from each one.

We made two batches, one with raisins and lemon and one with only lemon, and this weekend we picked more elderflowers and will make two more batches tomorrow, one with lemon again and one with lemon and ginger. We've noted all the different combinations so we can reproduce the ones we like best.

Elderflower Wine

2008-06-01T18:58:00.000+01:00

According to all our recipe books, it is essential to pick elderflowers in full sun so that the flowers are fully open. It was also essential to pick them this weekend, as the next few weekends are booked up, so on Saturday afternoon off we set with a big supermarket shopping bag (re-useable I hasten to add) to find elder trees.

After a few miles of elder desert, the first tree we found was at the side of a busy road. We stopped the car, put on the hazard lights and picked frantically, with one eye on the traffic. One or two people seemed a litle impatient with us for some reason.
After that, things improved and we managed to find quite a few trees, but in safer locations and on foot, although many of them seemed to be the other side of a ditch behind ranks of nettles. "How many elderflowers do you think we need?" I asked. The recipe said 3 pints of elderflowers for one gallon of wine, so we decided that we would fill the bag and then see how many we had got.

After two hours of pleasant wandering down country roads and lanes, the bag was full and we made our way home. Now we had to process them by removing all the stalks.
Here are the hardworking stalk removers.

The bag seemed bottomless, and it took three people an hour to remove all the stalks. Here's the preserving pan full of flowers(6 pints).

I added boiling water to each container and left the flowers to steep for two days. I do love the smell of elderflowers, which is lucky as it permeates the entire house at the moment.

The next stage is to put the liquid into demijohns, add sugar and set it to fermenting. We think we have enough for four gallons (hic), and the wine is only about 12 months away, hooray!

As Kino was here for the weekend, I was able to give her back her skirt which I had fixed. This skirt was bought a few years ago and worn once at a summer garden party. Kino spilled some water (or more probably wine) over where she was sitting and had the happy thought of placing some black sugar paper over it to sit on in order to protect the skirt. Hmmm, well apparently the dye in sugar paper is not fast. Not until it's bonded with fabric, anyway.
After some fruitless attempts to turn the hideous black stain into a feature by painting it with silk paints, she sent the skirt to me to see if I could remove the stain. I tried a number of treatments but was unable to do anything but reduce it a bit. I concluded I would have to remove the section of skirt with the stain and replace it, at which point it went into the Too Difficult pile and has remained there ever since.

Until....I visited the Dylon stand at this year's Ideal Homes Exhibition. For reasons I won't go into I was looking for technology to remove dye, and found the Pre Dye treatment. This apparently removes all dye from almost everything. Light bulb! I could remove all the lovely hot pink dye AND the stain from the skirt and then re-dye it hot pink. I asked Kino for permission to try this radical treatment and she agreed.
Here's the skirt after all the dye had been removed.

A sort of dirty beige remained -and a small green mark where the black stain had been. Then I re-dyed it using a lovely flamingo pink. It came out perfectly, and here it is being worn by Kino, who was very pleased to have it back again after three years. It looks really great!

Oh, and the small green mark? That was the silk paint!