Making a note

After a summer without much sock knitting (too hot for socks!) I've finally got round to finishing some of the things I started before the temperature rose. I put an end to the monkeying around (I'm here all week, folks!) with these:

                                    (sorry about the blue-ish light, the sunlight isn't reaching my room today!)

and I managed to finish a pair of Green River socks which I started a while back. A bit of a complicated pattern for my little knitting brain to get its neurons round, but I seemed to get on okay. Until this happened.

I was sure I'd remember how many pattern repeats I'd done on the first sock. So confident, in fact, that I failed to keep a note. Well! Keeping a note is boringly efficient! I always lose the paper the note is written on, and then when I inevitably leave the near-finished pair of socks in a dusty corner for six months, they don't know how many repeats they have either.

So I have a pair of great socks for walking the dog. Hidden in wellies they'll be okay. Moral of this story: a rolling stone gathers nine stitches in a watched pot boiling. I think. I have it written on a piece of paper somewhere, hang on!

Blogging heck!

...it's been a while! I am still here though, honest! I've just been a bit quiet lately. Especially on the blogging side of things! You know how it is. Life gets in the way. As in, suddenly, Ken Loach gets hold of your scripts, re-writes them and decides that's your life for the next few months. And then, as if nothing had happened, hands the scripts back to the writers of Corrie, and it's all back to normal again. (at least, I'm hoping there won't be a fatal tram crash in Clutton). Agh! Anyway, I am back for now at least. She's back too:

And pretty much fully grown! Still officially a small (yappy type) dog though. A mere 5.5kilos of fluff and woof. She's 11 months old now - what's that in dog years? nearly 7?!

Well, since I've been quiet, I've still been doing stuff. I started a quilt.

This started life as an attempt to tidy up. Ages ago, thinking I might become a tidy person, I moved an old glass cabinet into my room and put fabric in it. "great" I thought, "now I can have my fabric permanently on display, and simply select the precise fat quarter as and when I need it!". About a week after that, the cupboard looked like it had vomited onto the floor. Oh yes, pretty Kaffe-Fassett coloured vom, but still looked like a pretty bad case of regurgitation. I don't have a picture to hand of that. Anyway. Rather than tidy the whole lot up, I grabbed a pizza-wheel cutter thingie and got cutting strips. And then sewed them into blocks, which are now sat on my floor. I think I'll leave them there for a few months until the dog makes her bed in them. Then I might think about re-ironing and sewing them together to make an actual quilt. Sound familiar, this process? hmmm.

Also, I've been getting out a lot. As usual.

Just bits and pieces from walking every day with Trixie. We've been exploring a lot around here lately, the weather has been fantastic for going further afield and getting to know new places.

We also went here. No, not Provence, but Somerset Lavender in Faulkland.

We went back in July, just before they 'harvest' the lavender, and it was beautiful! I did some embroidery of lavender fields when I got home as I was so inspired. I'll show you that later...if I can find it beneath the piles of STUFF round here.

I've been digging around in bottle dumps too, for bits of broken crockery. I found a great stash which I struggled to carry home in one bag...

No idea what I'll make from it all, but I'll find a use for most of it. Treasure! I particularly love this cup I found half-buried:

It's badly cracked inside so can't drink tea out of it - I think the crinoline lady is going to become part of a rather bonkers mosaic at some point. I just love finding pottery treasure buried in the soil! I know I'm not alone in my strange hobby either as people like Candace Bahouth go round doing similar things. Heck, it's free pretty stuff, I can't not come home with it! I have a couple of flat mirrors I bought from boot sales so when I get chance I shall be showing you my new mosaic efforts.

Thanks for your comments on the last post! Yes, the cardi is a Liesl - it's made from re-gurgitated Noro. I mean, Noro that was once another cardigan. I hated the cardigan too, so I spent a couple of days unravelling it (unravelling Noro "now! with added bits!" in it is not easy) and a few weeks knitting it into a Liesl, which I like but I'm still not sure it actually goes with any other clothes I own! I'm sure Trixie will find a use for it. The poshest dog blanket in the world, perhaps. So she can do this.

Ok, enough waffle and gratuitous dog pics, I'll post up some more STUFF soon!