Rainbows

So I’ve been doing lots of knitting in July. In my last stash update I reported the purchase of three balls of West Yorkshire Spinners Aire Valley DK yarn in the rum paradise colourway.

This was intended to be knitted up into two Conscious jumpers for LO and her cousin, who is three months older. Three balls should be just about enough for two jumpers in 2-3 year size.

Here we are in progress. The first jumper I was really careful about matching stripes on the sleeves. The yarn is nice to knit with and the stripes are a really sensible size – would look lovely as a pair of socks!
Ta da, here is the finished jumper for my niece.

I weighed the yarn leftover and realised that I had used more than 1.5 balls of the Aire Valley DK already, so decided to use some turquoise oddments someone had given me to finish the sleeves on the second jumper. This is LO’s favourite colour so I thought she’d like it like that. I used up every scrap of the Aire Valley, hence the non-matching sleeves on this one.

 Then, disaster. LO and I went to visit her cousins, and I discovered that the smallest one can’t wear wool, so LO now has two rainbow jumpers!

And I now have four balls of Louisa Harding Noema yarn (a cotton/acrylic mix) to make a non-wool Conscious. It’s a good thing I enjoy knitting this pattern…

Anyone had a similar change of plan with their knitting?! 

Days out: RHS Wisley

LO and I visited Wisley (one of the Royal Horticultural Society gardens) recently with a friend. It wasn’t our first visit, but it was our first with a toddler!

It’s a brilliant place to take a toddler. There is a huge amount of space for galloping around.

There is a playground for slightly older children, plus an indoor soft play for pre-schoolers at the Glasshouse Cafe. We didn’t actually use either of those though as there were so many things to see.

There are steep paths to climb and rough ground to scramble over. Whilst there are steps there are clearly marked accessible paths which are totally fine for a none-off-road pushchair. 

The rose garden was so heavy with scent it almost felt visible! We had fun smelling different flowers. 

In the soft fruit fields there was a strawberry tasting event taking place. LO loved tasting different varieties of strawberry, including a white one, although she seemed equally keen on all of them! 

There are good children’s facilities, including several baby changes, all clearly signposted. The Glasshouse Cafe has children’s lunch boxes which LO loved. 

Stash update

It’s been a while since I updated my stash/yarn diet tally on here. I keep a spreadsheet to track it as I go.

My stash totals for February, March and April were quite respectable. Well, I didn’t buy any yarn, and in February knitted up 300 metres and in March 182.9 metres, giving a total used up by then of 759.4 metres! April and May I didn’t finish any projects, so haven’t got any used up totals from then.

May and June it all went a bit off the rails though. I bought three balls of West Yorkshire Spinners Aire Valley DK cocktail collection in colourway Rum Paradise to make jumpers for LO and her cousin.

Then I discovered that our local yarn shop/haberdashery was closing down, so decided to go along and see if I could get enough yarn for the sample jumper I’d admired in there, as everything was 20%off.

That resulted in seven balls of Stylecraft Alpaca Tweed Chunky coming home with me to make the jumper I’d been eyeing up. Plus a couple of balls of Head over Heels sock yarn to make a shawl with (a simple shawl, that should be compatible with TV knitting).

Of course, this didn’t do much for my stash totals. But then a knitting group friend posted a link to City Knits who were offering a special edition of WYS Signature 4ply to raise money for Marie Curie. And they had suggested coordinating solids to go with it… One of my friends is having cancer treatment at the moment so…

 

Yes, I bought three balls, in the Marie Curie colourway, plus blueberry bonbon and butterscotch. I’m intending these to be knitted up into cardigans for LO and her cousin for Christmas.

That means that my stash in total suddenly became 2941 metres for June (OOPS), although someone then got in touch on Ravelry wanting to buy some yarn I had in my stash from a John Lewis sale, so that meant 1800 metres headed out again, which has balanced it up a little bit. I’m still hoping to have used up more by the end of the year than has come in.

Still, I do have plans for all of it, and am excited at the prospect of these projects, so that’s the main thing. Not like my early days of knitting when I bought more random stuff just because I liked it…

 

Garden at the beginning of July 2017

Slight delay getting this first picture as there always seemed to be washing out on the line to get in the way! 

The lawn is yellowing a little with the hot weather we’ve been having – mostly over 30 degrees for several of the last few weeks. Luckily a storm meant the water butt got refilled so we’ve almost entirely managed to keep the garden watered from that.

The containers I planted up at the end of May have really come into their own now. I chose some cheap mixed packs of Impatiens.

The sempervivums are flowering. I love their flowers- they look like alien species! They are loving the hot weather.

Lots of things flowering at the moment. The bees can barely keep up 😉 

I accidentally got these matching pinks without even thinking about the shade when I bought the second plant!

Love this apricot coloured rose. No idea what sort it is as it was already in the garden when we bought the house.

Allium seed head on the lawn. Another candidate for alien invasion?! 

More pink from the spiraea. This was here when we moved in too but I’ve rejuvenated it with some Serious Pruning and it now flowers a lot more. Insects love landing on those large clumps of flowers.

Think that’s all for now. 

Garden at the beginning of June 2017

The garden is beginning to look summery as all the bulb foliage has died down.

Looking across the patio to the lawn  with the herbs in the foreground 

Both of the apple trees have plenty of fruit forming despite some low temperatures when the blossom was  there.

Escallonia ‘Apple blossom’ bought on a holiday a few years ago and covered in flowers despite a lot of pruning earlier this year!

We spent the bank holiday Monday last week at the garden centre buying container plants, which I then planted up that afternoon. LO was meant to be helping but had an epic three hour nap instead!

Some of the containers in situ. Just have to remember to keep them watered but luckily LO is a keen plant waterer so it shouldn’t be a problem.

Salvia flowers- a present for LO’s Christening last year.

This rose is always covered in flowers each week too. I like the contrast between the flowers and the purple Physocarpus behind.

The blackcurrant and gooseberry bushes are covered in fruit and the rhubarb is getting huge.

Garden at the beginning of May 2017

Bit late for the beginning of May! I took the pictures then didn’t get round to blogging. Until this last week the weather had been unseasonably dry, the water butt was heading for empty and the grass had stopped growing… 

Here we have the back garden with LO very busy getting on with some gardening.



The Aubrieta is almost over but was very pretty whilst it lasted.

The newly planted Lavender just beginning to flower. It loved the dry weather!

This border is done in purple and yellow- Physocarpus and Euonymus ‘Emerald and Gold’ plus Heuchera ‘Chocolate ruffles’. Oh and a mini wheelbarrow belonging to LO.

The Ceanothus is covered in flowers and that’s an allium beginning to open up just in front of it.

The Dicentra is just about over, but the Heuchera leaves are looking lovely in the sunshine.

Days out: The Savill Garden

Thought it might be fun to share some of the days out we’ve enjoyed with LO on here in case others are looking for inspiration. We’ve enjoyed a few days out to The Savill Garden, after we received a year’s membership as a Christmas present. The membership covers the cost of car parking and also admission to the garden, which means we get access to walks in Windsor Great Park too, where there is a playground and acres and acres of space to roam in.

In the garden itself there is plenty to see. LO likes standing on the bridges over the little streams (there is a small lake as well), looking at the huge fish and the ducks and geese.

We concentrated on the Spring Wood this time, for obvious reasons! The Magnolias were just coming into flower. LO liked running around on the grass underneath.

Plenty of space to gallop in whilst the adults admire the gardens

The spring colours were amazing

Plenty of paths to explore if you’re an Intrepid Explorer

On a more practical note:

The Garden is accessible, so there are plenty of paths you can get a pushchair down, even a non-off-road one like mine. There is a good baby change in the main building, and it’s in the accessible toilet, rather than the ladies(!). There are plenty of high chairs available in the restaurant in the main building, and a nice range of children’s food on offer.