Thanks to . . . .

Yarn Harlot for finding the most delightful little baby hat.
My daughter for finding how to do it on Ravelry and the Riita Rautio  for setting it out.
My lovely Saturday Girl in the bookshop, for giving me a ball of scrumptious wool in exchange for some knitting needles for her sister. I knew there was a reason why I had kept it intact for so long - it was perfect for the job.

  Thanks to Monique for acting as a model.
 

I have been sewing as well - found some lovely cotton twill  locally and just knew what I needed to do with it.

Good things

There were a couple of Red Admiral butterflies on the sedum the other day. They were so busy sipping the nectar and disinclined to move that I wondered if they might be slightly drunk! This one is the neater of the two - the other one had some very tatty patches on its wings. There were a couple of Small tortoiseshells around as well, but they were not willing to sit for portraits.

  
We have a lot of self seeded Cornflowers, and this particular plant has turned up with very pretty variegated flowers. I have taken some seed heads and will make a note of where they get sown next year - I have no idea if they will produce the same effect in the flowers, but it is surely worth a try.


Walking past a charity shop in one of the little side alleys in Boston, my eye was caught by a basket of yarn in the window. Not something I would have wanted, but I went into the shop and found plenty that I did! It would appear that there had been a yarn shop in Skegness, which had closed. This was a way of disposing of the last odds and ends. Some good guernsey wool. some lovely mercerised cotton (DK) and lots of Sunbeam St. Ives - this last one in 25g balls which makes it seriously vintage. Happy Bunny!

Now she can have a cold.

One of the things I keep my eyes open for at Car Boot Sales is handkerchieves. It is surprising how often the gift-boxed ones lurk, all grubby and unloved. This haul for a pound last Sunday - and the reason I fell on them is because the grandaughter's initial is E. Not that she is fully up to speed on the technique yet, but she may as well have something nice to practice blowing into. 

They were pretty old, and I had to use my jewellery pliers to get the rusty pins out - some of them still have little rust spots after washing, but there is nothing wrong with that. What is so very very wrong is the set of three underneath the nicely ironed ones. They had a little label saying "100% Nylon". Imagine blowing a nose into one of those - no absorbency at all - the snot could go anywhere - it hardly bears thinking about.  Still, I will hand them over - they will be perfectly alright for wrapping around dolls. Interestingly, there was no rust whatsoever on the pins in that box, and the pins were as bright as new.

One off the needles, one on.

One little nearly-guernsey for a little girl finished. And I still can't take a decent photo of it. It will have to wait until I can put it on her and try and make her stand still(ish) outdoors.

I have cut my steeks! It was nowhere near as frightening as I had thought. I machined a zigzag down either side of the centre stitches and cut between. Now that garment is put aside, since it is still way too warm to work on it, especially since it gets larger every time I do.

Yarn Harlot has a lot to answer for  - I am knitting the Kauni cardi because I remember her doing one - and that was a long time ago. It is quite a while since I first saw and handled Kauni yarn - in California, so that was 2008. Now she is responsible for the one I simply HAVE to do right now - Catkin. It is absolutely delightful. Best of all, the yarn is from my stash.
 

I went out today to take a couple of snaps of our Japanese Anemones . One of my favourites from way back, and they flourish in the shadiest corner of the back garden

I had to take a picture of this as well - pass me a Runcible Spoon.

 

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