28 June: Something entirely different

A clip of Michael Jackson's act shows him doing a sort of jerky backwards walk (this may be the "moondance" thing?) - but Wilson, Keppel and Betty did exactly the same moves many years ago, and were much funnier.

Oh, and this tickled me as well: To err is human, to arr is pirate.

Edit : To arr could also be yokel.

26 June: Woolfest

Exhausted after a trip to Woolfest today; that's me and my cash reserves.

But I have the fibre I need to spin up and finish DH's jersey, which has been on hold for a few weeks: some superwash BFL for a possible project: 3 hanks of Yarn Yard sock yarn: some Landscape dye samples: a couple of crochet hooks: a bag of pot-luck mixed buttons: a copy of Annemor Sundbo's book Invisible Threads in Knitting: and a Kromski rigid heddle loom.

How long have I been resisting weaving? Must. Not. Start. Weaving. As. Well. And there's enough knitting projects lined up to keep me busy for several more years.

Oh well, perhaps I can give up sleep.

Which reminds me - there will be karmic consequences for the driver of the van that pulled out in front of us as we were coming home, forcing DH to brake hard and swerve. It woke me out of a nice little nap.

23 June: Wailing and gnashing of teeth

Remember the knitting I took on holiday?

The pattern is in a book I bought recently - full of interesting designs. The first pattern I tried turned out to be so full of errors that I had to unravel the whole thing.

The zigzag top had already been made by lots of people on Ravelry (if you want to know, google), and there was no mention anywhere that I could find of mistakes in this pattern.

Oh yes there is! A simple arithmetic mistake in the decreasing instructions. Now I have lost all confidence in the whole pattern, but as I now understand the shaping (and my yarn/gauge were different anyway), I shall finish the garment to my own working.

I have usually regarded books of knitting patterns as starting points for my own designs; I liked this particular designer's work enough to use her pattern. Not again, though - back to looking at pictures of items I like, then sorting out my own version.

And the publishers of knitting books have lost a customer.

20 June: Back home

Home again after a lovely week. There was a lot of this -


- walking along well-trodden tracks (and some less-travelled), with views like this -


- over the Manifold and Hamps valleys. Note the steepness of the hills!
Of course we visited here -


- Dovedale; even early in the day, mid-week, it was busy.

We made use of our NT membership (acutely aware of the recently read description of NT visitors looking as if they dress from Radio Times adverts or from the Harold Shipman collection).

Sudbury Hall was particularly interesting, with its Museum of Childhood as well as a fascinating house -


-and the gardens at Biddulph Grange were amazing, and a complete surprise, as neither of us knew about this wonderful place. This was taken in the Stumpery -

Great week! And we've already tackled the laundry mountain and the knee-high lawn. Now back to normal loafing.

11 June: Poised

The cat's at his holiday home, the car's fuelled, the luggage has been pulled out of the top of the wardrobe, it's raining - yes, it's holiday time!

I'm wondering whether to add the fleece-lined wellies to the growing stack of all-weather clothing (shorts and waterproofs, flip-flops and thick wool jerseys).

Maps and guide books are piled up with the details of the cottage we've booked; provisions have been assembled; camera batteries charged and binoculars dusted off.

Much thought has been given to the knitting project to take - and it's been cast on, so that the pattern could be checked out (remembering the time I took a pattern for socks that developed into dainty little items that would never fit my size 9 feet, and I was stuck for a week with no knitting). Wonderful yarn - merino/silk, handspun from some Wingham fibre, and another attempt at a Marianne Isager zigzag design -

And the light holiday reading is chosen - as well as the books of sudoku and of crosswords, DH has Gogol's Dead Souls and Beowulf (in translation), and I'm taking a 500-page tome called The Scourging Angel - the Black Death in the British Isles.

We know how to enjoy ourselves.

3 June: The garden

Many of the garden plants are doing well after the recent sunshine. This year we have some potatoes in bags on the paving -


and some runner beans that have not been wiped out by slugs and/or snails! This time the beans were planted in pots in the conservatory, and were only put out in the garden when they had 2 pairs of leaves.


The spring flowers have gone over, and the summer ones are showing up, like these dianthus -

and the Buff Beauty rose -


Not all in the garden is lovely though - those roses give me a rash; and the little oak tree has a problem too. In one area some of the leaves have these galls (?). This is the top of one leaf -


and this is the under-side -


Other examples are paler or darker. What, if anything, will emerge from these growths?