22 October: Wednesday Walk 1

An overcast day. The clouds were clinging to the Pennines, and the wind was coming from the South West. (It normally comes from the West, but this year has not been normal - the wind has blown from the East for days at a time, and from the North too.)

Chilly in the wind, where we were glad of our woolly hats, but warmer in the shelter of the trees further on.

This field was harvested only last week. The wheat didn't look too good to the non-farming eye, but the grain-dryers are going full blast in the local farmyards, so the crop must be worth at least the cost of the diesel for the machines.

After the agricultural section of the walk is the "industrial heritage" part.

Dr. Beeching and his pruning of the railway network have been topical recently; as there were hundreds of mines in County Durham, there were hundreds of railways and little wagon ways to move the coal on its journey to the fires and furnaces of homes and industry. As a result, we are now blessed with lots of "dismtd rly" on our local maps. Even when the tracks are no longer marked as old railway lines, the cuttings and embankments tell their tale.

There is a chance of fruit on this walk, as there are sloe and hazel trees along the lane, and brambles galore in the hedges. At one particularly good spot by the old railway track, within 10 yards you can pick as many blackberries as you can carry home. In a good year - which this wasn't.

A variety of trees are maturing on each side of the track. The ash tree has already shed nearly all its leaves -


while the oak is only just beginning to change colour. Next year's buds are ready and waiting -

And then we come to the birches - beautiful at any time of the year -

That walk is a regular favourite. Where will next week's walk go?

20 October: Low boredom threshold

It must be the time of year; getting restless, and wanting to find a new project.

There's plenty of knitting to explore, and that's ongoing, and there's Ravelry to amuse, and now Flickr as well, but I'm thinking about starting on something else.

12 October: Stressful week, and another string bag

DH's cat had an operation on Tuesday, to remove a greatly enlarged thyroid gland. In the event, both thyroids were removed.

So I've spent a lot of time this week rounding him up, transporting him to the vets' different offices several times, cooking fish (ugh!) for him, and generally fussing him. More to come next week, when he has the stitches out.

And as soon as DH comes home, the cat totally ignores me, and attaches himself to his preferred human.

But there's been time for knitting. The little peacock coloured scarf is finished, and is drying after being spread out.

The green and black key pattern waistcoat is finally finished. It stretched a lot when wet, so it now fits -


I've cast on a Danish shawl, to use these yarns -


And this morning, finding my odds and ends pouch was a bit overcrowded, I crocheted a mini string bag -


which will be a home for the little tins of stitch markers, and such of my 3 row counter clickers as are not in use at any time.

It's about 4 inches high and the same across, made from some yarn I made from a 2-ply handspun bamboo yarn, cabled together with a cotton yarn I bought ages ago from Texere, at one of the stitching shows in Harrogate. Part of that hybrid yarn went into a face-cloth, which is used all the time, and now there's only a little left.

6 October: Insulation

Here's the small scarf-shawl I cast on a few days ago -

The yarn is about 18 w.p.i., spun from some BFL I dyed last November. I like the way the stripes blur as the rows get longer.

This is intended as a scarf more than a shawl, though I'm using a standard shawl shape. As the yarn is quite attention-grabbing by itself, I thought I'd use a fairly simple stitch pattern, so chose Garter Lace. But it's still fairly difficult to keep the right number of stitches on the needle - I keep forgetting the odd "yarn over". So not exactly TV knitting, as it needs a little concentration.

It promises to be a soft and cosy way to keep my neck warm now the chilly winds are coming in off the North Sea. This year we've had more east winds than in any of the past 6 years - is this the way climate change is working?

5 October: Shawl

The shawl was washed and spread out to dry, not stretched and pinned. That seemed cruel to nice soft wool.

Here it is on a hanger -


And on a very un-Twiggy-like model -


It's interesting, but I'm not likely to wear it. And it didn't reduce the yarn stash much, either, as it weighs just under 10 ounces.

I'm trying out a different shape, a triangle starting in the middle of the long side, to make a more scarf-like item, working in the Garter Lace stitch pattern from Martha Waterman's excellent "Traditional knitted lace shawls". I'm using some BFL that I dyed last November - pieces of fibre dyed in charcoal, violet, jade, hyacinth and turquoise, then the colours spun in sequence. For some reason it's not easy to keep the number of stitches right, and it certainly needs concentration. There might be a photo soon.

29 September: Shawl and socks

The knitting has progressed; the two major projects near completion. Here's a photo of the shawl, knitting finished, tidying up to do, then blocking -

Shawl blocking or dressing seems to be quite complicated, from my reading on Ravelry - involving wires, lots and lots of pins, and a large area to spread it out. My effort will certainly need to be stretched out, as it is too small at the moment. I used a pattern (shock! horror!) for this, as I wanted to understand the shape, and I am not experienced at lace knitting. I am now planning a smaller project to my own design.

The waistcoat has been considered, and a decision made about the edge treatment; a start has been made on the front band, with about 350 stitches on the needle (small beer when compared with the 890 or so rows in the shawl border).

Having done these 2 larger projects, both of which needed full attention all the time to avoid mistakes (and I didn't!), I wanted to have something no-brain on the needles. So, yet another pair of socks, this time very plain, for DH, so a matching pair, using some Trekking sock yarn I dyed recently -

The green touches looked a bit odd in the skein, but they make the dull brown a little more interesting in the fabric. And the pale grey should match his new beard nicely....

21 September: More autumn

Definite signs of autumn in Hamsterley Forest;
puffballs -

Fungi on dead wood -

and among the fallen leaves -

and on rocks by the track, lichen like Australian art -

or cup and ring markings -


Elsewhere, my green and black waistcoat progresses slowly. The right front is done, and here is a photo of the stitches ready to start the left front.

Then there's only the armhole bands and the front band to do. It would have been done more quickly if I hadn't decided to start a lace shawl as well.....

15 September: Some autumn colour

This morning was a bit misty, and a hint of a chill in the air.

The leaves are turning -

The apples are ripening -

While some flowers are not yet fully open -

and others look very much the same when the flowers are over -

some are definitely fading -

and gently decaying -


As much as spring, autumn is a time for starting.

13 September: Little blue jobs

Perhaps it's all the rain we've had lately that is creating so many home-maintenance issues.

No sooner were we home from holiday than our next-door neighbour came to tell us that our water overflow pipe had been dripping all week. The ball valve on the inlet from the rising main to the large cold water tank in the loft was not working properly to cut off the incoming water.

DH hesitated to try a DIY repair, lacking the right tools and the confidence to tackle a task that might so easily go horribly, dramatically, and expensively wrong. So we got a plumber to do it - 15 minutes including making out the invoice, and it's all OK again.

Then the little light in the cooker hood blew when I switched it on. The fuse must have blown, as the fan was also out of action. But for several days we couldn't find the d*mned fuse. Not in the fuse-box, not with the cooker fuse, not in the cupboards next to the cooker (though we did find the switch for the hob pilot lights).

Then it came to light, in a manner of speaking. Above the cupboards is a trim which conceals some extra lights, several large spiders, and a huge amount of dust. Over the cooker hood , behind the plastic pipe that takes the extracted air to the outside, is a fluorescent tube. Behind this, and not visible at all, only located by touch, is the socket and switch for the cooker hood, with a fused plug! Once DH found it (and I never noticed it when I painted that bit of wall recently), it only took a few moments to change the fuse. (Spare fuses live with the spare light bulbs in the Jolly Useful Box - every home should have one.)

And now the kitchen roller blind has begun to fall down, about every third time we try to raise the blind. It is of course necessary to climb into the sink to reach the kitchen window, and simultaneously locating both ends of the 6 foot blind in the plastic supports is not easy, especially when the first attempt usually results in the winding mechanism being upside down, requiring a second attempt; by then the arms are failing, and the knees and back are protesting at the crouched and twisted position in the sink/on the worktop/on the windowsill. And all this in the pyjamas - the neighbours in the kitchen opposite have probably videoed the performance for UTube.

The house is 6 years old. I'm certain I've lived for many more years in previous houses without the fixtures and fittings needing so many repairs and replacements. Is it a case of "Fings Ain't Wot They Used To Be", or just chance?

10 September: Beads

Yesterday was not suitable for continuing the garden tidy-up that was started when we got back from Suffolk. Heaps of prunings were shredded and returned to the borders; the sodden ground meant that weeds were easily extracted, but the dog turds were not so easily scraped up off the front lawn. The best argument for paving your front garden is the neighbours' dogs (sorry, Murph, but not everyone who has dogs is as responsible as they could be).

Anyway, I got out the bead boxes. A little while ago, I made some bead stitch-markers -


but found that I don't like using them, and have gone back to using scrap thread for marking.

I used to make lots of bead ear-rings, and I sometimes alter them when I find that they are too big/ too small/ the wrong colour. But there are still loads of beads in packets in the boxes, and recently I bought some fasteners in the bead shop in Durham (called LeBeado - ha, ha!), so I made some necklaces -


Great fun, and a change from knitting.

Must go now - in the middle of carding some recycled plastic bottle fibre.

6 September: Suffolk again

A nice relaxing week near the Suffolk coast. For people with a low boredom threshold, who have never previously been to the same place on holiday twice, our third trip to Suffolk looks like a developing obsession. We even stayed in the same converted barn as last autumn.

I took very few photos, and most of DH's are of dragonflies or butterflies.

And anyone who was expecting a post-card, we didn't get round to sending any. Sorry.

We had some wonderful walks, along the coast, across heathland like this -

and in woodland. In Rendlesham Forest, we discovered some carvings of woodland creatures, deer, rabbit, snake, fox -

and this fellow, evidently providing an unusual location for an orienteering control - "Crocodile, S. side" -

29 August: Lucky, lucky, lucky!

No, not a Lotto win, but the next best thing.

I have been sent an entry coupon for a Free Prize Draw to win a FREE Mobility scooter.

The blurb lists lots of exciting benefits, none of which seem to mention an inability to walk, indeed one of the plus features is that it goes into the boot of your car (perhaps not my car, which is very small). Also I could "travel anywhere you like", with the possible exception of footpaths with stiles, and "Go on trips or a holiday".

Actually, that's just what I am about to do, though with a pair of trainers, a rucksack, and my cycle helmet, not a Mobility scooter.

24 August: Day out in York

We went to York to see the exhibition at the Quilt Museum - very interesting to see some recent quilts. And the building is sensational!

No photography allowed. Over coffee we discussed which quilts we liked best; both of us really admired Future Beaches by Kathy Unwin, a beautiful balance of design, technique, and meaning. Then DH liked the simple red and yellow Welsh quilt, and the extremely intricately embroidered Pawnbroker's Crazy Coverlet; while I was drawn to the black and white Broken Images by Maggie Davies, and loved Gwenfai Rees Griffiths' Harlequin, with its interpretation of Amish colours and layout.

Then we went to see the Treasurer's House, a NT property. Again, no photography in the house, but there is also a lovely garden - here, the house is on the left, and the scaffolding is on the Minster next door -


This path with its alley of trees was particularly attractive -


And the cobbles caught my eye -


Then we walked into the streets, intending to explore the city a little. But it was so crowded and noisy, and so many people smoking in the streets, that it was really unpleasant. We perched on a barrier in front of a church to eat our sandwiches (all seats either full or covered with spilt ice cream), then almost came straight home again. But earlier we had seen people walking along a section of the city walls, and decided to climb up and walk round.

That made a third interesting element to the day. The view of the city, houses and gardens was different, it was not crowded, and we had a pleasant walk all the way round. Where we had to come down and walk on the road across one section, I snapped the wall itself -


As we completed our circuit, the raised position gave another view of the Minster -

And there were only a few spots of rain, once. A grand day out!

23 August: Felt bag

The other item that was felted with the hat/bowl in the previous picture was a bag. This was intended for felting from the start, though.

I decided to finish it on Thursday, to take to the Guild workshop morning. I'd got a zip for it earlier in the week, so I sat down to sew the zip in after breakfast. Brain not properly engaged, so it took 2 attempts to get the zip sewn in properly. Then I found some beads that match the colour really well, and made a pull for the zip.


It's a good size, and the felted fabric is thick and firm. Great colour. Very satisfactory.

18 August: Weather necessitates knitting

There's been so much rain in the past week or so that it's been uninviting to go out. Apart from a sortie into Durham to knit with some on-line friends at the Botanic Garden*, when it was dry for long enough to have a bit of a walk too, I haven't felt like going out.

And talking of felt, I knitted a hat recently that was too big when it was finished. As I was felting another project (not yet finished, so there's no picture of that one yet), I threw the large hat into the washing machine too. It is now a nice felt bowl. Here it is on the window-sill -

And on the kitchen table -

The bag of leftover sock yarn is a little emptier now too; here are the latest 2 to be finished -


And with a view of the heels as well - you will notice that they match! -

Yesterday was supposed to be dry, and we'd hoped to go for a walk, but the gloom was interspersed with savage showers, so I cast on a scarf. I must have soggy brain cells, because I mis-read the stitch pattern and cast on the wrong number of stitches, then I mis-read it a different way, and got the spacing all wrong. Then I discovered that I was actually knitting something not quite the same as what I thought I was reading, and that explained why it was all skewiff. So, after pulling it out at least 5 times, I finally got it started properly.

I don't think I like it in that yarn.

*Edit: in the Botanic Garden's cafe.

13 August: Sunderland relocating?

OK, this "summer" is a bit of a joke. But the right wing think tank that has come up with the idea of shifting the populations of Liverpool and Sunderland to the South has written the best comedy script of the silly season.

Their pals in the construction industry will put up some shacks and all those poor underprivileged Northerners can then improve their prospects by moving south. Oxford and Cambridge were mentioned as possible towns to receive the influx (not Henley, Guildford, or Tunbridge Wells, naturally). Thank heavens they never suggested Basingstoke.

Yes, let's cram millions more people and their 4x4s into already over-crowded towns and roads, building yet more houses on land which is likely to be under water within 30 years (global warming, rising sea level, flooding London - remember that story?), houses that would cost at least twice as much as a house in Sunderland (somehow I don't think these new houses would be local authority estates). Let's shift all those people with flat caps and whippets, with their close-knit extended families, and pigeon crees, into civilised, forward-looking parts of the country.

What's that? Some of the northern natives might not want to live in the south?

Unless it's Spain or France, of course.

10 August: Yet more socks - and a rug

After knitting socks for some time, I had a bag full of small balls of left-over sock yarn, in many different colourways. Never one to let anything useful go to waste, I have used some of these to make some odd socks -


As they will never match anything, this is their main feature. They will go into the sock drawer, and a random 2 will be taken out to wear. If I like them enough, I may never knit a matching pair of socks again.

And on the theme of never letting anything useful go to waste, there has been a box of rug yarn in my possession for the last ooh, 30 to 35 years. There was also a certain amount of the same yarn in my mother's belongings when she died in August 1983.

Last week I wove most of it into a small rug on my peg loom, a very low-tech affair consisting of nylon pegs and a length of 3" by 2" wood. I used 5 strands of the yarn together, to mix up the colours and to produce a squishily thick and soft rug.

It's about 29 inches long and 25 inches wide, and the cat has already selected it for a favourite place to lie.

7 August: Out for a walk

I've just been reminded why I dislike walking in a group.

Lovely bright sunny morning, though a bit humid from yesterday's rain, but pleasant for a walk round a favourite local circuit. A dog walker uttered the normal "Morning" as we passed each other. Then on the narrow path with wet undergrowth on each side, there was a party of middle-aged ramblers. All the gear, big boots, thick woolly socks, rucksacks and walking sticks. Two abreast, filling the entire path. Nobody glanced up from the earnest contemplation of the ground and the conversation, until I was forced to stop to avoid a collision. Then they looked at me as if I had landed from Outer Space, and passed by without even a smile, let alone a friendly greeting. (And no shorts were involved.)

Group walking means ambling along slowly, chatting all the time, and not noticing a thing you pass. Whereas I prefer to stop and look, or otherwise walk fast enough to enjoy the air and exercise.

This morning it seemed autumn is just around the corner. The buddleias are peaking, rowan berries turning orange, elderberries starting to colour, a few ripe blackberries, and some horse chestnut leaves are starting to turn.

Part of the rape seed harvest is in -

And the martins are gathering -

In the hedge was this old gatepost, unused for many years but still standing -


Old and disintegrating, but still interesting.

4 August: Now on the needles

While waiting for the radiator in my workroom to stop dripping, I knitted nearly a whole sock. I also contemplated the fact that the kitchen ceiling is a funny colour where the drips have ended up, and felt pleased that I didn't paint the ceiling when I painted the kitchen walls. Because it would have been wasted.

Then I cast on the project I've been planning for a while - a stranded waistcoat.

This key pattern was used for the felted bag I made in March, and I wanted to use it again. It's not often that I repeat myself in knitting, but it's a very satisfying pattern to knit, and I like the effect of the varied green shades with the black.

Here it is at the point where the ribbing is done, and half the first pattern repeat. I did a few more rows while sitting in the garden this afternoon. Then the British Gas man came to repair the radiator, so I couldn't carry on with it.

It needs looking at (and some counting) while knitting, so it may not be possible to knit this and watch TV (New Tricks tonight); another sock may be on the agenda.

Yes, that pencil sketch in the bottom right hand corner is my pattern for the garment shape. Very hi-tec, this knitting stuff.

1 August: Cumbria

We've been meaning to visit Acorn Bank garden near Temple Sowerby for ages. A couple of times the weather has turned nasty, and we've gone somewhere else. But today, we got there.

The house is not open; parts have been turned into holiday apartments. But you pass the front of the house to reach the garden. And the tea room (the scones are recommended).

The walled gardens are in 3 parts - the orchard, the herb garden, and the well garden. This is the well garden -

And this attractive gate was at the end of the herb garden -


There are woodland walks; they were closed today, because the overnight rain had caused the beck to wash away part of the path. This is what the beck looked like down by the water-mill -


After all these outings this week, there may be a period of lying in a darkened room.
Perhaps with a bit of knitting.