What Katie Did

All my children are in another hemisphere!

Nineteen years ago today John came into the world with a mighty cry. This morning he is with his brother and sister after nearly a year in South Africa. We have all missed his humour, generosity and the unique way he sees his world. He certainly is a character. We had the briefest of phone calls from them just now to say they had arrived and were all together. I could hear Martha chatting away in the background and Owen telling us about the flight.... John saying everything was 'sweet' - his favorite word and they were on their way into Cape Town. Then I wished him 'Happy Birthday' 'Oh yes!' he shouted.... he had forgotten!

One more week and it will be my turn!

John in Amsterdam last summer playing the fool as usual.

Silk Experiment

I have had this idea for a while and yesterday I tried it out. I go to jumble sales whenever I can and I buy every bit of silk I can find. There are always silk blouses for 20p or so in magnificent colours. I used some of them to make the hooky mat for the bed head (and foot) for Geoff's birthday last June - the amazing colours were just right for these anenomies.

But I have lots left. So yesterday I cut some narrow strips with the old rotary cutter, tied them together and knit with them. I am going to make a bag using THIS pattern from Knitty and here is the first of the four sections -

We went to have tea with Izabela and Richard last night and after the most sumptuous meal, we all sat and tied ends together ready for me to start knitting during the England game this afternoon (fantastic goal from Beckham)

But do you like the other side better?

votes please - I think I know which it will be - and I will be getting the opinions of the Knitters on Tuesday. Before you dismiss the messy side though be assured that in real life it is lovely and soft and textural! One pragmatic suggestion was to make it reversible!

Yes Annie, those are your scissors. I will bring them on Tuesday.

Owen is packed, ready, excited and off in the morning! He is taking the camera, so I have the challenge of writing this blog using photos I have already. There are millions, so I will treat you to some archive!

What can I have for breakfast Mum?

Owen has finished his last exam! Hooray for that - he can now relax and get ready for his holidays! He is going to South Africa on Monday, meeting up with Martha on the way.
So he is packing and obviously needing a decent breakfast to keep him going.

This week he has been busy with the end of term school production. Whereas brother John used to tread the boards with great enthusiasm, Owen prefers the lighting and sound side of things and for the last few years when we have gone to see the productions, we have had to look forwards and backwards to appreciate the efforts of our lovely kids. Now we only need to sit facing backwards to admire Owen's skill in directing the spotlight or twiddling the buttons on the lighting console.

The South Africa trip looms larger. Back in February when we were planning all this it seemed like a really good idea to have Owen and Martha go out before us so that the three of them could have a week together before the old folks arrived. They will land in Cape Town on John's 19th birthday! But then I have nearly 10 days to wait until I get to go and give John the hug I have been longing to deliver for the last year! The excitement is reaching new levels with every passing day!

What a good job I have the World Cup to keep me occupied! Here is another fan, spotted in Hexham Market.

Brain Tiredness

Wendy asked what the cure for Brain Tiredness might be from the Miracle Workers book a couple of posts ago.

Take a heaped tablespoon of MOTHERWORT, onto which is poured a cupful of boiling water; allow to cool, and take in two doses at half hour intervals.

Not at all surprised to find it's mother-wort you need - good old mothers!
And in 1935 Frank W Parton says in the section 'General Hints'

Self Raising Flour -stuff, the sale of which will, in an enlightened age, be prohibited.

This is the thought I will leave you with for now dear reader.

 

Knit A River

Imagine the squares are numbered from the top left
1 2 3
4 5 6 and  errr 7

1. Dorothy - ripples of water in a knit and purl pattern
2. Rene - diagonal garter stitch with an unintentional line down the middle which looks just fine (she was forgiven momentary lapses in concentration as this was her first outing without the baby!)
3. Mine - boring old garter stitch, back and forth, back and forth, but I liked the colour
4. Anne - she chose ripply yarn and then changed stitch pattern as she got bored, which was often
5. Annie - for some reason this got pulled out three times but the end result is perfectly lovely
6. Anne - very nice mohair cable. I couldn't work out why she had a sock needle between her teeth for the whole time until the end when the cable was revealed
and finally,
7. - Sue - what can I say. Sue lives life to the full and sees every opportunity as a chance to express her uniqueness. We love her for it.

This is just the start. the Hexham Wave will continue at Knitting on Tuesday and then we will send them all to Wateraid and wonder who is going to sew them all up?

We all started off with the same idea - knit a 15 cm square in blue. The end results are all so different - just like each of my knitting friends! Ahhh!

And finally - this one from Geoff is a work in progress

Happy Fathers Day

This is 1935 and that is My Dad accepting First Prize for the Daily Mail sponsored Sand Castle Competition. This is Southport and Dad is nine. And this is one of my favourite photographs of all time.
Happy Fathers Day to all Dads, but especially mine.

Reasons To Be Cheerful

Friday is Oxfam Shop Day. The secret is out now - there is going to be an Oxfam in Hexham dedicated to just books and I will work in there on Fridays. This is great news, I will be able to have whole sections of books for children now, instead of 'young kids' and 'older kids'  which is what we have in the general shop. I can have big picture books and 'read it yourself' books and 'make it' books and really good books for older kids. Very satisfying! Today, I found this for Geoff - a late birthday present.

and I got this for me

which I am sure you'll agree is wonderful. Tomorrow some of the Knitting Group are coming to eat food, drink tea and knit, lovely pastimes, and we will be thinking about the squares for Wateraid I wrote about in the last post. And I kept an article from the weekend Guardian where Michael Morpurgo talks about the knitted quilt his wife made for their granddaughter. I wonder if I can find a link to it? Well, what do you know - here it is - (isn't the Internet wonderful). Well, with all these knitted squares about, I am thinking that I may have to have to start a few to have to hand at that odd moment when I haven't got anything else to do.......

Its World Cup Time. Owen had fun with this image in photoshop.

RSI

I have a deadline - tomorrow is Geoff's birthday and I decided weeks ago to knit some socks with some 6 ply Opal yarn in blue and grey. I left it to the last minute though and as you can see, I have another 20 minutes to go, but I have such sore hands after an afternoon of frenzied knitting at the Group today.

I have reinforced the heels and toes with another strand of 4 ply - I hope this is a good idea, I was trying to think of ways to make them last a bit longer. I hope he likes them - I think he will!

I have been thinking about this blog lately and about my reason for starting it. I had been enjoying other people's musings for ages and thought this would be a good way to share what I do - mostly with my far flung family. The last post made me smile so much - I mean the comments posted.

Firstly, its very gratifying to hear from people I have never met but who have happened by from their own blogging world. THANK YOU for your interest - you are all really lovely!

But also all three of my lovely kids left comments. Go and have a look! Martha is in Bristol - nice to know that she is sorting out her paid work. Owen lives here with us! but always good to discover new ways of communicating! John is coming to the end of a year of volunteer work in South Africa and we have all missed him SOOOO much!! We are going to visit him very soon and I for one can hardly wait!

I found this link yesterday and thought we could all have a go - Wateraid is such a good charity and how often do you sign a petition for something and then wonder what happened to the cause? Everyone at Knitting is going to have a go!

I don't usually do this many words. So here are some corners of my garden that have grown themselves without any help from me to leave you with.

Sweet Post

Look what the postman brought!

These are a present from my Mum and Dad

This is how they spent the night and today they will be planted out to the prepared sweet pea trench.

Here in Northumberland the ground has only just started to warm up, Geoff remembers snow on June 6th one year, so while the rest of the country - ie - The South - may have sweet peas ten feet tall by now, planting out now is just fine for us.

So now the fun is how to plant them! We have Old Times, Pulsar, Cathy and Heathcliff (!), Blue Danube and Terry Wogan! I had no idea sweet pea namers got so carried away!

Obviously Cathy and Heathcliff have to be on opposite sides of the canes so that they are together but always apart....  and Terry? well he could be dotted around the place like he is on the BBC. The others? I'd need suggestions I think. They are going in tonight because now I have to go to WORK!! (and guard the fridge)

Thank you Mum and Dad and enjoy your French adventure!

Coconut!

Geoff brought three of these home from Justin the fruit and veg man

Owen accepted the challenge to render it edible

doesn't every kitchen cupboard have a saw in it?

This was deilcious - we planned to cook the rice in it for the curry we were going to make with the coconut. We didn't, but we really meant to!

The flesh was soft and mild, not the hard chewy stuff that comes out of the coconuts we are used to

easy to scoop and we just ate it right then, no curry later, just soft and smooth and very mild coconut snack! Lovely.