frayed at the edge

If you are on a diet ......

..... look away now!  We went up to Galashiels this morning, as Malcolm wanted to go to B&Q to buy more insulation for the loft - he has gradually been adding an extra layer, which is a big job as, because it is a single storey house, we have a lot of loft!!  Once that was purchased, and we had done a little bit of shopping, we had to decide where to go for lunch.  We could have had a delightful burger from the van which is always parked in B&Q's carpark ......

 

or we could have visited a certain well known fast-food chain (if you torture me I will admit that I am partial to a Big Mac ....... in fact you don't have to torture me, just tickle my feet!!)

 

However, good taste prevailed, and we went to Lochcarron, where we had the most wonderful Thai chicken soup, with cheese and onion bread

 

Back home, I quickly put the shopping away, before heading put for knit'n'natter ..... but I did take a moment to take aphoto of the new pots of herbs that I had bought for the kitchen windowsill ......

 

...... and yet another photo of this fabulous orchid

 

When I was in Kelso for knit'n'natter, I bought this month's Good Food magazine.  It was in a package which contained this calendar ......

 

....... and a recipe card for a choclate cheesecake, which I won't be tempted to make as it made with white chocolate, which I really don't like!

 

I hadn't yet decided what to knit with my lovely laceweight yarn, after frogging the shawl I had started, but then I saw this pretty scarf.  The pattern does look a little bit complicated, so I may just knit a little swatch first!

 

A silly photo to finish!  I took this first thing this morning through the back bedroom window.  It may look as if the sheep is standing on top of the wall, but really it is in the field behind the house!

I promised you chocolate ......

...... and here it is!  First chocolate for children ..... I used templates from a magazine to cut out stockings and mittens

 

 

which will be filled with chocolate coins

 

For the grown-ups (well, probably for Mums!) there are candle glasses filled with chocolates, and with a scented candle to put in the glass once the chocolates have been eaten

 

Next ..... the gingerbread biscuits.  Oh dear - I turned my back for two minutes on the first batch ..... and they got just a little bit overcooked!  Not quite burned, and just about edible

 

The second batch turned out better

 

Two simple ingredients to make some delicious icing ....

 

...... they may not win any prizes, but they are tasty and were easy to make

 

I had a bit more success with my latest attempt at free motion quilting.  This effort was based on Leah's pattern cracked paisley  .... it may not be the right shape, but I am pleased with it (I thought it looked a bit like figs, Malcolm thought it looked like onions!

 

I finished the Christmas card which I had started at Abbey Quilters on Tuesday night ..... it is folded Somerset patchwork, and was quick and simple to make

 

I can combine yesterday's day out at the Woolgathering with this week's knitting update!  I have started another pair of afterthought heel socks.....

 

...... although I still have to sew in the ends on the first pair (it's the bit of knitting that I don't like!!)

 

I was also working on another pair of fingerless mitts in cotton sock yarn, which I finished last night (apart from sewing in the dreaded ends!!)  This pair is for a friend who is allergic to wool - and I have given the first pair like this , that I did some weeks ago, to a friend who has painful hands due to arthritis.  The warmth from wearing them helps her joints, while leaving her fingers free to do things.

 

To finish, a photo of some sparrows on the birdbath ...... as you can see, there is a rather large stone in it at the moment.  That is because during some recent very windy weather, the top blew off!  I think Malcolm is going to get some sort of sealant/adhesive to fix it to the base

Brrrrrr ......

The weather turned very cold over the weekend - we had to scrape the car before we went out yesterday, and I had to resort to de-icer this morning!  But the cold weather didn't stop us enjoying the weekend.  On Saturday, we went over to Coldstream, as Woolfish were holding one of their Woolfestivals.  I managed to resist all the lovely yarns for sale, but I did buy another set of tiny sock needles ....

 

....... and these gorgeous tiny buttons from Lindsay

 

Back home, I made a start on my stock for my sales table.  Although I said I was going to do a lot of sewing, I started by making cards ...... rather a lot of cards, so it took me all afternoon to do them!   There are ten different photos of orchids and half the cards are white, and half cream, with matching envelopes.

 

Yesterday morning we went for a walk, heading up the hill behond the big park in Hawick.  We hadn't walked there before, and had a good time being nosy, looking at sone lovely big houses

 

Home again, it was back into the studio.  I still have some of the shopping list pads, so I stitched fabric sleeves to cover the backing boards, ready to stick the pads on

 

Then I covered two notebooks with some beautiful fabric from my stash

 

 

I have been doing a bit of free motion quilting each day - here are Saturday, Sunday, and today's efforts ...... unfortunately I don't see much improvement!

 

Now for the knitting update ....... the 'afterthought heel' sock, ready to do the heel.  You can see the bit of waste wool where the stitches get picked up for the heel

 

This is the first lot of stitches picked up

 

You then turn the sock round and pick up the stitches on the other side .... I found that awkward, so I decided to remove the waste wool as I went, which made it much easier

 

This is the heel ready to knit on the left, and finished on the right.  It is knitted the same way as the toe, and looks a bit strange ........

 

........ but I think once the socks are blocked they will be fine

An excellent weekend!

The fun got under way on Friday night, when I went to Sheena Norquay's talk.  I already knew quite a bit about Sheena being inspired by Orkney, where she grew up, as there was a large feature about her some years ago in this magazine

 

The wonderful colours of the scenery round her childhood home have heavily influenced her colour palette .....

 

...... and she stitches symbols from Norse legends into her quilts

 

So after an enjoyable evening on Friday, I was looking forward to the workshop on Saturday ........ and it turned out to be fabulous!!  First, we drew a fantasy bird on paper - I based mine on a heron

 

After transferring the drawing to fabric ......  the fun really began, as we used fabric paints to print all sorts of circles on the birds

 

I cheated a little bit and used a brush to fill in some of the body!  I decided to stick to the two colours of paint that I had, pearlescent red (which looks pink!) and silver

 

We finished the printing in time for lunch, which was supplied by a local pub ....... delicious lentil soup (sorry, I had eaten half of it before I remembered to take a photo!) .......

 

...... and trays of very tasty sandwiches

 

Then it was back to work! 

 

 I trimmed the fabric round my bird, added borders, then tacked it to a piece of wadding, ready to stitch.  This was the first time I had stitched using an embroidery ring - and I loved it - it just made it so much easier!!

 

This is a detail of the tail

 

All too soon, it was time to go home, but not before everyone posed with their birds, with Sheena sitting on the bottom right hand side of the photo ..... and I should say at this point a very big thank you to Sandra and Lorraine, who spent the day keeping us supplied with drinks and served the lunch, and then Sandra took the photo for me

 

Sheena had given us excellent instructions on how to finish our wallhangings, so yesterday afternoon, I started on the next stage, which was just a little bit scary - trimming away the excess wadding from around the bird - I was worried that I would accidently cut through the fabric as well

 

The next stage was to layer and baste the wallhanging, then to stitch in the ditch between the centre fabric and the border (I actually find sewing in a straight line difficult, and took three attempts before I was happy with it!)

 

Having successfully used the embroidery ring on Saturday, yesterday I got out a bigger quilting hoop and set it up. 

 

I stitched round the bird, then checked the back ...... disaster!!  The tension had obviously gone haywire, and a lot of the stitches on the back were big loose loops! 

 

After unpicking all the wonky stitching, I decided to leave it there for the day ...... and that's where I'm going to stop today ...... I will tell you more tomorrow, but now it's time for the knitting update.  I didn't do any knitting on Saturday evening, as I was somewhat tired after the workshop, but last night I finished the second sock, except for the Kitchener stitch

 

I have one more ball of sock yarn to use ........ someone recently told me about a method of knitting a sock with an 'afterthought' heel.  I'm sorry, I haven't got a link for it, but I just did a search on Ravelry and found it (if you're looking for me on Ravelry I'm Carenza!)  I forgot to print out the pattern earlier, so I'll just read the first stage from the laptop when I start knitting later!

 

ps - why do I still have that magazine?  Because of this page, which shows the Callender House wallhanging which I helped to make, and the church banners, a wonderful project which was organised by my friend Grace Graham

 

Sugar, sugar

We use very little sugar (apart from jam and chutney making), but at the weekend I used very large amounts for the sloe gin and rosehip syrup.  Malcolm volunteered to prick the sloes, then I put them into three small jars ( I didn't have a big one!) and added the sugar and gin.  The jars have to be shaken once a day for a week, then once a week for eight to ten weeks - this is one of them after its shake this morning

 

The recipes for both the sloe gin and the rosehip syrup are from this book, which Stuart and Alison gave me for my birthday

 

The rosehip syrup was very easy to make - but I was disappointed with the colour it turned out - yellow, rather than lovely red.  However, we had some on our porridge this morning, and it was delicious.

I have no idea why this photo is so big!!
 

As promised,  all the lovely things which Alyson sent me ....

scented candles and calming music

 

beautiful soft yarn

 

a lovely scarf and necklace

 

photos, shells from the beach and a felt heart

 

the bookmark which Alyson's son drew for me, a little bag containing sunflower seeds from her garden and a handmade card

Thanks again to Alyson for such lovely gifts.  I think I will use the yarn to knit fingerless mitts ...... and that leads us on to the knitting update.  I have finished these socks, except for sewing in the ends .......

 

........ and started on another pair

 

I have to admit that I have frogged the shawl - I just couldn't get on with the pattern at all, and decided it wasn't worth spending so much time trying to get it right, when there are lots of other shawl patterns that I could knit.  

All can be revealed!!

I've mentioned a couple of times that  I had signed up for Mousy Brown's swap, which she was holding to celebrate the second anniversary of her blog.  The theme of the swap was simple - celebration, two, mice and friendship ....... and you had to fit whatever you were sending your swap partner into an A4 envelope!  My swap partner is Alyson, who lives in Corwall, is crafty and has a two year old son - but she doesn't have a blog so I couldn't read up more about her.  I posted my parcel off to her on Saturday, and now that she has received it, I can show you what I sent ...... some things I made, and some from my stash.

a set of cards with photos of beautiful orchids, taken in Singapore

 

lavender coasters - the lavender if from our garden

 

teeny tiny gift tags and parcel decorations

 

fun socks

 

a fun musical candle

 

a fabric brooch

 

a set of wooden crochet hooks - Alyson has been learning to crochet

 

scrapbooking stickers

 

The last thing to be squeezed into the envelope was very special ....... a very cute little knitted mouse for Alyson's little boy!

 

Now, of course, I am going to be camped out on the drive watching for the postman bringing my parcel from Alyson ....... you know that I love getting things in the post - especially with foreign stamps like this one ......

 

....... which was on my (slightly belated) birthday card from Lee - she makes such wonderful cards that I have been known to steal borrow some of her ideas!!

 

Sunshine!

Yesterday was bright and sunny, so we headed over to Harestanes for one of our favourite walks.  I was able to take lots of photos for next weekend's Shadow Shot Sunday. and still have lots left to share with you today

the bees were enjoying the sunshine too, both on this plant .......

 

....... and this one

 

the mild weather has confused this rhododendron into flowering at the wrong time

 

this mushroom has been well and truly nibbled .......

 

but I think it would be wise to  avoid this one!

 

I was going to show you more photos from our walk, then some photos of the garden, but they just kept vanishing ...... and now this block of text won't budge from the right!  So on with the knitting update - I've made a start to the shawl, but it needs a lot of concentration, so I have also started a pair of socks

 

 

I love the colours in the shawl, like autumn berries ........

 

..... which brings me to the last photo I am going to attempt to include.  We picked some brambles yesterday, and Malcolm made a very tasty apple and bramble crumble, which we had with some custard ...... we very rarely eat puddings, so this was a real treat!!

 

Only the best will do!

How is this for a posh carrier bag?

 

So what were we buying - a duke or a princess ..... or even the castle itself?  No, we were shopping in the deli at the coffee shop!  We got a wonderful chicken and leek pie (which was less than half price!)  We've had one of these pies before - it had lots of chicken and a lovely creamy sauce, so we are looking forward to enjoying this one

 

We also got a sourdough loaf - yes, I could bake one, but when we were standing in the queue we could smell the bread, so it just had to come home with us!

 

When we got home, there was a parcel sitting on the front doorstep.  It didn't quite have an exotic stamp on it ....... although it had come from that very exotic part of the UK..... Wales!

 

....... but it was full of wonderful things!  Three balls of delicious sock yarn, two free patterns, and a lovley little cotton bag to keep my knitting in

 

Yesterday I wound the laceweight yarn into a ball, using the swift and the new ball winder, which make the whole process so much quicker and easier

 

The pattern says to use a circular needle, but unless I need to because of the number of stitches, I would much rather knit on straight needles

 

I had a busy day yesterday - you can see some of what I was doing on the table ........ more hexagons prepped (in the centre)and templates made (in the bag on the right) - but I can't tell you what else I was doing until after I have sent off my envelope to my partner in Mousy Brown's swap.  (And why is there a piece of pipe lagging on the left of the table?)

 

Out in the garden, there are still little bits of colour.  We got this clematis earlier in the year

 

It had a few flowers on it when we got it, but then it sat there all summer sulking.  Now it has buds on it and one flower has opened!

 

Across the garden, the two clematis on the trellis are still flowering profusely, with lots of buds still to open

 

I keep meaning to look in my plant books to find out what this climber is

 

For some reason this little fuchsia doesn't flower in the summer when the others do - it waits until the others flowers in the border die back

 

This last rose is clinging on

 

The hellebore is confused, and has started to flower again!

 

The nuthatch was back on the peanut feeder this afternoon - and still determined to show me its bottom!!

 

When the robin wan't looking, these cheeky sparrows had a bath (you can see the water that has splashed over the edge!)

Persuasion

Berwick Quilters held their exhibition at the weekend ....... and Malcolm didn't need too much persuasion to go, when I reminded him that there is always wonderful home baking at quilt shows!  I don't think he was disappointed by yesterday's selction (I should point out that we shared the cakes!)

 

 

There was a wonderful display of quilts ......

 

 

....... and Malcolm promptly spotted this owl

 

 

This is the quilt that my friend Katy made for her husband, featuring his wonderful Highland cattle

 

 

She also made this very cute teddy bear quilt

 

 

Another very, very cute quilt ...... I love the elephants!

 

 

I forgot to find out who made this amazing miniature quilt show - the detail is fantastic, given how small it is

 

 

Also on a very small scale is this bed - it is about six inches long

 

 

The quilt show was held in the village hall in Horncliffe, which we hadn't been to before, so we went for a walk before we headed for home.

The first thing to catch my eye was this tablet in memory of a former minister in the village

 

 

I was also able to add to my collection of post boxes - you can tell from this one that we were over the Border in England, as Scottish post boxes don't have ERII on them (she is the first Queen Elizabeth of Scotland)

 

 

Malcolm spotted this doorway - we thought perhaps the door hadn't been used for some time!!

 

 

The knitting update - I have finished my socks ........ but when trying them on - oh dear, they make me itch!  Hopefully they will be ok once they have been washed

 

 

I couldn't decide what to knit next, so had a potter round my stash and found a kit with this pattern, which can be knitted as a wrap or a triangular shawl (sorry, it wasn't the best of photos on the pattern)

 

 

I haven't decided yet whether to knit the wrap or the shawl, but as I have still to wind the yarn into a ball, I won't be starting it until Wednesday (I'm out at Abbey Quilters tomorrow evening)

 

 

To finish ...... I have great admiration for wildlife photographers who spend days, weeks, months, even years waiting for their subject to appear - I get bored after five minutes waiting for the birds  

 

 

Thoroughly spoiled!

I had a wonderful day yesterday, starting with a delicious breakfast-in-bed made by Malcolm (sorry, no photo, much too early!)  ........ smoked salmon and scrambled egg, served with sundried tomato and parmesan bread which I had made on Saturday (ok - I put a packet mix in the bread machine!!)  Later, we popped down to Sainsbury's to get the Sunday papers, and while there we had a cuppa and shared a Belgian bun - a special treat for my birthday!  Stuart arrived at lunchtime and we headed over to the cheesery, where we bought several tasty cheeses.  We then set off for a spot of lunch - only to find that the place we had chosen was closed!  However, we went instead to the Jammy Coo, where we had very tasty paninis (Malcolm and I shared one, having had the bun!)

Now we finally get to some photos ....... the wonderful dinner which Malcolm made for us.  The dining room was just dark enough to light the candles and turn on the lamps

 

 

We didn't have a starter - just straight to the main course ...... and what a main course!  Wonderful, tender venison, with a raspberry and bramble jus, and delicious vegetables

 

 

Then ........ the lemon meringue pie!  It was sooooo good (and I won't tell tales about Malcolm and Stuart having second helpings!)

 

 

We had our wine in our beautiful engraved wineglasses - and I couldn't resist taking this 'arty'  photo of the candle shining through the glass!

 

 

I finally finished the scarf ...... I was glad to find that I hadn't missed another bobble - it had somehow gone through to the wrong side.

 

 

I have finished knitting the item for the swap I am doing over at Emily's blog, and have started on a pair of socks for me.  As there are so many colours in the yarn, I am just doing a plain sock

 

 

To finish ....... if you have a comment form like this one on your blog

 

...... you may have noticed that I haven't left a comment for a few days.  Every time I try, either the comment vanishes, or I get an error message.  I am still reading all of my favourite blogs, and if I could comment, I would say that it's the most wonderful/interesting/profound/moving/funny post, illustrated with the most amazing photos!!