A Colourful week

What a hectic couple of weeks..Half term..not the greatest of weather at the start..stuck on the first Saturday, in the car on a closed M6 for 2 hours with three small and upset children..two of who were desperate for the loo but refused to use the hard shoulder (can't we just walk to the next Services..no, it's 14 miles away!!) until a steady stream of other children were seen not to be bothered by the whole experience, and then it suddenly ceased to be an issue.  Two lovely but wet days followed with Grandparents in Lancashire before we flew back down the motorway to Bucks at which point I unloaded all the luggage and plants raided from Dad's garden and reloaded up the car with lovely yarn to go and visit a fab knitting group organised by my friend Big Tangle.  They meet every fortnight in Marston, Oxford to knit, crochet or even sew.  Visit the website www.bigtangle.co.uk for more details if you fancy joining them.  The biggest seller that night was Manos Del Uruguay's Maxima yarn - a hand dyed Aran weight merino yarn that is available in the most fabuloso colours.  Katie bought this:

I wonder what she is going to knit with it..can't wait to see.
I had left my latest knitting project, a ripple pattern scarf, on the chair in the living room so Katie offered to teach me to crochet.  I wasn't very optimistic about the chances of success - I have tried to learn numerous times over the last couple of years, spent a fortune on a Learn to Crochet magazine series that seems to be in about 200 weekly parts and taunts me from the bookcase about the amount of money I have spent on something that I am totally and utterly rubbish at!  Anyway, to get back to the story, Katie lent me a crochet hook and some chunky yarn and showed me the way she had been taught which was different to all the ways I had been shown in the past but seems to work for knitters.  You hold the crochet hook in your left hand and the wool is wound around your right hand as it would be when knitting (if you are right handed!)..you then take the wool around the crochet hook from front to back and pull the stitches through..sure this doesn't make sense when you read it but having been shown it, it works for me and I am now attempting to crochet a very simple scarf using Artesano's Superwash Merino in Sea Blue:

I have also finished my Ripple scarf which was also knitted with lots of different colours of Merino..it has actually ended up as a neck warmer because it was knitted, as a raffle prize, for my neighbour's MS fund raiser which took place last Friday.

Another colourful event last week involved a trip to Beth Chatto's Garden, in Colchester, Essex with the Horticultural Society from my village. The Garden is celebrating it's 50th Anniversary this year.  From an overgrown wasteland with poor gravel soil and boggy hollows it has been transformed into an informal garden harmonising with the surrounding countryside.   Admission into the garden is £6.00 which is a bargain as it is a really fantastic space with some beautiful planting and lots of water.

There is a really fantastic nursery and they do mail order.  I had been sent with strict instructions not to spend any money on plants as with the building work which is going on there is no room for any more plants..However, I did sneak a couple back in (quite easy as E, my husband doesn't do gardening) and they are hidden in the vegetable garden which is currently home to all my rescued plants.

Finally, talking about the building work, we are now into week 8 and the roof is going on..only an other 4 weeks until they knock through into the rest of the house and chaos reigns..but then only another 8 weeks until it is finished.  In the first eight weeks we have gone from this:

to this:

Speak soon

Love

Moss Stitchxx