Oh my ears and whiskers ...!!!

Once again it has been an unconscionably long time since I blogged. The usual causes, I guess. Rushing round visiting grandchildren, places, etc. And now more, we have finally sold the flat, so although there is a long way to go before we actually leave (end July), there is also a lot to be done in the meantime.

As it has taken us so long to get this far, now we find that there are very few properties on the market where we want to buy. Properties that were on the market finally sold when they reached a realistic price. Few are coming onto the market, because people who don't have to sell right now are waiting in the hope that things will pick up. So we can look forward to a long search for something suitable. At the same time, we must start packing. My study lowers at me, with so many books, files and stacks of papers. As we shall probably end up renting for a time, I have to be careful to separate packing for store and packing to keep with us. What fun! not!!

Add to that two imminent grandchild birthdays, both of which will be celebrated in Ireland, and I have a schedule that makes me feel like going for a lie-down in advance. But I shall not complain, we are only too pleased to be sold, and at a reasonable price.

In anticipation of our removal, we have been assiduously visiting things that will be harder to reach once we have moved away from London. Our recent delightful visits to Kew and Wisley have been followed by other joys. We started by visiting Bateman's, the house of Rudyard Kipling. This involved a lengthy journey through Kent, into the delightful countryside around Tunbridge Wells. The house is utterly charming, and I for one could not help feeling awed when looking round the writer's study. Not least when I realised he had a couch, and more important, he frequently lay upon it, thinking!!!!!

The gardens and grounds were already showing promise of their beauty to come. An especial delight was a visit to the working mill. It was wonderful to recognise the millstone grit of my native North Derbyshire in the grinding stones. We took away some wholemeal flour to bake bread at home.

The latest of these was a visit to Pashley Manor Gardens, on the East Sussex/Kent border, to their Tulip Festival. Absolutely wonderful. The house itself, although not open to the public, was beautiful from the outside, with the most magnificent wisteria I have ever seen - and I've seen some good'uns in my time - and a wonderful Rosa banksia lutea climbing right to the roof. We lunched on the terrace, beleaguered by ducks and drakes who were so tame they thought nothing of poking their beaks into our laps to beg for scraps!

The tulips themselves were indescribably lovely, and I was so tempted as to place an order in the hope that we will have a garden by the autumn! Husband Peter was mightily taken by this clematis, which we may also have to add. Just hope we get an appropriate garden.

Pashley Manor is also host to an outdoor sculpture exhibition later in the year. There were already some sculptures in the gardens. OK, they are hares, not bunnies, but that's near enough for me!

Not to mention the beautiful bluebell wood:

And here for good measures, two more wonderful trees:

I recently purchased a large set of Erich Engeln knitting instructions/charts and am knitting my way pleasurably through a number of doilies, but so far no pix. Watch this space!!

time flies when you're having fun ...

Once again I have been peripatetic, helping post-op daughter, minding grandchildren, etc. Which has left me with little time for blogging and often little access to the internet. But all of which is great fun, so no complaints.

It has not prevented me knitting, however, which is just as well, since a dear friend has just given birth to a darling daughter (a first baby), for whom I produced this surprise jacket and heart-shaped hat, also courtesy of the great Elizabeth Zimmermann. This was the first time I tried the hat, so rather experimental, but it seems to have worked out well – although I’ll have to wait for the recipient, or rather her mama and papa, to give the final verdict. Best of all, it was knitted with STASH!!! Maybe that's why I felt I could buy some new knitting books, as a reward. Unfortunately, the cost of the books was way out of proportion with the value of the yarn, particularly since I had bought loads of it for 25p. per skein in a sale (Rowan's Lightweight DK, for those who need to know)!

And now to trees! I love old and gnarled trees, and captured a really fine specimen recently whilst visiting the wonderful gardens at Kew.

This one, with its wonderfully twisted branches is not bad either. Although now, a week later, I wouldn’t mind betting that they’re both covered in foliage. Suddenly spring has sprung, blossom and leaves everywhere, a wonderful time of year.

too busy to blog ...

Between visits to and from grandchildren and assorted family, I have been knitting apace, hence no time to blog.

Which means that I now have three beautiful things to show. The first is my Princess Shawl. I have finished the first of four borders:

This is a detail of a feather:

And here is the sprouting seed motif:

No. 2 On top of that, I have been working busily on the beautiful Diagonal Kimono:

The pattern is from from Jamieson's Shetland Knitting Book 1, using their lovely shetland double knit. It is interesting to knit, because it starts with two triangles, which are then knit together, mitring the middle and increasing the edges until it is gradually decreased from both sides to make a rectangle out of two matching pieces of diagonal knitting.

My final beautiful thing is the Big Retro man's sweater I am knitting for No. 1 Son. The pattern is out of the Men's Knits supplement from the January 2009 edition of Knitting magazine, using 4 mm needles and Sublime Extra Fine Merino Wool DK. My son chose the colour, Mocha, which is a pale-ish brown. I think he's got really good taste, but then, I would say that, wouldn't I! ;) The yarn knits up in an interesting fashion, because it has a twist in it, which makes the right-hand side of the stitches look somewhat like a rope, while the left-hand side forms a simple line. I'm still trying to work out why!? ;)

I'm off again tomorrow, so probably no blog until next week, but I'll be taking some of my knitting, and seeing the lovely Ellie, so I'm happy bunny! ;)

still away ... so just three beautiful things ...

I am staying with daughter Imogen and granddaughter Ellie still, but can blog on the Mac there.  I must say I do like the Mac.  Its lovely clean lines, and the keyboard's so comfortable.  It doesn't have a nasty plastic feel about it, and the keys feel really responsive.  Mmm, maybe next time a Mac???

So today I am going to do three beautiful things, and the first one is my daughter's Mac.

The second one is my lovely granddaughter, although I can't show you a picture today, but she is really chatty now and we have wonderful conversations about why the snowman has melted, and we haven't!

Third beautiful thing, although again no picture, but I have finished the second page of my Princess border on the first side and am therefore effectively on the home run!  Pictures later in the week.

Oh dear, I have been very remiss about blogging, haven’t I? L but I have been very busy, so perhaps I can be forgiven.

At the end of November I went to Killarney to visit No. 1 son, his lovely girlfriend Lisa, and my darling 5-month old grandson, Finn. For the first time in all my visits the weather was beautiful, and I had great fun walking the babe and visiting all sorts of things. The whole family travelled back with me, and stayed for almost a week.

On Saturday, 6th December I drove Jos and Finn to a sponsorship launch for his friend Richard Hume, who together with Tom Barnes is going to row the Atlantic next year to raise funds for Ataxia UK. Richard is godfather to Finn, and a fabulous person who overcomes his own physical problems to do these great things. This is a very worthy cause, as Ataxia strikes down young, healthy people, and does not get nearly enough funds, so do look at the website, and then support them in this great project. Imagine rowing the Atlantic in this little boat?

As usual, Finn played to an audience, and delighted all who saw him, including his other godfather, Pete, who was also there:

On Sunday, 7th my first grandson Luke had his second birthday party – how the time has flown since he made his debut in this world. I have been reading The Baby in the Mirror: A Child’s World from Birth to Three by Charles Ferneyhough, and it describes so interestingly how a child develops his/her personality over the first three years, that I cannot recommend it too highly. I was also able to see the difference that six months makes, by the way his older cousin Ellie behaves in comparison. And of course, joy of joys, my youngest grandchild was able to be present, although I don’t suppose he was aware of how wonderful it was to have all three of them together!

Since Jos and family returned home to Ireland I have been rushing around trying to get everything ready for our departure to spend Christmas with Peter’s son Simon and his family in Singapore. At the same time, precisely because of that departure, I had to prepare and present a pre-Christmas lunch on Saturday gone for two of my children and their families plus my mother!

On Friday last when my mother arrived in London I took her to the new Westfield shopping centre in White City. I have to admit that I, who am no consumerist shopaholic, quite the opposite in fact, was impressed. So much so that I even ended up buying things, mostly Christmas presents, but also a gorgeous cashmere jumper for myself! Oh well, it’s Christmas ain’t it? Surely goodwill to all men should apply to oneself too?

On Sunday I left my mother in the good care of my daughter Kathy, with husband Andy and son Luke. Of course my mother was delighted to spend time with her great grandson, and Andy, who is as I believe I said before an ace cook, produced a lovely lunch for her. The reason for this abandonment was to take husband Peter, who will be 79 tomorrow, to the new (-ish) Wembley stadium to see the Race of Champions. I should explain my l-sh (long-suffering husband) is a Formula 1 fanatic who used in a previous life BI (before Ingrid) to mix in the paddock with all the greats at Formula 1 races throughout Europe. So when I heard of the ROC, I knew that I just had to get tickets for his birthday treat. He had no idea where I was taking him until we got there, when he was just blown away. His hero Lewis Hamilton was there, as well Jensen Button, David Coulthard, Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel, and numerous rally champions.

And I should add, I had a wonderful time myself, cheering myself hoarse. Hamilton and Coulthard drove their Formula 1 cars around between the races, and we had a fabulous afternoon. And what’s more, the new Wembley Stadium is so impressive. The facilities are great and the arch looks great against the sky at night. Plus I got mega mega brownie points!! ;)))

So what about the knitting, I hear all you knits out there cry? Well, I have been getting on with my Princess; I am now on to the main border. And for in between times I am working on the Cap Shawl from Jane Sowerby’s Victorian Lace Knitting (pp. 28-9). I am using Heirloom Knitting’s Merino Lace in Emerald Green, and KnitPick’s Harmony Wood Circulars, 4mm. These last are from my fantastic Christmas present from l-sh (see above, and yes, I did prompt him! ;) in my defence, he likes to be prompted, because he says he can never think of anything – which is not true, because he has in the past bought me wonderful jewelry, some of which he designed himself!). They are the Royale Harmony Interchangeable Boxed Set (Gold Plated), and I am in love with these beauties. I now just have to get some of the bigger dpns to complete my collection of Harmony Woods.

So they are the first of my three beautiful things tonight:

The second is my finished Honeybee stole, blocked:

And last but not least, the third is the first picture ever of my three youngest grandchildren all together under one roof, with their proud parents:

what took me so long?

Unsure whether to return after such a long time away, after all, by now there is unlikely to be anyone out there listening anymore. But I'll try anyway.

A lot has happened, including a lot of knitting, and another wonderful grandchild. But things are not so good now. Having had a wonderful holiday with my husband in Africa in May/June, I had the misfortune to become infected with a parasite. This has left me feeling very, very low. I have an admission to make. I have sometimes suffered from severe depression, and whenever something difficult arises, I find it difficult not to backslide. The symptoms of my present illness, which took a long time to diagnose, both mimic and provoke depressive feelings, so it's tough right now.

Anyway, enough self-pity. Much more interesting, the knitting. Quite a list, but for today I'll just post two versions of Elizabeth Zimmermann's BJS. I loved knitting these, but am a bit disappointed with the sizing. In our family most of the babies, including the recent addition, of which more another time, are a good 7-8 pounds when they are born, and grow apace. Maybe it's the modern baby - all that healthy living. These two were gifts. I am knitting a third for my lovely new grandson and will post that soon. In the meantime enjoy these:

BSJ in Jamieson's Shetland, lovat green and a silvery grey:

BSJ in Rowan Lightweight DK in various shades of pink and purple:

the pleasant land of counterpane ...

...which i am inhabiting post a (mercifully short) indisposition, the gorier details of which i will spare you, save to say that it came on very suddenly, involved an horrendous drive home, as i was away babysitting the gorgeous grandson at the time, and has forced me into a day of bedrest, because i 'came over all dizzy like'! so as you can see, i am experimenting with the blog, because i want the text to be wider and therefore shorter. however, being not v au fait, am not getting other things right. heighho, win some lose some, as they say. i do really need to get a grip on this blogging thing, but where to find the time? :(

managed to leave some knitting behind - again, I hear you cry! Well, this time it's not lost, just left at my daughter's. and i was feeling distinctly poorly. moreover, it is not the christmas present knitting, which is finished, but which cannot be displayed as yet, because of christmas present secrecy! so i shall now start on my mother's stole/scarf, whilst awaiting the return of the errant shawl. further enquiry of the Berlin authorities have revealed no sign of my lost bee fields shawl KAL, but as i have now got replacement yarn, will soon have that back on the needles. and i have a picture of the original, at a very early stage.

am somewhat disappointed, because i was supposed to be out with my eldest daughter and granddaughter, who rarely grace London because their lives in Dorset are so full. but Maddie was picking Jessie, who is about to celebrate her eighteenth birthday, up from a brief holiday with her stepgrandma at her house in France, up from the airport which is local to us, so they broke their journey with an o'n stay here. Jessie is gorgeous and clever, and i know i am biased, but after the party in 10 days time i shall have the photos to prove the former, and her marks - often 100% prove the latter. they are spending the day looking at art, in preparation for her interview for a famous university, fingers crossed. she doesn't knit, but you can't have everything, and she appreciates the knitting i do for her, so that's good enough for me.

son Jos managed to arrive and depart in my absence, ostensibly for his grandfather's 82nd birthday party, altho i do sometimes wonder!! and hopefully i should see the younger of my gorgeous granddaughters tomorrow, as she is coming up with her mum to go to an exhibition on recycling all being well. that's almost a full house, one way and another. in fact the long-suffering Peter thinks it's almost too much of a full house anyway you look at it. but i tell him having young people about keeps you young. and anyway, they're all so gorgeous, and yes, i know i'm biased, but ... ;) e.g., see above for picture of 'happy-go-Luke-y'!! :)

in any case, i must prepare for my PhD upgrade viva voce next tuesday. not sure whether the butterflies are excitement or terror, but am pleased neverthless to have got this far at long last.

and to cap this posting, some pictures of mother russia, at long last!!! :) as you can see, there not entirely your conventional pix - the first a cossack who just happened to be passing, the second a scots guard bandsman, just what you expect to see in Moscow, not! they were performing in a military tattoo, and when i tell you that the scots girls were in tartan trews - goodness knows what the Russians made of it all!! Finally, Marshall Zhukov, great hero of WWII, maybe??? Well, make of all that what you will. the rest next time!!! ;)

no, i haven't disappeared, but i have been travelling ...

i guess anybody who was ever interested in my blog has given up on me. in fact, i guess i am a very bad blogger :(. they say you find time to do the things you really want to do. but that's not entirely true, unless you take it to its most extreme. fact is, there are things which the life i have chosen impels me to do, like keep me, my home and my husband's life running (and before anyone raises the question, yes, he does his share, indeed, these days, with me away so much, or lost in work, probably more than his fair ... i am married to a saint, Peter is indeed my rock, and i love him dearly. he would say, very dearly, with my penchant for spending ;) but that's another blog entirely), ie, with clean, ironed clothes, food, a tidy home etc. plus my commitment to my immediate family, which now includes: 4 children, 3 grandchildren, husband, mother, sister, nephew. then there is the wider family, many of whom live abroad. not forgetting friends, tho some of them must think i HAVE forgotten them lately. and i have hardly seen my lovely grandchildren, who are getting on getting bigger. Ellie's walking, talking and turned into a real live toddler while i was away, and Luke's not far behind.

then there's the PhD! and yes, that has been full-on lately. i have submitted 2 major pieces of work, a chapter plan, a time plan and a working bibliography, in two copies and am to be viva'd on 30th to determine if it is ok to continue to a PhD! so no small matter, then.

then there's the knitting. which i fit into the spaces and interstices of my life, eg, if watching tv or travelling on buses, tubes and trains, or cars when other people are driving - no, i don't think it's a good idea to knit and drive ;) having lost my beautiful bee fields KAL shawl half-knitted in September on the Berlin transport system somewhere (no, no sign of it returning, hope it's gone to a good home!), i have got as far as edging the secret Christmas present shawl i am knitting, mostly done while travelling. but why, o why can't i knit on the plane? :( it's so mean, just think what i could get done in those wasted hours, not just on the plane itself, but in the time between check-in and travel. anyone for an airport knitting sit-down demo??? with bamboo or plastic needles, of course.

travel. yes, that's the main reason i have not posted, in addition to the PhD i mean. and even then, it's involved the PhD, as i attended another conference in Munich for it, and then spent 5 days buried in an archive there. a very fruitful trip, workwise. and the chance to catch up with some friends, the very lovely Uli and Toby, who kindly offered me bed and board, and whose company and friendship made this archive trip much nicer than those where i skulk in a lonely cheap hotel room in the evenings. i also did manage an afternoon's sightseeing in Munich while waiting to catch my plane.

all you blogging fanatics out there, how do you find enough time to do it, while doing such interesting things? i mean i find my days just whizz by, and i do need 8 hours' sleep, or i just go under, vitamin pills or not. i guess it's just what happens, getting older.

anyway, that's enough for now. those of you who are still interested in my feeble efforts, i shall make every effort to blog some pictures of travel and knitting very soon. life permitting, of course! ;)

i am afraid ... very afraid ...

altho i have only been blogging for a day, no less than a day, cos not even 24 hours, i keep findin things - mystery stoles and stuff. i am afraid, will i get sucked in and never, ever get back to the phd? oh my ears and whiskers, ar-r-r-r-g-g-g-h hhh.... poor little bunny rabbit, rabbit rabbit.... Ing .....

still rabbitIng ...

oh my ears and whiskers ... my supervisor likes my first submission. so i'm not so dumb after all!?!?

so now i guess i'd better finish the second. .... or shall i start some new lace knitting ... hmm, difficult one, that ... rabbit, rabbit .........

rabbitIng on

oh my ears and whiskers, i've done it now. i blame Jean. after all, until i read Hers, i never thought of doing it. blogging, i mean. oh my ears and whiskers. as if i don't waste enough time already. and all because of knitting lace, or is that lace knitting??? so perhaps i should blame Sharon? well, someone! after all it can't be my fault, can it? well, just to say, this is my version of Sharon's lovely rosebud shawl project(Sharon Miller of Heirloom Knitting fame). have just finished her Wedding Ring Shawl. got to block it. then i don't know what i'll do - scarey, having to start - so insecure, starting ... :( not like having something on the go, nice and steady. oh my ears and whiskers. who am i, what do i do? well i'm Ingrid, i love knitting, reading, rabbits and rabbitIng. and my grandchildren, of course. but i'm supposed to be doing my PhD really. oh, and i'm a really mature student. REALLY mature!!! i.e., old, not sensible !!! there, that'll do for a start, i feel quite faint, i think i'll go and lie down for a while ........
rabbit, rabbit, rabbit, rabbit, rabbit ....