Tossing the Floss

Hi everyone,

Thanks very much for all the lovely comments on my last post - I'm glad you like him as much as we all do. Certainly finding him brightened up a grey day, and your comments brightened up another dull day!

All images via my trees board on Pinterest.

Not that I'm complaining about dull days! From now until Christmas is just about my favourite time of year. I love watching the trees change colour and the leaves fall. I've been noticing recently that the area around where I live and work has quite a lot of trees and a walk outside always throws up something worth looking at. I have to keep reminding myself to carry my camera with me all the time!

All images via my trees board on Pinterest.

I have a couple of stitchy designs in my stash featuring some gorgeous trees and they've been calling out to me recently so much that I've dug them out!

La Pineta di Classe by Renato Parolin

Il bosco di Bengtsson, Renato Parolin again!

I've planned, since before I bought it, to stitch Il bosco di Bengtsson on a greyish background using white floss with a touch of blending filament to give a frosty feel. But I've suddenly started thinking about doing La Pineta di Classe in autumn colours.

Don't you just love those autumn shades?

But which to choose? I've managed to narrow it down to about 5 colours, but none is exactly right - I can have greens and golds or browns and reds, but not all at the same time!

Choices, choices! I'm not quite sure what to do yet - a mixture is probably the answer, but how? Any ideas, suggestions or useful thoughts welcome!



And how do you like my latest new start? Shock horror - it's knitting! I've been planning to knit a monkey for a nephew's Christmas present and got started yesterday. It was very strange to be knitting at 10.55pm last night, and enjoying it!

See you next time!

Chirpy chirpy cheep cheep

I was wandering up the road to work last Friday when I heard a little whimpering sound coming from somewhere around my feet. Looking down, I saw this sorry little chap, lying lost and abandoned, half buried under a pile of leaves at the side of the road.

I picked him up, calmed him down and gave him a few sips of water, whereupon he snuggled down among the tissues in my coat pocket and slept for the rest of the day!

Once I got home again, and after a 'bath', he still didn't look too happy, huddled in his blanket feeling sorry for himself.

So, I handed him over to Miss Bertha to nurse back to health.

That did the trick - Miss Bertha is a wonder with the little ones! And before long little Chirpy was feeling much more himself and ready to join in all the regular monkey games.

And he rather enjoyed a little treat at the weekend with me and Iona!

007 is very protective of the little ones!

See you next time!

- Composed using BlogPress from my iPod & finished off on a pc!

Rainbows

Hi everyone!

We seem to be having a lot of rainbows around here at the moment, often very vivid double rainbows which I don’t remember seeing so much of before.

And then, I was lying on the kitchen floor last week with Niamh sitting on me, when I happened to look out the back door and see another rainbow curving around the edge of a cloud just overhead.

All these lovely rainbows have reinvigorated my love of rainbow crochet, so here are the pics of my current rainbow WIPs.

This first one is a prototype for something – I just love the shell pattern! And I love shell patterns in general – but has anyone come across a pattern for a circular shell? Or a shell-type granny square? Or am I going to have to work out my own?

And here’s my third time lucky blanket which is creeping along. I was taking this pic yesterday evening when I noticed a potential disaster right in the middle – was I going to have to frog it all over again?

See that? I’m not quite sure how this has happened - paranoid as I am, I usually leave lovely long yarn tails – so why is round 1 unravelling on its own?

Fortunately, I think I caught it just in time as only one of the round 2 treble clusters had lost its anchor.

I took a needle and some red yarn and ran the yarn around the bottom loops of all the treble clusters which were anchored in round 1.

Problem solved – phew!

See you next time!

Hairem Scarem

Remember the hairy things I was making back in July?

In the end there were 5 of them and over the last week or so, I've finally put them to their intended use.

Please welcome the coolest, newest rock group to hit blogland - Bearded Monkeys.

Featuring 007 and Titch on drums, on keyboard, Lily the Pink .....

... and Tipsy, and on guitar, Zero-X1 (alias Bluebeard the Monkey) and Captain Monkeypants!

They're currently wowing all the hippest venues around the house playing various smash hits and covers. Think 'Angels' by Robbie Williams but substitute the word 'Monkeys' for the Angels ..... I'm loving monkeys instead .....

Or ??? Anyone have any special requests for our Bearded Monkeys to perform?

Perhaps surprisingly, Miss Bertha has turned out to be one of their greatest fans...

In between gigs, the monkeys have taken to careering around the garden on 'their wheels' and discussing cookery!

Hairy Biker Monkeys (have you heard of the Hairy Bikers?)

I think they also have more hairy, geeky and intellectual ambitions too - I recently caught 007 and Zero-X1 huddled over a laptop arguing over the exact dimensions and definition of an Infinite Monkey Cage, or was it preferable to remain free Uncaged Monkeys?

I think they may be getting a tad confused - perhaps all that fresh air and exercise has been too much for them. Do they really think beards like those necessary to join the ranks of sexy science types like Simon Singh and Brian Cox?

- Composed using BlogPress from my iPod & finished off on a pc!


P.S. Anyone fancy a game of Words with Friends? I promise to be completely useless!

P.P.S. We have a new member of the monkey family - meet Chirpy next week!

Miss Bertha Buttons

Hi everybody,

Please let me introduce you to a friend, Miss Bertha Buttons.

She's been with us for a few weeks now, but insisted that I wait until she was properly presentable before introducing her to you.

You wouldn't believe how timid she was when we first met - why, you scarcely needed to look at her before her arms and legs would just drop off in a panic!

Fortunately a little minor surgery (and elastic) solved her 'little problem' and boosted her confidence for appearing in public. We were, unfortunately, unable to correct her squint. (ie. those eyes just refused to go on straight!)

She was especially delighted when I presented her with her new shawl, having a fondness for buttons and the colour purple.

She finds her shawl especially useful for her afternoon tea parties, where she takes full advantage of the opportunity to show it off.

She also now feels sufficiently at home with us to participate in Iona's games, in the role of 'Baby Bertha'.

However, her favourite is to play babysitter for Niamh's dolly.

And she is learning to be less offended by certain comments about 'Big Bertha' or 'Giant Bertha'. After all, she can't help the way she's made!

Bertha stands 11 inches tall from the tips of her feet to the top of her head. She was crocheted using Sirdar Squiggly super-chunky yarn and an 8mm hook, although a smaller hook would have been better.

- Composed mostly using BlogPress from my iPod with photos added later!

All change .....

Bit of chaos while I change my blog template around ......