No, Honestly, I am a Craft Blog

But Pippin insists on being involved.

Merry and Pippin supervise their blog

No wonder its all photographs of them!

I'm also an allotment blog by the way

I'm sure you all know the tune - "If I had a little mattock, I'd mattock in the morning, I'd mattock in the evening, all over this land".

My most recent purchase to try and get this plot into shape. A fork just won't do it as the ground is too hard. My new and much loved mattock has certainly told the soil who is boss so the right piece of equipment for the job certainly works wonders. Just don't stand behind me if I start swinging it ok.

Merry goes one better

Any box Pippin can find, Merry can find bigger!

Pippin searches for the perfect box

Pippin likes a comfy box but has to experiment before he finds perfection.

Wildlife watching wih Merry

Merry enjoys all the thrill and excitement of the annual deer rut as seen on a recent edition of Autumnwatch

These are two of the kits I bought from Hobbycraft a few weeks ago. The christmas holly scarf is now finished and very proudly worn by my daughter who says it is lovely and warm. I've knitted one of the angels from the other kit, they come in three different sizes and look very pretty. I've got another two packs of the angel kit as the yarn inside is the one you need for a christmas bauble pattern in the Christmas Woman's Weekly magazine, I couldn't find the yarn available individually. I'm also sorting out a star pattern as I think it would make attractive christmas stars either to hang on the tree or at the windows.

Chaos - and it isn't even Christmas yet!

Well I have more to report than I thought. It's typical isn't it, you mean to come back but somehow life gets in the way and then before you know it weeks have gone by.

We have been very busy over the last few weeks. My poor fingers have been flying as I've been making costumes for my children. I'm about to start my youngest son's donkey costume and my daughter is going to be a king but I can use some of the Henry VIII costume bits for that so I can save myself some sewing. Our christmas cake is maturing nicely, all 11" square of it. Yes, I know that is quite a big christmas cake but there is 6 of us and we have relatives who all like a slab to get them through to Easter. The mincemeat is maturing nicely and I've stocked up on flour, lard and butter so I shall be pastry making in bulk in the near future. I'm also busy making christmas decorations. I bought a knitting kit from hobby craft to make some angels - one now finished and it looks really sweet. I shall be making some more and will download a piccie. I went back to buy some more kits as they are on offer and a very inexpensive way of putting fancy yarns into my stash. Not that I can fit them in as the mattress is still there!

We took a trip to Pagham harbour the other weekend - a lovely wilderness to explore. For my children it was just an excuse to get their wellies wet. Youngest son's boots took nearly a week to dry out inside.

Gremlins

Well, I did say I wasn't specifying which weekend didn't I! The gremlins launched an attack and my hard drive has some dodgy sectors meaning I can't always get into my laptop. Pending a re-build in the near future my access time is currently limited so I shall limit myself to taking piccies, sorting out my stash, organising my Christmas craft activities and deciding what jumper to knit next. I shall be having fun but will have to wait a few days before I can record it all here.

Well, that's life. Less computer time means more knitting time so I shouldn't complain. I've nearly finished my daughter's new scarf and Christmas is on the not too distant horizon, time to dig out the red and green wool I've been saving all year.

Where have I been?

Good grief, I can't believe it's been that long since I posted a message. I've done absolutely no knitting at all either. I'm snowed under at the moment. I've got a project proposal for my OU course that needs to be completed and I've been stitching into the early hours of the morning getting my son's costume ready for an assembly 'some time this week'. Number 2 son needed a Henry VIII costume and number 1 son needed a costume suitable for someone who would fire a cannon. I've just about finished both costumes but its been hard work. Photos to follow as I'm rather proud of my efforts. I still need to create a donkey costume for youngest son and my daughter has just been appointed second king in her nativity play so thats another costume to create. Good grief! I have some piccies of a trip to Pagham Harbour as well so when I can find five minutes at the weekend I shall get my blog up to date. Though I do stress at this point that I haven't specified which weekend!

At Last - I'm a Knitting Blog

Finally a post relating to knitting! OK its not brilliant, I have to practice this photo thing. Agreed it's not the most inspirational thing in my yarn stash but that is remaining resolutely behind the old mattress. What we have here is a sale bargain from about two years ago. Its pure wool lopi and there is about 155g on the cone. It was purchased with a jumper in mind but its patently not jumper wool and will probably end up as some sort of jacket when I can find a suitable pattern. It isn't on its own, I have two more cones just like it - behind the mattress in my cupboard!

On a growing note, I spent most of today down at the allotment. I have a large bramble that is laughing at me every time I go down there so today it became history. It didn't go without a fight mind you, even with heavy duty gloves I am scratched to pieces so not much knitting over the weekend as the wool is irritating the scratches. I'm ground clearing at the moment ready to attack the plot with a mattock next week. Who says a girl can't have fun growing veg.

Pippin's Cosy Corner

Well, that's it. We won't see him again until May at the earliest. As I said, Winter is upon us! He's managed to find the old fake fur coat I keep in there. A veteran from when I lived in places where it actually got cold enough to wear it. It never seems to get that cold on the Hampshire coast. We never see snow as the clouds can't get over Butser hill so they drop all the snow on Petersfield instead! Much to the disgust of my children who desperately want to build snowmen. They'd settle for a snowball.

Pippin's Cosy Corner was my original idea for a blog name but then I thought Merry might get offended.

Merry and Pippin in person

I thought I would experiment with posting pictures. It's all very well wandering around snapping things to include but if I don't know how to post them to my blog they are not much use. I decided to start off with the guys who provided the name for my blog.

I've been rearranging upstairs and there is now a huge mattress in front of my yarn stash so I can't get there to photograph that, and I have to sort out my work in progress as well before I can photo that. Feeling slightly sabotaged at the moment so I've sorted through some piccies of my tabby guys. We think they are brothers, but if not they have certainly been together since they were tiny. They behave like brothers - one minute washing each others ears and cuddling up then five minutes later the fur is flying as they lock arms around each others' necks and start fighting! We got them from a rescue centre and they have been with us for about three years now.

Pippin is on the left and Merry is on the right. I can confirm that Winter has now officially started as both of them are now refusing to go outside. During the summer I can't keep them in, now it's getting a bit chilly out there they are heading for warm beds and cosy corners of wardrobes! Pippin's colour scheme means he can hide in dark corners and I can't find him - poor Merry tends to stand out more.

Well, the piccie seems to have transferred over, here comes the crunch part - when I press publish does it actually arrive in my blog? Wish me luck

My first post

Well, here I am, currently under construction. Not much to report at the moment but basically this is to be my knitting, crochet and handicrafts blog. I'm going to get the ball rolling by borrowing my husbands digital camera (now he's on the train to London) - after all I have to start somewhere and I have my yarn stash to organise so a photo opportunity is a good excuse to dive into my wool cupboard. I have a busy weekend ahead of me as one son needs a Henry VIII costume and my youngest is going to play a donkey at Christmas. Do I have any fur type fabric? Sounds like a good excuse to head out shopping.

I'm going to organise myself and sort out my projects, take some piccies and look into how these blog things work. Hopefully I shall get the hang of these things, I shall enjoy the learning experience.

Best wishes

Louise