When you want a cake to rise....

it doesn't and when you don't want it to -  this is what happens:

April showers - a typical day

One of the wettest Aprils in many years seems to have moved on to a very wet first day of May. A day to stay home and get on with indoor pursuits ( after a quick coffee with dear friends!)
Knitting:

Updates:
Charlie's cardigan was finally completed a few days ago and is awaiting a visit from the said son and his approval - or not.
A baby blanket for Lucy's baby was also started and finished - this involved the purchase of more yarn in an appropriate colour and thus 2 balls of cream dk left over has joined the stash.
A little baby girl cardigan was completed - this also entailed an addition to the stash as I bought some additional Bamboo which appeared to be going cheap
A baby boy cardigan in the said Bamboo

Items on needles currently include:
Chicken teapot for Dawn - not sure if I am happy with this improvised project
Bright baby jacket
Building blocks blanket in beautiful Bamboo
The green log cabin which is now amongst the sorely neglected
The second pair of socks for Jessica which have been on needles for some considerable time now and seem to keep looking at me for movement
A green child's jumper which may be unravelled - yet more wool which was added to the stash - reduced in the new wool shop which I had to pass on my way back home from the hairdresser....

Baking:
I want to try a recipe in the latest Good Housekeeping for a special chocolate cake. The recipe calls for soured cream and I bought a tub on my way back from the coffee earlier. If it works then this will be a contribution to a wedding supper in a few weeks time.

Hens:
Sadly Kevin was taken ill a couple of weeks ago and is no longer with us. We never knew her age or provenance but she had never laid and had been looking miserable for some time. The other hens are producing some 5 or 6 eggs a day and baking would be a good idea to use up some of the supply.

Family History:
Baking and knitting are taking a back seat to the latest family history research. An e mail out of the blue put me back on the track of a Welsh family who, obligingly, left detailed wills when they died. The e mail correspondent was himself descended from two branches of my family tree who joined together in his. Enticingly he has photos of siblings of ancestors. It is one of my regrets that I have so few photographs. What I have I treasure.

Reading:
Richard Russo -The Risk Pool
Music:
The Lighthouse Trio - who I went to see on Friday - but more of them later

Flaming June finalised

Quite what to do?

A new wool shop has opened today and I just had to pay a visit. I actually do need some wool. I am coming to the end of  the Flaming June log cabin and have run out of the dark brown. The original wool was bought in a shop some 3 hours' drive from where I am today so I thought I'd take a look around the local wool shops here to see if I could find a ball of the require yarn. Sadly not but I did buy some beautiful new baby alpaca:

I didn't actually need the baby alpaca in the same way that I needed a ball of the brown acrylic, in fact I didn't need it in any way at all. I did, today, finish a baby bamboo cardigan

and there is nothing I can do with the Flaming June until I get the ball of brown but it is not as if I have nothing to knit. I decided to just take a little look at the current works in progress or about to be cast on or " that will be good for" projects and, well, I will admit to a bit of a current addiction.

The Flaming June

The green log cabin which has somehow lost its momentum

The box in the sitting room which contains half finished:
Baby jacket
socks
mini christmas stockings for advent calendar
dolls clothes
baby hats
scarf
Regia wool for socks
Bamboo cotton for 3 baby cardigans
oddments for odd projects

Some Debbie Bliss, Rowan, Phildar etc for non specifc, possibly baby type projects.

Hand was shaking by now - the Knig cole riot, lots of Sirdar Snuggly and yet more baby yarn......

Quite specific Marriner for, yet another, log cabin, some dishcloth yarn and lots of baby 3 ply; a bag of oddments

The bag containing all the yarn, new needles and pattern for my Cowichan.

Of course I didn't need the baby alpaca but it is lovely and a great colour. Quite what to do now though? To finish one of the started projects? I had intended to make a few mini Christmas stockings each month so that, come December, I am not saying - well it will do for next year. I have  had Jessica's socks on the needles for some time and - the photograph I somehow forgot to take - Charlie's cardigan. Now I have so little of that to do - half a front and a front band. What is it that makes me forget about that delightful piece of work? The Cowichan will free up  the biggest space - it is one large bag full of chunky wool but it is a major project and another baby cardigan will only take me today. There is not a lot left to do on the green log cabin and the socks would be a nice thing to do. Decisions. A cup of tea.

The chickens go to a wedding

Some months ago I was asked to knit 100 raspberry pink chickens for an Easter wedding. Yesterday was the wedding and the chicks made their appearance. I understand that they left with individual guests.

Some old knitting - what we used to wear!!

Clearing out lofts brings memories and some fine examples of what we used to wear!!

I remember this jacket so well. My grandmother, May, knitted it for me. I must have been quite young at the time so the pattern must date from the late 1950s or early 60s.  May had a sister, Em, in Canada and I think the pattern may well have been sent from Em to May. I have vague memories that maybe the wool came too in a pack but that may be a false memory. Research, with the help of June at Knit Nottingham, pointed me in the direction of Cowichan patterns and from there I found the patterns of Mary Maxim. I feel pretty sure that this is the source of this pattern. The jacket is surviving pretty well for its age and for the amount of wear it had. The next ones not so well - there are 2 of them - Paul and I had one each:

Someone must have washed them on a hottish wash but, again, not in bad condition for 50 year olds.
I really want to knit something like these now. Searching the internet I have found similar patterns but not the exact ones. How wonderful, though, that they have survived for so long - someone must not have wanted to let go of them.

Moving on to the 1980s I loved the next two but doubt my children would be too delighted to see me wearing either of them in the near future.

Flaming June

Younger daughter has finally agreed to let me knit a blanket for her living room. Actually, that is not quite accurate as, during our last discussion, she did wonder if it might just go on the bed  in the spare bedroom. Regardless, I have been out searching for wool in the correct colours. Her living room is dominated by a piece of artwork she had as a 21st birthday present - deep reds and golds and orangey browns and this is complemented by a print of Flaming June - that Frederick Lord Leighton iconic pre-Raphaelite gem that everyone seems to know. The dominant colour in the throw then needs to be an orange. There are many beautiful oranges around in the more upmarket ranges of yarns but the yarn I have left over to knit 80% of this blanket is acrylic and so I need an acrilyc orange. What there seems to be in the 100g balls is something so neon that it looks as if it needs to be on the back of someone working in the road at night. Searching online is not easy as colours can be deceptive so a trip to a small yarn shop was called for. To my delight, I love coincidences, the person I spoke to in the shop was June and, having dismissed the ubiquitous neon ball she delved into a basket of 25g balls and came up with two shades of orange - both of which were ideal. I do also like decisions being made for me in an unexpected way. I was planning another log cabin ( I will inevitably get bored of the pattern before too long) and I had been debating in my head as to where the key colour - the orange would be. With 2 shades and only 2 25g ball of each that decision was taken out of my hands and the oranges go in the centre of the squares. I quickly completed my first square, learning from experience weaving in each colour as it appears, sent a photo to the daughter who approved and now have another lovely project sitting at my feet. I wonder what I will make of the juxtaposition of a hearty log cabin and Flaming June?