A Bit of Work and a Lot of Roses

Those of you who despaired of me ever publishing another pattern will be glad to hear that I've started working again. I'm only doing about half an hour at a time but it's a start. All this week I've been writing up my pattern for a lace version of the Ten Stitch Blanket.

It's hard going as a) I knitted it a while ago so it's not fresh in my mind, b) my notes for it are scattered all over my current notebook and c) it took me a while to remember how to use my pattern writing software. I've got as far as the garter stitch I cord edging now though so the end of the first draft is in sight.

I've also just started work on a new bunting pattern to go with my Spring, Autumn and Christmas bunting patterns (no links for these as they messed up my formatting). This one will be inspired by Summer and, so far, I've sorted out the colours I'm going to use and knitted the first of the twelve flags.

I used my cross stitch Summer sampler from Little Dove Designs to find the colours for this one as they're probably going to be displayed together.

This is a straightforward project at the moment as I can just copy my pattern for the flags from the other patterns. The tricky part will come when I have to design little knitted motifs to represent Summer. So far, I've though of an ice cream but I can't decide whether it should be an ice lolly or a 99 cornet. For the non-British, this is a vanilla ice cream with a chocolate flake stuck in it. Personally, I would never touch the whippy sort of ice cream often used for these which is the work of the devil. 

While I'm on the subject of ice cream, you might like to try my late Mother-in law's lemon ice cream which has got to be the easiest recipe ever. You take equal quantities of lemon curd and double cream (I use a 300g jar of the curd and 300 ml of cream), whisk them together until they're well mixed, pour into a container and freeze. That's all there is to it. You don't need to take it out of the freezer in advance as the spoon goes into it straight away and it's very, very tasty. The amounts I use fill one of these square 750 ml boxes.

Now for a rose update. No sooner had the first one flowered than all the rest decided to get their acts together and join the race. I give you ...

Kew Gardens

Buff Beauty

and the wonderfully named Tottering-by-Gently

As you can see, this last one is in the front garden by the railings, showing off to passers by. Just along from it is The Poet's Wife which isn't in flower yet but is absolutely full of buds.

Meanwhile, the first rose of this year has got lots more flowers on the way.

Lady of Shalott

I love my roses but I'm also fond of the common flowers that some call weeds. The grass out the back is getting long and tatty now but it can't be cut before the ox-eye-daisies have flowered and they're very nearly there, along with some woodland buttercups. Any day now ...

Furzedown Gallery

I've recently had a new order of the little cards I use as notelets and I thought you might like to see them.

They are from Furzedown Gallery and are printed from original watercolours by the artist Kitty Herridge. Her subjects range from animals and flowers to dragons and gnomes - all set amongst beautiful countryside. You can buy the cards in various sizes but I always go for the smallest.

Ten of this size card are £10 and postage is free within the UK. This time I bought two sets of ten, including a set of snowy ones which I thought would be appropriate to send during the winter. Here are the non snowy ones ...

If you click on the picture above you can see the cards in more detail. Aren't they beautiful? I love them all; they're nostalgic without being too cute, if you know what I mean. As you can see, there are two cards with donkeys on. These will be sent to my daughter's partner who is particularly fond of donkeys. There is one called Clover who lives at Hackney City Farm, near where they live in London and, when he is well enough, they visit her and the other donkeys there.

Clover is the donkey at the back of this photo.

I haven't bought any of the snowy cards before; they'd make lovely Christmas cards, wouldn't they?

Only one donkey in this batch but Hedwig makes an appearance. I especially like the one with the red tractor; the artist lives on her family farm and tractors often appear on the cards.

I was pleased to discover that Furzedown Gallery is based on a farm of the same name near  Kings Somborne in Hampshire. As a child I lived in Longstock which is in the same part of the world. I went to school in Stockbridge and my Dad's family come from (and still live in) Broughton. It's particularly nice to be able to support and recommend a local artist.

In other news, I have started painting what will be my new craft room, although I'm tempted to call it the Room of Requirement as it can whatever I need it to be. Also, the cats aren't entirely sure that it exists as the door has been kept closed for years. When I go up there, they think I've left the house (I know this because they tend to stay indoors when I'm out and only venture out to the garden once they know I'm back).

Anyway, before being ill, I would have done a coat of paint on a room easily each day. Now I have to pace myself and can just manage one coat on one wall. So far, I've finished the ceiling and done the first coat on two of the walls.

The ceiling only needed two coats, despite the fact that the colour I painted it before turned out to be much darker than I remembered.

I suspect that those red walls will need three coats though. I shall get there in the end.