Happy Friday.

I have now completed a  whole month with the new job. It's whizzed by. I am sort off settling in, it's a complete contrast with my old job, the pace is so much gentler! I'm still feeling like a fish out of water at times, but I'm thinking I am going to like this job. So far there has been no stress what so ever, I'm sure that won't last but it's so far removed from the pace I worked at previously, I do get bored easily so I hope that they will give me enough work to keep a flow going, sad but true, I do like to be busy.

My sleep pattern is much improved and although I still rise with the larks the quality is so much better. I like that early time of day when all is quiet and everyone else is still asleep, except for this morning, no 2 son has just left for a day at Thorpe Park so the hound decided to wake everyone up as he was not happy no 2 son had left the premises! But hes settled now so I can catch up on some blogging and blog reading.

This week has seen more stash enhancement, the hard decision was made that although I love pretty single skeins of yarn I really need a sweater's worth of yarn, I fell in love with a sweater, so it had to be done. I was sensible, I chose a favourite yarn brand for the sweater, really couldn't justify indi dyer yarn for a sweater, would have been very costly.. The sweater is called Fast forward and is designed by Veera Valimaki, here's what it will look like , if I manage to get it completed

pic from Veera pattern page

I love this sweater, I love the shape, the style and the colour way, but when I looked at what colourways others had used I became a bit stuck, so what did I go and do? well, decided to have a 2 colour stripe sweater! I am going to alternate my current 2 favourite colours...

Bright pink and lime....and shock horror I am even swatching to make sure I hit the gauge as I am using a different yarn, same weight though, but I do knit loose.  I rarely swatch so this must be a special sweater.. watch this space, swatched last night came out too big so am going to do swatch number 2 over the weekend, another bank holiday weekend here, yippeeee. I would like to reassure you that I have finished some items, they are currently awaiting blocking then I will show and tell !

In other news Barry Bongo is making his first camping trip of the year this weekend

We're going to take a quick drive down to Glastonbury to meet up with some friends, last year we got a bit battered during some very windy camping trips so need to get the awning out and aired and see if there are any repairs needed. The hound is also trying out a new holiday kennel as ours has sadly closed down. The sons have decided that it will be a parent free opportunity so its just hubs and I wandering off to catch a sunset. We stayed at this site last year and it is fab, The Old Oaks campsite. Glastonbury is one of my fav places to visit, a very quirky little place with lost to see.

Hopefully the sun will shine, it's looking a bit grey out there and its a tad cold ,  but I have a good book, we are meeting up with great friends and we will share some good camping cooked food, what more could I ask for..

Happy mail day.

What a joy to come home to happy mail, not that I have bad mail I will have you know but its generally bills or junk. 

I have been on a bit of a yarn binge lately, my stash was at that critical almost empty level so it needed to be topped up quick sharp. I blame instagram and podcasters for leading me astray and tempting me with their yarn porn ! I have been stalking some independent dyers trying to catch a shop update, generally not being quick enough, so was really pleased to snag this little beauty

how pretty is that ? absolutely no idea what I will do with it, it wont be socks as its way too pretty to be hidden inside my boots. I am developing a love for green so may try snag a skein of that dark green colour and do something bigger with it, Or maybe I will just keep it a while and just look at it!

On the new laptop front its going great all except I think I need to buy a mouse as I can't for the life of me work out how to do right or left clicks like you do on a mouse. I am really starting to feel old now with all this new gadgetry about!

A Cornish Easter.

What a fab weekend we had in Cornwall. The weather was kind to us and we got out and about lots. The drive back was a nightmare and having to go straight back to work on Tuesday was hard. I am so glad it was a 4 day weekend.

We did all the things that we wanted except the Tattoo exhibition in Falmouth, it was to nice to be indoors, that will have to wait for another trip. 

Here's a few snaps from my phone, didn't actually get my camera out, have realised if I want to take proper pics I need to go on my own, the family just walk off and leave me places!

The hidden hut was lovely, just as we arrived a huge black rain cloud appeared and we had a small rainfall, but huge brollies were brought out and in no time the sun reappeared. The food was great, the boys had mackerel pate and I had a chickpea and coconut dhal. will definitely be going back there. Word of warning if you do fancy going get there early, by the time we left it was packed !

The rest of the weekend we bimbled about trying to miss most of the holiday makers as it was a little bit busy down south!

And THAT ice-cream was an amazing Coco-nut  from Swanpool beach, heaven in a cone.

Hello long weekend.

Hello 4 day weekend, I am so pleased to see you. This weekend you will be giving me some much needed vitamin sea, yep its off to Cornwall for me, hubs and no 2 son. No 1 is staying home with the hound, his choice I think he quite likes having the house to himself! We are off to stay with our Cornish friends.

As always with me I like to take a good book and a knitting project, my chosen book is 

amazon link

A bit of light summer reading, I am imagining that the sun will be shining and I will be sat on the beach reading at some point over the weekend, I do miss the days when the boys were small and made sandcastles and rock pooled, nowadays, no 2 sits by my side reading and no 1 does not like sand ! I have this on my kindle and I admit that at present my kindle is overflowing with books I haven't read! Now I am settling into the new job I am hoping my brain will settle and I can get some reading time in each week.

The knitting project is this

Flamingo legs

nope, I haven't knit this its a sock blank which I am knitting from !

Oh my, I have no idea why I never bought these before I am so a sock blank convert, it was a bit of a snap decision actually, I have been lusting after Amy's flamingo legs yarn but have never managed to get any when she updates her shop, always too slow, but there was this beauty left so I just hit that add to cart button and it was mine. It made me so happy when it arrived I just had to cast it on straight away, As the yarn is so beautiful I wanted a simple pattern that would let the yarn do all the work. So I chose this gorgeous pattern, which is aptly named 

knit me

how gorgeous is that?

I think it will be perfect for this yarn.If you are a knitter its worth checking out her pattern, I love them and have knit a few.  Louise Zass-Bangham 

If you are a knitting podcast watcher, go check out amys channel her podcasts are so much fun to watch, Amy Edwards Green, if you have never knit from a sock blank give it a go, I love it, no runaway balls to chase , no skeins to ball up, and its squished into a small project bag, what more could you want?

There is 1 place on my 'want to go visit whilst I'm in Cornwall list', that I am hoping to go to this weekend, The hidden Hut,  I have wanted to visit for ages but never got there, well this weekend we have decided to give it a darned good try! a nice cliff walk and lunch at the hut! bliss. I shall take my little Praktica camera as I haven't used a camera in ages, have been lazy and just using my i-phone for pics! am hoping for a good few picture opportunities here.

We are hoping to get to the maritime museum in Falmouth,  as there is a Tattoo exhibition on, I do love a good tattoo, I have 7 Tattoos in total, some not so good now, and could quite happily get some more, maybe I will, in fact if I get to this exhibition I probably will !

So now all that's left is to take no 1 son for some weekend food shopping, just to make sure he doesn't starve whilst we are away and then its off, hopefully most of the holiday traffic headed out of the city southwards yesterday, it was hellish getting home, 75 minutes of traffic snaking! But as I am not driving, hubs is, I shall sit and read or knit my way to Cornwall.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

x