WARNING.... lots of pictures of knitting!

I'm back into the swing of things here, housework was done this morning and then I cut four boys hair and Malcs! Cal and Malc are easy as they just have it clippered all over with a number one cutter. Clark has his scissor cut and has done for about six months which has lead to Sol and Cody announcing they would like theirs scissor cut now! I'm not a hairdresser I just follow on from the cut before. It seems to be working so far! With haircuts in barbers being from £5 to £8 that's how it's going to continue! The boys are fine at the moment but I know there will come a day that they don't want me to cut it anymore. That'll be the day they pay for their haircut themselves!!
Anyway pictures! I've finished the two chunky cardigans that I was knitting for my friends boys for their birthdays .

I'm not very pleased with the buttons on the green one , I must remember to take a strand of wool with me when I go and get the buttons. The green wool was not how I remembered it!!

I've also done this one for a friend who had a baby a few months ago. I did some at the time but the baby has now outgrown them

Here's a close up of the pattern. I've done this pattern quite a few times. It's one of those that looks complicated but really isn't. It makes you look so much more clever than you really are!

I've just started another one for the same baby, here's a picture of the pattern

This is the wool I'm doing it in

I started it last night,

I think it could take me a while, firstly it's in 4 ply which takes ages to grow and secondly I don't tend to do any patterns nowadays as I'm constantly being interrupted by children! Pesky kids!! I was also knitting with a six month old staffy who still thinks she's a tiny puppy laying on my lap last night which didn't help matters!
I'm such a softie I couldn't push her down!
I'm hoping to get a few rows done tonight as three of the children are out at Beavers, Cubs and Youth Club.
I know it's back onto the weather but we've got rain here today with snow expected on higher ground. If you get some please post a picture for me, I do love snow and it would make an old lady very happy! How can you not resist?!

The other end!

Thank you to simple Suffolk smallholder, Karen, Jo, Dreamer, Em, C and Amanda for all their good wishes , they seemed to have worked!
I did have a lovely birthday, I woke with a sore throat but it wasn't too bad. It certainly didn't stop me eating when I went out for a meal with Malc, the children and my parents in the evening. It was more the next day when I woke!
Store throat, headache and no energy whatsoever, which wasn't good. This house needs a lot of energy!
Here are most of my presents

I received quite a few chocolates, some lovely candles and wax tarts that you put in a burner and they make your house smell lovely, any thing's better than damp dogs, a book light, smellies and in the middle there is a feather duster that Cody bought me, I've been wanting one for ages.
Another dishcloth,

A close up of the moss stitch

We are already using them as flannels, Callum thinks his one is great. I didn't think the boys would want these because of the colour, I thought they would wait for me to knit the yellow ones but they both got snapped up!
I have been doing essential jobs only so I've got quite a bit of knitting done so I'm warning you now tomorrows post will contain lots of pictures of knitting!
Bet you can't wait!

An extra birthday present!

I received an extra present on Sunday, a virus!!
I've got a hacking cough and a horrible sore throat. I'm hibernating in my bed and I'm not coming out until it's gone!
See you at the other end! X

A new water pump !

The van has started leaking water, we can't complain it's been a few months since something went wrong on it. Back last year I think it needed repairs done every month!
We picked up the bit yesterday and Malc started undoing bits and bolts yesterday, there were a couple of stubborn ones so he put WD40 on them and left them overnight. Today he has worked on it for nearly five hours! It still isn't done, on one of the parts he has to get off to get the old water pump off, three out of the four bolts have sheared off and after trying for a couple of hours to get them off he's had to admit defeat!
He's put it all back together again, so we're no worse off than we were yesterday. At the moment we're filling the reservoir with water before we go anywhere and we have about five lemonade bottles full of water on us and it's necessary journeys only.
Saying that tomorrow Eden has her first paid singing stint in church and we're meant to be going out for a late Sunday lunch tomorrow as it's my birthday, we'll need to drive for both of them!
First thing Monday morning he will have to ring the garage and see how much they'll charge him for taking the old one off and putting the new one on.
Today I have done about five loads of washing and managed to get it all dry. A couple of the loads were dogs blankets and I changed two beds knowing I could wash and dry it all today as we had beautiful sunshine and a lovely breeze.
Clark and I made a birthday cake,

The icing isn't very central but it'll do!
Last night I finished this dishcloth,

Here's a close up of the pattern.

I've started on a moss stitch one, same colour.
I didn't get time to blog or read round any blogs last night so I'm off to catch up now.

Bovington Tank Museum

We've been here before and I'm sure I've blogged about it before. We bought tickets back last May and they last a year, you can go back as many times as you like within those 12 months. This is our third visit and we hope to get one more in before they run out in May.

It's such a great place to go with four boys! Eden stayed at home and had a friend round whilst looking after the dogs for us.
We arrived about midday and took a picnic.
Looked round the tanks and found some gun games to play on

They've also got a new building open where they store tanks being restored and waiting to go into exhibits, sometimes they are housed in this building whilst they are deciding the best place to put it in the main building.

The boys had a great day which is what it's all about!
I've finished the blue cardigan but have yet to sew it together, so I've started on a dishcloth meantime.
Over at http://growing-in-the-fens.blogspot.co.uk, Morgan had posted about http://www.knitting-bee.com. I had a look at it and guess what I discovered , one hundred and fifty patterns for dish clothes!
http://www.knitting-bee.com/free-knitting-patterns/dishcloths.
There is something for all occasions.

Just a few samples for you. Most of them are just garter and purl stitch.
I think they make ideal flannels, especially if you personalise them with the recipients hobby.
I hope to knit a few myself so look out for the pics in the future.

What to blog about?

The weather has been done to death! I've no knitting finished to show, I did bake muffins earlier but the are only a couple left as my hungry monkeys have partaken of one or two!
So I thought, dogs! I've been asked about my dogs in the comments of posts at times so I thought I could go through them.
Don't panic I'm not going to go through all of them today, you'd be here all night reading!
I'm going to start with the eldest and work my way down.
So here's Medina

She's a Saluki X Jack Russell. The Mum was the Jack Russell and she had six puppies. Doesn't bear thinking about!!
She's going to be twelve on 24th May this year (yes, we do celebrate all our dogs birthdays! )
She's called Medina (Meddy for short) as Salukis originate from Saudi Arabia and when we brought her home we looked at a map to find a place in Saudi that we could use for her name and we all agreed on this one. Meddy was mine and Malcs fifth dog (the others have passed on)
After having Callum we got to about 2 years with no sign of any more babies so we decided to add to the dogs instead! We'd only had her about two weeks when we found out I was expecting Clark! Funny how things work out!
Meddy sleeps for much of the day, she tucks herself away under the dining table away from all the mayhem that ensues in the middle of the room. She still enjoys her walks and can keep up with the youngsters, even managing to chase the odd squirrel !
Although when she tries to get up after sleeping she does get a bit stiff!
Find out more about the next dog, Tula, next time I haven't got much to blog about!

We had sunshine!

Yesterday we had beautiful blue skies and warm sunshine. Malc and the two eldest boys managed to fix the fence panel and get it secure, it was much needed as the dog at the bottom of our garden got through a gap in our neighbours fence and then got through the gap in ours. It was a lovely bouncy spaniel who jumped up at my washing line and got all my washing covered in muddy footprints! Callum took him back home but the owners weren't in so he left him in their garden.
Later on before the panel was fixed our dogs were out and the spaniel poked his head round the broken fence at the bottom of his garden and my dogs were gone! It was party time with dogs  running round all three gardens! So the fence became a matter of urgency, I figured once the dogs had been through once they would be going through again now they knew the way.
Whilst they were repairing that, I made this

We had a roast dinner last night followed by a slice for pudding.
Eden had cell group at her church last night so she walked up to it as it is up the road where it's shut off to traffic and Malc and I took a dog each and walked up to meet her, which was lovely as the skies were lovely and clear and we had a romantic walk up the road which was eerily quiet with no cars going up and down,  looking at all the stars.
Today has been the usual beginning of the week housework, ironing and mundane stuff. Just off to make tea and see what's on TV tonight!

Windy!!!

The windows rattled, the fence blew down and the garage door blew off! Our local bridge across the harbour flooded and loads of local roads were closed. There was talk of shutting the second bridge and the main road that is the only way into where we live as the other road is closed due to the roadworks thankfully that didn't happen.

This picture was taken literally the other side of the bridge where our local rowing club is.
The man over the road had his neighbours garage roof end up on his car. It wasn't pretty, I couldn't settle until everyone was in, the road that was going to be closed was the only road Malc could come home on, it's right next to the bay and it's notorious for accidents when it's windy, as big as our bus is, it gets blown and you have to fight the steering wheel. They got in at 9-30 pm just before high tide which was at 10pm.
Malc slept downstairs with the boys as Cody was very worried. Soloman slept in with me and we all got to sleep about one o'clock. I don't think I've ever been as worried about our safety as I was last night. It was nowhere near what we've seen on the TV, I honestly don't know how those people are coping, it must be soul destroying!
Onto other news, the puppies went for their checkup this morning, all is well. A daughter was picked up, brought back home, fed and taken into town to meet friends. She's on another sleepover tonight, we pick her up again tomorrow dinnertime.
Malc has bought a new hasp for the garage to keep the doors together, unfortunately he couldn't fit it as he needs his electric drill and it's raining. We're hoping we can fix the fence  panel as it came off pretty whole. We usually wait for the landlord to do it but last time it took six weeks and was very stressful as our neighbours have dogs so we have to check they're not in the garden when we go out, they are Russian Terriers and are the smallest things, they really wouldn't even be a mouthful for our dogs!
I have also sewn this up

I've got to get some buttons, I have some lovely green ones but when I looked them out I only had five and I need six!
I've started on this one for the other lad who has a birthday in March,

The wool is a lovely pale blue brushed chunky. I do love chunky wool, it grows so quickly.
I think we'll all be having an early night tonight as everyone (me included) is very grumpy today. Hope everyone kept safe, I'm just off to read round some blogs to see how everybody fared.

Happy Valentines Day

Hope yours has been a great one.
Mine started with Malcolm and myself going out for breakfast, no children, just us!
I bought Malc a little light that you clip onto your book, he bought me this,

He knows me so well!
It's cotton as I want to knit some flannels for us all. I'm fed up with our shop bought ones getting holes in after a couple of weeks.
The puppies had a good night and are nearly back to normal, it's a bit of a problem trying to get them to stop playing!
We've had a busy day dropping Eden off at friends and having to go into town to buy Clark a scout shirt as he's being invested tonight, hopefully pictures to post tomorrow.
Malc is now at Beavers, followed by Scouts, followed by picking Eden and several friends up from Youth Club as she's got a sleepover tonight.
The road is still closed and as Malc is in the scout hall next door to youth club it makes sense for him to drop friends off. Sometimes I'm not sure whether having a mini-bus is a blessing or a hindrance!
I've just got one button hole band on the cardi I'm knitting to do and hopefully it'll get sown up tomorrow. I didn't get as much knitting done as I wanted to last night as Eden and I sat and nattered whilst the house was quiet which was lovely and quite a rare occurrence! She usually fits me in between tweets and texts!
We've got another wet and windy night ahead so I'm glad I'm indoors. Looking forward to Malc, Clark and Cody getting home and Eden getting to her friends so I know everybody is safe, unfortunately that's not going to be until about 9-30pm so I'm going to have some tea and immerse myself in blog reading which will help pass the time!
I'd like to say hello to a new follower too, Frugal Queen,  thanks for following.
Hope everybody keeps warm and dry!

Tyxall and Chumleigh

Many thanks to simple Suffolk smallholder, Jo and Dreamer for their comments on my update post.

Tyxall

Is feeling very sorry for herself. She's all wrapped up in her cage nice and snug to sleep it all off.

Chumleigh

Is sleeping now but walked out the consulting room with his tail wagging and trying to sniff out the dog biscuit aisle.
They've both got to go back on Saturday to have their wounds checked.
Malc and all the boys are out at a scout meeting for Family Camp later in the year. They all go to the cub campsite for the weekend and Eden and I have a weekend of peace, which means I knit all weekend and she's out with her mates!!
 Eden's in her room, dogs all laid round sleeping,
So three guesses what I'm going to do for the next couple of hours? Yep, those knitting needles are coming out!

Quick Update

Just had a call from the vets, both pups have come through the anaesthetic fine. They are sleeping and we are picking them up at tea time. Phew, I can get on with the rest of the day!

Wild Wednesday!

Well it is Wednesday and it was a bit wild! Funnily enough we had moderate wind this morning with heavy showers, about dinnertime the rain got heavier and the wind definitely got a lot stronger but by half past two we had a blue sky with a gorgeous sun shining! Really weird!
We haven't had rain for several  hours, we are getting the odd gust of wind.
Maybe we 're too far round the coast because from what I've seen on TV some places have had an awful day of it.
Malc and the two eldest boys got absolutely soaked this morning but bless him he still stopped off to get me these.

He knows they are my absolute favorite.
Tomorrow the pups are at the vets to be spayed and castrated, we've never had any problems before with any of our dogs having these ops but I'm always a little bit apprehensive until I get a call from the vets telling me they've come round OK.
I've got them both trying to sit on my lap at the moment whilst I type!
I'm hoping it'll slow them down for twenty-four hours but judging by past dogs that have had it done I don't hold out a lot of hope!

Lazy post!

Yesterday was full of mundane jobs, housework, washing floors, changing beds, ironing, washing floors! Walking dogs , oh and have I mentioned washing floors!
I've done my leaflet round this morning, another week of staying dry. Yay!
The storm that we were meant to have today with high winds has amounted to nothing, we've got brilliant sunshine, it's a bit chilly but nothing like what was predicted for us.
I only hope those further south west of us have got it better than was predicted too.
Anyway, these are finished,

My friend with lots of children has two boys with birthdays in March so I'm going to knit this cardigan for the five year old

With this wool,

It's a sort of sage green but it's got a fleck of red in it. I haven't decided what to do the four year old yet.
That's all today, nothing else to blog about really!

Four seasons in one day!

That's how it's been today. Last night the wind kept me awake for hours. Malc had to go outside and cover the rabbits back down after their covers had blown off twice in the early hours. This morning I drove Eden to rehearsal, as we had to go round the long way Clark came with me and we stayed for the rehearsal and the church service which was a Baptism today, so it was really nice. Eden did really well as she was singing solo with the church youth band for the first time, usually there's another girl with her. This isn't the paid job she went for a week or so ago this is the band that's at her church. Don't worry I can't keep up either!
Whilst I was out Malc made this for tea, Shepherds Pie,

We've got veg in the steamer to go with it, looking forward to that, lovely, warming and filling.
Callum and Clark cleaned out their rabbits this afternoon whilst we had some lovely blue sky and sunshine, particularly as we don't know when we 'll get another dry few hours. Unfortunately whilst they were cleaning them the heavens opened and we had a load of hail, we're just missing the snow today!
I sat and sewed this up, it's for Soloman so he modeled it for me

I started on the socks last night and have done just under half of the first one, the green and pink are knitting together nicely

Well I'd better get the dogs out as the sun has come out again, hopefully it won't hail again until after I get back! Wish me luck!

An afternoon in

Not even going to talk about the weather! We didn't have any damage even though we've had really strong gusts of wind most of the night and all day today.
Malc and I woke at the normal time of just after 6-30 am. Let the dogs out, had a cuppa in bed, watched some news to see if anything other than the bad weather and Olympics are happening,  there isn't! Then we settled back down to sleep, the boys didn't wake until 9-30am so we all got up feeling very refreshed.
Malc forced   offered to show Eden how to make a late fried breakfast/ early lunch, which she did whilst tweeting. Then she snap chatted the pictures of it to her friends! I think she would actually lose the will to live if she was ever parted from her phone!
After clearing up we settled down to watch a film "The Philadelphia Experiment" It was really good, as usual I knitted away whilst watching and I've managed to finish this

I've just got to sew it together but I'm going to wait to do it tomorrow in the natural light, I hate sewing anyway let alone having to struggle in electric light! I don't know why but I find it really makes a difference.
After tea I'm going to start on another order I've received for bedsocks, the pattern is for double knit but I've got lots of cones of 4ply so I'm going to use two together to get the right thickness, it also mixes colours and some of them knit up really prettily.

This green and pink should look really nice once knitted together.
I'm off to nose around blogland to see how other people have spent the day!

Operation.... Dry my washing!

Today has been glorious, the calm before the storm some would say!
I went to Mums this morning to blow dry her hair and cut Eds, only with clippers, a hairdresser I am not!
I've managed to dry three loads of washing, all the big quilts, towels and dogs bedding. We put down old quilt covers or towels by the front and back doors just to help with the paw prints but by the end of the day they are black so I wash between two and four every day. I have to hang them over the banister or the dining table chairs every night to dry.
So today I've been in and out as soon as something is dry it's in and replaced by something wet.
Beavers has been canceled as two of the leaders are ill, unfortunately that doesn't help us as we've still got band rehearsal, Scouts and Youth club.
Malc is planning to drive round the long way as the road is still shut and then leave the mini bus the other side of the road block and walk back through and then walk back to go pick up each of the children as and when, he's got to do this three times! I'm not sure when the rain is meant to start tonight but I think he could be getting wet!
It'll save going round and back the long way wasting a lot of petrol.
We've been out in the garden this afternoon making sure everything is secure as we're predicted a severe storm here over the next 24/48 hours.
I've got the candles handy just in case, I've never knitted by candlelight so I'll let you know how I get on! Hopefully the candles won't be needed.
So to all you readers particularly in the South West keep yourselves warm, dry and safe.

Wet and Windy!

This is what we need down here in the South West!
Apparently we've got another storm heading our way at the weekend, I continue to mop paw prints and hang wet clothes in doorways to dry!
The house is gleaming though! (Apart from the paw prints!) I'm getting so many extra jobs done in the house as we're not going out anywhere. Even the dogs haven't been walked for the last two days, the rain has just been non-stop and torrential!
I did find this though and I agree with it wholeheartedly, so at this very wet and cabin fevered stressful time it is what I will continue to do!
http://www.treehugger.com/culture/dont-stop-knitting-its-keeping-you-healthy.html

Not a good day!

The day started with a huge clap of thunder which hit our local Asda and hit the oldest of the bridges that goes over our harbour. Unfortunately it was in the up and open position and so it's been stuck like that all day!
We do have a second bridge which is just over a year old but this has had many teething problems and has also been known to get stuck in the up and open position! Let's hope it doesn't decide to play up in the next few days!
I did my leaflet round this morning, as I left the house the sky was blue, I got about a third of the way round and the heavens opened and we had a load of hail! Not good, I finished the round but was not in good humour when I got home.
To top it all the left turn at the end of our road has been shut as we've got a burst water main! This particular stretch of road was shut off for about eight weeks just over fourteen months ago whilst they replaced all the water pipes. It makes so much of an impact because if you want to go to Upton at the top of the road you can only go this way, turning right goes to Poole. So now we have to turn right, go through Poole and all the way round the bypass to get to Upton which is about half a mile UP the road. So much more petrol, more time and lots of traffic queues. A lot of people aren't very happy!
 We were meant to pick Eden up at two o'clock but she rang us at one o'clock to say her exams had finished and what should have been a thirty minute journey there and back became an hour and twenty minute journey because of the detour.
It looks like the road is going to be closed for two weeks!
I think many a row of knitting will be done this evening to destress!

My, I have got talented children!

One of Edens friends got her this for her birthday,

It's not the best picture because of the reflection but it says
"life would be so much nicer if only my mother would stop knitting"
The child is completely clothed in knitted garments!
This is funny because Eden stopped wearing anything I knitted for her several years ago. When she tells me that it's one of her friends birthdays and she doesn't know what to get them I do suggest that I could knit them something, she's never accepted this offer though! Can't think why!
Eden had an audition yesterday morning, a church has a paid position going for a soloist so she went along and sung "Amazing Grace" and another song, it was in Italian so I haven't got a clue what it was called! Anyway she got the job, she has to sing every couple of weeks starting at the end of February and she'll get paid £30 for the privilege, so she was chuffed.
We had a quiet afternoon and then we dropped Eden off at church for a rehearsal as her youth group were putting on the evening service. We gave the dogs a lead walk around the roads for about an hour and then we went back to the church for the service. It was really good and quite funny in parts.
Today has been housework and schoolwork. I nipped into town to get voucher for my friends as it's her birthday tomorrow. I've also knitted her some welly tops and some bedsocks.
Malc, Soloman and Clark have gone to Cubs so I'm going to read some blogs and maybe do a row or two of knitting.

They came second!

Soloman and Clark went to their District Scrapheap Challenge this afternoon. A group of six Cubs including my two boys were set a challenge and they have to complete it within two hours with loads of recycled things.
The remit was to make an area, you had to include any of the following, a boat, a river, a play park, tearooms, lockeepers cottage and a lock.
Here's our Cubs finished article

You can see the boat in the foreground, then you have a grass patch with flowers in, a slide, a sandpit and a see-saw. The lockeepers house is being placed on the back of their masterpiece!
They came second, losing by just two points!
The artists at work!

Their Cub leader was chuffed as they've not entered this for several years and they didn't expect to get placed at all.
They all got some sweets and a certificate which the cub leader's going to get framed and it will be hung in the scout hall.
Obviously all the craft we do at home has paid off!