Golden Wedding Anniversary

Mum and Dad celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary in December, so this called for another family gathering.  Fifty years is a massive achievement nowadays - with couples getting married later in life now and not everyone staying the distance, fifty is massive.  (For Andy and I to have a golden wedding anniversary, we'd have to get married immediately and live to 104 and 99!)

And what to get as a present?   Amanda came up with a fantastic hamper idea - a huge box of foodie items (although I think there might have been some washing powder in there too!) from her local supermarket, the only stipulation being that all items had the word "gold" in the title, or were gold in colour.  Genius!

We were a select little bunch - Mum and Dad, offspring and grand-offspring; Ed and Chris had come over from Aylsham; John and Jenny also from Norfolk; Ann and Richard from Surrey; and Mick and Alayne from Dorset.  Sadly, Mary and Jim couldn't come as Mary was getting over some very major surgery and it's a bloody long drive from Coulsdon for a weekend.

Not only was Mum and Dad's anniversary a major celebration, but Amanda managed to get a photo of Nicholas and Shannon - and they're both smiling! 

(Andy's unusual cheese board had a little bowl of brussel sprouts with it - following some good natured banter with one of the waitresses!)

A really lovely evening - which, as always, ended up with many promises to meet up more often and not leave it so long the next time.  We'll see!

Folksy Sale #12

More socks! 

I love this wool - it's King Cole Zigzag - lovely to work with and beautifully soft.  This was another Christmas present purchase - I really need to get my act together and make more this year as they're always so popular.  

Deepdale Christmas Market

Back in December - God, I'm so late with these posts! - Mum, Amanda, Shannon and I went to Burnham Deepdale for their Christmas market - a number of marquees filled with local craftspeople and their wares.  Sadly, we'd all done our Christmas shopping by then so didn't avail ourselves of any of the goods on sale - hey ho! 

(Shannon didn't want her photo taken!)

If we go back this year, then I'm going to save a bit of money and treat myself to something - they had some fab things there, there are some very talented people in Norfolk.   Shannon and I did have a taste of the sloe gin and the plum brandy which was warm from a thermos.  I'm hoping for plums from my garden again this year so I can have a go at making some.  

After a good mooch all around the Christmas markets, we headed down the coast to Wells for lunch.

View from our table.

I want one of these wine bottle Christmas trees!

We were serenaded by this lovely lady singing operatic tunes - there was quite a crowd of people listening to her, most of them sitting on the sea wall opposite eating their fish and chips!

And we spotted Cavell on the roof of the same pub too!

Love this photo - a lovely girlie day, one to be repeated I hope soon.

Folksy Sale #11

As Christmas was looming, we had a few sales on Folksy again - it had been a pretty quiet year for online sales, although commisions were definitely up.  Which has sort of decided me to do some craft fairs again this year - I had written in my diary to start networking and checking out craft fairs from almost the New Year, but, of course, that hasn't happened! 

I do love making socks and they always sell so well throughout the year - welly festival socks in the summer and bedsocks in the winter - and, in fact, I'm making a pair at the moment.  However, the really telling thing was that I had totally forgotten how to - which shows how long it's been since I made any.   Time to crack on again with those double pointed needles!

Tada! "Woodland Critter" Scarves

Every Christmas, I like to make presents for friends and family, but I do like to try something I haven't made before and this year was no different.  It started with a faux taxidermy knitted fox I'd seen on line and at last year's Knitting and Stitching Show and while searching on line for the designer, Louise Walker, I discovered some of her scarf patterns.  Which were exactly the thing!  I had initially planned to make a dozen of them but soon realised I was going to run out of time, so, in the end, I made just six - one reindeer, one fox and four badgers.

I had so much fun with these and didn't even mind the sewing up - a job I normally don't enjoy very much, especially when there's lots of fiddly bits and pieces to put together.

I think the fox is probably my favourite, on account of the colour of it - I would definitely wear all of these, but I think the fox is the one for me!

I took some liberties with the patterns to be honest - for the eyes and noses, I was supposed to use the little trimit beads, but I think that the buttons look so much more effective - and Rudolph definitely needed a big red button nose.

I've been inspired to do some of my own designing - taking different elements of each of the patterns and making up animal scarves from a combination of those elements.  While the body shapes are all the same, the three patterns have given me three different face shapes, and the ears, legs and tails are all very distinct also.   I'm just about to sew up what had started out as a dalmatian scarf, but there are probably not enough spots, so I think he's just going to be a spotty dog instead.  I'll need to add in significantly more smudges of colour to get a proper dalmatian.  Depending on how successfully he turns out, a post will follow!

Tada! "Ship Ahoy" Gansey

I'm having a few IT issues currently which is making writing this blog difficult - although I'm always late anyway with posts!  It'll be interesting to see if this saves after I press the final "publish" button.

This is the story of the gansey.  After our visit to the Sheringham Lifeboat Museum back in August 2014 (2014!!), Pam managed to acquire a gansey knitting pattern and suggested that she might like one for Christmas.  So, a year later (too many other projects in the meantime!), I thought it was about time to make a gansey, as requested.

The photos don't do this justice - I hate photographing navy knitwear - the photos aren't great, so I will definitely have to make myself one in cream for photographic purposes.

I actually really enjoyed making this gansey - which is just as well because I've now made three - all in navy!  The gansey that Pam eventually received was actually the second one I'd made - the first had been sitting on top of my coffee table one weekend, ready for me to wrap it up.  As I came back to the living room from making coffees, the gansey was no longer in its protective wrapping on the coffee table, it was adorning Andy!  He took rather a shine to it and decided that he was having it, so then I had to get another load of wool to make Pam's.  And then Tracy at work decided that she'd rather like a gansey too, so I've since made one for her too - she loved it so much she was wandering around the office in it the day I handed it over.  (I did ask her to take it off just in case I got any more orders - I really couldn't cope with any more dark coloured gansey-knitting!)

So I think this pattern has gone down rather well - it is beautiful.  So fine - for the smallest size, there are 156 stitches on the needles.  Can't wait to make mine now - but definitely in cream!

Seeds and Stuff - January 2016

I am determined this year to get back into the seed sowing regime which I abandoned last year, but I've also realised that I was spreading myself (and my seeds!) way too thin, so, instead of six different varieties each month, I'm sticking with three varieties that I really want.  I've rebuilt only one of the shelves that I dismantled in readiness of estate agent valuations in November, so I've even got more space to move in the outhouse.

This month I've sown lobelia, mustard and garlic cloves (two weeks on and the mustard is romping away while the others seem to be still asleep).

For Christmas, I was given this lovely little book by my friend Caroline, and it's inspired me to get serious this year!

Odds and Sods - January 2016

2016 is already shooting by and I'm typing this post (late again) on 1 February.  I always think of January as being quite a slow month but this year has been different and has been a bit non stop.  We've had some cold weather and some strange sunrises and sunsets - the light has been very odd.

I've been to the seaside at Cromer and met Pam for coffee.

I've been to the Sainsburys Centre at the UEA to see the Alphonse Mucha exhibition.

I've been out for Tracey's birthday drinks with the girls and discovered a fab new wine bar in Norwich.

I've joined a new craft group and met with them in a draughty old church hall on a day that it snowed!  (And next time I'm taking a cushion as the chairs are incredibly uncomfortable - but the coffee and cake was most welcome!)

Finn's had a posh new haircut.

Love this photo!

Tidy paws!

I've had a posh new haircut (no photos!), attended a 50th birthday party (again, no photos!) and taken part in a fab History Mystery Game at Norwich's Guild Hall, which left us head scratching, running around like headless chickens, but letting out the most almighty cheer when we beat the clock by three minutes!

Finn and I have had lots of walks - only over our local park - but he's been loving the frost and snow as he gets to roll in the dewy icy grass - I think it must be very refreshing for him.

I've been out with friends, I've had friends over for tea and Andy's been up for a weekend.  It's all been a bit chaotic but great fun.  I'm hoping that 2016 carries on in the same vein.