thrifty finds...

I've been here, there and everywhere just recently. Morpeth, Nottingham, Shrewsbury, Hull. I love the fact that M works all over the country, it means I get to explore cities that would not normally be on my wish list of places to visit. (I just need to remember that my newly acquired hand me down phone takes quite good photo's!)

I'm happy with a local wool shop and a cosy place for coffee but when I don't actually need new supplies of yarn I like to browse the charity shops. I'm chuffed to bits with my latest finds. The three large balls of multi-grey yarn are 200g each and chunky weight. I just happened to buy a pattern recently which calls for 500g of a variegated chunky yarn for the lower half and two balls of a solid complimentary colour for the top half. I have two balls of chunky black in my stash so I can make up this knitted sweater for the grand sum of £6.

The off white ball is 150g and looks and smells like nothing much was done after it came off the sheep! It should be ideal for Simon the Sheep from Edward's Menagerie. According to the book I've already made Hank the Dorset Down Sheep, Emma the Bunny and Piotr the Polar Bear.

The charcoal grey ball is only 50g but definitely 100% wool and the other variegated wool M thinks would make a nice crochet cat (he's a cat person at heart.)

Then finally I found a generous bag of wooden shapes for £1, with the majority having pre drilled holes which should set me off on a tangent to my leather jewellery making, or some other creative use.

These goodies came from a charity shop with one entire back wall devoted to all manner of crafty things. Lots of tapestry frames, embroidery hoops, knitting bags, boxes full of patterns, craft books, rubber stamps, needles and hooks, ribbon, thread, wool... I only wish there were more like it!

Btw that's Riley's (upside down) pose when I tell him he can't sit on my lap because I'm blogging again. He's such a drama queen. Actually it's a sign of a very content and secure dog. They live charmed lives indeed. The new cat, Tilly, is settling in very gradually despite being called Mollie on a regular basis. Riley is terrified of her and walks in a wide circle round her. Harvey is ever curious and playful and sometimes she will even cooperate with that. She has the sunlounge to herself in the day time when the dogs are muddy and/or wet and she makes the most of any sunshine hours by following the sunny patches round the room. Who can blame her?

M and I are not winter gardeners and we are out and about so much for cricket from April onwards that only the bare essential lawn mowing gets done in the summer. We are however, sick of looking at a rubbish garden. Plans are being sketched on graph paper with 'low maintenance' in mind. M has finally conceded that we do actually need some paid help with the clearance of two partially demolished ponds. Hooray for that. It will clear the way for extra decking which could wrap it's way in front of our current summerhouse (my workshop), which we intended to do, oh, seven years ago at least! I've tempted M with the idea of emptying that out ruthlessly and transforming the interior into something similar to what we had in mind for a shepherd's hut. The most important feature being the wood burning stove of course. He's coming round to the idea!

Whilst discussing all these plans yesterday we dragged an old farmhouse kitchen sized table on to the patio and cleared a long low bench of dead tomato plants to create a table and bench area. We must have sat out there in the sun for all of five minutes before I declared the breeze was a bit chilly! It was nice while it lasted and I can't wait for the proper summer so I can take my woolly stuff outside. That might be a while yet, today is typical British drizzle.