Ah!! Sea air!

Who needs St Tropez? A pleasant twenty two degrees in sunny Eastbourne will do from me. I was quite taken with a little twenty foot boat called Ella. Would be fun for chugging down the river, or dropping anchor out at sea on a summer's afternoon! We made do with a cup of coffee and a stroll round the marina instead.

I've walked Archie along the beach and I swear I was more excited than he was! He obviously takes it for granted, living by the sea, 'yeah yeah, pebbles, I've eaten a few in my time, they're a bit salty, I've gone off them.'

There's no place like home! I actually yelled 'HASTINGS!' when I saw the first sign post for my home town. Woohoo! Welcome to 1066 country! Why thank you. The Battle of Hastings didn't even take place in Hastings. It was fought at Senlac Hill in Battle. Battle is where we are off to today. For a stroll, a coffee, a peek in the little yarn shop...just a peek.

Hastings is the birthplace of the television though...

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/879036

Oh yes. John Logie Baird has a lot to answer for.

Don't forget the screen wash!

I swear, these two are like having toddlers all over again.

Me: Where did you get that Harvey?

H: wag wag

Me: Are you telling me to clean my windscreen before I go on my trip Harvey?

H: wag wag

Me: I've already done that Harvey, that's why it's empty Harv.

H: (wanders off dejectedly) I just wanted to play with the darn thing Riley, doesn't she get it?

They aren't stupid, they know there's a little mud sweeping, car odour eliminating (damp dog with fox poo is impossible to eliminate), water and oil checking going on and they are sincerely hoping it's for their benefit. Sadly not.

As dog friendly as the stretch of South Coast I'm going to is, I'm having a child free, husband free and dog free break! Woohoo! I If I haven't already made it so, I think this should be a mandatory annual thing. (Maybe twice yearly).

Crochet and cricket...

Alas the cricket season isn't quite over yet. More matches have been viewed from the car. More wickets have been taken. More cricket teas consumed (they tease Jake for the amount he can put away and for being quick off the mark when there's fruit salad on offer!). More whites drenched in Vanish Gold. More sleeping boys on the way home. Oh and more crochet!

I bought this pattern in Oakham. It's by King Cole (no. 3052). I bought the yarn at the same time. It's also by King Cole and it's Baby DK, colour is 'Silver Twist'. It might look a bit flat in the photo but it has a twist of white running through the pale grey. It's soft, it has behaved even with a fiddly 3mm hook (just for the sleeves and neckband) but I may need to add a tiny pink something somewhere just to save confusion. It looks boxy at the moment but with cute short sleeves and once it's on, I think it might look ok.

Those little teddy buttons have come all the way from Italy! I bought them at a coastal market stall at the same time as buying leather flip flops! Definitely a random purchase but I knew they'd come in handy one day!

I'm all over the shop with baby sizing! All that talk of how small 5lb was and I somehow managed to crochet the yellow waistcoat far far too small. The rice pudding coloured waistcoat might fit better but I'm taking no chances with future makes. This little top is 3-6 months and I think it's a generous fit at that. I've got two short sleeves to finish out of that little ball; I have to say, it's looking unlikely that there will be enough yarn even though the pattern clearly says one ball for that item in that size with that make of yarn.

It's not very clear but in the dashboard photo you can see my new crochet hook. I decided to try out the Clover Amour range after reading that they were easy on the hands. I can confirm that they are! I must have crocheted for hours on that particular cold and windy day, without any discomfort at all.

If you're ever in Oakham (Rutland) and you knit or crochet, the tiny tiny wool shop which is packed to the rafters is well worth a visit. Lovely staff and beautifully organised pattern binders.

First day back at school...

The children went back to school today. Yep, a Friday. Apparently it was designed to get all the timetable stuff and general excitement (yeah right!) out of the way so that they could begin in earnest on Monday. I'm not sure the children agreed with this tactic.

M and I on the other hand, seized the opportunity to have a day out before winter really sets in. Winter didn't seem very far away at all today, it was decidedly chilly. We set off for Oakham, in our smallest county of Rutland. We watched the railways journeys programme that Michael Portillo made not so long ago and the Castle was featured on the programme. I googled it and it seemed like Oakham would be worth a little look around. It's only an hour from home and yet I've never been.

What a shame that the Castle was closed for repairs until March next year! Instead we had a lovely stroll around the town, park and church. Thatched buildings and cottages aplenty. There's a fabulous garden cafe tucked away near the church. I wish I'd been brave enough to take a few photo's. There were gazebo's, sheds and a little summer house you could eat in. The stone walls had little china tea pot lids wedged in the crevices and various trees had tiny china cups dangling from them. It was all a bit mad hatter.

We left Oakham (after a quick visit to the tiny wool shop and a few charity shops!) and headed to Rutland Water. The kids have 'zorbed' there but like I said, I've never been. We had a walk round part of the lake; I'd have loved a proper hike but unfortunately M has a bad back and hip. Harvey would have loved the lake and Riley would have headed for the large group of moorhens, he never harms them, he's just very inquisitive!

By now we were ravenous and decided to drive the short distance into Stamford for a late lunch. There are various little cafes that we know but today we tried a new one. We found a French cafe with a real French person serving! Granted she didn't seem very happy but I'm sure she had her own reasons for that. One of the other young girls working there made the crepes right in front of us, with a Buckwheat flour batter and they were absolutely delicious! That's mine in the photo, with humus, red pepper, sun dried tomatoes and rocket. Yum. Not a bad first day back at school at all!

Those summer days...

This summer has whizzed by. It's been a largely solo affair with M tied up with a case for six intense weeks. I've done hundreds and hundreds of miles to and from week day cricket matches and between us we must have done thousands.

J has played so much cricket that he's on his third pair of cricket shoes! You can see how he's getting into the 'touring' habit with his home comforts. He plugs some music in and he's asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow, both going to a match and coming home. I wish I could do the same, but I guess playing 45 over matches entitles you to a little nap.

It wouldn't be British not to mention the weather. You can see from the photo that this was one match viewed from inside the car. It's not uncomfortable. M tends to spend matches inside the scoring hut so I place my lunch on the drivers seat, my flask in between, my book in that little cubby hole you can see top right, and my crochet, or knitting is usually in progress. I'm as happy as a pig in clover. I don't have to worry about cool breezes, spitting rain, bugs, people talking to me without me realising... I do sometimes have to worry about leather balls flying towards the windscreen but, touch wood, so far so good. I crochet while the match is on and I read my book when they are warming up, warming down or having tea. It's a routine that works very well. If it's not too miserable I also walk round the boundary.

My one complaint is when a clubhouse has just one toilet for two entire teams, coaches, managers, assorted spectators, groundsmen and people running the food and drink side of things. This is particularly problematic when it's boys cricket, and out of the 24 boys present it's often the way that 23 of them will pee on the floor near, but not quite in, the toilet. I'm usually quite a modest person but on this occasion, let me tell you, I taught both of my children not to pee on the floor!

One of the nicest parts of the day is driving home, after the match analysis has been done (talking about dropped catches, misfields, good wickets, cheeky runs, whether the tea was good or not etc) is daydreaming out of the car window. I often wonder what I'd be doing if I wasn't trekking around the country watching my children play cricket, and most of the time I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing, except maybe doing it in style with a nifty little campervan!

A knitting stuff up...

I'd probably call it something else, but the blog title is close enough. I totally stuffed up the yarn purchasing part of this project! I think I must have been under time pressure; usually M is waiting for me in a nearby coffee place when I say I just want a quick browse in a John Lewis haberdashery department!

Anyways, it seems I purchased superchunky instead of chunky and of course the yardage is completely different, so one ball has made one mitt with not much to spare. Silly me.

On the other hand (ha!) it's actually quite a lucky mistake because I've since made up a mitt using some chunky I had to hand and although it makes a perfectly good mitt I quite like the flexibility of having a chunky pair and a superchunky pair; one is warm and one is very warm!

I've forgotten a lot of things about knitting, having crocheted for a few years now, and I'd never have assumed that using superchunky but with the same needles would have produced the same kind of fit. I know now that it does, at least with this pattern. This little mistake/experiment might not have had such a good outcome if I'd had smaller hands though. Both are a generous fit for my larger hands so if anyone is thinking of knitting up this pattern I would go down a half or a whole needle size for smaller hands. It's currently 6.5mm for the rib part and 7mm for the rest.

Now I just need to break the news to M that I really need to visit a John Lewis sometime soon!

A little time away...

We've been away for most of this week. It was a bit of a last minute dot com type of arrangement with the accommodation despite having the cricket week on the calendar for quite some time. For the first time we didn't take the caravan and instead stayed in a nice hotel. It was definitely a more sophisticated way of doing things! Now of course, I don't really want to go home; to housework and laundry!

It was a good week for Jake. He bowled really well, especially the last day, taking four wickets, three of which were in his opening overs. We had a disaster the day before we were due to leave when his cricket shoes came apart during a match. We quickly checked out the local sports shops for size twelve cricket spikes with no luck. Contact adhesive was applied and the dodgy shoe bound overnight with string. It lasted one over and split again so J borrowed his coach's spikes (one size smaller but wearable). Then due to unforeseen circumstances the coach and his shoes had to depart one day early! Thank goodness for google is all I can say. We drove out to an industrial estate in the middle of nowhere this morning and picked up the only size twelve cricket shoes for miles. J reckons they will have to be his lucky boots now that he's taken four wickets wearing them!

It's been a tight schedule of cricket, eating and sleeping so there hasn't been much time for making use of the hotel pool, reading or anything creative. I packed knitting rather than crochet on this occasion. I've had this Erika Knight pattern and yarn for a little while but saved it for a rainy day. I finally cast on last night and phew, I can remember how to do cables!

I've blogged about these Erika Knight for John Lewis patterns before; they are perfect for beginners or anyone who just wants a quick, easy project with a useful outcome. The other one I've purchased is the Slouchy Hats pattern which has two designs. I've made the ribbed hat for myself, the kids and even M who rarely wears hats. So we will all soon have matching cable and rib mitts to go with the hats!

Today I wished I was nearing the end of the project with just the side seams to sew up; it's supposed to be summer but it was rather chilly and unpleasant today. It was just as well we bowled the opposition out quickly and got the required runs just as quickly. The match was over three hours early just in time for the heavens to open. So British; cricket and rainy summers!