Hello sunshine...

I watched the film Snow Cake recently and discovered the song 'Hello Sunshine'. I can't often make sense of new songs but the lead vocals on this one are deep which suits the frequencies I can hear. I loved the film, Alan Rickman was absolutely heart breaking. In fact I watched it twice, I liked it that much.

M reports that the ticket collector on his daily commute to London this week has been especially cheerful, announcing that he would be along shortly for tickets, passes, bribes... I'm sure it's the appearance of sunshine that brings out the best in everyone.

I've been taking it all in from a chair by the patio doors, looking at a magnificent cherry blossom that will soon shower the garden with pink confetti. It's not ours, it's absolutely huge and in just one windy day we will get the majority of the pink stuff, not that I mind.

The cat seems to like the whole sitting down regime that I'm under. As long as the dogs are sunbathing on the deck she sidles up to my chair, does the whole 'shall I or shan't I?' routine, eventually jumps up, takes half an hour to get comfortable and then stays for a very short amount of time. I kind of prefer the daft dog thing where they instantly notice that you've sat down, bound over with a hopeful look on their face, leap up, give a contented sigh and snore on your lap for as long as it takes for your legs to go to sleep.

A dodgy knee hasn't got in the way of cookie making this week. I hopped and hobbled gathering all the ingredients, mixer and bowls, then managed to do the whole thing, cut the baking parchment and get them in the oven all without leaving my stool. Just took a little planning!

This week's square for the Last Dance on the Beach/in the Rain CAL is crochet cables! Argh! I knew cables would take some concentration and patience. I did a small section, realised I was one stitch out, which made my bobbles noticeably off centre, ripped the whole lot out and started again. After that I was much more careful, only ripping back a row 8 because I misplaced a stitch after the Fpdtr's. If you're day dreaming about summer being almost here then it's easy to misplace the sdc's after the Fpdtr's. I told M that and he totally agreed! On the second square I decided to put a non locking stitch marker in the stitch before I completed any Fpdtr's, ie. Miss two stitches, place marker, then complete the Fpdtr's and then carry on with sdc's. It's surprisingly time saving not having to check behind the front post stitches to double check where you should be doing the next stitch, not to mention the time saved in ripping back a row after you've got to the end and discovered you are one stitch out.

This is definitely my favourite square so far even if it does need to be made without any distractions, e.g. TV, family members, dogs chasing cats, cats chasing birds, cats murdering mice. Ugh. I've completed the four squares and it's hugely tempting at this stage to do a few extras here and there to put by for an extra, perhaps smaller, blanket. On the other hand, four seems to be quite a well thought out number which stops short of the boredom of repetition settling in.

a DIY blocking board...

I don't often bother with blocking. The last time I blocked something (and I can't remember what it was) I used a cork notice board with a towel over the top and large knitter's pins. However, just lately I've been seeing lots of rather nice looking wooden blocking boards and thought it was something 'we' could make. I say 'we' but all I did was source the materials, print out a grid, tape it to the board and whacked a few dents where I wanted the holes to be. M did the hard part drilling all the holes to a certain depth.

The block of wood is a nice chunky piece of beech from B&Q, it cost £6. They have slabs of oak too which cost a bit more. Most of the beech had big knots in which I didn't mind a bit, knowing that I only needed a square section of it.

The bamboo skewers are not ideal and I will be trying to find some made out of a different wood. Tiny slivers of bamboo catch on the yarn. I've yet to try sanding them down but failing that I'm sure I can find an alternative. (I have various wooden dpns in a box somewhere that would fit.) Tesco alone had three different brands of wooden skewers which took two members of staff and two iPhones to locate!

I've blocked the bobbly squares individually but the flatter designs will stack up. I'm half way through my second square from the second week of this CAL; Last Dance in the Rain. It's the first ever CAL I've tried. So far so good, nothing too challenging. I'm sure some of them will prove more difficult (I'm talking crochet cables here!)

I resisted the temptation to buy the relevant yarn pack for this project. I have plenty of DK yarn that was very close to being given away recently. I'm choosing colours similar to the recommended choices and when I come across a colour I haven't got I will choose something else. In fact I've got a friend's words of wisdom to thank for this approach, she very wisely observed that if everyone used the same colours they'd all end up with the same blanket and what's the point in that? I quite agree.

Golden wheat and brown velvet bulrushes...

This is the so called stash busting tv blanket that I started way back in 2014. I'm not great with blankets, I get distracted far too easily in favour of smaller items with a quicker outcome. This is, however, my fifth blanket. The ends are a pain but sewing them in every time I feel in the mood will save having to do them all in one go at the end. I'm not particularly looking forward to creating a border but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I've got fifteen random balls of yarn in my basket. Not all of them started out as a full 100g but I'm guessing it will be enough. It's certainly growing, albeit steadily rather than quickly.

Funnily enough the colours in the blanket all feature in my walks to this fantastic nature reserve. All the blues and greys are in the sky and lake. The deep golden yellow will be in the wheat, come summer. The brown will be close to that of the bulrushes and the various flecked off whites in the grass heads by the river banks. Choices all completely by accident, or were they?

Had I learnt to crochet as a child/teenager I'm pretty sure I would have crocheted in the middle of wheat fields or up a tree. I did seem to spend some considerable time in both. I used to read books in corn fields until one day it suddenly occurred to me that I wouldn't hear a combine harvester approaching. I stuck to trees after that.

As it happens, the blanket, along with a few smaller projects will be making good progress over the next five or six weeks since I've well and truly b******d up my knee. Turns out I should have been a lot more careful after my initial injury and certainly not walking miles or doing further damage by trying to climb on top of tall stools. Torn ligaments they reckon but I'll know more after an MRI scan at the weekend. All I know now is that dog walking is definitely out of the question for a while. You can see what a great time they had on our last walk, it was one of those rare sunny days. When they both take a run and jump and race each other to the island I'm very glad they have each other. Riley will often get in the way of Harvey's serious work which is flushing out game (in an unofficial capacity) and fetching but I think they both like each other's company.

Off the hook...cedar river blanket

Boy am I glad to see the back of this one! I'm going to think long and hard before I ever do such a colourful project again. I absolutely loathed having to change colours so many times. Each square has all five colours and there were 24 squares. It wasn't so much the changing as dealing with all those ends. Boring!

Ella chose the colours and we also chose the 'large throw' size because it's about what we call 'tv blanket' size. It doesn't feel like a large throw, it feels as though it would make a good toddler blanket. At least E is pleased with it. It is surprisingly thick despite being worked up in DK weight. I added several more rounds of border to try and make it a bit bigger. There was enough grey yarn for an extra round of trebles and a dc round and there was plenty of green left.

I've yet to press it but in the meantime I've dug out a blanket that I started in 2014 (thanks blog for reminding me how old that wip was). Yes it is a multi coloured affair but the two row repeat is fairly long and I'm weaving ends in every now and then. It's a lot wider than the cedar river blanket so it'll be a good tv blanket when it's done. I think I started it with cricket matches in mind. A simple pattern that doesn't need too much concentration and fits entirely into one basket. Not to mention the bonus of keeping warm as it grows. I've already attended one cricket match this year but thankfully watched the whole thing from the warmth and comfort of the car.

Milestones...

I have to be honest and admit that E faces nerve wracking situations with slightly less fuss than I ever did. Let's just say that work experience and dentist appointments were out of my comfort zone.

She has been the independent type from the word go. She took her first steps at ten months old which seems as if it were yesterday. She always refused the offer of a hand when climbing stairs. E would breeze into a new toddler group or social situation with buckets of confidence (while I'd be wanting the ground to open up and swallow me). She'd walk up to someone she vaguely liked the look of and introduce herself, ask for their name if it wasn't forthcoming and chat about the place, the toys, the weather even! She was flipping amazing. I was in awe.

Whilst she didn't exactly breeze into the DSA building with a cheery hello for everyone yesterday, she did handle the nerves well, got on with the task and passed her driving theory exam first time. Woohoo! She says it feels like a bit of an anti climax knowing that she still can't get in a car and drive away unsupervised, but we're working on that. We just have to find a family member with both time and nerves of steel to supplement the lessons. Not that she's a bad driver at all, it's just a lot more nerve wracking sitting beside a learner driver than I anticipated!

These snaps were taken back in February. It was the coldest, wettest, darkest day in Hastings I've encountered for a long time. We got off the train and by the time we reached the Old Town we were both extremely glad to peel off our soaking outer layers inside this wonderful coffee shop: Hanukkah Coffee House. Wild mushroom soup and coffee never tasted so good and with a back drop of wall to wall books! We packed lightly for this trip but hadn't banked on such foul weather so this is E sporting a bargain hand knit jumper for £2, purchased on the way to George Street. I love that she appreciates all the love and time that goes into a hand knit and feels awful that they end up in a charity shop for so little. Sure, it's a little wonky in places and the sleeves are very long but we like to think that someone somewhere would be very pleased if they knew the jumper was now being worn and appreciated.

An emergency kit...

I love puff stitch. I do not like zips. I made a random strip of puff stitches using odds and ends and then realised it was the perfect size for a small purse. I dug out a small zip which just happened to be the right size and then did a right old hash of sewing it in with a black felt lining. It functions. It's just not very neat, but luckily black hides a multitude of sins.

When I was a child I loved to kit out a small tin with string, a penknife, plasters and a small pad and pencil. I reckoned that would cover all eventualities. It pretty much did during my blissful tree climbing, nature watching days. More recently I like to go everywhere with an emergency kit which contains crochet hooks, a tape measure, a wool needle, a few stitch markers and some small scissors. I've managed to squeeze all that into this new purse. Just add yarn and I'm ready to roll.

Both crochet flowers were made in the length of time it took to drink a regular Costa coffee. The first one with the magazine pattern to hand and the second, a few days later, entirely from memory. It's amazing how I can often struggle to remember what I did the day before and yet recall a whole multi layer flower and leaf crochet pattern.

Off the hook... Penelope Bear

The hedgehog morphed into a bear! I couldn't face all those prickly bits and I wasn't too sure the colours I had available would look quite right. So Penelope Bear was a happy accident. Just don't mention her hedgehog DNA. She can get a bit prickly on certain subjects.

We've had a beautiful spring day here in Lincolnshire. The doors and windows were flung open for an much fresh air as possible. The dogs reclined on an old blanket on the deck. I briefly wished I was a dog with nothing more important to do than lie in the sun. Alas the laundry doesn't sort itself out.

I keep saying I'm done with the menagerie for now and then another animal springs to life. This time I think I really am done with them. Initially I just wanted to make the zebra, lion and elephant but five toys later and I haven't done the animals that attracted me to the range in the first place. They will have to wait until I get another urge to make toys. I much prefer to go where my mood takes me and at the moment I seem to have another desire to explore textured stitches.

Stop press: Penelope just had a close encounter with a furry fiend of the four legged variety. I won't mention names but Riley was looking rather sheepish. Let's just say Penelope had a very lucky escape.