WOYWW #591 Patterns and woods

So here we are again doing our weekly peek into What’s on Your Workspace on Wednesday  kindly hosted by Julia at The Stamping Ground. Have a look, join in, the more the merrier!

My main workspace this week is the blocking of the diamonds for my Persian Tiles blanket project.

I’ve also started the Gloria crochet- along I mentioned last week, but so far, it’s a bit of a challenge  the yarn is very fine, it tangles easily, and the pattern needs a lot of concentration right now  

Here’s how I spent the first 2 days after the yarn arrived:

And this brings me to my:

Mystery object!

Last week’s mystery was a Nostepinne, a traditional tool for winding yarn into centre-pull balls, originally from Norway. It seems that it used to be an engagement gift which showed the fiancé was a competent woodworker. I hadn’t heard of them till recently but they definitely improve my yarn winding  

I’m a sucker for a nice piece of wood, and now I have a yew version as well, which has a deep groove to anchor the yarn. 

Here’s a link to show how to use a nostepinne. 

This week's mystery object:

No-one guessed the last one, so here’s another one for you. If last week’s was vegetal, this one is definitely animal 😏 I'm hoping it's an easier challenge!

Family

No news for my better half from the eye clinic yet. I was inspired by Shoshi's post last week to mention how we met, 42 years ago this month. I wrote a poem about it a while ago:

How we met. He was running a 1 day a week vegetarian restaurant in an art centre, in Stoke-on-Trent. Id returned to Stoke after a few years away. It was well ahead of its time: He used to have to take pictures of things like aubergines to help the greengrocer identify what he wanted from the wholesale market. I'm not vegetarian now, and he never was, but he still likes to do all the cooking.

Dino continues to improve slowly. 

Dino and Thea are now practicing hibernation for the winter

Dino came back in wet from the garden so, after drying him, I covered him with the blanket we usually use to protect our legs from his claws. He insists on patrolling his garden, leaving p-mails for any marauders. 

Walk

Our reaction to the end of the warm weather was, quick, let’s go out before it rains!

This week we went to Walmer Castle gardens. The castle is still closed but there’s a good wood walk, where they’re quite creative in using trees they’ve had to take down. 

This was a little tricky to get  up into. Getting out was rather ungainly so I’m glad there’s no photo of that!

When the Queen mother became Warder of the Cinque ports, they built a new garden for her. My Mum would have liked a garden like that. 

You could see a bust of Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, keeping an eye on the place. He died there, so I guess he can.

Their kitchen garden was doing very well.

I don’t know what these are!

I love the way they shaped these hedges into clouds. 

After, we went to St Margaret’s at Cliffe to blow away the cobwebs. This is the beach Cross-Channel swimmers use. You can tell how close France is as our phones welcomed us to France! I wish....

Anyway, have a good week, all, and stay safe. Thanks for visiting; a comment would be most appreciated!

Hugs

Lynne xxx

WOYWW #590: Dragons and patterns

Hi all, here we are again on What’s on your workdesk Wednesday, inviting each other to take a peek at what we’re up to. If you’d like to join in, head over to The Stamping Ground, where Julia kindly hosts our weekly blog. 

My “desk” is on my shelves next to my chair, so not much changes there. 

Thanks for all the blogger tips last week. I've one for you - move the text by cutting / pasting instead of trying to move the photo. Much less frustrating.

Anyway, I’ll start with a question for you:

Mystery item 

Do you know what this is? Now I’ll have none of that Granny Ogg “Ooh er missus” smut from you LLJ 😀, but if anyone can tell me what it is, (name & function) I’ll draw the winner's name out of the hat and send you a mask adapter, just for fun. 

Answer next week.

 

Pattern

Now, I have to confess I’ve fallen in love with a new pattern. It’s a crochet along announced on Facebook, and I am totally smitten. It’s in Sheepjes Whirl, in a very hard to find shade, so I’ve searched all over, and finally had to order it from Denmark. In general, I'll happily use different colours, but the one in the pattern is called Blackberry Mint Chip, and I HAVE to have it. It swirls so beautifully from purple to teal and olive. The CAL doesn’t start till Friday, but I’m itching to start. The idea of a CAL is a bit frustrating, as the designer will release the pattern piecemeal. But just look! I'm hoping to make a cardigan from it.

I'm still doing my Persian Tiles, and am now on the diamonds that fit between the octagons.

Family

A busy week for us. Sadly, my uncle died recently, after a long illness, and I “attended” his funeral in Stoke by video link. It broke my heart to tell my aunt that I wouldn’t be there for her (they’ve been married for nearly 60 years), but Covid cases are about 8 times the rate in Stoke that they are down here, and I'm no less vulnerable now than when I was officially  shielding. She said she'd hate for me to come and then catch it so, video link it was. One-way, unfortunately, they couldn’t see us giving them a virtual hug, so we did that by phone after. The link is on a timer so we missed the end, as it cut off, but never mind. 

My better half has now been diagnosed with a severe cataract and so I'm driving him to hospital. I've been signed off though - no more laser treatment, yay!

Dino doesn't seem much better., but he's eating more. He has some more antibiotics and a decongestant powder from the vets so we'll see how that goes. He is terrified of going to the vets, hyperventilates and shakes, poor lamb, so I don't want to add that to his troubles unless he gets worse. This is Dino sleeping diagonally across the bed. No chance for a nap, Lynne! Brian keeps trying to teach Dino Welsh - he claims Dino is already half way there, given his catarrh....."Say, "Aberdaugleddau" Dino!"

Dino and Thea send a miaow to all your cats, or at the most, "Bore da cath fawr!! 

Dragons

Yes, I've really been seeing them this week! You don't expect to encounter dragons on the country road outside the village, but there you go. It's enormous!

This one is papier maché and was made by our village's Ladies' Craft Circle. I must find out about them now I've retired. Brian wonders if they’d  do a red one for the 6 nations rugby.  

i

I'm  not sure how well this video will work, but here's one of them flying around: a dragonfly that has visited our garden twice this week - such a blessing! My photo attempts were useless, they fly so fast.

Rant

I have been furious this week with the attitude of people like the musician, Van  Morrison, whose music I have loved for many years. He has released a song about how lockdowns are an infringement of his civil liberties. At hospital appointments I have also seen more people half -wearing masks, so I had a proper rant to myself in a sort of poem/curse. Not everyone wants to see such things, so the link is here. It's called Fair warning

Walk

One of the things I promised myself to do once I retired, was to go for walks along Prince's Parade, with my friend, Chris.

Prince's Parade is a gorgeous area, around the Royal Military canal, which was built during the Napoleonic wars. Our horrible council is planning to build all along it so it's really under threat. It's been to court and we lost the judicial review, so I'm not sure what happens next. If anyone has any great crested newts to spare....:)

It's a lovely walk anyway. Often there are swans but today there were canoeists.

Have a happy and safe week, everyone, and thanks for visiting. I'd love it if you have time to leave a comment, thanks

Fair warning

 

WOYWW #589 Patterns, tools and cats

 Hi, here we are again having a peek at each other’s workspaces on a Wednesday, as hosted  by our Julia on The Stamping ground. Check it out and join in if you wish!

My workspace is a set of shelves next to my chair. 

As a couple of you have expressed an interest in the Persian Tiles crochet project, I  thought it might be interesting to see the tools I use for this.

Here's a photo of my latest tile. 
I'm going for subtle changes, tile to tile, so it may not look much different from last weeks!

I've also been making more mask adapters. Very easy and they save the irritation that the elastic behind your ears can cause. I make them in cotton, with plastic buttons so they can be washed at 60 deg.

      

There is a box which I love on the top right of my workshelves, for the occasions when I need to write a letter, it's my Arabian themed paper. I just love the patterns, though I have to put an address sticker on the envelopes.

   

Dino is still sniffling, but wriggled past me to go out today, so I guess he's feeling a bit better. Thea likes nothing better than nuzzling my ear - very ticklish!

  

Thea is always the first one to find a new sleeping space, and Dino has to try it out (typical manspreading 😄). Thea's not giving up so easily though, so I snapped them both together. 

One walk this week was up the hill above the village. It gets rural surprisingly quickly. This is the line of the old Elham valley railway, which closed in 1947. Before the war, it had been both a passenger railway and one for transporting sheep, which were brought to our village station. It would be nice to think of them sitting  in carriages with the passengers, but of course they weren't.

The area is still known for sheep farming, particularly on the Romney Marshes.

We buy soap from Romney Marsh wool. It's very pure and gentle, which is great for my skin - it get's very sensitive these days. I now wear a nurse's watch pinned on, when I need one, as I can't wear a wrist watch any more - it's funny as I get professional courtesy in hospitals.😄 I must try Romney Marsh's wool as well.

A question for you all: What do you use to edit your blogs, please? I use the blogger editor, but it's really annoying and moves my photos around when I don't want it to.

This week is a round of more hospital visits - my better half has to go for a consultation to get his first cataract operation. I have others; my checkup date from the eye clinic is next Monday - fingers crossed that's it!

Have a good week, all. Many thanks for visiting and I really appreciate it if you get chance to leave a comment.

Hugs, Lynne xxx

WOYWW #588: Cats by the seaside

 Hi all, I hope you’re having a good week as we return to the Stamping ground for another “What’s on your Workdesk Wednesday” kindly hosted by our Julia.

Here’s my workspace, mainly yarn at present. I'm still working on my Persian tiles. with all the colour changes,  I have to tie the ends in as I go or I'd go mad if I had to do it all at the end.

 

I’ve spent much of this week cat nursing. Dino has a bad case of the sniffles. When his nose is blocked he won’t eat so I’ve been giving him water through a pipette which he really doesn’t like. He’s a bit better now. 

Thea has become quite possessive though we’re careful not to leave her out. This is a photo of her. She doesn't normally sleep so stretched out. I think she's saying, this is my lap!

It’s been a bit of scary week with visits to the hospital eye clinic. I had my second cataract fixed at the end of July. When I went to my checkup they said I had a retinal tear and rushed me off for laser surgery. Another checkup last week and I was scared of more laser surgery. No, they said I had to go for another checkup this week to see if I need cryogenic therapy instead. They then decided I needed more laser surgery, which they did yesterday - ouch! Fingers crossed 🤞🏻 that that’s enough. My better half got me soothing eyedrops from the chemist, which have helped. 

Saturday was a lovely day here, and we decided to have a seafront walk on the way to shopping. There were clouds across the Channel but it stayed fine here. The beach was very quiet, but there was a whole flock of seagulls - waiting for the day trippers to come back?

     

Anyway, have a good week, all. I'll try to visit more of your blogs this week. Hugs, Lynne