Float'n'purl

Just before I go.......

Off to work for three days in the morning but before I go I wanted to say a quick and overdue "thanks" to my One Skein Secret Pal for the lovely balls of Pheonix Soya Silk from the South West Trading Company which arrived early last week. The colour way is "Purplexed" and is just perfect. As you can see I couldn't resist casting it on for over the weekend to knit a "Quick and Easy" stole - just up my street!

I thought I would just leave you with these two photos of the British countryside at its best in late May/ early June. The first is a meadow of Buttercups adjacent to the cottage in Ludlow where we spent the weekend with our friends a few weeks ago and the second is my bosses bluebell woods by his house (and office). He owns this small wood where he planted most of the trees. It has a lovely stream though the middle and I sometimes take a walk through there in the morning before work......bliss. Believe me I do know how lucky I am to work there after years of working in city centre offices and lately in a delightful place just 5m from the M56. Now every day I thank my lucky stars I'm not there any more!

Too Hot for Cats

Poor Wally has really been suffering in all this heat! Its simply not fair on a long hair cat to have to suffer. In fact I did contemplate giving him a hair cut with the clippers but I'm sure he'd freak out!!

I've just started something in Hipknits silk since its too hot for wool which I had left over from my sister's Clapotis but as its a present for my One Skein Secret Pal I can't reveal it until August! So instead here is my F.O I promised in my last post. Its the "Mermaid" bag from Louisa Harding Beachcomber Bay Accessories Book in Flotsum, shade no. 7. It only took 2 days to knit and was really fun but a bit longer to sew up and add the lining. I only finished adding the accessories yesterday so "Mermaid" and I took a trip to Stash in Chester to 1. avoid the Football World Cup (being Scottish I have no interest in it at all) and 2. stock up on a skein of L.H Sari Ribbon for a belt and a ball of Glisten which I couldn't resist - but all in all I think I've been very restrained over the last few months. The main reason being of course the fact that I'm saving my pennies for Woolfest at the end of the month!

Talking of F.Os here's one that's not my own. It belongs to my Mum who visited with my Dad over the bank holiday in May. And here we are having our own "Stitch 'n' Bitch" (note how we're both sitting on the edge of the sofa while Wally has pride of place in the middle!).

On Friday night we went to Saddleworth & District Whit Friday Brass Band Contests in Greenfield with our friend Gina whose sister lives nearby. Its something I'd heard of but never experienced. What a site, some 50 or so brass bands marching through the streets of a tiny village one after another while crowds enjoyed the evening sun and drank copious amounts of larger (or bitter of course). It was great fun (except that I was the sober driver). The last band (and local band) came through about 11.30pm! This is a picture of a brass band that had come all the way from Switzerland!

Still here!

Still here but I'm now working away from home for 3 days a week so it makes finding time for posts quite hard. I find that when I am at home I'm busy trying to play catch up plus this weekend we went to Ludlow in Shropshire with our friends - not that I'm complaining at it was a glorious weekend but I haven't had time to down load any pictures. PLUS I actually have a F.O. to report............more later (I hope)