Progress

The hat is finished although I have not worn it yet


The tree trunk is coming along nicely


and I have started machining it all in place. No I have to think about shades of pink for the flowers and and pale greens for the leaves. A chance to order new fabric I think!

This weekend is The Big Bird Survey

we have taken part for several years and this year John is going to do a separate one at the allotment.
This little chap turned up during the week


which was pleasing because we have had no Blackbirds in our garden since the summer.


I had to visit the district nurse on Wednesday as my foot was not looking to happy. It transpired that a knot from one of the stitches had been left behind. It was extremely painful having it yanked out. Hopefully it will be ok now. I have swapped the adhesive dressing for cotton wool and a bandage because I am allergic to the adhesive.

I think my next knitting projects are going to be stripey hot water bottle covers. The pattern is in this month's Let's Knit

and will be a opportunity to use up some oddments.

It has turned cold once more and during the night there were snow flurries.

Thank you if you left a comment last time

Jumper hat and a tree

Biddle is pleased with his new jumper


It is the usual style but in three colours

As I had plenty of yarn left over I decided to make a hat using the same pattern as the one I knitted back in the autumn.
The photographs do not show the colours very well. At the moment I am not sure I have anything to wear it with but I thought the green and blackberry sort of colour went well together.

I have decided to make a new Mother Nature Doll from the Magic Thread pattern that I have. The original one was Autumn colours, my second one was a winter theme and this new one will be Spring, eventually I hope to make summer as well. They are rather large so they take up quite a bit of space.
This is how it begins

chopped up pieces of fabric, some are new fabrics and some are off cuts from other projects.

I drew around the tree trunk pattern


The outline will now be covered with little pieces. The idea is not too be too systematic. I have it out on my table and every now and again put a few pieces on.


An overlay of netting and machine stitching will keep it all in place.

it has warmed up

a bit. But turned wet and windy. Last Friday the snow continued most of the day. Unfortunately I did not manage to capture it with the camera as the batteries failed and the spare ones had not been recharged.We ended up with 3-4cm which hung around for days and caused icy patches


On Saturday afternoon we went to a concert of waltzes at St George's Hall it was light hearted and not quite as opulent as the Vienna New year concert we watched on television.

I have gone back to school this week and I am tutoring children in maths. Although not my favourite subject I am enjoying it. Dividing seems to be an issue with many children nowadays. They do not seem to learn tables as rigourously as I did in primary school and modern methods involve chunking when calculating long division. Subtraction is calculated on number lines and decomposition ( or borrowing ) does not come into much later. My multiplying and dividing skills were quite good at school but I would have loved the new practice of partitioning when adding. If this makes no sense to you then you will be happy to know that most parents do not understand these new methods. They are really good for children who find maths difficult but the whizz kids ( daughter was one of those ) might feel held back. I feel that most maths should be practical and relevant. I remember questions that involved farmers ploughing field with furrows a certain width and there for how many furrows did he get from a field of a certain size. Did I care? No! Then there were the ones about workmen digging holes. Three men took x amount of time to dig a hole how long would it take two men. Longer?
So I work in chocolate or shopping for toys and comics and things that children can relate too.

Biddle's new jumper needs to be sewn up. I should have done it by now but just have not got around to it. He is not happy, King Kenny has not delivered the goods. Well the team has not. Liverpool is hovering above the relegation zone and out of the FA cup.
My foot continues to heal although it is sore after too much walking. The boots protect it while I am out but I pay for it later.

That is it I think


Thanks for visiting

Happy New year

it began with New year's Eve being ignored. We watched Die Hard4 instead. I love Die Hard films they are so over the top they make us laugh. New year's morning we attended the Concert from Vienna via radio 3 and then BBC2 Biddle made a contribution to the conducting.




And now week has gone by. I have continued pottering about. I had my stitches out on Wednesday but had to go yesterday because they left a bit behind. It is still tender but looks as if it has healed up.

I have been looking back on what I have made over the last year. Not quite as productive as some years but I am pleased. I have not gathered everything together in one place at the moment.

We had a little snow this morning


It is not expected to come to much but looked out of the window and it is now snowing hard!
SNOW UPDATE