New Year's morning 2019

I woke up before dawn (as usual in winter) and cast off the second sleeve of a jumper I've been knitting (or rather not knitting) for several years. Now it's just a case of sewing the pieces together and knitting the neckline. It might even be finished before the end of the year ;-). It'll be my New Lanark jumper because that's where I bought the wool. The pattern I used, which I'd had for over twenty years before finding what felt like the right wool for it, is Jaeger 6121D from 1989.

After breakfast number two, and with a little help from Toad shifting cut wood, I also finished the current stretch of dragon hedge slaying. The wheelbarrow and the electric crocodile dragon slayer are in the pics for scale, and woodpile 'n', where n is a large positive integer, is sorted.

In my back and knee stretching breaks I enjoyed the greenness of the mossy end of the front bank and at one point I strolled over to the self-planted hazel in the corner to see its bright but as yet unopened catkins against the blue sky. 

Under where the roe deer chewed the bark off one stem, lots of young shoots have sprung up. I might need to learn how to use them for basket making.

Now I'm ready for a big bowl of "Slater Soup" — Nigel Slater's tomato, bean and bacon stew from p163 of his book Real Food. I substituted some leftover cooked minced beef for the bacon and used red kidney beans as well as cannellini. It is very good winter food.

Three grans walk no.3

On Saturday we walked from the World Heritage site of New Lanark mills up alongside the river, through woods rich in wild flowers, to the Falls of Clyde at Corra Linn, and onward to the weir at Bonnington Linn. The river banks are steep in this part of the Clyde's journey to the sea and the ground is often boggy so a boardwalk has been built to saunter along. We did a fair bit of sauntering, along with crouching to get pictures of wild flowers. Rain showers, making getting my camera out of my rucksack and out of its dry bag too much of a trachle, meant I took most of them with my phone camera. I haven't quite sussed how to improve exposure so some of them are overexposed. Still, they were sufficient as record shots for the 8pm Sunday #wildflowerhour on Twitter run by the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland.

Given how dry the weather has been of late, we were pleasantly surprised at just how much water was coming over the falls. The Clyde catchment area is quite large so I guess we shouldn't have been surprised.
<< Two of us

the route

I'll post the flower pics in roughly alphabetical order of their common names because that's easiest and I can't fully remember the order we spotted them in. Not that it matters.

Alternate-leaved Golden-saxifrage

Bilberry

Bitter Vetch

Broom

Cowslip

Great Stitchwort

Great Wood-rush

Large Bittercress

Leopard's-bane

Pink Purslane so pale it's white

Out of focus Red Campion
with bluebells and Gt.Stitchwort

Thyme-leaved Speedwell

Wood Speedwell

Violets

Wild strawberry just below a badger sett

As we did the upper part of the walk's loop we came across this dodecadal structure made of hand hewn sticks and some ingenious stick joiners–sort of a grown up version of some kids' construction toys, I suppose. It looked as if it is meant for pow-wows or, perhaps, lessons and singalongs. We wondered if it ever has a cover. Maybe that is still to come.

Then we walked back to the mill shop, where I bought a new wallet part of whose construction is of New Lanark wool (I lost my lovely, old, Florentine leather one in Edinburgh last year), and we refreshed ourselves with tea and, for two of us, caramel pie, and for the other, fruity/oaty flapjack.

This jumper, that I'm still knitting (one and a half sleeves to go!), is also New Lanark wool.

Oasis knittings 2016-7

The Garelochhead Oasis "Daffodil Tea" is to be held next Saturday. The knitting group has been busy all year. G has been making, among other things, some scarves and a snood.

Earlier in the year she made a baby blanket for a friend.

Earlier in the year I also put together this cushion cover from knitted strips.

I hope it brightens up and 'comfies up' someone's chair.

G's latest finished project is a little tea cosy. There is a yellow and cream one almost finished too.

Meanwhile, M has been churning out colourful blanket strips. I have begun sewing these into what will be a lovely blanket but I can't keep up with M's output! 😀 Look at the piles I've to finish off by sewing in ends and then sew together. Actually, I think there'll be two blankets-worth!

Rattling down and casting on

The largest hat box contained the completed back of a jumper and about a third of the front. The front has been static for several years because I made a mistake. I thought for a while I could just fudge it (my usual approach) but I couldn't bring myself to end up with an asymmetrical pattern even though probably no-one except me (and maybe DerbyshireDaughter) would notice it. I also couldn't bear to rip the knitting out! So it has sat in a box for a long time! The other day I started unravelling (don't worry, the back is still complete!) and ended up with a tight ball. I might skein it and wash out the wrinkles in due course.

Meanwhile the front is cast on again from a loose ball (produced on the nineteenth century spinning mule at New Lanark) and sections marked with electric toothbrush marker rings. As you do. New Lanark has a lovely walk up to the Falls of Clyde and claims to have started the world's first ever nursery school. Check out New Lanark and its reforming mill manager from 1800, Robert Owen.

Also found my long lost needle gauge and some tatting I must have done decades ago.

There is clearly something to be said for having a hat box tidy-up! Good thing to do on a rainy day.

Oasis blankets

I am back home after the best part of a week with DerbyshireDaughter and family. That's her between the two behatted toerags, my grandsons. Toadlet is behind. I'm not allowed to go visit her nephews without her.

DerbyshireDaughter taught me how to do "mattress stitch" to join sections of garter-stitch knitting. We put together two blankets from sections knitted by the Garelochhead Oasis knitters.

Click on the photos to 'embiggen'* them.
[*made up word]

The sorting.

Blanket 1 completed

I edged it with a double row of crochet and
DerbyshireDaughter ingeniously reinforced a couple of weak spots with crochet flowers. We did the same for blanket 2. I made the 'rusty' flower–my first attempt!

Blanket 2

DD edged this one with blue and green

We think the crochet edgings 'bring theblankets together'. I really like these blankets and hope the knitters do too when I show them on Monday. I'd use either of these in a child's cot or on a pushchair.