An update and some answers

Long time no blog - bad girl - no cookie!

We've just returned from a wonderful bank holiday visiting my parents in the south west to a grey Warwickshire with wet windy and cold weather. In contrast we ate lunch outside on the lower terrace and it was wonderfully hot and before lunch we went for a paddle at the beach - ah me!

So.... the news and the answers.

The baby of the blanket arrived into this world 10am last Wednesday; a boy named Edward. I hope he likes his blanket. He was 8lb 10oz so I'm glad it was a big blanket!

The next baby is due in July so I'm about to cast on for the next blanket - lucky I liked the pattern so much.

In the meantime, Mary guessed that the few rows of green knitting was not socks (despite the mislabelling) and she was right. Do you want to see how it looks now?

It's not perhaps the clearest picture as I was very keen to get Mr Flowerpotman in the photo but you can see the addition of a few small sheep, 28cm of stst (thank you long car journey home) and a little mock smock at the top.

Now while I'm sure you would agree that small sheep on a green background would make a most attractive summer tank top for me, I happen to know a young lady who is about to turn one in July whose Grandmother has long associations with raising sheep and all things woolly so when I turned a few pages forward from the Alphabet Blanket in Debbie Bliss' Baby Knits and saw the little sheep dress, I knew it was kismet.

The lassie in question (who for the sake of the blog we shall call Peggy although it isn't her name - PHB you can work out the etymology on that one - it's right up your street) is very cute and much larger in recent photos.

So, for Peggy's birthday which is at the end of July/beginning of August I am aiming to complete the little green dress, the shoes to match and possibly also a small knitted sheep for Peggy herself to play with.

I know I always am a fan of Debbie Bliss patterns and this one is no exception - it's the little touches like the fact that the sheep are done in moss stitch so that they feel woolly that will make this just the cutest little dress for Autumn/Winter. Fingers crossed she doesn't grow too much!

The big question is will the next baby cousin arrive before Peggy's birthday? At least I'm fairly certain that Peggy's cousin will arrive after her birthday as s/he isn't due until October.

I can also spill another secret FO which you won't have seen before. The reason we went to the westcountry was because it was my lovely Mum's birthday. Her birthday request? another pair of socks, preferably brown and cream to match her brown trousers.

The result?

I completely forgot to take a picture on her feet but they fit perfectly, match the trousers and are an all round success. The pattern is a variation of Friday Harbour from Nancy Bush's Socks on the Road. The original pattern is for DK weight yarn on 50 st and I added in 10 st and knit them still on 2.75mm needles but with a few more pattern repeats. Basically you add a st either side of the central pattern and the rest as part of the rib - piece of cake!

My socks are still in progress although I am now onto the second sock which was hopefully motivated by being introduced to the view:

That's my parents' back garden - be jealous - seriously, I am because I don't get to live there anymore (although I love my home too).

May I also introduce Lettuce:

This little bunny has decided that the heather beds would be a perfect place to set up camp. He may feel differently when the heather moves to make way for a new path - time will tell.

Devon is a very beautiful county and we saw so many pretty things on our cliff walks but honeysuckle and foxgloves are always on the rampage at this time of year so here is a little countryside for you!
Happy Bank Holiday Weekend!