Mouldy Bread and Warm Bananas

We don't do heat very well in this household. The current heatwave is causing havoc with our fur babies and food supplies. We bought bread yesterday yet when I went to make some toast earlier it was already showing signs of mould appearing, and hubby went to have a banana and threw it down in disgust as it was too warm. We popped out to the local shop and it was just like walking into Old Mother Hubbard's cupboard, the shelves were almost bare. No nice cooling drinks, ice cream or cider to relieve us from the heat. Earlier this week I said on FB that I was glad we have an ice maker built into our freezer and I stand by that wholeheartedly. In fact, I stand by the freezer with the door open on a regular basis.  I also read earlier in the week to freeze water in an empty juice bottle for the pets to lean against to cool down, we have done that and also done ones for ourselves. Ah, the relief when you snuggle up to a freezing plastic bottle. We have our fan going constantly and are so thankful for it.
Now don't get me wrong it is wonderful to see the sun here and it will surely be doing our bodies the world of good replenishing our vitamin D supplies, cheering us up and livening our mood.  It's just being Scottish we are born blue and more used to dealing with howling wind and horizontal rain.
Anyhoo, that's all for now, enjoy the heatwave and I leave you with a picture of me and Jet taken earlier this week at work.

Mary

Sunday 1st July

Hello, and Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian readers. Can you believe we are halfway through the year already?
This week we have been having record high temperatures here in Scotland and I must admit knitting has been difficult in the heat and humidity. It has been happening though and I have to admit to being on a real shawl kick just now. I have 3 on the needles and another 2 lined up, so socks have been taking a back seat.
The first two on the needles are Fading Point and Geology which I have shown before and are both paid patterns on Ravelry, the third is a free mystery KAL, https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/oshara-shawl-mystery-kal from designer SusannaIC and is available through the Interweave Blog. The KAL started on June1st, and I was a very late starter on June 25th but I have been sailing along nicely and have almost completed week 2. I am knitting it in Drops Alpaca in the colours, Dark Olive Mix, Lime, Dark Lime and Pink on 3.75mm KnitPro Zing needles.

The two I have lined up are https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/summer-2018-shawl-kal by designer J. L. Fleckenstein which starts today and I have chosen this yarn,

The second is https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/3-color-cashmere-shawl by Joji Locatelli again a paid for pattern which I will do in the following yarn

I look forward to sharing more progress pictures with you soon.

Sadly no-one entered my giveaway last week so I have no winner to share with you. If you would like me to do another giveaway sometime please let me know in the comments and I will try to organize something.
That's all for this week, enjoy the sunshine and happy crafting

Mary

Flaming June

Life

I love my job! I really do. I meet some of the nicest people and it is my pleasure to help them make the most of their visit to our wee museum. If you want to come along and see for yourself where I work all the details are here!

I other news this week, hubby had a hospital appointment at Edinburgh's Royal Infirmary. We were so lucky in that we quickly found a parking space, he was seen promptly by a lovely Dr who explained why she wanted to do further tests and she organised for most of them to be done there and then. The only one she could not get done was a MRI scan on his brain, that will be organised and an appointment sent out in due course. Of course this has left me worrying, does he even have a brain? And if he does will they find it to scan it? Shush, don't let on I said that. 

Another thing odd this week was the weather. It has been glorious, warm sunny days followed for the most part by warm muggy nights. Now seeing that big shiny yellow thing in the sky is a most welcome sight, but it is tempered slightly by the high humidity we suffer. It must seem strange to some that we go nuts in this country when the temperature climbs to over 16 Degrees Celsius but with the addition of the humidity that spells hot to our pasty selves. Also this year we seem to have gone straight from Winter to Summer. Spring forgot to turn up at all. 

New to the home this week is that instead of having the TV on we have been enjoying books of an evening. A while ago I downloaded Audible for my laptop and took a 1 book a month subscription. This past few days Bill and I have been rediscovering our mutual enjoyment of the Skinner books by Quintin Jardine. These crime novels are set for the most part in and around Edinburgh and East Lothian and we both find them most enjoyable. It is lovely in the evening for both of us to just sit and relax whilst listening to the story unfold. 

Knitting

The needles have been cracking on apace this week and my Camp Loopy project No1 is complete. I just have to bath and block it. Now it is a modified version as for some reason I ran out of yarn with a fair few rows to go but I like how it turned out. No finished photos yet so you will have to make do with an in progress

The yarn I used is one of the softest I have ever worked with and I loved it. It was Skein Top Draw Sock in the Sunspots colour.

My other KAL of the socks is not moving quite so quickly but I do hope to have a progress report next week.

The only other thing I have to share is that a new resident has come to stay.

Little Loopy arrived along with a lovely skein of Lorna's-Laces Shepherd Sock in Iris Garden and my Loopy reward for reaching Cotton Club.

Knitting calls

Stay safe and happy crafting

Mary

Where Does the Time Go?

Hey folks, here I am. I have not forgotten you, but I seem to have forgotten myself. Boy, oh boy how on earth can it be September already?
So what can I say, I have been busy re-organising life in our wee household. I have had to give up full time work to look after DH more, but am still clinging on to very part time hours at the museum. I simply could not bring myself to give it up completely. It is not often that you find a job which you love and which inspires you to give the best of yourself, yet that is how I feel about my wee job, so I am clinging on.
Well you would think that being at home most all of the time would allow me more time to myself, but far from it, the opposite seems to be true and like many retirees I have spoken to have said before, I really do not know how I found the time to go to work.

Summer has Been and Gone

So how was summer for you? For us it was a non-event. The odd nice day here and there interspersed with heavy downpours and grey dreich days. My grand plan was to get DH out of the house and to go on wee jaunts to local places of interest or just down to the beach for a walk with the dog. It just did not happen. Either the weather was too bad or he was not well enough to go out. 

Mind you we are lucky to have a bit of a view from the kitchen window and have enjoyed seeing a different picture every day.

Our view today.

As you can see we have a nice view of the Firth of Forth and on occasion we see the large cruise ships either heading to or from Edinburgh. This gives us much pleasure as it brings back happy memories of past cruises and ports of call.

And on to Knitting

Well the needles have been going what seems like non-stop this summer and I have a few finished projects to share. 

1. Firstly a Wingspan

This was knitted with Rico Poems Sock yarn which I found very splitty, but had such gorgeous colours. I named it Bird of Paradise and gifted it to a friend.

2. A summer top for me

This is knitted in a cotton/acrylic mix which my good friend Gillian gifted me as she did not know what to knit with it. 

3. Another summer top

The same pattern but in a bamboo yarn I had in my stash for years. This was gifted to a friend also.

4. The Rockerfeller mystery KAL

A fantastic project again using up stash. I had no clue what I was knitting and although I did not like the last clue of the pattern and made a few modifications I love the finished shawl. 

This is also a very lucky shawl as it was entered into a finished projects prize draw in the KAL group and won a prize.

I will leave you with this for now and will post the rest of my summer knits in another post very soon. I promise.

Keep safe and happy crafting.

Mary

Flaming June

Flaming June, flaming awful more like. This is supposed to be the time of year when the sun is shining and the evenings go on for ever with the sun barely setting before rising again on a new day. Well here it is dull, dreich, grey and depressing. You poke your nose out the door for a few minutes and you can guarantee you will be drookit in no time. Instead of bright cheery summer clothes we are still wrapped up in wooly jumpers and desperately willing ourselves not to turn on the heating. We are crabbit and unhappy instead of smiling and welcoming. Us Scots are not a weak willed lot when it comes to the weather, we are used to summer being less than perfect, but this year seems to be worse than most so far. We had a bizzare spell of hot sunny days in March which I think got out hopes up, but since then it has seemed all downhill. Ach well still a few months to go before winter sets in once again, here's hoping.

Mind you these cool temperatures are helping the knitting along no end. Where as normally I would be using thinner lighter yarns by this time of the year I can still haul out the warmer projects to work on with these cool evenings.

Food on my Mind
Yesterday evening I was browsing through Ravelry when I stumbled upon a recipe for easy bread rolls. So what? you ask. Well it was one of ingredients which piqued my interest. The recipe sounded just too good to be true, just 4 simple things mixed together and in 15 minutes you would have rolls.
What are the ingredients I hear you ask, well, Self Raising Flour, Sugar, Milk and Mayonnaise. Yes mayonnaise. I was so intrigued I just had to try it. No yeast, no leaving the mix to rise, just mix together and bake.

Just check out the results!! And yes they tasted just as good as they look. So now this house will never be breadless as long as I make sure I have the tools to make these wee beauties.


Stay safe (and dry) and happy crafting.

Mary