Day 1

What is it with holidays? You spend all year dragging yourself out of bed for work or daily chores. The idea of a holiday is to relax, maybe have a wee lie in and wham, there you are up at 6am bright as a button!
So up we were. The sky was bright and the day looked promising.

These views were what greeted us. Stunning tranquillity.

After coffee we ventured out again and met the neighbours.

They seemed quite affable and were curious of us until Skye caught the scent and began to bark. Then they were off across the field. Now this was quite amusing to us as Skye could not see over the wall so had no idea what it was she was smelling and likewise the cattle could not see her, only hear her.

Back indoors we settled down to a relaxing morning when oh my goodness disaster struck. I am well into knitting a Swirl Jacket which at this point had over 400 stitches on the needle when horrors the needle tip snapped right off. Argh!! Quickly I grabbed a couple of stitch holders which were in my wee kit and managed to rescue the stitches.
This picture shows roughly where I was when the needle snapped

So what was I to do? The only other knitting I have with me are some socks on 2.5mm needles and this was a 3.75mm. I am so addicted to this project that I have touched nothing else since I cast it on on the 6th Sept. My plan this holiday was to hopefully get it finished so I will have a cosy cardi for the autumn and winter. I packed light when it came to knitting this year, (totally unlike me, just ask himself). 
Darling hubby to the rescue. He says well we would just have to go find a wool shop and buy a new one.
A little research later and we discover there is a shop in Alnwick. Off in the car we go. Now we have been to Alnwick before and loved it. It was on our list of places to visit this trip, but not quite so soon. Upon arrival we discovered that the annual Food & Beer Festival was in full swing in the marketplace. Wow, what glorious things we were offered to taste and drool over. The needle was almost forgotten about. Unfortunately I had not brought my camera, nor had we brought our bank cards so looking and the odd tasting were all we could do. Mind you we were handed a free bag of tatties by one stall and we are looking forward to trying them out soon.
The other thing of note which happened as we were making our way back to the car was I am pretty sure I almost literally bumped into the celebrity chef Jean Cristophe Novelli. I am certain it was him. He was surrounded by folk and had whites on under his jacket.

Anyway back to the cottage we came to discover we had a visitor

What a beauty we were entranced. 

Then after the excitement of the morning we both fell asleep!

Once we awoke we lit the fire and settled back to relax at last. I made more progress on my swirl and we watched Foyle's War and Midsomer Murders on ITV3. 

A last look outside showed the clouds had lifted and the moon was lighting up the sky almost like the sun.

It is so dark here with no light pollution I wish I could take night photos to show it, but here for you is my best effort.

Night night for now!

Stay safe and happy crafting

Mary

Getting There

All Packed Up

So Friday dawns and it is time for the hols to begin. Only one problem, not packed yet. A few frantic hours later and we are ready to load the car. A few trips later and it is done, or is it? I pop into the bedroom to cuddle the sleeping kitties and tell them to be good and, horrors the large bag holding all, and I mean all, of our clothes is still sitting on the bed! Oh lordy, thank goodness the kitties decided to have their afternoon nap on the bed.

A little huffing and puffing and shoogling of stuff around the car we are finally ready for the off.

Here we go! The journey begins quite uneventfully I pull us into the garage for petrol. Holy crap, what is that guy buying? The whole shop? He is in there forever and his car is blocking access to both the pumps which dispense fuel to the drivers side. Only one thing for it, the fuel line will just have to stretch. A few good pulls later and it is in. Fuel is duly pumped into the tank and we go in to pay. He is still there, holding everyone up! What is it with some folk? Never mind, we are on holiday let us smile and be happy. 

On the Way

On the road at last. I pull out onto the A1 and we are off. Nothing much of note here except I am sure the speed limit if you are towing a caravan is not over 70mph. I mean 70mph is the maximum speed limit in the country and that is only for motorway style roads. Yet here  am being chased along by a car towing a caravan. Now I refuse to speed. The speed limits are there for safety. Yet he continually gets right up behind me. Eventually on a dual carriageway stretch south of Grantshouse he overtakes. I am doing 60mph at this point which is the max for this stretch of road. His caravan is swinging around wildly and other vehicles are hesitating to get too close. I have eased off slightly by this point for safety.

Anyway on we go and cross the border into England! Oh my we have left our beloved nation behind. A little later we veer off the main road and suddenly things become much more relaxed. A quick stop for Skye to pee and us to have a leg stretch and we are off again. One B class road, one A class road and one unclassified road later and we spot the cottages. Wow, from up here they sure look grand.

A left turn and down the hill we go to the entrance to the steadings. This looks great!

It took us just under two hours to get here and it felt as if we had hardly left yet. That kind of drive I like.

Getting In

So here we are! We follow the instructions in the e-mail and find our key. Then we open the door. Holy cow this place is lovely. A quick lookie through the rooms, must find the loo!, and then it is time to put the kettle on. Ah bliss a hot drink. Now to unpack the car. This is done with amazing speed and it is time to settle in. Eek disaster! Guess who knocked half a dozen eggs off the counter and onto the floor? Yep it was me. What a start. Ach well we have some more. Finally all the food and clothes are put away and it is time to relax. Yep, time to relax. Yee ha! 

We lit the fire, yes it has a lovely log burner and we settled back. I don't even think I will manage much knitting tonight as I am bushed. 

I will take some photos tomorrow and share our 1st day until then, I just want to enjoy the darkness and sleep the sleep of the dead.

Time to do just that methinks.

Stay safe and happy crafting.

Mary

Having Fun with Hexis

Life

I was sent an e-mail the other day. It gave me great pause for thought. It was an obituary published in the London Times a couple of years ago which laments the passing of common sense. It touched me greatly as I also realised that in my lifetime, short as it is in the grand scheme of things, we have also lost taking responsibility for our own actions. People are too ready to blame someone or something else for where they are in life. Now I am not saying that there are not genuine cases where others are to blame but it simply cannot be the case for everyone. I have experienced bullying in my life which wore me down so much I considered doing all sorts of nasty things to myself, but I have on more than one occasion picked myself up and restarted living for the good things in life. I have seen my husband being ground down on a daily basis by chronic pain but we still laugh together and try to do fun things whenever we can. 

However it galls me to hear youngsters who have never lived and have had it all handed to them on a silver platter complain that it is not their fault that they cannot find a job, take drugs, are alcoholic etc. I know I sound like an old fuddy duddy but I was taught when I was young that if I wanted something I would have to work and save to get it. Now this may have been doing the dishes, hoovering, dusting or whatever but I know I felt a great deal of pride in myself when I took my hard earned cash to the shop to buy what I craved. Likewise when I started work that pay packet at the end of the week meant so much. I paid my dues for bed and board, put some aside for bus fares and work expenses and what I had left was mine to do with what I wished. Never that I can remember did I moan that if I could not afford the latest gizmo or clothes or whatever that it was someone else's fault. And above all never would I dream of stealing.  If I wanted it it was my responsibility.

Similarly if I fell over or broke something it was me to blame, no-one else. I took care of my belongings and they lasted. This is something I do to this day. It saddens my heart to hear the culture of blame in today's society. Maybe it is time to resurrect common sense and taking responsibility but I fear we may have gone too far.

Off the Needles

Nothing much to show this week, just a few Hexipuffs for my Beekeepers Quilt 

 I have been knitting these off and on for nearly 2 years and have finally perfected my technique. I am using magic loop and when I pick them up they go quite quickly. I am stuffing them with old pillow filling which I wash and dry so I am recycling as I go and using up all the fingering weight leftovers I have been collecting over the years.

I have nearly 100 of these done now and the jar I was collecting the finished ones in is overflowing so to my rescue is a plastic shoebox.

 

I am looking forward to watching this fill up albeit quite slowly.

On the Needles

The same projects as last week although a couple have moved forward somewhat. Hopefully next week I will have a finish to show other than hexis.

I hear the yarn and needles calling me.

Stay safe and happy crafting.

Mary

Furuncle, What's That?

Life

I had a birthday this week. A happy day which was interrupted by a visit to the Doctor because I have been having earache for nearly a month. He looked closely in my ear and at first announced he could see nothing wrong. Then he moved the tool he was using to examine my ear and, holy moly, I just about hit the roof! The pain was excruciating!! I don't know who jumped higher, him or me. He gently looked again and he saw it, a Furuncle in in the ear canal. What's a Furuncle I hear you ask? Well its a boil, especially in the ear or nasal passage. Antibiotics have been duly prescribed and hopefully they will sort it out. 

This week I also had a problem with Paypal :( They are holding some of my pennies hostage with them blaming my bank and vice-versa. This is the first time I have ever had trouble with them, but I will try to avoid using them in future as I cannot really afford to have them tie up my pennies.

At work we had a fabulous event, Robots Live. Held on Father's Day in bright sunshine lots of fun was had by over 1000 visitors. Silly me though, guess who forgot to take her camera so you will have to check out flickr.com/photos/nationalmuseumsscotland to get an idea of the day.

Off the Needles

Last week I told you I had finished my Camp Loopy project 1. Well here she is

Loopy Damask

I am so proud of this beautiful shawl, it is so soft and such a summery colour.

On the Needles

Having one project finished and being able to share it has got me motivated to make a list here and share with you all. Hopefully, maybe madly I will aim to have at least 1 finished project to share each week. 

So here goes.

• Colour Affection
• Damask (yes another one!}
• Carreta Carreta
• Vanilla Socks
• Maia Wrap
• 7 Sisters
• Beach Street Park
• Irish Mesh Cowl
• Dragon Wings
• Diantha
• Polaris
• and a few more!!!

Oops, seems I have had a few too many oh shiny's! Time to start knitting methinks.

Stay safe 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

Camp Loopy and Other Things

Life

What a week! I woke on Monday feeling like I had been run over by a bulldozer. Aches and pains in parts of my body I never knew existed. This lasted nearly 3 days then the snot and sneezing started. I felt absolutely dreadful and could have given Rudolph a run for their money in the nose department. I took the wise route and stayed well away from work to avoid spreading it around and now I am beginning to feel more normal again. Thus a quiet week has ensued here in Chez Baxter. 

A new TV show was discovered by us. Rescue Me is set in a New York fire house in the aftermath of 9/11. It is described as a Dramedy and oh boy it certainly has had us gasping out loud as well as laughing our heads off. Now I know it has been on TV for years, but our magic box only has the first 3 seasons so we will watch these and hope the others come along sometime. Another TV show we watch avidly in this house is NCIS. We both love it and were both left gasping open mouthed at the end of Friday night's episode. Oh boy, just did not see that coming. I won't spoil it by saying what happened just say that the episode was "Berlin".

Knitting 

Camp Loopy has officially begun. I mentioned last week that I would be double dipping with my Socktopus book KAL. Well here I was just before midnight with my supplies all ready to begin.

Well I waited until past the witching hour and duly cast on my socks and what do you know? 2 rounds in and I just knew the yarn was screaming at me "I don't want to be socks!" So back to the drawing board I went. I petted the yarn for a bit and came up with an idea. I have knitted 2 Damask shawls in the past but both were for gifts, this time I wanted one for me. So here is my progress after 2 days

Yup, this yarn wanted to be a shawl.

As for the socks, well yes those are on the needles too and much happier. No progress pics yet but here is the yarn I am using

Now the pattern name, Caretta Caretta, is the scientific name for the Loggerhead turtle and I think the shading in this yarn perfectly picks up the shading on a turtle shell. So I am more than happy using this for my socks.

Okay time to get back to my shawl

Stay safe and happy crafting

Mary

May Musings

Life

Frankie in hospital.

April was a wholly shitty month for us. Our beautiful wee boy cat Frankie nearly lost his life by eating some type of elastic which got would round the back of his tongue and ended up lacerating his stomach. We went on an emotional roller coaster ride whilst the vets at PDSA - Edinburgh operated again and again to save his life. Happily after the worst 3 weeks we got our wee boy home and he is back to his mischievous self with his fur beginning to grow back.

First day home

When he came home he looked a poor soul with almost half of his fur shaved off due to having had the operations, multiple drips and a feeding tube. He is also now eating us out of house and home which we do not mind at all as it was the fact he stopped eating and his weight plummeted that was the only sign he was ill.

Onward into May and life settled down for a while. This was of course not to last as now we have the worry of Bill's dear mum in hospital for the second time in two months with a fractured shoulder. Oh boy we could do with an extended period of calm. 

Onto some brighter news. I am delightedly proud to be part of a team whose workplace has gained a Certificate of Excellence from the Tripadvisor website. This means we are amongst the top 10% best rated visitor attractions in the world. My job has to be one of the best and I love what I do. Our wee place is in the back of beyond, but we must be doing something right if people keep giving us great reviews. 

Knitting

Yes, yes I kept on knitting through it all. I even got some things finished!

Elementary

First was an Elementary shawl a beautiful design by my good friend Cheri McEwan whose Dartfrog Designs can be found on Ravelry. 

Second was also a design by Cheri

Montego

This Montego was a MKAL over about 8 weeks and I think to date it is my favourite knitted piece.

I also managed to finish 2 pairs of socks for me

This pair were knitted using Wendy Happy. The bamboo yarn has been in my stash for years and finally I am knitting with it. I must admit it is not my favourite yarn to knit with, too splitty by far, and I will be glad to see the back of it. Mind you the socks are comfy.

The second pair were knitter with leftovers some of which you might just recognise from the shawls above

Both pairs were knitted to the Totally Vanilla pattern In the Socktopus book by Alice Yu. A great pattern and I learned so much. It will be my go to now.

Talking of Socktopus I have decided since I have the book I will take part in a KAL on Ravelry to knit every pair of socks. This will be a fun undertaking over the next 17 months and I am sure I will learn loads.

My other knitting plans this summer include taking part in Camp Loopy a fun virtual camp run by The Loopy Ewe. I look forward to sharing my adventures.

Stay safe and happy crafting

Mary