The Upside and the Downside

Hi everyone, I am sorry to have been so quiet this last week, the downside for me has been that both my thumbs and wrists have been giving me quite a lot of trouble and I have had to have a rest from my beloved crochet!  It is terribly frustrating because of course, I still work (massage and beauty treatments) do the house work etc - all using hands frequently as we all do, so "resting" them enough for them to improve is quite difficult.  To be honest, I would rather give up the work, housework etc and just crochet but that aint gonna happen! I am trying not to let it get me down - I have cream to rub in and a very kind lady on Ravelry has told me to "ice dip" them so I am trying that. I am really cross with myself because this last weekend we went with friends to our first Festival (will post about it later in the week - gives me something else to talk about!!!) and just sitting all day listening to bands play - rested my hands and when I got back yesterday I thought hey - this is good - no pain.  Stupidly got up early today, caught up with the ironing, dysoned the whole house and then worked, silly SILLY Kimbles - tonight back to where I started!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Enough of this I don't mean to whine on to all of you, just wanted to let you know that I havent got bored with blogging or crochet - its just circumstances at the mo!  Here are a few colourful crochet pictures to cheer me up mainly!! Showing the Granny Stripe progress before I had to stop

This is me crocheting the granny stripe blanket outside our camper a couple of weekends ago - even then progress was slow!  But I have to admit, that afternoon, a glass of wine by my side and crocheting and camping seemed to go really well together!

My beloved Summer Garden Blanket on the camper bed for extra warmth along with the camper cushions (I know they don't match, but I couldn't resist)

Square, Stripey and Hexagony goodness!

And lastly the lovely SIBOL thank you cards that arrived from lovely Sue, for Little Kimbles and myself, really beautiful and we will treasure them. If you haven't got involved in the SIBOL project yet, please check out this lovely blog - where squares are arriving from all over the world and lovely Sue is making them into blankets for the elderly.

Now the biggest "Upside" of the week has been Little Kimbles - I have her permission to tell you she got a 2-1 (I think that is how you show it!!) in her Degree!!  We are absolutely bursting with pride, she is working away for the next six weeks, so we will have to wait to crack open the Champagne, but boy those bubbles will be bouncing then!

Thank you so much for dropping by and sticking with me!

Speak soon xx

English Country Gardens

When we were in Dorset, we visited a couple of lovely gardens, we belong to the National Trust and love to visit historic houses and gardens.  I particularly love the smaller houses, you know, ones you could actually imagine living in and it is so poignant seeing other people's precious treasures, be it an old sampler, a letter or a photo, on show to the public - but gives us a glimpse of life in times gone by. 

My favourite on this visit was a small house and garden just into Somerset, called Tintinhull.  In fact only the garden was open to the public and it was delightful

As you can see, it is a "liveable" sized house, with lovely walled gardens with roses

I loved this rose, it didn't have a name that I could see but it reminded me of the beautiful hand dyed yarn that Kate (The Garden Bell) produces!

In the middle of one of the lawns was an Umbrella sculpture, very unusual, (glad it wasn't a windy day!!!!!)

I believe the yellow one signified the one yellow plant in a border of purple ones.

Then of course there was the Kichen Garden - here they grow veg to supply the restaurant up the road in a larger National Trust house called Montacute.

A lovely day out - but of course I have my OWN English Country Garden - ok not quite as grand or large - yes a much smaller scale


My tiny " kitchen garden"  in the wrong place under the leylandi trees, is doing remarkably well!!

Not enough to supply a restaurant - enough for the Kimbles household for a little while!!

Lovely apples are forming on the tree.

the potato bags are coming along nicely

Very beautiful sweetpeas - such a vibrant colour!

Pretty floweryness

mini cucumbers, ripe for picking in my conservatory!!

Ok so it is not quite the National Trust garden but hey who cares, its ours and considering  I do not have green fingers at all - I am very pleased with my efforts so far - and there is nothing like the taste of home grown veg!

Have a lovely day and enjoy the sunshine!

Speak soon xx

Delightful Dorset

I have been meaning to post all week and here we are at Thursday already!  I wanted to share some of my memories of last weekend and our little trip to Dorset.

We visited Lulworth Cove, which is a lovely sheltered little cove with lovely cliff top walks.  We hiked up to the top of the cliff and along the top

 This view is looking back down to Lulworth cove.  It was the perfect day for walking, not too hot!

The sea was a beautiful deep blue and the cliff top was edged with pretty wild flowers.  I am always a little nervous of unfenced cliff edges - I'm not one to be bold and look over!!!!

A couple of miles later we came to this beach and the rock formation is called Durdle Door.  Now when I was a very tiny girl, my Mum and Dad and I, stayed in a caravan on a site at the top of the cliff overlooking Durdle Door and it was terribly rainy weather, so much so that we came home a week early.  The week later the weather was so bad the caravan was blown over the cliff!!

I digress - we were feeling a little hot by now after all of this hiking and we realised we hadn't put enough money on the car park ticket (isn't that soooo annoying?), so we had to "Hike" rather quickly back!

Heading back down the hill was a little easier than going up!!  It was a lovely walk though, all of that lovely sea air.

Of course when we got back to the "Trailer" we were in need of a treat - and it just so happened that on the morning we were leaving I got up really early and made some fruit scones.  I had also brought with us some lovely strawberry jam and lo and behold we found some Clotted Cream -

I didn't feel at all guilty eating this after all of that exercise!

Speak soon xx

A Little Home Away From Home

Hello dear Blogettes, sorry for my absence this last week.  Hubby and I took a few days away on a short break to Dorset, a couple of hours away from Sussex where we live.  I had hoped to be able to "blog" from the field because that is where we were in our folding camper, but alas, No Signal! Now I have to be ToTally honest with you dear friends, unlike Lucy at Attic 24 who has Caravan Love, I have over the years had a mixture of Camper Love and Hate!!!!  You see, sometimes, usually when it has rained for hours (I don't mean the sweet pitter patter noise on the canvas,  when you are snuggled up) everything feels damp and cold and you have to trudge across a wet field, or the times we have got lost and gone down a narrow road with said trailor on the back, with me panicking and hubby being all calm, or when we have travelled two days through France only to be given a TiNy DusTy pitch, that is sometimes when I .... how shall I say..... sink! Oh yes, with my hand on my heart Kimbles has been heard to cry "That's it, I'm never doing this again" or "Sell it!"

However, there are also the good times, Hubby knows how to get round me with a Kir for me and a Beer for him

and suddenly I am back on track, chillin in the fresh air, no TV, just books and hooking and chat and starting to relax!

Our little Home Away From Home springs to life, complete with Sunflower lights

So then I fall back in love with it all!  I am always buying "stuff" for the Trailor and its really weird because I could come home with literally AnYthinG and say to Hubby "it's for the Trailor"  and Hubby would say "good buy darling" (must try that with some new boots!)

Sorry I am gabbling on - we had some lovely days with leisurely breakfast

Can you see my little toast rack?  Here is a closer look...

I found it in a second hand shop last year and fell in love with it!  It has a little Teapot on the top and flowers/eggs on the sides!  I knew it had to be mine the second I saw it in the window, and a couple of pounds later it was, and I love it.

Whilst away we did some exploring, seaside and interesting houses and gardens which I will share with you later in the week.

Of course, I did get some hooking done "for the Trailor" I finished these cushions

What do you think of them?   I am really pleased, they are from Jan Eatons 200 Squares book and are called "Chocolate Box"

 I also managed a few more Granny Stripes

So there you are, that is where I have been these last few days.  This morning we packed our folding camper down (you see the bottom half is Caravan, top half Tent, we have lovely sprung beds, oven, washroom, sink, fridge etc) and this is how it looks all neatly packed away.

Now it is safely stowed away in our garage until the next time (that is unless of course I sell it!!!!!)

Speak soon xx

Crochet Top Reveal!!

Morning to you all, thank you for taking the trouble to drop by!

 I am really excited by this post , do you remember by green top I was making?

Well the pattern worked like a dream, the bamboo cotton was lovely and silky to work with (if a little splitty)

but for once I have crocheted something I actually might wear!!

 

The pattern was from King Cole Ltd made in Bamboo Cotton (50% cotton, 50% Bamboo) and took 4 x 100g balls.  The pattern was easy to follow and the shaping minimal. All in all a very good pattern.

Ta Dah!!

Oh dear, I suppose you would like to see me in it ............... I hate having my piccie taken!  Here goes...........

 

Ok ... one with my head in!

Hope you like it! 

Speak soon xx

"Short Jaunt"

Welcome, it is lovely of you to drop by!  On Sunday I went away on a short "jaunt", a little break with my mum and a friend, a little "girl" time away - it was unexpected and very welcome - we headed to Stratford-upon-Avon, a really pretty town famous for its William Shakespeare connections.

We wandered around the riverside and looked at the canal boats and I would love this fountain in my garden!

We ventured into town to find scrummy places to eat

yes it was a short "happy jaunt"

I got back yesterday, so this morning I dashed out to get my copy of "Inside Crochet" to see the article about SIBOL , how exciting, there they were lovely pictures of Sue's blankets! Check out the SIBOL blog for themes for up and coming blankets - its a brilliant cause and Sue is making a fantastic success of it all!

After my last post I where I couldn't decide which projects to start next - I made a decision to try and use up my currrent stash

I decided to use these to join in with Lucy's hook along granny stripe blanket over in the We Love Lucy group on  Ravelry

I am already "hooked" on it and loving the granny stripeyness!  The only slight downside I can see, is that I wont be able to cart it around with me as it gets bigger - at least with squares and motifs you can do a few and add them on if you see what I mean.  I am quite excited to see how this turns out - its going to be a holiday blanket for our folding camper. 

As I needed a "little" something to do whilst on the "short jaunt" I sorted out my leftover cotton and started on this

I am hoping to make this into a beachy type bag, however it is eating more cotton than I thought so may have to improvise and make it into something else!  The joy of crochet - nothing is set in stone is it!

Thank you to the lovely Louise for mentioning my "join-as-you-go" tutorial on her lovely blog.  

Great to catch up with you all!

Speak soon xx

What to do! what to do!

Hi, a quick little post today.  I have been playing around with the crochet hook this week itching to start a new project.  I have finished my green jumper and will post some pictures next time.  I was browsing the internet and came across this pattern

I scribbled down a bit of the pattern, went away to try it - got in a mess and then couldn't remember where I had seen it in the first place :::::::: after several attempts I think I have cracked it.  It is groups of three trebles done in a "zig zag" way starting with one and increasing with each row and then decreasing until you are back to one! I have no idea if this is how the pattern intended, but it seems to have turned out alright.

 

This was an early attempt which looks more like squares - I like this too and have plans for this pattern.  But the prettiest way is this way

I can see a cushion or a bag in this pattern.

I have also done a swatch of the Granny Stripes that Lucy has done on her blog - I have lots of odd bits of stash left which would be good to use for a blanket

Head buzzing, I don't know what to start next!!!

Watch this space!

Speak soon xx