My favourite things, Mollie Makes, & the Great British Sewing Bee ,& lets Knit Socks.

Its been a glorious day here in Lincolnshire. Its been so warm that the shetland cardi I put on first thing this morning had to come off at about 11am. In terms of weather, that is amazing!
The day started off well with a lay in bed until the postman knocked. Poor guy was totally laiden. Mr T had ordered some new tools for his new job he started today. It seemed they were all delivered today via Royal Mail & I had my newest edition of Mollie Makes delivered to me & a new book I had ordered form Amazon. Its called Knit Socks by Betsy Lee McCarthy. The book is lovely & has some superb patterns for hand knitted socks which I adore making. The socks depicted on the cover are the ones I really want to make.

I really need to go through my yarn stash to see what I can use or need to order for them. The book contains 17 sock patterns. There are some great instructions on how to cast on for stretchy sock tops & how to use circular needles to knit in the round. There are also other great tips for knitters to use. I certainly would recommend this book if you are interested in making socks.

Mollie Makes is a regular through our door. There is always something I am interested in or want to make. This month is no exception! 

Look at the puppies on the front cover. They are finger puppets! Inside this month is an array of articles I cannot wait to read.

One thing I will be making is a similar fascinator to this one.

I think the placement of the rosettes will be different .We have another wedding to attend later in the year & with a posh frock , I think it will be perfect!

The rest of the day was spent outside in the sunshine, doing a bit of gardening. When Mr T had finished his job , we even sat outside & had our lunch of homemade soup with rounds of crusty bread , tomato ,ham & melted cheese. Mmmmm!!!

I have managed to get a great deal planted today. The garden is starting to come along nicely & in a few weeks we should be getting salads from it & have a few flowers growing as well. 

The chickens got moved today as well to their permanent run. They have been very helpful , turning over grassed areas for me so I have not had to work quite so hard at getting rid of turf when we have created planting beds.

Nothing is flowering yet & still the daffodils have yet to emerge. The cold weather has put everything so behind & with a very late planting of my bulbs this spring , they are even further behind everyone else. Having said that , I will have blooms in the garden after everyone else s have faded!

I am off now to watch on catch up this weeks episode of the Great British Sewing Bee.   I am so hooked !!

Ooooh Vienna!

 We just got back from visiting our son in Vienna!
I am so silly though! Forgot to take my camera & my phone ,so I couldn't take any pictures.Luckily Jasmin  sent me some she took.
This is the second time we have visited them in Vienna .I had a lot of expectations! The first one was for snow...let  face it , a  week, just  before Christmas & it should snow in Vienna. No ??!!! Well it did try just as we walked to the station to get our train for the flight home!

 In spite of a week being ill with sickness,cold & sore throats & no snow, we enjoyed ourselves. We went to Hungary for a family meal for our sons 24th birthday which was fabulous! They certainly know how to feed people! I cannot eat a whole dumpling!

We visited the Christmas markets on the evening for lovely traditional crafts & yummy food & hot Gluhwein! Mmmmm . I bought some fantastic glass baubles for our tree this year & managed to get them home with no breakages.

All the time we were poorly was well spent too. I finished a present I had started for Jasmin's nephew who will be born in the spring next year.

The basket was made out of some Rico Big Cotton.It was not brilliant to knit with & kept splitting no matter how careful I was. The clock & baby Uggs & the hats were knitted out of various oddments of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino & Rialto yarn which as always gives a lovely finish.

I did find a tiny yarn shop in Vienna via an Internet search.More about that in a later post though.

Today ,now we are home, the decorations are going up! Once done I shall try to get some decent pictures of the new baubles for you to see them in all their sparkly glory.
I hope that wherever you are , you too have a nice day. I think I will just stay in my pj's & get a pot of Gluhwein on the stove to fuel my day as we get the house decked with boughs of holly!