Secret pal revealed

My last parcel just arrived with my pal, Have a look at her blog if you want to see what I've gotten her over the last 3 months :)

I had a great time being your pal!

catching up

its been so busy here, James is working his usual 12 hour days so seeing daddy is a rare treat during the week. We went to buy shoes on Sunday and the twins now light up with every step, literally. I walked into the chicken run on Monday to find it looking like someone had plucked a few chickens, but thankfully after a quick headcount they where all there and OK just started moulting.
I opened and etsy shop and am slowly adding thing to it.
I have my very first very own knitting pattern being tested as we speak and that will be available on ravelry and in my etsy shop as a kit.

Mums cancer has suddenly gotten much worse and she will be starting chemo in a few weeks, she's going on holiday to some faraway hot country first. They will be doing several courses of chemo together with bone marrow transplants. Fingers crossed this will actually help her and not make it all worse

Euan has been a dragon for the last 2 weeks and he gets very cross if we call him by his name, he flies everywhere we go and roars at everyone which gets some interesting reactions from people.
He also had his first experience with what school is like. We where at the park last thursday and after about 20 minutes this group of school children dressed in their unifroms stopped at the top of the hill. Euan climbed on top of the big slide to watch what was going on. after about 5 minutes of shouting and moving all the children where standing in neat littl groups listening to instructions and then they where let loose, this resulted in constant shouting of instructions and no's and get of's. There was this group of 30+ kids with a teacher and a handfull of mums and none of the kids where really allowed to do much since it was still early morning all the equipment was wet. after 10 minutes of this they where rounded up again like a herd of cows and they had to carry on. Once they left the stream of questions from Euan started, why where they all dressed the same, why couldn't they play, why did they have to hold hands, why did they have to walk in a line why why why. I tried to answer his questions as matter of factly as I could without showing my own dislike of this screwed up system of so called education. and after all that he sat on the bench for awhile staring into the distance only to fly of again and run around doing things dragons do. on the way home he said I don't like school I like being a dragon and running.

I have also send my last sp package of lets hope the royal mail strike doens't keep it hostage for to long!

Swap parcels :)

I posted two quick pics with my phone but wanted to write a little more.
My secret Pal lives in Canada! Include in the lovely parcel was a birthay card with a cute little sheep, a set of 2mm bamboo dpn's, a cute little cow finger puppet (sorry the kids all agreed it was a cow not a goat or a sheep lol!) a ball of light blue fibernatura cottonwood (100%cotton) (no ideas what to do with this yet) and a skein (hank?) of alpaca with twist mojito in the best variegated colours I've ever seen. SP you have no idea how much I love that skein/hank! it is absolutely perfect (I am planning to knit these) I wish there was more of it!

My sock swap parcel also arrived with two cute socks loads of tiny sock yarn skeins chocolate buttons for the kids (they where gone in about 2 minutes!) a lovely smelling piece of soap which has dissapeared allready (I will hide hubbies conditioner until the soap gets returned...) a card a two knitted strawberries. I will add the socks to my collection shortly.

Euans ear got worse yesterday but strangly seems to be much better today. he got another sore on it and it was so red and swollen but still it didn't hurt him. the redness is gone as is the swelling just a couple of scabs left. hopefully this is it!
The rain doesn't seem to stop at al. The chickens have become excellent swimmers.
My little sister is coming over on Tuesday with her girlfriend yay! Euan is counting the days until tuesday keeping his fingers crossed for lots of presents :)
More family will be arriving the monday after so we'll be busy

Questionnaire for SP14

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
I love wool and alpaca. I like cottons for crochet but find them hard to knit with. I believe fun fur was invented by the devil.


2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
I have a metal jug for my straight needles from my nan. they are there more for decoration/emotional value than anything else because I much prefer usings circs. they hang on the lamp next to my seat. my hooks live in an empty golden syrup tin


3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?

I learned to knit when i was 7 or 8 but didn't get back to it until I was pregnant with ds1. I thaught myself to crochet during his pregnancy too


4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
Amazon and my wists is up to date though

5. What's your favorite scent?
I don't really use perfumes but if I do I use weleda wild roses


6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?

Yes! plain chocolate and proper dutch sweet liquorice katjes of boerderijdrop are my favorites

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?

Any way you can think of to process fiber into something usable/wearable I do (knit spin tat crochet lace sprang nahlbinding) I own an ashford castle and a medium/heavyweight dropspindle. I love both but the spindle is easier at the moment


8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)

I love so many bands the corrs medieval baebes nickleback marco borsato. I really dislike heavy metal/house ramstein type music

9. What's your favorite colour(s)? Any colours you just can't stand?

I love more earthy colours and really dislike neon/superbright colours

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
Married with 3 beautifull sons. We have 3 cats 2 guinea pigs and a rabbit. And 4 chickens.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?

Hats mittens and scarves ponchos are not my thing.
And fingerless gloves!

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?

Currently quick projects, mainly toys. minimal seaming is preferred. I would love to knit something for myslef someday but the kids seem to take up all my time

13. What are you knitting right now?

More peter pan daggers These ones will be for the twins

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?

Yes! I love well made hand made gifts

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?

circular metal, but would love to try bamboo as I've been told its a bit more sticky.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?

Does my husband count?

17. How old is your oldest UFO?

7 months or so

18. What is your favorite holiday? What winter holiday do you observe?

Yule

19. Is there anything that you collect?

Sheep!

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?

I would love the sheep handpuppet pattern from the interweave spinning mag (name escapes me know). I also Love old patterns (pre 1980) I have 20 odd years of ariadne a dutch craftmagazine that ran from the 40's trough to the 80's. I have a subscription to livings crafts

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?

I'm a combined knitter and I'd love to get more technical on that. I often find that what a pattern calls for doesn't work for me.
I'd also love to be able to do cables for some reason i have problems with this

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?

I want to be a sockknitter I knit tiny socks but I have been intimidated by big socks. I will have to go hunting for a tapemeasure and come back with measurements

23. When is your birthday?

We all have our birthdays over the next few weeks mine is on the 31st of july.

24. Are you on Ravelry? If so, what's your ID?

yup

impatiently waiting

still no news on sp14. I'm contstantly refreshing twitter and the sp14 blog so far niks.
It is still extremely hot here the kids where running around this morning but they gave up a couple of hours ago as it is just too hot. They have moved onto trying to open cans of cat food with spoons. willow is throwing shoes trough the kitchen whilst shouting plane mummy plane and clapping because he is just so pleased with himself :). Thomas has figured out one the the catches in the kitchen is broken an dhe is convinced the iron makes the same noise as the hoover does. everytime I step out of the kitchen he opens the cupboard and holds onto the iron whilst making hoover sounds quickly shutting it as I come back into the kitchen.

SP14

I signed up for scret pal 14. I've seen previous spswaps and it always looked like so much fu. I found out about this round a couple of days before sign ups closed. I'm unsure what the next stp is I guess the ppinvoice if you ravel there is a group.