Any one for a cuppa?

Another item for the Shaun the Sheep Picknit but my efforts this time rather than DD's. The pattern was from Simply Knitting and I liked the way it was based around a disposable cup to give it body and a realistic shape - actually I think mine looks a bit more like a latte than tea - I would be a bit worried if my tea was that frothy looking!

And after yesterdays outing with DD, I really could do with lots of cuppas. She and I went up to Olympia to the Vitality Show, we had a good day and came back with large bags full of freebies including numerous pens, samples of healthy foods, beauty products and even a T-shirt and water filter jug! Unfortunately due to a nasty cold ( first one since sept 2004 so I can't really complain) wading through the crowds was pretty tough going



and I was neither a picture of health nor beauty by the end of the day!

(just a quick reminder that if you are reading this before April 3rd, there is still time to enter my blogiversary competition designed by DD in the previous post)

Blogiversary and Babette

It will soon be my second blogiversary and to mark the occasion I will be giving away a small prize. Just a little something which I hope the winner will find useful, and a chance to say thank you to everyone for reading my blog and commenting over the last two years.




The prize consists of a small project bag ( great for socks, or any small project, I have a BSJ on circular needles in mine) together with a needle case containing (suprise, suprise) a wool needle and a couple of simple stitch markers, and with the attached fold-up scissors, just add pattern, needles and yarn and you are ready to go. Oh and, of course, some Divine chocolate - after all we knitters need chocolate and since this is Fairtrade, and delicious, everyone is happy!

So DD has designed a little competition for you based on the progress so far of my Babette blanket




We would like you to leave a comment including the number of the square which you think she crocheted ( is that the past tense of crochet?)
If more than one of you guess the correct square the winner will be decided by drawing a correct answer from a hat.
And if no one guesses correctly - I'll put everyones name in the hat.
(perhaps not the standard competition rules, but it's just a bit of fun)
The closing date will be my blogiversary which is April 3rd.

When I first started this blog, I didn't realise how much I would enjoy writing it, or how much all your comments would mean, thank you all so much.
And following on from the last entry - yes, Silvia, I think DD is wonderful too - I am very lucky. She has enough of me in her that we are similar, but enough of DH that we don't clash. I feel privileged to be able to say that my teenage daughter and I are the best of friends.

Happy Birthday DD

Good grief! how can DD possibly be 15 already? To celebrate we took her and two friends out for a meal yesterday and they stayed over. The easy way to tell they are growing up is that they actually slept. I told them I didn't mind whether they did or not, but DH and I would like to, and they were as good as gold. I never heard a peep after we went to bed and apparently they all went to sleep about 1am. Are DD's friend just lovely girls or is that normal for 15 year olds these days!

DD may be all growed up but she still wanted a fun birthday cake, only this year I just made the cake, and she did the decorating



And following the tradition started by my Dad when she was a toddler, she gave me this lovely bright and cheerful 'Pot Mum'



to say thank you for being her Mum.....but the pleasure is all mine.

Happy Mummys Day

I was quite spoilt this morning - tea in bed and these pressies from DD


Despite having the mickey taken by her friends whilst out shopping yesterday, she bought me Simply Knitting (quite why a knitting magazine should cause such hilarity I do not know but then I`m not 14 and from a non-crafty background) and added a little pad of sticky notes with a cute frog on,(lovely little chaps, frogs) and also framed my favourite photo of her and DH, and rounded it all off with a handmade card. The best and most thoughtful Mother`s day pressie I`ve had.

Knitting itself seems to have ground to a halt temporarily due to the discovery that the Babette Blanket pattern could be bought as a pdf, So I`m currently crocheting. Having wandered round the web, I found I was drawn by the blankets which used similar or a limited range of colours, so I delved into my stash to find all the pink/red/mauves. It`s only acrylic, but then again at least it will be easy care.

I did however finish EZ's baby blanket from Knitter's Almanac, which enabled me to send another two packs off to the Baby Pack Project. Here's a full shot - really hard to get it to look like the real thing...

and DD's Arty shot which shows the yarn, an inherited unidentified DK.


I got a little bored with the continual stocking stitch, so I decided to add in my own lace motif - in hindsight I should have done this a bit earlier, as I was running low on yarn by then - but Hey, it's the first time I've added my own (albeit very simple) design and I don`t suppose the little mite that is wrapped in it will be too concerned about its placement, and I learnt a lot too.

Having been inspired by the Shaun the Sheep Picknit at the Creative Stitches show a couple of weeks back, DD has taken up the needles and is rightly proud of her leaf, flowers, sweet and strawberry, especially bearing in mind she has only ever knitted a sample square before. I was particularly impressed with the strawberry - she handled two colours like a pro.