Try getting through an airport like this Jo !!!!

Note the plaque !! 

Home run section ..

Includes Crystal Palace "Bebop" in Roses which I love but think expensive for 100% nylon. There's quite a lot of Colinette's "Isis" in Monet which is soft but feels cold against the skin so a lot of mohair and kid-silk haze again. I'll take a photo when it's finished if my model co-operates .

On the home run..

My shawl is now on the home run I hope and then I shall start an autumn inspired one .Not sure if I should include berries as I don't want to get too twee. I might then just go for a Christmas fair-isle jacket .Another trip to town yesterday just confirmed the appalling clothes everyone seems to wear.We had to put on "Wings of a Dove" to cleanse our eyes .Mounds of fat poured over too small ,too low jeans is not a pretty sight and as for colour forget it.I finally spent the gift vouchers for "East" I had for my birthday on a red silk gathered skirt for Holly and a bargello-like scarf for me. There was hardly any colour out there and no vocabularies at all. We find the locals are actually hard to understand because they speak in "Neanderthal grunts" .My sister had left four skeins of Colinette mohair for me at my mother's house .My favourite was in earth colourway so I added some to my shawl when we got home. Then watched "Desperate Housewives" which still surprises me ..I laugh an awful lot.

This bit has ..

my favourite section with Kaalund "Nimbus" knitted with two strands of "Kidsilk-Haze" and a bit of Mardi-gras "One-Zero" 

Up past the picket fence...

Still working on "garden" 

Frogs and spiders.

There I was happily watching "Heroines of Comedy" as I un-picked a sweater Holly declared "The most ghastly thing on the planet" when out popped the most enormous spider . I screamed dropped my knit and jumped up on the highest surface. Jeff came to the rescue. I think my stash is going to have a large input soon as a 16 yr old won't wear what a 14 year old would. I am not the same size as Holly and also over-heat easily , she is cold most of the time. I made her thick sweaters in Colinette's chunkiest yarns . We negotiated on what she will wear but it was as time-consuming and nearly as big a waste of time as The U.N. Seeing Phyllis Diller again made my day though ..I adored that crazy woman as a child.

Old pattern..

Amongst a big pile of old patterns sent to me by a friend Holly singled this out.It would look better on her in a deep pink ..and one day I hope to get round to it ! 

After Jo's sobering post...

about Irish lads thought of as potential nationalist fighter being sent to Welsh coal-mines I give you this .




"In Monmouthshire"


When greed was born in Monmouthshire
In Monmouthshire,
The hill's were torn for mammon's fire,
And wheels went round,
And skulls were cracked,
And limbs were ground,
And nerves were wracked.
No time to dream,
No time to stand and stare,
In that fell scheme,
To foul the air,
To grab the coal
And scorn the tree,
And sell the soul
to buy a spree.
And breasts were bruised
In dismal dens,
And streets were used
As breeding pens.
And babes were born
to feed the fire,
When hills were torn
In Monmouthshire.


By Idris Davies. For my aunt who wouldn't look towards Caversham because she'd see the big house on the hill owned by mine-owners who exploited the Welsh.

Gorgeous chenille.

This arrived today fron "Green Man Threads" on E:Bay .It is perfect for a shell loving knitter. You don't quite get enough of the pinks and blues in the picture. 

Scare your child courtesy of Noro...

These two scaries were in my new pamphlet. When I was a kid in the 1950s ( and with a gambling, alcoholic Dad) I was grateful for anything ( my best toy was two red pom-poms with bri-nylon ears ..a bunny called Rosemary) . Mostly I find exquisite patterns from Japan , cute little toys etc .What are these horrors doing in the booklet of a premier yarn company? Mind you Noro really overdo cables ..with multi-yarns I don't think they look that good. 

Operation Tiger.

Just to cheer us up on this "lovely" day we watched a documentary about the exercises to prepare for D-Day .A small English sea-side town had been taken over , sadly the American unit was attacked and hundreds died in some really revolting ways. It all had to be covered up for obvious reasons. The narrator tells us that most of the men's last word was "Mum" .There we go again , get pregnant , give birth , lovingly bring up your child and the idealogy of a madman means he will die in terror and agony.Writers like Michael Morpugo, PatBarker keep writing your amazing books and maybe , just maybe all Mums will bring up their children to try to understand the enormity of attacking a fellow human being .Maybe we can work to "Make Gentle the Life of This World"

Old Relics..

The other day watching the senate commitee, E.M.K stood up and flashed that Kennedy smile half way between Robert and John. It was weird as hell for me as if I am so old I can see history. I suppose those of us who grew up with so much film and media see visuals others never did. Holly loves the U.K.T.V History channel and was watching a program about Charles II. An inn keeper is reported to have recognized him and fallen at his feet. We wondered how a humble inn keeper from the south coast knew him, I guess he might have served in the king's army and seen the young prince.
I believe he was rather tall and had dark French colouring but even so it seems amazing. I think its a shame she can't see footage of the times that interest her. We are not so keen on recreations of the type they do in documentaries. Holly did tease me mercilessly that the Palin family (Michaels) were royalists who hid Charles II. I forgive them considering what the commonwealth was like in terms of fun and frolics. I was reading about William Penn yesterday and I was mystified that he was a friend of James II... Weird huh ? I shall have to investigate. Holly said " Are you kidding Mum they were all bonkers!" She meant early Quakers .....and some not so early. Even when she was six years old she would pull faces at meeting that clearly said "Nuts!"

New Noro booklet..

This is exquisite !..I'll post more later but it's just arrived so it's a coffee and an ogle. 

Money Laundering..

This morning I sat tying pennies into my knitted scarf and Holly said "Mother sits in the corner doing something surreal again" . I then tied it into a bundle and felted it ...shibori knobs ! This is only a section and bits of silk remain which I tied them in with..I'll brush them off when I dry it. 

The most exquisite yarn I have ever seen.

Go to http://blog.leesburgyarnshop.com/

Scroll down to the Great Adirondack "Moonbeam" yarn....alas it is near $50.00s a skein and I can't order from the U.S but it's the stuff of dreams.

Bloggers for Peace...

Post a note to Tony Blair , President Bush , Presidents' of Iran ,The Lebanon ,Israel. Do you look at the Winnie -the Pooh in the ruins of a building in The Lebanon and imagine the child crushed, suffocated .Maybe he/she is still dying so afraid , so lonely so much in agony. Do you gun toting men , bomb makers , gas producers, murderers either in the name of your God or your State think "NO ,we are all God's people I will not will not kill my brothers?" Do you citizens of Israel ever think that it is going to cause obvious sores settling in another's home ? But remember young men who grow up to lob missles at innocent Israelis we do not admire you .In fact you disgust us as much as the pilots dropping bombs on the innocent.God gave us voices, minds of our own and I doubt any God of any people ( who is all one) sees what we do and blesses us , no we are cursed and we can live with it or begin to beg forgiveness.

A huge treat..

http://www.c-span.org/apa/rfk.asp

This is an approx 3 hour interview recorded for posterity in approx 1965.R.F.K is relaxed and so his speaking style is much easier, faster,happier at times. It is wonderful history for anyone interested in Civil Rights and the work of The Justice Dept. as it should be when there is a hard working Attorney General.

Picket Fence..

needs tidying with embroidery later ...a few french knot flowers more. 

Holly's imaginary costume designer..

Antonio drew this .He's part of a story I'm not allowed to read yet. 

Still Knitting..

Reading Evan Thomas's Bio of R.F.K and started another oddments shawl.It is such fun throwing all my "garden" balls into a big bag . This is going to be a big rectangle but I have an autumnal triangle planned .It is still on the needles so the thread across it is some "Giotto" I think .