November 10th

I am writing early today because I have a few minutes to spare and the devil makes work for idle hands!

I have put some Bergere de France Cocoon in my store. It is nothing like Rowan Cocoon – it is more like Rowan Cork but not as dense.   The colours are very nice – quite unusual.

I posted an old link to the blog of baby shoe knitting customer – her up-to-date blog is here. Do take a look – there is a lovely story that won a prize in a competition.

I am expecting a delivery of Ilga Leja’s new Fall patterns and also some beautiful wooden shawl pins.

Now I am going to take 2 rabbits and 1 pheasant out of my oven and de-bone them ready for Slip’s dinner.  Back tomorrow

November 9th

A dull damp day here today.  I went shopping and cleaned my oven!

I received some Kidsilk Haze today and some Felted Tweed and yet more Lima in Peru!!   From having none, I have gone to having several packs.

I thought some of you might like to read the blog of my customer who knits the lovely baby shoes. She writes very well!

Nothing else to impart really. Perhaps tomorrow will be more exciting! Back then.

November 8th

I am writing this early today as we may go out after lunch!

We went to Anton’s last night and it was a great disappointment.  The menu was very strange – I had a job to find anything I liked. John had Toad in the Hole to start with – this is yorkshire pudding with sausages and gravy.  The yorkshire pudding should be crispy and his was not – it was soggy and so he complained and we got it taken off the bill.  I had a slice of game terrine which was not very nice. Then John had a steak with chips which were soggy!  I had mushroom linguini which was tasteless.. We had a bottle of red Burgundy which was not warm enough. It was very cold in the restaurant an also it is very dimly lit so that it is difficult to see what you are eating.  We did not have desserts or coffee. The bill was $170 and that was without the drinks we had at the bar before eating.   THere were some odd things on the menu – pigs cheeks, pigs ears and pig trotters were one dish – whoever would fancy them?   There were glazed pigeon breast and a rabbit casserole!!

I am cooking roast pork today with roast potatoes, roast parsnips, Brussels sprouts, carrot and red onion and sage stuffing followed by treacle tart.

The one good thing that did happen last night was that John said he will come to Jamaica in February. He said that he ha been selfish and was sorry.  I shall book it tomorrow.

Nothing new on the yarn front to tell you. Now I must away to my oven!  Back tomorrow

November 7th

I have no time to write much tonight.  We are going out to dinner at Anton’s Restaurant and Champagne Barn.  Strangely enough I never seem to get to the Champagne Barn part – John steers me well clear.

Great excitement this morning!  Rusty had caught and killed a rat during the night and was proudly guarding it in the back porch.  I have never known her catch one before – an annual mouse is usually her limit.  Our next door neighbor has several old sheds and John thinks the rats are in there, having taking refuge when the corn fields were cut.  Rusty got a bonus – a pheasant dinner!

Now I must go and wash my hair and decide what to wear – I would far rather being going to the pub in jeans and a shirt!!  Back tomorrow.

November 6th

 

Noro Taiyo

Sorry I did not write yesterday. I have had the most terrible problems with my broadband connection. Yesterday afternoon it suddenly started running very slowly – it took ages for a page to open and it was  impossible to upload anything. I telephoned BT ( in India!) and they made me run all sorts of tests on the line. Eventually they concluded that there was a fault on the line and said it would be looked into within the  next 48 hours.   It was still the same this morning and then suddenly it was back to its normal speedy self!  An engineer telephoned to say they had done some maintenance on the line and they will call again tomorrow to make sure it is still OK!

Todays photo is Noro Taiyo which is new for the UK for Spring – I think it is already available in the US.  It comes in 100g balls with 200 meters per ball and knits on 4.5 – 5mm needles. There are patterns for Taiyo in the new World of Nature pattern book and it can be used in place of Silk Garden, Blossom or Kureyon.

The new Jenny Watson Noro Catwalk 2 came today – I really like Jenny’s designs. My Rugger sweater is progressing but I am sure the sleeves are going to be FAR too wide. My tension is correct but they are vast – all I can think to do is to take some of the surplus up in the seams when I sew the sleeves up.  They do look quite wide in the photo but I have very slender arms and they are going to look ridiculous!

Now I am going to cook a lemon sole with  herb butter for John and shrimp linguini for me.  Back tomorrow.