Lyra, Oggs, Berrie, Zeb (and Binkle) ....

[oggsfrog]

...... do you realise we've been chatting now for almost 18months .

Berrie, thankyou for the very kind offer to mug your children. It's much appreciated .
Tbh the car only cost £150 last year so it's reached the end of it's days I'm afraid - we need to get another one.

I know the feeling though - I think I've done really well at the shops sometimes, but try as I might I can't get it below £100 a week. Must Try Harder.

Oggs, I have a question about wool are you still there?

Oh dear poor Oggs, poor dd. Is she any better today?

Yes it might help though he hates lists of jobs. I just need to communicate better but I feel so frustrated that it comes out wrong. I should be grateful that he does anything at all shouldn't I?

Wool question. Do you get furry heavy weight wool?
Do cowl necks come out well? Am not doing it myself you understand. The knitter is a good one unlike my Mmother who has provided the children with a sucsession of very wonky garments.

Still here... shouldn't be though. Haven't even got dressed yet .

Apologies for rant. Do feel better to have got it off my chest though.

Goodo

Yes you can get really thick, chunky wool/yarn that knits up really quickly.
What do you mean by furry? Fluffy?

Have not yet knitted a jumper but I've seen nice cowl necked ones.

Is someone knitting jumpers for you/dc? What exactly are you after? Ideas/recommendations/pictures?

Are you new to knitting then?
I want a fluffy one yes for me.

quite like this but want it hairy and turqoise/green

Taught myself last May so still a beginner.

That's why I'm so stupidly chuffed about my sock using dpns

So you have a friend who is prepared to knit one for you but you want ideas, preferably visuals?
What colour? What yarn? 100% wool? Alpaca? Acrylic? Mixture?
Would have to be really soft if it was against your neck.
Tightish cowl or very loose and baggy?

I'll have a look for some suggestions of yarn and patterns.

Its a relative. She is very good at it but the last jumper she knitted me was cream with purple stripes, big and baggy, not at all flattering and only for the allotment.

I'd like to knit but my Mum has put me off. I can KNIT but can't cast on or off and don't know what to do when I drop a stitch.

Will have a look Berrie, but need to go and do dd's breakfast now [bad mum].

I always get back ache when I knit. So I've given up on that.

I'm sorry you and DH are having problems Berrie. It sounds like men just do not have the same wiring as we do. But is your back any better?

Oggs, have you gone for a mid-afternoon snooze? I think you probably need one!

Mid-afternoon snooze . I can't do that.

Have spent day making soup (leek, watercress and potato), trying to make inroads into the mahoosive pile of washing (no water meant no washing for a fortnight), and have just spent over an hour supervising dd while she groomed pony and set up little jumps in the yard to drag jump him over.

Now doing some paperwork for planning application.

Will shortly be making enough pork, bean and tomato casserole so that I can freeze portions for dh's lunches when he's away working.

How's the back Berrie?. I am still looking for inspirational patterns and yarns... will get back to you later on that.
Are you sure you want a jumper and not a cardi?? I have a lovely pattern to tempt show you

Zeb, any confirmation on moving date?

Thought the back a little better today but getting worse again this evening. Just had a bath which helped and am saving the ice pack for later.
DH home, making tea, unstacking dishwasher in a filthy mood. Poor kids who haven't been out for 3 days or seen anyone but me all day are getting shouted at...sigh.

Chin up Berrie, it's Wednesday. Only 2 more days of the little sodsdarlings. Then back to school on Monday.

I love pork and bean casserole. Can I have some please? And that's a no on the moving date so far. My dad's still doing the credit check thing. Don't worry, he's good for it.

Dumplings?

Oh Berrie . I'm sure dc will survive.

How safe is your garden? Could you send them out for a bit tomorrow on a hunt while you are indoors?
Give them a list each of things to find and a small bag/container... things like 3 feathers, a stone, erm..... a flower, two leaves.....erm...

Let them do bark rubbings (realises this depends on whether you have trees in your garden ...)

erm.... if you trust them to make a long train journey on their own you can always send them up here

Lookie here - are these the sort of colours you mean or is it too blue?

You could go for two yarns held/knitted together to make one chunky. That way you could have a mohair for hairiness together with a lovely slubby, soft, squooshy one like one of those in the link.

Here is the cardigan/sweater that I'm coveting at the moment.
Its basically a circle with arms, and can be worn either with a short collar and long back or be turned upside down for a deep collar and shorter back.
If you look on flickr or google for 'pinwheel sweater' you can see ones that people have made. There is a lovely blue green fluffy one on flickr.

Or do you def want a jumper?

OMG, that wool is deeeelicious!
I don't necessarily want a chunky jumper, just a hairy one. That cardigan looks very complicated but its lovely. Do you want one for you or dd?

That was a dead good idea about sending them out. We really really must make the garden more secure this year though. Not just so we can let the chickens out but to stop dc realising that behind the trees is a drop into a stream.

Ah bless ds is drawing me a cyberman I've watched Dr save the world from them too many times this week!

What cut of pork do you put in? How long do you cook for?

How soon could you move in Zeb? Is this close to ds then? Will you see him more?

Niiice. Who's going to knit me one of those jumpers then? I can't wear mohair though, it makes me really really itchy. Cashmere would work though.

Berrie, shall I send you DH's mains fencer for the garden? It's highly effective. It might hurt a tad, but on the up side, they wouldn't go near it a second time.

I'd like one of those cardigans for me, in dark blue and green.
Sadly my skill does not match my desire so I'll have to wait a while until I'm good enough to tackle it.

The way I do the casserole is to fry onions then add diced/sliced pork (usually use pork escalopes).
Add loads of finely chopped/whizzed fresh/dried rosemary and couple of cloves of garlic.
Add couple of tins of tomatoes and tomato purée.
Add beans (yesterday I used a tin each of butter, flageolet and haricot).
If needed add a bit of water/stock. If wanted (dh does, dd doesn't) add dumplings.

I served it with new pots and savoy cabbage and the left-overs were mixed into the casserole. What's left will give me almost a week's worth of lunches for dh. I just bag it up into flask sized portion and freeze.

Just call me Fanny

Yum yum Fanny. I make the same but use sausages instead, a tin of mixed beans and a tin of baked beans. I never thought of the dumplings, though I do use breadcrumbs on top to make it a cassoulet-style.

Yikes. I'm hungry. What's for lunch?

Dh doesn't like sausages unless fried very well done, cut in half and then fried again cut side down to make the insides cooked , so using them in a casserole would be a definite no no

Lunch? Don't know yet. We had scrambled eggs and ham for breakfast. Dd wants bare pasta and I'll prob just have some tuna.

DH is just fussy.

Phew! That was one busy day. I took the boys to the Big City today for their half-term treat.
We started with Hamleys (their eyes were out on stalks ), followed by lunch at Soho House, a quick whizz round Leicester Square and Piccadilly then on to the Natural History Museum to see the dinosaurs, then met DP from work and went to Yo Sushi for dinner.
They travelled by train, bus, tube (which they loved) and taxi and had a fantastic time.
We've just got back ( to a very messy house) and my feet are killing me. I'm going to have a large glass of wine and an episode of The Sopranos methinks.