Friday 25th September - procrastination

Somehow I have gained a couple of stitches across a row in my current knitting again, and I am in the process of 'tinking'* a few rows, to avoid 'frogging'** which is what I ended up doing earlier this morning. Patience is an acquired skill and I surely am getting a lot of practice!

* if you spell 'knit' backwards you get 'tink' which means working backwards along the row, 'unknitting' every stitch 

**'frogging' is when you abandon 'tinking' and just pull out the needles and 'rippit, rippit' back. Apparently that's what frogs say in USA instead of cro-ak in England. Helpful hint; have a needle several sizes smaller to hand to pick up those pesky little stitches. Your chances of success are instantly improved. 

Which reminds me; I learned last night on Micheal Rosen's BBCsounds podcast 'the last word' about Scottish Gaelic that sheep say 'm-e-eh, me-e-eh' in Gaelic and Welsh, not 'Baa baa'. There you go. You can now speak Welsh, or Gaelic. But I doubt this will be a useful puece of information...

 So, back to procrastination; I an doing everything except tinking, which is why you have got a blog post. 

Ang's squares arrived yesterday afternoon, but before I started posting I made a pot of tea. I'm not quite as fussy as DS George Cross in the Tim Sullivan books, but I do like a things done a certain way if I'm at home (although I'm happy with what comes my way when I'm out!)

I prefer herbal teas in my glass teapot, with a glass cup, so I can admire the leaves (if I'm using loose leaf) and the colour. For ordinary tea I  like a cup and saucer and loose leaf tea in my blue pot. Although I'm happy to use certain mugs for convenience. My current favourites are these blue and white ones. 

What's this got to do with Ang? 

Her flat gifts were a selection of herbal tea bags (I've already sampled Mint and Verbena, very good, thank you!) and a sweet little wooden spoon which fits perfectly in my tea-leaf jar. I tested the spoon and it delivers exactly the right amount of tea - how did you know that, Ang? The rest of the tea bags will join the others in my 'Tea Ration' tin. Excellent!

And the square? It's beautiful,  a lovely textured stripe pattern with chains of slip stitches going up. I love it. She's knitted the opposite colourway for herself. Block 157, 'Up and Over' from the book by Jan Easton that we are using.

Now, I  MUST carry on with this current square; it's a bit 'three rows forwards, two rows back' at the moment but I won't be beat! I WILL have just 33 stitches instead of 35 by lunch time or BURST!

Thursday 24th September - new kitchen, more squares

#1 So...

Yesterday- no builders, but we have had the radiator delivered. I found a sketch I made of the kitchen-to-be;

I've done it as though I'm standing in the living area of the extension. My main reason was to try and start thinking about how to use the drawers and cupboards. We have changed the end cupboard on the right to drawers. I've seen how easy it is to deal with plates and bowls etc if they are in drawers instead of cupboards in other people's kitchens. 

It's going to be a half width electric induction hob, because I never, or hardly ever, use three pans at one, what with the airfryer and microwave. And we're going to have a counter-top oven instead of a built-in one. Ah, I don't think I have drawn it in! There's always something you miss out!

Another good idea is to label every drawer and cupboard with what lives inside... like our church kitchen. 

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Ang told me that my Double Knitting squares were delivered yesterday so I can post pictures now;

I'm encouraged by how straightforward this was to knit; hardly and 'twinking' happened. The bottom square, which is the one I sent to Ang, is a slightly brighter turquoise than the photo.

Our minds have been running along the same lines for what to do with the squares; we've both been investigating the feasibility of a patchwork jumper... I think I worked out it might take around 48 squares which would mean quadrupling my rate of production.  I'd better get on; I currently have two squares with different patterns on the go and a third waiting for its partner!

I can't stop laughing at these parrots... Just put 'four parrots' into YouTube...

Tuesday 22nd September

 Yesterday we signed off and paid the balance on our new kitchen. To be delivered in the week beginning 19th October in time for the fitter to start on the 26th. I hope that the extension will be ready!

We've had peace, but no physical progress on the extension yesterday and today, but a certain amount of texting and telephoning on my part has extracted the information that

The new radiator will be delivered tomorrow (not sure where to put it!)

The electrician will be back from holiday in time to start 'at the end of the week'

It's likely that the hup! team may perhaps possibly be able to install the big window 'later this week'.

So I shall wait and see... this whole project has been an exercise in patience!

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Going back to Sunday, we had a lovely walk with friends through Nymans Gardens. I didn't take any pictures, I was too busy looking at leaves and flowers and views... we spent some time watching a wren hopping through a flower border, invisible except when we caught a flickering of movement through the leaves. 

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I've not been keeping up the journal pictures, but here's one for today;

The short daily reflections on my CofE app are themed on National Retreat Week. Yesterday looked at 'Silence' and today was on 'Still'. 

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I finished reading the first Tim Sullivan book 'The Dentist', and also finished rereading Rosamund Pilcher's September. Now for 'Time's Testimony' by Lynda Gillard... 

Sunday 20th September - There's a wideness in God's mercy

The two readings in our zoom church this morning were firstly from the book of Jonah, not the whale bit but afterwards, when the people of Ninevah listened to Jonah and repented, and secondly from the New Testament, the parable of the vineyard where the owner paid the same daily rate to all the workers whether they had worked the whole day or just an hour or so.

Jonah was displeased with God, because he thought the people of Ninevah were so wicked that they should have got what was coming to them, and the workers in the vineyard who had put in a whole day's work were displeased because they thought they should have been given more money than the Johnny-come-lately lot.

But, as this hymn says,

'There's a wideness in God's mercy, like the wideness of the sea...'

Interestingly the leader of the service commented that she particularly liked the words of the second verse, just as I was thinking over how good the words of the last four lines are...

Which lines, I wonder, mean the most to you? 

Saturday 19th September - quiet day

 Such a contrast to yesterday;

We had tentative plans to go for a walk in the afternoon with friends but it was cold and grey. So we'll try again tomorrow afternoon as the weather looks more promising. We're due for a spell of warm sunny weather,  if you can believe it. An Indian summer...

BB got stuck into another jigsaw, we read our books, I sorted out yesterday's beef stew for freezing, just odds and ends of bits and pieces...

A domestic, stay-at-home day.

Friday 18th Friday - whirligig day...

 The extension team are nearing the end (apart from the big window, still waiting for the sill). They are just finishing off putting the lead on the roof.

Now we have to choose the colour for the external rendering... decisions, decisions...

And the plumber came and moved the down pipe from beside the door to the corner of what will be the kitchen. That neant out loo was unusable for about 4 hours... we had to make a quick dash to the nearby nature reserve, just 5 mins away by car, to sneakily use their their loos. Very conveniently for us they are in the courtyard area just outside the café! Nice and clean too! When we got back barely 20 minutes layer everything was reconnected again. Phew.

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Having missed a couple of days of ten-minute-journalism it was a bit of an effort to get going again;

I made a pot of tea, got out my art basket 

and set too...

We had fish pie for lunch yesterday and there was a bit leftover. So I had an excellent breakfast of a dollop of fish pie, fried in a pan with an egg and some tomatoes. Coffee, toast and marmalade to follow as well! A real treat.