Wibbo's Words

Flossie poses

I luuurve my new blanket...

...but hey, look at this...

Sunday morning by the sea

A year ago today...

...was my first day of life by the seaside! Doesn't time fly when you're having fun?

Finished!

Warm enough...

...to sit and knit on the beach this morning.

Plain vanilla sock for Amanda knitted in Araucania Ranco Multy - really pretty colours and it's lovely yarn to knit.

I like this stretch of Hove beach; it rarely gets crowded.

Tonight's sky

 

The new blanket

is coming along very nicely...

It's taking my mind off the weather...

You wait ages for one

then several come along at once. Equally true of buses and blog posts...

Anyway, I meant to upload this post and the previous two in some sort of sensible order, but (as my mum was so fond of saying) I'd forget my head if it was loose. Met up with several local knitters on Friday in Preston Park for an afternoon of knitting, chatting, sitting in the sunshine, eating strawberries and making plans. Peri made cakes - here's Karen holding her extra-special birthday one!

Stop Press! Visitor brings good weather

Liz came down for the day yesterday and the weather was fine; a little windy, but dry and sunny. This is a Blog-Worthy Happening of Note as Liz and bad weather usually arrive on the same train. This isn't an exclusively Brighton & Hove phenomenon; it used to happen regularly when we met up in London.

We had a lovely day. A long walk along the seafront, pausing to watch the waves at high tide

and groups of windsurfers skimming across the sea like clouds of glistening dragonflies. We had lunch here, did a little knitting, nattering, yarn and book swopping, then it was time to head to the station for the journey back to Waterbeach. Liz gave me a skein of yarn pron HandMaiden Casbah brought back from her holiday in Canada - all my favourite colours.

Heading over to Ravelry now to check out what I can make with 325m of merino/cashmere goodness...

A gadget too far

I like new shiny gadgets as much as the next person, but a jam maker?

I reckon the joke's on the person who shells out £80 for this... In my world, adding fruit, sugar and water to a battered old preserving pan = delicious jam plus the satisfaction of making it all myself. Oh, and the pleasure of not spending £80.

I feel a new blanket coming on

I'm using up some of my stash of DK leftovers - this lot is one of my favourite yarns ever, the now-oh-so-sadly-discontinued Jaeger Extra Fine Merino DK.

  

A classic hexagon crochet block - easy to work, fun to stripe and I can join them together as I go, so no sewing up required. Must remember to darn the ends in as I work....

 

I've made all the centres - 46 hexagons should be enough to make a smallish blanket, plus some half blocks. Flossie may be the owner of this when it's finished...

It's an age thing...

For a lot of folks like me who were kids in the early nineteen fifties, the colour green is forever associated with the Mekon. Mixing up some Mekon green emerald green dye while having a quick wander down memory lane, taking in The Eagle and Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future on the way, I Mekoned the kitchen. Not to mention quite a lot of skin, T shirt and glasses...

A short morning walk, plus a little knitting content

I turned right out of the block's front door and walked down Princes Avenue, crossing Princes Square

(that's Hove Museum at the top of Princes Square - it's not actually a square just a short wide road) then down Princes Crescent and crossed over Kingsway (main coast road) to the seafront.

Walking towards Hove Lagoon - it's still early enough to be fairly quiet along here.

Looking back in the opposite direction, I can see Brighton's West and Palace Piers in the distance.

It's sunny this morning, but nice and cool because of the breeze blowing off the sea. I went as far as the lagoon, then walked back along Kingsway past the miniature golf course and the bowling greens behind the beach huts. Looks like it's ideal weather for taking to the water...

 

Turned up the other side of Princes Crescent and walked past lots of colourful gardens before arriving home.

Tamarisk (above) and broom (below) seem to be favourite garden plants round here - they both do well in salty and windy conditions.

And on a knitting note, Hypoteneuse is finished. Well, apart from blocking, but that's another story...