This was the weekend

My weekend begins on Friday evening, does yours? This weekend started, as they mostly do, with the Prof arriving home from work bearing the traditional Friday fish and chips (although in these dieting healthy eating days, we share one portion). Nothing beats haddock and chips with a large gherkin (commonly known locally as a wally) and a bit of tartare sauce. We watched and thoroughly enjoyed The Bourne Legacy, and I continued working on the baby blanket, which is becoming quite boring. I'm looking forward to starting on the lace edging.

On Saturday we slept in, then went off to the Local Studies Centre. We had a bit of lunch there and looked at the old bomb maps from the second World War. It was fascinating, looking up the houses in which I have lived over the years and seeing where the bombs were dropped. The house in which I live now is listed one night as 'severely damaged but still habitable', which made me wonder how something damaged 'severely' can be 'habitable' and feel sorry for the family who lived here, the son of whom, then in his seventies, I met when we moved here.

When the centre closed, we popped home to pick  up the Young Philosopher and went out for dinner to a local carvery. Carveries work well for us at the moment, as the help-yourself option means we can take less starchy veg and more cabbage and cauliflower etc. Yum. (yes, you can hear a slight note of sarcasm).

On Sunday we went to the cinema to see Quartet, which was very funny and also quite poignant. Definitely recommended. Billy Connolly and Pauline Collins in particular played very good parts. The cinema is next to the vast Cathedral to the Great God of  Shopping, which I visit as little as possible, but needs must, so we went in there to leave my bracelet at the jeweller to have two new charms soldered on (a J and a P, present from the Prof, and his and the YP's initials). We also managed to use an HMV voucher that we were worried the YP would lose, now the company are in administration, and of course we found time for a cup of tea and the Telegraph crossword.

In the evening we watched television. I am liking Sunday nights, with Call the Midwife, Ripper Street, Mr Selfridge (love!) and also Brian Cox's Wonders of Life, and the return of Person of Interest, both of  which we are having to tape on other nights as repeats as everything seems to be on at the same time and the machine can only cope with so much. What is going on? There are normally about three programmes a week at the most that I am interested in, and I get five in one night!

Oh, I almost forgot! I spent Saturday and Sunday evenings sewing on buttons and making pom poms (NEVER ask me to make a pom pom again. I had forgotten how endlessly boring it is, and it made my hands itchy for some reason) and the Battenberg Tea Cosy in officially FINISHED! Now I just need a cup of tea and a piece of Battenberg cake to christen it with.

Joining Amanda

Knitting and Reading

I'm starting slowly with reading this year, it seems. I am only on my second book of the year, and am only reading in bed at the moment, ten minutes or so before I go to sleep most nights. I'm reading While I'm Falling, by Laura Moriarty, and whilst I am quite enjoying it, it isn't gripping me so far.


I am knitting a baby blanket, the same as this one I knitted last year, for a family friend's baby due in March. The main part is white, and I am going to knit the lace edging in mint green this time. I might make a little green cardigan too. The pattern is extremely easy, garter stitch only, knitted diagonally, and is so mindless I can knit in front of the TV and barely have to look at my needles. even the lace border is just a ten row repeat and quite simple, but the finished object looks really pretty. I like things that look good, but are nice and easy! I will post a photo when the border is done.

I started the Battenburg Tea Cosy last May, from this pattern. I knitted the two sides of it and then something else woolly took my eye and I wandered off. It's so easy to do isn't it? This year I am determined to complete my unfinished projects, so yesterday I sewed the cosy up and made this banner to attach to it, my first attempt at knitting from a chart, which I found surprisingly easy. I avoid all sorts of things on knitting patterns that I don't think I can do, I should have more faith in myself! I still need to make two pompoms for the top,  and this afternoon I have enjoyed sorting through my button tin and my dear Auntie's to find little buttons to sew around the bottom.




Joining in with Ginny's Yarn Along