All my chickens …

have been back home where I like them to be this week!  I’ve had all my family in the house, even big daughter who has her own house but can still call this one home, and it’s been wonderful!

We collected not so small daughter from the airport on Wednesday afternoon and she was so giddy, you’d have thought she’d eaten a truckload of sugar on the flight back!  She had so much to tell us and was so pleased to be back, and we were so pleased to have her back.  Within minutes of her walking through the door, her suitcase was open and she was handing out gifts, sharing chocolate and KitKats (oh so many KitKats!) and showing us the souvenirs she had bought for herself.  It was all far more exciting than the pile of washing that I knew was in there somewhere!

It turns out that the Japanese are quite keen on KitKats and they have them in every flavour imaginable.  Not so small daughter was particularly pleased with the bottom packet which she and her friends had named “Mysterious Biscuit” as they couldn’t quite work out what it was.

Can you see the one on the vegan KitKat box to the right that looks like mint choc chip ice cream?  Not so small daughter had brought one of those home for each of us to try straight away, so of course we did.

Oh my life, not only did it look like mint choc chip ice cream, it tasted like it too!  I don’t buy chocolate biscuits very often, let alone KitKats, but I am quite certain that these would be dropping into my shopping basket on a regular basis if I spotted them in the supermarket!  Not so small daughter is quite certain that she has contributed quite considerably to the profits of the 7-Eleven shops that were around where she stayed, and no doubt KitKat will notice an upturn in their sales too! 🙂

Anyway, it’s lovely to have her back, washing and all, and thank you again to everyone who contributed to the fundraising through the Don’t Be Koi socks pattern, who sent her good wishes for her trip and who checked that she was safe when the national news reported that the World Scout Jamboree in South Korea had been evacuated due to the weather.  Not so small daughter was very hot and sticky in Japan as it was particularly hot and humid whilst she was there, but they had air-conditioned hotels to back to each day and were safe in their group.  I hope that your loved ones who were away at the Jamboree have kept safe and well and have a safe journey home.

I’ve asked our traveller to write a post for the blog for me so that she can show you some of her photos so hopefully it won’t be too long before I can share that with you.

 

Back in England, it’s not been hot or humid.  It’s been good weather for plants, though.  Our grass has grown much more than it would normally do at this time of the year, and out in the fields with the dog, I’ve spotted ripening rose hips …

blackberries …

apples … yes, really, this tree is out in the wildflower meadow when you think it should be in a garden or an orchard!

and acorns.

The farmers started to cut the barley and got the grain safely harvested whilst the weather was good but the straw has been left because the weather turned and they’ve not been able to get back out to bale it.

I noticed a tractor in the fields the other day turning the straw so hopefully it will soon be dry enough for them to bale it and get it under cover for later in the year.

In my own garden, I’ve been making a start on dismantling the veg boxes to turn it into a flower border but it’s been surprisingly slow going.  Considering that a lot of the planks are rotten, they are still held together very well and it’s all taken longer than I expected.  I’m a bit further on with this right hand box now and I’ve removed the wood from two sides and the damp proof material I used to try to slow the wood decay down (it worked really well, these boxes are about 13 years old now); I’m thinking I’m going to create a frame from the wood to contain the border so that it will make it easier to cut the grass and the hedge, and nobody will stand all over it when they go to the bins.  Of course, this all just adds more time to the job but as long as I get the border built this year and the plants that I’ve been collecting (they’re all in the central box) planted, I’m OK with that.  Not much is going to happen this year but next year, hopefully, will be great!

It’s raining today – only on and off but it’s heavy when it comes down, so I’m still deciding whether I’m going to go out today or whether I’m going to finish off this sock.

This is the 6ply sock that I started a couple of weeks ago.  I’ve just realised that I didn’t show you the start of the sock as I posted it on Instagram instead – you know, this idea of uploading new content to lots of platforms is not great for people who don’t use any kind of formal content-planning system and forget where they’ve posted things as they generally can’t remember what day it is!  I really should make time to sit down and work something out, but to be honest, I tend to think of chatting to you through the blog as my priority and everything else fits in when I remember.  Shh, I don’t think that’s how I’m supposed to look at it! 🙂

Back to the sock – it’s been a quick knit when I’ve had a few moments to sit down and get on with it; it’s a ball of Regia World College Color 6ply which I found at the bottom of one of my stash boxes so I expect it’s been long discontinued, but I was very pleased to see it!

6ply yarn is a weight between 4ply and DK (8ply) – I know, stating the obvious here! – but it’s not often used except for accessories.  You can still buy 6ply yarns (try Northern Yarn*, Karelia House or Snufflebean Yarn* (use code WINWICKMUM for 10% off)  but there are other places too).

I have been asked if it’s the same as sport weight and I think the answer to that is “no”, although there’s not much in it.  6ply is 22-24 sts to 4 inches and sport (5ply) is 24sts to 4 inches so I think you could probably use either of them with my free Basic 6ply Boot Socks pattern as long as you checked your gauge and worked out your size with the Sock Stitch Calculation.

As you can see, I’m getting on with it pretty well.  I need to finish the toes on the first sock but I started the second sock so that I could take it with me to the TV studio last Monday as I was on Yarn Lane again.  I completely forgot to mention it with all the excitement of visiting relatives and Japan, and it doesn’t look like they’ve updated their YouTube channel for some time, but you might be able to find it on a re-run on the show channel itself if you want to see it (Freeview 72, Sky 670, YouTube and the Yarn Lane TV website).  I was talking about the new West Yorkshire Spinners Country Birds yarns and the pattern book that I showed you last week, and thank you for all your comments on that post.  I’m so pleased to know that you like the patterns and I’m really glad that you like the yarns too; I’m already seeing them being knitted up on social media and I am delighted for WYS that they have created yarns that have caught the imagination again.  I’ve realised I haven’t replied to all your comments but I will do.  I don’t know if you go back to read them again, but if you’ve taken the time to write to me then I like to reply!

 

Whilst not so small daughter has been away, my husband and I fell in love with a new-to-us TV series called Detectorists.  I’m sure that many of you will have already seen it as it was first aired a few years ago, but we’ve never seen it before and honestly, it’s been a joy to watch.  It’s a comedy about two friends who go out with the metal detectors in search of treasure, and the stories of their lives that unfold gently around them.  It’s written by Mackenzie Crook, who plays one of the main characters, and I loved the kindness of it all.  No peril, no trauma, just beautifully written scripts and shots of the English countryside.  We properly binged it, episode after episode as we waited to see how it would all turn out, and we were absolutely not disappointed.

Partly inspired by Detectorists but mostly because I am fed up with not being able to find my washing line post hole in the grass when I take it out, I have bought a metal detector of my own.  Well, to be truthful, my husband bought it for me as I suspect he is fed up with seeing me shouting at the grass (it doesn’t help the post hole magically appear but does make me feel better) and worries that the neighbours will think I’ve completely lost the plot (I imagine they have their suspicions anyway) – I chose the cheapest one that I could find as I’m not looking for treasure, I just want to put the washing out, and I was delighted when it arrived.

I actually think it’s less of a metal detector and more of a light sabre!  I had imagined one that looked more the size of a large frozen ice pop that’s used in the TV programme rather than something Luke Skywalker might hand to me in a fight to the death situation, but it does the job (has done twice now!) and my washing has been hung out to dry without any unnecessary drama.  Phew!

I’m also available for hire as security for festivals and parties, although the sort that I would want to go to would be yarn-related ones and a metal detector would be a bit useless for that!

 

Right, it’s stopped raining for five minutes so I’m going to love you and leave you and head out into the garden whilst I can.  It’s been lovely to chat with you and I hope we can see each other again next week! 🙂

 

 

* these are affiliate links