Happy Saturday

Hello, hello, I hope you have a lovely weekend planned, and here we are on Saturday morning with it still stretching out in front of us.  The sun is shining for the first time in what feels like weeks and it makes everywhere feel so much bright and better.  Even the birds seem to be singing a happier tune today!

It was Aga service day yesterday so the Aga got turned off on Thursday evening ready for the engineer to arrive.  He can only work on a cold Aga and it takes about 8 hours for it to cool down properly so once dinner was over, the switch was flicked and the temperature started to drop.  It had actually been dropping all week as the previous Friday as it had decided that it was done with working at full temperature and wanted a service.  My Aga has always been a bit like this – it doesn’t always give you warning when it wants a service and instead, just shuts down and I have to make an appointment as quickly as I can.  Fortunately, it was only a week’s delay this time and we’ve had longer with the camping stove in the past when there were issues that were a puzzle to fix, and thanks to the lady at the Aga company’s suggestion of turning the thermostat right up and changing the firing mode, the Aga was happy to stay at a reasonable cooking temperature for the rest of the week.  Phew!

Service day is also the day that the Aga gets a good clean.  When it’s on, the metal gets very hot and although you can still wipe everywhere down, there’s a limit to how long you want your hands to stay next to the heat!  You can see there’s grease build-up around the doors and it’s the same around the hot plates.  It’s a good opportunity for me to get stuck in and scrub it all off – I use Koh, washing up liquid and a non-scratch scraper and it all does a pretty good job.

Cleaning the doors is always very satisfying as the grease comes off quite easily and you can see the metal underneath again quite quickly.

Aga doors are hinged at one side and they just lift off which makes it very easy to clean them … you might be able to see the hinges on the right hand side of this photo …

The Aga is back on now again and back up to the right temperature – I’ve just taken a loaf out which my husband will be demolishing later .  He loves bread with a slightly darker crust and because I’m baking it myself, I can do that for him.  It’s a bit like making him socks that fit his feet … 🙂

It’s been wet and gloomy when I’ve been out with the dog this week, not to mention pretty cold as we’ve had some strong winds coming from the north and the east and they have not been fun to spend a long time outside in.  Even the dog hasn’t been too keen to spend too long outside, but at least when we are out we can see that the crops in the fields are starting to grow …

And one of the paths that we walk along has been a delight with lots of snowdrops to see …

Even in the garden there are starting to be more signs of life as the hellebores and crocus are showing their faces now …

Much as I love winter, I like it when it’s cold and crisp and snowy, not grey and wet and mushy so it’s lovely to see these pops of colour in the garden to break up the monochrome view out of the windows.

Indoors, there is sock knitting progress.  This is another pair of socks for my husband. I thought I’d try the afterthought/forethought heel again but I’ve realised that this method doesn’t allow for trying on.  The last pair ended up a little short in the foot so I had to unravel the toes and re-knit them and I don’t want to do that again.  I could count the rounds from the sock but it was a black sock and who wants to count rounds on a black sock?!  I’m thinking I’ll need to knit the heel in before I start the toes then I can get him to try it on and make a note of the number of rounds … if only I had a special notebook to write all this sort of stuff in 🤣

I’ve nearly finished this pair of socks in the Laughing Hens Super Sock yarn (affiliate link).  This shade is No 21, Celebration (you have to click the drop down box to see all the shades if you follow the link) and it’s knitted up very well.  I am slightly concerned that it looks like the yarn might be changing colour before I reach the end of the toes and I don’t wear mis-matched socks, as I’m sure you’ll know, so I’m going to have to look through the ball to see if I can get a match.  There are always leftovers from a ball of sock yarn; it doesn’t bother me where those leftovers are from if I need to cut the yarn to get a match!

The Aardvarkish shawl is progressing slowly – I didn’t follow my own advice of not knitting lace when tired, when watching something engrossing on TV or without a lifeline so I’ve had to start again …

For the rest of today, though, there’s no knitting involved at all as I am going to make a start on my t-shirt.  I decided that I would buy some more fabric that was a bit less expensive so that I could have a practice run but just as with yarn, you get what you pay for and this new fabric is thinner which might make a sewing jersey after a long absence of sewing anything a “fun” event.

You’ll notice that I’ve picked something with a busy pattern and that’s so my stitches will hopefully be lost amongst the coloured leaves just in case they are not as good as they should be 🙂  I’m going to embrace not letting being perfect get in the way of being good, and I will be happy with something wearable.  I’m back to being a beginner and all the things at I say to new sock knitters – don’t over think it, trust the pattern, let go of perfectionism, it’s a new skill and it’s OK not to be an expert straight away, it gets easier the more you do it – apply to me as well here.  Unlike the Aardvarkish shawl where I know better than the advice I give myself (not!), I am actually going to listen to myself today.  Wish me luck! 🙂

So whatever you’re up to today, I hope it’s a very happy Saturday for you, and I’ll see you again soon! xx