Home Alone

Our little family went back to their farm yesterday, and I am home alone today...not for long though as I have more grandchildren arriving this afternoon. It is the school holidays here, and daylight saving has begun. The holidays, longer evenings and enjoying the children, unfettered by timetables is making me feel festive and time to shake off the last remaining nasty flu energy.......begone I say, and next year I promise to take my flu shot !

Thank you so much for all the lovely words and messages on little Leo's arrival. I appreciate your comments a great deal, and the friends and support through blogland have been an unexpected pleasure !

The bootees for Leo were knitted up very quickly as he had a need, and they are some that I found the pattern for after googling " stay on bootees ". The link is here, and I loved making them because there is absolutely no sewing up. They are knitted in the round just like socks and so use five doublepointed needles. Very quick and super easy.

Leo Tristan

There is much rejoicing here today. Our newest grandson arrived this morning at 4.00am. He is charming us all with his presence and a very calm arrival into our lives.

His parents have named him Leo Tristan and this morning I was thinking to myself that the name Tristan has become very much our family name.

Thirty one years ago Ian and I had our first born son and we named him David Tristan, sadly he only stayed in this world for five days. Then a few years later our Tristan Peter William was born and he is the proud father today of little Leo Tristan.

My heart and arms are full !

Standing Upright

Today I ventured outside to take a peek at my garden, and discovered that the forget me nots have taken over since I have been languishing ( don't you love that word ) very droopily inside the house. The reason for all the languor is that I still have the flu, and have totally mislaid my zest for life and living at the moment. I can't remember when I have last felt this ill for soooooo long !

Is Billie having a sniff or a taste of the flowers ?

Basil has decided to get in the pic. as well.

Yesterday this book arrived ( I bought it from The UK Depository ) and I languidly looked through it and thought to myself ...no, too hard to go and hunt some linen and black thread from my studio, too hard to even think about making a blackwork picture.

I don't want to sew, I don't want to knit, I don't want to embroider, I don't want to spin, I don't want to weave and I definitely don't want to garden !!

My daughter-in-law is about to give birth at any moment, and my thoughts are with her and our son.
I am not having very many thankful thoughts today, but I am truly so thankful that it is not me who is getting ready to push a baby out into the world.

It is all I can do to keep myself standing upright.

Resting

This is where you will find me today.



I am held captive by nasty flu germs and I am desperately trying to get better, so that I can attend all the rehearsals this week for the concert on Saturday. Today is day 4 since the virus hit, and my daughter tells me that today is the day I will start to feel an improvement.
I hope she is right.

It is not so bad though, sitting here in the sunshine listening to the radio and checking out new stuff in blogland, and online knitting magazines. In fact, browsing around the blogs and other crafty sites is something I haven't had time for in ages. Let me show you what I have discovered :

Here are some great ones
Twist Collective... a fabulous knitting magazine, with loads of gorgeous knitting patterns from all the best designers.
Knitty.com..an old time favourite.
Daily knitter.com a great site to visit every day.
Knit Rowan...I adore this site.


Some all time favourite blogs to visit:


Ysolda
Grumperina
Norah Gaughan
Mason Dixon
Yarn Harlot

There, that is probably enough to get you started. Be careful now, I don't want you to get the flu too !

Comfort

What do you do when you are in need of some comfort ?
I think everyone here is feeling in need of some comfort after last week's earthquake in Christchurch.

There is a lot of anxiety and fear around, and because New Zealand is so small, every person you talk to, has a family member or friend affected by the quake.

Last night I made my favorite dinner, at least it seems to be my favourite one at the moment.

Porcini Mushroom Risotto...delicious and extremely comforting .

It is (very appropriately) in the 'comfort' section of this cookbook by Julie Buiso.

Another thing I do in times of needing comfort, is easy knitting...scarves are very good fitting into this category. For the scarf in the photo (the same as the one I made for my daughter-in-law's birthday last month), I used Debbie Bliss Baby Casmerino...so super soft and drapey. It is like giving yourself a warm hug every time you wear it.

and I am also using the same wool in different colours to crochet granny squares for this afghan, a warm comforting thing to do .

Sometime soon I would like to make the scarf featured in this book...showcasing the beautiful designs by all my favourite blogging knitters.

Read all about it here. The scarf I am wanting to make is designed by Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed

I ordered the book from the UK Depository (free worldwide shipping) and it arrived in less than a week .........a huge comfort !!