To Frog or Not to Frog? That is the Question!

:: Hello to you on this beautiful Sunday afternoon.::

Welcome to my new followers and thank you to all of you who left such lovely comments on my Rosey Posey Cozy.

The weather this week has been so lovely it was really hard to look out the office window while at work, see the sunshine and not being able to enjoy it until I got home. All my washing has been line dried this week and sado that I am this makes me VERY happy.

Yesterday we took the Littlies to a place near Frampton-on-Severn to look for fossils. We packed tomato soup in the flask and hot sausages in the food flask for our picnic and off we went....................................

 smallest littlie LOVES dinosaurs so fossil hunting has always been a favourite pass time and the soup and sausages are becoming quite a tradition for picnics along with home made madira cake.

It was sooooooo incredibly muddy that I was sorry they weren't wearing wellies instead of walking boots but you live and learn! We had quite a bit of success.....

ammonites

Gryphaea shells and bi-vavles.

A fun day was had by all.

and now the yarny bit..........................

To Frog or Not to Frog.......................................................

I got this far on Wednesday with the Perfect Cardi

about 28cm of Pefect Cardi. With no real problems.

But suddenly there was a problem!! I seemed to be needing to increase where I should be (and had previously been) decreasing and decreasing where I should be increasing...................you get the picture. I was confused! I just couldn't figure out what the problem was and where I had gone wrong. I thought "I'll leave it and carry on it'll all be fine" but that is my denial of the situation."I'll take it back down and inch and a half until the last button hole and see if I can figure it out!" Anyway before I frogged 1 1/2 inches, which was going to break my heart, I decided I would try slipping the stitches onto a scrap piece if yarn to see what it was like for sizing. Thank goodness I did. I was humungous!!!!!!!!! I could have worn it but so could Mr TB and the Littlies all at the same time. I had over estimated my body size by quite a bit, so that was descision made Frog the lot.

Oh that broke my heart. All that hard work :o(

However if it is to be The Perfect Cardi it has to fit. I couldn't bring myself to do it until yesterday.

I even cast on my next pair of socks so I didn't have to look at it...........

I knew I had to be brave and start ripping out the stitches of the cardi and I winced with each tug of the yarn. It's amazing how quick frogging is but how long it took to put that work there in the first place.

Today armed with a cuppa, sat in the sunshine I cast the blooming thing back on

but a few less stitches than the first time. Lets see how Perfect Cardi Mark II goes!!
ETA: I want to thank Alice for the lovely shout out on her blog. I am chuffed to bits. Cheers matey!!!!

Have a great week everyone. I hope if you make any mistakes they're only small ones ;o)

Love Tickety-boo

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Rosey Posey Cozy

:: Good morning blogland!::

It's quite in the TB house this morning. Mr TB is still asleep

(too much beer watching England v Ireland match yesterday)

the Littlies are trying to plow through the open plan wardrobe they have created in their rooms. Gggggggrrrrrrr! I'm sure there is a carpet in there somewhere. I am here talking to you lovely people out there and listening to the birds outside.

This week I have been trying to charge through the jobs I need to do to clear the decks before I can cast on the Perfect Cardi !!! 

First job on the list :: Birthday pressie from my fabulous friend C. She is such a star. We have been friends for 6years but over the last 18months she has been the most awesome friend a girl can have. She is always a total rock and gives good honest advice when needed and a shoulder to cry on when life is overwhelming (which it has been for the last 18months). I have to say i don't think I could have made it through intact without her.

 A friend that special deserves a special pressie, after all it was C who was the one woman cheer up team and took me on the Magical Mystery Tour.

I decided to buy a teapot and make a Tea Cozy. I didn't need to trawl through Ravelry for this one! There was only one cozy for the job.........

That has to be a creation from the amazing Alice over at Crochet with Raymond

Alice's pattern is called Spring Explosion Tea Cozy. It was a fab pattern to follow and knitting on 5mm needles with DK yarn it was knitted up in one evening (after  sock yarn and 2mm needles it was a refreshing change)!

I looked through 100 Flowers to knit and Crochet, which my lovely friend from crochet group allowed me to borrow and picked the patterns I wanted to use for the flowers and leaves. I couldn't find the right shape of leaf in this book so I used one from Rav I decided on the ones from a pattern called Maidens Glory.

3 nights of hooking and knitting flowers later and it was ready to be assembled.

 I was so excited I forgot to take photos before I went hell for leather with the sewing, sorry! Anyhoo this is the result ..............

Warning gratuitous amount of photos below

Rosey Posey Cozy......Give us a twirl..........

I Love this little beauty and it'll be hard to give her away.....but she is going to a good home and I can visit her often.

::

It was such a lovely day taking photos of her outside Mr TB brought me out a beer

and we sat on our wall outside the cottage chatting for ages in the sunshine. I say just sat but I had twitchy fingers that needed satisfying!

Sooooooo ............

yip The Perfect Cardi has begun!!!!

I do still have another pressie to make but I just wanted to see how it would look on the needles ;o)...............

 14 rows later before I went to bed it's already making me VERY happy :o)

Wishing you all a sunshine filled week!

Love Tickety-boo

xxxxxxxxxxxxx



Ta-Dah II

:: Happy Monday::

How was your weekend? I am sorry my post is a day or two late but I sooooo wanted it to be a Ta-Dah that I had to work furiously to get my WIP finished and by the time I did it was very late and I was glued to the final episode of my all time favourite programme Being Human. It was well worth the watch. Even the little town I live in (well the nearest town to where I live and the littlies go to school)

got a mention as a possible location for vampire central of the world, which made us laugh uncontrolably!!! Was weird as nobody has ever heard of it and it's more of a large village than town.

Anyhooo I digress!

Are you ready?

stage 1 the yarn. Hot Socks Circus by Grundl

Stage 2 Ball rewound....cast on.....toe increases done

Stage 3 The dreaded heel turn done!

:: Then 9pm last night they were done::

::Happy Dance Happy Dance Happy Dance::

Ta-Dah!!!!

Oh they are lovely and cosy I just am so happy! They were much much easier than the first pair and far fewer mistakes too.

More yarny things have happened in the last week..........

I found the cardigan of my dreams on Ravelry

Isn't it lovely??? It is a Tickety-boo cardi if ever I saw one!

It's called Twenty Ten. I just have to make it.

So off I tootled to my LYS on Wednesday for crochet club clutching the pattern in my sticky little mitts, so I could scan the shelves of this fine yarn emporium for the perfect yarn for my perfect cardigan. On the way it occured to me that back in December I found a BEAUTIFUL yarn which made my heart go all a flutter. Do you remember this post? With this yarn?

I was thinking that it may just happen to be the yarn for the job!

When I got there I worked out the yardage needed with the lovely Lucy and I would have needed 11 x 50g balls of this baby. The unfortunate thing is, it is £3.50 per ball...........£38.50 to knit myself a cardi!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ouch.

No way could I afford that. Especially when I have never knitted such a big project a may well cock it up. I came home feeling all sorry for myself and to be quite honest I was sulking like a petulant child.

 I was online later that night not looking for anything in particular when I happened to stumble upon this

Kemps wool shop and what do they stock (amongst many other bargains)? Sirdar Tweedie in Mallard for the absolute bargain price of £1.39 per 50g ball.

SQQQQUUUUEEEEEEEEE!!

So 9pm on Wednesday I pressed the order button and paid for all 11 balls. What a total bargain £18.29 including delivery and the most helpful staff you could wish for.

Friday morning look what Mr Postman brought to my door......

What awesome service!

Oh it's like Christmas...........

oh I loooooooveeee it :o) As if you hadn't gotten that idea already.

I can't wait to cast on. But first I must make two pressies for friends which should be done in the next week, then Twenty Ten cardi....... you are all mine baby!!!!!

Have a great week everyone. Thanks for stopping by. I love your comments so please feel free to make yourself known.

Love Tickety-boo

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



Caching

:: Ahhhhh Sunday::

Hello out there in Blogsville. How have you been?

I just want to take this opportunity to welcome my new Followers. Wow I am thrilled that 51 people want to read my blog! You have no idea how chuffed

I am to say that. I thank all of you for popping in to read my chunterings and to all of those who comment, I want to say a BIG thank you.

Okay so today I am going to introduce you to a little family past time.

We are Geocachers.

Geocaching? What's Geoacaching?

Okay! For those who are not cachers (known as Muggles by cachers) Geocaching is like a global treasure hunt. When I say global it is VERY global....

Have a look at the website, pop in your postcode/zipcode/location and wait for those little boxes on the map!!!

A Cache (pronounced as cash) is the item you go in search of.

You then pop those co-ords into a GPS and go caching. It is fantasic to add interest to a walk with children and find places you would never have known were there before!!!! We have found soooooo many gorgeous walks and scenic routes because of this hobby I can't begin to tell you.

There are lots of mini-games within Geocaching, like moving little Travel Bugs and Geocoins along their way to complete their given missions but that complicates a very simple little hobby when trying to explain it. I can assure you that you will never look at a pile of sticks again the same way once you start caching!!!!

Basically we look for little plastic boxes filled with goodies. When I say "goodies" I mean things a child would find in a party bag or their stocking at Christmas. A few basic rules apply like if you take a prize you must leave a prize and that when you find a cache you try to put it back exactly as you found it so no Muggles find it and spoil the game. If you pop your location in you'll be astounded to see, wherever you live, how many are around you and that you have walked past so often.

Okay kids you run up that hill but....................



I have the GPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!





it may have been okay in Dirty Dancing but I am NOT crossing that!!!!

Mum!!!! We found the cache!!!!!!!!

Running back down the hill! Oh to be a child again!

All this one valley and less than 2 miles from home!

And then to the our local village and a reward of a pint!!!

Oh almost forgot the yarny bit of my post...........

I have turned the heel of my second pair of toe up socks! YAY....

 By the next post I hope that they are a Ta-Dah post.

 So I hope you all have a great week.

Love Tickety-boo

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx