Thursday 26 June 2014

25% off All Aran Weight Yarns For One Week - and a new Aran hat!

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

For those of you who haven't found out by other means (Facebook, Newspage or Window Display), we have 25% off all our Aran Weight Yarns for the next week!

25% is a saving worth making the most of so check out our Aran weight yarns and pick up a bargain!

In honour of the sale I quickly designed my "Crazy Stupid Hat", using Adriafil's Stella Jacq self-patterning Aran weight yarn.  In essence, the front and back are two different colour and with just the single tassel you can wear the hat a myriad of ways:

Colour 1:

 Colour 2:
 Colour 1:


Colour 2:

Half and half:

Just silly (useful if you need to dash to the shops and can't be bothered to put make-up on and don't really mind that you can't see where you're going):

Happy Sale Knitting everyone!!

Monday 23 June 2014

Porthcurno to Land's End (and back!)

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

We're almost at the point of taking this fantastic hot weather for granted but I hear it could be on the change so we couldn't waste a moment of it.

You may remember that, way back in March, we did "Will's Walk" but, at the end of Day 2, we'd taken the sensible precaution of leaving the coast path at Porthcurno and finishing the walk by road.  So, yesterday, in glorious sunshine, we decided to complete the final leg from Porthcurno to Land's End.  The last time we'd been at Porthcurno it was getting dark, it was cold and we'd been walking for 2 days so were feeling a little jaded.  Yesterday couldn't have been more different:

That is not a postcard (although it could be).  That is Porthcurno beach yesterday morning - does it ever get more perfect? - I think not.  We walked on and caught another perfect shot looking back down to the beach:

From there it's not too far to Porth Chapel beach (again, perfect but a bit more of a scramble to get to):

And thence on to Porthgwarra and its distinctive path through the rock:

There was a film crew at Porthgwarra and I believe they're filming a new Poldark series - can the re-make possibly be as good as the original?!

Again, the sea at Porthgwarra was glorious and stupendously clear:

and, from there, the coastal views were spectacular all the way to Land's End (where we enjoyed a well deserved Cornish ice cream!):

On the way we just missed this cow giving birth to her tiny, stumbling little calf - Mum was eating the afterbirth as we watched her baby miraculously finding her udder:


This arch and Longships Lighthouse always mean that Land's End is close!

We walked back across the fields and were delighted to walk through around this field with its edge border of wild flowers - daisies, poppies and the occasional cornflower - presumably for insects and birds - really beautiful:

We rarely visit this but of coastline, preferring to walk straight from our door, but we are planning more expeditions to other parts of the coast we've never visited so we can "fill in the gaps"!


Saturday 21 June 2014

The Crocheted Thing

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

I've blogged about my bedspread before, which I started about 2 years ago having sorted my stash and realised that the situation was getting out of control:

It was (and pretty much remains) my only crochet project - nothing like starting with something small.  Here it is in the early days with the now {sadly} deceased Deidre:

Each row is crocheted back and forth and it takes me an evening to do one row.  It also takes quite a lot of yarn to crochet one row (it reaches from floor to floor over our king sized bed) so can only be worked with almost full balls from the stash - clearly I had quite a few of these.  Here it is in situ in October last year:


Since then it has grown some more:

and requires just a few more rows to reach right up to the top of the bed.

Yesterday, the builder finishing our bathroom floor decided to use our bed as a work bench (despite the obvious application of a dust sheet and the fact that it was a glorious day and any normal, sensible person would have considered doing all their sawing outside).  In the process of cutting up hardboard to cover the floor prior to the laying of the vinyl on Monday he managed to slice through a small piece of my blanket (and the dust sheet) - going through 2 colours, of course - and covering our entire bedroom in a layer of cloying dust.

I found the hole this morning.

I nearly wept.  I shouted a lot.  I may have, inadvertently, cursed the entire male species in my fury.  I definitely accused all men of being careless, thoughtless and disrespectful.  I think I might have lost it (whatever "it" is) for a while.

I have now found some (almost) matching wool to repair the hole tonight.

On the plus side, FB is spending the whole of this afternoon (whilst I'm in the shop) dusting, washing down and hoovering our bedroom; thereby proving that not all men are thoughtless.

Thanks FB, for restoring my faith and (some) of my sanity.

Monday 16 June 2014

Cornwall at its Absolute Best!

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk


When Cornwall looks this good why would anyone want to go anywhere else?!

Yesterday was a glorious day so we set off, with friends, to make the most of it - over to the north coast:




Look at this wonderful old field system:
  
 
and down to the coast:









From here we walked back, sat in the garden drinking Pimm's and ate a wonderful barbecue (and Tracy's astonishing chocolate cheesecake). 

The perfect Sunday!

Monday 9 June 2014

Another Beautiful Walk (and another blanket)

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

After a manically busy couple of weeks during which Tom returned from his gap year - early, so he could surprise Guy on his 21st birthday at Uni - we drove a big circuit to collect and deliver presents {Cornwall, Oxfordshire [for lunch], Buckinghamshire [overnight], Shropshire [overnight], Somerset [overnight], Cornwall [collapse in a heap]} things are now returning to some kind of normality (if, by normality you understand that this means clothes all over the landing, lights left on in every room and no food in the fridge {or cupboards}) and our priority was a good yomp on Sunday.

Tom joined us, which was really good, and his presence seemed to have the effect of upping the pace!  FB denies this but I'm convinced that two lots of testosterone inevitably leads to competition and, thus, the pace increases!  So, we yomped up to Chun Quoit (quite possibly my favourite Quoit):

and then down to the coast:


the path is looking glorious with all the spring flowers:

and then back up over Watchcroft to home:

bluebells and foxgloves in the foreground, St Michael's Mount just visible in the background.

For those of you who've missed it, I've just finished a new baby blanket:
in Adriafil's "Energia" - just 4 balls (one ball for each square) and the border is knitted in integrally so no edgings to add on - Simples! (And the pattern is FREE when you buy 4 balls!)


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I'm slowly lurching into the 21st century!