Plain Wool Socks...

30 September 2010

My first pair of socks without reading a pattern...

I chose a really lovely self striping sock wool... and cast on 64 stitches on 2.5mm dpn's...

and started knitting...

This has been a refreshingly relaxed piece of knitting with hardly any row counting, just measuring...

while watching Will Smith in I Robot on tv... 

I wish they were finished so that I could try them on with my new shoes...

My Hotter Moment...

28 September 2010

Something very strange has happened to me...

For most of my life I have been perfectly content to slip into a pair of trainers or walking boots with comfy walking socks... but now... unexpectedly...

With the beautiful new pairs of hand knitted socks... 

I found myself dreaming of nicer shoes... smarter shoes...

So I found myself  browsing through the Hotter catalogue when it arrived in the post...

I fell in love with Sugar in Chocolate Brown...

but they were already sold out and the catalogue had just arrived!

So I settled on Amber in the Otter colourway... which I thought would go nicely with any socks with taupe or brown or warm colours in them...

And Shout in the black colourway to go with all colours of sock...

So now when I hold out my toe to show off a newly finished sock...  I also have really cool shoes too... which I must add are actually incredibly comfortable...

And I now dream of shoes in dark teal... bordeaux... chocolate brown... and plum...

This is so not me and it does seem a little extreme to covet a new pair of shoes to match every new pair of hand knitted socks! 

Let sleeping dogs lie...

22 September 2010

Shane arrived in from his walk and was really tired...

just collapsed exhausted on the rug with his head on the corner of his lovely new dog bed...  yep...

I bought him a ivory, camel and brown fluffy dog bed... which he just loves...

Shane telling me to go away and let sleeping dogs lie...

Shellseeking...

10 September 2010

A short walk round a headland from the beautiful Sandy beach at Crawfordsburn is a small bay...

which is truly beautiful and...

a treasure trove for shells and broken shells... after the tide goes out...

The shells are amazing... so many different colours and types and shapes...  limpets, mussels, whelks, etc

The rock pools are filled with shells...

The bank of shells continues under the sea...

As the tide receded the shells were still shiny and wet and I couldn't resist sitting down and looking through all the different types...  this was a beach that was a favourite of ours when we were children for spending a sunny day with a picnic...

Neil on the beach...

The colours are stunning... natural golds and beiges and creams with soft grey blues... dull and pearly...

I love shellseeking on this beach...  so spoiled for choice as my feet crunch with every step...

I think the broken ones are every bit as beautiful as the complete shells... I love when I can see the swirly shape inside the shell and the growth lines on the shell a little like the rings on a tree.

Spoiled for choice...

More Birthday Fun...

10 September 2010

Our birthdays are very close together so today we were celebrating Neil's birthday...

After a cooked breakfast... Neil opened his presents (DVD box sets of the complete collection of Jonathon Creek and the complete Wolf's Rain anime) and birthday cards...

In the late morning as the weather improved we decided it was too warm to stay home and went for a walk at Crawfordsburn Beach... the tide was just turning when we arrived...

It was truly beautiful with a warm breeze...

We paused now and again as we walked along the beach to photograph pebbles...

At one point a man walking his dog paused on his way past to ask if we minded him asking what we were photographing... I laughed and said pebbles...  he replied that he liked to look at the pebbles too and often picked up beautiful pebbles that looked like fossils or had lines running through them...

Sometimes the colours just appeal to me...

As the tide receded the seagulls came down looking for anything edible that might be stranded...

The currents leave beautiful marks on the sand... the water looked so blue and inviting as it reflected the colour of the sky.

Wonderful carved kingfisher beside the river near the carpark...

This huge piece of stranded driftwood reminded us of a pterodactyl's head...

With the tide turning it was the perfect time to do some shellseeking.. see the next posting...

After walking Shane in the evening, we went to the Odyssey for a pizza and then saw Tamara Drewe in the cinema.  The movie was absolutely hilarious...  A wonderful day...

Birthday fun...

8 September 2010

Thank you everyone for the wonderful birthday wishes I have received by email, on yahoo groups and on facebook.  They have all been very much appreciated and helped to make my birthday very special.

This year was a departure for me... for the past few years my birthday present has usually been a new Sasha doll but this year... I opted for books... very cool books...  there are books on sock knitting, books on dyeing wool, and books on using google blogger...  I just adore books...

After breakfast and opening all of my presents and birthday cards, Neil and I went out for lunch to a restaurant in the new Victoria Centre in Belfast.  It was really delicious...  then we wandered around the city centre for a couple of hours finishing off with a cup of tea in the coffeeshop in Waterstone's book shop. 

We had sandwiches for tea with a glass of wine and watched The Goblet of Fire and the Half-Blood Prince on DVD... I really love the Harry Potter books and movies...  a perfect birthday!

A Walk Down Memory Lane...

6 September 2010

Sometimes things happen that give me pause for thought... and suddenly I am drifting away down memory lane... thinking about all the furry family members who have shared our lives...

So I decided that I would like to have montages of them... initially I decided that they would be mixed together... but then it seemed better to have a frame of dogs... dogs from our childhood... dogs we loved...  and the felines could not be left out... they had a frame of their own...  so many different little characters and personalities come to mind as I look at them on the wall...

so of course... family and loved ones had to receive the same treatment... although they spilled over into additional frames...

some of which await being placed on the wall...

Autumn approaches...

5 September 2010

This morning on my walk I was suddenly aware of the approach of Autumn... no longer does the vista of trees look like 40 shades of green...  but it is interspersed with buttery yellows...

and rosie glows...

A Grey Morning...

4 September 2010

A grey morning for our walk...  The sky was grey... Belfast Lough looked grey... and a haze lay over the old harbour area...

The sky was stunning... so many different tones of grey... 

looks like we may be in for some rain... but the light was trying to break through...

A rainy walk on the hill

2 September 2010

I think that this is a beautiful photo of Shane getting drenched and looking miserable on a walk at the Castle.