Instant Gratification

Well - almost....


Crochet Ball Necklaces

Very fast projects - crocheted because quick is the order of the day and it's much faster to make a crocheted thingy than a knitted one. I'd planned to thread ribbon with little crocheted beads made from oddments of left overs but so far I've used complete skeins of rather nice yarns.








Clockwise from top left - The Knittery skinny sock ( I think) - from Socktopus last iknit day, the next and the last are both Maya from The Natural Dye Studio a pure silk now sadly discontinued and the one in between is Posh Yarns Eva sock yarn - Silk/Cashmere in colour carousel - or carnival.

I think they're great fun -what do you think?

Rachel says she wouldn't wear them because they're not shiny like real beads but I love them and Kate has already requested one made from Rowan denim - it can't be photographed because she wanted it for her holiday so its been posted off. Hopefully she'll send me a modelled shot...



Queen Anne's Lace Scarves

And more fast work....

Each of these little Queen Anne's Lace scarves (rav link) took only a couple of hours to crochet.

The first is in Noro Silk Garden Lite, colour #2025 with a 4.5mm hook.



Excuse the hairy neck - it's not mine.

The second is Noro Silk Garden, colour 282 and a 5mm hook.





The colours are incredibly difficult to photo accurately and in the photos you could believe that they were in fact the same colour. They're not. Here are two more photos - one of each of the scarves in the same order.

Domus Aurea

This is a test knit for Laura knitted during April and May (can it be that long ago??) in a gorgeous greeny soft sheeny pure silk from Sunshine Yarns. It is a lovely pattern whose very clean and simple lines appealed to me from the start - and a very fast knit, not least because I knitted the scarf size. I began my scarf working the nupps written in the pattern butI very soon changed to using the suggested alternative beads because the nupps just didn't show up enough against the variations in the yarn colour. What has taken an inordinate time was getting some decent photos.



Why is this colour so hard to photograph?? It's most accurate on the second picture.



It is so lovely and has been admired by everyone who saw it on my table - so much so that as soon as the green was finished I was inspired to start a second one to be used specifically as a table centre runner. This next is wider and gold as the pattern's name suggests. It is 100% silk with a gorgeous sheen - I just hope I can take some photos that do it justice.

Short French "holiday"

Although we've only been home for a week France is fast becoming a distant memory. The ten days away that included only three days on our own haven't actually done a lot to recharge my batteries and the amount of knitting has been inevitably small.

In fact I didn't have time to do much at all except eat, drink and attempt to tidy up the "garden". Oh yes...the garden....

On the plus side the roses this year were fantastic.



and these had the most amazing perfume

despite being some that have done their own thing for so long and now are completely wild, their flowers are only remarkable because there are so many but the smell reminds me of the rose petal scent we all used to make as children - and of the Iranian rose petal jam my friend brings me.

Actually the flowers are very similar to these of our newest rose - Rambling Rector I think it's called -
and I think this is going to be as vigorous a climber as it is reputed to be. It was only planted last year and has already made a very good start.

It's very close to a pair of lime trees and it's always this time - end of May/beginning of June when the flowers start to open and their heady scent completely fills the air - as does the buzzing of the bees.



But on the negative side we've been battling against these little pests.

I'm sure those of you living in the south of the UK will recognise the rosemary leaf beetle. I hadn't ever seen this until this year - and it still hasn't appeared in our English garden.

And the lily beetle


Both of these beetles are very destructive and can destroy completely the plant they're feeding on - or rather the plant that their larvae have fed on - and sadly neither seem to have any natural predator so the best we can do is to pick them off one by one and destroy them. The lily beetles are crafty little things - apparently when one is threatened it emits a high pitched sound that warns all the other beetles to hide and they all drop off the plant into the undergrowth out of sight.

But on a brighter side, these orchids grow wild in the dappled shade at the edge of our wood.

and although they are late this year and when we left there were nowhere near as many as usual, at least they were there.