3:15 project, update 18

aka the urticaria edition... Photos from last Sunday.

Some progress this week... Lots more growth in the hanging baskets...

... but still haven't planted out the sesame on the patio...

The lilies have gone, but everything else is growing away nicely...

And here's the progress. No, I haven't buried anyone (although there is a cat buried under each side bed); but I have unearthed what was once, and will be again, the veg bed, which had completely gone over to nettles. Shan't be planting anything in there this season - I know there are still significant chunks of root in there and I'll be waiting for them to show themselves again - but am wondering about putting a green manure in there over the winter. Anyone got any experience of these?

I didn't get too badly stung, although I had a bracelet of stings around each wrist where my top kept parting company from my gloves...

And I seem to have failed to kill the holly-bush as well; which is great. It's rallying nicely - now to keep it with enough light that it doesn't go straggly again...

This week I'm "on holiday". The inverted commas are because this is the only day I'm actually not doing anything very much - I taught three days of summer school at Cottenham Monday-Wednesday to a very nice group of ladies, and tomorrow I'm off to the folk festival... Still toying with the idea of knitting at Ely this evening... I think it's going to depend on the weather at 6:30 when I need to go for the bus. And what the soundtrack to the fair is - we get a small fun-fair on the Green each year, and this is its week.

RIP Harry Patch

Genuinely the end of an era; the last British soldier from the WW1 trenches died today; and he was a conscript with no illusions about war.

A few years ago he was taken to meet a German veteran who had fought opposite him in Flanders. "Nice old chap. A pacifist. Same as me. Why did they suffer, those millions of men?"

Chalkboard

... spotted outside the Flying Pig this evening - which contained only the words SWINE FLEW.

Wish I'd had a camera with a battery in it...

Warning... blueness ahead.

Last later night until the middle of October for me; the working week becomes a little shorter and we're able to breathe a bit. Well, that's the theory. In fact, the next couple of weeks are even busier than usual...

However - quick quiz - what sort of dangerous item do you think this belongs to? Obviously a bit of a hazard...

Yes, that's right - a pair of jeans.

I can't really identify the precise moment at which we became so stupid (or perhaps afraid of litigation) that we forgot that denim = indigo = fading = dye loss...

But in more blueness: the first skein of what I'm calling Blue Meanie.... This is 100% merino superwash from Wingham, for the Tour de Fleece, dyed by me in a couple of different intensities of ultramarine. Because of my lack of spinning skillz (and speed), this is the first week and a half's production at a whopping 167 grammes (try not to be too impressed, people who spin...); 422 metres though, which is the finest I've managed.

It turns out that when you put a skein of yarn onto a patio table at 5:30am, you get an audience...

... even if that audience is utterly unimpressed and really just wants breakfast.

I think I'll probably be knitting Sherbert/Sherbet from the last Yarn Forward (who knows, the magazine index says one thing, the pattern another, 'twas ever thus with YF), if I can get the tension to come out right.

Meanwhile Decimal is about 40 rows from cast-off, and then pick-up of the edging - but it's still just a big heap of cream stuff - it will not be cream when I start wearing it though... Next week I'm teaching at Cottenham Summer School which will be fun and exhausting at the same time...

Oh, also - no 3:15 update this week. I did do some work in the garden, but either I was out, or entertaining, or it rained, so most of what was done was after the photos. They look so alarmingly similar to last week's that I'm not going to bother... The rain did mean that I could sit in my kitchen on Sunday morning, spinning and listening to the cricket at Lords on the radio (and yay for Freddie who was magnificent throughout and thoroughly deserved Man of the Match), and watching the rain beat down on the roof above me, 60 miles north of the action... never a bad thing...

3:15 project, update 17

A bit of a changeable weekend; spent several hours spinning, and a few hours doing a bit of work, but it was fine enough on Sunday to dry the laundry and do some work in the garden. The main effort went into the right-hand-side again, trying to uncover the door into the greenhouse which has been invaded by ivy...


Pictures 1 and 2, nothing to see. Pic 3 - not a great deal of change although all the lilies are now out... and the sesame plants on the left in the tray are going mad...


Picture 4: everything just growing away and becoming quite lush...

And new this week, picture 5: taken from the bottom of the garden by the greenhouse door, which I nearly unearthed last week! I got it clear enough to get into, anyway, and rescue a butterfly which had become trapped in there... As you can see, still quite a lot to do when viewed from this angle!

The herb bed has been attracting quite a lot of insect life because the marjoram and oregano are flowering;

They literally are heavy with bees...

and here's that rescue butterfly again - a Comma, or Polygonia c-album; one of the species which is making a comeback across England as the weather warms up; Dad spotted one in their garden in north Durham last year...

Some of the local fauna found alternative habitats.

Just as well I hadn't planted that up with anything this year, really...

Lots of spinning has been going on for the Tour de Fleece (Ravelry link), and a fair amount of knitting on Decimal - I've just been really lazy about formatting and uploading my pictures recently...!

A weekend away

No 3:15s this week - I was away; looking at other people's wonderfully manicured allotments in the mediaeval village of Blanchland, among other things. (The food at the Lord Crewe is pretty good too).


This whole vista is a World Heritage Site; with reason. It was even prettier before the chimneys etc. in the foreground were built - they're only a few years old but thankfully fit right in with the rest of the city...




Weardale; the river at Wolsingham...

Weardale: the marketplace at Stanhope - home to many, many craft shops, and also one guitar shop, on the right in this photo, where Dad bought a semi-acoustic guitar...

Knitting was done in preparation for this trip; and the knitting generally sort of fitted; and was modelled. This is Baby A in his slipover/tanktop thingy; pattern is Pembroke... modifications on my Ravelry page. This has quite a lot of space for growing-into...

And here he is wearing his Owlet (which is just about the right size despite being the 2-year-old size - he's 18 months...) - I could have made it bigger but didn't have recent measurements, so this might not get much wear...

(Alas, poor Yorick...)

And A being a whirlybird... I took measurements; and I think I can remember them; but I can't find the receipt I wrote them down on...

Nice weekend; I'll try not to head back into work 10 hours after getting off a long-distance train again anytime soon though...