Play and Work

It feels like this has been a very long week. Mr Magpie and I started early last weekend with a trip to London on Thursday. We were there to see a band in the evening but arrived early enough to do some sightseeing.

The weather was pretty miserable so we headed for the warmth of a museum. We chose the Imperial War Museum as we hadn't been before and what we saw of it was very impressive. We were there for about three hours but could easily have doubled that. It was the first time we'd been to London without the children (we left the little Magpies at home with Nanny) and it was certainly a more relaxed experience!

This was our evening's destination. Mr Magpie is a huge New Order fan, I'm more your Joy Division type of girl (if you like Editors give them a try).

Neither of us had been to Brixton Academy before and it was a great venue, I love watching bands in old theatres as opposed to sterile boxy halls such as our BIC here in Bournemouth. At first the sound engineer seemed to have his levels a little confused and we thought we were in for a big disappointment but about halfway through things improved and we had a great time. The band obliged me by doing two Joy Division tracks in the encore, finishing with 'Love Will Tear Us Apart'. Ace.

Anyway, my apologies, you're not really here for music news are you?

After a bank holiday weekend I would rather forget, due mainly to falling victim to the rather nasty tummy bug that seems to be doing the rounds, I have been a busy little bee. I took advantage of the coach journeys to and from the capital to start my little project with the Rowan Cotton I showed you here.

I have long been an admirer of Ripple blankets and really wanted to try one myself. There are excellent instructions on Attic 24 but Lucy's version does require you to learn how to treble two together. Although I'm sure I could work out how to do this with a little effort, I was drawn instead to the pattern in my Jane Brocket book, The Gentle Art of Knitting. In Jane's pattern, you only need to know how to do double and treble crochet. By missing stitches and adding chains, you make little holes which do the work of shaping the troughs and peaks of the ripple. Simples.

I haven't used cotton for either knitting or crochet before and it does feel a little strange but I am enjoying the pattern, which is almost as easy as my granny stripe and as I am keeping things small, this will be my portable project of choice until it is finished.

After taking my crochet roll to SnB a few weeks back, I was asked to make one as a DPN holder by another member of the group. I took it along last night and I seemed to have a happy customer, which is always a great feeling.

As well as the DPN holder, I finished off a little batch of brooches.

I have also spent a lot of time ironing this week. Not the kind that makes the Mr happy because he has a wardrobe full of shirts again, but the kind that involves fusing interfacing onto fabric. I did a big batch and then got busy with the scissors snipping out lots of fruit pieces.

I think I might finally be getting my groove back when it comes to sewing. I really enjoyed stitching this lot up.

So much so that I cut these out last night in a spare half hour and will have a little play with some buttons and trim.

Well that's the news from the nest this week. I have just looked at the calendar and realised that there are only three more weeks until half term and then only four weeks after half term until Larmer Tree. My panicky levels are rising steadily, but I keep telling myself that it will all be fine.

I wish you all a lovely weekend (will it ever stop raining though?) and hope to see you again soon.

Beth x