Well in household news today the big story is the fact that my boiler has broken! Hopefully it should be fixed on Weds as the engineer came yesterday and will be back with a new part. Please keep your fingers crossed for me as it is a very old boiler and I am dreading having to replace it! It broke on Friday so I came home after a day out visiting students with very cold toes to no heating or hot water 😦

Luckily we have a spare heater that usually lives in the garage and a gas fire in the lounge so we have been wrapping up warm (hurrah for fleeces and wristwarmers)  and sitting in sleeping bags. It is a good job we are used to being outdoors and are hardy types but it takes me back to a few years ago when the kids were little and we didn’t have central heating ….. I have really got used to being able to come home and get up to a warm house!  It makes me really appreciate warmth. Thankfully Jake’s shower room has an electric shower in so we won’t smell!

I have actually been very cosy the last couple of evenings sitting in my thickest sleeping bag knitting away and have finished another pair of wristwamers, the moss sitch ones that I cast on last week from Creative Yarns . Here they are in all of their lovely pinkness!

Managed to get to my new Tuesday evening knitting group again this week (hurrah) and met even more lovely people and also managed to get into town to pop in to a new yarn shop in Huddersfield that my friend Lydia has opened up. The shop is called Spun  and as well as wool has fabric! I was bemoaning the lack of pretty fabric  for quilting the other day but look what she had. Lydia is also running workshops on all kinds of textile subjects – check out her website for details.

I did also buy some wool from her – the black is for a hat for Ellie that I cast on yesterday -she wants one like the lilac one I have just knitted for her friend ( I am resizing it this time as the last one was quite loose) and the lovely green is a treat for me – very luxurious Manos yarn that I am intending to make a hat and wristwarmers with.

I am not doing very well with keeping hold of my accessories as I lost my lovely thick gloves before Xmas and have yet to find a suitable replacement pair – roll on Summer then I won’t need all these things.

My friend Judy (she of the egg cosies!) came round yesterday for a bit of a knit and natter – or in her case rag rug and natter. She went to one of Lydia’s recent workshops and is making this lovely cushion using the rag rugging technique with wool instead of rags.

The lack of heating has altered my plans for the weekend as it is too cold to be cutting out quilt fabric in the conservatory so I have decided to treat myself to an afternoon of catching up on blog visiting – that won’t be too much of a hardship!

I have quite a busy week ahead but am really looking forward to another weekend with no marking at the end of it ! Things are slowing down a bit at work so am looking forward to stepping up the craft time again!

I do hope you all have a lovely week and thanks again for visiting and for all your comments, that really does give me a very warm heart.

One of the things I like best about the weekend is Sunday mornings – I like to get up late and have brunch which often does involve eggs. I have posted before about the joys of brunch inspired by a website  365 days of breakfast but today I decided that I would have a boiled egg – inspired by an Xmas pressie from my lovely friend Judy which I will show you a pic of later.

 And you know how they say about people who can’t cook ‘she can’t even boil an egg’ well I can cook, I think pretty well, but I had real trouble will the egg so will have to work on the egg boiling skills. It was still edible but had exploded (think I need to add salt to the water next time) and it was not cooked for long enough. So in the pic below there is a stand in egg model used as my real breakfast would not fit in the egg cup!

Interestingly the kids did not know what this was when I opened the pressie – I don’t think that we have ever had egg cosies though we have had boiled eggs. I remember having them as a kid and the egg cup that I am using is a genuine vintage one given to me by my mother as an Easter gift (it had chocolate egg in it) circa 1972. I have a pair (I think the other one belonged to my sister originally).

I don’t really have much vintage china but someone who really does like collecting it is Hen House – she has loads of vintage things in her houses.Go and have a visit!

I am having a very nice weekend – I have been doing quite a lot of work still as I have a lot of marking but have been also been doing some more  knitting and have cast on for another set of handwarmers. I have finished a set of the lilac ones for me – I haven’t taken a pic as they are identical to the last set. The pair I am knitting at the moment are called Moss Stitch Handwarmers – a freebie from Creative Yarns on Ravelry.

This is the progress so far –

The main body of this is knitted in Double Moss Stitch which I have not tried before but I really like. It gives a really good effect especially in the Sublime which is a joy to knit with as it has such great stich definition.

And not only was there lovely knitting last night but lovely knitting while watching the new series of the Tudors! How fab. Despite all the inaccuracies (Jonathon Rhys Meyers is still looking rather dashing and not at all obese ,gouty and plagued by problems with his abscess as he would have been at this stage in his life) I just enjoy it for the costumes and the atmosphere. My only complaint is I have yet to ever find any info about an exhibition of costumes used in the series and would love to go and see some close up – if anyone ever finds out about one please let me know.

If you have not seen it here is the trailer to tempt you – look at all the fab textiles in this! I have just learnt how to embed video into my posts which is very useful!

Well I am off to do a bit more work now then hopefully more knitting this evening – what a nice way to spend a day!

Thanks for visiting.