Timeless coastline

One day last week, wild and unpredictable February gifted us with a fine day. The wind was sending dark clouds scudding across the sky, but at least the sky was blue. And so we headed for the coast. Not for us golden sands, cafes and souvenir shops but a wild stretch of muddy coastline at the mouth of the estuary.

This is the small village of Bardsea that overlooks the water. I've taken you here before but I thought you'd like to visit again.

At the water's edge, we could see no other sign of human habitation. The distant horizon was masked by mist and it wasn't difficult to imagine a group of ancient settlers trudging across the mud collecting shell fish and edible grasses.

Only the hardiest of plants grow here; the kind that will withstand endless battering from persistent wind and salt spray.

 

 

For those who seek golden sun-kissed sands it must seem a very unimpressive coastline but I never grow tired of its unpretentious beauty.

 

 

 

At this time of year it reminds me of the work done by British artist Angie Lewin. I have her book (below) and it contains numerous pictures of her work.

 

 

 

 

Her inspiration comes from skeletal stems and seedpods that she finds during winter visits to wild windswept places.

 

These plants then become the subjects of her wonderful linocut prints.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love Angie Lewin's work

 

 

 

Dolly mitts or teddy?

After two whole weeks of rain we awoke this morning to find more of this. Apparently it is the remnants of America's recent snow storm . . . . a mere sprinkling by comparison.

 

 

Kate thinks it looks jolly cold out there and decides not venture out. But thankfully the playroom is warm and cosy and very soon a snowy day activity is underway. Four of the younger dolls who learnt to knit last year are told to choose two pretty shades of wool from the basket. Cast on 24 stitches, knit 2 rows then 12 more in the second colour.

 

So how did they get on?

 

 

Kate started with pale green and changed to pink. She completed 14 rows quite quickly as you can see. Lulu cast on in red but has only knitted two rows so far.

 

And what about Lucy Lavender? Well, Lucy had no trouble choosing her balls of wool and some needles but so far hasn't done any knitting. What she has done is make is a woolly dolly with legs and arms made from needles.

 

 

 

Very nice dolly Lucy but you'll be left behind if you don't start knitting soon.

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, Polly, the fastest knitter of all, has finished her knitting and started stitching the side edges together. What has she made? It looks like a mitten. That would be very useful for outdoor play in the snow wouldn't it.

 

Luckily for Lucy her friend Polly is happy to lend a hand with the knitting. In fact it looks to me as if Polly has done a pretty good job making that yellow and blue mitten for Lucy (and the woolly dolly agrees). And so I leave the dolls to make their second mittens. But who wants to knit a second mitten when you can use your first mitten to make a . . . . . . . . . . .

  . . . . . . . teddy mitt puppet

 

Playing with these in a warm playroom is much more fun than getting cold and wet in that freezing snow.

 

and woolly dolly agrees

 

 

These teddy mitt puppets will fit most medium sized dolls. They are quick and easy to make from odds and ends of  DK yarn (USA - light-worsted/Australia - 8 ply). Choose two contrasting colours and use a pair of 3.25mm needles (US 3)

TEDDY MITT PUPPET

Cast on 24 stitches in first colour.
Rows 1 - 2. knit
Break off this first colour and join the second colour
Row 3. knit
Row 4. purl
Continue in stocking stitch to row 14 (knit a row, purl a row).
Row 15. k2tog (knit two stitches together) right across the row. You should now have 12 stitches on the needle.

Cut the yarn leaving a 15cm (6in) tail. Thread this onto a tapestry needle and take the 12st from the knitting needle. Draw up tightly and then (with wrong sides facing out) back stitch the sides together down to the cast-on edge. Turn right side out.
You now have one mitten. To make it into a teddy puppet you need to knit 2 ears

EAR
Cast on 6 stitches in your main colour.
Rows 1 - 2. knit
Row 3. k2tog, k2, k2tog (you will now have 4 stitches on the needle)
Row 4. k2tog, k2tog (you will now have 2 stitches on the needle)

Cut the yarn leaving a 10cm (4in) tail. Thread this onto a tapestry needle and take the 2st from the knitting needle onto the tail. This is the top of the ear. Whip stitch (over-sew) down the edge of the ear to the bottom cast-on edge then using this yarn stitch the bottom of the ear to the teddy's head (see picture). Thread the cast-on tail through to the inside of the head and tie the two yarn ends together securely. Repeat for a second ear.

EYES, NOSE and MOUTH - Use brown (black) yarn or alternatively use embroidery floss. Make three stitches close together to form eyes, three for a nose and an upside-down 'Y' shape for a mouth. 

PANDA - Polly made a panda simply by knitting black ears to stitch to a white head.

I hope you have fun knitting Teddy mitt puppets for the dolls in your house.

Great expectations

My last post was on the 9th January and you might remember that the UK weatherman had promised a significant fall of snow right across the country. So boots were lined up by the door in readiness. Here in our part of the Lake District we waited . . . and waited  . . . and waited, but it never came. Whilst the rest of Britain was covered by several inches of the white stuff, and 5,000 schools were closed because of it, we looked out on a damp brown landscape all week.

But then . . . . just when we thought it would never arrive we awoke the following Friday to this pretty scene. The garden had been magically transformed overnight.

 

Hooray! There was a scramble in the playroom as boots were tried on. Belinda and Posy (two of the more sensible dollies) found boots and coats that fitted them well. They bravely plodded about in the snow for a short while but then I think the cold began to bite their fingers and toes and they came back indoors to warm up.

 

 

Of course, not everyone in the playroom is as sensible as Belinda and Posy. Any size of boot was put on by these three rascals and they wasted no time in testing the snow . . . and got well and truly stuck so had to be rescued.

 

 

The smallest and bravest of all were these little Long Tailed Tits. They flew around our garden in a flock of twelve and fed throughout the snowy days. They didn't squabble and politely took turns at the variety of bird feeders. Such a joy to watch.

  

 

And as for us humans? As we live in a fairly remote spot I had filled our two freezers with lots of goodies to keep us warm throughout the days of our snowy confinement. However things did not go to plan. Within a few hours on the first snowy day there was a power cut and the outage continued for three long days. What a disaster. When power was finally resumed the snow had disappeared and the rain had returned and the food in the freezers had melted.

 

I confess I felt really annoyed and downhearted about the way things turned out. However I constantly reminded myself that, although somewhat limited, we had everything we needed to keep us warm and fed throughout the three days. I often thought of the ever growing number of people who live under bridge arches or populate shop doorways in our largest cities. How do they survive in conditions like these? Things are back to normal here of course but for the many homeless people in our cities I'm afraid their wait for better conditions might be a very long time coming.

 

Puzzling snow

Unlike many other parts of the world, snowfall in Britain can never be predicted. Some years a few flakes are seen in late November. They flutter about for a bit and then completely disappear until the following year. Other years can bring a deluge and we are buried in the stuff for several weeks which causes total chaos throughout the country.

As our white stuff is so unreliable I get much pleasure from looking at snowy scenes like the one below. It was painted by one of my favourite Dutch artists, Anton Pieck (1895 - 1987).

Here is another of his winter worlds. I can feel the frosty night air as I imagine myself hurrying across the busy street on my way home to a cosy fireside and a plate of hot buttered toast.

We always complete a few jigsaw puzzles during the dreary winter months and this Christmas my husband was given this large puzzle depicting Anton Pieck's 'Carol Singers.'

A lovely puzzle for the festive season, we completed the colourful singers on the first day which left us with the more challenging surrounding areas to finish on day two.

If you are familiar with the story 'The Elves and the Shoemaker' you might think this little elf had come to lend a helping hand and correctly fit a few pieces of the puzzle whilst we were asleep. But you'd be wrong . . . . .

This is the rascally little fairy that Kate captured last year and he's full of mischief. Luckily Kate spotted him running away with two pieces of puzzle.

She chased him across the playroom floor and just managed to catch him before he'd had time to hide them. And so we finished the puzzle on day two and thanks to Kate there were no pieces missing!

Today the weatherman told us that Britain might get some snow next week. On the other hand we might not! Our weather is totally unreliable so anything could happen!

Playroom mountaineer

The first day of 2013 and playroom antics are already in full swing. The bunny boys decided to build a castle from bricks and being quite fearless one of them decided to climb to the topmost brick.

 

But inevitably disaster struck. The haphazardly balanced bricks wobbled and the little mountaineer tumbled to the floor and landed on his head.

 

 

Luckily kind Kate was on hand to comfort the invalid who was feeling very sorry for himself.  

 

 

She bandaged the bump on his head and the scratch on his leg and then took him to Merrily Ann who is always happy to read a story to anyone in the playroom  

 

Sitting snugly in the big chair with Merrily Ann the poor wounded bunny made a speedy recovery.

 

Of course it wasn't long before all the other bunnies noticed the special attention you can get if you are wearing a bandage.

And so bandages became the fashion of the day and luckily Merrily Ann was happy to read stories to a whole armful of bandage wearing bunnies.

Happy New Year everyone.

I hope 2013 will be fun year for you all.