Wednesday, 15 July 2009
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
Not a dolly...
What do you think of this little guy? I had a lot of fun making him, and while doing so I thought how much my Dad might like him. Dad has a few little fun characters around the place...Wallace & Gromit, a beanie toy and other creatures. I'm the same...my workroom shelves are lined with various fun and silly things.
It brought a smile to Dad's face when I dropped round this morning. :)
Dad begins chemo tomorrow. I'm driving him to the hospital (about an hour and a bit from here). Dad is a little anxious, which is natural. I think it will be better when we know what effects the treatment will have on him. Nowadays, thank goodness, there are a lot of things the doctors can do to make the treatment more bearable.
Please remember my parents in your prayers (Gordon and Janet).
Thank you friends. xx
Monday, 13 July 2009
How to knit - Part Two
Hi girls! Now that we've cast on our stitches, I'll show you how to knit the first row. If you want a really neat and tidy edge, you can knit into the back of the stitches rather than the front. I usually do this for the first row to make it extra neat, then the following rows I just knit normally, like in the video...
Sunday, 12 July 2009
How to knit...
A couple of ladies have asked me about learning to knit, so I thought it would be fun to make a few short videos, explaining the basic stitches. There are lots of different ways to knit, I knit the Scottish way, holding both needles as if they were knives. Some people hold the right needle like a pencil and some people cast on differently. It's best to start out simply and then find the methods which suit you best.
Part One - How to cast on...
Saturday, 11 July 2009
Kitchen pics...
Some of you may remember the dreaded kitchen refit last winter. Well, I've been waiting until we got some lino down before showing you the 'after' pics but it hasn't happened yet, so...here are some update pics. I can't believe we actually lived and functioned in this chaos...
And yes, I did actually stand straddling the floor beams to put casseroles into the oven...lol!
So, we have some plinths to put on the bottom of the units, and some lino/vinyl to lay and we'll be finished! John did all the work himself and we just changed the cupboard doors instead of putting in new units, saving ourselves a fortune. The spotlights were in a sale and cost peanuts to buy. We bought the table and chairs in a closing down sale, a few years ago and all the clutter on the worktops, etc is the result of me taking these pics at bedtime and being too lazy to tidy up first!
Have a great weekend friends! :)
Friday, 10 July 2009
Molly Dolly...
Some of you may remember Molly, one of my first dolls, made last year. She has been stored away, wrapped in tissue paper, but I have decided to sell her. Being one of my original dolls, Molly is hand-knitted using British Safety Standard fibres/fillings which are man-made. 
Molly is approx 11 inches tall, dressed in her co-ordinating dress and bonnet and wearing white underwear. Her long, brown hair is perfect for little hands to plait.
Thursday, 9 July 2009
Praise God for housework...
I mean it.
As you know, one of my favourite statements is: "the gentle rhythm of home". I say it a lot, in emails, in posts...just the words alone soothe me.
How wonderful it is to be a housewife. Day to day, normal routines have such a calming influence on a soul fraught with the worries of the world. God knew what he was doing when he gave the main role of homemaker to the woman. He knew how comforted we would be by the steady rhythm of every day tasks. Smoothing down sheets. Polishing wood. Washing dishes in hot suds. Fresh smells. Warm baking. Laundry flapping on the washing line. A sense of nurturing our loved ones. Making the nest clean and welcoming.
God knew that the big things in life can often fall onto the shoulders of us women. Through Christ, I am strong enough to cope. Only through Christ am I able to cope. Apart from cancer coming into our lives, my daughter is leaving home in 5 weeks' time and my husband is looking for a new job. Big things, but yet He comforts me. He comforts me with the mundane...only a truly wonderful Lord could do that!
I know that as I continue to methodically work through my days of household loveliness, the knot I have in my stomach will gradually relax, my shoulders will drop and I will be able to breathe again.
So I praise God for housework. Hallelujah!
