The wool-eater and socks

Last week I found a great CAL which I decided that I just had to take part in. This is it here. I decided I wanted to crochet a Wool-eater with only masculine colours so that the boys can cosy up under it as they object to the pinks and purples. I think I am supposed to write about my progress on a Wednesday, but I will put it up today and put up any progress again on Wednesday.I am quite a bit behind but was getting there slowly but surely until I got diagnosed on Monday with tennis elbow, my arm has been painful for a while but has got a lot worse over the last 2 weeks and the doctor reckons the repetitive action of crochet is probably not helping. So I am working on it just 10 minutes at a time just to help with my addiction to this pattern it gets under your skin.
I decided that I needed some light knitting to get on with instead of heavy crochet blankets, so what better than socks. I have not knitted socks for ages and all my knitted socks are showing their age, they are well worn.

I decided to do monkey socks the pattern can be found here .

The yarn I am using is a ball I found in a charity shop a while ago and I tried to check but no longer available I am still trying to use the stash before I buy any more yarn it is getting less slowly but surely.

I can only apologise about the quality of pictures but I think my camera is going to give up the ghost I think I need a new one so better get saving.

Thank you for reading.

Ham and egg pie

One thing I hate more than anything is waste especially food waste. The other day I had roasted a Gammon joint sliced it. Yesterday we still had some bits of it left and some eggs that had to be used, so what to make?
The answer was pie. I made the pastry in my food processor then rolled it out and placed on a greased pie plate.
I then added the ham and cracked 4 eggs on top of the pastry.

Then I whisked 2 eggs with some milk.

It was then baked in the oven and when you slice it you can see slices of egg yolk and white it looks quite impressive.

This is another family favourite and used up what I had lying around.

Sorry some of the photos are a bit fuzzy think I have some gremlins in my camera.

Thanks for reading Cathy.

Tah Dah

Just over a year ago I started a huge ripple blanket for my bed. I have finally finished it, it's now for a different bed in a different house but I love it all the same.
The pattern is Lucy's neat ripple pattern the yarn started off as any scraps or balls I had in my stash that were purple I then had to buy some most of them were Stylecraft from my LYS.

I toyed with the idea of putting a border on but decided it didn't need one just now but I know I can change my mind later and add one if I want to. I now have had a couple of nights sleeping under it and it is very cosy. This house is freezing so lots of blankets are required and I have already started another but more about that another day.

Thanks for reading Cathy.

Just keep going

I really thought I was going to be writing a Tah Dah post today but time was against me today and as you can see I am still working on it but I started it over a year ago and started blogging about this blanket here so a few more days until Tah Dah won't make much difference except I am desperate to start new projects but have promised myself that I am not starting anything new until I have finished this and one other project that just needs sewing up, but seem to have had a mind block about it, so fingers crossed you will be hearing all about them next week.

Well thankyou for reading I am going to go now and try finish this and sew in a thousand ends.

Living within our means

We badly needed more space to allow the kids to grow so we had to move but in moving our rent trebled our council tax doubled and as for gas and electric that's out of control but our wages are still the same.

I was determined that we were going to do this move and get the house all sorted without getting into any debt, we have spent the last 5 years clearing our debt and it has been hard work I didn't want to undo it all, even if it meant scrimping,saving, reusing, shopping in charity shops etc.

One of the main ways that I have been able to make our budget go further is by watching the shopping bill. We have six mouths to feed. Today I made one of our favourites bolognese and it's a great one to make it stretch I used carrots and onions chopped up which are cheap and chopped tomatoes, but also used a large handful of porridge oats which I always have in my cupboards, believe me nobody but you will know they are there, my lot don't so please don't tell them. By doing these things I have turned 1kg of mince into 2kg of bolognese so will do the six of us tonight and another lot in the freezer for another night.

Sarah and I also today made, what are known n our house as daddy's biscuits , they are coconut ones and he loves them. he even knows what ingredients used and brings the ingredients home for me to bake just need to teach him how to bake them himself. I prefer if possible to give the kids home baking as I know what is in the things I make.

Thankyou for reading going to go now and see what else I can do to make the budget go further.

Ok here come the excuses for why I haven't kept this blog up. I have moved house in August which needed so much work we are still working very hard on it although it is now at the point we can safely live in it.

My Netbook is broken I can't even find links as I am now using my sons so will not put links for things up straight away but will come back later and insert when I find the links.

I also lost the camara for a few months it was in a box somewhere.

These were all made for either xmas presents or birthday presents the two coloured ones are from a pattern the plain coloured ones were made up as I went along.

Lots more on the go will try my best no more excuses to get here once and a while and let you all know what I am up to.

Thanks for reading Cathy.

Catch up

I know,i know I have been a very bad blogger. My mum was moving house and had to severely downsize which took up a lot of my time. Then the house she was moving into had been very badly treated for a very long time. I really wish I had thought to take before and after pictures as the transformation was unbelievable' it was a lot of hard work but worth it.

A lot of things kind of got forgotten about when this was all going on. Including knitting and crochet so the A-Z of knitting socks was put to one side managed to start this sock for D had to be pulled out a few times as this was my first attempt at toe up but am now half way up the first foot will get back to it when I can, but will give up with the challe

nge this year and hopefully it will run again next year.

When sorting out mu Mum's house a very old friend came to stay as my

Mum no longer had space for him.

This is Bryan the snail( spelt this way as this is how my brother spells his name). This cookie jar has been around a long time and I remember it from my childhood no my kids are enjoying getting biscuits out of Bryan like I did as a child.

Also out of my Mum's came this large throw which had holes so was no longer useful for the purpose it was meant for so I decided th

at it was going to become a round rug for my living room.

I cut strips out of it then wound into 3 large balls like this.

I am using a 9mm hook and this pattern. I will show you the results next time it slow going now as its getting heavy.

I have now lost 2 stone.

Will be back soon with more of my projects.