Debbie Bliss Eco Cotton Yarn

I was photographing some Debbie Bliss Eco Yarn for http://www.cafeknit.com/, and Dom decided to get in on the act. My back was turned for a few seconds and he had managed to grab a bright pink ball. It was my favourite picture of the day, and I was tempted to use it to illustrate the yarn - it would certainly grab peoples attention!

Many Happy Returns....

I have just about recovered from the shock on Monday of being yet another year older, and in between a) regretting the fact that I'm no longer young enough to believe I am thin enough to hide behind lampposts (Milly on the way to school this morning) and b) recovering from too many late nights in a row celebrating, I thought I'd share with you some of my lovely gifts...

I'm the proud recipient of a new lovely pair of flowery Birkenstock's (I tend to live in them all summer), some new summery perfume, a mellow CD, a lovely mobius scarf my Mum knitted me, and some beautiful hand-dyed wool from a friend (pictured). My friend has been dying wool in her spare time, and this one is called "Bejewelled". absolutely gorgeous, I'm thinking about stocking it in www.cafeknit.com soon. Watch this space!

Sneak Preview!

Here is a sneak preview of one of the new home pages images for www.cafeknit.com . Our model, Frankie, is looking just gorgeous in a beautiful jumper knitted from the Debbie Bliss Spring/Summer 09 magazine. The jumper is the ultimate in luxury knitted in Debbie Bliss Pure Silk yarn.

The photography is by Jennifer Beech (I'm lucky to have a professional photographer in the family!)

Lavender Hat

Another glorious morning, and a productive so far. Delivered Milly to school without mishap, taken delivery of some new stock for Cafe Knit, uploaded it onto the website and now just about to pop two doors down to deliver a baby gift to my friend who had a little baby girl two weeks ago.


And here is Dominic modelling the little cotton hat I knitted as a gift! His head is a little big for the hat now, and I'm not sure that shade of lavender suits him....! I like the pattern though. Taken from Debbie Bliss Book One, and knitted in Debbie Bliss Cotton DK, a lovely soft, affordable cotton.

Strawberry Fields

Just the greenhouse to tackle now, although I might give it a rest today as I'm feeling a little jaded today having been up in the night two nights on the trot. I think it may be payback for the long morning sleeps Dom has had. So today I will wake him after a couple of hours, so cruel...:-(

I spend yesterday morning trying to get last years strawberries under control. They had taken over - I had no idea they were so invasive. And I ordered all my vegetables from http://www.vegetableplantsdirect.co.uk/ for delivery in May. Very easy to use website with fantastic choice and variety - I'll keep you posted when they arrive. I nearly ended up with 60 broccoli plants, due to not reading the descriptions carefully, but a quick phonecall sorted that out.

I took delivery of some gorgeous yarn yesterday which I'm dying to knit. Grignasco Merino Silk. I thought I'd try it out before deciding whether to stock it in www.cafeknit.com. I'd love to try some lacework, and I'm totally in awe of fellow Raveller vtknitboy's Lyra - click here to see what I mean! http://vtknitboy.blogspot.com/2009/03/meet-lyraa-two-month-project.html
But maybe that's a tad too ambitious for me at the moment! Maybe I should use it double and knit a simple vest. It is so gloriously soft....

Glorious digging

I managed to make the most of the glorious Spring weather yesterday and got my vegetable patch a bit more under control - mostly due to the fact that Dom kindly obliged by having a long morning nap :-)

The vegetable garden has been totally neglected since the picking of the last crop of tomatoes last Autumn, and what with Dominic's arrival, and www.cafeknit.com, I haven't had a chance this year to sort it out.

This year I'm going to have to cheat and buy plug plants, but hopefully I'm not too late to get a nice crop, ready for weaning Dom in the summer.

Enough chatter, I'm going to go and finish the remainder of the veggie patch and then try and tackle the greenhouse.....

Cafe Knit Web Review!

I'm very excited! Cafe Knit has had it's first review, to be published in Knitting magazine, April Issue. Once it's published I'll scan it in here.

I've also finished my secret squirrel project - image to appear tomorrow, once I have given it to the recipient! And now that's out the way, I'm well on my way to finishing a couple more small projects....

Some Baby Bootees for Spike, the 4th child of some friends, who arrived a week before Dominic. Hopefully it won't be too hot for him to wear them now...! I don't like the ribbon I've used in the photos, so I'll change that, but the yarn was beautiful to knit with - the largely undiscovered Mirasol Chirapa, 100% merino wool which comes in a range of lovely hand-dyed colours, I used 'Rainbow Jade'

And I have just cast on for another pair of bootees, this time using some pink cotton from my stash, for a friend who had a baby girl two weeks ago. These are my kind of quick and easy projects!

Once those are finished I am going to knit myself an easy jumper using Louisa Harding Hulda yarn in charcoal, with an edging of blue and purple, I think. It's meant to be a fair isle jumper from her eclectic 'Wildspur' book, but at the rate I'm knitting at the moment it would be next winter before I finish, so I think I'll just knit a plain version.