Getting to Know you Contest Questionnaire:

In answer to the questions on Knitty Otters blog for the 200th post giveaway

1.) How long have you been knitting?

Since November 1965 when my Aunt Dagny taught me. I knitted a scarf for my teddy in moss stitch; about 15sts on 3mm needles, I still have those needles somewhere. It was a magical scarf, My Aunt visited every Sunday and that was when I knitted. Every time I got it out, all my mistakes had magically disappeared and it had grown, just a bit, not a lot.

2.) How long have you been knitting socks?

Now, I have to guess here as I honestly cannot remember, but I would think sometime in the mid to late 70's

3.) What do you do with a problem like Maria?

Leave her to run around in the alps singing; I would not be able to hear her from here

4.) What is your all time favorite sock yarn?

I'm not sure. I don't think I have found it yet, currently knitting in Regia Bamboo

5.) Toe Up or Cuff Down?

Until recently cuff down, had never heard of toe up. Now toe up two at a time ( thanks to Totty)

6.) What's your favorite color (this week or for all time)? Do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? Any colors you just can't stand?

yellow to red spectrum, though most other colours are nice too.

7.) Do you have a pet(s)?

None at the moment. Have had dog, budgies, guinnie pig, rabbit, chickens, hamsters and tropical fish

8.) Babies: Oven Roasted or Barbecued?

Roasted, have to be, bbq is not big enough

9.) Besides socks what is your favorite type of thing to knit?

Anything I can felt and of course Munkeas

10.) What's your favorite scent?

Anais Anais

11.) What music are you really loving right now? Like a song or a band?

I don't really listen to music. I am a spoken word listener, books or radio 4

12.) How many pairs of socks have you hand knit?

Recently 2 pairs. in total, I really have no clue, but must be around 50 pairs

13.) What's your favorite treat? Salty or Sweet?

definitely salty. Am very much a savoury person

14.) What was the most interesting thing you smelled yesterday. Not good or bad necessarily, just the thing that stuck out most so that you actually took notice of it.

Garlic, when driving past an Indian restaurant

15.) Needles - DPN's: Wooden, metal or plastic?

Bamboo!

16.) What is your favorite sock pattern that you've knit? What do you recommend?

Can't really recommend one as I tend to knit "on the fly"

17.) The last Question: If you were stuck on a deserted island who would you want with you, what knitting would you want with you and would you ever want to leave?

I must be a boooring person, I want my other half and the kids. As for knitting, something very very complicated that will last forever or at least until I figure out how to make yarn from whatever I can find on the island

Rain is expensive

if it happens when you are outside Waterstones bookshop!

I heard last Monday evening that there was a woolshop in Alton, so decided to go and have a look on my way home from "Knit and natter" Tuesday, a rather showery day.

Found this lovely wool, which is now on needles, more on that later.

Alton also have quite a few charity shops, so I had to have a look in the ones I found.

In the first one I found this:

In the second these destined to become wallets

and in another this, to replace the book I cannot find.

I turned for the carpark, but before I got there, the rain started, very heavy rain, so... what do you do...I looked left and what did I see.... Waterstones! Now I know they have comfy chairs to sit in and browse the books, so in I went. When I left 15-20 minutes later I was carrying these:

On a slightly different note, I found this amongst the stash of yarn I had in the loft, look at the date! There are some really nice patterns in there, even one or two I might attempt at a later date, though the yarns used are no longer available.

I am still here

and I know I promised last week in a comment on some-one's blog, to show pictures of what I made on holiday

I saw the dodecahedron here and was intrigued. I had to make one too. Found there was a crochet version too, so ideal for the flight to Greece. I had some pure wool from Kauni which I bought in Denmark last I was there. It is a rather hard wool so I thought it would benefit from being felted. I stuffed the "ball" rather loosely and washed it at 40 degrees first, didn't really do anything so put it back in at 60 degrees. It came out lovely and soft, but has holes at most of the joints, needs a session with needle and thread, otherwise it turned out more like a berry than the spiky original.

The rest of what I did on holiday still needs to be finished off, how unusual for me, NOT!

I wil show you a few holiday photos in another post.

I am not a hoarder, honestly ;o)

but I will forgive you for thinking so, when you see these photo's.

We have spent the day clearing out the loft. A very much needed job. Found a box full of stuff that haven't been touched since we moved here over 20 years ago!

What I wanted to find was my knitting wool. I knew I had some up there, I did!!!

Quite a bit! Much more than I remembered! Luckily Ben is away for the weekend with Scouts on an activity camp so I can use his bedroom to sort the stash. Main problem now is what to do with it all. Have to find a new home for some of the yarn I know I will never use. Does anyone know how to get in contact with people who knit for charity??

I kept thinking of things I could make with the yarns I found, but I have doubts that it will ever happen; I think I know my limitations by now.

Next sunday we are off to Greece for a week, just Dave and me. Hoping for a relaxing week, just like we had last year. Going to same Island and same town as last year, though this year we are staying at the hotel I wished we had stayed at last year. What is new for us is that I have not booked apackage, but just the hotel and the flight, seperately. We have no transport from the airport booked, but as we have been there before, we know how far it is to the hotel and will just get a taxi; we also know which way to go!

I plan to spend the week lying on a sunlounger next to the pool, crafting, and with a good book and a nice cool drink to hand.... sounds good???

Munkeas goes camping

and do not seem to like it.

They tried their best to escape

and nearly made it

if only he had not been so short sighted, he would have realised he was only 2" from the ground!

Parcel in the post

I received my monkey swap parcel from http://froglegsnvaseline.blogspot.com/ on Thursday morning, just before leaving. Though I didn't have time to blog about it then, I did have a camera in my pocket, well my mobile.

Lovely looking parcel eh?

Look what was inside

Someone peeked out

didn't go far from the sweeties

In fact was rather possessive about them

She did tell me that her name had been misheard before she "jumped" over the pond. She is Margot not Merlo, though they do sound quite similar.

Thank you so much for the lovely monkey.

More from Devon

Back home again, I can now upload some more photos

This is the sight that greeted us when we drove back from Honiton along some very, very minor roads

I cannot remember the last time I had to stop to let milk-heavy ladies cross the road. The cow nearest us and next to the string tied across the road was obviously a bit of a character. She lowered her head and lifted the string over her back. I think she had intended to go for a bit of a walk, unfortunately (for her) she could get no further than our car as there were parked cars next to us and I think we were a bit too scary.

This is the river Axe looking north from the bridge near Colyford. We have never seen so much water in the river before. Must have been from the rain the day before and overnight.

The river looking south towards the coast. We later heard that a couple of campers, out at sea from the river on their sea kayaks had trouble getting back up the river from the sea. They had to land along the coast and carry the cayaks across the seafront onto the river. The outgoing current was just too great to paddle against.

Saturday we went to have a look at Branscombe and what remained of the wreck of the Napoli. We last came down in February last year to see what impack the wreck had had on the coast line. Here are a few then and now photos

Now

Then

Now (in the distance on the water, the wreck, or what remains of her)

Then, the badly listing ship with the remaining containers