Anniversary and lots of knitting

Yesterday was our 19th wedding anniversary. I can't quite believe it's been 19 years already. In some ways it feels like we've always been married and in other ways it's gone so quickly. Surely now that I'm over 40 (just) and been married for 19 years and have a daughter who is in her last year of compulsory education, I should be feeling like a 'proper grown up'? Well I don't. LOL. I hope I'm not alone.

We decided several years ago we wouldn't do presents for wedding anniversaries. I never know what to buy Simon. But Simon bought me a beautiful lily pot plant. It's called Princess Alexa.

I love lilies although some of them don't smell than nice. I'm not all that good at keeping plans alive so let's see how long before I kill this one.

We went out for a meal last night at Liskeard Tavern which is a 'Table Table' pub so it's not too posh but it's a popular place and the only pub in time where you can go for a decent meal. It's always very busy so I called in the morning and booked a table. The guy I spoke to took my name and telephone number and confirmed the time but when we turned up they had no record of our reservation. I was not happy. We did get a table but had to wait for a few minutes. it was nice to have a meal out together, just the two of us. And nice to be able to leave the girls for a couple of hours withou having to worry about baby sitter.

I've got some knitting I can show you too. Since Friday I've been exclusively knitting on my big secret project apart from about an hour one morning earlier in the week. I did this swatch a few weeks ago:

My original plan for this 'Easy Lace' scarf was to have plain garter stitch edge and I'd knitted a few repeats but I kep thinking about it and fancied doing a nicer edging to make the scarf look a little bit more special. So  I sat down with my note book one morning and drew up some possible edging charts. Made my decision. Quickly typed it up in Knit Visualizer and frogged what I'd knitted so far, probably about 4 inches, and re-knitted two pattern repeats. this all took about an hour. I'm much happier with it now. the edging will be knitted along with the main body of the scarf.

the scarf is only roughly pinned out and will look better when finished and blocked properly.

this is one of my 'Easy Lace' designs which may be used for the first installment of the 'Easy Lace' club. I've not quite decided yet. I'm also thinking I may do a E-book collection of Easy Lace patterns. One of the reasons I chose the main stitch pattern is that it has a yarn over before and after a purl stitch as well as between two knit stitches. If you knit the English way, there is a difference in how you work the yarn overs depending on which stitch comes before or after. This was something I'd never really thought about until I used this stitch pattern for a workshop. I knit continental with Norwegian purl which means the yarn is always in the back so all yarn overs are worked the same way.

My original deadline for my big, secret project  was Friday but I've had it extended until Monday. Which gives me until Friday evening to finish it so I can post it on Saturday. It's still going to be  a push. I had to decide last night whether ot work one more pattern repeat or now. Each pattern repeat was about 40 odd rows. In the end I compromised and decided to do the equivalent of half an extra pattern repeat. I've now got about 30 rows to go and each round is over 900 sts. I thought I would get to over 1000 sts but I should have 960 sts when I'm finished. I'd like to finish this section tonight so I'd better get back to it. At least the stitch pattern is memorised by now and the rows I have left to do are very easy ones.

ETA: I forgot to mention I'm currently looking for a new printer. My current one is an old Canon and is rubbish and cartridges are expensive. I need one that will print good quality pictures  for my patterns. I popped into PC world yesterday and they recommended the HP Photosmart Plus which was also the most expensive one she showed me. It does sound good though. Anyone have this printer? If yes, can you recommend it? If no, have you got a printer that prints good qulaity photos and would be capable of printing lots and lots of patterns. I'd appreciate some recommendations. Thank you.

Good & Bad News

We'll do the good news first. I have a new yarn which I acquired kind of by accident. It was the result of a misunderstanding between my supplier and me. I made a mistake in my order and thought I'd ordered Exotic Cobweb Lace. When I opened the bags on Thursday I realised it wasn't the right yarn. But it turned out it's a much better yarn. My favorite fibres are merino, cashmere and silk and this lace yarn has all three. it's a blend of 70% merino/20% silk/10% cashmere. Although there isn't much cashmere, you can really feel it. It's so incredibly soft. And the silk gives it a lovely sheen. I've wound up one un-dyed skein to knit some swatches. I've not had time yet but it's on my knitting list for the next few days. I've only got 2 kg though, which I dyed on Saturday. It'll be in the shop update on Wednesday. but here's a preview.

I took the pictures a little bit late this afternoon so they're not the best. Here's 3 skeins of silver/lilac, purple, silver:

I love these three colours. Here's the purple one:

Lilac/silver blend:

Silver:

And here are two pinks:

The two pink skeins twisted together.

I need to choose one of the pink ones for a new sample of the Strawberry Patch. I had originally planned to use the lighter pink but I really like the darker one. If you've volunteered to knit for me, you will hear from me this week. i'd planned to sort out knitters and yarn last week but ran out of time and I will definitely do it this week, probalby tomorrow or Wednesday. I have decided to call this yarn Dreamy Lace. I did have a yarn a couple of years ago which i called Dreamy and I think it was a blend of merino and alpaca but I didn't like it very much and only had one delivery of it. So I've decided to use the name for this yarn as it really is DREAMY!!! I wish you could feel it!

Now for the bad news, also yarn related. My main supplier had a big fire in his warehouse just over a week ago and lost his whole stock of un-dyed yarn. He supplies most of Britain's indie dyers, so there are lots of people affected. I've only got 1kg of Super Merino Sock and 3 kg of Fantasy Sock left. The Fantasy sock will be used for the Sock club for October. At the moment i'm most worried about the Easy Lace Club. I've ordered some yarn which is on the way to the UK and should be here early October and I think that will be suitable for the Easy Lace Club and hopefully everything will be back to normal by November and the next lace club shipment. I'm also slightly worried about Fibre Flurry on 30 October. I may not have any of my main lace yarns. I get Supreme Lace, Bambino Lace, Silky Merino, Exotic Cobweb Lace, Super Merino Sock, Merino Plus, Fantasy, Bambino sock, and Angle lace and sock from this supplier. I do have a couple of other suppliers i order from too so I will be able to get some yarns.

I'm very excited about some of hte new yarns I've ordered though. there are some fabolous blends and a new high twist sock yarn.

This weekend I spent most of the time knitting. I was lucky as it was a Formula 1 weekend, so I watched the practice/qualifiying on Saturday and the race on Sunday. I've been knitting exclusively on my big lace project which is due later this week. I'm still not as far ahead as i'd like to me and it will be a struggle to finish on time. I've spent a lot of today knitting too but had some patterns and e-mails and things to deal with. Also made a quick trip to Morrisons where I over-filled my trolley (I had  a small one) and my 2 ltr/4 pint bottle of milk fell out of the trolley and leaked all over the floor. Terribly embarassing! I apologised at least 5 times to hte member of staff who fortunatley was nearby when it happened. Then quickly left without milk. We have enough for a couple of more days anyway.

I'd better get back to my knitting. I've got over 700 sts on my needles at the moment and by the time i've finished I'll have over 1000 sts on the needles. it's looking gorgeous though.

Busy, busy, busy

This week has been incredibly busy, mainly because i've been out of the house too much. Machine knitting group, knitting group, massage appointment, various errands. And on Tuesday I decided to take the train to Totnes and meet a friend for lunch. We had a great day with lots of catching up (not seen each other since July), lots of knitting and a lovely lunch. Debbie, who did some knitting for me recently, joined us for a little while as well. She does knitting for Louisa Harding and showed us two of the latest LH publications and the garments she'd knitted. they were beautiful. Travelling by train is very nice. it took  an hour which is hte same time as it takes to drive. It did cost quite a bit more though. Especially as we're a long way from the station so had to take a taxi both ways.

A week ago I spent the day at the Cornwall Yarn shop in Launceston teaching a lace workshop. I've not been for a few months and Rebecca has increased her stock since the last time I visited. she has lots of gorgous yarns, lots of pattern books and some lovely accessories. Ofcourse I spent some money there.
At Iknit I wanted to buy a 'Herdy' mug but decided not to. Had planned to order it from the website when I got home. But Rebecca stocked them so I snapped one up. Isn't it cute?

I also bouth a cute little button tin. a ball of Rowan Amy Butler Belle Organic and Lang Jawoll Magic which is a sock yarn. I only got one ball of each and they're both for swatching for new designs. I've already done quite a bit of swatching with the Belle Organic. I also bought a bottle of Soak.

Last weekend I did a whole lot of swatching. Lots and lots and lots of it. I've still got more swatching to do but I'm also working flat out on a secret project which is due next week and I'm starting to panic a little. Today I got to chart B and although it worked out perfectly on my swatch, now that I'd added several more reps, the chart didn't work out with my stitch count. I spent most of the morning trying to re-do it and failing miserably. I then turned my attention to a new pattern that Pixie is knitting for me. She's been waiting all week for the pattern. I couldn't find my original swatch (I need a new filing system for swatches, any ideas? I have hundreds of them and they're all over the place). I searched through my note book for the chart for the swatch and couldn't find the chart either. I know it's in there somewhere. So I ended up doing several swatches trying to work out from my photos of the swatch what the stitch pattern was. I got there in the end yesterday but it took hours of swatching in between other jobs. I then started on the pattern which has some unusual waist shaping. I finally worked that out, so now it remains to be seen if it works as I think it will.

Late this afternoon, I turned my attention to the lace chart again and eventually managed to work out a transition chart and a new chart. Each chart has about 48 rows so they're both big. My shawl has over 400 sts now and there is still lots more to go. This evening the knitting seems to have been going smoothly so I'm hoping my problems are over as far as this project is concerned.

I've done a shop update this week. I've been trying to get around to it all week. I've hardly touched e-mails all week either so I'll have fun this weekend trying to catch up on that.

Here's a few gems from this week's update which can be seen here.

Supreme Lace Toybox:

 Supreme Lace Fuschia:

 Bambino Sock Harvest:

 Bambino Sock Yummy - I was seriously considering keeping this one and there is every chance I may change my mind at any minute and take it out of the shop and into my stash.

 Bambino Sock Blue Jeans;

 Silky Merino Violet Dream:

 Silky Merino Vintage Rose:

 Silky Merino Auqarius:

 Bambion Sock Vintage Rose - another colourway I'm desperate to keep for myself. I really fancy a scarf in this colourway.

 Silky Camel Semi Precious:

Have a good wekeend. I'll be knitting and dyeing yarn, antoher job I've been putting off all week.

A men's design

I've got my first ever men's design, Colosseum, published in Yarn Forward and i have no pics of it. I couldn't get it modelled before I sent it off and it would not have looked good on my size 8/10 ladies dress form. I might have persuaded Simon to model it but I didn't try as I considered it very unlikely. So you will have to buy the mag to see it. It's a small pic of it on the front page.

It's knitted in a green Silk Blend and it was hte knit that was keeping me incredibly hot on the drive to and from Woolfest. I was on hte yoke (Pixie did up to the yoke and I took over from there). I did struggle to get it done on time and it's lovely to see it in the magazine. The stitch pattern is the same as for my Colosseum socks. Simon is quite choosy when it comes to his knitwear and he's just given his seal of approval.

I mentioned I didn't buy much at Iknit. I bought this book on crochet finishing techniques. It's a subject I felt i could do with some more info on as I'm just about to start designing my first crochet garment.

I also bought some gorgeous button from http://www.textilegarden.com/. I absolutely love them.

I could have spent a lot more than I did. I just bought a selection of different buttons in my favorite colours. the pic is not very good and the colours look much better in real life. I'm hoping eithero these may look good on a new machine knit cardi I'm planning:

I  dyed some yarn for it last week after swatching and deciding to use Bambino Sock. I nearly went for purple again but decided I fancied a blue cardigan. I dyed 3 skeins and decided the colour looked good so I mixed up the same blend again (and i'd written down what I'd used) and dyed another 3 skeins and they came out very different. It may not look too different here but they are in real life.

I could knit stripes but that will take longer so I dyed some new yarn today and got 6 skeins which, while still wet, looks like they're a pretty good match. I've got to finish the sleeves for Simon's sweater and then I can start on my cardigan. I've swatched for 3 machine designs for myself. This blue cardigan will be a basic stocking stithc cardigan with rib edgings and maybe a tuck lace shawl collar. I've not quite decided yet. I've got some cashmere 4ply which is slightly thick for the machine but I'm happy with my swatch and I've probably got enough yarn to knit a waist coat and i'm planning a silk tuck stitch cardigan.

Although I didn't buy any yarn at Iknit, I did make up for it today. I popped down to Trago mills (which is a huge shop where they sell everything and it's supposed to be cheap - not my favorite shop as the staff are generally useless, they suspect everyone of shoplifting and it's badly laid out - but i needed some bed linen and ink cartridges which are cheaper there. I popped into the small yarn department just to see what was there. It tends to be cheap and cheerful  yarn mainly. But recently they've been stocking Regia at £2.65 per ball which sounds like a bargain. I bought these two balls

and this afternoon I cast on for a pair of toe up socks for myself - I'm knitting two at a time. I may make these longer and keep knitting till I run out of yarn.

I'm just doing plain stocking stitch. A bit of  an impulse.

I've been very monogamous when it comes to knitting lately and worked solely on my secret lace project which I'm thouroughly enjoying. but last night I fell off the wagon after an e-mail from an editor from a magazine I've been desperate to get published in - yes you guessed it, it's an American mag. They're keen for me to submit something so I got swatching on a couple of ideas i have. The first swatch will be quite bit.

This mornign while waiting for Trago Mills to open (Iwas one of those sad people who turned up 15 mins before the shop opened, because i'd taken the girls for an early dentist' appointment and went straight to the shop afterwards) I did a few rows on my Carment shawl. And then at lunch time I cast on for those Regia socks. Tonight I should go to a meeting but I've been awake since 2.30am and up since 4.30 am. I woke up with a severe head ache and neck pain. So I may stay home tonight and try to do some more on my secret lace. I'm feeling guilty because I've not touched it today.

I have dyed some yarn though and all the lace club yarn is now dyed (most of it was dyed last week and is dry but I had to do another 6 skeins). It'll be posted tomorrow or Saturday. I started listing some yarns earlier but I won't have time to finish it. Will finish it tomorrow. And today's yarn will be listed as soon as it's dry. I had planned to dye lots more today but I ran out of citric acid and then forgot to stop and get some vinegar this morning. have now ordered some more citric acid which should be here tomorrow or Friday. I've got Fantasy Sock, Exotic Cobweb Lace, Super Merino Sock and some more Supreme Lace to dye, hopefully it'll all be done next week.

Now I'm going to hide those new socks and do some work on my secret lace.

Jewel

Just a quick post to introduce Jewel, published in the new Let's Knit issue 35. My copy arrived on thursday just before we left for London. I've not had time to read very much yet, but have flicked through it a few times and it's a great issue.

Jewel is knitted in the new Artesano superwash merino which is slightly thicker than regular dk but gorgeous and squishy to knit with. Perfect for the easy Crest of the wave lace pattern. The sweater is styled beautifully dressed up with a skirt and a low slung belt in the magazine but it could also be worn over a long-sleeved t-shirt and skinny jeans for a weekend look. the perfect layering piece for autumn and winter.

It looks so much better on the model in the mag than on my dress form though.

Enjoy!

IKnit Weekender and London

On Thursday we left for London for a family weekend. Friday morning at 7.30 am, after about 3 hours sleep (the bed was far too soft and the room too hot), I left the hotel in North London and got on the train and then the tube to get to Iknit Weekender. How do people cope with communting on the tube every day. One morning was enough for me. I had to stand nearly all the way and it was packed. I was rather stressed and hot by the time I arrived at Victoria. I then walked the short distance to the venue.

I taught 'Two at a time socks on circular needles) in the morning. The workshop was 3 hours and I had 15 knitters. They were all great and worked really hard. It was quite difficult for some of them as about half the class had never knitted socks before. The recommendation for this class was that people should have knitted at least one pair of socks before attending. I enjoyed the class but it was hard work. I like to give a lot of individual attention and with a lot of the techniques involved in sock knitting you have to show people close up. It's not easy to demonstrate to a full class. As a result I ran around like mad for most of the lesson and realised how unfit (and overweight) I really am.

I had just over an hour off in the middle of the day before my 3 hour intermediate lace knitting class in the afternoon. I had a quick lunch and then walked around to look at the stalls. There weren't as many stalls as I'd thought there would be but this was my first time at Iknit Weekender. All the stalls were great though. I was tempted by so much delicious yarn but I decided to be good as I really do not need more yarn. I did buy a crochet book and some gorgeous buttons. I'll take pics of them when I've unpacked my suitcase.

I headed back to my class room early to relax and prepare for my lace class which was fantasic. I had 10 knitters, 3 of whom I'd met at Woolfest in June, and they were all very good knitters and everyone kept up really well. We knitted a small lace swatch based on my Strawberry Patch Stole and then practiced working the knitted on border. It was a much more relaxing class and I actually managed to sit down for most of it.

I failed at taking pics. The only one I took was this one of my empty lace class room (before the class started):

Afterwards, I walked to Westminster Abbey to meet Simon and the girls who had spent the day at the Natural History Museum and the British Museum. Although it was only a short walk, I was in so much pain (in my back/neck) by the time i got there. We decided to try and find a Pizza Express restaurant we went to a few years ago somewhere along the river. We knew roughly were it was and walked along the Southbank for what seemed like ages. We were all tired and hungry and i was in a lot of pain so in the end we gave up and went to the Gourmet Pizza Company instead and had lovely pizzas. We headed back on the tube to the railway station to catch our train back ot the hotel. Unfortunately the train pulled away from teh platform just as we got there. We had to wait a whole hour for the next train. It was gone 10pm by the time we got back to the hote. I fell straight into bed.

On Saturday, after a all you can eat Premier breakfast (we stayed at a Premier Inn and the breakfasts were fantastic), we headed back into London. Vanessa and I headed to Harrods while Emily and Simon went to a book shop on Picadillly. We had great fun walking around Harrods and laughing at all hte OTT stuff there. The Pet Kingdon department especially gave us a good laugh. The clothes they sell for dogs is unbelievable. I can't believe that people actually buy that kind of stuff for their dogs and at designer prices. they had a dog treat stall selling cakes, pup cakes and other treats for dogs. They really did look good enough to eat. I bought our dog, Sam, a chew bone.

We also visited the musical instruments department where we listened to two staff playing on the grand pianos. It sounded fantasic. We also walked through the food halls. Wow! So much gorgeous food. As we both love ice cream we couldn't resist this (which we shared as it was HUGE):

And look at these cakes:

We also walked past Harvey Nichols but didn't go in. We spent a long time looking at the window displays though:

                                                        thousands of pencils

                                                                     a dress made out of wooden pegs

a car decorated with race horses.          

Aren't they amazing?

Afterwards, we went to meet Simon and Emily and headed to the National Gallery and Trafalgar Square.  I looked at Van Gough's sunflower painting and then found a seat to relax in while Simon and hte girls looked around. I'm not the arty type and I was so tired and in pain again. I actually dozed off for a bit and I wasn't the only one. The sofa I sat on was full of people leaning against the wall and snoozing.

We then walked up to China Town for an early evening meal at a Chinese restaurant which was quite nice. We decided to head back to the hote earlier that night.

On Sunday we went in to London for the final time to attend a service at Holy Trinity Brompton. Simon and i have wanted to go there for a long time. And it was a fantastic service, the worship music was great and Nicky Gumpbell was preaching. He is the founder of the Alpha course which both Simon and I attended when we became Christians.

Emily was really keen to see the pet department at Harrods and as Harrods was only a few hundreds meters up the road from the church we walked up there for another walk around the Pet Kingdom. We also looked at the Mineral Gallery and the Foold Halls again. The girls also wanted to see Buckingham Palace so we stopped there for a few mins. We got back to the hotel to collect our car much later than planned and got home very late last night.

I did do a little bit of knitting but nowhere near as much as i'd planned. I occasionally took out my knitting when we had breaks during the day and on the tube/train. I spent most of the time working on my Carment shawl and it's getting bigger, although it doen'st look like it's growing.

 i'm keen to finish this soon.

I had taken the yarn, pattern and needles for a new project to start but I never had time or energy to get onto it. I finally started this morning and then realised I'd made a mistake and had to re-start it again. Once I got going, progress was quick. I'm loving this project and I could have easily spent all day knitting. I did treat myself to a bit of knitting time this morning before I got down to do some work. I've got 3 patterns to finish that should have been finished last week. I've nearly finished one and hte others are half-done.

Most of the club yarn was dyed last week but it's still not completely dry. I'll be dyeing the rest tomorrow and it'll be posted as soon as it's dry. Sock club parcels were posted before we left on Thurday and I forgot to take photos... again!

Now, i'm going to watch a Sandra Bullock movie, 28 days, and do some more knitting.

Nite x

New Design

I can now reveal one of the new designs I've been working on this summer. I did most of this in Spain. It's a rectangular lace shawl for the Little Knitting Company in their gorgeous Superfine Kid Mohair Lace.

 The shawl starts with a provisional cast on and the centre panel features a diamond eyelet pattern. The end borders are knitted on sideways at the end and attached to live sts. I really enjoyed knitting this piece. I was worried mohair would be hot to knit with in Spain but in the air conditioning inside and on the balcony in the early mornings and evenings it was fine. I had a few repeats to do when we got home and spreading the shawl  over my legs while I was knitting it helped me keep warm while I was adjusting to the cooler temperatures at home.

You can find the kit listed here. this shawl is incredibly light and cozy. And I loved the mohair. i'm not a huge mohair fan but this yarn shed much less than most mohair yarns i've knitted with.

I've done another design for The Little Knitting Company too, which was on show at Knit Nation but I don't have any photos of it yet.

The preview for the next Yarn Forward is up too. I've got the Colosseum mens raglan design in this issue. It's worked in one piece with raglan shaping in Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend. Pixie started it but the stitch pattern was causing her some pain so I took over and did the yoke. this was the project I was knitting on on the way to Woolfest and in the hotel in the evenings. It was quite big by hten and the yarn is very warm so it was hot having it on my lap when we were driving home from Woolfest. I was quite relieved to get it off theneedles but it's the perfect knit for colder evenings. The stitch pattenr is the same as on my Colosseum socks.

We've had a lovely afternoon out in the Truro/Falmouth area. Simon's parents are styaing at campsite down there this week so we went down to visit them. We sat ouside the caravan,  i was knitting, in the sunshine for a while and then walked the dogs at Trelissick Gardens. Beautiful area and I forgot my camera. I did get quite a bit of knitting done though.

What a week!

It's been a week that's not quite gone to plan. On Monday I had a phone call from one of my knitters who was knitting up a garment that was due on Tuesday. I'd already e-mailed the editor to say the yarn would be a couple of days late. Debbie was halfway through the yoke of an all in one sweater and had run our of yarn. Panic! She sent the sweater back to me and I got it on Wednesday.  After a look at it and a lot of thinking trying to work out the best way to tackle this, I decided to undo the ribs and make them shorter which would hopefully give me enough yarn to finish the yoke. I stayed up late knitting on Wednesday and knitted like mad on Thursday and finished it at 4pm and put it straight in the post. Debbie's knitting was fantastic and I felt awful undoing her beautiful ribs. But the final result was beautiful. Can't wait to see it in the magazine.

I've also done some swatching for new designs this week. This is one of the diffiult things I find about designing. When you have one deadline after the other, trying to find time to swatch and sketch for new designs can be a problem. And I quite often need time to think about it and swatch quite a lot. One idea leads to another and things evolve. I did end up with 3 swatches to send off to an editor. There are several magazines with deadlines for their sping/summer issues over the nex few weeks so lots more swatching to come.

One swatch I can show you is this one:

It's a swatch for a new easy lace scarf pattern.

I love this stitch pattern and have used it before. This is the centre of the scarf and I'm thinking I may have to find somethign else to go alongside it on each side. It's on hold for a couple of days. I'm hoping this may be my easy to knit project for London next weekend.

I've been trying to get around to doing a small yarn update this week and finally tonight it's up. You can see it here. These are my favorites:

Merino Plus Forgetmenot

Merino Plus Fruit Harvest

I love this silvery green/blue colourway of Ocean Silk. One of the skeins has a tiny bit of copper on it and I felt that was enough for it to fail quality control and it needed to stay with me. I'm tempted to keep both and do a shawl with it. But I'm only keeping one. But if noone busy the other one, I may keep it too.

Antoher one I'm tempted to keep is this 'posh' colourway. I love it! Another shawl maybe?

I'm keeping one of these as one skein is really tangled. So if I can untangle it, it's mine.

Today I've been working on finishing off a cardigan. I've been procrastinating a bit while i've been deciding on fastenings. i've been looking for buttons and can't find the right ones so need to think up something else for tomorrow morning. It has to be finished tomorrow to go in the post. Then its back to my favorite secret project in THAT gorgeous gold yarn. I'm about halfway through and i'd like to finish it before I go to London.

I'm also planning some yarn dyeing this weekend. And next week, the autumn workshop term starts. To see what I'm up to this autum, look here. Simon and the girls have gone to one of our local theatres (Sterts) to see Peter Pan. I've felt a bit rough today. Took girls to Plymouth to buy school shoes. Felt really ill and struggled to drive home. Fell  asleep when I got home and feel a bit better now but an early night would be nice.

have a nice weekend x