Innocent hats 2011

I posted my hats for the Innocent appeal The Big Knit today which every year raises money for the elderly in the UK.
Some of the hats are amazing and people have made some truly outstanding designs including the British Olympic Team 2012 , boogley-eyed animals and a unicorn . The unicorn pattern is available as a pdf, and it's lovely to think that there could be dozens of unicorn across the UK in November!
I did use one pattern from the site: the pumpkin is a pattern by Juliet Bernard, and it is well written and very effective too. Then again, as she's the ed. of The Knitter magazine it should be! The angel is an adaptation of an angel tree decoration from Lets Knit Iss 47 ( Xmas booklet), the others are just adapted from the basic hat pattern on the Innocent site.
I'll be keeping my eyes peeled to see if I can spot any hats in the wild in Boots or Sainsburys in November.

snow joke! - Madeira jaunt pt 1

we set off for Glasgow on Sunday 5th and planned on staying overnight at the Holiday Inn before catching our flight at 8.45 am on Mon 6th. David's secretary Jean had given us this tip (thank you Jean!) as driving to Glasgow at any time can be a bit of a slog, and even more so when you have get up at stupid o'clock to get there. The roads were reasonably good at this stage, as Glasgow had had less snow than Edinburgh and the Lothians.

We got the car into the long stay car park, had a beer in the hotel bar and settled down for the night. I managed to get a bit more of the seams done on Karin while watching Any Human Heart on tv. Jim Broadbent is excellent in this.

On Monday a.m. we had breakfast in the airport , and boarded our plane just as the rain started to to look like snow. Heavy snow. At 8.45 a.m the tug pushed our plane back ready to taxi to the runway and then we stopped. The sudden blizzard had closed the runway and the pilot had to return us to the docking bay.
Oh well, a minor delay we thought. The cabin staff gave everyone coffee.

At 10.00 am, still at the docking bay the cabin staff gave us breakfast and the Captain said they were expecting a gap in the blizzard to allow the runway to be cleared and reopened.

At 11.40 am we were all sent back into the terminal as the flight was delayed till 2pm and the Capt thought it would be good if we stretched our legs. Long airport corridors are good for yomping along and getting the blood circulating!

At 2pm we re-boarded the plane and watched with interest as the ground crew de-iced the plane. At 3.30 the Capt prepared to be pushed out by the tug again and we watched the plane next to us begin to taxi to the runway where it stopped. The light levels were falling and only the central landing lights were visible (the side lights were still covered with snow) so any flight covered by BAA rules was not able to take off. At 6pm we got off the plane again. (but we had to leave our luggage in the hold, so I couldn't make any further progress on Karin)

Thompson, our holiday company, were going to put us up for the night in a hotel in Glasgow, but the blizzard conditions in the area had caused parts of the M8 and A80 to be closed and buses and drivers were in short supply. At 9.50pm a bus finally came for us, and we went to the hotel. Another beer and D and I crashed out in a warm and thankfully comfortable bed. We found out later that some companies did not take their passengers to hotels and the passengers had to camp out in the terminal. They had to rely on the Red Cross to issue them with blankets! (that is shocking on two counts, 1. Thomas Cook passengers weren't looked after very well  and 2. The Red Cross has to help? Glasgow Airport doesn't?? BAA doesn't??)

Tuesday morning we enjoyed a tasty cooked breakfast at the Swallow Hotel then waited for the buses to take us back to the airport. Originally we had been told the buses would be there at 7.30, but of course traffic problems and staffing problems meant that the buses didn't reach us till 9 a.m.

Back at the airport, we were at our departure gate at 10 am, looking at our snow covered plane and guessing that we wouldn't be leaving anytime soon. We were right! So, time to yomp around the airport again for a couple of hours. Who needs a gym?
It was a shame that my knitting and crochet projects were in our luggage as I could have put the time to good use! I did manage to spot some more Innocent hats though and got myself one shaped like a pineapple. I think I'll have to be a little more inventive with the Innocent hats next year.

At 12.39 we were back on the plane, watching the ground crew de-ice the wings again and only waiting for the luggage of the people who had decided not to continue with the flight be removed from the hold. Finally at 2.11 we took off. Huzzah!!

Off to the sun and away from the snow!

Little Ralph



Little Ralph and Innocent hat



the stripey beanie, Little Ralph, is finished and now I've cast on Ralphette, a more feminine version in that the stripes are pink rather than custard yellow.

The Ralph pattern from Sirdar is so straightforward to make, and works well in most dk yarns, I think I'll use this for a lot of my charity hats.

The Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes are nearly full- we put in jotters, pencils, pens, toiletries (no liquids), toys sweets (no chocolate) and a woolly hat or scarf or gloves. They get sent away this weekend so anyone wanting to contribute anything- e.g. a handknitted hat or scarf get in touch in September 2011 for next year's boxes, or you can make a donation to cover distribution costs at Operation Christmas Child.

While I was out shopping today I saw some of the Innocent smoothies with their hats. I bought two, but Jen has run off with the pink/purple one as her phone felt a bit chilly! It was lovely to see the hats in the wild. I would have taken a photo but I'd forgotten my phone, sorry.

10 for 2010



ten totsy hats

 I thought I'd missed the deadline for the Innocent - the big knit appeal, but it has been extended to Oct 29th, so I've spent a little time, yesterday and today, to make ten little toppers for the smoothie bottles.

It's a brilliant way to use up all those little oddments of yarn and it raises funds for Age UK, keeping our old folks warm through the winter.

I've done stripes, pompoms, used beads, buttons and stranded colourwork this year- one hat even has 2010 on it. Some people get very inventive with their designs and the website has some fab Hallowe'en hats on this week.

My SIL does research into Care of the Elderly care and has received grants from Age UK to fund her research & development of nurse training (to improve quality of care) and I think it's tremendous that these little hats can do so much.

I also keep the Innocent fridge magnets from the juice boxes to mark my place on charts, not needed for these little beauties, but essential for complex sock patterns. Innocent smoothies help me to keep healthy and to keep my place, and together we help our dear old folk, who should be cared for when they are frail.

I'd better up my game and work on some fancier designs for next year. Vampire juice? whatever next!

ooh pretty!

I've spent several hours yesterday and today harassing the weeds in my garden. I don't have an enormous garden, thankfully, but the combination of a weeks holiday and two weeks of wet weather has meant that the weeds have been partying like its 1999, or even 2010.

I have a large plastic sack (about 50cm by 50cm) which I drag around as I tackle the weeds and I filled it completely with convolvulus TWICE ! That stuff gets everywhere! The flowers are pretty, but not when they are strangling my carnations!

On the train back from London on monday I was reading Red magazine, in particular an article on gardening which suggested a more relaxed approach to gardening- little and often and deadhead the roses while sipping some chardonnay! I couldn't have had any wine, no matter how nice, while I fought the bindweed. I'll stick to a nice mug of tea- when the weather's warm I like Lady Grey, when the weather is hopeful of being warm I like Earl Grey, and when there's no chance of the dark clouds shifting I need a mug of strong coffee! I'll keep the wine chilling for when I down tools!

I've been making some progress on the Angee socks. The Manic Purl podcast gave out a tip a while ago about using a cookie sheet to hold lace charts, so I fished out the least used baking sheet and held down the patterns with some fridge magnets from Innocent drinks  (which reminds me, I must make some hats for this years Help the Aged /Innocent bottles appeal)-  I can balance the sheet on my lap while I'm sat out in the garden sipping my tea and taking a break from the bindweed. Thank you Manic Purl!

There's also a magnet from Green Eyed Monsters which makes the prettiest hand dyed sock yarn, and if you look carfeully you might see that the stitch marker is a LEGO head- it's Indiana Jones's Dad! I bought a couple of these at IKnit London, I think they're great fun, small LEGO pieces turned into stitch markers.

Today I've planted some pretty flowers to take my mind off the convolvulus- pelargoniums, mini-dahlias, dianthus, lilies and a bronze fennel.

As I put the flowers down to take a photo a bumble bee flung itself into the centre of one of the mini dahlias and stayed there for nearly an hour. I think it approved of my choice!

Innocent fun

I've been knitting little hats for Innocent smoothie bottles for the Big Knit project.

These are sold and 50p for each bottle with a hat goes to Age Concern to raise much needed funds for the elderly .




The hats are great fun to knit , are a great stashbuster and a good way for me to try out different techniques such as intarsia and fairisle.

I'm sure the bottles will look fantastic when they are displayed for sale in Sainsbury's supermarkets from 5 th Nov.


While I've been knitting my wee hats I've been listening to The Traveller by John Twelve Hawks which is a really gripping modern scifi/fantasy fiction.

London - 1431 days to go

it's been fantastic watching the Olympics, wonderful seeing British athletes compete and be successful and a refreshing change to see the Uk media ( print & screen) be positive instead of cynical and sarcastic.

It will be amazing when the Olympics are held in Britain and I'm determined to see something. There are bound to be some events in Glasgow/ Edinburgh , the cycling in Manchester and the sailing in Weymouth. I might even enter the knitting Olympics myself!! ( although I have little hope of getting a gold like Erin!)

I've started knitting teeny hats for Innocent smoothies as a fun-draiser for Help the Aged. These totsy wee hats are addictive!