Simplicity ... is what I am aiming for
The Secret Pal 14 exchange came to an end on September 30th.This is not the best picture, but here is my final parcel from Heather , which I picked up a couple of weeks ago.
As usual it took me ages to be at home with enough daylight to take a picture.
(Now I see it on the screen it looks rather too dark.)
What I can tell you, is that once again Heather came up trumps for me.
She excelled herself with this parcel, sending me Noro Silk Garden sock yarn, Black Eyed Susan seeds for the garden, the "Simplicity" soap of my title and the most perfect purple "Velvet bilberry" Jitterbug sock yarn.
She must know just how much I need to simplify my life, maybe using this soap will have the required effect!
While my parcel was languishing in our local sorting office I was at Ally Pally for the Knitting and Stitching show.
I stopped and looked at the Jitterbug yarn, and decided against buying it then.
Somehow this seems most apt.
The UKHKA stand is now called "Knit1 - pass it on".
We had a good day in a quieter position than in previous years.
Not so many school and college groups found us, maybe fewer were visiting.
As a result it was easier to teach those who did find us.
I even managed to demystify cabling for one knitter.
Meanwhile, Keila has been my downstream pal in SP14.
Throughout the exchange I found it hard not to let on to my identity, and had the utmost fun spoiling her.
Labels: Ally Pally, Knit1 - pass it on, knitting, Secret Pal 14, socks
posted by m at 5:27 PM
0 comments
But as you see here, the garden and yarn pull equally.
There is a bucket of reconstituted porcelain ready for me to play with. These were made about the time I started blogging when I had so much more time to myself.
And here we have: a fantastic project bag in bright colours, just my style!
I also visited Lincoln for the displays and trade fair at the end of the 
And now for the creative bit in the garden. A while ago I found some old carrot seed and planted it in modules in the greenhouse. I have been rather lazy about keeping it watered and yet it survived. For about a week it has needed to be moved on. We never seem to get on well with carrots as our soil is full of gravel from the River Trent in whose floodplain we live. These carrots having survived my general neglect have now had lots of care lavished on them. I found some mature compost and assiduously sieved out all the stones and bits of branches. 
This has then had more compost and sand mixed in with it, and been put in a growing bag that held early potatoes until last month. Tonight they have perked up, so we may yet get a decent crop.
This pot has just developed by serendipity. Originally it held some golden hops and nasturtiums. Several years on it has self-seeded plants some of which I cannot yet identify. But as they all work well together it hasn't been disturbed. We frequently find plants creeping in, possibly brought in by birds. Only the fern in this pot has its parentage in our garden. We are still waiting to see what the other shrubs turn out to be.
and came across these other flowers, some of which were a complete surprise. We have plenty of grasses scattered wherever they feel like growing:
We have no memory of planting gladioli, so this was unexpected. It is really a magenta/purple colour. My phone has given it a much bluer tinge, and I was too lazy to go into the house to fetch a camera..
I haven't looked this up in gardening books, so can't tell what it is. I know that I planted it about 3 years ago, it disappeared, and has now decided to make its presence known.
This hollyhock comes from seed given to us by Sylvi from her garden in the Czech Republic. 
