Yarning Along: Coffee and cake

There's a theme to this week's Yarning Along, and that theme is coffee and cake.

I'm writing this post in a cafe while I wait for the garage to finish with my car (it's having something replaced under warranty), and making the most of a couple of hours peace, relaxing with a coffee (black, no sugar, thank you) and the latest issue of The Simple Things magazine, which is always lovely (and I am clearly the target demographic as there are often adverts for yarn shops in there, even though it's not a yarn magazine). Some knitting may also happen, or not, I'll see where the mood takes me!

This weekend I spent a lovely evening at Lucy Locket Land for her Macmillan Coffee Morning, which was actually a 12 hour knitathon with coffee, cake and a grand raffle. The evening was perfect, with excellent company, raffle excitement (I didn't win anything), and I picked up a beautiful sock blank in shades of pink and purple that will one day become socks, but for now can be admired, or, at a push, used as a scarf!

The beautiful prize table at Lucy Locket Land

October is officially Socktober for all the social-media-knitters out there, and while I am focusing on commissions this month, I hope to get a couple of pairs off the needles. The Pairfect socks from last week have made a little progress, and I have some Halloween-striped yarn waiting to be knitted up.

Halloween self-striping yarn from Strawberry Fields Yarn

I have now finished reading Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and while I found the ending pretty much perfect, the book as a whole felt a bit predictable and I did find myself getting bored in places as not much happened. But it was nicely written, and I got through it quite quickly, which I think marks it as a reasonable read. I've moved on to Autumn by Ali Smith, which I selected purely because it's been nominated for The Man Booker Prize (one year I managed to read the whole shortlist before the winner was announced!). I am finding the writing style tricky in places - it is very literary - but the plot and characters are intriguing enough that I am persevering. 

What are you reading and knitting this week? As ever, I'm linking up with Rachel for Yarning Along - head to her blog to see what other people are reading and crafting.

A week in the life: 19th March 2017

This week I have mostly been... a bit poorly. Nothing major, 'just' a sore throat, but enough that I've been going to bed a couple of hours earlier than planned, and getting up as late as I can get away with. And as a result the days have been shorter and I feel like I haven't got a huge amount done. Not nothing though, here's what I have achieved!

Working in a sunny spot

There has been sunshine! And while I did have work to do so couldn't go out and revel in it too much (it's still not warm, in spite of the sunshine), I did manage to find a sunny corner to do some work in one morning this week, which was lovely. I also treated myself to some new pens; my favourites are cheap Bic biros, and I was delighted to find a pack containing pink, purple, green and blue ones. No more notes in boring colours for me!

Pink socks and A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Second

My pink socks have been on and off the needles several times, but I think this time they are right. I'm now knitting them one at a time as knitting two at a time was affecting my gauge. The colour is wonderfully uplifting, but this is as much progress as I've made on these socks this week as I haven't finished writing the pattern, so some rounds require more brain power than my brain has seemed capable of this week. I really hope to finish the pair next week.

I am on to the second book in the A Series of Unfortunate Events series, and while I'm enjoying them I am not getting through them as fast as I thought I might. This may be a rare occasion when I liked the film (TV series) better than the book. The TV series is more fleshed out, while the book is very much the bare bones. I will read them all, but might be on a bit of break as soon as I've finished the second.

Swatcher's block. Cake cures everything, right?

Thursday was when my throat was at its worst, so while I tried to do some work at home - swatching - it just wasn't working. I decided to call it a day and went for a walk instead. As is often the case, a bit of fresh air made a huge difference, and I sat in a coffee shop for a bit knitting a swatch that did what I wanted it to, while eating a delicious bakewell tart.

Hot cross buns are always a winner

I know hot cross buns are available all year, but I only ever buy them around Easter. They're one of my favourite breakfast foods, especially when toasted. I'm sure I'll be enjoying plenty more of these over the next few weeks. At home when I was little we used to make hot cross  every Good Friday, and I think I might reinstate that tradition this year; nothing smells better than freshly baked bread.

Splish splash!

The weather this week has been a bit of a mish-mash, but my youngest was delighted when our walk to the shops on Saturday involved a fair portion of muddy puddles to splash in! These wellies have been a delight, and get many admirers while we're out and about; this weekend was their final outing as they're getting rather snug. We bought some new Paw Patrol ones, but they're just not as good.

Anyone for lemon cake(s)?

We had guests yesterday, so I picked up some cake while I was at the shops. Apparently I had lemons on my mind as there was definitely a theme! The lemon fondant fancies are my favourites and I always make sure I pick up at least one box while they're available. I am still baffled as to why Mr Kipling don't have three lemon ones in a regular box; the strawberry ones are just weird!

Homemade lemon drizzle cake

The lemons became a lemon drizzle cake, which is one of my favourites. I always use the recipe from Gorgeous Cakes by Annie Bell (I've just looked it up and it might be out of print. Boo.). I know several of my friends have bought copies on my recommendation, and I haven't had any complaints yet...

Monogamous knitting makes things grow faster, apparently

Yesterday I decided to work solely on my Sockmatician Sockalong socks as I want to get them off the needles. I went from the toe to the heel yesterday; apparently working on one item at a time means you actually feel like you're achieving something. Maybe I should do that more often!

What have you been up to this week?