Happy Birthday to Me !

Well today is my Birthday and I have had the most wonderful day - I'm 36 for any that are wondering ! Nearer 40 than 30 now - scary times !

James, Jacob and I went to London Zoo for the day and we had a superb day - we had lunch, saw all the animals and ate ice cream - Jacob had three changes of top - which always signifys a good day to me !

So, here is Jacob and I at the Zoo


Me and my boy at London Zoo

That is a London Zoo t-shirt that we HAD to buy him, because he had wrecked his other two !! It's lovely though and he wanted to wear it to bed - I managed to persuade him that if he took it off he could wear it to nursery tomorrow to show his friends - that did the trick !

Here is Jacob with his Daddy at the Zoo


Jacob and Daddy

And yes - that is a giant ball of dung and two dung beatles they are standing next to - that was just before we went into the bugs house - where I managed to look at everything except the cockroaches - I hate those things - I lived in a flat in Hong Kond that was infested with them - you had to sleep with the light on or they crawled all over you in the night - god it was awful - suffice it to say, it traumatised me and now I can't even look at them without feeling ill - I managed all the spiders though ! I'm so tough !

And here - just because I love them - is a gratuitous photo of a penguin - they are the best !


I love penguins !

On the present front I was very lucky indeed. My SP sent me a lovely present - a ball of Opal sock yarn, so that I can have a go at knitting myself a pair of socks - thanks so much SP - what a lovely present - I'll dig out those DPN's and give it a real go !


From my lovely Secret Pal

My hubby bought me a CD (James Blunt) which I have been wanting for ages, as well as a fabulous knitting bag from here. It's fantastically retro and I used it to take my knitting in the car for the journey to the Zoo - I love it.


From my gorgeous hubby

I've been wanting a cool knitting bag for a while and this definately fits the bill - I'll be proud to take this everywhere with me.

He also got me nearly 800 gms of silk from Hip Knits in the Surf colourway. I just don't know what to say about this yarn - it is just beautiful and I can't wait to start using it - thank you so much to Kerrie for all the help you gave the DH - he's a bit of a novice yarn purchaser, but I'll get him into it yet I will !! I'll draw him into my addiction.

So here it is, in all it's glory.


Just how beautiful can yarn be ?

I'm thinking of doing either a Clapotis with this, or the short sleeve top with criss cross fronts from Vogue Knitting Spring/Summer 2005. I'm too overwhelmed to decide at the moment.

My Mum and Dad bought me a copy of the Knitware programme - which I have already had a play around with this morning and I can't wait to do something properly on it. How fabulous is that !? My sister hasn't bought me anything yet and said she didn't know what I wanted - I think I'm going to ask for one of the Noro pattern books, so that I can do something fabulous with the Silk Garden my SP gave me I really fancy Lizzy - I know I'll have to get some more yarn - but it will so be worth it to make something so gorgeous.

So that is my Birthday in a nutshell - a wondeful day and wonderful presents - and I don't have to cook dinner which is the best thing ever !

Oh I forgot to say that - whilst still struggling with Manhattan I have now started a little cardy for my Jacob - it's George from Jaeger's Baby Knits and I'm doing it in some Sirdar Snuggly DK in colour 222 Surf (what a coincidence !) - I had bought some a while ago to do Jacob a cardy and never got around to it and I thought George would look rather good in it. It's not a fab yarn - it doesn't wear particularly well, but it will be a nice late summer early autumn cardy for him. Unfortunately Jacob has decided that he just must have the Big Digger Sweater from Lucinda Guy's book. However this is knitted in Cotton Glace - which is really not that appropriate for winter - so should I substitute the yarn or just make something similar up using my software - if I were to substitute Cotton Glace - would anyone have any ideas what I could use instead ? Would it be similar to Wool Cotton - or is it thinner than that - I can of course look into this myself, but any thoughts would be greatfully received.

Anyway I've waffled on for long enough - I'm off to knit and enjoy my birthday evening.