Dorking

While in Dorking yesterday, I did manage to take a few photos. We park in a car park behind this church and then walk up past the church, through the little passage to the High Street. Looking back yesterday the sky was so blue! A lovely crisp clear day but sleet was predicted for later in the afternoon.

The walls of St Martins church and the steeple/clock tower are made of flint (or is it covered with flint?). There are a few flint covered buildings so I presume, not knowing much about the geography of the area, it must be or have been locally sourced.

Dorking High Street. The Quilt Room is further down on the right hand side. There are some different shops in Dorking and one of the ones I enjoyed looking in the last time I went was a cookery shop which seemed to stock everything you could possibly want.

Walking back to the car park we pass this street with nicely kept houses, which are just one road down from the High Street.

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Today I cut out the squares for the quilt and laid them out to get an idea of what the completed quilt would look like. I don't think the colours in the photo are quite right but it gives you the basic idea. Now I'm looking forward to sewing it all together! I always think cutting it out is the worst part and after that it comes together fairly quickly. I hope to have this finished by the end of the week.xx

Fun day :)

This morning before feeding the kittens I opened the door to let them go out for a little while (trying to get them used to the garden). Mac ventured out as far as the flower bed and had a sniff around. Bellatrix wasn't keen to go out and decided to stay in the kitchen.

It wasn't too long before Mac decided it was much warmer inside and headed back indoors.

I can't say I blame him, this was the ice on the table outside and the temperature on my computer was showing -3C.

Emily and I left home around 9am and headed out to The Quilt Room in Dorking. I have a quilt to make and needed to find some suitable material. What do you think of this little selection? The Quilt Room have moved premises and (I may be wrong) the new shop feels smaller than the previous one and the selection likewise, wasn't as good as the last time we went. However, that said, I think this quilt could be very cute when it's finished. Will keep you posted.

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Our next stop was St Marcus Fine Foods in Redhill which is a South African shop. We'd run out of curry powder and nearly out of peanut butter and, seeing as Redhill isn't that far from Dorking, I decided to kill two birds with one stone this morning. When we got there the first thing we noticed when we opened our doors was the smell of boerewors (which translated means farmer's sausage) cooking on the braai (barbecue). They were making and selling boerewors rolls but we didn't buy because we were getting boerewors for ourselves anyway and that's going to be dinner tonight. Needless to say we found a few other bits and pieces while we were there too ;o) -South African shops always bring back memories. (And I forgot to take photos!)

We got home just after 1pm and left again just before 2 to meet my friend Pam for a coffee at Neros. Pam had been at the same coffee morning as me on Thursday but we didn't get a chance to chat, so arranged to meet today as well :o). Emily came too and had a hot chocolate with cream and a chocolate cupcake. They looked yummy so I had to take a photo; mine didn't look as good. Now after that quick summary, time for me to go and start cooking said boerewors.

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Enjoy your evening/weekend

xx

PS I also ended up buying some more wool because I really enjoyed knitting the last little cardigan and can think of at least two more I could make.

Friday again!

I had said we were going to have a quiet day today and that's exactly what we did. We stayed at home most of the day, Emily made a start on some school work to be handed in in March and I got on with my knitting (as well as doing housework, washing, etc.) The little cardigan I started yesterday is now virtually finished, just the sleeves to sew up and a button to sew on. I also need to give it a light press then I'm done! It was fun to knit and I couldn't get over how quickly it came together. The little album and photo frame arrived in the post today from Ruth. Each Saturday Ruth has a Pink Saturday give away on her blog "Everyday Life of a Suburban SAHM" and the names of people who left comments go in the draw. I always tend to leave a comment but have never expected to win. Last week I did win :) and this was my prize. Thank you Ruth, they are lovely! xx

Busy knitting

This morning I met up for coffee with friends and popped across the road to have a look at the wool. I had been thinking of crocheting a granny blanket but the wool I liked was £4.50 per 50g ball. I can't afford that at the moment so decided to see what knitting patterns they had. I found one I liked and loved this green baby wool. I got started this afternoon (while watching some ER) and have continued this evening

You can see a peek of the pattern here and the sleeves. This pattern is different to any I've made before in that you knit the sleeves to the armhole cast off stage and then put them on a holder. I'm now knitting the body of the cardigan all in one piece and the sleeves get added in at the appropriate place and then you shape the raglan all in one go. Not quite sure how it works but will find out soon enough :) Thanks Jane for getting me started on knitting again and Ruth for getting me watching ER. I'm thoroughly enjoying both at the moment :)

Emily also thought about starting her scarf again. She wasn't happy with her current one because the edges weren't neat. I started a knitted one for her but she doesn't know if she wants to carry on with that or whether she wants to go back to crocheting (hence both crochet hook and knitting needles are out). I think this afternoon reading her book won out instead!

And finally, a couple of days ago I walked in to the kitchen and saw this reflection on the ceiling. It looks like a crystal heart - had to grab my camera and get a photo.

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Looking forward to a quiet day tomorrow :)

xx