Friday Smiles 2022: Week 3

Hello again. Thank you for joining me. I have  very little news to share with you but it has been a pleasant week with plenty of sunshine and not quite such low temperatures as last week (which incidently were the lowest recorded for that week, breaking last year's record cold). I have, however added another layer of jumpers as it is still chilly unless you are in direct sunlight and out of the wind. 

When I let the dogs out on Wednesday morning the sky was cut in half by a dead straight line of cloud. I took this photo over the garden wall, as I thought it represented our weather lately, half sunny, half clouds and rain. Fortunately the clouds gave way and we had a sunny morning.

It has been a week for getting a few things done at home. I spent one morning rearranging the garage which in fact is not used for the car, but is a general storage area. It gets pretty messy at times, but once Chris had helped me store the Christmas decorations away in the highest cupboard, I was able to move around and get things back in their proper places so it is safer to walk around now. That makes me happy.

I also partly sorted the freezer - still a bit to do there -  and this morning Chris helped me really clean the ceramic hob. I do keep it clean but residue still builds up on it, and Chris's hand's work better than mine and he did a much better job than I can.

I cooked pigs cheeks for our dinner one day. It is not something you see in the shops in UK very often, but they are popular here served either as a tapa or a main course and are called Carrilladas. They are slow cooked for a couple of hours and are the tenderest meat I know. I also baked bread, but my kitchen was too cold for it to rise properly so I stood it on top of the oven while I cooked our lunch and that woke it up!

I have also done quite a lot of crafting. I have been working on a fairly complex cutting file for a birthday card I need soon.It's not finished yet but I can't show it yet anyway.

Something else I achieved that has needed doing for a long time, is to revamp my wall clock. I made this a good few years ago and I renewed the photos when we had the room decorated and I had to make the script again. (It is vinyl cut on my Silhouette machine). The clock mechanism was bought online, from America I think, and it keeps very good time. However the family is ever growing, and the grandchildren change so fast, so it was hard to fit everyone in this time. But I am happy with the results for now.

As we tend to settle down a bit earlier on chilly evenings, I have also done quite a lot of crochet. My main project is a good three-quarters done so I am hoping to finish it soon. But it is heavy to hold so I only do a couple of rows each day. In between I work on my Celtic tiles for Chris' blanket, and I also have another little project on my hook. 

Now it is harder for me to source my favourite yarn that I used to order from UK, (now priced out by high import duties), I have started using a lot by a company called Scheepjes which I can buy from a Spanish shop. Just before Christmas they issued a mystery box called Crimbo Limbo, that contained a simple project to occupy people during the lull between Christmas and New Year. It contained a pattern for a shawl and the yarn to make it. It was a limited edition and proved to be very popular. A lot of people were disappointed when they couldn't find one in stock anywhere. 

I was only prepared to buy one if the Spanish shop had it, but when I enquired, they had sold out within hours of putting it on their site. However, they put my name on the  waiting list in case they were able to get further supplies, and just a few days before Christmas, one arrived by courier. We were asked not to open them until Christmas Day so as not to spoil the surprise for everyone.

The main yarn is one of the colour changing whirls in shades of green, made especially for the project and not available to buy from the shops, together with two smaller balls that work well with it.

The whirl started very dark in the centre and gradually becomes lighter until the end when it is a very pale mint. You were told in the pattern to start in the centre and as you can see, I have worked the darkest rounds and it is now a mid green. If you can make it out on the pattern book, you will notice that after the basic pattern there is a very different pattern worked with the two solid colour yarns, to make a wide border. It is nice light-weight piece of work, and when I am not feeling up to working the heavy blankets, I do a row or two of this instead.

Apart from a lot of long chats with family members, that is about it for this week. So I will get linked up with Annie at a stitch in time, and do my best to visit you all.