Tea-ing It Up

What-ho chaps! So I'm using this blog as a bit of a skive tonight, unfortunately. My friend is having a baby, and I said I would knit for her (I've made it sound like she asked but she didn't - I FOISTED myself upon her Chums, FOISTED! I don't know if you've ever been foisted upon. It is unpleasant, but my friend didn't seem to mind). Anyhoo, turns out she's having a lady baby! Now, you might not remember, but I was convinced that Perfect was going to be a lady baby. So I, in an uncharacteristic burst of madness, bought what could only be described as a 'room full' of girls' knitting patterns. Perfect, as you will remember, is a gentleman baby. So sadly, I room-filled in vain (but fear not, Chinas, we've now got what Husband calls 'a house-full' of gentleman baby patterns, so all's well). SO when my friend said she was having a girl, I leaped at the chance to knit a pattern of the lady persuasion. LEAPED! And that's not easy after having the Perfect, let me tell you.

Sadly, I have picked a very complicated stupid, lacy, ass-face pattern, and I've just had to rip it back for the fourth time. 'Right Eilidhbelle, girdle your loins! Start again!' said my Heart. 'Don't Eilidhbelle, there's internetting to be done!' said my Soul. 'Have we got any Ben and Jerry's left?' asked my Chins. 'I think we're standing on a piddle-patch left by the perfect...' said my Feet.

And that's how we got to this point.

So instead, I thought I'd tell you what I got up to today. Not too far from McDonald Mansions is a brilliant place called the Tilly Tearooms (not too far, but far enough, Burglars) - and it's the best place in the world. Now before we start Lads, I'd just like to say that 1) my photography skills are, at best, sketchy 2) I never want to be that person who is taking pictures of their surroundings instead of living in the moment and d) I accidentally ate my cake immediately. Here's their website (Tilly Tearoom) where, believe it or not, there are some better pictures!

Now, as you know, I'm not prone to flights of fancy but Tilly Tearooms is a cavern of WONDERFULNESS, and that's not an exaggeration. It's not the biggest, granted, but it's cosy - and how could you resist anywhere with a gingham tablecloth? Not easily, that's for sure.

And if you order tea, it comes with its own knitted tea cosy!

and with a little cup and saucer (and none of them match!)

 and with a little dainty silver spoon! I didn't get a picture of mine, because I lost it. I had a lot of Perfect's junk with me. And the other best thing about the Tilly Tearooms is....they have the best cakes in the universe. Here's the Hummingbird cake (again, sorry about this):

(I think Hummingbird cake is made with pecans and magic, but I wasn't really listening when the waitress was describing it. I DO know that it's three tiers of delightfulness that disappear surprisingly quickly). They have a LOT of cake:

And the other best thing is - the lady who owns it is lovely if you go in with your twenty week old baby who screams BLUE MURDER for no reason. She even offered to hold him for me while I ate my cake! But the Perfect is like that, people are drawn to him because he's wonderful. But still. Total legend. Oh man, it's just  the kind of place where you want to take your knitting and sit all day and drink tea, and eat cake, and knit, and it's brilliant.

Go! Go now! Phone me first though, I'll meet you there.

And finally, because it wouldn't be worth it otherwise, here's a picture of the Perfect. Chin chin!

I'm a Fanuary of January

Chums! So I made a New Years resolution to post on my blog weekly. Sadly, New Year was many, many weeks ago and I am yet to update. So I've changed it to monthly. That sounds about do-able, doesn't it?

So! How was your Christmas? All was good here, we were spoiled rotten, the lot of us. Husband got me the best thing in the entire universe (obviously apart from the Perfect) -

S'an Ali Miller teaset, what was featured in episode three of season two of Sherlock, when Moriarty comes for a visit! Oh! I can't even tell you how much I love it Chinas, there are very few material things I would save in a fire - my engagement ring and some 1930s glassware - and now this! I'd probably have to do two trips actually. As I type, me and Husband are enjoying a cup of Sherlock tea while the Perfect refuses to sleep. He's just too delighted that we've got a Sherlock teaset, I think.

Right, so making! Lads, I've been knitting up a STORM! Here's the blue one, unfinished in my last post, modelled here by the Perfect and Arm of Len:

Then I knitted a cable cardi for him. Oh man, have you ever knitted a cable knit? It takes a hundred thousand years, it takes so, so long. I was so grumpy by the time I'd finished knitting it, the Perfect had already graduated from Uni and had a promising career in Astro-physics. Here he is in it anyhoo:

It's not a brilliant photo, to be fair. Next, I knitted this amazeballs, textured green one in Sirdar baby crofter, which is my very favourite:

)

(You might have to zoom in a bit on that one) AND ANTHER BOY AT BABY SENSORY HAS EXACTLY THE SAME ONE! This is not as big a coincidence as it seems, since I saw the boy wearing it and thought, I've got that pattern at home, and promptly knitted  the same one. But! It's a bit of a coincidence.

So I'm still knitting away Chums, but I've got a bit of another project on the go at the moment. Actually, two. Actually, seven, and I'm wanting to do a bit of quilt-making cos it's been so long since I revved up the ol' sewing machine. It'll be missing me. Most of my projects (ha! check me out! I'm using 'projects' in place of 'bags of junk cluttering up my living room'. Got to add a bit of class, know what I mean?) involve knitting but one involves cross stitching a SAMPLER, oh yes, which is massive and the other...

Did I ever tell you that Roy is a photographer? I honestly don't know how mine are so bad, it's in my blood! Anyway, I'm doing a crochet-a-square-a-day blanket for the Perfect. It's not going well, I started it a fortnight ago and I've got six squares. But here's a thing nobody tells you about having a baby....it's quite hard to get five minutes to be creative.

The squares are crochet-ted in shades of grey, dark in the middle, then light, then a blue-y one, then the same again, finishing with a round of dark grey. I've done granny squares before but I wanted a simple pattern, which I found here, after getting inspiration for the blanket from here. I'm totally blown away by the talent of those two, you should definitely go over for a rake. When the blanket is finished, probably in another eighty days, I might do a border of little pom-poms to finish it off. 'Oh that's a lot of effort to go to' you cry, 'you must be superwoman!' Stop it now, I'm blushing! It's actually a piece of cake because Len bought me a pom-pom maker! Go and buy one right now, you can make a perfect pom-pom in about eight seconds and then you can leave them around your house to create a fun conversation with your significant other! It's brilliant! Here's my pom-pom selfie:

Quite, quite brilliant photography. I've made loads of pom-pom bunting but I've not taken any pictures of them yet, you'll be delighted to know. This is the face the Perfect made whence I showed him the bunting:

For he is his father's son. Sadly, he is also his mother's son, so he's just going to have to put up with it.