I won’t show you the spider until the bottom so that you don’t have to read that bit if you don’t want to but here is a fire engine because I don’t know anyone with a phobia of fire engines.
The Man in the Shed wanted me to show you what he has been doing this morning; Small wanted to pinch one of his friend’s toys and then complained that it was broken so the Man in the Shed said they would borrow it and fix it at the same time. The ladder was missing so they have made new one out of teas stirrers and match sticks. I am sure that he must secretly be related to the mice who live in the Marvellous Mechanical Mouse Organ…
Tiny and I have been planting things in the greenhouse and it is definitely looking more green this week. I am fairly amazed that I have managed to keep a tray of sweet peas alive over the winter – my Grandad gave them to me in a heap in an ice cream tub at the beginning of December and being a fair weather gardener (I only go out there in the cold if the compost pot in the kitchen is threatening to explode and coat the entire room with rotting veg peelings) I have more or less ignored and neglected them since and miraculously they look nice and green and bushy now.
The spider is coming, stop reading now if you don’t want to see. The planting of things is what made me want to tell you about Dennis. He lives in the box where I keep the spare flower pots and I know he lives there but I always forget and his sole aim in life appears to be to give me a fright by scuttling around suddenly and looking enormous every time I open the box. I like spiders at a distance so he has agreed not to come and visit me in the house as long as I let him have use of the box. I am scared of spiders when I see them unexpectedly or when they are taller than me (i.e. on the ceiling) but I can cope if I know they are there and, like Howl, I don’t like anyone disturbing the resident cobwebs.
Isn’t he a beauty? I’m not sure why he is called Dennis (normally the house spiders are all called Fred, daddy long legs are Boris and for some reason the garden spiders don’t have a name but there is a colony who live in the greenhouse and are very pretty) but he looks like a Dennis to me.
I have been getting on with jumper number three (which is really a cardigan) so I’ll tell you about that next time maybe but I am also waiting for some 100% cotton yarn to arrive so I can make some boobs. There is a group called Knitted Knockers who make prosthetic breasts for mastectomy patients (they say the silicon ones are really heavy and uncomfortable) and I thought I might as well put some knitting to good use and make a few for them, (my Grandma is going to test drive the first one for me) I’ll let you how I get on…
But in the mean time here is a cat being silly (Sorry Pip!). But at least it means that the jumper must be almost dry because cats don’t like having soggy bottoms:
Oh how good it must be to have a man in the shed who is Really Useful! My Sister in Denmark has one who is very good at problem solving – he too grows all his own veggies, fruit etc & then is excellent at cooking too. He has a selection of sheds, one of which used to be a double garage, & is like Santas workshop. When I was there last year i needed some screws for my bed & I think he had more types & sizes than the local hardware store!
But all this has nothing to do with yarns, though spinning a yarn is what we do too! Jumper number 2 looks lovely, and of course it now smells pleasing to Pip because she has scent marked it.
I too am about to start knitting knockers, & to that end have been composing little ditties – and yes there is a rhyme there! I got all ready to knit & discovered that my dpn’s are nowhere to be found, thus I will have to make yet another visit to Liss wool shop to buy some more. Such a hardship! Anyway, well done for the introduction to a new breed of knitters, knitting & knickers (sorry I tried to put knockers but the predictive text prefers knickers to knockers).
Oh, & thank you for the warning about “Dennis”, I really do have a major phobia there & caught a little glimpse as I scrolled through & nearly missed the end of your blog! I shall now have thoughts of those which shall not be named!
Well done once again from another novice knocker knitter & fair weather gardener!
Thank you. Yes, sheds are definitely useful when things fall apart, all sorts of magic fixing things in there.
Pip is the lady the jumper is for by the way not the cat!
Are you going to share any of your ditties?
Sorry about Dennis I wasn’t sure whether to put his picture on or not but I thought maybe he would be ok with a warning…
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