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A can of tuna too far !

We seem to have inherited a cat !. A black and white cat has been "hanging out " in our greenhouse almost since the day we moved in. It was only after the greenhouse was taken away to make the garden a little safer for Olivia (the organic tomato growing will have to wait until she is a little bit older) that I realised that perhaps this cat was spending all day and all night in our garden. It didn't have a collar and when I noticed it was eating pringles as Olivia dropped them in a trail around the garden, I decided to give it a drink and opened a can of tuna. I have never seen a cat eat so quickly. I literally thought it was going to be sick. We found out that someone had put up a notice about a lost cat a few streets away and once we'd got hold of the telephone number we spent all weekend trying to get through. When we finally did the conversation was brief and we were left with the distinct impression that even if this was their cat they weren't really that interested in getting it back. So now we have a cat on our doorstep every evening ... if no one claims the poor thing my husband who has always railed against getting a cat has finally given in to the childrens pleading anmd we will give it a home - on one condition - that it doesn't eat all the tins of tuna - his favourite sandwhich filling !!

Back to knitting - if there any mums to be who are in West Yorkshire or who are prepared to travel up here I am running a fab half day course called Nine Months - it is a combination of a social get together, a light heareted look at pregnancy and the early days of being a mum, some great shopping ideas for you and your little one and the chance to start a little project to make something for your baby which you can take away with you to complete. This will be held in a venue in West Yorkshire yet to be announced and includes a lovely lunch to finish the morning off - further details from enstockcaroline@aol.com

Knitting, unpacking and reorganising the way I work

It must have been the upheaval of the move which has caused me to go into hibernation mode for over a month....

I've been trying to unpack and settle the children into our new house which we are absolutely loving. I have even been out into the beautiful, but overgrown garden and yesterday I actually got down to some gardening. The house had been empty for 18 months before we moved in so things outside had been allowed to run a little too wild but there are some beautiful plants (see left) The only problem is that I would much rather spend my time taking photographs of them than doing the weeding.

I held the inaguaral meeting of the Batley Knitting Group ( we thought this name for our group sounds nicely retro !) at The Library Cafe in Rebrick Mill and we had a lovely time chatting about yarn and planning our nest meeting which will be on Sunday April 13th at 10.30 am at the same location. We have great plans for our group including a fab workshop to learn about felting - I'm already on the hunt for a suitable venue

With my long term aim being to open a Knitting Cafe I have teamed up with Sirdar and will soon be running a series of Knits Nights and have some plans in the pipeline for an extra special book about knitting. The latest off the needles is a little cardigan I call Little Grey Rabbit with its lovely detailing on the back.

I'm off to do sort through my stash as I need to make room for the arrival of the gorgeous Sirdar Yarns - have a lovely weekend.

Yipee !! We have finally moved !!!!!!!!!!!

Yipee - we have finally moved and I am writing this actually nearly unpacked ... this has been the worst and most protracted chain even out of all the seven house moves we have done but who cares - we are here and the house is fab. There are afe wtiny flies in the ointment - the fact that the ever efficient AOL managed to mislay my broadband order for the second time meaning I am trying to run the websites on dial up for another week when I have been used to the fastest speed broadband available. Dial up is truly dire - like pulling teeth. Then there is the mystery of the disappearing water meter - there apparently should be one - I keep having meter readers turning up at my door asking to read it. When I tell them I can't find one they look at me accusingly -I'm sure they think I have ripped it out with my bare hands) Then they come in and scratch their heads a lot and look in my kitchen cupboards and then declare they will" report the matter " and off they huff. There have been three visits this week and no doubt more to come. I can't give a meter reading to British Gas because I can't get through - the lines are permanently engaged and finally the council tax letter which has been waiting at this address for three months whilst the move got delayed informed me that if I didn't pay £11.16 ( Yes really !) I would be taken to court. Now I know why other people think I'm mad for moving so often, but when I look at how happy the children are and the wonderful long jumble of garden that is just perfect for them to make dens and hang out in the summer, I know this move was definately worth it.

More material added to The Mummybiz

More material added to The Mummybiz at http://timeformum.co.uk/30.html and a new article about what to do if you think your child may be being bullied.

The house sale torture continues !!

The vital piece of paper has finally turned up and looks to be in order yipee !!! but surprise surprise it turned up too late for the money to be ordered from the mortgage companies in time to exchange on Friday - this means the torture goes on and we will be setting a date this week . To say it looked like it was all going to go permanently pear shaped earlier in the week I shouldn't really grumble, should I ?!!!
Really exciting news - in addition to continuing to be sold at Covent Garden at All the Fun of the Fair, my handknit designs are to be sold at the same companies new shop 'All the fun of the fair' , opening on March 1st at Unit 2.8 Kingly Court, off Carnaby Street, W1. Pop along and take a look if you are in the area - the knits are all unique one offs for babies and children up to 4 years, plus we have new dog coats and home accessories and they all have little extra embellishments such as hand embroidery etc. Visit www.allthefunofthefair.biz for more details.

I love running the websites but designing is definately still my favourite part of my business ( apart from the writing but it remains to be seen whether I can make any money from writing The Mummybiz - but I'm loving writing it) More material added to the Mummybiz this morning now up to 12,000 words - in case you've just come across it it is the raw drafts published as written and very disjointed as I write like a jigsaw puzzle, creating little pieces and the finished thing will look and feel very different.
I've something interesting up my sleeve for new knitters especially those who love to kit at lunchtime or whilst on the tube etc so watch this space - all will be revealed.

New material added to The Mummybiz

I've added a bit more to my online mumlit novel at http://www.timeformum.co.uk/30.html
Enjoy !!

Still in limbo and reaching crisis point !!

I'm laughing as I write this, but really I'm completely, utterly and entirely fed up. We had a crisis meeting with th eestate agent yesterday and have agreed to wait a day or so to see if our buyers mortgage company finally sort out their mortgage - otherwise it looks as if it really is back to square one (and house number one come to think of it !) To top it off, a radiator in the bedroom of this house we are renting sprang a leak last night ( we're renting as the one we bought was too small - a long story - if you don't know it already it appears in thinly veiled disguise in one of the storylines of The Mummybiz www.timeformum.co.uk/30.html )
My six year old had great fun holding a saucepan under the leak and watching it fill up, pretty quickly, it has to be said. Luckily a " something" just needed tightening, but it's the last thing you need after the day we had yesterday.
I notice this blog is slowly turning into the type of blog I hate - the ones that are a slow drip of the writer's moaning on an excruciatingly boring daily basis (no pun intended - sorry !). Let's hope tomorrow brings positive news on the house front and I can get happy blogging again :)