Starting Something New

Spring is one of my favourite times of the year - a time for new and exciting things, for growth and light and enthusiasm. It's great time for starting something new which is exactly what my friend Fiona, also known as the Pine Marten but more commonly just Piney, is doing. She had a bit of a bonkers idea whereby she would take up a gazillion new hobbies until she found something that she would enjoy (and be brilliant at) and she's started a hilarious new blog to chronicle her adventures. 

I had the privilege of being the first person to share their hobby and duly rocked up at her place on Saturday morning with a bag of knitting-related goodies (tea, biscuits, hand cream - you know, the usual stuff). I'll let her tell you all about it in her blog - click on the link to head on over to Piney Gets a Hobby. It felt especially auspicious as I was driving over to hear Woolly Bully by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs on the radio and what I will say is that  she took to knitting like a Pine Marten to woodland - a natural-born knitter. Well done, Piney!

On the crafting side of things, I've started planning an embroidered cushion cover with some fabulous crafty transfers from Sublime Stitching. I'm not sure how it's going to pan out, but I promise I'll post again as it progresses. 

More excitingly, I've been using the very fabulous Meet Me at Mike's, and I've taught myself how to crochet granny squares. It's something I've really taken to; they're easily portable (so great for the train), quick to complete and surprisingly uncomplicated. I've always been a bit unsure of crochet, but it turns out that I really like it. I've also now had two attempts at handwriting embroidery, a Valentine's Day card for D and a first ever Mother's Day card for Shona, so that's another thing crossed off my New Year list. Hoorah!

There's some exciting new life in the garden too; I've planted a raspberry bush and put lots of summer-flowering bulbs in the ground as well as seedlings of tomatoes, peas, radishes and broad beans, which are currently dominating the kitchen table - and there are potatoes chitting nicely on my kitchen windowsill. As soon as it stops freezing and snowing, I'm going to get out and plant some of them - can't wait.

Last new thing for this post which I absolutely must mention, is the joy that is my new toaster! I am a MASSIVE toast fan - toast, crumpets, muffins, bagels, tattie scones, Soreen - if you can toast it and slather it in butter I'm probably going to be a fan and my new toaster does the job perfectly. Mmmmm!

Since I last posted, I seem to have gone through a spate of reading YA novels. Every Day by David Levithan which is going to be published in the UK in July by Egmont and is an absolute must-read, Butterfly by Sonya Hartnett which not technically a novel for teens but is a heartbreaking observation of adolescence; the ingenious Daylight Saving by Edward Hogan and the really rather compelling Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher. I've also started Monkey Wars by Richard Kurti which, from the first six chapters, promises to be absolutely brilliant.