Looking Forward...

Well, hello there. I'm sorry that I've been away so long. The last few months have a bit of a challenge for me - I've been finding it hard to be creative and haven't really felt like knitting, making, or baking, let alone blogging. And, although it's been hard, it has all been for the best possible reason - D and I are going to be having a baby! It's all rather wonderful and incredibly exciting, but for the last few months, because of a combination of tiredness and having to keep the biggest secret ever, I just haven't felt very creative.

However, the cat is now well and truly out of the bag and the wool is firmly back on the needles. I'm four months along and about two-thirds of the way through a very pretty lace baby blanket for my godson Toby's baptism. I'm really enjoying the challenge of learning lace knitting. It's going pretty well so far and is my first successful attempt. I rather wish that I'd got a bit more time to get it finished, but I've set myself a daily row count and I'm steadily getting there.

I'm also really enjoying being able to knit baby clothes for the new arrival and I have so many plans for little bits and bobs I'd like to make for the little one. The two projects that I'm working on at the moment are gender neutral, but we're looking forward to finding out what we're getting in the middle of August and I guess I can get knitting in earnest from then on.

Not feeling crafty, has meant that I've had a lot of time for reading and I've read some absolute crackers. Memorable favourites are Marina Lewycka's Various Pets Alive and Dead, The Red House by Mark Haddon, Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell, Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, Caitlin Moran's How To Be a Woman, The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald and Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner. What a lot of wonderful books! I've also, along with some very lovely people at work, started a new book club, which is proving to be great fun.

Since I last posted we've been out and about quite a bit. A week in Amsterdam for my birthday was a wonderful treat - we stayed in two amazing hotels (The Amstel Intercontinental is quite probably the swankiest hotel I will ever stay in, in my life!) and walked absolutely everywhere. Amsterdam is a beautiful city, packed full of galleries and museums, stylish restaurants, boutiques and cafes and some really inspirational knitting shops. I didn't always feel like eating much which was a bit of a shame as the food was excellent.

The summer, now that it has arrived, is proving glorious and we've managed some lovely day-trips with picnics to the beach, Mottisfont, Oxford and to Henley for the regatta. It's lovely and hot and I'm looking forward to lots more picnics over the coming weeks. In fact, I'd say I'm looking forward to everything at the moment - having a baby must do that to you, I guess. The future is looking lovely!

Hello to Berlin

When I was planning this post, I was going to blog about my regular weekend. You know the routine - lovely long lie-in with breakfast in bed and a bit of book, followed by a nice relaxing bath, some pottering about in the garden, a bit of knitting and maybe a movie.

Everything was going to plan until I got out of the bath and D asked if I fancied going to Berlin. Of course I said yes. Who wouldn't want to go to Berlin? But then the penny dropped that he meant right then. Yes, that very minute! Well, that was a surprise. Twenty clicks later and in the time it takes to throw two toothbrushes, two books, two passports and a change of clothes into a bag, we were on the road to the airport.

It was all such a whirlwind that I can hardly believe it happened. And I have to say that I really enjoyed answering the usual, "How was your weekend?" question on Monday morning! Mr C, you are a lovely, lovely man and you have earned yourself some pretty serious boyfriend points.

This does mean that I haven't had much time for crafting and so my very nearly finished colour-block cardigan is still very nearly finished. I have hight hopes that it will be finished by the time of my next post. (But don't hold your breath - just in case.)

I've mostly been reading manuscripts for work lately so not much to talk about. I really enjoyed the latest from Sadie Jones, The Uninvited Guests, although I really didn't like the cover and I also enjoyed the first instalment of Leigh Bardugo's The Grisha Trilogy, The Gathering Dark. This was a recommendation from the lovely Hannah Love from work and was also a book that I wouldn't have picked up on the strength of its cover (yes, I can be judgemental). I'm delighted that the second book in the series has a much, much better cover and I'm looking forward to reading it soon.