knitting update

The yellow booties I finished a week ago or so have finally gone into the post to Jen et al - Jen had a boy on 12th July (a couple of weeks late), they've decided to call him Samuel Frederick.

I thought I'd better start the next pair of booties. These are for Annie - her due date has passed, but as far as I know she hasn't had her baby yet. (Update - I've just heard that she had Edward on Friday afternoon) Annie makes fun of David and I for both being red-heads, but as she's got a red-headed brother I'm sure she's going to have a red-headed son (she's blonde, and Tony is brown) - so I thought it only appropriate to make orange booties for junior:

Here's the progress I've made on konfekt 18703 - slow, but steady - it's starting to feel a little less "just started" than before.

I also have finished the first half of David's not grey socks:

And have cast on the second half:

My parents are coming to visit this next week - I ordered this book from Amazon, which they're bringing with them, which will hopefully give some inspiration for the next pair of socks to tackle. My Mum's also bringing some Jacob wool that she got locally. The plan is to make it into a cabled zip front cardigan, but I'll wait to see it before I completely commit.

I'm not sure what we're going to do while they're here - we've got a day trip to Røros planned, and probably some walks, and some playing in the garden, I just hope the weather's nice - we're having a few days of rain at the moment, but I don't think it'll last for too long (fingers crossed).

Pernicious

Thanks to my Mum and Andrew for their comments on the weed quiz. Looks like we've got some pretty pernicious weeds to contend with between the Japanese Knotweed and the Ground Elder. Oh well - we'll do as much as we have to to keep them in check, but won't go to the time and effort of actually fighting them - that sounds like a job for the house's owners to me. David's talking about getting an incinerator, which is probably not a bad idea - more efficient and neighbour friendly than lighting a fire in the middle of the garden.

I finished the yellow baby booties for Jen and Neil's baby.

Here they are being modelled by Lille Bamse:

And here they are by themselves:

They're certainly yellow. So that's two down and maybe three or four to go. Our next friend that's pregnant is due in the middle of July, so the next pair can wait a week or so.

We're off to Bergen this weekend to visit Mina, Arild and Lauritz. We're going to be going to Voss to the extreme sports weekend - I'm looking forward to seeing and not participating! Arild's the extreme sports nut.

Plant Quiz - weed or not?

I spoke to Helen and Simon last night to find out how everything went - they had a baby boy on June 11th. They've named him Jacob James, although on the phone it sounded as if they were referring to him as "Little Monkey" quite a bit. Mother, baby and the rest of the family are doing well and are adjusting to their new addition. Helen said she'd send some photos soon, so I'm looking forward to seeing them.

So I'll send a package to them including the finished pink socks for big sister Anna:

And the booties for Jacob:

It's not long till the next our next friends are due .... Jen and Neil are due on 27th - again they don't know whether it's going to be a girl or a boy, so another non-gender specific booties have been started - yellow this time:

And now for the plant quiz....

Weed or not?

This is the front garden to our house along the entrance path - nice roses and poppies - but what is everything else?

1. Is this worth keeping?

2. Keep or compost?

3. Should this be given root space?

4. This picture is actually taken on the other side of the road to our house, but we did have some to the left of our front door... it was growing out of the paving stones etc so I have decided that it's something weed-like, but am curious to know what it actually is.

5. Is this ground elder?

6. This seems to be really popular in Norway - I'm sure it's fine if you're the kommune and are wanting to stabilise a bank next to a road, or something - but in a garden it goes rampant and spreads along and basically smothers everything else.

7. Some sort of bush that's in bud at the moment - I think the flowers are going to be white.

8. And last but not least - another something that has sprung up by the side of the house.

A couple of things:

• if you need another photo of any of them ask;
• all answers or suggestions of what things might be gratefully received; and
• I'm not interested in the "a weed is just a plant in the wrong place" mantra - would you give it garden space!?

And I guess as it's a quiz there should be prizes - but I'll have to think about what they could be!