Home from Italy

I am so happy to be back in a home that is warm and cozy with carpets, hot water and not a tiled floor in sight. Yes, it was brutto in Italy and the Italians though as welcoming and charming as ever had all resorted to wearing many layers of clothes under bulky padded jackets and staying indoors as much as possible. Our house is not well equipped for winter weather, fabulous in summer but on a day when the mist is down it is grim living on the side of a mountain, and we all know that I hate low cloud, this was the view from the terrace. The house was cold when we arrived and ever optimistic we lit the fire which proceeded to provide plenty of smoke and precious little heat. I know it looks cozy but believe me it wasn't and the only way to benefit from all that fuel was to stand with your bum up the chimney.We had a very mixed time, just a bit of sunshine which was lovely and very cheery but lots of really wet weather and many days of frustration. We spent a lot of time chasing about, for example we wanted to reinstate our direct debit to pay the electricity account, we stopped this during the three years our house was on a corporate let. You might imagine you could complete something on line, return a slip included with your bill or call in at a local branch of your bank, none of the above. We had to travel into our bank in central Rome, about 1.5 hours each way. The branch we use had been taken over and the business but fortunately not the grumpy staff transferred, no signs in the empty windows to indicate this of course and since the bank is actually only open for 50 minutes in the afternoon blind panic set in but eventually we found the new branch round the corner and were able to complete the paperwork.
We looked for a wood burning stove with some success, a new septic tank with no success at all, didn't get the boiler maintenance contract sorted or resolve the problem that causes the shower suddenly to turn cold despite paying 60 euro in August for repairs, got the window man to come and price for new double glazing, did a bit of decorating and Mr FF did something to the irrigation system. We watched an awful lot of news as that seemed to be all we could get on the tv, ranted copiously and were so glad to have hot water bottles and extra blankets that made getting into bed one of the highlights each day.
Does all this sound ungrateful I don't mean it to, we know that the house is cold in winter so we don't let it out then but we had hoped it might be tolerable for us in early November. Wrong. We won't be going back now for a while, possibly in March by which time I will have forgotten about this chilly visit and be keen to get back again, at the moment just writing about the last week is making me shiver.

The ring of happiness

This is a story I've been wanting to share with you for months and months but I needed it to be complete before I did so, and that happened today when my relatives came up from Yorkshire to stay in our house while we are in Italy for a week.

When I was 13 years old my mum gave me the gold signet ring that her father had given her when she became a teenager. I loved the ring, it was the first piece of real jewellery I had and a connection with the grandfather who died about a year after I was born. I wasn't allowed to wear the ring for school but I did put it on as often as I could and wore it constantly during school holidays. After a couple of years I lost the ring. I was in the harvest field with my dad and my youngest brother who was a toddler, I bent to pick him up and the ring must have caught on his clothing because it fell off my finger into the stubble. I searched for a long time but it was an impossible task and finally I gave up. I made a note of the location by counting the number of trees in the arcade of chestnuts that ran alongside the field and the number of corn stokes in the opposite direction. I went back again on other days to look and my cousin, who sadly died three years ago, helped in the search. My dad looked when the field was ploughed but the ring never turned up. Over the years I often felt sad to have lost this ring, I did think about buying another but it wouldn't have been the same.

Early this year I had a phone call from my sister in law, who I'd told the story at some stage, to say that a man had been metal detecting in the field and found a gold signet ring with the initials EL, my mum's. He was anxious to try and find the owner and had phoned my brother and his wife to see if they could help. They checked with me and I confirmed it was the one I lost 45 years ago. The metal detector man (MDM) lived about 50 miles from my brother so it was decided not to risk posting the ring and he delivered it to the farm when he was there again a few weeks ago. I'm sorry the photographs are rubbish, I need to read my camera instructions but I also need to pack.

I can't tell you how happy I am to have it back, I never ever thought I'd see it again. My mum died almost 30 years ago, I wish she knew, I wish my cousin knew, and I wish MDM knew just how wonderfully kind he has been, he could so easily have cashed the ring in for scrap value. I'll write to him as soon as I get back from Italy and tell him how overjoyed I am, and I truly am, it's a dream come true.

So early in the morning (6.30 am flight apparently) I'm off to Italy for a week, for safety I'll leave the ring at home. Be back soon.

For Amelia

On Tuesday, only a week old, poor little Amelia was back in hospital with jaundice. She was placed under and over special lamps to cure her, Mum and Dad stayed at the hospital too. Not an ideal start but after 3 days they were all home again, the little dot is doing well and putting on weight. So I have been busy knitting as you can see. I made the larger of the wrap cardigans this week, the smaller is one I gave to Pam's new granddaughter when she was born, she has outgrown in now and Pam kindly got it back for Amelia. That's the kind of recycling we like. There's also a little hat to keep her cosy.This is the cardy for which I lost the final and essential ball of yarn. Kate, The Graveyard Gypsy read my blog and contacted me to say she had some of the same leftover from the same project. The parcel arrived in the post this week, in some lights there was a slight difference in the shades but since most of the lighter one was used for the collar I thinks its OK and enabled me to finish. Thanks Kate, how kind of you, I will be looking out for a special reward for you when I'm in Italy later this week, though I understand if I don't find anything suitable, I don't always get to many shops apart from the builders yard, chocolate is acceptable.Though I love knitting socks and I will be making them for Amelia when she gets older, I couldn't resist these little cotton ones in John Lewis, £5 for 5 pairs, so sweet, so pretty, just like my little (great) niece.

Day becomes night

You wouldn't believe how dark and wet it is today. Usually I have a nice view of the hills from my kitchen window, I feel claustrophobic when the mist is down. I went to the dentist this morning for the final work on the tooth that fell out whilst I was in Italy, its all fixed and I am £191 lighter. The weather was too grim for me to spend any time in town so I am back home and plan to take it easy. The stove is already glowing, the knitting bag contains something suitably pink and the cake box is full. That'll teach the weather to be so awful.

I am a great aunt

Yes I am. Amelia Jasmine, love the names, was born yesterday morning at 9.25, 8 lbs something and all doing well. She was a breech baby and delivered by Cesarean so she and Mum will be in hospital down in Yorkshire for a few days. I am so excited, the Christmas gift knitting is out of the window now, its pink ballet tops and cuddly little cardies. Luckily I am in town tomorrow because even though I have one of the biggest knitting stashes known to man, there is nothing suitable for me to get started. I'd already bought this card in case my niece had a girl, so sweet and this morning there was a card through our letter box from Pam and Andrew congratulating us on becoming great aunt and uncle.

In actual fact we are both great aunts because from being tiny our youngest niece couldn't understand one of us being aunt and one uncle, so we have always both been aunts, and we like it that way.There is only one irritation today, I can't find the last ball of Rowan All Seasons Cotton to finish this little cardigan. I believe the yarn came as a joining gift when I renewed my Rowan membership and it was just right for this pattern. I knit the back and two sleeves to check I had enough yarn and I definitely did. That means there is one ball somewhere in the house, which I have turned upside down twice searching but to no avail. I know the minute I pull my work out and start something else that ball will turn up, so annoying. Its not as if I have the band to try and find more in the same shade or dye, I may just have to buy more yarn tomorrow and start again, its not everyday you become a great aunt and I do want to be an eccentric one.

Knitting now - vintage

One of the nice things about being a knitter is that people will give you wool, quite often old and sometimes unidentifiable. Luckily I don't have any of the latter at the moment but a quantity of the former that I've been using up.

I made this lacy scarf in 2 ply, yes that's right, it was like knitting with cobweb. I thought I had just a single 1 ounce (28 g) skein of this Sirdar pure wool but when I undid it to start winding I found there were 2 so I felt confident I had enough for a scarf. In fact just one ball was sufficient, which means I can embark on more fine and lacy work, eventually.

I also have a lot of Lister Poodle 2, very retro, in a not very pleasant colour combination that would have made a dreadful jumper which seems to have been the original intention judging by the quantity. This boucle does make a well padded and comfy pair of welly socks but since its 97% wool and 3% nylon I'm not sure they will last very long.And finally I made the cotton I got in the charity shop into a simple cowl,inspired by though not as elegant as some of the ones Tracy makes. I knit an oblong till most of the wool was used, made a button hole then finished the ball. I had to fathom out the right place to stitch the button but got there in the end.

I just realised what a garish post this is with such a mixture of textures and colours, still I am happy that all the yarns are finding a useful life after all these years. I can't imagine that the lovely wools we use nowadays, Noro, Opal, Araucania, will ever seem so dated or undesirable, but who knows, there's nothing new in fashion so brown beige and orange could be the new black.

Enlighten me

As well as being a chartered structural engineer Mr FF has an MBA in marketing - an integrated communications-based process through which individuals and communities are informed or persuaded that existing and newly-identified needs and wants may be satisfied by the products and services of others - apparently. We have had some quite heated discussions about what makes good marketing as I like to think I cannot be persuaded to purchase items that I don't really need (apart from wool, books and toiletries of course, but that's not need that's lust). I am not a lover of the buy one get one half price offers though I admit I can be tempted by the buy one get one for free, aptly abbreviated to BOGOFF, if its a product I know and use. Equally I don't like the vouchers you get when you make a purchase for say £5 off next time, this has seen me leaving the checkout to go back round the aisles searching for a way to spend the voucher but there is never anything for just £5 in the range and I then have to make a determined effort to leave the shop and throw the voucher away. I'm much happier with a straight forward pricing system, just give me £5 off the bill now, though of course finding anything that has been substantially reduced is tempting, I found two perfectly healthy clematis the other day at £1 each in the bargain bucket and soon snapped them up.

So how can you explain this. I was in Homebase (again) and after finding the above mentioned clematis I went to buy some energy saving light bulbs, the main purpose of my visit. I needed two types of bulbs, one priced at 99p each and the other at £1.29 each, however there was an offer on 3 for £1. That just doesn't make sense, who would ever buy one for £1.29 when you have have 3 times what you need for £1 and afford to throw 2 away. Even the marketing engineer couldn't explain that one, the offer is endorsed and subsidised by the energy supplier E-On, but they are in the business surely of getting us to use their electricity not save it. Needless to say we bought a few. Mr FF was so delighted with the purchase that he actually replaced any remaining energy consuming light bulbs we have in the house with these new ones (even though there was still life in them and he comes from Yorkshire). He did point out that the new bulbs have a lifetime of 10 years allowing for them to be switched on for 3 hours a day. No way do we leave lights burning unnecessarily so we have reached the conclusion aged 60 and 61 respectively that our bulb changing days may be over.