Cats At Home

I don't have any knitting to upload (though I have two jumpers that won't take long to finish) but I wanted to post, and my cat friend Meg is figuring large in my life at the minute as I'm in the process of fitting a cat flap for her.

I will DEFINITELY fit the cat flap at the weekend. I didn't realise how complex fitting a cat flap was (though I'm sure when I actually get down to it it will take about five minutes!).

First of all I bought a magnetic cat flap, as we have two Norfolk terriers living next door, and my neighbour reckons the smaller dog can fit through cat flaps. However, when I got the magnetic cat flap home I realised it has a deep tunnel attached that is integral to the magnetic mechanism.

The door panel is only half an inch thick so it would've stuck out quite far on the outside. So I got a refund, did some research and eventually bought an infra red cat flap.

I've got everything prepared (drawn the template on the door, fitted the correct drill size to the drill, borrowed a Jigsaw, etc) so I'm hoping it will only take a few minutes once I start cutting. I'm concerned about the infra red key being quite big for a 3/4 size ginger cat but hopefully she'll figure it out and realise it's to her benefit.


This is Pudding Pie Alley. When we first moved to Norfolk we were told to park in the market square, go down Pudding Pie Alley and turn left.

There was a notice in our neighbours' window, which read, "All is well, and all shall be well".

The village where we live (or town, as the locals insist on calling it) is a totally lovely place. The disused station has been turned into a teashop and curio-shop. If I have a day off and feel like escaping from the 21st century I love walking down there and getting away from it all.

There is also a new cafe called V's cafe, which is well-decorated, has a rotating cake cabinet and sells bespoke baking accessories. There is a library, two butchers, a health food shop, a corner shop, a Post Office, and even a rather strange clothes shop.

I love the place I live in. It has a completely good feel about it. I feel safe and happy here. Though it is rather sleepy!

Baby Footwear

I can now reveal some baby footwear I've been making over the last few months for my friend Leonie who just had her baby. I started knitting when I found out she was having a boy. The socks and small boottees are taken from 50 Baby Boottees... I think it was Zoe Mellor who did the patterns. The white boottees with roses are from a pattern I got from the library by Erika Knight, they're actually the same as my slippers.

I also made a small beaded bag to put them in, which I forgot to photograph. I sent them off yesterday.

My friend Anna has been making similar items to sell at a Christmas Craft Fair at the end of November. I might try to make a few more and sell them too.

I've almost finished my 3rd TV jumper, which I'm very excited about because it's gorgeous. Maybe next weekend. And in the meantime I've started on a Rowan Plaid jumper that I liked from Magazine 39 but didn't want to spend £50 on the wool! Well, plaid has now been discontinued and is being sold at a bargain price on cucumberpatch. I bought six balls of Bramble for £21!!! I've almost finished the front because it's knitted up on size 8 needles.

I'm going to my friend Sophie's tonight for a knit-in and DVD evening. So will hopefully make good progress there. Should have both jumpers finished in next two weeks. I'll also upload my bodyless sleeves at the same time.

Sister time

This is my sister, Jacqueline, and her husband, Robin. They came to visit me last week (from Scotland) while my husband is working in America for two months.

We went out for the evening to Wagamama's in Norwich where I had my usual vegetarian hot sauce noodles.

Jacqueline did a lot of shopping while she was here and kindly left me a box of presents when she returned home.

I had hoped to go skating too but with all the shopping and board game playing we didn't manage to fit it in.

We played Risk and Yahtzee and drank Port, but didn't quite manage to get on to Pictionary this time.

Jacqueline is a demon Monopoly player and used to make me play Monopoly with her every day in the school holidays and, being 7 years younger, she won every time. She's still very competitive.

This is the ice rink in Norwich, which is very festive and is erected every year at Christmas outside the library.

My work colleagues and I have decided for our Christmas work outing this year to go skating first, then head into Pizza Express for food. We just didn't feel like another turkey dinner!

We have to do it on 21st December though as almost every other date was crossed out with previous engagements.