The most beautiful, and long-awaited egg in the world

For months speculation has been rife as to when, exactly, Turkey would lay an egg. Whenever it is mentioned, our neighbours' kids always follow it up by saying turkey eggs make the best cakes. So the legend, along with the expectation, has been growing.

And yesterday, thanks to the eggspert skill of Detective Inspector McC, Turkey was observed laying her egg under a bush, and it was duly retrieved.

Isn't it beautiful?

As beautiful as Turkey herself. 
   

Knitting list of unfinished items

My knitting list of unfinished items is very long! So I decided to write a list of them today (and also sewing projects) and work my way through them methodically. One by one.

First on the list to be completed is Bramble's socks. The socks are for age 3-6 months, and if I don't get a move on she'll be celebrating her 18th birthday before I know it.

The pink alpaca wool is so soft and just lovely to work with. I'm hoping to get all socks finished by the end of March.

I was going great guns on the first pair of Bramble socks until I ran out of the yellow tweed! I only have three small rows to do. Luckily John Lewis has an endless supply of wool so I bought some more.

This is the list. Some items like the white jumper and green and purple jumper just need to be sewn together and they'll be finished. They're all knitted-up. Likewise the yellow slippers (they'll be good for summer). But the Ribbon Twist jumper hasn't even been started. I'm halfway up the front of the blue jumper, and I've knitted one reindeer sock. I'm so easily seduced by wool and new projects, which is why I have so many at varying degrees of completion.

And talking of wool seduction - I forbade myself from buying any more wool until I've finished every item on the list, however I couldn't resist this gorgeous pink tweed when I was buying the yellow. 

And as summer approaches my mind has started thinking I'd like to make some new skirts. So, the list - finish one item at a time.

A difficult week, and some easy knitting

Meg had an operation to remove a lump from her left front leg on Monday. It all went as well as could be expected and thankfully the lump was benign when tested again. However, because she's been restricted to staying in the house, and has a collar on to stop her licking her stitches, it's meant either Hagos or I have had to watch her all the time. She's such a wilful creature she has figured out how to wedge the collar further up her left leg, enabling her to lick and pull at the very end of the wound and stitches. So, I have been working full time then going to bed with Meg for 3-4 hours at bedtime, then following her downstairs and sleeping on the couch for the rest of the night, and then getting up for work again. Thankfully Hagos has been at home during the day and has been able to watch her, though he hasn't been able to get much work done at all. We are both relieved when she is sleeping!

So last night I sat with her on my lap (well, I put my feet on the table and she lies somewhere along my legs) and though I have complicated knitting I should be getting on with, I decided I could only cope with very easy knitting - plain and purl with the occasional increase. 

I'm knitting the jumper/vest again (originally knitted in purple Jaeger 4-ply; and more recently in off-white alpaca) from Vintage Knits by Sarah Dallas. This lovely deep blue is also alpaca. It's lovely and soft and I feel I'm achieving something when all I can do is cuddle a cat.

(Meg has her stitches removed next Saturday and should be able to go outside again then too.)

Birthday x 2

For some reason this is the only photo I took over the last couple of days, though it was my dad's 80th birthday on Wednesday and Hagos's birthday the following day. 

We drove to Dumfries to celebrate my dad's birthday and had a lovely afternoon. My nephews and their girlfriends turned up, along with my sister and both my parents were there, of course. My dad is Mr Understated, so there was no fanfare, or balloons or any extended rowdiness or sparkle. Just a birthday cake and presents and an afternoon spent chatting. 

Yesterday we tried to pack too much into Hagos's birthday. He had found a nice pub online in Edinburgh and we met up there with a few of his touring chums and played half a game of Monopoly. Then we drove to Morningside to try out the new Pizza Express with our friends and Godson, JJ. The owl above is JJ's 'card' that he made for Hagos's birthday. I love kid art. 

We got back late-ish and watched a couple of episodes of Boardwalk Empire and then went to bed.