Giggly Glyndebourne

Whoops, who didn't pack the picnic?

We had a giggly time celeb spotting at Glyndebourne this evening 'cept Little Jim would keep doing his Bill Murray impressions.


He did pour the champagne well though.


There was a lot of laughing and even more eating.


We ate the first course so quickly that there are no photos of the tapas and you'll have to look closely to see the crab and watercress quiche which was excellent, thanks James. Then the spectacular cake was revealed...


Thanks Valerie.


Abi shares the recipe with James.


La Traviata was performed brilliantly as well and we all enjoyed a special evening.

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We meet Elena

Me and the old man enjoying the view when we should have been on the plane home...


Just got back from a lovely trip to see Polly and Alex and their beautiful daughter.


Alex will hate this photo, but it is a lot better than his Sylvester Stallone lookalikee...


Or maybe he just saves that look for his mother-in-law?

I had a great time learning how to be a Granny Smith.


And I did my best to teach Elena all about everthing.


They were the kindest of hosts,


they looked pleased to see us, they laughed at our jokes...


and were just wonderful when we came back, having missed our plane.

But how could you leave this little one?



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Watermelon hat

Watermelon hat
Now is the part where you all email me for the pattern and I break knitterly hearts by explaining that there isn't one, and I email you back and say "you could totally fake it" and then you email me back and say "No, no. I'm not that kind of knitter. I can't fake a hat", and then I email you back and say "It's not diffusing a bomb. Try it." and then you email another note and say "I wouldn't know where to start." and then I email you and say "If you dressed yourself you're smart enough for this" and then I email you the steps below. (I'm trying to time save by just putting it here. Let me know if you really miss the other parts.)



Step one. Measure the head in question. (Lily's head is 33cm - 13 inches.)
Step two. Find some yarn in dark green, light green, white and pink. You can look for black if you want to do the seeds. (I will remind you now that there are seedless watermelons.)
Step three. Knit a swatch. (Don't make that face. Do a tiny one. I did 10 rows of 10 stitches.) Measure your stitches to the inch.
Step four. Multiply the number of stitches to the inch by the number of inches around the victims head. (Use a calculator if you feel woozy when I say multiply.) If you have five stitches to the inch, and the head in question is 15 inches, your math looks like this: 5 X 15= 75. See? Even a maths-phobic like me can do it.)
Step five. Cast on this number if your recipient is a baby (their heads grow fast) or a few less than this number if your recipient is likely to have a stable head size for a while. (Hat's knit the exact size of the head don't stay on real well. You want it a wee bit smaller so that it clings a little.)
Step six. Knit around and around, changing colours in the places that it makes sense to, and carry on until the hat is tall enough. (This is always taller than you think.) Lily's hat is five inches tall. (Don't unroll the roll brim to measure. It's not going to unroll on their head.)
Step seven. Decrease in a manner that makes sense to you. Me? I like the tops of hats to swirl, so I decrease every 8 stitches on the first round, seven on the second, six on the third...and so on until I'm knitting two together around.
Step eight. Cut yarn, thread through remaining stitches and fasten off. Duplicate stitch on the seeds, if it charms you.
Step nine. Put it on the head of the victim recipient and giggle a little. (Double sided tape helps with toddlers.)

Step ten. Stop and think how this could totally work for other hats. Feel clever.


Knitted Doc Martens pattern to follow.


















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