do you mind if i knit

Simplicity Lisette 'Portfolio Dress', pattern no.2245 - finito!

Hello! Isn't Andy Murray doing well! So far....................... Fingers crossed hey!

I do love my little orange pumps, even though they do rub, are very thin soled, and rather uncomfortable - that is the lot of feet which want to be adorned with prettiness! The dress aside, I can't keep my eyes off those little orange shoes. They only ever got worn where I can take them off, ridiculous isn't it! So my grey spotted dress is finished. What a palaver this one was! Everything was fine until it came to the yoke, which ended up being made THREE times.

Picture proof of two discarded yokes, above.

The greatly positive thing about this yoke shenanigans is that I feel quietly confident at sewing yokes now, which have a reputation for not being the easiest of things to sew. Practise makes perfect. I've certainly practised, though I wouldn't say I'm perfect.

I think the first dress I made (above) involved some beginners luck. That dress just seemed to sail along without many problems. But the yoke on this dress! What a kerfuffle. It was the iron-on interfacing, (which I used in my last dress successfully), it wrinkled up once I'd finished the dress, and looked dreadful. The final version of the yoke has no interfacing at all, I just left it out. I've ordered some sew-in interfacing, I don't trust the iron-on stuff any more.

Now I have to show you the little wooden contraption above. The unassuming length of wood sticking out of a block of wood was made for me by Hugo. It's to help me hem my dress accurately.  I stand beside it, Hugo marks the point on the wood at which I want the hem length, and then he goes round on his knees, pinning the hem according to the mark!

I bet there aren't too many men who would pin their partner's hems for them, or make a wooden contraption to help with the hemming! Isn't that wonderful of Hugo to do those things for me!

Shall we have a last little look at my dress then?

I had a really nice compliment from a lady about my dress yesterday, totally out-of-the-blue. When I said I'd made it, she was suitably amazed, how great is that!

Just to let you know the details of this dress: The pattern is from Simplicity, it's "Lisette 'Portfoloio Dress', pattern no 2245". I made it using about 2 and 3/4 metres of  "La Petitie Ecole by French General" for Moda, in "dots grey". I made the size 14.

I bought my fabric from a local shop selling quilting fabrics, but after a little search, I found an on-line shop selling the same fabric here. Ray-Stitch sell a lovely red version of the same polka dot fabric here.

I really, really, really like this pattern, I'd make it again, especially now I'm a dab hand at the yoke on this dress. It's so comfortable to wear, is just loose enough, but not too loose, and I like the pocket detailing, it makes it a bit different.

One of the side-effects of my new interest in dressmaking is my curiosity about what other people are making, and what patterns and fabrics are out there. The world of sewing is yet another plane of crafty consciousness, and of course there's been the inevitable "I have to make that pattern"!

One example of this is a pattern that appears to be well known in the U.S. world of sewing, and it's a pattern by Simplicity, from their Built By Wendy range of patterns, called "Built by Wendy number 3835", which I first saw made up on the blog Harmony and Rosie, in this post. It's such a beautiful and simple design, but it's out of print. When I last searched I could not find a single copy for sale, not a single copy. What a shame. I found myself hungrily, or even ravenously, searching for this pattern which I had to have. And discovered that there are a few other people hunting just as hungrily.

I like this dress too. Also made by Harmony and Rosie.

There are quite a few patterns I really rather like. I've made a little list...................

BurdaStyle Peasant Blouse pattern here.

BurdaStyle Peasant Style Dress here.

BurdaStyle Tie Front Blouse pattern here.

BurdaStyle Long Sleeved Embroidered Dress pattern here.

An AMAZING website called Fancy Moon selling an extraordinary range of fabrics, the link is here.

My little list could become a big list, maybe even a huge list.

And now what shall I do? Well, I've got some red gingham cotton that I've had for years. And I bought a sewing magazine the other day which had a free pattern, I like it enough to make it.

But I'll show you that another time, when I get going on it. My knitted dress is slowly increasing too. That's for another time too.

Well, see you on Friday. have a good week. Ta-ra! Love Vanessa xxx

 

A bit of the tired-oh.

Hello! I'm lagging here, but I had to pop in and say a hello-ho and a rum-de-dum- tra-la.

This is the sort of thing that is good to say when you feel really very tired-oh, feet-dragging-oh, really-feel-like sinking-onto-the-sofa-and-watching-a good-movie-oh. With a cup of tea of course, and a complete lack of guilt too (that's harder isn't it!).

Must have been the travelling on Tuesday that's caught up with me. I couldn't blog last Tuesday as I normally would, because I was making the five hour train journey from home to Walker Books for a meeting, (I've got a page on their website here), and then travelling back five hours again to get home the same day. I was up at five in the morning, felt surprisingly spritely, got on the train, got out my knitting, and realised I had forgotten my knitting pattern. There was a moment of sheer incomprehension that I could do such a thing. I hadn't taken a book with me. But I had taken extra balls of wool, so I set about copying what I had already knitted, as the front and the back of the dress are the same in the skirt section. Hugo kindly scanned the pattern and e-mailed it to my art editor at Walker, so at least I had the pattern for the journey home. The knitting I'd done on the train to London was slightly wrong unfortunately, but never mind.

The dress I'm making is almost finished! Just the hem and a couple of buttons to sew on. Hopefully I'll have photos to show you of the finished dress, in next Tuesday's post.

I bought this copy of "The Craft of Dressmaking" by Anne Ladbury, published back in 1977, in a local second hand book shop. I feel I want to get my basic skills in dressmaking up to scratch. Even though I've made two dresses, I want to make sure I'm doing it right, and think I could probably improve on what I've done so far.

That must be Anne Ladbury, the author, on the cover of the book. I think she looks rather cool, and I love the dresses hanging up behind her, they're similar to the styles I'm interested in making. Fashion does go round and round in circles doesn't it?

Just before I go, I have to mention today's "Desert Island Discs" on Radio 4. Len Goodman of t.v. programme "Strictly Come Dancing" was the guest today, and if you've got a spare 45 minutes to sit down with your knitting, crochet, sewing or whatevering, and listen to his interview, it's well worth it, he's very entertaining. I'm very taken with his terminology for attracting females whilst out on the town: "crumpeting".

You can now listen to everyone who's been interviewed on Desert Island Discs, right back to the 1940's, by exploring the archive here. You can listen to it on i-player or as a podcast, isn't that marvellous!

Right, I'm off to make a cup of tea.

I just thought I'd type in Jack Nicholson's name, but he hasn't been interviewed on Desert Island Discs. He'd make a great interviewee, I shall never forget him flirting outrageously with his Jenni Murray on Woman's Hour a few years ago. It was wonderful to listen to, you could hear Jenni practically melting! Such a shame you can't listen to it like you can with Desert Island Discs.

Have a good weekend! Love Vanessa xxx

The Victory Jumper, and other wholesome things.

Hello! FRIDAY EVENING!!!!!!!!!! WEEKEND!!!!!!!!!!!! YIPEEEEEE!!!!!!

I was just thinking this morning, about an article I was looking at in a magazine, something to do with the Autumn 2011 fashions starting to come out. We're not even half way through Summer here and the fashions for Autumn are being talked about. It's like the Christmas season, when the shops start putting out Christmas goods at the end of August, ridiculous.

So it was with some surprise that I opened my newsletter from Berocco to see we were being given a preview of Nora Gaughan's AUTUMN knitwear collection. Maybe it's a bit different with knitting, maybe the seasonal thing doesn't matter so much with yarny things. Anyway, I had to give you a link to her booklet "nora gaughan volume 9", because there are some gorgeous patterns in it. And you can pre-order the book too. Here's the link.

Maybe we should just get next year's fashions LAST year, that would do it wouldn't it?

The garden has been all over the place with its flowering this year too, everything came early because we had a hot spell back in April.

Would you like a little tour round my garden? Before I get on to the subject of knitting?

My gardening is very erratic these days, and the plants are largely left to their own devices. In August, I'll get the clippers out and shape the Box, I read somewhere that August is a good month to do this.

Although 90% of the garden is Box, there is a smattering of flowering plants that pop up here and there. Just enough to cut a few blooms to bring indoors and not feel like I'm stripping the garden bare.

To me, there's nothing quite like flowers brought into the house from the garden, I love it.

Would you like to see how my Debbie Bliss dress is progressing? That'll be slowly, that's the back skirt section in the picture above. This is excellent t.v. viewing knitting, and I manage a few rows here and there, and they all add up you know, it reminds me of that expression "take care of the pennies, and the pounds look after themselves".

And that phrase leads me to the "Make Do and Mend" era, when the Victory Jumper would have been knitted.

A few blog posts back, in this post, I featured a jumper I had bought that I was thrilled to bits with. It was knitted from a pattern from the 1940's, and whilst I thought it might have been knitted then, now I'm in two minds. I remember marvelling at the wonderful colours of the yarn when I bought it, and wondering if they would have had yarns those colours at the time. Anyway, it doesn't really matter if it was knitted more recently than the 1940's it's still a treasure.

I was given the pointer from Em in the comment she left me, as to what the pattern for the jumper is. It's from the 1940's, and is called the 'Your Victory Jumper', from Home Notes, 2nd June 1945. It's on the V and A website, and you can see it here.

There's even a free pattern for the 'Your Victory Jumper', which can be downloaded here. Marvellous!  Unfortunately the pattern only has instructions for one size, 34/38.

I've been looking around on the internet for yarns that could be used to knit this jumper, because it asks for 3-ply yarn, which is finer than 4-ply yarn. 3-ply yarn isn't the easiest yarn to find.

Jamieson's do a yarn called Shetland Spindrift, which is the right tension, and their range of colours is simply mouthwatering, (but note that each ball is 25g rather than 50g), there's a link to the yarn here. The only thing about this yarn is that it is slightly rough, it's not smooth like merino yarn. I've seen a Fair Isle swatch knitted up using this yarn, and it looked stunning, it wasn't the softest of yarns, but it looked absolutely beautiful.

I think that you could use sock yarn to make this jumper, as long as you do a guage swatch to make sure you're using the right needle size.

Loop in London sell a sock yarn that is fairly reasonably priced, and which I thought looked nice, here.

There is a good range of colours in Regia Sock yarn, I found a UK site selling it here, and the stated tension for this yarn is exactly the same as in the pattern. I think that this yarn would be quite soft knitted up, I've not knitted with it, but I know it's smoother than the Jamieson's Spindrift.

I must mention the blog Needled at this point, because if you're a knitter, this blog is a must visit, the patterns Kate designs and sells are beautiful, and there's a pattern which she's going to publish soon (she must be working on it), that reminds me of the Victory Jumper, have a look at it here.

I visited Needled the other day, and saw that Kate's featured a wonderful animation called 'The Little Red Plane' you can watch it here. Everything in the animation is knitted, the humor is very gentle, the film is charming and magical, and you will feel happier after watching it.

Knitting aside, I have to tell you, since making the Baby Doll Dress last weekend, I have been struggling to keep away from looking, looking, looking for fabrics. I'm getting there, but I am realising that I am going to have to spend money, otherwise I am going to end up with garments I've made that I don't like wearing.

We have a little shop in town that sells quilting cotton and luxury yarn, and whilst the selection of fabrics is mostly patterned with loud and garish designs, I did find this elegant fabric above.

I have one dilemma though, I think the back of the fabric is quite nice, the dots aren't so strong.

I don't know, is it an odd thing to do, to use the back of a fabric?

I think I'll probably end up going with the right side of the fabric

The idea is to make the tunic dress in the photo above.

This isn't going to be a made-in-a-weekend project like the Baby Doll Dress, because I need to work on my sculptures over the weekend, I'm going to have this on the boil to dip into. An hour here, an hour there.

I can't let myself obsess about the dressmaking, for one plain and simple reason, I can't afford to keep on buying fabric every week. I do have other things going on that need to be done too. My first flurry of sewing excitement needs to be calmed down, I need to be sensible! As I write this, I do have a little person running around inside my head saying, "how about a bit of dressmaking when you've finished this blog post Vanessa". I suppose I COULD just cut out the pattern and fabric, just that, then get on with the other things I'm meant to be doing..........................

Have a lovely weekend! Love Vanessa xxx

The Baby Doll Dress is finished!

Hello! Hello! Hello! I am excited, YES! I am very excited, my first dress is finished, I'm wearing at this moment, this exact moment, and I'm pleased as punch! I sewed it over the afternoons of Saturday and Sunday of last weekend, and I still can't quite believe I've done it!

I'm so used to my knitted garments taking a while to complete, the sewing of this dress felt like a very intense experience, so I'm feeling like I'm coming down from a period of great excitement, (even though I have plenty of other exciting things on the go). It must be something to do with it being a new hobby.

Gosh, sewing could cost you a bomb in fabric couldn't it? I mean, if you got passionate and obsessed by sewing like I am with knitting, where you had to do a bit every day to get your fix................ well, you'd whizz through projects. I know that this pattern was a quick and easy pattern as sewing standards go, but still.....................

I know what I want to sew next, another dress, it's the fabric that's the problem, the cost of it. The nice stuff, that really nice stuff is £12 metre. If I need 2.5 to 3 metres, then there's lining material, (if I use that), on top. It all adds up. I've been going googly eyed searching the web for reasonably priced fabrics I like, I've been finding it hard to choose!

So! The details! This pattern is "The Baby Doll Dress" (not the baby doll blouse, there's a separate pattern for that), from the book "Chic And Simple Sewing" by Christine Haynes. She has a website here.

Christine, the author of this pattern, helped me sew my dress brilliantly, her written instructions are clear and to the point, and she's started me off on my sewing path feeling confident that I can sew to my heart's delight!

The main body of the dress uses Chambray Cotton in a pale pink, whilst the patterned area uses Amy Butler for Rowan fabric, I've been trying to find the exact design, but it must be an old one, because I can't find it.

The pattern above is also from "Chic and Simple Sewing" by Christine Haynes, I like it a lot. I've got a few other patterns that are contenders for my next dress too, but that will have to be in another blog post, sorry folks.

Righty-ho, I'm off to do whatever it is I'm meant to be doing! See you on Friday! Love Vanessa xxx

A Spoonful of Sewing?!

Hello! It's LOVELY to be here! Actually communicating with you! It feels like a long time since I last posted, and yesterday, I started doing my blog post thinking it was Friday, which is one of my new blogging days for the week, Friday and Tuesday, my new routine for blogging. You see, I'm so used to sitting down to say hello more frequently, that when I impose a new routine on myself, (to take life a little easier), I find myself returning to the computer like a homing bird unable to keep away, on the days I'm meant to be doing other things.

I think it is good I'm blogging less, because I am able to do more knitting, and other things now, so in many ways, I'll have more to blog about.

Infact, I have so much to blog about today, I think I'm going to have to edit myself, otherwise you will feel like you're being force fed with different things.

So! Yes! It's lovely to be here! Now where shall I start...............

Have you managed to get hold of the second issue of Mollie Makes magazine?! I went for that £5 for three issues offer they had, and my magazine arrived a couple of days ago. I've not had a chance to read it in detail, but from my first impressions, it's just as wonderful as the first issue, if not better! The expectations for this magazine are huge, because we've all been raving about the first issue, and the 2nd issue does not disapoint, no, it's just as good. Phew! That's a relief isn't it?!

Mollie Makes has people with vision behind it, and they've got influential people behind them helping them on their way, they're very fortunate.

So when I see an independant magazine that a small team of people have put together, and which is a real GEM, I want to share it with you all.

'Spoonful' is the magazine I'm wanting to share with you.

The magazine has a BEAUTIFUL website, which you can see by clicking here.

There is lots to inspire you on the website, and they've just started doing a podcast, which you can link to on their site, (I haven't listened to it yet because I only just saw they've started to do one, but I will be having a listen).

The magazine is very elegantly designed, beautiful, and it's all printed on thick mat paper, of excellent quality. It's a good size for popping into your handbag, and it's formatted so you can dip in to it for short amounts of time and feel satisfied by your read. And you know, it's not expensive for what it is, I was amazed. And the postage is very reasonable considering my copy travelled thousands of miles. It would make a lovely gift for a crafty friend.

I love their 'objects of affection' section, where you get to see some gorgeous handmade work by artists and crafters. There are links to their relevant sites which is good.

And there's even a section where you are shown how to make a project. The project in this issue is just gorgeous!

So yes, I recommend this magazine, not just because it's quite new and I like to give plugs to impressive new things like this mag, but because it's really, really good! You can buy copies of their first three issues on their website.

Now what was I going to talk about next?

(There's a Sparrow outside the window, who has been asking for food by peck peck pecking LOUDLY at the window, and also THROWING it's body against the window. I've just gone and put more bird seed out. I don't know how I feel about such aggressive demands from a Sparrow. Plus, I don't know how I feel about being WATCHED by a Sparrow when I'm in the privacy of my home. I do know I was mostly worried that the bird was damaging itself).

Right, what was it I was going to talk about next?

Ah yes, that's it, sewing!

I've been feeling like I want to make some of my own clothes for about a year. It takes me a while to think about these things, and establish in my own mind that it is not a passing fancy. If I keep on returning to having thoughts of doing something for at good amount of time, I then feel I can give in to trying out whatever it is that takes my fancy.

There's a good reason I test myself like this. I know myself too well. When I start a hobby, I get very, very enthusiastic, and I start to buy books, and anything else related to the new hobby. And our house fills up even more with yet more stuff that has to be owned to be able to do my new hobby. My rolling stones always gather lots of moss.

I can't remember how I came across this next blog, but it was the thing that made my sewing rolling stone, start to roll.

I was inspired to make a dress by Novita of blog Very Purple Person. She's made this dress twice, her first one being here. And her second versions are featured here. She models everything beautifully, and everything she makes looks very accessible in terms of trying it yourself, which makes me want to give sewing a go.

So I downloaded the pattern from BurdaStyle here. The pattern from BurdaStyle is actually for a blouse, but Novita lengthened her pattern to make it into a dress.

(Wow, I've just seen an amazing dress someone has made for herself, here, I love the striped sleeves. Gosh, this new sewing malarky is going to be lethal in terms of all the things I can see myself wanting to make).

You may be wondering if I'm actually able to sew?! That's a very good point. I would say I can sew in the loosest possible way, if that makes sense. I had sewing lessons at school, and made a pair of trousers and a blouse. I was about fourteen years old, and I got the sewing prize (!), so I must have been reasonably competant. I sewed our shower curtain, and some muslin curtains a few years ago, and in the past I've made a cover for a chair without a pattern, and last year I made the lining for my fair Isle dress from a pattern I made myself. So I'm optimistically thinking that I have a loose grip on the basics. My Mum is an amazing sewer. She used to make all her own clothes, and when my sister and I were little she made us Clothkits dresses (that was back in the seventies). She makes all the curtains for the home, she's made blinds and curtains for my sister and I too. She made the Bridesmaids dresses at my sister's wedding, and she recently made my Niece a gorgeous little dress. So all that sewing was something I grew up with, but didn't do myself. But now I want to, and I rather like the idea of carrying on a skill my Mother has.

So, yes, I downloaded the pattern from BurdaStyle, printed and then stuck all the pages together to form the pattern, (boy, does it use lots of paper, which I'm not comfortable about at all, I imagine that's something that bothers lots of people who download and print their patterns).

Then I bought the fabric, which is Chambray Cotton, £7 a metre, I got 2.5 metres just in case.

THEN, I remembered a book I had bought a year ago, when I first thought about sewing, but tried my best to nip the new hobby idea in the bud.

I'd seen it recommended, and now I'm really glad I bought it. A year after buying it, I've sat down and read it. And from a beginner's point of view, it's fantastic. The author's tone is friendly, and instructive, and there is no hint of condescension anywhere. She is talking to me, a beginner, and she wants me to walk before I try to run (I imagine she's used to people wanting to do complicated things before they've even learnt the basics).

The patterns above are for the Baby Doll Blouse and below that, the Baby Doll Dress, which is just a longer version of the blouse. It's a similar pattern to the one I linked to earlier, and I'm thinking, my hand will be held all the way if I make the dress above, whereas, with the BurdaStyle pattern, you get instructions, but it's presumed you know exactly what you're doing.

I would like my hand to be held the first time I make a dress, so I'm going to use the pattern from this book  'Chic and Simple Sewing by Christine Haynes' first.

Apparently I should wash the fabric I've bought before I iron it and cut the pattern out.

Well, that's fine, because I've started a new knitting pattern by Debbie Bliss, and I can get on with that.

It's the dress pattern number 15, from Debbie Bliss magazine Spring/Summer 2011.

I started it last Saturday, 4th June, (just making a note of that for when I enter the details of this on my ravelry page!).

I'm using Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino rather than than the Debbie Bliss Eco baby which the pattern specifies. I read that you can substitute the eco for the cashmerino. This is really, really lovely to knit with. It feels like a real treat knitting with it, and I LOVE the colour, no 031 Aqua Blue, it's a beautiful turquoisy/greeny colour, love it! It's knit up to a very close guage, so I'm using 2.75 mm needles. It's resulting in a fabric which isn't as smooth as Baby Cashmerino usually knits up. Or maybe it's just my knitting isn't even. Probably that.

Well, dear readers, I'm going to potter off now, I've got some of my sculptures to work on, and then maybe a bit of knitting. It's the weekend now! Have a good one! Love Vanessa xxx

Updating myself on Ravelry!

Hello! I've been updating my Ravelry page, it's about time too.

On Ravelry, I'm vanessahc, you can find me here.

And the page I've been updating is my projects page, which you can find here.

Have you heard of Ravelry? It's a remarkable place where you can find free patterns, buy patterns, store all your info about your own knitting, the possibilities go on and on, a world of possibilities.

I've never really got up to date on my page, and suddenly I felt it was time. I'm almost there, but it's near to midnight and I've run out of steam. I can not upload an-oth-er photo, not a single one.

Nighty-night then, and cheerio, see you on Friday. Love Vanessa xxx

Sir Henry, I salute you as you go on your journey, Sir!

My dear Sir Henry Brambles, I shall miss you.

Sir Henry last made an appearance in this blog post, and he was without a stand at that point. Now he is finished, sold, and to be despatched to a new home. Dear, dear Sir Henry. I've enjoyed his short stay in my studio, he fits there so well!

I musn't get too attached to the pieces I make, but it does inevitably happen, as each sculpture takes shape, in form and personality.

Fortunately, as the actual owner of the jumper in the picture above, I can get very attached to this item of clothing.

It cost me £8, and I know it's worth so much more than that, it should probably be in some museum. It's a genuine hand knitted jumper from the 1940's (I think that's the right decade, I'm sure I could pinpoint it if I found the pattern it was knitted from). And it's knitted with 3-ply wool, that's thinner yarn than 4-ply, and 4-ply is considered thin yarn to knit a jumper with.

I love this jumper so much. I love that is handknitted by someone from a far off time, and has been a prized possession, because it's in perfect condition, it's obviously been looked after with great care and love.

I love that I am the owner of it! I'm slightly in awe that I own it, is such a thing actually mine? I imagine that because I'm a knitter, it may have more value for me, I can see the work involved, and I fully accept that to some it might just be a jumper.

I don't know about you, but when I see films or dramas on the television, and there is 30's/40's/50/s knitwear making an appearance on the actors, I get very alert and excited, and start drooling slightly.

Now I feel like I own one of the jumpers that might appear on the screen!

The jumper on the right is one I knitted, a while ago. You can see my blog post about it here, where I tell you about the pattern and yarn, and you can see me wearing it.

And here I am modeling my purchase, above. These designs were originally worn without a top underneath, but I don't like to go bare armed.

What do you think of the Lupins? Aren't they fabulous. Unfortunately I can't lay claim to having grown them myself.

I think of Lupins as being old fashioned, and therefore very cool and fashionable. I think of them as being from the same era as the jumper I bought.

Well, Hugo's serving supper, so that means I've got to skedadle.

Remember I'm now going on to my new 'timetable' of blogging on a Tuesday and a Friday. So cheerio and see you next Tuesday. Have a wonderful weekend! Love Vanessa xxx

The MOST magnificent Hen takes her duties very seriously!

Hello! I thought I'd pop in to say hello!

I think I'm going to have to cut my blog posts down to two days a week in future. Blog posts take a lot of time to prepare and deliver, and I think I've got to take it a bit more easy in the future, I can't cope with everything I've got to cram into each day, and it's making me lethargic trying to fit everything in. I've been finding I get very little done recently, it must be a stress reaction, some panic mode I've gone into.

So I thought I'd come and visit you on a Tuesday and a Friday in future! I reckon I'll be bright eyed and bushy tailed if I keep it to that.

We had my parent's-in-law dog Cuddy to stay for two-and-a-half weeks not long ago. He's a gorgeous dog, very good natured, extremely affectionate, and very loveable. BUT (!) he also has the energy of a force 10 gale, and a skull made of concrete. I find he bumps his head into my leg, in a clumsy sort of way, and I feel like I've been batted with a concrete plank, it's painful. He just doesn't seem to feel pain, but then that's Jack Russell Terriers for you, they're invincible.

Jack Russells are traditionally used on farms to hunt down rats and kill them with a single shake, they're used because they can think for themselves, they're tough, strong and quick.

The Cudster, as I like to call him, sees a huge tyre buried in the sand on the beach, and thinks that it is just a matter of time before he digs it up and uses it as a toy.

If cuddy sees a large branch, he expects no less than a human throws it for him to chase. That's after he's gripped it in his vice like jaws and been swung around in the air, jaws holding fast to the branch. Easy-peasy for a Jack Russell, and Cuddy is a splendid specimen of the breed.

Ellie makes sure she keeps out of the way when Cuddy is on the rampage, but dear little Douglas gets all macho and does his best to keep up. As the proud parent of Douglas, it's hard to see Douglas look a little pathetic next to Cuddy's power. Bless his little paws.

So when Cuddy returned home, I had a mixture of feelings. Slight relief, along with a slight sense of loss. The Cudster worms his way into your heart.

We do see Cuddy quite regularly, and he always seems pleased to see us!

But on a different note.....................................

Do, do, do treat yourself to looking at something very sweet, have a look at the most magnificent Hen I've ever seen, here, she's nursing some eggs, and there's a wonderful short video where you can watch her settling back on the eggs after a short break. It's all on Celia's blog, Purple Podded Peas.

And I would be very remiss if I didn't alert you to a rather fabulous and generous giveaway on Mary Poppins blog here. (It finishes on the 3rd June). Catherine of Kids and Capers blog alerted me to it when I saw her blog post about it, wasn't that nice of her to share the news! After all, the more people enter, the less chance we have of winning. Still, it's nice to share a fab giveaway like this.

I'm going to knitting group tonight, I haven't been for months, and I thought it would be nice to catch up, rather than bury my nose in working on my sculptures.

I'll see you on Friday, then I'll be going on to my new Tuesday Friday blogging routine. Cheerio! Love Vanessa xxx