Finishing off

More decisions on the Circles of the Sun CAL cushion cover - which colour to use as an accent around the border - turquoise, brown or red?

Once I'd made up my samples and stood back to look at them it was obvious that it should be turquoise.

I did toy with the idea of attaching the crochet chain using red French Knots but it seemed overly fussy when I tried it so I applied Occam's Razor and kept it simple.

This part of the dining room has turned into crochet corner!

I've finished swatching for Mike's mitts. They are knit in the round, so to simulate that the swatch instructions say to knit it flat and leave long floats.

In order to check the stitch/row count you just snip through the floats and then treat it in the usual way.

I love the speckles in this yarn.

In other news I entered the Sophie crocheted blanket and my latest knitted shawl into the local Show and won First's for each category which was nice.

However the knitted one was shared with Ella's clown which she kindly donated for me to raffle for the Garden Society:

There's just one thong wrong with this idea - I hate clowns. There, I've said it! They paint a smile on their face and then go around in groups throwing buckets of water at people.  There's always a sad one in the group who they pick on and everybody laughs whereas I feel sorry for him. Children often burst into tears when they see one and who could possibly like clowns if they've read Stephen King's "It"? I rest my case!

I tried desperately to persuade another member of the Committee to take it home but no, he had to come home with me. This has resulted in much hilarity for Mike who has been seen giggling about the house as he hides the horrible thing for me to find. However, since the blood-curdling scream that ensued as I turned down the bedspread to find it sitting on my pillow it has been left sitting in my raffle box where I can see it without having to wonder when it's going to surprise me.

Tilly has been spending a lot of time pottering around in the garden whilst I've been out there. She also likes to sunbathe as long as it isn't too hot. The other day I was sitting doing some embroidery with Tilly sunbathing nearby when I saw Simba, a cat from down the lane, climbing up onto the chair next to me. I tired to shoo him away 'cos I was worried that Tilly would be scared but she spotted him and chased him into the front garden where there was much caterwauling from both of them. I was very impressed with our little lady as he's much bigger than her but she held her ground and eventually he sloped off!

One minute I was having a nice snooze in the sun….

.…when that big bruiser from down the lane came onto my turf…….

….so I showed him my best humpy back, hissed and screeched at him until he saw the error of his ways and retreated!