Strawberries and cream ripple scarf

The second day of 2010 and we have just discovered mice in the kitchen.  They have apparently been getting in through a disused water pipe and enjoying the life of riley in the back of the food cupboard munching on monster-munch and dried pasta. 

So tomorrow there will be some small renovations taking place to block their entrances, and while we're at it we thought we might start making the finishing touches to the kitchen too. It has been two years since the major renovations to our little Victorian cottage were made and there are still many bits to complete.  2010 is the year to complete them!  No doubt there will be plenty of before and after shots to come this year!

But for now back to the more serious business of yarn and hooks.  As promised yesterday, today I have more on the progress of my ripple scarf...

Having discovered Attic24's tutorial on how to make a ripple pattern I grabbed some random yarn and set out to practice...

But I loved the strawberries and cream colours and the enjoyed the easy pattern so much I just kept going...

And going...

And, er, going...

I am really enjoying the pattern and it is nice to have something nice and simple to do in front of the telly, or in bed, or in the car, or on the train.  I want it to be reeeeeally long, the kind of scarf that you can wrap your neck twice and still have it trailing past your waist, cosy, warm and scrumptious looking.  And for scrumptiousness one needs flowers as embellishment I think?!  Well that's what I will be teaching myself to do tonight - flowers, more on those tomorrow!

Today there was no time for crochet flowers as we made the most of one of the last family days we all have before work and real life resumes.  We took another trip down to Knowle Park...

It was a glorious sunny freezing day and the deers were enjoying the sunshine.  Lillia was ultra grumpy but then as we joined a number of others watching the herd a small deer just wandered straight up to her and nuzzled her tummy...

Then she brushed her face against Lillia's before letting her stroke her...

We have no idea why the deer singled her out but it was absolutely magical.  Hubby thinks she was attracted to Lillia's bright coat, I prefer to think she wanted to cheer Lillia up :)

A good start to the year xx