Friday 24 December 2010

Finally - time to stop and blog

I'm determined to do nothing else for 2 hours - until the Turkey is cooked whereupon I will be baking two cakes - one for the kids as the Christmas cake I've made has far too much brandy in it for them - and one for the in-laws hamper that we are creating.

It has been total chaos the last week or two. What with Alex getting himself excluded three times !!! and knitting those little mice for people at work - I have made 16 of them in total.



My yarn from Allison arrive wrapped in a lovely sheet of printed tissue paper. The yarn is so beautiful - I really think that Posh Yarns would struggle to better this. I'll be keeping an eye on your Folksy shop Allison :)

And my secret santa box arrived and I managed about 30 minutes before I gave up and opened it. Oh so wonderful - each item unwrapped from bright orange tissue (I've kept it) brought yet another squeal of excitement from me. I love it all, and I am so impressed with the bead work - I especially love the little angel - I need one of them at the moment and she is perfect.



The cloth teddy pattern has given me loads of ideas for crafty makes to sell at work. I've had to drop my hours to 20 per week because of Alex and his problems so I'm going to need a source of secondary income to keep me in yarn. :)

It's Christmas Eve - I hope you all have a very wonderful and fun packed Christmas. Best wishes for the New Year - onwards and upwards Ladies - I feel very privileged to know you all - a wonderful bunch of knitterly sisters.

Tuesday 2 November 2010

Sorry for the long old absence

I've been struggling for some time with this and that - Alex and his Aspergers, Amber and her teenageritis and work and all of the vulnerable claimants whom I can't help as much as I would like to. My problem is I've been on the other side of the counter - claiming benefits - and I know how hard it is. So I find it hard to switch off from it all.

The upshot of this is that I have been signed off for the past four weeks with anxiety and depression. I'm going to counselling and have doubled my antidepressants and I'm attending a six week course of stress control. The biggest thing is that the Occupational Health people have told me bluntly that I am not suitable for my job !!! The council has a policy of swapping staff into other jobs if there are any available and it is needed. So this may be happening to me soon - if no other jobs then no job !!! So that is a scary thought, although they keep telling me that they are not allowed to do this.

Anyway, I never know what my mood is going to be from one moment to the next. I can be happy and optimistic one moment and then within seconds dip into the pit of doldrums convinced that nothing is ever going to go right again. This is not me.

I'm knitting Bagpuss for a friends daughter, and I have got a knitpicks bag on the needles and a plethora of small projects planned for Christmas presents. I always love Christmas so I'm using that to keep me going.

I know who my swap box pal is for this Christmas but all I can say is - could you all blog and let us know what you cannot have - for instance if you hate chocolate or are allergic to it or anything else for that matter. I know we did this last year but do you think I can find the lists we made?

Anyway, sorry again for the long silence - I have been regularly reading all of your blogs and they have cheered me up - I love reading all of this stories of normal life going on around me. I am now going to watch Kirstie's Homemade Home.

TTFN

XXX

Thursday 20 May 2010

I'm still standing ....

Just about :) The last few weeks have whizzed by so fast that I've almost got rope burns from them. I am so busy at the moment - at work and at home.

Having to find holiday childcare for Alex because our first choice let us down badly - basically they don't want him because of his Aspergers. So many people have said that they are discriminating against his disability and I should report them to OFSTED but to be honest I don't want to ruin what there is there. They do provide breakfast club and after school club during term time and I really don't think I should rock the boat too much.

Going to Farnham Maltings on Saturday with my Mum to do a City & Guilds workshop. We are going to be doing the messy arty stuff and I am so looking forward to it. I have a terrible sense of direction so tend not to go too far on my own as you can guarantee I will get lost. Mum is not much better but she has a Tom Tom and is not afraid to use it either. I've printed off the AA route finder - no motorways as they are boring - which adds 2 hours to the journey but it will be so much nicer along the coast roads.

So between Tom Tom and AA hopefully we shouldn't get lost - everything crossed :) My other half is very rude about my ability to drive this distance and says he'll keep an eye out for me going round and round the block - cheeky so and so.

I've got humungous amounts of WIPs but I still felt the need to join the SheKnits Lizbeth KAL on Ravelry. I joined her Autumn bag KAL last year and loved it. This time it's a shawlette and I can't wait to get started.

Monday 15 March 2010

HipKnits

Well, I thought I'd give HipKnits the benefit of the doubt and order some silk aran yarn from them as I wanted a bright yellow and they had a yellow through to Orange that I loved the look of.

Got the yarn quickly, and indeed it did look good - then I unraveled it to put it on the swift. Immediately I noticed that the yarn was crinkled and tangled - obviously hadn't been hung properly whilst drying. It only had two ties on it and not in figure of eight.

The first skein wound off slowly as I untangled the tangles along the way. But the second sken was appalling. It consisted basically of a lot of short lengths of silk knotted together - I got several very small balls of yarn from that - and it was badly tangled. The last skein was whole but so badly tangled it took me nearly an hour to untangle it and wind it off. I wouldn't have been able to do it without the swift.

I am definitely NOT buying any more yarn from HipKnits - they still haven't learned how to provide good service.

Sunday 7 March 2010

I found them

Looking through an old cross stitch magazine that I found lurking in a pile in my dresser (really must get that tidied out) I found an advert for the wooden craft boxes I mentioned

http://web.mac.com/johnsonroy/Touchwood/Welcome.html

You really must have a look - if only to admire the workmanship. They are not cheap though. The one I want with the options I need is going to cost me £220. But oh so worth it I think. It will look wonderful on my table and will swallow all my current WIPs sitting on the table at the moment.

Thursday 4 March 2010

Help !!!!!

I've decided to treat myself to a storage chest of drawers for my knitting projects so that they don't overwhelm the table.

I was forever seeing adverts in magazines for a small one man company that handmade these craft chests to the customer's requirements. So I finally decided to treat myself to one of these - only I can't find the advert anymore and I can't remember the name of the company. Does anybody out there know this company or indeed any other company that can produce these craft chests?

I want a nice wooden craft chest that will look nice on display in my living room. Isn't it sods law - when I didn't want one I couldn't open a magazine without seeing the advert !!!!

Huge sigh of frustration

Alex has got to go to Folkestone clinic tomorrow to be assessed as to whether or not he needs a general anaesthetic for his teeth. If he does he will have to go to the hospital. Poor little soul has an abscess under his back teeth and the dentist missed it the first time.

Saturday 27 February 2010

Swappsies




I have as shown above, one large 400g ball of Aran Acrylic and 20% wool. It's a marled grey flecked with black fuzzy bits. I made my brother an Aran jumper for Christmas out of it and he loved it.

The other picture is the banana silk. Four 100g skeins of it. It's quite a messy yarn in that it's fairly bitty, not at all smooth, but feels wonderful and is very heavy. Not sure on yardage of these.

I'm currently after a wide range of colours of size 11 beads. The patterns I have are for Delica 11/0 which I'm assuming means they are size 11. Project colours range through black to white and every colour inbetween. Especially blues, pinks and purples for some reason. Also shades of brown and green for 3D lizards, and gold for accents.

I've probably got loads more sitting in my stash but they're hard to get to at the moment :) I need to knit my way to them.

Thursday 25 February 2010

Spring has sprung a leak ...

and the local Napoleonic canal has burst its banks because some twit has forgotten to open the sluice gates to let the excess out. It's really strange seeing the trees at the side standing in the water :)

I've finally plucked up the courage to start a weight loss and healthy eating club at work - and I was amazed at how many people have expressed an interest already. Even more so as some of those who expressed an interest do not have weight problems specifically, but were very interested in the healthy eating part. We are lucky at our council, because they employ an Environmental Educational Officer in the form of a lovely lady called Alison Wood. She runs all sorts of health schemes in the council and out in the district, including cheap vegetable schemes for local schools and what have you. She has been working with me for some time because of my ongoing health problems, and when I mooted the idea of the club she promised to give us a talk on healthy eating along with various leaflets and tools to help us make informed choices. She is really enthusiastic about the subject and manages to enthuse everyone she meets with the same enthusiasm.

I've also found a fitness expert at work, who's agreed to give a talk, and a lady who is a qualified aromatherapist and reflexologist who has agreed to give a talk. And that's all in three days !!!!

I am also hoping to be able to give a talk myself, on the benefits of learning to knit and crochet - as we well know there is nothing more relaxing and stress busting than messing with lovely yarns. And I do think that knitters tend to be the most generous and kind people around.

After my 12 days off work dying of various infections, I feel on top of the world again. The last lot of antibiotics were lump hammer strength and certainly have sorted me and my unwanted bugs out :)

My dining table has disappeared under all the knitting and other projects I've got going at the moment. I've just finished the fourth out of five blanket squares for February and am ready to cast on number five. Have to get a move on with that as the others will be here soon. I've still got my own design scarf sitting there waiting to be finished - think that one is going to get onto etsy or folksy next winter somehow. Somewhere there's a box of blanket squares to be knitted for another project, and a cardigan for me ..... I've also done the back and am on the left front of a dinosaur jacket for Alex - which is knitted in Freedom spirit 100% wool and will be felted before sewing up - so I hope the dratted thing doesn't felt too small or I will cry. By the way does anybody know how to prevent the edges from rolling over and felting to themselves?

I've also got my C&G module 2 work on the table - doing the colour work bit at the moment and loving it - making mess with paints is not just for five year olds :)

Talking of five year olds poor Alex has got four bad teeth - two need to be filled and two pulled - and the dentist has referred him to somewhere else as she says they can't do him in the chair as he needs to be put out for it !!! Then she said it could be up to six months before we get an appointment. I hope not, poor little chap has been having terrible toothache and we have to keep dosing him with Calpol. I feel really guilty as I know I haven't pushed him as hard as I should have to look after his teeth - but his Dad has bad teeth and apparently it's hereditary. On the upside he's a lot more keen to brush his teeth regularly now.

And it's now getting on for 11.20pm and I've got work in the morning - can't burn the candle at both ends like I used to be able to, so night night everyone and let's keep talking :)

Tuesday 16 February 2010

Here we go again.

I've been feeling very sorry for myself since last Thursday morning. Actually last Wednesday evening to be precise. The story starts at work Wednesday watching the most incredible snow blizzards I've ever seen through the windows - in-between processing benefit claims. Now our international sisters (and brothers) especially in America, will probably be thinking - well that happens all the time here. But for us, in the very South-East of England, snow blizzards are .... well non-existent. Until recently. So a bizarre and unusual event indeed.

So all day long we had these blizzards and gradually we were getting something like 5 inches of snow building up. It was powdery and drifting badly as well. Come five o'clock and colleagues who had left previously were phoning in to say get out of there quick as the ice and snow is making the roads increasing impassable. So I left a five to find my car under it's impressive cap of snow. Having located said car and verified that it was indeed mine I set to with my hopelessly inadequate scraper to remove some of the drift off it. My other half, meantime, had given up waiting for me at the college where he works just down the road and round the corner, and walked round to the council. Good thing he did.

Now normally it takes 20 minutes tops to get home - it took three hours most of which was spent within a stones throw of the council buildings stuck in the traffic. To make matters more interesting, the radio sheepishly informed us that the roads had not been gritted !!!! What Kent County Council caught napping??? Again and again and again ... So we'd sit there for ten minutes, someone would get fed up and turn round and we'd all shuffle forward. But while we were waiting our tyres froze to the road, so when we moved off the car jerked and skidded with the effort - adds to the fun I suppose although when you're trying to avoid sideswiping a very expensive looking Jaguar that someone has inconsiderately left parked at the side of the road, it tends to redefine fun :)

Then I managed to flag down an army officer on a pushbike who told me that nothing was coming up or down the hill as a bus had skidded sidewards and blocked it. So we had to turn round, go down a slightly more lethally icy side road and find another route home.

Now the problem with Folkestone is that which ever way you go to get out you have to go up or down a steep hill as some clown decided to build the place in a valley by the sea. So we shuffled through the roads skidding and ricocheting off the kerbs, until we found a hill to go down. No one was coming up - they were trying but getting nowhere. We went down one car at a time, braking gently and crossing everything in the hopes that we'd get down at least the correct way up. Several vehicles had already overturned in other parts of the county.

Suffice to say we did make it down in one piece, and actually facing the right way, which I considered to be a bonus under the circumstances. The rest of the journey took three quarters of an hour and was made with a visibility of pretty much nothing - good job I know the route so well :)

Thursday morning I woke with the mother of all sore throats and aching shoulders and arms which I put down to stress from the previous evenings gentle drive in the country. But it didn't go away, and it got worse. Then my temperature soared and I spent the next two days in bed trying to get a doctor to come and see me. But they will only come out if you're elderly or terminally ill. I told them I was feeling elderly but apparently that doesn't count. So eventually I managed to drag myself to the nearest out of hours GP who diagnosed Tonsillitis, upper respiratory tract infection and infected glands - and then gave me some antibiotics. So I'm taking these and the temperatures have evened themselves out. I no longer feel like I'm constantly swallowing a box. But now I've got a cough you could clean drains with - and everytime I lie down - I cough ..... and cough and cough and cough ... until I sit up again - which is slightly disturbing my sleep. So now what?

Problem is I'm diabetic, so I can't just go out and buy myself a cough medicine which will help me to sleep. Way things are going, I'd better take my pillows to work with me on Thursday :) But I'm going to see my GP later on this morning so hopefully she will give me something strong enough to knock an elephant out - then maybe I'll get an hour or so sleep tonight :)

OK so now it's later on today and I've been to see the GP, bless her cotton socks. First thing she told me was not to bother buying any of that over the counter rubbish - as it doesn't work and is overpriced. Then it turns out that the antibiotics I was given on Sunday aren't quite man enough for the job and although have started work on the Tonsils and the glands, have quite forgotten to close the back door with the result that the infection has sneaked off down into my chest - hence the drain cleaning coughing. So meatier he-man antibiotics have been prescribed to kick the blessed thing out of town for good - and I'm signed off for a week.

Oh well I suppose I can force myself to knit and do some .... knitting and leave the housework to the daughter of the night and the old geezer. It's a hard life.

Got some more gorgeous poshyarns not last Sunday but the one before. It must have arrived while I was at work on Wednesday and the postman - unable to squash it through the letterbox (weakling) carefully stashed it behind the lid of the recycling box next to the front door. Only none of us noticed it until Sunday when Ivan was shoveling snowdrifts off the drive - one of them was the car. And I happened to stagger to the front door and spotted it right there. Thank goodness she uses plastic bags. The yarn was undamaged but very cold so I got it into the warm and had a coffee for it's shock. Merino/Silk mix Aran weight although I'd say it tends towards a chunky, in a colour scheme called Chinoiserie. Muted tones of lilacs, maroons, pinks, yellows. I must get the dratted camera out and take a picture - so much easier than trying to describe it.

And the only thing to help me sleep is hot milk apparently - so I'd better get some.

Thursday 28 January 2010

I have the patience of a 4 year old ....

BT sent me a text message - the day after my internet was supposed to go live - to say that they were very sorry but it was now going to be 02 February 2010 !!!!!!!

What more can I say ....

But at least I am getting oodles of knitting, sewing etc done.

Tuesday 19 January 2010

BT have &&***%% ed up again !!!!

So we are currently internet less yet again. It seems, from my hours long discussions with the denizons that inhabit BT world, that we have actually been using the previous tenants' internet connection !!!!! as BT had completely forgotten to set ours up after the move. They are such a bunch of dipsticks, the only reason we stay with them is that the service, once it works, is the best of a pretty sorry bunch to be honest.

So we're going to be off the net until 25/01/10 - hopefully so long as BT don't find something else to make a pigs ear of. So I'm having to check emails and update blogs at work during my lunch hour.

I'm currently working on curtains at home. Finally managed to get my sewing machine set up on the table. It's an old Janome that my Mum gave me. Electronic all singing and dancing and bloody heavy :) That's why Mum gave it to me as she can no longer carry it around. It's a nifty piece of work and cost her £1400 around about 1982 so it's not rubbish. I've had so much fun playing with the different feet. The overlocking foot makes it so easy to overlock the edges of your fabric without the thread disappearing into the shuttle and jamming the whole shooting match, every five minutes.

So I bought curtains at a Laura Ashley sale for the living room and our bedroom, and the long living room curtains just needed taking up a short amount but the bedroom ones were 72 inches long so there's enough spare material to make a few cushion covers with.

I bought Amber some lovely!!! material which is covered in skulls with rose garlands around their heads. She's into all of this 'Goth' stuff by the way, so she thinks they're wonderful. I think they'd give me nightmares!!! Her window is very small so one length of material covers it and I'm going to put tabs on it to go on the curtain pole as I can't be bothered with faffing around with header tape.

Knitting wise, I'm working on the first square of my Debbie Abrahams mystery blanket - the yarn is lovely and soft but is also very easy to split, especially as I knit left handed which means the twist in the yarn has a tendancy to loosen off as I go.

I'm also working on a design of my own for a scarf in Teal Green with Light Green intarsia squares along its length. Once that's finished I will embellish each square with a stitched on felt flower. I made a scarf for Alex with felt dinosaurs on it and received loads of admiring comments along with requests for more girly ones. Although I have a feeling we may be running out of cold enough weather to wear them but then I can always stock up for next winter and put them onto Etsy or Folksy as my other half keeps telling me to do.

Hope you are all keeping well and I'll catch up with you all whilst I'm at work for the timebeing.

TTFN

Monday 11 January 2010

So Sorry Allison

I went and credited Barbara with my lovely Secret Santa pressies when it was you Allison - I am so sorry but the comments still apply. Thank you so very, very much. You brightened up my little world of slowly increasing depression before the move.

Sunday 10 January 2010

New home, Secret Santa and Snow

Hasn't it been exciting? For the first time in yonks we in the very South East corner of the country have finally had heavy snow !!! I have to say here that when everybody else in the country was moaning about how wet it was in the summer, we had a lovely sunny summer for most of the time. We tend to have totally different weather to everybody else and that's just our little bit. For instance, when the snow started for most of the country in December we didn't get any. When people were sending in photos of huge drifts and snowbound cars to the TV stations, we had a dribble of snow on the hills. But now we've got snow everywhere - and the college Ivan works for has shut and Amber's school has shut ..... but poor Alex's school doggedly stays open and the Council I work for insists that everybody must make every effort to go to work as the work we do affects the lives of the public :( So no duvet days for me unless it snows so hard there's no way of getting the car out or the buses stop running.

We are fairly settled into our new home now. Still the odd box to unpack and various items have gone missing - but I've got my craft cupboard under the stairs sorted now so that I can easily access all my yarn so that's me sorted :)

Still got to get my Wii unpacked and set up. I'll probably wait until the horrible duo are in bed tonight.

And my Secret Santa - thank you Barbara so very, very much. The hat and gloves have been totally invaluable in this awful weather and I so can't wait to use the other goodies in the box.



These stitch markers are beautiful and will come in very useful when I start sock knitting as that's one of my unofficial resolutions for 2010. To knit myself some scrummy yummy socks.



I've had a go at beadwork previously, but never making jewelry. I've made a beaded needle pot and a beaded swan hanging thingie, but never a necklace, So I'm really looking forward to making this and whenever I wear it I'll always remember where it came from. Things like this are so much more special, I think. Whenever I look at my dragons (I collect dragons) I can remember where each one came from if they were bought for special occasions. Especially the ones that were given as presents or bought on holiday. Visual reminders of great times.



A yummy chocolate reindeer and from Hotel Chocolat as well - the handmade chocolate tasting box company - I'm in heaven. I've had their tasting boxes in the past and they are sooooo wonderful. I'm saving this for a warm evening in front of a great film with the kids firmly fast asleep.










The fingerless gloves that have already seen a great deal of use. Can't find the hat at the moment - it's in one of the boxes left to be unpacked. I shall have to do a hat hunt later so I can wear it to work tomorrow. I especially love the twisted stitch detail that runs up the glove and around the thumb - looks very elegant.












Nude Ewe 100% wool double knit and it's so totally gorgeous and huggable. Not sure what I'm going to make with this yet but I can tell you it's going to be something luxurious for me as I know I will appreciate and look after it. That's the only problem with knitting things for others I think, is how well they will care for it. I made the scarf for Sarah because I know she will care for it properly. But to be honest, when I'm knitting for the kids or family I do tend to use the cheaper yarns that won't break my heart too much when they end up covered in mud or oil (brother has his own garage)











Oh my gosh this Fybrespates yarn is just so wonderful and the pattern to go with it, the dropped stitch shawl - I am definitely going to be casting this on very shortly now that I've found my knitting needles. I just love the colour and the pattern.

Barbara, I can't thank you enough for all of this. It's as if you've looked into my mind and found everything that makes me tick and brought it to life. I feel myself so lucky to have found such wonderful new friends - I've quite forgiven HipKnits as their awful customer care has led to this. I still won't be buying anything off them though :)

Anyway, I've also joined Debbie Abrahams secret blanket club and I've received the first parcel and cast on the first square. She gives alternatives for some of the squares but I am determined to knit the originals all the way through. I'll post them on my blog as I finish them and when I remember !! :)

Anyway Happy New Year to all of you - thankyou for being such brilliant friends and bloggers and here's to a blogging 2010. Let's keep it going :)