Thursday 29 December 2011

Where has the time gone?




































Firstly a big big apology to Barbara for forgetting to blog about the wonderful box of goodies she sent me for Secret Santa. Christmas has been a little low key for me this year as I had to have two adjacent molars removed the Monday before, and I am only just beginning to make it through the day without Paracetamol and Codeine tablets every six hours. So I haven't been in the mood for extensive surfing.

However, I did remember to take photos, although some of them are too blurry to use.

Along with the selection of goodies above, I was also very lucky to receive a box of Twinings Chai Tea and a Tea Towel map of Wales upon which I had a great time finding the places I used to go to as a child, mainly Porthmadoc and Llangollen. I did attempt to coax Alex to model the scarf but unfortunately he was very scathing about a BOY wearing pink !!!! Obviously not done when you are six years old and just starting to build up your street cred.

I love each and every one of my gifts and the tree magnet will be staying on the fridge whether or not it is Christmas because I love it. So there. Once again, Barbara, I'm so sorry I forgot to contact you sooner, I thought I'd emailed, but I have managed to forget a lot of things over the last two weeks including the Christmas card for Ivan's family although they didn't seem to notice !!!

Prior to Christmas I was asked to knit the Knitivity figures for a friend of a friend ...

These ten figures were knitted in two weeks exactly, working pretty much day and evening and letting the family sort the housework and cooking. I'm really pleased with them and as I bought the book, I will be knitting myself a set for next year, but not so hurried.









I also finally got around to putting Amber's bullets on a belt for her. In the summer we visited a local twice weekly indoor market in the old Distillery in Hythe, and there was a little shop there selling military objects, including a Gatling Gun (which Alex was NOT allowed to buy however much he pleaded) and several chains of bullets from said gun (all spent obviously) and Amber persuaded me to buy a set for her. And it has taken me until December to buy a suitable leather belt and attach the bullets to it. Took me a couple of hours using a hole punch thingie and fishing line, but I am really please with the result and so is she.





















It is now ten to the Witching hour and I need a drink so cheerio for now and may you all have a wonderful and prosperous New Year.

Thursday 8 December 2011

Plodding along part two

Just saw Sarah's blog - and I know what you mean about plodding along. It all feels like I am plodding through thick porridge at the moment but I have my trusty spoon and a bit of honey so I guess I'll get there eventually :)

Alex is doing well in his special school, although still having problems with temper management, his Asperger's seems to be coming out more now in the way he behaves when things aren't exactly how he thinks they should be. But it is still early days and at least he is now making educational progress, which was not happening this time last year.

I have sent off my secret santa box - on Tuesday - so can't wait for the recipient to blog about it. It was sent by special next day delivery so please do check for postman cards and at the post office if you have been away - just in case :)

A friend asked me to knit the entire Knitivity Nativity set (now say it really fast) for a class mate on the same evening course as she is. I said I could do it for £40 and she accepted, so now I am concentrating solely on that as she will need it for next Wednesday at the latest. So that means all my other knitting and present wrapping and cracker making will all have to wait for a while. I'll photograph the whole thing and post it once it's finished. Making the dolls is hilarious as they are extremely phallic before receiving their arms and facial expressions - my OH has been having a field day. My son looked at Mary, before she was dressed, and told me that "the lady is creeping me out, Mummy" which had me in stitches. Luckily once dressed, he thought she looked quite nice. However, Baby Jesus is a porker, half the size of his mother, it makes you wince to think about it. No wonder Mary was tired :)

These are some of the little things that I have been knitting and selling to a local shop that specialises in local handicrafts. She has asked me to knit tea cosies so I am hoping to get a few of them done in the new year.

I am quite proud of myself as I adapted the snowman pattern and created the hat pattern myself. Small beginnings I know, but you have to start somewhere :)

All this means that my paid knitting has suffered and I am aware that I have 5 hats yet to knit from 4ply cashmere which takes ages, to be honest. So I need to get onto those asap, although I doubt she'll get them before Christmas.

I decided to make my own crackers this year, as the price of them is high and the gifts inside are usually fairly useless. So I am collecting small but useful items for all of us, three crackers each. Obviously it means that I already know what my gifts are but it does give me a very good excuse to buy myself little things I wouldn't normally get. The crackers are a good size so it makes it easier to get nice things to go inside.

I had an unexpected parcel the other day from Hobbycraft. Couldn't think what it was as I haven't ordered anything from them for ages. Then I remembered that I had entered a competition in one of the craft magazines round about October time, and I had won a prize :) This is a big event as I very rarely win anything. It's a mosaic tray kit and looks very nice.

Now it's gone Midnight, Alex is in the school play tomorrow, which we are all attending. On Monday he is going to Bluewater's Winter Wonderland with the school and then to Dover Cinema on Wednesday, again with the school. They do so many wonderful outings for the children I am quite green with envy :) Apparently it will be horse riding in the summer !!!

Night night, 16 days to Christmas :)

Tuesday 1 November 2011

I'm getting excited ....


which seems to be more than my children are .... what is wrong with them? Christmas is coming and they are so not interested !!! Mind you I suppose the beginning of November for them, is too far to Christmas. Alex did ask me how many days this morning and told me that 55 days is too long. Not when you have oodles of pressies to knit, it isn't. :)

I have broken into my holiday knitting to knit Alan Dart's Snowman, isn't he cute?

It's also Secret Santa time and I have a little request, can everybody remind me of their likes and dislikes? I'm having a senior moment that seems to be lasting a few weeks.

Now I need to dig out my embroidered Santa and get him finished .... I love this time of year.

Wednesday 12 October 2011

Knitting and Stitching Show at the Ally Pally

Last Saturday my Mum and I went to the knitting and stitching show, by coach. The journey took three hours most of which was spent sitting in traffic in London, but it was so worth it.

It was packed, and the necessary tea stops were fraught with seat finding difficulty. At one point we had to sit on the wall of the palm tree bed to eat and drink. This wall sloped back into the bed and it was with extreme difficulty that we prevented our drinks and food, and indeed us, from sliding into the soil. But we didn't care.

I spent an inordinate fortune, the Colinette stand was wonderful and an incredible throw kit threw itself into my bag. We saw all the big names there, including Golden Hinde (a dragon goldwork kit), Jamiesons of Shetland (bag pattern and a purse kit), Toft Alpaca (wasn't allowed to stop at that one)and we also met Jane Crowfoot, crochet blanket extraordinaire (both of us are finishing 2011 and have signed up for 2012). But I have to admit that the crowning moment for me was meeting Sasha Kagan. She was so lovely and made us laugh when she realised I was photographing her signing the book I bought, that she said, "not in my glasses" and whipped them off. She allowed me to photograph all of the lovely garments on display on her stand and gave me advice on how to increase the size of some of the stuff that I would dearly love to make for myself.

A lot of stands didn't allow photography, and some included sketching in this as well, but I was able to get some wonderful shots of stitched pictures and the knitted storks, that I just adore. And I've completely forgotten the name of the designer, which is a crying shame as she had also produced a knitted cover for a stand lamp which I would love to own.

Pictures below of our wonderful and expensive day out.





























































































































That iconic television aerial

















Strange Meringue building on Olympic 2012 site












The Olympic Stadium under construction














London skyline from the Alexandra Palace

Friday 16 September 2011

Oh how time flies and Christmas is looming again


So much has happened since I last blogged. I finally managed to finish those socks, they've been worn, coloured Ivan's big toe green :) and washed beautifully.

I've just cast on for a jumper for my brother ... it has caused me so much trouble to get the tension right. My tension square on the recommended needle size came out too many stitches to 4 inches, so I increased the needle size, re tensioned, and cast on. About 15 rows in I thought this is looking massive. So I measured it and instead of being 21-22 inches as it should have been, it was 28 inches !!!! It would fit me, not my sparrow chested brother. So I tried and tried again, changing needle size and finally changing chest size. Eventually I got the right combination but it was a struggle. I'm knitting it in Sirdar Click DK, shade Flinty. Lovely shade of grey. My brother is very conservative in his taste and will not wear bright colours. The jumper was in Yarn Foward before it became Knit, and features a lovely complicated cable front and back with stocking stitch sleeves. I'm not getting bored on this one.

STILL got Spriteling sitting on the table, she's been pushed back a bit because she is for me and so everything else takes over. Also I'm slowly working through my Jane Crowfoot crocheted Art Deco throw. Must get that finished as I have also signed on for her 2012 throw as well. Glutton for punishment I am.

I've also been getting into papercrafting, specifically cards and scrapbooking. I've bought myself a Bigshot die cutter and loads of embellishments and card and stuff and I have made every family card since. Loving it and I'm taking a workshop in Christmas Cards next Tuesday so hoping to get some great ideas for them.

We have finally got Alex sorted. He has been statemented and the statement said that he needed to be in a special school, so he transferred to Harbour School in Dover, for children with emotional and behavioural problems. He started this Monday and has loved it. We are seeing a change in him already as the school focuses on hands on doing things, more so than sitting listening or writing things down, which annoys Alex as he cannot see the point of doing it. The school has a wonderful reward system. Each child is monitored over the week and if they have been very good they get £3 that is put into a bank for them. At the end of the term their money is counted up and they are then given the option of going on a trip with it, or buying something from the Argos catalogue. I wondered why Alex insisted on taking the Argos catalogue to bed the other evening and looking through the toy section - now I know. Unfortunately his first week has been marred by a bout of the runs which had him sent home on Thursday with instructions not to come back until Monday. But his teacher has reassured him that he will be judged on a four day week as it wasn't his fault that he was poorly. Funnily enough he has been perfectly fine today.

He is also having Play Therapy sessions once a week. The Therapist told us that these sessions reopen the neural networks to the underdeveloped part of the brain that is characteristic of Aspergers, and although it doesn't cure it, it does allow the child to formulate ways to control themselves. Alex loves it. And the funding for it was donated by local charities, all £700 of it. So we are doing well now. It really pays to keep on their cases.

I'm just coming to the end of my first Open University design module, and at the beginning of October I have a ten week web design module starting. Then from February next year, I have two 60 point courses starting at the same time - challenging and exciting.

Saturday 20 August 2011

Healthy Environment

I'm working on my last assignment for my Design Thinking course and I have to design a service or a product based on healthy environment. This can be locally or globally.

With that in mind, what do you think constitutes a healthy environment?

One of the ideas I am working on is GPS jewelry for vulnerable people, that can send an alert if they are in danger - I was thinking women, teenagers, children, people working in dangerous countries such as Aid Workers and Soldiers.

Please let me know what you think about this subject.

Many thanks for your help

Monday 25 July 2011

Finally got round to photographing the socks



And here they are. This yarn is one of Allison's and it knits up like a dream. The colourway is perfect for my old man, and I'm really looking forward to getting the red and grey sock yarn that Allison has promised me :) These are my very first pair of socks and I struggled on the grafting - being left handed the instructions didn't make sense. For the second sock I am planning to do a three needle cast off to finish as it will be neater.

Spriteling is still sitting on the table partly done - her ball of yarn, though, has mysteriously disappeared - I think I'm going to have to go for an expedition under my table to retrieve all the stuff that has found it's way off the back and onto the floor :)

I'm currently knitting pure cashmere bonnets and booties for my outwork. Sue Hill is the lady who runs the company and she had a disaster in May when a fire destroyed most of her yarn and all of her stock - absolutely devastating that must have been as everything is so beautiful and such good quality, and there is hours and hours of work in it all.

I'm also in the process of working through my Jane Crowfoot crocheted throw - very late I must admit, and now I know what it will look like and I'm so looking forward to finishing it. I am planning to hang it on a pole over the head of our bed.

I've also got into paper crafting - what more things to do!!!! I have to admit to being absolutely useless at organising myself properly and have a habit of oversubscribing myself and spreading myself too thin - but it is so much fun and I never get bored :)

We are now in the process of getting Alex statemented - all of the experts who have met him have agreed that he is an extremely intelligent child that needs 1:1 intensive support to get the most from his education. I have been taking classes in Autism and how to deal with it, I am working with all sorts of experts, and Alex will be starting Play Therapy this Thursday as the school have managed to secure £700 worth of funding for it from various charities. I am working on saving money to get him an outside den with a ball pool and soft play shapes and mats for his escape place when inside the house gets too much for him. I have also been to visit a special school about 15 miles away, that take only Autistic children - there are only 42 in the school and 12 in the primary section. I'll have a battle with this one, if we get the statement, as it is private and the LA will want to get him into one of their schools - not if I have any say in it.

Thursday 21 April 2011

And thank you Sarah

For your card and gifts - like BBBJ they cheered me up no end. Especially as your parcel arrived the day after Allison's. So this week I have been spoiled with lovely, thoughtful gifts .... and feeling guilty because it simply didn't occur to me to do the same ....

But both sets of gifts have really lifted me this week and as a result I have found myself much better able to cope with Alex's behaviour during the holidays. And because I've relaxed he has too ... so it's all good :) Plus the sleeping medicine is working a treat with him, within one hour of taking it he's out for the count, and I am starting to get my evenings back.

I'm working steadily on Spriteling - had to rip back two rows or so a couple of times as I keep missing YOs by the CDDs - but I'm getting there and it's looking good.

Happy Easter to all - I hope you have lots of chocolate and happy days

Tuesday 19 April 2011

Thank you Allison

You are such a star.

This morning I was sitting at the table knitting and feeling mopey, and a parcel arrived with a selection of Body Shop goodies and a skein of gorgeous yarn in purples and blues. And a little note from Allison to say that she had sent a few things to cheer me up - it so worked ...

In the same post was a charity appeal for abandoned animals, and I was feeling so happy that I phoned them up and donated £15 on the spot. I guess that follows the precept - if someone shows you a kindness pass it on ....

I love the yarn so much that I'm going to ball it up tonight and chose a square from the Nicky Epstein book to start my collection of squares for the jacket/shawl that I have decided to make myself with an intention that it will be finished and photographed by beginning October at the latest - just in time for the cold weather.

Oh by the way I got the sock yarn out and it isn't red, it's fuchsia pink with gold sparkles. Still looks fairly spectacular though. I've cast Spriteling on and completed about 15 rows - had a bit of a problem with the 3 in 3 stitch but after discussing it with my sister, I've cracked it now and it seems to be going swimmingly.

Taking the kids to Wingham Wildlife Centre just the other side of Canterbury tomorrow - loads of birds wandering around the park - swans, geese, ducks, hens, peacocks the lot - and the kids can buy bird seed to feed them.

Although I cannot really call Amber a kid anymore. She has just had her first interview of many to join the army - she wants to join the Royal Engineers, and she has had a list of things she has to do, getting fit is one of them. She needs to be able to run 1.5 miles in 13 minutes - so I have promised that I will support her totally and buy anything she needs as long as she promises to work hard at it.

I've dosed Alex with his sleeping medicine but he is still playing his game at the moment - with any luck it should work within 45 minutes and I can go back downstairs and carry on with my shawl.

I have to say thank you again, Allison for your thoughtful gifts, they have lightened my heart greatly. I also want to say thankyou to everyone who has left me comforting and heartening comments - I'm still battling the depression but your friendship has helped so much.

Maybe we ought to do a parcel swap again soon? Too late for Easter but maybe a mid summer parcel, something like that.

Sunday 17 April 2011

Spriteling

I've taken the plunge and signed up - I've got the first clue but must be short of two or three by now. Has anybody still got them and if so would you mind sending me a copy?

I've just realised that it is sock weight that I need, not lace weight. And I just happen to have a lovely bright red with gold sparkles that threw itself at me from Posh Yarns. Sounds perfect for this I think. :)

Thursday 14 April 2011

Feeling sorry for myself

I'm sitting here typing this with my stomach and guts sounding like a bubbling concerto.

I have been mildly anaemic now for years, and all of a sudden the doctors want to find out what is causing it. So I had to go for an Endosocopy three weeks ago. Camera up the Jaxi type of thing. And it was agony, because they couldn't get the camera to go round into the down section of my large intestine, they kept pumping in more and more air until it was unbelievably painful. So the sadist - sorry surgeon - referred me for a Barium Enema - and that was today.

Of all the most undignified investigations, this has to be the worst. Worse still was that there were two men there but no female chaperone. I had two of those awful hospital gowns, one in front and one behind, but had to keep turning around on the bed as the operator pumped in air and Barium and xrayed me at the same time. It was very uncomfortable and totally undignified. To make matters worse he decided that he needed to give me an injection to stop my bowels from cramping - so he injected me in my left wrist only the first time he didn't get into the vein so he did it again. So now I have a painful bruised and swollen wrist to go with my painful and swollen stomach. And for both investigations I had to starve for two days and take a powerful laxative to 'clear me out'

Sorry for moaning - I suppose I ought to accept these things as necessary to maintain my health, but when you are in the middle of twisting onto your back on a very narrow table with a tube shoved up your bum, it is very difficult to think positively about it. I'm glad they don't video these things :)

Oh well at least that's all over now. I've had the full set - camera down the throat and up the behind, so I don't think there's much more left to investigate :)

Thursday 7 April 2011

And the beat goes on ,,,

Not sure why I chose that title - for some reason the song is running around in my head. I've chased it out several times but it keeps on creeping back in.

I have finally managed to get the specialists looking after Alex, to realise that he has severe sleep problems, and he's been prescribed Melatonin which is apparently a natural substance - secreted by the brain at night, to trigger the sleep reflex. By giving Alex 2mil of this each evening, he drops off to sleep within half an hour of getting it and sleeps through the night.

This is such a change and a relief. Previously he would go to bed at 7pm and spend 2 hours playing, demanding drinks and food, and having to be told repeatedly to go to sleep. He very rarely slept much before 9pm and sometimes would still be awake later. Then he'd wake up once or twice through the night for a drink or he'd had a bad dream.

He's had this for three days now and the difference is incredible. It's also helping his behaviour at school - he's much better behaved now than he has been.

We're getting there ....

Wednesday 23 March 2011

No brakes !!!!

Time is flying by at warp factor ten and my brakes aren't working - or at least that is what it feels like.

Funny that I should think that leaving work would mean more time to just drift along - so far it's been more exhausting than it was pre-lady of leisure - and boy does that sound like an insult now.

Alex is currently still on a restricted timetable of 1.5 hours per day at school as we still cannot get his behaviour modified. Sometimes he is a little angel and we think we've cracked it and then he blows his top at something silly and we're back to square one again. The school have been brilliant though, to give them their dues. The SENCO there firmly believes that Alex is trainable and that we will eventually succeed in getting him to restrain his frustration and find calmer ways of dealing with his issues of needing everything to run to his agenda.

Currently we have made an application to get him statemented - although I'm not entirely sure what advantage this offers us, if any. But they keep on mentioning special schools and the only one suitable for someone like Alex is an hour and a half drive away. But I guess it's going to take some time before anything is decided and I am worried that he is fast dropping behind in his education. We've tried attempting some education at home but there are too many other distractions and trying to force him to do anything he doesn't want to do just results in him having a massive tantrum and lobbing stuff around.

That sounds like we are not disciplining him enough but believe me we are. He loses his favourite things to do through bad behaviour and he knows that this will happen but it doesn't seem to be enough of a deterrent. I've resorted to smacking his bum rarely and that sends him into his bedroom but he then tells me I've been naughty and he will not accept that he was smacked for his own behaviour - and then I feel guilty !!!!!

Oh doesn't all of this sound self-pitying - sorry folks for that - but if anybody has any good ideas please don't hesitate to share them as I'm fast running out. The specialists make me laugh as they are all firmly against any form of corporal punishment, insisting that it never works and only a firm but gentle remonstrance will do the trick. And how many times have I seen him totally ignore these firm and gentle remonstrances or not even really understand them. Then he goes off and does the same thing again.

I'm knitting him a cat at the moment :) He wanted one to call Harry, but there is no way I'm having a real cat as Alex will probably hug it flat. So he's getting a knitted cat that will take the punishment and not scratch him. :)

There's all sorts of knitted toys lying around or waiting to be worked on. I've so many ideas now I'm going to have to jot them down as I keep forgetting them and then remembering them later on.

I've treated myself to two more of Allison's lovely handpainted yarns - I'm collection all DK so that they will all look good once knitted into blocks and stitched together. I didn't have a colour theme to begin with but it's now morphed into purples - so I'm intending to make me a shawl jacket of knitted blocks in mainly purples with accents coming from the other colours in the varigated handpainted yarns. But as I need a lot of yarn for a garment to fit me, I am going to have to decide which blocks I want, and how many, and then knit them up as I can afford to buy the yarn. But my birthday is on Sunday 27th March - which also happens to be Census Day and the start of British Summer Time - so I'm hoping for donations from various family members to swell the knit fund and let me buy more yummy DK for my jacket.

Having said that, I need a way to add a few more knitting hours to the day as well - I'm working on that one. I'll have to look on ebay to see if I can get a second hand Tardis - one carefulish owner :)

Friday 25 February 2011

All change !!!

I've taken the massive step of leaving work to look after my son. Aaaarrrggghhh

It's so scary as I have never been in a position where I don't know what's going to happen next. But Alex has been getting steadily worse at school since the beginning of September, to the point now where he is only going for one hour a day as his behaviour is so extreme.

The school have been brilliant - he would have been excluded permanently from any other place. They are starting the statementing process for him but it could take as long as six months to be heard. Only problem with that is that they may well decide that he has to go to a special school - and the only one capable of taking him - because he is extremely intelligent - is about 50 miles away !!!!

The saddest thing about leaving work is that I negotiated special dispensation to go without giving one months notice - as all of my childcare options had run out - and we got the union involved to proof read the agreement and they have faffed around so much that they haven't signed it yet, so I had to go quietly today without being able to say goodbye to my friends.

The biggest plus though, is that I can do so much more knitting - my stash is large enough to keep me going for a very long day.

Tuesday 15 February 2011

Generous knitters




I received this in the post this morning ............. Allison said that she wasn't happy with the colour so sent it as a freebie to try out !!!

I love it.

The colour is beautiful and the feel of it is beautiful too as it is 100% bamboo.

I don't think there is enough room on the server for the amount of thank yous I want to say.

Best of it is, I bought some DK light damson off Allison when her shop first opened and I've been looking at it ever since wishing I had enough to make me a knitted jacket. The turquoise blue of the bamboo goes so well with the Damson it gave me an idea.

For Christmas, I was given Nicky Epstein's knitting in blocks book which is super fantastic amazing. And in there is a lovely shawl jacket that I would love to make for me. So I am going to collect skeins of DK in analogous colours - like the damson and the turquoise - and I'm going to make the jacket using all different blocks from the book. The one in the book uses blocks all the same colour, and symmetrically positioned. I'm going to make a crazy paving of different blocks but all within close colour groupings.

Not sure how the bamboo will sit with the pure wool but I'm fairly certain it will work and obviously I will knit up tension swatches to see how they match. It may be just a case of changing needle sizes to get the same size blocks - that part is important otherwise it will just look a mess.

But again all I can say is thank you so very much Allison. You are obviously very self critical as I think it's lovely. If you are going to be dying anymore DK I'll be back on your shop asap .... just need the other half to look the other way.

The advantage of being part time now, is that I get home before him so I can pick up and hide any squishy packages in the stash before he gets home :)

Friday 4 February 2011

F A Cup

Well today at work I had my photo taken with the FA Cup!!! One of my colleagues had won the opportunity to have the FA Cup in his house for a day, and he had arranged for it to be brought into work.

So it was set up on a stand with an Eon backdrop and all and sundry queued to have their photo taken by the professional photographer - the DVD will be sent to my colleague and we all get our photos for free. Not that I am a big fan of football but it will wind up my brothers :)

Then to add to the excitement, the fire alarm went off and the building had to be evacuated. So the two security guards packed the cup up and trundled it down the stairs to the firepoint in the carpark - where we waited for half a wet hour before we were allowed back in again.

We don't usually get that much excitement at work !!!!

I think I mentioned that I had been knitting a double breasted baby jacket for Sue Hill who employs outworkers to produce her high end baby clothes - cashmere and merino mix, the yarn was incredible. Well she was pleased with my work as another package of yarn arrived today with a request for two round neck cardigans. This time the yarn is 80% cotton and 20% cashmere. Again, absolutely beautiful yarn, a dream to knit with, fantastic stitch definition and a lovely creamy oatmeal colour as well. I feel very privileged to be knitting these garments in such wonderful yarn. I don't even want to know how much it costs - but I wouldn't waste it on my mucky duo that's for sure :)

Working on my OU course I had to send a postcard to them detailing three things I'd like to do before the end of the year - and one of those is to finish something for myself. I have not yet managed to finish anything bigger than a pair of fingerless gloves and I have so many cardigan patterns waiting to be started ....

My little animals are very popular at work. I've already been asked for a shelf sitting chick - with long legs that dangle - and one of my colleagues has even asked for six bunnies even though I haven't even worked out the pattern yet!!! Good times.

I hope you are all having knitting fun and good times yourselves.

Monday 24 January 2011

So much to do and so little time to do it in.

From the beginning of January I have dropped my hours at work to 20 per week - 9 til 1 every day. This was done through direct pressure from Alex's school as they thought his day was too long. Well I suppose they were right although he is hardly the only child to spend time in breakfast club and afterschool club with working parents.

However, despite the fact that I was pressurised by the school and the inclusions officer from KCC, I am actually quite enjoying the part day. I pick up Alex at 1.30 - he isn't doing full days at the moment as he is having one to one support and cannot cope with a full day at school. Hopefully as he gets older, he will learn to control his temper and be able to work around the problems caused by his Aspergers.

You'd think that I would have plenty of time now. But some clown has put life on fastforward for me. I have started the Crochet Club with Jane Crowfoot, and it is a really exciting project because there is no way you can guess exactly what the wall hanging is going to look like.

I'm also in the process of finishing the baby jacket that I am knitting for Sue Hill (she was interviewed in The Knitter last year and uses out knitters) I'm hoping that my work is good enough for her because the merino/cashmere blend she uses is a dream to knit with - so soft and has great stitch definition. My only problem, because I'm left handed, is that as I knit I have a tendency to untwist the multi-strand yarn - so I have to be careful not to split the stitch. But I have loved knitting with it.

I'm also working on a hat from The Knitter, with a complicated loop pattern on the edge - slow going because it is very difficult to translate the loop into left handed knitting. It needs to be exactly right otherwise it looks very strange.

Alex turned 6 on the 9th January and we had his party at our local Kidz Planet on 22nd January. Kidz Planet is an absolutely massive indoor play area - one of the ones where there are lots of ball pools and slides and all sorts of exiting things if you are 6 :) They do a fabulous party deal - It cost us £200 (we provided cake and party bags) and they do all the work - providing the meal - hot or cold - and loads of drinks for the children. They deal with the cake and do all the cleaning up - What could be better? Unfortunately Alex came down with a stomach bug on the day and spent most of the time sitting with us - his friends had a good time though - and he got loads of very good presents from them. Mind you over the last two years I've probably spent about £100 on presents for his friends when he's been to their parties.

Generous little chap that he is, he gave me his bug and I spent most of last night being sick. Why do children only get it mildly and adults always go for broke? When I phoned in to work, I was told that I had to produce a sick note because I'd had so much time off sick before Christmas!!! That was stress and they caused it!!! To make matters worse I had to fork out £10 for a sick note!!! There's going to be trouble tomorrow if they don't reimburse me that's for sure.

I'm starting yet another course at the beginning of February. It's an OU course in design and they sent me a box of items for the pre-course activity. This is going to be so much fun. So far I've had to make a banana out of masking tape and there are loads more waiting to be done - hands on stuff - I love this kind of thing. But I'm going to be busy :)

I've also decided to take Alex swimming after school at least once a week. I've been a bit neglectful in that area - basically laziness if I'm going to be brutally honest - and it makes sense for Alex to learn to swim as we do live right by the sea :) It'll do me good as well. Even better is the the swimming pool is owned by the council I work for and part of last year's no payrise deal was that we get free swimming there - so I'll only have to pay for Alex.

I've got plans for some heart keyrings and hopefully I'll be setting up a Folksy shop. I've got loads of plans for little knits - pocket money items - for me as well as the buyers :) and I'm starting to get interest at work for commissions - a friend wants me to knit a dog coat. So hopefully, although I'll never make the amount I've lost in wages, I should still make enough to go towards knitting !!! And at the end of the day that's what matters. :)