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.

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 :)

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.