New Year and Project 365 no.1

Its been a pretty eventful fortnight, and not in a good way unfortunately. After being in some considerable discomfort for a few days, the pain in my leg became too much to bear and because of my history of deep vein thrombosis and a blood clotting disorder I took myself (my Mum took me, but you know what I mean) down to A&E to get it looked at. I was told by two different people that I'd pulled my back out and my leg was compensating but due to a slight colour difference in my thighs they sent me for a blood test. Long story (and looong day) short, I have another blood clot in the opposite leg to the one I had in 2002. Pain has been excrutiating but thankfully is easing now, but two weeks not being able to walk has meant that my leg muscles and my knee have forgotten how to support me when I stand! I can manage short bursts of walking now, and I think I'll be ok to drive when needs arise but I'm now on lifelong blood thinning medication which isn't ideal. Still, I'm still here, alive and almost kicking!

Christmas kind of passed in a pain killer blur but the children seemed to have a wonderful time which is the point really. Luckily we'd been super organised this year and everything was done beforehand. I've not been out of the house other than to the hospital for blood tests (which is happening very regularly - I've had 6 blood tests in 14 days) but once Charlotte is back at school next week I'll have to start getting myself organised again!

Now, you'd be excused for thinking that due to my bed-bound / sofa-bound couple of weeks I'd have got a lot of knitting done, but sadly this isn't the case. I couldn't really concentrate on anything. However, Charlotte has been asking me for an elephant from a book I have (Knitted Wild Animals by Sarah Keen) for a while so I got to work on that. I finished this morning.

I have also, just a few minutes ago, decided to take part in Project 365 this year. It involves taking a photograph every day throughout the year to keep track on what you've done! Sounds like fun but you'll have to cut me some slack if I forget, cause I think its going to take a while to get in to the habit of remembering to take them!! Anyway, here is photo number 1/365 ..... the empty spot where my Christmas Tree has stood. Maybe photo number 365/365 could be the tree stood in that spot next New Years Eve?

Christmas Knitting

I was worried we were going to lose Charlotte in the snow ... if it had snowed again while she lay there she'd have been covered over!

I have been feeling rather under the weather for 2 weeks now, and it's starting to get me down. Its one of those times where 60% of the time you're fully functioning, but late afternoon every day you just feel completely drained and ache all over. On top of that, due to Alfie being ill 3 weeks ago and then this niggly virus and the snow I've had I've not been to the gym for 3 weeks, and so all my muscles are starting to cease up, I've pulled my back in two places - upper right (just by my shoulder blade) and lower left (by my hip). Basically, I need to be put down, but until the vet will see me I'm stuck here complaining!

The silver lining is the extra knitting time. I've managed to complete the three bears I was making for my friends children and they're bagged up and ready for Santa to deliver. They were all up in my crafty brain waiting to come out, and I'm really pleased with them. Ever the perfectionist I can see bits I'd want to improve but I just don't have the time now, and I'm fairly sure no one but me will notice anything wrong - I'm certainly not going to point them out!!

I've also been working on a clutch purse, the pattern was a freebie with Simply Knitting magazine, and the frame came free too so I started it last week. The pattern was so ridiculously complicated as each line was different so there were no pattern repeats to memorise, but it was totally worth all the effort cause its gorgeous! I need a little practise sewing the bag to the frame as the stitches are visible inside, but I'm very pleased with my new little purse!

Lastly, I'll leave you with a picture of Alfie as an angel in his first nativity play.

Back to Bunny

I've not knitted anything since finishing Mum's cardigan, and although it was only 2 weeks ago I really missed having something on the needles, so I thought I'd use up some stash yarn and get back to a little bunny knitting. She's very colourful, and is going to have a white dress to calm the colour situation down. I'm thinking of donating her to Alfie's nursery for their raffle (they had one last year, so presumably they'll have one this year too .... we'll see).

The fireworks were excellent, I love how magical they seem, even though I'm an adult! Alfie hadn't been to a display before, last year it was raining and the years before that he was just too young really. He's always oooooh'd and aaaaaaaah'd at them out the window so we thought we'd give it a go this year. He was fascinated with the bonfire, and we were right at the front of the crowd so when the fireworks started going off we were in the midst of the action, he wasn't all that keen, so Matt stayed with Charlotte at the front and Alfie and I moved further back, we could still see everything but from a more comfortable distance and he much preferred that. He was telling me what each one sounded like; some were like seagulls; some sounded like ripping paper (his description, and totally spot on!). All in all, a successful evening. We even managed to remember to buy sparklers (or sprinklers as Charlotte kept calling them).

I have caved slightly on the Christmas Card front. I'm not going to actually make the cards, but I'm still going to put one of the little decorations inside for people to hang on their tree, I feel much less stressed about the whole situation now, no need to continue worrying about having enough time to do it all. We went shopping on Friday and managed to buy 80% of our Christmas presents so now I can sit back, wait for December and get into the festive spirit. I love Christmas, but I love it AT Christmas, none of this "decorations up in November" rubbish ... and to be honest with you, come Boxing Day I'm generally fighting the urge to clear it all away, but from December 1st to December 25th I'm very festive!

It's raining outside, it's all gloomy, it's going to get dark again before it gets light.

Christmas Cards and Fireworks!

I have spent today getting down to my Christmas Card making. I went to Hobbycraft after dropping Charlotte at school, my favourite thing to do, Alfie and I were waiting at the doors when they opened. I have been so busy with cardigan knitting that I fell waaaay behind with my snowflakes, consequently I don't think I have time to make 50 of them now. So I have pulled the sewing machine out and embarked on an idea which still uses the "put this on your tree" philosophy, but I've managed to make 23 today, a much faster turn around than the snowflakes, so now I only need to make 25ish of them, and I've already done 10.

Tonight we're all off to a bonfire and firework display. We've got sparklers at the ready and I'm looking forward to wrapping up warm, in my new mittens!

Gradually Getting Through Them

Last time I posted I had a lot of projects on the go. I am working through them at a great rate now and wanted to share a few of them.

Charlotte has been snuggling inside her jumper for a week or two now. She loves it and wears it all the time so we're going to need to stock up on some long sleeve tops for her to wear underneath.

Then my Mum's cardigan required finishing, and I can honestly tell you that I've never wanted to finish something so much in my life, the pattern repeat was fun at the beginning, but once I reached the sleeves I was dreaming about it, waking up in a cold sweat. So pleased I knitted it for her though, she loves it and it is definitely an achievement. I had a small issue with the button holes being too big, I had to sew them closed and that wasn't particularly aesthetically pleasing, but overall I am pleased with it.

The ripple blanket I was making for my friend is sitting exactly as it was left, I have however made a few little bits for Lacey, who was born last Tuesday.

It's Been a While

Well, it's been over a month to be exact. Being super busy coupled with not really having much to blog about has been the cause of this. I need to get better at making my everyday life sound interesting ... actually, I need to get better at making my everyday life actually BE interesting!

My last blog was about my wonderful boy turning 3 and starting nursery, everything was rosy. It didn't remain that way. Gradually he has disliked nursery more and more, not crying when I dropped him off but being very sad when I picked him up. For a week or two I considered it was all just new and overwhelming, then a random sentence from him put everything in to place. "I don't like storytime. I don't want to sit on the carpet" was suddenly and randomly proclaimed one day. Turns out that he's just not wanting to be told what to do and wants to just play with the toys all day! Actually having to stop and listen to a story is far too inconvenient for him! Anyway, we tried lots of encouragement, lots of "well, just enjoy the rest of it and put up with storytime, it only lasts 10 minutes". Nothing has worked and the past 2 weeks he's been crying as we've gone in, yesterday he cried before we'd even left the house. He only goes 2 mornings a week, they think this is why he's not settling quicker so after half term he's going to go a third morning (ssshhhh! don't tell him!!) and hopefully he'll just get used to it! Apparently he's not crying for long (as is often the case) so I'm fairly sure it'll improve within a month or so. I've been very brave though, only one morning has brought me to tears!

Knitting wise I've been mainly concentrating on a cardigan for my Mum's birthday. It the February Lady Sweater pattern and I'm now about half way through I think. My Mum knows its coming and although her birthday is next week she has said it doesn't need to be completed by then if its not possible so not too much pressure.

I'm really enjoying knitting it, the pattern repeat is complicated enough to keep my brain engaged but simple enough to not have to keep check on the pattern or count rows. This is the first item I've made that has to actually fit someone, you'll see a great range of toys and blankets from me, but no wearables as yet so I'm quite nervous about it. Mum has tried it on and it fits, although I'm still a bit concerned about how tight it seemed round her shoulders and chest, but looking on other peoples project notes it does stretch out once complete and blocked so fingers crossed! The colour is gorgeous, I'm not sure this photo quite does it justice.

I'm also knitting my gorgeous girlie a jumper/poncho that I am making up off the top of my head after seeing something similar that a friend was wearing. It's a poncho with a heavy, chunky ribbed roll neck that buttons under the arms (at the waist) creating a loose sleeve. I've done the back and am halfway through the front but I need to finish Mum's cardigan first, not just so that I can give it to her, but because I need the circular needle for the rollneck and refuse to buy another one when there's a perfectly good one 20 rows away from being free for use! Do you like the sparkly buttons? What a great find!! This is half of the back, the cables go sideways and the top is rolled under in this photo (darn stocking stitch) but it'll lay flat once I sew it to the front! Can't wait to finish this, Charlotte's really looking forward to wearing it too.

Lastly, I'm starting another ripple blanket for my friend who is due to drop a baby any time soon. We know she's having a girl so its a lilac blanket and I'll do cream edging I think. I'll show you a photo, but there's not much to see yet, I started it while I watched the Chilean Miners being rescued on Tuesday and Wednesday nights (how amazingly awesome was THAT?) but didn't get very far ..... didn't get much sleep either, think I managed 3 hours on Tuesday night and 4 on Wednesday!!She lives quite far away so I'm fairly sure I wont be able to get up to see her as soon as the little bundle is born, hopefully this will give me time to finish it off, history has shown I can knock one out in 4 days if I knuckle down to it so I think we'll be ok.

Phew! For someone who had so little to say I've surely filled my blogging brief for today haven't I? Now I'm off to work on making my life interesting .... and to finish that cardigan!

Birthday Boy

My baby boy was 3 on Thursday. This was also his first day at nursery. He's had a big week, and therefore I have also had a big week. He has been worried about going to nursery, we've had a few nightmares in the past 10 days, waking up scared of trains, giants etc etc but knowing the little man as I do I suspected the anticipation of nursery would be more worrying than the actual reality of it. I was right. I busied myself with a few bits of paperwork and he wandered off to play, when the time came for me to leave he seemed quite content and for a moment I considered just sneaking out, but it was his first day AND his birthday, I couldn't bring myself to just creep away without saying goodbye. So I went to where he was playing and asked for a kiss, he gave me a kiss, said goodbye and that was that!! I was very proud of him, and a little bit choked up, but mainly I'm excited for him, he's going to have so much fun there!

This weekend we had a little teaparty for his birthday, all the family came round to make a fuss of him. I made cupcakes, we ate lots and laughed lots. I love having the whole bunch round. We've only got a tiny place, but there's nothing nicer than it being filled with laughter. Nothing made us laugh more than the little man dressed as Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story!

Today the birthday boy has a runny nose and has seemed a little under the weather, lets hope its nothing that wont move on as quickly as it came! Don't want it ruining the week ahead for him, although I'm somewhat concerned he's going to expect present after coming home from nursery every time! Day two tomorrow, I'll keep you posted!