Some knitting and a trip out!

I finished another In Threes cardigan for Bonnie this week.  These are great cardigans for layering and for that bit of extra warmth now it's turned cooler.

This one is knitted in Stylecraft aran yarn, it's really nice and soft and knit up lovely.

I knitted another Spindrift shawl by Helen Stewart back in September but forgot about it until I was rooting about in the wardrobe the other day.

I've no idea what yarn I used except that it was probably one of the first hand dyed yarns I ever bought, so it's a couple of years old at least.

Mark has been at home for just over a week until another job starts.  All this shutting places because of Covid has affected his work.  They mainly do new and re-furbs on Hollywood bowls but because of the pandemic all the work that was planned has now been put on hold indefinitely.  Bowling ally's were some of the last entertainment places to open back up so they have made little to no money this year.

Anyway, while hubby has been off he has been busy fixing up the conservatory, (I'll tell you more another time), so on Tuesday I got out of his way and took myself off to Worcester for the afternoon.  Stevie went to Worcester Uni and we used to go there quite a lot when she was living there, but not so much recently.

It's a really nice city with some lovely old buildings and because I rarely go anywhere now my afternoon outing really lifted my spirits.

The Eagle Vault pub dates back to around 1740 and is a Grade II listed building, love the tiles.

The Guildhall is another lovely old building, built in 1723 it is a Grade I listed building, being right in the middle of town you can't miss it

The Tudor House Museum dates back to the 16th century, this and the Eagle Vaults pub are on the same historic street, Friar Street

Another interesting thing about Worcester, Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales and brother to Henry VIII is buried in Worcester Cathedral.  I have only been inside the Cathedral once (When Stevie graduated) and always forget to go an have a proper look round, perhaps next time I'll remember.

I actually went to Worcester not for the history but for some fabric for finishes.  There were at least three good quilt shops in the town at one time, alas I think Covid has put paid to that because they are no longer there :-(

So no finishing fabric but these are some of my spoils from the day.

Three Christmas bags and one stocking for Jacob, Bonnie Oliver and Arty have stockings that belonged to the girls when they were little which Santa now fills and leaves at Nanny and Grandads house ;-)

I usually buy the children a Christmas ornament from one of the various Christmas markets we go to, sadly there will be none of that this year.   Oliver and Arty chose one each a couple of weeks ago so I got one for Jacob and Bonnie this time.  

The little reindeer is from Tiger, and is for me :-)

I also got a couple more presents for the little ones and a present for my sister's birthday in November, so a good day In all.

In other goings on, I was finally able to have the steroid injection in my knee yesterday, that should give me a good five to six months of pain relief and i'll be able to walk and get up from sitting without ceasing up :-)  

My elbow has been much better this last week, I resorted to taking Ibuprofen again as the week before it was quite painful.  Obviously I can't take these long term so fingers crossed with the exercises it will start to get better.  I have another hospital appointment next week for a scan on my wrist.  I have a small lump there which the doctor thinks is a ganglion.  Honestly, I feel like i'm falling apart since I've not been working, lol.

I hope you are all staying safe and well with all the new restrictions and tiers coming into place.  Our borough was in tier 1 but according to the news tonight we will be moving into tier 2 by the end of the week.  Looks like we will be distancing, mask wearing and sanitizing for a long time to come.

Take care, see you soon

-X-

All the Autumn things

Hello!, thank you for all the suggestions on how I could cheat in the Strictly Sock-along.  I've decided that I'm definitely joining in and I will be using some of those great suggestions left in the comments :-)

Today is another wet one.  I had the foresight to tidy the garden yesterday when the weather was lovely.  This time of year we have to keep on top of collecting all the leaves and acorns so any dry day we have we have to take advantage of, although, as I'm sitting here now looking out on the garden the top lawn is already covered with leaves again! 

I did get my October Calendar Girl stitched and finished, only just though, this one caused me problems, I don't know why but I just kept miscounting.  But she's all done now and she's one of my favourites :-)

The Autumn leaves are a gift from Bonnie 🍂🍁

I've been a little obsessed with making crochet pumpkins, I made these three last week.

The little stick stalks are another gift from Bonnie, when she walks here she likes to pick things up on the way, a pretty leaf, a nice stick, as children do :-)  

But actually the stick proved perfect to make the stalks and she was really happy that she had bought something useful

Todays gift was that lovely golden leaf in the middle.

Yes I do keep what the children bring me.  Oliver once had a small collection of sticks and pebbles in a corner of our garden, he would pick things when we were out for a walk and say, this is a nice stick / pebble Nanny and home it would come, lol

More pumpkins, these are paper mache ones from Hobby Craft, which I painted

I bought a pumpkin crochet kit from The Cotton Pod at Yarndale two years ago and it kicked my obsession off with them this year.  There was enough yarn in the kit to make two pumpkins this size (they are just a bit bigger than the palm of my hand).  I made a stalk for the other one, (not photographed) but didn't bother with the leaf and tendril thingy as I found them fiddly.

I'm going to make the most of a rainy afternoon now by starting to wind my yarn advent exchanges. 

I'm doing two swaps this year and can't wait to put all the lovely things together.

                                                                          🤶🤶🤶

See you soon

-X-

All the pretty things

Hello!  

It's been a few weeks hasn't it.  I just haven't been in the right frame of mind for blogging, it's been a struggle to get through the day most days to be honest.  I go through the motions of doing what needs doings but finding little joy in my day.  It's not the time of year, it's not even this new 'normal' that we are all having to get used to, it's just a dark cloud hanging over me, i'm grumpy, irritable and generally not very good company.  

BUT, today I woke at the crack of dawn and despite the grey, rainy weather felt, if not full of the joys of Spring, much better than I have done in quite a while.  I've got all my jobs done, baked some millies cookies, (recipe in the pages at the top of my blog, they are delicious!), gone for a walk and finished listening to my latest audio book, (The End of The Affair by Graham Green).  This version was narrated by Colin Firth who did an outstanding job.

So, with time to spare before I go and pick Oliver up from school I thought I would come and say hello and show you some of my latest purchases.

I haven't bought yarn in quite a while, in fact, I think these may be the only ones I've purchased this year.  When I saw these posted on IG I couldn't resist though and decided to treat myself.

I'm in love with all of them and I have the idea that I want to try again to knit socks.

I haven't been very successful with socks in the past but as the Strictly sock-a-long will be starting very soon I thought I would have another go.  However, I don't watch Strictly and have no desire to, so how am I going to cheat?   

For those who have no idea what I'm waffling on about, Ali, from the  Little Drops of Wonderful podcast host's this KAL every year, the idea is you knit on your socks whilst watching Strictly Come Dancing, those that don't watch, or cannot watch on the night it's broadcast come up with a cheat they can relate somehow back to Strictly thereby allowing them to knit on their strictly socks.  

I haven't been able to come up with a cheat yet, if you have any ideas please let me know, If I can't think of a cheat I might keep them for Friday night knitting, but first I've got to decide which of those pretty yarns to use. 

The pattern I'm going to be using is a vanilla cuff down pattern by Jooles, Sew Sweet Violet.  I just love how neat her socks look.

So watch this space! I could be a sock knitter before the end of the year, lol

Right, I'm off to have a cuppa in my new cup and maybe one or two of those cookies :-)

See you soon

-X-

Christmas Stocking update

Jacobs Christmas stockings was one thing I really wanted to make headway on in July but that wasn't to be.  I waited ages for thread to come in stock and spent another age tracking down one of the Classic ColourWorks threads.  Classic Colourworks, apparently , have stopped making perle #5 thread.  My LNS did have one of the CC colours I needed but not the Purple Aster.  I did eventually managed to track some down online, lucky for me they had old stock.

In the end, July came and went without me putting a single stitch into this stocking.

August stitching was a little better now I had all the required threads but with one thing and another time wasn't on my side.

(No idea what that weird blurry patch is on the photo below, must have been a smear on the lens)

So far this month I've made sure that I've set a chunk of time aside each week so that I can see some progress

And here is where i'm at so far.  I sat and did a good few hours on Friday and got the coat all done and some of the smaller motifs.

Although I haven't had any stitching time over the weekend I feel like I've done the biggest part now and I'm bit more confident about getting it finished in time, fingers crossed.

I hope you have a lovely week, I'll see you soon

-X-

Cup Cake hats

On my day trip to Anker Wood last week I mentioned that there was also a Dobbies Garden Centre on the same site.  

I do like Dobbies, they always seem to have something different and the food in the cafe is really good too.  This Dobbies was extremly good, in addition to the usual things you find at garden centres there was also a large butchers, a Ponden Mill (soft furnishings), Peacocks (clothes) and a shoe section, all under the same roof. 

We had a good look round and my eagle eye spotted some Caron Cupcake yarn on sale.

At £2.99 I had to pick up a couple to try.

The yarn cake comes with a pompom and on the reverse of the label is either a knit or crochet hat pattern.  I chose the ones with a knit pattern and this is how they came out.

I was pleasantly surprised by the yarn, it was really nice to work with and I think they came out great.  These will be put to one side and appear in Jacob and Bonnie's Christmas stocking

There is enough yarn left from each cake to make another hat, (so you could make two hats, if that makes sense, lol)

I don't want to add these to my stash so If anyone would like the remaining yarn please leave me a comment saying so and I will mail them out to you, including the ball band with the pattern, (of course you don't have to use the pattern on the ball band, it is only just a basic hat pattern).  

You will however have to make your own pompom should you want one as the yarn only comes with one per cake.

 

Because of postage costs I'm only offering to post within the UK and they will go to the first person to say they want them in the comments. 

Take care

-X-

Stitching finishes

I finished the September Calendar Girl for this month.  Only three more of these monthly ornaments left to stitch now, I'm quite impressed with myself for keeping up with these each month this year.

My other finish is The Weathered Garden, I've shown my finish of this one before but I collected it from the framers at the weekend.

I'm really happy with the frame choice, and my LNS always does a great job with framing stitched pieces, but it's got a bit expensive now, this is quite small really but still cost £35, I need to be able to justify whether it's worth spending the money on framing in the future.

I'm still feeling the effects of tennis elbow but it has improved a little over the last week, I am stitching and knitting but making sure I take regular breaks, I have got a physio appointment booked, via video, face to face appointments are still not happening, I thought it was this morning but I must have got it wrong because I got no call and I accidentally deleted the text so can't check.  Never mind, it's only via a mobile video chat so I haven't 'missed' the appointment.

I might pop back later in the week to share some knitting

See you soon

-X-

Just One Dammed Thing After Another

Jenny hadn't realised that September 1st was a teacher training day and hadn't booked the day off work, so Oliver had another sleep over on Monday night and we had a day out yesterday.

I found Anker Wood after searching 'things to do near me'.  On the same site is a Dobbies Garden Centre, so, something for both of us :-)

Unlike last weeks outing there were not many people around at all and we had a lovely few hours exploring the mazes, (there are three), the parkland, looking at the animals and adding some wood to the camps already there, Oliver wanted to build a camp of his own, afraid not mate, were only here for a few hours 😂 He would have quite happily have spent all his time lugging bits of wood around, must be a boy thing.

This morning It's back to school and the start of year three, it's going to be a bit strange for everyone after almost six months at home

I've been feeling a bit under the weather lately, not quite myself, and a bit down in the dumps if i'm honest.  I got a cold a few weeks ago, I think I caught it off Arty as he had a snotty nose one of the times I took him out, mostly I had the sore throat and dry cough, so you can imagine how it sounded to anyone if I went out!  Just a side note....if you have a cold don't have a menthol sweet and wear a face mask at the same time, your eyes water like billio, as I found out lol.

Just as the cold began to clear up I began to get a lot of pain around my elbow and down into my forearm, It was even painful to lift a cup.  After lots of googling, (because I couldn't get a phone appointment with a doctor for a few days), I found I had all the symptoms for Tennis Elbow.  When I did eventually speak to a doctor she agreed with my internet search!! and recommended taking paracetamol and Ibuprofen for a week, and no knitting, crochet or stitching, or anything that might put strain on my arm.  

Well as it's my right arm and I'm right handed that rules out just about everything!

I bought an elbow brace thingy off Amazon and, fingers crossed, not on my right hand cuz it still hurts a little to do that, it's slowly getting better.

With all my internet searching I did read that Tennis Elbow will usually disappear of it's own accord in most cases in six to twelve months.  So I've gone back to my crafting, wearing the elbow brace when I do anything and taking regular breaks as it does still hurt if I have my arm bent for any length of time.

On Monday I enlisted Marks help in the garden, me doing the lighter jobs and shouting instructions to him on what to cut back and I got stung by a wasp, sigh.  

Yep, probably payback for all the pointing and shouting at hubby.

Of course, I can't just get stung, I have to get infected too!

It gradually got bigger and bigger and I ended up calling the doctor again yesterday for antibiotics, which in itself was an ordeal because first I had to get past the receptionist!

He called me back within five minutes and asked me to send him a photo on the link he was going to text me.  At the time I was on my way back home from dropping Oliver off and the surgery was closing in ten minutes. 

Now this sting is on the inside of my left knee and I have trousers on, you can guess what coming next.  

All I can say is, I hope no one saw me wriggling my trousers down in the car while parked at the side of the road!

Bonnie has also been in hospital over-night because of a high temperature, that, thank goodness turned out to be because of what they believe was an ear infection and the start of a cold. 

And my daughter, Joanne, who follows me for infected bites was bitten by goodness know what while at the park and is also on antibiotics.

So yeah, Just One Dammed Thing After Another!

-X-