Seasonal Greetings 2015/16

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year for 2016

Sorry to have been quiet here lately. My mother had a stroke at the end of July and has since died. I have been occupied in sorting her bungalow in the hope of getting it on the market in the New Year, which we are on course to do, as we should get probate some time in January. TMOH has been a tower of strength as always, but naturally the bulk of the work has fallen on my brother and me. 

This photo was taken by TMOH in Lyon, where we snatched a few days' holiday in September. The flowers are about 50 cm - nearly 2 ft - across!

More knitting ... and other things

Another several months have slipped by, and I sometimes think all I've done is knit .. and watch a bit of tennis on the box ... oh, and edit a couple more reprints. Life seems quite full at the moment despite this seeming inertia, so no apologies for the hiatus in blog posts. 

Instead, some pictures of what I have achieved!

The February title

The June title 

The blanket completed in June 

The April cat for an April baby

The June cat for the Cleeve weekend raffle

...and the bottom three of these 4 pairs of socks

So I haven't actually been idle!

And TMOH is much better now; thank you to everyone who has asked.

Kaffghan Blues

I've spent January trying to finish the Kaffe Fassett/Rowan Knit-along. I was up-to-date all along with the actual knitting, but events conspired against me during the sewing-up.  Then TMOH went for some tests. Nothing we didn't already know about showed up, but his reaction to one of the procedures was horrifying and could have even been life-threatening. This was compounded by the fact that he reacted badly to the antibiotic they gave him 'in case' he got an infection. Ten days on, he is on the mend, with a different antibiotic - he's had to stop another of his regular meds while on this, as it is contra-indicated! - but with one thing and another I have missed the deadline for Rowan's competition. All the sewing-up was finished last night - and if 31 Jan had been the deadline, as originally indicated, I might just have made it, but they made the deadline 30th, so no chance. And I have still to do a trim, so I can't with all honesty say it is finished yet.

But here it is in its current state...I have sewn all the ends in - the rogue piece of yarn peeking out from under the edge of the blanket is actually from a spare ball of wool under the sofa! [and the length on the arm of the sofa leads to the ball I'm working the trim with...]

Ravelry project page link 

And here it is with crochet edging on the spare bed.

All Good Wishes for Christmas and the New Year

I have been very remiss this year and not posted anything like as often as I should have - I will try to be a better girl next year. But we will be very busy [not in the Chalet School sense!] planning TMOH's 'Big Birthday' celebration for next August, so I don't know whether this will get fitted in. I have been busy knitting - according to the gadget on Ravelry, nearly 7 miles of yarn have gone through my fingers this year. 

You've seen the cardigan, jumper and cats already, but two blankets and most of the squares for another one have also been completed, and a goldfish called Solon [you can see some of the squares for the current blanket behind him].


All good wishes to everyone for Christmas 2014 and New Year 2015

The Rout[er] of the Problem

I know, I know, I should have updated this long ago! But it isn’t all my fault – although some of it is … our router was playing up – or so we thought, and I went into our local computer specialist – who has just moved from a top floor above the local St John’s Ambulance to an ancient outhouse behind an old pub. The gist of what I said to them was, “You sold us a router x years ago, and I’m not sure it’s doing what it should, can you sort it out?” and the gist of what they said – very fairly I thought – was “See if your ISP will check it/change your deal, as that often includes a new router.”

So I looked on line at the offers our ISP were making now, and discovered that I could get more speed and fewer usage restrictions for less money, so I contacted them and organised the switch. And sat back to wait for a new router. Which didn’t come. And still didn’t come until, after several phone calls, just before we went to Switzerland.

So it wasn’t until after we’d got back that we could assess the new router. And the old one was better! The new one didn’t have the oomph to reach TMOH’s computer downstairs, whereas the old one did, and we still had, and continue to have, problems with the line dropping out. But it’s better than it was, so although it isn’t yet a perfect system, I have no excuse for not posting on the blog.

I’m not going to put everything that I’ve been doing up now, but as both bits of the family for whom I have knitted toys have safely produced their baby boys (about 7 weeks apart) I will just show the twin striped cats I made for them.

The rest of what I’ve been up to must wait for another day … 

Knitting placeholder

I really mustn't leave a Christmas /New Year message up beyond the end of January, so this is just to show you what I've one since last summer. Not as much, as I might have wished. I had about 3 months where I couldn't knit! Frustration doesn't begin to describe my feelings...I had a funny lesion on the side of my right middle finger, and could't knit at all, couldn't type properly, and even buttons and tying shoelaces became a real problem. There was a dressing of some sort on the finger from July until early November, first my own attempt of an ordinary plaster when it first came up and kept bleeding messily on anything and everything, then a professional sausage-like finger-covering that the nurses kept renewing for what seemed like weeks after the GP excised the excrescence itself. Eventually it needed cauterising too, and I was able to finish the jumper I had started in June:

Dark Grey cable jumper

I really was glad to get the cable jumper finished! TMOH had chosen the yarn, and it was pure wool, and good to handle ... but such a dark colour that it was very wearing on the eyes, so in the dark autumn and winter evenings, I was only able to attack it in short bursts. During November, just after my dressing had finally come off the finger and I had restarted work on the jumper, I met some friends in Salisbury. After lunch we landed in the wool shop - as you do! And I rather fell for Sirdar's new yarn, Gisellle. So I bought a book of patterns specifically for it - it's aran weight - and sufficient yarn to make any of them I fancied, once I was free of the grey cables. 

Beginnings of cardigan in Giselle 131

Every so often I would go and look at my bag of soft purply-pink, blue and cream yarn, and tell myself that I could start on it as soon as the grey cables were finished. 

Finally, just after the New Year, the jumper was done, and I could make a start on something for myself. I decided on a cardigan, and this photo is from when I was 50 rows up both body and sleeves. It's a raglan pattern, so I'm doing the tops of both body and sleeves all together, with a couple of purl stitches to denote the 'seam' line and save having to sew in the sleeves afterwards. I'm more than twice as far on as this now, but I haven't taken another photo yet.  

Finished cardigan - and scarf, that I had enough yarn for as well 

Season's Greetings

Wishing everyone a 

Very Merry Christmas 

and a 

Healthy and Prosperous 

New Year 2014