Missing in Action

So sorry I seem to have disappeared off the face of the earth this last week.  I promise that I am doing really well, but I still haven't felt inclined to take photos or model nice knits.  My surgery really was a great success and the cuts are nearly all healed over now.  I'm still a little bruised (both inside and out) which is one reason I haven't been blogging.

The other reason I haven't been blogging is my lovely man has been home all week with me.  This is because in the UK, with the extra Bank Holiday because of the Royal Wedding, he could take 3 days leave and be at home for 10 days.  Why would anyone miss up this opportunity unless they weren't allowed to?  My OH (which means Other Half to those who haven't heard of this abbreviation before) had reserved this holiday before my surgery was booked, but it turned out nice to have him around this last week while I was recovering.  We have also had glorious weather this week in the UK so we have been lolling about outdoors. 

I have now been out the house twice since I got home.  Once, when we went out for lunch and then again yesterday we went to a friend's house.  These friends live just round the corner, and there were lots of lovely people we hadn't seen in a while, and I got to play with a couple of gorgeous babies.  A lovely afternoon out, which didn't end in me screaming in pain - WIN!

As today is my birthday (and my OH's too!) we are hoping to go out for dinner this evening to our favourite Indian restaurant, that is if they pick up the phone and let us make a booking!  Before my surgery I would never have considered going out two days in a row, it just wasn't possible, so you can see how much of a success the operation was.

I just hope that once the OH is back at work on Tuesday I will get my proper blogging mojo back and I'll start catching up on my photography.

So thank you all for your best wishes and inquiries after my health, I'm doing great.  However, it makes me feel even better, knowing that I have lots of good thoughts heading my way from all you lovely peeps around the globe!  What a fabulous lot you are.

Hopefully normal service will resume shortly, and my output may well increase in line with my lower pain levels!  Well either that, or I'll be constantly going out and won't have time to craft...... nah, I'll always have time to craft!

I am HOME!!!

This is just a quick post to say I'm home surprisingly early from hospital.  I was guessing I would be in for 4-5 days like the last time I had this procedure, but I could have gone home the same day as my op, if I hadn't started throwing up when my OH came to pick me up.

Ah well, after a good night's sleep my second day in hospital was actually quite a laugh.  I was on a ward with some really lovely ladies, who all admired my knitting, and I handed out my new MOO.com business cards.  They were on special offer a couple of weeks ago and I couldn't resist.  They look really good, and I had meant to show you them (but I forgot).  As most of these ladies wanted to see my finished Recovery Sweater I thought they could look it up on the blog.  I also got a couple of the members of staff on the ward talking about knitting too.  I felt by the time I left, my crafting evangelizing was done!

I have no pictures to show you in today's post (I'm certainly not going to photograph my four little wounds on my tummy) as I'm not really up to taking pictures, but I felt I should let folks know that I am back and doing ok.

I am feeling really positive about how much this operation is going improve things for me (at least for a while).  I know my new tablets really helped with the pain management too.  Only one little morphine jab for me in recovery and then just back on to my ordinary meds.

I'm hoping I'll be able to cut back on some of my heavier duty pain killers (Tramadol I'm looking at you here) as the wounds heal, which would mean I would feel safe to drive again, YAY!  However, with adhesions there is a very high risk of them growing back after surgery, so I'm not going to get too ahead of myself, but I AM going to try and really enjoy this Summer while I can.

So hopefully I'll rest up this week and take it easy while I heal, then I intend to get cracking with my posting proper again.

Hope to see you soon with some pretty photos!

Knitting Round Up

This time tomorrow I'll be in surgery (ARRGHGHGGHG!!!!) To help me stop thinking about it, I decided to do one last post and update you with all my knitting.

I finally finished my Chain Mail Socks from my Cat Bordhi book, Personal Footprints for Insouciant Sock Knitters: Book Two in the New Pathways for Sock Knitters Series. (I talked about where I got this book in this post).  The stitch pattern is great but it did get very tedious after a while.  I decided to only make quite short socks (again)!

In a way, I think it was a good decision as the stitch pattern was getting tighter as it grew in length.  That is one of the many disadvantages of having rugby player legs, nothing fits!  However, the stitch pattern is rather lovely.

The main problem with these socks that the pattern does get a little lost in the yarn striping.  Not that many people will get to see the sock tops, but it still feels a shame.  The pattern really hugs the ankle, so if the sock was longer, it would probably stay up without a problem.

It never ceases to amaze me how weird these socks look when they aren't on a foot, but they fit like a dream.  This yarn was a real delight to knit with, so when I went to my friend Mary Clare's new lock up, and saw the same yarn but in sunshine yellow, I scooped up the two skeins in the basket in front of me, panicking that I would miss out, not realising there was a stack in the next room - doh!

This yarn colour just cheers me up so much.  The yarn is Schoeller+Stahl Fortissima Socka Mexiko Color and I know I'm going to end up going back for the pale blue version as well!  I decided that as I had 2 skeins of 100g then I could try and make long socks for a change.  I am doing them the same way the last few pairs have been made, toe up and two at a time, and I'm using the Ribbed Leg sock pattern from the Cat Bordhi book.

I'm hoping that these socks will be the perfect choice for my post surgery sock knitting.  I think I will be taking these in with me, while I wait for my turn on the operating table, as the colours just make me smile! (I need something to cheer me up while I wait!)

I have also got started on the cardigan I was talking about here.

Aren't the colours in this yarn beautiful?  This yarn is just begging to be knit and I was motoring along very quickly when disaster struck and my needle broke!  I love how KnitPro Options are guaranteed.  The lovely Alison at p2tog, has promised that my new needles will be with my today, so if I want I can take this into the hospital.  I think however, it will be better left for when I get out, as I haven't reached the point of brainless knitting yet.

I've added on the stitches for the wide fronts, but I haven't yet reached where I divide for the arms.  I think even if the needles do arrive today, I will leave the Wrapigan (cross between a cardigan and a wrap) for when I get home.  It's not like I have a shortage of projects to keep me entertained in the hospital!

So there you have it, a little update to keep you satiated until I can reach a keyboard once again.  Here are my current WIPs, which I hope to have well in hand by the next time I blog.

Wrapigan -blogged here.
Ribbed Leg Socks
Mirage Spiral -blogged here.
My Glamorous Scarf -blogged here and here.
Recovery Sweater -blogged here, here and here.

It does seem like a lot of WIPs but I am going to be lying flat on my back for a few weeks.  I don't want to have to think about what to cast on next.  These are all at simple stages, where I can pick them up and knit without really having to look at the pattern.  Perfect surgery knitting.

Thanks once again for all the wishes of success.  I'm sure everything will go fine, and in a couple of months I'll be creating even more lovely things that don't require me to make them lying flat on my back anymore!

Spring Photos

As everyone has been so lovely about my rubbish health this week, I thought I would reward you with the cute and/or pretty photos I took last weekend when the sun was shining.  They do not fit in with any photo challenges at all.  In fact I am way behind on my WPC 2011, but I do intend to catch up.  My aim is to have 52 photos at the end of the year that I can make into a photo book to sum up my progress over this year.  So as I intend to have 52 photos for that, I will have to catch up smartish when I'm up and moving again.

Until I have less pain and more strength, these photos will have to hold you, and I have to say I am slightly proud of them.  My photography is still improving with each batch I take.  It is so rewarding to be able to see my progress so clearly, just from practising.

© 2011, Chrissy Fletcher - Daisy

© 2011, Chrissy Fletcher - Dandelion

Not bad for two weeds are they?  I love the sunny yellow in both flowers.

© 2011, Chrissy Fletcher - Orange Tulip

This tulip is the single flower of this type, that is hidden underneath our apple tree.  All the other tulips we have are bright red and yellow.  I love this one blended flower that we have.

© 2011, Chrissy Fletcher - Apple Blossom

Speaking of apple trees, our cooking apple tree is really well established.  It was part of the orchard that our street was built on, in the 1930s.  Nearly all the gardens have at least one fruit tree still in place.  We have this apple tree and four damson trees.  We also have an eating apple tree that was planted by the previous owners on a dwarf stock, so it is tiny.  We usually have about three apples in total from that tree.  The cooking apple tree, showers our lawn with enormous fruits for about a month.  We don't bake sadly.

This year our eating apple tree is full of blossom, so we are hoping to have slightly more apples from it.  As this photo was taken last weekend, you can imagine how beautiful the trees look this weekend.  I wish I had the strength to take the camera out, but I don't, so you shall have to imagine it's delicate flowers instead.  They really are beautiful.

© 2011, Chrissy Fletcher - Bleeding Hearts

I love the Bleeding Heart plant.  Every year it appears for a brief spell of colour and beauty.  Then it disappears into insignificance again.  We have a white version that comes up in a few weeks, after this one starts to die away again.

© 2011, Chrissy Fletcher - Fat Cat

You can see our sea of yellow and red tulips in the background of this photo, but mainly what you can see is my fat cat, lazing around as usual.

© 2011, Chrissy Fletcher - Parsley waving like a Royal Cat

I really enjoyed taking these photos of my cat as we both lazed around on the grass.  I must have taken dozens of photos that I whittled down to three.

© 2011, Chrissy Fletcher - What does Parsley Spy?

This has to be my favourite photo of all.  I love the way the shadows fall on her coat and how her eye glints in the grass.  I've always struggled to take photos of my black and white cat, as her features were often hidden by poor lighting, but reading and learning about the different settings on my camera has meant I've been able to get some really nice ones of her lately.  As she's so lazy, she's a great model!

So there you have it, some more photos from this beginner, that I hope you like.  Oh by the way, all the plants in our garden were put in by the previous owners before we moved in, 6 years ago.  My poor OH spends most of the nice weather wrestling with it to stop it taking over completely.  Maybe one day we'll put in some nice low maintenance shrubs, but until then, I get some pretty flowers to photograph.

Oh and for the record, the hayfever has been bashed into submission by the antihistamines and my head no longer feels like it is about to explode.  My pain today is more of the usual kind from having so many chores to do last week.  Just four more sleeps until the surgery!!!  Oh and I get to take a mobile phone into the hospital so I can hopefully update my Facebook page if nothing else to let you know how I'm doing.  You can follow my Facebook page by either clicking the "LIKE" button on the right hand side of my blog, or by just looking at my page, which can be found here.  However, If you click the "LIKE" button you will receive updates made on my Facebook page, which includes when blog entries are put up and tweets, in your newsfeed.

Hope to be back and blogging soon!  Thanks again for all your well wishes and support, it really does mean and awful lot.

Ramblings of an Ill Knitter...

Yup, this week I have been struggling a bit.  Strangely not just because of the normal pain thing, though that hasn't helped.  I have been waking up several times a night needing to either:

1. move because of the pain,
2. move to get a drink because of dehydration caused by the medication, or
3. go the loo, because of the excessive liquid intake!

What fun!  The cat thinks it's great that she has someone to play with during the night.

However, aside from that I have had a niggly cold for a while and because of my tablets I can't take cold relief medicine.  I make do with menthol based cures, which for the main part work ok. but the last couple of days have been horrific.  My eyes were sore and my sinuses were screaming.  All I could do was go to bed and hope for sleep to hit.  Then after two days of this suffering I wondered whether it might possibly be hayfever.  I took an antihistimine last night and today I don't feel half as bad today.  I still a bit of a sore throat and I'm sniffly, but no screaming eye socket pain and swollen sinuses.  Yay, I can think again.  However, I don't have much stuff to share with you, but I'll show you what I have got.

My Heliotropic Pullover, is coming along nicely.  In fact, now I have it joined under the arms it is all stocking stitch from here on in.  It has been placed aside, with reluctance, to be finished in hospital.  It isn't much further on from last time I showed you, but at least you can see vaguely how it will look.  Just pretend the blue t-shirt underneath is yellowy-green and you will see exactly how it will look once it is finished (I hope).

As planned, I have also cast on for the Wakefield Scarf, using Artist's Palette Gleam Lite.  It is so pretty already.

I've done a bit more since this photo was taken, as I wanted to get the pattern set up properly.  I do love working on this pattern and yarn combo.  It feels such a treat, and I can't wait to be able to wear it.  It's nice to know that it will work out beautifully, which is odd, as I usually like to try new things all the time.  Maybe the uncertainty of the coming weeks is making me seek out something comfortable and predictable.

I am also currently working on creating a cardigan with sort of wrap fronts.  I have a cardigan like that, which I bought in a shop.  I love the idea so much that I am going to use my precious Araucania Ranco Multy to knit it.

I love this colourway, and got it for the bargain price of less than £20 for all 5 skeins, including postage.  Since I wound all 5 skeins into yarn cakes, I love the colour even more.  I have swatched and it looks even better than that knit up!

I thought about using the Hestia pattern by Jacqui Knits, to make my cardigan, as it is the closest thing I could find, to my existing garment.

© 2010, Jacquelyn Ridzy

After looking at the pattern on other knitters I decided it wasn't quite right.  I wanted the pattern to have much wider front panels, to really wrap me up.  I also really liked the Daedalus pattern from knitty.com.

© 2011 Jodie Gordon Lucas

I really liked this pattern, but I just wanted something in plain old stocking stitch.  I thought the lace might get lost in the colour changes.  It also doesn't really sit on the shoulders well enough for wrapping it around, which I want to do.

Basically, as always, I couldn't find exactly what I wanted to knit, so I have dug out my trusty Custom Knits.

Honestly, this book is the best few pounds I've ever spent!  I have used it time and time again.  I have done my swatch in my new yarn and I think I'm going to make it as a top down raglan.  That way there will be lots of very long rows that don't need concentration.  See how I'm planning in advance here?  Then if the garment stretches too much I'll put in some false seams to give structure.  I have taken measurements from the much loved shop bought cardigan, so between having something to match it up against and being able to try it on as I go, I think this could turn out ok.

I don't know if I'll have anything to show you before I go into hospital next week, but you never know.  Everything feels so jumbled up at the moment, I can't predict how I'm going to feel from one day to the next.  So, I'm just going to roll with it, and if self inflicted commitments, ie blogging, get missed, then so be it.  It isn't the end of the world, but I will try and read my favourite blogs and leave comments when I can.

So until I feel the urge to write again, see you at your place!

Alpaca Wrap

Woohoo, I have a finished object to share on Finished Object Friday.  Not only that, but it is alpaca - which is fibre based so I am appropriate for my two other linky parties Fiber Arts Friday and Fibers on Friday.  Look at those lovely buttons - don't you want to click on them, just once to see what else other people are making.  Go on you know you want to!  Just remember to come back and see my lovely alpaca wrap - it's very pretty.

Now aren't you glad you came back.  Just to reward you, I'm going to show you a very pretty stitch pattern.

I adore my wrap. I cast off yesterday and got it on the blocking boards straight away.  It was dry by this morning.  I removed it immediately and I whisked it away for it's star photo shoot.  I love how versatile this wrap turned out.

Just wearing it draped around my shoulders looks pretty good.  The pattern suggests that you can use buttons made into cufflinks to hold the wrap together through the lace holes.  I have better than that, I have actual cufflinks.  My Mum gave them to me ages ago for a really nice blouse I shrunk out of.  I can use this set to hold the wrap closed at the front or for making sleeves.

I'm thinking maybe I could do with another set on each arm for this particular style.  But even so, it feels very glamorous, like a 1930's movie star.

This style has the cufflinks holding the back edges together to produce a waistcoat.  I could also clip the front together as there is enough stretch in the lace pattern to do so.

Then of course, there is the good old fashioned shawl pin to hold the wrap closed around my shoulders.

This wrap is so deliciously warm and adaptable, I know that I will wear it a lot.  I also think it will be one of the first things I pack, whenever I go away anywhere.  It will be perfect instead of multiple jackets and cardigans.

This wrap was made using Ember's Embrace by Amy Wunx.  I made the wrap wider, than suggested, by 2 pattern repeats, which gave a total cast on stitch count of 81.  The yarn I used was Toft Alpaca DK, which I bought direct from the farm, on a little trip I took last year.  As this yarn was bought from the discount bin, two skeins of the three I used, had a few worn parts that I had to splice together.  I didn't particularly enjoy doing that, but it was in only a couple of sections where it was repeatedly worn.  I will be interested to see if the full price lace yarn has any worn places.  I'm expecting it to be fine.

Now I've wet blocked this wrap, the yarn is much softer and smoother.  The lace pattern shows up beautifully and it is a really lovely enhancement to this gorgeous British Yarn.  I think this yarn and this pattern only enhance each other.  They are the perfect match.

A friend is taking me to lunch today, so I am planning on wearing my new wrap and feeling very glamorous and sophisticated!  Mind you the sun is shining for once, I hope it won't be too warm to be worn.

Confession Time

Erm you know how during Knit and Crochet Blog Week I said that I was trying to be a more mindful knitter and not buy as much yarn - especially as I have no more room in my newly organised stash?

Well I bought yarn (ducks behind sofa to avoid the hecklers' cabbage and rotten eggs).  I have an excuse - honest I do.   It is all YOUR fault!  (Points accusingly at fellow heckling bloggers).  I had no defence against the lovely yarns and patterns you all linked to during Blog week.  I drooled so much over the lovely yarns and the pretty patterns, I might possibly have got a bit giddy with it all.

Firstly, I had been resisting like mad the latest update on Kemps.  If you have never heard about the marvellous Clearance Section of Kemps Wool Shop, you are probably lighter in stash and heavier in pocket than the rest of us.  They have lots of great bargains with end of line yarns and discontinued colours of well known brands.  It means that often a garment's worth of yarn is affordable.  The yarn in question, that I had been resisting with all my will, was the Sirdar Tweedie, which I used to knit Martin's Manly Scarf, and the matching Manly Hat.  I really liked this yarn.  It is chunky and soft with density, without being heavy, made up of 45% Acrylic, 40% Wool and 15% Alpaca, and I believe it may machine wash.  It is a lovely yarn and I really wanted to knit myself something in it.  I have never bought this yarn for myself, as it has a short meterage, and then I saw lovely colours on Kemps.  I particuarly loved the Mallard colourway.  I was doing really well at resisting until I saw a pattern on someone's blog.  (I hate that I can't remember who it was who was talking about this pattern.)

The pattern in question was Josephine from Knitty, Fall 2005.  I am now totally smitten with this pattern.  I have no idea why, I'm not even sure it will suit me, I just know I have to knit it.  Then I looked at the yarn requirements, and the next thing I know I've got a bundle in front of me, courtesy of the nice people at Kemps.

Come on, you have to admit, it is a damned fine colour isn't it?  And look at all the little specks of tweedie yumminess.

At the bargain price of £1.62 per skein (if you include postage) I really was powerless to resist.  At least grant me that knowing what I want to make with it, before I buy the yarn, is at least a step in the right direction??

And that all sounds so well and good until you consider my next slip up.  I accidentally saw on my Twitter feed the tweet from @PoshYarn, telling everyone that the shop update was going live in an hour.  I saw the tweet 1 hour and 10 mins after it had been posted.  I went and had a look at the shop update out of curiosity and look what slipped into my basket.

It is Daisy sock yarn, which is comprised of merino wool and bamboo, which gives it a lovely sheen.  The colourway is 76 Trombones and I fell in love with it.  I felt it was meant to be when I saw there were 2 skeins left (or maybe I was so shocked that there were some skeins left unsold, when I went to the site, that I blacked out).  By the time my purchase had completed, the shop had sold out of pretty much everything.  You have to move fast on update day with Posh Yarns, and this is the first time I've bought Posh Yarn.  One day I'm going to treat myself to one of her saturated and sumptuous cashmere yarns, when I empty a couple of boxes of stash that is, oh and wait on the website until it goes live so I can snatch it from the jaws of other knitters.

So I have been quite bad this week, my only excuse is that I'm feeling a bit wonky about the upcoming surgery and I wanted something to pick me up.  I have to confess that it worked!  Oh and for the record, I managed to squeeze all the new skeins, in the new stash storage system - woohooo!

Normal Service is Resumed - WIPW

After the madness that was Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, normal service has now resumed, ie irregular postings that occasionally match up with other stuff that's going on in the land of the internets.

As it is a Wednesday, I thought I would get back into the swing of blogging again by joining in with my good buddies on Work In Progress Wednesday, hosted by Tami.  You can look at other people's blogs by clicking on the button.  (But don't forget to come back and finish reading about my adventures in crafting, or I'll wish I'd put the button at the bottom of the post like I normally do!)

OK, you're back now are you?  Good, so last week kind of wiped me out so I didn't start anything new, I just kept on trucking with what was already on the needles.  However, one of these projects was something I hadn't shared with you before last week hit.  This project is using up my left over yarn from my Mum's Christmas/Birthday shawl. Originally this yarn was going to make a big cardigan for me, but Mum loved the yarn so much I had to use it for her and the shawl did turn out beautifully.  So as I have 2 and a half skeins of this stuff left I decided to make a cushion for the cat.  I decided on using Frankie's Ten Stitch Twist pattern as I like the effect of the slightly ridged spiral.  This is what I have so far.

I think this is going to look very pretty, but I'm kind of inclining towards making it a circular throw and hanging it over the back of the sofa, as the colours really work in my lounge.

Aren't the ridges pretty?  I love how they emphasise the contrast between each colour on the spiral.  I shall decide as it get's bigger what I am going to do with it, and especially if I have enough yarn to make a circular throw.

The alpaca wrap I've been working on, is going great guns now I am using life lines!

Un-stretched it is probably about 50"-60", so blocked out it will be a great size.  I'll probably do a couple more repeats and then do the seed stitch edging before casting off.  I think this will be  a very versatile garment.

And decorative too!  I really want to get this off the needles and on the blocking board.  I just want to wear it!

Yesterday I woke up feeling lousy.  I couldn't face doing any knitting and I was cold, so I pulled out that old chestnut the Year in a Blanket!  I can't believe I have been doing this since January 2009 - isn't that appalling!  Anyway I decided to sew up the brown cabled squares and add them to the top.  I laid out the squares, and when I pulled out this amazing flannel I bought for backing the blanket, I realised that I couldn't add two more rows of blocks to each side of the blanket.  The fabric was too narrow!

So I took off two blocks per row of brown cabled squares and attached them to the blanket.  I now have something that is the perfect size for covering me while laying on the sofa.

I'd forgotten what a wonderful weight this blanket it was.  As it is wool/cotton, it is cozy but not heavy.  It's also not overly sweaty!  The flannel I bought for the backing of this blanket is just perfect.  I washed it to pre-shrink it and it is so soft and fuzzy now.  I think this shrinkage is what caused the difference in width planned and actual width of the blanket.  Never mind, it will be a good size whatever width it is.  At least it covers my toes!

I got this flannel it from The Bramble Patch last Summer.  Oh how I love that shop!  So now all I have to do on the knitting front is try and stop the curling under of the edges.  I know attaching the blanket to the backing will sort that out, but I still think I want to square it up a bit.  I can't decide whether to knit strips and sew them on, so the seams give structure, or whether to pick up and knit the edges to give an invisible finish.  The other option is to knit the edging on as I go round.  It's a tough one.  Advice please from you knitting gurus out there.  I know there must be one or too among you new followers!  By the way welcome if you have only just joined me.  I was very giddy when I saw how many people had decided to follow me recently.  It helps me feel like I'm not talking to myself!

Anyway, that is where I am up to on my WIP.  Sadly I've not made any progress on my Chain Mail socks, but I plan on working on that over the next week.  I don't know if I'll have anything finished to share with you on Friday, but I'm going to do my best!

Knitting & Crochet Blog Week 2011 - Day Seven: Your knitting and crochet time

In my book, ALL time is knitting and crochet time.  Well maybe I should amend that to "crafting time".    Crafting is my life, I think about it, dream about it, sketch notes about it and am constantly carting around big hanks of yarn and pointy sticks.  All my handbags have to be big enough to contain at least a small yarn based project.  Without crafting most of my time would be empty.

Knitting started as a hobby, a means of filling the wide gaping hours of the day, waiting for my OH to come home from work.  When I first became ill, and stopped working, I would sit on the sofa and watch tv.  I would do cross stitch patterns, which became more and more complex but never really changed.  All the stitches and materials were the same, it was just the colours, and the order in which they were stitched that was different.  I knew I needed to find something else to distract me, something pretty, but useful, and I took up with the sticks and string.

Within weeks of starting to knit I was knitting for big chunks of each day.  I would sit on the sofa and half watch tv while I muddled through tricky new techniques.  I would surf the net looking for tutorials and study books and magazines. 

After a period of knitting on my own at home, I decided to come out as a knitter and went to my first knitting group.  I was so nervous and gabbled so quickly I must have impressed on the other knitters as having only a tenuous grip on sanity.  My only defense is that I didn't get out much.  After trying my first knitting group, I joined another.  I loved having an excuse to get out of the house, but more than that, I made friends.   I met other people who were as obsessed as I was with knitting and crochet.  Those first trips of knitting in the wild encouraged me to try knitting out of the house, but on my own!  I now knit in hospital waiting rooms, on trains, at my friends houses, in the car, any where there is enough light and low risk of spillage on my knitting.  I draw the line at knitting in a pub with drunk people.

My disability is pretty severe and my partner chooses to do the household chores so that I can preserve what little energy I have for nice things, like seeing friends occasionally.  I have no daily responsibilities, nothing that must be done each day to create a framework.  The week days feel like a pain-filled shapeless mass, out of which I must carve and shape my activities.

Knitting helps me give shape to each day.  Each stitch I make, marks the time I have taken to make it.  Before I started to knit, each second that passed seemed to be wasted and empty.  I felt like the days were slipping through my fingers.  There was nothing I could point to and say, "that is what I did today".  Knitting is my measure of how I pass my days.  The things that I can point to and say "I made that today, yesterday, last week, this year."  It marks my time and the things that I can create in it. I not only have the finished product to mark my time, but I have the photographs I take of it and the blog posts I write about it.  All of these activities help build a framework out of knitting upon which I hang my life.

Now my knitting fills my week days, evening and weekends.  It travels with me everywhere and my friends and family would probably be surprised if I didn't dig out my current project within minutes of sitting down.  I believe, and I think my loved ones agree, that it is better to concentrate on each stitch while I talk to them, than focusing on the pain I am experiencing.  It is much better to count the rows than the twinges and stabs, don't you think?

Time is no longer set aside for knitting, knitting is part of all of my time.  I knit when I watch my nephews run around the garden, I knit when I am being driven home to see my parents, I knit when I am waiting to see the doctors and I knit when I am thinking.  Knitting helps me to accept that I am always going to spend a lot of time watching other people taking part in life, and waiting for them to come back to me.  Knitting gives me something to do while I watch them do it.

Today's posts for this topic in Knitting and Crochet Blog Week can be found here.  This has been a challenging and interesting week for me.  I'm so pleased that I managed to take part.

Knitting & Crochet Blog Week 2011 - Day six - Something to aspire to

Phew - this week has been a blur of amazing blogs and fascinating insights into the myriad ways of crafting.  If you want to look at today's posts from the participants, click here and you'll get a list in Google.  That list isn't going anywhere so you can spend as long as you like going over the amazing entries (especially yesterday's which were incredible).

This last year has been more about practicing existing techniques to become more confident.  This happened mainly because I was learning to sew and most of my learning energies were being plowed into that.  Now I feel more comfortable with sewing I will probably start pushing myself a bit more on the knitting front again.

In particular I was to push myself on the design front.  I still have not created a fully designed garment from scratch that fits right.  I am determined to get this right this year.  Speaking of which, this garment which I designed myself,

Hateful Huge Tunic

(good grief I'd forgotten how awful it was) is going to be frogged and made into something else.  It is hopefully going to be made into this:

Image from Interweave Knits

This is Betty's Tee from Interweave Knits - Spring 2010.  This tee, is made using entrelac, a technique I have been fascinated with since I started to knit, and still have not tried.  Having the yarn for this pattern, and the magazine, I plan on knitting this particular garment to learn entrelac and also to get a nice tee!

Anyway back to the designing, which is the area I want to improve on.  As well as designing a garment from start to finish (that doesn't look the monstrosity above) I want to design my very first lace shawl.  I have knit many shawls over the past year and I think I now have my head around how they work, so I really want to design one for myself.  I have some great lace weight and sock weight yarns to play with so I am sure that will push me into following through with this particular aspiration.

Other than those two aspirations for the coming year, I think my main one has to be to knit some of my lovely stash.  I spent a couple of hours last night looking at my Spring/Summer weight yarns and matching them up with patterns I really wanted to knit.  I've got around 5 that are now in my queue.  I really want to try and knit at least 2 of them over the next few months.   I have lovely yarn and I'm going to use it!

Other than these simple plans (which I may, or not, stick to) I just want to carry on knitting with pretty yarns and making nice things that are useful and beautiful.

Knitting & Crochet Blog Week 2011 - Day Five: And now for something completely different

This subject has, I'm sure sent a cold shiver down many people's back.  I was all set to do a video with the webcam I got ages ago, when I realised I just wasn't well enough.  I really was going to make a video, after many months of procrastination and I had even decided to do a FO Friday post, because I didn't have any tutorials to film.   However, as I am coming down with a cough, and really didn't want to have to do loads of editing on my first video to cut out the coughs and splutters, I decided to give it a miss.

So with that excuse in mind, I have created a little slide show of ALL the Finished Objects from the last year.

I hope that is different enough for today's topic, it was certainly a first for me, making a slide show.  Oh by the way, the music track was written by my OH and me in 2003, back in the days before I got too ill to sing and play woodwind instruments.  Finding that track again, brought back some fond musical memories.  I guess this is my version of "interpretive modern dance" Eskimimi talked about, in her topic instructions (I have a degree in the Performing Arts don'cha know!).


Apart from the bleeding eyeballs from reading blog posts, I am really enjoying this week of blogging.  I am struggling to keep up with all the wonderful new (to me) bloggers out there.  If you want to see how other creative types have tackled today's topic, click here to see a list of posts on Google.  The posts will always come up, whenever you click on this link, so you have weeks to read them all, if you want!