It has been far too long!

 It has been a long time since I had anything very much to say and I really don’t know if there is anyone out there anymore reading my thoughts but in case there is I am hoping to be back and blogging once again. Finally we have made Norfolk our permanent home, a dream that has been far too long to come to fruition! But here we are amid boxes and mess trying to rationalise which items we really need and those that we have more of than we will ever need. I don’t think I have ever felt this tired but the need to keep pushing forwards with the unpacking is huge and I am trying to pace myself. Hopefully there will be lots of knitting to share soon but in the meantime I share with you my fires past and present!

Hopefully I will be back soon with more interesting pictures.

Summer knitting

Recently I have been knitting away on my 'Little Tern blanket' which is the August part of 'A Year of Techniques' from AC knitwear and although it won't be finished by the end of the month I have really enjoyed the fact that this project has made me revisit my continental knitting style. Although I have regularly used the continental knit stitch technique I have previously found the Norwegian Purl stitch a slow and clunky stitch to work and I think this is due to the fact that previously I had practised this stitch using sock yarn and small needles. This blanket is done in the gorgeous Fyberspates Vivacious DK weight and has a lovely spring to it making it a real pleasure to use the whole continental knitting way throughout the blanket.

Perhaps you can see that the stitch changes are frequent so my traditional English way of knitting was very slow and laborious but sped up considerably when I switched to continental. I am much further along than this picture shows but I am happy to continue at my own pace enjoying the knitting as I go. 

Life here is still trundling along at it's own peculiar pace and is mostly just weeks of similar things happening interspersed with my knitting and crochet, hence I find that it has become more important to stretch myself by learning new things or growing current skills to new levels! My Gran once told me that you are never too old to learn new things and it is important to keep learning your whole life - something I always remembered but recently find myself knowing how important it is to make this happen.

I hope all is well in your corners of blogland and I will be back with more new skills soon!

Wedding Fever!

Well not fever really but thought I would quickly fill you in as Dave and I finally tied the knot after 16 years together. We got to say 'I do' in our favourite place by the sea!

Its wasn't apathy that prevented us doing this much earlier but consideration for Lottie. When we first got engaged she asked if she would be able to change her name so that she felt part of it all and after discussion we asked her dad if he would consider her becoming a double barrel name so she didn't loose either identity but was part of it all. He said no! Dave and I decided her feelings were important so we chose to wait. Now she is all grown up and in a home of her own we decided it was time for us to do what we wanted to do all along but with no ones feeling hurt along the way and the added bonus that she was our witness too on the day.

It wasn't a big or flashy wedding as we have both been married before and after all this time it is really just completing the journey we had begun so long ago but never the less it was a celebration of our journey together.

I couldn't have asked for a nicer wedding - it was just the loveliest happiest day ever and the sun shone down on us (it rained the day before and the day after) and we were so lucky to have a truly special day.

Sadly I didn't quite finish my shawl but I put a blue ribbon through the live stitches and wore it anyway, I am finishing it but thankfully at a slower pace now! A note to anyone else making a rectangular shawl - the knitted on edging takes longer than you might think! Despite several early morning knitting sessions 3 weeks was not enough time!

We were joined on the day by a very special couple of friends who took the most amazing pictures for us and made the whole day extra special, thank you both for being super fun!

Sadly we are back to reality now but the memories of that very special day by the sea will be with me always. It was so very precious to me and the love and happiness that we shared that day will stay warm and fuzzy inside me forever.

Mittens and blankets!

I have finished Lou's mittens that have been on the needles for quite some time and she was pleased to wear them:

Also finished is the skittles Blanket which is a joy to behold for the cheery colours and pleasure it gave me to crochet it:

 Currently I am working on the Hygge shawl which is a weekly crochet along but I am a little behind, a change of hook and getting over the first bobble week has allowed me to catch up a bit but I'm just plodding along at my own pace with this one.

I am also working on 'a Year of Techniques' and I have finished 2 pairs of Hycainthus mittens - these have flown off my needles as the helical stripes are really addictive knitting!

I am really looking forward to Aprils' instalment of this which should arrive tomorrow and involves a yarn I haven't used before which is 'cumulus' from Fyberspates. Hopefully I will be back soon to report on what it will become! 

New Year New Glasses

It has been a while since I was here last but life has been moving along at a pace, I seem to have Louise for more and more hours each month and it leaves little time for me to have anything exciting to share. I should have had my eyes tested last January but with everything going on they got forgotten about but got worse and worse as the months rolled by. Eventually they got bad enough to irritate me and I made an appointment ( there was a 2 month delay as they were booked up) and finally I got them checked out. Happily for me it is just age that has changed my prescription and I have now got new specs! I cannot begin to tell you how much better I can see - it is only now that I realise that it was sight preventing me from finishing some of my projects as it was too hard to read the stitches or the charts and instructions and they were put aside for easier things. Now I need to finished all of the things and it is exciting to pick them back up and rediscover the joy that was there all along! I am sharing this as a reminder to us all not to neglect our sight - it is too important!

This is one of the projects that eventually was put to one side because although it is a lovely DK weight yarn and I could easily see the stitches when I got to the border the instructions seemed to be confusing - it was just me and I have picked it back up again and there is no problem! Hopefully as I pick things up again will have more to share.

I hope all is well in your corners of blogland and I will aim to be back again soon!

Zodiac blanket

This is the zodiac blanket that was the 2015 last ever Natural Dye Studio blanket club which I made for Lottie  (my daughter) I finished sewing in the ends after she had moved so it was a little late but the last part wasn't released until December. I got a bit behind with my sewing in of the ends and should have been more disciplined about sewing them in each month but it's a mistake I won't be making again! I have more finished objects to share but thought I would start with this one as it was both a happy and sad project in so many ways, I know it is being loved and used as it sits on the sofa in the new house and hopefully is a cosy reminder of home.

Just over a year!

It has been just over a year since I posted last and as ever with me when things are not good I don't come out to play. 2015 was a difficult year from start to end with Dave working away several days a week for the first nine months of it. We got to the point where we couldn't bear it any longer and he tried to resign but the company decided they would tweek the office structure to fit us better but took so long to do it! Lottie also decided the time was right for her to buy a house of her own and by December she was completing her purchase and moved house the weekend before Christmas. Christmas was a seaside affair and we all enjoyed the time we had together but January took a very serious turn and life changed for us all. The 13th saw Dave and I sat in A & E as he didn't fell well at all with pains in his chest. He had been in Cambridgeshire for a meeting overnight but felt ill and decided to come straight home. I took him to hospital where they were super nice and did all kinds of tests on him - we thought they were going to send us home until the blood tests came back and they moved us straight back to ER and put him on drips and all kinds of tablets as he was having a heart attack. The next day he had stents fitted and was able to come home again at the weekend. The whole thing was a huge shock and the road to recovery has been a twisty little path. The main thing is he survived and although he is fit and well again things will different from now on. Following some recovery time Dave felt that he didn't want to return to the stressful role he held and decided that it really was time to resign and take stock of things. Life here is a bit different now and all of the jobs in the house that had been previously put off are now being crossed off the list one by one. Who knows what the future holds but you can bet there will be knitting and crochet in there somewhere as it is the one thing that has kept me sane(ish) through this last year. I will be back again soon with some of the things I have made this last year! S x