Catch up post

I've been procrastinating as usual so this post is going to be a little full of news and pictures. The past couple of weeks have mostly been a hum drum mix of work, various crafty stuff and sleep. There was the minor excitement of my knitting group appearing on a local TV news show - if you are in the UK, you can see it at this link for next few days. It features about 4 minutes in. I'm in the background in a purple shirt, knitting a sock. It was a quite bizarre but fun thing to do.

Since my last post I've heard that two exchanges I've sent have arrived at their destinations. One of the exchanges was very overdue so it was a big relief to find it had arrived. I stitched Tending the blooms for Carol as part of the SBEBB SB exchange. The picture isn't very good sadly.



I also heard that Becky had received the Halloween exchange that I sent her as part of a personal Halloween exchange. Rather appropriately as Becky sent me a lovely SB Halloween needleroll, I sent her a SB design in return - Halloween ABC pinkeep.



I have managed to have a couple of stitching finishes for myself in the past couple of weeks. Both are Shepherds bush designs. First up The Gobelins.



And then today I finished Scatter Christmas cheer.



I've also managed a couple of knitting finishes. First up a knitted jacket called Anise from Rowan/Simply Knitting magazine, which I mentioned that I had finished in my last post.



Secondly I finished a design called Matilda Jane by Ysolda Teague. Its knitted in Rowan Wool cotton and took exactly a month of knitting. Its knitted in one piece from the top down, which is a fabulous way to knit things with there being so little sewing involved.



The weather has been truly awful here this past week with absolutely no natural light for pictures, hence the dark pcitures. Autumn has hit with a typical series of rainy, stormy days with gale force winds and horizontal rain. There's even a possibility of snow next week which is just awful.

Exchanging, knitting and life

The past two weeks have been filled with a few ups and downs. Getting the downs out the way first, well there was telling my boss that the job trial was not working out. However it did have the upside of the people working there telling me that they were disappointed that I wouldn't be staying and telling my boss that I am good at my job. So that was really great to hear. The major thing that happened was that my aunt died sort of suddenly. My mum is one of 11 children orginally. Her youngest sister died as a young child but all the rest of them have been fit and fairly well until recently when my mum's oldest sister developed some heart problems. She ended up in hospital and seemed to be doing well, then she very suddenly became very ill and died. The funeral was just over a week ago and was a little surreal as my aunt was a Roman Catholic nun. She spent most of her life in Nigeria so part of the service had Nigeria hymns. In recent years, she worked in several Glasgow parishes so as a consequence, the mass was said by 6 priests plus the Archbishop and with around 30 or so nuns in attendence. At times my Aunt had expressed the occasional doubt about the life she had chosen so it was lovely to see how many people she had touched during her life. Quite a lot of my extended family attended the service too so it was lovely to catch up with lots of my family plus I got to meet the family's newest member - a little baby called Jack who was born on the 6th of September this year and is my mum's first great great nephew.

On to other things. Since my last post I've heard that an exchange I sent has been received plus I've also received an exhange.

I sent this to Suzanne as part of the SBEBB biscornu exchange. Its the Sunflower biscornu by Helga Mandl.



I received this from Becky in a personal Halloween exchange. Its the Halloween needleroll by Shepherds bush.



I've been on holiday from work for the past 10 days and I've been trying to finish up a few of my many WIPs. First up I finished a scarf which has been lingering on the needles for a while.



And then this afternoon, I finished the pair of scoks that I cast on at the Iknit day. The pattern is Monkey by CookieA once again and the yarn is Shelridge farm soft touch ultra. I am a little addicted to the Monkey sock pattern I think.



Last night I finished knitting a cardigan/jacket but its currently drying off after a little blocking so I should have pictures over the weekend. The weather has turned colder this week so its the perfect time for finishing lots of knitting.