An update from me

I've not been a blog writing mood lately. Partly there was the foot pain thing and I didn't want to be too negative. Thinking too much about my foot and what if it doesn't get better hasn't made for particularly positive thoughts. Last weekend was pretty much made up of a lot of pain and a lack of sleep. Anyway that's my whining over. Life could be much worse and I get paid when I'm off sick.
I've started physio and its going fairly well. The interesting thing is that the physio thinks that the foot pain isn't really plantar fascilitis but its a back problem. I was a little doubtful at first and got upset during my first physio session, largely due to the pain I was in at the time. Two weeks on, I've got a load of exercises to do and my foot isn't really sore anymore. I have had a horrendously sore back for the past two weeks though but even this seems to be better since I had an ultrasound treatment to my back on Monday. The strange thing is that I didn't have back pain until after the physio started but the physio reckons that the foot pain was masking the back pain. My boss is not so casually hinting that she hopes I'm back soon but I'm not letting her rush me back and I'm going to take the physio's advice about when I should go back.

I've been keeping busy whilst I've been off and I've been knitting and stitching away. I did also manage to make it to a weekend GTG with a load of other stitchers which was a lot of fun. I've finished a few stitching bits so I'll have some pictures of them over the weekend as I'm planning to do some framing/finishing this weekend.

Meanwhile I've got some finished socks to share.






I've almost finished another pair which are in Garnstudio's fabel sock yarn.



Hopefully I'll get them finished tomorrow. Other than a brief trip out to get a few bits, my only other plan for tomorrow is to watch the very exciting last episode of this series of Doctor Who. David Tennant, John Barrowman and John Simm together in one TV program is almost too good.

Good news update

The good news is that my sister's soon to be FIL is better, although he is still in hospital. The wedding has now been rescheduled for September 14th. Thankfully there weren't too many problems with that other than with the wedding band and some guests who can't come but that's life I guess.
I've been signed off work for a month. The foot is a little better but I've been told physiotherapy is the best thing for it. The bad news about that is that there is a 13 week waiting list at my local surgery for NHS physio. Where I work has an occupational health department and they have referred me for physio via my employer so hopefully the physio will take place sooner. I'm trying to make the most of my time and I have a lot of stitching projects which need attention. Halloween fairy is nearly done so hopefully I will have a finished picture soon.

Not a good weekend

The title says it all. Late last week, my sister's soon to be FIL was rushed to hospital very seriously ill. He had major surgery which he wasn't expected to survive but he did. He is however still seriously ill. This coming Saturday, my sister was due to get married and today she and her fiance had to make the sad decision to call off the ceremony. The wedding was to be in my hometown and the groom's father is in hospital several hours drive away. Everyone is understandably upset and its particularly difficult when its supposed to be a very happy family time.

Happy dancing

The only advantage of having enforced time off is that I'm getting more stitching and knitting done. I'm going to be off for at least another week and then I was supposed to be on holiday anyway so its going to be mid June before I'm back at work.

I finished Mirabilia's Miss Valentine at the weekend. I'm not really a girly girl but I love the pink of this design. The mill hill beads were a tight squeeze on the fabric though.



I've got Halloween fairy in progress too and I'm hoping to get it finished this week too.

Knitting wise, there are more socks in progress. I started a pair of Pomatomus socks earlier in the month and now the first sock is done. They are in Shepherd sock in the shade Tahoe. I bought the yarn from Hazy last year and as soon as I saw the Pomatomus pattern, I knew that I wanted to use this yarn to make them. The second sock is in the works.

Monochromatic exchange

Its been a good mail day today. On top of the new issues of Knitting and Knit1 which arrived fro Get knitted, I also got my Monochromatic exchange from Simone today.

Its a lovely cushion and its finished very neatly



She also sent some fabrics and threads along with the exchange



This afternoon, I stitched the last of the beads and crystals on my sister's wedding dress so that means the dresses are done. Tomorrow is the Hen night; its fairly low key as per her request and thankfully she has booked a table somewhere as standing up isn't something I'm good at just now. Thanks to everyone for your good wishes re my foot. I think its getting better as its not so swollen and not as sore.

Doctors Orders

The alternative title to this post should really be How to drive Paula slowly insane. For the past month or so I've been having pain in one of my heels which I ignored as sore feet can be a bit of an occupational hazard as a nurse. That was a very stupid thing to do as it got a lot worse about 10 days ago and my foot decided to balloon up. One trip to the doctor later and I've been told I've got Plantar fascitis, which is an inflammation of ligament in the sole of the foot and its blooming sore. So I'm under orders not to go to work until next Tuesday at least and I've got to see my GP then. I've been referred for physiotherapy also. Meantime, I'm spending a lot of time sitting down and taking painkillers. I've never been off sick for this long before and whilst extra stitching time is good, the not going to work/not being able to go anywhere is not a good thing. Especially when my sister is getting married in just over 2 weeks and there are things to do and things to buy. Internet shopping is my friend just now.
Anyway enough of the pity party as I'm otherwise healthy and happy and other people have many more problems than me. Also I've got lots of hobbies that involve sitting down lol.

There's been some knitting progress

A ballband discloth



A finished pair of rainbow socks



And a Pomatomus sock in progress



I received a lovely exchange from Lina



And I sent an exchange to Linda



I did some simple finishing



And I stitched another Essy's friends piece and finished it off.




I've been stitching on Mirbilia's Miss Valentine today and I'm hoping to finish it this week too. Other than that I've been wandering around the internet reading lots of blogs and I finally got round to using Google reader to keep track of the blogs I read. I'm a complete convert to it. The remainder of my time has been spent applying beads to 4 bridesmaids dresses and one wedding dress. No pictures of them just yet but there will be after the wedding.

Inspiration

A post by Isabelle this week made me think about how blogs and boards that I visit inspire me to try new things and discover new designers. She posted a few links of places that she visits and takes inspiration from. I followed a few of the links and got some inspiration too. That for me is one of the most interesting things about blogs - they link to other blogs, which you would probably never see unless you followed the links.
I enjoy reading Isabelle's blog as she sews some lovely dresses and I enjoy reading French crafting blogs. Karen's blog inspires me to stitch things that I wouldn't have in the past and her finishing ideas are great.

This week via Isabelle's blog, I found a blog called Molly Chicken which features a lot of sewing and stuffed toy making, especially using some fabulous Japanese patterns. The bears are particularly brilliant. I've made a few bears in the past and I quite fancy trying some of the patterns as I have a few pieces of mohair in my craft stash. I ended up on Ebay buying a Japanese craft magazine and a Japanese needlefelting design book largely because of the hedgehog designs that they have in them (I collect hedgehog items) .

Another place that I am being inspired by at present is Etsy . I love the idea of a place like Ebay but that actually seems to value hand crafted items. I bought some hand dyed sock yarn a couple of months ago from a seller and I was very inpressed by them and the yarn. There is such a variety of different things being sold. I love the prints this seller has and this seller has some gorgeous fabrics, some of which are currently flying across the oceans to my house.

Meanwhile, I'm still knitting away on a pair of socks which are very spring like in colour. I'd like to finish them before April is over but that might not happen.



I have already finished a pair of socks this month but they are rather smaller than the ones I normally knit (and they some with a hat and some mitts).





Of course I need knitting inspiration along with inspiration for the other crafts. A forum that I visit Crafty threads n yarns , provides a lot of inspiration and links to lots of stash enhancing shopping. Claire sent me the link to the forum and also supplies regular shopping inspiration too - we seem to be able to enable each other quite easily and share a few similar opinions lol.

Weekend update and a HD

Finally I've got round to posting after the weekend. I had a great time catching up with some stitching friends and I even managed to get a fair bit of stitching done.

The GTG was at Rach's house and she got a few presents for her soon to be born baby.



Kate came along and brought some of her lovely hand dyed fabrics and threads which we all looked at very closely



She also brought her lovely son who Joy made friends with.



There was lots of stitching, chatting and eating and special thanks must go to Rach's DH, who made us tea, set out lunch and didn't get too scared of a group of women descending on their house. He even joined Rach, Lindsay, Joy and myself in the local pub for dinner. All in all, it was a great weekend. It won't be too long until I see a lot of them again as a large group of Uk based stitchers are spending a weekend away together in just 7 weeks.

Whilst I was away, I spent quite a bit of time stitching, including several hours on the train coming back and so I managed to finish something that I bought fairly recently - The Peacock stitching chair by The Cat's whiskers. Joy had brought her finished chair to the GTG and it helped to get me moving on with it.
I did the finishing on it during yesterday and barring a little stupidness from me (I forgot the arms and had to pull it apart), it was fairly easy. I did attach a lot of the bits together with ladder stitch rather than glue as I'm not the best with glue. My only other modification was to use self adhesive ribbon to cover some raw edges at the drawer.







I really enjoy stitching it and the instructions for finishing are pretty good. There are quite a few other Cat's Whiskers designs that I like the look of but I won't be buying any for now as I want to finish a few other things first.

Green fingers and heather

The title of this post might make you think that my recent lack of post was due to gardening but its not, especially as I don't have a garden.
Chez Celtic stitcher is still on full on wedding preparation mode. I finished making the wedding favours the other night and the green tissue that they were made of turned my fingers completely green. It took a fair bit of scrubbing to get the green dye off.
The wedding is 7 weeks on Saturday and I still have quite a few things that I have promised to do. Tomorrow should hopefully have a delivery from a bead shop with a few bits and pieces to make the jewellery that me and my fellow bridesmaids are wearing plus a few crystals for the dresses.
So in the next 7 weeks I have to make
4 sets of bracelets,earings and necklaces for bridesmaids
4 bridesmaids dress bodices to bead
1 brides dress to bead
4 bags to make for bridesmaids
placecards for each guest
some extra wedding invites to make
Plus I have one hen night to attend, Thankfully one of the other bridesmaids is organising that. My sister is fairly calm at present considering how close the wedding is but I'm sure she will get a little overexcited as her big day gets closer.
I did have some buttonholes to make for the male members of the wedding party but I made them up this afternoon. Rather than carnations, which are worn by a lot of other grooms, its traditional to wear white heather at a Scottish wedding. The ribbon is black watch tartan, which the male wedding party members are wearing.


The groom, best man and the groom's father are all English so wearing a kilt is going to be a new experience for them. My dad hasn't worn a kilt before either as its only been in the past 20 years that wearing a kilt has become popular again.

I seem to have a lot of half finished things around at the moment. Work has been pretty tiring and although I've been off work since Friday, I don't seem to have much energy to do anything other than wedding stuff and the minimum amount of housework. I have a small pile of stitching and knitting stuff that needs finishing bits done to them but the pile has been mostly untouched apart from some knitted flowers and leaves which I made in a class at Harrogate which I made into brooches.



Tomorrow I'm having a day of sewing, stitching and papercrafting I think. Friday I'm off for a few days away to meet up with a few of the UK based stitchers to have a GTG. I can't wait.

Socks and bargains

I finished my march sockamonth socks last night and I'm wearing them today. They are very comfy and soft. I bought the koigu for these when I was in Utah in September



I spent a good part of yesterday tidying up my spare bedroom/sewing room. I started tidying up my cross stitch stash and I now want to start lots of new projects. But I'm trying to be good so I didn't.

Today I wasn't so good. I found out recently that Fraser's in Glasgow has a yarn department. I knew that they used to have one which also had cross stitch supplies many years ago but I thought it shut about 10 years ago. I've been meaning to visit it the last couple of times I was in Glasgow and finally I did today. It was a very good time to visit as they had a sale on with 20% off quite a few yarns.
Here's the haul


There's some felted tweed in a purple colour which I think will become Ivy and some Tapestry in greys which I think might become a scarf and some kidsilk night because its pretty and will make some sort of lacy thing. I was chatting to the assistant whilst she was ringing it up and we were discussing how much of a bargain the felted tweed was. She asked what I was planning for it and I explained about the knitty pattern. She hadn't heard of knitty but she thought it was a great idea. I also shared a couple of other links so I think she might be in for some surfing and shopping.

Thanks everyone for your lovely comments about the framing. Jim, my framer, is a lovely and talented man and he loves framing cross stitch. I stitched something for him a couple of years ago as a thank you and I think another thank you cross stitch will be happening at some point. It will probably have to wait a while as my dad has asked that I stitch him a Buddha design. Its the same design that I stitched for his Buddhism teacher and its shades of brown. Whilst its beautiful, the thought of stitching it again is a little trying. He rarely asks for anything to be stitched and appreciates how much work it takes. I just need to find the pattern in the stash mountain lol.

Returned from the framer

Finally I got my 3 things that were getting framed back from my framer. Both he and his supplier had run out of spacers so there was a bit of a delay for that. Now I've seen them they are definitely worth the wait.
The framer is a friend of my dad's who frames as a hobby and charges me the cost of materials. I let him frame them how he thinks as he paints and has good colour sense. I've not been let down so far.

First up, Portrait of Lauren in blue by Nora Corbett.




Taj Mahal garden by Chatelaine, which is huge now its framed.



And finally Titania, queen of the fairies which I finished in 2004 and got semi forgotten about when I moved a couple of years ago and didn't want to frame stuff just before moving.



I'm pretty pleased with them, I just need to decide where to put them. Taj Mahal is going in my bedroom but I'm not sure where the other two are going to go.

Bringing things up to date.

Things seem to have been a little busy of late. I had a good time at the Glasgow stitching show but I didn't buy too much - some beads to make into various items of jewellery, some wool to knit a wrap cardigan and one little cross stitch kit. There wasn't a lot of cross stitch at the show but there was a lot of papercrafts. I did buy some new papers and some card blanks too. Other than the show, I've spent quite a bit of time with my mum - we got the sad news that one of my uncles died just over a week ago. He was married to my mum's nearest sister in age and they live in Ontario. He was diagnosed with a fairly aggressive cancer late last year but sadly he lost the fight against it. My mum was pretty upset as she couldn't get a flight to be at the funeral to support her sister. Its all been pretty sad as my mum is very close with her family (she has 5 sisters and 4 brothers).

Wedding preparations are still taking a lot of my time. The invitations are done and sent away in plently on time - the 2nd of June is the Wedding day. This past week, I've been making Wedding favours



Only about 30 to still get made. There was a minor disaster this week when my mum had the bridesmaids over for fitting as one of the dresses doesn't fit. Its getting sorted as we speak. Next its on to place cards, bridesmaids jewellery and buttonholes for the men.

I have still been managing to knit. This month's Sockamonth project is BFF socks in Koigu. The pattern is designed by the fabulous Cookie A and its the first of many of her patterns that I want to knit.
I've turned the second heel and I'm on the home stretch. I really love these socks and the koigu is gorgeous and squishy.



I also finished stitching another baby pressie for my friend's new baby.



I should have some pictures of newly framed stitching in the next day or so. The framed pieces are currently at my parents but I haven't seen them yet due to work commitments. I'm told they look great.

Time for an update

I find it ironic that when I'm off work for a week, I always seem to end up not blogging as much and sometimes not at all. This week so far, I have been mostly going out for lunch with various family members and knitting.

I heard from a very good friend on Sunday that she had her second baby on Tuesday so a bit of baby knitting was on the agenda. I should have started it weeks ago but I'm a terrible procastinator. I knitted the baby kimono from the Mason Dixon knitting book. Its in Rowan handknit cotton. I made it a little bigger than the patterns as my friend's new daughter was over 9lbs at birth. In the end, I ran out of yarn as it took about 2 1/2 balls of the cotton to knit this up



There is also some booties to go with it. They aren't terribly practicable as they are a wool/angora mix but hey they look nice.



I can safely share pictures here as she doesn't know about my blog. I've also bought some other yarn to knit something else for the baby and also some yarn to knit a cardigan for her big sister too.

Stitching wise I've finished a square for an online friends quilt but she hasn't received it yet so I don't want to post it here just in case she sees it.

I did hear earlier in the week that Veronica had received the redwork exchange that I stitched for her. Thankfully she likes it. Again, I've used DMC 115 on linen and I used finishing forms to finish them off. I'm lucky that I have a lovely local shop which stocks hundreds of ribbons and trims so I can get these pretty easily. I wish they stocked stitching supplies as I don't have a LNS within 1 hour of me now.







Tomorrow, I will be surrounded by craft supplies as I'm off to the stitching show in Glasgow. I had been planning to visit on Thursday but a local train strike put paid to that as the centre where it is held is only really easily reachable by train if you don't have a car. Its a shame for the show organisers as last year, the last day of the show was ruined by a very heavy snow fall. I'm sure the rail strike will have affected the takings for yesterday and today as the trains going to the centre are packed on show day. I'm going to the show with my mum and aunt and we're planning to have lunch out too, which would make it four meals out in restaurants since last Saturday.
The other thing that occupied my time is wedding preparations. I should point out that it is my sister who is getting married but she has no craft abilities. I'm making the wedding invites etc as a wedding gift to her. She is a pretty easy going bride so far, which I hope will continue. Between my mum, my sister and myself, we are trying to do as much as we can ourselves as a lot of the wedding stuff that other people sell are very expensive and it seems crazy to spend so much on one day.
I'm off now to watch Doctor Who.

Stitching to share

Sadly, the new stash has not yet arrived. The post office have been a bit useless this past while. Somewhere in the mail system, there is also an order from Get knitted and some stuff to finish the Wedding invitations; both of them should have arrived today. I did get the Spring issue of Interweave knits in the post today so I will be reading that later.

I also got a parcel containing my Redwork exchange from Judith.






Its lovely and the design is very appropriate.

I also got my two SB finishes for February framed up - Egg basket and The sheep's in the meadow. I love the little mats that came with these kits, they are so sweet.






The past few days have been a blur of work, sleep and making wedding invitations. This next week will be good though - work is off the schedule until a week on Monday and the wedding invitations are almost done. Thats really just as well seeing as the Wedding is 3 months tomorrow.

Socks

I've been knitting away the past couple of nights so I've finished two more pairs of socks. The first pair are made of Lana grossa cotton stripe yarn. I knitted one of them last year and I though I'd better finish the second one.



The second pair are in Jitterbug sock yarn by Colinette in the shade bright charcoal and are my sockamonth pair for February. They are very soft and warm socks and I plan to buy more Jitterbug yarn in the future.



I picked up the frames I ordered today so I'm planning to get a couple of things framed up tonight. My dad's friend frames bigger things for me and yesterday my dad went off with a couple of things which have been unframed for a while - Taj Mahal garden, Titania and Lauren a portrait in blue. My dad's friend is a painter so his colour sense is pretty good. Hopefully I will have them back next weekend as he's usually pretty quick at getting things done.
I have done a bit of stitching this week but it was for an exchange so no pictures just yet. I've been plugging away on Mirabilia Miss Valentine and Japanese Octagon box too.
This week I'm going to be stalking the postmand - I've ordered some charts plus the new Mirabilia New Year fairy from Stitching bits and bobs and I got a shipping notice on Thursday. I've also ordered the Peacock stitching chair from Cats whiskers design studio like a lot of people and I'm really looking forward to stitching it.

Finishing and fimo

I seem to have quite a lot of unfinished things and ideas for various other crafty things at present but time isn't as plentiful as I need it to be. I spent a fair part of Thursday cutting up paper and card for my sister's wedding invitations and I'm happy to say I'm at about the halfway point of getting them done.
Having spent quite a bit of time on them, I then didn't feel any guilt on spending the rest of Thursday working on things for me. First off, I dug out some fimo which has been hanging about my flat for a while. I love stitched pieces with buttons so I thought I would try out making some myself. I found some tiny cutters in my local craft shop and this is the result.



The bigger shapes are, I think, destined to be needle magnets. The little flower bouquets are something that I just wanted to try.

I also got two things framed up using some bargain wood frames from Ikea and some leftover paint. The blue one is the colour of my bathroom lol. I would have more framed stuff to show but the place I order frames and mounts from, phoned me on Friday to say that my frames had arrived but one was damaged so they would need to get another.





And finally, there is this little ornament. Shamefully I stitched it in July 2002 but I had no clue at the time how to make it into a round ornament. Recently I used some metal finishing forms for the first time and voila I realised I could get it finished into an ornament. Around the edges, I've used some rats tail cord to trim it and make a hanger.


My to be finished off pile is starting to reduce in size lately. I still have a couple of stocking to make up and about another 12 or so things to do non framed finishing with. I think I might be spending a lot of time reading Focus on finishing that Karen and Anne have set up. It looks like a brilliant resource.

Valentine exchange

I've heard that my Valentine exchange has been received by Joanie.



The design I stitched is from issue 67 of a french magazine called Ouvrages broderie. I used designs from the same issue for my needlework smalls exchange too. Its stitched on linen using DMC 115, which is a really lovely variegated red. I really loved stitching it and the magazine has a few other similar designs which I can see me stitching in the fairly near future.

Needlework smalls exchange and a finish

I got home tonight after a very long and trying day at work which drove me nearly insane and I found some lovely mail waiting for me.

I got this lovely little fob that Natty stitched for me as part of the SBEBB Needlework smalls exchange. Its very sweet and over one. I'm not very good at over one stitching so anyone who stitches lots of over one deserves a medal.



She also sent a little stitching chart and a piece of fabric.

Whilst I was off at the end of last week, I felt the need for a quick stitching finish, so I started Egg basket by Shepherd's bush and finished it the same day.



The kit came with a lovely mount. I couldn't buy a ready made frame locally to fit it so I've ordered a frame which I will hopefully get on Saturday. Whilst I was ordering the frame, I ordered another one for a different small Shepherds bush kit which I'm going to stitch later in the week and also a mount for Mirabilia's Miss Valentine. I had hoped to finish Miss Valentine before Valentine's day but thats unlikely to happen.

In the past week, I've been stitching away on my Chatelaine japanese octagon box WIP as the finishing class is at the end of next month. I've still got a fair bit to do but I really think I might do it.

After tomorrow, I have a couple of days off again. I expect to spend it largely knee deep in paper and card as I've still got quite a bit of work to do on my sister's Wedding invitations and the Wedding is in June.