Whoosh

December has gone by me in a hurry this year. I can't quite believe that its the 31st tomorrow. The past fortnight, I've been working a lot but as of tonight, I have 5 days off. I'm planning lots of sleep, relaxation and stitching. I've hardly stitched for the past 2 weeks and I'm really missing it.

Therefore I've got no stitching progress to share today so I thought I'd end this post with a picture of my Christmas tree decorated with stitching ornaments received in lots of different exchanges and many I've stitched myself.

Knitting and insomnia

I've been awake since around 2am this morning as I finished night shift on Monday morning and promptly crashed out asleep from midday Monday to 2am this morning. Shift work screws up my already pretty hopeless sleep pattern.

I tried to get back to sleep but I couldn't so I picked up one of my many sock projects and finished the second of my broadripple socks. They are knitted in Cascade fixation and in spite of what it might look like, they are both knitted in the same shade and from the same dyelot. The only thing I can think of is that the first sock was finished a few months ago and perhaps has faded a little.



I still have quite a few other socks in progress and quite a few skeins and balls of yarn waiting their turn to become socks. I find knitting socks pretty relaxing and they are so much more comfortable than shop bought socks.

As well as socks, I'm also knitting a few pairs of Fetching gloves for Christmas presents. They knit up pretty quick and the weather has been pretty cold this week so they will be useful too.

Catching up

Oops, where did November go ?. I can't quite believe that its December already, Christmas is just around the corner.

Okay so since my last post, I've been to Harrogate to the stitching show. I bought some lovely things - Hipknits aran weight silk, an Orna Willis chart and materials and some lovely Gloriana silks amongst other things. Whilst I was away, I got a cold from hell which is now dragging into its 3rd week.
The visit to my potential new employer went well and they seem to be keen to employ me but they don't have a vacancy just yet. They are going to contact me as soon as they have one though, which is just as well as my current Ward Sister seems to be trying to drive me insane with my rota for this month - I'm working Christmas day and the 3 days before it, 3 days between Christmas and New Year and 6 weekends in a row. I have had a discussion with her about it and made it clear that I am very unhappy about the situation. I was expecting to be working Christmas day but the rest of the rota stinks, especially considering that I helped her to ensure that the rota was covered for this month. I'm not going to let this get me down as I don't want it affecting me outside work. Looking on the bright side, I will have a good pay in January with all the weekend working.

Stitching wise, its Christmas all the way around here. I've stitched 5 ornaments in the past month and I finished my SB Jillian's stocking. Pictures to follow once I've done some finishing. Knitting wise, I'm working away on more socks and I've finish knitting a shrug in Rowan Chunky print. The Shrug is the design Blackberry from knitty and its the first thing bigger than socks/scarves/hats that I've knitted. Its not particulary perfect but its warm.

I've switched to beta blogger tonight also. It seems much easier to use and much easier to customise. It doesn't work with the Mac browser Safari so I've switched to Firefox, which I like better since it was upgraded. My blog might change a little over the coming weeks as I fancy a completely different look for it.