Stitching, knitting and exchanges

I have been meaning to post but just not getting around to it for the past few days. Given that I'm not really short on spare time at the moment, I'm not really sure where the time goes each day. Mostly it disappears into more sleep time, doing strange stretching exercises and general household stuff. I have been catching up on a lot of household tidying over the past 2 weeks as I seem to be further along the road to recovery than I was a few weeks ago. Returning to work soon is looking a lot more realistic just now and I should hopefully have a better idea after a round of different hospital/GP appointments this week.

Saturday I got a lovely surprise in the post. I took part in a Valentine's exchange on the SBEBB earlier in the year but something went wrong and I didn't receive an exchange. On Saturday, I got a lovely replacement stitched by Cathy B who stepped in so I got an exchange.

It is a lovely sweet LHN design finished as a little pillow and she also included some DMC threads and some sampler fabric which will be made into something soon.



A slightly better picture of the pillow



I've also finished some stitching. First up a little biscornu pincushion which I stitched to try out the finish as I've signed up for an Biscournu exchange.



The design is a freebie from Barbara Ana which I found via a link on her website. I also signed up for her newsletter which sends out some lovely freebies. I can see a few more biscornus in my future.

I also finished a Shepherds bush design On the haunt. The fabric is a lot more orangey in real life.



The sock knitting continues also. I've finished knitting the two pairs I was working on and cast on for some more.





I haven't actually finished any socks in the past week or so. I've been doing some secret knitting for someone and also knitting some squares in leftover sock yarn for a charity afghan that I'm taking part in the Who knits group on Ravelry. Speaking of knitting, this coming Saturday, the Guardian has a knitting supplement featuring designs from a knitter that had a Doctor Who related run in with the BBC

Thanks for the nice words about my baking. I do appreciate it and the biscuits and cake were lovely. I do agree with Lena-lou about the shape of the Dalek cake though. The Dalek cutter came from a kit that you can buy in a local supermarket and I've saved it for further use.

Daleks and other things

Well I think I've just about recovered from the excitement of the series finale episode of Doctor Who. Sunday was nearly as exciting as I spent most of the afternoon watching probably the best tennis game I've ever seen - Federer v Nadal in the Wimbledon final. I was supporting Federer and it was such a shame for him at the end of the match as he looked absolutely heartbroken. Nadal was amazing and is a worthy Wimbledon champion.

Anyway back to Doctor Who. Whilst my mum taught me the basics of cooking and baking, I've not made icing for years and I had never made buttercream icing before. I did have a ton of fun making them.

Dalek Cake minus plungers as I forgot to buy anything to make them with.



Dalek biscuits. The icing went everywhere.




Over the past few days there have been a few event anniversaries that have been on my mind. Saturday marked the 60th anniversary of the creation of the UK's National Health service. I'm slightly biased as I work for the NHS but I think that inspite of any problems it has, its an amazing organisation. Staff from the NHS helped to bring my sister and I into the world, cured my sister's hip dysplasia as a child, saved my Dad when he nearly died from Cardiomyopathy/heart arhythmias and made sure he stayed alive with life saving drugs. The NHS has helped most of my family in some way - My uncle who's beat the odds and survived more than 5 years post lung cancer diagnosis, My aunt who is now more mobile after knee replacements. I've been helped to become a nurse by lots of dedicated staff and helped by some great physios to get better from my current back problem. All without having to worry about how we will pay for it. Happy birthday NHS, here's to many more.

The second anniversary was on Sunday - 20 years since the Piper Alpha oil rig explosion off the North east Scotland coast. I've lived and worked in Aberdeen where many people from the UK oil industry are based and I worked in the hospital that the victims were taken to, years after the event. Aberdeen is such a small city that everyone knows someone who is in the oil industry and I worked with staff who were in the hospital that day. Its hard to imagine how they coped but coped they did. Hopefully they won't have to do that again.

The week so far

The needles have been pretty busy this week. I broke away from the sock knitting just after my last post and knitted my very first adult sized hat.



The pattern is Rose Red by Ysolda Teague and is wonderfully written. The yarn is Orkney angora St Magnus DK in violet and its so very soft.

Tuesday I was back to sock knitting though. For no apparent reason, insomnia hit on Tuesday night and I barely slept. After struggling to sleep for a while, I end up getting up and getting my knitting out for a while.

Prior to bedtime, I finished my first pair for summer of socks - the Uptown no purl monkey socks from my last post.



And then I finished the first sock of my second pair in the early hours of the morning when sleep just wasn't happening.



Its just a plain stockinette sock in Garnstudio fabel and I'm knitting away on the second one. I couldn't resist starting a third pair on some slightly thicker yarn.



The yarn is Evolution by Chameleon colorworks and its merino yarn stretched and heat set. It feels absolutely gorgeous and cashmere like. The pattern is by Gilraen.

I was also cheered up this week by a very short haircut which I'm gradually getting used to. I'm not sure that the hairdresser and I shared the same definition of fairly short but it will grow again lol. I also got a very sweet letter from my Great Uncle in Australia. He's 97 and I've started writing to him recently as he loves getting letters. We've never met but I have met his son who my dad didn't know existed and its turned out last year that he lives in Glasgow. My Great Uncle was apparently a bit of a rogue in his younger days but he's had an interesting life so there's always little interesting bits in his letters about moving to Scotland from Ireland and then on to Australia.

The weekend brings something that I'm very excited about - the last episode of the current series of Doctor Who. I shall be glued to the TV on Saturday night and probably sobbing on the sofa after it. In honour of the finale, I'm going to have a go at Blue Peter's instructions for making a dalek cake. Pictures to follow if it turns out.

Socks, socks, socks

Summer of socks is now underway so its socks, socks and more socks around here. I had said in my last post that I was going to try and finish my current sock KIPs prior to the start time. Well it almost went to plan. I finished the multicoloured monkey socks.



And then I went on to knit the second sock of a pair in Lorna's laces shepherd sock in rainbow.



Which left me with one sock on the needles - a purple/grey/blue pair. They are still on the needles and sleeping peacefully there to be finished at a later date.

Then I got ready for Summer of socks. I wound some yarn.



Printed lots of different patterns.



And got underway with a favourite pattern and favourite yarn - No purl monkey socks in Lorna's laces shepherd sock in Uptown.



The first sock is finished as you can see and the second one is now at the heel.

I've also cast on a second pair. Plain stockinette socks in Garnstudio fabel.



Which I've now turned the heel of the first one.

I had hoped to have a little more progress but I've been a bit stressed and down this week. I had a discussion with my manager about what I'm going to do re my job and back problem. Currently I work on an acute surgical ward and for all my nursing jobs so far I've had similarly heavy nursing jobs. My back is, to be frank, not really up to that long term so I'm now waiting for an assessment by the Occupational health department and what that will bring. Hopefully I should be fit enough for work in a few weeks but I'm not sure what my work schedule will be as I think I might be eithermoved to another area if a job is available or more likely, a back to work programme in my current workplace with shorter shifts. Either way, its all a little uncertain and I'm not good at coping with uncertainity. I'm also coping with the frustration of feeling up to working out more/doing different exercise but my body rebelling and not letting me do it. Very frustrating. I can feel myself getting down about it too and know I need to fight that as things are better than they were. I can do more that I could when this all flared up again in April, the numbness in my foot is gone and the pain is a lot less. If keep reminding myself of this and keep myself busy, I know I can get through this frustrating time. It helps just typing this all out.

Anyway if you managed to read though that, thanks.

Thanks to everyone who commented on my last post. Someone asked what fabric I stitched Happy Haunting on. Well I used the fabric that came with the kit when I got it at the retreat. Having seen Joy's WIP recently, its obvious that the fabric in the kit in the shops just now is different. The fabric I have is much more yellow/green.

Yay stitching

I've just about recovered from last weekend's stitching GTG and now its the weekend again. The GTG was lots of fun and I really don't think I've laughed so much since the same time last year. During the weekend, I dyed a couple of pieces of linen which I'll share pictures of once I've managed to get around finishing rinsing them and ironing them. Ironing is really not my favourite thing to do but I'l force myself lol. I also made a small trip to Wye needlecraft but I didn't go mad - I only bought a small piece of linen plus two mirabilia charts which were a particularly good price. We also had a stash giveaway in which I managed to give away a good amount of used charts and I gained a couple of pieces of fabric and two chart. All in all, it was a good weekend.

Anyway being around lots of stitchers certainly helped my stitching mojo, especially with all the finished pieces and WIPs that I saw. It helped so much that I actually finished a fairly long term WIP Happy Haunting by Shepherd bush.




I actually finished it on the train whilst the train got very close to Glasgow. Its one of the only good things about public transport - the ability to stitch on trains.
This was the retreat project from the 2006 Shepherds Bush retreat. I had planned to go again this year but being off work and still having back pain, I had to email to cancel. I'm a little disappointed but I had to be sensible.

Inpsired by one finish, I decided to pick up one of the numerous small projects that was waiting to be started and so I started, finished and finish, finished the Purrfect Bookmark from Cat's Whiskers. Its stitched on 40ct.



I'm off now to try and finish my multicoloured monkey socks. Next weekend sees the start of the Summer of socks KAL. I've joined in to try and use up some of my frankly too large sock yarn stash but I need to try and finish some of the socks currently on my needles as only socks started and finished during the time of the KAL count towards it. Currenty I have 3 pairs of socks at various stages of completion on the needles and it would be nice to start the KAL with none on the needles. That hasn't happened in a while.

New month, new look, new projects

June already, it seems this year is going very quickly. Anyway for the new month, I decided on a new look for my blog. I found a few different layouts I liked so there might be a few different layouts during the rest of the year.

There has been a lot of Little house needlework designs being stitched around stitching blogland lately so inspired by that, I've finished up one that I started earlier in the year.



Pumpkins stitched on 32ct lambswool linen. I plan to finish it into a pinkeep.

I've also stitched and finished a little kit given to me by Simone as part of the Here's to ewe SBEBB exchange. Its a dutch kit which came with all the bits to finish it as well but all the instructions were in Dutch too so I guessed when doing the finishing. I used the kit picture as a guideline.



I also managed to finish the first sock of another pair of monkey socks. They are knitted in Shelridge farm soft touch ultra like one of my previous pairs. It is so very soft but without being too fluffy and the stitches are very well defined in it.




This weekend, I'm off on my travels. Myself and 15 other stitchers are headed for a weekend away in some farm cottages. There will be lots of stitching, knitting, eating and drinking plus some shopping hopefully and a dyeing class by Kate of Sparklies fabric. We had a similar retreat last year which was lots of fun so I'm really looking forward to it. Hopefully when I return on Monday, I will have lots of lovely stitchy progress to share.

A little updating

So I haven't fallen down a hole and vanished. I've just been a bit blog uninspired. Anyway I'm happy to report that my things are a little better. I have started physio which is working as I can now feel my left foot properly but it has had the temporary effect of making my back more painful. I'm still off work and have been told by the physio not to go back just yet as it could just make things worse. Thankfully I'm lucky enough to have paid sick time.

The Anniversary sampler got finished just in time. The designs are by M designs and were stitched on 28ct Antique linen using Gloriana silk in Cranberry.



There was a family party to celebrate my parents 40th wedding anniversary held in the local Cricket club. Scotland is not really known for Cricket playing but there are quite a lot of teams and my dad does enjoy watching it. There were a few refreshments taken by my parents to celebrate. They even made a wee speech



Not sure they were really fit for speeches though. Just before the party, my sister managed to get in contact with one of our childhood friends who we hadn't seen for about 16 years. We met her for lunch and she came along to the party. Balwinder is on the left and my sister is in the middle. Obviously I'm the other one.



There was also a bit of dancing. My Aunts, cousin and Mum couldn't resist a little conga.



In amongst party preparations, physio appointments and gym going, there has been some crafty activity. I paid a little visit to Edinburgh just after my last post and met up with Karoline and her lovely daughter for lunch and stash shopping. We visited K1 yarns which recently opened and bought some lovely yarn. Alas I forgot to take pictures.

I've been knitting more socks during my time off. These are No purl Monkey socks in Lorna's laces shepherd sock in Georgetown.



And some very bright plain socks in Regia Nation shade 5399. Trust me, these are even brighter in real life. My camera doesn't capture purple that well.



Stitching wise, I have finished a couple of things which need finishing. I'm hoping to get a bit of finishing done this week and the strong desire to stitch rather than knit is coming back. Its a pity I can't stitch and knit at the same time.

Productive sick time

The only good thing about being off with back pain is that it means I have a bit more knitting and stitching time. I'm still sleeping a lot more than usual due to the painkillers, which have also had the less desirable effect of causing me to have a series of nightmares last night. I think I might have been knitting too much as the nightmare I could remember involved being trapped under lots of yarn . I was watching Heroes before I went to bed also and that seemed to be in there somewhere.

Anyway on with the knitting. I've finished the second sock of two pairs of socks.

The first one is in Lorna's laces shepherd sock in Liberty.



The second ones are in Opal feelings.



I've also finished the first of a new pair in Lorna's laces shepherd sock in Georgetown. The pattern is No purl Monkey, which is a variation of the Monkey pattern by CookieA where all purl stitches are knit instead. I'm rather fond of this pattern.



Most of my stitching time has been spent on an Anniversary piece for my parents, who were married 40 years ago next week. Its M designs Celtic heart combined with their intials. Thankfully I'm on the final stretch with it.


Now I've finished this post, its time for me to head off to the gym for some more therapeutic exercise.

Exchange update

I can now share what I stitched for the Here's to Ewe exchange on the SBEBB as its now arrived with Carol.



Its A Lamb's egg by Shepherd's bush stitched on 40ct linen finished into a little ornament/fob. I must confess that I now quite like stitching on 40ct. I don't think I want to stitch a big project on it but I love stitching small things on it and smaller versions of things I've already stitched are really interesting to me.

The rest of this week has been a little trying for me. Sadly the back problem that I first experienced last year has flared up again and last weekend at work, I was really struggling. I've been to see my GP this week with some new symptoms - altered sensation and tingling in my left leg plus an increase in pain. The visit has resulted in some x rays being taken, me being signed off work for 2 weeks and some strong painkillers being prescribed. I've also been advised that I should change jobs in the long term, which is something I've been looking into anyway. The strong painkillers have codeine in them which have been helping me to sleep in comfort for the first time in a while but have the side effect of making me sleepy for a long time - around 12 hours at a time. So unusually for this night owl, I've been asleep before 1am the past couple of nights. Hopefully things will settle down more quickly this time as I don't think I could take another 3 months on sick leave as I went a bit loopy the last time.

Exchanging and knitting

Most of my stitching time this past week has gone into stitching an exchange - the Here's to ewe exchange from the SBEBB. I can't share any pictures yet as its not reached its destination.

I have however received my exchange from Simone



On the knitting front, I've finished my second ever full size adult cardigan. I've mostly just knitted socks so far.



I'm fairly pleased with it. It does gape a little at the front and I think it would sit better if the buttons were smaller with more of them too. Now I just need to get stuck into my Central park hoodie which has been neglected of late.

I finished another pair of Cranford mitts last night after I got home from my knitting group. This pair have the same colours as the first pair but in reverse.



Finally I have finished stitching something that I can share since my last post.



Its a Country companions design by DMC. I haven't stitched many of these designs lately but this range was thing that started me stitching in the first place in 1990. I've stitched 66 of the designs within this range over the years and I own almost all of the Country companions ever released. So I guess thats a little obsessive but I doubt I'll run out of things to stitch.

I'm off now to watch more Doctor Who. I am so happy to see it back again. The first episode was really fantastic and its going to interesting to see where the story will go. The second series of Torchwood has just finished and it came to such an amazing sad ending. I cried so much with the last episode but then again I do tend to be a bit of cry baby with sad films/tv shows.

Meeting and knitting

Most of the past two weeks has been fairly unremarkable with not a vast amount of knitting or stitching going on. There have been a few good bits though.

A highlight was getting the opportunity to meet John Barrowman in a local bookshop during a book signing. For those who don't watchit, he is the star of UK series Torchwood and also appears frequently in Doctor Who. He speaks in TV with a very American accent but he was born in Glasgow so this was a home town event so there were a lot of people there and he naturally reverted into his very lovely native accent. He was very friendly to everyone and stayed until everyone got the chance to get a book signed. There were a lot of people there. Oh and he's even more handsome in person. I got a couple of pictures but it was pretty difficult as it was so busy.





I'm a big fan of Doctor Who so was a thrill to met someone who has appearred in the program. I'm eagerly awaiting the new series of Doctor Who which starts next month.

I did manage to finish my Cranford mitts inspite of not having a lot of knitting time. They are knitted in Yard yard organic merino in Mysteron and Sooty cherry. I have already started another pair in the same colours but with the colours reversed


Thank you to everyone who commented on my last post with my finished Grape thread keeper. Everyone made such lovely comments and they are very much appreciated. The pattern is indeed by Chatelaine designs and was an online class. Its not currently available to buy but the online classes do eventually come out as charts.

Grape threadkeeper HD

The title says it all really. I finished the stitching in January this year and I finally completed the finishing on it last night.

I made a couple of changes on it. No initials on the front and no year inside. Partly because they were stitched over one which I don't like doing and also because I felt it looked fine without it. I used a premade cord around the edges rather than making it mainly because I had the perfect colour in my stash. I also found some random oddments of Vikki Clayton silk in my stash to wrap on the thread rings.

Here is the outside.



And here is the inside.





I took some more pictures in the daylight today which I think shows it better.





Tonight I'm off to a local knitting group for a meet up. I'm hoping to finish the Cranford mitts that I'm knitting.

Holiday crafty progress

Well my time off work is nearly done. I'm back at work on Thursday for 2 days and then luckily I'm off for 6 days after that due to my roster and the end of the holiday year which means I have to use all annual leave.

The weather has been truly horrible. We had some snow at the start of the week and thereafter its been rain, rain and more rain. Still its Scotland in March and really its not that surprising lol.

As a consequence of the awful weather, there's been a lot of house based holiday activities. I have been spring cleaning which is not really my idea of fun but a necessary evil. I also have been spring cleaning and tidying my wardrobe so the local charity shops are going to benefit a little from my efforts.

I have been knitting a bit too. I finished my blue Monkey socks in the Sheldridge farm yarn.



I also have done a bit of internet shopping at the Yarn yard. Natalie had uploaded a lot of merino plus a lovely pattern for some lacy mitts designed by Jane. I started them as soon as the yarn arrived. This colour combination is Sooty cherry/Mysteron. I'm hoping to get them finished in the next day or so.



As well as the knitting, there's been some finishing being done also. I finished stitching You've been hatched by Teresa Wentzler in 2005 and since then I've been looking for a box to mount it in. I finaly found one in The Viking loom in York in November last year and yesterday I mounted it in the box top.


Today I framed up a Shepherds bush kit that I bought in Utah - Boo to you. The mount came with the kit and I had a frame made to size locally.



This evening, I'm continuing with the finishing kick. I started the finishing on Grape threadkeeper yesterday and I'm hoping to get it completed tonight. I'm working slowly on it as I don't want to mess it up.