Blankets

Well so much for trying to make 12 blankets in 12 months, I think its not going to happen. I'm not that bothered though, it was a passing whim and as I already know I hate to knit/crochet to a deadline or work under pressure it was never something I took seriously.

I get al busy in winter crafting and completely forget that when it comes to summer I'd prefer to be out in the garden gardening etc and so I don't get as much done.

Still I am getting somewhere with my blankets. I'm working on the last strip of my colourful crochet squares blanket. All I will need to do next is sew them up and crochet the border. (All? thats the worst bit!)

I've still got a skein to go on my 15 stitch blanket:

I'm still really enjoying this knit, its going slowly because I'm spreading out the knitting because as much as I love the acrylics for blankets there's nothing like knitting with some beautifully dyed yarn. I miss the subtlety of colour when I knit with commercial yarn.

I very much doubt that either of these will be finished by the end of the month, but as I'm enjoying myself who cares?

Health

I don't post much about my health on here, I've mentioned ME/CFS a few times but thats about it. I don't intend on turning this into a blog about my health, there are plenty of better ones out there that explain various things far better than I ever could.

However in the last few weeks everything I thought was wrong with me has been turned on its head. After being ill for about four years and being told there was nothing wrong with my thyroid and that it was ME, it turns out I have a goiter (swollen thyroid gland).

So if there is anyone out there with ME type symptoms please spend a bit of time doing some research into iodine deficiency, selenium deficiency and adrenal insufficiency, because there are a lot of conditions out there which the general health profession just doesn't bother to look for.

Luckily I have a fairly open minded GP who is going with iodine supplementation for this rather than the surgery which was the first option and one I wasn't sure I wanted to take.

Unfortunately treating this with iodine kicks up all sorts of nasty detox symptoms and has left me feeling very rubbish. Its starting to pass but its not been a fun few weeks.

To cheer myself up I might have bought some yarn on Saturday:

This picture in no way shows off the loveliness of this yarn, it was impossible to capture.

FO - Crochet Cowl

This week I made a couple of quick crochet cowls. One is for my sister for her birthday, the other is for me.

My sisters is in Posh Yarn Sylvia Aran which is a merino silk mix, in pinks and oranges and all sorts of lovely colours:

The one for me is in Posh Yarn Bonnie Aran, which is pure Blue Faced Leicester wool, in a wonderful deep red:

Its very simple just rows and rows of UK double crochet stitch. I made it it one long piece and joined the two ends together with some slip stitches.

Nothing fancy, but I've really enjoyed making them. They each took a couple of days to make and they were nice easy crochet, perfect for hooking whilst I watch TV etc.

The red one has ended up a couple of inches longer than the pink one and the difference between crocheting the cowls was surprising. The silk mix just flew through my fingers, where as the BFL felt slightly sticky and seemed to take more effort to crochet. Its probably worth it though as the finished product feels more durable and long lasting than the silk mix.

The red dye also came off on my hands. I do sometimes have dye come off on my hands but not usually this bad, it made the Husbeast laugh when he saw it. It gave the saying "caught red handed" a whole new meaning as there was no way I would have been able to pretend it'd been doing housework when I'd been crocheting! Not that I ever do that the Husbeast is far to well trained (bullied) to think I should do housework instead of craft!

FO - High speed knitting

My shawlette I started in London is finally finished. Here is is in all its unblocked glory:

Blocking will have to take place another day, It doesn't need much, just a little to make the garter stitch section lie flat.

This was an extremely easy pattern, the main part was garter stitch and the ruffle was a 2 x 2 rib. Its a perfect project for if you are sitting around talking and need something you don't have to concentrate on.

I can see myself making more of these as its such a quick pattern. If I hadn't hurt my shoulder I think it would have taken me about 3-4 days at most to knit which is pretty good for me.

So my first FO of the month is done. It'll probably be the only one as I'm not even half way through my blanket so I can't imagine finishing that in the next couple of weeks. Still with no interruptions I can see the main bit being finished by the end of March, although I think the border will take awhile longer.

FO - Swap knits

I've finished my knitted item for the Alice in Wonderland swap:

My swap partner likes purple and wristwarmers so these should be just right for her. I'm supposed to be the March Hare, so a yarn in the colourway Jam Session seemed perfect for someone who is  at a perpetual tea party. The little leaf buttons from my Crafty Creatives box seemed perfect to finish them off, straight from a woodland scene.

I've ordered a few more items for the swap over the weekend, one of which is some purple yarn called March Hare, I couldn't get better than that for the box.

I love doing swaps and finding the right things for people. Sometimes its quite difficult, I've seen people who have not given much information and say they are happy with anything go off and complain in other groups that what they received wasn't good enough.

Its hard for knitters of different ability and experience to swap unless everyone accepts that a handmade item is always going to have had a certain amount of time, effort and care put into it and so even if the knitting isn't as good as your own, its still something someone has worked hard over.

My knitting is certainly not as good as some of the things I've seen people knit on Ravelry, but, as I am not a quick knitter, I would hope that anyone receiving a hand knit off me would realise its taken me a lot of time and effort to make. Sadly that's not always been the case but hopefully this time my swap partner will appreciate and love the things I have made her.

Special little things

Today I have been appreciating:

• The way the ice makes cobwebs really obvious so I can appreciate their beauty 

• Quick meetings which are less noisy than I expected

• My early finish on a Wednesday so that I can spend the afternoon knitting

• Curling up watching my tortoise

• Eating some sugar free chocolate

• DK weight yarn and 8mm needles for a quick, uncomplicated knit

Last night I started knitting some of this:

Whilst I wait for some more purple Push Yarn Martha Sock so I can finish my 15 stitch blanket.

What are your favourite little things which turn an average day into a special day?

Yarn that makes you happy

Have you ever bought one skein of hand dyed yarn and fallen in love with it and then realised its a one off, never to be repeated colour, and the other few skeins out there have been knitted?

This was the case for me with Posh Yarn Martha Sock in the Cha cha cha colourway. I only really bought it because of the name, I'm a big fan of Strictly Come Dancing and thought it would be fun to knit whilst I was watching the programme.

The more I knit it the more I fell in love with it. Martha Sock is my favourite yarn base. I might briefly flirt with other yarn bases but eventually I always come back to Martha. The colour of Cha cha cha is just beautiful. Its purples with subtle hints of cerise. Its what I imagine you would get if you mashed blackcurrants up and used them to dye with.

Other colourways have come close. I'm currently knitting with Martha Sock in Trumpet Voluntary which is purples with hints of blue and is also beautiful to look at. Still though, Cha cha cha is my favourite.

So you can imagine how happy I was when I saw on the Posh Knitters group on Ravelry that someone was destashing a skein which looked almost identical called Murder she wrote. Obviously I bought it, what else could I do?

It really is so close in colour, its maybe a little darker but the same underlying colours are all there. So I've decided its going to become a pair of fingerless mitts to wear with my Cha cha cha shawl. I already know I am going to enjoy every single minute of knitting because I will love watching the colours change and blend under my fingers as I knit it.

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A Posh Quilt

A few days ago I won a prize over on Dee's Posh Yarn blog. The competition was to say what your word for the year was. I chose patience, because my ME/CFS frequently means I can't do what I want, as fast as I want, when I want. So I need more patience.

I never normally win anything, but I won! I was so excited I had to keep double checking to make sure it was me who had won, I honestly couldn't believe it.

The prize was a mini quilt handmade by Dee, who is very talented at making and photographing beautiful things.

Which makes the next bit slightly nerve wracking as I want to photograph my prize and I know there is no way I will be able to do it justice. My photography skills are a bit hit and miss at best and part of my reason behind posting more frequently in this blog is to try to force myself to take more photographs and to try to improve my skills.

I tend to blame my camera a lot, and to be fair it is very cheap and cheerful and not brilliant. I would love a new one but I wonder whether there is any point until I've at least learnt how to use a simple one properly.

In the meantime here are the photos. First up my porch:

 Why my porch? Well that blank wall at the end there is where the mini quilt is going to live as a wall hanging to brighten up the room.

Here's the quilt down there to show how it will go (obviously not hung up because I haven't had chance yet but just to get an idea of how the colours will work):

And finally a close up of the quilt in all its beautiful, colourful quilted glory:

This manages to have in it most of my favourite colours and I think its fabulous. Thank you Dee I will treasure it.

Knitting - Simple scarf

The Husbeast can actually knit. Well he can let me cast on, knit in garter stitch, pass to me whenever he makes a mistake and let me bind off, but still considering its years since I stepped in a kayak (his hobby) I appreciate the effort on his part.

He doesn't really wear much that I can knit for him. I have knit him a pair of socks he wears loads in the winter and has requested more pairs, but I lost my sock needles for ages (I only have one pair to try to discourage my WIP pile from growing any bigger), so there are no socks on my list for him any time soon.

He doesn't wear hats particularly and the one hat I knit him was way to big, went on the frog pile and "disappeared".

So when he asked me to knit him a scarf over Christmas I decided it was time I made him something. Especially as he asked for it in Moss Stitch which is apparently his favourite stitch pattern. Which basically means he's been paying attention which makes me love him all the more.

So I cast on 60 stitches on 4.0mm needles in Posh Yarn Martha Sock and knit in moss stitch until I ran out of yarn which took forever (or at least that's what it felt like). It was the perfect project for over Christmas though. I could knit it without concentrating too much over Christmas when the family was round. Then after they'd gone it was also perfect to knit whilst watching the Husbeast's Christmas present to me, the last season of House MD which we love.

So here is the simple scarf:

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