On hols...

Yep, I packed up work for a whole 5 days, including 2 weekends and today, which is a Friday so that's a whole 10 days off with no work, no noise, no telephone constantly ringing, no staff colleague's bugging me through the day, no deliveries and definitely, for me....no moaning at everyone.   I turned another year older recently and had a lovely day and I thought, maybe that's why I am so moany and grumpy at work.. No, not at all!  I'm just that way when I am at work.  I can't stand all that noise and by the end of the day my ears ache, my neck aches, my eye site is getting worse and most definitely, sitting on my bum on and off for 8 hours is not doing my body any good.

So without anymore work nonsense,  I am going to start by saying I have been a very busy girl lately. I decided to give designing a go and blimey, that's not easy.  I picked up my crochet hook, had my pen and paper ready and started the process.  After two weeks I finally had a finished project and hand written notes of a pattern.  That was Tunisian Blockbuster and I ended up thinking to myself 'maybe it's good enough to try and sell the pattern' instead of the actual end product.  The amount of time you put into making something could be hours, if not days or months so to put a price tag on something is very hard.  However, a pattern for a few pounds means that someone can have a go at making their own treasures and be proud of what they have achieved.

After much deliberation, I wrote up a pattern for Tunisian Blockbuster, found out how to save it as a PDF and then with tense shoulders and a hot cup of tea and cake next to me, I became a designer on ravelry.com and put my very first pattern up for sale.  It wasn't as bad as I thought and afterwards I went into the chat room quick and a kind lady said I had done it ok and wished me luck.  That was at 9pm one evening last week and then I got up for work the next day, checked my e-mails and I already had a pattern purchased.  I was so excited that someone wanted to buy my pattern, I rang everybody and didn't care that it was only 7.30am.  I did not expect any purchases to be made and then two days later, someone else purchased my pattern.  So since then my head is full of ideas and the frustrating thing is when do I get to do all of them.  I am kinda hoping that with my time off I can get to do some more as well as spending some much needed time with my partner Frank.

Besides the designing, I have made my first toy too!  I watched one of my favourite podcasts knitabulls, and Diane had made a Wee Bonnie Mouse. It was so cute that after finding the right sock yarn, I made it in around 4-5 hrs.  Wanna see Bonnie,  here she is sitting in front of our gardening books...............

I took her to work and she sat on my desk in front of my monitor to help keep me calm.  It worked for a while and then I took ten minutes rest and disappeared with my knitting at lunch time.

After knitting Bonnie I had another idea pop into my head for a pair of seat pads.  I have two dining chairs left in my  small home (the other two chairs were broken years ago) and because they have no soft seat for your bum, I thought of making a chunky granny square with ties so that at least it's a little softer.  Again, I got the hook out, my pen and paper and even took photo's of the project as I made them.  I then thought 'what about if I put some hints or tips in the pattern to' and so when it was completed and I started writing the PDF pattern, I added a tip about that annoying 'twist' in the middle you get when your granny square gets bigger and decided to write down how to stop that from happening.  Wanna see a picture........I am so pleased with them!

They are so simple to make for a beginner to get use to doing a granny square and you could make them with different colours too.

I do have another project on the go.  The yarn I had leftover from making Bonnie gave me an idea so I am in the process of knitting and writing the pattern down.  I will show you an update just as soon as I can get it finished.

Tammie my dog is doing fine, she had a visit at the vets two weeks ago for a check up because she is on special medication and there was a new vet there and not my own vet that we are use to.  We were not happy about the new vet's bedside manner and she basically said that Tammie had a serious heart murmour.  We questioned her because our own vet had always checked her out thoroughly at each visit and he never said anything about her heart and the vet just wasn't listening to a word we were saying.  She we said we would wait till next week for our original vet to be back from holiday.

We took Tammie to see our own vet who had returned from holiday and he thoroughly checked her over and said that there was nothing wrong with her heart.  So, if any of you have animals and you need to go to the vet, just be cautious.  Vet's are good, they all are but in my experience when a new vet see's that you are a customer who has animal insurance and say things like 'need's dental work, need's a scan because of a heart murmour'.  Take in what they are saying but always always always, get a second opinion from an experienced vet.   If there is a problem with your animal then yes, we have to accept that and we deal with it.

Here's a photo of our spoiled Tammie who loves her belly rubbed......especially when I am knitting!

Oh well, on that note I am going to say bye for now.  I have got two hours before Frank comes home from work so I am going to grab a cuppa, do a bit more knitting of my next design and watch a podcast.