Sunday 9pm on 23rs December

Just popping in quick, I'm sitting on edge of bed in back room whilst my grandchildren sleep.  They are getting their presents tomorrow so me and pop can see their faces. Their mum is supposed to be popping round early to see them too and have breakfast.

So I'm going to grab some sleep while I can and be back very soon.  Happy Christmas Eve to all those that celebrate.

First weekend of December

Back again with another little daily life update and today is Monday 3rd December 2018.

I had to book annual leave on Friday from work last week, I had felt really low and anxious which led to a few tears so after a long sulk in bed and feeling sorry for myself, I gradually started the day with basically doing minimal housework, stayed in my night clothes and just did a few things when I had the energy.

I did order my Grand children's main Christmas gifts on line and I also treated their Mum to a new Christmas tree which you can see in the above photo.  It is a 6ft pre lit tree and was only £20 from Argos which was a bargain.  Frank also bought some small baubles for them to hang up but I guess their Mum couldn't wait any longer.

I did decide to have a weekend off from having the Grand children but felt so quilty cause I know they like coming here and so we had them Saturday afternoon through to yesterday (Sunday) mid afternoon.  They both have terrible coughs and my grand daughter had been awake a lot in the night with coughing and crying.  I always try to keep a cough syrup and calpol at my house for them in case it is needed which helped a little but was absolutely shattered by Sunday.  

My grand daughter decorated some Gingerbread men and she has made a lot of playdough shapes which I have made little holes in the top with my knitting needle so that when they dry out we can paint them christmas colours and hang up on the wall.  I have some glittery nail polish so am going to utilise them for the shapes.

Frank bought a ball of Pairfect Sock Yarn the other week and I finished one of the socks last night.  It is a good way of knitting your socks without having to think about colours, design, shape etc.  They fit him great so that is the main thing.

Today I have woken up about 8am and have a cough, sore throat and feeling rather drained so I got all my chores done pretty quickly, went to the local Co-Op to get a few bits and now as I sit here typing this, it is pouring with rain.

I have casted on the other pair this morning and am now going to watch some Vlogs, do a bit of designing (on paper) which I thought about last night in bed, cook Frank's cottage pie for his dinner and then its ironing tonight.

Oh yeah, I did watch Day 2 of lovesockwool's vlog this morning while eating breakfast and she made some thumb cookies so I have the ingredients for that to have a go at.  Maybe!!

Have a good week and hopefully be back soon!

The clock is ticking

I am at home today trying to relax and not worry myself back to bed about different things. Sometimes just going back to bed and listening to the clock sends my mind into deep thought mode about how things could have been different.

Things like...

• Should I have chosen a different career?
• What would I do differently if I could re-live those hard moments in life?

The list could go on and on and I am sure that we all think like this at times, it just seems that the past year I constantly worry about my boys, I feel insecure in life and I cannot settle with my career choice.  I cannot concentrate on every day tasks and tend to just give up and crave quiet and hearing the clock ticking in my living room.

I said to my boss the other day during my appraisal that unless you suffer from depression and anxiety, people have no idea.  I hope it is just a phase that I am going through and hope that it betters itself and I can relax and enjoy my life.  It does help talking about anxieties and it does help for me to have 'time out' at home, quiet and just laying down, crafting or having a nap.  

So that is enough of that and it is time to talk about forthcoming plans.  I think the first plan is to continue with my crafts and not lose interest in them.  I have  knitted a lot of socks for Christmas gifts this year and nearly all of them I have knitted on the bus to and from work as well at home.  

I have started a crochet scrap blanket with 2 strands of double knit held together, I am enjoying that but can only crochet for around an hour at a time and then I have to put it down because it causes my right shoulder and thumb to hurt.  

I have almost finished Christmas present shopping which is a big worry off my mind and all I have to really worry about is how to get one of the presents to my youngest son. 

Frank has bought me a lot of sock yarn over the past few months and I intend to keep making socks and hopefully having some leftovers.  I do have quite a lot of leftovers and am trying to rack my brain to think of what to do with them as a design instead of just another sock blanket.

Frank wants to get the Christmas tree out this year so I suppose I have to, I think he wants it more for the Grandkids to see when they visit weekends so we will be doing that this weekend.  

So my plans are not too intense for the next few weeks, I do not plan that far in front for anything really because of my insecurities which stops you from looking forward to things so if any scenarios do pop their ugly head, it would be easier to copy.  Hope that makes sense, it does to me now!

I am now off to rest a bit and watch a podcast with a cup of tea and my knitting.  Have a lovely weekend.

Bag of Yarn

Bag of Yarn is or should I say was my Domain Name for a website that my son had built for me and was all going well until every time I tried to log in to it, it would not work.  It was a lovely website, very professional, detailed etc. That is why I had deactivated my blogspot for 3 months in order to get it up and running.  However, it is driving me nuts and I do not want to have anymore stress so I asked my son to delete the Bag of Yarn website and am now back to blogspot.

So today is Monday 24th September at 12 noon, I am at home enjoying the quiet with a cup of coffee, pets are asleep and I intend to give a little update and then it is podcast watching and knitting until about 2.30pm to which I will then start cooking dinner.

 As you can see I have been busy with my knitting and they are for Christmas Gifts.  I have made about 8 pairs so far in around 3 months because Frank had bought me quite a lot of Drops Fabel Sock Yarn, Cascade Heritage Print Sock Yarn, West Yorkshire Spinners Bird Colourways and some West Yorkshire Spinners Spice Colourways.  

The designs are pretty much the same, my basic cuff down sock of 2 x 2 rib, leg of 6 x 2 rib, short row heel, 6 x 2 rib on top of foot and then a toe decrease with kitchener stitch to complete.

They are all labelled and sitting in my drawer 

 ready to be wrapped and given at Christmas.

 I have also done a little christmas shopping and about 3 months ago I went into Roomes of Upminster where they sell branded clothing like Ted Baker, Reebok etc and they had a sale in their Super Dry Range.    I must admit that I have only once ever walked into a SuperDry store, looked at the first item in front of me and walked out again.  The prices are so crazy and even if the clothes with stitched with Gold, I would not pay their prices.

However, in Roomes their sale was fantastic.  I got my two sons a red zipped hoody jacket each for £15. They had been marked down several times and oh my goodness, I just could not resist.

Reading this you may think that I have gone crazy getting things for Christmas already and knitting gifts but I have cut my hours at work now due to my depression and I just feel that if I have got the money and there is a bargain that I can afford, then think ahead and get prepared.  You just do not know what is waiting for you around the corner.

  This photo is a Cardigan that I knitted for my Granddaughter using King Cole Riot DK which I have a lot of.  It just about fits her and I am waiting for the buttons to arrive from Woolwarehouse.  It fits her lovely in the shoulder, length and sleeves but it will not be on her for long around the tummy area.  I am going to knit another one soon but using the yarn doubled and a bigger needle.

I now have a bit of a decision to make as to what to knit next because I am just about socked out and I still have quite a bit of sock knitting yarn left.  I was thinking of maybe doing some hats and maybe a few shawls but to be honest, I really do not know!

I want to design some more things and at the moment I do have 2 crochet projects on the go that I am designing but I cannot crochet for long periods of time now due to the pain in my right thumb.  It does effect me from gripping things, I nearly drop things if I am not careful.



I am now going go and look at some design options and hope to be back on here very soon.  Bye xx

Points Card

Here in the UK we have two particular stores that I use regularly, the  Co-Op is a local grocery store just down the road from me, it is close to Becontree Train Station and several bus stops so it does get busy at certain times of the day.  My local Boots is also a pharmacy and if you google it, it will give you a long history of the company.  The one I go to is at Heathway and it sells toiletries, baby products, make-up and some diabetic foods.

The reason I am speaking about these stores is because I have a Points Card for each of them, have done for a long time, and when I spend you hand over your points card and you get points on the card for every purchase.  Sometimes its 1p per £1 spent and other times you get points deals which, when money gets tight or you want to buy a special treat you can use your points to purchase and it does not cost you anything.  I was wondering if other people use something similiar in other countries, I know my cousin in USA uses coupons cut from newspapers or given at the time of purchasing products but is there a points system too.

The store that I go to sometimes called Roomes of Upminster has a Habadashery Section where I have purchased yarn and when you spend money you get a paper card with squares on and they stamp a square when you spend.  When it is full (8 stamps) you get £5 off your purchase.

Can you imagine the amount of plastic cards in your purse if you had one for all the stores you use on a regular basis, that would drive me nuts.  I have saved a fair bit for Co-Op and when I have had £10 worth of points I have bought tins of baby milk, box of chocolates for a gift or just had it taken off a shopping bill.  I think it is a brilliant idea and will continue to use my Points Cards but what I would like is a points saving system for an online yarn store.  I would use it regular, especially now that I want to stop using acrylic yarn and will start purchasing a more natural fibre like wool.

Today is Saturday and both myself and Frank have not been feeling our best so we only popped to Heathway to the Library and took a few things to our local charity shop.  I purchased some bedding for a single bed.  Then I got the bed all made up to look cosy and comfy for when my Grand Daughter stays over.  The bed was given to use by one of Franks work friends, its made of iron and the mattress was in really good condition so I bought a waterproof mattress protector from a store called Wilkinsons and then put some blankets on it, especially Myas new blanket I made called Magics Summer and threw a lot of cushions on there too.

I was planning on painting 3 of the walls in the bedroom, just white to spruce it up a bit, but I have to be in the mood to decorate so it can wait a bit longer.

Tomorrow is going to be a lazy day, I want to do a bit more designing and then in the afternoon my Grandson will be visiting with my brother and sister in law.  We have not had great weather this week and the forecast is not looking good for the next few days.  I cannot believe that last weekend it was very warm and sunny and was going out without any coats on.  Crazy British weather.

Oh well, I am off to do some crafts and maybe watch a few podcasts.  Hope everyone has a good week and if you do have any thoughts about Points Cards, please comment below.

Since February

Since February I kind of lost my interest in my crafts and was just picking it up for the sake of it, I got fed up with sock knitting and once I completed the last pair I had decided to not do anymore for a while.  I also felt quite tired most days, I still do, and cannot work out why.  I then got a part-time job working as a Receptionist in a Medical Centre which I started mid March and is absolutely exhausting, especially after a 10 hr day.

It is also a sedentary job so sitting down is a big part of the day which is not doing my knees any good, my feet and weight control.  I use to walk at least 10,000 steps a day making an effort to walk the 2 miles to work and 2 miles back but this job is too far away for that so I have decided to actually re-do the Couch to 5K exercise but more in line with walking distances rather than much jogging.  I do not want to aggravate my Plantar Fasciitis and go through that pain again.  I am also trying to control my eating again because I am comfort eating and also when I finish work late, I am eating dinner late which to be honest I do not really want so I need to look at my diet.  I am not eating enough fruit again and also found out that eating a portion of nuts is suppose to be good for you.  I do have a Doctors appointment on Monday to request a full blood test.

So what have I been up to, well as you can see in the photo below, I turned 50 the other day and I got such a lot of Birthday Cards which compared to few last year, was good going and much appreciated.

I got lots of lovely gifts and a surprise dinner part at a Harvester Restaurant in Gidea Park which Frank had organised with my Sister-in-Law and Brother.  My two Grand children were there too and my neice Adele.  We had my Grand Daughter over the weekend and on the Saturday we took her to Southend for a few hours where we both got spoiled again with clothes, shoes and jewellery which was not expected.  I knew we were going to buy Mya some new clothes because we bought her brother Martyn some the weekend before.

Since my last blogpost I had been crocheting on and off a design of my own so that Mya had a Summer blanket for the bed that we are setting up for when she stays and below is a photo of the design.  It is using Paintbox Simply DK and I call it Summer Magic.  I have not written up a pattern for it yet, I just need to bring myself to get round to doing it.

I have also been listening a lot to documentaries and articles on the news about how much plastic we use and what effect it is having on our planet.  The damage to our sea life is just so upsetting to see and realising that Acrylic yarn is not very friendly to our environment, I have decided to give up using Acrylic yarn. I am using up everything I have of Acrylic and then will look at using a more natural fibre.  That being said it has to be budget friendly too and am looking at the Shetland Spindrift Yarn which is a natural wool blend by Jameson & Smith in the UK.  

So I have been working on another scrap project using my last Acrylic and below is a photo of it for you to see.  On the negative side I am finding I can only crochet for a few hours at a time because it effects the base of my thumb quite badly.  It becomes painful to grip anything and is sore which is concerning me.  However, a little bit at a time I will get the project done.

Finally, I got a bargain at Hobbycraft about a month ago and it is a wool blend aran by Patons.  I think it is a discontinued yarn and the blue tweed effect caught my eye.  I am hoping to make another nice blanket but for Martyn and I have an idea for a design but just got to get it right in my head.  I will do a swatch sample of the pattern to see if it will work.  It was £2 a ball for 100g so could not miss out on that bargain.

Today is Wednesday morning and I have to be in work a little later. I have done housework and now going to watch a podcast called Fruity Knitting (an Australian couple who live in Germany) which is on Youtube and also one called Brooklyn Knitfolk (a lady living in New York) which is also on Youtube.  

Hope you all have a good sunny day and be back soon.

February 16th, 2018

I have been a busy bee since I posted last time, I have been monogamously knitting on my latest design and I finished it yesterday.  I have spent the past 2.5 hrs writing up the pattern and then sent the PDF to my son for him to take a look at the format and layout.  He agreed that it was good and so I published it today.  Here are a few photos.

It has used nearly 5000 yards of Paintbox Simply DK so is a good stash buster because I used two colours together.  I randomly picked the colours because I wanted it to be a bright and colourful rug for my living room.  Plus I want to stop having cold feet from the laminate flooring.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/simply-rug

I have put a link above to the rug pattern above if anyone would be interested in purchasing it.

Today is a very sunny but cold day and the forecast for the evening is even colder, it is going to get to about 1 degrees so warm pyjamas tonight.  I have been planning what to cook for a meal tonight too, Frank is popping over and after much deliberation I am going to cook a fish meal with rice and vegetables.  I would not say I am enthusiastic about cooking, I do not cook many meals but when I know I am getting a visitor I will make an effort.

It is 12.30pm and for the rest of the day I intend to watch a few podcasts and cast on a new project called Reyna by Noora Laivola which is a free pattern on Ravelry.com.  I am going to use some stash yarn that I have called Louisa Harding Amitola.  It is a lace kind of shawl pattern and will be my first lace project.

Have a good weekend.

February 5th, 2018

Hi there,  just popping in to bore you about the freezing weather here in my part of the UK.  It is 11.30am right now, I got back from my interview this morning around 11am and I still cannot get warm.

It is just one degree above freezing here and when I left at 08.20 this morning I had my shawl, woollen coat, large cabled scarf, hat and gloves on and it started to blinking snow heavy.  I just thank the Lord that it is not very windy today because it would have been much colder.  My interview was at 09.30 and the bus journey became horrendous.  The traffic at the Heathway was really bad, the roadworks at Morrisons was even worse and then to top it off, the bus driver changed shifts so I rang and left a message with the Secretary that I could be late for my interview.  I have never been late and get anxious about it and so ended up getting there at 09.36.  They were ok about it thank goodness and my interview went well, they said they will contact me by the end of the week for their decision.

By the time I got home it started snowing again, just a little bit and I made a coffee and started to write this and update my Job Search Journal.

I have had my central heating on all weekend but last night felt so drafty and Frank and I decided to get a couple of blankets on our laps.  Frank has got the crocheted granny square blanket and I have the mitred square blanket.  You can just see the back of Tammies head where she is always laying.

I love my blankets and will keep on making them, I do not think you grow out of a blanket like you do with clothing styles and it is so comforting to have a warm cover to give you that extra bit of heat.

I certainly do not intend to go out again today, other than walk Tammie, I have just seen the Gritter Trucks go past so must be getting more snow soon.  I think I will just do a little tidying up and then get some more work done on Strip No.5 of the rug.  I am enjoying it so much.

I did finish one of Franks socks the other day but when I got him to put it on it seemed quite small in the foot. I could not work out why it came up short because I always do 70 rounds for his foot length so I unpicked the toe and got him to put it back on and blimey, it was about an inch too short.  I added another 10 rounds and it was better and so am now leaving to do the toe until I finish the second sock. I was puzzled why it was so short and then occurred to me that I am using size 2mm dpns and knitting quite tighter than normal.   

I am also trying to alternate the way I knit through each knitting session that I do, I am quite concerned about my thumb and the pain I am getting.  I will put on a support to see if that helps and take little break too.

Oh well, I am off to get another coffee and try to warm up.  Have a good day and will be back with good news about the job soon.

February 1st, 2018

Today is a very cold (4 degrees) but sunny day and I did not want to go out  but I told myself that the dog loves her walk and so I put on a shawl under my coat and my big cable scarf on top, plus a hat and gloves and went outside.  I just about managed to miss most of the school kids going past and there were only a few screaming teenage girls to blot out the noise from.  I was not out for very long, literally posted a letter and was back again much to Tammies dismay.

Yesterday I was up bright an early at 6am and walked to the Heathway to catch the bus to Harold Hill.  I got to Michelles house around 07.15 and got a lovely greeting from my Grandson.  We spent the day together while Michelle went to work, we played, chuckled, he can sit up now on his own most of the time with just a little wobble now and then.  He loves his racing car walker and his jumperoo but also gets a lot of floor time rolling around, talking and being quite vocal.  I managed to get a bit more knitting done on my latest socks whilst he slept and I watched a couple of podcasts like Fruity Knitting and Skeindeer Knits and then at 4pm I put on a quiz programme called Tipping Point. Now for some reason my Grandson likes this programme, he will watch it intensely at times and all I can think of is because of the bright red colours on the machine.  You can see this quiz programme on Youtube if you want to see what I mean.

My niece came in from school and then my brother came in from work and we had a coffee together. My brother David beams at my Grandson when he walks in and Martyn just beams back at him as if to say Where You Been.  David says that it makes his day when he sees him.  David goes back out around 5pm to get Michelle and they go on to a cleaning job that they do together and then by 7pm we sat down for dinner which consisted of Cornbeef, Chips and Beans which was yummy.   Shortly after Dave takes me home in his car and Michelle gets Martyn bathed and ready for bed.

So that was yesterday and as I said it is freezing today with a chilly wind that needs to blow away fast.  I did turn my central heating off for a few days because it has been so mild around 10 degrees but today, it went straight back on.  I got up around 8am today and spoke to Frank on the phone for a while and then I ended up giving my bedroom a good clean and tidy and got some washing and ironing done.  Michelle rang to say that Martyn had cut his first tooth which explained his sleepless few nights poor thing.

Housework lasted till about 11.30 am and then I did some job searching and applied for a few jobs.  I checked my emails and have been invited for an interview on Monday so am looking forward to that. I then finished off knitting the 4th strip for the rug and whilst watching The Grocery Girls Podcast on Youtube, I sewed together the 4 strips that were completed.

You can see it folded on the back of the chair and it is rather big.  I was going to take a photo of it on the floor but I will wait till I have completed it because I am hoping to turn it into a knitting pattern on Ravelry.

It is now 1640 hrs and just starting to get dark so the candles are lit and the lamp is on and am now enjoying a cuppa and some rich tea biscuits.  

Tammie is waiting patiently to be offered some biscuit and you have to dunk it in the tea or she turns up her nose at you. Rather spoiled I am afraid.

I am going to spend the rest of the evening working on my 5th strip for the rug, do a little dinner and maybe see what is on the tv. I am hoping to get those socks finished this weekend because after having a tidy up in my room I have put aside my next stash of yarn for a project and would like to crack on with that soon.

Have a good evening and hopefully be back soon. 

January 29th

Hi I thought I would finish up January blogposts today and hopefully have a more productive and interesting crafty February.  Since I wrote my last blogpost which was around 10 days ago there has been a fair bit of knitting on my rug project using 2 double knit yarns together and I am currently ready to finish the 4th strip.

It is turning out to be a complete mish-mash of colours without any planning of what colours to use together and at first I thought that it was not going to look ok but to be honest, the more random colours the better.  The 3 that are complete are currently rolled up on my dinner table and they make me fancy a swiss roll cake.

The only negative that I have to say about knitting with 2 strands of double knit yarn held together is that I have been getting a nasty pain in the lower part of my right thumb and when I compared it to my left thumb, the base is quite swollen.  It has woken me up at times and so I have been trying to knit continental to ease the repetitiveness.  I have picked up speed with continental knitting but it does still feel rather odd to me knitting this way but I will do whatever I can to ease the discomfort.

As you can see from the above photo, this is a few of the colours that I want to incorporate into the rug and I intend to add a few paler colours that I have sitting upstairs in my plastic storage container.  

I have been thinking about how I want to complete the rug namely, an edging and I am leaning towards an I-cord edge all the way around because I thought that it would give it a much more sturdy support.  I do intend to wash it now and then but also I have visions of hanging it over the washing line and bashing it a bit to get any dust out.  Lets face it, dusting is not on my priority list.

I have not knitted much on the red, white and blue socks because I only save them for either on the long bus ride to look after my Grandson or I may knit on them whilst in bed.  So it is not worth putting a photo of them here,  I am still on the first sock, I completed the heel the other day and am only a few rows in for the foot.

So as a quick update for January on the job searching front, I am still applying for lots of jobs and barely getting any replies.  I see my work coach every week and also received support to update my cv to tweak it a bit.  I do hope something comes along soon, I have decided to broaden my horizons with what I want to do as a job and realise now that I do not want to have a lot of stress in my life workwise and the only possible career choices that I can think of is working part-time for a while.  To be honest I have been looking at doing cleaning jobs because you work on your own, no stress, no deadlines or office red tape and that sounds attractive to me.  So we will see what February brings.

My crafting plans for February are to just finish this rug and to finish the one pair of socks I have on the needles.  I really do not like having a lot of projects on the go, I like to see the finished product and I hate having projects laying around incomplete, especially if it is expensive yarn.

So, I will say goodbye to January 2018 and hope that those who read this have had a pleasant January.

January 18th

Hi, I have not been doing anything of interest to blog about the past few days so I thought I would just pop in some photos.

This first one is of a lap blanket that I crocheted back in November 2012 and completed it in January 2013.  It is made with acrylic yarn and is just simple granny squares with a white border.  I then put crocheted the squares together into strips, did a red border between the strips and then went around the outside edge to finish off.  I have currently got it over my lap because it is quite chilly here today and am feeling the cold.

The next photo is of a sock that I have started. In fact it is Franks 18th pair of socks, I did make 17 pairs for him last year and I hope to make the same amount again but with different yarns and hopefully a few designs of my own.  The yarn that I am using at the moment is called Zig Zag and it is lovely to work with.  I am using my Knit Pro Zings, size 2mm and they are begining to be my most favourable needles.

I have been visiting my Grandson the past few days and I am thoroughly enjoying my time with him, he makes me smile so much and is learning new things every day.  The past few days he has realised he can shake his head and also found his screechy voice which he thinks is highly hilarious.

Today we have had a whole mixture of weather, at 2am there were gale force winds which blew down a few trees, broke my neighbours fence two doors away and then blew over my small little plastic greenhouse that I use to put in garden pots etc.  I do not understand how it can blow over though because I have a marble hearth at the bottom of it to weigh it down but it still gets blown over at times.

Then we had a heavy downpour about 3pm when the school kids came out and now it is just cold, dark and damp.  The news report is saying that there has been a lot of snow all over the country and lots too in USA.  Blimey, I hope it does not cause any problems for people.  

Oh well,  I am going to watch a podcast and do a little knitting on the 3rd strip of the rug I am making.  My thumb is still quite sore after a little bit of knitting but am trying to alternate my technique to ease the pain. 

Have a good evening!

January 12th

Back again and been pretty busy what with one thing and another and today I decided on a project that I want to make by December 1st, 2018.

These are the Advent Mittens on Ravelry.com and I hope to make 2 sets one for my Grandchildren and one for a family member.

Frank came round Friday after he finished work and brought me a treat from Ravs Bakers in Essex Road which is my favourite bread of all time. 

Called Walnut Loaf and as of right now, it is all gone.  Spread with Lurpak Butter and its irresistable.

Today we went out early and got to Romford before the crowds and Frank bought a load of clothes for Martyn out of Primark and then we went to give them to him at my sisters house.  We stayed around an hour and had loads of cuddles with Martyn and then went to a nearby parade of shops called Hilldene.  There is a big charity shop there called St Francis Hospice which has a furniture shop one side of the parade and is not expensive like some and then on the otherside of the parade there is a bric brac/clothing shop.  

I got these two sets of gorgeous buttons.  The 2 at the top of the picture caught my eye because they look embossed and are warped and they only cost 50p.  The 5 buttons on the strip look a bit like a marble effect and they were £1.  I could not resist them for the texture and colour and just know that Mya will like them too. She loves playing with my button collection, especially when I have insects, the sunshine, watering can and plant pots and lots more shapes for her to recognise and talk about.

While we were visiting my sister she said that there was a Fisher Price Jumperoo that someone was selling in London for £10 but she had to go and get it.  Fate happens man, we looked straight at it in the charity shop.

It is big but comes apart, has straps to adjust so as baby gets taller and stronger he/she can have more bounce and there are activity attachments too.  We asked the lady how much and she said £10 at first and as I got on the phone to my sister who said grab it, the lady in the shop said that it was donated this morning and wants it out of the shop because it is big.  She reduced the price to £5 so we grabbed it.  Frank got 4 books that are new and in total spent £8.20 in the shop plus my button purchase.

It was meant to be! 

I will get a photo of him in it when she has cleaned the fabric and sterilised the tray and activity attachments.

January 9th

So last night I watched a documentary called The Edge of Life and it was about what goes on in the Theatre at the hospital when you go in for an operation.  It was an insight into long procedures of around 8 to 12 hrs long, they filmed a middle aged lady talking about her visit to the dentist which turned out to be not an abscess but a tumour growing from the top of her jaw to her eye socket.  She said that if she did not have the operation to remove the tumour she would die very soon and knew that she would lose the top part of her jaw and her right eye.  She also decided to not have any family or friends at the hospital because it was something she wanted to deal with alone and potentially, not wake up from it.

I had to put my knitting down and concentrate on the programme, it was so interesting to watch these surgeons sew together 3mm veins/arteries and to remove parts of bone to make her a new jaw so that her face would not be so collapsed on one side.  The operation took 8.5 hrs in the end and towards the end of the programme which was filmed a few months later, she walked into the hospital for a check up and oh my goodness, the lady looked amazing because the scarring was faded and only very visible if you get right up close.

There was also another lady who had both her breasts removed due to cancer and whilst in surgery they removed some of her fatty tissue from her stomach (with main veins) and pushed them under the skin where her breasts were.  A few days later, they did not show you her chest but the Surgeon who is a lady, went in to visit her on the private ward said that her boobs looked amazing.  Even the patient said that she does not feel like she has lost her boobs and that they felt normal.

It is fantastic this programme, if you are not squeamish please take a look at it.  I am sure it is on Iplayer or google it on YOUTUBE.  Called The Edge of Life.  Apparently it is on again next week so take a look at it if you can.

So today I went to the Library at Heathway and fortunately, Franks book that he pre-ordered was available to loan (Robert Harris, Munich) so I collected that for him.  I then bought some baby food and walked back home.

It has been a dull and damp day today, I have had to have the light on most of the day.  It is now 3.45pm and I think it is time to close the curtains.  There is absolutely nothing on the tv to watch so I have not got a clue what to do with myself this evening.  I have been working on my second strip again this afternoon and here is a little video of me knitting continental to ease the pain of my right hand.

I am going to go and sort out the dogs dinner now and hopefully find something to watch on tv or if not, just potter around the house.

Have a good evening!

January 8th

I actually managed to sleep quite well last night, apart from getting up for a wee 3 times.  I then did not actually wake up properly until 9.30am which is terrible really.  I only woke up because Tipsy was meowing very deeply for her breakfast and she immediately went back to the sofa and curled up again.

I sat down with my cuppa and went straight on the laptop to check my e-mails for any job responses and then did some job searching for about an hour.  It does not seem like a lot of time to job search but while I am still on my medical certificate I am not getting pressured by my work coach.  I still actively look every day, weekends too, but do not spend my normal 4 to 5 hours a day searching.

Michelle rang me to say Martyn had not slept that well last night and she is positive he does not like the travel cot he is sleeping in and so she ended up with him in her bed and he slept 3 hours straight.  She said she had seen a wooden cot in the window of her local charity shop called St Francis Hospice and when she asked how much it was she rang me to ask if Frank or I would go halves because it would be much better for Martyn and she could also use it for her Grandson Sonny too when he stays over.  £50 for an old style wooden cot and mattress is a bargain so I sent her the money and she is having it delivered tonight.  I will try and get a photo of it on Wednesday for my blog.

By about 11am I thought it best to get dressed and do a little moving around so I cracked on with my ironing and pottered about for a while and then sat and did a bit more knitting on the rug strip while browsing for any podcasts to watch.  My ex-Mother in Law came to bring a few bits for the Grand kids and then at 3pm I thought I had better eat a dinner so I did a pork stir-fry which was quite nice.  I then took Tammie out for her walk before the school kids started coming out.  Oh boy it is cold today, they said its 5 oc, and was so glad to have my hat  and big scarf on.

It is now 6.43pm and the first strip of the rug is finished and I am very pleased with it.  I counted that I knitted 170 ridges so I have started another strip a few minutes ago and hopefully will crack on with that.

I decided that I will take the strip up to bed with me later and sew the ends in.

The next photo is of my Hugo Boss Bag which is quite deep and I keep all of my scrap DK yarns in.  As I complete various projects I just throw what is left of a ball into the bag and randomly pick up 2 colours for the rug strips. 

I am going to have to start another project with some more of my Paintbox Simply DK that I have because it is getting a bit low.

So my plans for tomorrow are probably going to consist of a visit to the library to take Franks books back and then I might have a potter around the Heathway for a while.  It is about a mile away and I like to walk there and back to get a bit of exercise.  I am not sure what I will be doing after that, I just know knitting will be involved.

So I am going to get ready for bed, see what crap is on the tv and if not, do a bit of research into sizing and designing of socks.  I just remembered there is a chocolate vanilla swiss roll in my cupboard so I think a coffee and cake is in order. 

Night x

January 7th

Frank left this morning about 9am and I have been trying so hard to not get upset.  I have got use to having him around these past two weeks and to go from having company to not seeing anyone day in and day out,  it is going to be very hard this week.  

I ended up getting dressed, doing a bit of housework and thinking about a word that I could remind myself of every time I am upset and it has worked a little.  I sat down about 10am and have watched a couple of podcasts, drank lots of tea and chatted to my sister to find out how my Grandson is.  I have been working on a scrap project that is using 2 double knit strands held together and here is a photo of it so far.

My intention is to knit long strips and sew them together to make a large rug for my front room, it will be a long term project and I am concentrating on just that at the moment because it does not take any thought.  I have some more Crofter DK to make another pair of socks for me but at the moment I am just going to binge knit the rug.

Both my animals are sulking and are by my side since Frank went home, they seem to know when I am down.  This is Tipsy who has not moved much at all and would not look round for a photo opportunity.  It is rather cold here today and I have a crochet blanket over my lap and she always snuggles on it.

Tammie is sitting the other side of me on the blanket and doing the same thing as Tipsy, she keeps looking out for Frank at times and it must be hard for animals to understand.

I have been worrying about something today and waiting for a phone call. I had a nap with the animals for a short while and then I took Tammie out for her walk about 2.30pm.  My sister Michelle rang with reasonably good news and although I am relieved a little, I still feel like it should be me and it is very very hard for me to realise that I cannot cope.

The thought that I have to carry on as normal tomorrow, job searching, trying to deal with every day things just makes me want to remain in bed every day and not go out anywhere.

I hope tomorrow is a good day, PLEASE!

January 6th

It is 5.30pm and am just writing up a blogpost before I head upstairs to do some ironing and to get a hot bath.  The past few days I have been working on my Grandsons Ripple Blanket and I finished it yesterday when we got back from my brother and sister-in-law.  I decided to turn the direction of the pattern and for it to be used length ways and crocheted a black border to make the colours pop.

This morning (Saturday) after we went to get a bit of shopping I sat down around mid day and cross stitched a tag for it so that Martyn can look at it when he is older to remember his Nanny Sue.

I also managed to get a proper photo of Frank wearing his Mind The Gap Socks that I knitted as part of his Christmas Present using Trailing Clouds Yarn. He loves them and cannot wait to show them off at his work.

I have spent the rest of the evening so far, knitting on a rug that is using up Paintbox Simply DK scraps held double.  I am hoping and intending to make myself a rather large rug for my living room and when I get near to finishing it I will be looking for something to put on the back of it to stop it from slipping on my laminate flooring.

I have been thinking a lot about projects for this year and I definetely know there are going to be more socks to be made for both Frank and myself but I want to start looking into designing and the thing that puts me off is the maths for sizing various projects like socks, hats etc.  I hope to do a bit of research soon and a bit of youtube watching to see if there is anything on there that could help with the math side of it.

Frank goes back to his flat in morning which I am not looking forward to but he has had a relaxing few weeks off for Christmas and he has been my rock the past few weeks so I will be spending a lot of time tomorrow pottering around and possibly even binge watching a few podcasts.

It has been rather chilly here today and am so glad I have got my Crofter Socks on which I finished and have taken a photo of but cannot seem to download it at the moment.

So, as I said at the beginning I am off to do some ironing and then hopefully, soak in the bath before I am ready to go to bed which will be very soon. 

January 2nd

Went to bed about 10.30pm last night after watching a film called The Anniversary with Bette Davis which was made in 1968.  Lets just say I will not get that time back, it is the worst film I have ever seen.

I got up several times in the night and woke up around 8.30am which is not normal for me so much have needed more sleep than I thought.  It is a dull and rainy day today and Frank went back to his flat today and had errands to run and I did not want to go out at all so I have lit my Yankee Candle that my son got me for Christmas and then did a little bit of boring housework.  I then spent a couple of hours job searching and have actually got an interview tomorrow so fingers crossed.

I then decided to do a bit of knitting on my Crofter DK Socks and am not far from finishing them now.  Here is a rather poor quality photo of the completed sock.  (Sorry, I have got no make-up on or my hair done so look rather scruffy).

  

I completely forgot that you can use the Photobooth on my Mackbook which is much easier to do so I have learned something new for 2018.

I have also added a photo of the Afghan I am making for my Grandson Martyn.  I have noticed the past few months that if I crochet for too long at any one time, my thumb becomes quite painful and so the past few days I have not done any work on it but am hoping that later this evening I can do a few rows.

It is made with completely with Paintbox Simply DK and is so soft.  I will also do a cross stitch tag for it when it has been completed.

Wednesday 3rd January. - I could not finish this blogpost yesterday because I had a lot more upset and had to make a hard decision so have been very upset.  I will post again in a few days when I can concentrate.

January 1st

As I sit here at 6.50pm with a belly full of dinner (Chinese Takeaway) which Frank suggested and I quickly accepted so I do not have to cook, I am watching a new episode of Great British Railway Journeys and waiting to get my knitting out for the first time in 36 hrs.

My Grand Children came about 7pm on Saturday night and Mya immediately noticed the couple of presents we had for them sitting on the pouffee and she went straight to them and said presents.  My brother David had a quick coffee and Michelle had a cola and we chatted for a while.  Martyn was a bit unsure of where he was but being 6 months old and just woken up, its understandable.   The poor little man has got terrible excema and it must be driving him crazy.  It is all over his face, back and belly and joints.

We settled down for the night, creamed Martyn all over and got ready for bed.  Mya loves laying in Pops bed and she takes it upon herself to fidget, bounce, become a chatterbox and says to me mitt morning (good morning) and I laugh and say good night.  She eventually went to sleep and I settled Martyn after his bottle.  Lets just say he did not sleep very well and it was an exhausting night while Mya slept lovely.  His excema was playing him up and I had to put socks on his hands to stop him from scratching his head to pieces and during the night he would rub his back and bum on the covers to scratch.  He was waking up every hour and wanting to be snuggled and rocked.

During the day they were both brilliant, we played games, ate lots of treats and went for a walk.  I was looking forward to going to bed Sunday night and as predicted, it was another rough night for Martyn.  Mya had not had a nap the whole day so by 8.30pm she slept till 3am and then with her bottle went back to sleep.  Martyn wanted to be comforted and each time I layed him down he didnt want to be in the travel cot so I snuggled him on the end of the bed surrounded by cushions and layed him on his side to avoid him getting too hot on his back.

The fireworks did not wake the kids up and Frank got up at 5am and I gave in and the kids and I got up about 6.45am.   We have had a lazy morning of pottering about and then about 10.45 packed their bits and pieces and walked to their other nans house with the baby bouncer so we didnt have to carry it around Asda.  When we got there Nanny Mac said that we may as well leave the kids now cause Ross and Emma (their Mum and Dad) were leaving by 1pm anyway.

As any Grand Parent may know, you feel a bit lost when it suddenly goes very quiet and Frank said I looked pale. I worry and get anxious when I leave them. We popped in local Tesco to get some eggs and then walked home.  We bought a hot beef and cheese baguette from Greggs Bakers and then after eating that I had to go bed for a few hours.  I felt shaky and knew I was exhausted.  I slept for 4 hours.

We took Tammie out for her walk, had our Chinese and now Frank is reading and I am just typing up this blog.

Now, one of my finished projects was a cushion cover that I had wanted to do for a while.  I had a practice at a piece of Fair Isle knitting from a book and then got the idea of adding a mitred square border to it.  I then knitting a stripey and plain back and sewed it together.

I am pleased with the outcome and would like to make another one at some point but then I have got some ideas going around my head for other things, so maybe not!

The next photo is of the Autumn Wreath that I crocheted a little while ago and I think I posted it on here already.  I wanted to show you a present that I got from Michelle my Sister-in-Law who is my rock.  Its a set of 4 coasters with a photo of my grand babies on.  I could not use them, that would ruin it so we got a picture frame and did a Marilyn Monroe style arrangement and I just love it.

If that was all I had got at Christmas, it would have been fantastic.  It sits with pride on my living room wall.

I am now going to knit some more of my second sock and hopefully watch a podcast or two while thinking of my Grand babies and enjoying Frank being here for a while.  I am and will try to stay positive, I must. 

Have a good evening and will blog again tomorrow if I have done anything interesting.