Good Days, Bad days

This afternoon I am going to see Joseph :-) Not for the first time I hear you say, and you'd be right of course, but that won't stop me! The residents Chez Aknita are of the opinion that I am now into double figures - I haven't a clue, I've given up counting! All I know is that I shall leave the theatre lighter and brighter in spirits - what more could one ask.

I had a lovely day on Saturday too. I drove across to Knighton to visit First 4 Yarns as part of a Posh Ravelry group meet up. It was lovely to meet friends old and new, I took my camera but omitted to take photos *rolls eyes* but spending an afternoon in the company of like-minded people is a VERY GOOD THING in my opinion. Lisa and her mum made us all very welcome, and the cakes were just yummy. I also got to see Rooknits February Lady Sweater which was simply wonderful.

What made the afternoon even more special was the discovery that my cousin lived next door to the shop. How cool is that! ( If I were to tell you that my mother was one of 13 children and my father one of 12, you will perhaps understand that I have more cousins than you could shake a stick at, some even that I haven't met so forgive me for not having known he lived there )

It was lovely to go in and say "hello" again, and meet his family. It was the perfect end to a lovely day.

These lovely days I find help me to cope. With regard to work, I go in and come home and that's it. I see it as a means to an end, it's what allows me to have the lovely times above so I can cope with it for that.

I had a not-so-good day with mum on Friday who is definitely deteriorating :-( so balance is definitely required.

Tomorrow I am spending with my nephew. I remain positive, but I'm afraid the occasional wobble creeps up on me every now and then. His first round of treatment is over, but it has caught up with him and so there are good and bad days. I want to shout at the world!

Thank goodness for knitting to focus the mind. Here are a pair of Fetchings, knitted as my contribution to a Strictly Come Dancing sweepstake prize on Ravelry, made for HelenK.

They were knitted using 4mm dpns and using around 1.5 balls of Mission Falls 1824 Aran which was simply a pleasure to knit with. I'm not sure the picot edge is as intended, but there you are.

A FCS for Polly

As you can see, I have been "at it" again - here is a FCS in Yarn Yard Lochan. This one was made for Polly ( Ravelry Link ) who is the creation of a cyberfriend, Binty, who has an amazing talent.

I forgot to measure it before I posted it, but my floor tiles measure 12" square which gives an idea of size. It was knitted using leftover yarn from an earlier FCS that I had made for Binty. Those of you who have knitted this shawl will know that it simply eats yarn towards the end, so while there had not been enough yarn left for a third extra pattern repeat, there was sufficient to knit the set-up rows, four repeats and a border. I knew I was saving the yarn for good reason.

A couple of modelled shots (thank you Binty ). Isn't Polly fab :-)

Copyright @ Binty

Copyright @ Binty

Bombadil Socks

This sock is one that I have been test knitting for Lobug of Lobug Designs. It is the Bombadil sock and you can find out more about it here on Ravelry.

I started this sock two weeks ago. "Oh yes", says me confidently, "I'll have a sock ready for you in a couple of days"! Famous last words!!!!

I needed to get out of a knitting rut I think, and in knitting this sock I have mastered the provisional cast on, short rows and a new stitch pattern. Oh, and a chart Sue are you reading ;-)

I must here thank my friend Claire for her patience in explaining to me and demonstrating the mysteries of the short rows. She's not known as Fabclaire for nothing ;)

I used 2.75mm Knit Pro Options dpns ( my favouritest needles ever ) and the yarn is Footprints from the Unique Sheep dyed to the Bombadil colorway.

I will soon be receiving my first parcel from The Lord of the Rings Sock Club. I can't wait :-)

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the colours in the yarn reflect the colours Tolkein used when introducing Tom Bombadil and his wife Goldberry in The Lord of the Rings- yellow, blue and green.

"Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow. Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow". I missed him in the film adaptation. His wife, Goldberry, was dressed in green.

Frilly Scarf

Do you remember the Splodgy scarf I knitted for my friend Yvonne? This is the same pattern, the Frilly Scarf from the Scarf Pattern Medley ( scroll down )

I have used Lochan from The Yarn Yard, a merino/tencel yarn which is lovely to knit with. I used #9 UK Aero straight needles.

The scarf is a good match for my Cranford Mitts and very warm and cosy in this chilly weather.

Out with the Old, in with the New!

A very Happy ( if belated ) New Year to you all. I'm not sorry to have seen the end of 2008, and all I hope for in 2009 is that whatever life throws at me I will find the same strength to deal with it as I did in 2008.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

My week's Annual Leave this week didn't quite go to plan. I have ended up going into work just as usual as it has been so busy, all the illness in the community seems to have affected most of my colleagues too. So I am still behind in catching up with you all. Note to self: Must do Better!!!!

Here is some Christmas knitting. Cranford Mitts in Yarn Yard Hug, in colourways Milk Chocolate and Fudge. One pair was for me, one was knitted as part of a swap, and two pairs were Christmas gifts.

A Happy and Peaceful Christmas to you all

Hello strangers!

There's no doubt about it, I have been a very bad blogger of late. Life has been the thief of time, for which I apologise. I'm sorry not to have visited you all for so long, I promise to do better in 2009.

I have a simple knit to show you, which I finished last month. DD asked for a scarf - "by tonight, if not tomorrow" if you please, in baby pink with twisty bits. This is what I came up with, knitted using Sirdar Click chunky it took about 10 hours all told. There are more photos on Ravelry if you wanted to take a look.

02/08/2009 Back in December, I added this pattern to Ravelry. At the time, I really couldn't make head or tail of what I needed to do in order to make the pattern available as a pdf, and as I really didn't want to sell it I simply wrote the instructions out on the pattern page.

It has been pointed out to me this morning that this is the wrong thing to have done, and so I have transferred the pattern here and provided a blog link instead.

Cast on 27 sts

Row 1: k12, p3, k12

Row 2: ( and all alt rows ) k4, p8, k3, p8, k4

Row 3: k4, C4B, p3, C4F, k4

Row 5: ( and rows 7 and 9 ) as row 1

These 10 rows form the pattern. Repeat until you are fed up with it, and cast off. Add fringing if desired.

It is possible to knit this scarf with any yarn that knits to a tension of 14 stitches and 19 rows = 4 inches (10 cm) on #10.5 (6½mm) needles ( although I used 7mm )

I am quite sure also that by playing with the stitch count either side of the cable section, it could be knitted in any thickness of yarn and needle gauge.

I really would like to apolgise to Ravelry for this oversight on my behalf.

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I had a wonderful weekend at the end of November when I went on a Sock Knitting Retreat with Lucy Neatby. Fab-u-lous and Craig would say, and many thanks to Alice from Socktopus for all her hard work in organising such an inspirational weekend for us all.

Not much more news, other than that my nephew's treatment appears to be going well and that my daughter has a Staff Nurse post all lined up for when her training has finished. Nursing jobs being as scarce as they are, it's great to know that she has her first footing on that career ladder. I have heard glowing reports from the hospital grapevine that she has been a great student nurse, and I am sure she will be a great asset to the nursing profession.

I shall leave you with my usual photo at this time of the year. Knitted years ago by my mum ( who was a wonderfully talented and resourceful knitter ) this is my one true family heirloom.

A Happy and Peaceful Christmas everyone, see you all very soon.

Splodgy Scarf

This is another of the yarns that I dyed on the Dyeing Workshop. I was disappointed by the splodginess but really pleased with what I managed to make :-)

The scarf is a Sue Morgan design, available from Get Knitted - you might need to scroll down on the link. It's a very simple knit, it's a two row pattern, one of which is GS and I like the finished result very much. I used #9 Aero needles.

And the splodges have disappeared into the pattern :-)

I am going to give this to a friend for Christmas - they are "her" colours. I'm not going to say who, I don't THINK she reads my blog but you never know. She's a good friend though, and I'm pleased I've made her something I know she'll like :-)

Hand Dyed Monkey Socks

Thank you all for your supportive comments on my previous post.

Do you remember this superwash merino yarn that I dyed on the Dyeing Workshop back in August?

Well here it is, knitted up into a pair of Monkey socks :-)

Not perhaps the most aesthetically pleasing of socks, but I have derived no end of satisfaction from knitting with a yarn that I dyed myself. I used the usual 2.5mm needles.

The yarn was dyed using acid dyes, and I am pleased to report that none came off on my hands while knitting ( which isn't always the case with some bought yarns ) and that it was also colourfast on blocking too.

I don't think I'll ever put anyone out of business, but for someone like me who is not in the least bit artistic the workshop was great fun and I'd recommend it to anyone.

New Words

I haven't been here for a while. And apologies to all of you whose blogs I haven't visited recently.

We've had a lot to think about in chez Aknita in the last few weeks. There's been a lot of worry and uncertainty, waiting, and new words to learn.

The first new words we had to learn were brain tumour. Then there was genetic. The best word was noncancerous.

Then there was the surgery to remove the tumour, then the histology to wait for and another new word - medulloblastoma - and life has changed for ever.

My nephew has 12 months of chemotherapy and radiotherapy to go through. I'm obviously being somewhat reticent here in blogland and don't want to go into too much personal detail, other than that we are all being encouraged to think of a positive result, so there's light at the end of this dark tunnel. It is very rare for this type of cancer to affect adults.

I am in turn angry, confused and just plain mad that this can happen to such a lovely young man.

I think my ventures into blogland are going to haphazard for a while. Please bear with me if I'm not reading your blogs as often as I used to, and keep us all in your thoughts.