What a month!!

Well, October turned out to be the most stressful month I've had for ages. Unfortunately nice stress tires me out as much as nasty stress, so even the good stuff just made me more tired. It has been one of those times when everything that could happen, did happen - and I ended up not getting a proper afternoon rest till almost the end of the month (instead of almost every afternoon), which meant my night-time sleep was disturbed, too.

That meant I began having nightmares. Initially they were things like still being married to my alcoholic ex, but eventually they morphed into the standard scary monster nightmare. (One was that Daleks had invaded Earth - and banned knitting!!!! Terrifying....)

To give you an idea of what I mean, this all happened between October 1 and October 27:

1 theatre trip
1 trip to Quaker Quest - on the same day Richard was out all day,
travelling to Manchester and back to the funeral of one of his uni
housemates. It wasn't a good month for him, either.
4 visits from friends
3 visits from Richard's grandfather, who is very difficult to talk to
1 visit from both his grandparents
1 visit from Mum and my sister
3 visits from new carers
1 5-hour excursion to A&E at the eye hospital - I'm OK, so don't
worry, but apparently I'm starting to get cataracts :(
1 Quaker Meeting here
1 newsletter to write and send round, during which....
Our Broadband started falling over for hours at a time
1 failed delivery of necessary medical stuff
1 delivery of oxygen canisters
1 visit from Social Services
1 visit from a care company team leader
1 visit from the other care company's admin assistant (1.5 hours)
1 service of my oxygen machine
1 visit from the GP
2 visits from the District Nurse
1 blood test
1 flu jab (different day from the blood test)
1 visit from the Access Bus team to make sure my wheelchair will fit
on their minibus (then I can go shopping occasionally!)
....and then the clocks changed and completely mucked up my body clock, as usual....

As you see, it was a fun time :)

I'm not complaining one bit about the nice stuff - ever since I first got ill, I've had the view that nice stuff is worth recuperating from! But every day seemed to bring a fresh reason why I couldn't have a rest, and by the end of last weekend I was feeling quite desperate.

I'm happy to say that I have now had a week asleep, and I feel much better, so I hope to be a much better blogger again now.

Next week, as promised: a new pattern!

Excursions!

I'm not blogging this week, for a very nice reason. I am recovering from a trip to the theatre last week - my first time out of the house for over a year!

As always, I never do things by halves: this week I am speaking at our Quaker Quest evening on Quaker Worship. I was so pleased to be asked, and I am really looking forward to it. I know I will be shattered afterwards, so I'm announcing now that there will be no blog entry next week either.

Accounts of my expeditions will be forthcoming as soon as I can write them - plus a new pattern :)

A change for the better

Last week I wrote to all of the publications for which I have designed in the past, and confirmed that I will no longer be designing for print. I stopped submitting stuff a while ago, to see how it went, and now I know I will not be going back.

I have had a blast learning new techniques, and following other people's patterns. I'm getting more and more confident with my lace knitting, and now that I am choosing my own projects, I can knit what I want, when I want to - like my patch of garter stitch scarves a couple of weeks back.

Designing was interesting, and it was always a buzz to see my stuff in print, but working for magazines in that way is quite restrictive. You have to design what will sell in the mainstream, often using fibres and colours that have been chosen for you, and to a deadline. Then there's all the maths in the pattern-writing!

On the other hand, I've enjoyed putting patterns up here, and logging them into Ravelry, where I get instant feedback. I get so excited when someone favourites or queues one of my designs, and if one actually gets made, well - that makes my week!

I couldn't stop designing even if I wanted to. I get all kinds of ideas from the smallest of things. I've tried magazines, and it's been fascinating. But now I think I need a little more flexibility. There are lots of new projects in my head - so watch this space...

Progress!

This is actually an outdated photo - it shows the shawl as it was at around 30% done. It is now 58% done (row 147 completed, which makes 22,355 stitches in total).

I can't get over how quickly it's growing! As one of my friends said, things always seem to go quicker the second time you knit them, and of course I'm using a slightly bigger needle (5mm instead of 4.5mm).

I am now at the end of the variegated wool, and I have to wait for the plain, toning wool to be dyed. I need another 100g to complete the last few rows of the body, and the lace border.

The colours are actually brighter than they are in this photo. It's also difficult to see the shape, because it was taken mid-row (I'm using circs, working back and forth) - but I had to catch the Beamish Boy as he was passing, and ask him to take the shot before he got involved in something else!

Damned lies and statistics

Thanks to the shawl knitalong on the UK RAK group on Ravelry, I have started the shawl for Mum's Christmas present! By the time I had done half a dozen of the garter stitch scarves, I was just about ready for a sea of stocking stitch, which is handy, as that's what this shawl pattern starts with.

The beautiful green/blue/deep yellow wool is knitting up beautifully, as I would expect from a Yummy Yarn. If I remember, I must get the Beamish Boy to do a photo...

He's also done me a spiffy spreadsheet which shows, for each row, how many stitches I should have, how many stitches I have done in total so far, and what percentage of the way through the shawl I am. (I can't explain how to do one of these for yourself, because everything I once knew about Excel is now mush at the back of my brain, but the formulae will be quite simple.)

For example, I have just completed row 92. I have indeed got the correct number of stitches - 187 - and this means I have completed 8,934 stitches so far!

Sadly, it also means I have completed only 23%. Hmm. Maybe I was happier not knowing ;)

Slowly back to normal

After a couple of days in which I could not knit at all - aaagggghhhh! - I have spent the rest of the week recuperating and knitting endless garter stitch scarves.

I had promised some scarves to a charity that a friend works for, and they proved to be the exact thing I wanted to knit. There is something so calming about repetitive garter stitch, and it soothed me back to my usual self. I was just finishing the final one on Sunday when I felt myself start to feel positively about casting on my mother's Christmas shawl (I'm making her the same pattern as I used for my Raspberry Ruffles shawl, but in sea-greens and dull yellows - just beautiful yarn!).

It really gives me a boost to know that my bad turn has meant there will be six warm necks in Newcastle this winter :)

I Don't Like Mondays....

My laptop has some major problems, plus all my symptoms have flared up. Not a good combination. Back next week, I hope.

Dirndl Bag

I chose this name because the shape and pattern of the bag remind me of my favourite dirndl skirt, when I was little.

Any cotton or ribbon yarn can be used, as long as the tension on the label is around 20sts to 4 inches/10cm. If you use one of the bulky ribbon yarns, with a tension of 10sts to 4 inches/10cm, then halve the number of stitches and rows to get the same size bag.

I used Pingouin Tricotine in lavender, and Sirdar Milano in navy, but both of these are discontinued.

The finished size is approximately 8 inches/20cm deep by 12 inches/30cm wide. Gauge is not crucial to this project, but I worked at a gauge of 12 sts and 5 pattern rows to 4 inches/10cm.

If you wish to have a more versatile bag, you may wish to line it – I left it unlined, to act as a beach bag.

Materials:

About 540yds/500m of ribbon yarn A
About 210yds/190m of ribbon B
6mm (J) crochet hook
Pair of bamboo handles 4.5inches/11.5cm diameter

UK instructions:

Working with two strands of yarn A held together, work 20dc around one of the handles. Turn.

Row 1: ch3, work 2tr into every dc. Turn.

Row 2: ch1, work 1dc into first tr, 2 dc into second tr. Continue across the row alternating 1dc and 2dc. Turn

Row 3: ch3, 1tr into every dc across. Turn.

Row 4: ch1, 1 dc into every tr across. Turn.

Work 3 more rows, alternating dc rows and tr rows. Fasten off.

Repeat for second handle, but do not fasten off.

Next row: Begin working with one strand of A and one strand of B. ch1, dc across the row, and then on across the last row of the first handle section. At the end of the row, sl st to the first ch to join into a round. From now on, you will be working in rounds, with one strand of A and one of B, but still alternating dc rounds with tr rounds.

Next row: ch3, tr around, sl st to 3rd of commencing ch.

Following row: ch1, dc around, sl sl to commencing ch.

Continue with one A and one B until you have worked 10 rounds in total in those colours. Change back to two strands of A, and work a further 4 rounds. Turn the bag inside out and ss the bottom together.

US instructions

Working with two strands of yarn A held together, work 20sc around one of the handles. Turn.

Row 1: ch3, work 2dc into every sc. Turn.

Row 2: ch1, work 1sc into first dc, 2 sc into second dc. Continue across the row alternating 1sc and 2sc. Turn

Row 3: ch3, 1dc into every sc across. Turn.

Row 4: ch1, 1sc into every dc across. Turn.

Work 3 more rows, alternating sc rows and dc rows. Fasten off.

Repeat for second handle, but do not fasten off.

Next row: Begin working with one strand of A and one strand of B. ch1, sc across the row, and then on across the last row of the first handle section. At the end of the row, sl st to the first ch to join into a round. From now on, you will be working in rounds, with one strand of A and one of B, but still alternating sc rounds with dc rounds.

Next row: ch3, dc around, sl st to 3rd of commencing ch.

Following row: ch1, sc around, sl sl to commencing ch.

Continue with one A and one B until you have worked 10 rounds in total in those colours. Change back to two strands of A, and work a further 4 rounds. Turn the bag inside out and ss the bottom together.

Here we go again

Yet again the humidity has beaten me, and I am unable to blog properly this week. The lack of sleep (and presence of unpleasant and disturbing dreams) is really starting to annoy me now!

I'm used to having quite a narrow life, but having it narrowed even more is very irritating....

It's Tennyson time!

Radios 3 and 4 are obsessed with Tennyson at present - last Thursday (August 6) was the 200th anniversary of his birth. I have what I thought was a fair working knowledge of 19th century English poetry, and I tended to lump him in with Wordsworth as Poets Who Irritate Me. However, as there are so many of them around - anniversary programmes, not PWIM - I listened in to some of them.

I discovered one thing pretty quickly:

Tennyson Is Not Wordsworth.

In fact, what I have heard so far sounds quite modern, and surprisingly full of tags of lines which I recognise - but not of clichés. There's a lot of Tennyson on line, and I wholeheartedly recommend you try a little.

If all you know of Maud is, 'Come into the garden, Maud', and you think it sounds like a trite drawing-room ballad, think again. It is weird and creepy and very disturbing.

Or try In Memoriam, a massive work written after the death of his best friend, which considers not only love and grief, but also scientific ideas such as evolution.

And if you want an example of a poet having huge fun with words and sounds, try The Eagle. I had to learn this for a drama exam, and to my shame I had never realised it was by Tennyson...

I'm all for people reading more poetry, but I never thought I'd find myself championing Tennyson!