Time for Thought?

Morning all. How's everyone doing?

I have had a lot of time to think things through, re-evaluate things and generally take some time to process what I want to do, where I want to be and what I need to focus on to improve my life. Maybe this forced hiatus of mine is a blessing!

I'm still awaiting an actual physio appointment to assess things but with some careful research, an intensive lava shell back, neck and shoulder massage, and some gentle stretching and yoga, I have reduced the pain level greatly! It does look like I have a frozen shoulder, leading to muscle weakness in my bicep and tightness in my neck.  In the past month I have gone from being barely able to tap my hip with my left hand and washing my hair with just my right to now being able to put my hand in my back pocket and brushing my hair with my left hand. It's amazing how much we rely on being able to use both arms! At this rate I may have fixed it myself by the time I see the professionals.

Youtube has been amazing for research, physio help and discovering things like bed yoga to help stretch my whole body whilst being mindful of what my body is capable of. Who knew that such a thing existed!

In the last few days I have even been able to pick up my hook and needles to finish two WIPs, both of which were gifts promised weeks ago! The first was meant to be originally a Christmas present for my Mum, but time and the beginnings of the shoulder issue meant I delayed it until Mother's Day. In the UK Mother's Day was the 12th March this year and sadly I didn't even make that. I did finish in time for American Mother's day though, so that's a bonus!

What did I make I hear you ask. Well Mum had requested a red unicorn with a gold horn, her two favourite colours. Did I fulfill the request?

I'm as yet to give it to her and if she happens to read this before I manage to, Mum I hope you like her and I'm sorry I'm so slow at the moment.

The second item I have finished is for the latest member of our extended family, and her mum. Back when our three were small and we would carry them in the baby sling, we often found it hard to keep them warm without overheating them or ourselves. I spent some time searching Ravelry for wrap/cardigan/shawl ideas that mum could wear to keep them warm, whilst being easy to remove if needed and leaving her hands free. I came across this wonderful pattern for a double poncho. Despite the original being in spanish, a talented knitter had translated it well enough that I could get the gist of what I needed to do. So I chose a gender neutral colour, in case dad is carrying little one, from my Stylecraft stash and picked up my needles. I used an acrylic yarn because I imagine it will need washing regularly and with a newborn the less fussing over laundry the better. Here is the result modelled graciously by Thing 2 and here bear! What do you all think? Again the poncho hasn't been gifted yet, but we are heading to see them in just over 1 week!! I can't wait!!

I hope the recipient likes it as much as I do.

That leaves 5 current WIPs; 2 pairs of socks, a crochet aghan, and 2 tops. There is also a huge queue, a little overwhelming queue, but that is for another blog post.

Take it easy friends. Chat again soon

Mrs L

x

Ooops!!

Oh dear.  I honestly thought at most it had only been like a week or two since I last blogged. Looking back through my activity it appears my last post was almost two months ago!! Where on earth has all that time gone? I can only blame my lack of organisation and the black hole that is yarn, creativity and all things that go with it.

I know I know poor excuses really. I guess I should start this post with a look back over the past 8 weeks and try to justify my absence with a few makes.

Throughout February I have managed to knit 4 sets of newborn hat and mittens, one set was a design of my own. I need to explore the design some more and look at how to write it up but all going to plan I hope to release it as one of my first ever patterns. For the foreseeable future, until I have gotten the hang of pattern writing and my designs begin to require a little more thought and work, I plan to just write my patterns up here as a blog post and link to them on Ravelry. What do you all think?

I say one of my first ever designs because in the middle of February I was asked by Mr Lyvit himself if I could knit him a bed cap to use on stage during the local pantomime. You see he was playing the lead character in 'Scrooge's Phantomime', a panto written by a local director and his daughter.  I rose to the challenge and after careful selection of yarn from stash by the man himself I set to working out how to attempt this task.  For now I will keep the intricate details for a later post but if you cannot wait you will find most of the information on my project page on Ravelry, as well as our son modelling it for me.

February also saw me crochet another Joker, this time as a commission for the talented cartoonist, Kent Taylor. I also crocheted a panda baby hat for the future arrival and finished my first pair of socks for the year, the first pattern from the Wanderlust Collection designed by the talented Mina Philipp. I enjoyed knitting these and I am very happy to say they were selected as one of the first prize winners in Mina's knit along over on her Knitting Expat Podcast channel.

Here are the socks 

And here are my winnings! 

The bag is made by Whimzee Stitches over on Etsy and the gorgeous yarn is....you know I cannot remember who dyed it but I do know it is fingering weight and VERY sparkly. Also it is only in my most favourite shade of blue, so I feel that this will most definitely need to be in a beautiful shawl, not hidden away on my feet. Im tempted to join the Mystery KAL being run by Helen Stewart of Curious Handmade. What do you think?

March has been a busy month yarn wise too. I started and completed two pairs of socks, the first one from the Cosy Collection by Mina Philipp, and the other is the first in the Handmade Sock Society I also made another hat for the hamper, a hat for the middle child, one for myself, a spring bunny amigurumi for Mother's Day and a small red dragon for Father-in-law's birthday. All information is available over on my Ravelry page, including pictures and patterns used. I couldn't resist not showing you the cheeky antics I caught the little dragon up to before he went to his new home.

Both February and March also saw me dabbling a little with my sewing machine, making a few wheat bags and attempting my first ever project bag, with my first ever sewn in zip! 

I have lots of plans for the future in all three crafts, and also others I hope to start. I either need to clone myself or learn to prioritise them I guess. I need to start keeping a list of what I want to make and do so that I lose the nagging worry that I will forget or not have time for something. Hmmm another new are for me to explore....pretty notebooks, journalling, pens,......

Right I better head off to construct these lists to firstly help organise my time better. The pretty notebooks are just a happy bi-product.

Chat again soon

M

x

End of Year Round Up

As I write this I realize I haven't written to you all in a few weeks. 

Things went really crazy there before Christmas and I took the week after to spend with my family, like a good mummy should. 

Once Mr Lyvit had returned to work I took some time with my morning coffee to upload most of my gift projects up to Ravelry, along with photos of those I remembered to take before wrapping. I quickly realised how much I had actually achieved last year. 

For those of you that like the statistics; In 2017 Yarn stash in through buying and acquisitions 19,855 metres Yarn stash out through making. 16,915 metres. 

I made a whopping 7 hats (including a design of my own, more soon!) 6 pairs of gloves, 23 stuffed toys, 4 Shawls, 2 blankets, 6 pairs of socks, and 10 other items including cloths, decorations and bookmarks. 

Round up of some of the makes

2018 should be just as fun and creative, but more on that in a future post.

Bye for now

Mrs L

X