I Aten't Ded!

Hello my dears, and Happy 2016!

You'd be forgiven for thinking I'd crawled into a hole and died because it's been so long since I last posted an update.  I may have wanted to a couple of times, but I haven't, and although I have no idea where to start explaining the last 2 months, I have to do it soon, or it may never happen.

I'm going to split the regulars into 2 posts, because there are far too many things to include in just one.  So later in this update you'll see all but one of the things that I've managed to finish since last time, and a fair number of penguins.

But first, my long absence needs some explanation, as does my slightly unstable mood.  So here we go...

January

I'm struggling now to recapture the hope, enthusiasm, and excitement that was most of January for me.  Stephen said I was a different person for a few weeks, like I used to be before I got ill.  The reason for this was largely due to an offer that I received from Countess Ablaze.  She asked me if I would be her Virtual Assistant!  

Well, you all know how much of a fan I am, so of course I was overjoyed!  Working for someone I both like, and admire, being able to work from home, not too many hours, and permission to work whenever my body allowed it, rather than forcing myself to adhere to standard working hours, it seemed perfect!  

For a few weeks it was great, then reality started to creep in.  The unhelpfulness of the DWP, the abysmal government website for registering as self-employed and self-assessment of taxes, the fact that working whenever my body was willing didn't actually fit in with meeting deadlines, immense self-doubt over a particularly large project that I was put in charge of.  I was doing my best, but The Countess is a hard act to follow!  You simply can't comprehend how hard she works, and I was so afraid of damaging her success in any way.

Self-doubt and stress are old companions of mine though.  I was fighting them, as I always have...

February

Then I caught what I thought was a cold.  I worked through it, that's what you do when you've got a cold, right?  Except it turned out that it wasn't just a cold.  The exhaustion I was feeling wasn't just my usual fatigue, the headache wasn't just my usual cluster migraines.  I ended up in hospital while they checked that I didn't have meningitis, or pneumonia. Fortunately it turned out that I simply had a bad case of flu, and that the nausea and sore throat had combined to prevent me from being able to swallow, so as well as the fever, pain, and fatigue that flu causes anyway, I was severely dehydrated, and couldn't take my regular meds half the time.  I couldn't even sit up for more than a couple of minutes.  It was terrifying.

I developed a secondary respiratory tract infection that had me coughing up blood, and unable to speak for 2 weeks.

I lost the entire of February to illness.  I still have a sore throat, and tire even more easily than normal now.  

I also lost the contract with Countess Ablaze.  

It wasn't just the fact that I couldn't work for a month.  She needs someone more reliable, both physically, and mentally, than I can ever be. 

For a while I thought I'd lost even more than that, as I was so low, both physically and mentally, that not only could I not find the energy to knit, I didn't want to.  I thought I'd lost my defining hobby along with everything else. That was really scary.

However I had projects that I'd started before succumbing to the flu that were gifts.  A sense of duty made me pick up my needles as soon as I could bear it, and work on getting those finished at least.  Somewhere in among finishing those gifts, I realised that I was enjoying it after all.  That the old sense of peace and accomplishment had returned.  Here, at least, is something that I can do.

March

I can't imagine that I'll ever come to terms with not being able to work at all.  I imagine that I'll keep searching for options.  I hate being useless.  For now, I'm working on a few patterns that I'd like to publish.  I've just released a free Learn to Knit tutorial (you can download it here), and I'm working on a follow up to that, as well as planning to release the pattern for one of the hats I made as a Christmas gift, and starting work on something I've been meaning to write for ages.

That's a lot of writing, with no pretty pictures!  So how about some finished objects?

FOs

I made 2 of these in early January.  Christmas gifts for a couple of lovely Geordie chaps, hence the black and white stripes.  The yarn is Rico Design Essentials Merino DK, and I didn't use a pattern exactly, I just sort of know how to knit beanies!  However, this is the same as the Beginner Beanie pattern that I'll be releasing as a follow up to the Learn to Knit Mitts.

This is a lovely smooshy cowl that I made as another Christmas gift, delivered in January, to the Aunt of 2 of my godchildren.  The yarn is Fyberspates Scrumptious Aran in the colourway Teal Green, and the pattern is a slightly modified version of Windchill, by Melanie Gibbons.

I know that you've seen something very similar to this already, because I made one of these before Christmas.  This is a cowl in the Griffindor colours, and it was a birthday gift for a friend of mine, to match the one I made for her daughter.  The yarns are SMC Select Extra Soft Merino in the colourway Mustard, and Sublime Extra Fine Merino Wool DK in the colourway Red Pepper.  The pattern is Duotone Cowl by Orange Flower Yarn.

I bought this yarn at my LYS when I popped in to see what they had in the their January Sale.  At the time I was thinking I might use it to make something for my new baby niece. Then my older niece saw it, and loved it so much, that I asked her what I should make with it.  She said I should make a star, so I did!

Actually, this photo is a little bit of a lie.  I ran out of this lovely pink and purple colourway while I was knitting the back, and my LYS had sold out.  So this is a very unique star, with 4 points on the reverse that are different colours to the rest of it!

The yarn is Peter Pan Cupcake in the imaginatively named colourway "827".  The pattern is Rachel Murray's Star Pattern.

These are the AQUA BUNS OF LEGEND!  Apparently.

They were just named Toy cupcakes for The Bug, (The Bug being a pet name that we have for one of my godsons) until The Bug and his sister got hold of them, then they were miraculously transformed into items of great power that could protect one from burning in the lava (my living room rug) while battling the Lava Beast (The Bugs sister).

Originally they were going to be Christmas gifts, but I ran out of time to finish everything, and since The Bug also had plenty of other gifts in his stocking, I figured he could wait a while for these.

The yarns are a selection of various different brands of DK merino,  These were a bit of a stash-busting project!  And the pattern is Cupcake by BeeBec.

These are examples of the Learn to Knit Mitts that I've just released the pattern/tutorial for.

The pair on the right were my first test knit, deliberately using cheap acrylic, and the sort of needles that you get free with knitting magazines, to prove to myself that it is possible to make something nice with very basic equipment.

The pair on the left are made using more of my extensive stash of DK merino that needs using up.  

There is one more project that I've finished in the last 2 months, but I'm not going to show it yet, because I want to give it to its new owner first.  I'll include it in my next post, which hopefully shouldn't be very long in coming!

Penguins

So, January.  That's when the sales are.  Especially sales of things that were designed to sell well over Christmas, but people are less keen on when they're looking forward to spring and summer.  Things like penguins!

Oh, this is probably also a good time to introduce my new toy.  Not all of my photos are taken using this set up, because I'm a real human person, with stresses, and insecurities, and a tendency to procrastinate that results in my not always having time to take a proper photo before handing things over to their new owners.  You might notice from the quality of the photos above that several were in fact taken on my phone at the very last minute! 

Penguins though, they are mine!  I get to keep them, and photograph them at my leisure, so there is a greater probability that they'll be photographed under better lighting, and with a cleaner background than most of my knitting.  Don't expect professional results though!  Not even close!  As you can see, I'm not using some fancy DSLR, just a rather aged IXUS, and I don't have photoshop, just Microsoft Paint, so any "re-touching" is going to be exceptionally basic and amateur, at least for now.  Maybe one day I'll consider getting some photo manipulation software, and learning how to use it, but today is not that day.

So anyway, yes, penguins!  In the form of belated Christmas presents, get-well soon gifts, and January Sale Mania:

Attack Penguin!  A Christmas gift from friends, this fellow is a fairly hefty bean-bag that can be hurled across the room at people who are being worky-tickets!

Silly gift from Stephen because he saw him on the way back from visiting his folks on Shetland over Christmas.

A cheer me up gift from Stephen, because I was feeble and fragile during a physio appointment, and a lady was selling cuddly toys for charity at the hospital, so on impulse he bought this chap for me.

January Sales penguins.  The rectangular cushion unfolds into a small fleecy blanket, the cuddly toy is actually a wheat bag, but I can't bring myself to put him in the microwave! and the glitterglobe/star is actually meant to be a photo frame, but why would I want to replace the penguin with a photo?

My new favourite mug :)  Full of life-giving tea!  You can dress the penguin in all sorts of silly costumes with a re-useable sticker pack that comes with it too!  This was a gift from my friend Krissy and her kids (2 of my godchildren).

Lovely soft wrap that I bought on a whim, because sometimes you can find things that are ludicrously inexpensive, but excellent value on Amazon.

Christmas gift from my friend Heather, but I'm not using him as a coin purse, I don't want him to get damaged being carried about all the time.  Instead he is where I keep those lovely penguin stitch markers that another friend made for me.

Probably the most random, and unexpected penguin gift I've ever received.  My step-dad was having coffee and watching the world go by at his favourite coffee shop when he spotted this on a charity stall!

I wish I could get a better photo of this, but no matter what I do I just cant get the sheer shiny, sparkliness of this to show.  This was my Christmas gift from one of those Geordie chaps who I made a hat for, and fellow disreputable Aunt Tori.  

Private, and Rico!  My own Penguins of Madagascar!  Private was my Christmas present, and Rico was a get-well-soon present from my lovely friend Tony :)  Private is a little squashed, because I fell asleep on the sofa using him as a pillow more than once during my bout of flu :/

Last, but not least, Windmill Penguin!  This was a little craft kit that The Bug apparently insisted that his mummy bought for me while I was poorly.  I built that windmill myself, while recuperating, this may explain why the blades are slightly skew-wiff, and it won't spin for very long!

That is all for now, but all being well, you'll get the missing sections next week.  Take care my dears.