Over the last few days I've been back down to Sheffield, met up with old work mates, celebrated a friends birthday, come back up to Newcastle, attended my step-mam's funeral, taken my dad into hospital on the same day as his wife's funeral, and spent a day with my sister and our friend Krissy getting Christmas shopping done while distracting ourselves from the fact that dad was in surgery.
Unfortunately this morning we met with dad's surgeon, and learned that once he opened dad up he could see that the cancer had spread. He couldn't remove it all. He did what he could to ensure that dad will be comfortable, and won't encounter many of the complications of Pancreatic cancer, but he couldn't make it curable. If dad responds well to the chemotherapy then we could still have a couple more years, but hearing that another member of our family had been diagnosed too late was like a kick in the gut. We're all feeling a bit punch drunk now. Too much all at once. I can't even properly process it all.
Anyway, on with the regulars...
FO
Only the one, because I've been too busy, and unable to concentrate. I found the missing ball of wool down in Sheffield, and finished Dave's hat.
The yarn is King Cole Merino Blend DK in the colourways French Navy, and Slate blue, and Wendy Merino DK in the colourway Birch. The pattern is adapted from Duskelue/Pompom Hat by Tina Hauglund.
WIPs
I've only got 3 or 4 things left on my Christmas knitting list now, but 2 of those are crochet. They're gifts for friends who may read this, so I'm not going to give away too much detail, but suffice to say that the pattern is too complicated for my frazzled brain right now, so after working out the first round I've had to set it aside for a few days until I can concentrate enough to work out the rest. I've had to photograph this one with flash to make it look like anything more than just a tangle of yarn. My phone doesn't have the greatest camera unfortunately. The red/green strand is just the marker for the start of each round.
The yarn for this one is Drops Delight in the colourway 09.
Today I finally cast on a project that I bought the yarn for nearly 4 years ago. My sister bought me the pattern book because it has a pattern for a cute knitted penguin, but it also has a sweet little ballet-wrap cardigan that I'd hoped to knit for my older niece, but didn't get the chance to before she out-grew the range of sizes the pattern covers. Now though I can knit that cardigan for my younger niece, who will be one year old on Christmas day.
The yarn is Jody Long Cherub DK, in the colourway 9195, and the pattern is the Ballet Wrap Cardigan from Baby & Toddler Knits Made Easy.
Stash Acquisition
First of all we have 6 days worth of advent calender yarn:
Then as a direct result of today's bad news I went in search of a little shop in Wallsend, that turns out to be run by the same girls who run the Wool Works in North Shields. The Wallsend shop mostly stocks the cheaper yarns, but every yarn has it uses, and many of these I thought would be perfect for charity knitting for premature babies. I only picked up 1 ball of each yarn that caught my eye, so at least this wasn't an expensive comfort shopping trip.
I chose Wendy Peter Pan DK in the sparkly colourway 3010, Peter Pan Cupcake in the colourway 832, Sirdar Snuggly Tutti Frutti in the colourway 305, and King Cole Party Glitz 4-ply in the colourway 2353.
Penguins
Due to all the travelling, and confusion right now, I chose to open a couple of Christmas presents that friends gave me while I was in Sheffield rather than carry them up and down the country on trains. My lovely friend Annie gave me a little something to help me have a calming bath:
As well as some socks that don't require knitting:
Then this evening, on the way home from the hospital, we popped into the supermarket to pick up a few essentials, and I spotted this unusual biscuit tin:
Comfort shopping solves nothing, but it calms me down a bit, and planning what to do with the yarn, or just looking at these cute penguins distracts me, if only for a little while.
It's definitely bed time now. Night night my dears.
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