Slow going

This update is overdue, and it needs to be done before I head to Bakewell Wool Gathering this weekend, but the problem is that I've not actually got a lot to put in it!

There's a few things that I've been up to over the last month that I can tell you about instead though...

Part of the reason that I've achieved so little is that I went on holiday.  Stephen really needed a break, and more than that he needed some selfish time.  So he booked us into Wrea Head Hall for a few days of R&R.  While staying there we visited Scarborough Castle, Whitby Abbey, and Eden Camp.  That's a lot of walking in 3 days for a girl with a broken body.  I paid for that holiday in pain and exhaustion afterwards, but it was worth it!

I also decided to be part of the MacMillan world's biggest coffee morning.  I planned mine to be a Cake and Craft.  I'm not skilled at baking, you can tell this by looking at that cake.  The buttercream was supposed to be purple...

My amazing friends, Heather and Nigel offered to host, and between us we organised a lovely chilled afternoon of chatting, crafting, and eating too much sugar, and in doing so we raised £100 for MacMillan.  Of course, not everyone there was a knitter, one chap was knitting with a loom, a couple of people brought their crochet, but my personal favourite craft was Stephen's "knitting", or as normal people would call it; making chain mail.

FOs

I've not really finished anything this month, unless you count this:

This was a gift off my sister, a little kit for sewing a felt penguin decoration.  A nice, simple little thing to spend an evening  making, plus he's super cute :)

WIPs

As usual, I've been working on various crochet squares for the memory blanket:

This one is made using Rowan Purelife Revive, in the colourway Scree.

I've also been working on the blanket I'm making for my youngest niece.  I'm barely a quarter of the way through, and I've hardly even started the sewing yet, but I've already managed to make a mess of this.  At some point I'm going to have to unpick that square that's in the wrong place.  When I sew something, it generally stays sewn.  This isn't going to be as easy as it looks!

The yarn for this is Rico Design Baby So Soft, in the colourways 001, 007, 015.

I promised Kelly that I'd make him a new pair of gloves to replace his old space invader mitts that are definitely a bit the worse for wear now.  He chose purple and grey skull patterns.

You might notice the pins on the completed glove, these mark the space that is flat across the back of Kelly's hand when he's wearing it, because I'm intending to add a little pocket that can be used to store a little emergency cash to cover the possibility of an injury while out running that means he needs to get public transport back home.

These gloves are a mash-up of patterns, partly because the pattern with the skull chart is no longer available, and partly to add the pocket.  So I've mushed together Fingerless or not gloves, by Paula McKeever, Skully fingerless gloves, by Camille Chang, and Runner's pocket mitts, by Jennifer Beever.  The yarns used are a purple, un-named 100% wool 4-ply that I bought at Whitby last year, and Izzy Lane Wool 4-ply, in the colourway Natural Grey.

Finally, I've also just started on my Christmas knitting.  

WARNING!  Rant about rank materialism!!! 

For a long time I've had a problem with gifting at Christmas.  I don't have the money, or the physical and mental energy that are required for the modern day commercial Christmas.  With the obvious exception of anything penguin related, I despise pointless tat.  I see no reason why anyone should waste their hard earned money on something that has no purpose other than to take up space, and collect dust.  So I try, where possible to give useful items, or consumable items.  This is harder where children are involved, because they're very specific in their desires, and have not yet learned the true cost of the things they want.  The children in my life in particular already seem to own everything.  I think that they've all got to the stage where they're still opening presents several days after Christmas day itself.  

However, what I do have is endless love for these children, and a useful skill.  So I'm currently knitting the prototype for what will doubtless become another project that takes at least a couple of years to complete one for everyone, and that is an advent calendar with pockets that I shall fill with tiny little presents such as sweets and small stationary items.  Along with this I'll give each child something small and as meaningful as I can to open on Christmas day.

I've only done one pocket so far, and the only reason that I did that before finishing the rest of the background knitting was to check that this pocket knitting technique would work.  

The yarn I'm using for this prototype is Hayfield Bonus Glitter DK, in colourway 226, and Knitting Essentials Sparkle, in Purple Sparkle.

Penguins

Yep, straight to penguins.  I have acquired absolutely zero new stash since my last update.  I've been attempting to save my yarn budget for Bakewell Wool Gathering, but mostly I actually have no money left because I've spent too much of this year comfort shopping.

I did get this amazing book though!  And this teeny, tiny penguin cushion!  These were presents from Stephen's parents that they brought down from Shetland for me.

You may recall that I decorated my crutches in huge amounts of pink for the Race for Life back in July.  Of course, they couldn't stop that way forever, pink just isn't my colour!  So now they're decorated with red, and penguins, which made my physiotherapist laugh.

For a long time I've been wanting to treat myself to gel nails.  So I booked myself in to Spoilt for Choice to get them done, then I had a massive crisis with my phone breaking, unexpected expenditure of buying a cheap replacement urgently, and in the end had to beg money off my dad for the first time in my life to pay for these nails :(  However, since this particular photo was taken almost a week after they were first done, and at the end of a day helping dad cut wood, I think they were well worth it!  In the end they lasted over 2 weeks before a couple of tiny chips, and growth at the nailbed made me decide to remove them.

As I mentioned above, my phone broke.  It did so when I was in town, on my way to catch a train up north.  I desperately needed a function phone in order to coordinate with dad and Davie at the other end of my train journey.  So I ended up buying a cheap phone that none-the-less basically emptied my bank account.

Dad and Stephen came to my rescue though, as they both offered to buy me a decent phone as an early Christmas present.  I wouldn't have let either of them do it alone, but together isn't so bad.  Of course, a new phone means a new phone wallet!  I love this one :D

These were my birthday present from my sister and her family.  We're very bad at passing on birthday presents on time!  Her birthday was at the start of June, and she finally got her cards in August, mine was in July, and I got these a couple of weeks ago.  I love them though.  This was the little kit that I made up in to my only FO this month.

Finally, penguin season is here again!  The shops are full of cheap penguin cushions, blankets, duvet sets, and all manner of tat!  I have been relatively good though, because this is all I've succumbed to so far!  It's sparkly and everything!

That's all for now my dears, back after Bakewell!