Hello again my dears, I hope that you're all doing well. Yes, I am aware that I promised this update would go live on November 27th, however, we've had a few changes of plan in our household during this last week...
Let me start with the story of why our plans have changed:
Any of you who have been following this blog for several years now may recall that on the 6th December 2019 my partner Stephen suffered a detached retina in his left eye. Surgery to repair it was delayed, and unfortunately by the time he had the surgery it was too late to fully save his vision. He has been left with significant scarring on that retina, and limited vision in that eye. Well, one week ago he suffered the same thing in his right eye. Apparently this is exceptionally rare, but knowing that is little help to us! This time he recognised the symptoms much more quickly, having experienced them before, and had me take him straight to A&E. Where he waited for almost 12 hours to be seen. The doctor who finally did see his was horrified that he'd presented with a time-critical issue, yet been left for such a ridiculous length of time. Suffice to say, a complaint has been raised about it!
Stephen got no sleep at all, and I maybe managed a little over an hour, as I had to go back home in order to look after Finn, but not knowing how long Stephen would be, I had to stay awake in case he called for a lift home. In the end, I picked him up from one hospital, and drove him straight to a different hospital that has an emergency eye unit. He stayed there all day, and had surgery in the afternoon. I stayed with our friends Ian and Jo, who live much closer to the hospital than we do, and who Finn knows well. Quite grateful for the fact that Covid has made working from home much more commonplace, so Ian was in all day. While Stephen was in surgery, Finn's Fairy Dogmother, Boo, kept me distracted by bringing Finn's former kennel mate, Bounty, and her adopted brother Blake out for a walk with us, which was tiring, but very beautiful.
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3 spaniels sit among autumn leaves, eagerly awaiting a treat.
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Following his surgery, Stephen is completely blind in his right eye. It takes a couple of weeks for any vision that has been saved to begin to recover. Until then, we don't know how successful the surgery has been. Stephen could recover 95% of his vision in his right eye, and be able to continue life as normal in the new year. Or he could be left severely sight impaired for life.
Due to my own disabilities, Stephen acts as my part-time carer. Since his surgery, I've had to act as his full-time carer, and my body is struggling with this. From previous experience, I know that I can keep up this level of activity for about 2 weeks before my body puts me down and forces me to rest in no uncertain terms. Stephen is doing everything that he can to ease the burden on me. Obviously we've had to cancel the holiday that we had planned for his birthday (which was yesterday), as with his current level of vision, he has been advised to remain in familiar surroundings. We're both trying to keep the inevitable anxiety about what the future might hold at bay, with fluctuating levels of success.
So, that's why this post has been delayed, and why I'm writing it when I said I would be on holiday.
FO's
Anyway...
I delivered a couple of early Christmas presents while I was up in Newcastle a couple of weeks ago, which means I can now show you what they were.
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| Hand knitted socks with stripes in shades of orange and blue. |
Socks that I made for Demi, and tried to use to distract her from the fact that I'd also brought a large box full of yarn to feed Gemma's new habit... err, I mean hobby!
My usual sock pattern, and the yarn is West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4-ply in the colourway "Pheasant".
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| Hand knitted socks with patterns in many shades of grey. |
Socks for Gemma, delivered along with a box full of yarn that I don't need anymore, because Gemma has got herself a small knitting machine. I delivered these the day before she was due to have what will hopefully turn out to have been the last of many surgeries to fix a problem that she's been struggling with for almost 2 years now. My thought was that she'll need plenty to keep her occupied while she recovers from the surgery!
My usual sock pattern, and the yarn is King Cole Zigzag, in the colourway "Smokey".
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| 4 skeins of handspun yarn in shades of red and grey. |
The Fluff to Stuff craft along ends today. I have managed to turn my fluff into yarn, but I have not yet turned my yarn into stuff. That's ok though, I'm quite pleased with managing to get this done, and I'm hoping that I can turn the yarn into a simple shrug before the end of this year. I managed to create a little under 200g, and 564m of 2-plied barber pole effect yarn, in roughly DK weight. I had some of one of the types of fibre left over after I'd used up all of the other, so I also made about 33g, and 53m of chain-plied yarn, that is roughly aran weight.
Spun Z-twist, and plied S-twist, on a Haldane Hebridean wheel. Commercial merino tops in a solid burgundy colour, and a BFL/Sparkle blend by Wildcraft Fibres, in the colourway "Dorset Heath".
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| Bad selfie of a white woman in a hand knitted purple wrap cardigan. |
I finally finished the purple cardigan made from horrible yarn. It wasn't at all difficult to make, just working with the slubby thick-thin yarn is difficult to relax into, so I couldn't get into a rhythm the way I usually do. This certainly wasn't a meditative knit! In the end I only finished it because I'd made a list of things I wanted to get done in November, and this was the last thing on the list that I hadn't done!
Usually when I knit a garment for myself I would ask Stephen to take a better photo, but he's not really capable of doing that right now, for obvious reasons! So instead all I have is this terrible selfie.
There is no pattern to this, it's just a big rectangle with arm holes, then stitches picked up around the arm holes to make half length arms. The yarn is King Cole Opium, in colourway "260".
WIP's
I do have a couple of projects on the go, obviously, but since they're presents, I can't show you. Sorry!
Stash Acquisition
Only one thing to show you here:
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2 balls of sock yarn, and 3 mini-skeins.
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Since I was up north for the first time in ages, and since Gemma has taken up machine knitting, but didn't know anything about her local yarn stores, of course I had to introduce her to Ring-a-Rosie's. It would be rude to visit and not pick up a little something. I think I was very restrained all considered. One ball of West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4-ply in one of the new Zandra Rhodes colourways "Bluebell Mist". One ball of Regia Pairfect in a wonderfully bright rainbow colourway called "01735", and 3 mini-skeins hand dyed by Barbara of Ring-a-Rosie's.
Knitting Adjacent
Look at this work of absolute beauty and genius:
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Framed print of the Yarn Owl - Creature of the Knit
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Our very talented friend Hannah is the creator of some amazing comedy artwork, and this is her latest creation. A thing of such beauty needed to be purchased for display in my yarn cave. Hannah came to visit us to check if we needed any help with anything, and to wish Stephen Happy Birthday, so she brought it along only one day after she'd finished the design!
Hannah has a blog where she posts her latest creations, and where you can also buy copies of her hilarious books. Her blog is called Idol Scribblings, and I absolutely recommend that you take a look! You can also buy many of her art works on all manner of objects from the Idol Scribblings Red Bubble Store.
Finn
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| Finn the cocker spaniel holding his elf hat. |
It's only a few weeks since I last did an update, so I'll try to be restrained about showing you too many photos of my dog, but there has to be a couple! His advent calendar for this year came with a free "Elf hat". After many attempts to get a photo of him wearing it, I gave up and settled for a photo of him holding it, which is what ended up happening every time I put it on him.
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Finn the cocker spaniel standing in a snowy landscape.
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Storm Arwen may have caused a bit of destruction in Northumberland, but here in South Yorkshire we escaped largely unscathed. We reached wheelie bins blown over level, then when the wind died down, we got a couple of inches of snow. Finn loves snow, and the countryside around our village looks so beautiful in this weather.
Penguins!
Well, one penguin. I've not had long enough to collect more than one since the last update.
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| flocked penguin tree decoration |
As is traditional, I have to pick up at least one flocked penguin decoration while shopping at Tesco for something entirely unrelated to Christmas. I always feel a little bit guilty about doing this, as it is a bit of plastic tat, and I shouldn't be encouraging the production of more pointless plastic. However, they've already produced them, I can't change that, and he will bring me joy, and he won't be single use!
Advent 2021
Let's get the important thing out of the way first - my yarn advent has not yet arrived. I'm not too worried, as I know exactly why it's been delayed. Lisa, the genius behind Made by Penguins, has many of the same medical conditions that I do, and her mobility is much more limited than mine is. Her body has been doing exactly what mine does at the most annoying moments, which has lead to some delays with monthly clubs going out. On top of that, she's had issues with the supply of advent calendar boxes, then when the boxes finally arrived, the combination of Black Friday sales overwhelming the Post Office, and Storm Arwen delaying many deliveries means that although the last of the clubs and calendars were shipped several days ago, many of us are still waiting patiently for our Postie to knock on our doors with that happy parcel. I'm certain you'll know about it as soon as mine does arrive!
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| Northern Waxes Wax Melt Advent Calendar |
I discovered Northern Waxes because I wanted to find a UK based independent brand advent calendar for either scented candles, or wax melts. I tried a couple of their snap bars first, and I'm utterly in love with their Fresh range of scents.
I may not be able to use these during December, depending on how Stephen's eye feels when I try using one tomorrow. He has to avoid dusty environments for at least 6 weeks after surgery, and although the scented oil vapours aren't dust, if they do irritate his eye then I won't keep using them until he's fully healed.
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| English Tea Shop Advent Calendar |
While I love T2, their local store has closed down this year. I considered getting a calendar from Brid and Blend, but with my more limited budget these days it was a bit too expensive for me. So I had a look for other tea calendars. When I found this one by the English Tea Shop I was so happy, because I love their ethos of fair trade and sustainability. I'm really looking forward to trying these.
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| Advent of Change Advent Calendar |
Ever since I discovered Advent of Change 2 years ago I have been in love with this idea. As long as I can afford to keep up my advent ritual, I will continue to support this incredible organisation!
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| 2 Lindt chocolate Advent Calendars |
I thought I'd try a different type of Lindt advent calendar this year. We always get the ones with the Santa on Christmas eve, but I decided that this year I wanted teddy bears. I've no idea if there are any other differences, but I guess I'll find out. Obviously, one is for me, the other is for Stephen.
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| Doggy Advent Calendar |
Yes, we spoil our pup, but he's our baby. Of course he needs his own advent calendar! Good Boy do great quality dog treats, and as you saw above, this one also came with a free elf hat!
That's everything for now. I'll be back in a day or 2 with the first instalments of my 2021 Advent Adventure!
Take care my dears, and be extra careful!
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