A New Arrival

 

Thank you for all the lovely Comments in my last post, it's been a while since I have even been able to visit this little space of mine so some of your comments have just been published I love and appreciate each and every one.😘😘

It's been a very busy few weeks but I'm happy to announce the arrival of Grandson number three little Louis, he was born on the 29th February so he's a leap year baby, his Daddy is a Christmas day baby and his brother little Mikey has his birthday on the same day as my brother. It's strange how things work out and how the same numbers seem to crop up in families time and time again, have you noticed it in yours?

Anyway I digress, little Louis is as sweet as can be but his poor mummy had quite a time of it, three days in labour! she was sent home from the hospital on two consecutive nights and  on the third she delivered right in the middle of them giving her an epidural so no pain relief! I feel so sorry for us woman I really do the things we have to put up with! 

I stayed with them to look after Mikey the days leading up to the birth and we went into the hospital the morning after he was born so that Mikey could say hello to his new little brother, I was struck at how things have changed for the worse in the six years since Mikey was born, it's so obvious that the NHS is under strain with staff shortages in all departments Midwifery being one of the worst area's affected.  I could go on, as a retired midwife/nurse it's very sad to see.

This is really just a short post to let you know that I am still around but quite busy with family stuff.  I have my MRI scan today to see if it sheds any light on the tingling/numb sensations in my head and face and it's bang in the middle of Mother's day so there won't be much celebrating going on haha.

I'll leave you with some photos and hopefully things will get back to normal very soon.😊

Just a Few hours old

First hug from big brother Mikey

First outing big brother Mikey's baby blanket made six years ago by Grandma still looks new

This is baby Julian now five months old, showing off his first two teeth, they have just come through much to the relief of mammy and daddy 

Julian loves playing with his Lovey toy, now grandma is going to have to make one for cousin Louis too.

I have started knitting another pair of socks for my Lip Reading teacher Anne 

The making of Easter Chicks still goes on, these were made with a crochet square so easy to make. 

Progress is very slow but I'm enjoying the process.

Happy Mother's Day to all who are celebrating! 😘😘

Linking with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching

Another Finish , Flowers, Rabbits, Chicks & New Yarn!

 Thank you for all your well wishes last week they are very much appreciated.  Nothing has moved forward regarding the MRI scan. I did pop into the GP surgery to make sure that the referral had gone out and the receptionist assures me that it has, I will give it until next week and then I will call the MRI department and ask there. The tingling  sensation in my head and face continues but mostly when I'm using my phone, I have hardly used it this week and when I do I hold it at arms length, if I have to make a call I will use my hands free and push the phone as far away from me as I can.

I'm pleased to say that my teeth have settled down after their brutal attack at the dentist, I have an appointment to have the new crowns cemented in next Thursday but I think that should be straight forward. 🤞🤞

Kevin's Socks Ta daa!!!

What can I say, I'm worried in case they will be too big, I hope not.  I didn't enjoy knitting the stripes and won't be knitting anymore stripy socks in the future.  These socks are in no way perfect but then I have yet to knit a perfect sock. I'm just pleased that Kevin will have them in time for his birthday. I will let you know his reaction.

Stats

I used two 50 gram balls of each colour of this yarn and I have still got lots left over. I washed and blocked them and I'm so glad that I did because the colours ran, I rinsed them until the water was clear and I'm hoping that the colour won't run in the second wash. I did use a touch of fabric conditioner in the final rinse and they are lovely and soft and smell divine. 😊

New Yarn!

Can you remember Teds Poncho back here, well as a thank you Ted gave me a gift voucher to use in a yarn store, this one in fact. (wow it's ten years since I wrote that post and the shop will have been there more than 51 years now!) 

I made the journey last Friday and came away with this. Four balls of lovely sock yarn and it only cost me 78p! Thank you Ted. 😘

When the ladies in my LIp Reading class heard I was making socks for Kevin they all said, make me some! and so I made each one of them draw around one of their feet and measure the width, then I asked them to write down their favourite colours. The plan is to make these slowly through the year and present them with them at Christmas. I think I can safely call this the year of the sock. 

Chicks and Such

Now every year at this time, various charities ask for knitted chicks and rabbits to sell to boost funds, in fact my Easter Chick Pattern is usually right at the top of the list from January well past Easter.  I always feel obliged to make some but because I have made so many in the past I find it a bit of a chore.  This is my meagre contribution for Macmillan this year.  I did do a post on our u3a website asking our members to make some if they wanted and I added my pattern along with some others and hopefully the ladies from my crochet group will make some  too, every single one counts right?

I tried to make bunnies this time but I'm not that impressed with my efforts I gave up after three. 

Flowers

As I mentioned in a previous post the lovely Pamela from the u3a Knicky Knack Knitters group is always on a mission to brighten up and add colour and cheer to our Marina and Train station.  This time it's the turn of the station the theme being Spring, as you know I have made a few butterflies here and now have thrown these simple flowers into the mix, a great way to use up scraps and an ideal flower to teach any new members in my crochet group on Monday, I'll take lots of colourful scraps of yarn and we should have a whole heap of flowers at the end of the session.

Year Of Woodland Flowers Embroidery

Stems all finished and I'm looking forward to sewing the daisy this afternoon.

We are patiently awaiting the arrival of grandson number three he's due to arrive on the 19th so it could be anytime now🤗

What are you up to today? whatever it is I hope that you have a peaceful Sunday. 😘😘

The sun is shining today and the Spring Bulbs are making an appearance. 😊

Linking with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching

Health News and A Finish!

 Two weeks have flown by in the blink of an eye, where does the time go? almost half way through February already.  As usual it's been a busy and quite a stressful two weeks because of family health issues. For regular readers of my blog you will remember I was sent to A&E last October with tingling and numbness down the left side of my head and face, I was told back then that it wasn't stroke related but I needed to see my GP, then I had Covid and I thought it was related to that, but it has never completely gone away and now the symptoms are there all the time.  After several attempts to see a GP I managed to see a Nurse Practitioner and she has referred me for an MRI, that was two weeks ago and I have no idea when I will get an appointment.

I have noticed that the sensation gets markedly worse when I'm using my phone or tablet and decided to do a bit of research on the effects of radiation from mobile phones. There's a lot of material out there and none of it is that reassuring, each mobile phone has it's own SAR rating all of which have to comply with health standards but some of them have quite high ratings even some of the most popular expensive phones. 

I am now limiting my mobile phone use, I admit to using it far too much in the past, I'm always looking things up on google, searching for patterns and anything and everything that takes my fancy and I have to say it's not easy to stop, we get addicted. If I, an old lady can get addicted just think what this is doing to the younger generation, think of how much SAR they will be exposed to over their lifetime.

I'm going to stop there it's a huge subject and it's quite scary when you get into it. I'm hoping that they will find nothing too serious when they eventually do their investigations. 

I had an awful dental experience at the beginning of the week too, the removal of two dental crowns, what an experience! those crowns were stuck down really hard and there was a lot of drilling, prising,pulling and tugging going on. I emerged from that Dental practise after nearly two hours of what I can only call hell😫  I was a quivering mess, thank goodness a friend took me and was there waiting outside to take me home. It took me ages to recover, I have to go back in two weeks for the new crowns but I'm hoping that will be a straight forward experience. 

That was just me, another younger family member has received some very worrying news which will necessitate some quite serious surgery so we are all very concerned as you can imagine.

ON TO BRIGHTER THINGS

My lovely daughter-in-law is due to have her baby on the 19th of this month so we are all excited about that.  I managed to finish the baby onsie

and made some tiny bits and pieces to go with it

Made in white to go with the toggles on the onsie

and these cute booties in the same colour.

Stats -  the onsie pattern was made with Stylecraft Special Aran colour Duck Egg it took almost 400 grams  and you can find the tutorial here

The hat, mittens and booties were all knitted and the free patterns can be found on the lovely Marianna's Lazy Daisy Days Blog  She has a wealth of patterns on there and it's my to go to place for any baby knitting that I do. 

The Socks

I know they look a mess at the moment but they are nearly done, I will complete them this week and have a lovely photo to show you once they are all washed and blocked.

The Embroidery

Yes there has to be some time set aside for embroidery, it's so soothing to sit there and slowly sew one stitch at a time, I'm really enjoying sewing my love heart and that's what I intend to do today along with some sock knitting of course.

I hope that you all have a peaceful Sunday😘😘

Linking with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching

January End Of The Month Round Up

 Hello and Happy Sunday! There's quite a lot going on in the crafty corner I can tell you and I think it could become a little overwhelming if I don't stop to re-assess and decide how to move forward.  

As you know I  love the idea of  making something different at the weekends so that I can put my WIPS to one side and get the satisfaction of having a finish. The Sophie scarf was made in a few hours and I'm wearing it ...

I quite like it, but it's too big if I make it again I would make it shorter and not so wide, I would also use a better yarn, something softer and maybe variegated.

The pattern I used is here.

This weekend I'm making butterflies because the u3a knitting and crocheting groups are going to yarn bomb our station again. Click here and here  if you would like to see our past displays, that was more than two years ago but since those displays were taken down we continue to hang bunting to the fence surrounding the Station and I think it really puts a smile on the faces of residents and visitors to the Town.   We are thinking a bigger Spring type theme/display this time and I thought that these butterflies would fit the bill quite nicely....

Aren't they pretty? they are named  The Resilient Butterfly and great for using up little bits of stash yarn, the  pattern for these comes with a youtube tutorial and it can be found here 

The reason why things are becoming overwhelming is because I have deadlines coming up for my WIPS and, it's all well and good putting them to one side at the weekend but it means I am more pushed for time.  

Things are progressing, the baby onsie now has the legs complete..

I'm going to concentrate on trying to finish this next week because I need to make booties to match too.  Grandson number three is due towards the end of February, but as you know babies don't always play by the rules and he could put in an early appearance.

The socks are progressing nicely and the heels are starting to make an appearance..

There has been no progress on my secret project and I have a feeling there will be a mad rush to get it finished at the end of February.

Along with the crochet and knitting I have to get my embroidery fix too and so I have started another project to sew along with the The Year of  Woodland Blossoms embroidery.  It's almost February and every year I like to have a heart themed project on the go, here are a couple I made  in previous years..

and I have just started this ..

I found this design on Youtube, there's a great tutorial which includes some stitches I haven't tried before so it should be fun to make. 

I'm sure you can see why I'm overwhelmed one doesn't quite know which way to turn but in all honesty I wouldn't have it any other way, I love to be overwhelmed with crafty stuff.  How many projects are you working on at the moment? 

I hope you all have a lovely Sunday, I'm off to rummage in my stash of little balls to see if I can find some lovely bright colours and then turn them into beautiful butterflies.

Linking with

Kathy's Slow Stitching Sunday.

Something for the Weekend.

I'm please to announce that the new projects which I showed you in my last post at the beginning of January are progressing nicely.  We all love the thrill of starting a new project but I find that initial excitement soon wears off and so to balance that I try and make a small quick project over the weekend and for this weekend I was excited to read about the Sophie Scarf, have you heard of it? It's a very simple skinny scarf more like a neck tie and it seems to be all over social media at the moment, it's funny how some patterns just seem to take off and to be honest, I can't really see why this one is so popular but because it's so simple and will be quick to make I decided to make it and really you can never have enough scarves at this time of the year.

The original pattern is knitted and can be found here on Ravelry.

I have found a free crochet version on youtube here.  I intend to make this and show it to my crochet group because it's an easy project for them to make. 

I have found a nice squishy ball of DK yarn in my stash, I have no idea which brand it is because the label has long since vanished and I have made a start...

I will show you the finished article once it's done.

My WIPs are coming along slowly, I do have deadlines for these 

Kevin's socks ..

These need to be gifted for his birthday end of February, I have reached the heel flap on one and have started the second sock as you can see, I always make a pair of socks together otherwise the second sock would never materialise. Since starting these I have been asked to make socks for some of the members of my Lip Reading group so I have been taking foot measurements and asking them for colour preferences, I have told them it may take a while but I will get around to it sometime. 😊

Baby Onsie for Grandson number three due at the end of February too....

I have a third WIP on the go only to be disclosed after it has been completed and gifted and then we have the year of woodland blossoms embroidery, the January segment has been completed ....

Once again we are expecting a storm here with gale force winds so I intend to stay snug inside and crochet my Sophie scarf.  What are your plans for the day? whatever they are I wish you all a peaceful and relaxing happy Sunday. 😘😘

Linking with Kathy's slow stitching Sunday

The First Week

 The first week of the year has been a week of putting away the Christmas decorations and tidying up.  Everything looks quite empty when the decorations have been put away don't you think? I'm always in the mood for buying something new at the beginning of the year and I'm afraid I've gone a bit over the top this year..

A new runner for the hall, please excuse the dark photos we are living in a grey world right now.

a new rug for the kitchen, something nice and bright to cheer me up.

I bought this photo from a very talented photographer in my u3a photography group a couple of years ago meaning to frame it but not ever getting around to it until now. I love this photo and I think it looks lovely on my wall now that it's framed. 

There have been other bits and pieces like storage containers and this wall hanging

A planter to cheer up my Rubber plant

All quite small and inexpensive items but it does lift the spirits a little to buy something new in this gloomy cold month of January but enough of the cheering up I think I must reign myself in.😉

I have made a start on the baby onesie, requested by my daughter-in-law 

  It's a lovely pattern to follow and very well explained by Simona Crochet on YouTube

This came in the post 

and I have made a start

The yarn for the red and green man socks requested by my friend has arrived and I'm itching to make a start this afternoon, it's so long since I made socks I'm getting quite excited at the thought haha

The flexi hoop arrived for my The Year of Doodles stitchery and it's now hanging in my conservatory..

I found it really hard to place this in the flexi hoop, trying to get it centred while at the same time trying to push the hoop in place it took me several attempts and I have to say I was quite worn out at the end of it, but I do love how this type of hoop keeps the fabric lovely and taught not a wrinkle or crease in sight, it may not be perfectly centred but please don't ask me to take it out and do it again I will live with the slight imperfection haha, if someone has the knack of using these hoops without all the drama I would love to know.😄

What else has happened this week? ah yes a routine trip to the dentist where I was told I need two crowns replacing they have worn through to the metal! so I have a 90 minute!! appointment scheduled for February, 90 minutes in a dental chair, how will I stand it. I'm putting it right out of my mind for now.

Wow so looking back this first week of the year has been quite eventful, next week all u3a activities recommence and I have things on everyday so I'm going to enjoy a peaceful relaxing Sunday afternoon working on my man socks, I hope your first week of the year has been a good one and you have a relaxing Sunday. 😘😘

Linking with Kathy's slow stitching Sunday