Christmas This Year

 Is it just me or are the years speeding by that much quicker? it doesn't seem five minutes since it was last Christmas and here we are again with just a few days left until the big day. I am hosting Christmas this year, I don't know how it happened but there you go, I haven't hosted Christmas since I moved into this tiny house of mine and I'm wondering how we are going to manage it, but all the family won't be present as son number two and family will be spending Christmas with his in-laws and son number three is at present in South Korea awaiting the birth of his first child! yes you heard right my baby son is going to be a Daddy, ok well not quite the baby anymore but hey they are always your babies aren't they?  Minju my beautiful daughter in law is due at the beginning of January and.... it's going to be a girl!!! my first granddaughter😊I wish they lived closer and I wish I could be there at the birth but there you go I'm just hoping all will go well and I can't wait to see pictures/video's of her.

So there will be six adults a child and a baby spending Christmas in my tiny abode, I'm trying to push things into the garage to make more space and I'm making a plan, a floor plan and an everything else plan so it should be ok, past Christmases haven't gone that well for me as you can read in this post written  8 years ago! but now I'm going to play the old lady/bad back card and hopefully everyone will be here on time and do their bit to help, wish me luck!

The lead up to Christmas has been filled with lots of festive crafting...

Baubles Galore.

One of the ladies in my crochet group came up with the brilliant idea of using plastic pool balls as a base for Christmas baubles since then there has been no let up and bauble mania has taken hold.  I honestly can't tell you have many we have made..

from these

to these

Once you get going you get hooked literally😆Why so many you may ask? well we have been giving the Marina some festive cheer...

and of course we wanted some for ourselves, they look great strung up with my Christmas pictures

and hanging on the tree, I like my tree to have traditional colours as you can see, I knit the little santa's when I was living in Syria, they must be over 40 years old! I taught my sisters in law how to knit them too and apparently they are still making them to this day. I love how tree ornaments bring back so many happy memories don't you? it seems like the modern trend is to change them each year with different colours to match the decor, each to their own but I think I'm now to old to change.

The baubles are easily made without a pattern but there are some lovely bauble patterns out there, I used the patterns from this website and there is a lot of choice.

Christmas Trees

These little trees seem to be very popular this year you can see them on all the social media sites and I'm not surprised because they are so easy! a christmas tree made out of a granny square, I have made lots of these as well, even small ones to hang onto gifts, the possibilities are endless, I did decorate some with beads and silver charms but forgot to take a photo. I popped them inside Christmas cards to give as a little gift.

Here they are hanging with trees of Christmases past.

You can find the how to here.

Remember the Penguin I mentioned in the last post? well here he is all ready to be gifted to grandson number three, little Louis, I have a feeling that after a quick cuddle he'll get thrown on the floor but I'm sure Louis's Mummy will rescue him and put him away and bring him out each Christmas.

I have been sewing too, a little Christmas tree embroidery hoop..

There is much more, the u3a crafting groups have been making all sorts of Christmas things to raise finds for charities but more about that later.

Have a great Sunday 😘😘

A Host Of Angels

 Once again I appologise for not being around for a while, this time it was because it hurt too much to sit at the computer.  I hurt my back, and please let this be a warning to you all, think before you lift! It was my own stupid fault, my brother has an electric wheelchair and two of the wheels got wedged between paving stones and gravel, he was completely stuck so yes you guessed it, I tried to lift the chair with him sitting in it out of the gravel, what made me think I could actually do that is beyond me. I felt a pop and the disc actually sliding out and then I was on my knees in excruciating pain. I have hurt my back several times before but nothing like this.

After a very painful five hour wait in A&E I was seen by a paramedic who confirmed that I had slipped a disc. I was told to go home take pain killers and move around as much as possible, no x-rays were taken and there's no follow up. So I have spent a very painful two weeks trying to do just that but boy does it hurt! I am improving and doing exercises that I found on YouTube because I know that by the time I get a GP appointment and I get reffered to a physiotherapist it will be weeks before I'm seen.

I have learnt my lesson, when we see someone in trouble our first instinct is to help, but we have to think before we put ourselves in danger, please be careful.  I think its going to be a few weeks before my back gets better, it's so restricting even driving is painful but I will get there.

I have managed to do some crocheting with my lower back supported with a cushion and a hot water bottle, what would we do without our hot water bottles instant relief ahhh. 

I have been making Angels for NHAP these go into memory boxes.

So simple to make and it's fun to make them with different types of yarn and thread, twelve pairs so far, I'm not sure if I'll make more because I'm now thinking of penguins.😀

An angel is always lovely to give as a gift or to even to hang on your Christmas tree, here is the pattern if you would like to give them a try.

PATTERN

I'm now going to try to plant some spring bulbs into containers, I'm not sure if I'll be able to but I'll give it my best shot as the sun is shinning and the weather is mild for this time of the year, it's set to change at the weekend with cold frosts and even the possibility of snow forecast.

Take Care 😘

Where to Start!

 Hello everyone it's ages since I posted, there seems to be so much going on and the time just goes! Here we are in Autumn already and as I'm writing this the rain is streaming down the windows and I can see the tree's almost bent double with the wind. I'm staying snug indoors for now but I will force myself out for a walk at some point in the day. 

There has been so much going on I really don't know where to start perhaps it would be easier to start from now and work backwards.

Can you believe my little Grandson Julian was one year old last Monday? where did that year go! His Mummy and Daddy did him proud I can tell you they hired a Marque for his birthday and family and friends gathered to wish him a happy birthday, it was a lovely afternoon but I think he was a little overwhelmed by it all at times and we had a few tears. 

Singing Happy Birthday 😊

I decided to make him these for his birthday, I haven't made them since I designed the pattern but they are very popular and always stay in my popular posts feed...

They are so easy and quick to make and I love how they turn out.

You can find the pattern here, I used Aldi so crafty yarn which I had already and it took 100 grams exactly I barely had enough to sew them up. I am waiting for a photo of him wearing them and will show you if one is forthcoming.

Can you remember I made him this little onesie just before he was born...

 As you can see he's wearing it now, but a request has come in for a larger size so did I need any persuading? I was off like a shot to buy yarn, they asked for brown but I hate working with dark colours so I compromised and bought this in shade Koala..

It's another lovely pattern to make and the tutorial is exceptional you can find it here.  The largest size is 12 months and I adapted the pattern to make it bigger.  If anyone wants the numbers I used please just ask.

I hope you are all keeping well, thank you for all the lovely comments that you have been leaving me. I must go round and visit you all and I will try and post on here more often now that the summer is over and the garden is fading... 

Hope to see you again soon😘

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

Covid Strikes and a New Arrival!

 It got me! I suppose I'm lucky that I have managed to avoid Covid up until now.  It started with a trip to A&E with stroke like symptoms, tingling on the left side of my head and then it spread down my face.  Friday night is not a good time to be in A&E it was crowded with a 11 hour wait! I suppose no time is a good time to be in A&E but I couldn't help thinking that if it was a stroke I don't fancy my chances as I arrived at 7pm and wasn't seen until 3am! Anyway thankfully stroke was ruled out and I got home at 4 30am. I was ok on Sunday although the tingling sensation was still there but on Monday I could hardly get out of bed, did a test and I tested positive for Covid.  I'm wondering if it was the Covid that caused the tingling sensation.  

I have been pretty ill with it but the worst thing is two outings which cost me quite a bit have to be cancelled I was so disappointed especially as one of them was the Abba Tribute which is on tonight but I'm still testing positive and feeling very weak.  I was all set to get dressed up in my 70s gear and I had made a couple of Abba Style hats for my friend and myself...

I won't get to see Ted in his poncho either so I've instructed everyone to send me lots of photos.

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 My second little grandchild arrived yesterday morning it's a boy! It's going to be a while before I get to see him but I'm going nowhere near him until I'm completely well.

 I want to show you a couple of the the things I have made for him along with the blanket I showed you earlier..

My DIL asked me to make this baby onesie it's a very easy pattern and didn't take that long, I used Stylecraft special Aran in shade sage you can find the pattern on youtube here 

The blanket is my own little treasure baby blanket you can find the pattern here, it's lovely to make a works up in no time.

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This past week I haven't felt like doing anything much but I'm planning to do I little sewing today, I'm quite proud that I'm keeping up with this, the problem is though, the pattern is fading and it's getting more difficult to see it, I'm hoping that it lasts till December

To finish off I just had to show you this, still blooming in October just outside my front door, this is the wheel barrow that my brother gave me last year for my birthday, I filled it with Bizzy Lizzy's and they put a smile on my face everytime I open the door,

Have a great week ahead.💗

Click here to see all the great parties that I will be linking with this week.