Oops & Birthday Celebrations!!!

Here are the finished lovely Evolution bedsocks :) Lovely and cozy to wear. Unfortunately they only lasted a week! Read on........I have a couple of stupid things to own up to!

The first would be putting the bedsocks in the washing machine. It does say gentle machine wash on the label, and I've put plenty of socks in there before though not STR ones as I learnt from that mistake! Although they never ruined the socks thankfully ;)

So I was rather suprised when they turned out like this........DH was laughing his head off though I think he's more bothered about it than I am. Not much I can do about it is there. So if anyone has a little girl that wants some felted socks, just let me know. They were lovely while they lasted....... and now I know Evolution felts like a dream :(

The other stupid, or daft thing just shows why I can't follow patterns any more. I'd been working on and off on my Colinette Point 5 jacket and decided to sew up the ends on the final 2 pieces left in the lounge. The rest I'd already pressed in a mad half hour ironing spree. So there I was, trying to make sure the ends didn't show on what would be the zip sides of the front, but I couldn't understand why I had so many joins on those sides. Usually I only join in yarn on fronts where it will be hidden in seams. Anyway, as puzzled as I was I carried on quite content. I then laid out both the fronts and got totally freaked out as I couldn't get them to match up. One seemed to be shorter than the other and I just couldn't work out why. I spent 10 mins trying to match them up but eventually gave up and went to bed, figuring I'd try and work it out the following day.

The next day arrived and whilst I was pottering about it suddenly dawned on me. I'd been trying to 'match' the sleeves to one another. The fronts were upstairs already pressed!!! I never used to be stupid, honest. But its one of the side effects of either the illness or the meds. It's rather funny when you think about it, but slightly worrying how long it takes me to figure out what on earth I've done.

But I have been getting better and am managing to make the Firebird socks from the STR kit quite nicely thank you ;) Curly Cable inspired me when I saw how lovely hers were looking on Ravelry and I've already finished one sock. I only knitted the cuff for 5" as I don't like my socks too high, but realised after working the foot long enough to try it on that 5" would have been ok as the sock has a garter stitch heel which is alot shorter than my usual heel flap heel. It didn't matter anyway as when I tried the finished sock on, it fit perfectly :) I'm now working on the 2nd sock and can't wait till their finished. I thought I'd taken a pic of it but haven't so you'll have to wait till next time ;)

The lovely Curly Cable nominated me for the You Make My Day Award a while back and I was chuffed to bits so thank you very much :) My nominees are:

Knit Only But Also for her fabulous style (we like the same things lol), wacky humour, awesome knitting, superb finishing, kindness and for being my blog friend ;) She always makes me laugh and goes on fab trips and makes me jealous with wonderful photos.

KnitDevil for being a wonderful cyber pal who's so much fun, generous beyond words, incredibly kind and makes me laugh even when things get tough. She got me my KP Harmony's AND my STR sock blockers. KnitDevil also has a wicked stash which I love to watch grow on Ravelry!

I could nominate some more but then the post would never ever get finished.........

And the reason for another post so soon (for me anyway) is that its my 40th Birthday on Wednesday! I know, I'm quite shocked too. How did this happen? Knowing how long I usually leave it till posts thought I'd announce before rather than weeks later..... I'm going to a local spa for a top-to-toe day and DH is coming with me until after lunch when he'll come home and clean the house whilst I continue being massaged and generally pampered. They know I've been ill a while so its no problem if I need to crash out at any time. I have to get up earlier than I'm used to so that will be quite a shock. I'm looking forward to it and my homeopath did suggest massage therapy :)

I had a good doctors visit last Friday and she was really pleased with my progess. The black bags and listlessness are gone and its nice to have someone notice improvements. We discussed ME/CF again as my energy levels are still pretty non existent. But baby steps are the way to go and I'm managing my 5-8 min daily walks quite nicely. In addition CF would be treated the same way as depression anyway, so I continue on the meds, take plenty of vits and go on my little walks. She also suggested trying yoga or yogalates too. I've done yoga before and really enjoyed it so that will be good for rainy days. Like today!

Of course I can't go without leaving you with with this unusual animal video. Our animals are all well and healthy and currently Roxy is sat in his new sand bath looking really cute and trying to chew the ceramic edge. He's rather puzzled why he can't. Bless. There is a reason we bought a ceramic one to replace the chewed plastic one!

Is It Spring Yet?

I had in my head the idea that I'd post once a month. Seemed fairly reasonable. Until I got the cold from hell that quite a few people have suffered with and it managed to wipe me out for over 2 weeks. Not fun at all. Needless to say, very little knitting got done ie. even less than usual! I have my DH to thank for the cold as he generously passed his on to me.

I got my own back though on his birthday by being really ill so we couldn't go out for a meal. The culprit this time looks to be an egg yolk. Trust me, you do not want to suffer from allergies and food intolerances. The egg caused another week of illness and flu like feeling. None of which is helping my weight gain. I'm already lactose intolerant and have to be careful with egg , milk & cheese, but for some reason I react much more to the tiniest amount of dairy nowadays so thats it for me with dairy from now on. Apart from butter which seems be ok.

On the good side, my strange red, blistering tongue allergy issues seem to have cleared up. One day I just looked at my tongue and could hardly recognise it. Its been a couple of years since I had a normal tongue, but there it was, all looking lovely as it should be. I have to thank homeopathy for that and am so pleased I can eat without getting blisters. Wonderful! Fingers all crossed it continues ;)

I had a review with my doctor and she's pleased with my current dosage. And taking the meds first things seems to work much better and I've had hardly any nausea or side effects. Yippee! I'm still trying to put on weight but haven't lost any more so thats a start.

I have to apologise for being behind on replying to posts and reading blogs. I'm the same with household post and bills too. They just seem to pile up and up.........

And for some knitting news. Not much but here we go. I got my 1st STR kit of the year and am super pleased with it. Makes me even more glad I rejoined. Isn't is pretty? I've actually just got the 2nd kit (can you tell I started this post a while back but never managed to actually post it....) which is gorgeous. As its newish I won't post a pic yet, but will do next time.

The lush Jailhouse Rock STR socks are done and dusted and have been several times. I love them. Can't get over their amazing colours.

Remember the Evolution I showed last post? Well they're being knitting into bed socks and I've finished the first sock and working on the second. It was real slow going for a while, they yarn is really soft but has no elasticity, and I started to lose interest. But now I've tried the sock on, I love them. Boy is this stuff soft. Won't be hardwearing, but I don't need them to be. So hopefully it won't take too much longer to get the 2nd one done. It's already taking forever as it is. Then I can get back to my favourite STR ;)

I didn't buy any yarn at all in Feb or March. I thought the new Rowan mag was uninspiring and neither VKI or IK had anything that really excited me. I managed to find a preview of Rowan Studio 9 that has Calmer designs but didn't like that either. Oh well, at least I can't spend what I don't have. But surely there must at least a booklet I can get! I mean, to go another month without knitting purchases is unheard of. I don't count subscriptions but I've even cut down on those. And may cut down on Let's Knit as well if the next issue is as awful as the one before last. Shame as that one seeemed to be different to the others at first.

Update: I managed to make knitting related purchases - only small ones and not yarn but much wanted.

This is just a perfect easter picture and just made me laugh. Can't imagine Thunder like that :)

Hope everyone had a lovely Easter. We had a nice quiet one. Wasn't the weather awful though? Thank god it won't be that early for a long time.

This is a photo of what my windscreen looked like after being vandalised a week last Friday night. Yes, it was outside my house and CSI have been and taken photos and measurements as there were footprints all over the bonnet. As well as scratches and dents. Hmm, teenagers are definitely not my favourite species at the moment! As if we haven't got enough stuff going on as it is! But its now been replaced so once more driveable.

I'll leave you with this video. I don't whether to laugh or cry. It takes spoiling animals to a whole new level. The last part is just unbelievable! And there's more on this one, it looks all quite normal at first, then just gets crazier and crazier....... the quality isn't great and the sound track is urmm, not my thing but you have to just watch it :)