Looking Back

Not quite sure what happened to last week. It seemed to whizz past somehow and I don't feel like I got a whole lot done. I taught at Spin A Yarn one day followed by 2 days of a tummy bug. I seem to be getting minor tummy bugs fairly frequently this year and I'm kind of hoping it may be linked to my gall stones and that it'll clear up once my gall bladder is removed. I spent last Wednesday mainly in bed. I didn't even do much knitting. Thursday I felt slightly better and spent most of the morning trying to work myself up to driving to Plymouth in the afternoon. I had a hospital appointment to see the consultant for my gall bladder op.

After waiting for 1 hr and 15 mins (!!!) I finally got in to see the doctor. He didn't even apologise and neither did the nurse who took us in to the examining room. I can't say i liked the consultant at all. I thought he was rude and unpleasant. The actual appointment took about 2 mins and yes, I did need an op. Quite honestly, the GP had told me more than the consultant did and in a much nicer way. I'll probably have to wait till after Christmas to get my op but that's okay because it means I have to stick to a low fat diet over Christmas which may make this the first Christmas every I won't gain weight. In fact, the doctor did ask me to loose some weight before the op. As I am rather overweight, that didn't surprise me. I have lost just over a stone but the weight loss has slowed down over the last month. I also have an underactive thyroid so that may explain it. My diet is better than it's been for years and I'm even eating much more fruit.

Healthwise, the gall stones may be one of the better things that have happened to my health especially if I can get a few stones off.

The weekend before last I attended Ktog in South Brent in Devon. This is an annual gathering organised by Easy Dartmoor Tea Shop Knitters and it's always fun to meet a lot of friends I don't see very often. I had a small stall:

One of the challenges at shows is always how to display shawls. I got 4 of these earlier in the year and they're great but they are a bit graphic. I kind of feel they ought to be covered up a bit. I've put swim suits on two of them but I keep looking in charity shops for some mini dresses in plain, neutral materials. Like little shift dresses in black, purple, navy or other colours that go with my shawls. So far no luck. If anyone happens to have a suitable dress or two in the back of a cup board they don't want, I'd love it. I need a size 10.

The other stall holders were Spin A Yarn

The lovely Vicky from Hulu Crafts:

and Sara's Texture Crafts:

The aim of the event is to promote knitting and there was a big knit cafe area and some knitting, crochet and spinning workshops. The members of the group also showed off some of their knits:

After finally finished a 3 sweater deadline last week I got straight on with a crochet deadline. I have 4 crochet designs due over the next few weeks. But I also managed to cast on for the second design in 'The Amazing Luxury Knits' e-collection. The second design is due to be published on 1st November and I was ready to cast on for this design weeks ago but I ended up having to rush to finish my lace shawl and the 3 sweaters (I only knitted one sweater but had a bit of finishing to do on the other 2).

This weekend I finally decided I really ought to crack on with this design and it knitted up really quickly once I got going. It's knitted in the round and the lace pattern is easy to memorise. At the moment it's blocking and I need a dry day tomorrow and a willing model. I'm hoping Vanessa will agree to model for me. Let's hope she's in a good mood.

The yarn is Handmaiden Great Big Sea which is gorgeous to knit with and it only takes one skein. If you haven't signed up to Amazing Luxury Knits yet, do so now. it's cheaper if you sign up before end of October. This big, soft, luxurious cowl is also a perfect, quick gift knit. You could easily make several before Christmas and it only takes 100gr of dk yarn.


I'm very busy this week getting ready for Fibre Flurry. I didn't get much yarn dyeing done last week and we had another busy weekend. But this morning I dyed a big batch of Twinkletoes Sock and Twinkle Lace. tomorrow it's time for Exotic Cobweb Lace and Silky Merino Lace and a small amount of Merino Plus Twist.

I'm very organised when it comes to patterns this time and have ordered them from a professional printer. A big box arrived last week and I did order some more of other patterns last week and they're due to arrive on Thursday and we leave Thursday about 2pm so I may not get them in time. Such a relief not to be planning a mega printing session in the week before a show.

I'm teaching Continental Knitting on Saturday afternoon and it looks like there may only be one ticket left. So hurry up if you want to book. If you miss out, contact Mikayla to see if there is a waiting list. Fibre Flurry was great last time and I'm really looking forward to this year's event. We're driving up on Thursday afternoon and haven't decided what to do yet on Friday. Simon needs to do some shopping but we've not decided what to do for the rest of the day. We're staying in Redditch. Anything we should see?