Good and Bad!

The bad news is that I'm feeling worse again. I was feeling pretty rotten for most of last week.  My pain levels were soaring, I was feeling like I was coming down with a cold, a bit fluey at times and my stomach was unsettled on several days.Friday was a little bit better and I tried to get some work done. Saturday was better and I spent the morning driving to and from dance lessons with the girls and getting my Easy Lace Club parcels in the post. Finally! Huge apology to all the members for them being so late. I'm hoping most of the UK ones have arrived today. If you've not signed up but wanted to, there are some spaces left. I'm keeping them open on the website until Wednesday and then I'm taking the last few spaces to sell at Fibre Flurry. Anyone who signs up at Fibre Flurry will get month 1 as a kit to take home. I'm hoping to take some November Sock Variety Club 'kits' with me too for anyone who signs up on Saturday. That's if I can get the yarn dyed and dryed on time.

Back to Saturday. In the afternoon I felt well enough to dye some yarn. I try not do do any more than 3 kg in one day and only dye yarn once or twice a week. I did 5 kg on Saturday as I missed a couple of dyeing days last week. 5 kg is far too much for me to do in one day and I was suffering Saturday night. Sunday I woke up feeling really rubbish. I got up in time for the start of the Formula 1 Korean Grand Prix. Which was delayed and then it finally started behind the safety car. Was stopped after 3 or 4 laps. And after ages, started again behind the safety car. I watched all this boring bit. Afraid to go and have a shower in case something exciting should happen. In the end I had to have shower and get dressed and I came back downstairs to find that Mark Webber has crashed out. He is my favorite to win this year. I would like Jenson Button to win really but Mark Webber has had such a great season and I think he deserves it.

Anyway, was not feeling good at all. Cold and shivery. Went to church. Felt rubbish, cold and shivery through the whole service. Luckily I had a very comfy chair to sit in during the service. I snoozed in my comfy reclining chair  at home for 2 hours and then we headed to Plymouth to get Emily some trousers to wear with her scout uniform for her trip to London on Wednesday. I didn't want to go but we had to. At least I had the pleasure of dragging Simon around the shops with me.  He normally escapes to the book shop. We were looking for a pair of walking trousers or black school trousers. We eventually got a pair in the 6th shop we tried, and the annoying thing was it was one of the first shops we walked past but I didn't realise that the shop was much better than it looked from the outside. And we got a 10% scout discount. The shop was Mountain Warehouse at Drake Circus in Plymouth. Came home feeling not good. And woke up this morning feeling really rubbish and cold. Did very little before I went for my massage (it was cancelled twice last week) this morning. Expected to feel better when I got home but didn't. Freezing cold. Shivery. Turned the heating on. Tired. Went to bed - couldn't sleep. got up, tried to do some work. Watched telly and tried to knit.  Got too hot. Turned heaing off. Went back to bed. Still couldn't sleep. Went outside to take some photos of some new samples before it started going dark. Was too cold (although I was wearing plenty of clothes. Heating back on. Now I'm too hot but everyone else says house temperature is fine. Feeling rubbish. Think I'm coming down with a cold as i've been sneezing all day.

Got 3 patterns to finish writing up for magazines. Got several patterns to re-format and print for Fibre Flurry. Got yarn to label and a shop update to do - shop update may not happen this week. Got to get everything ready for Fibre Flurry. Need to go to Plymouth again tomorrow to get dance stuff for girls. Want to go to bed. Oh, and need to tidy up the house - looks like a yarn bomb has hit it.

You're probably all bored stupid by now, so let's look at the tiny bit of knitting I've done today.
I've been swatching one particular stitch pattern for months now. I've tried it in sweater ideas but it never seemed quite right. On Sunday when my first batch of the new Fairytale Sock (BFL/cashmere/silk) was dry I was desperate to knit something with it. I wanted to do a triangular shawl from the lower edge. I did one earlier in the year using another stitch pattern which I didn't quite get right and never had time to re-do. So I've decided to havea go using this stitch pattern. Here's the swatch I did early this morning.

I decided to add beads for the edging (ignore the centre bit, I was experimenting).

I did lilac beads on one half: 

Pale blue silver beads: 

In the end I went for the pale blue silvery beads. These pics were taken quite early this morning so the light was not great. The yarn colour is blue/purple.

Here's my actual shawl after row 2:

A pile of Twinkletoes Sock and Fairytale Sock for labelling (photos have been taken in bad light nad not edited):

 some organges and purples:

 Beautiful blues:

 Some sparkly purple Twinkletoes:

 Oranges:

And a sneak preview of a pattern coming later this week (if I'm feeling well enough).

isn't it pretty?

I started this post this afternoon some time then gave up. It's now 8pm and I'm definitely not feeling well at all. Off to bed and praying i wake up feeling great tomorrow morning.

Nite x