Back in harness

Back to work today and an inbox with a mere 400+ emails I kept my head down and managed to work my way through most of them!

Commuter knitting is made from the discontinued Rowan Bamboo Tape - one of my favourite yarns and one which I'm stockpiling as finances allow. I've actually got two separate projects on the needles using it and neither of them are my usual style - it will be interesting to see how these pan out. One involves miles of K3,P3 rib and the other has a dolman sleeve construction. Neither were designed for bamboo tape so they could end up as a total mess. Hopefully I'll have some progress to show you by the weekend.

Getting there

My thanks for the get well wishes, I think the cooler temperatures and the 3rd type of antibiotics may be the winning combination. I have very hazy memories of the first week but do remember the look on Matt's face when he arrived home to find me with my feet on an ice block cuddling a "hot water bottle" filled with ice cubes! I don't think any of the frozen veg were actually used for eating either!

Emma, thanks for reminding me about the Pre-Pay Prescription - only snag is I forgot to keep the receipts so can't claim it back - hence no trips to the yarn sales for me this summer.

I have still been acquiring yarn though, mainly odd balls donated from a yarn swap I was too ill to attend. There were some left over balls that were to be donated to charity. Some I intend to use for myself so will make a cash donation to a charity.

The other odd balls I intend to knit into simple hats and mitts for use by the clients when they participate in our environmental projects - I am so pleased to see the effort they put in to community reparation and the profound impact that the New Leaf project is having not just on their young lives but also on the local community.

Stop the world...

I want to get off!

The last few weeks have been a mix of the Good, the Bad and the downright Ugly.

The good bits include an all too brief visit from Stash Haus.We managed to sneak in an hour at I Knit London and I really can't believe it's 3 years since we last met up, lets hope it's not so long in future. She'd travelled across Europe for weeks lugging a gift for me

the yarn is Fifty Mile Fiber - spun from fibre produced within fifty miles of the Mill at Argyle, WI - it's a squishy blend of Icelandic wool, Alpaca and Llama. I'm really looking forward to working with this as soon as it's a bit cooler. There was a great key fob as well which is now attached to my work bag.

Other good bits have been the development of the Uppity Knitters - a drop in group that meets at the Royal Festival Hall on a Thursday from lunchtime onwards.

Louise came down from Yorkshire for the day and I was able to drool over the wonderful lace shawl that she'd knitted Lyssie for her wedding - such a glorious colour and a total work of art.

Life went downhill after that - the bad bits has been a horrible infection that has hit me hard and is now in it's 4th week of making me feel exhausted. It's cost me a fortune in prescription charges. Breakfast at times was downright ugly - I had to face this lot plus 3 separate inhalers

The hottest two weeks of the year (so far) saw me with raging temperatures and I really didn't know what to do with myself until Matt had the idea of taking me for evening drives with the air con in the car cranked up to freezer temperature. We did not want to share the germs so sought out some of our favourite secluded places. One night I sat on Blackheath knitting and watching the sun set whilst Matt flew his kite.

Whilst the rest of the world was watching Wimbledon / Grand Prix and World Cup I sat knitting on empty beaches at Littlestone and Dungeness and Matt went on photo safari

We even found time to feed the ducks and swans at Footscray Meadows and admire the work of Capability Brown

There's been talk of kntting but no photos - that's because once again it's the time of year when I exchange gifts with my Rowan friends and it's all top secret until early August - lets just say that after a difficult start I'm really happy with my work this year!