Bunnies and books...

A couple of years ago I knitted two Bunny Blanket Buddies for a friend's new baby and her slightly older brother. They were knit in Rowan Bamboo Tape which whilst to me was and is an awkward tape yarn, it is in fact lovely and soft for a baby cuddly toy. These bunnies went down a storm and became both in turn the constant companion of little Isobel. The family subsequently moved back to their native New Zealand and it's always wonderful to see their latest exploits and news on Facebook especially when Izzy is still carting around bunny. She's two now and absolutely gorgeous like her big brother, but I noticed an appeal last week on Facebook from her Dad and I quote...

"Dear Codicote friends, can someone please ask Tracy Rogers to help....rabbit (2 of 2) is on his last legs (not that he had legs to start with). Prospect of Isobel without rabbit is daunting..... "

How sweet! Of course I immediately sent a message back saying ok two balls of said yarn left which means two bunnies can be made. One now done and the other is two thirds through, so my challenge is to get them both ready to be posted off on Thursday to make the long journey to the other side of the world. Ah makes me feel all warm and fuzzy to provide a cuddle blanket for a little one growing up in this world :)

I finished 'Private' by James Patterson this week and although I made it to the end, enjoyable it was not. Didn't like the writing style, far to formulaic as i've said before and frankly I expected more from an author with that much practise, anyway you live and learn, moving on this week I'm reading 'Started Early, Took My Dog' by Kate Atkinson. I've read her previous Jackson Brodie novels and really enjoyed them, so I'm looking forward to getting my teeth into this one. Hop on over to Tami's place for lots of other WIP Wednesdays and to Ginny's place for crafting and great reads.

Routine service madam!

I'd already decided that before I use my new sewing machine a full service was in order. After all the poor old girl is nearly as old as me and as I said before a bit of sewing machine oil to the knees would be most grateful.

So, armed with the original manual and various maintenance instructions I'd found on the 'Tinternet' I decided to start my servicing. Honestly my Dad would be proud of me, screwdrivers, oils and brushes at the ready. It felt a bit scary dismantling the main body of the machine, but I was determined to remove all the fluff, lint and dust accumulated over many years before I started oiling. It's in remarkably good condition and my goodness it's a solid heavy thing, even just turning it over was a bit of a challenge!

So I carefully followed my instructions, found all the little places where the oil should go and did my service. 

 Before I started

 Revealing the top of the machine

 After almost giving myself a hernia lifting the machine up!

Phew, it felt quite scary, but I'm so pleased with myself. I threaded her up and tested the stitch and she goes like a dream. I set a challenge and I achieved it, one happy lady here :)

What direction is this going in please???

I am loving the Atelier that's on my needles, but honestly I'm still not absolutely sure how this works. Having read lots of project notes on Ravelry I realise that its quite an unusual construction, and lets face it I'm pretty obtuse myself, so the fact that it's not glaringly obvious what direction I'm going in does kind of appeal :)

The thrill of just following the instructions and going with it is quite refreshing, I'll certainly keep you posted! At the moment I have to be honest that it resembles a pair of old mans combinations (or long johns in todays speak). What do you think?

Joining in a little late with the fabulous Ginny for  Yarn Along and Tami for  WIP Wednesday .

My book this week is a bit of a departure for me. Despite loving action packed, thriller type books for a long time, I've never read a James Patterson book. My Mum is constantly saying how good he is and how she's read every book he's ever written. Now I normally trust my Mum's reading judgement, but it's not working terribly well for me. I'm not enjoying the writing style, it feels formulaic, sensationalist and frankly not that interesting. I'll try and push on as I know from vast experience that my impression of a book in the first part does sometimes change. I'm up to page 89, lets see how it goes.....

My new arrival!

She's here finally, my lovely new sewing machine! Well bless her she was new once, probably sometime around 1970, which frankly still makes her younger than me. I'm sure she'd appreciate a clean up and a bit of oil, again a bit like me as I'm sure a bit of sewing machine oil would do my creaky knees the world of good. She's obviously made of strong stuff as I could barely carry her into the house and up the stairs, portable machine she certainly will not be, but that's fine as the idea was to get a tough, all metal workhorse.

 

 

She's mighty lovely and I'm very pleased. Now just got to be brave enough to plunge in and start sewing. You know what this means don't you? Yes, more craft, more addiction, more stash! There I am trying hard to clear the stuff from my life and now I've just added more.....

Ooh hello, remember me!

I don't really do telling myself off for not posting, as sometimes life just gets in the way and there's no point making myself feel bad is there?

So anyway moving on from that, I've had a really interesting few weeks following the New Year. Plenty of knitting going on, trips taken, new craft love developing and turning over a new leaf... That is quite a mixture even if I say so myself.

The knitting is ok, if a little lacking in over the top enthusiasm, which I would like to say is nothing to do with the projects themselves, but more to do with my general indecision over what to knit. In cardigan land I finally settled on the gorgeous Atelier, mainly due to its interesting construction method. Watch this space to see how it moves on, I'm hoping if I follow and believe, that all will be well :)

My other project is the Buttony Quilt which I'm loving as an ongoing 'knit it when you need a little change' project. I'm knitting it in dk weight rather than 4ply and with a 3.25mm needle, so each of my squares is about 50% bigger than the designer's. Hopefully it will grow a bit faster and also helps me use up the huge amounts of dk that I have, either as leftovers, odd balls, or even larger quantities that I bought some time ago and now no longer have any ideas for. Its great, I love it, even the sewing!

That last comment brings me on to my new craft love. Sewing. I have technically sewed since I was a child, taught by my Mum, using both a machine and by hand. It just never grabbed me, it was never my best friend. I could alter clothes in a basic take a hem up, run a seam in, sew on a button way, but I never actually enjoyed it. Bizarrely as soon as Fiona has disappeared off to Uni with our shared sewing machine I get the urge to start sewing! Sods law they call it :) So I've been searching the treasure that is ebay for a second hand solid machine to let me have a bash at some projects. Very excitingly I 'scored' a Frister Rossmann this afternoon, and will be happily going off to collect her on Sunday. More space to watch it seems, although its more likely to be 'upcycled' projects rather than new items from me.

Turning over a new leaf is a pretty common occurrence at New Year, so initially I didn't have high hopes for my new determination, but hey its so great and helps me so much that I'm hooked forever. Yes my friends it is 'meal planning'! I know, you're disappointed I can tell, sorry about that. But honestly its fabulous. No more wondering what on earth I'm going to cook when I finally get home from work, much better and more interesting food on offer, and it saves me money, as I go through my fridge, freezer and cupboards before I write my shopping list. Its deadly simple and brilliant. So you ask what's on the menu for tonight Tracy? Well, erm, actually I'm off to visit my parents and they're feeding me tonight bless 'em......

Lovely to be back amongst you. What new leaves have you turned over?

'He's taken the knife out of the cheese, do you think he wants some cheese?'

I just couldn't help the title. We've got a new chap at work in the office and he's a similar age to me with a very quirky sense of humour. We do end up reminiscing rather a lot about old (80's ish) films and TV series that we knew and loved, which is really entertaining if a bit childish. The up side of this is that I do keep giggling to myself now about snippets I'd almost forgotten. After my last post, having a giggle about anything is a thing to be really chuffed with, and believe me I am chuffed!

The film that came flooding back to me today was 'Arthur' starring Dudley Moore, Liza Minnelli and the sublime John Gielgud. The rather odd title above is a line from the calamitous 'almost' wedding in the film, where the Father in Law to be finally loses his rag with Arthur. Oh it took me right back to my friend Paula, who would happily quote this line in a slurred perfect Dud voice whenever us girls about town were out and about. Thanks Craig for reminding me, thanks Paula for all those laughs and thanks Dudley for being so funny. That is all x

Who am I?

It's a strange title I know. If I don't know who I am then how on earth are you supposed to! Of course I know my name, where I live, what my job is, even the fact that my son and I need feeding on a regular basis, but what I'm finding peculiar is the fallout from my daughter leaving to go to Uni.

I haven't blogged for a while as frankly I didn't know where to start. I can talk about the huge amount (for me) of knitting I've completed. There's nothing like a major life change to get those needles going. But what I couldn't do is get to the bottom of why and how I was feeling all lost, unfocused and peculiar? If I step away from myself and look back I can now see that it's not strange at all. Half of my children have left home, and whilst I have always had lots of interests and an active social life, they have been the pivot of my world for nearly 19 years! 

My migraine, my regular companion for the past 32 years increased in frequency, the boiler finally gave up and died adding to the general stress levels and everything just seemed so ridiculously hum drum. Now I'm slowly emerging from the fog I can see it's obvious, I've been depressed. It is something that occasionally comes over me, not in 'a hits me like a brick' kind of way, more in a slowly moving wave that creeps over me unnoticed. For those that truly suffer I don't claim to be on a par with you at all, but the few episodes I have had certainly give me a small insight into that world and it is a difficult place. I take my hat off to every single person that manages somehow to fight through depression and live a day to day life. Quite frankly you are heroic in the true sense. My fog is gradually lifting. The ability to make a decision is coming back and I've now managed to get some effective medication for my migraine, so slowly does it. I have knitted so much over the past two months that my shoulder doesn't know whether it's coming or going! There are many FOs. 

A brief recap of those FOs:

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/WoollyWorld/chunky-comfy-jumper

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/WoollyWorld/lanesplitter

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/WoollyWorld/susie-rogers-reading-mitts

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/WoollyWorld/cabled-hat

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/WoollyWorld/birch-leaf-shawl-aka-bottom-up-birch

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/WoollyWorld/dane-shawl

Oh my goodness, I honestly didn't realise I'd done that much! I've also got two Christmas gift cowls and a shawl on the needles too. No wonder my hand's sore. Apologies for the links rather than pictures, but I seem to have deleted all the photos from my phone - slaps forehead . 

I'm truly looking forward to getting back to blogging more regularly. I've missed you all.

Much love x