'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

Bursting with activity and joy!

Well not exactly, but I've not had such a productive couple of weeks for a while. Very little of it is knitting related unfortunately, although more of that later, but most of it relates to my darling daughter getting ready for University.

Summer was pretty much consumed with waiting for her A level results and the not knowing if she had achieved the grades needed for her first choice University place. The 16th of August finally came round (results day and her brother's 17th birthday!) and she finally knew she had achieved what she wanted and needed. I cannot explain the sheer joy of that day, not just that she had gained the grades, but more that she had got what she had worked so hard for for so many years. Fiona is and always has been a real grafter, a quality that I admire hugely in her and I am so very, very proud.

Leaving home does come with a massive amount of gathering of household and personal items though, so this is what's taken all our time and energy in the last few weeks. Yesterday it was almost like getting her ready for the first day of school again, trying to find a good winter coat and shoes as she's off up to Leeds and I keep being told it's colder up there than it is in our little corner of Hertfordshire :)

I think the practical preparations are done, now for the mental ones. My baby is going out into the world and I couldn't be more excited for her, go for it my girl, blossom, work hard and most of all enjoy every minute!

Back to the only knitting part of my post, I've been working on a snuggly blanket for Fiona to take with her. To me it means that when she's chilly, tired or a bit fed up she can wrap herself in a Mummy hug! I know, soppy but true....

 

Linking up with the lovely Nicole at Frontier Dreams today - Keep Calm and Craft on.

How productive am I?

 Extremely this week it seems! I've managed to finish up a little cardi for my new baby Great Niece Emily Rose, along with a gorgeous pair of bootees to keep her little tootsies warm!

I'm absolutely delighted with my Gold Leaves on the Line shawl which I made with Fyberspates Scrumptious Sock yarn, my first foray into Fyberspates and what a pleasure it was...

 

Gorgeous gold colour, wonderful soft feel and such a handy item, I've already worn it many times.

Neither of those projects come under the Ravellenics banner as I was already working on them, but I'm progressing really well with my Ravellenic Laura Jayne sweater, which is a lovely taupe cotton slub, sloppy joe number that I honestly can't wait to wear. It's absolutely ideal to knit whilst watching the Olympics as it's all reverse stocking stitch knit on 2 different needle sizes, so I can happily scream along with the rowers, runners, long jumpers etc and not lose my place. Helps with the stress levels too.

I hope you're all enjoying the Olympics and crafting along too. I'm off to watch Andy Murray (sadly on the sofa and not at SW19) in his two finals and I can see me finishing this sweater with all the frantic clicking that'll be going on here. Wishing you all a wonderful Sunday and joining in with the lovely Nicole at Keep Calm and Craft on and Linda at Natural Suburbia here.

London 2012...

Ooh I couldn't be more excited if I'd won the lottery! Well, maybe, but hey it feels like winning the lottery having the Olympics here in my country and in mine and my childrens' lifetime.

A group of us gathered at a friend's house to watch the opening ceremony and party the night away and all I can say is Wow, definitely with a capital W. It may not have been to everyone's taste, hey 'Trainspotting' wasn't either, but intense, powerful, moving, funny and beautiful I certainly thought it was.

Honestly James Bond and the Queen, we were all squealing with delight that it was actually her! Obviously not parachuting out of a helicopter, we're not mad, she's an elderly lady for goodness sake, but oh it did make us all laugh!

Sending out apologies to all of Mark's neighbours for being so loud, but I think we all hoped they'd be watching the same thing as us so I'm sure we didn't upset too many people :)

Being the avid sport watcher that I am, its absolute heaven coming home from work, switching on the telly and choosing from the massive array of BBC Olympic channels. Feeling very proud of Team GBs women's footie team, go girls! The Team GB women's volleyball team won last night (actually early hours of the morning, ooh I'm so tired!) which is their first ever Olympic match win, so proud of you girls you were awesome. The Gymnastics have just been stunning and Team GB Men winning their first Olympic medal since 1912 was beyond wonderful. 

I could just list on forever but I really mustn't, I'm sure you know what events there are, lets just suffice to say that I can barely contain my excitement for the athletics and particularly the prospect of the men's sprint finals, ooh man that's going to be a good 'un.

One of my favourite parts of the whole ceremony was the innovative and truly beautiful Olympic Cauldron. As a little sign off here's a picture from the Daily Mail as a reminder Olympic cauldron 2012. I just found a video clip to show my daughter as she missed seeing it on Friday as she was away on holiday and honestly I went goose pimply all over again.

I hope you all enjoy our Olympics, all the drama, spectacle, super human effort and drive and that you find something there to remember forever.

What a beautiful day...

Despite my last minute brolly buying panic (my darling daughter seems to run off with all of mine!) Rachael and Tom's wedding day wasn't the rain soaked affair we thought it might be. 

All dressed in our finery a large group of us set off from the village in our coach. Unbelievably even that got caught up in the RBS banking debacle. There we all were thinking we'd paid our contribution to the cost of the coach, however when the driver got to us we realised that the transfer Rach had sent through to the coach company hadn't arrived! Oops. He didn't actually say it but I think the general gist of it was without payment they weren't going to take us anywhere! Fortunately one of our number is a friend who is what I would describe as 'comfortably off' who managed to dash home and find £295 cash to hand to the driver, bless his little heart.........

We did get a bit of a soaking when we arrived at the venue, but clearly they are well set up for British Summer weddings and had large baskets of umbrellas to hand out as we stepped off the coach, how thoughtful! This rain was the last we saw until late into the evening happily.

It was a truly beautiful day, full of laughs, happy tears, good friends, new ones, wonderful food and gorgeous piggies!

I haven't lost the plot honestly! The wedding was at a fantastic venue on a farm. Whilst they were taking their vows you could hear the cockerel crowing in the background...

Even though the weather was grey and forbidding looking it was still quite warm and sticky, hence the bridal shawl wasn't really needed. She did however have it with her in pride of place on the top table which was lovely. We took a couple of pictures just to prove it was there.

Yes that is me with the beautiful bride, I'm possibly the most unphotogenic person I know, but at least I've got my eyes open in this one :))

Rach and her very proud dad.

Bet you've never seen a Yorkshire parkin wedding cake?! She's a true Northern girl at heart...

Ooh and a lovely groom in a kilt too!

Altogether a wonderful day full of wonderful people. I wish them every happiness, they deserve it. Oh and boy did my feet ache the next day, haven't danced that much for years x

I have finished honestly!

I've gone and done it again, when will I ever learn? Yes I've lovingly worked on my latest Ishbel and completed it in time for my friend's birthday last weekend. Did I photograph it, doh slaps forehead, no foolish woman you didn't! There's something strange about the excitement of completing a present that blinds me to the flippin' obvious ie what about some nice photos for the blog and Ravelry? Ah well I will try and take some photos if I ever see her wearing it. As a knitter who has given a fibrey gift I do feel a tiny bit stalkerish looking out for those projects!

The Birthday Ishbel was knitted in Posh Yarn Sylvia in the Cotillion colourway and as I've said before this yarn was a complete dream to use. My first foray into merino/silk and certainly not the last. Although I sadly don't have any completed pictures and the shawl has moved on to its new lovely owner, here are a couple of pictures of that gorgeous yarn and colour:

I'm off to cast on for a test knit for the lovely Faye at Buttons and Beeswax now so I wish you all a wonderful day! For lots of other fibrey goodness please pop on over to Linda's place and Tami's place.