KnitYoga

All rights are reserved on all images and text on this blog.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Happy New Year . . .


. . . to all my readers including lurkers!


As it's national delurking week, lurkers please feel free to introduce yourselves. I'd love to hear from you if you'd like to say hello!

Well, I spent most of Xmas and New Year feeling grotty with a cold/flu type illness but I'm feeling much better now. So, it's a bit later than anticipated, but I just wanted to wish you all a happy new year! The symptoms started on Xmas Eve and I still managed to cook lunch the following day and entertain but, by the evening, I was flagging badly and the next few days I spent mostly in bed. It wasn't all doom and gloom though as my wonderful Chris bought me a spinning wheel for Xmas. It still needs another coat of Jacobean Oak wood dye and a coat of white french polish followed by beeswax but here it is.


Sadly, I've not had a chance to use it at all yet or even try it due to lack of time!

I also received a hug mug (again, from Chris).


Knitting related gifts included books . . .


. . . and I was much cheered by my fabulous Secret Santa, Rain, who spoilt me rotten with knitterly goodies and one which is (or should I say was!) extremely edible! Here are the goodies I received in their entirety . . .


. . . and here is the edible one (now long gone)


A cute little chocolate truffle Xmas pudd in a beaded crochet box made by Rain!

I also received a beautiful skein of Artisan Merino laceweight which is enough to make any of a choice of three lace scarves from a pattern which accompanied it.


A knitted mobile phone cover, a lovely Xmasy looking corsage which is partly crocheted and partly knitted in very fine yarn and some beads.


Here's a close up of the corsage.


And, last but not least, I got this fabulous felted crocheted box which is nice and roomy and is going to be so handy for storage.


Thanks again, Rain, you really are the best!

Well, once again, I'm ashamed to say I haven't got anything to show in the way of knitting but knitting and pattern writing have been taking place. Due to the unexpected almost instant take off of Knitz & Glitz and the work generated by that, I didn't get my design for one of the UK magazines done in time but that's okay because I've been given an extension. They already have the knitted item for photography and the pattern is written up for the size I knitted. I now just need to finish pattern writing for the other sizes.

And, talking of Knitz & Glitz, the new website is still being worked on but will be a big improvement on the present one and mean that I can expand and be able to offer lots of new and exciting products including those made by others such as some wonderful knitters' greeting cards and stationery which have been hand-carved by Carrie-Anne Dennison aka Acrylik. Check out her first designs below which will be on sale soon at Knitz & Glitz!


There's another new line coming soon that I'm also particularly excited about but you'll just have to wait to see what it is as I'm staying schtum for the moment.

Simply Knitting came up trumps again this month with Knitz & Glitz getting a mention not once but a whopping three times! As this post is now getting a bit long though and I want to mention a few other things, I'll save that for another post.

On Saturday, I attended an Embroidered Knitting workshop with Emma Seddon at the Knit Tin in Olney. I was the only one who hadn't embroidered before so was a bit of a dunce compared to the others but still found it fun and managed to learn quite a lot of useful things.

I learnt how to do Swiss darning and cross stitch on knitting. Here are some rows of horizontal and one row of vertical Swiss darning on a swatch I knitted as well as a little bit of cross stitch.


I was quite pleased with the way the Swiss darning turned out as, once I got the hang of it, it didn't look too different from the knitting!

We also did some smocking on rib which looked quite attractive and we explored different ways to use the stitches to their best advantage by incorporating various stitches such as running stitch, stem stitch, chain stitch, blanket stitch, buttonhole stitch, lazy daisy and applique into our work. A fantastic idea that Emma had come up with was to buy old jumpers from charity shops for cutting up into shapes which could then be embroidered on and around. Old woollen jumpers which can then be felted would be ideal but, if not, any raw edges can be neatened by using blanket stitch. Someone also mentioned using Bondaweb which I need to look into.

When it came to cutting up the old jumpers to make shapes, we had nothing to use as templates or to draw on the material with so we just had to cut freestyle. Here's mine.


I didn't get much done in the way of embroidering onto it as the needle I had was too blunt to go through the material but I did a bit of stem stitch down the middle of one of the leaves and started to do some running stitch for the veins which I don't think worked too well. The point is though that, now I have the basics, I can see that given time and the right tools and materials, the possibilities are endless!

Family-wise, we have a bit of a crisis at the moment, as my elderly MIL needs an operation which involves a six-week hospital stay. MY FIL has Alzheimers and will not be able to live on his own whilst she's in hospital as she is his primary carer. So, we've been trying to research the possibilities. As DH works long hours and I also work (from home), it would be difficult for either of us to care for him full time. We could manage to care for him in our own home for the six weeks if we could find help with day care but it seems that, whilst residential care is possible, day care is much harder to find and it needs to be local as I don't drive. If anyone has any ideas or useful information, it would be most welcome. Today I'm going to contact the Alzheimer's Society to see if they can help at all. My MIL is anxious that he doesn't end up in a residential care home for six weeks, FIL is not happy about the prospect and neither myself nor DH would like to see that happen unless there is absolutely no alternative.

22 Comments:

  • At 10:27 am, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Okay I won't lurk:) Glad you seem to be over the worst with the cold thingy. You got a lot of nice stuff for xmas. Just wish my lot would finaly take the hint and get me knitting/fibre/sewing related stuff...there is always coming christmas!! Your wheel looks fab can't wait to see you using it and your resulting yarn it will be great!! Will add a link to K&G when I next work on my Shop I am a bit behind as I need to maintain DD'S site as well as doing fun stuff like knitting and spinning:)

     
  • At 11:44 am, Blogger T said…

    No lurking here ;) Hazel, you've had such a busy time, poor thing, but hooray for K&G! I love your wheel, look forward to when you get time to use it. Rain is a great Secret Pal, they're lovely gifts!
    Some knitting type stationery will be fantastic, well done you and Carrie Anne. Your Swiss darning is very neat and I love the applique.
    What a difficult situation with your poor in-laws. I have had no experience of this yet but hope you can manage to find some good day care. Hopefully the Alzheimers Society can help.

     
  • At 4:47 pm, Blogger Nana Sadie said…

    No lurking here! Great stuff...those lace scarves look delightful to make...and so glad you're feeling better! What a time to feel punk.
    (((hugs)))

     
  • At 5:23 pm, Blogger cheekiemary said…

    Consider contacting some hospice care places in your area for references to day care assistance - they will definitely know what is available.

     
  • At 6:55 pm, Blogger artyfartykat said…

    What gorgeous gifts you received, especially your wheel!
    I'm pleased the Simply Knitting mentions have promoted your business and people have realised what beautiful stuff you make!!
    Hope the family situation resolves itself soon and you are able to find the care you need.Its out there somewhere, the problem is finding it. Social services may help or your local Alzheimers Society may be able to offer advice.

     
  • At 7:38 pm, Blogger dreamcatcher said…

    Glad you are feeling better! Love the new wheel and all the lovely gifts :-) Well done on Knitz and Glitz's continued success too!

    Best of luck with sorting out the family/care situation as well.

     
  • At 9:54 pm, Blogger Sherry said…

    I have to admit-I am a lurker! You are on my bloglines list and I always look at your new posts....but here is the info. My name is Sherry, I just started knitting in May when I found out my daughter was expecting. I had to knit a dozen or so baby items. The baby came, her name is Bella Noel which means beautiful christmas, she was born on 12/22.

     
  • At 9:14 am, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    De-Lurking here!

    Re your FIL. Have you tried your local "Crossroads for carers" scheme? If they can't help they may help you get Social Services to put together a care-package.
    Other than that they may be able to help you locate temporary residential care.

     
  • At 10:35 pm, Blogger Kath said…

    Also delurking: Congrats re Simply Knitting, was just reading it when I saw your shop listed! And by the way I had some of your stitch markers for Christmas and very lovely they were too. Great bundle of goodies from Rain as well, lucky you. Fingers crossed that things work out for you all re in-laws.

     
  • At 7:50 pm, Blogger Rain said…

    I hope you manage to get things sorted for you FIL.

    The wheel is lovely, once you've got it waxed it's going to be a thing of beauty. I'd just sit looking at it all day.

    It's wonderful that K&G is taking off like that, I can't wait to see the new website and new lines.

     
  • At 11:43 am, Blogger acrylik said…

    Your wheel is beautiful!

    I hope you manage to get everything sorted with your FIL, I hope the Alzheimer's Society were able to help you.

    Your workshop sounded fascinating and I really like the swatched you made there.

    Here's to the continued success of K&G!

     
  • At 7:59 pm, Blogger Modelwidow said…

    Sorry to hear you weren`t well over the festive period, and hope you are successful in solving your care problems soon.
    I saw your `mentions` in Simply Knitting, and thought it would attract a lot of interest. Well done.

    Happy New Year, and here`s to a great 2007

     
  • At 9:24 pm, Blogger Craftydramaqueen said…

    I was sooo excited when I read Simply Knitting and saw the K & G bits. Love the package from Rain.
    Hope you get your family worries sorted out. Big hugs xxx.

     
  • At 10:37 am, Blogger Rosie said…

    I finally stopped lurking Hazel - when i tried to create a profile it worked this time :)

     
  • At 4:09 pm, Blogger belaybunny said…

    Poor you being ill over the festive season, glad you're better now. Your spinning wheel looks lovely, and lucky you going on a course at the knit tin. I keep looking at those courses and wishing I wasn't so far away!!

     
  • At 8:53 am, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Oh how I love the Spinning wheel!!

    Carey K.
    -I'm Cross Stitch Crazy!!!

     
  • At 5:45 pm, Blogger tangelled angel said…

    Love your spinning wheel, really nice. I got the same "Knit" book as you for a Christmas present also, want to make the teacosy already from it. De-lurking here as its delurk week.
    Hope you get some sort of solution for your FIL, I can't offer any advice Im afraid

     
  • At 11:20 pm, Blogger MandellaUK said…

    Well I'm no lurker, but I'll check in to say "hello" anyway!

    I noticed your exposure in Simply Knitting. You're very popular with them at the moment, and very much deservedly so.

    My Mum loved the pencils BTW.

     
  • At 2:28 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Hi KnitYoga
    I never thought of myself as a lurker before. I just discovered all these knitting blogs about 2 monthes ago and have really enjoyed reading everyones life journeys...and particularly seeing what knitting projects they are working on. The downside is that I've been doing much more browsing than knitting :)
    You got a really lovely package KnitYoga. I'll speak up more from now on...Thanks
    Regards Louey

     
  • At 6:41 pm, Blogger Linda said…

    I shall de lurk to say what lovely christmas gifts you had. And also thank you for the lovely book thongs and row counter bracelet that I ordered...they are even nicer in real life!

     
  • At 1:02 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    hi, knityoga
    you got me there ;o)
    i`m outing myself as a blogless german lurker and (hand)knitter.

    so, greetings from the lake of constance, and i hope you`re well again and enjoy your new wheel, which is really pretty

     
  • At 8:22 pm, Blogger Badger said…

    You lucky thing, getting that wheel and all the goodies from Rain :)

    Hope you get everything sorted with your in laws.

     

Post a Comment

<< Home