Yes, I know I haven’t been around for a few weeks – same old story, I’m afraid, too busy with other things, and also I haven’t been too well. The only creative stuff I’ve been doing is my knitting, but it’s been far from uninteresting!
One of my favourite ways of knitting is in the round with a circular needle, because you never turn the work. You just keep knitting and not purling because the reverse side is always away from you. I prefer to use a circular needle for knitting back and forth, too, rather than normal needles, because the weight of the knitting sits in your lap and it’s a lot more comfortable and less effort to do, but of course you do have to purl on alternate rows, turning the work between each row,
This week I have discovered something extraordinary – Backwards Knitting! I have been knitting all my life and have never come across this before – I love Youtube and Pinterest which have taught me so many new techniques, and there’s always something new to learn, whatever you are interested in. People do come up with the most extraordinary ideas, and this one really works!
The idea behind Backwards Knitting is that rather than knitting alternate knit and purl rows, you do not turn the work, but on what would normally be a purl row, you knit backwards! I know, it sounds really weird… Here’s the link to the Youtube video I found, that shows you how to do it.
Normal knitting starts the row with LH needle full, and the RH needle empty. With the knit side facing, knit to the end of the row as normal.
To knit the next row backwards, do not turn the work. You are now beginning a row with the RH needle full, and the LH needle empty.
How to do backwards knitting
1. Insert LH needle into back of stitch on RH needle (LH needle goes behind RH needle).
2. Wrap yarn around LH needle, anti-clockwise.
3. Pull RH needle towards you, up and over the tip of LH needle, passing the existing stitch over the yarn you wrapped around the LH needle.
4. Release the loop. Stitch complete, on LH needle. Continue to the end of the row.
You never need to purl again!
I find this is very good when you are working with two colours. Without the weaving of the yarn facing you (on the purl side), you can see the pattern much more clearly, on every row, rather than just on the knit rows, so you are less likely to go wrong.
When I first started doing this, it was a real struggle, and I wondered if it was worth the effort because it took me so long to work one row, but already, on the next backwards row, I was getting better at it, and although it’s still slower than a normal knit row, I am improving with practice. It’s rather fun to do, and I have a feeling that my tension is improving, too.
I am making very good progress up the front of the purple circles jumper. I have yet to design the neck on graph paper.
Blog Photos
A while back, when Google changed things again, I discovered that all the photos on my 8-yr-old blog had vanished, and so began the huge task of replacing them all. Working backwards, I have now got to July of last year so progress is being made, if slowly. I am trying to do at least one post a day. The trouble is, something has again gone wrong with the link between Open Live Writer (the programme I use for composing my blog posts) and Blogger – something to do with Google changing (deleting?) Picassa or something, so I now have to do a work-around to get posts with photos to publish, which takes twice as long as normal, but hopefully this glitch will get sorted eventually. What a pain it all is. It’s going to take at least a year to get it all complete by my reckoning.
Shoshi in Silentio
A couple of weeks ago I got laryngitis and was completely voiceless for a week. (Everybody was congratulating my hubby and saying how fortunate he was…) To call him downstairs for meals I had to thump on the floor with a crutch, which reverberated round the house very satisfactorily. I have felt really tired and had to rest a lot after unavoidable periods of busyness during the whole period. I am now speaking again, but in church on Sunday, wasn’t able to sing a note, until the final hymn when I simply had to force myself – it was a well-known hymn but the organist had chosen the alternative tune, because the normal tune had, unusually, been used for an earlier hymn in the service. My hubby was sitting behind me and for the whole of the first verse of the hymn, he bellowed out at the top of his voice the wrong tune!! There was a certain amount of confusion all around us and I turned round and sang the correct tune as loud as I could manage it for the next couple of verses until he got the message!! Never let it be said that my hubby is without conviction, and loudly, to boot! I’m not sure when I shall ever be able to sing again!
Wise Crack
While I was without speech I had an emergency dental appointment with toothache. He found a crack in one of my wisdom teeth which he filled with a temporary filling, and I have to return tomorrow to have the permanent one done. I am a total coward when it comes to the dentist and shall be very glad when it’s over.
Butterfly Mint
This week my hubby bought two cat mint plants for the garden, to encourage Ruby not to think about trying to get out. The trouble is, we don’t think it’s the right sort of cat mint. On the label it said, “Cat Mint. Encourages butterflies and bees.” Lol! It’s butterfly mint, not cat mint at all! We pulled a few leaves off to see how the kitties would respond. Ruby wasn’t interested, and Lily was frightened of it!! Doing a bit of online research my hubby found that there are different varieties of cat mint and the ones he bought were apparently the wrong ones. It may be, of course, that our two kitties are in the 30 percent minority who can’t smell the stuff. That would be soooo typical.
Yesterday we went shopping in Totnes and on the way home, called in on someone who said they’d got a spare cat mint plant we could have, and when we brought it home and showed it to the kitties, they both expressed an interest in it, but soon got more interested in being fed! The person had said they would get really interested in it when it’s growing in the garden and has the sun on it, but it’s definitely better than the butterfly mint, that’s for sure.
A fun shopping day
Lovely fun shopping in Totnes and I got some new clothes in my favourite ethnic style. Click here for details. One or two things that I got:
This morning, it being a really warm sunny spring day, my hubby suggested an outing. Apart from church, and the odd lunch out here and there, I have hardly been out for months, so we decided to go to Totnes to do some shopping and have lunch. It is one of my favourite places to shop, with all the ethnic and alternative (hippie!) shops at the top of town, so we started there and worked our way down.
I wasn’t going to buy any clothes… honest, I wasn’t, yer honour… but it’s a very hard temptation to resist in such a place! And my hubby didn’t help – there he was, encouraging me to buy stuff – and I ended up buying quite a few things, including a pair of dungarees which I was convinced made me look fat, but both my hubby and the lovely lady in the shop reassured me that that wasn’t the case!
Not getting out shopping except once in a blue moon, it’s fun to stock up when I get the opportunity, and not everything is easily obtained online because you can’t see it “in the flesh.” I stocked up on some make-up supplies at Superdrug at the bottom of town just before we departed to go home.
Here are my purchases.
Last summer I had to throw out two pairs of sandals because the soles had started to disintegrate and they were not repairable. I was really cross because I liked them both a lot, and the tops were absolutely fine. I am pleased to have got a new pair today, along with the other stuff.
The dungarees. I love the applique on the legs. Since my hubby was the one who persuaded me to buy these, he said he’d give them to me for my birthday!
A really pretty soft lacy top with ribbon embroidery decoration. It is double (lined), and looks really lovely on.
A pair of soft wide ethnic patchwork trousers. I find I can never have enough pairs of these.
Finally managed to find myself a plain black pair, which will be useful.
In that same shop, I treated myself to a beautiful Indian necklace with matching earrings.
New make-up.
Finally, an irresistible pair of purple felt slippers with gorgeous felt balls on them – I feel like adding some embroidery to those!
We also visited the wholefood shop and picked up a few bits and pieces, but the main reason for the visit was to give them my excess kefir grains which they were very grateful for last time. If I had thought ahead, I would have taken in my spare kombucha scobys too – I asked if they’d had any enquiries for those and she said yes, so next time my hubby is going, he said he’d drop them in for me. I don’t want them to go to waste, and like the kefir grains, being alive, they do grow and multiply!
Where we had lunch, they had a basket with several pieces of knitting in it, and a note saying they were knitting squares for blankets for charity, and if you wanted to do a bit while waiting for your meal, you were welcome to do so. I knitted three rows of one square! I thought this was a brilliant idea, and how great it would be if they introduced it into doctors’ waiting rooms etc. They said a lot of people would pick it up and do a bit, and it soon mounted up.
All in all, a very satisfactory day and a lot of fun. Nothing like a bit of retail therapy, especially after I’ve been poorly and stuck in the house. I so rarely go shopping so it’s a real treat – I think the last time I did any clothes shopping was last summer.
A year of distinct ups and downs, mostly dominated by health problems and not a lot of creative output this year, apart from one major project.
It is now just over a year since my mum died, and it has taken all this time for the solicitors to wind up the estate. Yes, there were some complications because the law had changed between the deaths of my respective parents but we as a family think they could have got their skates on a bit more than they did! My hubby worked wonders with all the paperwork at the beginning of the year, while he was still laid up with his broken leg, which eventually healed, but it took a long time.
At the beginning of the year, we had a memorial service for Mum which was very well attended, and which was a good celebration of her long life of 96 years. We planned this together and I designed the service booklets as I had done for Dad. We played a selection of her favourite music and I sang “I know that my Redeemer liveth” from Handel’s Messiah, accompanied by the organist from our church. I was able to speak about Mum as well.
Art Projects
I decided to make two copies of a mini-album about Mum, one for her best friend and one for us to keep, and I was not able to blog about this while I was making it in case our friend saw it, and things have rather taken over and prevented me from completing the uploading of the almost daily posts I did and saved as drafts at the time. Something to remedy in the New Year, perhaps?
Anyway, I did blog about the finished project, and made a video flip-through of it.
Later in the year, I made boxes to keep the two albums in.
For a friend’s 100th birthday I made this card, using some dies I got at a craft show early in the year.
Embroidery
Also for this friend’s birthday, I made this small cross-stitch plaque from a chart I designed many years ago.
I made no further headway on my other embroidery projects, I’m afraid!
Knitting and Crochet
I’ve really got back into this again this year. This year was supposed to be the Year of the UFOs, when I was determined to tackle my huge stash of UnFinished Objects but as usual this rather bit the dust! I did manage to unravel a tunic top I’d made many years ago, and started to knit this up again to a new design which will hopefully fit me a lot better than its previous incarnation!
I have now completed the back and begun on the front, but haven’t photographed it recently.
I also finished knitting a striped scarf I began while I was having my chemo in 2015.
For this, I made a lot of felt and crochet embellishments, which I have yet to attach to the scarf. (Another UFO…)
I knitted another scarf from a single ball of gorgeous yarn I bought in a charity shop.
Again, I haven’t managed to complete this – I am still making the peacock feather embellishments for this.
I shall need to buy some more yarn to complete these.
Not a terribly productive year art and craft-wise. Hope to do better next year!
Health Problems
One of the reasons for my lack of productivity was a major health crisis at the beginning of the year.
I saw my surgeon at the end of last year when he agreed that my recurrent parastomal hernia really did need repairing as it was causing me major problems. I went into hospital to have this done in March, and within a fortnight I was back in again with sepsis. I had two large infected haematomas in my abdomen and had to have two drains to deal with these, and I also had intravenous fluids, two units of blood, and three different cocktails of powerful IV antibiotics before they finally found the right combination to deal with the infection. I was in for nearly three weeks, in quite severe pain for most of the time, and feeling dreadful. It took them over 24 hours to get my temperature down to a safe level, and the whole experience was not something I ever want to repeat.
I saw my surgeon again in August and told him I was sure the hernia had returned, which was confirmed by a CT scan in the autumn. I saw him again recently and we discussed options. He is consulting a colleague in Exeter in order to come to the right decision for me. I blogged in detail about this here.
Hopefully another appointment will be forthcoming in the New Year, and I will know the way forward. Having discussed everything at some length with him, I feel a lot easier in my mind now about the possibility of further surgery if they deem it necessary.
It took me quite a while to get over all this, but I am convinced my recovery was helped no end by a friend introducing me to fermented foods.
Some good news, though – at my regular oncology appointment in November I was told I am still cancer free.
Fermented Foods
I got very interested in fermented foods in the summer, and started drinking kefir and kombucha, to try and counteract the ill-effects of so many powerful antibiotics on my system. A friend who had had many gut problems over several years had benefited greatly from this, and she kindly got me started on this route, and I’ve become a complete convert! My hubby and I are both consuming kefir and kombucha on a daily basis and we believe this is also having a beneficial effect on his diverticular disease. Everyone is telling me how well I look these days!
I have become very interested in the whole new area of research into the gut microbiome, and have been reading a lot about it.
During this time I also invested in a kefir cheese maker which is a lot easier to use and more efficient than using muslin in a sieve. I am getting very good results with the kefir cheese which is delicious, and the resulting whey is extremely beneficial too.
Sourdough
In the summer, I also started making sourdough bread which is extremely nutritious and good for general health.
I made my own starter, called Esmeralda.
After many months on a pretty steep learning curve, I think I’ve finally cracked sourdough making and am getting consistently good results now. I have blogged about my efforts and photographed the loaves I make most weeks, so that I can see how I have improved with practice.
We both enjoy eating this on a regular basis.
Other bread
I am also continuing to make my regular seedy bread in the bread maker.
Another sort of bread I make every now and then is challah. Delicious! Really sweet and rich. When we can, we attend a regular Shabbat meal held locally by a friend, and I always like to supply the challah if we are going.
This year, I have also started making brown seedy baps which are much nicer than the shop ones!
Other cooking
With excess sourdough starter, I have been making crackers and pancakes, from recipes I found online.
I have also been experimenting with Middle Eastern cooking, having been given a brilliant recipe book. We both very much enjoy this delicious, delicately spiced and nutritious food, and it’s so easy these days to get the more exotic ingredients online. My hubby has been enjoying the results of my efforts in this new area!
With the apples from our wonderful tree in the garden, I made chutney for the first time this year, and it was a huge success. Here is the jar I made for a friend, complete with the label I designed for it.
I also made some sourdough crackers for the same friend on another occasion.
Since being ill, I have gradually worked through our supplies of refined carbohydrates and we have been eating more whole grain foods and plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables.
I seem to have spent more time baking and cooking this year than making art!
Diet
My 5:2 diet has been ongoing throughout the year but this year I haven’t really lost any more weight. I have put on a few pounds since reaching my original target weight, and have found it very hard to maintain at that level, so I think realistically my current weight is probably my ideal weight. I have still lost around 4 stone since I started and I am well satisfied with that. My hubby has now agreed to join me on this two days a week fast, and doing it together I can support him in his aim to lose some weight.
Bible Study
Our little group went into abeyance for a few months because I was so ill, and it took me quite a while to pick up the pieces of my life again and catch up with everything that had got neglected during that time. When we resumed in the autumn, we gained two new members which has been a great joy – both contribute a lot and we have some interesting and lively discussions during and after the teaching. I continue to design plenty of visual aids on my desktop publisher, photo editor, and Inkscape (vector images) to produce on PowerPoint which we show on the TV screen. This year we have embarked on a major course on prophecy, and during the coming year, interspersed between these sessions, we will again be covering the Feasts of the Lord at the relevant times throughout the year. I have been studying the Bible in depth for over 30 years and it is always such a privilege to be able to share the fruits of my studies with others, particularly when they are as hungry for it as the lovely people in our small group. It would be lovely to see our numbers grow, but there is a great deal of apathy in the church today and most people are not prepared for the commitment, or to put in the time and effort required for study – such a shame, as it has proved to be the most exciting adventure of my life.
Kitties
Our two new kitties celebrated their first birthday in May, and with the nice summer weather we let them out in the garden for the first time, and they were soon enjoying it to the full, spending all day out there, chasing butterflies and relaxing in the sun, and keeping us company when we were sitting out under the apple tree having our meals. It was such a lovely summer in which to let them out.
Recently, though, we have been having terrible trouble with Ruby escaping through my hubby’s kitty defences and he has been working on improving them. Until we are sure they are safe, both kitties are grounded for now, and have reverted to being indoor kitties. They don’t seem to mind too much, and it’s probably a good thing the weather has been so wet lately!
Not only has Ruby developed into a regular Houdini, but she has also developed into the more naughty of the two in other ways too – she is a terrible food thief and will pinch stuff off your plate if you just look away for a few seconds! She can smell butter at 500 paces and absolutely nothing is safe from the little monkey. Lily, on the other hand, doesn’t seem bothered about our food at all and is generally very well behaved! There’s always one, isn’t there…
They continue to be an absolute delight. They are now fully grown and adult but they will always be our babies! They are very close and get on so well with each other, with only the occasional spat, usually at meal times. They are affectionate and love to be with us, and communicate with us all the time. Their little personalities are so different from each other and they seem to have settled down with Lily being the senior of the two. We are absolutely delighted with them both.
Outings
We have had some lovely outings this year. In May we attended the Devon County Show, a fixture I should hate to miss! I wasn’t long out of hospital and was determined to be well enough to go.
We also had some fabulous meals out, including a really posh nosh evening at a Michelin starred restaurant for which we were given tickets.
A meal out with a friend. Very chefy food at a pub near us.
For various reasons it is difficult for us to get away on holiday, but living where we do, there are so many lovely places to visit, and friends to eat out with, and so on, that we hardly miss it. I love being at home anyway, with our lovely surroundings and beautiful little garden, our kitties, my studio and all the things I enjoy doing.
Computers
At the end of the year I had a bit of a crisis with my remaining laptop which involved having to format the hard drive and reinstall everything. My hubby’s laptop completely died around this time too, and with Mum’s money about to make an appearance, I decided to buy us both a new laptop and we went off one evening after doing some online research, and got a couple of Acers. I’ve always had HPs in the past but my last one really wasn’t as good as previous HPs so I decided not to get another. That laptop will now go up in the office as a replacement for my previous HP which died (I have been struggling up and down the stairs with it and really need one permanently up there for the accounts etc.) and the new Acer will now become my main computer. I still haven’t got everything back on and working as I would like it but I’ve got the essentials, and the rest will happen in due course.
Summary
Looking back over that little lot, despite my various difficulties this year, I’ve actually done quite a bit! The year has generally been a very good one and we have a lot to be thankful for. I hope to achieve a bit more on the creative front in the coming year, and for once I’m not going to list all the things I intend doing because I always fail to do them!! I shall do what I shall do, and hopefully I shall enjoy the process!
Wishing all my followers and visitors a very Happy New Year.
