New Year Destash

I am destashing - again. Take a look at my FSOT on Ravelry!

http://www.ravelry.com/people/dodo/stash/trade

I have a new addiction - Knitting gloves!

NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS 2010

1. To stop spending money on silly things!
2. To clear my overdraft.
3. To knit from stash and only stash
4. To try and save up for things instead of using credit.

Gloves!

I am having a go at making some gloves to match my winder coat. I have never tried them before so it'll be interesting to see how I get on!

Swing, Swagger, Drape

This book is wonderful and I am feeling inspired! There are several designs that I shall be attempting over the next few months!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!!

Look who was moonlighting as a checkout assistant!

SUSIE SCARF

The sample shows the pattern slightly different - I sort of modified my design as I went along!

Snow - AGAIN!

We’ve had more snow overnight! Admittedly not a great deal but it has made the ‘bit outside the backdoor’ pristine again!

My lovely son cleared out front steps and the steep path yesterday then went and ‘borrowed’ some grit from the bin up the hill and sprinkled it over for me so that I’m not stuck indoors. I want to get the council to put up a rail next year as I can’t see the ice out there - black or not - and I don’t fancy falling and damaging myself. Amber did help a bit but she was wearing her pj bottoms so got a tad cold.

We also took the cats out on their leads yesterday - Jasper kept diving into mini drifts in the garden and his brush like tail was covered in snow, and Oscar timidly walked about then laid down in the snow and started crying. When Amber picked him up he was shivering!

I am hoping OH will venture over this afternoon as I need to do some shopping in Iceland!

Yaayyyy!

The Susie Scarf is finished! Really pleased with it and I promise to post a photo asap. Bit behind on the photo front as I haven't had my computer for over two weeks and have been using Ryan's.

Am now making a Baby Alligator scarf for the little boy next door for christmas, partly as a thank you for the use of his mum's freezer last weekend.

Susie Scarf

After being consigned to the naughty corner for a couple of months, I am finally getting to grips with the Susie Scarf and hope to have it finished this week. I just couldn't find the right stitch pattern for the 3rd band but have overcome that with good old double moss stitch and am way past that now - I am on the 6th band, and there are only 9 to do.

Amber .......

.... went to the Clothes Show Live on wednesday and has come back feeling very low about her weight. Much as I expected, all the clothes were in small/medium and Amber is more like large and likes her clohtes baggy probably to hid the plumpness. She is cross with me for asking to speak to her head of year (unfortunately a man), as I think she needs support at school for all sorts of reasons. While she was out all day she never ate anything but pigged out a bit when she got home.

She doesn’t eat properly at all - loves chocolate, crisps and any type of proceseed chicken (dippers etc) with chips, but won’t eat vegetables in any shape or form. When I was her age I was about to be diagnosed with diabetes so have never really had the same problem although, after been prescribed insulin a year later I did balloon.

I’ve told her that, if she wants to slim down, it has to come from her and she has to try but she is pig-headedly saying that the doctor can give her something to take. She is not morbidly obese so healthy eating/exercixe is all the doctor will suggest, and exercise doesn’t feature in Amber’s world. She has asked me to buy anything she likes to eat when I go shopping next but I don’t want to se her with an eating problem/

Trouble is, all her friends are like stick insects which doesn’t help, as were all the models at the Clothes Show.

The Art department at school aren't helping either. Amber has become an 'Art Leader' which involves helping other kids with various art techniques, loads of the GCSE students have joined and the Art teacher has ordered size small for all the girls and size large for all the boys!

Not so bad day ....

Well I went to the doctor on friday and we talked about changing my anti-depressants which will take about 6 weeks as I have to tail off the current ones and then start the new ones so I am not starting to tail off until next weekend so that I am still on a fairly good dose for christmas.

Also had to sweet talk OH again as I found out the exact amount I was over my overdraft limit at the bank and he very kindly took pity on me - again. It’s a good job I have access to the Bank of OH or Beachy Head would sound like a good option!

Had a good afternoon at our Knit’n’Natter christmas party yesterday and managed to get on with Ryan’s scarf. Hope to get it finished today but he wants me to make it even longer (and it is soo boring) that I shall block it to an inch of it’s life instead.

The In only have one more dischloth to do and the world of knitting is my oyster - well as long as I only knit from stash!

Oh, and Jasper seems to be his old self again although he is not keen on having tablets and drops! The other night he spat his tablet out and we couldn't find it - it was stuck to Amber's cheek!

Yesterday = very bad day.

Jazz and Oz had their ‘operations’ but Jazz isn’t well and the vet bill ended up being half as much again through x-rays, antibiotics and more eye ointment. It seems he has a mysetery problem with one of this lungs - it has ‘doughnut’ shapes in it but the vet wasn’t sure whqt it was hence the antibiotics. He has to go back next week for a check up but the consultation has been booked as post-op so thqt I don’t get charged for it. Luckily David was there as I had £100 earmarked for the two ops and microchip for Jazz (my sister had Ozzie done when he lived with her).

Went to pay in Asda for some clothes for Amber, was going food shopping too, and my debit card was declined, luckily David was with me. Have to go back to Asda tonight as the top is too clingy for my voluptuous daughter and I managed to buy one pair of trousers in a size 18 (thought I’d got a 14) and the other pair, which fit snugly, turned out to be a 16 (again on a 14 hanger).

Started getting panicky about money so have cancelled my Noro Silk Garden (put by at Kangaroo) and they’ve agreed to take back what I’ve already collected and give me arefund (approx £50). I was having second thoughts about the project anyway and if I decide to go ahead with it, I can buy the yarn later on. Was saving £3 per week towards Unravel in Februray (have £21 at the moment) but dad has got my Avon for me which is £21 so that has to be used and I have decided not to go to any knitting shows in 2010.

All this, together with my sister/neice, is just too much for me at the moment so Frances (aranfran) persuaded me to see the doctor and get my anti-depressants changed as I have been on this brand for over 10 years and obviously need something different. We also talked about ‘treats’ for me, and when I have knitted up two or three (depending on size) lots of stash I am going to treat myself to one of the knitting books on my Amazon wishlist. We are also going to work on getting my bank account back in order.

To cap it all off, my computer decided to go wrong AGAIN and now I am using Ryans AGAIN.