Time to try blogging again. Not just blogging, trying to get more involved again, both with stitching and the stitching community. I'm all knitted out for now and my hands and wrists are paying the price so it's time to stitch again. I have been concentrating on Facebook for a while now but find it difficult to get a feel for things that are happening, eg TUSAL and WIPocalypse. Also blogs seem to be different - this seems to link up wth Google+ somehow, which I don't use as I find it confusing and hardly anyone else seems to use it. But I see that Annette of Annette's Acre seems to have her blog networked in some way????? Huh??

Anyway - lets see how I get on.

After thinking I had lost the stitching and knitting bug forever (see April) it now seems to have come back big time. I'm once again suffering from stash aquisition disease and will have to exercise real discipline not to get to SABLE levels again :-( I seem to have given up on knitting things for myself - partly because there isn't a lot out there that I 'love' enough to knit, but also because it's cheaper and quicker to buy garments. However, I have rediscovered my love for crochet and am making a blanket plus I am now buried in a desire to knit lots of 'smalls' - Alan Dart designs, Debi Birkin designs and other similar things. Maybe it's an age thing? I do draw the line at Jean Greenhowe - they still don't appeal. Maybe I need to age a few more years.
Oh, and baby clothes, of course. I still love knitting those and wish I had more babies to knit for. In order to do everything I want,  I need to do about 3 years knitting before Xmas. And I do need to sleep.

Back again

OK - I went off blogging a bit; in fact I went off pretty much everything for a while. I suppose I sulked because I found I couldn't go on with my OU course, and I lost the stitching mojo. However, thanks to two lovely ladies at work, who I absolutely adore, I am now knitting furiously again. I'm knitting poppies for the British Legion to sell on Remembrance Day (even though it's normally against my principles to support any military charity), I'm working on a sweater for Tom and a couple of experimental mystery projects. I've also taken up crochet again and am working on a blanket/afghan, and am rediscovering my mojo there as well. I've also got the sewing machine and cutting board out again, although I haven't had a lot of time to do the sewing, but I have a week off in October and am planning to devote it to crafting. So a huge thanks to those two special ladies, though I know they won't see this post as they are not really in to the interweb. I do plan to get them ensnared in Ravelry though!
I pronise I will start posting pics.
Oh - cross stitching - I plan to get going on that too, I have a stocking to complete for Xmas - just need to finish the poppies!

Me and stitching

I really do think I have lost the stitching bug. I still like lots of designs and still like lots of the stuff I have, and theoretically want to stitch it all, but when I pick up a needle I really have to make the effort to stitch for more than a few minutes. I remember when I wanted to stitch for every spare moment and I certainly do not feel like that, and in fact I don't think it was very healthy being that obssessed, but I do miss the feeling of being in love with something I could spend time doing. Nothing has really replaced it - I like knitting sometimes but I don't love it like I used to years ago, or like I used to love my stitching. I dispose of all my stash a couple of years ago and then regretted it and acquired more, but really and truly, I never have properly got the buzz back, and in fact, it seems like a chore mostly.Such a shame, as I really want to stitch Christmas stockings for the family, but I just don't enjoy doing it very much anymore.
But I do miss having a hobby. Nothing has replaced it and I am at a loss with what to do with the precious free time I do have. I do wonder if I am just old and tired now; I need to do nothing with my free time in order to get over working hard all day.I don't even manage to read for more than half an hour at a time now unless it's really easy book - the more challenging stuff I was reading until recently just seems like too much effort.

How sad. How scared it makes me feel about getting old.

Fed up

So we were supposed to have a mini Christmas this Easter, nice turkey dinner, games, nibble and turkey sandwiches in the evening. Ken had bought a humungous turkey  and I had to get up at 5am to put the it  in the oven, as we had to have lunch at 12 as Keats had to go to work at 1pm., I made Tiramisu and meringue for a pavlova the day before, bought cakes, presents for an 'Easter Egg' hunt in the garden, bought loads of wine and drink  - cost me a fortune altogether. I spent the rest of the morning cleaning and prepping veg. The day went OK to start with  and then golf reared it's ugly head. Chris, my SIL switched on the golf during the afternoon, but switched off when I complained. Then Ben disappeared off to his mates and  Keats had already gone to work, so the numbers were down.  Then come the evening, Chris went and watched the golf on the PC down in the end room and Ken joined him. OK, the evening was spoilt anyway, because Tom wouldn't go to sleep, but I think it is the height of rudeness to go and watch TV in someone elses house, especially when it was his idea to have the 'mini Christmas' and play games in the evening.  As Keats was at work, that only left me, Jen and Debs to look after Tom, and in the end Jen and Chris went home at 9pm. So I went to bed and sulked and left everyone else to clear up.
What made it worse was that noone else seemed to think there was anything wrong in them going to watch the golf. Jenny said they shouldn't miss it when they had been following the whole tournament up 'til then. To be fair, Ken had been going to record it so I can't blame him - he only went and watched it 'cos Chris had already put it on. I must be old fashioned. I was brought up to not have the TV on when you had visitors, unless it was a joint thing that everyone wanted to watch. These days, people seem to have the damned thing on all day.

I've now closed my blog down so it's available only to me, If Miz or Michelle want access they can have it. I just want it to be somewhere I can vent and say what I want and no one else has to worry about it. I'll take down all the ancillary links when I have more time.
In the meantime I just want to record that I was awarded a Recognition Award at work yesterday and got some High Street vouchers for £25. Very nice thank you - despite my natural cynicism I was really pleased to get this.  Just a shame I can'y sppend thevouchers at Sew and So or the wool shop!

New Year, New Thoughts, New Everything!

I'm not going to give a boring list of things I want to do this year, all will be revealed as I go. I do intend to blog more often though. I also intend to stitch more, and with this in mind, I have signed up for the WIPocalypse.
Now, I don't have a lot of WIPs, as I haven't stitched that much in the last couple of years, but I do have a couple of things I want to get done this year.
One is Murky Manor.
Two is Six Fat Men (I've started so I'll finish)
Three is a stocking for Tom that I haven't even started yet......
I'm going to ignore the hated Orangutan. I know it is 90% done, but I don't think the intended recipient will want it now, and I hate it anyway - I just need to consign it to a dustbin sometime, and try not to feel too much guilt - but I am not quite able to do that just yet!
I think that's all...?
I am feeling much more positive about my stitching as I think I have now found a comfortable place to stitch. I am moving up to the other end of my sofa - it's more isolated and I can't talk to DH so easily (not always a bad thing), but at least the light from my magnifier doesn't annoy him so much, so I think I might be able to settle down there. It's worth a go. I just need to resolve the restless leg thing now!

Off to WeightWatchers tonight - I'm tempted not to go because I know it's going to be so very busy, but maybe the shocking weather with discourage the New Year resolution people.....
I'm taking my youngest daughter with me - officially for moral support but also because she also needs to lose a couple of stone and I think that she will find attending classes helpful.

Now I'm off to see if there is a TUSAL this year.