Wow It Has Been A Long Time ...

Well here we are in 2020!  Lockdown due to the cov19 virus is taking hold of our freedom at the moment, and to keep people safe who are more at risk.  Scary times and one I am sure we will look back on with lots of many different emotions.

I have not been back here since Paul passed away, which was 3 years ago on the 2nd of April.  It still breaks my heart that he is not here to be with us.  Our kids are now adults.  Isabelle is 18 and working.  Lachlan is 26 and working.  Both still at home with me which is good as it helps with not feeling lonely all the time, and of course the same goes for them too.

I have been trying to knit things when I am not working (I am a health care cleaner) so no time off for me.  I do think I am a process knitter as I have been finishing knitting things but not seaming or blocking them.  Maybe down the track I will get to it when I have a bit more time.  Cabled sweaters seem to be a favourite of mine lately so there will be a few of those very soon and in time for winter.

Our cat Willow has had her second lot of kittens.  One died at birth and another was fostered out to a vet nurse as it was eating but not gaining any weight and was super tiny compared to the others.  I do hope she is doing well.  The other four are doing quite well and now want our attention when they know we are near them.  Very cute and a good distraction for us during isolation.

Well that is an update for now and I hope to make it back here soon as I do miss blogging.  I am on instagram a lot more though as I enjoy seeing everyone's makes and travel pics too to places I know I will never travel too but that is okay.  Speak to you soon xx

Paul

My darling Paul passed away on the 2nd of April this year due to unexpected health problems.  To say I am struggling with it all is an understatement.  I am so thankful to have found these photos from my blog to help with the memories.  It seems so long ago now but in reality is only a couple of weeks since his passing.  To watch the person you love die is such a hard thing to go through especially when it is not easy for them to do so.  My children and I are trying to cope with what happens each day.  I lay awake at night thinking of all the things that could have been done differently but in the end it was out of my hands to do so.  I do hope that wherever he has gone he is at peace and out of pain, and that he watches over us.  I miss him tremendously and he was my best friend and I knew him for over half my life.  I dont think our lives will ever be the same again but I do hope that one day I can look back and remember the good times and be thankful that we had two wonderful children together.

I Am Back

It has been so long since I posted here, nearly a year I think.  So much has been going on with our family that I thought it time to come back and let you know all about it.

Things have been a roller coaster ride here.  I gave up work in September due to the bosses being awful to everyone who worked for them so thought it was better to be home, or look for more work which has not happened as yet.

My partner has been seriously ill and was diagnosed in February last year with chronic liver disease.  He was given a blood transfusion 27 years ago and suffice to say that is now destroying his liver so he needs a transplant.  Lots of high emotions have been running around and testing our relationship with all our family.  At the moment things seem be calm which is great, although the stress is now affecting my health.  My hair has been falling out.  I have lost 13 kgs in weight, and have had an outbreak of itching.  I am hoping to soon stop the hair loss which is a bit scary.

Today I have to organise a wheelchair for him as he is getting very weak in his legs and cant walk around for very long.  He has lost so much weight that he could easily be a prisoner of war as that is what his body reminds me of which is very sad.  He is such a strong person but all that he has endured this past year makes me wish he was better already.

My 2 children are now both working and doing well which makes me happy.  Trying to keep your family happy with the above circumstances is very hard but that is my main aim.  I do hope that the rest of the year will bring lots of health and happiness, and also calmness.

I will try and post again soon with all the knitting that I have been doing lately.

Bye for now.

Nearly the end of May

 May is nearly over and it has been over a month since I posted here.  Shame on me!
I have 2 items that I recently finished.  The one above is a blue hoodie (Sirdar pattern) where I just added the ruffles around the hood edge, bottom and cuffs.  This is for my friend's grand-daughter so I hope she will like it.  I dont like gifting things to people if they just sit in the cupboard and not be worn.

I also knit the Princess Bonnet by Linda Castles.  I absolutely love this little bonnet.  It turned out beautifully.  It is a free pattern on ravelry and very easy to follow too.  My friend from knitting group knit the other popular pattern but didnt like it much so she is going to do this one now.  I knit mine in Melody yarn which is a discontinued line from Bendigo Woollen Mills.  I love this yarn as it has cashmere in it and the stitch definition is just beautiful.  I wish they would make it again so I can buy some more.  Some yarns just match the project perfectly dont they.  My neighbour is due in about a week with a baby girl so I am hoping she will like it.  I have cast on a baby blanket too with the same sort of cable running through it from the King Cole baby books in Bendigo Woollen Mills luxury yarn in a cream colorway which I have just started.

I hope that over the weekend I will have some more time to knit.  We just had concrete poured around the house last week and it took 3 weeks for the agent to get it organised so we had to have the dog in the garage which made a bit of a stinky mess.  Thank goodness he is back in the backyard, although we have a new neighbour with 2 little dogs who love to bark so Dusty has spent his morning, afternoon and night running up and down the fence barking back at them which is making me a little crazy.

Isabelle has not had any netball training this week as she has had a sort of headcold with a headache that goes on and off.  I am sure it is from playing netball in the cold during the last few weeks.  We have a game tomorrow at 4:15 and then a game on Sunday at 12.  Luckily we dont have anywhere to be in particular over the winter weekends as netball rules it out unless it is super important and she misses a game or two.  I think next weekend is the Queen's Birthday weekend so we may have a bye.

Okay off to knit some more and watch Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries.  I am watching Season 3 on ABC iview and it is great.  Have a great week!

9 Years of Blogging!!

Today I have been blogging for 9 years!  It is so hard to believe that the years have just flown by so fast.  Fair to say that I have not been blogging too much lately or the end of last year but I do hope to rectify this soon over the coming few months.  I am surprised that I actually remembered that it was my blogiversary today.  I sorted back through the archives to see what I had first posted and this was the photo that appeared on the first post back in 2006

Oh my goodness how adorable is my daughter back then.  She was nearly 5 years old in this photo and super cute who actually wore the handknits that I made her back then.  Now only my sister and my partner wear my handknits lovingly so I only knit for them and my niece and nephews.

Now 2015 and Isabelle looks a lot different as she will be turning 14 this year.

Here she is at her great grandmother's 90th birthday with her little cousin Harriett.  Isabelle wanted to take her home to stay with us in trade for her older brother.

All is well here, the cold weather has arrived along with some much needed rain which decided to leak in through the laundry doors, suffice to say the landlord will need to get it fixed again.  Lachlan is enjoying his work and Paul is finally working a lot again which is great.  I have my fingers crossed for an interview.  I really feel as though most people get work through people they know which seems to be the case lately around us.  I am going to try and find full time work and schedule around Isabelle's netball schedule which will be even busier this year.  Her team won the grand final so now they move up the 1's from the 2's which will be harder and test them even more.

I have decided that I need to start exercising too.  I have been slack the last few months just nestled down watching podcasts, knitting and housework.  Now it is getting cooler it is time for me to rug up and start walking, and hopefully I will be able to start running.  Now dont faint about that, it is something I have been thinking a lot about.  I am going to keep it a surprise and do it when the family are all out before I tell them.

So that is minor catch up on things around here enjoying the autumn weather.  Isabelle goes back to school after holidays end next week so routine will be back to normal.  I have lots of FO's in my knitting that need buttons sewn on and photos taken so if I get motivated you may see some more knitting on here at long last!

Happy 2015!!

Hi there, sorry for the lack of posting for January but I thought I would take a break after the hectic Christmas rush and the New Yea
We had a lovely xmas with our families on Christmas Day, seeing all the families and enjoying their company and good food.  We didnt even have to cook which was nice.

New Year was spent with our lovely neighbours, having a BBQ and salads, and then yummy desserts.  I was in bed by 12:30 and it was a bit cold too so it was nice to snuggle up into bed and go to sleep.

Lachlan got a job which he is enjoying and it is nice seeing him go to work and earn some of his own money.  I am still working on him keeping his room clean but so far I have failed that.  I too am now looking for work which I hope will happen very soon.

Isabelle is now in Year 8 and started at her new school (which used to be my old school) and she loved it.  It is nice to see her happy and enjoying it.  She also took some tests today and was 1 of the top 5 students in both of them.

Now the bit of 2015 that I did not like.  We have had a number of robberies in our neighbourhood lately and our court seems to be an attraction for them.  We had a stolen car dumped around the corner just before Christmas during the day.  Last weekend our neighbour's car got broken into along with a couple of other ones.  Last night around 3:30am I heard Dusty our dog barking so got up and noticed that my car had been broken into.  Paul went around the corner to see if he could find them and they were gone.  They had dumped the clothes I had in the car to go to the opshop on the ground, and taken Isabelle's netball bag with them.  Apparently after talking to the police there were 12 break ins into cars around the neighbourhood.  I would love to get a security camera but since we rent we have no chance at all of getting one, let alone a security door.  So I am hoping since we were targeted that we wont be again.  We did see them on our neighbour's security camera footage running away with the stuff they took.  They only looked in their late teens.  I dont understand why kids or people do this.  I was always taught to leave other people's belongings alone, and keep your hands to yourself.  My kids are raised the same way too and so far, so good.

I have been knitting quite a bit over the Christmas period, but need to take some photos which I have not gotten around to as yet.  I have casted on 2 new cardigans for myself since I get too hot in sweaters lately.  I knitted over 17,000 metres last year which was fantastic so I am hoping to knit more than that this year.  I know I forgot to add a few metres into the knitmeter so it would have been more.

My health is also improving.  Much nicer to be able to go out and about and not worry about things.  I have another blood test in March to see that all my iron levels have stayed the same or whether my levels were so low that my body had to use them all up.  I am still tired but nothing like I used to be.  My surgeon could not believe how well I healed or so quickly which made me happy.  I have been for a few walks so now I am hoping that since Isabelle is at school that I can get a bit more exercise in during the day.

I hope to be able to blog more regularly soon as things happen and some progress on my projects too.

Happy Knitting!

Some FO's

Hello there, how are you all?  I am doing well and I thought I would post some pictures of recently finished sweaters.  Up above is a King Cole sweater pattern which has ribbed sleeves and a plain front and back.  I thought I would use up some Magnum Twist yarn to make it stand out a bit more.  These are in the sizes 2-3 years for 2 of my cute nephews.  I am hoping they dont grow too much over the next few months until we have winter again.  I really love this pattern as the neckline is nice and stretchy and the sleeves are too so a comfy one for little toddlers on the go.

Also I couldnt remember if I posted Isabelle's red sweater.  It is from a Patons Zhivago sweater pattern but I used Spotlight Magnum Soft 8 ply which knits up really soft and nice stitch definition too.  These projects are all on my ravelry page and I will post some more in the next few weeks before Christmas to try and get caught up on things.
Happy Knitting!

Post Op

Thank you so much for all your good wishes.  I am in the 3rd week of recovery and everything is going well so far.  Dissolveable stitches are a blessing in disguise I think, no worry about having to have them out.

I went into theatre at 1:30 already prepped up for surgery.  I wasnt too nervous as I knew I would be asleep.  Next thing I know I woke up with 2 nurses telling me I had a really big operation and that they were trying to control my pain (which I remember being quite horrible) so I got given morphine until I could feel the surgery area but no pain really, just a bit of discomfort.  It was 5:30 when I got taken back to the room so either the surgery was longer than the surgeon said.  The recovery nurse did say that my uterus was actually the size of a basketball.  I had to have my abdominal cut changed to a cut down my tummy as they were afraid if they did it the other way it might not be easy to get out and I would end up with 2 cuts.  I just told the surgeon to do what he thought best.  He was an excellent surgeon.

I stayed in hospital for just over 4 days.  My pain control was quite good and I was up and walking around on Thursday morning and able to eat and drink.  I think I go off my food after surgery so didnt eat for 2 days but had a drip to keep me hydrated.  I went home on Saturday and I think by Monday/Tuesday I could actually stand up straight.  I am still a but swollen around my tummy area but no real pain for the last 2 weeks and no pain medication at all.  I am rather happy about having it done.  So far I have lost 6 kilos and have been going for 15 minute walks around the neighbourhood.  I have been doing light housework and knitting, otherwise I would go crazy.  Lots of knitting to show you all - I just have to work out what the patterns were and what I have already shown.  So that is it for now, just enjoying the cool breeze and the sunshine and knowing that in about 2 weeks time I will have lots of energy and be able to do a lot more than I used too.

Speak to you very soon!

Surgery Date!

Hi everyone (who still reads my blog)!

Sorry for the quietness but in between running my daughter to school and back, and after school activities, and in between dealing with health issues and another iron transfusion I am finally here for a little minute.  I went to see the specialist about 4 weeks ago now and was put in line for surgery next Tuesday.  I have to fast from midnight and wont have surgery until after 12pm but I am sure my nerves will be a wreck by then.  Having a hysterectomy is crucial for my health as the time between my iron transfusions was only 3 months and my body had depleted it all in that time sending my iron levels down to a 2 again.  I had a horrible side effect a few hours later where every muscle in my body ached and I couldnt sleep from the pain so after this operation I am hoping that I have good pain medication with an open cut surgery.  I have been knitting lots of things but I will post them after surgery when I am feeling a lot better.  I wont be able to drive for about 4-6 weeks but I will be able to sit and knit I hope.  I know I am going to get bored but being on the computer and watching my favourite knitting podcasts and talking to my knitting friends will help me along.

Next time I speak to you I should have lots of FO's to show you all.

Take care

Sue

August Knitting!

Our knitting group does charity knitting for KOGO (which is Knit One, Give One) to the homeless and needy so I have been making lots of mens hats as that is something that they need and I need to use up some stash yarns too.  All these hats were knit from Magnum 8 ply which is an acrylic yarn but isnt too hard or plastic feeling and is a bit thicker too.

 I also started my Bakery Bear (by Kay Jones on ravelry).  This is Mr. Bakery Bear and was so easy to knit up.  Of course when I went to sew the beads on for eyes I couldnt find them could I so I had to embroider them on.  If I find the beads before I gift it then I will replace them.  I used some Bendigo Rustic in a nice brown color and used half a ball of cotton from Kmart many years ago to do his clothing.  I think he is rather cute and I am hoping my 2 yr old nephew will like him too as a birthday gift.  Kay also has a knitting podcast with her husband Dan called The Bakery Bears podcast.  They live in England so in each episode they visit castles and show you around with a history tour which I find very interesting.  They are very funny too and knit wonderful things.

I also have lots of other sweaters I am knitting on at the moment for all my little nephews and niece and need to get around to visiting them when they are home so they can get some wear out of them for the last part of winter.

Okay now off to do some more knitting and I will hopefully blog again very soon!