Ugh, I want to blog, honest I do. I love reading blogs, I like sharing the stuff I'm working on. I just haven't got in to the habit.
At the moment, my phone is broken, and the one that's been laying in a drawer unused for about 5 years that I'm using for now, has a broken camera, so the photo heavy posts that I like to do are tough.
Live is plodding along. Nothing much is happening, or changing. Illnesses are chronic, money is scarce. The only thing that's new is that (a few year behind the curve) Alex and I have started playing pokemon go. It's hard when we can't go out much. But we've found a few places we can drive to and pick up a few pokestops without needing to do much walking. Defeats the purpose somewhat, but at least it gets us out of the house.
We tend to go in the evenings, when everything is quieter, and I managed to get some nice photos before my phone died.

Looking back at those photos makes me smile. I may not love this house, or this town, but I am so happy that I have views like that all within 10 minutes drive.

I still haven't published the shawl design. I did get it test knit, which went fine for one, and terrible for another, so I'm re-knitting it now. If it all goes well, I'll get the pattern up on Ravelry soon.

Harley continues to bring such joy to the house. He loves to play, and while he doesn't often sit on laps, you feel very honoured when he does.

 We built a net enclosure  to keep Tiny the tortoise safe very a very intrigued Harley. He's fascinated by the moving rock, and really wants to play, but we can't chance that he might hurt Tiny, even accidentally.  Now sitting above the heat lamp watching Tiny is one of Harley's favourite things ever.

Hey look at that, when I actually stat typing, I can come up with things. It might not be yummy recipes, or fantastic diy ideas, but it's my life right now. And that's okay.

A tough week

A couple of days after my last post we received some really bad news at a routine medical appointment. Nothing terminal, but nothing treatable either. It's going to mean some big adjustments to our day to day life, and our future plans. 

It's meant I've not had much time or heart for crafting, although I'm still working on the shawl I'm designing. (I've only frogged it twice so far). 
Here's another sneaky peek.

I did finish a long term WIP, a cover for my wheelchair cushion. The top and bottom were made ages ago, but I never got around to making the sides. The top, bottom and sides are all different yarns, scrounged out of deep stash. It's even a mix of knitting and crochet, so it's a real jumble. I don't mind, I think it looks okay, and it's Harley approved.

Harley has continued to bring a lot of laughs and has helped cheer us up. He loves to play fetch with a squishy sponge golf ball, and he'll spend ages taking it up stairs, dropping it, then chasing it back down again. I've not managed to get it on camera yet, but I'll keep trying.

 What we have done this week is cleaned out the back room. We've arranged all the musical instruments and amps in a bit of a music studio set up. It's looking so much better in there now, it had turned into a bit of a dumping ground. I wish I'd taken some before photos, but I'd be afraid to put them up to be honest. It was baaad. So much better now.

And today I made this miniature embroidery necklace for the younger sprog. The frame hoop is from The Works. you got two in the bag for £1, one like this, and a 4.5cm diameter circle one. Not sure what I'm going to do for that one, but I thought the triple moon would fit nicely in the oval. I should have printed my template a few mm's smaller, but never mind, it fits, just. The moons are back stitch in metallic silver thread, and the pentacle is long stitch in a rainbow multi thread. Penny for scale.

Well that didn't last did it? Let's try again.

So much for starting a blog.  I really didn't get in to the habit, and suddenly it's nearly a year since my last post. 

I think my problem is two fold. One is that I am a private person, and when things are tough, I clam up. I don't like talking about it, and believe me this past year has been pretty rough. The other issue I have, is that my live is boring. I'm disabled, I don't work, I rarely leave the house. I don't know how to write about that in a way that anyone would want to read. 

That might be changing though, and that's what prompted me to come back to my blog. I'm currently working my way through an online knitting diploma. Now I've been knitting for years, but this course doesn't just teach the basics of knitting. It also teaches designing, and how to market your designs. 

I was sceptical at first, I didn't think I could come up with new designs. But, with a bit of prompting from the course materials, I found that I did have design ideas, lots of them, and just maybe, this is something I could do. 

I love reading designer's blogs, I love following the story from inspiration to finished design. I like seeing a peek behind the curtain into their lives. If I'm going to be a designer, I should take inspiration from the designers I like, right? So here I am, password recovered (it had been so long I had forgotten it) and blogger reopened. I'd love to say that this is it, and I'm going to blog faithfully and frequently from here on out. I'd love to, but I can't. My health, and life are just too unpredictable. I am going to try though. 

Since one of the things I love reading blogs for is the pictures, here's a round up of some of the things that have happened recently.

The biggest change has been getting a cat. This is Harley, he's roughly 6 months old and is an absolute joy. I'd forgotten just how much it can lift your mood to have something small, warm, and soft trust you enough to curl up and go to sleep on you. He loves to play too, and the amount of laughter in the house has increased tenfold since he arrived. 

We spent the Easter weekend down in Wales visiting my mum. The weather was glorious and we spent a lot of time at the beach. Harley came with us, and while he wasn't thrilled about the car journey, he was very well behaved and seemed to settle in fine at Mum's house. He loves playing in the bath, and mum's is huge!

(We were cleaning the bathroom, he was supervising)

I made a knit and crocheted wreath for Ostara. I made up some bits, used free patterns for the flowers and bunny, and did bead work for the blossoms. I only used stash, so the colours are quite as vibrant as I would have liked, but I'm still happy with it.

Apart from the wreath, my crafting has been a bit hit and miss. I finished a hat for me, and one for my daughter to give to her friend. I've worked a bit on my cross stitch of Zojoji temple. I did some sashiko (the rabbit and the dragon). I did learn how to do embroidery, and embroidered my husband's black belt, I also embroidered a couple of drawings I did, that was fun. I want to do more embroidery, but my focus has shifted back to knitting with this course.

Finally here's a sneak peek at the first design I'm working on. A different use for self striping sock yarn.

Thanks for reading.