I went shopping and I bought...

...frankly, a ridiculous amount of stuff...



...at Woolfest!

I have vowed to stop buying (much) yarn and fibre throughout the year and save my budget for Woolfest next year. Had a really good day and got so much inspiration from the wealth of colour, texture and design on display.

Loved the sheep and alpacas too. And the rabbits! And the funny little depressed-looking dog I kept running into. He looked just like J when he has to come shopping with me. (Except smaller and hairier)

My haul:



Fibre from Philippa Joad (who taught me to spin) at Wheeldale Woolcrafts.



Gorgeous yarn and a pattern for a crocheted scarf (will need to relearn crochet!), which may become a throw instead, from The Natural Dye Studio.



Sock yarn and fibre from Freyalyn.






Acid dye starter kit and some fibre from DT Craft & Design.



Lovely buttons and a flexiband for my wheel.

Waste not

I'm worried about the amount of food we seem to throw away as a family. I also always seem to be at Tesco. We spend a fortune and it needs to stop - it's all so wasteful.

To this end:



Found-in-the-fridge-Mexican-Chicken

and:



Lurking-in-the-chiller-drawer-veggie-and-halloumi-tart.

Ups and downs

Saw my surgeon for my (belated) one year post-op check up. He told me I had hit the point that they were 'concerned' about my weight and asked me to see Maureen, the dietician. She seemed ok about my food intake. I then had 9 vials of blood taken, so must have been screened for just about everything.

I told him about my plastic surgery plans for this summer and he said he would be much happier if I waited a bit until my weight had settled and I proved I could maintain a weight. He also offered to refer me for NHS tummy tuck at our next appointment in 6 months, if I can gain a little weight and keep it stable.

Today I got a copy of a letter he has sent my GP, which states "She cannot afford to lose any more weight."

I was seeing my GP today about something else anyway. I told her I think I will probably be seeing her regularly throughout the next year to address the things that are wrong with me - things I put down to being due to being fat. Now I'm no longer fat, the issues remain so I'll start to pick them off one by one

We talked about the 'too thin' issue. She agrees that, although my BMI is within the normal range, if you take the loose skin and my bone structure into consideration, at 10 stones I look a bit thin in places. I talked about my panic at being told to gain weight. After the initial funniness of the concept had passed, I had started to get really worried about regain. We have agreed that she will refer me to a psychologist for some CBT around my food issues.

Other than this, I am well and healthy. Yesterday I took my class on their summer trip to an eco-centre and we did the healthy living trail. There was a big zip wire and I spent a long time running up and down, supporting the more timid little people, before having a go myself! Then I went down the big stainless steel tube slide down the hillside! I have not been on a slide since I was a small child. I was so proud of myself. The children cheered me and one of my colleagues who has supported me through the WLS journey was in tears. Quite a special moment.

Weekend stuff

I've had a busy day, given that I had put the day aside to do some work-stuff (most of that completed too!)

Finally managed to get a haircut today. It's still short as I'm still trying to deal with the aftermath of losing so much hair in the first year after my surgery. At least it's shiny and not red again now :)



I have reached now, I feel, a weight I'm happyish with. Actually, I'm 11lbs under my last revised target and at the lower end of the 'normal' BMI range. Full face shots like that make me feel that I'm maybe a little too thin now, which is ironic. J has asked me to stop losing weight. It's not something I'm doing wilfully any more; it's just what my body is doing. Advice has been to increase my carbs and add more things like bread, cereals, pasta and rice. Pasta and rice, I can tolerate in reasonable amounts. I like risotto a lot. Bread and cereals are trickier. I can no longer tolerate bread easilly and most cereals have far too much sugar in them for me to risk. So, I'm adding extra nuts and proteins and taking each day as it comes.

I love these crustless quiches:



There are lots of recipes around, but mine is:
4 eggs
1 tub cottage cheese
4 spring onions
a handfull of grated cheese
some chopped chives
a glug of milk
salt
black pepper

Mix together and throw into silicone muffin cases
bake in a medium oven until set.
Cool in the cases then turn out and store in the fridge.

Good for packed lunches and breakfasts.

Finally: my new baby:



She's an Ashford Traditional. Needed a bit of tlc, which is complete now. Works beautifully. Wish I could say the same about the quality of my spinning ;)







I'll get better with practice. That said, I'm so pleased with myself!

Sun spot

Today, I got caught out by the sun on our frozen coastline.
J and I drove down to Staithes and then out to Grosmont. Despite the factor 30, I am pink in places now. Admittedly, some of it could be wind burn!



Staithes was quiet when we got there at 10ish. We'd called into Loftus on the way, as I wanted to look in Brigantia. As I may have mentioned before, I have a real thing about Wold pottery and I wasn't disappointed today. J bought me a new mug (see below) and a beautiful swirly green bowl.

We called in at the Staithes Heritage Centre and Captain Cook Museum, which has to be one of the strangest museums you can find. It is crammed full of Staithes and Cook-related artifacts and seems totally untroubled by the bother of labelling or display conventions. They do have some lovely pieces of fishing community knitting:







We had something to eat at the Station Tavern in Grosmont and then had a look at the trains. I love the smell. It brought out a touch of nostalgia in J, but I'm not really old enough to have vivid memories of steam trains.



(Don't look now... It's behind you!)



Below: progress on my Hollyhock sweater, being knitted in reclaimed yarn from something I made that is now too big! Beside it, my lovely new Wold mug.

In the garden at the moment

The garden is a real avian nursery at the moment. Somewhere out there is a baby thrush, two baby blackbirds, hosts of baby dunnocks and eight baby blue tits.

It's been almost impossible to catch them on camera, but the blue tits have started to spend a lot of time around this old plant saucer recently:

While you were sleeping

and I was up, waiting for a plumber who didn't turn up, I:

- vacuumed the whole house
- baked two trays of crustless quiches
- cleaned the microwave
- did four loads of washing
- tidied the spare room - including cleaning up all the grout that fell out of the booby-trapped bag you left there for me
- reorganised my iTunes
- prepared bags of bargain strawberries and raspberries
- tidied out the cheese drawer in the fridge and grated up all those left over bits to cook with
- threw away all the out of date things in our fridge


We've started calling into Lidl once a month to have a browse and see what they have got (ok, I'm really checking out the sock wool...) and have been really pleasantly surprised by the quality of the fruit and vegetables in our branch. Today's tomato haul:

Brit Floyd

I've never been to see a tribute band before. In fact, I would say that we probably avoid the idea like the plague. It brings up images of Creme Brulee for me.

So, when we won four tickets to see Brit Floyd at The Sage this weekend, we weren't expecting much. (In fact, it felt like a sad irony, given that we failed to get the tickets we wanted for The Wall next week)

We arranged to meet J's sister and her husband up there and headed off, planning to get there early and have a drink and something to eat. Unfortunately, we got snagged up in the fallout from an accident on the other carriageway of the A19, so things felt a bit frayed by the time we got there.

So, it was a pleasant surprise to find we were in the fourth row from the front and to find that the quality of the musicianship was spot on. We got a 'greatest hits' type set that you would never get from the real thing, even if they were still performing together (or were even all still alive for that matter). I really enjoyed Comfortably Numb, The Great Gig in the Sky, Wish You Were Here and Echoes.
The guy in the seat next to me fumbled around in his little stash tin for a square of blotting paper and proceeded to take that during Shine on You Crazy Diamond - just for a bit of added atmosphere.

My only real issue with the band was their lack of stage presence. I'd like to see a little bit more personality. (Maybe it was just the fact that the guitarist looked uncannily like my first husband!)



Overall, a good night.

Pass it on

Bold for stuff you’ve done, italics for stuff you plan to do one day, and normal for stuff you’re not planning on doing.

Afghan
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with bananafiber yarn
Modular knitting
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Baby items
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffitti knitting: knitting items on, or to be left on the street
Continental knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book
Scarf
Teaching a child to knit
Knitting to make money
Button holes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Household items: dishcloths, washcloths, tea cosies…
knitting socks- or other small tubular items- on two circulars
Dying with plant colours
Knitting items for a wedding
Olympic knitting
Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn
Knitting with dpns
Christmas etc related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn
Steeks
Knitting art
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener BO
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with selfpatterning/selfstriping/variegating yarn
Stuffed toys
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
JewelryKnitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for prem babies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mitts/armwarmers
Cushions
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

Make over

I've been using the old Blogger basics since I started this. Unfortunately, It won't let me update some things any more without changing the whole template. So, this is my new look for the moment. I'll spend a bit of time tweaking it and probably changing it over the next couple of weeks. Blogger reassures me it has saved my old blog look somewhere, just in case.

Last day off for a while today. Intend to potter, knit and watch some TV. After I have been shopping and planned next week's meals. Good intentions! How long do you reckon that will last?

In the spirit of planning ahead. One for the veggies:



Edamame bean and veggies-that-are-slightly-drooping-in-the-bottom-of-the-chiller balti.



Scented lillies, still going strong from my birthday last week.

To do

I'm starting the day by rationalising my 'to do' list. Lists always make me feel calmer and, hopefully, some of the things I had on my list at the start of the Easter break will have sorted themselves out anyway. Most of the stuff I have to do is related to work. I must admit I haven't done any of the work-related things I had planned to do over the holidays yet. Maybe I won't. It's been tough at work recently and I do feel like I have needed a rest. To be truthful, I feel a bit overwhelmed by going back. Lists are the only way forward!

Newts!

On our walk this evening we passed several ponds where we have seen the odd newt in past years. J climbed down from the path, but I wasn't sure it would be worth the effort.

He started counting and as he got to 8 I scrambled down. I counted 15 greater crested newts but J reckoned there were lots more. They were just swimming around, feeding and impersonating sticks on the bottom of the clear pond.

I only had my phone with me. Must start carrying my camera everywhere.

Fiddles on Fire

Fiddles on Fire festival started at The Sage last night. We went to see Martin carthy and Dave Swarbrick play in Hall 2 and appear in some pictures on The Sage's Facebook page.

Not featured in the photos, but did I see Mr Swarbrick wearing hand-knit socks? Looked like a self-patterned Opal/Regia type yarn.

The highlight, for me, was the duo playing in the concourse at about 7:15ish. Didn't get their names or manage to bring home the programme, which was a shame.

Not the Royal Wedding

Instead, I went to a spinning workshop run by Phillippa Joad of Wheeldale Woolcrafts in Marton.

We learned the basics of using an Ashford Traditional wheel (and now I want one, of course!)









I'm incredibly proud of my lumpy, uneven, first yarn!

Never ending stocking stitch

I have come to love fine knits. Obviously, as a knitter, there is a down-side to this. I have 300 stitches on the needles at the moment.



The pattern is Goodale by Cecily Glowik MacDonald. I love her patterns.

the yarn is Hero from Flamboyance.

Completed Cloud Chaser

I finished Cloud Chaser in Ethical Twist from Kemps.

It's a really interesting knit and took hardly any yarn (two and a half skeins). Unfortunately, I still haven't got to grips with my actual body size now and it's a bit big. Should be ok for layering in the winter, though.

Garden update

It seems a while since I posted any garden pictures - probably because the winter has been so long and depressing. Anyway, here we go: