Hello Everyone.

I do hope you and yours continue to be well in these ever stranger times.

Now as some of you know around the time of my last bout of surgery the collective opinion from my various medical teams ( the majority of whom were also work colleagues & friends so pulled no punches) was that I needed to give up work for good to maximise my health situation. It wasn’t easy but I did so and have now formally retired from the NHS after thirty five years, some fourteen years early.

I am the eternal optimist but was very concerned about filling my time and using my brain. Surgery, finishing work and going straight into Shielded status for Covid has been surreal to say the least. I don’t quite know what I’ve been doing with the time (although I’ve embraced the advice for an afternoon rest and 14:00 finds me and the Lily hound on the sofa, with a blanket and audiobook. These ninety year olds who go off climbing mountains would do well to take a leaf out of my book)!

Now when I say I don’t know what I’ve been doing a glance into the spare room suggests I’ve spent most of this time buying yarn. I shall show you as I start projects or you may think I have a problem 🙈

Now projects. The giant charity blanket was finished and the lovely lady who won the bidding for it was delighted (see title pic for the finished beast). I have to confess I was quite nervous until I heard from her. She also wanted a special date on it but being herringbone it was impossible to incorporate so we decided on a separate knitted panel appliquéd on.

Last time we spoke I was about to cast on the Ingalls Sweater by Caitlin Hunter (Boyland Knitworks) in some fine dk from John Arbon Textiles. Not only did I cast it on I also finished it and adore the slouchy design with it’s dipped back hem.

I still have too many WIP’s and still can’t manage more than around three hours yarny stuff a day but never mind. It is making me think more about each cast on. One such project is one of my memory pieces. Having lost so many friends and family in a short space of time I decided to knit things that would remind me of them individually (as well as the planned Harlequin Blanket that I don’t yet have the dexterity for).

The first of these is the Rose cardigan from Andrea Mowry which will remind me of my friend Jacqui who died in December (Lily’s original owner). This is a lovely cardigan in a fade reminiscent of a rose blooms. Jackie adored her roses so this seemed fitting. It is in a pallet called Cognac dyed in Ireland by the lovely Bernie (Bear In Sheeps Clothing) and I bought it from Tribe Yarns in Richmond (Milli always has a fab selection of goodies so well worth a virtual or when able a physical visit).

Now the gorgeous skein of Quivet I showed you earlier. This was a total indulgence I admit as a form of celebration treat. Regular readers may remember in the past I’ve chatted about a young company called KnitIQ who I first encountered after purchasing some of their brilliant blocking mats. Anyway they dropped me a line asking if I would like to write for their blog occassionally. After establishing it actually was me they had meant to email I jumped at the chance so if you pop across to their site at any time you may come across a post by yours truly. My first one is on their now, all about washing your wool. 🐏 https://knitiq.com/blogs/articles/how-to-wash-wool (In the interest of transparency they do pay me for articles but there are no affiliated links). I just added this in cos I’m a little bit proud 🦚 that they liked my writing and that is why I treated myself to the Quivet so that I remember that lovely things can happen when you least expect them too.

Stay safe everyone and here is to more settled times.

Love

Magpie. 😘