OT: Ugh.

Well, I guess it shouldn't have come as much as a surprise, but the depths of midwinter seem to coincide with bad news in our family the last few years. Or maybe the news is always bad lately, and the season seems to commiserate with it? 

My father-in-law K has had poor health for many years, having succumbed to ME after a nasty bout of 'flu in his late 60s. We stayed away to protect him during the pandemic, by which time he was almost completely deaf (my partner already wears hearing aids so that's hereditary). There was a waterworks infection which produced odd behaviour - but eventually it turned out to be vascular dementia. K used to smoke and presumably drink, as was more common in his era. The fact that the family have coped since his last hospital stay has extended his life by a few years, but after another kidney infection he's being released to come home to die. The only signs of life are growling, eye movement and breathing. It's horrible to watch, and I can only hope he slips away soon. As a family of engineers we feel powerless - our natural instinct is to think our way around such situations and repair them; but in this case there is no fix. The law in the UK sentences people to lingering deaths that we would not put our pets through. I was very lucky that my dad briefly rallied on my last visit - he was mentally with us 'til the end, and it turns out I was the last one to talk to him, a banal conversation about the weather I think! 

So my mood is indescribable at the moment - anger at the universe for allowing such suffering, sadness for the family, admiration and sorrow. The Cog has been out every evening for the last few weeks, to take over from the constant attempts to get food and liquids into K in hospital - the nurses do an amazing job, but nobody can spare three hours to feed someone with a dessertspoon. So our meals have been in shifts, and it's a rare thing if we eat together at all. At least K has family to take care of him, though whether prolonging his life is humane at this point is debatable. 

Amidst a rising tide of right wing rhetoric in the world, I note that many of the nurses were from exotic countries. Without immigrants, the NHS would collapse. Follow the money and use your intelligence, people, not the twisted tabloid media with their nasty agendas. Whilst the masses look the other way, the rich get richer. I was "reliably informed" by a supposedly intelligent work colleague that the reason her partner can't get a minor medical procedure done is because immigrants have swamped the NHS. It's nothing to do with years of underfunding, piecemeal privatisation by the back door, an ageing and increasing population, badly-paid staff leaving, and crumbling infrastructure. I suspect her anger at others is partially fired up by a badly-managed council HMO (House of Multiple Occupancy) starting up next door, which is forcing them to consider moving. 

Anyway, enough. You can see, my mood veers from sadness to anger and back at the moment. Lack of sleep, work stress and a sore back isn't helping! Hugs to all who find themselves in need of them at this time, and never forget to kiss your loved ones goodbye. You never know when it might be the last time. 

Current mood: indescribable

Hello 2026!

TLDR: Updates on my absence, and some overdue project pictures

Hello blog! I'm sorry I've not posted in ages. Life gets in the way sometimes - I got busy at work, and then distracted by a new toy (more on that later), and I've fallen off a cliff on Ravelry too I'm afraid, which is embarrassing when you're a moderator of the big machine knitting group. Whoops!

Towards the end of last year I think I was subconsciously wrestling with the black dog a bit. I gained weight, I slept more - the Cog thought this was excellent, as my sleep always goes out of whack in the winter time and then I'm really grouchy - but as I tried to explain to him, sleep isn't something you can bank up. It resets itself every day - and as I'm usually an early bird, sleeping 'til 10am on a weekend is not normal for me. I suspect he was just enjoying some peace and quiet!

Anyway, life has taken a new direction lately. The Cog got laid off in mid November and promised me the house would be spotless (I'm still waiting on that, ha!). Automotive CAD jobs in the UK seem to have disappeared lately, so that's not good. We rearranged the living/dining room in early December - Eddie the psycho rescue cat is still sulking and has retreated under the Passap. Sorry Ed, but the room feels much bigger (we had the sofa as a "room divider" before) and it's staying for good, not least because we intend to replace the current sofa and coffee table with a corner sofa and some blanket storage.  

As for machine knitting, I lost my mojo a bit. I've often said, one needs a good clear few hours to machine knit, whereas handknitting/crochet is an easy project to keep for in front of the tv - so machine knitting is a hard hobby to keep alive when you work full time. Like anything, practice makes perfect. I attempted a fairly simple fisherman's rib sweater on the Passap, and the first front has such loopy sides from dropped stitches, it could double as a rug. The second side went better - but as usual, I didn't make any notes of what size I was doing, etc. I really am my own worst enemy sometimes - it's not as if I haven't got a notebook for writing down what I'm doing! So the only machine knitting that happened towards the end of the year was finishing up more CSM socks for xmas presents. I had planned to make lots of "magic" yarn from the sock yarn leftovers, but that's also quite time consuming. I'm tempted to use the leftovers up to make fingerless gloves for charity. I also finally pressed the gold boucle cardigan I first mentioned here, and it looks a lot better. 

On the handknitting side, I finished three cardigans.  The purple merino (Drops Agnes) was a resounding success, other than I ended up playing yarn chicken at the end, and had to shorten the back to finish the second sleeve, having already had to buy a second lot of yarn in a different dye lot. Don't ask, I don't know what happened there! At the same time, I got tempted into buying some end-of-line super chunky cream with coloured flecks yarn. The cardigan took just over a week to knit because it was such thick yarn. Alas, I keep forgetting that chunky yarns don't suit someone as sturdily built as I. Also, the button holes are so large that I had a real struggle finding suitable buttons. I think it will go into the box for Knit for Peace that I am putting together. The circular green cardigan (Drops Modern Elegance) I started early last year has turned into an unmitigated disaster. It doesn't fit well, the armholes are too tight and the sleeves are too long. The yarn itself is very pretty, so I will unpick it and do something else with it. 

I recently completed 25 years at my company, and got a small bonus because of it. I put the money towards a new bass guitar, case and practice amp. I've always wanted to learn bass guitar, and an ex of mine even made me one. Unfortunately, it is impossible to get the lowest string in tune because the bridge is too close to the neck (it was his first ever attempt, he's much better at it now). So it's gathering dust - kept for sentimental reasons, but no purpose otherwise. So I am currently teaching myself to play bass, which will, alas, mean less time for knitting. I am planning to attend and possibly teach at the annual Kegworth CSM event, but due to double-booking myself I will only be there on the Saturday. 

So, that just about brings you up to date! I'll try to post a bit more on here, but no promises - I go through phases of hobbies, and right now knitting isn't top priority. 

More CSM socks!

Agnes cardigan in Drops extra fine purple merino. Sorry for the busty picture, blame the camera angle! :D

The chunky aran cardigan - very cosy! Mistake rib, I added an extra line down the sleeves just to make them a bit more interesting.

The circular cardigan disaster - it's not for me!

The gold boucle cardigan - a Clair Crowston design

Some recent shopping bags - I love the Oriental one, the gold really glitters! The other two are from old IKEA pillowcases. Not shown, another plain white one which needs embellishment. Will probably donate some of these to the local foodbank, I have more than enough shopping bags. Also not pictured, a bunch of shopping bags I made as xmas presents last year. Oh well, it's noted here even if there are no pictures.

My new toy - an Ibanez bass in cherry red (now sporting a skull strap, this strap was temporary). I am in love! It seems to coordinate with other things in the living room too! Ha!

Current mood: okay

More socks

More socks for the xmas box, though I might keep the rainbow ones for myself! Alas, I managed to shrink my Agnes cardigan in the wash, it's now so small it will only fit a child. I am an idiot! I've ordered some yarn to replace it but this time it'll be purple merino. In other news, I've been pootling around on the E6000, with varying degrees of success. That machine sure loves to show me who is the boss, it is so finicky around stitch sizes!

Current mood: annoyed

Some FOs

I've been in the doldrums a bit lately, not entirely sure why. Hence, not a lot of crafting to report. The circular cardigan has been tinked back a number of times; apparently, increasing every other row isn't something I can do in company. I picked up a crochet pattern at the Summer Wool show in Ampthill and at least that is growing quite quickly, as long as I take care to keep the pattern aligned. 

To try and get my "mojo" back, I made a Norfolk blanket and a simple scarf this weekend. I also added a pie crust edging to the Clair Crowston cardigan, which still needs pressing - I'm hoping it'll look less like a rag. I have a massive cone of this boucle yarn left, not sure what I shall do with it. It shreds at the smallest touch so I will be glad to see the back of it. Of course, the machine I originally swatched it on is now in the garage. This weekend, I did some swatching for some burgundy bamboo that I really need to get out of my stash, and hope to start work on something with that this week. 

We had a short break in Swanage last week, and managed to get really good weather. It was absolutely packed though, so we didn't get to try out a fish restaurant on the seafront. Since the closure of Loch Fyne, I've really missed having something like that within driving distance. We visited Studland beach (nice, but rammed) and then went onto Durlston "castle" for lunch, which was much more relaxed. 

After the hottest / dryest summer on record, the temperatures seem to be on the turn this week. I actually had the heating on in the car this morning! Yikes!

Current mood: relaxed

FO: Sideways fairisle with magicolour

Only a lunatic knits a fairisle sweater during a heatwave. Oh well, I am that lunatic then!

Current mood: happy

Fun with fairisle

Well, I had a fun weekend playing with the patterning on the KH965i, the Cog being employed elsewhere for the day. I've long hankered over making a sideways-knitted fairisle sweater, and having managed to acquire a simple Wendy Phillips pattern, the creative urge just overtook me on Saturday.  All went well for a while, but the patterning mechanism starting to make a noise akin to a washing machine with rocks in (ok I'm guessing here, but it wasn't good!). I took the back parts off a few times but couldn't see anything amiss. Eventually I oiled both drum pivots, and the rotating black bar, and it seems a lot better. There WAS a bit of fluff back there but nothing out of the ordinary. 

The sweater in question has patterned bands, I'm in love with it already, despite black not really being my colour. I'm using pink and blue Magicolour for the fairisle. One more sleeve and cuff to go and then just sewing up. I over-complicated programming the pattern for the welts - it's much easier just to start from row 17 than it is to try and extricate the pattern if you only need one repeat. Still, I'm pleasantly surprised at how easy the machine is to program. The manual is still terrible though! 

If I make this sweater again, I might flip the pattern at the centre neck to make it more symmetrical, and posibbly pick a pattern with less long floats or use the ladder back technique. What with carrying the unused colour up the side, there was already enough going on. I fancy doing this for a Christmas sweater, though I'm tempted to swap to a V neck. I'm not a great wearer of round necks. I had a few false starts - a mispatterned band, and a sleeve that was 25 stitches too narrow. Oops. 

Pictures to follow shortly! 

Oh, and the KHC / two colour tuck problem I had in the last post seems to have evaporated. Performance anxiety perhaps? Who knows!

The circular cardigan is in time out. I cannot seem to keep my increases in order, one would think it would be easy. I seem to be tinking more than knitting on it. Ugh. 

In non-crafting news, we paid to stream the Black Sabbath charity concert this weekend, having failed to get tickets. £25 (£33 after other charges - yeah, there's always someone making a quick buck) and you get zero toilet queues and a better choice of food and drink. What's not to like? The Cog streamed the first half (that we missed) yesterday. I wonder whether Oasis thought about streaming their concerts? Could be quite a money-spinner!

Current mood: enthralled

Long time no blog

Gosh, I didn't realise I hadn't posted since March, sorry about that! There's not been much crafting to post about really. I started a handknit circular cardigan (a free Drops pattern), but it's gotten quite tedious so has been parked for a while. I did finally finish the cat cross stitch, it's waiting to be pressed and framed. We're in the middle of a humid 28C / 82F heatwave here, so doing anything much feels exhausting.

I got the donated SK260 up and running and it's been put away, because I have a knitweave project in mind and Brothers are much better for that I feel. I did finish a gold boucle cardigan on that machine, and it handled the yarn very well. We'll gloss over how many fronts I had to knit before I had a pair, gah!

I did run a very successful two day MK event at the Alex, at the start of June. I took the KH881, the KH260 and the KH965i. Apparently the chunky machine was a little badly behaved. I haven't used it in a while, it probably needs some maintenance. I had a lot of fun using the 965i to knit double bed jacquard. I couldn't get it to knit two-colour tuck to my satisfaction though - seems I have to change colours at the left end, which doesn't work with the colour changer. I got lots of loops - it should have knitted something, even if not the expected pattern. It's something I'll have to investigate further. Perhaps one needs to invert the colours or start on a different row? Hmmm. The manual is very hard to read, and the KHC manual doesn't mention any programming changes (possibly because it came out before the electronic machines). Oh well, something to work on... 

Current mood: hot