One stitch at a time

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

17 July 2012

Yes, yes, I seem to have fallen out of the blogging habit. The weeks just fly past and before you know it, you realise that it's been almost a month since the last post.

The Ladies Tractor Road Run has been and gone and was great fun, as always. It was a very cold day. In fact, summer seems to have passed by the UK this year - it was so cold on our way to the airfield at the start of the run, that we had to warm up with coffee and bacon rolls.

I still ended up with a sunburnt face - or perhaps it was windburn? Whatever it was, it didn't detract from the 'specialness' of the day. I also raised a very respectable 300 pounds (thank you to everyone who donated!) and am looking forward to next year already! I may even already have ideas for next year's outfit...

this year's outfit - pink granny squares skirt!

Last weekend was another adventure. A few months ago I spotted a tweet asking for volunteers to teach knitting at Latitude, a music and literature festival near Southwold. I applied and a few days later received confirmation that I was part of the team. I was a bit nervous as I'd never taught knitting before, I didn't know anyone in the team and I was going on my own, but it turned out to be a fabulous weekend.

It was wet, it was muddy, we had no showers and no water, there were mosquitos galore and I lived off pot noodles all weekend, but I discovered a love of teaching that I didn't know I had. It was so rewarding to sit down with someone, give them needles and yarn and slowly see them 'get it'. The first two or three stitches would be all wrong and fiddly and they'd say 'o I'll never get this', but by the end of the row they'd be slowly making the right motions. And just working with different people all weekend - I have some lovely memories. The lady I taught to crochet on Friday and who came back on Saturday to show me the progress on her granny square and then again on Sunday to say thank you again. The teenage boys who had me in fits of laughter when they were shouting 'I'm in the KNITTING tent mate, this woman is teaching me to knit' down their mobile.

The older gentleman who told us he'd learnt to knit from his grandfather but wanted a reminder, and who turned out to be the eye surgeon who saved B's eye 30 years ago. The little girl who didn't want to come knitting with mummy but half an hour later was happily finger knitting. The Israeli lady who'd lived in the UK as long as I have and with who I shared 'living abroad' stories and who said she'd send me a pair of slippers her 100 year old grandmother had crocheted.

The visitors coming back every day to just sit and knit a while as they found it so serene. The time we were all sitting down knitting or crocheting while next door in the literary tent Simon Armitage was being interviewed, a bit further down teenage girls were learning the moves to a Beyonce track and further up in the main arena Alabama Shakes were playing - it was so surreal. I was quite sad to leave on Sunday afternoon and have been thinking if there is a way I can continue to teach knitting, as a year is a long time to wait...

Photo courtesy of Amy from Keep and Share Knitting

Back in the real world, we are in the last week of term. 13yo is currently at her leavers' disco as she has 3 more days left at Middle School. She has been incredibly happy there and although she is very ready to move on and widen her horizons, I will be very sad to leave this stage behind, especially as I know it will all be very different for 10yo who will not stay the full 4 years at this school due to its closure in 2014. I am looking forward to a week off work next week, catching up with old friends and just generally pottering about and not worrying about routines. A pyjama day is very much on the cards!

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Sunday 24 June

Those of you who have been following my blog for a while, know that my mum has had more than her fair share of trouble with cancer. Four and a half years ago she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. I had never even heard of it so knew very little about it. She was very ill by the time she underwent major surgery, but made a good recovery. It wasn't until things started to calm down a bit that I started to think about the future, and I'll never forget her saying 'the prognosis isn't very good'. Ninety-five percent of pancreatic cancer patients don't make it past a year. She was lucky that her tumor was operable, I think she was in very good hands and maybe, just maybe she was a little bit lucky as well - because she's still with us today.
Then last year in April we were hit by the bombshell that she had breast cancer. It was not related, it was 'just bad luck'. Bad luck indeed. This time around it was all so different - she didn't feel ill, the operations were relatively minor, the survival rate was much better and the treatment plan was much longer. It was much harder to put it all behind us and forget that she was a patient.
But, that is over a year ago now and her recent mammogram came back clear. She sometimes says she has a guardian angel on her shoulder. I'm beginning to think she might be right.

Cancer is one of those illnesses that happen 'to someone else'. That is, until it happens to you. You know it is a horrible illness, but you don't realise quite the effect and impact until it happens to you or a loved one. And so many people have to deal with it at one point or another. Survival rates improve all the time, but to keep them improving, much research is needed and research costs money.

So, once again, I am very proud to be taking part in the Ladies' Tractor Road Run to raise money for Cancer Research. This is my third year and it only gets better every year. Hundred and thirty women dressed up in pink on tractors with the wildest, silliest, pinkest decorations, driving 25 miles through Norfolk countryside, going through little villages where people sit outside their houses with a picnic to watch and wave. Driving through Harleston is probably the highlight - you get warned it's an emotional scene but you can't imagine what it's like to see rows of people lining the pavement, all cheering and waving you on - the lump in your throat soon turns to proper tears and most of us leave Harleston with wet cheeks. It is a very poignant day, considering the reason we all take part, but there is lots of laughter and camaraderie too.

Please go and visit my JustGiving page and consider making a donation. Every little bit of money helps to fund research so that more people like me can feel grateful that their mum or dad or child or other loved one is still with them today.

Thank you xxx

Photo courtesy of Mick Harrod

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Tuesday 12 June

The theme for the June Popular Crafts swap was Union Jack. I wasn't sure at first whether to sign up, the Union flag not really being my flag, but it is such a friendly swap that I couldn't resist. My swap partner was Simmi from Graces Favours. We emailed a few times, we followed each other on Pinterest, but I had no inspiration. I kept coming up with different ideas then discarding them. In the end a neighbour who is a crafter too, suggested a pincushion. Brilliant - not so large that it is hard or expensive to send, and practical too as Simmi sews a lot with felt. I had everything I needed for the pincushion at home, all little bits I'd saved 'just in case'. I tried to find a box of Jubilee coloured pins but had to settle for red ones in the end, but thought they went well with the cushion.

(photo is Simmi's as I forgot to take one before I posted my parcel!)

Simmi's parcel to me arrived before I sent mine, and imagine my surprise when I opened it and found this...

Yes, Simmi had made me a pincushion too, almost the same size, also with a ribbon at the top! The only difference is that Simmi made the Dutch flag on the back - I was so touched by that. Also included in the parcel were lavender bath crystals which made the whole parcel smell lovely, a Jubilee brooch and probably my favourite part, the button magnets - they are so sweet. I have a sneaky suspicion I may have those on one of my Pinterest boards...
Simmi, it's been a great swap, thank you, and I hope we'll stay in touch!

The next theme is polka dots but I'm giving it a miss for a few months. So far this year I have made very little for myself and it's getting me a little down. I love swaps but find it hard sometimes to send away what I've made. So the second half of 2012 is going to be for me!

Monday, June 11, 2012

Sunday 10 June

Best bit of your weekend

It was unexpectedly a fairly nice day, so far Spring has been very wet this year in the UK. I am no real gardener and have a very overgrown, neglected garden, but 10yo and I spent a lot of time clearing on Sunday and dug a small border to plant the dahlia and two courgettes. It felt so nice in the evening to step out the back door and see all the work we'd done.

Photo for today was hard to choose as Southwold was lovely too and yielded many happy photos!

Photo a day for 10 June