October the Beginning

In a fuel shortage we have probably clocked up more miles these past few weeks than ever! There has been a long list of hospital appointments for both of us. My physio is coming along great and I’m actually feeling the improvements.

John has been doing well until the breathlessness started to become a problem. The cardio team called him in straight away and did lots of tests. He was prescribed a diuretic and that evening wore a hole in the floorboards to the loo. He lost 3.5kgs of fluid overnight, and a lot of it from his lungs. Two days later we were back in the hospital for an Echocardiogram and we were shown his heart scan videos from his first admission when they were actually putting in the stent and the ones from that day. Such a huge difference. His Troponin (they call it a muscle panic protein) levels, which in you and I are 14 or below, were at over 2000 but this time they were 21 so coming down nicely. It was absolutely fascinating to see the tests and be included in everything that had been and was being done. We couldn’t be more thankful to the fabulous cardio teams at the Royal Bournemouth hospital. He now has the all clear and life can move on.

I finally finished the two sets of Three Wise Men. They seemed to take forever and then they were suddenly done! Very fiddly all these little bits. I only have the shepherds to do and won’t be doing the six required!

Just inside my studio is a piled upon basket which had a tail annoyingly sticking out of it forever.

I thought I should do something with it. Little did I know that the one tail actually led to a pile of un-used hanks of sari silk yarn goodness only knows how old.

They are The Thread Studio labels so I must have bought them at Ally Pally as that’s the only time I see Dale and Ian and they haven’t been there for some years. I wouldn’t have them post that bulky lot from Australia! I had tried crocheting with it but it hadn’t worked.

I put some on the Swift and balled them up. Three balls I plaited together to make a braid.

Then zigzagged it on the machine to make a bowl. It’s nice and soft for the needle but firm enough to hold a shape.

Another ball I hand stitched around a large jar. I was going to freeform a vessel but I knew it would go all sorts of directions so thought the jar would give it shape and I can also use it for flowers. That’s a 10 inch allium head so you can see the size.

I still have loads left so I will think up some more shapes with the yarn.

The Faby Reilly Jacquie embroidery has another panel done. This is the last panel but I think there is a fair bit more to go on it. Soon to be at the construction stage though!

And I’ve done the moth on the Cathy Reevy Bug Box but now have the next one to catch up with.

The breeder of one of my dogs was saying she was struggling to find blackberries this year but has plenty of sloe. She is over Brighton way so on chalk like we are up in east Dorset. We have so many blackberries the bushes are groaning! However we seem to have no sloes in the wild. It’s been a topsy turvy year for growing things. We went out all prepared and the only ones we could find were small and not worth bothering about so left what was there for the wildlife. Back at home however our blackthorn bushes in the garden had more than enough lovely large ones. Once they had been in the freezer for a couple of days they went in with the gin for some Sloe Gin at Cword time.

Speaking of the Cword, we didn’t have a partridge in a pear tree (John cut the pear tree down a few years ago) but I did have one land outside my studio window on a bush. It’s a tiny cramped area so I’ve no idea what it was thinking but it looked a little shocked itself.

Have a lovely weekend. x