Crafty Little Rat

  I’ve been thinking about posting for a long time but I’ve always been too “too”. Too tired, Too Sad, too Grumpy, too angry. I do see this blog as how I present to the outside world and there are many parts I feel I have to keep hidden away. There are many parts I just don’t want to start to write, because I feel I would never stop. Basically work and health have been rubbish lately and I’d love a month of saying “fuck it!” to the world and hiding. It’s not going to happen though, so on we go with the show. I finished my February Socks Pattern – Corriolis Effect Socks. Yarn – I want to say Trekking XXL or Opal, long lost ball band and deep stash. Just to prove there’s 2! These are very comfy and have already been worn about twice a week. As soon as they’re out of the washer and dried they’re back on my feet. I made another pair of The Oncoming Storm mitts. These are for my Brother In Law, who hits the milestone birthday of 16 this month. He really likes Dr Who, and I knit...

It’s been quite some time again hasn’t it? I’ve been feeling awful again but still no closer with answers. I had my liver ultrasound at the end of January and it found fatty liver and a bit of fat around my kidneys. The answer is to loose weight of course, but I eat reasonably healthily and it still doesn’t go. I’m going to make more of an effort to eat better than I did before though. Knitting wise not a lot has been going on. I finished my January Socks Actually in January as well! Though due to the horrible light here at the moment I’ve not managed to get my model and daylight together yet. Hopefully that will change tomorrow and I can give some better pictures. The pattern is Black Beauty Rides on and is part of a book called “Lit Knits” but also avalible independently as a single PDF. It was an incredibly quick knit, even on 4 ply and 2.5 mm needles. The temptation was to get up to the next horseshoe before putting it down and I even enjoyed the twisted stitches. The yarn is...

  I had a wonderful Festive season. It only really wrapped up yesterday, despite short breaks of work in-between. We were both incredibly spoiled for Christmas; I got lots of Craft bits and spent some of my Christmas money on other bits. The King Cole Smooth DK is for a shrug for Mum’s co worker, there’s a needle felting kit for a hedgehog and a needle felting tool with some spare needles. My mum got me a spare circular knitting needle and a Christmas scraper foil set for Decorations. I’m hoping to get them done before next year at least!. The little kit at the back is onje for Amigurmi Cakes that came free with my present from my in-laws. They bought me a monthly subscription to Simply Crochet and I’m really looking forward to that. I can’t really get it locally with any ease so I’m very excited! I also got books! I love books and one of my new years resolutions is to read more; both fiction and non fiction. My mum got me Knit Nordic for Christmas; not all of the projects ar...

  It’s been a long time since I last blogged. Technical errors here at Chez Rat involving my new HP going away for treatment. It wasn’t registering the external Graphics card and that was causing no end of problems with crashes and the Mr Crafty’s games. My back up PC only runs Linux and getting photographs and blogging from there was more hassle and with Christmas who needs hassle! We had a lovely Christmas and I hope you did too. Very whistle stop tour of my family up in Lincolnshire and still some Festivities to come with the Welsh lot over new year. I’m just going to put in pictures of my work this year. The later few I’ve not blogged about I’ll expand on a little. January-May Top Row – Granny Mandala Dishcloth, From Norway with Love Hat, Heart Mittens Row 2 – Dr Who Socks, Create your own Dragon Adventure, Avatrix Hat, Bottom Row – Lizard Socks, Rose’s Wrist Warmers and Adams Rib Vest May- August Top row – Yellow, Blue and Grey Gemutlich, Morgans Pop Inspired Blan...

Sorry I’ve not been posting recently. I’ve been dealing with some personal feelings; and not very well at that. Long and short of it is I’m sad; incredibly incredibly sad. That looks so very stupid written out but there it is. It’s mostly health related. We’re entering the 5th month of waiting for a specialist referral for me and the same amount of time for my liver ultrasound. It all came to a head today as we sold my trike. Over a year ago when I got my full time job and we moved down here I was convinced that I would be able to cycle into work, convinced that I could hold down a full time job and convinced that everything would now be sunshine and roses. Please don’t see me as ungrateful, my life is so much easier now, I love my job I can treat myself occasionally and we don’t always have to wonder how we’ll pay the bills; but my health hasn’t improved. It’s getting worse and the NHS don’t seem interested in helping. My GP is worth is weight in gold, but it’s very saddening to be st...

  It’s HORRIBLE here at the moment. Windy, Rainy and cold cold cold. I’ve been crafting up a storm – 3 finished objects since I last blogged but sadly none I can show you. They’re all for friends who might possibly look at my blog so I’ll be able to post them when they’ve all received them. The great news is that I am so very nearly done! We have some cash to get out of the bank and a few bottles of beer to buy next month and that’s it. Well, and a load of bags to sew but who’s counting those? I managed to get all of them cut out today and 4 more sewn for a total of 7. Only 9 more to go, but now the tricky part is done I’m aiming to sew 2 or 3 a night which should mean I’m done by the end of the week. Just so this isn’t a pictureless post I’ll show you two hampers I’ve made up for Christmas. This one is for Rhys’ Nanny G. It has Shortbread Biscuits, Posh Tea, a Foamburst shower gell, Scented Candle, Hot Chocolate Syrup, 2 knitted facecloths, a sewn bag, some fancy hand wash, a...

  Phew – It’s only MONDAY in my week off work and already it’s been a busy one.   Saturday Morning we went to the local sewing machine shop and came out with this box! It’s not the model I thought I would get; but there was apparently problems with the one I wanted regarding the bobbin case. This one – no problems reported so happily on my way. Here’s what he looks like straight out of the box. I’m calling him Jaffa because of the orange colour and the fact it’s a Janome. I’m loving him so far. So much easier than my Dunelm sewing machine and it’s a joy to work with him. Far more modern than any machine I’ve used before; you don’t even need to use a foot pedal it can be just button controlled along with an automatic thread cutter that I love. Putting the bobbin in the bottom is so easy on this machine I just am so in love!   Testing out some stitches on two scrap pieces of material. It’s now hung up in the rat cage! The squares weren’t properly cut out as I didn’...