I'm back again

I

 I am now back in the land of crafting and blogging. The beautiful bag in the picture was given to me a a Texan friend (her mum made it) and it makes me smile. It is also extremely  capacious, which is good.

I have been out of circulation for a while because my 87 year old mother broke a vertebra in her back and needed a body brace. The bulk of the caring has fallen to my sister and to my middle son who volunteered to look after his Gran, but I have also spent 2 weeks there.

I have also had a crafting dry period. For over a month I did not do ANY crafting...the whole idea made me feel ill. Then Fin and I had a talk and I realised the problem - I had been so het up about things selling/what to make that would have mass appeal, that all the joy had gone out of crafting.

So, with that 'aha' moment, I found my crafting mojo again.

And it is knitting for charity. With a disability, it is all too easy to get caught up in your own problems and lose perspective.

My big love in the past was making baby clothes for my boys. So, a quick look on Ravelry and through pattern books, and I came up with these. The flowers are from a crochet pattern on the wonderful Attic24 blog. And I got to use a girly colour.

There is a bootee in waiting with the green stripes. THAT patten I haven't printed out, and my iPad ran out of juice!

Clearly the absence of knitting mojo had worried Fin. We went to Hobbycraft solely to buy a circular needle. Of her own volition she pushed me to the baby yarn aisles. There was a '3 for 2' offer. I picked up 3 balls and she immediately doubled it!

The baby clothes will be going to an organisation called Freedom from Fistula. They do life changing work with some of the world's poorest and most vulnerable members - uneducated, rural girls.

I am also making my favourite slouch hats from Jane Brockett's 'The gentle art of knitting'. These are for teenagers and will go out in Christmas shoe boxes from a local church.

I really am enjoying this knitting and am connecting with whole communities of knitters I did not know existed.

Please do keep popping back in and leaving comments, as I hope not to absent myself again!