I could have had a baby in the time...

Looking back to my last blog, when I declared I would not absent myself again, I see that 9 months have passed ... hence the title of this post.

Life has been pretty challenging. In fact, I have felt much like this picture of Whisper, one of my cats - being on the inside, looking out on the world, but not really participating in it:

Being deemed unfit to teach again, permanently, because of my bipolar disorder hit me hard. I have always self identified as a
teacher and my job gave my days structure and meaning. This caused 
pretty severe depression.

I was unable to cope with the house, became increasingly agoraphobic and put on lots of weight, which increased my inability to move well. This led to more depression. 

Lots of projects were started and then abandoned:

The next few photos are a foretaste of future blogs, as each of them      

represents a step in my healing journey, which started in September 2014 and really took off from the beginning of 2015.

Do please pop in to share this journey with me. 

I

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!

A new doll is born

Finally, finally, my second doll is finished. I seemed to be going great guns and then everything ground to a halt. There was a series of things we had to get done, which left me unable to doll make. However, she is now finished and on sale at my Etsy shop.

I went through loads of different clothes choices before I was satisfied with her look. I will show you some of the extra clothing I now have, just waiting for dolls to inhabit them!

So here is Pip:

And here are some of the spare outfits I have made:

Mary Jane shoes, boots and knickers

                                      Alpaca and silk featherweight shawls

2 headscarves and a pixie hat

                        Little pinafore smocks


All being well, I shall sew a doll tomorrow. Now it's time to watch The Great British Sewing Bee from last night, hoping that Lynda does well!

Mmm...tasty omelette!

So, after the disaster of a sitting room I photographed yesterday, things got worse. 7 years of school supplies were added. Masks, books, puppets, files, storage boxes, Chinese artefacts, coats, a cowboy hat and on and on and on.

Fin flexed her muscles and carted stuff around the flat so most of it is now stuffed behind closet doors so we will have it to deal with if we ever move, carefully placed for any future use.

I woke up this morning feeling strangely excited (no getting off the medication for me, then) and tackled the room. Only four and a half hours, without a break, and it is sorted, including things INSIDE  drawers. I shall reward myself tomorrow by crafting all day, and Wednesday get on top of the paperwork.

So, my broken eggs made this tasty omelette:

Breaking a few eggs...

We have been in the flat for 13 months, most of which have seen me pretty ill. Fin has been working full time, doing one Open University course right after another, and having some fairly serious caring for me going on.

We both felt a shift last week. Maybe it's the thought of Spring, but we decided we need a change. So we are in Operation Overhaul. We love this flat but it doesn't look loved.

Anyhoo. It means transferring things from one area to another so that each room seems chaotic. We have brought into the sitting room a chest of drawers, a small desk and a stacker unit. Out have gone chairs. What remains now just needs to be sorted. This is my favourite, favourite bit which I shall get stuck into whilst Fin is at school tomorrow.

So we have broken a few eggs and hopefully the omelette will be made tomorrow.