1st start of the year

I love these socks, using an odd ball of nice yarn and a contrast colour, all the ends stitched in and on to the sock stretchers.

I have a hole, I must have snipped a stitch when cutting off the ends, I could darn this and it would hardly notice, but these are a gift. Cue loads of swear words, I'm not going to say how I feel, stupid mistake.

So here's my new sock, not so bright pink, the colours are lighter going into grey. I could unpick and use the same pink yarn, but there are loads of sewn in thread, making unpicking a bitch to do. Not the crafty start I had planned for the year. 

PS these are not for SIL.

Amaryllis time, this is the cheaper bulb purchased at Lidl, a white flower,  the expensive garden centre bulb is a good height, its a couple weeks behind this one. 

I got my plastic tulips out again, a bit early, but I felt the need for colour, these are behind the sofa brightening up the corner. The orchid flowers are the last blooms from the plant we purchased back in later October, these are such great value plants, they bloom for so long. 

My last two jumpers arrived, both in one parcel, so 4 parcels for one M&S order, I'm pleased with each jumper, they should keep me warm for years. We also purchased another Alexa for our bedroom, we both enjoy playing 70's or 80's music on our sitting room Alexa, or different artists, all without ads or anyone talking, perfect for background when reading, we have also ordered special bulbs, so she will be able to turn on and dim the lights, we are not lazy, often we have a cat on our laps. We have a lamp in the bedroom which will be great to be able to turn on/off hands free, plus we can set a wakeup alarm, we can also get information from her, on cold mornings we can set music to listen to without getting out of bed. 

We have not been out in days, it's cold and dry outside, no snow here, we have food and a warm house, plenty of books, and craft for me, hubby is back baking, he still has his boot on, but his ankle is much stronger. We have together made decisions for the back garden, I am always itching to be outside this time of year, my unheated greenhouse is doing well, I do have a heater but as yet I have not needed to use it, it does stay warm inside. 

I have loads of views on the idiots who think the rules are not for them, and the ones who choose to view the rules in their own way so they can carry on with their lives, I know I'm not alone, I have read so many bloggers post, all feeling the same, the figures locally are off the scale, I'm scared and so are my friends and neighbours, so we hide in our homes. I don't know how we can repay the shop workers, the bin collection guys, the bus and delivery drivers, those who come face to face with different people every day, they are bloody marvellous, normal people who are doing the greatest of jobs. Stay safe, don't take risk, someday we will look back on this and hopefully learn lessons. 

Coming in

I was so pleased to see our library is open to drop off and collect books, all pre-picked for me, this is my 3rd month and I am enjoying the selection of books, I have not read any of these. I spoke to the ladies, they leave returned books on the shelves for 3 days, the rack have wheels on so they can wheel them away from the door. The books are picked the week before collection, we can only step just inside the library, the racks and tables block the entrance. It feels safe and for me it's an important life line, we read most days, these will be left before I start to read them.

I have been clothes shopping online, some of my jumpers are getting a bit tatty, and whilst I'm not going out much, I still like to look smart, for myself. So with the January sales on, I went to Marks & Spencer site, well at my age it's where you start, I got 4 half priced jumpers at £12 each, they are not huge thick ones, I'm OK for that style, these are the thinner soft ones, which I wear most days in the cooler months. The free postage started at £50, so I got another pack of cotton socks, always handy to have. I am surprised M&S are making any money, 3 out of 5 items arrived, all in separate parcels, they did say they were coming from different locations, but that's a lot if postage. 

I got another email from Clarks outlet site offering me more discount and free delivery, so I had a look, these soft trainers were £65, I would never pay that for this type of shoe, with the discounts they were just over £27 a much better price, my soft deck shoes were scruffy, so these are now mine. I am being bombarded with emails, but most of them get deleted unopened, my spending is now done. 

I got this book from a charity shop, it's a another big book, 469 pages, this is my 2nd book read this year. I enjoyed the story set in Dublin, it was believable, lots of wrong turns and what if's. Her writing style is full of detail, normally that wears me out, but in this case it was done well, I will read more of her books. 

Hubby is not impressed with me, he would love me to treat myself more, and buy clothes like I used to, but when I gave up work 3 years ago, I was sorting my wardrobe to pass on work clothes, I was horrified how many items I had, many of them not being worn, I vowed then I would wear them all. For years I was happy to buy clothes and after a couple of wears pass them to the charity shops, these days I am aware of the amounts of water and energy it takes to make garments, often in countries where there are poor working conditions. I do give items to the Salvation army collection bins, we have one in a local car park, these items are sent to those who need them most. Shoes and reading glasses are collected by our dry cleaners shop and sent around the world, I don't have so much to give away, but everything decent gets a second life. Books and household items all go to our local charity shop. 

We are both feeling much better, the cold lingered as they always do, thankfully the cough has gone, nobody wants to hear you cough these days. I have been out once, we needed milk and eggs, I'm having porridge and hubby cereal each mornings, and I am making milky drinking chocolate most nights, and some fresh veg, only stayed in the village, we do have an Asda order due next week. I have no plans to go out again the numbers infected and passing away are horrendous, we have our local figures published each week, they are below the national average but still far too high for my liking, so we hide at home. 

I have started another pair of socks, which I am excited to be knitting, and I have collected yarn for SIL's socks, I plan to finish one pair whilst knitting the boys jackets and then go on the knit for SIL. I read most days, and I have started watching on BBC Iplayer, Hidden, it's a police drama set in Wales from a couple years ago, there is a second seriers so plenty to watch. Hubby and I have also started watching The Queens Gambit, we don't watch TV in the day time, but it helps fill the evenings as we are not getting out much and boredom is lingering. 

 

Be kind

I'm taking kindness into 2021, myself and my family had recent unexpected acts of kindness, which lifts the spirit, so my overriding theme this year is to be kinder, (PS I'm not a mean person), so it should be easy to do. 

These wonderful items were sent to me by Jo from Through the keyhole, 12 days of Christmas, a parcel to open until 12th night. The mini yarns are so beautiful, can't wait to knit them into squares for my blanket, plus an extra treat each day. 

I saw on Facebook a local lady asking about growing pineapple plants, so I offered the small plant below, it's one of the babies from the plant I purchased last year. I have 2 other plants which are enough for me. 

I have more plants waiting to go to new homes, one for a neighbour at the other end of our street, we often say hello, and I love her garden, like me she has a few gaps, and I had a spare passion flower. I also have 3 low maintenance plants for my brothers garden, hopefully I can plant them later this year. 

I am a helpful person, friends, neighbours know I will always help, lifts to appointments, looking after children for a couple of hours, some sewing, anything they need, it's what makes the world a better place. I did more in the run up to Christmas, which was easier, gifting money to local charities and food banks, again reasonably simple, I didn't spend much on crafting, so I have a little more spare cash. I joined our local Facebook pages, which helps focus on local needs, and it's rewarding to see so many people helping out. We have not had any snow but loads of icy mornings and already people are checking to see if anyone is struggling. I often speak about our village, but we are not a traditional country village, on the edge of a big town, very close to Portsmouth City, the houses just run into each different place, so driving through it hard to know where the village starts and ends, but everyone tries to keep the village feel.

Both our Covid tests came back negative which was a relief, we would now like to rid ourselves if these bad colds, it's been over a week. We still have no plans to go out, it's warm and safe at home. With the new lockdown in place, we are not able to do much, we will stay local in our village and once a month use a Asda home delivery. We can still support daughter, Will and George, those rules are still in place, but Will still goes to preschool nursery twice a week, they are a good nursey and act quickly to any reports of Covid, we just have to take extra care. 

My weight loss is due to resume, I put a few pounds back on in December, I'm not worried, I now am focusing on losing a stone this spring, soon hubby will be able to go on walks again, so the exercise will help. My BMI last January was 29.6, on Monday it was down to 26.9, a very pleasing reduction. Most of our Christmas goodies are gone, we did not buy so much and have not missed the chocolate feast. The last of the cake was finished, we both agreed it was a good bake this year, strange as I use the same recipe, cake tin and oven each year. We have started baking cakes for our mid morning treat, we enjoyed having a simple treat each day and being homemade it's not full of sugar. 

Crafty plans

This year I am focusing on WIP's, with cross stitch, knitting, crochet and sewing, I have in each craft a few things which has lingered longer than they should, it would be nice to finish a few, the joy of finishing my Christmas cross stitch is still with me. 

I also have a good stash of cross stitch, sewing fabrics and yarn, enough to keep me crafting most of the year, it would be nice to use more of these items, my taste does not change so I don't have anything I find unusable, my smallest stash is yarn. 

I do have a couple big projects which I now know I will never complete, and at some point I will try and sell these on, I won't get my money back, but it will be good to see them used by someone else, if I can't sell, I will pass them to our local school for them to use in any way they want. 

My first task is with hexagons, I have made loads and always planned to make a sewing machine cover, this is a mixture of hand and machine sewing, I have pulled out my hexagons and plan to sew loads together to form a long strip, which will wrap around my sewing machine, I will back it with a plain cotton to give it strength.

I have 2 scrappy blankets, one knitted and one crochet, I would like to make more squares on each, I won't start sewing together until I have enough squares. My gift from Jo has added to my stash for these squares. 

I have supplies to try finger tatting and needle felt, I hope to be able to make a start on each this year, just starting simple and creating small projects. I also want to find a crochet design and follow a pattern, I know the stitches, I just need to learn how to follow a pattern.

SIL loved his colourful socks and have asked could he have more, so I've sort more courful yarns and needles to make a start, I really can't make him wait until next Christmas. 

I've finished my 1st book this year, it was a good one, I got it on kindle, safer reading this way. 

I managed to sort the decorations and pack them all away, a few clever changes and it was done in one day, Saturday was long but pleasing, what I thought was going to be hard, turned into a much easier task. I don't feel the house is bare this time, everywhere looks clean and tidy, I am burning candles each evening, keeping the house cosy. 

I feel the next couple of months are going to be stay at home, so I should have plenty of time to craft, something to do on the dark winter days ahead.