My lovely Holiday - The end

As I will never find the time to write the rest of my holiday, here it is in photos, bet you have guessed the theme by now - it involves a tiny black car, my one enviromental sin in life - :-)

Day 3 - Chur, Switzerland to some where on the border with Italy

Chur - McDonalds Pyramid (Ibis Hotel) - Underground carpark

Somewhere in the Swiss Alps
Mountain Pass
Top of the pass, scared DH, one of my aimbitions was to drive the zoom over the Alps, got rather good and fast at it by the end of the day.
Hotel - who knows where, on the Italian side of the San Bernadino pass.

Day 4 - Lago Maggiore

Posh hotel in Alassio, Italian Riviera

Margaritas on the terrace over looking the Med

Day 5 - St Aygulf, French Riviera, spent many happy days here as a teenager.

On the way here DH drove part of the Monaco Grand Prix circuit (one of his aimbitions), when its not full of formula ones, its actually a busy town centre.

Hotel - St Tropez - again a place I knew from my teenage, spent our 21st wedding anniversary eating fish soup watching the yachts in the harbour

Day 6 - The hypermarket at Le Foux (near St Tropez), Stocking up on a few bottles of wine.


Day7 - somewhere in France, forgot to take a hotel photo, who knows where we were?

A supermarket in northern France, stopped for some drink as all our water had boiled on the way through Paris
And home.

Hopefully will do it again next year, our next stop will be Rome and I will try to take more photos rather than forgetting too as I was too busy enjoying zooming.

My mother update - long & miserable, but hopeful at the end.

My big baby Feppy came home this weekend to see Granny, when we came out of the nursing home yesterday afternoon Feppy said "this could be the last time I see Granny alive".
So I dropped her off at the station and went to find Fred who still didn't know about Granny and I still didn't know where he was, I only had Daisy's very vague directions to go on.
Amazingly enough I found the right house first time, but Fred decided he wasn't comeing home as he still had computer enemies to kill and his mates parents don't come home until tomorrow night.

So I drove home from Ipswich to an empty house on my own (Phil and Dais had gone to a music thing in the park at Halesworth - Phils home town).
By the time I got to Woodbridge I had a big lump in my throat, managed to get home before I broke down, watched the ebay auctions through tears. Let me explain its not just my mother, my beloved cat has disappeared, he normally goes on trips in the summer but always comes home after a few weeks, its now been a few months and I don't think he's coming home.
I don't know who I was crying for him or her or I rather think both.

Anyway as I sat on my comfy sofa with my lap top and drank a few medicinal glasses of red wine, I realised I have it easy.
I have been talking about supporting an Afghan charity ever since I had my carpet for my birthday and so searched google. I found a US one its called women for women,
http://www.womenforwomen.org/
basically you sponsor one women with £13 per month, she gets money to feed her kids and is given education and help to look after and support herself and make her life better. The women come from war torn countries where their lives are impossible to equate with ours.
So I filled in my sponsor form this morning and paid my money and now have to wait possibly 12 weeks until they find my "sister", I'd like her to be from Afghanistan, my second 2 choices were Iraq and Rhwanda, both places I have watched on the TV and been horrified what was happening.

I can't help my mother anymore, my cat I will cry about for a long time, but I can help someone who is really suffering, so am feeling much better about the whole world.
Following in my Granny's footsteps - she was Bessie of the Bessie's Blanket club fame.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Natural-Dye-Studio-Bessies-Blanket-Crochet-Throw-Club_W0QQitemZ280081180410QQihZ018QQcategoryZ83944QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem
I might not be knitting, but I am sure she would approve whole heartedly.

Trauma - not about my mother

But about the fact I can do difficult things, but struggle with easy things, like I can't work the video player and yet I can build and run my own website and have been doing so for years.

Anyway this trauma is about a very simple knitting design/stitch I think its called feather and fans or something like that, I know it as wavy.


It started back in february when I decided I would knit a cardi in alapca/silk DK, which is one of my favourite yarns.


I had already finished one long cardi in the alpaca/silk, had the sleeves sewn on and everything, I tried it on and hated it so pulled it down (or is it frogged it), was left with about a kilo of beautiful but wobbley yarn.


Originally I couldn't get the measurements right for the stitch, my tension square was either too big or too small, but I went for it anyway after a few inches the bottom edge measured 75 inches, I know I have a big bum, but its not that big! so I pulled it down again and made it smaller after a few inches it measured about 39 inches, not quite big enough around the bum to get a nice drape.


So for the next few months I knitted and frogged, knitted and frogged.


My last attempt looked good until I realised that after a few rows I had 10 more stitches than I should.

By this time my kilo of yarn was looking fairly manky and I decided I was cursed as far as wavey and alpaca/silk went.

But then it could be because I was knitting rather than crocheting, I find crochet much easier and can make very complicated medallion thingies. So I started crocheting and below you can see the result, I am still going horrifically wrong, should have 7 stitches in between the increase and decrease, sometimes its 7 or 8 or 6 or even 5.

And about 7 inches up I decided to turn it into a jumper instead of a cardi - now I am really going wrong as I joined the 2 edges together and am crocheting in a round, have decided I don't care anymore, am just going to finish and wear it! I suspect the points will turn into stripes in the next few inches......

So if you meet me at the farm or a show and I am wearing a bizarre jumper type thing, just remember the trauma I went through to make it.

My Mother

My mother had a stroke in march, and apart from a brief interlude in a nursing home where she seemed to be happy, but developed a chest infection and was taken back to hospital, has been in hospital since then.
Not well enough to go home, but not ill enough to be in hospital.
If you are not ill its a soul destroying place and it seems like her soul is destroyed, she has decided to refuse all further treatment, has so many things wrong with her, she needs to be on medication.
She knows what it means, but is stubborn and has dug her heels in.
The family wants her to fight, but she has had enough.
Its difficult to know how I feel.
Sad as I know the inevitable outcome, but so frustrated with her and trying to repect her wishes.
The girls feel the same, Fred doesn't know yet, is at a mates house plugged into his PC until saturday, trouble is his mate has just moved and we have no idea of the phone number.
Confused, irritated and sad.

Simply Knitting & USA Ebay shop

Am still trying to sort myself out after the Woolfest, have realised that dyeing in 100 gm skeins is much easier, why have I been doing it in 50gms for so long???
So now have to re-dye all the show stock.
Will be in the August edition of simply Knitting, or is it September - anyway it comes out the 16th of August, think I am excited, but who knows what its about, when I was interviewed the photographer spent about half an hour photographing me, just know the photo is going to make me look like my mother.......

Also re-opened the American Ebay shop
http://stores.ebay.com/The-Natural-Dye-Studio-UK
Need to fill it to the brim to get it on the first page of the stores directory, luckily I have all the 50 gm skeins from the show stock.....