Haven’t updated recently, but that’s because things have been pretty hectic.

As far as Uni goes, I’m on community placement at the moment, which is great as I don’t have to get up at 5am or anything, but I do consequently work 5 days a week, so not as much time to get other stuff done. I’m working on my dissertation, but not doing anywhere near as much as I need to, and I’m starting to panic. But I try not to think about that too much, because then I get really stressed!

I’ve applied for one job and just received an application for another. But I applied for the first job ages ago, and still haven’t heard anything. I’ve already called them once to ask what’s going on, so I can’t really call again yet. The other application form I intend to complete tonight, and hand in tomorrow. The problem with these tight deadlines is that I’m conscious that these aren’t the best job applications I’ve ever written, but sadly, they’ll just have to do.

I bought a new car at the weekend because mine started making more funny noises, and as I’m doing a lot of motorway miles at the moment, I didn’t want to risk it. I was hoping that my car would last another year or two so I could get my finances sorted out – but that’s not to be. I’ve bought a three year old Skoda Fabia 1.9 SDI in silver. I wanted the turbo diesel, but they didn’t have any, and if they did, it would probably have been too expensive. Still, this car is nice – a few mod cons like electric windows, air conditioning and a trip computer thingy, and it’s a little bit bigger than my metro, so hopefully I’ll be able to carry passengers in relative comfort.

Craft-wise, I haven’t been stitching, because all my attentions have been concentrated on knitting – which I’m still mad about! I’ve almost finished my scarf, and I’m making progress on Newt’s Dr Who scarf – I might post some pictures at the weekend if I get chance.

Reading – haven’t read anything that doesn’t have pictures of necrotising flesh in it recently.

I don’t have any major plans for the next couple of weeks – other than trying to write something about wound care, but then I have a wedding and a christening to go to, which should break up the monotony quite nicely.

Here’s a photo of the second baby hat I knitted (sorry, it’s not a great photo). This was the first thing I made where I had to do anything other than plain knitting – I just had to decrease stitches to shape the crown, but I’m quite pleased with it.

I’m now working on a new project in the book – a stocking stitch sweater. This is much harder than the hats. I’ve to increase, decrease and keep count of my rows and all that. And I’m not being all that successful! I’ve finished the front and the back – but they’re a little bit lopsided. I’m now on my third attempt at a sleeve – but I now know what I did wrong the first two times, so we should be OK now.

My Shimmer scarf is coming on well now, and is a nice relief from all the counting that I have to do with the jumper.

Yesterday, I went to visit my parents and we went to my Grandma’s local wool shop to buy the yarn for Newt’s Doctor Who scarf. Personally, I think the colours aren’t as muted as the original, and it might look a bit garish. But Newt is happy with it, and that’s all that matters. I won’t be starting it until I’ve finished my shimmer scarf though, because I don’t want to fall into the trap of starting a hundred things and finishing nothing!

Over the last week I’ve also acquired some Sirdar Snowflake Chunky yarn for a baby pattern, some cheaper ‘fake’ Snowflake yarn to see how that knits up, and some baby DK ‘pearlised’ yarn for my next baby project. And while I was buying all these things, I saw a pattern for a throw in Sirdar Denim Ultra chunky that looked really nice.

So I’d either better learn to knit a lot faster, or stop buying stash!

I went into town yesterday as I had to have my hair done and was meeting a friend for lunch. Having my hair done is not a treat for me, more like a trip to the dentist – a necessary evil! What is it with hairdressers that when you say “I’m growing my hair so I just want a *small* trim, please don’t take off more than an inch”, they lop off a good 6 inches, and when you say “This is really too long for me, please take off at least 2-3 inches” you walk out looking almost the same as you did when you went in? My experience was the latter. I’ve been to this hairdresser 3 times now. First time she restyled my hair and did a really great job. Took me a while to get used to it, but it was a great cut. Second time – not so great, but she was hungover, so I forgave her. Third time – again, not so great. It doesn’t look bad, but it doesn’t look all that much different. I swear she doesn’t cut it as short as I ask so that I have to go back sooner. Then she put some goo on it that did not look good – but this morning it’s much better.

Then I went to meet my friend for lunch at the building where I used to work. When she was 15 minutes late, I called her mobile, but it was switched off. So I asked reception to call her desk, but their staff list was a year old, and they’ve had a reorganisation in that time, so it was the wrong number. So I then went through a list of EVERYONE I know who works in that building – but it was lunchtime on a beautiful sunny day, so no one in their right mind was at their desk. I finally got hold of someone – not that it helped much, but by this time she was about 45 minutes late, so I gave up and went shopping! (I later got a text from her apologising profusely – she’d been caught up in some work crisis – not a problem, we’ll just meet another time).

So then I decided to do a bit of shopping – nothing too exciting. I got a pair of black sparkly flip flops (they look nicer than they sound). Then I went to a wool shop and got a pattern for a baby blanket and jacket (not really sure why…) and some Wendy Shimmer yarn in Bordeaux to make a scarf. It looks and feels fabulous.

When I showed Newt he said “Can you knit with *that*?”, to which I confidently replied “Of course!”. I had asked the lady in the shop, who told me it was a bit slippy, but not too bad. Fine. I thought. I’m only making a scarf – it can’t be that bad. This morning – not quite so confident. I cast on without too much hassle, but then discovered that really, it isn’t all that easy. It doesn’t feel too slippy to me – I just can’t see a d@mn thing when I knitting. No idea where the stitches are, no idea whether I’m on a knit or purl row – nothing. All the little bitty-bits get in the way. On my first attempt, I got about 6 rows in, and then realised I’d got a huge hole at the bottom where I must have dropped a stitch – but there was no way I could see anything to mend my error – so I had to start again. I’m doing a bit better now – knitting looser and counting my stitches at the end of each row seems to help. But I think this is one to just work on every now and again for the moment!

I finished another hat yesterday – I’ll add a photo when Newt gets back from work and I can use his hand as a model! I learned to decrease stitches by knitting two together in this one – although I didn’t end up with exactly the right number of stitches at the end, so it would appear that I can’t count, but the end result looks fine to me. I also changed colour, which was amazingly easy. So easy in fact, that I’m convinced that I can’t have done it right. I’m sure things will get more complicated if I start having to change colours in the middle of a row, or if I have to carry colours across and stuff like that – but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

After I finished the hat last night I cast on a few stitches to practice purling, stocking stitch, ribbing and increasing stitches for my next project. The most ambitious yet – a baby jumper! I’ve got some denim coloured yarn that I quite like for this one, but parts of the pattern look a bit tricky to me – things like buttonholes, and picking up stitches from cast off edges, and putting other stitches onto stitch holders. But I think it will be quite a while before I get to them, so maybe by then I’ll understand what the instructions mean.

I’ve also been going mad looking at knitting and wool websites. I want an alpaca because they’re so cute – and then I could spin my own yarn as well. I also love the yarn from Hipknits – it’s gorgeous, and I may just have to get some to make a scarf or something. I’ve also been looking at books on Amazon, and I think I might have to get a book for beginners knitting – I just can’t decide which one!

I’ve finished my first ever knitted item! OK, so the knitting is still a bit uneven, and the sewing together leaves something to be desired, and I was supposed to do blanket stitch not cross stitch round the edge, but I couldn’t get that neat enough. BUT – it looks more or less like it’s supposed to, and I could definitely tell that my tension was becoming more even towards the end. So I’m pleased.

I’ve started on the next project in the book which is a shaped hat. In this project I have to change colour yarn, and decrease stitches. I’ve made a reasonable start, and it seems to be going pretty quickly so I might even finish this weekend.

I was also looking at Hazy’s Yarny blog, and she mentions a book on knitting an afghan that she found from Karen’s blog. It’s called ‘Learn to Knit Afghan Book by Barbara Walters’ and I may just have to get it because it seems like a good introduction to different knitting stitches. But maybe I’ll wait until I’m a bit better at the basics first.

I’ve had quite a productive week. I’ve done enough work on my dissertation that I’m not too stressed about it. Although I have reached somewhat of an impasse, and I can’t get hold of any of my tutors to do anything about it! I’ve printed off a load of articles that I think are relevant, I’ve run my search on the main databases – Medline, BNI, Cinahl, EBM and Embase – and searched Midirs as well. I still need to search Cochrane Library, but I’m putting that off because the interface is so horrible I can’t face it at the moment! I’ve catalogued all the results in a spreasheet, so I can keep track of what I’ve printed, and what I’m going to include and exclude. Most (but not all) of my results are in Endnote, in a separate library so I can keep track of them. So I’m feeling reasonably organised about it all (even if I haven’t managed to actually read anything yet). I still need to order some articles that our library doesn’t hold, but I plan to do that tomorrow when the library will be quieter.

Other than that, I’ve been to an open day at a hospital near where my parents live. So far, this is the only Trust that has advertised any jobs. The other places that I was hoping to apply to aren’t letting on when or if they’ll have any jobs this year. I’ve sent in my application form, but if I do get this job, it’ll mean moving further away from Leeds than we were originally planning. But with Newt working in Manchester, if I were to be working in Oldham, it would seem silly to still live in Yorkshire. Plus we’d save almost £200 a month just on train tickets! It would also mean that we’d want to move sooner rather than later because I don’t particularly fancy an hour long commute over the M62 after a 14 hour shift. But, I’ve got to actually get the job before we need to worry about any of that.

I’ve also been shopping to get an outfit for a Christening in July where I’m going to be Godmother. I’m really pleased with what I’ve got – I now just need a necklace to go with it.

Today, I did more shopping and bought the Antony and Alison ‘Boho Kitten’ t-shirt that I liked last time I went shopping. And I got a tinted moisturiser for arms and legs, and a pair of shoes. Oh, and a pair of jeans that were reduce from £40 to £12.

Other than that, I’ve been knitting! I read the Simply Knitting magazine that I bought, and decided to give it a go. So I went to Hobbycraft and bought a Sirdar ‘Learn to Knit’ booklet. I’m quite impressed with it. It has instructions for the basic stitches, and 16 patterns that increase in complexity. Unfortunately they’re all baby clothes – which is scary for Newt – but at least babies don’t care if you drop a stitch or if your tension’s all wonky! I got some plain baby double knit wool, a pair of needles, and i’ve almost finished my first hat! Newt has now decided he wants a Dr Who scarf. I said ‘No problem’, then found out that it’s about 13 feet long – so he might get it in a few years time, if he’s lucky!

On that subject, it’s actually quite frightening the amount of information out there on Dr Who scarves. I point you towards doctorwhoscarf.com to illustrate my point. So last night I tried to get Newt to help me choose the colours of the wool for the scarf. Then followed LONG discussions on what colour “camel”, “rust”, “bronze” and “mustard” represent. At first Newt told me to just use my judgement, but after we’d discussed whether we were talking “English Mustard” colour, or “Dijon mustard” colour – he can pick them himself, or else I’m not being held responsible!!!