Hat With Duck Motif

I am having a break from the aran knitting. I have finished off the back and two fronts now.The last front too k me longer than I had anticipated due to the fact that I forgot to place a buttonhole and had got up to the armhole shaping before I realised it. Grr I just love unpicking - especially aran.

My niece in London asked me to knit 4 hats with a duck motif on for her to give to duck mad friends and baby girls. I suddenly realised that I need to get these hats down to her before Christmas so decided to leave the aran and push on with the hats.A friend of my niece is going down to London before Christmas so with a bit of luck they will be finished for her to take with her to save on the postage. My niece and her husband work full time so they miss the postman and have to travel miles to the sorting office (they don't have a car) to pick up any parcels that they have missed. I made the gents hat first to see how large the motif turned out so that I can make adjustments for the babies hats. I got the motif from a children's cardigan pattern by Cascade yarns. It is a cute pattern and if you click on my blog title you can see it.

I am going for both my flu jabs this afternoon so I am hoping that i don't get a sore arm as a lot of my friends did when they had their swine flu jab. That will really put my hat knitting back a bit and drive me mad. I can't just sit and do nothing so I will have to devise a way to either knit or crochet if this happens.

At least it is not raining today. My knee doesn't like the cold and the wet.I am looking forward to the day when I will have a full nights sleep as I haven't slept all through the night for over 5 yrs now. First it was back pain waking me up and when I got that sorted then the knee pain jabs me awake. I just know that when I visit the specialist in January he will say it's my weight causing this. They will not listen when I say it's the pain that has caused all this weight gain and not the other way around.

Time for a coffee and to sort out my shopping list as I might as well do some whilst I am out and about. I have to pass some shops on my way to the doctors so why waste a walk?

My front room is my world (for the moment)

These are my two new sofas in my new hospital ward. My ex husband was less than complimentary about my front room but as you can see from my nest (old recliner chair) I have everything to hand that I need so that I don't have to keep getting up and down all of the time. The essentials in the last photo are my 2 Interweave crochet book back issues and mags and Thorntons chocolates so I have plenty to read. Vicky had also brought me some knitting mags plus I have only glanced through the ones that she brought me before my op so I am definitely stocked up on the reading material. The purple box by my nest is proving very useful. It was filled with hospital goodies from Vicky which I have shuffled about and put things like my pills, glasses, mobile phone etc as well as the wet wipes.

I had a very disjointed night last night and woke up quite a few times. Not in extreme pain but just enough to make it hard for me to nod off again. Possibly I wasn't tired enough last night as I am not one of nature's greatest sleepers and usually only aim for 5 - 6 hours on a good night. Last night I was in bed before 12 and so by 2.30 am had a good sleep and was ready to get up. I did make myself lie there and eventually dozed off again to wake at 4am and then 5.30am. I decided at 6.30am to give up and get up. I did however manage a little doze this afternoon on my day bed (3 seater sofa) but it is a bit low and I did jar my back.

I have not had any visitors today but plenty phone calls. I am happy in myself and have managed to find a spot in my nest that I can crochet from although I still feel like I have a large button in the centre of my back. My back is sore but I had a look with the aid of mirrors today and is a bit bruised and red looking. I think possibly it's from the sliding action as I wriggle about on chairs and in the bed.

Thanks for everyones good wishes and apologies that I haven't caught up with anyones blog as yet. I can just about manage 5 mins max in this PC chair before I start to get really uncomfy.