Last Post of the Year

Wow, I just realised that this will be my 10th blog update this month, and the 42nd one of this year - this must be some kind of a record for me: maybe I am finally getting the hang of this blogging thing.

The most important news is first....Oscar is doing SO well! His third round of blood tests has come back and shows a big improvement. He still isn't 100% by any means but there are good signs of things going in the right direction, which is the crucial thing. His white blood cell count is normal (yay!), his red blood cell count is still very low but it's better than it was and his liver enzyme level is still very elevated -- it's 5 times what it should be (but on the previous test it was 10 times what it should be!)

It's really reassuring to know clinically that there is an improvement as we had been noticing that he was more lively and energetic again but we weren't sure if it was just a blip in his illness. Because the test results are so good we know now that it was some kind of infection and thankfully it wasn't bone marrow disease -- we are certain that he's used up at least one of his nine lives with this illness, I really believe that he wouldn't have made it through without the care and medication from the vets.

I've started to work with some of the yarns I bought in Germany! These three hats are made in different shades of the same yarn - it's a 90/10 blend of acrylic and mohair and we bought it in the department store in Munich.

 I've only made one of these wrist warmers so far but loved it so much that I had to take a photo before I started to work on the second one :) This is made using wool that I bought in the wool-shop in Nuremberg and it's GORGEOUS! I bought it in three different shades (as far as I can remember) - it's 100% pure wool and is made like a ribbon yarn but in a ribbon of felt! I found it a bit strange to work with at first and was using the wrong hook -- I thought a 4mm hook would be right but it was coming up too stiffly so I switched to a 5mm one and treated it like aran weight yarn and it's much better now. The ball-band says to use a 5-6mm hook, I think a 6mm would make it too loose but I haven't tried it so I can't really say!

These ones are more familiar to me - when we were in the wool shop in Nuremberg I noticed that they had a 10-pack of my one of my favourites so I splurged and bought it (along with everything else!) You can't ever have too much Lang Mille Colori- I love using it for wrist warmers and really adore this shade because the colours come up just so randomly. It's so much fun to work with and they always seem to sell well for me on my Etsy shop and at craft markets etc.

...and I've started working with some of the cottons I bought in Germany too - this hot pink was from the department store in Nuremberg.

I really need to concentrate on making some new wrist warmers for my Etsy shop right now; it's the same thing every year --- I say to myself that I have 'too many' in stock and then most of them sell over the busy pre-Christmas season and I'm left with very few for people to choose from. At one stage I just had 13 pairs (that's including three pairs of the little short wristlets) - I'm up to 16 pairs now but ideally I'd like to have lots more, so this is what I'm going to concentrate on for the time being...hopefully by the time I write my next blog update I'll have lots more to share..