Catching up

How are you doing?  It feels like I've been away from blogland a little too long, and I miss connecting with you.

Where to begin...  I'll start with what's in my heart and on my mind:
Last week I went back to the UK to visit family.  It was an unplanned trip at short notice - we recently discovered that my Grandma has stage 4 breast cancer.  Yes, this nasty disease is rearing it's ugly head in our family once again.  And with the same upsetting prognosis.  I am thankful that I got to go back and spend time with my Grandma, and the rest of my family, but it was an extremely hard trip.  I adore my Grandma and saying goodbye was soo difficult.

My Gran is an amazing knitter and used to create beautifully intricate and complex garments that were shipped to the US and Japan.  It used to tickle her that the company she worked for would deliver the yarn, and pick up the completed sweaters, in an armored vehicle.  She smiled at the thought of what the neighbours must think she was up to :)))

I was glad to see that one day she was covered in a handmade blanket at her palliative care nursing home.  It was really pretty pastels and added a cosy touch as well as helping keep the chill off.  Of course all this spurred me on to make additional squares for Bertie's Blankets.  You can see the latest progress over on the Bertie's Blankets blog (try saying that quickly 3 times ;o) 

It was a low key visit so there was lots of down time for knitting (which Grandma would like to hear about and then shake her head jokingly asking where I found the time :).  Aside from the blanket squares I worked on a novelty purse for my Mum using some t-shirt yarn - Zpaghetti.  Man, that was like knitting with exercise bands - I felt like I'd had quite the workout after knitting a few rows on it!  (If only it burned the calories like a workout would).   But it was nice to have something to work on that was straightforward and a temporary distraction.

Here's the finished object.  It's cute and fun for summer.  My Mum is into blue at the moment and so I think she liked it well enough.  There won't be any repeats though... I was happy to get back to knitting sock yarn on skinny needles!


I'll be catching up on your blogs over the coming days and looking forward to seeing what you've been up to. 
Big hugs,
Sam xxx