Over the Bank Holiday Weekend I Am Mainly…

When I returned from the Festival of Quilts I unwittingly brought home an unwelcome visitor. If I had known the likelihood of this visitor turning up, I probably wouldn’t have gone to the Festival but, no matter, I simply have to put up with the situation. Oh! Who is the visitor? It’s my bete noir: the chest infection. I have a condition that makes me susceptible to them. However, I am not really going to complain as it is a long time since I last had one: just before my momentous trip to Australia, in fact!

I don’t feel particularly unwell neither do I look it. In some ways, it seems as though I am bit of a fraud. However, when I do any small thing, I am floored by tiredness. Every day I am having to lie on the sofa, whereupon I fall fast asleep for a couple of hours. Consequently my sewing and crafting has been extremely curtailed.

Last week I finished knitting some scarves and hats for older children in Syria using yarn that had been donated to me for a charitable purpose. This was a significant achievement for me as I had tried offering the yarn to several people but no-one wanted to knit with it as it was fluffy! And, there weren’t just one or two balls! I think there were six balls of white and four of peach – and there was a lot of meterage in each ball! The yarn had been languishing in the boot of my car for several months and I was thoroughly sick of seeing it there – looking at me accusingly. So… I decided that I would set myself the task of knitting it all. It took some time and a lot of teasing from Elizabeth but I have now used all but about three metres of it. Phew. Now, all I have to do is deliver it to the Syria Relief warehouse:

Details of the Syria Relief Warehouse in Openshaw

 As I don’t have the energy for large projects at the moment, when I had finished using the fluffy yarn I decided to start a pair of socks for one of my grandsons.

The First Sock…

As you can see, I haven’t progressed very far! That is due, in part, to my being distracted by a quick and easy crochet pattern that I saw on Facebook. The pattern is for hats for premature babies. I saw an article somewhere a few days ago that said that the number of premature births among Syrians has increased dramatically recently. I was obviously meant to see that crochet pattern so I have been making some little hats.

Crochet hats for premature babies in Syria

The hats are very quick and easy to make. Mind you, it is claimed on the pattern that one can be made in 10 minutes but mine are taking considerably longer! It is also a useful pattern for using up scraps of yarn so it’s a winner all round!

So, over the Bank Holiday weekend I shall be mainly knitting socks and crocheting hats for premature Syrian babies.