I went to my Spinning and Weaving group yesterday and met a lovely group of people. They helped me with my spinning wheel, which needs fettling - I have the number of a chap Ystradgynlais way who will sort it for me. The wheel isn't running true. I suspect when we moved house, it was crammed in as the uprights seem a bit loose now too. I went out in the hall and stood and practiced my drop spindling and it came back to me, though I need to practice a lot more. Knitting - well, go back and do it on DPNs I was advised. Rats! Would have preferred the circular needle but the one I have is too long in the loop for the number of stitches I have. Perhaps if I cast on looser . . .
Above is the fabulous view of Pen y Fan and Crybyn from the lane half a mile down from Llandew village hall, where the group meets.
I didn't stay until the end as the weather was luring me back to do a couple of hours in the garden. I planted my white Foxglove in a small planter, and weeded a couple of others (weeds round the roses), watered recent plantings, planted the half a dozen strawberry plants I got in B&M Bargains, trimmed the old growth on my Kilmarnock willow, and generally did a bit of weeding and tidying up. Baby trees soon spring up if overlooked . . .
In the evening I rewatched the last episode of Outlander, but at the end I suddenly fell apart when Fergus unexpectedly dies in the fire at the print shop, and Marsali says she has no body to hold and grieve for, there are only ashes. I looked across at Keith's ashes, in their lovely willow casket, and cried, screaming internally at my loss. I guess it is the same for so many widows, on their own and missing the partner of a lifetime so greatly.
When I went to bed, my cold had reached my larynx and I felt like I was going to suffocate, and I kept trying to clear my throat to no avail. I was scared to go to sleep in case I woke up desperate for air, as I did the other night. It was gone midnight before I finally drifted off, and I was ok.
I'm off to Tam's in a minute, so they can get some jobs done which need two of them - I being the Rosie minder. Enjoy your weekend.
27 years is not a lifetime, we did not have children or even live together, but we did grow old together. As the seasons continue to turn through another year I should like to offer a group hug to anyone feeling that loss today.
ReplyDeleteThank you Jacquie. Keith and I were together nearly 40 years and did everything together, sharing so many interests. I think a group hug is welcome, thank you.
DeleteHave you ever heard of magic loop? It is a method of knitting where you can use a longer circular needle for projects with a smaller diameter. There are tutorials on YouTube.
ReplyDeleteHope you feel better soon. Best wishes, Charmaine
That's pretty well what I am using but the length is wrong. I went onto Amazon last night and ordered the shorter one. Don't know why the ladies at the group didn't suggest this! I thought there was a standard length . . .
DeleteFeeling a bit brighter now that the sun has arrived and I had a lovely family day yesterday.
Can you use the magic loop method with your circular for your hat so you can avoid the dpns?
ReplyDeleteKJ
I have a shorter pair of needles arriving today :)
DeleteI bet Tam really appreciate the 'Rosie minder' arriving. It's nice to be able to get on with jobs without a little one under your feet for a while isn't it. I hope you are feeling much better soon.
ReplyDeleteYes, Tam needed to paint Rosie's bedroom so she can move across soon. She has chosen a bright cheery yellow, very similar to the yellow we had in the Morning Room at Ynyswen.
DeleteYour breathing issues sounds frightening. During and after Covid I had similar episodes o f waking up unable to breathe , continuing thru this recent flu--doctors kept saying panic attacks, but one guy gave me a short pack of both prednisone and an antibiotic and it cleared up the [problems really fast.
ReplyDeleteI'm so saddened by your ongoing grief, it it almost two years now?
If ''magic loop'' doesn't work or is too cumbersome [I can't do it, too fussy] you can get a short circular needle and or DPNs for not much via amazon. [as I m sure you know].
love
lizzy
Just mucus in throat, it's why they prop you up with lots of pillows in hospital I guess. That has passed now but it then got to my larynx and I have been croaking rather than talking.
DeleteIt is early days yet, in the grieving process. I think we all had a degree of PTSD from Keith's final days. I was having to nurse him here alone at the end, when he should have been in a hospice, and the strain of having to make medical decisions when I have no medical training, and trying to keep him out of pain, was acute. I was within a gnat's whisker of a breakdown. That takes some getting over.
I hate dpns!!!
ReplyDeleteYes, it's funny how things suddenly set us off, isn't it? It's the price we pay.
They take some practice, haven't used them for years.
DeleteYes, something suddenly hits me and I double up with grief.
I noticed that Diana Gabaldon on her FB page stated she had no input on the Outlander episode in which Fergus dies in the fire. We all 'know' it was Henri Christian who perished in the fire! I've found that in most cases a dramatization doesn't live up to the book. A former neighbor shared the CD's of the first Outlander series--I watched only two episodes. I'm currently watching the Cadfael series--so much of the language and the subleties of the books is missing.
ReplyDeleteThose who lose a mate--or a child--may work through that pain to some degree but the reminders are a terrible jolt.
I don't think she approved of it either. The series has on the whole been very good, but then they did the prequel and it seems to have gone to their heads to alter things. The Cadfael books are such good stories, and asyou say the subtleties of the books doesn't change over to tv well.
ReplyDeleteA terrible jolt - yes that sums it up well. Like suddenly being stabbed with a sword in the heart.
Being a Rosie minder sounds like a good time! I join in the group hug.
ReplyDeleteThank you Debby. Sometimes it suddenly hits me like a ton of bricks.
ReplyDelete