Also this little nuisance has been keeping me from crafting:

Pixiebelle "helps" me loom knit

She’s a bit older than that now (4 months) but still has a yarn fetish and a sixth sense — she can be anywhere in the apartment but the moment I pull out yarn she comes running to investigate!  She’s at the vet right now getting spayed so fingers crossed for her speedy recovery!! I’m keeping her shaved fur to spin, hee hee

So anyway, since I’ve been gone so long I imagine not many folks are following me anymore, but those of you who are still out there, do you think it would be a bad idea if I moved this blog elsewhere?  I have my own server now with Wordpress on it and other blogs I’m setting up there so it would be easier for me to have it all in the same place, but I don’t want to disadvantage my readers too much or lose too much traffic that I’d get from wordpress.com searches.  (And yes I will definitely post the new address here so people can find me later!)

Thoughts? Suggestions?  If no one says anything I’ll take that as a sign that I should move the blog as no one’s watching here anyway

I know that most people here don’t like long-winded diatribes about personal life so I’ll just say that my father has been gravely ill since mid-May and I was in the States with him and my mom at various hospitals and assisted living facilities (he’s still in the Army and they didn’t let him come home – even to visit – until after I had to get back to the UK :/ So we had to go to him.)  As I said earlier I got to go to Convergence which was awesome and has gotten me to take up weaving on paper looms (no space for proper ones at this time maybe looking for an inkle soon tho).  And due to the stress of the situation (Daddy was really touch and go for a while there in and out of ICUs) we did a ton of retail therapy in an attempt to keep ourselves half-sane and so I now have a starter supply of scrapooking and card making stuff.

I did get to go to I Knit Day, but sadly missed seeing most of y’all who were there.  But I have proof that I went! (In my totally non-goth, non-steampunk look I’ve been sporting all summer as my mom hates goth so I’ve reverted to neohippy )

I’ve done a ton of craft projects over the summer but most are not yet photographed.  I’m still completely exhausted both physically and mentally and am not really up to dealing with people still so have not been reading blogs. I am sorry and I hope to get back to it as soon as I am able. But right now my priority is my health which is why my husband is whisking me away for a short break at the (all-too-chilly) seaside for a few days for us to relax and chill out before preparing for the next hurdle: him having to go home to *his* ill father and me having to fend for myself for two weeks.  That’s so scary I can barely think about it yet (and haven’t the health or wealth to go with him). All I know is that I am going to have a lot of people over to craft with me in the evenings so if you are going to be in the London area in mid to late October and want to come play let me know  But I have several hats and a mini scrapbook to make before he leaves so when I get back I have to get a move on! )

I’m also planning to be at The Big Stamp & Scrap Show next weekend and the Knitting & Stitching show on the 9th and 12th of October, both at Ally Pally, if anyone is going to either of those.  I hope to be able to catch up with people I missed at I Knit due to being in a delightful haze of fiber-buying

Well, I am going to go finish packing and wait for the boi to wake up and give me presents.  Wheee!

I’ll try to post more of my summer projects next week if I have any energy left

Organizing: I have bought so much stuff!  I had ordered more fiber from the Homestead Wool and Gift Farm before I found out that I would be able to attend Convergence 2008.  No, not the goth one, the biennial conference of the Handweavers Guild of America.  I was only able to go for one afternoon at the exhibit hall but oh my, what a wonderful experience!  I don’t weave much yet (although that’s something I want to do more of in the future) but the vendors included sooooo much for spinners and dyers.  Dyeing, too, is something I have only toyed with really, but I hope to take a natural dyeing course through a lovely SCA lady in the UK if she is ever able to resume doing the courses.  Plus there was plenty of “weaving” (read: knitting) yarn for me to buy  So I loaded up a lot on fiber and yarn and got two new spindles, a nostepinne, a new lucet, some wooden bobbins, a sock loom from a company I’d never heard of before and several books for spinning on spindles. It was fabulous!  (And many thanks to Mom for financing it all )  Mom really, really fell in love with the Ashford Elizabeth 2 but I have yet to make up my mind as to whether I prefer a double treadle or a double-wide single treadle (like on the E2).  I just don’t know which is better for my knees.  And anyway, I want to get a drum carder before considering a wheel!  (Plus I am holding out for a reasonably-priced electric spinning “wheel” to appear in the UK, alas I can’t just get a US one because of the power/voltage issues :/)

We also stopped at 5 scrapbooking/stamping stores and one quilt store plus Michael’s had a big sale on scrapbooking stuff while we were down there and we hit a Hobby Lobby.  (No Serenity looms though, do they still make/sell those???)

So as a result of all of this wonderful stash enhancement, I’ve been spending most of today trying to organize everything so that I can get the most out of what little crafting time I will have available to me this trip.

Advance!  On to bigger and better things, I say!  I’m really gunning to get crafting, I just have several more chores and a few doctors appointments this week and then I can hopefully get my pics off my cameras to post them and also get back to making stuff!

Hope everyone is having a great week, and happy 4th of July to those who celebrate it.

PS. Don’t miss today’s episode of Yarncraft (the podcast by Lion Brand) which is on Loom Knitting!  I’m bummed that I never really got the chance to call in for it but oh well.  I’m going to go listen right now!

I do plan to start posting and reading blogs again but I am taking today off to rest as I’ve been pushing it too hard for the past week and my body is not coping well.  But hopefully from tomorrow we’ll be able to settle into a new routine for a while, until they medivac him either to Georgia or (ideally) directly to North Carolina.  Then we’ll be driving back pulling a trailer with all of the stuff he has accumulated in the past seven months and will if all goes well be back in NC by the end of next week.  Fingers crossed!

I haven’t done much crafting while we’ve been away but we have found some really nice shops that I plan to write about tomorrow.  Until then, I have a lot of CraftTVWeekly.com to catch up on!

Meanwhile, my father is back in the hospital but still in Tampa, Florida.  They can’t figure out how to physically transport him without risk.  So Friday (or possibly earlier if he gets worse), Mom and I will drive the lengthy route down there and if we’re lucky be able to bring him back with us or at least take him to the next Army staging point which is one of their hospitals in Georgia.  I will have my mom’s laptop with me but she has problems getting onto his internet down there so it may be dialup for us.  (And anyway three of us in a STUDIO apartment up TWO flights of stairs — I can’t even bring my wheelchair as we’re all too crip to get it up and down the stairs — may drive us to murdering each other.  At least we’re a stone’s throw from the beach!!) 

So it may remain quiet around here for a while yet.  Thankfully I have had a lot of crafting time and a 30+ hr round trip drive (maybe more if we have to detour to the other side of Georgia on the way back) will give me plenty of time to get my sock knitting going.  If anyone reading this as Isela’s basic toe-up pattern (that you get with her sock looms) and knows how many stitches to cast on to start, I’d love to know — it looks like 18 but then peg 19 is supposed to have a loop on it already so I am confused.  I’m going to have to keep going cuff-down until I figure that out.

And we’re not even going to talk about the mountain of crafting supplies I’ve bought since I have been here.  My luggage is going to hate  me!!

But enough of that, I have my diabetes classes this week so have to be up bright and cheery, plus the CFS/Fibro self-help course starts tomorrow too, so I need my beauty sleep!

I haven’t read blogs since I got to the US but I hope everyone and all their loved ones are healthy and happy.  Best wishes to you and yours.

Have done a ton of crafty shopping today, mostly books, magazines and second sets of supplies that are going to live here at my parents house so I don’t have to keep dragging things back and forth across the ocean (beading pliers, Knifty Knitters, etc.). And 10 skeins of Lion Brand Homespun, at last! Now to find a Serenity loom if we make it to a Hobby Lobby (sadly, an hour or so away from here), or to ponder an afghan or prayer shawl loom from somewhere else if it would get here in time before I leave (which may be as soon as 9 weeks from now). Meanwhile I have the Fine Gauge double rake from Decor Accents to play with and 15 balls of Peaches and Creme so many dishcloths are in my future! Still waiting on the DA single rake and sock loom which should get here in a week or two.

Oh and did I mention that mom gave me a yarn budget of $200? (Not counting the Homespun or anything else that is being made for her.) Yaaaaaaay! I love being a spoiled only child!!

BTW the trip to Tampa, Florida is back on but Pennsylvania is still cancelled. My dad’s colonoscopy is on the 29th so fingers crossed that the news is good. They did find that he had a massive infection of the intestines requiring IV antibiotics so maybe, just maybe, that was behind the mass they had seen on tests before. *hope hope* It may be something like Chron’s or Diverticulitis but those are very manageable and certainly less life threatening than cancer. So he’s not coming home for the summer and we’ll have to go visit him. He retires from the Army in December so will finally get to come home for good then, no more tours of duty!!

But first up I have to finish the item for the Functional Felt Swap and mail my ATC for the Creative Mom swap. And get my computer fixed. So until tomorrow…

My dad’s health is getting weirder.  They couldn’t find the mass/alleged tumor on the CAT scans so now he’s scheduled for a thorough colonoscopy on the 29th.  Maybe the mass went away?  It’s a medical mystery at this point.  But until we know what it is, the Army is keeping him down in Florida, so it looks like I will be headed to Tampa after all.  Don’t know for how long.

My health — which I try to avoid talking about too much for fear of turning people off — is getting worse in a number of ways and my mom and t think that since I’ve already cleared my schedule for four months it might be worthwhile me staying in the US for some private treatment that I can’t get here on the NHS and so that we can do family weight loss efforts together since it’s getting to be life threatening for my dad and so I’d still be there to support/harass him (if they let him come home or I go to him).  I’ve only managed to lose 8 pounds in the 10 weeks since I was diagnosed with Diabetes so I need to step it up more too as there’s still 40 more to go to be officially in the healthy range.

So it’s still unknown just how long I will spend in the US, what part of the US I will be in when (NC or Florida) and whether I will be over there for my treatments or my dad’s or both.

Thus I may be fairly quiet here until I get to mom’s house on the 25th.  I have swaps to make stuff for, packages to get out and the gargantuan task of trying to pack for 2-4 months in one suitcase and one carryon.

So my summer of getting care and giving t a carer’s holiday is turning into me looking after me dad and my mom looking after us both. I may also need to stay indefinitely, probably at least through September. So I guess I need to lay in a lot more craft supplies.  Send sock yarn  There’s going to be a lot of sitting in hospitals waiting around this summer, no matter what :/  And lucky me has to remember how to drive again as I’ll have to be the one to drive him to radiation, chemo or whatever they decide to do as Mom only has limited time off.  I haven’t driven anything bigger than my power chair in 5 years so this will be a challenge :/ Mercifully I still have my US license and insurance.

So whoosh, this is kind of heavy and I’m in a weird headspace at the moment. We’re trying to save so that t can go to Australia to see HIS dad, who is still waiting for a kidney transplant, and now my dad has gone from having a minor little cancer that was mostly in remission to possibly having a big huge cancer that they might not be able to treat very well.

This totally sucks.

I’ve started making thank-you cards.  Not quite satisfied with the design yet but I’m still working on it.

I’m also starting to make my packing list for my trip.  I’m trying to be minimal about what craft supplies I take — tools only — but when dealing with things like hand carders and jewelry pliers it’s starting to stack up :/  I need to be less than one suitcase on the way over and will bring three home but one of those will be mostly magazines and the two small quilts we plan to make, plus I’m stocking up on pillows as I can’t get the ones I like over here.  I vacuum seal them but it’s still a lot of bulk.

Homestead Wool and Gift Farm got another batch of new fibers today so I finally placed an order. Several pounds of fiber, about half raw and the other half roving.  That should keep me for most of the summer for spinning and felting, I don’t know when I will find time to dye, quilt and embroider! My beading stuff is mostly going over to do the annual repairs on mom’s substantial collection, including re-knotting all of the pearls this year.  

But I’m worried that we may spend a few weeks in Florida in the hospital if my dad doesn’t get better.  He has a mass that is squashing his intestines that they don’t know what it is yet. I think it’s a hematoma like Helen has, but there’s a chance it may be cancerous  Anyway I may also be stranded in NC when I first arrive as Mom may be down in Florida with Daddy. (Remember he’s only in Florida because of the Army, he’s due to retire any day now but they are keeping him down in Florida until this health crisis is over which may be many more months. So Mom goes to visit as much as she can.)  So I need a lot to keep me busy as my looms may not be in by then!

I also have a ton of beading work to do for her before I go. I don’t want to take beads over if I can help it, so all of the stuff I have bought to make things for her needs to get done next week, ideally.

Plus I have two swaps to do (already started on both but need to finish) and two care packages to send out (Project Superstar and Purlpower).

So I am a very busy bunny the next few weeks!  But unfortunately my body has other ideas and is making me rest a lot so I’m just going to have to prioritize.  But just right now I have cards to make and emails that need writing, so I’d better be off!

I’ll leave you with a picture of some of the fiber I have ordered, a beautiful white baby alpaca…I bought a pound but there is still more for others!

Anyway, important reminder: My 5K walk for Fibromyalgia research is on Saturday so please donate now!  If you are new to this blog, Fibro is one of the many diseases that I have and walking 5K is well beyond my normal limits but it was important for me to do this as it’s a very worthy cause.  You can read more about my struggle on the donation page linked above.

So meanwhile, back to other things. We went to the National History show which was genealogy, archaeology and military history all together in one Expo.  Once again I was shocked that no scrapbooking suppliers were there as that seems like a great audience.  We saw some of the Time Team members (Tim, Tony and Phil) doing various presentations and generally found out about new stuff out for the genealogy market, etc.  The only thing we bought was mead from Three Drunken Monks but then we went to the huge Whole Foods in Kensington to stock up on supplies.

I’m still recovering from that day even though I was in the chair. I also seem to have come down with some kind of stomach virus which is unpleasant to say the least.  So my crafting has been pretty minimal.  I made two coffee cozies (which I would show you but my camera doesn’t like bright sun apparently, the colours went all weird) and started a legwarmer for a friend but I started getting hotspots on my fingers so had to give it a rest.  When I can’t knit or do something productive I feel guilty or at least out of sorts while sitting and watching tv or movies but sometimes my body just needs the rest and there’s nothing I can do about it.

I’m off to lay down again and get more rest.  I need to plan the route for Saturday’s walk ASAP and just spend the week resting up that’s going to be very, very taxing.  But I have so much crafting to be done in the next few weeks that I’m already feeling the stress and need to get things done for the sake of my brain,so we’ll just have to see what I can manage in between naps!