Yarn of Ale Christmas doo

Last night was my knitting group Christmas meal.  We went for a meal at Granvilles in Stone and it was lovely.  I ate so much more than usual which was good.  Lots of people with RA struggle with eating.  My weight is no indication of how much I actually eat, although last night, I went all out.

I also went all out on my outfit. I was wearing my new spotty tunic, leggings, red wedges, fake eyelashes and bright red lippy to match my red shoes. I did feel pretty good I have to say although I'm paying for the half inch heel today!

We had a secret Santa where we had to knit something out of 100% wool which could be either a scarf, hat or gloves.  I've spent the last 2 weeks knitting a beautiful scarf, or what I considered beautiful, but when I came to wash and block it yesterday morning, disaster!

It looked awful and I mean it looked bloody awful.  I couldn't possibly give it to anyone as a gift, I didn't take a secret Santa.

Well, when I saw everyone's creations I'm so glad I didn't take one, everyone else's were so beautiful and they'd put so much effort into them.   I would have been embarrassed to take my little gift along.

Now, I do consider myself to be a reasonably good knitter, I'm not amazing but I'm alright.  I'm told by several different people that my tension is good so all my stitches are even, and I choose nice yarns in my price range, I don't skimp too much unless its something I know will get chucked around.

Therefore, I think the reason why my knitting looks different to everyone else's is the way it's finished off, I'm just not very arty!  People tell me I'm arty all the time because I can knit but I'm not.  I can follow a pattern but I can't go that extra mile to make things look that little bit sparkly. I'm not that clever.

I was disappointed though. Looking at the knitting again this morning, it doesn't look that bad. Oh well, I suppose I can save it for next year!

Children in Need 2011

I wanted to share with you the achievements of my knitting group, Yarn of Ale.

On the evening of the 19th November my friends picked up their pins and knitted, none stop for 12 hours. They were not only being sponsored for Children in Need but they were knitting for Operation Christmas Child boxes.

A few of us went along to support them throughout the evening which was only able to go ahead with the support Laura and the rest of the staff at The Royal Exchange in Stone.  The locals were so generous and almost £300 was raised on the night, one local business man even bought us Pie and Chips at 1am.

A massive thank you must go to The Royal Exchange for letting us loose in the pub overnight.  Also thank you to George and everyone at The Blue Rooms for the beautiful pie and chips. And thank you to everyone who donated and made the night a success.

To Claire, Jo, Jeanette, Alison, Janine, Sheila and Rachael, well done, I am so very proud of you.

My final word go to Cheryl, the landlady of The Royal Exchange.  Cheryl was so 'up for it' when we told her our silly idea back in June, but sadly, due to ill health wasn’t able to enjoy the evening with us.  Thank you so much for your support over the years, we know you were there with us somewhere.

Turning 30 and all that goes with it.

Last Saturday I turned 30.  It was a rather emotional build up but actually the day itself passed by without too much trouble.

My birthday weekend started with a lovely curry with my knitting girls. They bought me some beautiful gifts which were most unexpected. It was such a lovely evening.

Saturday, which was actually my birthday, was quite a quiet day.  My knee was so painful and stiff all day, typical!  I went to get my hair done in the afternoon, they're so ace at Franceso's, they always look after me.

My Mum made me a cake and my Dad iced it.  It was his first attempt at icing a cake and I think he did a fine job.

The cake my Mum and Dad made for me.

In the evening we went to Granvilles in Stone.  What a laugh ! My mates were on form and great fun. Granvilles always have a live band on so most of my pals were throwing some shapes and taking it in turns to come and sit with me.  My friends try and include me all the time which is great but I want them to have a good time and not worry about me all the time.  Dancing is the one thing I think I miss the most.  Being a musician I love live music.  When a band are playing stuff like Stevie Wonder I find it really shitty that I can't have a dance with my pals, although I have for very good at wheelchair dancing at gigs etc.

My biggest concern with turning 30 is that I don't feel my life has moved on since I was 20.  I'm still living at home, I have no family or career.  I know things have changed since I was 20 but it just doesn't feel like it.  I went and got myself a masters degree.  I worked so hard to get some kind of career but life didn't take me down that path.  I've traveled, all be it mostly with my Mum and Dad but hey I've seen some amazing places so every cloud and all that!

Another little bitesize cake my friend bought for me.

Picture Knitting

Over the last month or so I've had go at picture knitting or intarsia.  It basically means knitting with lots of colours to create a picture.

The picture I wanted to do was only 3 colours, but with all the colours weaving in and out I ended up with with 15 balls of wool on the go at once!

WHAT A PAIN....but its worth it as the finished item looks amazing.

I'm knitting for my friend who is due to get married soon. She has a camper van and instead of gifts she would like little donations to put towards doing the camper up.

Therefore, she is getting knitting. I can't tell you what it is but I hope she likes it.

More to come soon....

Home of Metal

For those of you who don't know, the West Midlands is the Home of Metal. Black Sabboth, Led Zeppelin, Napalm Death and Judas Priest, amongst others, paved the way for rock music as we know and love it today.

Local musicians were celebrated in an exhibition in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in September. My friend Emma and I went along to have a look.

It was great to see how much the Midlands has shaped music and how the bands influenced the next generation of music lovers. Most of these men came from nothing, but went on to become some of the most famous people in the world, although often not for the right reasons (see Ozzy and something to do with a bat or a chicken, or something!)

No other genre has had the influence on fans and their imaginations as the metal genre has. Fashion and attitudes are all influenced buy metal, to the point that you know someone rocks before you've even spoken to them. Having said that, we don't all have the band shirts and patches on our jackets, some of the most straight looking people I've ever met love to rock out.

It's a genre with great depth and is often misunderstood, but I don't think it will ever die out. It's way too much fun and is forever capturing peoples imaginations.

www.homeofmetal.com

Home of Rock family tree.

Birmingham ArtsFest

Last weekend saw another successful weekend of arts in Birmingham. Every year the city boasts ArtsFest, the countries largest free arts festival.

My friend Nicola and I go every year and this year was no exception.  We saw some interesting stuff but the highlights have to be the CBSO (along with fireworks that are synchronized with the music) and a band called Casino. The Guillemots headlined but Casino were far better. Check them out; one of the guys is from the Stereophonics...I know that isn't much to go on as I'm not a Stereophonics fan but there we go.

Why does a day out ALWAYS make me ill?

I don't understand.  I went out for the day yesterday.  I didn't get up any earlier and I didn't go to bed any later, but I'm shattered. I used my scooter all day but my knee still hurts like mad.  We went to Blackpool to see the lights. I love Blackpool, people slag it off but I think there's a charm to it. 

I was amazed to see the lovely new accessible promenade that they've been working on for the last couple of years. It's still not quite finished but it looks great already.  The tram stops are being raised to tram level to make it accessible. Again, they are not quite finished but it will be great when they are done.  We spent a lot of the day in Cleavleys which is just north of Blackpool.  It's rather lovely.  A mixture of Blackpool tat but with cleaner streets. Although Blackpool looks a lot better than it did, even a year ago. 

The lights were rather dissopointing. Not so many years ago the road was full of illuminations on either side, this year a lot we're missing. Some of the lights that were there had bulbs out, in some cases a whole row was out. You wouldn't have seen this a few years ago. Workmen would go up and down the promenade fixing the lights throughout the evening. 

All in all though I had a fab day but I do wish some of the dropped kerbs were a little more dropped!