Ahoy there dearest readers! It has been some time since we last met. I have been drifting upon the seas encountering Christmas, School Holidays and Back to School. I didn’t mean to be away so long but the CFS part of me was not quite up to anything beyond the basics. I found I had to give up the interwebs for a while just to manage. Time seems to have passed quickly but in a very slow way!
Let me catch you up with my making.
On my needles you can see I have almost finished another Montbretier shawl by Carol Feller from The Book of Haps (2016). This is my sole project and has been for some months. For a while there, my arms were too tired to get through a row but slowly, slowly I have almost made it to the end.
Whilst I have not been knitting much, I have been trying to do a little more cooking beyond the (almost) daily achievement of dinner. After Our Dear Boy harvested a basket of cumquats, I managed a batch of cumquat marmalade which I have loved since I used harvest cumquats as a child. Our lovely Italian neighbours shared with us how they eat cumquats, just the skin, raw, peeled away from the squishy bit. It is like a lolly, sweet and delicious. But my heart lies in marmalade.
I have also been fermenting sauerkraut. When we were in Germany five years ago, I discovered real, fresh sauerkraut. It is a wonderfully healthy thing to eat. Locally made, fresh sauerkraut is $15 AUD a jar, but a cabbage is only $3, so the economic inducement to make my own was fairly compelling and the process is super simple.
On my wheel, you can see I have begun spinning for my final project in the Spinning Certificate run the Handweavers and Spinners Guild of Victoria. It is a Polwarth and Alpaca blend that I made with hand carders for a 2ply lace weight woollen yarn. Despite everything, I have managed to keep going with the course and look forward to sharing my final project with you as it progresses.
Thank you for your emails and good wishes over the last few months. You have cheered me in ways that are difficult to express. You have shared your own experiences with chronic illness so as to encourage and reassure me. These emails have always been unexpected yet curiously timely. I feel I have been most fortunate to have such kind and gracious readers.
I continue to steadily improve in health and energy.
Finally I would like to introduce you to Our Dear Pup who came to live with us a few month ago. She is funny, cheeky and delightful company for us all. She is a yarn thief, a spinning homework destroyer and a fleece eater but now we know that, I plan accordingly.
I hope to be back here again soon but in the meantime perhaps would like to share with me what you have been up to?
