Category Archives: Itch to stitch
Stash busting failure :-(
Because I am having a problem with bottom halves I have bought itch to stitch sequoia cargo trousers and liana jeans, then of course I had to go to eBay and buy some cheap fabric to make them up in, I have also bought some beautiful purple jersey fabric for a love notions candence dress, I am starting to feel better, every night I think tomorrow, I’ll finish those two tops cut out on my table, I’ll take the photos of my sewing room – I’m planning to go to the knitting and stitching show this year the same as normal.
For some reason we thought, oh radiotherapy has finished we won’t have hospital appointments all week, wrong. Because the last week of radiotherapy/chemo my bone marrow stopped making Platelets (clotting) I have some beautiful purple bruises, this meant blood tests Monday /Thursday (check platelets) platelet transfusions Tuesday/Friday, finally my platelet count has started coming up, tomorrow’s blood test should confirm whether or not my marrow is now working, as long as the platelets come up from last week (no transfusion) hopefully the blood tests will no longer be needed.
I’m also having a MRI tomorrow, this is to confirm whether the left side weakness I am experiencing is being caused by swelling, which we are sure that is. The oncologist has upped my dexamethasone (steroid) for a week, left side weakness is resolving its self, we managed to take Charlie for a walk on the seafront today.
I wrote the first part of this post a week ago. My left side weakness is getting worse,the results of the mri is inconclusive, today is the first day in about 2 weeks that I’ve woken up with my brain thinking about working, the dexamethazone has been taken back down to 4 mg, my ankles and knees are swollen, still having regular blood tests no transfusions, this way we know if they are my platelets and not transfused platelets.
I have plans, next week Simon and I are going to blue water for shopping, gbk and Krispy cream donuts then the following week the knitting and stitching show at Olympia. I can’t wait.
Itch to stitch – Patternsy Printing
Just before Christmas I received an email from Kennis Wong about having the large-format PDFs printed by Patternsy, I thought I would try it out as I had been looking at printing. If Kennis wanted to do the research for me I thought I would give it a try.
It was quite straight forward, you login with a gmail account so that you can upload the patterns to google docs, then you fill out a form giving them your name, email address and address. Once you have done this Patternsy emailed me to ask what cup size I wanted printed as it will make the printing cheaper, once I answered this question, they came back with an invoice. Which I paid using Paypal, for the four patterns I decided to have printed which cost £21.74 in total, I had printed Bonn, Chai, Idyllwild and Mila.
After I paid it took only a couple of days for my printing to arrive, the paper is slightly heavier than tissue paper 24gsm better than normal printer paper.
For some reason I had expected it to come in a tube, but that could be because I expected it to be a heavier paper, they came in an A5 envelope, folded up like a purchased pattern. I will be quite happy to use this service again with other patterns.
cross stitch Christmas
I received a couple of cross stitch kits for Christmas and a cross stitch book, all Michael Powell.
I am coming along quite nicely with my existing cross stitch, the Scarlet Wizard is finally progressing, I have gridded most of the remaining fabric to make it easier to work out where to stitch.
The Secret Garden 1 has come along quite nicely. The bottom two inches are complete apart from the back stitching which will make the picture pop.
I also have a small picture that I spotted in The World of Cross Stitching started that I am stitching on a hoop, which means I can take it to the Hospital with me.
The colours aren’t as purple in real life as they are in in the magazine, which as you can see on the stitching are more of a pinky colour.
I’ve been listening to audio books while I’m stitching as at the moment I can either stitch or watch TV not both. While I was in hospital I started listening to the psi/changeling series written by Nalini Singh, performed by Angela Dawe, which are brilliant, I am now up to book 10, I have already read the books. I prefer Angela Dawe to Justine Eyre who narrates the Archangel series, I find her a bit harsh.
I recommend Audible especially if you buy kindle books, if you are smart you can get the most for your money. Also the audible app for the iPhone is great, it has a sleep function on it, so if you fall asleep while listening to know there is only a certain amount of time you need to go back.
Musings of a Craft Enthusiast 