A bit meurgh!

It's been nearly a month since my last post.

That's because there hasn't been much to say and the last four weeks haven't been the easiest.

DD2 had to have some dental treatment.  Autism and sitting in a dentist's chair aren't a match made in heaven.  At her check-up in January, it was discovered that she needed two fillings - back teeth, one on each side.  We went back and forth to the dentist in the hope that DD2 would be obliging and have the treatment done there, but it became evident that that wasn't going to happen, so she had to have them done under general anaesthetic, at the hospital.  The treatment went well, but we've had a few weeks of fall-out with challenging behaviour, temper tantrums and such-like, which hasn't been fun.  The treatment was done in the morning and almost as soon as we got home, I developed a pain down the left side of my neck and into my shoulder.  I'm sure it was a lifting of the stress regarding the treatment.  That lasted a few days and then I came down with a horribly chesty cold and cough which is only just going.

As a result of all that, I've found it difficult to drum up the enthusiasm for anything.  I haven't felt enthused by my knitting projects and felt as though I was plodding my way through them.

So, last week I decided to try and kick-start things, delved into my yarn-stash and pulled out some balls of cotton and crocheted some dishcloths:

Quick and easy to make and the satisfaction of getting something started and finished pretty quickly.  The pink and blue/green ones are made from Anchor Magicline.  The orange/yellow one is some cotton I bought in Lidl and the 'greige' is a leftover ball of RYC Cotton Jeans (I've finished my v-neck jumper, but I've been wearing it and it needs a wash before I take photos and show it off).  I used a very simple stitch pattern, working trebles (UK), DCs (US) along each row, but working between the stitch rather than just through the  top two strands of the preceding row.  I got the idea from the Vintage Vertical Stripe blanket.  It makes a nice firm fabric, but the open-weave nature means the cloths dry more quickly than ones made doing regular trebles.

I also finished the pair of socks I had on the needles:

The yarn's Regia bamboo that I bought a few years ago.  These are very similar to the pink garter rib socks I finished at the beginning April, but with a couple of changes.  First off, I did two plain knit rounds and then k4, p4 on the third round.  I also did the gusset a bit differently.  Usually, I increase every other round for the gussets (I knit my socks toe-up), but I have a high instep and particularly with ribbed socks, I notice that the fabric is a bit more stretched from about two-thirds of the way up my foot, so with these I started the gusset increases 10 rounds early and increased every third round.  I think I'll be doing the same thing with future socks as the fit's much better for me.

I've now got two new things on the needles - a cardigan and a pair of socks.  I'll give you a progress report in a few days.

One more school day to go and then it's the half-term break for a week before the final six or so weeks of this school year.  I think the girls and I are all ready for a week of not having to get up early, although DD1 has end-of-year exams the week immediately after the break, so will be doing revising.