Progress on my to-do list

Thought you guys would like an update on my progress went with that to-do list:

• Edit and update a spreadsheet for a mate (I am a bit of a fan on Excel - so feel free to ping me any questions if you have any) - done!
• Make a start on my Daily Greatness Journal - new year, new me (and mini me) - managed to make a decent amount of progress through the planning stages 
• Start reading through the collection of blogging books I've brought to help grow this blog - not got very far with this one. Started the book from Problogger by Darren Rowse and Chris Garret. So far feels like a really easy read and it looks like its going to be really informative.
• Take down my Christmas decs - otherwise bubs will turn up and it just won't happen! - Christmas tree down and all of the decs packed away. Currently in boxes on the stairs ready to go into the loft!
• Catch up on clothes washing - again when bubs appears there will be a lot! - all done and hung up :) 
• Tidy up my lounge - it looks like it's been attacked after a week of both of us being in the house. - looking significantly better then it did this morning! 
• Knitting - Complete the last Diagonal Stripe Square. - completed! So that's another pattern down :) really enjoyed knitting this one actually! 
• Knitting - work 2 colour rows of the baby blanket - worked one so far. So making some progress on this :) 

• Schedule/draft blog articles - with the theory that with bubs I am not going to have a lot of time! - so not really made any progress on this. Going to get started this evening once I've posted this one.

There was also a massive energy crash which saw me half dozing on the sofa for a couple of hours. My hips have also started hurting again. So I think the plan is to jump into another hot bath later on in the hope my muscles feel less achy!

I also managed to capture this really cool bit of footage of bubs having a good of wiggle around. Head over to my Instagram @mrskirstyholl if you want to take a look!

Happy new year all

Baby brain signing off

MrsKirstyHoll

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WIP Progress Report

Hay to all my lovely followers!

So this week has actually been super productive on the knitting front. I’ve had lots of lovely friends and family come to visit me this week and so I’ve managed to get a lot of knitting done!

This week we are totaling 6 squares (so catching up on my 2 square shortfall from last week) and 2 colour rows of the blanket.

The reason for my massive square catch up is I had a batch of 5 moss stitch squares to complete. Over the course of the week I have become – if I do say so myself – a pretty speedy moss stitch knitter. The first square took me about 6 hours to knit, while the 5th one took about half the time. I still think the stitch is seriously boring to do for any length of time, but the final affect is nice.

So I only have 21 squares to knit (according to my spreadsheet which was definitely a Godsend to the speedy completion of this project). Which means we are definitely on the final countdown to this first stage of my knitting journey. After we’ve sewn that together I can find something else to knit… (AKA start my aim of finishing 12 socks this year)

I’m hoping to get some serious blanket rows knitting done this afternoon and during this week. It’s really starting to gain some length now! It’s becoming a seriously awesome blanket and I am looking forward to seeing the final finished piece. Of course, I am especially looking forward to seeing Lily actually using the final finished piece!

Lily, on the other hand, is growing every day – can you believe she’s 6 weeks today? She’s now weighing in at a healthy 12ib (about 5.4kg). The health visitor came on Friday and was really pleased with her development. Lily can now hold her head up and almost has enough strength to sit up – we also have an ’emerging smile’ (so not just wind and this was witnessed by the Health Visitor). She’s also starting to pay attention to rattles and turning her head to see the direction of the sound. So it shouldn’t be long until she starts properly reacting to her toys (she has a lot).

Yarn Addict Signing off – I have a lot to get done this afternoon!

MrsKirstyHoll

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1 month in – wips in progress, more wips to be and baby progress

So we’re just slightly over 1 month in to motherhood. Lily and me are doing pretty well. 

She has put on one serious growth spurt over the last couple of weeks! We’re now about 11.5 ibs. So Lily is now in size 2 nappies – my baby is growing so quickly!

Which does mean she’s already growing out of clothes… Thankfully I managed to pick up this dress for an absolute bargin from a charity shop last week -£1.00!!!

Her development is happening so fast as well. She can now lift her head up and she wants to able to crawl and sit up – she just needs a little more strength in her arms and back. Deffinately no longer a newborn!

Lily’s pram blanket is making some serious progress. I’ve figured that if I can get about 3 rows a week done it will be about finished by the time I get back to work in April. 

I’ve also managed to get a couple of squares done for the patchwork blanket. I need to average about 4 of these a week to get this done before I head back to work…. So yes I am running behind already.

While in Hobbycraft yesterday I made the mistake of checking out their magazines…

The freebie yarn is to make this easy level lace pattern…  

I’ve ordered the required circular needles and am actually really excited about giving this a go! 

The mag also has some other really cute pattern ideas.   Will let you know more when I get around to knitting them… 

That’s me over and out while I run off to the needles while Lily continues to nap…

Mummy brain signing off

MrsKirstyHoll

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Blog prompt – Craft/crafting

Today I felt inspired by the wordpress word prompt...

I’ve always been into craft and crafting. My Crafting genius started early on… 

My crafting talents lay dormant for a long time though. I learnt some basic knitting stitches from my nan when I was 7 and spent my time knitting scarves for dolls.

From there I took art for GCSE. Which was a great chance to learn how to plan a project. I also had a chance to play with a number of materials.

I managed to get an A… so I was actully pretty good at drawing at that time. Although my skill has sadely decreased due to the lack of drawing practice in the following years.

Through the A level and uni years I unfortunately lost any priority for crafting. I did rediscover writing for a time (I had spent most of my teenage years writing fanfiction) and wrote a draft of a novel that is yet to be edited, but the yarn lay gathering dust in a cupboard.

The only crafting I did for a long time was this me to you cross stitch kit.

When I really get in the zone my cross stitching isn’t to bad. However, I do find this zone very hard to find and normally struggle to count the squares etc. My more recent attempts at cross stitch have ended in a rather botched attempt and corresponding reduction in enthusiasm for the project.

The craft of knitting didn’t find its way back into my heart until a couple of years ago. I’d recently finished a job that had really stressed me out and found a new one where I was much happier. As a result I wanted to really ensure that I kept myself on more of an even plane.

I picked up issue 1 one the art of knitting and I was completely hooked again. Within days I had subscribed and was knitting squares almost constantly. One of my early successes was a scarf (we’ll ignore the couple of dropped stitches) which I’m still wearing today.

While I admit the squares are still continuing, my confidence in my knitting has really progressed. I’m now knitting from proper patterns and feel more confident with trying new technical elements and more complex designs. With this constant learning process this is a craft that I plan on keeping at the forefront for a very long time. 

I’m also loving being able to knit for my daughter now. It’s so rewarding.

My current major WIP is a blanket for her. I’m hoping that will be done by the end of the month.

So knitting is the craft that constantly saves my sanity on a daily basis and is the subject of many of my articles on here. So also my muse as well 

Going to go and smell my yarn stash now…

Mummy brain signing off 

MrsKirstyHoll

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Project 333 – The beginning

So Lily is currently having a nap (yay). Today (with the loss of my bump and the renewed temptation to buy new clothes) I thought it would be a good time to start having a sort and slim down of my wardrobe.  

The plan is to reduce my wardrobe (not including p.js, workout clothes or underwear) down to 33 items. This is partly an attempt to really simplify my life again – with limited time I want to be able to priortise my daughter, husband and knitting rather than my stuff. So now seems like a really great time to do that.

Currently I have filled 3 shopping bags filled with clothes and I’m still not at that 33 yet. I still havn’t gone through my coats or my shoes!

Now I’ve made the major cull, I’m going to keep what’s left in the wardrobe. Over the next few months I’m going to see what I wear and remove anything that doesn’t. I honestly did not think it would be this difficult!!

But I am seriously excited that this dress fits again…

It’s black, glittery and very flattering!

I’ve also booked myself in for a hair appointment in March. This is the look I want to go for.

So with an updated hairstyle and updated wardrobe I am looking forward to my new look going back to work!

Mummy brain signing off

MrsKirstyHoll

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Update: knitting and bubs

Managed to get some serious knitting done on the first day of the year (so an excellent start). My everything has been aching, so ended up confining myself to the sofa. Thankfully bubs decided to behave this morning and we didn't need the monitoring appointment - so I cancelled that so someone else could use it. We have a scan tomorrow morning, so hopefully we'll understand more about what bubs is doing then.

Knitting summary for Yesterday: 

Diagonal square: white

This was surprisingly a really simple pattern to knit. You need to follow the pattern really carefully, but other than that was just variations of k3,p3 pattern. So this was a super quick knit :)

Baby Blanket

Managed to get another 3 colour rows worked yesterday. It only adds about 5/6cm to the length. But it is starting to look a lot more substantial now. Obviously knitting this as quickly as possible at the moment - we are seriously running out of time!!

The Plan for today

Having had a really chilled out day yesterday, I actually have a serious burst of energy for today and just want to get a load of jobs ticked off the list.

We went out for breakfast this morning at the local premier inn. The hubby goes back to work tomorrow, so it was nice to chill out together. We then followed that up with a Pokemon Go themed walk down at the local park. The weather was absolutely beautiful - just a bit chilly! I also managed to catch a few Pokemon I needed and gain some distance on some eggs I am trying to hatch.

The plan for the afternoon is as follows:

• Edit and update a spreadsheet for a mate (I am a bit of a fan on Excel - so feel free to ping me any questions if you have any)
• Make a start on my Daily Greatness Journal - new year, new me (and mini me)
• Start reading through the collection of blogging books I've brought to help grow this blog
• Take down my Christmas decs - otherwise bubs will turn up and it just won't happen!
• Catch up on clothes washing - again when bubs appears there will be a lot!
• Tidy up my lounge - it looks like it's been attacked after a week of both of us being in the house.
• Knitting - Complete the last Diagonal Stripe Square.
• Knitting - work 2 colour rows of the baby blanket
• Schedule/draft blog articles - with the theory that with bubs I am not going to have a lot of time!

So fingers crossed for a productive afternoon!

Happy knitting all!

Baby Brain Signing off!

MrsKirstyHoll

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Week 39: WIPs, Bubs and Post Holiday Update

Hello all!

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year. As I’m sure many of you have done, I had planned to use this week to get on with some serious knitting! That lull between Christmas and New Year always seems to offer me a curious lull where knitting can happen at some serious pace during the Christmas TV screenings/catching up on series while both my husband and I have time off work.

Obviously, this year, my time off will last a while longer while we wait for bubs to make an appearence! I’ll be off work now until the beginning of April. I can’t guarantee much blogging will get done in that time, but I will try to keep you lovely lot somewhat updated – just with less regular or predictable postings!

So that plan did sound beautiful. Bubs however has other ideas….. From boxing day I’ve been having very irregular contractions. Resulting in me being very uncomfortable and very tired for now nearlly a week. 

We’ve been down the hospital twice this week because bubs decided to not move much for a few hours. The very lovely midwifes in my local NHS hospital have been very patient and bubs has thankfully been ok once the machine was hooked up. So this week we have another monitoring appointment booked for tomorrow (incase bubs plays silly buggers again tomorrow) and a scan on Tuesday to check everything is actually fine! So a busy couple of days ahead…

 Finished Squares 
Moss Stitch Zig Zag square = 1 white. This isn’t a quick knit and I seriously don’t think I could cope with this on a larger project scale. But I love the effect it creates!

Current W.I.P:

Diagonal stripe square = 1 grey and 1 white

Still Left on the Complex List:
Zigzag stripe square = 2 grey and 1 white

Ridged striped with bobbles square = 1 teal

Diamond Seed Stitch Square = 1 grey and 1 navy

Moss Stitch Diagonal stripes = 1 grey and 1 white

Baby Blanket!

I’m seriously still in love with this project. It’s a beautiful effect that it’s creating and I love watching it come together.Now I’m just looking forward to seeing it finished and bubs using it 

Baby brain signing off

MrsKirstyHoll

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