running

A postcard from March 2024

~ Making Stitches ~ Leave a comment

Hello there, blimey we’re on day 10 of April already, I genuinely don’t know where the time has gone! Well I kind of do, I’ve just started a new job, so that has filled my time somewhat and my brain too for that matter, but for now, here’s a little look back at March in my world!

Belinda Bunny

Last month I launched another new pattern in my shop, in time for Easter, Belinda Bunny made an appearance. Inspired by our very own little Diamond bunny (as you can see) bunnies aren’t just for Easter….

I know many people won’t be interested in bunnies now that Easter is past but she’s there ready for next year with her little basket ready for a chocolate egg! If you’re interested in making your own Belinda, you can find her here.

The Crochet Sanctuary

White bunnies were clearly the flavour of the month in March as when I spent a wonderful day at the Crochet Sanctuary last month, this bunny wreath was one of the projects we made! The wreath is sitting on an, as yet, still unfinished cowl.

I had a really lovely day just sitting, chatting and crocheting – I feel like I’d been away on a holiday rather than just a few hours!

Holiday

Speaking of holidays… I got on a plane last month for a fabulous break in Spain.

Along with 4 lovely friends from my University days, we had a joint celebration of our 50th birthdays (no, that can’t be right surely?!). The sister of one of my friends has a house in Spain which she offered for us to use for our 4-night-long getaway. It was amazing!

Sadly the weather wasn’t great, but we didn’t go for the sun, we went to spend some time with each other. What with family commitments and work, it had been nearly 30 years since we’d spent that long together. Apart from being in bed no later than 1am and having a beautiful clean tidy house with lots of nutrious food – it was just like being back in our student flat!

Isn’t it wonderful when you have friends who know you so well that you can just pick up from where you left off no matter how long ago it was the last time you saw each other? I feel truly blessed to have them in my corner.

I wanted to give them all something to mark this momentous occasion, but couldn’t think what was suitable to buy – after drawing a blank I opted for making them each a little ‘Keele girl’ (we met at Keele University). I surreptitiously asked them all what colour swimming costume they were bringing with them and made them a coordinating mini costume. I based the pattern on the Crochet Iconic Women book by Carla Mitrani (I thought that was rather appropriate seeing as I think they’re all pretty iconic in my book).

We had lots of fun taking the mini crocheted girls out and about with us…

To the beach
To the pool
Out for tapas
Even a night on the tiles!

We had a right giggle – it was an amazing break.

Out & About

Bridgewater Canal at Lymm

Easter school holidays meant the need to get out and about in fresh air to get the young men in my life off devices and, for one, away from GCSE revision for a while and we had a few nice walks. This one was along the Bridgewater Canal towpath in Lymm. The weather in Cheshire was better than in Spain to be fair!!

Lymm Cross

Podcast News

The latest series of Making Stitches podcast has come to an end with a lovely chat I had with Heather of KCACOUK (Keep Calm & Crochet on UK). We met in person at last year’s March Crochet Sanctuary and talked about recording an interview- it took almost a year to achieve it!

Heather Gibbs

You can listen to the podcast here if you missed it:

Hopefully the next series of Making Stitches won’t be too long in the making!

Keep on Running!

I have mentioned in my monthly postcards before that I’ve been doing a bit of running lately, and that I was thinking of signing myself up for a 10K. As I was approaching the age of 50, I decided that if I was ever going to achieve a 10K, it was probably a good idea not to out it off for too much longer. I gave myself a talking to as I remembered having the same one way conversation as I hit 40, but didn’t achieve that goal.

It’s now official, I am signed up to run the 10K race on the day of the Great Manchester Run on 26th May. I’ve been training since before Christmas and once I managed to run 7K last week, I thought it was safe to go public and tell people.

I’m not sure I’ll be repeating the feat, so thought I’d better make it a worthwhile venture and have opted to raise funds for the Jo Cox Foundation. Last year, I did some work for them and I wanted to thank them for putting their faith in me, as well as helping them going forward with the amazing work they do to help build community relationships, supporting civility in public life and generally continuing the work started by Jo Cox.

For those of you who don’t know who Jo was, she was a wife, mother, MP (Member of Parliament) and humanitarian who was murdered while she was working in her constituency of Batley & Spen in West Yorkshire in 2016. Had Jo still been alive, like my friends and I, she would be celebrating her 50th birthday this year, so this seemed very appropriate.

My fundraising page is here if you would like to sponsor me – I would be immensely grateful if you are able to contribute to my fundraising efforts.

A view across our local golf course while on a sunny run!

Also in March, I managed to get a job! I’m thrilled and started the new position this week. It does mean I have a bit less time for podcasting etc, but I can pay the bills which always helps!!

And that is just about it for this month, sorry it was a few days late! It was a long one too, so if you made it to the end, thank you!

Until next time, take care, and thanks for stopping by!

Lindsay x

A postcard from February 2024

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Sunset on 1st day of February 2024

Hello there! It’s the 1st of March – the first day of meteorological spring – how lovely! The days are slowly getting longer and that always puts a spring in my step. I hope this finds you well and that the past month has been kind to you. Here’s a little look back at what happened in my world in February.

A lovely gift to start the month

I started (and ended) the month as a ‘lady of leisure’ in other words I don’t have a job as such at the moment (other than freelance bits and bobs). I have to admit that at times I have found it a struggle. It’s not for the want of applying for jobs, I have spent a lot of time over the past couple of months filling in application forms, writing cover letters etc, but as yet, they haven’t borne fruit. I’m not sure whether it’s the state of the job market at the minute, the fact I’m not as young as I used to be or what, but as I write, I’m still looking.

On a positive note though, I did get a lovely parcel through the post, the yarn bowl pictured above was a gift from my former colleagues at my last place of work – they knew me well clearly! It has seen two projects completed using it (both of which are commissions I can’t share sadly) and is now home to my current make, which hopefully I will be able to share with you pretty soon.

My former colleagues were a really lovely bunch and I miss them but I can think of them whenever I’m using this yarn bowl.

Crochet Hearts

So this month, as well as making magazine commission samples, I made a few hearts and wrote a pattern! The pattern for this heart garland is now in my Etsy shop if you fancy giving it a go. Remember, hearts aren’t just for Valentine’s Day!

I also had a go at making a stripy rainbow heart using my free pattern here. This was fun to make and I have one hanging in the room I do most of my crochet – it makes me smile especially on grey wet days!

A half term trip to London

Tower Bridge

The school half term holidays fell last month and we made a trip down to London to visit Eldest. He’s studying there at University and it was the perfect opportunity for Son Number 2 to see what University accommodation is like as it won’t be terribly long before he’s thinking about such things – eek!

It was a really lovely day – and super to be able to give Eldest a squeeze too. We ended the day looking around the area where he’ll be moving to for the next academic year – how are we talking about such things already? Time is galloping on!

Sunset in Islington

A sunny walk

Just 2 weeks after visiting him in London, Eldest had a reading week and made the trip up north to visit me and his brothers. We were very lucky to have some bright winter sunshine briefly so we dashed out for a walk before the next lot of rain came!

We had a lovely walk along part of the Trans Pennine Trail at Lymm in Cheshire. It was pretty busy as lots of other folk were making the most of the nice weather. After walking the trail for a while, we doubled back and went into Lymm itself. There’s a chippy there which does really rather fantastic chips which taste delicious with a slosh of vinegar, a sprinkling of salt and eaten out in the fresh air!

The Bridgewater Canal at Lymm

Sock darning

While Eldest was visiting, I darned a pair of his favourite socks for him. I mentioned it to my Mum and said I’d struggled to get the right colour of yarn and that his burgundy socks now had bright red toes! A day or so later, I received a package filled with sock yarn (some of which is specifically for darning) and my great grandma’s darning mushroom! Never again will I have to struggle and keep jabbing my fingers with the needle – and as long as future socks are grey or blue I should be sorted!

If only that mushroom to could speak and tell about all the socks which had been darned with its help. I shall treasure it, and am thrilled to be custodian of this family heirloom now.

In the long run

I started running (off and on) a few years ago. I did the Couch to 5K which is a miracle considering I was always vying for last place in school cross country races. I wasn’t built for speed! Once I’d got over the initial breathlessness and built up a bit of stamina, I was rather pleased with my progress and from time to time I start running again for a while.

I spotted these snow drops (above) when I was on a run early in February around the time I was considering upping my game a bit. You may be aware I celebrated a milestone birthday last month, and I wondered whether this was the year I should attempt a ‘real’ run. Now by real, I don’t mean a marathon or anything daft like that, more like a 10K.

I’ve thought about trying one, probably for 10 years, and I’m not getting any younger, so now is probably the time I need to stop procrastinating and give it a whirl. The picture below was taken of the picturesque Manchester Ship Canal at the end of my first proper training run – I managed to run for 10 minutes four times – which I impressed myself with.

I shall keep you posted on my progress and let you know if this is indeed the year for a 10K attempt. Watch this space!

10K training

Podcast news

Cathy Wright from Lazykate Textiles

I’m pleased to say that Making Stitches Podcast made a return last month after a longer than expected Christmas break. My first guest was Cathy Wright from Lazykate Textiles who spoke about her passion for spinning and weaving. You can catch her episode here.

That’s all for this month’s round up. Let’s hope March brings us more blue skies and good times ahead.

Thanks so much for stopping by! See you again soon.

Lindsay x