Friday 29 March 2013

Quilt it, Quilt it real good!



















































It's Easter, but my Easter quilts won't be ready.....I've made a start on one though.  I'm loving the happiness of this quilt.  The bright cheery colours, some patterned, some plain.

I only plan to do a little of this quilt each day. It's certainly not going to be a mammoth project like the last one.

Anyway....it's back to the knitting, and hope the Easter bunny spoils you all rotten.

vic x

Sunday 24 March 2013

Babies Babies Everywhere......



There seems to be little babies busting out everywhere.....and for that matter all girls in my neck of the woods.  If you hang around this blog you'll know I just recently knitted a little jacket for Baby Eden here.

Well I have a few more little things to knit for more little ladies that have made it into this world in the past few weeks and days.  I haven't quite decided what I'll knit yet, but I have a good choice of patterns to pick from.





























Here are a few of my favourites.

Camilla Babe Jumper which I'll use Quince & Co yarn.
Annabel Babe Cardigan which I'll use Baby Cashmerino
or
Edith short sleeve jumper with frilly sleeves which I'll use Cascasde 220 sports.

When I make the choice I'll let you know..... but I'll keep you updated.  Any of these you like the best?


Also thank you for all the comments about my little stay in hospital. I'm feeling fine, although last week I just felt a little down in the dumps about the whole thing.  This week I'm feeling a little more optimistic.  Everytime I knit now it's just feet up from here on!!

Hope you're all well.

Vic xx






Thursday 14 March 2013

What Started Out As A Normal Day........
















I spent yesterday afternoon though to 10.30pm in the emergency short stay unit at the Alfred Hospital.  What started off as a normal day ended in a bit of drama I guess you'd call it.....well if it is my life it's always a bit of drama.

I left for work as normal at 1.30pm, sat down in my car to put the keys in the ignition and the most unimaginable pain struck across the right side of my chest, so sharp I could feel it right through to my back and radiating through my right shoulder and blade.....the pain was so sudden and so intense that it took my breath away....It felt like a sledgehammer had just been swung at me and completely winded me.....I sat there for around 3 minutes trying to work out what it was....don't ask me why I sat there I just did.

The pain did subside and my breathing did return to some sort of normal, so I decided to continue my journey to work....I drove around 3 kilometres down the road, and something made me turn back and go home to my GP.  My GP is located 4 doors down from my apartment block.....so turning up there to find a note on his door that he has had to shut the surgery due to ill health certainly wasn't what I was expecting.  Big hello and hope you're ok to Dr O'Bryan.

With a thumping pain still in my chest, albeit not as severe as it was, I instinctively thought emergency at The Alfred.....a short 3 minute drive from my place......I did think about calling an ambulance, but I'm part of the statistics that show  a woman will call an ambulance for someone else, but highly unlikely she'll call one for herself....that's me.....and I just didn't want all the fuss!!

Chest pain seems to get some sort of priority at the emergency section but after being looked over by a admissions nurse, she seemed to be satisfied, that I wasn't having a heart attack and I could take my turn in the wait queue like everyone else......If I don't end up with some sort of cold, flu, bronchitis from being coughed over by every down and out that came in on an ambulance stretcher and was left in the corridor,  I'll be very lucky....They do generally say you go into hospital with one thing but come out with something else!!

Anyway after being hooked up to ECG.....and let me tell you at least I had brand new knickers on.....phew, because your modesty just goes out the window, and blood taken, and my blood pressure reading taken every 30 minutes and one of those little nitroglycerin tablets that goes under your tongue to dilate your heart arteries, with the side effect headache that goes with it!! and one of those dinky little pulse readers on my fingers and several chest x-rays, I settled in for a stay of 8 hours.

Not the most relaxing 8 hours I've spent, and several times I cursed myself that I hadn't brought my knitting or a book with me, although the comings and goings of a hospital are quite entertaining to say the least.

Anyway the outcome of all of this is that there is nothing wrong with my heart....albeit slightly elevated blood pressure readings and a slightly excessive beating heart....put down to the stress of the situation and the fact that I was still in some sort of discomfort with pain but nothing that they thought was of any worry....But something that they did find in my blood work results is the possibility of a blood clot in my leg and my lungs.....not uncommon in itself, but not something they would expect for a person of my age.  Normally these sort of irregularities will show up in people that are bed bound, immobile, pregnant, recovering from surgery of a hip or knee replacement....not a normal mobile, active person that I consider myself to be.

So basically if one of my leg swells, and not the normal swelling of both feet from say the heat, but we are talking one leg, painful, red skin surrounding the swelling and or shortness of breath.....I do need to call an ambulance....the possibility of a pulmonary embolism is real.  As the blood test only came back with a minor abnormality they've sent me back to my GP to deal with this so fingers crossed, it's not a huge deal, although anything to do with your health I guess no matter how big or small is a huge deal.

Funnily enough something I will need to discuss with a GP, I'm now on the hunt for a new one.... Having had blood tests prior to starting dover & madden for other matters and nothing like this showing up in my blood work results, and now working dover & madden where I can sit down knitting for long periods of time, I'm interested to know if all this sitting has caused this or it is just something that is in my make up and it's entirely coincidental.....It's got me thinking, because there are often long days of work, where I do end up with quite swollen feet after a day of sitting down working.....food for thought and possibly a little worrying for me.....and it's not like I sit there all day, up, down, to the kitchen, to the computer etc etc.

Anyway that was my day, not the way I expected it to end, but I'm at home today, it's amazing how tired you feel after spending the day at a hospital, either as a patient or just visiting.   I also guess that some things happen for a reason, they have no explanation as to my chest pain other that they believe it was muscular and it will just clear itself, but it did bring to light a potential serious situation elsewhere, so in that sense it wasn't really a wasted day!!


Now to find that new doctor.

I'll keep you posted on the outcome.

Vic x


Tuesday 12 March 2013

Too Hot To Handle......





























































































Autumn.....who would have thought Melbourne would have created history with the hottest Autumn on record....9 consecutive days above 30 celsius, with 5 of them being over 35 celsius.

I've just come back from the beach.....these were taken at around 7.40pm and it's still 33c.....The cool change should arrive tomorrow morning at around 10am, and I for one can't wait.  We've also had  one of the hottest Summers on record I believe......maybe bringing out the Winter clothes 2 weeks ago was a little premature.....I do hear it's going to be a hot Easter also...I'll remember the long hot Summer of 2013 well.


**Added 13th March after the cool change has arrived.

Melbourne's record March heatwave has broken one final record just as a cool change finally brought some relief after almost 10 days of sweltering weather.  Overnight temperatures fell to a minimum of just 26.5 degrees, making it the warmest March night since records began, edging out the previous high of 26.3 degrees set back in 1927.

Friday 8 March 2013

Mucking around.....



I've been playing around with the Circle of Friends square, you know the one that I made this blanket from.   Was looking at doing something a tiny bit softer in colour, but not too pastel and pale.....using up my scraps of Baby Cashmerino. 

Using a 3.5mm hook, and Baby Cash is 5 ply so the perfect match.....and I think I like it just as much as the thick Aran 10ply that I used prior.

I'll just stash this square and maybe make 1 a week when time permits.....Another WIP!! (work in progress).





























































Enjoy

Vic x

Monday 4 March 2013

Monday.....

















































































I've started to attempt to take Mondays off from work.....at the moment it is really the only day of the week I have free so I do make the most of it.

Today was spent sorting seasonal wardrobe, sneaky bit of online shopping, cleaning, receiving parcels from the postman, selecting seasonal wool colours, a walk through Middle Park and South Melbourne....the changing architecture of the new and the familiar of the old, topped off with dinner and a movie in Yarraville with some friends......"I give it a Year", you're in for a right laugh.

Hope your Monday was just as enjoyable, and if it's yet to come......Happy Monday!

vicki x