2014 WIPocalypse - October Full Moon

Time is flying again - I just read somewhere that there are only 76 days to Christmas - I'm sorry, but I don't start thinking about Christmas until after Mum's birthday in mid November!  And Halloween comes before that - which is an ideal lead-in to this month's WIPocalypse question: are you a Halloween stitcher or a Christmas stitcher?

For me, the answer is generally neither - I don't go out of my way to stitch stuff for Halloween or Christmas.  The only exception to this is the tree ornaments that I stitch for my nieces, so I suppose if we are going to be persnickety about this, on that basis I could say that I am a Christmas stitcher.  But it is just two small tree ornaments each year, because they only have a small artificial tree.

Moving on, I got another couple of blocks done on Carnation, which leaves two more to the end of the row.  I mostly work on this in the mornings before work, but it is getting a bit chilly first thing and my fingers don't work so fast when they're cold.

This picture is for Leonore, who said that she would like to see the yarn that I bought while I was away.  The top row is the yarn that I bought at Yarndale, while the bottom row is yarn that I bought elsewhere on my travels.  Amongst that lot is yarn for another six pairs of socks as well as assorted other things.

And this is my happy dance for the month!  As you can see, my first sock is finished and the second one started.  My first sock isn't perfect - for a start, the toe decreases are in the wrong place - but I never expected to get it completely right first time, and it does fit, which is what really matters!  I'm really pleased with myself, and have plans for making the second sock better.  They are not going to be identical socks, just fraternal :-)

In other news, despite having a week away, I managed to maintain my weight at 11 stone 8lb, which is great.  And even better, I went to the hospital on Wednesday to see the consultant about my overactive thyroid.  He said that, provided that the blood test I had done straight after he had seen me came back normal, he would discharge me back to my GP and I could come off the tablets.  This means that I will only have been on the tablets for about 4.5 months, and when I was first diagnosed, they told me that I would have to take them for 12 to 18 months.  I will have to have a couple more blood tests once I stop taking the tablets, but that's no hardship - it will just be good not to be on medication anymore.  I did tell the consultant that I felt like a fraud, because I had never felt unwell in the first place, but obviously we caught it so early that I didn't get round to having any noticeable symptoms.

So I'm a happy bunny and I hope that things are going well for you and yours.  May the frog stay well away from your stitching/knitting/crochet etc.