Honey, I'm home!

Hi, I'm back.  Yes, I know it's been a long time, the world has turned and things have changed.  Things have changed for me too.

I stopped posting for a number of reasons, but probably the main underlying reason was my mental health.  At the time I was in a very deep rut with my job, had just failed to get a new job and was heading into the depths of Winter, which always has a bad effect on me.  I had also become far more involved with knitting than with cross-stitch, and perhaps felt that people weren't as interested in the new direction I had taken.  So I was falling into the Slough of Despond and it has taken me quite a while to get myself to a point where I can hopefully see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Anyway, what has changed?  Well, the job I hadn't got when I last posted came back on the market.  It was a job that an ex-colleague had suggested to me, working for her new firm.  It turned out that the person who did get the job only lasted 1 day!  My ex-colleague got in touch to ask if I was still interested, so I went to see her and her boss, had a brief chat, and was offered the job.  I started the new job on 4 January 2016 and let's put it this way - when my ex-colleague handed in her notice this February, the general response of the rest of the team was one of concern - "Mountain Ash isn't going as well, is she?".

What else?  I took the plunge and went back to Slimming World last week - it was bad, worse than ever before.  I am perhaps still not in the right place mentally for losing weight, but my reasoning was that if I went back and stayed to group, then maybe that would get me moving.  I went back this week and found I had lost 2.5lb without putting too much effort into it.  So this is good and positive, and I will keep trying to move forward on this.

The knitting is still playing a major role in my life - it forms the majority of my social life as I am a member of two organised groups and one informal group.  I go to Knit Groups every Monday evening and every Saturday afternoon.  So, rather than make this post into War and Peace, I will show you a photo of my most recent finish and then do some catch-up posts to show you what I have been working on since I was last here.

This is Attune - it is a shawl pattern by Siew Clark.  I knit it in Cygnet Boho Spirit, which is a 100% acrylic DK yarn, in colourway 6461.  It took 6.63 balls of yarn which was 1591.4 metres.  I cast it on on 20 May 2016 and wove the ends in on 27 March 2017.  It has generally been known as "The Monster" because it is so big.  It is a circular shawl in 8 segments and each segment is larger than the previous one, so the first segment is quite short and the last segment is very long.  I am 5 foot 8 inches tall and this is what it looks like on me:

As you can imagine, I was very glad to reach the finishing line with this one.

So, apologies once again for the considerable hiatus between posts and I do have every intention of getting back on track.  Spring has sprung in the UK and things are definitely looking up round here.

All the very best to you and yours.
Mountain Ash