Where did January go?

Wow! What happened? So I planned to post weekly - hah! - but apparently that hasn't happened!

It's been a busy month, not least on the knitting front. The freezing weather has led to lots of hat requests. I am SO pleased that I made the Bellas Mittens (link in previous post). How did I not know that mittens are so much warmer than gloves? And perfect for making snowballs with! If you live in the UK, you'll know about the snow. We don't get much snow in England now - until this year! It kind of goes with the floods that Gloucestershire has had over the past couple of "summers". The first day with the kids off school was nice -until they started fighting. Fighting is a BIG feature of the boys recently, along with defiance.

Being Mum has been a tough job this month. First of all, the changes set M off. Change is tricky for anyone on the autistic spectrum, and he had to deal with the end of christmas holidays, going back to school, P starting a new job and going back to being away from home during the week, me stopping temping, the classroom changing, new school books.... I suppose it's no wonder that he lost it. We had two solid weeks of being called in after school because he had refused to work, or had spent most of the day outside the head's office. If you look after a child with an ASD, you know that this also means constant alert. You cannot leave them unsupervised for any amount of time, or they get up to creative mayhem! After 2 weeks, he settled down. Then B&J started - because they had been more or less ignored. It has certainly challenged my disciplinary ideas. They are all too big to pick up and cart to their rooms now. So I am trying new things. If I find one that consistently works I'll let you know!!

So on a brighter note, I have finished loads of things this month, and have started way more!

I finished 2 hats for P, hats for B&J, fingerless gloves for me, and my first socks from the Violet Green sock club. I made sock blockers out of wire coat hangers. They have been machine washed for the first time today, and they look fine - are blocking to dry. I loved the Feb yarn and pattern so much that I skipped straight to them and started them a couple of days ago.

Most of my current WIP's are big, so my finishing rate will drop! I am knitting a baby blanket for P's new boss's first baby which is due in a few months. I then have more to do. I also thought of a funky baby blanket idea, which I will maybe work up into a pattern - but I have to do a baby shawl first. I am getting on with the Kiri shawl and am about a third though. It's so soft!

I'm really loving the knitting community - it's letting me make new friends, and feel part of something that is not centered around my kids. That's good for me. I have decided to just not worry about finding what I'm going to do with my life, and just let things percolate for a while. Something will turn up, as long as I stay open to opportunities. In the mean time, I'll keep on knitting!