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Saturday 12 December 2015

Shingle Bells, Shingle Bells, Shingles all the way...

As you may have gathered from the title (apologies for the pun- got to find my giggles somewhere!!) the last gap in posting was due to yet another bout of shingles- that's 4 in 2 years and 3 since April!

Bleargh.

The annoying yet good news, is that after a full immunology work up, it seems that the recurring shingles is 'just' due to how run down and stressed I was over my last few years in the classroom. It seems prolonged stress and insane working days will take their toll, whether you want them to or not!

After round 3 in October, I was determined to be back out and running as soon as possible- so headed out for a 5 miler about a 2 weeks after the rash had gone. Bad, bad plan! Within 24 hours the rash was back and shingles round 4 was in progress.

I've listened to the doctor this time, have taken some time to let the new medication kick in, and headed out today for my first run since the last bout. It was so, SO frustrating to be back to run-walking 4k after the great south and triathlon last year, but if it prevents a 5th episode of shingles, run-walk it is! I'm heading for a swim tomorrow (hopefully) and taking baby steps to get back into my routine!

However, those of you who know me will know that I am not one to sit around idle, so I decided to fill the increased amount of sofa-time with a new hobby- Crochet!

I've always knitted, but wanted to be able to make a blanket for our sofa, and couldn't work out how to find knitting needles big enough!

A few balls of chunky wool from B&M and a giant crochet hook later, and I was away.

Unfortunately, I hadn't accounted for my ridiculously short attention span, so the blanket is still very much a work in progress, with a little bit being done here and there.

Alongside, I've been really enjoying making some smaller projects, like this hat:



With Christmas coming, I decided to spend the sofa time making something to add to our stash of christmas decorations; enter the most addictive and wonderful crochet blog- attic 24.

In one of my rambles around Pinterest, I came across Lucy's beautiful winter wreath:

I was inspired! Something to make, full of little bits and bobs, which suited my short attention span perfectly.
I'm not a pink and purple person, so I took her design and played with the colours and design a little bit to match it better to our Christmas decorations.
I crocheted evenings and train journeys for about 3 weeks to make my wreath. This thing took a LOT of bits and bobs to make:



Weirdly, I found doing all the stripes for the wreath more annoying than the 32 leaves, or 18 little balls- evidence yet again of my appalling ability to do any one thing for longer than 5 minutes!
I was so chuffed to find a tub of tiny polystyrene toadstools for £1 whilst stocking-filler shopping at Tiger- 7 of these babies ended up on my wreath.

Once it was all done, it was time to pin all of the components in place. 





I took a break for a couple of days, then took time last night to sew everything into place. A lot of crochet fans I know hate the sewing up stage, I found it weirdly satisfying. Better than making the wreath background anyway!!

So, without further ado- here's my surviving-shingles-with-my-sanity-intact Christmas Wreath!

I am over the moon with it! I love the warm colours, the cheeky little robin in the middle and the sparkly snowflakes. Hopefully this will become a family heirloom for many Christmases to come.

So less running has made for more crochet- here's hoping for plenty of time, and health, for both over this festive season!