And another thing happened. The day before my birthday - Friday - I called to see my doctor as I was concerned about something. As a rule I am not fond of doctors, so I had waited a couple of weeks before actually making the call. The young doctor gulped, prescribed strong antibiotics (which meant I was being arty in Edinburgh whilst combating awful nausea) and made another appointment for me Monday morning. And so by Monday afternoon I was admitted to hospital awaiting emergency surgery.

I am very thankful for the British National Health Service. They were quick and efficient: I had my operation and I was discharged again by 6.30pm. If you live in the UK or are a British citizen, please consider signing this petition urging the British Government to rethink its Health and Social Care bill.

Whilst waiting around, I managed to do a lot of work on my crochet shrug.

The pattern is Fifi from the new Rowan Holiday Crochet booklet. The stitch pattern looks quite complex, but is actually a relatively easy two-row repeat worked with double trebles (US: trebles) which makes progress very quick. Apart from still needing to check how to turn, I have memorised the pattern - and I am very pleased by how much I have managed to do on just a few days.

And the colour is gorgeous - I cannot seem to get away from mossy greens. I actually picked up some Liberty needle cord earlier this month which has an accent of mossy green - I wonder if I'll actually manage to whip up a skirt or if my nerves will betray me once I face cutting into Liberty needle cord.

Later this year I am going to a wedding celebrating my wonderful friends Elaine and Steve. I was going to make my own dress, but then I found a silk dress in John Lewis reduced from £150 down to £10. How could I resist!? However, I have not forgotten my pledge to wear handmade to the occasion. I am going to design and knit a delicate shrug - and I am going to make my own fascinator.

Fascinators are so utterly British. I think the rest of the world noticed them last year when tuning into the royal wedding. Not being British, I have never had the chance to wear these flippant hair pieces before, so I am actually rather excited about the prospect.

I bookmarked a few tutorials and pinned a couple of pictures to Pinterest before having my first go last night. I used this tutorial to make the piece in the photo.

It was fairly easy, actually. I used some silk flowers I had found ultra cheap on Ebay and added a few beads I had lying about.

The flowers are not the right colour for the dress (a radical departure from the usual Ms Bookish uniform of green and/or red!) and I'll be wanting to add different beads to the actual fascinator/hairpiece - but I am still satisfied with the outcome. I'll be trying to reverse-engineer this hairpiece next, though, as I am not sure I'm a Big Floral Thing On My Head person.

Which reminds me: do say hello on Pinterest.