Knitmaster or mistress?

I have reflected on my knitting machine and decided that as I think of it as female it should be re-named Knitmistress. I wonder how come it was named Knitmaster in the first place? I am not saying that men cannot use a knitting machine just that in general it is the ladies who have the patience to coax these machines into co-operation. My day has been a little hectic today so I decided that I will give the mistress a miss today. Thanks Susan for the comment on my last post. I will indeed look at the sponge bar. (I could say is that where Sponge Bob drinks but that would just be too silly!)

I have also discovered small spots of possibly rust on some of the needles so think I should give them a little rub with a fine emery sandpaper as that also could be contributing to the problem causing them to stick a little on their journey up and down as the carriage passes by. Methinks the mistress is demanding a little TLC before she agrees to co-operate.

I went back to knitting by hand last night. Kevin's suit of armour (sorry Kevin's aran sweater) is progressing slowly. I have reached the armhole shaping and as you can see from the pattern it is a raglan sleeve so hopefully I should finish the back tonight. The eagle eyed will have noticed that the pattern is a cardigan but I am adapting it into a V neck sweater. I will have to do a bit of math for the neck shaping. The pattern book is very well loved and full of Sellotape. I would say I have had very good value from Patons paying two and six (25p) for it originally. Over the years I have made about 6 of the designs from it.

I am also making a shorty cream aran cardigan for my friend Caroline (sister of Kevin) and have so far just knitted one of the fronts . The pattern has bobbles on it but I have missed them off. Last time I made this cardigan, with bobbles, 2 of them were positioned inappropriately in the bosom area and I spent half the time when I wore it adjusting the fronts of the cardigan to move them off the spot so to speak! I didn't want to inflict this problem onto Caroline so this time have omitted the offending bobbles altogether.

I got my tax disc for the demolition derby car so I will be able to drive it from tomorrow. I haven't been able to drive it since I got it as I won't use it unless I am totally street legal. I haven't even been around the block ( well I have been around the block more times than I care to mention but the car hasn't!) so tomorrow I will be testing it out.

My niece got a call from the police in Bolton. They have got her purse. She had it stolen from her bag on Sunday whilst shopping. She had driven me up to the Knit Out in the Cafe Nero as my car wasn't legal so I feel really bad about it. I don't know any more details as yet. Whether her credit cards were still there or where they found it. She has to go and pick it up.

I would have liked to go to the Halloween Spooktacula in the local park tonight but no-one locally is going and I don't fancy going on my own. I will stay home and comfort the dog as he goes crazy when kids knock on the door trick or treating. I have bought a bag of toffee lollipops just in case the kids do call although a lot of them are wary of my big barking dog.