Not much crochet or knitting done today

This is the reason for my lack of knitting or crocheting today. I have been setting up my Knitting machine. A Knitmaster 360 bought in the 80's. It has brought back a lot of memories whilst cleaning the dirt of many years off it. I just wish it would bring back the memories of what all the attachments are for and how to cast on! I have all the manuals tucked away somewhere so I am hoping with a little mental prodding it will all come back to me rather like riding a bike. It's a tribute to Japanese workmanship that even though it has been wrapped in cloths and bin bags and stored in the loft for the last 15 - 20yrs and was very dirty there is not one spot of rust on it. I am sure with a little WD40 or machine oil it will be up and running like clockwork soon. If only I could remember what to do!

I have decided to postpone any actual knitting on it until next week when hopefully I will fully understand what I am doing. This weekend's light reading will be the Knitmaster manuals.

I am out on Sunday afternoon to the Knit Out of the Knitting Noras in Bolton's Cafe Nero. I haven't managed to attend one for quite a long time so it will be nice to meet up with some of the ladies again. I believe this weekend we will also have one gentleman (husband of one of the members) who wants some assistance with his crochet. When I had my shop I used to have one or two men who knitted and online there are several guys in the US who crochet and knit but as yet it doesn't seem to have caught on in the UK. I don't see why it should be considered to be mainly a female craft.

I remember my father telling me that during the war there was a guy in his unit who used to sit on his bed knitting very fine intricate baby shawls. He always had a ready market for the finished articles as new fathers bought them for gifts to send home to the wife. My dad said that apart from a bit of light hearted joking no-one considered it at all strange. I had a cousin who was a biker and he used to turn out the most fabulous embroidered denim jackets. All heavy metal music influenced designs. He was in great demand at the bike club for his art work. In these days of equality women do woodwork and mechanics so why can't more men do craft?

My poor dog has still got his water infection so it was a case of flex the credit card once again today for another course of antibiotics. I will in the poor house if he doesn't recover soon. He is booked for his castration operation for Friday of next week but that is dependant on his recovery first. The vet is of the opinion that this will help as she suspects he has prostate trouble which is causing these recurrent infections.

I think I will relax tonight with a few rows of aran although I have got back the stitched up crochet bunny slippers I had made for my niece. She wants me to finish them off with a row or two of crochet so a finished photo may be on view tomorrow. She has embroidered the features so at least this pair don't look squinty eyed as my pair did.