I am knitting for a change

I have started my Christmas knitting. This is the first of the garments. I can post it on here as my sister in law doesn't read my blog. Things for other people knitted or crocheted later might come under the heading of secrecy and photos will have to follow later as both of my nieces occasionally read my blog. This cardigan is from a copy of Knit Today magazine that was kindly given to me by Vicky J. My niece chose it for her mum but I am not making it with the frilly collar. I will adapt it into just a plain neckline when I get up to that bit. I am also adapting the pattern from Rowan Kidsoft which is an aran thickness into a double knit one as my sister in law would think Kidsoft to be far too thick for a cardigan. I am using some rather lovely discontinued Jaeger Roma which I bought at a bargain price from Dunelm sale but shhh don't tell my sister in law. It is Viscose, nylon and Angora and the yarn is tubular and lovely to work with. I have done a little more than the photos show and have only got another inch or so up to the armholes. It is very slow going compared to my crochet.

Talking about crochet my friend Zuleika (Life in the Zu) sent me a link to a crochet granny square skirt by Doris Chan which although it isn't for me it led me to another site of free crochet patterns. Let's face it ladies - we all love free patterns. I have tried to post a link on here but I don't know if it has worked, If not I guess that you will have to cut and paste this link to see the free patterns

http://www.naturallycaron.com/projects/item_index/crochet.html

There are some lovely garments on it and like Ambermoggie I love the Belize Wrap and the Barcelona Jacket. I can feel a stash bust coming over me! Hold me back I am supposed to be making Christmas presents!

I got rather annoyed with my Sky last night as I was just up to the last 5 minutes of an old episode of Taggart that I hadn't seen and I really hadn't guessed whodunit when the rain came down hard and I lost my signal. Unless I see the episode listed again I have no chance of knowing who it was! I hate all this rain. Plays havoc with my TV viewing. Sky keep trying to tell me it is my top box or my dish to blame and want to either sell me a contract for £8.95 a month or charge me £65 for an engineer to come out. If it was my fault then how come the Sky box and dish work perfectly most of the time? They seemed more intent on selling me a new Sky digital plus box for around £200 fitted than bothering to find out what was wrong with mine. I can't even programme a video so why would I want a box that I can supposedly programme to watch every episode of something? If I am in then I watch it - if I am out then I don't and I miss it - it's a simple as that in my eyes.

Today I am trying to do a bit of house cleaning. My niece kindly came and pushed the hoover around for me but I need to do some tidying, dusting and bed making. The sun is actually shining today and I have risked the duvet set on the line.

I have rung my son to look out in Asda for a set of kids playmats to use as blocking boards. I can't find any in my local Tesco, Aldi or Lidl. I found some listed on the Early Learning site but they wanted £35 for 12 (enough for a super sized shawl for everyone?) but even those were out of stock. I found some on E bay for £14.95p but I objected to paying £8.25 postage so they will be my last choice. Everyone I speak to seems to have found them in their supermarkets without any trouble. I will just have to presume that the children of Manchester and Bury don't play and so don't need any mats! Perhaps they are tough nut kids who don't mind banging their heads on the floor. Having said that my son never had such luxuries but we did have good carpeting to fall on and not the hard laminate flooring so popular with the modern mums.