Flamenco Shawl

I am making an All Shawl by Doris Chan but as I saw from a fellow Ravelry lady it can be made flamenco style by adding more ruffles. Since these photos were taken I have added a third ruffle. The colours are not as bright as they appear on the photos. The bright Orange is more of a burnt orange.

I have finished most of the shawl and until 5 minutes ago it was happily blocking outside in the sunshine as it has been quite a lovely day today. Then it suddenly went very dark and down came the rain and I had to rush to rescue the shawl and my washing from the downpour. Hopefully I can take more photos of the shawl tomorrow when it is completed. It has gone too dark now and so the colours will appear even brighter with the flash.

Last night I started another baby matinee coat in Lilac for new baby Veronica when I was at the Knit Club in the Kings Arms Salford but it is so dark in there that I am seriously considering ordering one of those lights on a headband from Tesco that are meant for handymen and wearing it whilst I crochet in the snug. Someone worked out for me that 4.41kg was around 9lbs 11 ozs so she is quite a hefty young lady so I am making this matinee coat a larger size.

I have decided that I am not a girly girl. I just cannot master the art of painting finger and toe nails. I am OK with painting a skirting board or a door but fiddling about with midget brushes is not my thing. I am too impatient anyway and ages after I think everything is dry I still manage to ruffle up the varnish. Sigh. Perhaps I was never meant to be ladylike.

I have just come back from my 4th visit to the osteopath. My knee is still sore but it is slowly getting a bit better but as my niece pointed out yesterday with all the degradation of my knee I am only postponing the inevitable by waiting 6 more months to decide whether to have a new knee. I discussed it with my osteopath and he said that I do need to be slimmer than I am at the moment to make the operation a success so I think I should concentrate on improving my walking and than maybe going back to water aerobics when I can walk from the station to the Leisure Centre. Improving my overall fitness will help to shed some pounds. I am not eating any more than I used to I have gained weight purely by being so inactive over the last 12 months since my spinal operation. When I wasn't walking about then I know that I should have been eating less but that is OK in theory but not in practise. I still felt as hungry as I used to and found it next to impossible to cut down. Plus I think that the more often I was in the house the more I looked for something to eat. When I was out and about or doing the garden food went to the back of my mind but when I am watching TV and crocheting then food comes to the front of my mind. The TV adverts don't exactly help. There is a food advert every commercial break so it enters my subconscious mind that I need food when I don't.