Isn't it great how a bit of sunshine can lift spirits. Yesterday was sunny and I have woken up this morning to another beautiful day so sorry housework you are on the back burner. I am going to sit outside and relish the last of this weather as it might be gone tomorrow. I should be cleaning windows and hoovering today but instead I may mow the lawn before settling down to my crochet in the sun. That way I will feel that at least I have done one chore today.
I have almost finished off the duplicate sweater and cardigan. The cardigan just needs stitching together before I crochet the edgings.
I have started a Blue Curacao shawl for my friend Jen but as the wool is very fine for the pattern I am going to have to make adaptions to the pattern to make it large enough. At the moment her shawl is turning out child sized. The pattern should be crocheted in an aran type thickness and the wool that Jen bought for me to use is more of a double knit. I can't tell you what the yarn is as it was one of those bargain packs from the Black Sheep that is sold without labels. They guy did say that it had been £10 a ball which considering it is a 25 gram ball I think is far too expensive and no wonder it finished up in a sale. I can't remember if he said it was alpaca or merino as I really do have brain fade these days. The wool is very loosely wound and is splitting like mad as I crochet so I can foresee a bit of swearing going on this weekend as I have to unravel part rows when I see a looped strand further back down the row. Plus the fact that I am going to have to try to work out how to extend the pattern to make the shawl large enough. I have done this once before but as per usual I didn't write down what I did! I am always getting in trouble on Ravelry when people ask me what I did and I can't tell them! Why is it that the more expensive a yarn is the looser it is wound? I never have any trouble crocheting or knitting the cheaper yarns but anything expensive is a bugger to work with.
I am glad that you liked my mother's granny square afghan. I had to laugh at Ailsa's (Mad about Craft - not enough time to craft) comment when she said she thought I had made it in an afternoon.Now that would be something to put on my list of achievements. Something like that would probably take me years. My largest granny square project was the Granny Takes a Trip jacket that I made for Lisa and that had 70 something squares and took me about 3 weeks to make.
Beansieleigh and Mattenylou have actually made afghans and not just thought about it as I have. I think Matttenylou's comments about starting off using stash then having to buy more wool and finishing up with more stash sounds like something that I would have to do. Whenever I do a stash busting project I never seem to make a dent in my stash. Maybe it's because I am the same and buy more colours to make my stash buster more interesting ;)
June thinks that crocheting could be hereditary. I agree in certain respects but in my case it was from my aunt that I gained my crocheting skills. I remember watching her turn out the most amazingly intricate mats, gloves for church and handkerchief edgings without ever using a pattern. My mother used to crochet sometimes but as she was a hand and machine knitter it was limired to edgings on garments. In fact she saved up enough money to buy our first wool shop by machine knitting socks and garments for people. My Dad even erected a huge shed in the back yard for her to knit away into the wee small hours and not disturb anyone. We even had a telecom system of a series of bells and buzzers installed in there to attract her attention. One bell meant one thing and the buzzer another. My mother had her own sweat shop out there recruiting my Dad and myself to knit the plain bits on one machine whilst she did the shaped bits on another. Pleated skirts were all the rage for little girls back then and my mother made literally hundreds of skirt and sweater sets. We made the main skirt pieces and she made the sweaters. I think she must have shod half of our small town with the thousands of socks she made. She even offered a re-footing service when the holes in the soles and heels became too many. She had a customer in Scotland with very large feet who used to order a dozen pairs every year. He only ever had them made in grey or in lovat so that he could match up socks when one sock got too holey. I wish I had kept those industrial machines, her sock machine and especially her overlocker, swift and electric ball and cone winder. I don't think that the neighbours or the planning authorities would like me putting a huge shed in the bottom on my garden though.
Well I am off to get dressed and enjoy this wonderful day. Happy Birthday to my friend Mike in the Isle of Man. He is 21 again today. I doubt that he reads my blog but just in case I hope that you have a good day Mike. Any man who regularly tells me that I am gorgeous deserves a good day in my opinion. Hey I have to take care of guys like these as men who give me compliments are a little thin on the ground these days!
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