Plain Crochet Scarf

The crocheted scarf I was making for the homeless grew somewhat whilst I was waiting around in the hospital yesterday. I keep splitting the wool though. That's the problems with crocheting two strands together. There is enough wool to make this scarf and a hat to match and possibly another set later on.

My niece called today. She wanted to catch up on the news about my knees. Now I have finally worked out how to use the DVD on the TV I can watch films. She has loads of them and has brought me a few Chick Flicks around so that I can watch them. I will have something to watch now when there is nothing inspiring or entertaining on the TV.

I have decided not to go to my ex's 65th birthday party as no-one is going who lives near me so I cannot share the cost of a taxi with them. The party is quite a distance away and the cost of a taxi both ways would be a bit too expensive. Originally there was going to be a mini bus going from near me but the people who were organising it now aren't going. I wouldn't have minded sharing the cost of that.

It is my baby's birthday today. He is 41. I think that he is going out with his wife and some friends tonight. I think that my ex is a bit upset that he isn't going to his 65th party but as he has arranged it on my son's birthday I think that it is a foregone conclusion that Ian would want to spend it with his wife and friends and not his Dad.

My friend Sylvia and her daughter have gone to the Stitch and Craft Exhibition in Manchester today. I didn't want to go this year as the knees just aren't up to the walking around on a hard concrete floor. Unless there is more wool there this year I won't be missing much. I find that these shows are more for card crafts and cross stitch than knitting and crochet. I will hear all about it when she rings me tonight. I am sure that they will have managed to find some bargains to buy. Lisa and a couple of the Noras will be there on a stall hopefully selling the remaining Naked Knitting calendars in aid of Christies.

Time for some lunch and then back to the scratchy navy scarf that I am crocheting. It's Knit Out day tomorrow at Bolton Knitting Noras. I am looking forward to that as I didn't manage to get there last month.

Two New Knees

No photos today as I have been at the hospital most of the day and so didn't get much crochet done. I did, of course, take some crochet with me but as I was hopping about between departments most of the time I didn't get a lot done.

I had gone prepared for a fight about my knees as last time I was deemed too fat for a new knee. I took a taxi there as I was afraid of being late. My knees were painful and I was feeling a bit cross due to my being awake all night in pain. I need not have worried about being late as the clinic was already running an hour behind when I got there about 10-15am.

To cut a long story short I had more X rays and both of my knees are basically buggered. I knew something was wrong when the big cheese specialist came in and shook my hand. He said something inside my right knee has shunted and needs to be operated on soon. The arthroscopy hadn't worked. I think that I told him words to that effect shortly after the last operation but was told to go away and exercise and all would be well! The left knee will be done as soon as the right knee heals.I had a bit of a laugh in the X ray dept when they asked me to stand on one leg with the other one raised bent behind me. I said Hey I gave up the ballet as a teenager. If I could raise my legs up there then I wouldn't need new knees! We had another giggle in the cardio dept. I am naughty I know but I don't tell them beforehand that I have arrhythmia. I like to watch their faces as they watch the beats. I kinda like the odd rhythm that I was born with. It has a funky beat when I am linked up to a heart monitor!

The specialist never mentioned my weight except to say that I should try my hardest to lose some so that my recovery will be better as the less weight on it as it heals the better. I had all of my pre op tests done whilst I was at the hospital and am on the waiting list. The wait is around 3 months at the moment. I have been wearing my hospital nighties so I will need to get a couple more. I have some but they are sleeveless and it might still be cold if I go in hospital around April/May. Maybe this time I will get to wear the bed jacket that I made and didn't wear after my spinal surgery as the week that I was in it was a heatwave.

I have an appointment to see my GP on Tuesday as my eczema on my lower calves and ankles was really bad today and the specialist commented on it and said that I needed to get some help with it before it becomes infected.

I am hoping that this news will lift my spirits as I have been a bit depressed of late. Prone to floods of tears for hardly any reason. I think that my situation was just getting me down and so hopefully now that I have something to look forward to (well as much as one can say look forward to an operation). I just feel that at last I will be moving forward and this time next year I will be prancing about with two artificial knees. Corps de Ballet here I come - well maybe that is stretching it a bit!

Angel Top, Knickers and Floppy Hat

I have finished the baby set that I have made for a friend's grand daughter. As you can see the crocheted dinner plate has transformed as if by magic ( actually with the aid of a bit of elastic, ribbon and a rosebud) into a mob cap or a floppy hat as the pattern describes it. The pattern is from JustCrochet by Heather JC36B and I think that I put the link to the web site a couple of blogs ago. The outfit has taken 200 grams in the lilac and 100 grams in the white. I think if I made it again though I would make the little knickers and the hat in white with the lilac edging. Maybe it is because the lilac is perhaps a bit brighter than I would usually have chosen but it does seem to dominate the outfit slightly.

My doll that I kept from my childhood came in useful today and made an admirable model. She does have rather a big head for her supposed baby size but luckily the elastic on the hat stretched to fit.

Not sure what I will start next. I think maybe a scarf and another hat in navy with some wool that my King's Arms Knitter fried Marie gave me at the Big Issue Knit Out. I mentioned that I would have to stop until I got some fresh 'man' colour supplies and she found this 4ply wool that she had for some time. I am going to double it up as 4ply knitting is not my thing unless it is for babies or socks. It's at times like these when my knitting machine would come in handy to make scarves in finer wool but alas I still haven't got around to cleaning all of it's needles yet. I tried a sample piece and it bunched up and dropped stitches as the needle latches were sticking closed. I need to take each needle out and emery paper it and have just not been in the mood for such a mammoth task.

I had such hopes for the day when I first got up as the sun was shining. That quickly stopped and we are once again back to a dull and dreary day. I am seriously considering buying one of those S.A.D lamps once I have recovered from the Christmas and this month's Birthday present spending.

My Everyday Wear

I got up today feeling like I should be doing some housework. By the time I had my shower and stripped off the bed and sorted out the laundry to be washed, and the laundry to be put away, I was in fact knackered. I am now sitting down with a cup of coffee before summoning up enough energy to remake the bed.

Whilst I was sorting out the washed laundry that, I had worn over the last couple of weeks, it occurred to me that I am truly an advert for Doris Chan's book of Everyday crochet.This pile is not all that I have made. A lot I have made and given away and some more are tucked away under my pile of sweaters in the wardrobe. This is just my fortnight's wear. As you can see some of them are rather battered which is a testament to the fact that they truly are not my best sweaters and are in fact everyday Crochet.

I haven't made much progress on any crochet as yesterday was a phone call and visits day. Not that I am complaining. I have so few visitors that it is nice. Isn't it always the way though that everyone decides to phone or visit on the same day? Leaving other days when I don't see or speak to a soul. I would rather have some company than get on with my crochet. There will be many other days to crochet I am sure.

Last night was a good night on TV for me. I watched the Hairy Bikers although their Sunday lunches were family orientated and so not recipes that I would make for myself. I still enjoy the programme though which is unusual as I am not a lover of cookery programmes in general. I then watched How to Look Good Naked with Gok Wan followed by the programme on the Chawners who are the fattest laziest family that I have come across in quite a while. The mother is absolutely useless. She makes me so angry. has no interest in anything other than herself and stuffing her face. What mother would go and have her hair done when they had rang to say that her daughter had been rushed in hospital for an appendix operation? I was shouting at the TV that time. She wouldn't even take any interest in the fact that her daughters were trying to lose weight.Both parents wandered off when it was parent discussion time on how to help their children slim. Useless great lumps! All she could say to the specialist who was taking care of her daughter in hospital was don't you recognise her from the X factor. He said no and started discussing her daughter again and she said well your nurses do. No interest in her daughter's health just wanted to be recognised on the coat tails of her daughter's so called celebrity status. If someone in the national press called a child of mine a lard bucket and fatso then I would want to shield them and not draw attention to them.I would love for someone to give me the opportunity to speak to all those experts on diets.The programme was trying to teach them about nutrition and fats in foods but only one daughter was remotely interested. I couldn't have done most of the exercise stuff but I am sure that they would have worked out a programme suitable for me to follow.

I had to use BBC catch up to watch another programme that I had to miss last night as it clashed with another programme. The one about the old mums.I am not going to pass judgement on what ladies do in the desire for a child I just thought that if I had a baby at their ages then I would have a toddler around my feet at the moment. I can barely take care of myself these days so it's a good job that I never had any of those urges. My sister in law (who called yesterday) married in her mid 30's and became a mother naturally in her later thirties and always thought of herself as an older mum and worried about whether the kids would think she was old as she had gone grey very early on. Compared to some of today's mothers she was a mere chicken. My Gran had children in her 40's, again naturally, but they were the last 4 children of a family of 16 so there would have had plenty of siblings to take care of them had anything happened to Gran and Grandad.

It's another dark dismal dreary day and I am trying to drum up enthusiasm for finishing off making the bed and hoovering up in there. Perhaps after Loose Women?

More Hats

I haven't done much in the way of crocheting this last couple of days. I made the second hat with a combination of my cream fleck wool and a ball of Sirdar Breeze that I got from the Big Issue Knit Out. I crocheted the two balls together as they were both double knit and I wanted to make a thicker hat. The stitch that I have used is an alternating UK double crochet and treble stitch that I use a lot as it makes such a firm fabric.

The lilac and white crocheted circle will somehow be magically transformed into a baby Mob Cap with the aid of ribbons and trimmings. It looks like a giant crocheted dinner plate at the moment but I am hoping for better things once it is finished off completely. I have a pair of baby knickers to crochet yet to complete the baby set. Then the fun will begin as sewing on the ribbon and trimmings is not my strong point! As they used to say at the children's matinees at the cinema - watch closely for the next instalment.

Gosh that takes me back. We used to have a very old cinema in the small town where I lived and if my Mum had any spare pennies I was allowed to go to the cinema on a Saturday morning to watch films like Lassie and episodes of the Lone Ranger. I always missed out when they said stay tuned for the next episode as of course I didn't get to go every week. My idea of luxury was to get a minute tub of ice cream from the usherette. The guy who owned the cinema was so old that now he reminds me of the young Mr Grace from the Are you Being Served comedy and the usherette was like Bette Davis in the film Baby Jane. He used to put all the house lights on and stop the film if the boys started messing about. The lads were frightened of him. He knew all of their parents and would tell them if their sons or daughters misbehaved. That was a huge deterrent in my youth. Seems unbelievable these days that one old man could control a cinema full of rowdy kids. The kids of today would need a posse of people to get them to behave these days.The only time that I ever saw this guy lose his cool was when they showed Bill Hailey's Rock around the Clock and the local lads dressed in Teddy Boy gear got up and danced in the Aisles. The most famous of our local Teddy Boys was Legs Diamond. He always wore a long drape coat with a velvet collar and drain pipe trousers with crepe soled brothel creeper shoes.I wonder why they were called brothel creepers? He had the largest Brill creamed quiff of the town. I hope that he has photos as he is probably well into his seventies by now and has probably lost all of that hair!

Another dreary day although it isn't actually raining today and the bin men have got back on track and emptied my household rubbish bin, my glass and tin recycle bin and my old newspaper bag so let's hope that the snow stays away and the street can get back to normal without the overflowing bins everywhere.

Photos Of Big Issue Knit Out

These are some photos taken at the Big Issue Knit Out. They were taken by Audreym (Ravelry name) and also feature photos of yours truly theurbangypsy (AKA the big blue crocheting whale) - who is crocheting along with Roger (Ravelry name Thatroger) and the bottom photo is Lucy (I-Lucius) and Cara ( Pinkerton). They are knitters from the 8th day knit club and are part of the Manchester Massive Ravelry group that I am also a member of. Although I don't manage to get to the 8th Day for the knit outs I do bump into these ladies from time to time at functions such as these and Roger is a fellow member of the Kings Arms Knitters of Salford. Audrey has kindly allowed me to "pinch" these photos from her Flickr for my blog.

As you can see from these photos that there were quite a few young knitters. These photos show a fraction of the people who attended. If I find any more photos then I will post them at a later date. So many people had cameras that I am sure that there must be loads more eventually.

My friend Sue from the Knitting Noras called today. Nice to have a chat and a catch up with gossip and to see photos of her new grand daughter. I haven't finished the outfit intended for her as last night I finished off the crochet hat that I had started at the Knit Out and have started another one exactly the same as I had enough wool left over. The baby outfit is coming out more for a six month old anyway so it will still fit the next time that I see Sue.She is making a lovely crocheted pram blanket for her new grandbaby. She has chosen lovely subtle shades of pinks, creams lilacs and beiges in a lovely soft cotton and the blanket is 6 larger multi coloured granny squares with a border around. The colours were lovely. I hope that she posts a photo on Ravelry when she has finished it off.If she does then I will "pinch" it and let you see it.

I am going to carry on making hats and scarves but in and between other projects as i think that I will get rather bored with just churning out hat after hat.

Nexus Art Cafe Big Knit Out

I went to the Big Knit Out at Nexus Art Cafe in Manchester today. What a good afternoon. I thought that there would maybe be a dozen or so knitters but when I got there the place was full. So lovely to see so many young knitters. People always think if knitting as a bit of an old lady hobby but if they could have seen all these trendy young people knitting then they would have to amend their thinking.

I met up with Marie and Roger from the Kings Arms Knitters,Sean from the Bolton Knitting Noras and 3 ladies from the 8th day knitters, Debbie Tomkies and a few other people whose faces I recognised but the names escape me.Sean managed to win one of the raffle prizes but as he had gone home when they drew the raffle I don't know what he won. I Lucius (Ravelry name) from the 8th Day knitters also won a prize of card making papers and a cross stitch pack.

Nexus have an art and craft afternoon every Sunday between 3 - 5pm so if anyone wants to donate any knitted or crocheted hats, scarves or gloves then you can pop them in then. Or if you just fancy meeting up for a chat and craft go along. The cafe makes delicious sandwiches too and they are very reasonably priced.I had a hot chicken and stuffing sandwich served with some chopped peppers, onions and cherry tomatoes on the side. Very nice.

I started another hat whilst I was there but didn't manage to finish it off whilst I was there. Marie gave me some navy wool to use for some more hats until my next supply of wool arrives. There is enough navy to make a scarf and hat set. Marie has also given me a chunky half mitten knitting pattern that I can make also.

People were taking loads of photos of the event but as usual I didn't take my camera. One guy was saying I could view them later on Twitter but as I don't do Twitter I guess I will have to hope that he puts them on Facebook too.

Last night I was crocheting the baby angel top and have almost finished it. It needs buttons and ribbons yet.Tonight I will either finish off the crochet hat I started this afternoon or carry on with the matching knickers and sun hat for the baby.

The sandwich that I had for my late lunch was very filling so I am not in the mood for any dinner tonight. I will probably have a snack later, it was a bit miserable on the way home as the rain is coming down again. Never mind I can shut the curtains, make a coffee and turn on the TV and hope that there is something good to watch.

12th Hat and Time for Something Different

Last night I finished my 12th hat ready to be taken to Nexus Art Cafe tomorrow to the Big Knit Out. I will take some wool with me tomorrow so there could possibly be 13 hats in this batch. I am waiting for some more wool before I make any more so I decided to start a little baby crochet as a treat to me last night.

The pattern I am using on one of Heather's from justcrochet,com and if you click on my blog title it will take you to her home page. The set I am making is the one on the right. The angel top, pants and floppy sun hat illustrated in lilac and white. I love very pretty girly things and I do know of two fairly new born baby girls so this set could be destined for one of them. Just recently everybody has had boys. I have nothing against boys but it usually involves yards of plain knitting where boys are concerned and I am a crocheter at heart. Modern mums today seem to like everything plain and it's very boring to have to knit and crochet plain things.

Another dull and rainy day. Nothing must exciting happening today. I just did a bit of local shopping and am about to put my feet up with a coffee and enjoy a bit more girly crochet. I hope that you are having a good weekend.

Eleven Hats for the Homeless

The latest two hats I have made are more for the ladies. Unless of course any of the men would like to wear a hat with lurex thread and a flower. Well these days one never knows. I have now made eleven hats. Ten crocheted and one knitted. I am hoping to make it to a dozen at least before I go to the Knit Out on Sunday.

Today is, once again, dull and rainy. I think that I will save up for one of those light lamps for S.A.D as I am sure that I have a touch of that as I definitely feel a lot more lethargic and miserable when there is no sun around. I am sure that I was born to the wrong mother and was destined for a hot climate.

Today I got the sign off letter from the specialist that I saw on Tuesday. He is very efficient. Usually I get copies of these letters up to a month after my appointments.He has said that whilst he is happy with my spine after his operation he is unhappy with the knee pain and lack of treatment that I have received which is preventing me from doing the exercise that I need to be doing to maintain my mobility following this operation. Let's hope that my knee specialist picks up on his recommendations when I see him next week.

Thanks for your message Enid. I have tried to add you to Facebook but as usual Facebook was acting up and playing silly beggars so I don't know if you will get my invitation.

Today I really must do a bit of housework. I have brought plastic bags of oddments of wool downstairs whilst I have been hat making and so my front room looks like a rummage sale and I dread anyone calling. I think it's time to re-organise my stash again. It's funny but after eleven hats I can't see any difference to the size of the oddment bags! I can see more stripey hats in the future as a lot of the balls are too small to make a hat in one colour.

Coffee time and time to watch Loose Women.

Snowy Day Hat

The red hat is the Snowy Day Hat by Lauren Osborne that is in Crochet Today magazine January/February 2010. The description says 'You will stand out on the slopes or on the streets with this colourful cap' so I do hope that the homeless person who gets this will not mind standing out. My version came out a bit smaller as I was using scrap wool so I had to add a few more rows of the red to make the hat long enough before I added the ear flaps. it is still a bit close fitting but I will damp block it and it will stretch out a little.

The green knitted hat was made with an oddment of some wool called Poodle that I was given a couple of years ago in a bag of donations. I am not a lover of knitting with anything with texture on it. I push all the nobbles along as I knit. It must be the way I hold my wool. I usually avoid using it but it seemed a shame for the wool not to be used up.

I am hoping to make 12 hats before I visit the Nexus Cafe on Sunday. I think that I will make it as I have made 9 hats so far. I am rapidly running out of male colours so I will make a couple of lady colours as my friend pointed out to me today that there are also homeless ladies. I hope that there are as I don't think any man would want a pink or lilac hat!

Quiet day today. Nothing planned. I think that I will just have a late lunch now with a coffee. I am defrosting some lamb mince so I think that it will be a shepherd's pie for dinner tonight (and for the next couple of days)

Only One Crochet Hat Today

My hat production has slowed down. I am finding that my stash has a lot of colours in it that are just not suitable for men's hats. I know that there are probably homeless ladies also but I presume that the majority of people would want a quieter coloured hat anyway.

I am in the middle of knitting a hat but as the wool is textured then it has slowed me up considerably. I am not very good at knitting anything with lumps and bumps. I think that it is the way that i hold the yarn as I tend to push all the ripples and lumps along instead of knitting them as they come on the ball,As for crocheting anything with texture then forget it. It ain't going to happen in this house.

My knees hurt last night after my trip out to the hospital and so I decided to try an early night. Eventually i got to sleep as initially I could not get my knees into that comfy position that allowed me to nod off and this morning I couldn't move. Half asleep I wondered why and then I realised that I had wrapped myself up in the duvet overnight and was like the jam in a Swiss roll. It took me ages to extricate myself. No wonder I didn't hear the alarm the duvet was wrapped around my ears! One of the pillows was on the floor at the bottom of the bed so how that got there I have no idea. I wonder what I was dreaming about?

My knitting group has been offered some wool. A guy contacted the group and said that his late wife has a bit of a hoarder and had quite a stash of wool. As she had passed away with cancer he wanted us to have the stash because of our fund raising for Christies. I hope that some of this wool finds it's way to me as I could really make use of some of it to continue making hats and scarves for the homeless and there is always a charity raffle that asks me if I will make some raffle prizes. It's at times like these that I really wish that I still had my car.He lives quite a distance from me so I am hoping that some of the other knitting members will be able to pick some of the wool up for me.

More Crochet Hats for the Homeless

I had a hospital visit today which involved, as usual, lots of waiting about so I am now up to 6 crochet hats for the homeless. The colours are too bright as it was dark when I got home and the flash on the camera has altered the colours.

I had to see the spinal specialist. The delay was when he wanted a final X Ray to make sure that the plate and pins are still in place. Due to the snow and ice the fracture clinic, which is held in the same department, was bulging at the seams and the queue for X Ray was so large people had to stand as there wasn't enough chairs. I got chatting to a lady and she said that she had waited 4 hours last week. I didn't wait that long but by the time I had a sandwich and a drink after my appointment I didn't come out of the hospital until after 2.30pm even though I had a morning appointment. I managed to crochet a hat whilst I waited and as usual started up plenty of crochet conversations in the waiting room.

One lady was working on the poem Footsteps in cross stitch. She was just putting the finishing touches to it. She showed it to us and it was a real labour of love as it was bigger than a tea towel in size. She admitted that it had taken her 8 years from start to finish but she had done the majority of it whilst recovering from a new knee operation. She said that like me she had a couple of repair ops that didn't work but said her new knee was wonderful.

The spinal specialist does not need to see me any more but expressed concern about the fact that my knees had not been sorted out yet more than a year after my fall. He agreed that my weight is a drawback to a good success rate but could not understand why I had not been offered any weight help. I said that I had been offered Lipotrim but it made me ill and I had to discontinue using it. He said that I should have been offered an alternative and not just dropped from the weight loss programme. Sometimes I think that the specialists have no idea what goes on in the rest of the hospital.

Enid - I can't add you on Facebook as your comments come up on here without any e mail address and your blogger profile does not have one.I am on Ravelry as theurbangypsy so you could send me a message on there. I don't put my e mail address on here as I get enough spam as it is. I must delete 30 or more adverts for Viagra, pen*s enlargements, dating sites and mail order brides every day, At least the Nigerians have stopped asking me for my bank account details to process their legacy from a will now. The other day I got one allegedly from the Inland Revenue so I didn't open it. I rang the Inland Revenue and of course they hadn't e mailed me.They asked me to forward the e mail to their spam department to find out who had sent it, I knew that they hadn't as they don't have my e mail address and anyway the Revenue would not have sent me 6 identical messages 5 minutes apart! . I didn't open them - no doubt it was something asking me for bank account details saying I had a payment due to me. They must think that we are born yesterday.

Hats For The Homeless

Not the most exciting hats that I have ever made but I am on a mission not only to clear some stash but to help others with the fruits of my labours. As I mentioned before Nexus Art cafe are having a day where they would like donations for the homeless of hats, scarves or gloves. They have listed it as a knit day (click on my blog title for more details) but I hope they are not averse to a bit of crochet as I can make more hats with crochet than I can picking up my needles. Enid asked me for more details. I have not yet visited the cafe but I Googled it and it is on Dale Street which is off Oldham Street and not far from Piccadilly Gardens. The Knit Day is Sunday 24th Jan from 2 - 8 pm. If you don't live in the Manchester area and would like to take part I am sure that there must be a similar scheme in your neighbourhood. I found out about the day from Facebook having been invited to join in another Knit Day last year which unfortunately I could not go to. Since then I have been getting event invites but this is the only one that has mentioned knitting so as it is a worthy cause then I thought that I would like to participate.

My hats may not be the most glamorous hats but if a guy doesn't have a hat then my hat will keep him warmer than no hat at all. Maybe this will be an ongoing event and I can make more hats during the year to participate again later on. I shall know more after Sunday.

Buster has gone back home. I am sad in many ways as I do love his company but it isn't fair to keep an animal if you can't take care of it properly. I could not do the daily walk regime. I might manage a walk on a good day but with dogs they need every day. It upset me to see the look in his eye over the weekend knowing that he wanted a walk and the guilt in my mind as I knew that I could not walk him.

I feel good today as my tiredness caught up with me and I slept until 10.30am this morning. I slept right through my alarm and would still be in bed were it not for the guys across the street having new windows installed so the workmen woke me up with their hammering and banging to get the old window out. It's a good job that I have caught up with my sleeping as tomorrow I have an morning appointment at the hospital to see my spinal surgeon. If I miss that then I will have to wait months to get another one.

I have just got my credit card statement and that has endorsed my 'no wool buy' decision for at least another month or so. I always try to pay off anything that I put on the card at the month end but with Christmas purchases, some new crochet hooks, a new spinal support and a couple of books then the amount has crept up on me so I will have to be frugal this month as today is Emily's birthday and I have my son and my ex husband's birthday also this month and my brother's birthday next month. Thankfully I have restocked the food cupboard again.

Foliage Cap and Neckwarmer

Despite the many interruptions from Buster I did manage to finish off this knitted cap and neck warmer.The pattern for the cap is a free pattern called Foliage and can be found on Knitty.com. The crochet neck warmer is a length of alternating UK dc and UK trebles to make a short scarf. Each row I put a dc in the treble and a treble in the dc of the previous row. It makes a close interesting stitch, 2 rows from the end I put a couple of buttonholes to fasten the short scarf into a neck warmer. I had seen similar ones on Ravelry and decided to just use up the remainder of the wool to make one to match the cap. The wool that I used is approx 130 grams of Patons Shadow Tweed Shade 06214 that I had left over from another project.

Buster is still with me but my son is calling to pick him up after dinner. They are back from their weekend away but have taken my great granddaughters to the cinema as a treat. It is Emily's birthday tomorrow and she will be 3yrs old. I will get to see the girls briefly as they are calling for Buster on the way home from the cinema before they all go home. Buster is getting very fed up with me as he cannot understand why I am not able to walk him.

I had a bad night and got hardly any sleep because of the pain in my knees so I was definitely not in the mood to walk him today. I miss not having him on a full time basis but I hate the guilt that I feel when I am unable to walk him. We play ball but it is not the same as a good walk. No doubt the other dogs will chase him around once he gets back home again.

I have reached another bag of blue oddments down from my stash as Nexus Cafe in Manchester is asking for some hats,scarves or gloves for the homeless and are having a knit out day next Sunday. I thought that it would be a good way of using up some of my oddments. There could be a lot of striped hats but if they keep people warm I am sure that they won't mind. I will be crocheting most of the hats that I make for quickness. Most of my stash isn't wool but I am sure that they will still be warm enough, Any hat is better than no hat in this cold weather.

Everything Stops For B

Everything grinds to a halt when Buster comes to stay. My son and his wife had somewhere to go this weekend and could not take the dogs so I have Buster and my granddaughter has Skye. I am not sure who drew the short straw and got Dillon the pup! Buster arrived with his dog bed but as you can see from the photo he has other ideas about where he wants to sleep.As he is used to 2 other dogs to play with he gets a bit bored here and demands attention most of the time. I have not been able to walk him which hasn't helped. The snow has mostly melted with the rain but I am not sure how the rest of the street and the woodland are and I can't risk falling.

I have finished off the hat and scarf. It has a rather wiggly fringe at the moment due to the wool having been unravelled. I am not one for re-hanking and steaming out the crinkles. They will drop out when the scarf is washed. I did try to get Buster to model it for me but as you can see he was not too impressed.

I was flicking through the TV channels and came upon One Man and His Dog. Buster was glued to it watching the dogs chase the sheep and his ears pricked up every time the shepherd whistled. I had an hour's peace to try to do a bit of knitting on a hat. It is looking a bit on the small side but as it is on 5 needles it is difficult to tell until it is finished.The wool I am using is mostly wool so no doubt the hat will get bigger with wear or I can always block it out a bit bigger. I really don't suit hats I don't know why I bother making them. I must have a dozen hats and I don't like myself in any of them!

Buster has got fed up of me typing now and is poking my legs with his ball so I guess I had better play ball with him for a while and hope that it tires him out a bit so I can finish off the hat.

Melody Griffith's Beautiful Crochet for Heads, Hands and feet

This blog is heavy on photos so I think that I will just let the photos speak for themselves. They are from the book that I got yesterday. Beautiful Crochet for Heads, Hands and feet by the late Melody Griffiths.

As usual there are patterns that I like, a couple that I will make and some that I think are awful. I could never see anyone wearing the rose beret and the socks look nice at the front but the mismatched stripe pattern is awful. OK under the foot but as the stripes also continue up the legs would that mis match continue up the legs? There is also a rather nice corset type belt but I didn't photograph it as it is only crocheted at the front and has a back of 5" elastic and is boned at the sides. Not something that is easy to get hold of. I would rather buy a more solidly boned belt than try to make this one.

The zig zag bag looks pretty but unless it is lined ( I haven't read the pattern) it would be very droopy the minute that you put anything in it.

My unravelled shawl is now a hat and half of a scarf. The hat pattern is a free Drops pattern and I have included a link to it in the blog title. I am making my scarf in garter stitch as not as wide as the pattern as I only have a limited amount of wool and want to put a fringe on it if possible.

My Interweave crochet Winter 2009 has just arrived so it's time for a coffee and a browse. I will let you know what is in the magazine tomorrow.