Charcoal Cardigan Is Finished

At last. The charcoal cardigan is finished. As you can see, however, it is minus it's buttons and as my elder niece has the buttons and will stitch then on then it is unlikely that there will be another photos of the cardigan unless I can persuade my younger niece to send me a photo of it in wear.

The pattern stitch isn't showing up very well on the photos but it does actually show up quite well in real life. The collar which felt so huge when I was knitting it now seems to fit the jacket. For some reason this pattern hasn't been something that I have enjoyed knitting but the finished cardigan looks worth the effort. I do hope that my younger niece will like it. The colour of the cardigan is much darker than it looks on the photos. Maybe later I will get a photo of my niece wearing the cardigan with it's buttons in place. I miss seing her reactions to things that I make for her now she lives in London.

Yesterday I went to the knit out at Manchester Town Hall with Rachael from Artyarn and the Kings Arms. If you ever get the chance to visit the Town Hall it is so beautiful inside. The room that we were in had beautiful wood carvings, a balcony and even had a big stone fireplace. I forgot to take my camera as I had been charging it up and in my rush to leave for the hospital yesterday morning I didn't pick it up. I am sure that Rachael will be posting photos of the Town Hall on her blog and when she does I will post the link on my blog page.

The Knit Out was organised as part of the events for International Women's Day at Manchester Town Hall and there were lots of stalls from various womens organizations, hand crafted items for sale either for personal sales or to benefit various charities and workshops on different subjects. Some concerning womens rights in the workplace or general safety of being out after dark on their own in Manchester. That is a subject that concerns me as my lack of mobility does make me feel quite vulnerable when using public transport once it gets dark. We were treated to some lovely singing by a choir at the opening of the event. There was some food sampling of different cuisines and a free recipe board of dishes from around the world. Unfortunately we missed out on the chance for a food taster session as we were in the room set aside for the Knit Out and by the time we had finished the time slot allocated the food had all been nibbled away.

My hospital visit was a farce. My elder niece took me there as I had to be there by 9.30am and Sunday public transport is very spasmodic. I waited along with several other people in the clinic. I thought that it was strange that there wasn't any admin staff there to greet us. Different hospital personnel kept popping their heads in asking had the doctor arrived yet. Eventually,after a 2hr wait, it transpired that there had been some misunderstanding and even though we all had letters telling us to come to clinic the specialist hadn't been informed that he had a clinic and as there was no admin staff none of our files had been accessed. We all got an apology but that is not the point. Some people had paid for taxis there for an appointment that didn't exist. I felt annoyed as I had rang the hospital to double check that there wasn't a mistake on the date as I have never had a Sunday appointment and was reassured that the date was correct.

The lady who was trying to sort it out for us was very upset that this had happened but it was no use taking out our feelings on her as it wasn't her fault. We did ask her to vent our anger on the people responsible on our behalf. She took our letters and said we would have a re-book. My appointment had already been re-arranged (as had everyone else) so no doubt that will be yet another delay. Hope Hospital Salford please get your act together as you are failing miserably in keeping your clinics running efficiently. Thank goodness I told my niece not to wait with me. It's bad enough one of us having a wasted morning and she had a lot of work related material to do on her PC before today.

Last night I did some more on the crochet 'aran' style jacket. One front is made now and about 6" of the back. As it is round the post 'cable' pattern, on quite a fine hook for aran thickness wool, it does take a lot longer to crochet than something more open on a larger hook. It does make a very firm jacket once it is finished that is suitable for outdoor wear. It is jacket length of around 32" so still quite a bit of crochet to do before I finish the back.

Tonight I am hoping to get to the Kings Arms knit club. I will take some odd pin knitting that I started yesterday at the Knit Out. As I have mentioned before I find the lighting a bit dim for my old eyes in the pub so take something in a light colour so that I can see what I am doing. The odd pin pattern that I am using is one from way back as is the wool that I am using from my stash. I will post photos tomorrow when I have a few inches to show you. At the moment it is looking very uneven and I am hoping that it will settle down after a wash. The principle is that one row is knitted on a huge needle and then a much smaller needle is used for the purl row.

No sun today but at least it isn't raining. I am hoping to push on with the jacket crochet today as I am not in the mood for any housework. That is nothing new though as housework is just not my forte. I do just enough to keep it looking reasonable and that will do for me. I can't see the point of cleaning just to make my house spotless for me. Reasonably clean and a bit untidy will do for me any day!