Getting Organized

Whilst the little flat storage trays that I bought last week are OK for buttons, beads and other smaller items I found that the bigger things just didn't fit. I ordered this storage set of boxes from Amazon. Each little box has it's own lid so there is no danger of items getting spilled out even if I knock the unit over. I have got my sewing needles, tape measures, stitch markers and other nick knacks stored in it although I may have a change around when my little layered work box arrives.

The Moses basket that I am going to use as a prop for displaying my crocheted baby jackets has arrived. I ordered it from best4babygudz through Amazon and it got lost in the post. I contacted Marc from the company today and not only did he give me a replacement for the lost one he also delivered it to me. Now that is what I call good service. Just watch now I bet that the missing Moses basket turns up later this week. I will, of course, ring him if that happens and then he can maybe collect it or arrange to have it collected. I think that I will put a few tacking stitches on the cover so that it doesn't show as much of the handles. I think that will look better in the photos. Hopefully I won't have to wash the cover as often as I would if it was for a real baby so I won't need to leave the handle slits on show. .

 Royal Mail strikes once again. If you remember my steam mop was stuck in the post for a long time. I don't blame the companies. They post things off in good faith and expect them to be delivered in reasonable time. I have been very lucky with goods that I have ordered online. Touch wood. The only thing that never turned up was a copy of Interweave crochet that got lost in the Christmas post. I got a replacement for it but I had to wait 2 weeks longer than everyone else to read it.

I should be starting to stockpile some baby crochet ready for when I get my web site and open my Etsy store but instead I have been knitting the Library Cape from Lion Brand patterns with some chenille that Sue gave to me. My daughter in law reads in bed and my son says she gets cold shoulders so I am making up this little cape as I think that it will be easier to manage while lying in bed reading than a larger shawl would be.

I really have no excuses for not starting baby things as I sorted out my baby crochet patterns into folders and ordered quite a few more baby crochet patterns from Just Crochet by Heather. Her patterns are quite girly although she does have a few designs for young baby boys. I have added a link to her pattern site in my blog title. As her patterns can be available as downloads they can be bought anywhere in the world. I just wish that more Mums liked the more ornate jackets, Babies are only this small for a few weeks so it's nice for them to be dressed up. Once they get bigger then the ribbons and rosebuds can be a problem. I love them and I know that Bev does also. I have quite a collection of Heather's patterns now.

This is just one pattern from my bargain hardback book that I got through Amazon. Once again it was a £2.81p bargain. This little angel top and mob cap are in The Baby Knitting and Crochet Book that was printed for W.H Smith in 1983, It has 130 baby patterns in it and even some machine knitted patterns in the last chapter, There are a lot of designs in this book that I will use. I will show you more of them tomorrow.

I was complaining about  our wet weather although it has tried to be sunny on and off today. Then I got an e mail from Bev saying that the snow had gone but left her area with floods (fortunately not her house) I guess that I shouldn't complain when some countries get such extremes of weather. I think that the UK has one season now. It isn't usually as cold as a lot of places in Winter and it certainly isn't as hot as most places in the Summer. I have been lax in my blog reading so forgive me if I am not up to speed with what you have written on your blogs.

Alteration Weekend

Yesterday I went to see my friend Sylvia to say goodbye to her foster baby as he is going to be adopted very soon. Fostering is a wonderful thing and it gives the babies a stable start to their lives but if I did then I would want to keep every one of them. Whilst it's nice to look forward to new babies arriving it's still sad to say goodbye to others even though they are going on to be part of a family.

A little while ago I had crocheted a long coat for Sylvia in James C Brett chunky. With wear it 'grew' and whilst she didn't mind the body getting longer the sleeves had to be turned up twice. I spent the afternoon taking the sleeves back out, unravelling a few rows and then crocheting the sleeve head again and stitching them back in again. That is the beauty of hand made items. If something happens to them in wear or if you decide that you don't like the pattern something can always be salvaged. Yarn can be undone and made into something else.

Today I started thinking about this dress that I bought for my youngest niece's wedding. Whilst it looks like it's shape should be flattering to a larger figure I spent the whole of the wedding day tugging it down as the under bust drape was too high and the buckle kept riding up my bust line. I am not sure if it because I have too large of a bosom for this style or whether the material is so stretchy that it won't stay in place. I decided to see what I could do to remedy this situation as I knew that I would never wear the dress again in it's present state.

I cut the dress at the shoulder seams. Crocheted a couple of pieces and stitched them in thus elongating the shoulders. The dress always was too low at the front and the armholes cut so wide that they showed my underwear. Now the neckline is even lower as are the armholes so I will now wear it with a tiny vest top underneath and with a black short sleeved bolero over it which will cover up my bra at the sides.. It doesn't look as pretty now as it did before my alterations but at least now I will wear the dress in the Summer (if we ever get one) I hate things hanging in my wardrobe unworn just because of something small that I don't like about them. When I was younger I was always taking things apart just to add darts and change sleeves etc. I am not a fashionista who will wear ill fitting things just because they are 'in' I have always been a comfort kind of lady even when I was a teenager.

Yes I did go back to the charity shop. Someone else had been there before I went back for the second time so my choice was limited. The red matches the wool that I bought on Friday so now I have 17 x 50 gram balls of that which is enough to make a sweater or jacket. The green is Jaeger Matchmaker DK and there is 9 x 50 gram balls of that. The mink brown shade is only 5 x 50 gram balls but that will make some nice warm hats for the homeless later this year. The royal blue is labelled on the pack as 4ply wool and there are 7 balls of that.

This is Unchain My Heart by Doris Chan. I made it with 9 x 50 gram balls of Patons Zhivago that my friend Sue gave to me the last time that I saw her. I altered the pattern slightly as it had the same problem as my dress. I must be long waisted and the start of this waistline would have been  half way up my bust if I followed the pattern to the letter. As it is worked from the top down I did some more rows before I started the ribbing pattern stitch. Of course this made the neckline lower hence the 3 buttons to stop the neckline gaping in wear. They look a bit off centre on the photo but that is just the angle of the tunic on the sofa. I also did two rows of UK double crochet around the bottom edge as the pattern was curling upwards. I will take some photos of me wearing it when I have some clothes on that will go with this top. I am not a lover of waistcoats but I think that I will wear this tunic. It will be great to keep my body warm when I am wearing a shop bought sweater and pants.

The weather is still wet and dull here and I am longing for a bit of sun, I am glad that I don't live anywhere near Beverooni as she has snow !!! Much as I am sure that I would love your company Bev the snow would really put me off. You have certainly had your share of it this Winter and Spring.

Thanks to everyone for your lovely comments about my absence and my niece's top. I am touching wood (my head) in the hopes that my Internet stays connected.. It is still having mad moments where it flickers on and off but it is mostly staying on.

Now to think of what to start next. First though a mug of coffee to get the old brain cells working.

Where Do I Begin?

I will begin by praying that my Internet connection stays on long enough to post this blog. As I posted earlier I have been having intermittent problems where as soon as I have been connected I get disconnected within a couple of minutes. It's been very frustrating as I didn't realize how much I used the Internet. Anyway I will try to recap what has been happening to me over the last week.

This is now my little family of dolls ready for use as models for my crochet. The bigger doll on the left is a relic of my shop. She used to model baby dresses that I had in my window for sale. My niece said the she reminded her of Chucky as she has creepy plastic eyelashes!

I am still in the reorganizing mode. I got some more of the pop up laundry bags and sorted out my stash room once again. Everything is now contained in tubs, pop up bags or on the bookcase. As the bags and boxes are all see through I don't have to take ages rummaging for something that I know is in there somewhere. I also managed to pick up two more bags and a couple of very small storage boxes to use to keep my sewing needles, stitch pins and stitch markers and all the various bits and pieces that get lost in the bottom of my work box. I have also ordered a plastic drawer system (similar to the ones in garages for holding nails and screws) for all my little rosebud  trims and tiny buttons etc. I am getting so organized that I won't recognize this house soon. It's funny but I don't mind tidying I just hate housework but maybe once the clutter is organized then I won't feel as bad about that.

I always say that my local charity shops never have any wool. I passed by one yesterday and found these  goodies in the window. The Red and the Blue are pure wool. The red is DK and the blue is Aran. The lilac colour is pure cotton and I got them all for £15. Great bargain as there are 20 x 50 grams blue, 12 x 50 grams of red and 9 x 50 grams of lilac. They had lots more wool there but I didn't have much cash in my purse which is probably as well otherwise I would have bought the lot !!! I am sorely tempted to get on my scooter and have another browse there today.

This is the bread that I got from the Farmers market last Sunday. I gave the cheese bread in the centre to my son and all but the very small loaf, which is in the freezer, has now been eaten. The danish pastries were delicious. The circular ones had raisins in and the long ones had chocolate and a sort of vanilla custard. It's a good thing that the market only comes quarterly or I would be even fatter than I am. I also stocked the freezer with some lamb.

I finished off this top for my elder niece. I am really pleased with the way that it  has turned out and I believe that it fits her really well. She has promised to take photos of her wearing this top and the Doris Chan sleeveless top that I made for her also in the same colour.

This top took 6 x 50 gram balls of Sirdar Silky Look  DK in Chalky pink and the pattern is Flutter Sleeve Top from the Fabulous Flirty Crochet book by Katherine Lee. I did have to alter the pattern slightly as although my niece likes a low neck when I worked it to the pattern it was far too low of a neckline and would have shown all of her underwear. I changed it to start the V of the neckline on the same row as the armhole shaping and made the shoulders slightly wider than on the pattern. The tighter band under the bust makes it a flattering top to anyone with a good bust line.

My washer is broken. Two repair men came almost immediately after I phoned them. Hummed and haahed over it for about an hour and them left saying it required some parts which they didn't have and would have to be ordered for me. I got a phone call this morning saying that they would be coming back on Tuesday but not next week - the week after!. Luckily I had just bought some new underwear so I have plenty of everything to wear until then. It's a good job that there is only me to wash for or I would have a pile reaching up to the sky by the time they arrive.

I am now crocheting a top for myself. I only have a ball to crochet into it so hopefully, Internet willing, there will be photos soon. I also have some knitting and crochet photos to show you from a second hand baby book that I bought last week.

Yesterday I went to the hospital for the results of the 2 scans. I might has well have saved the £22 that I spent on the taxi. I saw the 'big' man himself but he was in and out of the room in about 2 minutes. He didn't seem to know that I had scans for infection and said Oh they must have been OK. Told me that what I needed now was a course of physiotherapy of heat and massage to get rid of the swelling in my knee. He then went on to say that their physio department didn't do that any more due to cut backs so I should consider a physio in the private sector or get a friend to massage my knee daily !! Since I don't have the £35 per visit that it takes to see a private physio maybe I should advertise on Match.com for a man with hot hands and massage techniques. (And we all know what kind of replies that I would get with that ad !!)

The specialist then went on to say that I should invest in an exercise bike and not the set of exercise pedals that I already have. Where does he think that I have money for something like that? They have massive salaries and don't seem to understand how the rest of us live. He blithely dismissed the purple legs as having varicose veins. Unless they are well hidden I wasn't aware that I had any. Is that something else I have to  worry about but that wearing surgical support stockings wouldn't help. I came out of the consultation more confused than when I went in. I was hoping for some explanation and answers and all I got was more theories. I am now supposed to be having a scan on my other knee as that isn't functioning properly. Watch this space. Maybe I will finish up like Long John Silver and just get a wooden leg.

I am going to pray that the Internet stays on long enough to post this long blog page. As for tomorrow keep your fingers crossed that the cosmos keeps me connected.

Have you missed me?

I am having internet connection problems. I have Orange trying to sort out the problem. I am online for a few minutes and then off again for hours. If it stays on then I will try to blog later. My PC seems to have been abducted by aliens whilst I have been offline and friends have received silly e mails that I obviously didn't send. If anything pretending to be from me arrives in your e mail box that doesn't have any message from me just a link then please delete it without opening. I have done a complete virus check and nothing is showing so I hope that it is just a bit of spam.

I Paid My Money And Got A Surprise

I am always ordering bargain secondhand knitting or crochet books. The one I got yesterday and the one I got today I ordered blind. There was no description of what was in the book. The one that arrived today was just described as Exciting Crochet by Muriel Kent. I took a chance. Paid £2.81p and waited.

It certainly is exciting and challenging too. Beverooni will laugh and perhaps be a little jealous when she sees that most of the patterns are Tunisian with some Broomstick crochet (as on the front cover) I have all the hooks and I have tried Tunisian a couple of times. Now I really do not have any excuse as I like so many designs in the book. They may not be high fashion but they are certain my kind of designs.

Classic Chanel style waistcoat where the stitch looks close enough to be so warm. I love the pretty trim.

Interesting textures in the pattern stitches for this jacket. I think I would prefer slightly stronger colours though.

A basic warm winter jacket with useful pockets.

I am not as keen on this jacket but the stitch could be useful for something else.

Another pretty waistcoat that seems to be worked in mohair with a fancy yarn for the stripes.

A page that shows examples of the stitches on some of the projects in the book.

A full length coat in a slip stitch stripe pattern. Once again I would change the colours.

This is a straight neck long sleeved sweater. It has an interesting stitch pattern. Stripes but with block patterns within the stripes.

These are a couple of sweaters in broomstick crochet. Although I did learn the technique years ago I found it rather awkward holding the overly large knitting needle that is used for this method of crochet.

I could have made a hat for the Royal wedding if only I had this book then!

Another waistcoat and collar that don't seem to be as openwork as some of the broomstick crochet can be,

The coat looks very pretty but I think that I would worry whether the fabric was firm enough to stop it from dropping downwards. It does look like it is crocheted in mohair so it won't be as heavy as normal yarn.

An afghan in striped for you afghan lovers. I am very bad at making anything so large in one piece. I have only made throws etc when they are done in granny squares. Apart from that the largest blanket I have ever made was for a baby.

These bright pop up laundry baskets are a very cheap option for storing some of my stash to keep it tidy. My pile of wool descended on me the other day like an avalanche. Hopefully netting some packs in these will stop it happening again when I pull the bottom pack of a pile!

 I have started another top for my niece with the remainder of the Silky Look from her Doris Chan jacket. I would have done more but I was crocheting last night and I was a bit tired and I misread the pattern. When I awoke this morning the mistake was glaring at me so I had to unravel a whole ball. It's maddening when that happens but the motto is don't crochet half asleep!

Oscar the cat has gone missing. My ex neighbours accidentally let him out of the door and they haven't seen him since. I am really worried as if he tried to come back to his old home then he has to cross busy main roads and a motorway exit and entrance. I am trying not to think what his fate might be and hope that by shouting him in the neighbourhood where he is living now they will eventually find him.

Domestic Dramas at the Double

As I have mentioned before my next door neighbours moved out but could not find the cat. I had text messages from them yesterday asking me had I seen him. I shouted him all of yesterday but didn't see any sign of him. I don't know what prompted me to go around the back of the empty house and tap on the window but I did. To my intense surprise Oscar jumped up on the window sill. He was trapped inside the house. He must have sneaked in as they were moving out. I rang my neighbours and they said that they had posted their keys back through the letterbox but offered me the landlord's phone number.

Eventually he came and was surprised to find that they had moved. Apparently they didn't tell him. I don't blame them though as he hasn't been the best of landlords.

Oscar was so overjoyed to see me that he gouged pieces out of my hands and arms and bit me! I took him into my house to feed and give him a drink and he proceeded to spray all over the house. Talk about ungrateful! Anyway after much chasing around the house and another set of bites I managed to get him into a cat box and my neighbour came and picked him up. Poor little mite. He was distressed and probably thought that they had left him behind. Today I have all the doors and windows open to blow away his presence. Nest door's house absolutely stank but that is not my problem. It is up to the landlord now to clean up the house before he rents it out again. I do hope that I get nice meighbours again.

Drama number two was this morning when I put the washer on. Luckily I was in the kitchen doing some chores as the machine decided to spin the water contents all over my kitchen floor. I am on standby now with the mop and bucket until the cycle finished. Something else that requires my attention (and money)

The postman has just brought me another of my second hand bargains via Amazon. I haven't looked inside it yet but there seems to be plenty patterns in it as it is a very thick book. This was a gamble as it was advertised without any photos of the front cover but at £2.81 including postage I thought that it was worth taking a chance. I won't mind if there are only a couple of patterns that I like at that price.

I have finished off my niece's September Morn by Doris Chan. I haven't blocked as you can see as I don't want to make it any larger than it is. It has taken almost 7 x 50 gram balls of Sirdar Silky Look Double knit that I bought from Kemps in the sale.

This photo  is actually nearer to the colour in real life. It is called Chalky Pink. This is the back view as I am trying to show off the yoke pattern.

The jacket is worked from the top down and the yoke is very pretty. I think that it will look even prettier once the yoke pattern has opened up a bit. I found it to be quite an easy pattern to follow.

I have laid it over a blue bag so that the yoke pattern shows up better. My niece is calling to collect it on Saturday so I hope that I can get a photo of it in wear. I can't try it on as she is several sizes smaller than I am.  I will definitely make this pattern again as it has turned out so well.

I have just had another little furry visitor. Poppy, the little dog from next door, has just paid me a visit. She is so funny. She comes for a pat and a tummy tickle and then she goes to Buster's treat drawer and barks like mad until I give her one of his treats! She is a canny one.

My washer has just stopped and hasn't pumped any more water over the floor. I don't know what happened. Perhaps a valve got stuck on the rinse cycle and pumped too much water into the machine. It is making a rather loud noise on the spin cycle so I still think that I need to call a repair man before I use it again. Fortunately I have finished the washing for the day and it will be a few more days before I need it again. I wait until I have enough washing to split into a coloured load and a whites load.

The sun is trying to make up it's mind whether to stay out or not. I do hope that it doesn't rain until my washing dries.

Not sure what I am going to start next. I will have a coffee and a little think. I need to do some shopping today as I am running out of basics.

I Must Get Back To My Knitting Machine

No excuses. When I have finished off the sleeveless jacket that I am crocheting for my niece I must try again on the knitting machine. I am sure that once I sit and read the instructions for the lace carriage it will all come back to me. I can knit plain but I want to make some lacy baby cardigans.

These are another reason why I must get back to machine knitting. I already had the baby cones and today my friend Sue has been in her garage and given me these cones of cotton from her stash for my machine. I can't complain that I have nothing to machine knit with now.

Sue also gave me  a pack of each colour in Patons Zhivago. it is beautifully soft and silky and will make lovely crochet sleeveless jackets. I have a couple of patterns that I bought but haven't made as yet that will really suit these colours.

She also gave me these balls of QK which she inherited from an old lady's stash. It has the aroma that my other donated wool from a couple of years had but once it is left open to the air it fades eventually. It's a strange rather musty smell. I often wonder where old ladies store their wool.  Quickerknit is hard to buy these days and I have a few old Patons Quickerknit patterns that I can use this wool up for.

I am not in my second childhood. I wanted a baby doll for when I design my baby patterns but unfortunately when this doll arrived it is more the size of a premature baby. I have ordered another larger doll so hopefully that will be a newborn baby size. I already have a doll that was used for display when I had the shop but she has seen better days and is about the size of a 9 month old. Next time my son calls I will have to make sure that the dolls are  put away in the spare bedroom or he might think that I have gone a bit strange dressing dolls at my time of life. Crocheters will understand when I say that I want a life sized model to design for but other people won't. The doll is anatomically correct. I could have ordered a little boy doll but I didn't want any extra pieces of plastic spoiling the line of the baby clothes.

I  have spent some of today looking for Oscar. They still haven't found him. They want me to keep an eye out and phone them when I find him. It's very unusual for him to disappear like this. Perhaps he has realized that they have moved and in his cat like way has found himself a new place to stay. Usually when they are not home or on holiday the first place he comes for food is here. He has done that for years. I hope that he turns up soon.

I am on the finishing straight for the Doris Chan sleeveless jacket for my niece. I have about 8 more rows to do on the body and then all the edgings to crochet. After that I hope that I can force myself into some machine knitting. Once I start I will be fine and probably will machine knit for a while. It's just the starting that seems to be the problem.

It has been raining most of the day today. By the time the weather was nice enough to go out shopping it was too late. I managed to find things in the freezer to eat so I will try again tomorrow. I have got a rain poncho and rainproof trousers and jacket but I still don't like scooting in the rain unless I have to.

Yummy Yarn

Yes I know that I am not supposed to be buying more yarn stash but look at this stash from Stash of Chester. Take a look at their web site they have some wonderful bargains.

How could I resist buying Louisa Harding Mariposa in Red and Green which has such silky yumminess that I can forgive it being hand wash with only 64 metres to the ball. I think that Mariposa is roughly an aran thickness as the recommended needle size is 5 mm.  The gorgeous multi coloured ribbon yarn is Louisa Harding Glisten which has a glint of lurex in it. Once again it is hand wash and for a 5 mm needle.

How could I resist it at less than £1 ball. This is definitely going in the stash for moi. My nieces are  not much into the hand washing of woollies anyway. I don't mind so much as in the old days every sweater of mine was hand washed. The super dooper massive 20mm crochet hook is for making small rugs with.  I just wanted to make some multi coloured little rugs as bedside and maybe bathroom rugs. Possibly with quite a few strands of yarn worked together or I may try ripped cloth made into yarn for them. Now I have got the hook I can start anytime I want to. Previously my largest hook was a 15mm.

Spring has come to the front garden with these pretty iris. Perhaps now that the kids from next door have moved they will survive a bit longer without getting decapitated by footballs.

Another spot of colour by the front gate post.

This is the start of my next project. It is September Morn by Doris Chan which of course is worked from the neck down in the inimitable Doris style. No matter how many of her designs I make I still cannot follow them without the aid of stitch markers. The yarn that I am using is Sirdar Silky Look DK in chalk pink that I got from Kemps in the Sale. Sadly it is all gone now but before it went out of stock I did bag a few colours. I made my nieces mink silky cardigan from it and still have a baby pink, and two shades of pale green in stash. It was such a bargain at 89p a ball and it crochets up so nicely. The pattern can be bought separately from Tahki Stacey Charles as a download. It isn't in any of Doris Chan's books.

It was sad today when my neighbours came to say goodbye. It was an emotional time for me and Carol and we both shed a few tears. Later in the day I noticed Oscar across the road and wondered if they had abandoned him but them I got a text message saying that they were unable to find him when they moved so are coming down tonight or tomorrow to have another try to find him. If he comes to me tomorrow I will send them a text message to say that he is safe in my house.

It was my day for parcels as I also took in 2 parcels for the couple across the road and my book from Amazon and some paper files to sort out my patterns also arrived as well as the yarn parcel. The book is a compendium of all of the Borrowers books. It is called The Complete Borrowers by Mary Norton. I read a couple of the stories when I was a small child and for ages I was convinced that we had a family of tiny people living in our house. The imagination of a small child is wonderful. I am looking forward to reading them and the different stories in the book. This will be my bedtime reading for a while. It usually takes me a while to read a book as I only read a few pages or a chapter at a time.

It will feel strange tonight not hearing the sounds from next door. They weren't noisy, especially at night, but there is something comforting about hearing the low murmur of voices and the opening and closing of doors especially as I live alone. I am praying for some nice quiet neighbours moving in.

Super Thick Chunky Jacket

This jacket is so lovely and warm and oh so squishy. Despite not being a lover of the paler pinks I do like the way that this jacket has turned out. The sleeve heads are a bit wonky as I tried it on before I blocked it out. It has taken 18 x 50 gram balls of the Sirdar Big Softee super chunky that I bought from Kemps for 69p a ball. I used an Emu Snowball pattern 3829 that I had in my pattern stash from a long time ago.

The jacket can be worn 2 ways. With the collar turned down as in this photo.

Or with the jacket left edge to edge which is probably the way that I will wear it. As today is a bit chilly and wet when I tried it on for the photograph I was reluctant to take it off. Although it is thick and warm the jacket is quite lightweight for a jacket and considering it cost me around £13 for the yarn I am very pleased with it. I would like it better if I was slimmer and fitted into the jacket properly or I had made a larger size.  I was a bit afraid of making it overlarge as chunky does tend to go bigger with washing and wearing.

I went to bed last night and after tossing and turning with my mind in a total churn I finally got up at 4am having not slept at all. I tried all the usual methods. Imagining myself on the beach listening to the ocean. When that didn't work I tried the yoga method of tightening different muscles in the body and then letting them go very loose. My mind however was full of crochet design ideas and so I got up and made a drink in the end. I had thought or putting my ideas down in a notebook but I think I will wait until I an buy a new one that I can keep just for this purpose. I think that I had too much sleep on Saturday night and Sunday morning.

I am quite tired now and will probably nod off over my crochet. I am making one of Doris Chan's patterns for my niece with some Dusty pink Sirdar silky look DK . As it is worked top down there is not much to show at the moment. I hope that I don't go to sleep in the middle of crocheting.

Mail On A Sunday?

I was woken up this morning by the sound of a loud lawnmower. My immediate thoughts were - How inconsiderate mowing so early on a Sunday morning. When I turned over to look at the clock it was 11.15am and I had totally slept through the alarm ( or switched it off). When that happens I feel very groggy for the rest of the day. I staggered  downstairs for a coffee to waken myself up and rescued the Sunday paper from the porch. On the mat was an envelope containing my latest copy of Inside Crochet. I doubt if the postman has started doing Sunday deliveries, plus I know that there was nothing in the porch up to 4pm yesterday, I am assuming that he put my magazine through the wrong door and that someone kindly hand delivered it for me. Thankfully I do have good, but not over friendly, neighbours.

The Willow Camisole by Irene Strange is pretty for someone young but the straps are shoestring and the model is using her long hair to cover up the wider straps of her flesh coloured vest that she is wearing underneath. I think that it would look far prettier with wider straps to hide any underwear as unless anyone is extremely bold it would need some sort of lining underneath it.

This is Eugenio Stork by Yanina Schenkel. You know my feelings about crochet toys. I can admire them and think that they are cute but I hate making them with a passion, especially getting the stuffing in the right places, and features embroidered on correctly.

Solomon's shrug by Jenny King. So named by the stitch used for the shrug. Laid flat is is a long length similar to a stole and is stitched together to form sleeves at either edge.

This Wedding Garter by Pauline Fitzpatrick has tiny beads in blue  and pearls worked into it. There is elastic in there somewhere to hold it up. It is labelled for an advanced crocheter as it is in very fine crochet cotton and a 1.25mm hook.

The Dewdrop scarf by Zoe Clements is made in Solomon's knot stitch. The name did make me giggle as over in the UK we call the clear drips from the end of your nose when you have a cold - Dewdrops.

I wish that I could wear a hat. The Lady Nada hat by Rommyna De Leeuw looks very pretty on the model. Some ladies have 'hat' faces and can make almost any hat look attractive. I however look like some weird old bag lady when I wear one.

This is the Miser Purse by Gwen Blakley Kinsler. It has a complicated way of fastening with the strings. The idea of a miser purse is that you can't lose anything out of it because of the way it opens. I haven't read this pattern through so I can't explain this version any further.

Lace Skirt by Linda Permann would be pretty on someone young and slim. As this lets me out on both counts it won't be on my personal 'to do' project list.

Flower Bunting by Joanne Whitehead would be a great decorative idea for a fete or even a garden party. The idea could some in useful for all the decorating the local town lamp posts that the Kings Arms knitters have been doing lately. I am sure that it will feature somewhere in my projects in the future.

The Diamond Shell by Lesley Arnold-Hopkins has an openwork diamond stitch around the lower edge which can't really be seen by the way that the model is wearing it. The shell is plain apart from the small amount of decoration.

The super thick pink chunky jacket is all finished as is actually stitched together now. As I got up late and am feeling rather droopy still I will wait until tomorrow to take photos of the finished jacket. I look bad enough when I am alert but not at my best with puffy eyes from too much sleep and creases etched in the side of my face by the wrinkles in the pillow. The jacket is extremely warm and will be great for wearing in the house on cold winter days or outdoors on a chilly Spring day.

My intention was to try out my knitting machine today but as I haven't woken up properly and I will need more concentration whilst I work out how to work out how to use the lace carriage once again. I am hoping that like riding a bike that it will all come back to me.

I was naughty yesterday and went web browsing and found out that Stash of Chester has a sale on with some wonderful bargains. I had to order. It's getting a bit of a compulsion that I cannot bear to leave absolute bargains un bought, This time is is some Louisa Harding for less than £1 a ball. I will show you when it arrives but if you do need any new yarn then do take a browse as the bargains in really good quality yarns have to be seen to be believed. I should start charging commission for telling people to view websites suck as Kemps and Stash!

I have sorted out the avalanche in my stash room. I have ordered some more cheap storage ideas from Amazon to try to stop the same thing happening again when I pull a pack of yarn from the bottom of the pile. I have ordered some pop up mesh laundry baskets, that have the right dimensions as the packs of yarn, so at least if anything falls it will be a whole net basket.

Next door is doing a lot of hammering and banging ready for their move tomorrow. I think that they are perhaps dismantling bunk beds although the eldest has just come to borrow a saw! 

I think that I will start some crochet for what is left of the day and make another mug of coffee to wake my brain up.