Enthusiastic crochetoholic

66 - How Did That Happen?

2011-11-25T17:26:00.000Z

The years are rattling around far quicker than they used to. It seems like just a few months since I said 65. I don't know how people who have retired can say they are bored. I simply don't have enough hours in a day. Even when I am having a down day the hours still whizz by. The only time I look at the clock is to say blimey is it that time already? I can honestly say that the minutes never crawl around for me. Considering that I have more hours awake in a day than a lot of people I should achieve far more than I do.

The parcel delivery postman was the first to call this morning and he brought me some wool (for a change) and a Kristin Omdahl crochet book from Amazon.co.uk. I pre ordered this book months ago so it's funny that it arrived on my Birthday. Sort of another present to myself. For years I have had a phobia about crocheting circles or joining circles together as I go along. This book comes with a DVD so I am hoping that when I watch it the veil will lift from my eyes.

The letter postman arrived later with a few cards and this magazine. I am not 100% certain whether this is a gift or whether it is part of my normal Crochet Today magazine subscription as it didn't have any clues inside it. I am sure that I will find out eventually. The DVD in the middle is a birthday present from my nieces as I never watched any episodes of Downton Abbey on TV. Series 2 is now showing on TV but I don't want to watch that until I have seen the first series. They also bought me a new electric kettle so now I can make coffee without flooding the work surface. The old kettle started leaking a few weeks ago.

My family have bought me a super warm red long jacket which is like a duvet with sleeves. I went up the village on my scooter the other day and came back absolutely frozen and winter isn't here yet. I have also bid on eBay and won a second hand cozy for my legs. Just waiting for it to be delivered. When winter comes (as long as it doesn't snow) I will be able to carry on shopping on my scooter as usual instead of huddling indoors..

After the post came around lunchtime I thought of going for a shower to look half way decent but my friend Sylvia rang to say that I should be receiving a present any time soon. When the doorbell rang a bit later there was a florist standing there with these.

Lovely brightly coloured flowers. Sylvia knows that I love purple so they are shades of purple, lilac with some bright orange flowers in there. I will put them in water as soon as I have finished writing this blog.

I knitted a pair of fingerless mitts for my next door neighbour. He had commented about my crochet fingerless mitts when I put a photo on Facebook. I didn't think that he would suit blue mingled with flowers on so I knitted him a pair in dark green pure wool for warmth.

I also crocheted this hat from a pattern I bought on Etsy but as it was a US pattern the UK wool, that I used, must have been thinner so instead of turning out a ladies size it has come out more of a large child size. That is the only problem that I have with using patterns from the US their wool is always a different thickness to the UK. Sometimes I can sort out the approximate thickness and other times, like last night, when I guess then I am way off. I could do with one of my US friends making me up a thickness chart with sample strands of the thickness of some of the most popular yarns. Worsted is the worse one for me to sort out. There seems to even be different thicknesses of worsted in the US. As yarn is now made all over the world and is international instead of regional as in the old days pre Internet you would have thought they would have sorted out some system by now.

Would it not be a lot easier if the world adopted the same method of grading thickness of yarn. I don't suppose that would work though as every country would think that their method was the best one. There are enough arguments about which country came first with the names of crochet stitches. I have no idea why the same stitches are called different names in different places. It all must have happenend a very long time ago. It's still all very confusing though.

I am now making cowls and neckwarmers. I have a grey one almost finished except for buttons and am half way through a blue one. Photos later. Time is ticking on to the next craft fair and so I must get a bit of a hussle on.

Thanks to everyone who has sent me Birthday wishes via e mail or Facebook. Your thoughts are appreciated.

I have just had a phone call saying that I am getting some company for a few days. Buster is coming so that will be good company for me.

I'm Still around

2011-11-23T12:15:00.000Z

Sorry folks. Just not been in the mood for blogging of late. Just feeling generally out of sorts. You know the feeling. Nothing specifically wrong with me. I just call it my winter blues. It happens around this time of year. Usually it's not this bad but this year for some reason I have had a real case of lack of motivation.

I am still crocheting but just not taking many photos. A lot of the small stuff that I made got sold at the last craft fair so I am trying to motivate myself to make more.

I bought a 'new to me' chunky Brother 230 knitting machine with a ribber but apart from a few practise pieces I haven't actually made anything as yet. I am still in the learning curve.

Here are some of the things for Christmas presents and the next craft fair.

Headbands from patterns that I bought on Etsy. It's a great place to find patterns and as they get sent to your e mail they are usually much cheaper than any other place.

This is a cowl/hood. I made it from a US pattern and my wool wasn't as thick so it has come out a bit smaller (tighter) than it should have. Now I know what to do I will just add more stitches next time. I made the fingerless mitts from a rectangle of crochet in the same stitch. Sewed them up leaving holes for the thumbs and adding a small flower for decoration.

Some more jazzy fingerless mitts made in the same method but this time I crocheted around the thumb hole to make small thumb cozies. No pattern for these just a bit of improvisation.

I have had lots of patterns from Etsy and eBay and also my usual magazines including the Interweave Crochet accessories 2011 which has some good ideas for winter warmers.

Some photos from the last craft fair that I did at the Longfield Suite in November. The next one is on Dec 18th so although I still have heaps of things left from the last fair I need to make more of the small things that did sell such as headbands and fingerless mitts as well as some other bits and pieces perhaps with a more Christmassy theme.

Sadly no-one bought my bride dolls or my bridesmaid doll even though I was asking a ridiculously low price (in my eyes) for them as they took ages to make. Maybe they will sell at the Christmas fair. I should really update my Etsy store or try Folksy which is the UK version of Etsy. I just haven't had the motivation lately. I really should do it before Christmas if I want any sales.

I bought this pattern on Etsy. It is called the San Francisco bag should you wish to buy a pettern. I was really easy to make. The hardest part was doiing the linings as I am not much good at sewing. They will make nice small gifts for little girls this Christmas and have used up a lot of oddments.

I continue to keep buying more wool so will be in the poor house soon. My credit card bill is now bordering on the ridiculous. I need to sell more than I buy and I haven't got to that part yet. I know that I need to speculate to accumulate but so far all I am doing is parting with my money (or rather money that I don't have)

This is just the tip of the iceberg of my latest purchases. Plus I now have enough machine yarn on cones to open my own shop! My house is rapidly disappearing under a mountain of yarn. I will be being filmed for Hoarders as my family will be contacting the show if I don't tidy up soon. I just have no interest in housework whatsoever. I do the bare minimum of washing dishes and clothes and push the hoover about but I am just so untidy that I dread any visitors. It has now gone past the lived in look and gone to woolly untidiness. I never used to be like this. Maybe it's just part of my general depression issues. Maybe I just need a kick up the rear! I could do with a buddy to direct me along the path of tidiness and chat to me whilst I do it.

I went to a friend's wedding on Saturday and had a lovely time. It did me good to get out of the house for a while. Tonight I am going out for tea with my niece and my 'honorary niece' who has been around in the family so long that she is part of it in everything but blood. It's an early Birthday treat for me. It does feel so nice not to have to think about what to cook for myself.

My spine and knees continue to be a pain. I go to see a specialist on Dec 16th. Not for another replacement yet just to have an operation to see what is going on inside the left knee. I have now reached an all time weight high which isn't helping my mobility. I know that this will be the main topic of conversation when I get to the hospital. I weighed around 160 lbs before all of the problems with my spine and knees started but now because of immobility I am probably almost double that. I am a dieting failure. I eat when I am depressed and I am depressed about my lack of mobility so I eat. Join the circle as it goes around.

Last, but not least, is my little furry neighbour Poppy who regularly comes through the hedge to amuse me. This day she got hold of a ball of wool and was chasing it all around the house. She has never shown any interest in my wool before. I couldn't do anything for laughing as she wound it in and out and around furniture legs. She is usually such a quiet serious dog as she is not as young as she once was but that day she was definitely having a puppy moment.

I will try to update my blog more regularly. If you have any spare motivation can you send me some please!

Machine Knitted Shawlette

2011-10-08T16:17:00.000+01:00

I have been experimenting with machine knitting part of a shawlette and then crocheting around the edge. My crochet buddy Sue has been waiting patiently for me to press it out and take a photo. So these are for you Sue.

This first shawl came out a bit long and narrow but now I know what my machine can turn out I will change the increasing and decreasing for next time. It is worked corner to corner, First increasing every 4th row to the centre and then decreasing every 4th row. The wool was an antique cone of Argyll Neopolitan from eBay which has a cotton content and also has loops of the white cotton, which you may be able to see, giving it a slightly rough texture rather than a smooth one. My next aim is to sort out the lace carriage as I have quite a few fine machine cones in plain colours which would look better with a bit of interest in the centre V rather than plain stocking stitch.

Ooh naked dolls. These are for an idea of mine for the Christmas stall. I have got quite a few knit and crochet patterns for the teenage dolls (there are 12 of them) and I am sure that I can adapt something for the smaller dolls. The crochet finger puppets are another idea for using scraps of yarn.

More Ice bargains from eBay. The one on the left with Merino in it will probably be a crocheted shawl. The one on the right is called Sausage. It has a very thin black thread with sausages of pink and lilac fluffy bits. Not sure what that will turn into as yet.

More books and magazines. The Austentatious book is based on the crochet fashions that Jane Austen would have worn but with a modern twist of course. The middle book is a baby book that is plainer than the frilly matinee patterns that I have. I hope to make something out of it for new baby Gracie when I get the time.

The pattern on the left is a booklet that came all the way from the USA via eBay. The pattern on the front cover is the nicest one in the book though. The cabled headband pattern is one that I bid for on eBay.

I think that the motif on the front of this jacket is pretty and unusual.

A knitted beret , as a change from crochet. This also came from a vintage hat pattern from eBay.

I used the basic turban pattern from Drew Emborsky for this headband. Mine didn't look too great when I gathered the front up as per the pattern so I crocheted a tiny strip to go over this to neaten it up. It looks great on the pattern and I am sure that it will on most people. I look like a land army girl about to go and dig some potatoes when I try it on. Or an old washerwoman. All that is missing is the pinny.

This is a headband that I adapted from a crocheted edging in a very old crochet book. I threaded maroon satin ribbon through and have finished it off with 2 buttons at the back. If the band stretches with wash and wear then the buttons can be sewn in a different place,

The hat pattern was from a vintage crochet pattern from eBay and the flower came from Ravelry. I decided to put the row of brown around the edge of the cream flower to make it more of a match for the hat.

Today I am going to try some wristbands and a small handbag from patterns that I bought from Etsy. I will show you them when I have finished. Once again they are multi coloured and so will be great patterns for using up odds and ends.

I also bought 3 solid brown plastic alice bands and 6 covered hair bobble elastics whilst I was out shopping. I have ideas for covering them with crochet and adding flowers.

I Must Stop Bidding On eBay

2011-10-05T15:06:00.000+01:00

My only excuse for too much bidding on eBay is that I have had some kind if a bug this last week which has made me so weak and tired that I haven't had much energy for anything. Unfortunately not crocheting much gives me too much time to eBay browse and for me that is bad for my credit card. I think that I will have to hide it for a few weeks.

These are some of my latest buys. Not just one ball ,of course, but varied amounts of each one. The white one by Ice on the end does not show that it is mohair and has multi coloured sequins wound into the thread. That will be turned into a shawl for Christmas. Not sure what to make with the other yarns yet.

These items came from Kemp's clearance sale. The pink and lilac 4ply cotton was only 99p for a 50 gram balls. That will be saved in my personal stash for Summer crochet. The rest is acrylic destined for fingerless mitts and headbands etc. Plus I needed more of the reduced price metal buttons for fingerless mitts. To buy these in a shop would put £££'s on the mitts. The circular handles are destined for crochet handbags.

I found this pattern in an accessories book. They have short row shaping which makes them a good fit. I did adapt the pattern as they were supposed to have 9 buttons on each mitt which would have out the price up. I am going to make myself a pair of these for the winter.

This is an adaptation of another pair of mitts. They were supposed to be in UK dc with a cable up the centre but the cable started looking as though it was slanting sideways for some reason. It looked OK on the hand but would have not looked good at the fair unless people tried them on. I changed the basic stitch and added a crochet bar with 2 buttons as a bit of a trim.

The patterns came from eBay bids but the Twilleys Goldfingering came from Purplelinda. I wanted that for Christmas decorations or lurex trims.

The turban style headband was so easy to make. It can be worn with the bow at the front or at the back.

This was my interpretation of a headband that I made before the pattern arrived. It is worked from side to side and I put buttons on it instead of stitching it together so that if it got larger with wash and wear then the buttons could be moved to tighten it back up again.

This cap was made from a vintage Paton's pattern that I bought from eBay. I used a DK pure wool crocheted two strands together as I didn't have any chunky in hat colours.

A couple of weeks ago I bid for a mixed bag of different balls of yarn mostly fluffy or cotton. I sorted the greens out and together with some balls that I already had in stash I made one of my multi coloured versions of Doris Chan All Shawl. They are brilliant stash busters if you have not already made one.

Today I didn't get up until lunch time but yesterday and today I seem to be sleeping the bug away. I am finally starting to feel a bit better. Thank goodness for food in the freezer as I haven't felt like stepping out of doors other than to chat to the postman for the last few days. The postman and I are now on first name terms!

I hate feeling one degree under. Anything that puts me off my crochet really annoys me. I tried to crochet but I either fell asleep over it or went wrong and had to undo it. Thankfully I think that my crochet Mojo is back today. I am making another headband. This time in a twisted imitation cable pattern. The parcel postman has just brought me two more packs of Ice wool from eBay so hopefully more photos tomorrow.

Memories

2011-09-29T14:09:00.000+01:00

Today is my late Mum's birthday. If she was still with us she would have been 101 today. I don't have any photos of her when she got older and ill so I like to remember her and my Dad as they are on their Golden Wedding Day. They had a great day as you can tell from their faces. This was taken back in the days when she still coloured her hair. When she stopped she had the most glorious colour of silver grey as did my maternal Grandma. Maybe one day I will inherit that colour and then I can throw away the hair dye. Unfortunately I am still dark haired under the blonde with hardly any signs of grey apart from 2 white wings over each ear.

A friend Steve, who now lives in Spain, put this photo of me on Facebook. It was taken at a Halloween party about 27 yrs ago. That is the natural colour of my hair. It is far too dark for my complexion now that I have aged. My witch hat was decorated with a crocheted silver spider web with a knitted spider with red sequins for the eyes.

I am feeling a bit more alert today. I have got 3 lines of washing drying outdoors as we are having a rare sunny day here in Manchester. It was lovely yesterday but I had run out of washing powder.

I have still not taken any more photos. I am more concerned with trying to get my living rooms and bedrooms back to normal. Well normal for me that is!

The Craft Fair

2011-09-28T18:02:00.001+01:00

I am here. Recovering from my first craft fair. I don't know whether I have picked up a bug or it's just tiredness from getting ready for the fair but I have been so tired for the last few days it's a wonder that I am awake now. I will have to get my sleep apnea machine checked out as well as that can make me really tired if it is not set to the right pressure. I have been out doing some food shopping today so hopefully the fresh air will have woken me up a bit.

The photos of the craft fair are disappointing. My niece took them and I don't know whether it was the lighting (a bit on the dim side) or a bit of camera shake but they are all a bit blurred.

Although I did sell a few things ( some bought by my sister in law) I did learn a lot from my first fair. To be fair the venue had let the organiser down with the advertising. They had promised to put posters up in the foyer and a sandwich board outside and when we got there nothing drew the eye to the fact that there was a craft fair going on in the hall, The organiser has also learnt from this experience and will make sure that there is more advertising done for the November fair. I am going to try to take some of those portable lights with me to try to illuminate my stall for next time.

I have learned that I need to gauge my potential customer base better. A lot of people admired my crochet remarked how beautiful it all was but it wasn't what they were wanting. I told everyone that came to the stall that I was a novice at the craft fairs and asked them for suggestions. They have given me lots of ideas. My customer base on Sunday was mostly fashionable young ladies mostly without children. My next fair will incorporate more items such as handbags (which I got asked for) and small gift ideas for Christmas.

I also had a rival stall who was selling hand knitted baby cardigans for as little as £2.50p!! I enquired discretely and she is not going to be at the next two fairs. I don't understand ladies like her. She can only have made pennies in profit on those cardigans by the time she had paid for the yarn and the buttons. It makes the rest of the stallholders look as though they are overcharging. The prices have to reflect the cost of the raw materials plus the cost of the stall and transport to and from the venue. The only profit is what is left over after I have taken all these costs into consideration. Luckily my niece gave me a lift with my stuff and helped to set up the stall. I would have made nothing had I paid for a taxi there and back. I also have to take into account the money that I have paid for display props like the polystyrene heads, hands and dolls as well as the clothing rail. Even if I do well on the next two craft fairs I won't really make much profit until all the money for these is re paid into my account. Still as my Dad would say - You have to Speculate to Accumulate.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself on the day and that is the most important thing. I knew when I entered into this that I was never going to make a fortune. It gives me an interest. Something to work towards and look forward to.

I could have sold loads of these fingerless gloves but I made the mistake of following a pattern (so unlike me) and they were too large for most peoples hands. Luckily I only made two pairs and my daughter in law has quite large hands so they will be put with her Christmas present. I got asked for them in black with military buttons on by a guy so I am taking his idea on board also.

This hat and scarf set was admired by so many people that I am surprised that it didn't sell. I wasn't making much profit on this as it was Collinette wool and the two hanks cost me quite a bit even on eBay

This hat did sell. It is made of handspun wool with a mohair content so once again I couldn't really charge as much as I should have as the wool was expensive. Still it didn't take me that long to crochet so it's swings and roundabouts.It isn't such a bright pink as the photos shows. It is a mix of pale pink, lilac and cerise.

This hat was picked up and admired so many times that I was sure that it would get sold. Perhaps they would have preferred a darker colour.

I sold one of these sweet little hats. I thought that they were rather pretty and felt sure that they would have both sold.

I didn't sell any of my baby items although they were greatly admired. Most people said they would have bought them if they knew of a baby. The lady on the next stall to me said that I should gift box them up in cellophane boxes and put ribbons on them and they would look more attractive. I will have to price out these boxes as I would have to increase my prices to adjust for this extra spending. The darker colours of baby wear were the ones that caught everyones eye. She also said that I should look out for any local baby fairs as that would be the proper market for my baby wear.

I sold two of the shawlettes in dark multi colours but they were made by my crochet partner Sue who decided to join in the fairs with me, I sprung this fair on her at the last minute and she was going to be away with her man on holiday. Hopefully she will be at the next one. We met up on Monday and swapped ideas for what would be more suitable to make for the next fair. That one and the Christmas fair will be concentrating on smaller gift ideas.

I still haven't photographed most of the baby things that I made lately. Hopefully I will have got some more energy by the end of the week.

I did have a great evening at the Kings Arms Knit Club on Monday. Quite a few people came in and we were laughing and chatting away. We attracted the attention of a would be writer who was rather drunk but wanted to get ideas from us for a play he is writing. There was hardly any knitting or crocheting done after that, Just lots of laughter. No wonder he said that he prefers the company of women as they are more entertaining!

I'm Late For A Very Important Date

2011-09-21T10:16:00.000+01:00

I feel like the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. I'm late. I'm late for a very important date. No time to say Goodbye - Hello I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!

Eek the Vintage fair where I have a stall is on Sunday and I still have lots to do. I promise that I will catch up with events after Sunday. In the meantime I am slaving over a hot crochet hook!

Part of the bunting for my stall. Now I am having second thoughts - is it too retro rather than vintage? Wish I have time to crochet another 12 triangles in different colours. Perhaps more subtle?

Meanwhile more buttons are arriving from China. I have just shown one of each on here. I got them from EBay and they are so cheap compared with buttons from the haberdashers.

Such cute little wooden teddies.

Another outfit finished for the fair. Not sure what happened to this photo but it is actually dusty pink!

This is more like the colour.

One of my favourite distractions. One of three reasons why I am running late. The other 2 reasons are called Poppy and Buddy (next door's dogs). Still I love them all dearly especially Buster. He is such good company when he visits me for the weekend. I wish that I could have him back with me all the time but I simply can't walk him any more. He is such a happy dog. All he asks from life is some attention, food and to be played with and his life is content. He does think that he is still a lap dog which is why I am behind with my crochet. Dog hair and crochet do not go together.

Enough waffling. It's time to get the sparks flying from my crochet hook! I will hopefully remember to take my camera to the fair and show you the things that you have missed seeing in my rush.

Where Do I Start?

2011-09-15T14:53:00.000+01:00

Such a lot has been happening since I last blogged. The first obvious thing was that I had no Internet for a week. I felt like part of me was missing. I had things on EBay outstanding that I couldn't bid on or worse still I didn't know if I had won anything and had to pay for it.

After twice daily phone calls to Orange I was getting extremely frustrated as they passed me back from pillar to post. Orange blamed BT for a fault on my line. BT tested the line and said nothing wrong. Meanwhile I got re-assured everyday from Pakistan that everything would be right by the morning. Eventually when I started talking compensation and cancelling my contract I got put through to someone in the UK. I am not a racist but it was reassuring to speak to someone in Queen's English. Eventually as she went through every single check on my PC one by one we found out the problem was when someone from Orange had told me on the first day to alter something in my settings and that was effectively blocking the signal from the Internet to my PC. Needless to say that made me madder than mad as it would never have reconnected but for the lovely Amy from Orange who spent over an hour on the phone sorting it all out.

I don't have any photos to show you as despite crocheting away for the craft fair I haven't been taking any photos as I usually do as I didn't have a PC to upload them to. I will show some photos eventually. At the moment I am just finishing off a crochet baby aran in a Dusty Pink shade of Patons Washed aran cotton.

I have had the dogs from next door for the last two days and nights as my neighbour's Mum was dying in hospital and she was spending every minute with her. Her Mum passed away in the early hours so the dogs have now gone home. No rest for me though as my furry grandson Buster is coming tomorrow morning for the weekend.

As my stock of machine cones has increased since I last blogged I got another of those plastic shelving units for the dining room. At least I look a bit tidier now. I didn't want anything permanent as if ever my stash diminishes I can take the unit apart and use it as garage or stash room shelving. My dining room floor was full of storage boxes and I could not get to my knitting machine. Worse still I was in danger of falling over them. Now most of them are off the floor and on the shelves now.

The time is ticking by so quickly to my first craft fair. My friend Sue who is in partnership with me will be away on holiday for the first fair but has left me her crochet shawlettes to put on the stall. I am having some business cards printed up. I realize that I may not sell anything at my first fair so the important thing for me is to get my name known as a crocheter. Word of mouth is always the best kind of advertisement. I am going to print off photos of my former work and put them into an album so that people can see the sort of work that I usually make. I am trying to make a sample of different things for the stall but obviously I can't make that many things as I have only got one pair of hands ( well two pairs if you count Sue's!)

Bit of excitement for my niece last Friday. She helped to deliver her best friend's baby on the bathroom floor as her third baby (Yeah a little girl at last) arrived so suddenly that Mum didn't have time to get to the hospital. My niece was literally left holding the baby but fortunately the paramedics arrived and took over. The Mum's youngest boy was peering at his Mum who was on all fours in the bathroom and said 'Has Mum done a big poo on the floor?' Bless him - he is only 2 and didn't recognise that it was a baby and umbilical cord. Mum says that was the best delivery that she has ever had and was up walking about an hour later saying that she fancied some fish and chips. Needless to say my niece and her friend's Mother in Law who was also in the bathroom, and helped catch the baby, were far more shocked than Mum was. I now have another girl to crochet for. Gracie Victoria who was much larger than her brothers at 7lbs 3 ozs,

Hopefully I will have some photos for you next time I blog. Fingers crossed that I stay connected and that Orange has finally sorted out the problem.

Back Online

2011-09-14T11:44:00.000+01:00

Just a quick note to say that I have just been put back online after having no internet connection for a week due to a fault. I will blog later once I catch up on e mails etc.

Some of My Baby Crochet Items

2011-09-07T14:19:00.000+01:00

These are photos of some of the things that I have been crocheting over the last week since I last blogged. You will recognise a lot of the designs as being my old favourite patterns.

This is a new pattern that I bought through Etsy from Mon Petit Voilin. It is blocking out at the moment

This was made from a part ball of James C Brett Marble DK using a King Cole pattern

I will hopefully have more to show you soon. In the meantime it's back to the crochet hook for me!

I'veBeen Busy, Very Busy

2011-09-07T14:03:00.000+01:00

I am fine. Just not had the time to blog. I have only a couple of weeks left to my first craft fair so I have been using my time to crochet instead of blogging.

These are some of the supplies that have been arriving to me via Ebay. I think both the postman and my bank manager think that I have gone completely crazy.

Job lot that I bid for. Will be useful for scarves, hats and fingerless mitts.

Crochet Shawl Finished Before Baby Arrives

2011-08-29T16:46:00.001+01:00

Sorry that I haven't been writing my blog but I have been so busy for the last few days. At least I managed to finished the shawl for my 'adopted' niece Louise's new baby. I call her that as she shared a house with my niece for years before they both got married so I feel like she is part of the family. She is expecting her third baby any day now and I was worried in case her shawl would not be ready in time. It's all white as the baby will be a surprise. They already have 2 boys and Louise and her husband are convinced that this 3rd one is another boy but my niece and I have our fingers crossed for a little girl

The shawl pattern is one of Heather's from Just Crochet and the number is JC46. I had to thread white ribbon through the holes at the edge and sew on white bows. I would have chosen pink or blue ribbon but Louise wants to take the shawl in hospital for the new arrival. It's a sort of tradition. I made a new shawl for each of her boys to come home in so the third baby has to have the same. The wool I used was Sirdar baby DK in a lustre finish. It took 400 grams but it is quite a large shawl.

This is a little outfit for my Etsy store or craft fair. I am a little bit biased towards the girls which my crochet so far so I wanted something that a boy could wear. It has come out around 9-12 months size.

I put imitation leather buttons on it to give it a more 'manly' appearance.

I added a tab and put the same buttons on the beanie hat for the same reason.

Some 'new' vintage patterns from Ebay.

Some more patterns.

Some satin and furry motifs that I got from Ebay to use on pram blankets and jackets.

Some more yarn that I bought from Ebay. I will be sleeping in the garage soon as the house gets filled up with yarn. I will also be living on baked beans and jacket potatoes whilst I pay for these supplies. If I don't sell any of this stuff I will be eating yarn soon!

I used the the Wendy Moiselle to crochet up a small scarf.

As it was an oddment that I bought I didn't have enough to fringe it so it has a shell edging instead. It is much prettier in real life with the satin and organza ribbon threaded in with the yarn. That doesn't show up in the photographs.

Sorry if I am neglecting my blogging but I only have so much time to crochet until the first Craft Fair next month. I will try to write more this week. I still have to spend a day adding more things to the Etsy store. It takes ages to get the photos right and add them on to my shop. I think that I need a secretary but one who donates her time !

I went to the hospital on Friday and they want to operate on my left knee. Not a replacement yet. Just an arthroscope to have a good look around and hopefully trim the torn cartilage. This op wasn't a success on my right knee so I am not hopeful. They wanted me in before Christmas but I told them I had Craft fairs to do so to take me in after Christmas. They keep me waiting and cancel me all the time so now it's my turn to say no.

Still Crocheting Away

2011-08-23T18:06:00.000+01:00

I am still busy crocheting although a lot of my time has been taken up with taking photographs and listing things on Etsy. I haven't sold anything yet but other people on Etsy tell me that this is quite normal until people get to know me.

If I don't stop shopping on EBay soon I will be asking you to send me food parcels! There are just too many bargains and I have decided that not only do I lack willpower where food is concerned I also lack it with yarn and crochet patterns.These are two cones of aran thickness. I just fell in love with the colours. It's so hard to get a nice random dyed yarn these days without paying a small fortune per ball for it.

These wooden Tunisian hooks turned up today. I had almost forgotten about them as they came all the way from China. As I only bid 99p for them plus the postage of course I wasn't expecting much from them. Surprisingly they are so smooth to use. I have had expensive wooden crochet hooks and given them away because I couldn't work with the shape of the hook tips. A lot of them have more of a flat head. They used to snag on my yarn and slow me down. I had a practise with these today and they are as smooth as silk with just the kind of hook tip that I like. They are very short for Tunisian hooks. Only 10" long but I can wield these far easier than my plastic ones with the wiggly wires that cost me a fortune. Perhaps once I get the hang of using these short ones I can progress to the longer ones with wires to make larger things. For the moment I will just practise with baby things until I get better at it. Watch out Beverooni I will be asking you lots of questions soon!.

This is my doll Jo-Anna who came home with me from my shop. She was my display doll for many years. Now she has a new career of modelling for Etsy.

This is Maisie. The latest addition to my doll family. She is also a model for my Etsy store. Unfortunately she needs better lighting to show off her complexion better.

On this photo Jo-Anna is pretending to be a boy. I don't have any boy dolls so the girls have to change sex sometimes. I have another little doll called Sophia but as she is premature sized she hasn't done any modelling yet. The clothes that I have made so far are way too big for her. I shall have to make a set especially for her to model.

I have just signed myself up for 2 craft fairs in my home town. They are Vintage and Craft fairs with a variety of furniture, vintage clothing, cakes and jewelry as well as hand made crafts. I will be working like mad to make some thing more vintage themed as the first one is September 25th which doesn't leave me much time. I found out about them through my ice cream man. We were chatting about hobbies and I mentioned that mine was crochet. He gave me his daughter's phone number as she was looking for a crocheter for her fairs. I am also signed up for one just before Christmas and for that I will be trying to make more gift things as people might be looking for last minute Christmas gifts of hats and scarves.

Feedbackfrom my friends who have done craft fairs is they say that they can be good for sales one day and the next tine you go to one you can sell nothing. As I have been pre warned about this I won't feel too badly if I don't get any sales on the day. I am going to get some business cards printed. As the venue is so local to me and I will know a lot of the people visiting then at least it will raise my profile locally about what I do and where they can find me on my blog, facebook and Etsy. If they are not buying that day it might lead to sales later. Who knows. I can only try. I have been talking about doing this for quite some time so I thought that now is the time to give it a go. If it is successful then it might keep me occupied until I go to crochet heaven. With rising prices for everything any extra money I might make would be very welcome. If I just make enough to feed my EBay addiction to yarn and patterns I shall be happy!

Time is a wasting. I have some crochet to finish and a baby blanket to make. Not for my Etsy store this time it's for my elder niece's best friend who is due her third baby any day. I made blankets for her other two so I can't leave number three out. It will be a white blanket as she doesn't know the sex of the baby until it is born. We all think that it is another boy so it will be a lovely surprise if it's a girl.

There will probably be more photos of Buddy and Poppy as I am dog minding them for a day or so whilst my neighbour visits her new nephew. He still hasn't made his appearance yet but I think that the hospital is using dynamite if the other drugs don't work soon. He must be too comfy in there.

If you don't hear from me for a couple of days it will be because I will be busy with crochet and dogs in no particular order. At least these two don't shed hair all over everywhere as my lovely Buster does.

My Etsy Store is Finally Open

2011-08-20T16:03:00.000+01:00

It has been a long time in the making but finally my Etsy store is open from today. So far there are only a few items on there as I didn't realize how long it takes to photograph things and list them on the site. It's a day's work just going that! I hope that the weather is fine and sunny tomorrow as I have so many more things to photograph. These are just a few.

I hope that my prices aren't too high and that people who don't crochet realize just how many hours and how much work goes into making these tiny outfits. I am so afraid of making things too expensive and yet if I worked it out how long it takes to make one thing then I would probably be earning about 10p and hour for my crochet! Urban Gypsy Crochet is the name of my site. The lovely heading is courtesy of my friend Rachael from Artyarn.

One for the older babies. A multi coloured jacket.

I seem to be in a groove with my crochet flowers. I do think that they pretty up an otherwise basic cardigan so much.

Things are still arriving from EBay. I think that I will be taking a second mortgage out on my house soon to pay my credit card bill. I have enough stuff to last me for years if I crochet non stop! I will be forced into getting my knitting machine out soon with all of these cones. I just wish that I could get in the mood for it. I am just in a real crocheting frame of mind at the moment. Not interested in knitting whether hand or machine. I have phases like this and I find that it's best not to force it. I will get back to it one day.

Back to the crochet. Before that I think that it is time to find something for my dinner. The Farmers Market is coming to town tomorrow morning so at least I should have something really nice for my dinner tomorrow plus some gorgeous French bread. I just hope that I get up early enough as the bread sells out so fast.

More Deliveries

2011-08-18T16:08:00.000+01:00

More deliveries today. The machine cones were delivered to me via Royal Mail. I bid for them on EBay as I am having difficulty finding anyone who stocks machine cones that aren't single colours. I am sure that there must be an online shop somewhere that I am missing. I have tried the usual machine knitting cone outlets but everything is either in plain colours or in very thin shiny viscose. I just have to keep looking out on EBay but unfortunately for me that all seem to have been put on the site this week. As I have been looking so long I dare not let these go at these prices. These are not for baby things but for shawls and scarves later in the year..

Two more patterns arrived, or rather one did and the other one I had to pick up from the Post Office. The same thing happened yesterday. Yesterday someone had re-used a stamp and so I had to pay the postage and today there was no stamp on it at all. I have had patterns from both of these sellers before and nothing was wrong with the postage then so I won't name and shame them. I just hope that it doesn't happen again as I am getting fed up of the ride to the sorting office. There is no room to turn the scooter around and today I got stuck on an kerb and must have accidentally knocked the manual switch on my scooter. I couldn't understand for a few minutes why it wouldn't go.

Another little jacket finished. This time it is darker coloured so I made it larger. I didn't use a pattern for this but I did write it down in shorthand so hopefully I will be able to follow it again should it be needed.

I made a baby hat from the pattern that arrived yesterday. I think that the Quickerknit specified on the pattern must have been more of a chunky as this hat has turned out to fit a premature baby. I am not over fond of the bobble stitch. It is hard to keep the bobbles all the same size and also I feel that little baby fingers will pull at the bobbles and stretch out the strings of the stitch. I have a feeling that it will look tatty in a short while. I will have to adapt this pattern if I make any more. I like that shape so will have to improvise.

More hats to make tonight, I think, but I am probably better at hats when I make the pattern up myself instead of using a pattern. It's just a matter of getting the shaping right at the top and then it's all improvisation after that.

I Love This Pattern

2011-08-17T16:55:00.001+01:00

I knew that I wanted this pattern. I will say thanks once again to Maureen for sending me her copy of the pattern after I got outbid on Ebay. I really love this pattern and I am so pleased with the way that it has turned out. I will definitely be using this pattern again.

My Ebay patterns keep arriving daily. I have got to the slow down stage now as I have bid (and won a lot of them) on most of the ones that I liked the most. I have probably paid well over the odds for a lot of them but they are such lovely patterns. Well I think so. That's all that matters.

These are all crochet. I especially love the crochet helmet in blue and white.

The middle design is knitted but the other two are crochet.

These are all in crochet.

The top two patterns are knitted and the bottom two are crochet.

I bid on this knitting bag and it arrived with 3 part balls of DK acrylic, some knitting patterns and one crochet pattern for babies hats and booties. The bag is practically new and is just the right size for carrying my crochet around to hospital appointments, There were also a few pair of old knitting needles in the bag but as they are short length I will be donating them to the knit club. Rachael is always teaching people how to knit and so knitting needles are always wanted to practise with.

These are some machine cones that I ordered from Ebay. I am not using them for knitting on the machine. I thought that they would crochet some lovely small shawls. It's so hard to find random dyed 4ply without paying an absolute fortune for the hand dyed wools. Lovely though these space dyed sock yarns may be, the price of the yarn would make the finished shawl far too expensive to sell. Nowadays it's not just a question of my liking something I have to take the price into consideration. If anyone wanted something in wool or merino then they would have to put their hand a lot deeper into their pockets. I love the colours of Noro but don't like the feel of it and definitely don't like the price of it even in the sales. I might splash out on it for myself someday but not to crochet and sell on. The cone in the right is especially pretty as it has a silver thread running through the colours.

I have almost finished another crochet baby cardigan. This time it is slightly larger than newborn size as the colour is a little bit darker. Tonight I am going to crochet some baby hats so that I can show something less expensive on my Etsy site. I am getting excited now as it should definitely be open by the end of the week.

My head is still buzzing with ideas and I have taken to carrying my notebook and pen around with me so that I can draw and describe what is in my head before it pops out of my brain again. I have a kind of short circuit brain. I have some brilliant ideas just as I am ready to fall asleep and then if I don't draw or write them down then I have forgotten all about them in the morning. I am trying my best to write down ( in my pidgin way) what I am crocheting free hand so that even though no-one else would be able to understand my shorthand at least I can make something again should it be needed.

Time to cook some dinner. Nothing fancy tonight. Just meatballs in a tomato and onion sauce with spaghetti topped with mozarello cheese. There will be enough for tomorrow too. I like it when I don't have to cook on certain days as it is already made.

After that it is back to the crochet. I hope that there are some good programmes on TV tonight as the more enthralled I am in a programme then the faster I can crochet!

I've Been Busy

2011-08-14T18:38:00.000+01:00

Sorry I haven't been around in Blogland but I had this box of crochet to deal with. I had made lots of things but nothing was finished off. No buttons, trimmings or ribbons. It took me as long to decide which buttons to put on which garment and as to trimmings and ribbon - even more decisions. What I thought would take me an afternoon to finish off has taken almost 2 days. In future I will finish each one off before I move onto the next. It was all a bit overwhelming.

Thanks to Eadaoin I am nearer to opening my Etsy shop. I have got it set up but I need a banner for the top of my page and of course to take some lovely photos to show things in their best light. It will definitely all come together before the end of this week. Pricing is another nightmare. Anyone who knits or crochets knows that you never get paid for your craft. I could never add up the hours it has taken to make each thing and charge by the hour. It's just a question of researching what other people are charging for similar items and costing mine out and seeing if it is feasible to charge the same. Luckily for me it doesn't have to be a full time job. I just want to make some extra money so that I can buy nice yarns and patterns. That doesn't mean however that I am willing to work away for hours for next to nothing. If things don't sell then I will just shut up shop and continue to crochet for family and friends. If I don't try then I will never know if I can do it.

I have been bidding on lots of patterns on Ebay and buying lots of patterns on Etsy. As a lot of them are PDF files then they will only get seen once I print them all out or crochet them up. Once again my printer ink is running low. The refills don't seem to last 2 minutes and my printer has a fit if I try to use anything other than the real branded inks. The last time I changed them ( all branded inks) it took me over an hour to get the printer to stop saying that it didn't recognise my inks.

I did get a new set of inks but I have already used the blue. I love the brightly coloured buttons that I bought from Ebay. The old pattern is a knitting one for a change

I will have to find something to use these lovely buttons on. Once again though they are a bit girly.

These are some patterns that arrived by post. I love the long dress. I have ordered 3 more hippy style long dresses.. Hopefully I will get time to make a couple for me to wear in the house in the winter. With fuel prices going up so much I want to keep warm and a long woolly skirt will be just the thing. Worn over leggings or a full length under slip it will keep the draughts out when I am sitting watching TV and crocheting in the evenings. The other three styles are a bit more substantial than this one and one has long sleeves. The baby patterns are 3 examples of matinee jackets in fine yarn.

These two magazines have arrived but I have only had the time to quickly browse them. Not much is leaping out at me in either one of these. I noticed that there was a copy of Crochet today for sale on Ebay so I think that someone else shares my opinion and has decided to sell their copy.

This is the pattern that I got into a bidding war on Ebay to try to win it. The price was just getting silly for my purse but I did so want this pattern. A lovely Internet buddy Maureen sent me a message telling me to stop bidding as she had a copy that I could have. I do have some great friends that I have met through the wonders of the Internet. What made Maureen and I laugh was after I dropped out of the bidding another lady pipped my rival to the post and got in a bid with seconds to spare. Whoever she was finished up paying £18 for the pattern! I couldn't wait to start it so here is the beginnings of the jacket in blue and white. My crochet items are mostly white or pink and girly so I wanted a few blue items to try and balance it out a bit more. There is not much in the way of good patterns in crochet for boys. They are all a bit plain. I may have to knit some things which will really slow me down. I will have to put my thinking cap on. I have now taken to keeping a notebook and pencils by the bed as when I try to sleep my head is whirring with good ideas of designs to crochet. If I don't sketch them right away then I can't sleep for ages and once I finally fall asleep I have invariably forgotten the ideas in the morning.

I haven't done much of anything today despite getting up bright and early. I think that it's time to get a coffee and resume the blue and white crochet. I do love crocheting the old patterns which is why I am buying so many on Ebay. I love old patterns and it is so exciting to get some 'new' old patterns.

It Has To Be Doris Chan For Me

2011-08-10T17:04:00.000+01:00

This is what I have been crocheting whilst Buster has been visiting. I used the Cinnabar pattern from the Everyday Crochet Book by Doris Chan.

I like the top down construction. Plus the fact that it makes generous armholes which is a boon for a plus sized lady like me. I was jiggling about with a bit less cotton than I should have had for the pattern. My friend Sue had given me almost 13 balls of Patons Washed Haze Aran. It is an acrylic and cotton mix so it doesn't have a good yardage.

As you can see when I wear it the sleeves are bracelet length instead of full length and the body is a little bit shorter than I would have preferred. I just wished that I looked as nice in the Cinnabar as my model does.

This is the back view of the cardigan. It is quite thick so it will be warm enough for our wonderful non existent Summer. As I write this the rain is absolutely hammering down.

As a change from all of my Kemps browsing I now have become an avid Ebay fan. These are 4 that have arrived so far but there are many more to come if I win the bids. There is one pattern that I am bidding on and it has turned into a bit of a silly bidding war between me and another lady. It's like a battle and I want to win it. The money is not the issue any more it's the winning that counts!!!. It's a baby crochet pattern that I have never seen before, not even when I stocked Emu yarns in our wool shops. I want it - it shall be mine!

As the label was covering the lemon jacket on the group photo I took another photo but it has not turned out well. That's the trouble with using a camera in dull rainy lighting. The flash comes on. I don't have a super dooper top of the range camera.

These are 2 patterns that I bought from the Vintagelady web site. I have more but my printer has run out of ink so until new cartridges arrive by post I can't do any more. I bought them as PDF files.

All I need now is some time to complete the abandoned (because of Buster and his hair)matinee jacket and finish all the other things that are minus buttons and ribbons. My friend is calling on Friday to help me set up my Etsy site so hopefully by the weekend I will be up and running. I just need lots of really clear photos and to work out how much to price everything. Too low and I will probably sell everything but make no profit. I know that I won't make my fortune but I do want some remuneration for all the time that I spend doing the crocheting and the cost of the yarns and buttons etc. I just hope that my garments are nice enough to tempt people into buying them at a decent price.

The exterminator came on Monday to spray the wasps nest. Touch wood it seems to have done the trick and I haven't seen any wasps since. He did scare me a bit when he said I might have to ring him again as they might set up in a different part of the tiles instead of flying away somewhere else. So far though I haven't seen any signs of that. Thank goodness.

My son came yesterday and put me a temporary post up for my washing line. In true form as soon as he had finished it the rain came down so I still had to dry my clothes indoors.

I went to the Kings Arms Knit Club on Monday eve and we had a good night. Quite a few people were there so it was a good old natter and I managed to crochet quite a bit on the pink Cinnabar. Yesterday and today I have been doing a bit of cleaning. It takes me such a long time as I keep having to rest my back every 10 mins. In the end I just get fed up and leave it. I keep hoping that the cleaning fairy will come in the night but so far no luck.

I Need To Crochet

2011-08-07T13:21:00.000+01:00

I had to start crocheting something. I was going mad with empty fingers. As I have mentioned before I can't make anything for babies whilst Buster is here moulting hair all over the place. I can't really start anything until I have cleaned up after he has gone home. I was going crazy without my crochet so I decided to crochet some Paton's cotton aran that my friend Sue had given to me. Dog hair seems to fall off cotton and as it is something for me then I am used to a few dog hairs on everything I wear. Trust me it takes weeks after he has gone home to wash and hoover all the dog hair away.

I am not sure exactly what this will turn out to be. I am spinning the cotton out as although I had 12 balls it doesn't have a good yardage. It may finish up as a bit of a Doris Chan Mei Mei but with some kind of a sleeve. Since I have got older I don't really do things with a cap sleeve. I have crocheted one ball into one sleeve and will do the same for the other sleeve. Then I will see how far the rest of the cotton will go lengthwise in the body of the jacket. Hopefully I will have enough cotton for the jacket to reach my waist. Waist? What waist?

I like Doris Chan patterns as not only do I like the pattern stitch I also like the top down construction as I am not overfond of sewing seams up on finished garments.

This is my parcel from Purplelindacrafts. I like using the very bright multi colours as trims on white or pastel coloured garments. It just gives a bit of Oomph to them. Although Purplelinda is very reasonable with her prices I still miss the thrill of nipping up to Bury market and looking at the colours myself. Plus they are usually a bit cheaper too.

Today is a rainy day so Buster is not in a very good mood as we can't play ball outside. Every time we attempt to go outside the rain starts. I hope that he is going home today. Not because I am fed up of him but at least he has his fur sisters to play with at home when they can't go out in the rain. Also the men are coming to fumigate my wasps nest tomorrow and I don't want him breathing anything toxic in or getting stung by any irate wasps.

Hair of the Dog

2011-08-05T12:40:00.000+01:00

No, I am not hungover and in need of the hair of the dog (hangover cure) I am referring to the fact that I have another furry visitor. Buster is here for the weekend.

Lovely though he maybe and much as I enjoy his company you can see why my crochet for babies has to stop whilst he is here.

This is what my trouser legs looked like 10 minutes after his arrival. I have now brushed him and got a huge ball of fur off him. I brush him at least twice a day but his hair comes out all over the place despite this. I don't know why he isn't bald with the amount of hair he loses.

All baby crochet has come to a halt as I could not try to sell anything that is covered with dog hair. I will find something else to crochet whilst he is here. Something for me or someone who is used to dog hair clinging to garments even after a wash.

The sun is out so I guess that we will both be in the garden today playing ball. It's Buster's idea of a really good day, so at least he will be happy. He will be going home on Sunday as I have warned my son that there is someone calling to deal with the wasps nest on Monday morning and I told the people that I didn't have any pets. The stuff they will be using might be harmful to pets so I would rather Buster was out of the way. I don't want him to be poisoned or stung when the wasps come out.

One of my neighbours chatted to me yesterday. They have a little boy just over 18 months old and found out yesterday that they are expecting two babies and not the one that they thought they were expecting. They are not due until the end of January so let's hope that they don't arrive early. My niece's friend who had her last baby the day after my neighbour's baby is also expecting in September but she is having one baby to join her two boys. I do hope that one or both of my neighbour's twins turn out to be girls.

Another Crochet Jacket Finished.

2011-08-04T17:13:00.000+01:00

My little furry visitors went home at lunchtime. Although they have been no trouble, apart from Poppy wanting to bark at her own shadow, I didn't get much sleep as they are used to their own house and I am not used to the little pitter patter of their toe nails as they wandered around during the night. Buster arrives tomorrow but he just sleeps when I go to bed apart from wakening me up for a wee around 4am. After that he goes back to sleep again until I get up.

It wasn't just the dogs that kept me awake. I had one of my itchy, restless leg episodes and that prevents me from falling into a deep sleep. It feels like I have ants crawling all over my legs and I just keep moving them involuntarily.

I managed to make this little jacket. It is my own design using the 3 coloured jacket as a guide size. This version if worked bottom edge to shoulders and is joined at the shoulders, the underarms and sides. I like combining lilac with pink and white.

As this jacket and the 3 coloured jacket have come out a bit larger than a young baby size and look a bit on the chunky side I am thinking of making matching turn back beanies to go with these little jackets. I think that they might be more saleable as a set.

I did start a pale coloured granny square last night but it was looking a bit wishy washy. I didn't want to make a strongly coloured blanket this time but the colours that I have are all rather on the pale side to make enough contrast between the colours.

Tonight I might make the beanie hats (if I can stay awake long enough) or start another jacket. I still have to finish off the other older garments that I made a couple of weeks ago. I might do that if I don't do any crochet tonight.

I am making some meatballs in tomato sauce with garlic and onions for my tea. I am going to cook some spaghetti to go with it. Pity that I don't have any mozzarella or Parmesan cheese to top it when it is all cooked.

Furry Visitors

2011-08-03T16:26:00.000+01:00

These are my two house guests. Mum and Dad have gone to a funeral and won't be back until tomorrow. They live next door to me and so are used to me looking after them but they are not too keen when it comes to bedtime. Normally they only stay with me for a few hours. There was a little bit of conflict this morning as Lily was asleep on her rocking chair when they arrived and I had to rescue her. She scratched me for my trouble, but that's cats for you.

Poppy thinks this is her second home as she visits me all the time via the hedge. She never has a problem staying with me.

Buddy is a Mommas boy. He had a bit of a sulk for a while when he first arrived but soon perked up with the promise of jerky treats!

They both helped me to unpack my two parcels that arrived this morning as you can see from the bag visible in the first photo. I think they thought that the bags contained something other than boring balls of yarn.

The first parcel was just more supplies of white James C Brett 400 grams of baby DK yarn as I had underestimated just how much white that I would need for my crochet projects.

The second parcel was from Kemps which has some more bargain goodies. The lemon and pink textured are for pram blankets although the yellow is a bit brighter than I anticipated. That's the only drawback with ordering online. With my monitor the colours aren't always true. I got some more bargain buttons. If you like a collection of buttons then I suggest that you take a look at their sale buttons.

This is really what I placed the order with Kemps for. I had bought and used some Rowan Natural Silk Aran for my sister in law for her Birthday but when I saw that they had reduced this colour to 99p a ball I just could not resist buying some to stash for myself. It looks far nicer out of the plastic bag. It is one of those 'go with anything' colours that are so useful in a wardrobe. The pink fleck Baby 4ply was also reduced so that has been added to my baby stash.

I finished this off last night and started another jacket. The idea came from a very old pattern but as that was in two colours I changed it to three colours so that I could strand up the sides. I did quite a lot of modifications as the original pattern has a hood, but of course as per usual didn't write anything down. I really should make a tissue paper template so that I can make another one should it be needed.

The jacket is mainly half trebles (UK) with double crochet (UK) edgings. I added the little butterflies as a bit of added interest.

I don't think that I will get much crochet done for the rest of the week with the dogs being here until tomorrow and then Buster arriving on Friday morning. Buddy and Poppy don't shed but Buster sheds hair around himself like a halo. I often wonder why he isn't bald! I can't crochet anything important when Buster is around. I do have some oddments of DK cotton that I might make into something. The cotton doesn't attract the dog hair like the synthetics do.

It's almost time for dinner for me and then later feed the dogs. They went for a long walk this morning and so don't need another walk until my neighbours arrive home in the morning. Poppy has shown Buddy where I keep the dog treats so every time I go anywhere near the kitchen I have two furry friends at my heels.

Cream 3 Piece Set for a Baby

2011-08-02T17:20:00.000+01:00

Finally I have got around to taking some photos of the cream baby 3 piece set that i finished last week. The pattern is JC22A from Just Crochet but I changed the pattern stitch and didn't make the scarf.

I am a little concerned that the jacket looks a bit small compared with the bibbed pants. Maybe it is designed to be worn as a short jacket to the waist. If I had made the pants first then I would have added a couple more rows to the jacket length.

The jacket is trimmed with little flower motifs on the pattern but I wanted something very boyish for my collection so I chose to add a little teddy bear motif and added a ribbon bow. I also chose more 'manly' buttons in a cream and brown mix.

I put similar coloured, but flatter, buttons on the bib. I didn't want anything sticking into baby's neck. I had to amend the hat pattern as when I put the number of chain suggested on the pattern it seemed very large so I knocked a few chain off. It still looks a bit on the large side but maybe I have lost touch with babies head sizes.

Yesterday I got a lift down to the Kings Arms Knit Club from my niece. Not as many there as usual but I still got a good natter and it did get me out of the house.

Today I did some shopping as I am doing my Dr. Doolittle impersonation this week. Tomorrow and Thursday I am looking after the two dogs from next door whilst they go to a family funeral and on Friday morning my furry best friend Buster is coming for the weekend until Sunday or Monday morning.

The animals will but a bit of a halt to my crocheting. I am making a 3 coloured jacket at the moment which just needs the edging and final trimmings and buttons adding. It's another one that I made the pattern up myself. I crochet far quicker when I am not following a pattern but the trouble is that I annoy people when I don't write the patterns down.

Even I have to look at the photos of things that I make in order to make another one. Thank goodness for Ravelry and Flickr for giving me a photographic source to remind me how I made something. I look at some photos and think - I don't remember making that! I must try to make some tissue paper templates of my jackets so that I know what size to crochet to next time. Years ago, before there was so many crochet patterns to choose from I always crocheted to the size of paper patterns that I had made by drawing around things in my wardrobe that fitted me. I have even used dressmaking patterns as templates but that was when I was young and slim.

I read on an article on the net today that granny square cot blankets are the latest must have accessory for the nursery so that has given me something else to make for my online shop. I looked at the ones for sale to get ideas. Some were very pastel in colour and some were brightly coloured but with white edgings. I can manage granny squares whilst dog minding.

Stay At Home Weekend

2011-07-31T18:33:00.000+01:00

These are the kinds of things that I make when I don't leave the house all weekend. There isn't a pattern for these as they came from my brain. They are probably influenced by something that I have seen in a book or on Ravelry, but the trimmings are my own idea.

I made the blue trimmed one first and obviously didn't think things through properly as I think, on reflection, that the sail boat is on the wrong side. I am not unstitching it as I could damage the main cardigan by snipping through the wrong thread.

I am also going to amend any more that I make by putting a row of white around before I do the row of blue as I am not keen on the rather jagged edge that the blue has made around the neck and front edging.

I also think that the little boat would look more balanced with another sail but there wasn't room for it on this jacket. If I had put it on the other side then there would have been room for it.

This was the second attempt and I added a row of white all around this one before the pink shell edging.

Usual flower trim. I used 3 petal flowers to make the button loops for the white toggles. They are a little stiff to fasten at the moment but I am sure that they will slacken off with use.

This morning started off with a bit of a catastrophe. My top oven glass door has dropped off again. For those of you who have read my blog from the beginning you will know that the same thing happened about 2 yrs ago. My brother managed to glue it back on after a couple of attempts with some special glue that would withstand heat. I suppose that over the years the glue has melted. I have been fortunate though as each time the glass has started to fall off I have been in the kitchen and managed to catch it.

As you know most things happen in threes so please let the other two things that happen be small ones. I have a wasps nest in the roof tiles between the lounge bay window and the bedroom bay window so maybe that counts as number two. I am going to have to ring up tomorrow to find out how much it will cost to get the nest removed as I wake up every morning to wasps on the window bottom of my bedroom and next door can't open their windows as the wasps go inside their house.

Today has been quite warm but very muggy again. It's the kind of weather that feels like rain is imminent at any moment. I did manage to dry a bit of washing on my tiny line. My son is going to look out for a washing pole for me as previously I had tied the long washing line to the tree that fell over.

Should I start something else tonight or concentrate on sewing up the things that I have already made?

Not More Storage?

2011-07-28T19:02:00.000+01:00

My niece came today to take me on a promised trip to Dunhelm. It is one of those places that sell bedding, towels but more importantly sewing accessories. It is so hard to buy a bobbin of sewing thread anywhere near me. My niece wanted to look at the prices of bedding for future reference. I bought my thread,some baby ribbon and some elastic and also small crochet hook as my smallest one had been dropped out of my case at some stage. I use a tiny hook to make small flowers for embellishment on my baby outfits.

The grey storage unit is still empty but knowing me it won't be long before it is filled. I also bought 3 more of those small button storage boxes. Today I had been sorting through the ribbon stock that I had left over from my shop and so these rolls if ribbon are now residing in the red storage unit.

The top drawer of the red unit now houses this tangle of embroidery thread which I must sort out into an more orderly pile one day.

You have heard me mention my lodger cat Lily. Her owners are having an extension built on their house which isn't pleasing Lily much so I am seeing more of her than usual. For once she let me take her photo, Just look at those claws that she uses to scratch my carpet and rocking chair with.

She is a very loving little cat. She wants attention all the time when she is in the house. If I don't stroke her then she finds something to rub up against like my wicker waste paper baskets. Despite being so dainty she managed to knock loads of things down whilst she is visiting.

She is like a much smaller version of my late cat Nelson. He wasn't neutered for a long time so maybe she is one of his great grand daughters.

This is one of the outfits that I have finished for my store. I just noticed when I saw this photo that I have buttoned it through the wrong hole making one front look longer than the other. Good job this isn't the photo that I will be using for my store.

This is the reason why I wanted a very small hook. These flowers are a little big for the jacket. They really need to be a bit daintier. I have finished the 3 piece cream boy's set but I will show you that another day. I still have a few finished sets that only need ribbon and buttons attaching. I am bad at finishing things off as I mentioned before. As soon as I have finished crocheting I put them on one side and start something new. As I am almost ready to set up my online store I need to finish them off now.

Today has been hot but the muggy kind of heat that makes you all sweaty straight after taking a shower. Now it is going darker it is looking like rain so I had better bring the washing in from the line. I do like it when the weather is hot enough to dry clothes outside.

Tonight I will be starting another baby outfit. I have tons of ideas in my head but I might make something that I have a pattern for. I will decide later but for now I am going to rescue my washing before the rain arrives.

Yummy Colours

2011-07-27T10:10:00.001+01:00

I think that I am addicted to yarn. In fact I KNOW I am addicted to yarn. When Kemps send me e mails saying that they have more bargains I can't resist having a peek. If you are in the UK and like nice yarns at Sale prices then they do have some fabulous offers so click on the link. They don't just have the acrylics which I have bought they have bargains in branded wools, merinos and fancy yarns too.

I don't have shares in the company but maybe I should as over the last couple of years I have ordered so much from them. I think that I am addicted to parcels arriving and opening them. I am sure it comes from the excitement I used to feel when new stock arrived when I used to have the wool shops. Even though I had ordered it and knew what was in the bags there was nothing to beat the high of tipping the contents of the bags out especially if it was a brand new yarn that I had only seen samples of. You can keep your recreational drugs and alcohol I get high on a bag of yarn.

More bright colours for use in blankets although I think that I will use the blue and the peach for my baby garments, At £1.09p for 100 grams they are such a bargain.

More colours. The lilac fleck and the lemon are for baby garments. The rest is for blankets.

More for the babies. These are 4ply bargains. A pale fleck and some lemon.

I have taken a closer photo but it's still difficult to see the tiny flecks of lemon and green in the ball of yarn. The flecks are very delicate. Lovely for a newborn and neutral for the 'don't know the sex until it's born' babies.

More buttons for my collection also from Kemps When I have to pay ££'s for buttons in a shop some of these cost as little as 3p each so they are such a bargain. I like them as they are a bit different from the normal 'fisheye' or 'star' buttons which are usually the cheapest way of buying buttons. When I am making things to hopefully sell later these trimmings can add up to ££'s on top of the yarn price. Some buttons can cost almost a £ each so that doubles the cost price of making something small.

I have almost finished a cream crocheted baby set. I just have to add the trimmings. I have several items now all awaiting the details. I must put some effort into the final finishing and then I can show what I have made so far. I will crochet all day long (if I can) and then leave all the finishing off until later. I think I enjoy the crocheting far more than the finished article. I do prefer to sew things up in the daylight on the dining room table. That's my excuse and I am sticking to it!

Time for a shower and get dressed. I knew that my parcel was arriving so I left my shower until after breakfast. I can't get down the stairs fast enough if the doorbell rings when I am upstairs. The parcel delivery men are quite used to the sight of my dressing gown. They usually deliver to me early morning as they know that I am usually up and around. I prefer it that way. Royal Mail, however, deliver any time of the day so it's difficult to judge when to shower or go shopping.

Lovely sunny day here so I am going to make the most of it by sitting in the back garden. I do have to collect my prescription but that is not until this afternoon.

I Am Still On The Net

2011-07-25T19:02:00.000+01:00

Just been a bit lazy with my blogging over the weekend. I haven't had much to blog about so when that happens I just leave it for a few days.

Today should have been Knit Club night but the pub was shut for filming, They never let Rachael know and she travelled all the way there to be told that the pub was closed. Thankfully she phoned me before my taxi arrived otherwise I would have been down there with her outside the door. They know that we have a regular Monday night Knit Club so it wouldn't have taken them a minute to ring Rachael and let her know. I am campaigning for free drinks for Rachael next Monday.

Today in the 4th anniversary of the loss of Ollie, the cat I inherited from a neighbour. It doesn't seem that long. It must be 10 yrs since I lost my other cat Nelson who sadly had to be put the sleep at the old age of 19 yrs as he contracted meningitis. Sad though it was I am glad that I nursed Ollie in my arms until he passed away. He deteriorated so rapidly that I didn't have the time to get him to the vet. He was under treatment from the vet for his thyroid but the vet decided that he was too old to withstand another operation and said just take him home, give him his medication and bring him back when you feel the time is right. Ollie decided for himself and passed away very peacefully.

It's another anniversary today, It's 3 yrs since my spinal operation. It has been a partial success although this weekend it has been giving me a lot of pain. I think that i should concentrate on trying to lose some weight as I am carrying a lot of the weight on my tummy and I think this is having an effect on my back. I think that I need to become one of the corseted ladies to improve my posture as well as maybe trying to look a bit sexy. Well a lady can but try. I have found this great site Corsets UK which is really tempting me. I have always wanted a corset but the ones that i saw before were really expensive whereas this site has some reasonably priced ones as well. Watch this space. I intend to be a Victorian tightly laced lady. (Well not that tightly laced lol)

Off to do some crochet and watch a bit of TV instead of going to Knit Club. I hope to have a more interesting post on another day.

Back On The Net

2011-07-22T17:17:00.000+01:00

Thanks to a new router and help from Gordon my ex next door neighbour my problem seems to be sorted. Ever since he fitted it for me my Internet connection has stayed on (touch wood) and I have had no more off hours. He also fitted the keyboard from my old PC. This one is cream and I can see the letters. The one that came with the PC that I am using now was black and most of the letters had worn off which made typing a bit of a hit and miss affair.

The Staghorn Sumac tree was absolutely rotten at the base and so unable to be saved.

It has left a hole in the garden. The only upside is that I now have more sunlight in the kitchen and a better view.

Luckily I have two mini trees that were left behind and I am sure that given time the one on the right will grow to be as big as the tree that fell over.

I don't know if you can see all the magpies on a neighbour's roof. These are the ones who used to visit my tree on a daily basis. I don't think that the small tree growing out of their chimney is much of a substitute for my tree but they can always sit in the Rowan tree at the bottom of his garden.

I have made this little dress and pants from a free Ravelry pattern called Baby Girl Sleeper Set by Abigail Goss. It is for foster baby girl M.

I added a couple of pink bows for trimming.

The hat was part of a free Ravelry pattern and partly by adding the same pattern stitch as the dress. I also added a little crochet flower and a pearl button.

As the white set turned out a bit on the small side I made the pink one a bit larger by starting off with more chain at the neckline. I put a chain tie through to hold it in a little.

Once again I added little pink bows to the bodice as a trim.

I added a matching beanie with a flower and pearl button trim. I hope that Sylvia has some long sleeved T shirts and tights to keep the baby warm as unfortunately we are not getting much of a Summer this year. I will post these off to Sylvia either tomorrow or Monday.

I will be returning back to the crocheting for my online store. I still have buttons and trimmings to sew on the things that I have already made. I had started a little cream outfit before Buster arrived but I put it away so as not to get dog hairs on it. I decided to make these two little dresses for baby M in between the shawl and going back to the cream crochet.

I am having a bit of a PJ day as once again I got up rather late and so am feeling rather droopy, I go for weeks with very little sleep and then I have a few days where I sleep for more than 12 hours at a stretch. I don't really like doing this as it wastes so much valuable crocheting time! Maybe my body needs to extra sleep to catch up on what I normally miss.

I think that it's a night in with my crochet just for a change lol. As if I do much of anything else these days. Still it makes me happy and I am never bored which is the main thing. It must be awful for anyone who is not active not to have a hobby. I wonder how they pass their time. I am alone but never lonely as my mind is always occupied making something. Crocheting has saved my sanity in my opinion. I am such a happy hooker. They should be able to bottle interesting hobbies and prescribe them to the bored!

Crochet Shawl In Chenille

2011-07-19T15:33:00.000+01:00

My best fur buddy has now gone home. My son came to pick him up and also took me food shopping which I appreciated as it was raining as per usual.

Buster got a little bored on the weekend as playing ball in the house isn't half as much fun as playing in the garden as you can see from the rather bored expression on his face.

Hey is that my Dad coming up the street? Oh no, false alarm, but I will still keep watch as I know that he will be here for me soon. I have no need for a doorbell when Buster is around.

The chenille shawl is finished. It took 100 grams of the lilac, cream, and green chenille and about 150 grams of the black.

I usually put an edging on my shawls as I find fringes get very tatty. Chenille tend to unravel and lose it's fluff so I didn't fancy a thin bald looking fringe after a couple of washes.

I just used a simple half granny shawl pattern. There are plenty of free ones on Ravelry. The shawl is a bit too openwork to be really warm but I found it difficult to crochet with the chenille when I tried it on a smaller hook. Thanks Sue for the chenille, I think that the colours have worked really well together.

More supplies from Abakhan for my baby yarn stash. This time it is James C Brett 100 grams Baby Marble DK. I love the subtle colours of this yarn for small babies.

Some more colours to add to my stash for when I get around to starting a brightly coloured afghan for myself. I like bright shades but will probably use black with all of these bright colours. Not decided as yet whether it will be granny type squares or chevron pattern. I am a great fan of Attic 24 so will probably look at her projects for inspiration.

I ordered the green cone as I liked the colour. Not sure if it will be machine knitted or crocheted but it will finish up as something for me no doubt. The little satin bows are to add to my collection of trimmings.

As my Internet is still going off more than it is on I have been spending my time de hairing the house after Buster's visit. I will get back to my baby crochet just as soon as I am sure that at least the front room is clear of hair again.

I am waiting for the tree surgeon to come and look at the uprooted tree. I am very much afraid that it can't be saved. Since it partially uprooted the leaves are starting to wither which is a sign that the roots could be irreparably damaged in which case the tree will be for the branch chopper machine. I will let you know how this evolves if I can stay on the Internet long enough to blog tomorrow.

I will go off now and post this whilst I still have a connection. Fingers crossed. Whilst I have been typing this the postman has just brought my new router from Orange so let's hope that does the trick of keeping me online. All I need to do now is fit it which isn't an easy task for someone who can't bend at the knee. I might try to catch the eye of my neighbour later as he is good with computers.

What Else Will Go Wrong?

2011-07-17T19:31:00.000+01:00

This is my beautiful Stag horn Sumac tree. Or rather this was my beautiful Stag horn Sumac tree. I let Buster out for a wee at 6am and all was well. I let him out again at 8.30am and found that the tree had uprooted and fallen. It must have fallen slowly as I never heard anything. The only thing keeping it slightly upright is the wall and the old planters. I think that it has rotted at the base but I will have to phone my son's friend who is a tree surgeon to see if anything can be saved. The tree is preventing me from getting to the bottom of the garden to take a proper look as it has fallen across the steps.

This tree is the baby of a tree cutting that my Mum brought from my Aunt's garden in Llanfairtalhearn, North Wales way back in the 50's. She grew the cutting into a tree and when our first shop and our home behind had to be demolished in the early 70's to make way for an Asda Walmart ( which is an eyesore!!!) she took a cutting with her to her new home and gave me a cutting. The small cutting grew into a tree and has had several 'babies' that have sprung up and been given to friends. Fortunately if the worst comes to the worst I have two baby trees growing on either side of Mama tree. It's a mystery how the tree came to be in my aunt's garden in North Wales as the tree is native to Canada. It is a beautiful tree and in the autumn the leaves turn into a lovely golden brown and the fruits are bright red. It's sad to lose a tree that I have watched grow for almost 40 yrs.

I do hope that this is the last of the bad events as this will be number six in the space of one week. I hope to start the new week better but my Internet is still going off for hours at a time. If they ever send me a new router then I hope that this will be the end of my problems.

On the crochet front I have been working on a 4 coloured granny stripe shawl with some chenille given to me by my friend Sue. Buster isn't going home until tomorrow so I can't make a start on any baby crochet tonight. At least I will be able to almost finish the shawl tonight as it is on a large hook. I don't mind a bit of dog hair so the shawl will probably be added to my shawl collection. I like the way that it is crocheting up and have plans to make more shawls with stash oddments. Once I have finished this shawl off I will have an idea how much yarn it takes to make one. It is nice mindless crochet for when I am chatting at Knit Club or watching something enthralling on the TV.

Tomorrow will be taken up with hoovering dog hair from everywhere, washing throws, cushions and bedding on the spare bed that Buster sleeps on. As it will probably still be raining then the tumble dryer will be on all day.

Sirdar Crochet Top Finished

2011-07-16T13:17:00.000+01:00

I managed to solve the puzzle of all of the pieces of the Sirdar crochet top for my elder niece. This is the front view.

The back view of the top. As you can see it hasn't been blocked out. My niece is going to do that as at the moment it is a bit on the small side but as I explained the cotton will give out a lot once it is wet.

I think that having the mannequin makes a lot of difference to how something is displayed,

This is the Sirdar pattern that I used. The sizes are from a young girl to an adult and can be made with long or short sleeves. I chose the short sleeved version to be worn over vest tops in the Summer (what Summer?)

This is the booklet that the pattern came from although I think that Sirdar has released a few patterns from it as single leaflets. The cotton that I used was a ribbon type cotton that I bought from Habiknit. Although it was without a label it feels like a good quality cotton. The top took just over 5 x 50 gram balls and it was a double knit thickness.

This is Buster waiting for his Auntie to arrive this morning. There was no walk or ball throwing today as the rain was coming down in torrents again.

My Internet continues to be off more than it is on. It went off yesterday tea time and didn't come on again until lunchtime today. I hope that the new router box ( if and when it arrives) solves the problems that I am having.

As Buster doesn't go home until tomorrow or Monday I have started a shawl with chenille oddments that my friend Sue gave to me. I don't mind if a few Buster hairs get attached to this. Yesterday Buster was funny. He heard the ice cream van chimes two streets away and insisted on sitting outside to wait for the van to arrive. After a while I persuaded him to come in. He then sat on the chair ( like he does in the photo) and stared out of the window until the van arrived. He ran out before me and almost pushed the little girl from next door over in his haste to be first in the queue. The cornet was demolished in about a minute and then he sat drooling at my cornet. I saved him the last bit and that went the way of his cornet. I swear that he would eat ice cream all day if he could!

I forgot to post yesterday that having Buster has it's advantages. I was up very early morning to let him into the garden and a fox was casually strolling down the street. He stopped and we locked eyes for a moment and then he continued on his way. I don't know why I called him a he as it could so easily have been a she. Luckily Buster didn't see it as he was in the back garden at the time.

I had better post this blog page before I lose Internet connection again.

Putting The Pieces of Crochet Together

2011-07-15T16:15:00.000+01:00

I am blogging whilst I have Internet service. For the last 2 days I have had very intermittent service despite a phone call to Orange. They are supposed to be sending me a new router box. I say supposed to as when I renewed my contract almost a year ago they promised me one then which never arrived. Every time I have trouble with my connection and I phone them they say they will send a new router and I have yet to receive one. Let's hope that it will be 4th time lucky.

I will be glad when this week is over so that hopefully when I start a new week nothing else will break down.

Buster is having a great time as the weather has been nice and sunny so we have been out in the garden most of the time. I have been attempting to crochet in between throwing his rather mucky ball. He has a passion for digging in any bit of dirt that he can find and he takes his ball with him. As his ball is wet with saliva you can imagine what I have to contend with.

There has been no baby crocheting done whilst he is around for dirt and dog hair reasons. I have been crocheting a top for my elder niece instead. It is cotton so the hair doesn't stick to it and she will have to rinse it through to get rid of any muddy paw prints!

At the moment it looks rather like a crochet jigsaw puzzle. The body is worked separately, as are the short sleeves and the yoke. I will show you the finished article once it is sewn together. I thought that if I waited until I had finished today then my Internet might have gone off again. I just hope that it stays on so that I can show you the finished cardigan tomorrow.

Today has not been completely wasted, computer wise, as my new set of printer inks arrived this morning and so I have been printing out some of the patterns from Just Crochet that I ordered and saved because I didn't have any ink to print them out with. Beverooni is convinced that I have every one of Heather's patterns but there are still a few that I don't have yet.

I will have to find something else to crochet as Buster isn't going home until Sunday or Monday so baby clothes are out of the question. I can always make something from my oddments. I like making stripey shawls or scarves with my bits from stash. Sorting all the colours out a couple of weeks ago makes it easy for me to see at a glance what I have in stash.

The RSPCA animal charity just called to see if I wished to donate. They are a very worthy cause and helped save one of my cat's lives when I was out of work and couldn't afford vet bills so it's only right that I support them now. Buster, of course, did his usual growl and menace and things went from bad to worse when one of their colleagues came to the door. Unfortunately Buster is not only very protective of me he is also a racist, This comes from before we got him. He practically leaped through the bay window at this poor girl. We don't know much about his previous life except that he had been starved and beaten. We think that somewhere along the line he has encountered cruelty from someone of colour as he certainly hasn't got this attitude from us. The guy in my house said that they would explain to her later what was wrong and why I wouldn't let her in. He said that it was the first racist dog that he had come across.

The weather has changed and rain is on the way. Looks like there won't be any more catch games today. My eldest niece is coming to do my hair roots tomorrow and Buster loves her. If it's not raining she will have a game of catch with him in the garden or even take him for a short walk if she has the time.

Back to my crochet jigsaw. I hope that it is easier to put together than it looks.

Mobile Phones Don't Like Orange Juice

2011-07-13T10:34:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I managed to kill my mobile phone. I had been shopping in the village and bought some more storage tray boxes for my buttons. I had sent a text to my niece so my phone was on a box at the side of me as was a glass of orange juice. Somehow I knocked my mobile phone and despite having all of the table to fall on it decided to fall into my glass of orange! Despite rescuing it asap and drying it all out it still seems to be switching on but I have lost the light on my screen. My son is calling down later with a spare phone of his that used to be mine. I need a new phone anyway as the other one was over 3 yrs old and the one I am getting back from my son is around 8 yrs old. My niece finishes teaching in a week or so for the summer holidays so maybe she will take me to a phone store to buy a new phone.

Earlier this week the toaster stopped working and my printer is on the blink. I thought that was my three things until I filled the kettle for my coffee. Water is coming out of the see through screen that shows the water level and I have a counter top with a puddle. As things usually happen in three's I do hope that I don't have another two more things to happen.

This is an order from Kemps that arrived yesterday. A couple of weeks ago I ordered a pack of Sirdar Calico in the deeper pink from the Sale pages. It was a bargain reduced to 99p a ball. I later decided that the colour is a little dark for babies so I ordered another pack to make something for myself at a later date. This pack is a different dye lot to the first pack but I am sure that I can work it together somehow.

I ordered these two colours of Woolcraft DK Baby Prints from Kemps at the same time. They are pretty delicate spot prints pale enough for even a young baby. I still have not managed to get to Bury market wool stall. He usually has quite a few shades of random and fleck baby yarn to choose from. One day when it is market day and I am having a good day knee and back wise I am going to take my 4 wheeler trolley up to Bury on the tram and buy lots of fleck shades. Until then I have loads of plain colours still to crochet. I am OK walking with aid on the flat but the walk up to the village and the station is the bit that knackers me before I even get to Bury.

Whilst I was in the hardware shop buying my storage trays I saw this yarn on the shelves. It's not good quality acrylic but I fell in love with the colours. I want to make a small afghan for myself either in granny squares or in a different coloured block patterns or even a ripple design. I have lots of oddments in stash but I wanted a few really bright colours to liven it up a bit. I will be able to get more bright colours when I get to the market.

These baby jackets and pinafore are now in the post on their way to Sylvia for the foster baby. I do hope that they arrive OK. Sylvia and I like to dress the babies up nicely. Some of the babies have a bad start to life so it's nice to pretty them up as you would do any baby born to a loving family. We both like new babies dressed in pale colours so that is another point that Sylvia and I agree on.

As I have mentioned before I have bought lots of patterns from Just Crochet by Heather Davidson. I have crocheted a few of her patterns, some that you haven't yet seen. My US friend Bev also loves Heather's patterns in fact I think that it was Bev who introduced me to the web site. Bev has just finished one of Heather's designs and you can see it on her blog One Yarn After Another . I would never have though of using orange for a baby but now I have seen Bev's little outfit it has changed my mind. Using it with white really works.

I am part way through a white matinee in 4ply intended for my store and I will return to a cream 4 piece set that I left in the middle of the jacket to make clothes for the foster babies. I will have to spend a day sewing buttons and trimmings on to the things that I have already made. I am working towards starting the online store next month. I want to open with at least 10 outfits so I am more than half way there now.

Lily,the lodger cat, has just paid me her morning visit. She will get a shock at the weekend as I am looking after my best fur friend Buster for a few days. He will stop the baby crochet as he sheds hair so much. I might just start something for me whilst he is here. I don't mind a few intertwined dog hairs in my crochet but I don't think that anyone would like to buy a baby outfit full of dog hair.

Time to wash the dishes and then settle down to some crochet. I really need to do a bit of housework too.

Still Busy Crocheting

2011-07-11T12:15:00.001+01:00

The weather this weekend has been atrocious. Rain thundering down forming torrents that the grids could not take and so water was flooding down the street. It's at time like this that I am glad that I live on top of the hill and not at the bottom! The grid outside the garage had blocked with leaves so I was out there with a stiff broom amusing the neighbours trying to sweep the lake on the driveway into the grid that I had unblocked. The good point about the weather is that I was firmly sat in my recliner finishing the last ,for now, jackets for the foster babies. I hope to get them posted off either today or tomorrow.

This matinee has finally used the last of the pink fleck that I bought at Bury market over 2 yrs ago. It has been like the never ending bag of yarn and has made several outfits so I have really had my value for money from that bag. It was unlabelled as some of the Sale market stock is but I can tell from the feel of it that it is a good quality yarn. He just sells unlabelled packs with a price on. They are all reasonably priced and I have not been disappointed with any of the packs that I have bought from him. I miss going up to Bury market for a browse at his Sale lines. Of course sometimes there is nothing in the Sale that I want but that is the luck of the draw. He still carries regular lines but they are mostly acrylic but I don't mind that for babies as it washes so well in the machine.

The pattern for this is Four Little Cherubs which I bought through Ebay. My skirt stitch isn't quite the same as the pattern as I think that I misinterpreted her instructions for crocheting the single treble in between the shell stitch and so mine has come out as a round the post stitch. I quite liked it so I decided to continue with this stitch even though it is not to the pattern. I couldn't quite understand what she meant on the pattern instructions but it was late in the evening.

I have made this little jacket 3 or 4 times now. This one is a special request from a friend of Sylvia. I made it using James C Brett baby 4ply that I bought at Abakhan. I did make the bottom half of the matinee a bit longer as the pattern only suggests 2 rows before the start of the holes for the ribbon and I feel that this is a bit short.

Close up of the stitches. The bottom border is worked sideways and then the main body is started from picking up along the long edge of the border. My only criticism is that this makes the first row of the skirt a bit tight. I keep forgetting to add an extra chain to each loop to stop it puckering.

This is the pattern Sirdar 1901. It is a fairly new pattern so should be available still although sometimes in the US the pattern is released with a different number.

I made this little jacket with the rest of the ball left over from the previous jacket. As it is an openwork pattern and short length I just managed to squeak it out of the left overs with a yard to spare.

The pattern should have had 3 flowers on each front and 6 on the back but as I ran out of wool I could only make 4 flowers for decoration.

The pattern is another fairly new pattern from Sirdar 1900. I think that I got both patterns from Purplelinda but they are available from most Sirdar stockists.

All I need to do now is pack everything in a bag ready for the post. The weather is looking like rain again so I have a feeling that it will be tomorrow when I post the parcel as the post office is some distance away and I don't fancy getting a soaking again. I do have to nip to the shops for some food but that will just be a quick up to the village and back praying that I stay reasonably dry. I will take my bright yellow rain poncho with me. It is great but it is so flimsy that parts of it keep tearing. It was very cheap so I think that I will look out for a better quality cape.

I am now going back to crocheting for my online store to be. I broke off when the foster babies arrived but now I have made a few things it's time to return to trying to earn a few pennies if I can. I have a yarn addiction to pay for!

More Baby Crochet

2011-07-08T12:33:00.000+01:00

I am still crocheting away for foster baby M. I want to post off the parcel on Monday so it's crocheting every spare minute until then.

I used a vintage Listers pattern for this baby pinafore. There are several very similar patterns on Ravelry should you ever wish to make one. I used up an odd ball of James C Brett Marble DK left over from a crochet sweater that I made for myself last year. I had to eke it out with a few rows of a plain lilac DK but I think that it has merged in with the other colour very well.

You can see the slightly different colour near the bottom of the pinafore and also the tie at the waist. The pinafore fastens with tiny buttons at the shoulders. It can be worn over a babygro whilst she is small or over a T shirt and trousers as she grows.

This jacket is adapted from a pattern that I bought from Ravelry called Candy Pink Baby Cardigan by Mon Petit Violin. It is a great pattern to follow as it has diagrams as well as the printed instructions. The pattern is made with ties and a small collar but as Sylvia is not fond of collars on a very small baby I left it as a round neck and just added a similar trim to the bottom edge. The only other alteration that I made was to narrow the sleeves as the very edge as they came out very wide.

The wool is some white baby quicker knit that was given to me. Close up of the round the post stitch that gives a corded effect in lines. This jacket is started from the neck down.

Vintage patterns that arrived yesterday. I bought them from Vintage crochet Lady . I buy a lot of patterns from her and keep re visiting her site as she adds to her patterns regularly The pink pattern in the bottom right hand corner is knitted but the other three are crocheted.

These are some more vintage patterns from Sue with the exception of the bottom right pattern. That is Four Little Cherubs that I bought through Ebay from www.angelknits.co.uk. It is 4 different designs for matinee jackets with hats and bootees that are in premature and newborn sizes.

Off to do some more crochet before my posting deadline of Monday.

Thunder, Lightning and Torrential Rain

2011-07-06T19:27:00.000+01:00

This is more like the Manchester weather that I know so well. Those few brief days of sunshine are over and the weather is back to normal today. It rained so hard that it knocked out the signal on the TV.

I sewed the buttons on the second cardigan for foster baby M and have almost finished a pinafore dress for her,

This is the 2nd cardigan that I have made with the 2 x 100 gram balls of James C Brett Marble baby DK. The pattern is one from Just Crochet and is pattern JC39A. It also has a matching beanie but I didn't have enough wool left to make that.

The pattern is a very easy 2 row repeat so the cardigan was finished very quickly.

My order from Abakhan came today. I bought 2 x 400 grams of the lemon and 4x 100 grams of lilac in James C Brett baby DK. The little bags contain bows in cream and peach.

I ordered the little buttons from Minerva through Amazon. They have a star shape embossed on them and come in little bags of 100 at £2.99 a bag. This works out far cheaper than paying for buttons a few at a time from a shop. These are the tiniest size so I have repeated the order for the slightly larger size that is suitable for DK buttonholes. This size is £3.99 a bag but when you see online the prices that are asked for 6 buttons it's worth spending to buy the bags. I probably won't have to buy any baby buttons for a while now unless I want a different colour or something different for a special baby cardigan.

I didn't go out today because of the awful weather. Tomorrow the gardener is coming. She was going to trim the hedge for me but I think that it will be too wet for doing that. Maybe the sun will come out and dry up all the rain.

Lily, the lodger cat, is fast asleep on the rocking chair. She came this morning for her breakfast and has been out all day until the rain came on heavy again and she appeared at the patio door.

I haven't done much crochet today as I am having a nodding off, cat napping, kind of a day. I crochet a few rows and then sleep for about 10 mins then I wake again. I think that I need the pressures changing on my sleep apnea machine. I am just dog tired most of the days. I hope to settle down to a bit of crochet tonight. Let's hope that there is something enthralling on the TV to keep my brain awake!

Back to the Rain again

2011-07-05T15:38:00.000+01:00

I told you that the sun wouldn't last. The rain is back this afternoon. Luckily my hospital appointment was this morning when it was dry and still quite warm.Today it was a scan on my left knee. I don't know what the results are and my next appointment with the specialist isn't until January, unless they send for me earlier when they get the results of this scan. I am not holding my breath though. Unless they find something drastic in the knee I will probably have to wait until January as that is the speed that they work at Hope Hospital. I just hope that the weather stays warmer as it eases my old bones. I don't mind the no sun just as long as it is fairly warm.

This is the first matinee that I have made with the James C Brett baby Marble DK. As Sylvia had bought two balls I started a crochet cardigan and just have the buttons to stitch on that one. This pattern is Peter Pan P 1022 and if I remember rightly I bought it online from Purplelinda.

The matinee just took 100 grams as has the cardigan that I have just finished. Photos of that tomorrow. I have also just received 2 more baby patterns in the post that I ordered online and I will also show you those tomorrow.

I went to the Kings Arms Knit Club last night and a local magazine is doing an article for next months copy on the Kings Arms and came in to interview Rachael about all the things that she has been involved with for the Kings and also her other projects including the Islington Mill where if you remember we attached flowers and other things to lamp posts with instructions to pick a flower. As the reporter is a local man he had seen all the decorations pinned to the posts. I am going to look forward to seeing a copy of this magazine even though I don't actually live in Salford it is a mere mile or so away from where I live so I am interested in it's events. I am sure that Rachael will be reporting on the magazine ,when it comes out, on her blog Artyarn which always is an interesting read and tells of what things she is involved in at the moment.

My crochet for my store has stopped for the moment as I want to post off the things for the foster babies before the end of the week. I have received an order via Sylvia for a little matinee jacket like the ones I made for her last year. Someone saw the foster baby wearing hers and fell in love with it. I will start that as soon as I have finished off the things that I am making now. The baby that it is for will be a girl but she is not due for another couple of weeks so I can make it next week.

Time for a sit down and a coffee and hope that my headache fades away. Despite being given head phones the clanging and banging of the scanner gave me a dull headache which isn't being helped by this sultry weather. It feels like thunder in the air and I am not a huge fan of that (or the lightning)

A Summers Day

2011-07-03T18:52:00.000+01:00

This is more like it. I awoke to beautiful sunshine. I was up at 6am and I am so glad otherwise I might have missed some of this glorious day. Never mind the housework I have been sitting out in the sunshine most of the day. Underneath my parasol of course as I didn't want to get sun burned. My skin hasn't got acclimatised to the sun so far this year. I have still caught the sun today. I only have to look at the sun for 5 minutes and I go brown. My niece finds it strange that even though I don't actively sunbathe just by being outside in it my skin gets a tan. I usually wear shorts and a vest top when the weather is nice so any tiny amount of sun seems to catch me. My late Mother used to call this way of getting a tan as weathering. My knees love the warmth. They have had a really good day

I have had my feet up and have been crocheting most of the day. The sun has now gone off the back garden so it's time to sit in the front room and enjoy the rest of the sunshine albeit through glass. I have been making some more cardigans for the new foster baby. I should have at least one more to show you by tomorrow. I am using some James C Brett baby Marble DK that Sylvia bought from Bury market a couple of years ago. It was to be for her then new foster baby which was supposed to be a girl but when it arrived it was a boy. She told me to keep the yarn as one day it would come in useful. Now it has with the arrival of baby M.

This is a cardigan that I finished off yesterday. I used some white baby quicker knit that my friend Sue gave to me. I used a double knit pattern by Kay Jones Number 166. The cardigan was coming out a bit smaller than the pattern as the yarn was finer so I made the 2nd size instead of the first.

It is the first time that I have used this pattern but it was so quick and easy that I have no doubt that I will be using it again in the near future.

Today I had another little visitor. Poppy, the little dog from next door. When I am in the garden she often comes to visit me. This caused a bit of a problem though as my little black cat visitor decided to hop over the fence to see me too. Luckily the cat spotted Poppy and leapt back over the fence again. I have now found out little black cat's name. Her Dad was mowing the lawn so I asked him. She is called Lily. If she comes back tomorrow I now can call her by her name.

I was trying to sort out the mess of papers on my desk today. I have a habit of putting things that need to be dealt with on my desk, I only usually file away once a bill is paid. It's lucky that I did as I was convinced that my left knee scan was in the middle of July when in fact it is on Tuesday. Whew I might have missed that if I hadn't tidied up my desk today.

It's on days like this that I wish that I still had the small barbecue. I am not cleaning the big barbecue just for one small piece of chicken for my dinner. It's a waste of charcoal. I will put it in the oven instead. It's a shame that no-one in the neighbourhood has a barbecue going as I could have asked if I could pop my bit of chicken on theirs. Nothing like being cheeky is there ;-) I haven't bothered giving the big barbecue a good clean this year as there hasn't been the weather for it. I don't have a posh one. Just an open brick one that my ex built at the bottom of the garden and being open to the elements it gets very dirty over the winter. I bought a tiny portable one but left it outside and it all went rusty. There just hasn't been the nice weather to tempt me into buying another one. I would have to ask someone to get me one from the hardware store as it is too far away for me to go on my scooter. Local shops have almost disappeared with the advent of all these out of town DIY superstores.

Today it has been lovely and peaceful in the garden. The only noise was the young children playing in the paddling pool but I don't mind that kind of noise. Luckily I was up early this morning as the local small boys decided on a noisy game of football on the street about 8.30am which didn't please the neighbours who were trying to have a Sunday morning lie in!

Time to put the chicken in the oven and see what delights are in store for me on the TV tonight. Hopefully I will have another baby jacket to show you tomorrow.

I Lost A Morning

2011-07-01T19:16:00.000+01:00

I have been sleeping very spasmodic of late. Going to bed and tossing and turning for hours or giving up on the sleep and getting back up again to make a milky drink. This, of course, means that I cat nap (against my will) during the day and evening. I have lost count of how many endings that I have missed after watching 90% of the programme. I have never been a good sleeper. Five or six hours sleep is what I call a good night's sleep.

However this morning I switched off the alarm, fell asleep again and woke up again just after 11am. Although I do feel slightly more refreshed than usual this afternoon I was like a zombie with a headache when I woke up. I am not used to lie ins. I cannot sleep for hours unless I am ill. I have this attitude that time spent sleeping is time wasted. It's my Mother's fault. She was always so busy that she makes me look positively idle in comparison. I was never allowed to lie in bed. I had to be up and if I wasn't doing my homework or reading something educational then I had to be occupied with knitting, sewing, crochet or housework. Even now I feel positively lazy if I just sit somewhere without my hands doing something, I can feel my late Mother's eyes watching me and know that she is tutting at me. Even though I obviously needed the sleep this morning I am still annoyed at myself for wasting a whole morning!

Despite doing nothing craft wise today I did manage to finish off the Baby It's Cold Outside coat (or my version of it) last night. I used some cream brushed Patons Diana that I had in stash from a long time ago. I add more stitches to the sleeves as the pattern as it stand has more of a three quarter sleeve. I then added a shell border with some peach DK cotton and added some crocheted flowers. I made a little hat to match. I have fallen in love with this little coat and will make more like this in the future. I do love adapting patterns to suit my taste.

I think that the hat is maybe a bit large for the size of the jacket. My baby hats are a bit hit and miss as I never use a pattern. They either seem a bit on the small side or on the larger side I don't write down anything so even if one turns out the right size then I can't remember what I have done. I have even bought an exercise book to jot down my patterns but as yet there is nothing written in it.

I added little vintage pearl shirt buttons to the centre of each flower. The buttons came from my Mum's sewing box. I found them when I was sorting out my buttons. They are made of the old fashioned type of pearl which has that creamy look instead of white. the bow is cream although it does look rather white on the photo. The stems of the flowers are just about the limit of my embroidery skills these days. The jacket is for the new foster baby girl. I always think that these babies deserve something pretty after their poor start in life. I have no idea what this poor mite's circumstances are but there must be something amiss for her to finish up in the foster system straight after birth. At least with Sylvia they get well looked after and cared for as a baby deserves to be.

I am so pleased with the way that this jacket has turned out that I am going to try my own version, in a finer yarn, for my online store. This time I will write down what I am doing and try to make the hat the exact size of the jacket and write that down as well!

This afternoon I managed to peg some washing on the line and do some food shopping for the weekend. I try not to shop on Saturdays or Sundays as my scooter does get in the way when the stores are crowded. I arrived at Marks and Spencer just in time to see the ambulance people wheeling an old lady out on a stretcher. She must have had a fall as one shoe was on top of her blanket and she had a large piece of gauze taped to her chin. She looked cheerful enough on the way to the ambulance so hopefully it was nothing too serious. I have never had so many offers of help from the staff whilst I was shopping. Usually I struggle to reach things on the higher shelves. Perhaps they didn't want another fall on their records.

I have a lovely tea. I had some fish and a ready made salad which went down very well with a fresh bagel. Marks and Spencer food may be on the pricey side but it sure does taste good. I like to treat myself now and then.

Thankfully I have reached a point where I have most things that I need, yarn wise, button wise and trimming wise, for my baby things once this last yarn order arrives. Now perhaps I can concentrate on paying off what I have spent. I have got all the patterns that I need so it will just be a case of buying more yarn once this recent stash is used up.

Tonight I hope to resume some crochet. Hopefully after my long sleep I should stay awake whilst watching the TV this evening.

Just Enough Space For Me To Eat

2011-06-30T19:36:00.000+01:00

I used to have a dining room with a round table and space for 4 chairs. Now I have 3 chairs (one got broken) and just enough space for me to put my plate. After I have moved the baby jacket of course.

When my table isn't being used to display or block my latest project that is. This will be my version of Baby It's Cold Outside, a free pattern from Ravelry, when it is finished off. Yes it's finally happened. My friend Sylvia, the foster mum, has got a newborn girl. I am so excited to have a girl to crochet for but I still have to fit in my work for my online store as well so I am going to be busy. The white box holds my filing system for baby patterns. Another box holds the partially finished baby crochet sets. It's bad enough having one messy room but my front room was turning into a crochet jumble as well. I like to have one room where chaos doesn't reign although it can never be completely tidy as I crochet in there whilst I watch the TV in the evenings. One project and a basket in there looks OK to me.

My one bit of organization. My buttons are mostly sorted into the same colour in boxes making it easier to find a certain button.The boxes behind the blue double sided boxes contain my rosebuds, motifs, trimmings and bows

One of the knitting machines has got buried under the yarn. The good thing though is that now it is so easy to move the laundry bags around and also to see what is in there. This, of course, is not my full stash. This is just the new stash accumulated for my baby crochet. The rest is still in the stash bedroom. The calor gas fire is my emergency heating as I only have gas central heating and if anything goes wrong with my boiler then I have no heat. Fortunately I haven't had to use it this year.

The baby cardigans have now dried from blocking. I used a pattern by Heather from Just Crochet for this jacket but the hat, which has turned out a bit big, was adapted from another pattern.

After I had finished crocheting the back I realized that I had been reading the pattern wrong. It was that day when I wasn't concentrating as I kept falling asleep. I decided that even though it wasn't the stitch that Heather had designed I quite liked my version so I carried on until I had finished the jacket. I made this one for my neighbour Julie's sister's baby boy to be. I decided that the other jacket that I knitted would be far too small for a full term baby and another of the foster Mums has just got a brand new baby boy who weighs less than 5 lbs so it will fit him better,

I will send this for the baby girl although she will have to grow into it. I started it long before I knew it would be a girl and only finished it off once she was here. I think that the pattern is a Peter Pan one but I have filed it away now (bragging because I now have a labelled filing system for my most regularly used baby patterns!) so I will have to find it again to post the number on Ravelry later.

I haven't done much of anything so far today. I crocheted a matching hat to match the cream baby jacket but I still have to sew the buttons and trimmings onto the jacket so hopefully photos of that tomorrow. This jacket will also be too big for the foster baby yet but she will grow into it very soon.

Fingers Crossed For A Girl

2011-06-29T14:10:00.000+01:00

I am still busy crocheting baby things. These two jackets are not for my store. The blue jacket is for my neighbour's sister's baby boy due in July. The yarn is James C Brett Marble Baby DK. The pattern is a bit of a mix. It started off as one pattern and true to form it evolved into another as I didn't like crocheting the stitch that was on the pattern.

I started the pink random bolero a while ago but never finished it off. The yarn appears to be one of those pearlized yarns but as it had no label I cannot say for sure what it is. I finished it off as my friend Sylvia has heard that there maybe another foster baby on it's way to her and the rumour is that it is a little girl. Fingers crossed. Last time she was told that it was a girl she got a boy as per usual. Any way I finished off the bolero just in case. The trouble with foster babies is I never know what size they will be until they arrive. Sometimes they are very tiny and sometimes full term.

My little black cat visitor is acting like she lives here now. This morning because I was in the front room I didn't see her at the patio door. She came around the front jumped onto a really narrow windowsill and banged on the glass with her paw to be let in. She has had some dinner and is now fast asleep somewhere. She will emerge when she is fed up and wants to go home again.

Today I was going to call up the village for some bread and visit the bank but the nice weather has disappeared and it keeps raining on and off. Ah well I will find something from the freezer for my dinner tonight instead.

As promised more photos from the baby knitting book. I am not sure if they will all fit on but I will see how it goes.

Nice basic little cardigan.

This makes a little boy look all grown up.

I love this little dress although I don't think that I would fancy knitting those ruffles. Too many stitches for me !

Another of the lovely pram rugs in this book.

Sweet little hat with an elf style top.

A very useful hooded top. Sorry about the lousy photo.

A very grown up looking aran sweater.

Unusual style block pram rug.

Not sure about these colours but I do like the style and the striped sleeves.

Such a pretty detail on the baby slippers.

Jacket with a lace panel up the fronts.

Another version of the log cabin blanket.

This would be lovely for a family party or wedding. Comfier for a little one than a real suit.

A very usefully shaped jacket. Simple but effective.

Nice grown up jacket for a little one. I would not have chosen lime green for a boy but some how it works.

A very useful hat with ear flaps and ties to keep ears warm in the winter.

I adore these little shoes especially in the bright colours.

A cupcake hat. The last pattern in the book. 60 patterns and every one of them is very knittable. Looking forward to having the time the start something from the book very soon.

Coffee time, 60 minute makeover on the TV and some more baby crochet. That's my plans for the afternoon unless the weather brightens up and I can go out on my scooter to the shops. .

Flat Pack Wrangling

2011-06-27T14:30:00.000+01:00

We have all bought things that come in flat pack. I know that it's economical as far as postage is concerned but I do get so sick of having to assemble it myself and finish up with a somewhat rickety piece of furniture as in the shoe/hat/scarf rack that I bought recently. Now it is filled it has developed a lean to one side. I am sure this would not have happened had it come ready assembled.

Today's wrangle is small compared to the shoe rack but just as frustrating.

As you can see today it is cardboard storage boxes that are defeating me! They have instructions saying fold side A and then fold C and D. They do have diagrams but it would have been easier if they had labelled the sides A,B,C and D on the flat pack for the mentally bewildered such as me! Just when I breathed a sigh of relief when I completed one box I then realized that I still had a lid to assemble. There are 10 of these little beauties but they are only going to get assembled as and when needed.

Back to some more photos from the baby knit book from a couple of days ago. I don't have much else to show you as although I have finished the crocheting on a blue baby outfit it isn't stitched up so will go into this box of unfinished WIP. I will have one day when I will sew on all the trimmings and buttons.

I love bright colours for a baby blanket.

Useful hats with ear flaps to keep out the chill.

Another of my favourite patterns from the book. The addition of the cotton lace as a trim is really pretty.

This is the cover jacket. It looks fairly straight forward using different stitches as texture.

Fair isle hat.

This is a practical dungaree set as it has poppers for easy changing of wet nappies.

I just love this little hedgehog blanket. Shades of grey seem to the latest colours for babies.

The little hat has hearts knitted in over each ear.

Whatever this creature is ( crocodile or alligator) it's body goes around the body and the tail is mid back.

Another unusually shaped pram blanket.

This would make a nice Christmas jacket.

This is a pretty little sun dress that could turn into a winter outfit with a change of colour and a long sleeved T shirt underneath.

There are still lots more photos from this same book that I will post on my blog on a daily basis.

All my unfinished baby things will fit into one of these storage boxes and I am going to use another one for storing folders of the crochet patterns that I am using at the moment.

The postman has just arrived and brought me 3 rolls of ribbon. It isn't baby ribbon but the balloon or florist ribbon that I am going to use to wrap up the finished outfits ready for posting. It is very narrow and can be curled over a pair of scissors to make twirls. I do think that presentation is important when trying to sell things.

The sun has been glorious this morning but now it has gone all heavy as though there will be a thunderstorm later.

I should really go and do some food shopping as my friend Sylvia might be coming for a visit tomorrow. Hopefully she will let me know early and I can zoom up to the shops tomorrow before she arrives. When I visit her she makes me my dinner. I will be in M&S seeing what meals deals they have on offer as cooking isn't one of my strong points lately. I used to cook all the time when I had a family to cook for but years of living on my own have made me very lazy.

Coffee time and back to the crochet again. Yesterday evening I had one of my 'falling asleep at the drop of a hat' evenings, yet when I got into bed I could not fall asleep for ages. I don't know what is wrong with me. I can guarantee that at some stage this afternoon I will be sleeping in the recliner chair. I think that it is my sleep apnea. I can go from feeling a little bit sleepy to gone to the world in 0-3 seconds! I only sleep for about 10 minutes and feel really spaced out and have a dull headache when I wake up. I can do this over and over again all through the afternoon and evening. It's getting very annoying especially when I am finding it so hard to drop off in bed at night..

More photos

2011-06-26T08:11:00.000+01:00

I have a lot of things planned for today. Nothing exciting, just chores unfortunately. I got up bright and early so I thought that I would post a few more photos from the 60 Quick baby knits today. I don't have much else to write about this morning except to say that the sun is shining on and off. Unfortunately more off than on ! Once I get stuck into doing things I tend to forget to write my blog so with nothing to write about yet it is short and sweet today with lots of photos. .

Not sure about the leg warmers but the hat is really cute.

Nice bright colours for a blanket.

Love this one.

Although the bird does look rather like a blue duck I still find this charming.

Unsure about the unusual shape of this baby blanket.

Bright and cheerful baby socks.

A nice basic cardigan pattern where the top in knitted as a yoke so no seaming together at the raglans.

Unusual striped hat. I like the different pattern of stripes.

One of my least favourite designs. Whilst I think that the flower idea is lovely all of that colour stranding makes it rather thick and little baby fingers can get trapped in the strands on the wrong side of the cardigan.

Once again not keen on the leg warmers but the jacket is rather sweet.

Cute little cushion.

Traditional aran style sweater.

Mitts with strings so that they don't get lost.

There are still loads more photos from this book to post. As I mentioned yesterday it is really good value for money in my opinion.

Time for breakfast now and as it is a Sunday it's traditional English breakfast for me with no thoughts of a diet. Bacon, eggs, grilled tomatoes and potato cakes today. I do look forward to a traditional breakfast although I don't cook one every Sunday.

More photos from the book tomorrow. Enjoy your Sunday.

Now Where Are My Knitting Needles?

2011-06-25T14:28:00.000+01:00

My last order of trimmings arrived today. Some more rosebuds and bows from Purplelinda.

Yesterday I bought another 5 flat trays and re-organised my buttons and trims into colours. Everything is see at a glance and I even have one tray left over for any more trims or buttons that I need to buy.

The reason why I want to grab my knitting needles is this book. I bought it through Amazon from GB books and it cost £9.66p including the postage. It is rare that I buy a book and like almost everything that is in it. I am resisting picking up my needles at the moment as I could not make any of these for my store because of copyright reasons. I will certainly be making somethings from it for friends babies. 60 lovely patterns for less than £10. What a bargain. Because there are so many patterns in this book I will have to show them to you over a few days.

Awww super cute

The other side of the hat has the sheep's bob tail.

Modern stripes are so colourful.

Isn't this adorable?

Beautiful.

Head to toe prettiness.

So simple and yet so cute. One of my favourites.

I wish that I had the patience to knit this pram blanket.

Or this one.

A cute little cloche. I love the ribbed edging.

An unusual colour choice for a baby but somehow it works.

Lovely unisex hat with it's little plaits.

Another of my favourites. I am not sure that I would add the ribbon braiding but it would still be lovely without the trimming.

I will add some more photos tomorrow.

Today I got my copy of Crochet Today. I will let you see the contents once I have looked at it myself. I am going to make a coffee when I have finished this post and settle down for a good browse.

I think that I am gaining the black cat. She came in this morning like a drowned rat. I towelled her dry and she is sleeping somewhere. She has a home but she does like to visit me. At her home there is a black Labrador and an 18 month old baby to contend with and share attention. She is a very needy cat and wants to be stroked all of the time.I must make more effort into finding out her name I can't keep calling her the little black cat.

I have now finished crocheting the pink baby set and am onto a blue set now. I will have a full day's worth of sewing up and trimming to do as I keep adding finished items to the pile before I sew in all the loose ends and seams.

I didn't get much done last night as I kept nodding off. I decided to have an early night because I was so tired but the moment that I got into bed I was wide awake again. After a while I came downstairs and made a drink, did a bit more crochet and nodded off. I woke up after a few minutes and tried once more to get to sleep in my bed. No luck for ages. I don't know why I can nod off so easily in a chair and yet not fall asleep in bed! I would sleep in my chair downstairs except that I wake myself up all the time when sleeping in the recliner. Today I am yawning already and it's barely lunch time.

Maybe that coffee will wake me up as I need to get on with some crochet before I get side tracked by the new baby book. If the weather was nice I could open the patio door for some fresh air but it's raining again as per usual.

Bows and More Baby Yarn

2011-06-24T13:58:00.000+01:00

Abakhan delivered another parcel today. I really wanted Lilac in the James C Brett baby 400 grans but it was out of stock so I finished up with some more cream. It is a useful neutral colour and I have asked Abakhan to let me know when the lilac will be in stock so that I can order it later along with some lemon. I could get it from other sources but the prices are more expensive and I have to take this sort of thing into consideration. I like good quality but I need competitive prices. Some places have the yarn cheaper but only in 4 colours whereas I need the full range. I am hoping to be mobile enough one day to go and choose my own from the Abakhan shop in Manchester or get up to Bury market and see what bargain packs he has on offer there.

I found the bows in their wedding section. I had looked in the trimmings and the rosebuds section online without success and felt sure that they must have some bows tucked away somewhere. They have now gone into my last empty compartment tray but I will need some more trays as I still have some trimmings on order from Purplelinda.. At least now I can see at a glance what I have. I am finding some kind of neat gene in organising these boxes. So unlike the normal me.

I have been doing a bit more baby crochet last night but today I have been doing a bit of long overdue tidying, dusting and hoovering. The cleaning urge doesn't come that often so I might as well make the most of it whilst it is here as it won't last for long. At least with all of my yarn containers, plastic boxes and laundry bags my mess is more organized. Still messy looking to other people but more contained in my eyes.

Feet up for an hour with a coffee whilst I watch the 60 minute makeover which makes me even more guilty about the state of my house. Still I would absolutely hate them to come and re-do my house as they would never give me enough storage space for my needs. They rip out huge walls of fitted wardrobes and give the people one stylish but tiny wardrobe in it's place for 2 people to share. I would weep if anyone did that to my bedroom! God only knows what they would think of my yarn and crafting stuff. I bet that they have never had to make a room over to contain all of that!

I am still adding to my pile of baby crochet that all needs finishing off. I will have to set a day aside to sew on buttons, thread ribbons and sew on trims. I am trying to do as much crochet as possible as once the garments are completely finished then I will have no excuse not to start inroads into trying to sell them. I am putting this off until I have at least 10 sets finished.

Keeping Busy

2011-06-22T18:58:00.000+01:00

I have been neglectful of my blog these last few days but I have been very busy with my baby crochet as you can see.

They are not completely finished off as yet as they are minus the buttons, ribbons and trimmings. They will be revealed fully finished when I am ready to make up my Etsy store.

Some more packs of trims arrived today from Kemps. I still have some more on order from Purplelinda and Abakhan. These last few days I have been sorting out buttons and trims into even more storage trays but I still need a few more trays. Everything does look so much more organized in see through containers. I can see at a glance what I have now without rummaging through boxes and bags in the stash room. I have far more small buttons than I thought I had now it is all organized.

Hopefully I will get to Bury market and Habiknits soon so I can see what kind of trims and ribbons they have. Ordering online is difficult as I am never quite sure how big (or small) trims are going to be. It's all a bit hit and miss, but as my Dad used to say 'They will come in useful one day and they don't eat anything' It's no wonder that I have hoarding tendencies coming from a Dad who saved every little bit of wood, nail and screw in case it came in handy and a Mother who was very make do and mend and reluctant to throw anything away if she could make something else out of it.

My late Aunt Edna (my mother's older sister who I am supposed to be the most like) was a complete hoarder and had rooms in her house full of knitting machines, half finished projects and lots of wool. She had successful wool shops in Wales for many years so her eccentricities made her plenty of money. She often looked like a tramp ( or the cleaner) and not the owner of many shops. Maybe I do take after her in more ways than just the wool hoarding ;-)

This pack of Sirdar Calico DK fell into my shopping basket from Kemps but at 99p a ball it was such a bargain that I could not pass it by. There is only this pink and a sort of gold colour for sale at this price. I am not sure whether this will be a little dark for baby wear but it will get used one way or another.

The latest copy of the Interweave Crochet arrived but I think that I am in the baby crochet mood so not much in the magazine has caught my eye this time. Maybe later when I am in the mood for crocheting adult wear.

The little girl dresses are quite sweet but I don't have anyone to crochet them for.

My friend Sue came to visit me today and brought some lovely shawlettes that she has been crocheting to show me. I really should take some photos of her things when she comes as she hasn't put anything on her Ravelry project page as yet. As always I feel really guilty when she calls as I have yet to master the lace carriage on my knitting machine and I promised her a couple of baby cardigans for her grand daughter. I don't know why but I am just not in the mood for my machine at the moment. I have phases when I want to crochet, when I want to hand knit and when I want to machine knit but that is more infrequent than the first two.

After she had left my postman brought me another of my bargain books from Amazon. This time a baby knitting book. I will show it to you next time I post as it has some lovely designs in it. The post also brought me some acid free tissue paper, large plastic zip lock bags and some grey plastic postal bags. All I need now is an Etsy site and some customers! I should have browsed more carefully for the tissue paper and made sure that I ordered the whiter than white tissue. This paper looks quite grey in comparison.although it is supposed to be white. Hopefully it will look OK to wrap things up in if I trim it with a fine paper florist ribbon. This is the problem with not being able to shop personally. Everything looks different on line.

Tonight will be more crocheting. I am really getting into the swing of this baby crochet. I still have lots to make yet as I want to open my store with a flourish and not a whimper. I am thinking positive about future sales, good photography and nice packaging as that can make all the difference to sales.

Little Crochet

2011-06-19T12:51:00.001+01:00

This book turned up in the post on Friday.Little Crochet by Linda Permann. I had pre ordered it way back in December and was convinced that Amazon had forgotten about sending it to me as lots of finished projects began appearing on Ravelry. I know that the UK lags way behind when a new book is published but this book seems to have been way, way behind.

Where would a crochet baby book be without at least one granny square pram rug? I do like the bright colours and the circular centres as a change from the plain granny square.

As this is called a jingle bell I presume that somewhere in it's interior is buried a bell. Nice and soft so the baby can't knock itself out whilst practising catch.

Nice textured baby blanket. Makes a good blanket for a boy as it's not too fussy.

This is great if you have a baby like mine was. He would never keep a cover on him and as I lived in a cold house when he was a baby a sleeping bag was an essential piece of baby wear. He used to sleep in a hat and mitts!

This is so pretty and bright enough to catch a baby's eye and keep it amused.

Very patriotic. Would look nice though in toned down or darker shades.

Pretty little sun dress if we ever get a summer. I suppose it could be worn as a pinafore with a long sleeved T underneath and a pair of tights or trousers.

Nice boyish jacket. It is hard to find a crochet pattern that doesn't look too open work. Boys are a bit difficult to crochet for when they reach a certain age as lots of the patterns are unsuitable for rough and tumble play wear.

Bit of extra warmth on those chilly days. I wouldn't make it in such a jazzy colour though.

Not sure if these are soakers or just trousers. I suppose it depends on which type of wool that you use.

This little top is the one that has made me impatient for the delivery of this book. It seems to be number one favourite amongst the Ravelry crocheters. One lady has made it in King Cole Riot which is a multi coloured DK similar to the Noro colours. This design is definitely on my 'to do' list when I find a little girl to wear it.

This jacket is another Ravelry favourite. It's a bit difficult to see on the photo but there are little squares on the yoke of this jacket. Very pretty design.Another design for my 'to do' list.

This cape is ideal if you have a little girl who loves to dress up.

I have shown the bonnet version but there is also a beanie design in the same stitch.

Whilst I don't really like crochet cushions I think that this owl is very cute.

A cute bright giraffe for those of you who like making stuffed animals. Whilst I love the look of them they are not something that I like to crochet.

I have made this little baby coat for my next door neighbour's sisters baby boy to be. I used a free pattern by Susan B Anderson (click for link to pattern) called Hello Baby. It is knitted top down and was a very simple pattern to knit. I used James C Brett DK baby wool and as I normally knit on the loose side I used a smaller needle. The result is an extremely tiny cardigan so if the baby turns out to be a larger baby then I will replace it with a larger one. I am never quite sure when using US patterns as I am sure that US yarns are different thicknesses to UK ones. This little coat took less than 100 grams. I will make it again but adjust the sizing by using either thicker yarn or a larger needle.

This is my favourite quick layette outfit. I use one of the many basic top down crochet baby jackets that are free on Ravelry but the blanket is just made with a simple 5 UK alternating treble shell pattern. I edged this one with a remnant of blue Sirdar Silky look DK and used teddy bears cut from a length of trimming that I bought from Abakhan. I found the crochet teddy motif as a free pattern from Ravelry for the pram blanket. This layette is for my neighbour's sister's new baby boy due in July.

Yesterday I received my latest copy of the Interweave Crochet but as my blog is rather full of photos today I will show you the contents of it another day.

Not a nice day today. It's cold, dull and a bit windy. It's silly that I am wearing an (imitation) fur lined body warmer in the house in mid June! I should be in my sleeveless tops and crocheting in the garden. So far this year I can count the days when I could do that.

Massage and Heat

2011-06-16T16:06:00.000+01:00

Last time that I saw the knee specialist he recommended that I saw a physiotherapist for some heat and massage to try to dispel all the swelling around my right knee. Although I would love to see a physiotherapist I would have to pay privately as the NHS doesn't do things like that owing to the cutbacks. They would probably have given me a sheet of paper with a list of exercise instructions, as they did before. To get proper treatment I would unfortunately have to pay. I went to see a guy before I had my knee operated on and he was really good but I was visiting him twice a week at a cost of £33 a session. As you can imagine my money ran out long before I had finished the treatment. I decided to buy myself a little home treatment. It won't be as good but the cost was less than one visit to the physio. It is a Homedics massager with optional heat. It's drawback is that it is rather heavy to wield and the heat is not very hot. I have only used it once so I can't as yet tell you if there have been any benefits.

I have lent my spinal Homedics chair massager to my neighbour next door as she was bent over double following a back injury. She is going to the physio and her back is improving but I thought that her need of a back massage is greater than mine at the moment. Whilst my back feels great when I am using it my knee needs a different kind of treatment.

My stitch in woven labels for my baby knit and crochet have arrived. I ordered them from Woven Labels UK and whilst they were not the cheapest option I think that they look rather nice especially the white and lilac label. Next time I order I will stay with the white background now I know what they look like. I still have not found the original larger printed labels that I ordered last year.

This is a little quick baby cardigan intended for my neighbour's sister's new baby boy who is due in July.

The teddy bear trimming that I ordered from Abakhan is what I used to sew on the two small teddy bears. The trimming is sold by the metre but can be cut into individual teddy's. I would have preferred them to be a bit larger and will keep a look out next time I am near to a trimming stall for something bigger. I have ordered some individual stitch on motifs but as they work out around £2.50 each they are a bit expensive. I bought a metre of trimming for less than that. I am sure that I will pick up something suitable from the market haberdashery stall in Bury when I managed to get up there. When I order online I am never sure of how large things are, or in this case - how small.

Last night I bought some more crochet baby patterns from Just Crochet by Heather.. I think that I know own 90% of the patterns that she has designed. All I have to do now is to actually start some of them. At the moment I am still crocheting a baby blanket in white for the same baby that I have made the jacket for. I have printed out so many patterns that I now need to order some more printer ink. I did try to economise by buying substitute ink cartridges but they didn't last 2 minutes. I will have to order the real deal very soon. Luckily I had a pack of the Epson ones in stock so I was able to finish off my printing.

The sun is trying to shine in between the dull bits. Still a sweater wearing kind of day thought, but at least it isn't raining at the moment.

Pearl and I Got Soaked Today

2011-06-15T17:50:00.000+01:00

I decided to go out for some food shopping on Pearl and the heavens opened. Thankfully I had my bright yellow plastic rain cape with me. My arms were sticking out of the cape and it was then that I found out that my jacket is only showerproof and not suitable for pelting rain. I did stay reasonably dry though as did my shopping as I put that under my cape. I did have to change my trousers though as they had a wet 5" around the bottom of the legs and a wet patch on the side where my cape must have not been quite in the right place. I had a T shirt under the jacket so only my arms got wet and not my clothes.

I bought some more plastic storage trays as they are wonderful for separating buttons, trims and beads, The pop up laundry mesh baskets are useful as they pack away flat when they are not needed.

This is the type of things that I am storing in the flat boxes. Not the yarn as that is for a cardigan for my next door neighbour's sister's baby boy when he arrives in July.

More supplies of baby yarn. I prefer the 400 gram balls by James C Brett as there are no joinings if I am making a shawl or pram blanket. These balls and the trimmings came from Abakhan. I wish that I could shop in person but even if I managed to get there from the tram I would have the problem of getting back to the tram loaded with parcels.

Today this leaflet arrived in the post. Beautiful Baby Boutique by Rebecca Leigh and published by Annie's Attic. I had looked at the leaflet several times but thought that it was expensive. Amazon has reduced it to almost half price so I just had to get it. I think that everyone of the patterns is just so pretty. I will let you make up your mind.

All very girly designs but then I do think that crochet lends itself more for little ladies than for the boys. I shall be doing these patterns for sure although I have so many lovely patterns it is difficult to know which one to crochet first.

I have been crocheting a few sets for my web page but my one bete noire is booties. I always go wrong with the ones that have an oval sole and usually finish up with 2 odd booties. I found this pattern Emma's Baby Booties which has a rectangular sole but it turned out too small to match the outfit size I had made. I have now started another bootee pattern which is starting to look rather like bed socks for a 2yr old. If I don't master a nice bootee pattern soon all of my outfits will be short of footwear!

Now I am back at home the rain has stopped. That is just my luck. I have my little black lodger cat asleep on the rocker. She followed me in looking like a drowned rat.

I seem to have new neighbours. They moved in on Monday evening and I have caught glimpses of so many people coming and going with vans and cars I am not sure who is actually living there. I think that it's a youngish couple with a little girl around 3-4yrs. So far they are really quiet so I hope that they always will be. I rarely hear the little girl but then it hasn't been the right weather for her to venture outdoors. There isn't a gate to stop her going from the back garden out into the street so maybe that is why she hasn't been out yet. Our street doesn't have that many cars but the ones who do drive by do so at speed paying no heed to any little ones or animals. I sometimes wonder where all of these cars come from or go to as I live on a street that goes around in the shape of a horseshoe so they can't be cutting through to get to somewhere else. A lot of cars and vans don't actually belong to anyone in the street so it's always been a mystery just where they are going to.

Back To Some Crochet

2011-06-13T11:05:00.000+01:00

Life is slowly getting back to normal after all the excitement of last week. On Saturday I was crocheting at the Contact Theatre with Rachael ( Artyarn), Roger and Martie, Louise and some other knitters and crocheters. If you click on my blog title you will see some of the photos from the last week taken by Rachael (Artyarn) on her Flickr site. There is also more information on her blog page Artyarn which is always a good read if you haven't yet seen it.

This is a photo of me from the Flickr page taken by Rachael whilst I was knitting on the tram.

As promised these are a few photos of the contents of Issue 19 of Inside crochet. Although I like the back view of the Indian Summer Shrug by Emma Varnam I think that the front view looks a bit bulky as though the model has a blanket thrown over her shoulders.

Sunny Scarf by Catherine Wilson has a fringe made from crochet loops. The main part is alternating bands of very openwork lace then a close stitch.

The Matrioshka Doll by Marlene Rodrigues is really sweet. I do love looking at dolls and amigurumi but I don't like crocheting and stuffing small toys.

The Camissonia Lace Vest by Kristen Hein Strohm is very pretty. Made from crocheted squares in a fine linen thread on a 3mm hook.

Pretty bathmat by Zoe Clements. For myself I would not add flowers in the centre as I think stepping out of the bath onto raised flowers might unbalance me or trip me up. Perhaps a floral edge instead of dotted all over.

Storage boxes by Jane Platts.

Diamond Bag by Helen Myers. Nice colours but would need a lining to stop it from drooping.

These coasters and place mats by Helen Free ( Colours of Enfys ) come with a comprehensive how to Crotat article with plenty of photos included in the instructions. I have never tried crotatting before but I will definitely keep the instructions for future use. It gives a nice relief stitch instead of the usual flat crochet. The little butterflies would make a lovely trim for garments or pram blankets.

Onyx Jewellery Set by Susan Lowman

Headspin Hat by Aoibhe Ni Shuilleabhain is a great hat for using up oddments. I can see it done in various bright colours for the winter.

Adriana Top by Irene Strange is a nice bright top but I fear not for me. As a plus sized lady I think that there is too much colour emphasis on my largest area although I can see that the shape would work well on slimmer ladies.

Coral Dishcloth by Ann Wignall. Although I have knitted and crocheted dishcloths and find them very hard wearing I have never made what I would call a scrubby. I would be afraid of food particles getting trapped inside the frills although I do machine wash my dishcloths and change them on a daily basis.

Back to reality. I am making several baby items which I will show to you once they are all finished off. At the moment they are crochet pieces in a basket waiting to be sewn together and trimmed. This is just a pram blanket for my next door neighbour's sister. She is expecting a much longed for little boy in a couple of months. She has experienced conception difficulties and lost a baby last year so this baby deserves a little blanket and a jacket.

My new adopted black cat has visited me once again and as it is raining she is happily sleeping on the rocking chair at the moment. Her owners are out at work so now that Oscar has moved she has taken over the lodger cat role. I must try to find out her name. She is a sweet, loving cat in the house but is the terror of the cats of the neighbourhood. She might be small but she has the local toms well under control.

I think that I am just about recovering my energy after my days on the Metro tram. All last week I fell asleep the moment that my head touched the pillow and even yesterday, although I got up full of energy, it only lasted for about an hour or so before I nodded off.

I've Had A Great Week

2011-06-10T17:38:00.001+01:00

I have had a great week. Monday I had parcels delivered. Tuesday the washer was repaired. From Wednesday onwards I have been riding on a metro tram from Piccadilly to Media City with Rachael, Roger, Martie, Louise, Sarah and some other fabulous knitters and crocheters.

Rachael is involved with a project with the Contact Theatre in Manchester and invited anyone who wanted to come along for the ride.Each day has been different. Wednesday and today we had Claire Rooney who was making up songs from suggestions that the passengers gave her. She wanted them to say what was the best thing that they had ever found and then she made up a song about it. Brian the tram driver entered into it and said the best thing that he ever found was his wife! The ticket inspectors have all entered into the fun of it so it has been a happy atmosphere with passengers singing along and shaking fruit shaped maracas.

On Wednesday we also had a rap and beat box group Country Boys Struggle and the lead was rapping about topics given to him by members of the public travelling on the tram. I have put a link to the Contact Theatre in my blog page title. I do hope that those of you not in the UK can still view it. If you look at Day 3 video of Lost and Found then once you have listened to a bit of opera you will see glimpses of me along with other knitters and crocheters on the tram.

Tomorrow is the last day and instead of knitting on the tram we are meeting up at the Contact Theatre at 2pm to continue knitting and watch some more performances. It is the start of International Knitting Week so we are partly doing it for that as well.

The latest copy of Inside Crochet arrived yesterday and there was an article about Rachael from Artyarn who started off the Kings Arms knitters and has been involved in so many projects including this one with the Contact Theatre. This article is mentioning the work that she does with the Ministry of Craft. I will show you some of the contents of this magazine at the weekend.

Another of my bargain 1p books arrived today. Well it was 1p plus £2,80 postage. It is Baby Knits by Debbie Bliss

The book is secondhand and the cover is a little bit dogeared but I don't mind that. I doubt that it's previous owner ever knitted anything from it as there is no obvious sign that the book has been left open at any of the pages for a while.

Extremely pretty to look at but not one that I would tackle at the moment. I always have practical thoughts when I see something like this. My first thought is " How do you change the baby?" It would have to get stripped every time it wet itself as there doesn't appear to have any popper fasteners in the crotch area.

Most of these patterns I could make but wouldn't as I am not a lover of very intricate fair isle or pattered knitting for a small child. I don't mind putting in a lot of effort into knitting for an adult but as my son could get dirty sitting still, I went for plentiful and easy to clean when he was small. I suppose if you had a child who sat still and didn't look for every bit of dirt or mud to play in then it might be worth taking the time and effort to make some of these. I find it an effort to knit these days. I would rather crochet.

More work has arrived. I bought these plastic folders for storing patterns. I have a lot of pages torn from magazines that are extremely tatty plus a lot of battered knitting patterns. My aim one day is to have everything in a labeled folder so they don't keep getting worse everytime I have to rummage through them to find a certain pattern that I am looking for. I am not starting sorting them out this week though.

I haven't been doing a lot on my crochet as I was mostly knitting and crocheting strips whilst on the tram. These will be put on display at the Contact Theatre. Rachael was encouraging people who got on the tram to add a few rows. Those who stayed on the tram for the whole journey and knitted quite a few rows were encouraged to tie luggage labels with their names or a saying and tie it onto their bit of knitting.

Most of the people travelling on the metro this week have been lovely about what we were all doing and made comments like - we wish you were on here every week. Travellers from many different places who barely spoke English were there shaking maracas and joining in the chorus of Oh Yeah. Most people left the tram with a smile on their faces. There were the odd grumpy ones but they were in the minority.

I have enjoyed my week of riding the rails and am looking forward to the Contact Theatre tomorrow. When I had a car I used to go along and watch plays pre main performances for a very small fee. I am not sure if they still do this but it was ideal for anyone on a limited budget to see live theatre. Even if they still do I would have to travel to and from by taxi and it is across town.

There have been loads of photos taken, but not by me, but I have been promised some so I will put them on the blog when I receive them.

I have managed to get about this week. Wednesday I stupidly had a shoulder bag and a walking stick and so hardly got more than a couple of streets before I had to call a taxi as my back was hurting so much. Yesterday and today I wore a backpack and used my crutches. My back and legs are hurting today but it was nice to be able to get out and about. Coming home today though I only bought a loaf and I struggled to carry it home. I should maybe use my crutches just for a walk up and down the street and my scooter for any shopping.

More Display Models

2011-06-07T18:39:00.000+01:00

Whenever I make garments for my two nieces I can never show them on my blog or Ravelry so that people can see what they look like in wear. Today I took delivery of my body double (yeah I wish!) so that you can see things modelled. It is hollow plastic and it was cheap but is ideal for what I need it for. I am not showing it without any clothes as it has realistic lady parts.

This is a much better view of Unchain my Heart by Doris Chan. See how much better it looks with a bit of shape to it. As I mentioned before I added rows as I am long waisted and big busted. If I were to make another one then I would add the rows before the shaping for the bust.

As you can see from the back view the darts start a bit high up. It seems to be more noticeable on the back than the front.

This is another view of my daughter in law's knitted chenille capelet.

As I don't suit hats I decided to invest in a polystyrene head shape. When I think about how I threw all the ones that I had in the shop down the dump I could cry. Never mind no use thinking about the past and what I threw away. I can't get them back now. My biggest regret was a beautiful swift constructed out of wood. It even had a wooden screw. I just never thought that skeins would ever come back into fashion after all the years of wool being balled. I think that my Dad handmade that swift for my Mum when all the hand knitted wool came in skeins. He got fed up of holding his arms out whilst she wound the balls. The hat pattern is Foliage from Knitty.com and the scarflet is just something that I crocheted with the left over wool.It was Patons Chunky but as I made it last year I can't remember the name of the wool. I only tried this hat on once and realized that it just isn't me. One day I will find a hat pattern to suit me.

The repair men for the washer came at 7.30am. I had set the alarm on my phone for early enough but not the main alarm. I don't always hear my phone alarm as I seem to have the quietest ring tone in the world. Even turned up to high I never hear it when the phone is in my pocket or bag. My old phone was much louder. When/if I get a new phone the first question that I ask will be how loud is the ring tone? Luckily though I was up when they knocked although I didn't have time for a shower as I had a feeling that they would arrive early. I had just got washed and dressed when the first guy knocked on the door. Five minutes earlier and I would have been scaring the life out of him in my nightie and with unbrushed wild witch like hair!

They managed to repair the washer today with the help of so many parts that I think that I practically have a new machine. I had taken out insurance on the machine so I had nothing to pay. I counted up the monthly payments and I think that I got a good deal as I bet the parts and labour today have cost far more than a year's insurance.

I have spent most of the day washing. Typically it has been raining so I could not dry anything out doors. I still have my bedding to wash and was hoping that the sun would shine but my friend informed me that the forecast is for rain. Looks like that will be going in the dryer tomorrow.

I have been crocheting for a little while today. I am on my second matinee jacket. I went out shopping today as I needed something to make sandwiches for my Metro tram travels for the rest of this week. I also bought some food for the freezer and the usual bread and milk so I am stocked up now until the weekend.

I went into the cheap household shop today and bought the last two cheap plastic tray storage boxes .I want to use them to sort out my knitting beads and tiny pearl beads. He is getting some more stock in later in the week. The boxes that I bought online from Singer were better quality with more user friendly compartments but they were about 4 times the price of these, plus postage, so I will make do with some more of these boxes.

I hope that I remember to take my camera with me tomorrow and then I can show you the Knit crew on the Metro.