Creative crochet

Thank you to everyone who sent me cards, e mails, Ravelry messages and blog comments for my birthday yesterday. I had a brilliant day finished off with a lovely Italian meal courtesy of my niece Vic and friend Louise.

As promised I am posting some photos of my new crochet books as I have absolutely nothing to report on my knitting or crochet as I didn't pick up a hook or a knitting needle yesterday.

I will start with Creative Crochet by Darla Sims. This book will be useful for those of you who have lots of bits and bats of similar colours that you don't quite know what to do with. I like some of the patterns but I wouldn't feel like buying wool especially for any of the garments although my eyes are drawn to the purple cardigan I must confess. I think it is a book that might come in useful if I can keep my eye on the sale items of 1 or 2 balls that I see and like but can't quite think what I would make with them except a hat. I should probably decide on a colourway and stick with that. These designs could look rather messy if I got the colour wrong or too many colours instead of shades of one.

Darla Sims uses a cut and tie method of joining in her colours and prefers to move her colours about in a slanted fashion mid row rather than do complete rows. I don't think I could bear to leave all the knots tied at the back so it would turn out to be a darning in frenzy for me if I made anything from this book.

I must apologise for the quality of my photos today. In my defence I will say that it is rather dark this morning so I had to put the light on plus the book pages are rather shiny. I have posted an Amazon link to the book (click on the blog title) should anyone like the book and want to buy it.

I am glad that a couple of fellow crocheters managed to get hold of the Glorious sweater book that I am crocheting from at the moment. That is a book well worth getting hold of if you can find it.

This afternoon I am off to the hospital for X rays to see if my spine has healed up correctly after the op. I am going to see if I can get them to refer me to someone about my knee which at the moment is causing more problems than my back is.

Crochet shawl is finished

The crochet shawl pictured in my last post is now finished. It was a joy to crochet. UK terms. Not one mistake or typo on the pattern. 1974 was a very good year for patterns! I can remember when I had a wool shop that the pattern distributors were horrified if they ever found one mistake on a pattern and rapidly recalled and re-printed the offender. Now we pay 10 times more for a book or pattern and accept it as the norm that we have to go and find the errata pages on the net before we start to crochet or knit. Personally I think it's ridiculous. We don't pay full price for a sweater only to find half the cuff unstitched so why should we accept second rate patterns? On the subject of patterns - has anyone managed to decifer the charts on the DROPPS patterns? I have tried with 3 different patterns and given up. I call myself to be an experienced knitter/crocheter but I have met my match with their patterns. It's a good job they are free is my opinion. It's a pity because they have such nice patterns and the yarn looks nice in the photos on the net but I don't feel inclined to order it when I can't make head nor tail of the pattern charts.

I have now almost made a shawl out of a beige hanked oddment I found in my stash. The yarn is rather scratchy so I hope it will soften up when washed. It weighed the same as my finished shawl but I had no idea as to it's yardage which has turned out to be very poor so I had to introduce some brown into it. It will be useful as a shoulder warmer for the winter evenings even though it hasn't turned out as pretty as I would have hoped - it's a strangely striped triangle at the moment. I hope it looks marginally better when it's finished.

I went for my MRI scan last night and was highly relieved to find out it was with the main machine so my claustrophobia was allieviated as I could see the ceiling out of the corner of my eye whilst in the machine. The last time I was scanned it was in a van with a small scanner and I kept running the scenes from 2 episodes of CSI through my head where Nick was buried alive in a small box. Quentin Tarrantino directed those episodes so they were so good they really stuck in my mind. My brother and my cousin ( 9yrs older) took great delight when I was a small child to lock me in the fitted wardrobe or shut me in the coal cellar. They would put pillows on my face or sit on me and almost smother me. My brother denies all knowledge of this but things like that stay in a child's mind forever. I KNOW they happened! I still panic if I get stuck in a sweater or a dress. You know the feeling when it is almost over your head and it's a bit tight and you can't get your arms and head out. I have literally torn garments in my panic to get out of them. Perhaps that is why I now dress "comfy". It could be that I am too lazy to wear fitted things but I like to blame it on my fear of getting stuck. Whatever happened to dresses with back zips? I loved those. Step into them and zip them up. Plus they used to be darted for the waist and bust so they actually flattered the shape I had. If I get back into sewing (and high heels) I will try to remake the Jackie Kennedy, Audrey Hepburn classic style of dress. Fashionable they may not be but flattering they certainly are to anyone with a bit of a waistline and a reasonable pair of boobs.

I got rung this morning from the X Ray dept at 8.45am. Apparently the card I had from the specialist that I handed in last night at the scan has asked also for X Rays of my spine so could I get to the hospital before 9am ! The hospital is a good half hour drive away even after the rush hour traffic to Manchester has calmed down, and the new car park is a 10 minute walk from the hospital, so I said there was no way I could get there for another hour or so. I will try later and just have to wait it out with the fracture clinic patients. I will take my crochet and maybe two balls instead of one and prepare for a long wait.