Anna's soakers revealed

These are the soakers for Anna that I crocheted but couldn't post photos as I wanted the finished results to be a surprise. The little 1st birthday girl looked great in her new pants and modelled them for us at the Knit Out today. They are crocheted from Morning Glory Longies pattern which Linda bought online from Ladybugz Farm. They are made in an organic aran wool that she bought from New Lanark http://www.newlanarkshop.co.uk/. They are designed to fit over clothies and I was concerned that the butt area looked rather large, as you can see on the last photo, but they fitted just fine on Anna. She is a little young to be worried whether her bum looks big in them! The first pair was as the pattern (plus my own idea of adding crochet flowers) but the second pair I just let my imagination run riot and added hearts and little kitties in tapestry crochet. I had just enough yarn for the two pairs.

I gave Nikki the crochet hat (photo in last post) and she seemed pleased with it. I still think it looked rather large as she has such a tiny face but she seemed happy enough with it and would like another hat in the second pattern that she chose.

The Knit Out was held today in the new cafe in Bolton Town square. It's a much bigger venue to hold our ever growing band of knitters. I was grateful to Vicky for taking me there. She also brought me some new sock wool goodies which I will post photos of tomorrow. She also brought my new Knit Pics needles. I haven't tried them out as yet as I didn't want to switch needles in mid project and I am still slogging on with the second Tiger Sock. I might just have to cast on my niece's toe sock to try out the new needles but I have e mailed her with a choice of colours since I have added a couple more since she originally chose from my sock wool stash.

One of the Knitting Noras (Caroline) is thinking of adding our group to Ravelry so I must learn how to add the link to this blog. I hope that Caroline makes a little badge and tells me how to add it. I am a bit of a dunce with anything like that.

The photos over the next couple of days will be of the projects I did last week and could not post. watch this space!

My favourite knitted hat pattern

I have knitted this hat many times and still love the way that the top circles around with it's decreases. It is simple yet effectively shaped. It came originally from a free pattern, but when I came to look for the link I find out that she is now selling the pattern for $5.

This is the web site should you wish to purchase one. It is called Guy's hat named I think after her son who she knitted it for. I find that it is unisex.

http://www.iliveonafarm.com/knittingpatterns.html

Luckily I printed mine out when it was a free one. I have nothing against purchasing patterns but as I live in the UK it is a little difficult to order and pay for just one pattern from the US. I have just finished the black hat for my niece with the left over wool from her black crocheted jacket but have included a photo of a lighter coloured hat so that the shaping can be seen clearer.

I have finished one pair of Anna's crochet soakers but am a bit dubious about the shaping for the bum area. I hope that it looks better on Anna as it rather resembles the fat suit that Eddie Murphy wore whilst in drag in one of his films. I call it a shelf butt. I know it is shaped to accommodate the clothies but it still looks rather out of proportion. I have started a second pair but I won't post any photos until after Sunday when Linda gets to see them for the first time. I still have to crochet a hat for Nikki before Sunday but think I will need another ball so I might be finishing that hat off at the Knit Out. I am not going to the Knit Out at the Salford Arms tonight as my lift cannot make it. She isn't well and is having an early night.

I now have a garage door handle and the electrician has called today about fitting a light and plug sockets in there for me. One day soon I will be able to take a muddy dog through the garage and into the kitchen for a feet wash instead of trying to capture him and towel him down before he dashes into the lounge. Then I will have no excuse for not re polishing the parquet floor in the small hall and sorting out the wellies, boots and dog towels in the porch. Then I need a new door mat and a coat of paint on the walls. Why is it when you get one job done it leads on to another? I have told the builder, my son's friend, that if I need any more major repairs I will have to leave him shares in my house instead of paying him! He still has to re plaster the bay window in my bedroom from before he repaired the roof and the rain was coming in. Then the bedroom desperately needs wallpapering but not for a while unless the wallpapering fairy ( my friend Caroline) takes pity on me. It won't be any time soon as I am the gloss painter and of course I won't be able to do that for quite a while after the op. I am not looking forward to this bit as I painted the doors, skirting board and radiator red last time I decorated ! So it will be a complete strip down and not just a coat of paint.

Mattenlou I loved your comments. I think we are cloned. I do the same thing. Search through my patterns for hours and then toss them back into the boxes and use a pattern from the net! I had to chuckle when you said you would use the purple dress pattern as bedroom curtains and I thought maybe my red bedroom is not as whacky as I thought! Ailsa you must have know that "When I am an old woman I shall wear purple " is one of my favourite poems. I intend to be completely eccentric and strangely dressed by the time I grow old(er). Hey I am more than half way there already. My mother always used to say I marched to a different drum than everyone else. Why not? March on the off beat - it confuses everyone!

Yesterday I wore my lunch

Anyone who has problems with manual dexterity will fully understand my blog title today. I decided to have some "home made" style soup from the supermarket which was wonderfully packaged in a tall plastic tub. I was defeated from the start by the flip up opener thingie so had to get a knife to prise the said opener off. The top was still firmly welded to the tub so I eased my knife under the rim. Hah - big mistake. I was allegedly holding the tub with one hand and the knife with the other when my hand decided to let go of the tub at the same time the lid chose that moment to unweld itself from the tub. The result was that the soup was a quarter down me, a quarter down the kitchen unit and the rug. I did manage to salvage about a half of it in the tub! It's amazing how far half a tub of vegetable soup can fly. I am still finding bits of it stuck to the units. To add insult to injury I placed the tub in the microwave whilst I cleaned up and the vegetables exploded all over the microwave despite being covered by a loose lid and a paper towel so I had to prise glued on soup from inside the microwave. I think today I will give the second tub of soup a miss and have a sandwich instead!

I managed to sort out where I was up to with the soakers that I hadn't worked on for a week. I have sussed out where the gusset (what a wonderful word) goes so this pair will have one. This gusset has made the legs a bit slimmer on this pair but I don't think that will matter.

I also found my purple crochet cardigan WIP that I started a couple of weeks ago and forgot all about so I will try to do a bit more on that as well.

Yesterday I was almost assaulted by a young man zipping past me around the woodland on a mini motorbike. He was having a great time trial riding up through the mud up and down all the hills and paths and I don't think he fully understands the dangers involved of him not wearing a helmet for one and diving in and out of dog walkers and mums with toddlers and prams. There have been big articles in the local paper stating that the police will (and have)confiscate and crush any illegal uninsured bikes ridden in the woodland so he should know better than to ride it in there.

There has been little damage in my area with the high winds last night. My only casualties have been 3 blown over flower pots. I think that there are more high winds forecast so fingers crossed that they miss this area once again. I don't like the noise the wind makes when it howls around the house. I used to get very scared as a child and although I am not as worried these days I must admit it is still a bit of a phobia. High winds and thunderstorms are my bet noire.

Men on my roof

Men on my roof is not strictly true any more as the garage roof is now missing. Not a very good day for them to chose to arrive with hailstones falling but they insist they can work in anything so all I can do is keep them supplied with hot drinks. The photo is of the garage before the work started. The doors are falling off as the wood has rotten and the hinges are rusty and broken. The roof is asbestos so has to be got rid of asap. I am having tiles put on it this time.

I got sent a photo of Anna in her soakers courtesy of Vicky. I have deliberately chosen one where she is not facing the camera. She is a beautiful baby but as she is not mine I did not want her face to be seen. I have read on different blogs (one was Notes from the Trenches) about sites pinching photos of particularly attractive children and babies and putting them on dubious foreign web sites so for that reason I don't post any photos on here of my great grand daughters. If they think my photo is particularly attractive then they can pinch that -ha ha and if they do think that then I will point them in the direction of the nearest psychiatrist or optician.

I must knuckle down to doing some knitting or crochet as apart from the Knit Out on Saturday I have hardly had a needle or a hook in my hand. I wore myself out yesterday emptying the garage (I am trying not to look at the mess in my dining room and kitchen) and so fell asleep again last night when I sat down to watch tv. Sign of getting older I guess. Not having the energy I once had. I get the work done in the end but it just takes me a longer length of time.

It's funny but having some work done to the house stirs up all these DIY projects I have going on in my head. What needs papering and painting etc. My list is long. Maybe one day it will get done once my back is fixed. Ian said yesterday that my (very small) hall desperately needs re-flooring. I had to bite my tongue a bit. How does he expect me to get down there and either sand and varnish it or put some laminate or lino down? I can't afford to pay people to do every job on my list. I can only do chores that I can reach without stretching or bending so that lets out a whole lot of things that I have planned. Maybe next year I will be leaping about renewed and rejuvenated with my paintbrush in hand! Here's hoping.

Ronnie (one of the men on the roof) says I should join Match.com and I should only pick men to date who are builders and painters as I have so much work that needs doing. Yeah right. I can just see the queue of suitors lining up at the door. Not. I might as well save the joining fee money and put it towards paying for a tradesman to call I would have more luck!