Let There Be Heat

I have heating once more. The plumber paid two visits yesterday and I am repaired although it could be temporary. I have to keep my eye on the water pressure and if it drops down call him back. Apparently I had no water pressure in the boiler causing water to pour out when the boiler switched itself on. It could have just been that the water was missing (he has drained it all and replaced it) or it could be something more expensive like a new pressure valve. Since it has been fixed my house is extremely warm even with the thermostat turned a few notches further down than it was before leaving me to think that it hasn't been working efficiently for some time. Either way I have my fingers crossed that I don't need a new valve.

With all the comings and goings yesterday plus the fact that I had to light my Calor Gas fire for warmth yesterday (which sends me to sleep) I didn't get much knitting done as you can see. My niece's aran takes quite a lot of concentration other wise I have to unpick rows where I have knitted instead of purled.

I plan to try to sit down and do some serious knitting today but as you know whenever you plan things like that something crops up.

Hopefully later today the neighbour from across the road will come and twiddle my plug. Calm down I do mean my PC monitor plug. I saw him this morning and mentioned what was happening and he promised to call in when he comes home and see if I have a loose connection causing the screen to go off. I know that I have had a mental loose connection for years so I wonder if he can sort that out as well whilst he is here?

I have just had a discussion with the GP and it seems that I am eligible for a swine flu vaccine because of my breathing problems. It just shows that you should never take the receptionist's word as gospel. I have to go back to the hospital in 10 days as my last sleep study showed that my oxygen levels are too low and my CO2 levels are too high when I sleep. This is probably the answer to why I have been feeling so tired and low. I have been feeling really grotty over the last few weeks with no apparent reason. I had put it down to broken sleep patterns and a case of the winter blues. They are going to adjust the pressures on my CPAP machine so hopefully I will be back fully functional after that.

I had some sad news this morning. My Uncle Fred (my late mother's brother) has died. He must be well into his nineties but it is still sad to see another link with my mother gone. I am not sure how many of her 15 brothers and sisters are left now. The youngest of mum's siblings must be well into their seventies now. My Uncle Fred was a real character. In his youth he used to do stock car racing and had so many bad crashes it's a wonder he made it out of his 30's. He took up marathon running at an age when most of use are slowing down and I remember on one occasion he competed in a mini marathon that my ex husband was running in. Despite the vast age difference and the fact that my ex had trained hard he was extremely upset when my Uncle Fred sailed past him and finished a long time ahead of him even though he would have been in his late 70's by then. He has battled cancer in his later years but carried on running and keeping active until the last few years.

Enough chit chat. I have mucho knitting to complete before Christmas and time is a wasting. Time to pick up my needles and knit like the clappers!

Back To Knitting Again

I am back to knitting for a while. I am making an aran cardigan for Charlie so that he won't feel left out when the new baby (when it arrives) gets presents. The colour is darker than it appears in my photo so my knitting this is restricted to the daytime when I can see what I am doing. Luckily Charlie is too young to realise that the pattern shows the cardigans on girls! Last night at the Kings Arms I worked a bit more on the never ending 4ply baby cardigan for his brother or sister to be. Louise went in hospital in labour on Friday even but by Saturday morning everything had stopped again and so she came back home. Apparently she is still in slow labour but no news yet. The neighbour across the road might have gone in hospital as there was a lot of activity late yesterday but I haven't seen anyone to enquire as yet.

I don't really have a lot of news today. A Ravelry contact of mine in the US has messaged me to say she wants to order a few copies of the calendar. I managed to sell one at the Kings Arms last night which is now on the wall in the snug where the knit club is held..Rachael says she will either put a sticker on it or a sign underneath saying it is for sale for Christies as it isn't apparent from just looking at he front cover that it is for charity. People in the pub thought that I was just selling it for the Knit Group. She said she will add where they can buy it from. Hopefully once they realise it is for Christies then they will put a few orders in.

I have put a photo of the front cover of Inside Crochet that I got for a bargain price of £3 at the Stitch and Craft show. I know that I should support a UK crochet magazine but so far I have found that there is very little in it that I would actually make and it has far too many features in it and not enough patterns. Maybe other people like reading about designers. their work and new wools etc which I do to a certain extent but I found it to be overkill on the features and light on the content. A Kings Arms fellow knitter likes the blue wrap so I have told her to buy the wool and I will make it for her. It is done in Jamieson 2ply and only takes 4 balls. I am looking forward to the latest Interweave Crochet magazine which is already out in the US so it should reach me sometime in September as UK is always a month behind.

Woken from a lovely dream

I was having a lovely dream last night. It involved my last ex M who I love dearly (no it wasn't one of "those" kind of dreams) and so I was a bit aggrieved to be woken abruptly by a banging on my door. Could it be that the old wives tale Friday's dream on Saturday told will come true before it is old? Alas no it wasn't M at the door but the postman with my books from Amazon. In case you are wondering if I am lucky enough to have a postman who calls early I should explain that I had snoozed in and it was after 10am!

Even though I would rather have stayed in my dream I did forgive the postman when I saw my new books. Wrapped in Crochet by Kristin Omdahl (designer of the Belize wrap that I made for Vicky's birthday) and Boutique Knits by Laura Irwin. I have not perused them in depth yet as I don't want to be tempted into starting something before I have finished my Christmas knitting. I have posted a few photos from each book. Ambermoggie will love the crochet circular wrap jacket that is featured on the back cover of the book. There are some wonderful shawls in there but some I will admire but never make. I don't know why but I have an absolute hatred of making circular motifs that have to be joined together as I go along. I also make a hash of very spidery crochet flower motifs involving copious amounts of chains as I always get them twisted and get really annoyed. The scarf I have featured is made up from 3 long curly strips fastened together at intervals with chain.

The knitting book has some weird and wonderful things in it. Mostly I would not make any of them for myself but I can see my daughter in law in the gauntlet fingerless mittens if I make them in black or dark purple. There are some unusual hats in the book and I wish I looked OK in a knitted hat but I just know that if I make any of these for myself they will end up on the donation or gift pile. There are a couple of felted bags that my knitting club members might like. I am old school and it breaks my heart to buy expensive wool and felt it. Felted brings back to me too many memories of lovely sweaters accidentally put in the washer and rendered unwearable. Why does it always have to be one of your best designs that gets ruined?

Yesterday I met up with Sylvia and Bill in Bury market. We browsed the wool stall, got a few balls of wool and then had a bit of lunch in Othello's cafe. On the way home I picked up my prescription from the doctors and then the chemist said it would be 20 mins to wait. I decided to pop into Iceland then met up with a friend who has recently lost her husband so after a half hour of sympathy I walked home. I had, of course, completely forgotten to go back to the chemist so I had to get dressed and quickly dash up there this morning before they closed at 12 to rescue my presription. I didn't fancy a banging headache and fat(ter) ankles this weekend through not having my blood pressure tablets.

I have just started the second sleeve of my niece's jacket so the end is in sight.