I Don't Need A Doorbell This Week

I don't need a doorbell this week as I have an early warning look out as you can see. This is his favourite position whilst he guards not only my house but the rest of the street. Unfortunately this is also my knitting/crochet chair so it's usually a case of who gets there first takes up residence. The brightly coloured crochet on the back of the chair is my favourite stash buster Doris Chan All Shawl that I wear on chilly nights.


This morning Buster has been busy, Not only is it the dustbin day, the dustbin cleaner van came as well. We were up early which is just as well as my Kemps delivery came around 8.30 ish. That firm is marvellous. Not only do they sell such great bargains but their delivery is so quick. I only ordered this wool on Sunday eve and it arrived today. Buster was also on guard for the postman coming although he didn't actually have any post for me today.



This is part of my wool order from Kemps. I ordered a few colours of double knit which you will see further down the blog. The Sirdar Tiny Tots wool is for my stash but the aran is for me and I can't wait to start it.



The aran is Rowan Natural Silk aran and it is so soft and silky. It is a mix of viscose, linen and silk and it was reduced to £1.69p a ball how could I resist it? I do like working with nice yarns but my purse doesn't like paying a few pounds per ball for yarn no matter how nice it is. I am so glad that I have discovered Kemps as the standard of my yarn has improved considerably. I will have to pattern browse in my boxes to find a suitable pattern for it.



As I was feeling somewhat guilty about wrapping my niece's knitting away until Buster has gone home I decided to start crocheting a cardigan for her in some Sirdar Silky Look DK that I also got from Kemps at 79p a ball a few weeks ago. The pattern is in 4ply so I am doing a bit of juggling as the Silky Look is a fine double knitting. It is looking rather small at the moment but I am sure that it will be OK once it has been blocked out to show the lacy pattern.



These are some of the colours that I bought to go with some stash yarn that I already had to make this waistcoat. I have discarded two of the colours that I bought as in real life they didn't look like the swatches on the PC and were too similar in shade to make this waistcoat. They will come in useful though as I am always making multi shawls and granny squares. I still haven't finally decided on the colours for the waistcoat but this is my thoughts at the moment.

Buster and I have to play some ball now before he will let me do some crochet. I will probably go for a ride on my scooter so that Buster will get a short walk in a little while. My niece says that she will come at the weekend to walk him for me if he will go with her. He has such separation anxiety if he can't see me or my son and his family. I put that down to his rescued background. He follows me everywhere.I feel like he is Velcroed to my shoes. At home he isn't as bad as he has the other two dogs to bond with and they keep each other company but here he only has me.

I Have A Furry Shadow

My Fur Baby is here for the weekend so there won't be much knitting or crocheting done until he goes home again on Sunday eve. He sticks that close to me that I feel like I have a furry shadow. He is behind me at every step.I have lost count of the times that I have almost fallen over him. I just wish that he wasn't so large though as he wants to sit on my knee all of the time or wrap his paws around my neck. The minute that I get off my recliner for any reason he gets on it. It's going to be a long weekend but I do love him so much that I don't mind that much. He will settle down a bit by tomorrow and stop clinging so much. Buster found his squeaky ball within 5 mins of arriving and has staked a claim on the 3 seater sofa when he is not trying to sit on my knee.

I have had another two deliveries in the post today. I ordered some shawl pins from Pavi Yarns. I ordered one ages ago in black but as it doesn't go with every shawl that I have I ordered 3 more in different colours. One of them is a perfect match for the long crocheted jacket that I have just finished. The jacket is only fastened by a belt and as it is a bit on the smallish side (until it gets washed) the exact colour shawl pin will make a good fastener for the jacket.

The other delivery was from Purplelinda. I needed another 2 balls of the Patons Classic cotton for my sister in law as I have decided on a pattern that takes more yarn than I first ordered. I also ordered some Black double knit as I have a couple of shawlettes and fingerless mitts to make for Christmas presents. The two booklets are knitted ones. I am going to see if either of my nieces likes any styles from them or if my niece thinks that my sister in law would like one of them better than the pattern that we chose last week. I haven't started it yet so there is plenty of time to change my mind. I will post photos of the designs tomorrow.

It will be a quietish weekend for me and Buster. I had planed to try and walk him today but I got up from my chair and my knee gave way and was really painful. I was worried for a while until the feeling passed. I thought that I had done some damage to the knee but I think that I must have been sitting in a funny position because after I rested it I tried a few tentative stretches and all seems to be well although it is a lot stiffer and less bendy than it was yesterday. It did worry me for a few minutes though. I am hoping that after a night's sleep it will be back to normal again. I do hope that nothing untoward has happened as I really feel that I am making good progress with my mobility.

Buster has gone very quiet in the other room. I hope that now he has been fed and watered that he will have a nap for a little while and let me get on with some crochet. I can't tell you what I am making as it is a Christmas present for someone who sometimes reads my blog.

Happy Weekend to you all.

I Am Dog Sitting For A Week

I have company for the next week. Buster is here to keep me company. I am not sure who looks after who. He is a very intuitive dog and seem to know that I can't do certain things any more and has a lot of patience with me. He waits until I get up or down the stairs before he sets off after me. Before I had these mobility problems he would just dash down the stairs and push past me.

I have finished the white crochet baby jacket. It is drying outside on the blocking boards. I haven't crocheted one sleeve longer than the other honestly. It's just the angle that I took the photograph. It needs it's ribbon at the waist and then it is finished. I crocheted the 1 -2 yrs size but it has come out more a generous 2yrs old size than the 1-2 yr size. At least it will fit the little girl a bit longer and probably still fit her next summer. I have found that Sirdar patterns seem to jump such a lot in size from 6-12 months and 1-2yrs. Everything increases by lots more. For example the 2 first sizes have 1/2" difference between the sleeve lengths and yet the 1-2 yrs size goes up by 1.1/2" instead of another half inch.

I have started the small granny shawl from Inside crochet. I am just using some unknown 4ply from stash as I want to see how it fits before using my sock wool stash goodies on it. It is another easy pattern so far so if it turns out OK I may make it in double knitting for my charity shawls.

Thanks for all of your suggestions on what to do with the hand wash only shawls. I will find a good home for them before the end of the year. Whether it be a donation to a raffle or someones elderly relatives. I still have some mohair or mohair type in the stash so will probably make some more hand wash shawls before Christmas.

The sun is shining today and I have managed to dry some washing outside. The weather probably won't last but hey ho at least I have had one day of sunshine even though it isn't particularly warm.

I apologise if you are having trouble leaving me any comments on the blog. I have been plagued with anonymous spam type messages during the last couple of weeks so I have had to change my settings. I have managed to catch most of them and delete them as I don't want anyone to click on any dodgy links thinking that I have OK'd them. I don't think that you would have clicked on the last two as one was for driving lessons and the other one for business cards. It's not just me who gets targeted. I have heard lots of my blog friends complaining about the same thing happening to them.

I doubt if much crochet will get done this week as Buster has a brand new ball with a squeaker and he is driving the neighbours mad with it on the lawn at the moment. I doubt if the squeaker will last longer than today but he is having a whale of a time with it. One set of neighbours has gone out and the other sets boys drive me mad by kicking a football against the dividing wall for hours on end so I don't feel too much sympathy for them.