Watch out, there's a thief about!

The thief I refer to is, of course , unknown and living in Camden. No disrespect to the people of Camden as I am sure they only have the same percentage of thieves as we do in Manchester. It's just the place my soon to be "birthday girl " niece Kath was visiting at the time when some lovely person decided to steal her handbag. It isn't the possessions that were in it. It's the inconvenience and expense of replacing her phone, purse and of course cancelling her bank cards etc. Sorry you are having such a lousy run up to your birthday Kath.

Speaking of Kath the first photo is the lump of crochet that will hopefully one day soon be Kath's cardigan. The second photo shows that I did buy a red exercise book with the sole purpose of writing down my many adaptations of patterns. I started off OK and wrote cryptic "only I can understand" notes about the back and then I unravelled (re-designed) the front so many times that I lost the will to write. I then remembered that the front should have had a shaped bolero style curve at its front edge but guess what Kath - your second one doesn't have that as I have started the second front now and I don't feel inclined to unravel (re-design) once again. I will just tell her that I wanted the second jacket to look different to the first. Crocheters licence?

I will need another ball of the yarn so I am hoping that my other niece Vic ( otherwise known as yarn slave according to Kath ) will visit Ramsbottom and get me a ball (or maybe two) I also need some nice wool for my sister in law as she has hinted how much she liked the black crochet shawl that I made for her at Christmas and it is her birthday later in April so I thought it would be nice to make her another. I hope that maybe she will like a lighter colour this time. I love my family but 3 Birthdays in the same month it's like Christmas for a second time.

Perched on my red book is my new purchase. A pair of rather snazzy glasses in a sparkly red case. I went wild and bought them even though they stretched the budget by a whopping £3.99. I got them from the chemist and they will be a boon for the teeny writing that has suddenly appeared on all of my patterns and the newspaper. Yes I know I should visit the opticians but let me get my credit card bill back to a reasonable level first.

I got my letter from the hospital outlining the procedure for my back operation. I already knew what they planned but it just seems more scary seeing it written down in black and white especially the bit that says "this is expected to be a long procedure". Aarghh! There is also a bit that says I have agreed to lose more weight before the operation, Oops, so I did. I had better sew up my mouth quickly and stop snacking forthwith.

The last photo is of course Buster who is totally uninpressed with all of this photo taking and blogging and wants to know why we have not gone out for a walk yet. Sorry B but it's Loose Women on the tv in a few minutes so maybe after that?

I almost forgot. I got a message on Ravelry from someone who's blog I have been reading for ages and is on my favourite list. Thanks The Knitting Mama. I feel like royalty from the US has visited my site. I avidly read US blogs every day but rarely de-lurk (as they say in the US) to leave comments. I suppose I should as I am so thrilled when people leave comments on mine (Except for the ones I have to remove who leave links to bugs and trojans of course) Anything that says click here or there please don't do it before I have a chance to remove them.

To my blog friends in the UK who regularly leave me comments. Thanks so much. They make my day!

Kath's cardigan finished in time

Kath's cardigan is finished in time for Christmas. The photo isn't a good one as I haven't had time to block it to make it hang properly, I don't like to use an iron on a yarn that is all acrylic as if I make a mistake then it stays limp, over steamed and over pressed. I made it from the Fabulous Flirty Crochet book and used 400 grams of Sirdar Bonus double knit. Even though I knitted for a couple of hours I realised that there was no way the doubled hat intended as a second hat for Chris would be finished on time no matter how late I stayed up tonight. I had a few visitors and phone calls today so I didn't manage to put in the hours required to finish the hat. If that happened to my mother she used to parcel up the knitting plus needles and wool and then once the recipient had opened it she would confess it wasn't finished and carry on working on it! No one seemed to mind.

The dog is managing to trash the house tonight for some reason. He has taken every cushion from the sofa and chairs and thrown them on the floor so all my hard work of tidying up doesn't show at all. He has now followed me in this room and thrown the cushions and the throw off the recliner in here! He didn't get his second walk today as I had visitors at his usual walk time and it had gone dark when they went so he didn't get rid of his excess energy today. He doesn't like any disruptions to his routine so I will be in trouble tomorrow when I go to my brother's house for Christmas dinner and don't take him with me. My brother isn't a dog lover so I dare not suggest taking him with me. I just the dog can keep his legs crossed whilst I am out of the house for a few hours and doesn't bark the house down at everyone who passes by the window.

I hope everyone is having a Happy Christmas in the warmth of your family.

Purple crochet is finished

Yes the purple crochet cardigan is finished. Not one of my better projects as you can see. If it wasn't on a yolk I would have unpicked it. The body is too long. The instructions did say chain very loosely at the start and now I realise my loosely wasn't loose enough so the whole cardigan is rather tight at the bottom of my rib which is fitting on my widest part! I might have had enough plain yarn if I had made it 3 - 4" shorter and that could have made the whole garment more appealing. Anyway it is done now. The yolk colour looks rather grey in my web cam's gaze but it is more of a match in the daylight. The pattern is from a very tattered page torn from some magazine many years ago so I cannot give any clues - not that anyone would want to crochet it anyway!

I didn't do my regulation 16 rows on Kevin's suit of aran armour last night as I wanted to get the purple creation sewn up and out of the messy (craft?) corner. I will try to attempt 32 rows today to keep myself up to speed. I have started another crochet chunky cardigan (different design)in a rather startling shade of emerald green but once again I really don't have enough yarn so I will have to work all the pieces at once and finish them all off once I see how the yarn is working out. It will be a shorter version of the pattern but I must be shorter than I used to be or styles are being worn shorter these days. The finished version of this crochet pattern that I already have in my wardrobe is almost teddy boy length so I can easily crop 12" off the body length!

The dog is recovering slowly. He cannot understand why we only have one sedate walk a day on a lead. He obviously feels OK but the vet's instructions were to keep him calm (then tell the postman not to call?), away from too many dogs (the wood is full of them no matter what time we chose), off the furniture (ever tried that one?), and no ball games that involve jumping. Considering the operation he had I presume the vet means rubber balls? The vet did say put a baby gate on the bottom of the stairs to stop him going up. I didn't have one and had no intention of buying one so I tried closing the door to the stairs but my house creaks and groans and doors open on their own so that didn't work. I have never seen any evidence of ghostly apparitions so I am hoping it is just the shifting of the house that opens doors. The only doors that don't open are the locked ones at the front and back door. I have got used to it after 39yrs here but it does scare my friend Caroline. She refuses to stay in my house alone. When my son was small he used to clap his hands and say Oooh ghosties are here mummy! If we are haunted then they are very friendly ones thank goodness.