I Lost Another Morning

I was woken up this morning by the postman delivering parcels. I don't know what he must think about me as he has seen me in my night attire more often
than anyone else has for many years! I have a strange sleeping pattern of late. I can have 3 or 4 nights where my sleep pattern is erratic. Restless sleep and getting up many times in the night because I can't nod off. Then I will get so tired and will have to go to bed early one night and sleep the clock around. Last night was such a night and I eventually awoke when the postman knocked around 11am. I get a bit angry with myself when I do this as I feel that I have lost so much of the day. I must need the sleep though otherwise I wouldn't sleep so long.

My parcel today contained more bargains from Kemps online store. I bought another pack of the cream and brown flecked Sirdar Snuggly DK as it is such a good colour for boys and if it is discontinued then I won't get this colour again. I also ordered a pack of Smudge Brown in the Snuggly 4ply as that was a give away price and I am hopeful of mastering the knitting machine when I have more time to devote to it. I ordered the two more machine cones in blue and cream for the same reason. Once I start knitting on the machine properly I will be prepared to knit baby cardigans in a variety of colours. The only colour that I haven't bought is pink as that isn't unisex. Even blue can be for a girl if I make a lacy pattern.

Last night I knitted some more on the charcoal cardigan and finished off the crochet baby jacket that I started at Knit Club on Monday. Crocheting is like a holiday for me from the dark knitting. I used a Rindy Carpenter basic pattern but modified it by adding the skirt and sleeves in a simple shell pattern. The DK wool was left over from when I made jackets for my great grand daughters for Christmas that didn't get worn. But that's another story. Needless to say I won't be making them any more knit or crochet items. I prefer to make things for people who appreciate them.

The crochet books are ones that I ordered from some of those clearance book sites. The books have been around for ages but I never bought them when they were the full price. I would recommend you to take a look on these kind of sites as there are many craft books at bargain prices. Not the most up to date pattern books I admit but if you are like me and just love crochet books then these are a fraction of the price they were when first published. There are also many second hand book sites that are good value.

I will show you pages from the books when I have had the chance to browse them properly but there are quite a few things in the Easy crochet book that I like although I think that it is wrongly named as a lot of the patterns in the book need plenty of experience of crochet to make them. There is a beautiful shawl pattern in a pineapple stitch which is definitely not for a novice crocheter. The scarf book has some interesting stitches used on some scarves as well as patterns for a few stoles and shawls.

I have ordered some more storage boxes with lids today. It's at times like these when I miss having a car as I know that I could buy them a lot cheaper if I could visit one of the Pound shops or cheap hardware stores. I have ceased worrying about the extra cost of things that I know I have no chance of buying locally. I cannot keep asking relatives to pick things up for me all of the time. If I need things then I just buy them and pay the delivery charges. I am trying to tidy my wool, patterns and oddments and I can't do that without some method of storage. My full packs of wool are stacked neatly but my odd balls are in bags and pushed into cupboards and hard to see. The storage boxes I have ordered are see through and stackable so hopefully order will reign in my small stash room soon. I am ever the optimist.

I had better start some more knitting as I have wasted half the day sleeping. I was going to do a bit of shopping today but as it has been raining all day I will wait and hope that tomorrow is dry. I have enough food in for my dinner tonight so I won't starve.

No Sweat Has The Wrong Name Today

I finally got around to taking photos of me wearing the No Sweat sweater from the Doris Chan Everyday Crochet book. On a day like this the sweater's name is wrong. Five minutes inside that sweater and I certainly had hit boiling point. The James C Brett Marble DK is quite thick for a double knit so the sweater has turned out quite a firm fabric. I will be glad of it's warmth once the weather turns colder.

See how it flatters my beautiful sylph like figure? I am joking of course. I tend not to look in mirrors these days because of the weight that I have gained so it still comes as quite a shock when I see photos of myself as my mental internal picture of myself is quite different. I only use small mirrors to do my hair and make up when I go out. I try to avoid the full length mirrors wherever possible.

This morning I switched on Facebook and was online at the same time as my internet friend Bev in the US. She was having a sleepless night so we had quite a nice chat. For her it was 2am but for me it was breakfast time. We have exchanged e mails for some time but it's still nice to have an interactive chat via the net. Technology still amazes me. It's not long ago that the only contact I had with people in another country was via airmail letters that took 4 or 5 days to get to their destination.

I have finished the back of Big Leg's aran cardigan and I think that I will press on knitting that before I start another machine knit cardigan for him. After the end of this week I think that it will be back to something for myself or make a start on my scarves and shawls for Christmas.

I had 2 e mails yesterday saying that Amazon has posted off two more of my pre ordered things. One is a book by Drew Emborsky and the other is the 2011 Crochet a day calendar which usually has some great gift ideas in it. I heard on the grapevine that this might be the last edition of the calendar so of course I had to buy it. You know what I am like for crochet patterns. I have got to the stage where I would describe myself as a crochet pattern addict. I could say crochet pattern collector as that sounds a bit less weird. Hopefully they will arrive soon and I will have something to put on the blog tomorrow and the day after to make up for the fact that I knit slowly and so the baby's aran cardigan won't grow that much over the next 2 days.

Today the sun is shining but it was like that yesterday before the rain lashed down. As I got up early ( well for me it was early) I did some washing and it is line drying at the moment. I do prefer to dry my clothes in the fresh air and also it is cheaper than constantly using the tumble dryer. I have to switch that on in the winter so in the summer time I try to economise.

More Books In The Post

The back of the pink baby cardigan is not from a pattern in one of my new books. In fact the pattern is so old that I first made it for my expected baby 41 yrs ago. When he turned out to be 9lbs 3 ozs at birth I gave it to my Auntie who gave birth to my cousin Susan a few weeks later as she was much smaller.In fact she finished up with a lot of first size cardigans that I had made as my son grew very rapidly and needed the next size up within a couple of weeks. At his first health clinic visit he weighed 11lbs 7ozs at 3 weeks old.No wonder he cried a lot - he was always hungry.

I am making it with some 3ply Hayfield baby wool that I had in stock and it is intended for the same newborn foster baby as the other two pink cardigans. I hope to have it finished by tomorrow.

My new books arrived from Amazon today. I ordered the Crochet In No Time by Melody Griffiths which was recommended to me by my friend June (Jolive on Ravelry) and although I have not really had time to give it a good browse, as it only arrived a half hour ago, at first glance there seems to be quite a few patterns in there that I will use. Thanks for the tip June. I am sure that I will be crocheting something from it very soon.

The Crochet Hat book by Candi Jensen has been on my wish list for quite a while. There seems to be quite a few that I will make. My only grumble is that there are only 15 hat patterns in the book but as I will make more than half of them then I suppose that I shouldn't grumble. It would be a good book for a beginner though as there are pages of explanations showing 'how to' with each hat. It is full of crochet tips, close up photos of the stitches and stitching up tips.

I will pick a few patterns from each book to photograph tomorrow when I have given each book a thorough browse.It doesn't matter that I now have a large library of crochet books I still get a flicker of excitement every time they arrive at my door. Most of the books that I choose give me pleasure. I just have a few books in my collection that I just know that I will never make anything from it. I still can't bear to part with them though.

I have recovered from my weekend with the two dogs. I went to bed last night at 10.30pm and didn't wake up until 7am which is unheard of for me. I had also had a nap in the afternoon yesterday so I think that I have caught up with my missed sleep. The only downside of that was that my crochet suffered and I barely did anything yesterday as I was so tired. I am going to try to catch up today.

21 Today!

I'm 21 today, 21 today, I've got the key of the door, never been 21 before. Well that's a lie for a start I have been 21 twice already and had the key of the door for a long time and now I am 21 for a third time. Next time I am 21 it will be for the 4th time and I will be 84 so I might not be blogging then. Technology will have moved on and we will all be using something else. I come from a line of long living women on both sides of the family so unless fate intervenes I hope to he around bugging you until at least my 90's. You poor things!

My brother has called and thankfully I had showered and got dressed before he arrived but he did, of course, catch me with my breakfast dishes unwashed and the hoover out. Why do people never call when the house is all straight? He managed to get his foot in my trailing red wool so the February sweater almost lost a few rows. The photo is of the sleeve. I hate circular needles so am re-jigging the sweater and doing the sleeves first and seaming them rather than having to pick them up and knit circular as per the pattern. Those of you who know me well know I never do anything the "right" way.

My brother brought me these 2 crochet books and a CD of Alan Jackson,who I really like, for my birthday. I had a lot of his tracks downloaded on my old PC and in the transfer from one PC to another I lost a lot of tracks and Alan Jackson's tracks were amongst those. I will have a cup of coffee,listen to my new CD and peruse my new books. I will post photos of anything in them that is particularly scrumptious tomorrow.

I am off out tonight for a meal with my niece and friend Louise. What a lucky girl I am. I love birthdays. Come on now - all together - 21 today. she's 21 today, she's got the key of the door only been 21 twice before!

New books, oh how I love new books

Today I went to my new seated exercise class at Bury Castle leisure centre. BEATS decided that as I didn't like the gym they would introduce me to a more light hearted approach to exercise. Today was our first class. God bless us. We were arranged seated in a semi circle and issued with a very long piece of red rubber. The results were hilarious as some of the older ladies and a gentleman in a wheelchair could not keep their rubber band trapped under their foot with the result that many twangs and near misses occurred. It was great fun. It was very easy exercise but I could tell that some of the ladies in had never exercised anything other than their jaws in a very long time! Let's wait for next week and see how many drop outs there are!

Whilst I was in Bury my lovely crochet books arrived from Amazon. I have yet to peruse them thoroughly so can't tell you if the patterns in them are great, moderate or just plain boring. I am going to soak my exercised back in the bath and drool over them in detail in just a few moments. I love the feeling of ripping open the cardboard wrapping and revealing the books beneath. My friend thinks I am completely barking mad to get so excited but only a true crafter can know that feeling of undiscovered treasure lurking in the pages of a good book. Oh to have another pair of hands. My eyes are definitely bigger than my fingers. I have a list a mile long of would be projects.

My hats are progressing slowly. I have got 3 out of 4 parts knitted for the two hats but nothing stitched up or embroidered as yet. I have been out for most of the day so will have to knuckle down after my bath and dinner if I can just get my eyes out of these books long enough to pick up the needles. My crochet finger is itching to put down the knitting but I have to finish off first. One of my New Year;s resolutions was not to have too much on the go at once as I get so sidetracked I forget where I am up to with patterns and finish up unravelling a lot of the time. That is wasted energies so no more. I will only have 3 projects on the hook and needle at once!