Reading Material

Amazon didn't send me any more books today but I did get my non crochet reading for when/if I go into hospital. I ordered a couple of books by Stephen Fry as he makes me laugh and I have heard that both of these books are a good read. I must remember to pack my reading glasses!

The long cardigan by Drew Emborsky is progressing quite slowly. It is all the front crochet around the loop twisted cable style crochet and the round the back loop crochet on the wrong side that is slowing me down. It is making quite a close fabric as it is crocheted on a 4mm hook. I have put the marker pin at the half way point from the bottom edge to the armholes so that at least now I can see that I am more than half way to when I can divide for the armholes. I hope that it will move faster then when the rows are shorter. At the moment it seems to be taking me ages to go across a row plus the colour is difficult to see in the electric light. My photo makes it appear much lighter than it actually is. I would call it more of a maroon shade. I might have to start something else in a lighter colour for evening crocheting.

The rather blurry photo is of two charms that Rachael bought me from a shop in Accrington. One is a little sweater on the needles and the other is a ball of wool with needles crossing through it. I am going to try to make them into little lapel pins.

Today I nipped up to the Post Office on Pearl. It is so good to be able to nip here and there so easily. I decided to post the parcel off to Sylvia with the baby cardigans in. The Post Office was it's usual full self with the slowest moving queue in the North. There were 4 members of staff working but the queue was held up with people asking stupid questions, sometimes twice over, and the staff making it worse by asking everyone if they had life insurance and ISA's etc. Surely the time to flog their other things is not when the queue is snaking around the building. I felt like saying to the woman behind the counter - Stop chatting and trying to persuade people to take out things they don't want and just serve the customers. Oh dear I think that I am turning into a grumpy old woman. Why does trying to post a parcel turn into an hour long event?

Thanks to everyone for their kind wishes. I do hope that you can all knit and crochet with your fingers crossed! I am just crossing my legs so that I can still crochet.

Not a bad day today. I managed to get the washing dry outside - even the bathmats and towels so all in all a good day.

Crochet Ribboned Baby Jacket Ready For The Post

The white crochet 4ply baby jacket is dry, The only ribbon that I could find today was a double sided satin ribbon with a picot edge that is really meant to be hair ribbon. It fits through the eyelet holes quite tightly and the picots will make it hard for the baby to pull the ribbon out. I found it hard enough to thread it through so I hope that her little fingers can't manage to drag it out. Babies and ribbons are not a good combination. The pattern is a newish one that I bought online from Purplelinda. I am sure that your LYS will stock it if they stock Sirdar.

I am up to the part on the shawl where I add the side wings on. Yes I have seen the missed block on the left hand side. It's funny how the minute I take a photograph of any of my work mistakes glare out at me. In my defense I was crocheting in the garden whilst entertaining Buster by throwing his ball for him so it's easy to get distracted. He still hasn't lost the squeaker out of his new ball so I bet all of my neighbours loved me for the constant squeaking noise as they were trying to catch some rays in their gardens. My gardener will love him when she comes to mow my lawn tomorrow as he has dug a big hole in the lawn at the edge whilst trying to retrieve his ball from a bush.

I need to get some scales that weigh wool. I had no label on the wool that I am using and it is such a big ball that it must have been more than a 100 gram ball. I will have to try to weigh the shawl as best I can when it is finished to find out just how much it has taken. This is my trial run shawl before I use any better quality wool.

I have parcelled up the little white jacket, the blue hooded jacket and the autumn coloured scarf. All I need now is to hail a passing neighbour tomorrow and see if they are going anywhere near the Post Office. My next door neighbour's daughter would have taken it for me but she is away for a few days with her Dad. Her Mum said that she might be going up near the Post Office but will let me know tomorrow. The Post Office is no-where near the precinct. It is set away up the road on it's own. There have been several campaigns to try to get it moved nearer but as it's also a sorting office I doubt if that will ever happen. Once I get my mobility scooter then I will be able to zoom up there myself. My son doesn't seem to be having much success in getting me one as he never seems to find his friend, who sells them, in. I might have to resort to getting one myself but I will have to wait for my niece to come back from her holidays to take me to the mobility shop.

As for my knees today I think the least said the better. All I can say is creak creak ,ouch, ouch.

Laws of probability

Is it just me or is there a law of probability? Today I was in the house except for about 10 mins when I had to nip to a neighbours. So when did Parcelforce choose to try to deliver my son's parcel? Yes you guessed it - in those missing 10 mins. I am sure there is some evil pixie working some kind of magic over my life making sure that nothing is ever easy! I then had to go to the Post Office and stand (and stand ) in a queue with identification pressed in my hot little hand until the body behind the counter deigned to ring her little bell saying cashier number 2! I am sure if I had stayed in all day they would pick the one minute when I answer a call of nature to ring my doorbell with the parcel anyway. Last time I had a parcel delivery they must have tapped on the brickwork with a wet sponge as I was in ( no noise in the house) and never heard them. I think the pixie just wants me to experience back pain every time I expect a parcel. I have to walk to the local Post Office as there is no-where within 300yds to park anywhere near it anyway. I think the answer is to sit on the stairs with the front door ajar with a flask, a sandwich and a potty at the ready!

I finally finished dog draught excluder number 2 who almost looks like dog number 1 except his face is darker. I photographed him on the top of the pram blanket I made last week so he would appear differently to the first. he will hopefully be adopted into a new home when my son picks him (and the parcel) up after work.

I am in charge of a friend's mobile phone to answer queries about stretch limo hire as he has gone away for 2 weeks. He hadn't left the airport before I got the first call. Is this the start of a new career? Receptionist to a budding business man. Let's hope I don't make any double bookings or make an error otherwise it will be a very short lived career!

I almost bought 2 plums in Marks and Spencer until the till girl said Gosh 70p a plum aren't they expensive! I said yes they are , I don't want them! I know their produce is good but I am on a limited budget and so I just stuck to the Jazz Jazz apples at £2.49 for 4. My treat for the week. Usually it's a bag of budget apples from Tesco but last week they were all bruised and horrible I finished up throwing most of them away so it was not a budget as far as I was concerned. I think I will make an effort to get to the market next week for fish, fruit and veg. Another chance to maim the unwary with my wheelie trolley!