Baby It's Cold Outside

The title is not a description of the weather. It's the name of this crochet baby jacket. The pattern is a free one from Ravelry and I made this version from 100 grams of a rather thick Aran weight wool. Teddy Camelot Wool Blend Aran Shade 020 that I bought from Habiknit in Bury. It is such a simple easy pattern that it is no wonder there are many versions of it on Ravelry. The buttons are not what I would have chosen but as nipping out to the shops for buttons isn't an option these days I make do with what I already have in. All the blue buttons that I had were all the wrong shade or the wrong size.

It is for the foster baby boy so if Sylvia has any better buttons in her stash then she can change them later. I just don't like giving things to people without any buttons.

I have added some extra chain to the sleeves this time as the last couple of jackets that I made the sleeves seemed a bit on the short side. This time they look a bit long so I have turned them up a bit. The last foster baby had long arms but as this baby is so small at the moment there is no telling how long his arms will be come the Autumn.

The rain has started lashing down again and I have had to close the patio doors as I think I have a blockage in my gutter above the door and it is sending a waterfall down the window. My son clears them out every now and again as I get a little weed garden growing in the gutter. The TV has now gone off. That's the trouble with Sky cable TV. Any sniff of torrential rain, thunder or lightening and the darned thing goes off. Apparently the rain blocks the signal from the satellite, You would think with all of today's technology they would have come up with a solution to that by now.

I will probably start another Baby It's Cold Outside jacket tonight. I don't want to start anything large until I can concentrate once Buster goes home again on Sunday. I have to pick easy patterns as I lose my place when I keep picking the crochet up and putting it down again 5 minutes later when Buster jams his ball under the coffee table or under a chair. If I don't retrieve it for him he scrabbles and makes nail marks on everything.

Today it has varied from torrential rain to sunshine. One minute Buster and I are out in the garden playing ball and the next he is curled up on the sofa letting me do a bit of crocheting. He has, unfortunately, taken a fancy to my new recliner and every time I get off it he gets on. It has the better view of the street that he thinks that he has to guard. It's either that or he just loves the body warmth in the chair when I get out of it.

I am resting today as my knees are a bit painful. I am not sure if it the weather that affects them but some days the pain is bearable and others it's not. I think that it is the dampness from the rain as much as anything.

Everything Stops For B

Everything grinds to a halt when Buster comes to stay. My son and his wife had somewhere to go this weekend and could not take the dogs so I have Buster and my granddaughter has Skye. I am not sure who drew the short straw and got Dillon the pup! Buster arrived with his dog bed but as you can see from the photo he has other ideas about where he wants to sleep.As he is used to 2 other dogs to play with he gets a bit bored here and demands attention most of the time. I have not been able to walk him which hasn't helped. The snow has mostly melted with the rain but I am not sure how the rest of the street and the woodland are and I can't risk falling.

I have finished off the hat and scarf. It has a rather wiggly fringe at the moment due to the wool having been unravelled. I am not one for re-hanking and steaming out the crinkles. They will drop out when the scarf is washed. I did try to get Buster to model it for me but as you can see he was not too impressed.

I was flicking through the TV channels and came upon One Man and His Dog. Buster was glued to it watching the dogs chase the sheep and his ears pricked up every time the shepherd whistled. I had an hour's peace to try to do a bit of knitting on a hat. It is looking a bit on the small side but as it is on 5 needles it is difficult to tell until it is finished.The wool I am using is mostly wool so no doubt the hat will get bigger with wear or I can always block it out a bit bigger. I really don't suit hats I don't know why I bother making them. I must have a dozen hats and I don't like myself in any of them!

Buster has got fed up of me typing now and is poking my legs with his ball so I guess I had better play ball with him for a while and hope that it tires him out a bit so I can finish off the hat.

Cinnabar in Colinette

Vicky J came yesterday with her daughter and we spent a couple of hours chatting. She has taken the Blue Curacao shawl and has promised me some better photos of it once it is all finished off and blocked out a wee bit. I did take some photos of it with my web cam which I might post tomorrow.

Vicky liked 3 of the 4 revised squares for her granny square shawl so I can get on with some of them now I have finished the Cinnabar. She will let me know on the 4th colourway once it is decided.

I managed to get out for a short walk in the afternoon yesterday and walked as far as Iceland and M&S but this time without my stick. I must be improving. Luckily I got there and back before the heavens opened and the rain came down yet again.I am getting so sick of all this rain day after day. I will try another walk tomorrow as I need a few grocery items for the weekend. I can only carry a couple of items at a time but I don't need enough food to make up an online order from Tesco this week. I had stocked up the freezer and store cupboard before I went in hospital so have quite a lot of things stockpiled. I am in no danger of starving to death anytime soon! The main things I run out of are bread and milk.

The Cinnabar cardigan from Everyday Crochet by Doris Chan is finished (apart from sewing in all the tails). I have amended the pattern slightly and made the sleeves very slightly bell shaped rather than the tapered ones on the pattern. The colour hasn't photographed very well courtesy of our dull rainy weather. It took 400 grams of Colinette Lasso Colourway Castagna. It has a silky shimmer to it which might not be apparent from the photos. Another finished project for Vicky to pick up another day.

I am not sure if I will do some crochet squares tonight or make a start on another project. Maybe I will be a devil and do a bit of both? I didn't manage a walk today due to the weather. What happened to our summer this year? Bank holiday weekend and it looks as if it will be a another washout. I wouldn't have been going anywhere anyway so it makes no difference to me but I do feel sorry for people who get a couple of days off work and can't plan anything because of the rain.

I have lost a lot of my Sky channels again today because of all the rain. I hope that I can find something to watch tonight that isn't a repeat. I am so fed up of all the programmes that I like being re-runs.

Sleepy miserable wet day

Not much to report today as I have been sleeping on and off for most of the day. I just can't seem to keep my eyes open.

The weather has been abysmal. Torrential rain and thunderstorms which meant that almost every programme that I started to watch on Sky TV went off in the middle and so I missed the ending. At the moment it is thundering and lightening and the rain is beating down past the windows. Altogether a miserable kind of day. Half of my programmes on Sky are still unavailable so I will miss a lot of my regular programmes tonight.

I haven't done much of anything today. A few rows of crochet on my car coat but it seems that everytime I pick up my hook I fall asleep. The dustbin cleaner man woke me up this afternoon laughing at me for nodding off in the window seat. He said I looked most attractive with my mouth open, snoring and drooling but he was laughing and he is a bit of a tease so I suspect I wasn't quite that bad.

I hope that I sleep tonight with all the sleep I have had today.

Rain, Rain go away

The rain has barely stopped today. Torrential rain for most of the day and thunder and lightening. What a lovely summer Sunday!

Lisa and Vicky came to visit me this lunchtime to cheer me up. It is so nice to have a bit of company as I am still feeling a little bit off and not back to my normal self, whatever that is. I am not depressed as such more bewildered as to what will happen next. Lisa brought me some goodies for my freezer for when I get out of hospital. She also brought some green chenille and a ball of purple mohair. I have offered to make a crocheted shawl for her daughter. I was going to make it after the operation but I will start it before as I have no idea when I am going in now. I am looking for a different pattern to the Sweet Pea shawl as I feel like a change with this one. I will start it as soon as I finish crocheting my modified Doris Chan sweater.

I have been crocheting away today, well until I fell asleep for an hour before the thunder woke me up. I have resolved the problem of my forgetting to increase at the neckline with a bit of improvisation. All will be revealed when I have finished the whole sweater. I have done about half of the body and one sleeve as you can see.

I hope that I can stay awake long enough to do a bit more crocheting tonight. I don't know why I feel so sleepy today. I need to do a bit of knitting on my niece's sock otherwise too much crochet will make my wrists hurt. I like to alternate between knitting and crochet so that I give my wrists a change of movements.

Rain, rain and more rain

Well I don't live in the rainy city for nothing. We had the good weather to tempt us and now a week of rain. Not much done in the garden at all but I have managed to finish off the black silk shawl (apart from the long fringing and that is my niece's part) and the unseamly sweater from the Happy Hooker book for my niece (would be far nicer with the lace V stitch on the sleeves as they look too heavy in the double crochet). I am on the last sleeve of my mohair cardigan, so after that I will have just 2 projects on the hook. Not for long though as I have been shown a photo of am openwork crochet bolero and asked if I can make something similar for my step great grand daughter for her sister's christening in July. I rooted through my stash and guess what - no white 4ply. I will have to go back on my promise to myself not to buy any more yarn until I have whittled the stash down. I thought I was bad but then I came across this blog (http://enchantingjuno.typepad.com/knit/2007/05/the_closet.html ) where the lady had actually got a yarn cupboard with everything all neatly stashed away. I am quite envious as mine is just piled into a cupboard all higgeldy piggeldy although I did make an inventory of what I possess so I don't have to keep dragging it all out everytime I need something specific i.e. the white 4ply.

I am bathroom suite hunting at the weekend as the builder is hopefully coming on Monday to start the work. I have my fingers crossed that I will be able to get everything I want from B&Q and not do the "drive around Manchester looking for things". I not a typical woman in the fact that I hate shopping. If I can't find what I want in the first shop I get really fed up and tend to give up and go home. I am not a fussy shopper to me one bathroom suite looks very much like another! As long as it works does it really matter who designed it? I have friends who spend weeks agonising over the right shade of tiles, carpet and curtains. How many shades of a colour are there?

As for clothes shopping Argh! I can't stand all that trying clothes on business. Going from shop to shop taking my clothes off in cramped changing rooms is not my idea of fun, and don't get me started on the communal changing rooms - they are only for the very young without fat and cellulite! Nothing I try on ever quite fits me - do women not have any waists any more? I try on my size of trouser and the waistband is several sizes too large. I am the old fashioned hour glass shape. I just wish I could buy a pair of trousers without resorting to the ugly looking elastic waistband or having to get the sewing machine out to tailor the waist to fit.

Moan over for the day except I did try to get some nice 4ply white in one shop locally today without success. Oh how I miss my shop. Searching for anything other than 100% acrylic is a nightmare. I would order online but the cost of postage is so prohibitive. I keep thinking that I could buy an extra few balls of yarn with the money they want for postage. If I had known I could have bought some nice yarn last time I was in Ramsbottom - maybe bamboo or something silky as it's for a christening. Ah well - perhaps my niece is planning another visit up there soon and I can tag along for the ride.