Stitch and Craft Show

I have just got back from the Stitch and Craft Show at Manchester Central (used to be G-Mex), I went there with Sylvia and Kath and I think that we were all quite disappointed at the lack of wool stalls once again this year. I am sure there was one less than last year. I certainly wasn't tempted by anything on offer this year. Sylvia and Kath bought some wool from the Black Sheep and Jen had left some wool that she bought from the Black Sheep under the Knitting Noras Naked Knitting Calendar stall for me. I am making a shawl for her with that.

Whilst I was briefly on the knitting Noras stand I met up with Ailsa (Mad about Craft) I have followed her blog for a long time and felt like I knew her really well when I saw her. She looks just like the photo on her blog and as she recognised me then I suppose that I must look like my photo too. After that, of course, we bumped into each other on almost every aisle. It's funny isn't it that you don't actually know some-one in person, then you meet them and finish up seeing them lots of times. It was very nice to finally meet up with you Ailsa (with daughter and Jan) I would have loved to have a longer chat with you but you were busy stall browsing and so was I. There were quite a lot of bored husbands around the place so I see that you wisely left Oh Bearded One at home!

The photo is of me with a couple of the props that I crocheted that were used in the calendar. The pink duster coat (pattern by Doris Chan) and the wrap that was used for the mermaid tail. The red stockings that you can see are also a calendar prop and they were expertly knitted by Julie who was manning the stall with Bev today.

I did buy myself something - a new hair clip as you can see. It is basically two hair combs with elastic and beads and it holds my hair very securely. The lady demonstrating them managed put people's hair up even when their hair was quite short. She had no trouble with mine as my hair is now half way down my back. They do sell online at www.africanbutterfly.net. I saw the clips last year and didn't buy one, couldn't find one in any shop, so this year I decided to give myself a treat as I wasn't buying any wool.


When I came home Julie, next door, kindly offered to cut my side of our joint hedge so the privet leaf in my hair is from when I was underneath the privets scooping up the fallen leaves as she was cutting above me. I hadn't realised that I was wearing a leaf until I put the photo on here.

My knee is aching like fury tonight so I am going to do nothing but rest it up.

Baby Cardigan in Sock Yarn

I am glad to see from the comments on my last blog page to find that not alone in valuing my old patterns and that each one invokes memories for me as I look through them. When I have mentioned it to some people they think I am a bit weird. I am a bit weird, I have always known that but I did think that most people loved old patterns like me but when I have mentioned it in the past most people look at me strangely and say they love New patterns and making new things. I browse through my patterns like other people browse old photographs. I think if my house were on fire that I would be seen dragging my boxes of patterns to safety and screaming at the firemen not to drench them in water. Memo to myself I must make sure that the lids are firmly on my boxes in case of water damage. The storage boxes are, of course, made of plastic which would melt and glue themselves to my patterns in a fire which doesn't bear thinking about!

I have finally finished one of the baby cardigans. I made this in sock yam. I don't know the colour as I have lost the label but it is Lana Grossa Meilenweit Cotton Fun which is a slight misnomer as fun to knit it certainly wasn't. I had previously attempted 2 different knitted sock patterns and even a crochet sock pattern but the wool is so bouncy and slippery that it refuses to stay on the needles half of the time leading to dropped stitches. I felt like a beginner whilst knitting this cardigan as I retrieved more slipped and dropped stitches than I had done in many years. I don't feel that the yarn is suitable for socks unless you like wearing them slouch style shuttering down your ankles as the rib has absolutely no stretch no matter how much I tightened the needles. With my arthritic grip the yarn was too silky for me to get an even tension but as I still have another ball of this yarn (in a different colour) then using it up in this way is better than wasting it as it would never have been finished as a pair of socks. I used a Sirdar pattern for this but I abandoned the broken rib pattern and just knitted it in stocking stitch as all of my efforts didn't show in pattern and the dropped stitches were a bugger to pick up in pattern.

Today has been another abysmal day. It has lashed it down with rain for most of the day which plays havoc with my osteoarthritis. I wish that I could win the lottery and move to somewhere warmer.My old bones don't like all this wet cold weather.

I must go back and get my blood checked again as I have done nothing but sleep all week. I am normally a person who exists on 4 or 5 hours per night sleep so I know something is wrong when I want to go to bed at 10.30pm and sleep until 7 am. I think that the mask from my sleep apnoea machine isn't fitting tightly enough and leaking as I feel as tired as I used to feel before I had the CPAP machine. It's either that I have too much carbon dioxide in my blood stream again or my iron tablets are not working and I am anaemic. I can't absorb ferrous sulphate tablets for some reason and yet the doctor keeps on prescribing them for me. This is not a new problem and I have to be prescribed iron in a different form or have iron injections but trying to convince the doctor of this is nigh on impossible. I know my body and know how it responds to certain things but they always know better. Annoying isn't it? Maybe if my iron levels are still very low he will believe me this time and prescribe something different.

Tomorrow I am meeting up with Sylvia and Kath to go to the Stitch and Craft show at Manchester Central (used to be G-Mex)I hope that it is better than last year as I was really disappointed at the large amount of card craft work and the very small amount of wool stalls there. Let's hope for better things this year. I don't plan on spending a great deal on wool but last year there was a very good book stall there and I bought a couple of crochet books. I could probably have got them cheaper online but there is nothing like a good browse in a book is there? I just wish more book shops sold knitting and crochet books as their selection is usually pitiful and it forces me to shop online.

Whilst at the show I will call in on the Bolton Knitting Noras Naked Knitting stall and perhaps get Sylvia to take my photo there with the stall as any photographic evidence of my involvement with the calendar is woefully small. Once the You Tube videos have been erased I will be left with just 1 photo, one group photo plus hopefully one calendar shot. Good job that I didn't buy a scrap book isn't it?