Still Busy Crocheting

The weather this weekend has been atrocious. Rain thundering down forming torrents that the grids could not take and so water was flooding down the street. It's at time like this that I am glad that I live on top of the hill and not at the bottom! The grid outside the garage had blocked with leaves so I was out there with a stiff broom amusing the neighbours trying to sweep the lake on the driveway into the grid that I had unblocked.  The good point about the weather is that I was firmly sat in my recliner finishing the last ,for now, jackets for the foster babies. I hope to get them posted off either today or tomorrow.

This matinee has finally used the last of the pink fleck that I bought at Bury market over 2 yrs ago. It has been like the never ending bag of yarn and has made several outfits so I have really had my value for money from that bag. It was unlabelled as some of the Sale market stock is but I can tell from the feel of it that it is a good quality yarn. He just sells unlabelled packs with a price on. They are all reasonably priced and I have not been disappointed with any of the packs that I have bought from him. I miss going up to Bury market for a browse at his Sale lines. Of course sometimes there is nothing in the Sale that I want but that is the luck of the draw. He still carries regular lines but they are mostly acrylic but I don't mind that for babies as it washes so well in the machine.

The pattern for this is Four Little Cherubs  which I bought through Ebay. My skirt stitch isn't quite the same as the pattern as I think that I misinterpreted her instructions for crocheting the single treble in between the shell stitch and so mine has come out as a round the post stitch. I quite liked it so I decided to continue with this stitch even though it is not to the pattern. I couldn't quite understand what she meant on the pattern instructions but it was late in the evening.

I have made this little jacket 3 or 4 times now. This one is a special request from a friend of Sylvia. I made it using James C Brett baby 4ply that I bought at Abakhan. I did make the bottom half of the matinee a bit longer as the pattern only suggests 2 rows before the start of the holes for the ribbon and I feel that this is a bit short.

Close up of the stitches. The bottom border is worked sideways and then the main body is started from picking up along the long edge of the border. My only criticism is that this makes the first row of the skirt a bit tight. I keep forgetting to add an extra chain to each loop to stop it puckering.

This is the pattern  Sirdar 1901. It is a fairly new pattern so should be available still although sometimes in the US the pattern is released with a different number.

I made this little jacket with the rest of the ball left over from the previous jacket. As it is an openwork pattern and short length I just managed to squeak it out of the left overs with a yard to spare.

The pattern should have had 3 flowers on each front and 6 on the back but as I ran out of wool I could only make 4 flowers for decoration.

The pattern is another fairly new pattern from Sirdar 1900. I think that I got both patterns from Purplelinda but they are available from most Sirdar stockists.

All I need to do now is pack everything in a bag ready for the post. The weather is looking like rain again so I have a feeling that it will be tomorrow when I post the parcel as the post office is some distance away and I don't fancy getting a soaking again. I do have to nip to the shops for some food but that will just be a quick up to the village and back praying that I stay reasonably dry. I will take my bright yellow rain poncho with me. It is great but it is so flimsy that parts of it keep tearing. It was very cheap so I think that I will look out for a better quality cape.

I am now going back to crocheting for my online store to be. I broke off when the foster babies arrived but now I have made a few things it's time to return to trying to earn a few pennies if I can. I have a yarn addiction to pay for!

New Projects To Start

I am poised, needles and pattern at the ready to start the long line chunky jacket for my niece. I hope to start it this weekend. The pattern is from the Sirdar Winter Wonderland booklet. I made the same jacket pattern for her a year ago but made it in Sirdar Click chunky which kept on growing and growing. Added to the fact that my niece has now lost quite a lot of weight I am making a much smaller size this time. I am also using two sizes smaller needles instead of my usual one size ( I knit a bit on the loose side so always drop a size) to make sure that the jacket doesn't stretch as much this time.



Last night I was in the mood for a bit of crochet so I started a baby jacket 'Little Princess' from the Crochet for Babies book.. The yarn is Wendy Beach Baby DK that I got for a bargain price of 79p per 100 gram ball from E Kemp Sale. If you haven't checked their site lately then don't if you are on a yarn diet. They have some fabulous bargains on there at the moment.



I keep talking about my swollen leg so here is is in all it's glory. This photo was taken this morning and it will be worse by the end of the evening. I went to the pharmacy this morning to get measured for some sexy socks and they don't stock them large enough. I will have to enquire at the hospital whether I can get some made to measure ones.



Purple is my favourite colour but I don't care for it on my legs. The pharmacist said that if I already have or have had a DVT then she would not recommend putting a knee stocking on as it could increase the knee swelling. As you can see from the side view I have a huge knee. I think that I will see what the results of the tests that I am having on Tuesday show before I decide on the stockings. I have to go to the nuclear medicine department to have some radioactive substance injected in my vein and then wait for a couple of hours and then get a scan done. I had better go prepared with my sandwiches and some knitting as I could be there for 4-5 hours in total.I am also having a bone dynamic test and bone SPECT done as well as this CT Atten correct and diagnostic study. All sounds very complicated to me.

Today started off quite sunny and appeared warm through the windows. When I went shopping though it was quite chilly and now it is dull. Roll on Spring.

Thanks for all of your lovely comments about the crochet jacket for Alison. I am delivering it tomorrow so I hope that she likes it and that it fits her. I will see the foster babies maybe for the last time before they move on. One is being adopted which we are very pleased about and the other one is going home. Hopefully there will be a little break before new babies arrive to the foster carers and then I will be sparking my needles and hooks again. I know of quite a few babies that are expected this year so I have quite a few things to knit and crochet. I also hope to get to my knitting machine again once the chunky jacket is knitted. Fortunately I am well prepared with my stash of baby coloured yarns that I have been buying recently.

I am staying away from the wool sites this month as today my credit card bill came with not only all my wool and book purchases on it but also the vibrating back cushion and storage boxes so I must have a 'step way from from the credit card' month (or two or even three) until I get back to normal.

Coffee and feet up time now. I think I will treat myself to a bit of crochet on the baby jacket before I start knitting the chunky jacket. Sorry if my knee photos put you off your dinner LOL

More Sock Wool

Yes I know. I have quite a few balls of sock wool in my stash but ever since I made a pair of socks for my niece in these colours I have been on the look out for some for myself. My niece bought her wool online from Angel Yarns but the trouble it took to get them and the length of time she had to wait put me off ever ordering from them again. I ordered from them at the same time and eventually after a couple of months wait I had to demand a refund to my credit card as my goods never turned up and every time I asked about my order I was fobbed off with some silly story. My friend Kath managed to find them for me at John Lewis in Trafford Park. As these are 6ply and the pair of socks I knitted for my niece knitted up quite quickly there is a chance that a pair will be on my feet this year as opposed to I don't know when with the other finer sock wool.

I have been crocheting away with the two baby cardigans and I have only one more sleeve to make before I embark on the stitching up and finishing. Hopefully I will finish them tonight but as they have to be fringed around the bottom edge it might be at the weekend.

Tomorrow I am hoping to go to the wool shop in Ramsbottom with my niece and on Sunday it is the monthly Knit Out of the Knitting Noras. Lisa and Vicky are on Tower FM radio today. You can see the promotion that Tower Radio have given the Naked Knitting Calendar by clicking on the blog title but I must point out that they have spelt Christie wrong in the title. My two friends who phoned me to tell me about this said that they have been advertising that the Knitting Noras are coming on the radio this week since Monday but I only heard about it yesterday.