Sunday with the Knitty Noras

As promised yesterday - a continuation on Sunday's activities. It was our monthly meeting of the Knitty Noras. I consider myself very fortunate to be offered a lift there by Vicky, especially as I was carrying my latest 5 books. Public transport from out here in the sticks to Bolton is a bit dodgy on a Sunday. We usually take with us any new books that we have bought so that other members can have a good look through them and decide if they want to buy a copy for themselves - or not. Yesterday we had a small library to browse through.

We had a really good turn out yesterday. A couple of new(ish) members so we are growing in numbers. Who said knitting was for old ladies? I am the granny of this club, most are much younger than I am. We occupied two tables. I am never quite sure what the other Costa Cafe users think of a bunch of ladies knitting, crocheting, book swapping and generally chattering away but we do buy several cups of coffee,tea and juice, many buns and sandwiches so I don't think the owners are complaining.

I had a lovely surprise waiting for me with 2 more birthday presents. I have felt really spoiled and pampered this year. Eadaoin presented me with a lovely necklace and bangle in my favourite shades of lilacs and purples. I haven't done the jewelry much justice as it has been very dark today for photography. Eadaoin has been making jewelry for some time now and has her own Etsy site (click on my blog title and it should transport you there as if by magic) with very reasonably priced items for sale. She also does craft fairs along with Jennifer (another talented Knitty Nora) with a variety of things besides jewelry for sale. Eadaoin also makes some great stitch markers, She gifted me a set earlier in the year, a did Vicky and they have been so useful. I have one set for knitting and one for crochet. I belong to a talented bunch of ladies don't I?

Speaking of which isn't the Christmas card on my blog lovely and so appropriate for a knitter? It was handmade by Jean, yet another talented Knitty Nora. I must ask her if she has a sales site as I am sure such lovely hand made cards would appeal to a lot of people.

Sylvia and Kath gave me the lovely coloured crochet hooks. They have obviously heard me say many times that I scatter hooks behind me rather like a farmer sewing seeds so I can never have enough hooks. Whoever follows behind me must have a complete set of hooks by now!

Today I am having a duvet kind of day. I took one look at the weather and decided that there was no way I was venturing out in the cold. I made a big pot of leek and potato soup (enough for a few days) and snuggled up in my robe with the central heating on. Not much knitting or crochet for some reason so far but I intend to try to catch up with a few hours tonight.

Loads of sock wool goodies

Vicky came to visit today with the sock wool goodies that she had ordered online for me. There is quite a variety - some Opal and Lana Crosse. A mix of wool ones and cotton ones and some stretch as well. I think they are from Get knitted although the rather yummy one in the second photo is a gift to me from Vicky and I think it's hand dyed Merino by Debbie Tomkies but I am sure Vicky will add a comment as to it's exact make up for anyone who also likes the texture and colour. I am getting very forgetful these days. She did tell me and I have forgotten already! I couldn't resist winding it up from the skein even though these supplies are for my after op recuperation knitting. I just wanted to know what it would look like in the ball.

I am a real dummy at looking for bargains on the net. My experiences of ordering yarn from Angel have been less than wonderful and it has put me off from trying again in case my bad experience gets repeated. Vicky seems to find all the bargains online so I am grateful to her for searching these out for me. Loads a wool for my sock stash. I will let my niece choose one colour for the separate toes socks she has requested. She can have any colour except the last one!

I am so happy with all of the colours and can't wait to start although I am considering getting a full set of Knit Pics needles if Vicky is ordering from Get Knitted in the future as I keep puncturing my finger end with the bamboo set I am using for the tiger coloured socks. I have read good reports about them and the Addi Turbos so would like to try them out.

Vicky bought her sweetheart sock in progress with her and it looks much nicer in real life than the photo on her blog. Lovely pattern and colour. She also bought me a crystal thumb stone in rose quartz to aid my recovery which I keep playing with as it is very soothing as well as having healing properties

I have quite a lot of things to finish off before I start any of these new sock wools. I have worked another couple of balls today into my niece Vicky's crochet jumper so it now has 2 sleeves and it's neckband done. I am working my way down the body now (it is started from the top down) so it should be finished in a couple of days. I then have to finish Anna's soakers, start Nikki's hat and a shawl for my sister in law. I also must start the second Tiger sock and break the second sock syndrome and finish off the second pair of thicker purple Classic Kid socks. Boy I am going to have a busy month. Maybe I can find time to sleep in between the knit and crochet I have planned. I shall definitely try the chocolate before bedtime theory to chase away bad dreams as suggested by Mattenlou. I shall buy some tomorrow when I do my grocery shopping.

Zuleika (Life in the Zu) has kindly offered to lend me a crochet hook with a light built in to see if I can use it. It sure would come in handy with all the black wool I have been crocheting lately. These old eyes are not what they used to be. I am borrowing it as I have bought bamboo and Brittany birch crochet hooks and can't use any of them so don't want to buy any more hooks until I have tried them out. I also like the look of the Clover hooks with the wider handle but Zuleika has said they make her hands ache so I would like to try before I buy on those as well.

I shall make a Horlicks and go to bed now as it is a little late to do any more crochet although CSI is on the TV and I can't resist if it's Gil Grisham (William Peterson) on the TV. Such a dishy man. Swoon.

Crochet is a no but bathroom is a yes

The bathroom is finally finished. I have spent the whole weekend cleaning up after the builders so no crochet started this weekend. I did manage to finish off the knitted baby hats but am a bit dubious as my friend arrived and asked me what they were! I hope you can see from the photo that they are an upside down daisy hat and a cherry hat (from the Itty Bitty Hat Book by Susan B Anderson).

My bathroom just needs the finishing touches and a really good clean once the grout and the silicone has dried completely and is able to get wet. I need to paint the bathroom door before the towel rail can be fitted. I am looking forward to my first shower in there later today. It's just a basic fully tiled bathroom but it's clean and fresh and that is the main thing. I could have spent a ridiculous amount of money on a luxury suite,fittings and tiles but as a pensioner I settled for the cheaper options as I didn't feel like going into debt just to keep clean!

I am going to Ramsbottom Craft shop later this week to get some nice white 4ply for the great grand daughters crochet christening boleros. My niece will thankfully be taking me as my car decided that it didn't like the supermarket fuel that I filled up with last week and keeps cutting out and stopping dead on me at very inconvenient moments. My son seems to think there is some dirt in the fuel tank. What amazes me is the inability of other drivers to understand that my hazard lights flashing signal that I have a problem and am not just stopped in the middle of the road on a whim. I had to push the car back into a side street on Saturday and that basically knackered my back for the weekend and so hampered my cleaning up efforts in the house. I will get there slowly but surely.

I had also planned to re-pot a lot of my embryo vegetables but the slugs saved me the trouble with the peppers. I closed the grow house on a tray full of 2" high peppers and opened it again the following morning to find only 4 left! I get a little disheartened sometimes. I am trying to be organic but am rapidly thinking I will have to resort to slug pellets if I want anything to eat at all. I have 3 tiny plants and 2 packs of flower seeds to plant courtesy of the Sunday Mirror. They arrived on Saturday and need re-potting immediately as they look rather dry from the journey.

I have a mountain of ironing to do but am determined to find some time this evening to do some knitting or crochet.

The rain has just stopped now after I have already got soaked to the skin taking the dog for a walk. I waited for hours and decided to brave it and now the rain has stopped. The story of my life or what

Black Sheep Yarn Sale

Today my niece and I went over to Warrington to the Black Sheep Yarn Sale. When we arrived lots of cars in the car park so it looked promising. Once inside it was just pile of packets of wool on the floor. A daunting task to sort through with my bad back. I did turn over as many as I could and no doubt there were quite a few bargains if you like strange shades of beige! I managed to pick up a pack of red aran and a pack of double knit cotton in a sort of denim navy (if there is such a colour!).

On the way back my niece and I got chatting about how it was when I had the wool shop and how spoiled we were for choice with yarns etc. It is strange how I had to give it all up as it was not a viable concern 12 yrs ago as everyone had stopped knitting and crocheting and I had got to the stage where the overheads made it impossible to continue. How I wish I had it now with the revival of the crafts. I could have entered the world of e- bay selling etc and gone out to a wider audience than the small town of Royton. I search shops and web sites for things I took for granted that I had in stock a few years ago. It's all very sad.

I decided to catalogue the stash of yarn that I have left from when I had the shop and was amazed at just how much I actually still have and how much I have added to it recently. It is definitely a time to be frugal for a few months and just work on getting the stash down. I made a list and e mailed it to my niece so she knows exactly what I have now if she is starting anything that requires a few balls of this or that. My next project will be deciding which colour and yarn to make which garment etc. I actually found 2 projects on the hook that I had completely forgotten about so that will be the next things to complete after my niece's shawl and jumper are finished.

I have been busy re-potting my little seedlings and my broad beans ( 9" tall) and my lettuce (8" tall. Everything else is still at the 2 leaf above the soil stage but some I have put into individual pots now. All of this and dog walking doesn't leave much time for my crocheting but I have decided that tomorrow I will do some housework and then settle down for a good old crochet in the afternoon - after the dog walk of course

Domiknitrix

My niece has bought a new knitting book called Domiknitrix (Whip your knitting into shape) by Jennifer Stafford and feel sure I would love to knit and wear this hat whilst walking the dog. Too scary do you think?

I am still slowly crocheting the black silk shawl but had a bit of a glitch and had to rip a full ball back so that kind of upset me a bit and have only just re crocheted the ball again. I went to the Cafe Nero on sunday to meet the Knitting Noras (famous as an article about us has appeared in a Knitting magazine) but only managed to crochet 3 rows in between chatting and having to go across the road to McDonalds to use the loo. Shame on you Cafe Nero only having one loo and it was out of order. Not many ladies at the club this week but I suppose the sun lured many away. I can't say much as I didn't go to the last meeting myself.

I have now got 3 grow houses and my little seeds are starting to emerge. I feel quite maternal when they poke their little heads out of the compost. My broad beans and lettuce have now been put into individual pots and are about 6" high now. I am quite a novice at all this veggie growing so it is very much trial and error and I read up a lot on the internet.

My crochet and knitting has taken a back seat as I am pottering in the garden in between walking the dog and my knit and crochet is only done in the evenings if I can stay awake! Today I need to drag my leaf hoover out of the garage and try to get rid of all the cherry tree blossom that is decorating the street like confetti making me quite unpopular with the neighbours. Hurts my back like hell but has to be done.

I am just watching Loose Women on tv and they are chatting about people getting refused operations on the NHS if they are smokers or obese. I should know as I have been refused a major back operation for the last 3yrs as my specialist says at 14st I am too heavy for him to operate. I have lost weight as I had gone up to 16st 8lbs from 11st when I first had the back problems and stopped doing anything but he is adamant no op unless I am 12.7lbs or less. Even my doctor who has tried to help me with the last stone or so says he can't see what the problem is as I do water aerobics, walk the dog twice a day, garden and keep as fit as my back pain will allow. My ex husband's step daughter has had a similar operation (different surgeon) and she weighs 19st!

I am off to walk the dog again for the second time. People said when I adopted him that the weight would fall off me but after 10 weeks I am still waiting for an ounce to drop off!

Hidden treasure from my stash

I found some treasure trove in my loft. 10 balls of Wash n wear black 4ply crepe. It just had to be crocheted. Trouble is with my failing eyesight I can only crochet it during the hours of daylight. Try as I might I can't crochet black in artificial light even wearing my special magnifying glasses. Sign of old age? Sigh! I made this pattern many years ago for my niece in white and it looked very pretty. Probably as much to do with the young (as she was then) gorgeous blonde wearer as my crocheting skills!

I may be turning into the "Good Life" minus the chickens and pigs. I was chatting today to my neighbour who is going to dispose of her elderly greenhouse (minus a few panes and clips) so if it will survive the trip up the hill from 5 houses down then I will be a greenhouse owner. Yeah! I had thought about buying a greenhouse before as opposed to a new shed but even the cheapest cost around £300 which is a lot of money for a poverty stricken pensioner (yeah I know - whinge whinge). Yesterday I ordered a plastic mini 3 tiered greenhouse from Amazon.co.uk and a plastic cover for a grow bag suitable for my tomatoes. I had ordered these before the offer of the greenhouse but then again maybe the greenhouse won't survive the trip up the street! All I need now is a good Gardening book for absolute dummies. I will be happy if I can grow a few tomatoes (I shared the ones I grew last year with the slugs) and some salad stuff. I will go on to vegetables if I am a success at that. Start with easy stuff first!

The dog has grazed his leg on something sharp in the park whilst stick chasing. I heard him yelp but it doesn't seem to bad. He carried on playing with his dog friends Cassie and Max so it didn't bother him unduly.

The dog woke me up in the middle of the night. Sometimes he does that when he needs to go out for a wee but last night he jumped on the bed and was walking all over me and scratching both sides of my face. When I woke up and spoke to him he just settled down and went back to sleep. I suffer from sleep apnoea and wear a C.P.A.P machine in case I stop breathing during the night but still suffer periods of sleep paralysis or shaking fits whilst wearing the mask. I am thinking that maybe I was having one of these spasms and perhaps making a noise ( I have woken myself up many times making a strange noise and been unable to breathe or move)and the dog wanted to wake me up. It's a bit scary but I live with it. It is no use thinking each day that it might happen tonight when I am asleep otherwise I would never close my eyes. My feeling is if it's my time to go then it will happen one day. I just get on with my life day to day.

Still struggling

I am still struggling to get on to the site to be able to blog. I have resorted to not using my shortcut but using Google to access the site through it's home page. Maybe this is the way forward?

I am still battling with the long sleeved shrug. Last sleeve is half done. Where oh where are the good UK crochet book designers. You don't get all these mistakes in UK patterns - well not in my 40+ years of crochet experience. I can honestly say I only ever had one UK pattern that defeated me but nearly every US pattern I have used has me scratching my head and using expletives a lady should not be heard to utter. Crochet is supposed to be relaxing not brain taxing and unravelling experiences. I have taken a photo of the original garment from the book and all I can say is after 3 attempts mine still doesn't have the same shape as theirs! Maybe the fancy border will cover all the dodgy shapings. Here's hoping.

I am looking forward to some straightforward crochet next (using a tried and trusted UK pattern) as a rest from the last 3 garments I have made. Not sure what it will be. I feel a browse through my yarn stash and pattern stash looming. That will pass many an hour I am sure.

I am still waiting to try out my new bamboo and wooden crochet hooks that I ordered from the Angel yarns site. I have had a trial with them but am not sure I like them. They are lighter but I am sure I can come to terms with but the main flaw is that they seem to snag on the yarn. The hooks don't seem to come through the yarn as cleanly as the metal and plastic hooks do. The ends seem a different shape to my original ones, not as rounded at the ends. I found that they slowed my speed down considerably with having to check that the yarn had not been split on its way through the stitch. I have spent quite a bit of money on these so am determined not to give up with them just yet but they may just finish up being re-sold on e-bay as I can't afford to hang on to things I am not going to use. Maybe I could wrap them up as a present for my novice crochet niece at Christmas. Hopefully she will forget I ordered them for myself!