Blue Curacao Shawl ----------- yes another one

I am crocheting my favourite shawl pattern again. It is the Blue Curacao Shawl by Doris Chan from her Amazing Lace Book. My friend Sylvia bought the wool when we went up to Bury Market together the other week. It is a chunky variegated. Mostly acrylic but with 10% wool and 10% Mohair. The colour is Autumn but the wool was sold as a pack with a plain white label on it. When I had my wool shop I used to get offered lines like this. They can be discontinued lines from a big spinner. slight seconds or slight mis dyes. There is nothing wrong with the quality but the manufacturer will only sell it as unlabelled. I think that I will have enough with this pack to make a couple of shawls. Sylvia has commissioned me to make them as gifts for her friends.I think that as the wool is quite thick that I will put the second shawl on a larger hook as it could stand being a looser tension. The shawl will block out a lot larger once it is finished. At the moment it looks quite small and the pattern close together but as I have made a few in the past I know that they block out really well and look all the better for a good wet blocking which allows the pattern to spread and reveal the pineapple stitch..

Buster is a lot better today. He was going to be walked by a neighbour (if he will go) today but as the rain is absolutely beating down I think that his walk will be delayed to another day.She has a harness and a retractable lead as Buster can't wear his collar again until his neck wounds heal completely. They are still a bit tender if I try to inspect them but I am no longer bathing them as they are healing nicely now.

Last night I went to the Kings Arms Knit Club and on the way back I asked my niece if we would call into Tesco as I needed some more tins of dog food. I bought Buster a new ball. They always squeak when I buy them but usually within a day or so they will be chewed so that the squeaker falls out. So far it is still intact and he has driven me crazy last night and today playing with his new ball. He will entertain himself for hours with a ball that squeaks. The photo was taken yesterday afternoon with his old battered green tennis ball. As you can see he is looking a lot brighter and is no longer hanging his head on one side.

I haven't mentioned my knees for a few days as there is no change and I don't want my blog to be a constant whine. If I don't mention them then just presume that nothing has changed.

Catch Up Time

Catch up time. Where shall I start? I just haven't been in the mood for blogging for various reasons so took a break for a few days.

I will work backwards starting with today.

Today my friend and neighbour Julie is featured in the Sun newspaper being interviewed about her mis diagnosis of her ovarian cancer which almost cost her life.The doctors kept dismissing her symptoms as putting on weight even though her stomach swelled up so much she looked 9 months pregnant. This is one of the symptoms apparently but her doctors kept missing it. They kept telling her over the many times she visited them to diet and go jogging! By the time she got to Christies she had 5 large tumors on her ovaries and others on her pancreas, liver, womb and kidneys. Scary isn't it?

I am chatting online at the moment with an Athen's wool shop owner and trying to convince him to take some copies of the calendar when it is printed but he seems more interested in me than buying a calendar. Ah well at least I tried.

I need to go into the garden and take down one of the plastic greenhouses that is tilted over at a dangerous angle after the torrential rain and wind yesterday.

Yesterday I met up with Sylvia in Bolton to swop parcels. She had a parcel of wool for me to crochet some baby items with and I had a parcel of baby cardigans for her foster baby plus the surprise shawl that I had made for her. I had made it earlier but could not post photos of it on my blog as it was a surprise. It is, of course, the Blue Curacao shawl by Doris Chan from the Amazing Crochet Lace Book.

Sylvia and I met up with Deb and her daughter who were on a school bag and pencil shopping expedition and we all had a coffee and bun in the Costa. I made the mistake of wearing a pair of boots with a small heel and so my knee was very painful by the time I got back home again and I paid the price for trying to look a bit more elegant than my usual flat shoes. Vanity thy name is woman! My knee is still sore I just hope that It clears up before the weekend.

I had a compliment yesterday when a guy who lives in the Isle of Man contacted me on Yahoo and said "Is this you?" He had the link to the web cam photo that I took of myself knitting naked that he found on the Naked Knitting web site. I said yes it is and he said I was bloody gorgeous! Wow what a good way to start the day eh? I told him to buy a calendar so he could have me on his wall and he said I would rather have you!

Tuesday I looked after my next door neighbour's dogs,after my osteo appointment, as Sky News was coming to film and interview Julie about her ovarian cancer and her misdiagnosis. I didn't see it on Sky News as it was broadcast at 6am long before I was up out of bed but it can still be seen online if you go into Sky News and type in Ovarian cancer. It is under the heading of 80%.

On Tuesday I also got delivery of my new baby patterns. They came from a lady called Kay and she gave very prompt delivery as I only ordered them late on Sunday evening. As you can't actually see any of the baby cardigans in my photo I will put the link to her web site in my blog title. At £2 a pattern I think they are well worth the money. She also does online PDF's to save on the postage but I do like a proper pattern to work from.

On Monday the Bolton Knitting Noras were featured in the Manchester Evening News. I can't post a link to that as the paper didn't put us on their online web pages.

I went to the Kings Arms Knit Club on Monday night and had a good evening. I got chatting to a guy at the bar who turned out to be a reporter for the M.E.N. You never know who you are chatting to in a pub do you? I told him I had been mentioned in the article and he said he would look it up when he got hack in work on Tuesday. I said look for the bit about being the oldest model and he laughed and said but did it say a glamorous older model? Perhaps I should have removed his beer goggles.

Knit wise I am still ploughing on with my 4ply baby cardigans.Very slowly so I have started a cream baby blanket in crochet as this knitting malarky is driving me mad. I am so looking forward to starting the new baby crochet patterns but I must make myself finish this knitting first.

Hopefully I will be back to blogging as normal although I really do feel under the weather. Yesterday every bone in my body ached. I don't have any flu symptoms so it's not swine flu. I think it's just my arthritis reaction to all this wet weather.