Progressing Slowly But Surely

As you can see the Lacy Duster coat is progressing slowly but surely. I have about another 10" to crochet. At the moment the bottom edge stitch is looking a little frilly but it will sort itself out after it has been blocked and hung on a hanger.

Charlie's new hooded jacket is also progressing slowly. The reason for the slowness is that I was at a Christening for most of the day yesterday.

My niece picked me up dressed in a summer dress and bolero type cardigan and was making fun of me dressed in my coat and my shawlette. After waiting outside the Church in the cold for a half hour before we could go into the church no-one was laughing at me then. The street that the Church is on has to be one of the coldest in my town as the sun never shines on the Church any more due to the planners allowing a multi storey apartment complex to be built right across the road from it. The street not only has no sunshine now it also is like standing in a wind tunnel. We all had to wait outside the Church for the Sunday Mass to finish before we could go in and it over ran.

Some guests at another baby's Christening were dressed in strapless flimsy dresses as if they were going to a Summer wedding and a few of their children were literally blue with the cold and shivering. Child abuse for the sake of fashion in my opinion. It wasn't a warm day even in the sun and to bring a child out without a cardigan or coat is just plain madness in my opinion. The Church wasn't that warm so they could not warm up once they finally got inside. I have been inside the Church several times for Weddings and Christenings and whilst it is a lovely Church it is always cold even in the middle of Summer.

Hopefully I will catch up with my knitting and crocheting tonight but now it's time for a warming cup of coffee and perhaps a sandwich for my lunch.

Passion for Fashion - Part Two

Once again not much to report on the crochet scene. I am still plodding on with the blue cardigan, that I dug out of stash, but I find the pattern very slow going and know why it got stashed in the first place! I am trying hard not to start something else that would be finished faster. Patience is a virtue so they say so maybe I can discover my inner virtue and finish it one day soon.

These blurry photos are the second half of the photos from one of my Christmas books - Passion for Fashion. The bolero is something that I might make but the crochet skirt is a big no no with my rotund figure! The corset belt isn't doing much to shape the slim model so I have no chance with that one either. The jacket I am not too keen on either nor the shoulder shawl. What the photo doesn't show is that it more a long shaped stole gathered at the neck so there must be a lot of bulk hidden around the back of that photo!

Today it is freezing cold again and misty. I am going to get a hot shower to warm up and then play chicken with the central heating. One reason I am not getting as much crochet done is that I try not to turn it back on again until at least the middle of the afternoon. I wrap up warmly but my fingers get so cold and I can't crochet in gloves. I do have a calor gas fire but as that tends to make me cough I only have it on low. I rue the day my ex husband removed all of the chimney breasts in the house as now it would be too expensive to install a gas fire again. I did make enquiries a while ago and my only option was not the one I wanted. The only outside wall that I have is in the dining room as my front room has a huge bay window.

Perhaps I should just start a bonfire in the back garden and dance around that to keep warm? I could go down into the woods with my trolley and gather all the fallen branches (the ones that the log stove burner people have missed). Nice thought but the clean air brigade would be banging on my doorstep as soon as the smoke started rising. My ex regularly used to set fire to garden rubbish and totally upset the neighbours when he lived here.

I spent all of last night uploading photos to Flickr and to Ravelry. I try to avoid Ravelry as much as possible otherwise I spend more hours looking and reading things than I do making anything.One New Year resolution is to set the timer when I go onto Ravelry!

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.