Crochet Hat and Scarf Set

I finished off the hat and scarf set made from oddments of Rowan RYC Lux. I have made the hat on the small side although it will just about fit me as a beanie as I thought that the colours would appeal more to a child or young teenager.It is destined for the Knitting Noras calendar fund raffles. I found the medallion stitch in my pattern stitch book and thought that it would make a nice change from stripes.

Last night I was playing around with bits of wool to make crochet bookmarks but I think really that fine crochet cotton would be the best thing to make them with. I don't have any of that and don't feel like a trip to a wool shop that sells it so I will just have to manage with the scraps of wool that I have. I will carry making them until I think of something else to make. I will put photos of the finished ones on the blog tomorrow. I keep thinking of small items that would not be too expensive to sell and yet would appeal to people.A lot of the things I think of would be better knitted and I am more of a crocheter especially when quantity is needed.

Today I haven't done any crochet as I have attempted to mow the lawn and then Julie, my next door neighbour, came into my garden and cut my side of the hedge. Both of these chores left me with piles of clippings to shovel up and that took me some time as my back and knee are still not up to too much bending. Poppy, one of the dogs from next door, was determined to come into my garden and house and spent all of the afternoon digging a pathway through the hedge. She had such a triumphant look on her face when she managed it. Julie now has a garden with skirting boards all around it in an attempt to keep her in. She said that she felt like such a bad parent that her dog wanted to be with me instead of her. I think it was more a case of Poppy found the waste paper basket of Buster's squeaky balls the first time she came through and that was the novelty drawing her back again.

Some of the Knitting Noras are attending a Craft Fair tomorrow afternoon at Smithills in Bolton. They will be teaching anyone who wants to knit and of course spreading the word about the Calendar to all and sundry.

Some of the Noras appeared in print in the Bolton Evening News

http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/Launch.aspx?referral=other&pnum=&ref\
resh=jJ178dP0E1c6&EID=5ffe4484-f7ff-49cf-b280-88ca95c05fb1&skip=true

You have to go to the bottom of the page that first appears and then click on the next button (not the next button in the middle) to read it. It is promoting the fact that we will be on BBC TV

Time for tea now and then perhaps a bath before settling down to my crochet. I am looking forward to the Farmers Market tomorrow to stock up on loads of fresh goodies.

Crocheting the squares together

I have started crocheting the squares together for the Breast Cancer shawl. I am finding it hard to get them in the right order as my table is circular and not big enough to spread them all out in the right colour sequence. I only hope that I don't put any of the squares in the wrong order and have to unpick them all again! I will put a few rows of pattern around the edge and then put a fringe on if I can find some more matching white double knit in my stash. White and black are the worst colours to match up. Not a lot of people realize how many shades of white and black that there are.

Vicky's shawl is now spread out on the spare bedroom bed and I will try to crochet the squares together later if there is nothing on the TV that I want to watch tonight. I don't have a TV upstairs so I can't watch and crochet whilst in the bedroom.

I am making a crochet hat and scarf in the pink. I have done the hat and about half of the scarf. I was thinking of finishing my projects with this set but then I found a pattern on Ravelry for a seamless knitted Willy Warmer and thought that it might be a good idea to include something to make the guys smile and the women buy more tickets to get a silly prize to give to their men. Anything really just to get more people to buy more raffle tickets. As the lady whose site I found the pattern on says - it's crucial to get the size right as men are very touchy about this subject and their egos get bruised very easily. Perhaps if I dredge up my memories (well it has been a long time!) and guess the size and just hope that the men I have dated in the past weren't lacking in that department. I can hardly ask anyone to stand still and be measured can I? I think I will just err on the larger side of what the Internet says is the average size.

Today it has rained hard all day and the plastic has blown off the logs so I am afraid that Caroline's attempts to keep the logs dry hasn't worked as by the time I realized the bags had blown off the logs were already wet through.

I am watching yet another re run of Midsommer Murders and trying to finish off the shawl tonight. I hope that i can get the prizes down to the Kings Arms before the 24th for the raffle as I am not going to the Knit Out on public transport, after dark, especially in the rain. I will perhaps try to meet up with Rachael during the day and give her what I have made.

To frog or not to frog - that is the question

Frogging to me conjures up pictures of my youth when my friends and I would slop merrily along in our overly large (you'll grow into them) Compo style wellies armed with a fishing net and a jam jar into the fields to the local ponds. We would then proceed to deprive Momma Frog of her frog spawn and take them home and then on to school to watch the evolution of nature. We always kept our frog spawn in a fish tank on the window bottom at school and every day we had to search (and draw) for any changes in the tank, The poor little beggars used to be poked and prodded on a daily basis and always managed to make the final stage of turning into frogs over the weekend and so annoy the school caretaker and scare the cleaners half to death as there was always a few Houdini frogs that managed to escape the tank and make a bid for freedom.

Anyway I digress as per usual. I was searching through my stash and found a half made jacket in mohair that I had started many moons ago for a friend who after I had knitted the back and 2 fronts told me that she was allergic to mohair. She didn't know I had been making her a jacket as a surprise present so I just left it as it was. Too small for me to finish for myself I decided last night to re-use the wool. Thoughts came into my mind as to why the Americans and increasingly the Brits have started using the word frogging to describe the process. I looked in the dictionary and frog still has the same meaning as I remember it. An amphibian creature or an ornamental fastening. So why do we frog wool? I then looked up my word - unravelling and that meaning hadn't changed either. To undo or ravel knitted fabric separating tangled threads. Unravelling is a wonderful word it describes the action of parting the superglued together strands of mohair with loving care. I will leave frogging to Kermit and from now on I will unravel!

I started using the unravelled mohair for the crocheted bolero that I was toying with the idea of using the purple wool for. I thought a 6.50mm hook would be too large for double knit but on starting the pattern with the mohair I realise why they have used a large hook. The pattern stitch is really closely worked as it is mostly double crochet and half trebles. I worked about an inch or so of it last night whilst watching a programme about a couple who had 12 kids.Lovely kids but rather them than me. The father was a real hippy type when the going got tough he would take to the hills and play this wooden hurdy gurdy instrument and at one stage I thought his wife was going to chop it up! She kept saying how can he go off and make that awful noise when there are so many chores left undone. That's a man for you! I wasn't too keen on the bit where they emptied the septic tank. I was eating my supper at the time!

The hat is something I made up from left over wool from a couple of previous hats. Not enough of each colour to make a hat I decided to combine them to make a dog walking hat. The pattern is one of my own and it kind of twists when its on so the "cables" don't lie straight. I quite like the style though and may make it again one day in a nice yarn. I need to make it a bit shorter though as it falls over my eyes. All of my hats do that. I must be lacking in brains to fill up my head and make it the same size as everyone elses.

I'm so busy, oh so busy

The title should be sung to the tune of I'm so pretty from West Side story. My niece took me to Ramsbottom this morning to Clark's Crafts. Rammy was more than busy and we had a real problem parking as the Santa Special train was running so I can imagine a lot of the car spaces were taken up by doting parents or grand parents of bright eyed youngsters who were looking out for Santa. I hope they managed a glimpse of him.

My stash is as follows 4 colours of Sirdar 4ply (black, grey,brown and beige) for a Kilim crochet cap from Vogue Knitting book - Crochet Hats. I will make a matching scarf from the wool that will be left over from the cap. This is for my niece Vicky as she wanted one after she saw the one I made up a few weeks ago for myself. The Sirdar Blur with Kid Mohair will be for a lacy small scarf for my sister in law. Knit or crochet as yet undecided - depends on the time factor. The Sirdar Bonus DK in the purplish heathery colour is for a crochet wrap over jacket from the Fabulous Flirty Crochet for my niece Kath and the Sirdar Bonus DK in the green fleck is for a hiking hat for Kath's husband to be. The Sirdar crochet scarf pattern is my niece's that she left with me - I think maybe as a hint? It is done with doubled double knit with a 6.00mm hook so will be made in a flash so she might, just might, get one in time for Christmas.

I had better stop blogging and start knitting and crocheting but first I have Buster to walk, the hoover to push and the washer to fill. Woman's work is never done especially at Christmas time! or should I just say sod the housework ( as I usually do) and get straight to the needles?