The Amaryllis Is Blooming

The amaryllis is blooming. Yesterday evening when I was washing the dishes I noticed that the flowers were starting to open. It was funny really. The plant must like the dark as every time I went into the kitchen during the course of the evening to make a drink of coffee it had opened a bit more. This morning it looked like this photo. It is a really delicate colour but pretty never the less. I had it in my head that it would be a darker colour but obviously they come in all colours.

I have finished one sock. It looks rather a funny shape but as you can see my ankle must be a very funny shape as the sock fits really well. I can't stand socks with tight tops or long legs as they irritate my eczema and if they are shop bought socks the elastic leaves ridges around my swollen ankles. The pattern is very slow going but I must admit that there is something mesmeric about crocheting round and round with the same stitch that I have found very soothing.The sock did feel very comfy when I tried it on so I think they will be a hit with me. the only problem is the wool was a ball that I bought some time ago and had part knitted into a sock. The label is missing so I can't buy another ball even if I wanted to. I think that it was sold as a 4ply but is is very fine and is working up more of a 3ply.

I hope that the weather clears up as I have put in an food order online to Tesco and the delivery date is Thursday. The snow seems to be clearing slightly although it did try to snow again yesterday but only a very light sprinkling. I decided that it was worth the £4.50p delivery cost as I need quite a few heavy items like washing powder, comfort, cordials and soft drinks as well as some tins of soup which I would have found hard to drag home through the snow with my trolley and I can't ask my neighbours (who are also walking) to carry heavy items home for me. It would have cost me as much to get a taxi to and from Tesco so why not have it delivered.

Pixie Boots and Crochet Hooks

I will feel like a pixie or a leprechaun skipping off to bed wearing these. The pattern is a very ancient one of my mother's and as the company has been out of existence for at least 30 yrs (the pattern is even older) then I am sure I can't get into trouble for sharing it with you. Just to be on the safe side I won't name the company!

The only thing I will point out is that you have to be very careful with the seaming as it is up the middle of the sole and up the back ankle so I take care to make the seam as flat as possible.

This pair took 100 grams of chunky but it may take a bit more if you use pure wool.
1 pair size 5mm needles (although you may need to use 5.50mm as I am a bit of a loose knitter with tiny feet)

Cast on 69 sts and working in stocking stitch increase at each end of 3rd and every alternate row to 77sts ending with a purl row.
Next row K35, slip a stitch, K 2 tog, and then pass the slip st over them, K1, K 3 tog, knit to end,
Next and every alternate row - Purl
Next row K 33, slip 1, K 2 tog then pass slip stitch over them, K1, K 3 tog, knit to end.
Continue in this manner decreasing 4 sts on alternate rows as set until 41 sis remain ending with a purl row.

Eyelet row *K2, wf, K 2 tog* repeat all across to last st K1.

Work 5 rows in K1 P1 rib and cast off in rib.

Stitch back and sole seam together carefully as flat as you can and thread ribbon, chain or twisted cord through holes.

You can make them for a child by using finer wool and finer needles.

Today I got my order from Purplelinda. Big Yeah for the postman who trudged through 6" of snow to deliver it to me. Not an easy task when, like me, he has bad knees and limps even on a good day. I ordered it last week but due to adverse weather conditions I did expect it to be delayed and Linda sent me an e mail to explain this to me. It's so nice when people take the time to keep people up to date with their orders.

We have all ordered from firms who don't give a damn so it's nice when some firms do care about the customer. I have always found Purplelinda and Kay's crochet to be very prompt and efficient.

As I am in my sock and slipper mood and also in my stash reducing mood I was pleased to get these two patterns for crochet socks and slippers. You can crochet Socks 1457 is by Kim Kotary and s published by the American School of Needlework. The Slippers by the Dozen 879531 is published by Annie's Attic and has some lovely funky slippers in it that are sure to be made up very soon. If you are in the UK you can, of course, buy them from Purplelinda and I have included her web page in my blog title.

I ordered a set of acrylic crochet hooks as I quite like working with them. They are lightweight and easy to use. They do have slight drawback with some acrylic yarns as I do get a squeaking effect when I am crocheting. I bought them for a special sale price of £9.99 for the set which I think is excellent value.

I have started another knitted pair of house slippers and will finish these off before I start on any of the socks or slippers but I must admit that my fingers are itching for a bit of crochet. Watch this space and see if I get tempted before I finish off my knitting!

My niece has just kindly been shopping for me so I am supplied with bread, milk, eggs and mince so I will be OK for food for another few days.I still have my corned beef hash for today and so will make a chilli with the mince as I have a bag of rice. Roll on the thaw. I am going slightly stir crazy as I haven't been out for almost 2 weeks. My niece says that it is extremely slippy underfoot and I am to stay put until the thaw. Thank goodness my mother trained me well to always have a well stocked larder for such emergencies. I will have to do a lot of restocking once the thaw comes.

I love my socks

My crochet socks are finally finished. I only went wrong about a hundred times but I are not thinking about that now just concentrating on the finally finished pair. I must say I am quite impressed with them not only for the speed that they crocheted up in but also the fit. I love the way that I could keep trying them on and make modifications as I went along a thing I haven't yet mastered with knitted socks as it's a little difficult to try them on when they are on 5 needles!( I can't knit on circular needles I can't do with all that waggling about - it slows me down to a snail's pace)

The pattern for the crochet socks came from one of my new books Crocheted Socks by Janet Rehfeldt and Mary Jane Wood (Amazon books). The wool was a gift from Vicky and I think it is Russian wool that she bought from E-Bay. The socks felt a little chunky and harsh on the hook but on my foot they don't feel much different to any other knitted sock which to be honest I can always feel the purl ridges under my feet it's just something that I have got used to.

I have shown a pair of my initial attempts at knitted sock making before I mastered my tension technique with the aid of a knitting belt. These are Jaywalker socks which was a free pattern from Knitty.com if my memory serves me right. I knitted them in Opal Elemental but if you look closely you will see that I got a faulty ball and the colour is wrong in one of the stripes plus there is a huge chunk of pale green on one heel where the wool lost it's multi colouring and went into plain. I knit from the centre of the ball so didn't notice until the heel was finished. I had to cut out and bin a sizeable ball that was the same plain colour otherwise half of the foot would have been plain pale green but luckily as I have very small feet I still had enough to finish pair. They were loose and baggy when I fnished them but after an accidental meeting with my washing machine now fit fine! The Jaywalker is still one of my favourite patterns as I think the zig zag stitch works so well with stripey wool.

Buster had to get in the act of course and is giving me that "Why are you taking stupid photos of socks when it's time for my walk" face.

I went into my local charity shop as I am ever hopeful of finding a yarn or knitting book bargain but of course there was nothing in there. No call for it they say! I did however find a pair of rejected Christmas present thermal gloves still with the label attached for £1.25 so my visit was not all lost. I ruin pair after pair of gloves throwing sticks for the dog.

I got some good news last night. My builder rang and said he is starting my new garage roof and doors on Monday. To be fair he did attempt to come 6 months ago but my son still had his wooden jeep (built from a kit) stored in the old garage so he couldn't exactly work around it. Since losing my time slot I had to wait until he had another slot for me. His usual work is big contract work so my small jobs is something he slots in between these big jobs. It will be nice to have some dry, secure storage space to keep the lawnmower and tools plus I would like a table in there so that I can use it for planting my vegetables into pots as I cannot bend and find that bit so so difficult. I think that is one reason why I wasn't succesful last year as I kept putting the re-potting off because of back pain. My house fund will have dwindled to almost nothing after he has finished the work but it all adds to the value of the house if I have to sell up. Apparently a garage is one of the best selling points of a house along with kitchen and bathroom. I can't afford a new kitchen but I had a new bathroom last year.

Here we go unravelling again

I am officially the queen of unravelling. No photos of the finished crochet socks because they are not finished! I have gone drastically wrong with the second sock so will have to unravel it back to the heel shaping.

I went to the Knit Out of the Knitting Noras today (Thanks for the lift Vicky) and was crocheting my sock there. I know I was doing a lot of chatting but I can't blame my mistake on that. I think I started off with too many double crochets when I picked up along the heel and so it took far more rows to decrease down to the right amount. The first sock looks sock shaped but the second one looked more funnel shaped.I still prefer the look and feel of knitted socks but as I put my toe through yet another pair of socks on this morning's dog walk I need more crochet socks merely because they are far quicker to make. Even quicker if I don't go wrong!

Once I have finished the socks I am starting to knit some soaker longies for one of the Noras. Linda has the most adorable baby who sits and chuckles all through the Knit Out. The baby wears cloth diapers and bought trousers don't have enough rise in the bottom to go over the bump so Linda has found this pattern that is shaped to accomodate the extra thickness. Linda has dyed some multi coloured wool so they should make interesting pants.

The Knitting Noras had brought knitted things for the garden for International Womens Week. Vicky has knitted a fairy amongst other things, there was a beehive, a frog and a rabbit. Lisa has already been given lots of other vegetables and flowers and along with her helpers has the task of joining the knitted squares together to form the garden. I should be quite a garden when it is finished and hopefully there will be photos.

I am off to bite the bullet and unravel part of the second sock. I am not saying I will take a photo of the finished socks as I doubt they will be finished tonight.
Maybe by Tuesday?

Update - memo to self when it says on the pattern decrease 2 tog twice it does not mean do it once !

Crochet socks - so quick to make

Yes I know they are not as attractive as knitted socks (but as I have been limping my way along with a knitted pair for ages and have not even got to the heel yet) I am so impressed with the speed at which they crochet. The reason for the part finished socks is not to avoid the second sock syndrome it's that I have an awful feeling that I may have to finish up with blue or lemon toes as crochet seems to gobble up the wool at a rate of knots and my ball is rapidly disappearing. I didn't want to have to unravel as I have been doing an awful lot of that lately so decided to stop the first sock and start the second and at least get them to the same point before I have to change colour. For the observant who may have noticed that one sock is slightly larger than the other it's because I could not resist trying one on after I did the heel just to check the fit was OK. I love the heel stitch if you can see it in the close up. I had to double crochet every alternate stitch 2 rows down and it not only forms a mock ribbing look it makes a doubled thickness for wear at the heels. I must waggle my feet about inside my boots when I walk because all of my socks wear out underneath my heel and not on the re-enforced heel part. My mother used to knit socks on her circular sock knitting machine many years ago and she always ran cotton or nylon thread along with the wool at heels and toes for extra wear. I don't know if this was her own idea back then as none of the old patterns mention it but I have noticed that on some sock knitters blogs people mention doing this.

I don't know why I still do my big chores on a Saturday. I think it is years of having to do chores at the weekend because I worked full time. Since I retired 2 years ago I still carry on with the routine even though I have all the week to do it now. Old habits die hard I suppose. I used to work on Saturdays when I had the shop but it was an early close day so I used to wash the bedding before I went to work and then call for my weekly shop on the way home, then start cleaning when I got home. My ex husband always watched or played football on Saturdays so he was never home much before 6-7pm. My son used to disappear at dawn on his bike and I was lucky if I saw him at all! When I stopped working Saturdays and got divorced I still kept this routine up and still do in retirement when there is only me to please!

I got a letter from the hospital yesterday confirming I am on the waiting list for my operation and although it stated that the maximum wait was 20 weeks it gave me no idea whether it could be before that. I know I am not on the next 6 weeks list as I was told that when I rang about stopping taking tablets etc before the op. This letter also gives me a list of what tablets I can and can't take. I cannot take my anti inflammatory pills for 10 days before which could be a bit painful. I am a bit concerned with the bit that says I have to be free of acne, dermatitis, eczema and psoriasis in the operation area. Anyone who suffers from any of these things knows how hard it is to stay clear all of the time. I guess I will have to be extra vigilant about applying my creams (or oinkments as my son used to call them) and pray I don't have a flare up of eczema at the top of my builder's bum as I am prone to. I will take a list of my prescription drugs when I go to the pre- op just to make sure what I have to stop taking. I have already stopped taking my HRT as that has to be stopped 6 weeks before so if I suddenly start getting mood swings and wrinkles then I can blame it on that! I have had a really bad headache ever since I stopped taking them but I doubt if that has anything to do with it.

I am off to Tesco now. I got £8 in vouchers so I can buy my hair dye this week. My friend Caroline is coming next week to cover up the dark roots once again. Surely I should be going grey or white by now? I have got white streaks over each ear so at least the re growth doesn't show there but the top is as dark a brown as it ever was! I may try to knit another of the Carrie tops before she comes as I still have wool left. There are larger sizes on the pattern so perhaps if I knit her a huge size it will come out big enough for her. I don't want to use the 10mm needles as recommended on the pattern to make it larger as the texture was loose enough on the 8mm I used. I think it would flop and drop after washing using larger needles. I like knitting/crochet to have a reasonable amount of body to it.