I Lost A Morning

I have been sleeping very spasmodic of late. Going to bed and tossing and turning for hours or giving up on the sleep and getting back up again to make a milky drink. This, of course, means that I cat nap (against my will) during the day and evening. I have lost count of how many endings that I have missed after watching 90% of the programme. I have never been a good sleeper. Five or six hours sleep is what I call a good night's sleep.

However this morning I switched off the alarm, fell asleep again and woke up again just after 11am. Although I do feel slightly more refreshed than usual this afternoon I was like a zombie with a headache when I woke up. I am not used to lie ins. I cannot sleep for hours unless I am ill. I have this attitude that time spent sleeping is time wasted. It's my Mother's fault. She was always so busy that she makes me look positively idle in comparison. I was never allowed to lie in bed. I had to be up and if I wasn't doing my homework or reading something educational then I had to be occupied with knitting, sewing, crochet or housework. Even now I feel positively lazy if I just sit somewhere without my hands doing something, I can feel my late Mother's eyes watching me and know that she is tutting at me.  Even though I obviously needed the sleep this morning I am still annoyed at myself for wasting a whole morning!

Despite doing nothing craft wise today I did manage to finish off the Baby It's Cold Outside coat (or my version of it) last night. I used some cream brushed Patons Diana that I had in stash from a long time ago. I add more stitches to the sleeves as the pattern as it stand has more of a three quarter sleeve. I then added a shell border with some peach DK cotton and added some crocheted flowers. I made a little hat to match. I have fallen in love with this little coat and will make more like this in the future. I do love adapting patterns to suit my taste.

I think that the hat is maybe a bit large for the size of the jacket. My baby hats are a bit hit and miss as I never use a pattern. They either seem a bit on the small side or on the larger side I don't write down anything so even if one turns out the right size then I can't remember what I have done. I have even bought an exercise book to jot down my patterns but as yet there is nothing written in it.

I added little vintage pearl shirt buttons to the centre of each flower. The buttons came from my Mum's sewing box. I found them when I was sorting out my buttons. They are made of the old fashioned type of pearl which has that creamy look instead of white. the bow is cream although it does look rather white on the photo. The stems of the flowers are just about the limit of my embroidery skills these days. The jacket is for the new foster baby girl. I always think that these babies deserve something pretty after their poor start in life. I have no idea what this poor mite's circumstances are but there must be something amiss for her to finish up in the foster system straight after birth. At least with Sylvia they get well looked after and cared for as a baby deserves to be.

I am so pleased with the way that this jacket has turned out that I am going to try my own version, in a finer yarn, for my online store. This time I will write down what I am doing and try to make the hat the exact size of the jacket and write that down as well!

This afternoon I managed to peg  some washing on the line and do some food shopping for the weekend. I try not to shop on Saturdays or Sundays as my scooter does get in the way when the stores are crowded.  I arrived at Marks and Spencer just in time to see the ambulance people wheeling an old lady out on a stretcher. She must have had a fall as one shoe was on top of her blanket and she had a large piece of gauze taped to her chin. She looked cheerful enough on the way to the ambulance so hopefully it was nothing too serious. I have never had so many offers of help from the staff whilst I was shopping. Usually I struggle to reach things on the higher shelves. Perhaps they didn't want another fall on their records.

I have a lovely tea. I had some fish and a ready made salad which went down very well with a fresh bagel. Marks and Spencer food may be on the pricey side but it sure does taste good. I like to treat myself now and then.



Thankfully I have reached a point where I have most things that I need, yarn wise, button wise and trimming wise, for my baby things once this last yarn order arrives. Now perhaps I can concentrate on paying off what I have spent. I have got all the patterns that I need so it will just be a case of buying more yarn once this recent stash is used up.

Tonight I hope to resume some crochet. Hopefully after my long sleep I should stay awake whilst watching the TV this evening.

Back To The Knitting Again

I am back to my knitting so expect very slow progress for the next week or so. As I mentioned yesterday the colour pooling on Charlie's sweater was driving me mad so yesterday I unravelled the offending bit of brown (picture one) and by knitting from 2 balls of wool every alternate row came up with version two which although has a wide green splodge is better than it was before. Some people may say I am mad or a bit knit picky but that brown splodge would have driven me mad even though Charlie is under 18 months old and will probably decorate the front of his sweater with a lot more than a splodge. I am half way up the back of the sweater now but as I have also got to make one for Finlay I may be knitting for a while.

I went up the village to do a bit of food shopping for the first time since Christmas. I needed some bread mainly. I had a treat and called in to Marks and Spencers small food outlet and got a few things to tide me over until the New Year. Their food always looks so much fresher and more appetising than the cheaper stores. I could spend a fortune in there if my purse would let me. I limited myself to a few purchases but I did buy some lovely red apples which although they work out at 50p each they are delicious.I would eat a lot more fruit if I could afford to buy tip top fruit all of the time. Supermarket apples and bananas just don't hold the same thrill for me as bunches of fresh grapes, nectarines, blueberries, raspberries and peaches. When I was working I would spend several pounds on fresh fruit every week. That is one thing that I do miss now that I am on a budget.I do have fruit in my bowl but it doesn't really tempt me to eat it. I bought some satsumas in the supermarket before Christmas and they were sour and dry and the apples were tasteless.

Not much to report except that it is raining again here in Manchester. At least when I went shopping most of the ice has now melted so I was able to walk without fear of slipping.