Ravelry forum

I had a great surprise at the weekend when I was invited to join the Crochet Designers forum on Ravelry. I feel very honoured as I have not done any real designing for a while. I have adapted several patterns to make them my style lately but that is not what I would call real designing. I seem to be incapable of following instructions to the letter. I read things, do them as the pattern says and then think hmm no - much better to do it this way. I have always had the ability to look at something and make a fair copy of it without any instructions but again I would not call that designing. I shall have to brush up my skills as I am now in the same group as Doris Chan! Gosh I do hope that she never reads my less than flattering comments about her pattern writing skills.

The sock is progressing slowly and I am now up to turning the heel. Last night I went to the King's Arms knitting club and was supposed to be showing Rachael how to make granny squares but she managed them all on her own and didn't need my help. I spent the evening making a few squares for the Oxfam maternal deaths blanket but as I gave them to the lady who is collecting them I don't have a photo. Rachael took some and promised to e mail me later with them. They may get added to this post later otherwise I will post them when I receive them.

I saw this blog today describing their visit to Woolfest
http://www.iknit.org.uk/iknitblog.html
it is from the shop I Knit London. If I ever get to London I must try and find this shop, even if I can't buy anything from it, just for the atmosphere alone. I had already browsed their Flickr site. My friend Charlie went down a couple of weeks ago and found the shop and she has had a burning urge to own one similar ever since. I want one of the badges that Gerald is wearing. I am a hooker !!

The ladies from Knitting Noras have suggested that we have club T shirts so that people can recognise us whilst we are out and about at things like Woolfest but I want a badge as well! My last chance to be a hooker? I am getting a little old for the basque and the fishnets so a crochet hooker is the best I can aim for at my time of life.

The sun is shining today and the grass is as high as an elephant's eye (well more like a small cat - poetic licence to pinch the phrase from the musical Oklahoma) so I think I had better wrestle my mower down the steps and put an hour or so in on the garden before I go into hospital.

If you are interested in unusual photos of Woolfest then check out one of the Noras Flickr site http://www.flickr.com/photos/eadaoinflynn/
Eadaoin has taken some lovely pics of sheep and rabbits as well as buttons, wool etc. She has also got some very unusual photos of Manchester on there taken as she walks around it. I have never seen any of these so have decided that I must walk around with my eyes tight shut.

Duck billed sockypuss

I managed to finish one sock. Well I think it's a sock. I can't try it on as it's the right foot and I have a strange toe on my right foot. To me it looks like half a twisted sock with a bunch of fat small bananas hanging off the end! I do hope that it fits my niece and that I have the willpower to make the second sock. If these had been for me (never in a million years!) I would have rippppped ages ago but a promise is a promise and so I will persevere. I think it's important to keep a promise, I hate it when people break them to me. If I don't keep a promise it's usually because I have forgotten that I have made it (sign of old age) and not because I have ducked out of it. If I get reminded of said promise then I carry it out as soon as I get reminded.

The stye on my eye is much better, hardly swollen at all but these last 2 days I have got hay fever and now both eyes and my nose are streaming. Not a pretty sight. I only suffer from hay fever for short periods usually at the start of Summer so let's hope that this is a sign that the Summer is here at last. My poor son has horrendous hay fever and suffers the whole Summer, He disappears behind sunglasses and has a hankie permanently attached to his hand. He used to drive for a living and this made it hard as a lot of medication cannot be taken by a driver. He has changed jobs so hopefully this year he can use stronger medication.

I started to crochet a small jacket for Charlie. I found a pattern with a relief treble stitch jacket style with a collar so hopefully it will look suitably boyish. I made myself put it down as I was getting far too happy crocheting last night when I knew I had a sock to finish. I will sock knit for a while tonight with the dangling carrot of treating myself to a bit of Charlie crocheting later.

The house is in need of a good tidy but the sun is shining so I think it's time to say blow the house I am off to my lounger in the garden for an hour or so. The dog is already out there sunbathing on the grass. He is a sun worshipper like most animals and always finds the sunniest spot to recline in. My late cat was the same wherever the sun streamed in you would find Ollie stretched out no matter how bizarre the place.

If you go down to the woods today

Blogger does not like my photos today so I will try to post them later.

If you go down to the woods today you might see scarier things than me! These have been carved by some chappie with a chain saw using the stumps of fallen or felled trees. The kids seem to love them but on a misty winter morning they can give quite a start to the unwary! Futher along they have made a felled tree into a dinasour,a stump into a throne and an owl which unfortunately someone has pushed over so he is a slightly leaning drunken owl.

The hat is my adaptation of a child's penguin hat.
http://home.howstuffworks.com/free-hat-knitting-patterns.htm
My son wore a penguin hat to a motor bike rally and is now forever associated with anything remotely penguin and his nickname is Pingu. I used chunky wool and 4.50mm needles to adapt it to fit an adult but I think I would use 5mm next time as it fits a little snug.

The sock knitting hasn't progressed much as I unpicked the purple sock last night as it was bit loose in the tension for my liking. Try as I might I battle with my tension on 5 needles and still knit slack so am starting afresh on a couple of sizes smaller needles. I have quite small feet so most sock patterns are a little large if I knit them exactly to the pattern. The smaller the needles then the better my tension is. The multi coloured socks are great on one size smaller than the pattern. I am now on the foot of the first sock. My knitting came to an abrupt halt last night when I slept the whole evening away on the sofa. I had put the central heating on for all the day and I have found out that being too warm and knitting don't equate in the same sentence with me. It's back to being a bit colder and knitting
from now on.

My son rang this morning with an order for another double sided knit peruvian hat (in subtle man colours) was his directive. I still have some grey random and some black left from the penguin hat so hopefully there will be enough for another helmet.I must remember to take a photo this time before I give the hat to my son.

Amber - you are so right.(see previous post) How could I forget Harry. it's just that Dolores is such a strong personality that she takes centre stage like a true Prima Donna. I connect to her on a personal level as years ago when I was on the CB radio my handle was "Woolly Jumper" and my keepsake was a sheep. I was never quite as debauched as Dolores although I have been known to get drunk, fall over and ladder a few fishnets in my time! I can always say that in my hey day I have lived my life!

Ever since I read the poem "Warning" by Jenny Joseph http://web.ukonline.co.uk/ruth.livingstone/parlour/warning.htm
I decided that I will live my life as I wish and never worry about tomorrow. If you read the poem you will understand where my love of purple comes from! I said to my son I wanted to be eccentric when I grow old and he said don't worry mother you are more than half way there already! He once said "You know it hasn't always been easy growing up with a dingbat for a mother"

Crochet yarns at a bargain price

I went into Dunelm to buy a new lasagne dish and came out with bargains galore but no dish! I was distracted by a whole pile of yarn marked down to 99p per 50gram ball. I could not, of course, being a true crocheter pass anything by that is a bargain. I snatched up 13 balls each of Coats Gedifra (50% linen) marked down from £3.95 in 2 shades of dusky pink and 16 balls of Jaeger Roma (15% angora) marked down from £4.95. They had a glittering aray of fancy yarns with lurex and furry bits but I refrained as my retired life style of dog walking and chores doesn't usually run to lurex garments. I already have far too many fancy garments unworn in my wardrobe so decided to stick with the practical yarns although on scrutinising the labels I find they recommend hand wash (bummer) for all of the yarn I purchased.

I started crocheting Gedifra to a DK pattern I already had but decided it had all the attraction of a dish cloth so I am going to browse my stitch pattern book and choose a more attractive denser stitch. I liked the chevron edging of the sweater I have chosen so I will leave the beginning and just change the main body stitch. I will post a pic when I decide on the chosen stitch. It will probably have to turn into something short sleeved instead of a regular sweater shape as the yarn does not seem to have a very good yardage. One ball did about 6" on a mostly treble (UK term) with filet spaces so a closer stitch will be maybe more like 4 - 5". I will work a sleeve next and see if half the yarn will be enough for that. I am getting quite an expert at unripping ( or frogging as the US bloggers call it)

My sock knitting leather belt arrived today from Jamiesons Shetland Wool site and I am really impressed with it. I had a trial run this morning and my speed has really picked up. For years I have never knitted anything using 4 or 5 needles as I have to knit with one needle firmly wedged under my right arm which as you can appreciate is not possible with short sock needles. I remembered my father telling me that when he was stationed in the Shetland Isles during the 2nd world war that ladies used to walk along the road knitting away with a Makkin ( a leather belt with a horsehair pad) with one needle firmly wedged in it. I found this amazing site http://www.shetland-wool-brokers.zetnet.co.uk/accs.htm and found out that the ladies of the Shetland Isles still use these belts on a regular basis for their wonderful fair isle knitted yokes and fisherman seamless jumpers. I ordered one and am now happily knitting away. Sock knitting rocks! Thanks to all the amazing free patterns on Knitty.com (and those lovely ladies with sock knitting blogs in the US - Sockapalooza sites etc) I will be wearing lovely lace patterned socks this winter. I never thought anything would tempt me away from my crochet but this has. It's so addictive!

Thanks to Freecycle I am now the proud owner of a lovely filing cabinet in beige and brown and once I find a web site that does cheap hanging files I will organise all my crochet and knit patterns into one space. No more hunting about the house for that certain pattern I crocheted in 1968! I organised the loft space last month. Retirement is turning me into an organised person instead of the hobo gypsy I usually resemble. They always say creative people are the messiest so that is my usual excuse for my crochet and knit corner in the living room that looks like an explosion when I am in one of my more frantic moods. I now have stacking wicker boxes so it is getting a little tidier when I am not working on anything. The filing cabinet will now house the spare needles etc once I drag out the sewing machine and make some rolls to organise my knit pins and crochet hooks. There are some marvelous ones on the Flikr site that make me think that with a little imagination and perhaps one of my unworn skirts or dresses I could make similar rolls for my needles to keep them together in pairs. One for metal. One for bamboo. One for sets of sock needles and one for crochet hooks. Gosh that's a lot of sewing, perhaps I had better buy a couple of metres of fabric from the market!