A Summers Day

This is more like it. I awoke to beautiful sunshine. I was up at 6am and I am so glad otherwise I might have missed some of this glorious day. Never mind the housework I have been sitting out in the sunshine most of the day. Underneath my parasol of course as I didn't want to get sun burned. My skin hasn't got acclimatised to the sun so far this year. I have still caught the sun today. I only have to look at the sun for 5 minutes and I go brown. My niece finds it strange that even though I don't actively sunbathe just by being outside in it  my skin gets a tan. I usually wear shorts and a vest top when the weather is nice so any tiny amount of sun seems to catch me. My late Mother used to call this way of getting a tan as weathering. My knees love the warmth. They have had a really good day

I have had my feet up and have been crocheting most of the day. The sun has now gone off the back garden so it's time to sit in the front room and enjoy the rest of the sunshine albeit through glass. I have been making some more  cardigans for the new foster baby. I should have at least one more to show you by tomorrow. I am using some James C Brett baby Marble DK that Sylvia bought from Bury market a couple of years ago. It was to be for her then new foster baby which was supposed to be a girl but when it arrived it was a boy. She told me to keep the yarn as one day it would come in useful. Now it has with the arrival of baby M.

This is a cardigan that I finished off yesterday. I used some white baby quicker knit that my friend Sue gave to me. I used a double knit pattern by Kay Jones Number 166. The cardigan was coming out a bit smaller than the pattern as the yarn was finer so I made the 2nd size instead of the first.

It is the first time that I have used this pattern but it was so quick and easy that I have no doubt that I will be using it again in the near future.

Today I had another little visitor. Poppy, the little dog from next door. When I am in the garden she often comes to visit me. This caused a bit of a problem though as my little black cat visitor decided to hop over the fence to see me too. Luckily the cat spotted Poppy and leapt back over the fence again. I have now found out little black cat's name. Her Dad was mowing the lawn so I asked him. She is called Lily. If she comes back tomorrow I now can call her by her name.

I was trying to sort out the mess of papers on my desk today. I have a habit of putting things that need to be dealt with on my desk, I only usually file away once a bill is paid. It's lucky that I did as I was convinced that my left knee scan was in the middle of July when in fact it is on Tuesday. Whew I might have missed that if I hadn't tidied up my desk today.

It's on days like this that I wish that I still had the small barbecue. I am not cleaning the big barbecue just for one small piece of chicken for my dinner. It's a waste of charcoal. I will put it in the oven instead. It's a shame that no-one in the neighbourhood has a barbecue going as I could have asked if I could pop my bit of chicken on theirs. Nothing like being cheeky is there ;-)  I haven't bothered giving the big barbecue a good clean this year as there hasn't been the weather for it.  I don't have a posh one. Just an open brick one that my ex built at the bottom of the garden and being open to the elements it gets very dirty over the winter. I bought a tiny portable one but left it outside and it all went rusty. There just hasn't been the nice weather to tempt me into buying another one. I would have to ask someone to get me one from the hardware store as it is too far away for me to go on my scooter. Local shops have almost disappeared with the advent of all these out of town DIY superstores.

 Today it has been lovely and peaceful in the garden. The only noise was the young children playing in the paddling pool but I don't mind that kind of noise. Luckily I was up early this morning as the local small boys decided on a noisy game of football on the street about 8.30am which didn't please the neighbours who were trying to have a Sunday morning lie in!

Time to put the chicken in the oven and see what delights are in store for me on the TV tonight. Hopefully I will have another baby jacket to show you tomorrow.

No Sweat Has The Wrong Name Today

I finally got around to taking photos of me wearing the No Sweat sweater from the Doris Chan Everyday Crochet book. On a day like this the sweater's name is wrong. Five minutes inside that sweater and I certainly had hit boiling point. The James C Brett Marble DK is quite thick for a double knit so the sweater has turned out quite a firm fabric. I will be glad of it's warmth once the weather turns colder.

See how it flatters my beautiful sylph like figure? I am joking of course. I tend not to look in mirrors these days because of the weight that I have gained so it still comes as quite a shock when I see photos of myself as my mental internal picture of myself is quite different. I only use small mirrors to do my hair and make up when I go out. I try to avoid the full length mirrors wherever possible.

This morning I switched on Facebook and was online at the same time as my internet friend Bev in the US. She was having a sleepless night so we had quite a nice chat. For her it was 2am but for me it was breakfast time. We have exchanged e mails for some time but it's still nice to have an interactive chat via the net. Technology still amazes me. It's not long ago that the only contact I had with people in another country was via airmail letters that took 4 or 5 days to get to their destination.

I have finished the back of Big Leg's aran cardigan and I think that I will press on knitting that before I start another machine knit cardigan for him. After the end of this week I think that it will be back to something for myself or make a start on my scarves and shawls for Christmas.

I had 2 e mails yesterday saying that Amazon has posted off two more of my pre ordered things. One is a book by Drew Emborsky and the other is the 2011 Crochet a day calendar which usually has some great gift ideas in it. I heard on the grapevine that this might be the last edition of the calendar so of course I had to buy it. You know what I am like for crochet patterns. I have got to the stage where I would describe myself as a crochet pattern addict. I could say crochet pattern collector as that sounds a bit less weird. Hopefully they will arrive soon and I will have something to put on the blog tomorrow and the day after to make up for the fact that I knit slowly and so the baby's aran cardigan won't grow that much over the next 2 days.

Today the sun is shining but it was like that yesterday before the rain lashed down. As I got up early ( well for me it was early) I did some washing and it is line drying at the moment. I do prefer to dry my clothes in the fresh air and also it is cheaper than constantly using the tumble dryer. I have to switch that on in the winter so in the summer time I try to economise.

I Love A Sunny Day

Isn't it great how a bit of sunshine can lift spirits. Yesterday was sunny and I have woken up this morning to another beautiful day so sorry housework you are on the back burner. I am going to sit outside and relish the last of this weather as it might be gone tomorrow. I should be cleaning windows and hoovering today but instead I may mow the lawn before settling down to my crochet in the sun. That way I will feel that at least I have done one chore today.

I have almost finished off the duplicate sweater and cardigan. The cardigan just needs stitching together before I crochet the edgings.

I have started a Blue Curacao shawl for my friend Jen but as the wool is very fine for the pattern I am going to have to make adaptions to the pattern to make it large enough. At the moment her shawl is turning out child sized. The pattern should be crocheted in an aran type thickness and the wool that Jen bought for me to use is more of a double knit. I can't tell you what the yarn is as it was one of those bargain packs from the Black Sheep that is sold without labels. They guy did say that it had been £10 a ball which considering it is a 25 gram ball I think is far too expensive and no wonder it finished up in a sale. I can't remember if he said it was alpaca or merino as I really do have brain fade these days. The wool is very loosely wound and is splitting like mad as I crochet so I can foresee a bit of swearing going on this weekend as I have to unravel part rows when I see a looped strand further back down the row. Plus the fact that I am going to have to try to work out how to extend the pattern to make the shawl large enough. I have done this once before but as per usual I didn't write down what I did! I am always getting in trouble on Ravelry when people ask me what I did and I can't tell them! Why is it that the more expensive a yarn is the looser it is wound? I never have any trouble crocheting or knitting the cheaper yarns but anything expensive is a bugger to work with.

I am glad that you liked my mother's granny square afghan. I had to laugh at Ailsa's (Mad about Craft - not enough time to craft) comment when she said she thought I had made it in an afternoon.Now that would be something to put on my list of achievements. Something like that would probably take me years. My largest granny square project was the Granny Takes a Trip jacket that I made for Lisa and that had 70 something squares and took me about 3 weeks to make.

Beansieleigh and Mattenylou have actually made afghans and not just thought about it as I have. I think Matttenylou's comments about starting off using stash then having to buy more wool and finishing up with more stash sounds like something that I would have to do. Whenever I do a stash busting project I never seem to make a dent in my stash. Maybe it's because I am the same and buy more colours to make my stash buster more interesting ;)

June thinks that crocheting could be hereditary. I agree in certain respects but in my case it was from my aunt that I gained my crocheting skills. I remember watching her turn out the most amazingly intricate mats, gloves for church and handkerchief edgings without ever using a pattern. My mother used to crochet sometimes but as she was a hand and machine knitter it was limired to edgings on garments. In fact she saved up enough money to buy our first wool shop by machine knitting socks and garments for people. My Dad even erected a huge shed in the back yard for her to knit away into the wee small hours and not disturb anyone. We even had a telecom system of a series of bells and buzzers installed in there to attract her attention. One bell meant one thing and the buzzer another. My mother had her own sweat shop out there recruiting my Dad and myself to knit the plain bits on one machine whilst she did the shaped bits on another. Pleated skirts were all the rage for little girls back then and my mother made literally hundreds of skirt and sweater sets. We made the main skirt pieces and she made the sweaters. I think she must have shod half of our small town with the thousands of socks she made. She even offered a re-footing service when the holes in the soles and heels became too many. She had a customer in Scotland with very large feet who used to order a dozen pairs every year. He only ever had them made in grey or in lovat so that he could match up socks when one sock got too holey. I wish I had kept those industrial machines, her sock machine and especially her overlocker, swift and electric ball and cone winder. I don't think that the neighbours or the planning authorities would like me putting a huge shed in the bottom on my garden though.

Well I am off to get dressed and enjoy this wonderful day. Happy Birthday to my friend Mike in the Isle of Man. He is 21 again today. I doubt that he reads my blog but just in case I hope that you have a good day Mike. Any man who regularly tells me that I am gorgeous deserves a good day in my opinion. Hey I have to take care of guys like these as men who give me compliments are a little thin on the ground these days!