One gift finished - another one started

Not much blogging but I am still knitting and crocheting. I have finished the gauntlet mittens for my daughter in law. They are from Sirdar Country Style 4ply with a little fair isle made from a ball of Opal Sock yarn. The pattern is from Boutique Knits by Laura Irwin. I changed the pattern slightly by adding some double crochet to make a thumb. The pattern just has a slit left in the side seam but I thought that would not be warm enough so added a thumb.

Last night I went to the Kings Arms knitting club with Charlie. Hopefully she is feeling a bit better now and just in time for Christmas It was lovely to be back there. We had such a laugh with Rachael and Sarah making pretend beards with some white tinsel. It doesn't sound funny but I promise you that you had to be there and it was really funny.

I have started a hooded jacket for baby Charlie for his Christmas present and have done a few more rows on the red Cinnabar jacket.

Yesterday I went up to Bury to see the BEATS exercise guy and so should be starting back at water aerobics in the New Year. I did a bit more Christmas shopping and I think I only have 2 presents left to buy now. Still got plenty more knitting and crochet to do but thankfully I have left all the hats, mitts, gloves and possibly scarves until the last.

My old car has finally gone from my driveway. My son came with a couple of friends and took it away tonight. It has been parked up since the end of April but it started first time with a set of jump leads. It looked very battered but it was a really reliable car. I hope that the new owner has many more years from it. It will feel funny having an unrestricted view out of my front room window. One of my neighbours who has been here longer than me moved away today. Another of the older ones gone. This street has changed greatly over the last couple of years. The residents are all getting younger and we are having a new generation of babies in the street.

Short n Sweet shrug once again

This is my latest version of the Short n Sweet Shrug by Angela 'La Vonne' Best in the Stitch n Bitch book The Happy Hooker. It is beautifully modelled by Perran, Vicky's daughter, and was made in honour of her 7th birthday. I had taken some photos of the shrug but decided to wait for the better photos taken by Vicky before posting on my blog. It is made in a double knit cotton that I bought from Lidl. Although it was economically priced I have found that my garments have washed well and will certainly buy it again if Lidl ever has it on offer again. I had to adapt the pattern slightly to scale it to Perran's size as the pattern starts at size 27" but then the next size is 36".

I started my niece Vicky's sock last night and after 8 rows I fell asleep so my Knit Picks were not smokin last night! It must have been the excitement of my last trip to Tesco in my car. I decided to take it for a final spin before I SORN it today. I guess the excitement was too much for me as I fell asleep shortly after I returned home.

Today I went to water aerobics there was a very strange smell in there (no it wasn't us honestly) and it caught at the back of my throat. A lot of the ladies were coughing and a couple had to leave before the end of the lesson. My throat feels a little scratchy now. They must have been using something chemical somewhere in the centre and the smell was drifting around.

I snagged another bargain in the charity shop on the way home (photos later) I found a bag of Purple wool and one of Lilac so I was over the moon. It has no labels but I presume it is double knit acrylic, I also got a bag of white flecked baby yarn. More details later when I count up and weigh my stash. I found it very hard walking to the tram for aerobics today as my back has still not recovered from Monday. I have written an e mail to the hospital saying that I have gone worse and can they tell me when my op date is.

I need to walk the dog but first it's coffee time and feet up with my sock knitting for an hour whilst I watch 60 min makeover and see what the team are doing to someone's house today. I will try to finish off Perran's shawl tonight. I have the edging still to do. I might wait for Vicky's superior photos to post on the blog once it is finished.

Almost back to normal

Caroline came around 4pm and painted the ceiling for me and put the main pieces of furniture back in the lounge. I will put the remaining ornaments and bits and bats back tomorrow. I am almost back to normal. I will have this room to tidy up after I finally move out all the stuff that you saw from the photos was higgeldy piggeldy all over the room. Some things are not going back into the lounge I have decided. The knitting baskets have to go back of course.

I went to water aerobics today but the water was extremely cold due to some boiler malfunction at the Leisure Centre. My instructor said she thought it would be too cold for me but as I was there and in my swimsuit standing by the side of the pool I decided to do the class. I am suffering for it now and in a lot of pain. Why do I never listen to advice? Even though I was exercising the water was way too cold for my back and it is extremely painful tonight. I could not even help carry the things back through to the lounge. Some days I feel so useless. If I don't get this operation soon I think I will go mad. Constant pain makes me very weary but this extreme pain makes me just want to sit and howl.

The photos today are of a cotton sun hat that I knitted for Anna a couple of weeks ago and could not post until her mum had seen it. I knitted it from 100 grams of double knit cotton and the pattern is a free one except that the embossed leaf stitch used is from the Sensational sock book which is a bit awkward if you don't have that particular book. Any lace pattern would do though if it fitted in with the number of stitches. This is the link

http://alison.knitsmiths.us/pattern_emli_bonnet.html

I don't think there will be any progress on the black cardigan tonight as I doubt if I can crochet comfortably. Tomorrow is another day. Today was Victoria's birthday but her sweater is barely started. She knows that it won't be ready and as soon as I get stuck into it then it will not take me long, I will finish her sister's cardigan first as I have only the belt, pockets and cuffs to do plus all the stitching up of course.

Caroline is going to Primark tomorrow to see if they have any suitable cushion covers and a throw for me. Her taste isn't always mine so this should be interesting. Never mind a change is a good as a rest so they say and I can always go back to the cream covers if all else fails.

Anna's soakers finished

The second pair of soakers for Anna got finished tonight, It's funny but I was running out of wool and knitting faster and faster the smaller the ball got! Have you ever done that? It's like I am trying to race the end of the yarn. Silly really. I decided to put a heart on the back of the trousers and started to knit it in fair Isle and then realised that I was knitting in the round and the end of the yarn would always be at the wrong end for the next row Duh! I abandoned that idea and finished up swiss darning the heart. It hs worked out a bit thick really but maybe it will have extra soaking abilities in that area. I finished up with less than a metre of both colours left. That is what I call cutting it fine. I put a crochet edging on this pair to try to make it girly.

Anna's mum sent me the link to this web site The New Lanark online shop
http://www.newlanarkshop.co.uk/shop.php
The pure wool is very reasonably priced and she has ordered some wool for Anna's soakers so I will let you know what the quality is like. It looks very nice on the photos.

I went to water aerobics today but I was a bit late and so missed having my photo taken for the local newspaper. We were all wearing our red socks in aid of Sports Aid. The instructor said she wanted me to be on the photo as I am on the poster and leaflets advertising BEATS. I said well I was on a photo in the paper with the Mayoress of Bolton a couple of weeks ago so I can't hog all the limelight can I? ;)

I enjoyed the aerobics much more now that I have given up the other exercise class. My back is back to it's normal pain level so I am a happy bunny once more.

Kaffe Fassett Book

Thursday eve

A very dear friend of mine called today (a truly gorgeous man and if his wife ever doesn't want him I will be in there like a shot drooling!) and brought me a book he had seen in a second hand shop and thought of me. It is originally from 1985 but still very wearable designs. The sweater is great but I think I would have to take the top of the cardigan sleeves off and knit them fitted although I have seen in fashion magazines that those leg o mutton sleeves are back in. The coat is just so gorgeous but such a lot of work and unfortunately wouldn't really fit in with my life style of dog walking and trips to Tesco. I saw Kaffe at a trade show many years ago but unfortunately didn't get the chance to speak to him. His designs are like painting with wool. The book is filled with wonderfully colourful designs under the headings of Diamonds, Stripes, Zigzags, Stars, Circles and Flowers.

It brings back memories of the picture sweaters I knitted many years ago. My son used to walk around with Goofy, Donald Duck etc emblazoned on his chest. ( he was in his late teens but as he was 6' tall and over 18 stones no one dared to smirk at his jumpers) I still have a lemon sweater of his with Pluto on it (although it is rather felted with age) that I have been known to still wear. I still have a large collection of children's knitting patterns with cartoon figures on the front plus a book where they are all teddy bear fronted sweaters (with wobbling eyes) in various disguises such as ballerinas and gymnasts.

I managed to rise from my bed at a reasonable hour today and go to water aerobics. I feel much better for it. Not so lethargic, but that could be partly from my raging hormones when my friend called (down girl, put your tongue away and stop drooling!) I called in Dunelm after the Leisure Centre and bought a plastic 4 drawer unit that was on Sale to put some of my craft (messy) corner projects in to make some attempt to stay tidy. Trust me to have fly away shower hair, casual gym sweats, wool and patterns scattered around when the first gorgeous man to cross my threshold in a long time comes to visit. Life is so unfair. Being a well trained married man he said I looked just as beautiful as ever. Sigh- so untrue but what a lovely man. My ex husband was never that tactful. He would have said - you look scruffy go and do something with your hair and change. Probably one of the reasons he is a ex husband.

Not much knitting done today. I am now on the front of Kath's black ribbed sweater and have almost finished the main part of Kacey's Upside Down Daisy hat. I need to knit the stalk and make 6 petals so maybe tomorrow it will get finished. I always make the bigger girl's first so the second one knits up faster.

15 minutes of fame (part two)

Update on my 15 mins of fame ( see previous blogs) my water aerobics instructress today presented me with one of the "hard to get a hold of " leaflets. The leisure centre probably didn't do a re-print in case my face scared the kids! If anyone is following this blog and sees the above photo and laughs - well all I can say is I am glad I amused your day. I have no idea why the photographer had to choose a photo of me with my eyes shut and I also have no idea what I was finding so amusing at the time. Before you ask - no they don't have mirrors on the walls so I hadn't caught sight of myself in a swimsuit!

Today I went to Lidl as I had heard they had some yarn on sale. It was very basic acrylic DK as you would probably guess but I thought it was good value for the money and bought some red, white and blue (very patriotic!) and some grey random cotton for yet another pair of socks for the dog walking ( for me that is the dog doesn't fancy home made socks). They had some cotton that looked rather like 4ply but I didn't buy any of that as I could not think what I would use it for. I did a bit more on 4 needles welly sock for son (previous blog) but I did divert onto a pair of 2 needle boot socks for myself and am positively racing along with those. I would imagine though that I shall have to be very neat on the seaming of them or them could prove to be a very uncomfortable pair of socks even with another pair underneath! I shall let you know once they are finished and modelled on a long dog walk.

The dog is turning out to be part otter. Once he gets his feet in the stream with his stick he is proving very difficult to get out again. He will play Pooh sticks all day without getting bored. Even the exciting prospect of passing dogs doesn't distract him from his water!

My books turned up from Amazon today and at first glance I am very impressed. Candy Tots and Candy Babes by Candi Jenson. If you are a baby crocheter who likes the unusual then take a look on Amazon uk. Unfortunately you can't see the designs inside the books ( always a minus on the site I think I am sure they would sell more books if they gave a taster of contents) I suspect they will be US crochet terms and yarn but I feel sure that with a bit of tension swatching I will be able to improvise. There are some very cute garments, funky hats and gorgeous animal type baby bootees. I feel the urge to get the hook out but really must stick to the boot socks as I really need them. I will let you now when I have really read the book later tonight.