16 rows done so it's time to crochet

I did my obligatory 16 rows on Kevin's aran and that brings me to 8 rows short of the armholes on the front so I may get more done tomorrow as the V and raglan shaping will mean I can get more rows done as the stitches decrease. There is hope for a finish before Christmas. This knitting is taking me the longest time to complete a garment in a long time. It's very slow going compared to my usual speed.

I could not wait to start some crochet. I am making a short sleeved cardigan for my ex husband's new wife for Christmas. I am using some cotton I bought from Lidl and am very pleased with the quality of it considering how little I paid for the cotton. I have made the back already and started one of the fronts. I really am a crochet girl at heart. I just love how fast it grows. My wrist is aching somewhat but I am not sure if it is from the aran, the crochet or just the cold weather annoying my arthritis.

I must try to master how to use my digital camera as the photo above taken with a web cam is fuzzy and the colours are all wrong. The aran is a denim blue shade and the crochet is a dark denim blue shade.

The dog is happy now he is back to his off the lead walks and stick retrieving. He loses the stick many times though because of the thick drift of leaves. He has a habit of skidding to a halt and that causes a mini avalanche of leaves down the hillside and so he loses the stick. He has a good nose and often eventually finds it but sometimes I have to distract him with another stick or we would be there all day whilst he sniffs around trying to find the lost one. We had a hairy moment today when we met a woman walking 7 dogs in a variety of sizes. She had them all off the lead and so they were reacting as a pack so it was a bit unnerving for Buster as they clustered all around him. I managed to shoo the aggressive ones away with my stick as she had little control over them. Surely even an animal lover would not keep 7 dogs. Imagine the vet bills on those!

I overslept this morning as I had a very disturbed night's sleep. I must have eventually dozed off in the wee hours and so I slept in until 9.30am which is unheard of for me! I normally get by on 5 - 6 hours sleep per night. Last night I had about 4hrs I think. I was going to have an early night but here it is at 1.30am and I am typing on the blog as I don't feel tired at all. I will go to bed in a few minutes though and try to get some sleep.

Crochet hats and thoughts of the sun

I have been crocheting hats up from the spare oddments of yarn that get left over the years and clutter up the drawers. They are just made from my ideas. Some colourways worked, some were a little iffy and one is definitely dodgy. I hope maybe to get a few bob from them if they sell on E bay. I was sorting out s few other items I made during the year to go on as well. (Have to pay the vet bills somehow and I don't think the red light in the porch and the fishnet tights idea will work - not much passing trade where I live!) Whilst I was holed up in the cold listening to the rain, crocheting and knitting away, I got an e mail from my cousin who is in northern Florida at the moment chatting about tans and sunshine!

Her husband was in the Navy and on his retirement they bought a boat and have been cruising around the world since 2000. This year they set off from Kingston, Ontario in May and went cruising the Great Lakes before going south again. She says they hope to be in Antigua by April but will leave their boat ashore there for the hurricane season and come home to Plymouth for a short time. It makes my life seem somewhat sedentary compared with hers. We started off life at the same time and used to play together as small children. I was always the daredevil tomboy hanging upside down from a tree and she was the ladylike little girl playing with her dolls. I would never have guessed that she would finish up sailing around the world in her retirement whilst I am sitting here crocheting. Good luck to her. She is enjoying her life and I am so jealous.

The dog has got his all clear from the vets. I just have to keep an eye on him to make sure his urinary problems don't return. He had his booster shot today so that was another £28 making his bill over £300 in all. No wonder I am joking about getting the fishnets out of retirement. At the moment it is all on my flexible friend but unfortunately they will want repaying eventually. I will have to check my many possessions for anything of value I can stick on E bay instead.

I have many ideas buzzing my head for items to make but my fingers don't seem to work as fast as they used to. Considering I no longer have to go out to work the day still rushes along and I don't seem to achieve much during the course of the day. Today I did a few more rows on Kevin's aran and stitched all the many tail ends in on the hats. Not much to show for a whole day's work, but then I did have to walk the dog twice, go to the vets and do a bit of housework as well. I found out my "new" car has a snag today. When I got in it to drive the dog to the vets I sat in a big wet patch! I presume it is either condensation from the glass on the sun roof or the roof is leaking! I will have to get Ian to have a look at it when he comes next time. I am not a fan of sun roofs as the last car where there was one fitted I practically had to drive with an umbrella up every time it rained.

My kind of crochet

Today I finished the emerald green chunky crochet stash buster cardigan. The whole thing took me a couple of nights to complete, so it's my kind of crochet for sure. It's nice every now and again to make a quick no brainer bit of crochet. I had a few hairy moments with it as the cardigan pattern was turning out too small for me. Old patterns from the 80's are much tighter fitting than today's designs. Undeterred I did my usual improvisation. Added a panel of the trebles lacey pattern from under the armpits to the bottom edge. It works for me every time. If I make a bigger size then the whole cardigan finishes up far too wide for me at the shoulder area. I only had 10 balls of Beehive chunky in Emerald (my web cam photos make it look jade green) and finished up with literally just yards left over. Whew! I am feeling good though as that is now 2 packs of yarn used from my stash. Two cardigans that cost me nothing. Not even the cost of buttons as I already had those as well! The buttons aren't the best match in the world but they will do. I may change them later if I can find a better match.

I didn't get around to my obligatory daily 16 rows of Kevin's aran yesterday so tonight I must try to do a few extra rows even though the temptation is great to start crocheting one of my Christmas presents. I do like knitting but I guess my first love is crochet. Some garments look far better in knitting. I have done crochet aran but knitted aran is far nicer especially for a man. I have promised my friend that I would finish the sweater for Christmas so I must press on with it although to be honest I am not enjoying knitting it as you have probably gathered by now.

The weather today has been wet and windy so Buster didn't bother too much when we only had one short walk today. It was a bit more exciting than usual as they are resurfacing the paths in the wood and we had to navigate our way past bulldozers, wagons and small diggers. The path was rather muddy with all the rain and digging so my boots weighed a few pounds heavier on the way home.

I have discovered a lump under my chin(s) so I phoned the dentist and have an appointment with him for tomorrow if the lump is still there. He is almost certain it is an enlarged saliva gland but as I had problems with a lump under my left ear several years ago, that required hospital treatment, he wants to check it to make sure.

Purple crochet is finished

Yes the purple crochet cardigan is finished. Not one of my better projects as you can see. If it wasn't on a yolk I would have unpicked it. The body is too long. The instructions did say chain very loosely at the start and now I realise my loosely wasn't loose enough so the whole cardigan is rather tight at the bottom of my rib which is fitting on my widest part! I might have had enough plain yarn if I had made it 3 - 4" shorter and that could have made the whole garment more appealing. Anyway it is done now. The yolk colour looks rather grey in my web cam's gaze but it is more of a match in the daylight. The pattern is from a very tattered page torn from some magazine many years ago so I cannot give any clues - not that anyone would want to crochet it anyway!

I didn't do my regulation 16 rows on Kevin's suit of aran armour last night as I wanted to get the purple creation sewn up and out of the messy (craft?) corner. I will try to attempt 32 rows today to keep myself up to speed. I have started another crochet chunky cardigan (different design)in a rather startling shade of emerald green but once again I really don't have enough yarn so I will have to work all the pieces at once and finish them all off once I see how the yarn is working out. It will be a shorter version of the pattern but I must be shorter than I used to be or styles are being worn shorter these days. The finished version of this crochet pattern that I already have in my wardrobe is almost teddy boy length so I can easily crop 12" off the body length!

The dog is recovering slowly. He cannot understand why we only have one sedate walk a day on a lead. He obviously feels OK but the vet's instructions were to keep him calm (then tell the postman not to call?), away from too many dogs (the wood is full of them no matter what time we chose), off the furniture (ever tried that one?), and no ball games that involve jumping. Considering the operation he had I presume the vet means rubber balls? The vet did say put a baby gate on the bottom of the stairs to stop him going up. I didn't have one and had no intention of buying one so I tried closing the door to the stairs but my house creaks and groans and doors open on their own so that didn't work. I have never seen any evidence of ghostly apparitions so I am hoping it is just the shifting of the house that opens doors. The only doors that don't open are the locked ones at the front and back door. I have got used to it after 39yrs here but it does scare my friend Caroline. She refuses to stay in my house alone. When my son was small he used to clap his hands and say Oooh ghosties are here mummy! If we are haunted then they are very friendly ones thank goodness.

Oh no! Not the vets again mum

Buster went for his post op check up on Monday and everything is going well as regards the operation. His bits are rather purple and bruised but that is only to be expected. On Friday morning (on his last walk before his op) he rushed down the hillside as per usual and gave a little yelp. When I took him to the vets I noticed that his right eye was a bit red. Yesterday I asked the vet to take a look as his right eye was very runny and it transpires that he must have scratched his eyeball and now has an ulcer on it. So I have to put drops in several times a day as well as giving him his antibiotic and painkiller pills. I am beginning to think I have a new career as a veterinary assistant.

On the subject of purple balls (my yarn and the dog's bits) I am crocheting up some chunky I had in my stash and as usually happens I haven't got quite enough for my project! I had another search in my stash and found some mohair in a similar purple colour but with coloured flecks in it. Luckily I have run out on the yolk so I have saved some of the original yarn for the neckband and button bands and so I hope it will look like a feature. I will post a photo tomorrow if the yolk gets finished tonight.

I am still battling with the "suit of armour" aran for Kevin and have managed to finish the back and start the front. I am limiting myself to a 16 row pattern at a stretch as it really is affecting my wrists. Luckily I started it early as Caroline wants to send it to Ireland to her brother for Christmas.

I am still deciding on some of my Christmas projects and have been looking on Flikr at people's finished projects for inspiration. There are some gorgeous items on there but some are terrible - I wonder why people find it necessary to put 12 photos of the same item (usually the awful ones) on there? I still haven't found the time to update my Ravelry. Maybe I will spend a few hours on it when I am not nursing the dog and trying to finish off Christmas items.

Mum - please don't ever leave me again!

My doggie is on the road to recovery. He is very stressed and clingy after his trip to the vet. His operation is something he will recover from and will hopefully thank me for if it works on stopping his recurrent water infections. The trauma of mum leaving him for a whole day is something that may take a while. For those who do not know my dog's history he is a rescued dog who had previously been beaten, starved and ill treated. Before he came to me (via my son) he had 3 previous owners so I guess every time he is left and caged he must feel like he is being abandoned once again. I am giving him plenty of TLC and re-assurance and hopefully this anxiousness will pass. The photo is of him clinging around my feet. Wherever I am he is there. The room was dark so the photo is too. This is his back to me, how could you do this to me, leave me alone pose.

Yesterday I went to my step great grand daughter's 2nd birthday party and took Buster with me. He stayed in the car in the drive and had to wear his silly lampshade contraption to stop him licking the wound. I cannot bear to leave him in it all day long as he can't navigate his way around wearing it and was demolishing my house in the process. I rang the vet's and they said just to put him in it when I am not with him or we are sleeping etc. I am off to Tesco to supermarket shop so he will come with me and stay in the back seat of the car. I will find a secluded part of the car park so people won't make fun of him wearing his lampshade. We have a check up tomorrow but everything seems to be healing nicely although his bits are a lovely shade of purple! I will find out then if they removed his prostate gland. I was so intent on getting him home that I forgot to ask on Friday!

I have recovered my crochet mojo. I do try to knit a few rows on Kevin's sweater every day but I had to wear my hand strapping over the weekend as I think that with the work being rather stiff and patterned it has made my wrist and hand ache. It is 11 months since my carpal tunnel operation but every now and again it really pains me if I do too much knitting and crochet. I decided to crochet a chunky cardigan for myself in easy peasy trebles ( well until I get to the yolk part) so did the back and two fronts in no time. The photo shows part of the crochet along with the front of an aran cardigan for my friend Caroline. I do like knitting but crochet is my first love. I wore my short sleeved Gedifra cotton crochet top to the party and it was very much admired by my ex husbands wife. It may sound strange but we do have a very friendly relationship and exchange Christmas presents so I now know what she will be having for her present. I bought some cotton from Lidl in a lovely shade of denim blue and then discovered in my stash that I had already got some cotton in an almost identical shade so the Lidl cotton has her name on it now. We rarely meet socially so it is unlikely that we would turn up to the same event wearing the same style top. Mine is a dark dusty pinky purple anyway.

Buster is at the vet's today

I left my darling Buster at the vet's this morning for his operation to relieve him of his manly bits. He has been having waterworks problems for ages and has had 2 courses of anti-biotics in October and still has problems so the vet thinks he will be better off without his prostate as that could be causing it. Knowing Buster it will be something else and he will have had his bits cut off for nothing!

Poor soul. I felt awful leaving him this morning as he gets very traumatised when he is left anywhere. He was originally a rescue dog so has a dubious past and is very distrustful of strangers. When my son got married and Buster was put in kennels for the day (and night) he got so distressed that he had to have doggie tranquilisers from the vet when he got home. They spent their honeymoon looking after a traumatised, tranquilised dog. Luckily they had booked a self catering honeymoon and not a hotel so he was able to go with them and not get left again.

This is the first time he has been left anywhere since I have been permanently taking care of him so I hope he realises that I am coming back for him!

I have not done much knitting this week for some reason. I do that sometimes. I either knit and crochet like a whirling dervish or slow down to a stop. One of the blogs I read the blogger says some days she has lost her knitting mojo. I know exactly what she means!

I became the proud owner (courtesy of Freecycle) last night of a free standing book case type unit which is intended for storage in the garage (once the new roof and doors are on). I put it upstairs temporarily in the spare room for the moment and then I set about re-organising my yarn stash. Guess what? The shelves are now all full of see at a glance yarn, and my under bed storage units are still full. I think the yarn is breeding in those storage units. It may look messy to others but to me it is reminiscent of my shop days. I wonder if the unit will ever find it's way into the garage? At least I can see exactly what yarn I have and how many balls etc without too much hassle. I found a huge ball of black acrylic DK (about 400grams) that I have absolutely no recollection of ever buying. Hmmm. I really am going senile after all - my son is right!