My baby is back home

As you can see Buster is back home but it may be only temporary. He barely knew me when he came through the door. Not the ecstatic welcome I had been expecting. He is not settling and was glued to the window looking for my son to come back and get him until it went dark and I closed the curtains. As you can see from his face he is a sad doggy.

I took him for a walk this afternoon and although he seemed to remember where everything was he was a very subdued dog. None of the excitement that he used to show chasing a stick and paddling in the stream. He did all of these things but seemed rather lack lustre. I think he misses having my son's dog Skye to walk and play with him. He just plodded along behind me instead of dashing ahead with his tail pluming as he used to.

I have him until Sunday so I will have to see how he is for the next couple of days. I was looking forward to having him home again but I don't want him to be miserable. I think he prefers to be in a family home with another dog.

Crochet is progressing slowly as I have been preoccupied getting to know Buster once again. I am knitting in between the crochet to rest the wrist, I have started the February sweater which is an adult version of Elizabeth Zimmerman's baby matinee. Nothing much to show at the moment as I am on the garter stitch yolk and the work is bunched up on the needles as it is worked from the top down. I can't knit on circular needles so I think the stitches are going to get very cramped before I increase to the correct amount of stitches.

Round the post crochet is playing havoc with my wrists

I was looking forward to some crochet after the aran knitting but I am suffering for my longings. I had forgotten how crocheting around the front and back posts to form the aran cables can play havoc on the wrists. Strangely though it is my left wrist that is suffering the most. I do put a strapping on it but I find that it slows my crochet down as I keep getting my work stuck to the Velcro fastening on the wrist strap! I am still progressing quicker than if I was knitting but I will have to alternate with some knitting to rest my wrists.

As you can see I have reached the more complicated cabling for the shoulder area and have done almost a half of that.

I have unpinned the aran knitting from the blocking boards and am still convinced it will be a bit on the small side. I am considering making a belt (optional on the pattern) just to hold it all together at the waist as I doubt the single button will hold it all together as a warm jacket. The wool was quite lightweight for an aran thickness. If you want to make a light aran then choose Wendy Serenity Aran as it has a tremendous yardage but make a larger size as it worked up small for me even though I normally knit a bit looser than pattern tension.

I have decided not to go to Harrogate to the Knitting Exhibition. I would have to go by train on Thursday because of having Buster over the weekend. I would really love to see all the exhibits but I am supposed to be on a no buy for wool until I have finished all my Christmas projects. I will allow myself to buy some wool but only if it is destined for a present for someone else but I think I would get waylaid and tempted if I went to Harrogate. How can you go to a place like that and not buy?

Whew - I think the aran will fit

As you know I have agonised over whether this aran will be large enough for my niece. I have finished it and blocked it out and provided it doesn't go any smaller when it is dried I am sure it will fit - but just not how it should fit as per the pattern. This will be a slim fitting jacket and not the baggy chunky jacket that I think she is expecting.

I have therefore started another jacket for her. It's cabled but it's crocheted. I chose one of the patterns that I featured yesterday from the book Glorious Crochet sweaters. Mattenylou - I hope that you find your copy of the book. Laurie - I do hope that you didn't throw your magazine away and yes I eventually did get rid of all the holly leaves even though the binmen gave me dirty looks for weeks as I kept filling up my dustbin for weeks. Cat - I hope that you manage to get hold of a copy of the book. I am sure that I saw one for sale on E-bay not long ago.

I am looking forward to doing a bit of crochet after doing that aran knitting. I still have to go back to knitting socks before Christmas but perhaps I should knit a few rows every day in between the crochet.

Glorious Crocheted Sweaters

This is one of my favourite books. I bought it some 20yrs ago for a couple of pounds from my local book store. When I queried the price I was told - It was ordered and then we discovered it had US crochet terms so no-one wants to buy it. How times have changed. Nowadays I can't buy a book that isn't US terms. I wanted to show that crochet isn't all openwork shawls and granny squares. This book shows many garments made in aran style stitches. I have made all of these garments photographed on here - some a couple of times and they make lovely warm jackets. Just in case you like the book and are lucky enough to find one on E-bay it was published by the Sterling Publishing Co.Inc. New York in 1989 and is edited by Nola Theiss. This book was one of my first introductions to multi coloured crocheting which is now called Tapestry crochet. I made many brightly coloured diamond patterned mohair jackets as was the fashion in the 90's. I also knitted some with colourful birds and flowers. Those were the days! I was unafraid to walk the streets wearing my technicoloured dream coats.

Why have I got the book off the book shelf now? Well after my aran knitting which I am still convinced is going to be on the small side I decided to have another go at making a cabled style jacket for my niece but as time is pressing on this next one will be crochet cables instead. The grey wool in the bottom photo is what I am going to use although I still have 5 balls of the never ending aran wool from the knitted jacket left. I am trying to make the collar of that jacket but having trouble trying to make my short rows on the collar look neat. If I can't get it looking right their way then I will unrip and do it my way. At the moment it is looking very uneven and amateurish. I may make a belt to hold the jacket together as it isn't really loose enough to wear as a swing jacket.

I should be doing some housework today but what the heck - I want to finish off this knitted aran as I am chomping at the bit to start some crochet.

Woken from a lovely dream

I was having a lovely dream last night. It involved my last ex M who I love dearly (no it wasn't one of "those" kind of dreams) and so I was a bit aggrieved to be woken abruptly by a banging on my door. Could it be that the old wives tale Friday's dream on Saturday told will come true before it is old? Alas no it wasn't M at the door but the postman with my books from Amazon. In case you are wondering if I am lucky enough to have a postman who calls early I should explain that I had snoozed in and it was after 10am!

Even though I would rather have stayed in my dream I did forgive the postman when I saw my new books. Wrapped in Crochet by Kristin Omdahl (designer of the Belize wrap that I made for Vicky's birthday) and Boutique Knits by Laura Irwin. I have not perused them in depth yet as I don't want to be tempted into starting something before I have finished my Christmas knitting. I have posted a few photos from each book. Ambermoggie will love the crochet circular wrap jacket that is featured on the back cover of the book. There are some wonderful shawls in there but some I will admire but never make. I don't know why but I have an absolute hatred of making circular motifs that have to be joined together as I go along. I also make a hash of very spidery crochet flower motifs involving copious amounts of chains as I always get them twisted and get really annoyed. The scarf I have featured is made up from 3 long curly strips fastened together at intervals with chain.

The knitting book has some weird and wonderful things in it. Mostly I would not make any of them for myself but I can see my daughter in law in the gauntlet fingerless mittens if I make them in black or dark purple. There are some unusual hats in the book and I wish I looked OK in a knitted hat but I just know that if I make any of these for myself they will end up on the donation or gift pile. There are a couple of felted bags that my knitting club members might like. I am old school and it breaks my heart to buy expensive wool and felt it. Felted brings back to me too many memories of lovely sweaters accidentally put in the washer and rendered unwearable. Why does it always have to be one of your best designs that gets ruined?

Yesterday I met up with Sylvia and Bill in Bury market. We browsed the wool stall, got a few balls of wool and then had a bit of lunch in Othello's cafe. On the way home I picked up my prescription from the doctors and then the chemist said it would be 20 mins to wait. I decided to pop into Iceland then met up with a friend who has recently lost her husband so after a half hour of sympathy I walked home. I had, of course, completely forgotten to go back to the chemist so I had to get dressed and quickly dash up there this morning before they closed at 12 to rescue my presription. I didn't fancy a banging headache and fat(ter) ankles this weekend through not having my blood pressure tablets.

I have just started the second sleeve of my niece's jacket so the end is in sight.

Not much to blog about

Still knitting the aran jacket. I am convinced though that it will not be big and baggy enough for my niece so am going to search in my pattern stash (I have 4 large boxes of patterns so I could be gone for quite a while) and try to find something more suitable. I will finish this jacket off and get some more wool for another one. I have almost finished the second front.The two sleeves and collar are just in knit 2 purl 2 rib so that should progress pretty quickly if there is anything good on the TV today. Thank goodness for the old re-runs of Father Dowling, Murder She Wrote, Bergerac and now I have Shoestring as well. I haven't quite got around to Starskey and Hutch yet but I will!

The sock knitting hasn't progressed one jot this week. I seem to be lacking motivation in that area. I think I am just concentrating on the aran.

I am still subduing my cravings for crochet. The urge is getting stronger everyday. I am indeed a crochetoholic. I will be giving in to temptation any day soon and grabbing a hook and wool for the sake of my sanity. The crochet wrap book that I have pre-ordered should be here on the 19th so I definitely will be raring to go then.

Gorgeous Hats by Crafty Andy

I have been browsing the blogs as per usual and was reading Carol Ventura's blog. She has a blog and has written books on Tapestry crochet (which are on my wish list). She was showing hats by Crafty Andy. I had favourited several of his hats on Flickr in the past as I think he is a very talented crocheter and knitter. I hope that he won't mind my posting a photo of one of his hats on here. If you click on my blog title it will take you to his blog which shows the wonderful hats he has made using Tapestry crochet. He also has videos on You Tube showing off his work. Thanks Andy for a happy hour watching your videos. Very inspirational. I will be adding your blog to my list of favourites.

The other photos are of my squirrel. He/she came to the window yesterday so I had to feed it. I know they are supposed to be vermin but it is so cute with it's antics.

Not much progress to report on the Aran knitting. I have started the front but it is very slow progress and there has been not a stitch knitted on the sock.

The postman has brought me the essential oils that I ordered from Green Therapeutics so my oil burner will soon be fired up. Which shall I choose for today? Patchouli, Lavender or Jasmine? Perhaps not the Lavender until later this evening. I want to do some knitting and not relax so much that I fall asleep!

I am still trying to subdue my crocheting withdrawal symptoms. I have managed to overcome the strong urges so far but I am weakening rapidly.