Hat With Duck Motif

I am having a break from the aran knitting. I have finished off the back and two fronts now.The last front too k me longer than I had anticipated due to the fact that I forgot to place a buttonhole and had got up to the armhole shaping before I realised it. Grr I just love unpicking - especially aran.

My niece in London asked me to knit 4 hats with a duck motif on for her to give to duck mad friends and baby girls. I suddenly realised that I need to get these hats down to her before Christmas so decided to leave the aran and push on with the hats.A friend of my niece is going down to London before Christmas so with a bit of luck they will be finished for her to take with her to save on the postage. My niece and her husband work full time so they miss the postman and have to travel miles to the sorting office (they don't have a car) to pick up any parcels that they have missed. I made the gents hat first to see how large the motif turned out so that I can make adjustments for the babies hats. I got the motif from a children's cardigan pattern by Cascade yarns. It is a cute pattern and if you click on my blog title you can see it.

I am going for both my flu jabs this afternoon so I am hoping that i don't get a sore arm as a lot of my friends did when they had their swine flu jab. That will really put my hat knitting back a bit and drive me mad. I can't just sit and do nothing so I will have to devise a way to either knit or crochet if this happens.

At least it is not raining today. My knee doesn't like the cold and the wet.I am looking forward to the day when I will have a full nights sleep as I haven't slept all through the night for over 5 yrs now. First it was back pain waking me up and when I got that sorted then the knee pain jabs me awake. I just know that when I visit the specialist in January he will say it's my weight causing this. They will not listen when I say it's the pain that has caused all this weight gain and not the other way around.

Time for a coffee and to sort out my shopping list as I might as well do some whilst I am out and about. I have to pass some shops on my way to the doctors so why waste a walk?

Back To A Bit Of Knitting

I am back to my knitting and back to blogging courtesy of a borrowed monitor. I think that I mentioned that my monitor kept switching itself off well on Saturday it more or less gave up the ghost. I asked the neighbour across the road if he could look online for a new monitor for me as it was a little difficult for me to browse for one when the *$£* thing kept switching itself off and he has kindly lent me his monitor (he also has a laptop) for me to use until I can get a new one delivered.

I gave myself a stern talking to and picked up my knitting needles again. I have now finished off the left front and have started the right. There isn't a mistake in the ribbing on the right front - that is a buttonhole. Buttonholes are never my strong point. I cast off OK but the cast on the row after always fills me with dread. Sometimes I am lucky and it all goes smoothly but sometimes for some reason I finish up with one longer stitch at one of the corners. I have read manuals and online tips and I swear I do exactly as they say but I still finish up with a slack stitch.

I didn't get up to Bury today as the weather once again put me off. I hate the rain and I am so sick of getting wet through everywhere I go. It is knit club night at the Kings Arms tonight but I will be knitting with them in spirit but at home. I am such a wimp at tram and bus travel in the wet, the cold and especially in the dark. Roll on the lighter nights.

I suppose that I should think about getting the Christmas decorations down from the loft. I love it when they are all up and the tree is lit but I am not very motivated to doing all of the trimming. I think I am turning into one of the Grumpy Old Women who say Bah Humbug and moan on about how much effort it takes and all of the mess to hoover up etc. Once the rest of the street start putting their trees up then I know that I will join in as I do love the house when the fairy lights are lit on the tree and around the bay window.

The Lure Of Crochet

I admit it. I am a crochet junkie. I have withdrawal symptoms if I am away from my crochet hook too long. Whilst I admit that knitting is very nice and is better for certain garments I am in my heart a crocheter.

I didn't get back to my knitting last night. I finished off the washcloths I had started and made three more. I made myself promise this morning not to pick up another hook until I had at least started the front of the aran jacket for my niece or it will never get finished in time for Christmas,

I need some more cotton for the washcloths but as I cannot face another Saturday melee on the tram and all the pushing and shoving in the market I will wait until a weekday to get more supplies. I also need to buy the handmade soap to go with these washcloths and there is a lovely shop in Bury that sells that. I plan to tie 3 washcloths together with a bar of soap so need to count up how many people I need to make them for. Mother Christmas's work is never done.

It's washing day today. I don't have a set washing day I just wait until the basket gets full and then do a colour sort. I washed the sample square of the wool that I used for the babies hoodies and am pleased to say that not only did it not shrink it softened up a lot. The wool felt a little scratchy when I was knitting with it and I was a bit concerned on how it would feel to a small baby. I am not going to wash the jackets as I know Louise uses special detergent for the babies so I will just recommend that she washes the jackets prior to wear. I think that she might be visiting her family for Christmas so Santa may visit a bit early in case she needs the sweaters and jackets for over Christmas.

Having A Break

I am having a bit of a break from my knitting today. Aran knitting makes my hands ache when I work at it too long and as I pushed on and managed to finish the back off last night I am giving myself a bit of a treat today with some crochet. I am making a few washcloths and dishcloths to put with presents for Christmas so I am not exactly shirking in my present making.

I have this idea of tying 2 or 3 washcloths together with ribbon and buying some handmade soap and tucking that under the ribbon tie. I will see how many I manage to make with the cotton that I already have but I can see myself making another trip up to Bury to replenish supplies as one ball doesn't go too far so I will need more balls to finish off the number that I have in mind.

I am using some cotton that I bought from Habiknit in Bury along with some white cotton that I already had in stash. The finished washcloth doesn't look as though it has 3 colours in it in the photo but it has white, ecru and mink. I have just used an alternating stitch of UK treble and double crochet. I try to vary my stitch as I don't want them all to look the same and an already thinking up a new stitch for the next washcloth.

The boiler is still working so fingers crossed it won't need that new part just yet. I don't like having to rely on my Calor Gas heater as although I had it checked and it isn't leaking any fumes it still makes me feel very sleepy. I did manage to sleep most of the night last night so am not feeling quite so droopy today. Probably a good job as I still have a lot of Mother Christmas knitting to complete.

Enough chatting it's time to get back to my crochet hook and see how many washcloths I can make before tonight as I have made a pact that I will start the aran cardigan front tonight after my crochet treat is over.

Let There Be Heat

I have heating once more. The plumber paid two visits yesterday and I am repaired although it could be temporary. I have to keep my eye on the water pressure and if it drops down call him back. Apparently I had no water pressure in the boiler causing water to pour out when the boiler switched itself on. It could have just been that the water was missing (he has drained it all and replaced it) or it could be something more expensive like a new pressure valve. Since it has been fixed my house is extremely warm even with the thermostat turned a few notches further down than it was before leaving me to think that it hasn't been working efficiently for some time. Either way I have my fingers crossed that I don't need a new valve.

With all the comings and goings yesterday plus the fact that I had to light my Calor Gas fire for warmth yesterday (which sends me to sleep) I didn't get much knitting done as you can see. My niece's aran takes quite a lot of concentration other wise I have to unpick rows where I have knitted instead of purled.

I plan to try to sit down and do some serious knitting today but as you know whenever you plan things like that something crops up.

Hopefully later today the neighbour from across the road will come and twiddle my plug. Calm down I do mean my PC monitor plug. I saw him this morning and mentioned what was happening and he promised to call in when he comes home and see if I have a loose connection causing the screen to go off. I know that I have had a mental loose connection for years so I wonder if he can sort that out as well whilst he is here?

I have just had a discussion with the GP and it seems that I am eligible for a swine flu vaccine because of my breathing problems. It just shows that you should never take the receptionist's word as gospel. I have to go back to the hospital in 10 days as my last sleep study showed that my oxygen levels are too low and my CO2 levels are too high when I sleep. This is probably the answer to why I have been feeling so tired and low. I have been feeling really grotty over the last few weeks with no apparent reason. I had put it down to broken sleep patterns and a case of the winter blues. They are going to adjust the pressures on my CPAP machine so hopefully I will be back fully functional after that.

I had some sad news this morning. My Uncle Fred (my late mother's brother) has died. He must be well into his nineties but it is still sad to see another link with my mother gone. I am not sure how many of her 15 brothers and sisters are left now. The youngest of mum's siblings must be well into their seventies now. My Uncle Fred was a real character. In his youth he used to do stock car racing and had so many bad crashes it's a wonder he made it out of his 30's. He took up marathon running at an age when most of use are slowing down and I remember on one occasion he competed in a mini marathon that my ex husband was running in. Despite the vast age difference and the fact that my ex had trained hard he was extremely upset when my Uncle Fred sailed past him and finished a long time ahead of him even though he would have been in his late 70's by then. He has battled cancer in his later years but carried on running and keeping active until the last few years.

Enough chit chat. I have mucho knitting to complete before Christmas and time is a wasting. Time to pick up my needles and knit like the clappers!

Palindrome

The repair job on the aran hat is completed and it is as good as new now. I decided to unravel the scarf as although the Irish Hiking Scarf is a lovely pattern I was a little unhappy with the one sided cables. My friend Sylvia suggested that I try the Palindrome scarf as this has cables on either side. I have put the link to this scarf in my blog title. This was the pattern that I had remembered from Ravelry but not bookmarked which is why I decided on the Irish Hiking scarf when I couldn't find this pattern. Apparently Palindrome comes from a line that reads the same backwards and forwards. I am liking the look of this scarf and it is genius how it looks cabled on both sides of the scarf and yet is so simple to make.I have added extra stitches to the scarf as the pattern is only 4.5" wide as set on the pattern which is a bit narrow for a guy's scarf. I have added an extra 24 sts to get the width that I require.

The other photo is of some birthday presents that I got on Sunday from Sylvia and Kath who are fellow Knitting Noras. Kath dyed and possibly spun the lovely merino sock wool. She knows that I have a passion for bright colours so these colours are just so me. Kath sells some of her wool on Etsy. Look out for Six Swans. This colour is called Carnivale but I am not sure if this colour is still available. I will be making this wool into socks for myself just as soon as Christmas is over. The travel angel will go in my purse. I was given an angel brooch by a very good friend of mine from New York and I wore it every day until one day I lost it so it is nice to have another angel to watch over me.

My catalogue of disasters is continuing. I woke up this morning and thankfully decided to have a cup of coffee before I took my shower and got dressed. Whilst in the kitchen the central heating boiler switched itself on and then I heard the sound of running water. I went into the utility room and water was pouring from the bottom of the wall boiler all over the floor. I turned everything off and rang my usual builder handyman but he was already in Clitheroe even at 8am. He gave me the name of a plumber and he arrived a short while ago. He will have to replace a part in the boiler. He had left another job to come to me as he thought that the water was still running and so has had to return to that job. Hopefully he will be come back later today with a new pressure valve and I will have to rely on my Calor gas heater for warmth until he returns. I have dug out my big fleece jacket. I will have to knit a bit faster today to generate a bit of warmth. Luckily today is not as cold as it was yesterday. I am just so thankful that I was in the house when this happened and could quickly turn everything off. Can you imagine the mess that I would come home to if it had happened yesterday when I was out shopping.

I continue to have minor disasters besides snipping my hat ribbing. This week I have managed to break off almost every nail that I had been growing. I don't mind them breaking so much as where they break. They break so low down the finger nail bed and are painful. I had been congratulating myself on how long I had managed to grow them since I have been on my calcium tablets and then one by one they snap off. Guess it's short nails again for Christmas.

Time for coffee and time to light the Calor gas fire before I get any colder. My back and knees ache so much if they get too cold so I have to keep the house at a certain temperature. No doubt the smoke alarm will start cheeping soon as the temperature on the upstairs landing drops.

Queen Of Bloops

What is that saying - More haste less speed. I have spent an hour this morning trying to correct a blooper I made last night. I had finished the navy hat and I should have known better than to sew it up in the electric light. This morning I looked at at and the ribbing didn't match up so I extra carefully snipped open the seam. You know what is coming next - yes I did - I snipped into the ribbing! As the hat was knitted bottom up on two needles I had a choice of either unravelling the whole hat or trying to salvage it by cutting the rib off and picking up the stitches from the wrong way and then ribbing downwards on 5 needles. As you can see I have managed to get the stitches on the needles that but not without a lot of swearing under my breath. I now have to rib 4" just to get back to where I was last night. See what I mean about wasted time.

The piece of navy cable is the start of the Irish Hiking Scarf and whilst it seems to be a very popular pattern on Ravelry projects I am a bit undecided about it as it is very one sided which isn't a good look for a scarf. As it is for a nephew in law present I wanted something a little different to the usual ribbed scarf. The guy it is destined for isn't from a knitting family so perhaps he wont notice that it can only be worn one way. There might be a bit more unravelling if I decide to make it ribbed instead of cabled.

The jacket for my niece is making very slow progress as the cable pattern is charted and not only that one panel has 20 rows and the other has 6 rows so it's difficult to keep track or to write it out as the patterns are at different stages for most of the time. I am having to really concentrate on this one so I doubt that I will be zipping along.

The duck motif hats that I have to make are navy based so I will have dim eyesight by the time Christmas comes along.

It is bitterly cold today and my knees are feeling it. I have had to put my heating on for the day which is a thing that I try to avoid as I am afraid of the cost. Once the house has warmed up I will turn the thermostat down a few notches and hope that will be warm enough.

Time for a coffee, Loose women and a bit of hat ribbing before I go up to the shops for a few bits and pieces.