Third Time Lucky

I almost got it right the second time I tried the ribber on the machine but as you can see from the second photo a few stitches tucked up on the needles. They didn't show too badly on the right side of the work but I still decided to start again. Apart from a bit of looping at the beginning of a couple of rows I managed the back without any mistakes with my third try. I have never been so excited about a plain cardigan back for a baby for a long time. Shows that I am on the right track.

A Knitting Wrapsody by Kristin Omdahl that I pre-ordered months ago from Amazon arrived today. It does have some lovely designs in it but I thought that there would be more like the front cover design, Instead there are quite a lot of shawls and stoles in it, I suppose the clue is in the title but as it was a pre order I couldn't browse before I bought it. My niece loves the shrug style top on the front cover. It has a beautifully cabled back that runs from side to side, Laid out flat it is an oval shape with a slit in it. The collar is picked up and kmitted afterwards. The pattern however is on a chart and I know that the newbie knitters love charts but I was only ever taught to use charts for fair isle and all of these symbols for cables etc on a chart just baffle me.

I have just put photos of a few things from the book. I am sure that Ravelry will have posted photos of a lot of the other shawls and wraps. I have chosen the pink shawl as it looks very easy and there are really good pictorial directions on how to knit the scalloped edge.

I think that the Infinity jacket is lovely. I have seen the Infinity wrap in crochet but would have never thought of using the pattern as the back of a jacket. There is an awful lot of knitting in this jacket but very unusual and eye catching. It does need a nicely shaded wool to bring out the pattern.It is made in a chunky wool on a 6mm needle so something like the James C Brett Marble Chunky would be ideal for this as it is a lightweight chunky.

I like the wide ladder effect cables on the mobius. It is unusual in the fact that it has buttons to fasten it together so can be worn as a shoulder wrap as well as a mobius. As it is in chunky wool on a 9mm needles I imagine that it is a quick knit.

I didn't get the grey cropped top finished last night as when I finished off the bottom band as per the instructions it frilled away from the body instead of looking like ribbing. It did that on the sleeve edging but I didn't think too much about it until I had finished the body ribbing. I undid it all and am making it all in dc in the back loops instead of one row dc and 1 row half trebles as the pattern. The ribbing is turning out a bit narrower but it will hold the edge of the jacket to the body. I did look on Ravelry at some of the finished projects and one in particular looks really frilly especially around the neck. I know that I crochet a bit on the loose side but at least I know that it is not just me that had a frilly edge. I am going to take back the sleeve edging so that it will all match. Maybe tonight it will get finished but Buster is arriving soon so maybe not. By the time we have said hello and had a few games of catch with the ball it will be a bit late for any crocheting.

Hopefully I will knit the rest of the pieces for the baby cardigan tomorrow. My eyes are not what they where and trying to hook onto small needles in a not too bright light will only lead to more mistakes. That is the one problem with putting the machine in the dining room. The light is central and so is behind me when I am on the machine so I cast a shadow all over my work. Daylight is the best light to work in. I would rather knit or crochet by hand when I am watching the TV. I like to sit in my recliner and be all relaxed with a cup of coffee.

The Patons aran wool that arrived yesterday from Purplelinda is to make another crochet cabled jacket like the one that I made in grey for Sylvia, One of Sylvia's friends admired it so much that she asked if I would make one for her. I had better get back into the rhythm of my knitting and crochet again. I seem to be going slower and slower these last few weeks. I must pick up the charcoal knitting again and finish that off after I have finished the crochet grey top.At least that will be one niece's birthday present sorted out as they are both for her. I then have my other niece and Sylvia's friend to knit and crochet for as well as fitting in some machine knitting. What do they say 'The Devil makes work for idle hands to do' There is no chance of him finding my hands idle unless I am asleep!

I Think I've Got It

I think I've got it. Not the Inside Crochet book but I have got the hang of the knitting machine. After a lot of cursing, a few bent needles,plus a new part I have managed to turn out my first piece of knitting. As the Multi coloured wool that I used was too thick and too splitty for the machine I am not going to continue with it as I doubt if a child would want a cardigan with the consistency of cardboard. I feel that at least I have now mastered plain and rib so will have another try tomorrow with some finer wool.

I found the lemon top which is from about 20 yrs ago when I used my machine all of the time. Now I look at this, I realize that the ribbing of the multi coloured new knitting isn't quite right so tomorrow it will be back to the manual for another read. I used the lace carriage and fine wool to make lots of cardigans and sweaters but the lemon top is the only thing that I have left. It won't fit me anymore but I am glad that it didn't get thrown away. It inspires me to aim for what I used to be able to make.

The Inside Crochet magazine arrived today. There are a few things in it that I like but I think that I would only actually make two or three of them. The cover Marlene beret by Megan Marshall will be very popular but I just don't suit berets so it's not for me.

The Grace gloves by Bee Clinch look quite easy. They are made using fine wool and a 3mm needle. They could find their way onto my 'to make' list.

The Hepburn Cable sweater by Claire Montgomerie is very pretty but I would have to make it 'normal sized' for me. I think that it looks rather like it has shrunk in the wash with it's short sleeves and body. Maybe it is the fashion and maybe I am too old to appreciate it. I like the pattern stitches though and I am sure that it would easily adapt into something long enough for me to wear.

The purple Monroe wrap coat by Shannon Mullett-Bowlsby is a nice jacket basically but I don't think that I would put the big collar on it for myself. I am not sure which wool has been used as I am not familiar with Malabrigo but it looks a bit furry to me.

The Crawford necklace by Shelby Allaho is very pretty in those colours. Again I am not sure that I would wear anything like this although I have got a book on bead crochet so perhaps I will get converted into wearing necklaces. I used to wear them a lot but since my fingers can't fasten small clasps I don't bother any more. This necklace has a button fastener so I might manage this one.

I first saw the Temple Vest by Shweta Shankar Khatri on Ravelry and thought that the stitch was lovely. The pattern is one that I would definitely think of making but I am not sure about the fastenings, especially the red toggles but as that is a minor thing to change then this vest is on my 'to do ' list when I find a little girl that it will fit.

The Keaton Vest by Robyn Chachula is another pretty stitch. I rarely wear a vest but I do like this one.

The Brando gloves by Maggie Vassie are a useful pattern to have for those oddments we all have in stash. Again it is a close stitch that won't let the wind blow through and would be great over a pair of fine gloves for those extra cold days.

There are also patterns in the magazine for a hot water bottle cover, a crochet rabbit, hair flower corsage, a hairpin crochet dress and an evening bag. I like the articles in this issue. There are links to vintage pattern sites, an interview with Tara Murray on Amigurumi,one on vintage Vogue patterns, an interview with an 82yr old crocheter and an article on Sknitch which is a show that incorporates knitting, sewing and crochet. Apparently they held a show last year and there will be another one in December in Birmingham which I would like to go to see,legs and back permitting. The web site is www.clothesshowlive.com if you want any more information.

The grey crochet crop top is progressing and I have made one rib for the sleeve. I hope to get that finished tonight.

Everything will stop tomorrow night as my best buddy Buster is coming for the weekend. I spoil him and play ball with him so not much of anything else gets done. He sheds so much that I don't like to work on anything for other people as they don't appreciate their woollies being covered in gold coloured dog hair!

What Has She Ordered Now?

I didn't see the postman this morning which is a shame as I would have loved to see his face when he delivered this parcel. It looked a bit odd to me and I knew what I had ordered. It took me quite a long time to open it up as I was scared of wielding the scissors too vigorously and cutting through the wool inside.

Thanks Metropolitan for your very quick delivery. As you can see from the photos the sponge bar that holds the needles in place on my knitting machine was very sad and flat, compared to the new one, so hopefully the new bar will solve the problem of the needles jamming every time I push the carriage across. I now have the right kind of machine oil which will hopefully lubricate the machine properly. I had sprayed it with WD40 which is apparently a big no, no as far as knitting machines are concerned according to the knitting machine community on Ravelry. I have given the machine a good wipe down to hopefully get rid of the WD40 and oiled it with machine oil. I hope that I haven't caused any damage with using WD40.

The two cones jumped into my basket as they were on sale and I don't have much in the way of cones to practice with, I also bought spare needles as things like that are hard to buy locally.

Thanks for stopping by my blog Michele and I hope that you manage to get the old machine, that you have just bought, working properly.

The bead crochet book on the left is one that I have borrowed from Rachael from Artyarn whose knitted wire bracelets inspired me to try to crochet one. Click on the blog title to see the knitted ones that Rachael has made. I ordered the book of the right as the last bead book that I ordered wasn't what I wanted at all and I didn't like the designs or find it very helpful. I am going to have a trial run with some large beads and cotton before I graduate to wire and small beads.

I have crocheted the back, 2 fronts and one short sleeve of the Hydrangea cropped top but it will take a lot longer to finish as it has crocheted ribbing all around it which will probably take as long to crochet as the rest of the top has done. I just hope that I don't get too sidetracked by the machine but I am going to have to give it a trial run to see if the sponge bar has solved the problems I was having. The good thing is that machine is not in the same room as the TV so I won't be using it in the evenings.

Time to nip out on my scooter. I was supposed to go out yesterday but it was so rainy and windy that I thought that I would get blown away. Yes, I do know that I am not a lightweight but the wind was really gusting strongly.

I had a laugh today when I was reading the forums on Ravelry when a lady called CrotchettyMama describes herself as 'bistitchual' because she could knit and crochet. I love that description. Much better than saying I am an old bat who knits and crochets and it does sound a little racy too. I shall come out of my yarn stash closet and shout I am a Bistichual Ha Ha.

Lastly I hope that my online US friend Bev (Beverooni) had a great birthday yesterday. 21 again Bev? If I ever win the lottery I will come and spend your next birthday with you. Your poor husband would never get a word in for all the crochet chat!

Like Riding A Bike

It's like riding a bike. Once you get on a bike after a long time they say that it all comes back to you. With regard to my machine knitting I think that I have fallen off my bike!

I struggled last night trying to get the ribber to work. I read the manuals once again and then resorted to reading the forum for machine knitting on Ravelry. From them I gained the insight that it might be something to do with the sponge bar. No we are not talking cakes here but rather a long slim bar made of metal with a sponge liner that fits underneath the needles under the machine bed and holds the needles in the correct place for the carriage to pass over with out jamming. When I took mine out it was like a flat pancake and perished. Hopefully this is the problem so I have managed to order a new one online which isn't easy when I have such an old machine. If it works I will give a big thank you to the Ravelry machine knitting ladies.

As I could not knit I decided to check everything else on the carriages. I found that one little wheel cog was clogged up with old wool and wasn't turning properly so I loosened the screw to get the wool out. Big mistake. Of course I dropped this minute screw on the patterned carpet. I spent an hour last night searching the carpet with a flashlight and after another hour this morning I finally found the tiny screw. Next time that I do anything like that I will make sure that I do it over the table with a cloth to catch anything that falls off. I am so glad that I found it as parts for my machine are next to impossible to find as it is so old.

For the sake of my sanity I decided to leave the machine until the sponge bar arrives and so I settled back down to the crochet that I started for my younger niece. I still can't get back into her knitting.I am awful with knitting. I have to go from start to finish without stopping or I put it down and then stop. I am, as you know, a crocheter at heart. I like the crochet top that I am doing now as although it takes longer as I am crocheting into the row below on every row I do like the close stitch pattern. My elder niece saw it yesterday and she also liked it. I did find out when I got to the armholes that I had forgotten to shape slightly outwards. My niece is so slim that I don't think that it will matter that the back is a tad small. I can always make a larger size for the fronts. As I am making the top a big longer I think that the shaping would have been in the wrong place anyway as it was meant to increase at the bust line so I should have put the shaping higher up rather than at the beginning. I am sure that it will be all right in the end. The day that I crochet a pattern from A to Z without changing something will be a miracle!

I got an e mail this morning from my elder niece and she said that she wore her Moiselle cardigan yesterday afternoon and it was so lovely and warm. Better on her back keeping her warm than in my stash room in a plastic bag.

Cool Crochet

The postman called very early today. I was not best pleased that he woke me up on a wet Saturday morning but I changed moods when I saw what he had brought for me. Cool Crochet by Melissa Leapman is another book that has been on the scene for quite a while and also on my wish list for quite a while. For some reason I didn't order it maybe because the jacket on the front cover isn't one of the better designs in the book and I hadn't seen it in book stores so that I could browse the rest of the designs.

It is going to be a useful book as I do like quite a lot of the designs in the book. Whilst some of them are not for me, I can visualize friends and family wearing a lot of them. The cover jacket is a plain kimono style jacket but if the wool was a little more exciting them maybe I would warm to it more.

The chunky coat is one that I have fallen in love with. The shapings are done within the panel pattern and as I do love crochet with shape, especially long jackets, this is already on my wish list.

The red sweater and scarf is fairly plain but the detail on the cuffs just lifts it from an everyday sweater to a bit special and the matching scarf just finishes off the look.

The granny square hat, whilst not for me, is a pretty hat for someone younger and the navy dress would look stunning on someone tall and willowy which definitely lets me out.

Both my niece and I love the lilac hoodie jacket. I hate crocheting in ribbon though as I twist it like mad whilst I am crocheting but I am sure that I could improvise it in another yarn. I have two large 400 gram balls of lilac aran already in my stash that could be heading the way of this pattern.

I do like the orange stripy top but once again not for me as being a big lass I don't like to emphasize my size with stripes.

The red cardigan is a lovely summer style pattern and despite what I have said about stripes previously I do like the staggered pattern on the sweater as the eye is fooled into thinking that the stripes go across the sweater from one shoulder to the opposite side edge.

The red bolero is another lovely summer style and my niece loved the aran sweater although I would make it just that tad longer to reach her waistline. Although she has lost loads of weight I still don't think that she would like her bare waist to be on view in the colder weather.

Again I am contradicting myself about stripes as I do like the blue striped sweater. I think that it is the unusual collar that I like the most and maybe if the stripes were in subtle colours I could get away with wearing it.

I do like the green lacy poncho style but it's not something that I would wear. I would go for a shawl that doesn't have to be lifted over my head. I do love the beaded tassels on the 4 corners of the square poncho and might pinch that idea for other shawls in the future.

The book has many other designs that I haven't photographed so is good value for the money as so many books these days only have a couple of things in them that I like. Inside are hats, bags, more sweaters and even a bikini so plenty of choice in the book.

My niece came today to dye my roots for me and chop a couple of inches off the length of my hair. I gave her the house cardigan that I had made for her with the Wendy Moiselle that I got in the sale from E Kemp. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of her wearing it but she remarked how warm it felt. She has a lot of work to do at home and her house is quite a cold house so she likes nice warm cardigans to wear whilst she is working at her computer. As she has lost so much weight lately I thought that I would make her something that fitted her rather than the too large ones that she has been wearing.

My niece came bearing gifts. I love the fact that she has lost so much weight as I have now finished up with a lot of her wardrobe. She buys good quality clothes so I have just been updated for the summer. I will have to diet now so that when she gets fed up of the new clothes that she has bought to replace these bigger ones, that she has given me, I can fit into those at a later date ;-) Cheeky aren't I?

Machine Cones From Texere

My New Year's Resolution not to buy any wool unless absolutely necessary didn't last long. As you know I have been getting my knitting machine ready for use and studying the manuals. I haven't, as yet, started to practise anything but I ordered the baby machine cones in readiness. I am going to practise with small things to start with as there are so many babies expected in my friendship circle. Machine cones are ideal as they don't need waxing and I don't have to keep an eye on the wool running out in the middle of a row plus the bonus of no wool to wind. I have two wool winders but they are both elderly and are winding a bit lopsided. If I take to machine knitting I will have to invest in a new one. I thought that I would save the expense for now until I am sure that I will make more use of my machine.

I do prefer to hand knit and crochet but it's nice to be able to add another skill to my craftiness. I think that there is a place for machine knitting in my life just as there is for my hand knitting and crochet.

I am in the process of stitching up the thick cardigan I am making for my niece. The body is stitched together I just have the sleeves to fit in. I haven't done any more on my younger niece's charcoal jacket. Yesterday I didn't do much of anything as the workmen came to do the cavity wall insulation and whilst they were quite tidy there is still a lot of dust to get rid of and the carpets to hoover again.As they were in and out of the house I could not concentrate on any knitting. I hope that all the mess is worth it and I notice a difference in the house warmth and the utility bills. It's just a pity that it didn't get done before the cold weather set in. After they had left I had to do some shopping so it was about 8pm before I settled down for the evening.

Today I had to take my CPAP machine for another check up. After my sleep test results were analyzed from a couple of months ago they decided that I needed the pressure on the machine altering. I was quite happily surprised today as even with two taxi journeys I managed to get to the hospital, get seen, and come back in a little over an hour. It must be a record for the least time waiting for a hospital appointment ever. I should go up and collect my prescription from the pharmacy today but it is very windy. I don't like going out on my scooter when it is blowing like this although with my weight I don't think that I would get blown over!

I really need to finish off the hoovering. The grit from the wall drilling has got everywhere even though they were careful and put sheets down. I think dust of this kind stays in the air and settles for a few days after the event. Most of the drilling was done outside but I had 3 walls inside the house that are exterior walls upstairs even though they are now inside walls downstairs because of added kitchen and dining room extensions. As they were cavity filling the top of the wall they had to fill the bottom of the wall as well for everything to work. I will have to look in the garage to see if I have any matching paint to cover the refilled holes in the wall.

Trying To Get Back To My Knitting

The cleaning bug is on the wane. Partly because the hoover belt snapped again. I got a neighbour to unscrew the front of the hoover and replace the belt and then five minutes after he had gone home I ran over a long tail of wool on the carpet. Before I could switch the hoover off it had wound around the roller and snapped the hoover belt again. This time I don't have a spare belt to replace it si I will have to wait until someone can get me one from the market. I do have a very old extremely noisy Hoover that I can use but it is metal and very heavy to push around.

I have decided to put the cleaning on a stop as tomorrow some workmen are coming to install cavity wall insulation and although most of the work is done outside they have to drill into three interior walls as they used to be exterior walls before the extension was built.

I have been reading my machine manuals and feel fairly confident that I now know how to cast on and how the ribber works. I will read up on the lace carriage once I master the plain knitting. I am not starting anything though until the weekend. I will have enough to concentrate on with the workmen and cleaning up after them.

I have been trying to get back into the mood for the charcoal grey knitting for my niece but once I put something down it takes me a while to get back into the pattern. I have done a few rows on the garter stitch thick jacket and now have a back, a front and a half. I did start some crochet a couple of nights ago thinking that if I was off my knitting then I might be in the mood for crochet. That didn't work much either as I only managed a few rows of that. It is a nice pattern stitch but took a bit of thought before I worked it out.It is for my younger niece and although she is slim I think that this size is a bit small so I may have to restart it.

Time for a coffee and a restart to the knitting. Hopefully once I put my mind to it I will get back in the mood for something crafty.