Total Crochet Fashions

Although this book is new to me today it has been around for quite a long time. My niece bought the book a few years back and I crocheted the cover shawl for her in black, the second photo bolero and the last green round fronted jacket. I had always meant to buy the book for myself back then but somehow never got around to it.

The book Total Crochet Fashions by Leisure Arts is quite retro inside, with flower chokers, halter neck dresses etc but a few of the designs are still very wearable today.

The shawl was beautifully fine and I made it in black for my niece's holiday abroad. It was so pretty that I always wanted to make one for myself but never quite got around to it ( story of my life!)

The charm school shrug turned out lovely when I made it for my niece although I must admit to jiggling the front edge shaping as when I made it the shaping as the pattern rows weren't as rounded as I like so I altered it slightly. It wouldn't be me if I didn't do some Jan modifications to a pattern!

Although, in general, I am not a lover of crochet bags there is something about these three that I like. The retro granny square bag is one that I would love to make as a knit/crochet tote for my WIP's. I would have to line it,of course, or I would be shedding hooks and needles as I went along. The tweed bag and the striped bag look nice and firmly crocheted which is why they appeal to me.

What can I say about the granny square tank top except that it is very retro. It is a style though that is coming back and brings back many memories of my youth when I had quite a wardrobe of crochet tank tops many with granny squares in them. Perhaps I should release the inner hippy within me and make something like this once again. What is the fun of old age if I can't be a little eccentric?

The green jacket turned out lovely for my niece. It has very narrow sleeves at the top but bell shaped at the end. Once again reminiscent of my old hippy days.I think that I am reverting back to them in many ways. Wearing shawls is just the start and looking at retro pattern sites and ordering some that I think are still wearable. I do wear long skirts a lot as they are practical for my life style. They keep me warm and also keep my legs warmer when I ride on my mobility scooter than trousers do. I can put an underslip under them or even a pair of crop stretch trousers under when I am out and about doing shopping. It can get a bit chilly around the lower extremities.

When I was searching through my old patterns the other day I found myself gazing longingly at some of the crochet poncho and cape styles in the old Phildar books and wondering if I could get away with wearing something like that nowadays. I could cut quite a dash zipping up to the shops with my cape flying behind me. Slight exaggeration here as Pearl only does 4mph on the flat or downhill.

As you can see from the bottom photo I made a complete mess of the two fronts for the baby machine knit cardigan. I thought that I did everything the same as the back but obviously not. One front turned out frilly and the other came out with too many rib rows so was a different size to the back plus it had a hole at the edge of the ribbing. I will unravel them and start again. Perhaps I should watch the 'how to' video once again and write some pointers down this time.

The charcoal cardigan now has a back and two sleeves and last night I did the rib for one front. I am getting there slowly but surely. I will have a change tonight if I go to the Knit Club as I will have to take something with me that is lighter coloured as there is no way that I can see an aran panel in charcoal grey in the dimmer pub lighting.

I think that I am liking my massage cushion as my back feels a lot easier and I managed to bend down yesterday without all of the pain and huffing and puffing that I usually do. My spine feels like it can bend that bit better. Before I felt like I had a few inches of lower back that just would not bend and yet the specialist had said that it wasn't because of the repair, that it was muscular and would come back to use with time. Maybe my muscles just needed a bit of a jump start as I never had any physio after my spinal op. It could have been the way that I was tensing my back to try to shield myself from any pain.

Time for a coffee and perhaps a bit of knitting whilst I watch Loose Women on TV. Firstly I must drum up some enthusiasm for the dishes. I was offered a dishwasher a couple of weeks ago but I had to turn it down as my kitchen is so small there is no where to get it plumbed in.

Up A Bit, Down A Bit

I got my new toy yesterday and so far so good. I haven't quite got the hang of the controls yet and the shoulder/neck part of the cushion is a bit high to get the edge of my shoulders and neck as I would like but I need to practise more on getting the settings right. My one criticism of it is that when it is switched off then all the adjustments that I have made revert back to factory settings so I spend the first minutes re-adjusting it to my needs again.

There are two kinds of settings. One just massages up and down the back like a buzzing wave and the second one is more vigorous with the Shiatsu massage which is like revolving balls up and down the spine. What I do like is that I can stop the machine when doing Shiatsu into just the place to give the best pummelling to. In my case my lower spine as it can get a bit uncomfortable on my upper spine as I don't carry as much fat up there whereas on my lower back/butt I have plenty of fat padding. I haven't really used it with the heat on as it says on the brochure that too much use of the heat can lessen the life of the machine. I presume that using the heat will also use more electricity.

I have only used it a couple of times so I can't say what the long term effects will be but when I used it yesterday I could actually bend down to my shoes without straining and my back was still more mobile this morning. I am resisting the tendency to over use it as I feel that it might make my back tender in the long run. I am pleased with my purchase and as it has cost me less than a tenth of the price of that vibrating mattress and has a similar effect on my back, but without the headache, and that pleases me even more.

I have finished the one sleeve of my younger niece's charcoal cardigan and started the second sleeve. I feel like I progress so slowly when I am knitting. I am so tempted to crochet but as I am on a deadline I must push onwards. I am hoping though to do a bit more machine knitting today and make the other pieces for the white baby cardigan that I started before I forget how to do the nice cast on for the ribbing.

It's nice Spring like day. No sun visible but at least the days are getting brighter which lifts my mood considerably. I think that I should hibernate when winter comes and emerge again when Spring arrives. I do hope that we get some summer this year as I love the warmth of the sun. Notice that I said warmth and not heat. Unfortunately in the UK we get so very few days when we can say that it's too hot. My old bones just feel the benefit of a bit of warmth and no dampness in the air.

Coffee time, time to tackle the dishes and hoover and then hopefully tackle the knitting machine for an hour or so.

New Excuse To Stash

I did need the knitting machine needles as quite a few got bent whilst I was trying to sort out what I was doing wrong with my ribber. Of course as any true stasher knows there is no point in paying the postage just for 2 packs of machine needles when for a small amount more I can add a couple of cones in the parcel. My stash excuse is that most of the wool already in stash is a bit too thick for this knitting machine. It will take a double knit but it has to be a very fine one otherwise the knitting is so stiff it practically stands up on it's own. I think that double knit and thicker will have to be knitted or crocheted by hand or knitted on the chunky machine.

As I am still at the practising stage at the moment I don't want to use, and possibly spoil, any good quality wools. The baby cones that I got from Kemps were very reasonably prices but they only do cones in the baby shades. I ordered the machine needles from Metropolitan and and ordered these cones from their sale. There wasn't a photo of the unlabelled cone and it was described as a beige. Whilst I quite like this colour to me it is more of a camel or mink shade. As it was only £2.29 for the cone I am happy with it no matter what colour it is. The teal is the same brand as the purple that I bought last week and was just over £4 a cone. Once I improve my workmanship I can move onto the more expensive cones or wools. I would hate to ruin anything that I had paid a lot for the wool. I know that I can unravel things but it does tend to strip the wool of some of it's texture if I do that.

Yesterday and today I haven't done any more practising on the machine as I am so afraid of wanting to do it all of the time when I am on deadlines for my hand knit and crochet garments on my list. Last night I hand knitted 3/4 of a sleeve on my younger niece's jacket. I could race along as there is no patterning on the sleeves. I am hoping to finish it tonight and start the second sleeve. I will feel that I have done most of the jacket once they are finished even though I have 2 fronts (with pattern on) , the button bands and a very large collar in rib still to do. Once I have done more than half I feel that I am nearly at the finishing stage.

I have decided against the vibrating bed for a couple of reasons. Mainly I don't have the money, but if I did I don't think that I would get much use from it as instead of relaxing me I found that it woke me up. I did like the feel of it on my back but like Bev it hurt my neck and shoulders and I had a positional headache that lasted all day and most of the evening. I think that if I had that kind of money then I would rather come and visit you Bev and lie of your bed for a shake up and down after travelling so far on a plane.

I understand what you mean Linda about the Shiatsu massage but I don't mind a vigorous massage on my back. My pain is mostly muscular, despite having back surgery, and my back relaxes out after a massage. Whether one of these cushions will work for me remains to be seen. I suppose it's a question of whether the massagers are in the right position for my back, neck and shoulders. I am still very tempted by it though and have been toying with the idea of getting one for a while.

My credit card bill came yesterday and I nipped up to the bank to pay something off it today. I didn't manage to pay anything off the chair and scooter bit of the bill but I did clear the extra that I had put on it from wool, books, patterns, machine accessories, the steamer and various other bits and bats. I had a bit of a mad month and whilst I am annoyed with myself for not making a dent in the debt for the scooter and chair I justify it by thinking that it was an exceptional month for buying things. I think that I should hide my credit card this month. Ha ha. No chance of that. To think that I never used to shop online at all. How on earth did I manage to buy anything?

Well to be honest I was able to walk about then and go to the shops and buy things in person. I wonder how our elderly relatives ever managed. There was no online ordering or any credit cards back then. I suppose though that there was a lot more family intervention and the young ones made sure that the older ones got everything that they needed. I can remember going all over the place to get things for my Mum and my Gran. I never thought anything about it. There was no whinging like there would be today. It was just something that I was brought up to do. I was told to knock on elderly neighbours doors to ask if they needed anything from the shops and just did it without question. It was a different way of life back then. To be fair, back then, everybody knew their neighbours whereas today if anyone knocked on my door, and I didn't know them, I would think that they wanted to steal from me. My own neighbours are very good with me and always ask if I want anything when the weather is snowy, very rainy or it's slippy outside.

I Would Rather Be Crocheting

I seem to be knitting all the time. Whilst I do knit my love is for crochet. Knitting is something that I want to do now and again and not one thing after another. I have finished the back of my younger niece's jacket and the pattern does show up on the charcoal grey better than I thought that it would. I have discovered that the sleeves are just stocking stitch so I am going to crack on with those next to give my brain a rest from the aran style patterning. Once they are done then it will spur me on to knit the two fronts.

I have finished the baby jacket that I was knitting at the Kings Arms Knit Club on Monday. The buttons aren't spaced wrong, they are just not stitched on as yet. I just popped them in place for the photo. I do love knitting from old patterns. As you can see this one was a vintage Emu pattern. The wool is modern though. It is James C Brett Rio DK. I was hoping the the dusty pink would not show as much when knitted so that it could be unisex but it still does have that girly look about it. I have enough wool left over from the 2 x 100 gram balls to make a matching beanie hat.

I haven't done any more machine knitting today. This morning a guy came allegedly to conduct a survey on disability. What he was trying to flog me was a vibrating heated mattress at bargain price of only £1,129. I had a little demonstration of a portable mattress and while it was interesting it didn't make me want to buy one. It was nice, in a way, to be vibrated up and down the body but when I got off the bed most of me felt OK but my neck was aching and still is. It made my lips vibrate which wasn't a nice feeling.

As luck would have it my credit card bill arrived whilst he was here and I said to him to look at the total amount that I still owe. There is no way I am adding anything to that amount until I get it paid off. He started the usual chatter about buy now and pay later but as I don't know how I will be fixed financially in a year's time I told him that I wasn't interested. I don't like debt of any kind. I justify the credit card bill as it was for the armchair and the scooter. I pay something off that amount each month and pay in full anything woolly or bookish that I have added to it that month. Everyone has their own way of dealing with their bills and this is mine. My bill is higher than usual this month due to Sale bargains, knitting machine parts, cones to practise with and pre ordered books from Amazon all turning up at once.

I did mostly like the massage effect of the mattress and am toying with the idea of one of those heat and massage Shiatsu cushions that fit onto a chair and massage the back and neck. They are a mere fraction of the cost of that mattress and probably just as good for what I need it for. I have been looking at them for a long time and they are coming down in price from when they were first advertised and the write up comments from customers on Amazon go into hundreds and nearly all the comments are complimentary. I might justify adding that to my credit card as it is health related.

It is a nice Spring like day today. The crocus are peeping their heads up in the garden which is a sign that Spring is on it's way. I know technically it is Spring but it hasn't felt like it until today. I would go out but I know that I will only end up buying something that I don't need if I go up to the village shops. I had better stay in and do some knitting instead.

I hope everyone is having a good day. I am going to make a coffee and settle down for the rest of the afternoon and start a sleeve.

Broken Toe Cast On

Don't worry I have not done anything else to myself, well not yet anyway. The Broken Toe Cast On is the name of a method of casting on the knitting machine to eliminate the frilly edge of the ribbing that I had on the pink baby cardigan. Thanks to the knitting machine forum on Ravelry I was pointed in the direction of You Tube and a video called Broken Toe Cast On. Apparently it gets it's name
from the fact that if you don't get it right then the machine weights crash down and have been known to land on toes and even break them. I tried it out today and kept my toes well out of the way just in case. I am really pleased with this edging. No frilling as you can see. I hope to make the rest of the pieces tomorrow. I am starting with small things as it is enabling me to practise ribbing, changing from ribbing to stocking stitch, shaping and casting off. I want to get things right before I start on lace or any kind of a pattern and then encounter problems. So for now it's plain all the way at least for another couple of baby cardigans. When I feel confident I will try the lace carriage.

As you can see I need to go and stand in the naughty corner again. I got an e mail from E Kemps telling what bargains they had as they had made further reductions on certain wools. I think that I need therapy as I am turning into a yarnoholic. How could I resist the Sirdar Snuggly at less than £1 a ball when it is the colour that my friend likes for her foster baby boys. I hope that she gets a girl next time but as it's usually boys then I am not holding out much hope although I have got an awful lot of baby wool that is girly colours. I hope that this is an omen and she gets a girl next time. The pink Sirdar Big Softee had been reduced yet again so that had to be bought and also the Hayfield Aran 400 grams is now £2.99 ball but only for the lilac colour.

I know quite a few pregnant ladies at the moment so hopefully there will be a few girls. The barman at the Kings Arms baby girl is due on Sunday. His wife was in the pub last night and looking very huge but yet still high so it might be a bit late.

I went to Knit Club last night. I took some hand knitting with me but as it is a bit dark for my old dim eyes in there I didn't take anything dark. I took some multi coloured James c Brett DK that I initially started to Tunisian crochet with but decided to unravel it and use it on the machine. The wool was too thick for the machine so it got unravelled again and is now half way to being a hand knit baby jacket. I ordered it online and it looked like multi bright colours with red. When it arrived the colours were different to my monitor and it was definitely a deep pink and not red. I therefore didn't use it for the foster baby boy that it was intended for, Making it up it is still pink but not so pink that it can't be used on a boy. Hopefully the other colours will distract from the pink colour especially if I put blue or green buttons on it. Hopefully I will be able to show that to you tomorrow. As I am using an old pattern I am knitting it like wildfire. I slow down and struggle more with the modern pattern than I do with my golden oldies. The pattern instructions today contain too much information for me. Pattern have 3 or 4 pages for one sweater whereas this pattern that I am using has 3 pages for 3 different cardigans but yet still covers 3 sizes. How come patterns are so complicated to understand these days?

Hydrangea Crop Top

I am really pleased with the way that this Hydrangea Crop top pattern from the 'Mission Falls goes crochet' book has turned out. I love the pattern stitch. Sorry that the close up photo has turned out blurry and you can't see it properly. As I mentioned yesterday I had to re do all of the ribs as when I made them to the pattern instructions they were frilling and not fitting nicely around the neckline in particular. I replaced the rib pattern stitch with just doing UK double crochet into the back of the stitch on every row. I hope that it fits as it is quite a close fitting top and only half my size so I can't see how it fits in wear. I will have to wait until April to see my niece wearing it.

I used 3 x 100 gram balls of Wendy Serenity aran that I had left over from the aran cardigan that I knitted for her a couple of years ago. We had bought the right amount for the aran jacket but the yardage on the wool was so good that I had 4 balls left over. My niece likes sedate colours as she works in law. She wears a lot of blacks and greys for work. The top button is the same shade as the others. I don't know why it looks an odd colour on the photos. I can see that other people will fall in love with this top. Much as I love it, it is not the style for me. It would lose it's style if it was made into a longer length which I would need to cover my lumps and bumps up.I will definitely use the crochet stitch and use it to make a jacket for myself in the future as it is such a lovely textured stitch. For jackets I like stitches that remind me more of knitting. I like openwork cardigans for summer but as we don't get much sun in the summer I only need a couple of those type of jackets.

I have been given advice on 3 different ways of casting on for ribs for my knitting machine so I will practise and make all three methods and then decide which one is the best for my machine and me. It will probably be Monday or Tuesday before I start machine knitting again.

Buster is still here. He was supposed to go home today but my son and daughter in law arrived home from their weekend away a bit later than expected so have decided to pick him up tomorrow instead. Not much knitting or crochet has been done. He sits, with his ball, with those sad eyes looking at me so I have to put down whatever I am doing and play ball with him. Today he wants to sit on my knee all of time. I have to compromise and sit on the sofa and allow him to lay his head on my lap. I draw the line at his full body weight. He has decided that my recliner armchair provides the perfect perch for him to keep the street under surveillance. He sits there for ages whilst he is on sentry duty.

My neighbour Julie, who has had such a long battle with cancer, has got engaged this weekend. I am so happy for them. I have everything crossed that the cancer doesn't come back (she is in remission at the moment and has been for 3 yrs). She deserves some happiness in her life. It is slightly sad though as she will be childless, unless they adopt, due to chemo and radical cancer surgeries. Her fiance has been married before so she will have two step daughters but they are quite grown up now. The main thing is that she is still alive and hopefully cancer free and now has a chance for a happy married life.

My eyebrow is still extremely sore but still no bruising has emerged there. I just have a dull headache and my neck hurts. I must have a hard head. The rest of my right hand side has some spectacular purple bruises especially on the cheek of my right buttock. Don't panic I don't plan any photo sessions of my purple coloured fat and cellulite. I have been taking it easy today as I have stiffened up as if I had overdone it at the gym. Not that would be something that you will never hear from me. Gym is like a swear word to me. I have always hated it even when I was very slim. I don't mind dancing, belly dancing or even exercise to music but pedalling away on a bike to nowhere, or walking miles on a treadmill are just too boring for words. The adrenalin rush and feel good factor passes me by. The only time I get that feeling is browsing a wool shop or gazing online at gorgeous wool sites.

I wonder if I should open the porch door tomorrow so that the postman can leave my sack of Valentines cards in there without waking me. Now that is a joke. The nearest thing I will get to a Valentine evening out is if I go to the Knit Club tomorrow night.

I Am Sure That Dogs Laugh

I must have been a restless sleeper last night. I have woken up many times lately to find that I am pinned by the duvet as I have rolled myself up in it during the night like a swaddled baby. About five this morning I woke up with a bang. Literally. I must have rolled over and out of bed and the first thing I knew about it was waking up on the floor with a sore head, arm, hip and knee. Fortunately falling when asleep must be like falling when drunk, As I didn't put my hands out to save, me as I would if I had been awake, I probably saved myself a broken wrist or arm. For a couple of minutes I just lay there, stunned, wondering what the hell just happened. Then I realized that I hurt all over and realized that I had fallen out of bed. For the record I was stone cold sober. It took me ages to get back up again as I still cannot kneel on either knee. I had to have a plan of action. Eventually I shuffled to the edge of the bed and managed to haul myself up with the bedding. I didn't want to use the radiator to lever myself up as I was afraid of pulling it off the wall.

Buster, during all of this, was wondering what game we were playing and was wagging his tail and dancing around me. Whoever said dogs don't have expressions was wrong. It may have been only half light but I will swear that he was laughing! He definitely found it all very amusing.

I checked that I wasn't bleeding anywhere and got back into bed. This morning when I was taking my shower I saw purple bruising coming out on my hip, my bum, my knee that has been replaced and also my shoulder and arm. Thankfully I didn't put my arms out to save myself or I could have done something to my wrists and then how could I knit or crochet? I had a duck egg sized bump on my right eyebrow but at the moment apart from the spot in the middle where I must have nutted the bedside table corner I don't have any bruising there so far. I am stiffening up as the day is going along.

I have managed to finish off the first (for 20 yrs) baby cardigan knitted on the Knitmaster 360 machine. I had previously made parts of cardigans on my chunky machine but this machine is finer and a lot more complicated. I still have a lot of practising to do as this little cardigan has a few mistakes on it and has one sleeve slightly longer and wider than the other. The machine has a tension dial. It's a bit like changing needle sizes. As everything is counted by a row counter then I must have had the tension dial set slightly differently for one sleeve. Another thing to watch out for next time. I have had some advice on curing the frilly cast on edge from the Ravelry knitters forum which I will try out with my next project. The buttons are slightly the wrong shade but as it is only my practise cardigan I am not going to change them.

I bought a new ball winder. I have two already but one works with plastic cones. The drawback with that is I would have to buy a lot more cones plus the fact that it is not working 100%. I have another just like the one that I have bought but as all the moving parts are plastic and it is 20 yrs old the cog wheels slip when I am using it and the ball goes all lop sided. Winders are a must when I am using commercial balls of wool to get the tension correct.

The grey cropped top is finally finished but I have not yet stitched the buttons on so I will show you that tomorrow. I am pleased with the way that it has turned out but only after I undid the crochet ribbing and re-did it all. I know that I am a slack crocheter but instead of holding firm the bands were all coming out too large for the top. If I am not satisfied with something then I have to re-do it until it looks right. I rarely follow a pattern from start to finish if I don't think that it looks quite right.

I don't know what I will start tonight. All the things that I have to make are for other people and darkish colours so I will wait until Buster goes home tomorrow to continue with those. I don't machine knit at night so I will probably just start something small like a baby jacket or hat.Buster is full of energy despite a short walk for him and a scoot for me so no doubt it will be several games of catch tonight after dinner. He never tires of chasing a ball. At home he doesn't have balls as the Rottweiler rips them all up so they don't last a minute. It's a novelty now for him to play ball so he makes the most of it whilst he is here.