Sewing Up Stripes

Whenever I sort through my stash and find bits and pieces of compatible yarns then stripes always seem like a good idea. When I finally finish knitting or crocheting a striped garment then my mood changes. It has taken me most of today to seam together all the different colours trying as best as I can to exactly match the stripes. This sweater was a bit more difficult because of the wavy stripes. Hopefully it will look a little better once it has been blocked out to flatten the seams.

This sweater seems to have been on the needles for such a long time. Partly due to the fact that I started it twice as my first choice of colours was disappointing as the lilac was so pale it was virtually indistinguishable from the white. The pattern is Sirdar 8930 but as you can see I made mine with long sleeves and not such a long bottom ribbing. I didn't make the neckline as deep and stitched it down to form a doubled neckband rather than the collar on the pattern.

I used 4 balls each of green Patons Cotton Sahara 2323, Patons Linen Look in White and an unlabelled cotton ribbon (possibly Sirdar) in a mink shade. I christened this sweater mint choc chip as it reminded me of the colours of ice cream.

I have managed to find the pattern for my next crocheting project. I altered the pattern last time and so have been zooming in on photos in my projects to try to recreate the same style. I do wish that I wrote things down. I never do and as I don't have the jacket to look at and as it is a surprise for my niece's birthday I can't ask her to see the other one so will have to keep gazing at photos and winging it again and hope that it turns out exactly like the one I made before which she loves.

I changed my CPAP mask back to my old one which just covers my nose and although I am still a wee bit tired today I am much better than the last few days and have managed not to fall asleep as yet. In theory the newer mask should be better for me as it covers up my mouth as well as my nose but for some reason it doesn't work as well in my case.In order to work the masks have to be a good seal otherwise the pressurised air escapes and fails to keep me breathing when I stop. Sometimes I wonder if I still need to wear my mask every night and then a few days with an ill fitting mask prove that I do. I have been falling asleep without warning randomly all through the day which is what used to happen before I was diagnosed with sleep apnoea. It used to be embarassing when I fell asleep at work even in the middle of a coversation with someone.When friends came around for the evening I used to wake up in the dark on the sofa. My friends culd not wake me so just let themselves out and turned off the lights. I was always having to ring people up to apologise. I once fell asleep on the garden wall with a trowel in one hand and a fork in the other in the middle of weeding. My neighbour had to shake me awake as my front door was wide open and I was sleeping on the wall.

Hopefully I will stay awake this evening long enough to start my niece's jacket but as the wool is black I can see that not a lot of crochet will get done. I usually save the dark colours for daylight.

Ana Luisa - The Crochet For Babies book should be available in the US as it uses US terms. The number is 70217 by The Needlecraft Shop, I got mine from Amazon.co.uk but I am sure that Amazon.com will stock it. I think that I first saw it advertised on a US blog or web page.