Crochet In The Garden

It has been a lovely warm summers day today. I have been sitting out in the garden crocheting and finishing off these two baby tops. As I was helped by my assistant Buster and his squeaky ball not much actual crochet got done really. I think it averaged about 4 stitches per ball throw. Still he is good company. He was very hot though and I had to put my garden umbrella up to provide a small patch of shade for him to rest in between ball throws.

As we still don't know the sex and size of the foster baby due to arrive soon I stuck to finishing off these two tops and then I am going to change to some different crochet until my friend gets the nod. This time I think that I will wait until the baby actually arrives before I make any more outfits. These two jackets are based on a free pattern on Ravelry The top one is more or less a faithful copy of Rindy's Spring Jacket except that I put buttons to fasten it instead of a crochet tie at the neck. The second jacket is worked the same way until the division for the armholes when I changed to an alternating shell pattern with every row a different colour. The pattern is a variation of Rindy's Short Sleeve Jacket which can be made with long sleeves and there is a version with red or navy stripes without the frilled edge that would look good on a baby boy.

The eye popping yellow fleck wool was 2 free balls of Vita one of Charlotte Lewis designs that came free with Let's Knit magazine, I inherited 2 balls from 2 different friends. There was also a couple of balls of vibrant lime and lemon but when I tried a jacket in that it was just too much. The poor baby would have had it's eyes crossed or had to wear sunglasses. it is now destined to be a cheerful dishcloth I think.

My Learn Tunisian pattern books haven't come yet as I chose the free delivery method. It is of course far cheaper but I have to wait a few days before I get them doing it this way. I don't mind I would rather wait for delivery than pay a lot for postage. It really puts me off when the delivery charges are more than what I have ordered. When I checked on the status of my order and my pre orders I found out that the Doris Chan book that I pre ordered is now due for dispatch. The estimated date for me to get it is June 8th but maybe I will get mine sooner if stocks have already arrived at Amazon. I just hope that I can practise my Tunisian crocheting before the new book arrives. I have 3 lovely baby/toddler patterns in Tunisian from Kay Jones that I want to try soon.

I am also expecting a parcel from Purplelinda but no wool this time - just some patterns (as if I don't have enough :) ) Purplelinda is a very reliable site to order from but not always the speediest for delivery.

I will start something else tonight. I know that if I do that then my ordered books and patterns will arrive before I get to finish off my next project. If I hang on and wait for the books to arrive then they won't come for days. I could always do some of my unfinished knitting but I am just not in the mood for it.

It has gone quite dull now but it is still heavy and humid. It feels like it is going to rain though even though the forecast is for a heatwave weekend. Somehow the weather men never do seem to get it quite right. I hope that it stays nice as my niece is taking me to our local Farmer's Market on Sunday morning so that I can get some lamb for the freezer and some fresh vegetables. As it is only a very small market we find it best to go at 10am when it opens before they run out of anything. The bread stall is manic. Always queued out. You have to be lucky to get any bread at all. I will stay away from the cake and chocolate stalls but if the West Indian Pattie lady is there I will get tempted by the spicy lamb patties. I keep meaning to try the duck eggs as they look huge. Maybe on Sunday I will give them a whirl.

Off to make something for dinner. Buster has already had his but I am sure that he will be eyeing mine up once it is out of the oven. My son goes mad if he thinks that I feed him my food but hey I like to spoil my fur grand baby when I get the pleasure of looking after him for a couple of days. First I had better rescue my cushion and umbrella from the garden as it really does look like rain now.