Lilac Wool has arrived

My parcel from Texere arrived this morning so now I can get around to finishing the crocheted lilac sweater. The other two colours are destined for the foster babies.

Yesterday I was sleepy all day after my late start to the day and I am ashamed to say that not only did I have a cat nap during the afternoon I was back in bed before 11pm which is unheard of for me. I slept until after 7am this morning and now feel that I have got myself back to normal sleep wise. The amusing thing about falling asleep last night is that I wanted to watch a programme on BBC One TV called 10 things that you didn't know about sleep. Luckily I managed to watch it this morning on the PC using BBC catch up programme. It had some interesting ways to help insomniacs fall asleep so maybe I will try some of them the next time I toss and turn.

I think that I managed to knit around 10 rows last night. I just could not concentrate. I kept nodding off. This morning I have machine knitted a red jacket so I now have two jackets to hand finish tonight. My machine wool winders both stopped working. One has given up with old age, I think, but the second one was choked up with the fluff of a hundred balls when I came to look at it. I have spent an hour with small scissors and a pair of tweezers de fluffing the spindle. The wool winders have screws but I have never managed to actually take one apart yet. Things like this I miss my Dad for. He was my fixer of all things broken. I wish that I had inherited his talents.

I am glad that I have managed to mend one of them otherwise knitting would have ground to a halt whilst I ordered a new one online. Machines don't like knitting from prewound balls of wool. The wool doesn't come off the ball at an even tension.

I am calling on the US ladies to help me out with this one. Kim left me a comment on my last post asking where she can get the last two books that I have shown to you. The Style for You is a Leisure Arts design and originates from the US so I had to pay quite a lot of money to get it as I presume Purplelinda had to pay to import it. Purplelinda will export both books to the US but it is the same situation with crocheters from the UK ordering books from the US the shipping costs as much as the book costs. It seems a bit of a bad idea for Kim to pay twice as much when she could probably at least get one book far cheaper in the US. If any readers know where Kim can buy both of these books in the US can you give her some help? I know that they sell Style for You on Amazon.co.uk but I didn't see it when I looked on Amazon.com. I am glad that Purplelinda sells the Leisure Arts patterns as prior to that I had to pay a fortune to get them from the US. I once gave money to a friend who was going on holiday in the US and asked her to try and get some pattern books for me from there. Luckily she was a crocheter so it gave her an excuse to look for a yarn shop. Her husband wasn't impressed with me though! If anyone from the UK has tried to buy any of the Tahki Stacy Charles crochet pattern booklets they will know just how hard it is. Unless they offer it as a single pattern download it is pretty nigh impossible.

I have no idea who might stock Patons in the US but I am sure that someone must as it is an internationally known firm. Perhaps you could resort to looking on E-bay Kim.

My furry visitors today have been the black cat who had a few biscuits and then fell asleep in the sunshine and now I have got Poppy the little dog from next door who insists on a pat and a cuddle before leaving me a small parcel on the lawn. I don't know why she has decided that she would rather poop on my lawn instead of her own. Guess I will be out with my pooper scooper before nightfall.