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.