More Vintage

I seem to be stuck in a vintage mood of late. Whilst the wool for this crochet jacket is very new the pattern is from a book called Glorious Crochet Sweaters edited by Nola Theiss which despite being many years old is still available on many book sites. I love this book and have made 3 or 4 different designs on the 'aran' theme from it.

This knitting is a real blast from the past. Not only is the pattern vintage but the Patons Diana brushed chunky is from the same era. It came from some wool that I had donated to me from an old lady's stash. She must have bought it back in the 80's. I made this sweater many times but of course I was much younger and slimmer in those days. I am making this a little larger than the leaflet and am hoping that it will fit mewhen it is finished. If not then it will find another home. I am limited as to how large I can make it as I only had one ball extra to the pattern requirements. As you can see the knit row is on a 12mm and the purl row should be on 4.50 needle. Hence the name Oddpin knitting. I am actually using a 5mm needles as I want the sweater to be larger than the largest size on the pattern. This is my plain knitting for when I go to knit outs and knit club as I can't concentrate on patterns whilst I am chatting.

These patterns are the first of a batch of vintage patterns that I ordered online. The cardigan on the left is one that I used to make for my son. I loved it as it was easy to make, had pockets which my son loved and was very boyish looking. The centre pattern I have never had before but it looks like a really nice crochet stitch pattern if somewhat girlish. The entrelac sweater pattern I did make for myself years ago and still have the sweater somewhere in the wardrobe. I don't wear it much as I itch too much with anything vaguely woolly or fluffy. I wanted the pattern to refresh myself as to the actual entrelac stitch as I have seen scarves and shawls on Ravelry using this method. It is easier to do than it looks but I just could not remember the technique.

Today is lovely and sunny but still cold. Hopefully it is a sign that Spring is on it's way which is a good job as I got my gas fuel bill today and as it was for the coldest period of the year it was a bit of an eye popper. I am not going to cut down on heating and be cold no matter what the cost. I will just have to cut down in other ways. I have quite a warm house though and once the sun starts to shine then the heating gets switched off for the summer. What I have to spend in the winter to stay warm is balanced out by the savings that I make in the summer. I should make myself more warm shawls before next winter and then I can cuddle up in those and keep the thermomenter lower. I don't think that I am using more gas than before it is more that the gas prices have risen so much.

I got a letter this morning dated the 7th March cancelling my hospital appointment for the 6th March! They are re-booking me to the 14th. There was a short apology note inside about the fiasco on Sunday. They are blaming the clerical and nursing staff for not turning up for clinic. The nursing staff were definitely there it was the specialist who was missing. Admittedly there was no clerical staff or files but surely if they knew this was the case they could have told us on our arrival and saved us all a 2hr wait for nothing. At least this appointment is for a Monday and not so early in the day.

Today is food shopping day so I will be scooting off to Tesco this afternoon. I had hoped to start crocheting this morning but as usual other things sidetracked me. I want to get on with it as it needs to be finished very soon and posted off so that I have time to knit my elder niece's birthday jacket for the 3rd April. A crafter's work is never done. Perhaps I should whistle while I work to make my fingers fly faster. The back is the largest piece so once that is finished I should move a lot faster.

Time to stop blogging and get something done.