Finished at Last

The extra ball of wool arrived in the post from the Yarn Barn yesterday. Thanks Judith for such prompt posting. This means that the jacket is now finally finished. Counting up the actual hours this jacket hasn't taken that long to knit but I kept putting it down, firstly when Buster came to visit, and secondly when I needed to make those crochet flowers in a hurry. Knitting myself that super thick chunky jacket in between was just something that happened because of the Royal wedding. I knew that I would be cabling in all the wrong places if I carried on with this jacket whilst watching the TV so closely and my jacket was just stocking stitch with a bit of double moss st so I could knit away without concentrating too much.

The last time I knitted this jacket I made it in Sirdar Click Chunky and it kept growing and growing and my niece finished up using it for a house coat. She did like the pattern so much before it stretched that we discussed making it in a different yarn that wasn't as soft and floppy as the Click. This one is King Cole Magnum chunky which has a much firmer feel. It didn't have the yardage of the Click hence my needing 2 x 100gram balls extra. It is looking a wee bit small for my niece but this rib and cable pattern tends to spread in wear so I am sure that it will be OK when she tries it on tomorrow. The pattern is from Sirdar Winter Glamour 330  book.

I had a lovely surprise in the post today. Margaret from Australia (Marge41 on Ravelry) had sent me another set of vintage knitting patterns. She knows how much I love these designs. My needles will be clicking to make some of these before long. I just need a crochet fix first.

I think that the older patterns have more shape and pattern than the modern ones do and I find them much easier to follow than the patterns with about 8 sizes.

This little girl is almost a carbon copy of me when I was small. My Mother always dressed me in dresses with a cardigan and a huge bow in my hair. When we lived for about 12 months with my Aunt and Uncle in Wales they had a  lovely retreiver dog called Tinker and I used to pretend that he was my dog. He was such a lovely dog and patiently followed me about wherever I went. When we had to leave Wales I was more upset about leaving Tinker than anything else.

Such a lovely display of cardigans. I don't think any of these would look out of place on a very young baby these days. I like the fine wool for newborns.

Aren't these little booties just darling? The whole booklet is dedicated to booties and little hats. I know that I will be using this booklet soon.

I haven't done much of anything today except stitching up my niece's jacket. That is the one thing that lets me down. My stitching up leaves a lot to be desired even though I do try so hard to be neat. I think that is why I love patterns such as Doris Chan so much as they involve hardly any, or no, stitching up after they are finished. That is my kind of crochet.

The steam mop still hasn't arrived despite allegedly being sent first class parcel mail. I hope that it arrives soon as I am looking after my furry grandson Buster for a couple of days next week whilst my Son and Daughter in law do some alterations to their back garden. They are concreting over an area for the dogs so that it can be cleaned and disinfected every day. They are fencing off the lawn and the plants so that they stand a chance of growing vegetables without the dogs fouling near them. It will also keep the grass nice for when the grandchildren come to play. Buster ruins grass as he likes to dig in it. The other two lady dogs don't have his bad habits. Hopefully it won't rain for a few days otherwise Buster will be staying longer than a couple of days and then my lawn with have holes dug in it. It has just about recovered from his last visit.

I am looking forward to tonight and picking up my crochet hooks again as I start a sleeveless jacket for my niece.