66 - How Did That Happen?

The years are rattling around far quicker than they used to. It seems like just a few months since I said 65. I don't know how people who have retired can say they are bored. I simply don't have enough hours in a day. Even when I am having a down day the hours still whizz by. The only time I look at the clock is to say blimey is it that time already? I can honestly say that the minutes never crawl around for me. Considering that I have more hours awake in a day than a lot of people I should achieve far more than I do.

The parcel delivery postman was the first to call this morning and he brought me some wool (for a change) and a Kristin Omdahl crochet book from Amazon.co.uk. I pre ordered this book months ago so it's funny that it arrived on my Birthday. Sort of another present to myself. For years I have had a phobia about crocheting circles or joining circles together as I go along. This book comes with a DVD so I am hoping that when I watch it the veil will lift from my eyes.

The letter postman arrived later with a few cards and this magazine. I am not 100% certain whether this is a gift or whether it is part of my normal Crochet Today magazine subscription as it didn't have any clues inside it. I am sure that I will find out eventually. The DVD in the middle is a birthday present from my nieces as I never watched any episodes of Downton Abbey on TV. Series 2 is now showing on TV but I don't want to watch that until I have seen the first series. They also bought me a new electric kettle so now I can make coffee without flooding the work surface. The old kettle started leaking a few weeks ago.

My family have bought me a  super warm red long jacket which is like a duvet with sleeves. I went up the village on my scooter the other day and came back absolutely frozen and winter isn't here yet. I have also bid on eBay and won a second hand cozy for my legs. Just waiting for it to be delivered. When winter comes (as long as it doesn't snow) I will be able to carry on shopping on my scooter as usual instead of huddling indoors..

After the post came around lunchtime I thought of going for a shower to look half way decent but my friend Sylvia rang to say that I should be receiving a present any time soon. When the doorbell rang a bit later there was a florist standing there with these.

Lovely brightly coloured flowers. Sylvia knows that I love purple so they are shades of purple, lilac with some bright orange flowers in there. I will put them in water as soon as I have finished writing this blog.

I knitted a pair of fingerless mitts for my next door neighbour. He had commented about my crochet fingerless mitts when I put a photo on Facebook. I didn't think that he would suit blue mingled with flowers on so I knitted him a pair in dark green pure wool for warmth.

 I also crocheted this hat from a pattern I bought on Etsy but as it was a US pattern the UK wool, that I used, must have been thinner so instead of turning out a ladies size it has come out more of a large child size. That is the only problem that I have with using patterns from the US their wool is always a different thickness to the UK. Sometimes I can sort out the approximate thickness and other times, like last night, when I guess then  I am way off. I could do with one of my US friends making me up a thickness chart with sample strands of the thickness of some of the most popular yarns. Worsted is the worse one for me to sort out. There seems to even be different thicknesses of worsted in the US. As yarn is now made all over the world and is international instead of regional as in the old days pre Internet you would have thought they would have sorted out some system by now.

Would it not be a lot easier if the world adopted the same method of grading thickness of yarn. I don't suppose that would work though as every country would think that their method was the best one. There are enough arguments about which country came first with the names of  crochet stitches. I have no idea why the same stitches are called different names in different places. It all must have happenend a very long time ago. It's still all very confusing though.

I am now making cowls and neckwarmers. I have a grey one almost finished except for buttons and am half way through a blue one. Photos later. Time is ticking on to the next craft fair and so I must get a bit of a hussle on.

Thanks to everyone who has sent me Birthday wishes via e mail or Facebook. Your thoughts are appreciated.

I have just had a phone call saying that I am getting some company for a few days. Buster is coming so that will be good company for me.