I Learned 3 basic Stitches of Tunisian Crochet

My friend Sue came to see me yesterday and we spent a couple of hours watching the DVD that came with one of my Tunisian books. I am happy to say that we both mastered  the first 3 basic stitches. We decided to stick at those for the time being and just practise until we feel more confident before moving onto other stitches. I haven't measured my tension so have no idea whether it is right or not.  I will also not fret about that until I am more proficient. I don't think that you will be seeing a garment yet (unless it is a scarf) My friend Bev has been trying to persuade me to try Tunisian for a long time. If you click on the link she is reviewing a Tunisian crochet book on her blog.

This video will give you neck ache for the first couple of minutes as I forgot that i can't rotate a video like I can rotate a still photo. Sorry if I give you vertigo.

This is a still photo of the Doris Chan Out Of Sight waistcoat from the Everyday Crochet book that I have just finished in aran cotton that I bought from EBay

 The back view

I am really pleased with the way that this pattern and the cotton yarn have worked up. I have got 5 more colours, on it's way in the post, in the same brand of cotton so am looking forward to using them.

This is the yarn haul that I bought from Kemps online store. The Patons Morocco was only 59p a ball and if you hurry they still have about 4 colours left. The Patons cotton aran works up beautifully and they have a couple of colours left at 99p a ball. You will have to be quick as things don't linger long in Kemps sales.

Sometimes I am lucky and get a really good bargain in cashmere from China. I was very lucky to get these 3 colours that no-one else had bid on and all 3 x 100 gram balls cost me just over £6 postage free. It even came with it's own red paper bag. It is beautifully soft but they only sell it in 1 balls or 3 balls of the same colour that start bidding about £16. The only snag is the longish wait for it to arrive from China.

This is a close up of the multi coloured wool that I am using to make the jacket shown in the video. I did pay a lot (for me) for this wool so the jacket will be staying with me as I doubt anyone would pay the cost of the wool plus my labour if  I was to try to sell it. I like bright things so I really want to keep this for myself.

We have been let off quite lightly with the snow in Manchester. Just a few miles either way of me has deep snowdrifts and blocked roads whilst all we had was a light dusting that didn't last longer than a day. It is very cold though and the wind chill factor makes it feel really icy cold. I have stayed in nice and warm apart from going to the dustbin. That was enough to chill me to the bone as I didn't put my coat on. Thank goodness for freezers of food.

I will have to venture out tomorrow as I need to pick up a prescription for my painkillers from the Pharmacy. I can live without a of of things but not these. I ran out yesterday but managed to find some old ones left over from a year or so ago. These confirmed my opinion that the tablets that I am on now are not half as strong as they used to be. I have had a relatively pain free day using these older pills. I have mentioned this many times to the pharmacist and the GP and they both tell me that it's ridiculous and there is no difference between the brands. I am the one taking them and these generic tablets do not work half as well as the branded ones that they used to prescribe for me. It's all about cost cutting. They probably save a fraction of a penny prescribing me these pseudo tablets.. In my opinion cheaper tablets mean weaker drugs. I can't believe that companies can produce drugs so much cheaper than the original manufacturers without some compromise.

Enjoy your crochet. Bye for now.