Sunday Outing to the Knit Club

Today I went to the monthly meeting of the Knitting Noras. I enjoyed it but my knees didn't. By the time I got home again my knees were well and truly knackered. I think that I will have to stop going until after my operations unless my niece can give me a lift up there sometime.

Last night I went to the combined 70th birthday party for my sister in law and 1st wedding anniversary for my younger niece. I can't believe that a year has gone by since they got married. Time really does whizz by in some respects but not in others. The meal was OK apart from one thing. My family had forgotten that I don't like curry.Yes I know,I must be the only person that I know who can't stand the taste of it. Luckily they had made another dish of aubergines and other veg so I ate that with Naam bread and boiled rice.

Mostly times flies by but I feel like I have been waiting for my operation date for absolutely ages. I think I will ring the hospital tomorrow and ask just how far up the waiting list I am. My son wants to plan a holiday as does my brother and my elder niece who lives nearby. It would be nice to have some idea of a date so I can let my family know roughly when I am going in hospital. I do hope that the hospital did put me back on the list as they promised to do when my water infection was cleared up with antibiotics.

My sister in law seemed pleased with her shawl. I modelled it before I gave it to her so that I could have photos for my Ravelry project site. I like the pattern and wool as it is quite soft and can be scrunched up to make a scarf like shape to wear over a coat in the winter. Today I did a bit more on one of the boy's crocheted sweaters as it is the Christening of the younger one next Sunday and the older one is 2yrs old next week. I have the Lacy Duster to finish but the wedding isn't until the end of May so I will try to finish off the sweaters this week. I was going to knit them little hooded jackets but I knew that I would not have time for those. I will have to give their Mum an I.O.U and start them after I have finished off the Lacy Duster coat.

Tonight I am going to rest my knees as I have an appointment with the practise nurse for a blood test tomorrow. The GP needs to know if I am still anaemic and I have routine blood tests every few months to look at my kidney function as I have impaired kidney function due the the amounts of painkillers I have been taking over the years and the alcohol that I abused them with in the years before my divorce. I am sad to say that I used alcohol as a crutch to get me through the last few years before we split up. It's not something that I am proud of admitting, as it damaged my relationship with my son, but it's something that I did change and I do feel pride that I managed to overcome the urge to drink. I didn't drink at all for many years but now I have the willpower to just have one drink and leave it at that.

Sunday Knit Out

Yesterday I went to the monthly Knit Out of the Knitting Noras. Although I do enjoy the Knit Outs by the time I got there I was not on speaking terms with my knees. No matter what the future holds for me in the way of operations and recuperation it surely can't be any worse than this. Watch this space however as I might live to regret these words!

We had quite a good turn out of knitters yesterday. The members have been having a competition as to who could make the best thing from one ball of "She" bright pink mohair. I picked up my ball yesterday and my contribution was almost magical. When I got home and looked for the ball as if by magic it had disappeared. I couldn't understand what had happened to it as I know that I had put it in my bag, This morning when I took another look and shook the bag that I had taken it was underneath the plastic liner that is at the bottom of the bag to give it stability, The ball is one of those flat donut shapes and I hadn't noticed it last night when I emptied the bag.Not sure what I will make with mine. I will have a think. One of the ladies has made a rather amusing mini bikini of 3 hearts with strings I presume in honour of Valentines day. She modelled them over her sweater and pants of course as it was the middle of a Sunday in a public coffee cafe.

I got a very welcome lift home from Bev another Nora member as I had volunteered to store the rest of the wool that was donated for the Noras to use. I have made an inventory of it and will post it up on the Noras site to see if anyone wants anything from it. A lot of members have already chosen some wool but some members haven't seen it as yet. Living alone I have the most space to store it and if no-one else wants it then I can always make good use of it to make some more hats, scarves and possibly shawls with it. They can be an ongoing project for me over the year and I am sure they will all find good homes once they are finished.Besides the homeless hats and scarves there is always a raffle that wants a prize.

I finished off another hat for the homeless and have started a knitted scarf with the navy donated wool. I am knitting the scarf with 3 strands which isn't always easy as I keep finding that I have left a strand behind. I am looking forward to knitting and crocheting something that only has one strand after this.

I managed to poke my toe through my hand knitted socks whilst I was out yesterday. I have only worn them 3 times. I am so heavy footed with hand made socks when I wear them inside my boots. I have found the left over ball and so am thinking of undoing the toe and re-knitting the end of it rather than having to darn it. It will be a bit tricky unravelling the grafting (Kitchener stitch) at the toe but I will only have to unravel about 6 rows after that.

My elder niece called on Saturday and left me some chick flick DVD's and she also brought me a photo of Charlie and Finlay wearing the blue hooded jackets that I made them for Christmas. Their Mum says that the cat is supposed to be looking over the top of the frame but it doesn't matter. The cat can be peeping around the side instead. The red crochet blanket in the photo was made by my elder niece and I got an e mail at the weekend to say that my younger niece (who lives in London) has mastered her first crocheted granny square!

That's what I like. The skills passed to me by my maternal grandmother, my paternal aunties and my Mum passed on to another generation. I only wish that my mother had also taught me to cook! My mum made the most wonderful pastry but as she never measured anything I have no idea how to copy it.When I asked she said Oh I don't know what I do I just was shown this way by my Mum. I have tried pastry from a recipe book but I just don't seem to have the knack of it. Not that I will be trying to make at the moment as I am putting a bit more Oomph into trying to diet and that does not include eating pastry!

Finished Hoodies

The baby hoodies are finally finished. They seem to have taken me ages to knit. I have knitted a 4" square and that is ready for the next time that the washing machine goes on. I can then tell whether they will shrink in the machine or not.

The wool in the bottom photo is from the Yarn Barn in Shaw. The Navy, yellow and orange is destined for 4 knitted hats with a duck motif on and the beige is for an aran type jacket for my London niece. I have cast on and done about 10 rows of the twisted rib with cables. The pattern is from the Knitter and all the cables are on a chart. As I have got older I find I am increasingly befuddled with charts and I do wish that they would give me the choice of written instructions or a chart. Once I fathom it out then I will write out the pattern long hand and then get on with it a lot faster. I suppose it depends on how you learned to knit. The younger knitters seem to prefer a chart but then their minds are a lot more mentally agile than my poor old tired little grey cells. I prefer a chart for fair isle type knit and crochet but just not for lace and cables.

Today I went up to Bolton to the Knitting Noras Knit Out. It will probably be my last one until the New Year as they are held on the last Sunday in the month and so the December one will be so close to Christmas that I doubt anyone will want to go to that one. The weather was atrocious and I got my trouser legs wet through and discovered half way there that my ankle boots let in water. I didn't actually manage to get any knitting done in the cafe today as I was chatting to a new member and to Sylvia who was there with her foster baby. It's good to get out of the house for a change even though the journey took a long time and I got wet through for both journeys. Sunday services on public transport are not as frequent as I would like and so I spent a lot of the day hanging around tram stations and bus terminals. My knee and back are now protesting loudly. I really must make more of an effort to lose some weight after Christmas as carrying this extra weight is making me breathless when I walk.

My flat screen on the PC has turned temperamental on me and so I think that I will have to buy a new one. It won't turn on half of the time and when it does I have a pale grey screen that gradually goes dark but still doesn't give me any pictures. I have to switch it on and off a few times to get a picture on the screen so that can't be doing the on/off switch a lot of good.

I woke up this morning to not only the cheeping of the smoke alarm (it chirps when it is too cold) but the aroma of cat widdle. Next door's cat shot in last night out of the cold and must have been taken short during the night. He is normally a very clean cat so it was a surprise to smell cat wee this morning. The trouble is that I can't find it. I have felt around the carpets but can't find a wet spot and as my sense of smell is not that good directionally I can't pinpoint which areas smells the strongest. I have squirted everywhere liberally with Fabreeze and pray that it will have faded by the morning.I will not be feeling as sorry for him on cold nights in the future if he is going to repay my hospitality with smells.

The meal on Friday was lovely. I go out to dine so infrequently that it is always a big treat for me. Unfortunately Louise could not come with us as she and the boys have got bad colds. She sent a lovely present of some scented candles and smellies for the bath for me.

Charlie's Aran Cardigan is Finished

I have finished Charlie's aran cardigan. I weighed the rest of the ball and I think there is just about enough to make another jacket or a sweater if I chose a less dense pattern stitch. The yarn is Woolcraft Aran 400 gram ball and 100% Courtelle. I appear to have used just a fraction over half of the ball on this jacket so I hope that I have enough for a second garment. The colour is slightly darker than it appears on my photos and is more of a light navy blue.

The Naked Knitting calendar continues to be well supported on Ravelry forums for which we are very grateful and Deb has chatted to the lady who owns Stash yarn shop and she wants 50 copies to sell in her shop and online for us. She has agreed to give us the full amount of each calendar price which is brilliant considering that banking charges would occur if anyone pays by credit card or Paypal as both of these charge a fee for their services. Bev and her husband have been a terrific team selling loads of copies so well done to them also. If sales continue in this way then we will be ordering a reprint soon! Stash don't as yet have any copies for you to buy so at the moment they are only available through our web site and listed shops in the Horwich area with one London outlet. Click on the blog title to keep up with the latest news about the Knitting Noras.

I am going up to Bolton tomorrow for our regular monthly Sunday Knit Out at the Costa Coffee. I missed the last one as I was away on the mystery weekend for my neighbour Julie's 40th birthday. Remember the mystery was ending up in battle scarred Hull? When I come back home Buster is arriving for a week. So next week I will be able to say that I am sleeping with a boxer! Don't all get too excited. I haven't found a Prince Charming. Buster is a boxer cross who is the family dog. Sometimes he lives with me but mostly with my son and daughter in law and their other dog these days as since my back and knee operations I haven't been able to care for him walk wise. I don't think it's fair to keep an animal and not exercise it regularly.

My knitting has been going wonderfully well since I changed from the energy saving bulbs to normal light bulbs. I have got an angle poise desk lamp but I find that the halogen bulb gets extremely hot and the light is so bright that it hurts my eyes as well as burning my hands if the lamp is angled over them.I have joked that I will buy a miner's helmet with a light on it especially for when I go to the Kings Arms Knit Club as the light is rather dim in the snug and I can only knit or crochet very light colours in there.

I am off to delve once more into my pattern stash to find another pattern for Charlie to use up the rest of the navy wool. I will start something for Fynnlay James after that but he does have plenty clothes at the moment so there is no rush for him. I have some pale blue Hayfield chunky that I might make another blanket with for him.