Bows and More Baby Yarn

Abakhan delivered another parcel today. I really wanted Lilac in the James C Brett baby 400 grans but it was out of stock so I finished up with some more cream. It is a useful neutral colour and I have asked Abakhan to let me know when the lilac will be in stock so that I can order it later along with some lemon. I could get it from other sources but the prices are more expensive and I have to take this sort of thing into consideration. I like good  quality but I need competitive prices. Some places have the yarn cheaper but only in 4 colours whereas I need the full range. I am hoping to be mobile enough one day to go and choose my own from the Abakhan shop in Manchester or get up to Bury market and see what bargain packs he has on offer there.

I found the bows in their wedding section. I had looked in the trimmings and the rosebuds section online without success and felt sure that they must have some bows tucked away somewhere. They have now gone into my last empty compartment tray but I will need some more trays as I still have some trimmings on order from Purplelinda.. At least now I can see at a glance what I have. I am finding some kind of neat gene in organising these boxes. So unlike the normal me.

I have been doing a bit more baby crochet last night but today I have been doing a bit of long overdue tidying, dusting and hoovering. The cleaning urge doesn't come that often so I might as well make the most of it whilst it is here as it won't last for long. At least with all of my yarn containers, plastic boxes and laundry bags my mess is more organized. Still messy looking to other people but more contained in my eyes.

Feet up for an hour with a coffee whilst I watch the 60 minute makeover which makes me even more guilty about the state of my house. Still I would absolutely hate them to come and re-do my house as they would never give me enough storage space for my needs. They rip out huge walls of fitted wardrobes and give the people one stylish but tiny wardrobe in it's place for 2 people to share. I would weep if anyone did that to my bedroom! God only knows what they would think of my yarn and crafting stuff. I bet that they have never had to make a room over to contain all of that!

I am still adding to my pile of baby crochet that all needs finishing off. I will have to set a day aside to sew on buttons, thread ribbons and sew on trims. I am trying to do as much crochet as possible as once the garments are completely finished then I will have no excuse not to start inroads into trying to sell them. I am putting this off  until I have at least 10 sets finished.

Pearl and I Got Soaked Today

I decided to go out for some food shopping on Pearl and the heavens opened. Thankfully I had my bright yellow plastic rain cape with me. My arms were sticking out of the cape and it was then that I found out that my jacket is only showerproof and not suitable for pelting rain. I did stay reasonably dry though as did my shopping as I put that under my cape. I did have to change my trousers though as they had a wet 5" around the bottom of the legs and a wet patch on the side where my cape must have not been quite in the right place. I had a T shirt under the jacket so only my arms got wet and not my clothes.

I bought some more plastic storage trays as they are wonderful for separating buttons, trims and beads, The pop up laundry mesh baskets are useful as they pack away flat when they are  not needed.

This is the type of things that I am storing in the flat boxes. Not the yarn as that is for a cardigan for my next door neighbour's sister's baby boy when he arrives in July.

More supplies of baby yarn. I prefer the 400 gram balls by James C Brett as there are no joinings if I am making a shawl or pram blanket. These balls and the trimmings came from Abakhan. I wish that I could shop in person but even if I managed to get there from the tram I would have the problem of getting back to the tram loaded with parcels.

Today this leaflet arrived in the post. Beautiful Baby Boutique  by Rebecca Leigh and published by Annie's Attic. I had looked at the leaflet several times but thought that it was expensive. Amazon has reduced it to almost half price so I just had to get it. I think that everyone of the patterns is just so pretty. I will let you make up your mind.

All very girly designs but then I do think that crochet lends itself more for little ladies than for the boys. I shall be doing these patterns for sure although I have so many lovely patterns it is difficult to know which one to crochet first.

I have been crocheting a few sets for my web page but my one bete noire is booties. I always go wrong with the ones that have an oval sole and usually finish up with 2 odd booties. I found this pattern Emma's Baby Booties  which has a rectangular sole but it turned out too small to match the outfit size I had made. I have now started another bootee pattern which is starting to look rather like bed socks for a 2yr old. If I don't master a nice bootee pattern soon all of my outfits will be short of footwear!

Now I am back at home the rain has stopped. That is just my luck. I have my little black lodger cat asleep on the rocker. She followed me in looking like a drowned rat.

I seem to have new neighbours. They moved in on Monday evening and I have caught glimpses of so many people coming and going with vans and cars I am not sure who is actually living there. I think that it's a youngish couple with a little girl around 3-4yrs. So far they are really quiet so I hope that they always will be. I rarely hear the little girl but then it hasn't been the right weather for her to venture outdoors. There isn't a gate to stop her going from the back garden out into the street so maybe that is why she hasn't been out yet. Our street doesn't have that many cars but the ones who do drive by do so at speed paying no heed to any little ones or animals. I sometimes wonder where all of these cars come from or go to as I live on a street that goes around in the shape of a horseshoe so they can't be cutting through to get to somewhere else. A lot of cars and vans don't actually belong to anyone in the street so it's always been a mystery just where they are going to.

Tunisian Hooks, Patterns and Wool

I had a good day yesterday. I went out to lunch and had three deliveries in the post.

I am determined to master the art of Tunisian Crochet in preparation for the new Doris Chan book in June . I was not going to let the fact that I cannot wield a long hook put me off so I ordered a set of Denise Tunisian hooks. The have a normal sized hook as you can see attached to one or more cables depending on the width of what is crocheted. I haven't yet had a practise but as soon as I finish off my current WIP I will. Watch out Beverooni you will not be the only one to do Tunisian soon.

In preparation for this I ordered a couple of babies/children's patterns in Tunisian from Kay Jones from www.creativecrochet.co.uk. I don't know what happened but I lost control over my fingers and they kept adding patterns to my basket and finished up with 17 new patterns! As you can see from the array of patterns that arrived. I cannot show you everyone of them but they will be appearing one by one on my projects in the future. If you look at her site you can see the patterns that I ordered and I bet that your fingers will be clicking to add just like mine did. You can receive them as a paper pattern or a PDF which is useful.

Next in the post was my copy of Crochet today. I have not had a good browse through that as yet. This was the Christmas present that kept on arriving from my sister in law. She paid for 4 copies to arrive for me. This is the last of them so I will have to decide whether to pay for another subscription or just to try to buy one over the counter which could be a little difficult with my knee situation.

Sylvia, Kath and I met in Manchester and before lunch we went for a browse in Abakhan. We all bought something. I finished up with 2 balls of James C Brett's chunky and as you can see I have started another shawl like the red one I made recently for my niece. it is my sister in law's birthday on Saturday and I have been invited round to dinner. I had already bought her a little something but decided to add a shawl to the present so the overnight elves will have to get busy. I also bought some cream with a slight fleck DK to try out a Tunisian pattern for my niece's friend's boys. Sylvia bought some baby wool and Kath bought some lovely deep blue DK.Sylvia also bought me a lovely 4ply baby matinee jacket pattern which will be used very shortly to make another jacket for the foster babies. No folks, I have not broken my no stash buying as I said at the beginning that things bought to use for other people don't count in my no buy resolution.

Sylvia says that she could join Beverooni, June and I in pooling stash to open a wool shop. What is it with us knitters and crocheters that we have to have a stash far bigger than we could use in a couple of years to feel secure. Are we afraid that there will suddenly be a yarn shortage one day and we want to be prepared?

We went for lunch at Simple in Manchester and had a very nice meal. Thanks Sylvia for lunch it does feel good to have a treat now and again. I am paying the price for my trip out today as I am sure that Sylvia is also. We both suffer with mobility issues but we still manage to get out and about sometimes. I think it's what they call the pleasure and the pain.

I finished off an experimental scaled down version of the Mei Mei. I did this one with DK and a 4mm hook. It has come out the size of a toddler and not the baby size I envisaged. However I have passed it on and I will try again later with finer wool and hook to adapt it to a baby size.

I am progressing slowly but surely with the Lacy Duster coat and have almost got to the waist. I shape the jackets slightly buy using a smaller hook at the waistline area. The pattern as written is just straight until the pattern changes for the hip area. The first one that I made was a little straight up and down so the I gave my second one a bit of shape and will do so with this one.

The sun is shining but it is a little cold today so I am having a rest up and crochet day. I think it will be a pyjama day as I am still in my night attire. I am not going out and as far as I know not even the postman will call today so I can put my feet up and relax and get ready for going out again tomorrow.

Crochet Today

As promised yesterday here are some some photos from the new July/August 2009 Crochet Today. The front cover and the green skirt are unmistakeably Doris Chan designs and whilst I think they are very attractive they are a little openwork for me. I can see them appealing to my younger friends though. I think the purple stole is beautiful and can see that being made as a gift at Christmas. The granny square waistcoat is pretty but I have worn so many of them in the past that maybe it's time for someone younger to wear that also. There are also patterns in the magazine for a beach bag, a basic blanket, a motif tray cloth, a single colour fancy granny square afghan, some cushions with fishes on them and some sea shell shaped cushions. As usual there are only a couple of things in the magazine that I will actually make but that seems to be par for the course with me lately. The magazine costs £3.25p and some of the single patterns that I bought recently cost me over £2 each so I suppose on that basis it is still good value for money.

The wool is what I bought yesterday from Abakhan in Manchester. the pink double knitting has a slight silvery thread running through it which is really pretty.

I had almost finished the baby crochet jacket last night and was ready for stitching it together when I realised that I had made one front the wrong size. I guess I must have been sleepy when I made it. I have now almost re crocheted it and so it will hopefully be ready for the stitching together and collar today.

Today is another rainy day in Manchester. I do wish summer would arrive for more than one day as we are now on the countdown to Autumn and the winter woollies will be coming out again (did they get put away this year?)

A Rainy Trip to Manchester

I had a quick trip into Manchester today and met up with Sylvia and Kath. It really is such a nuisance with all this metro work and line closures as it makes travelling to certain parts of Manchester from my house quite difficult especially in the rain. They are also doing major sewer repairs along Deansgate so a lot of buses are diverted to parts of Manchester they don't usually travel along. Well done Manchester for attempting two major road disruptions at the same time. Now the metro are blaming this disruption for being 2 months behind schedule to finish off the tram lines. As usual there were no signs of any workmen anywhere today in Manchester. I think we have invisible contractors because I have never seen any even though I am assured in the newspapers that they are hard at work every waking moment and even at the weekends. My friends and I have a game now to spot and count the workmen. My friend is in the lead as she did actually count 9 people one day.

I took my 4 wheeler trolley with me as I find I can walk so much better with that than with a stick. I tend to look like a homeless bag lady but pride went out of the window a long time ago.

I came back with less than I went with but that suited me fine as I did a spot of shopping on the way home.

I managed to finish off the cabled baby cardigan and gave both of the cardigans to Sylvia. I also gave Kath the blue mohair motif sweater. The pattern for the cabled cardigan is Stylecraft 8040 and the wool was Jarol baby DK. It is a current pattern but I did amend it by putting a purl stitch either side of the cable to make it pop out more.

We went to Abakhan as although I have a huge stash I didn't have any 4ply in white or pink to make something for the baby due in a couple of weeks that I know is a girl. The last photo shows the crochet books that I was browsing through to decide which patterns I am going to crochet for all these soon to be born babies.

I picked up a copy of Crochet Today from W.H Smith so will post some photos of that and the wool tomorrow. I didn't stay in Manchester long as I had left Buster at home alone and I knew that he would need a garden break after a few hours.

Armless and Tail -less Sock Monkey

The sock monkey is progressing very slowly. I still have a tail and two arms to knit and stuff. I find it very slow going on 4 needles. I hope to finish it over the weekend and get back to my crochet squares once again. I had a break last night and crocheted him a scarf and hat to wear. He is going to Kentucky when he is finished and I hope to post him off next week.

Today is nice and sunny but not very warm. At least it is drying all the washing on the line. I had high hopes of a warm day when I first woke up to sunshine but sadly the sunshine didn't last long.

I had a visitor today. Charlie came with her small daughter and brought me a present of two packs of wool. She found them at Abakhan. A pack of Patons Moonglow and a pack of Patons Fairytale Velvet. I haven't decide what I will make with them but by the time I have finished the granny square jacket I am sure that I will have decided on a project.