I Am A Busy Bee

I am still being busy with my crochet. I have a craft fair on Sunday and although I have plenty of things for the stall I decided to revamp and add some different things.

This is another circular waistcoat but this time a different pattern. I call this one a spider's web waistcoat. I got the pattern from Etsy and it is supposed to have a loose hood but I didn't have enough black yarn in my stash to put the hood on. The front fastens with two ties.

This waistcoat has a hood, It is from a free pattern on the Red Heart site by the Double Stitch Twins. It was an unusual method of construction but I like the finished result. I made this mostly in Sirdar Crofter chunky with accents of grey and a dull turquoise for the edgings. This is going to the craft fair or on Etsy later if it doesn't sell.

The caps are made from a pattern by Ken Jones called the Jeff cap. I bought the chunky version either from Etsy or Ravelry. It is a very simple design to make and comes out quite well both in chunky and in double knit worked with two different shades crocheted together to give a mottled effect. The beanie was made with the oddments of the balls that I used for the caps. One again I doubled up the yarn using two colours to make a  chunky thickness. There is also a pattern for a cap in thinner yarn but I preferred the stiffness of the chunky version as it holds the brim in place.

This jacket is for my great nephew to be. I made it with Eco cotton DK that I bought from Kemps in their clearance sale. It has worked up really soft and looks very much like it is knitted which is a look that my niece prefers. It looks rather blue in the photo but is actually a pale silver grey with denim blue used as a contrast. The pattern is from Etsy by Mon Petit Violon who is one of my favourite childrens designers. I have bought a lot of her patterns.

The green and lemon pram blanket is also for my niece's baby and the pink one is for sale. I made them both using James C Brett Marble DK yarn which is a beautiful yarn for  babies but because of the long colour changes I think that it works better in blankets rather than baby jackets. Small jackets tend to finish up with one colour for the front and another for the other front instead of a random effect, I think that they look rather patchy and odd. I still have some more colours in the same yarn in my stash so I will be making more of these pram blankets.

I had my fur grandson Buster for just over a week whilst my son and daughter in law took a week's break on the Algarve.. I love having him here and he really didn't want to leave me but he does need more attention than I can give him. He is such good company but my crochet slows down as he wants to play ball or sit with me most of the time. He thinks that he is small enough to be a lap dog. As you can see he has made a fine mess of my lawn with his paws. He loves to dig. My gardener will be starting work again this week so she will have her job cut out trying to rescue what is left of my lawn. It sounds very posh having a gardener but I only have her for an hour every fortnight to keep the grass down and pull the weeds. I just can't manage it on my own any more.

I had more yarn deliveries this last couple of weeks but have not taken any photos. I have also had a couple of crochet magazines and a couple of crochet books. Once the rush for the craft fair is over and I have a bit more free time I will show you which ones I bought and give you a preview.

Today I went up the village and bought another storage box for my hair sprays etc. I cannot reach into the back of the cupboard that I keep my sprays and make up in as it is low down. I can't bend down that far and I cannot kneel anymore. The box has handles so I can slide it out of the cupboard whilst I reach the things in the box. I am constantly having to improvise to stay self sufficient. When you live alone as I do I don't have anyone that I can ask to reach me this and that so everything has to be reachable. It doesn't lend itself to a tidy house but I have to be practical.

Today I also bought a 4 tier plastic vegetable rack which I am going to turn into a yarn tray for keeping the balls of wool that I am working on close to me. When I am working with one colour I can keep the yarn neatly in a bag but when I am working with lots of different colours as in striped shawls, scarves and hats my part balls get into a huge tangle and are everywhere. I do try to keep tidy. It doesn't always work though. I am also a lover of granny squares for using up oddments and like to have the colours close to my chair. Tonight's chore will be sorting out which colours I am using for my next craft fair project. I finished off a multi coloured hat this afternoon so it's a new project to choose tonight.

More Sale bargains

When it's the wee small hours and I can't sleep I always think that it's a good idea to browse my favourite web sites for wool. Is it so that later I can call it Twilight Sleep Ordering ;-). At the moment I cannot resist E Kemp as they have so many bargains at the moment and all of these things that I bought cost 89p a ball. Such bargains. I bought two more balls of the blue fleck as the site said there was only 2 left so I couldn't leave them there when I had the other 16 LOL.

Unless I go mad before Christmas I only have one outstanding order and that is some pink chunky to make jackets for my great grand daughters. I can't remember if anything else 'fell' into my basket whilst I was ordering that.

I am coming to the end of Christmas Tree crochet ornaments for the Kings Arms Knit Club Christmas Tree. I think that it is being decorated tonight so we will know after that if there is enough decorations or if it still looks a bit sparse. The crochet angel made from an old fashioned wooden clothes peg was something that I doodled up last night. As a young child I used to design clothes for my dolls and when I ran out of dolls (I didn't have many) I used my Mother's clothes pegs and knitted and stitched clothes for them. I painted faces on them and called them my family. My Mother had little patience for what she called my 'doll rags' and I used to be devastated to come home from school on wash days and find that my 'family' was pegging the washing to the line! My Mother was a knitter but for her things had to have a practical use so she didn't encourage me in my 'fanciful' ways for fashion design. My aunt, however, used to help me with this and used to buy me the cardboard cut out dolls with paper clothes that slotted onto the shoulders with tabs and give me sheets of paper and coloured pencils and encouraged me to design more outfits for these cardboard dolls. When I finally got a teenager plastic doll (way before the Sindy and Barbies of this world) I used to be forever knitting and sewing for them. When my nieces grew old enough for a Sindy I used to make all kinds of clothes for their dolls. My sister in law says that she still has loads of them stored in the loft. I think that secretly she is hoping that one day she may be the Grandmother of a little girl so that she can pass them along.

Buster didn't go home until today. With the party and house guests my son didn't have time to pick him up yesterday. Buster didn't mind an extra day with me and although he was overjoyed to see his 'Dad' he kept running back in the house when it was time to go home. Ideally Buster would like the best of both worlds. Me to make a big fuss of him and his Mum and Dad to take him for walks and the other 2 dogs to play with. His ideal world would have everyone in one place. He gets very bored with me after a few days as I can't run around with him as they do.

I am hoping to get to the Kings Arms tonight. I hope to start the black knitted cardigan or the navy crochet sweater tomorrow once I have given everywhere a good hoover. The cushions and the throws are already in the washer. When I go upstairs for my shower I will change the bedding. I love having Buster but there is so much cleaning to do once he goes home. For a short haired dog he sure sheds a lot of hair and it always seems to stick all over whatever I am making.

Farmers Market

Today I went to the Farmers Market that comes to the precinct every now and again. I say I went but actually I should have said that we went. Buster has got so used to my taking him out with me when I go out on the scooter that when I set off this morning I had only got the first kerb when I heard him start to bark. He then set the 2 dogs off next door so there was a barking contest going on. I waited for a few minutes to see if he stopped barking but he didn't so I had to go back and get him.

He was leaping about and wagging his tail when I opened the door so I didn't have the heart to shout at him. He behaved very well considering that I had to put him on his lead. He didn't even growl when everyone wanted to pat him in the market. He just lapped up all of the attention. I think I have created a Prima Donna dog. (Or whatever the male equivalent of a Diva is called)

My son and daughter in law came to get him and they said I had spoiled him and they are not getting a scooter for him to walk beside ;-). He went off quite happily although he had to get a leg up into the back of the estate car. He pretends that he can't jump in.

I bought some lamb from the market for my freezer. It tastes so much better than the lamb from a supermarket. You can tell that it is really fresh. I gave my son a piece of lamb that they call a Lamb Henry. It's a sort of small joint with a bone in it. Not the leg or the shoulder. It doesn't have a lot of meat on it but there should be enough for the both of them. I don't know which part of the lamb it comes from but I cooked my last one in the oven like a leg of lamb and it was lovely and tender.

I also bought some gorgeous French bread. I couldn't get to the stall on my scooter thanks to the idiotic way that they had arranged the stalls in a circle around the fountain, They had put stalls across the entrance to the fountain so the only way in was across the water channel for the fountain which had a lip on either side and a channel of water that my scooter wheels could have got stuck down. I complained to one of the community staff and he kindly told the bread guy that I wanted some bread. I got service to my scooter by a handsome young man with a sexy French accent so it was almost worth not being able to get to half of the stalls. I gave my son a cheese bread that smelt absolutely heavenly. I said to him that the bread doesn't keep well as they make it without all the preservatives and he said don't worry this bread will be gone before I go to bed. I was a bit of pig myself as I have eaten a whole French stick (with a little help from Buster) Both the bread and the lamb cost more than they would have in a shop but I don't mind splashing out now and again on something that tastes so great. I have lamb chops and chump chops in my freezer to last me for a couple of weeks.

Sorry that the picture of the crochet is so dark but I took it in the electric light. The cardigan now almost has two sleeves.I haven't been able to do any today as we have been out to the market, done 4 loads of washing, and played ball in the garden all afternoon. Normal service has now returned to my household. I do love having Buster here but he does take a lot of time and create lots of cleaning for me. All the washing is the bedding, throws and cushions and covers that have finished up in the washer. I still have his bed to wash yet so I hope that it is fine tomorrow. I have left the floor mopping and the hoovering until tomorrow.

I am feeling better today. I even put make up on and did my hair. I think that it's a combination of a lot of things. Getting out and about and chatting to people is a lot of it, I hadn't realised just how isolated I had become before I got the scooter. All being well I should get to Knit Club tomorrow night so more people to chat to. The only way is up!

The Hospital Saga Continues

As I have not heard anything from the hospital about my knee operation I decided to give them a ring. I got the ever helpful (touch of sarcasm here) secretary of my surgeon. She said that she had no idea when I would be sent for as my surgeon has just had an operation and is now on holiday to recuperate. He has cancelled all of his ops for the time being. Jolly Good Show. I bet that he didn't have to wait for his operation or get cancelled twice. Things are looking grim. I just hope that his operation was a minor one and not something that will keep him off work for a long time. This news will disrupt the family one again as if my op isn't in August then my niece will have gone back to work (she is a teacher and off at the moment). She was going to stay overnight with me when I first come home. If she is back at work then she won't be able to do it. At least my son won't have to cancel their family holiday with their grand daughters in August as I will be able to have Buster again. His other dog is lovely but she is like a whirlwind, knocking into everything and everyone, so I can't look after her as she is too energetic. She dived in the house on Sunday and everything flew off the coffee table as she swished it with her strong tail. Buster seemed very happy to see her and went off with her in the car without a backward glance.

My son is in negotiation with his friends for my mobility scooter but they are on holiday at the moment. At least if I get one of those then I can take Buster for a walk. Not in the woodland that he is used to as the paths are muddy with stiles at the entrances. I can take him to what used to be a children's playground as the seats are still there, even though all the swings and slide have gone, and it is grassed so he can play ball on it. I wonder if he will walk along side me or hitch a lift in the foot well or the scooter? He is a bit too big to fit in the shopping basket on the front. Hee Hee

I am still cleaning up today.It takes me such a long time these days to give the place a good clean. I managed to change my bed without trouble as I can walk all around that bed. The double bed in the spare room that Buster sometimes sleeps on is really awkward. It is pushed against the wall on two sides. Have you ever tried to remake a bed whilst sitting on the mattress. Not an easy task believe me. I can't kneel so I had to lie on the mattress to tuck in the corners of the sheet which isn't easy with a fat body pinning down a lot of the sheet. I got into some very unusual positions,

I am knitting the old pattern in the photo with some Wendy Monaco in a sort of denim blue but making it without the ties at the neckline. I didn't take a photo as the jacket is all in pieces at the moment and I still have the hood to knit. The pattern is from a booklet called 50 Best Sellers of the year and was given free in the Woman magazine on September 19th 1964. I do like my old patterns. They seem to fit so much better and are far easier to understand.

I sorted out the odd balls of baby wool into two storage trays. As you can see no matter how many jackets that I have already knitted and crocheted I still have a lot of wool to work on. I have more girl colours than boy colours at the moment so the foster baby girl will be getting some more jackets for winter.

Time to get back to my cleaning although I may sneak a mug of coffee first, I have almost finished the upstairs cleaning but still have all the downstairs to do and the staircase Whew. I am knackered already and I am going to Knit Club tonight as well.

I had better stop nattering and get some work done or I will not be ready when my niece calls.

Farmers Market

It's another beautiful day. My niece came early to pick me up for the Farmers Market. We aren't lucky enough to have a regular market but they do come about every 3 months. We have learned that you have to get there early to get the best choice of the food. I love to go there if only for the fresh lamb. I like to get some in for my freezer as it has much more taste that the lamb that I can buy from the supermarket and is virtually the same price.I didn't take any photos of the lamb as it went straight into the freezer the minute I got home. The cutlets are so large that one is sufficient for me with vegetables and you can't say that about the cutlets that you can get at the supermarket.

As you can see the bread is so fresh and it's delicious. It is quite expensive but who cares when it tastes so darn good. The ciabatta rolls just melt in the mouth and are nothing like the rock hard ones that are in the supermarket. The bread sells out like mad and if you don't get there early enough there is nothing left to buy.

My niece bought some items from the Italian stall but I am not a lover of sun dried tomatoes and olives. She also bought some hand made soap which smells absolutely gorgeous but as I have eczema I have to be so careful what I wash with.

We both stayed clear of the chocolate, sweets and cakes stall although my niece did buy her husband some fancy cakes but as he is a slim as can be he can get away with eating them all. My niece is like me she only has to breathe in near a cake stall and she puts on pounds.


I bought a moussaka from the Greek stall, and some jerk chicken with rice and peas from the west Indian stall. I also bought a lamb Pattie. They are a bit like a pasty but filled with much spicier filling. They are a bit of a taste bud shocker but I like them. Well they do say that to eat spicy food and drink hot drinks makes you cooler on a hot day.


Buster went home at lunchtime. Instead I have gained the little dog Poppy from next door. She is a bit of an old girl and they have another younger dog so sometimes she comes in here for a bit of piece and quiet. She is stretched out on the carpet fast asleep at the moment. Next door has laminate flooring and so I think that she likes a bit of comfort in her old age.

I did a bit of crocheting last night but it really is so hot despite the ceiling fan. I am never happy am I? Last week I was moaning that it was too cold and now I say it's too hot. I think it is because we haven't had a slow build up to the hot weather. One day it was freezing and the next hot. By next week it will probably be freezing again.

The good thing about hot weather is that I have a line full of washing that has dried in less than an hour. All the bedding is out now and by the time the next load finishes in the machine the bedding will be dry enough to go back on the bed.

A Busy Couple Of Days

I have had a busy couple of days. On Friday my friend came with the Patons Crystal with cotton that she had bought at the Black Sheep Sale. I know that I am supposed to be on a no buy at the moment but when she phoned to tell me about it and that it was reduced from £19.90 to £4.99 a pack now what is a girl to do? I can't resist a bargain like that.I have not decided what I will make with it as yet so at the moment it has gone into my stash.

I have finished off the little pink jacket. The pattern that I used is Little Princess by Laura Gebhardt and is from the book Crochet for Little Babies that I bought from Amazon a few weeks ago. The jacket is part of a set but although I have made the jacket twice now I haven't got around to making the matching dress. The wool is 100 grams of unlabelled pink fleck acrylic double knit.

I have almost finished a lilac bolero but on Friday my hopes of crocheting for a baby girl hit a setback. With fostering you can never be sure which baby is arriving or if they are arriving until the very last minute, The 3 month old baby that was due to arrive at the foster Mum's is no longer coming so I am keeping my fingers crossed that when the call comes again for another baby that it will be a girl. Otherwise I will have to crochet like mad in blue!It's all part of the uncertainty of fostering and is another reason why I take my hat off to people who do foster. I know that it is something that I could not do.

On Saturday I did some food shopping and then I had a furry visitor for the night. My son and daughter in law were going out so I had Buster overnight. He is such a loving soul that I would dearly love to have him with me full time but as I cannot walk him then it isn't fair on him. He is coming back next weekend and possibly bringing Skye with him. I will have to wait and see if I have one dog or two. It hasn't been decided as yet. The couple across the road have offered to walk Skye for us if she arrives. She will go with them whereas when they tried with Buster he refused to go. He is more clingy than Skye due to the fact that he was a rescue dog who had 3 owners ( 2 of which ill treated him) before he came to our family at the age of 7 months. He can't get put in kennels when they go on holiday as he gets stressed and all of his hair falls out.

I have started another All Shawl with some of the oddments that I got given. There isn't enough of the Sirdar Sea Pearl to make the shawl in one colour. I choose the All Shawl pattern as it is so easy to make and it suits having the bottom pattern done in another colour. I will put this shawl away when it is finished. As I mentioned before I am aiming to have a few ready by Christmas time to pass on to old ladies. I will keep crocheting a shawl here and there before Christmas.

I have decided that the wool that I bought from Purplelinda isn't suitable for the crocheted Baby Surprise Jacket. As you can see on the pattern it needs a wool with longer lengths of colour to give it the striped effect and the James C Brett wool that I bought only has about a 4" colour sequence so will turn out flecked rather than striped. In knitting it would be a slight stripe but as treble take up quite a bit of wool for each stitch then one colour would only make a couple of trebles hence the spotted effect.

I am hoping to go into Bury on Wednesday so will have a look if there is something there will a longer colour length in a neutral colour as it may be for a boy.

The sun is shining today although it does keep going dull and is quite windy. It rained overnight. When I let Buster out in the middle of the night his coat was quite damp when he came back in. I have washing on the line so I hope that the rain stays away until it has all dried. Now I will have to dust and hoover and try to get rid of all the hair that Buster so kindly left behind when he left.

Crocheting A Shawl From Oddments

As the child of frugal make do and mend Parents and Grandparents I always get a huge sense of satisfaction when I can make a shawl out of small amounts of part balls that are lying in my stash. I was brought up cutting coats into small pieces to make peg rag rugs long before it ever became fashionable and trendy to make them. As a child I scoured church jumble sales looking for something 'with a good bit of fabric in it' that could be altered and cut down to make a dress for me or sweaters that had a bit of wool that could be unravelled and turned into hats, scarves and mittens. For more years than I care to remember I thought that all knitted things came striped. Sweaters with undarnable holes in the elbows got re-sleeved. Too short sweaters had the ribs taken off and were 'let down' with longer different colour ribs knitted downwards and socks got re-footed when the darns got too many.

This shawl came from a free pattern on Ravelry which is another bonus in these purse tightening times. It is called Rippled Wrap by Cheri McEwan but unlike her version with bright multi coloured stripes I chose to use up from my bag of blue oddments.

I come from Oldham originally (or Owdham if you are local with a Lancashire accent)and when I married and moved to Manchester I had to alter the way that I spoke as I had such a strong dialect accent that no one understood me. My maternal Granddad's accent was so strong that even I needed a translator. I can remember my family saying " Our Jannit (their way of pronouncing Janet) is a great lass she can allus (always) make summat (something) out of nowt (nothing)" I learned this from my family and am proud to carry on the tradition of turning something that other people might over look into something that looks good. I wish I had inherited my Mother and Grandmother's knack of cooking. They used to turn out filling nourishing meals out of very few ingredients. Why did I not take more notice when I was young?

Chatting about multi coloured stripes to use up oddments my Ravelry friend Knitnurd has been making some fabulous baby and toddler multi coloured Marley knitted hats. They are from a book that I have. The Itty Bitty Hat Book by Susan Anderson and although I have made several hats from this book I haven't made that hat. I will be making them now I have seen hers. Another fabulous way of using up oddments. If you click on my blog title it will take you to her blog. You might have to scroll down a day or so before you see the hats.

Buster has gone home so I won't be doing much crochet or knitting today as I have washed all the throws and cushion covers and everywhere needs a good clean. I washed the bedding this morning but have yet to remake the bed and hoover. I think that I will be knackered after all of this. Buster is always torn when it is time to go home. He likes the fuss that I make of him but he loves my son and daughter in law for walks and the companionship of their other dog to play with. I think he would only be happy if he could have us all together. It reminds me of my son when he was small - he always wanted his Dad and me to go and live with Grandma and Grandad. They don't see that things like that just wouldn't work out with everyone under one roof. Through a child's eyes it must all seem logical.

Buster Has Gone Home

My fur grandson has gone home again. It was touch and go on the Sunday whether he went home or stayed another day as the snow came down thick and fast on Sunday morning. It was a bit of a shock as I had got up at 4am for Buster's bathroom break and there was no snow but when we got up for breakfast at 7.30 am the world had turned white. My son rang to see what the weather was like at home and decided to cut their weekend break short and make their way home. They said that the weather was far worse where they had gone.

I really enjoy Buster coming for the weekend and am always sad to see him go home but realistically I can't keep him. I managed to walk him on the Saturday afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed being out in the woodland with him but once I got home I was like an old woman of ninety wincing about with my knees. Hopefully by this time next year I will be able to walk, if not better, at least not in as much pain. The strange thing is although my knees pain me so much I am better if I keep trying to walk about a bit. Perhaps just not as long as the walk that I took Buster on.

The snow has disappeared and this morning is lovely and sunny. Still cold and frosty but still it's nice to see the sun.

I managed to take a couple of fuzzy photos of my Kaftan cardigan. My niece came on Saturday and not only did my hair roots for me she cut a couple of inches off the bottom. My hair had grown over long and straggly. I should have asked her to take a couple of photos of me in the cardigan but by the time I remembered I was sitting with hair dye on and I didn't want to drip dye on my new cardigan. I am quite pleased with the fit of it and when I tried it on this morning and it is very warm.

The mint chocolate ice cream coloured sweater is progressing slowly. I wasn't able to do much over the weekend as Buster always wants to try to sit on my knee or failing that he wants me to sit on the sofa so he can sleep with his head in my lap. Neither position is good for knitting. My son says that I spoil him but that is allowed. He gets the same pampering and spoiling that any non fur grand child would get if I had any small ones. My son forgets that his grandparents used to spoil him when he was small and it hasn't seemed to have done him any harm.

My blog has been given a couple of awards from fellow bloggers Cat and Bealicious. I am so technophobic that I am crap at passing these on but I will endeavour to try to pass them on tomorrow. Thanks ladies for your kindness.

Crafty Crafty Calendar Support

The Crafty Crafty blog has given the Naked Knitting Calendar a mention. If you click on my blog title you can read the article. DeadlyKnitShade contacted me on Ravelry and said that she was doing a write up about the calendar in Crafty Crafty and also for Stitch and Bitch London.The write up on Stitch and Bitch will appear on Monday so I will try to remember to post the link to it then. She says that as a cancer survivor she is all for kicking the a*se of cancer a sentiment most of us share.

Buster went home today and so I will have the task of de hairing the house and washing everything in sight tomorrow. He didn't go home until almost 5pm and I had to go and collect my prescription after that so have decided to leave the big clean up until tomorrow. I will miss having his company but I must admit that I found him really hard work this time and my knee suffered badly because of all the walking. Despite cleaning him thoroughly after a walk I have a rather grimy looking cream leather sofa which will be the first thing that I clean.That and washing every cushion in the house as well as every throw and all the bedding. I hope it is a nicer day tomorrow as today has been rain coming down like stair rods all day.

Lisa is on the plinth in Trafalgar square between 9 - 10 pm tonight and some of the Noras are going around to Bev's to watch her live on either the TV or the PC. I am not sure quite what she is doing except she requested some knitted daisies but I didn't have any time to make any and am not sure if anyone else did either.

I have started the Pink Duster coat by Doris Chan in black for myself. After I made the pink one that is featured on the front cover of the calendar I promised myself that I would make it again but in black. I am using a double knit this time and so the effect will not be as thick or as heavy. I have used a finer hook from the bust downwards to give the coat a bit of waist shaping which the pink one doesn't have. The photo is as the coat was yesterday when I first started it. It is too dark now to take more photos so I will take more tomorrow. It will probably take me another hour to pick off Buster's hair from my crochet! I will be crocheting away tonight as I watch Gok Wan on How To Look Good Naked and look if he has used any of the calendar photos in tonight's programme. Lisa got asked to submit 3 photos but we are not sure if they are going to be used yet. It would have been nice if they had made a film of us as they did last week with the Naked Mountain Rescue team but the production team only wanted photos.

On Monday night I went to the Kings Arms Knit Club. Rachael was there for the last time for 3 months. She is off to complete a 3 month residency at Artists Unlimited in Bielefeld, Germany. She is thrilled to have been given this opportunity but we will all miss her at the Kings. We will keep the Knit Club fires burning whilst you are away Rachael and remember to put the books out! I am sure that she will find a Knit Club (or start one) whilst she is out there. We did suggest her using a laptop and web cam to join in and Knit with us at the Knit Club via the wonders of the Internet.

Crochet Rib Baby Jacket

I made this for the foster baby of a friend, The pattern is King Cole 3052 one of the patterns that I bought from Purplelinda last week. The wool is oddments from my stash and as I did not have enough wool to make the hood I added a collar instead. There are no buttonholes and the instructions are to push the buttons through the stitches of the pattern. I think the front edging looks a bit raggy so would amend that if I made another one. The ribbed effect is made by crocheting around the posts in front on one row and behind the posts on the next row thus making a thicker rib type stitch. The pattern does not mention changing colours on the sleeves and yet the picture shows stripes. I changed colours every two rows to make my jacket look like the pattern. I think my oddments were thicker than the recommended DK weight but it will make a warm winter jacket as it has come out a bit bigger than the baby is at the moment.

Today I have been cleaning up after Buster went home again and so haven't done much crochet today. Last night I fell asleep on the sofa so none done then either.

Buster has gone home

Buster has gone home and normally has almost returned. I am still de-hairing everywhere and hoovering but I will be able to crochet tonight without adding a little Buster into everything.

My niece called today to do my hair roots and I decided to give her the grey chevron crochet cardigan that I finished off a few days ago. I think I knew when I finished it that I would never wear it. Grey just isn't my colour. I like the pattern though and it was very easy to crochet so I may make myself another one in a different colour. I got her to model the cardigan before she took it home so that you could see what it looks like in wear. I didn't notice until later that she had the sleeve all twisted but I am sure you can see how nice it is despite that!,

She also modelled my Doris Chan Pink Duster coat which is almost finished. I will post photos of that tomorrow. As the coat is so long I knew I would have difficulty taking photos of it so I decided to take advantage of her being here to take a couple of photos of it in wear.

Tonight I might start a pattern from my new Superior Crochet book. I will maybe get some time, after the hoovering and putting new bedding on my bed,to start a bit of crochet My thunb is sore so I won't be doing much. I will let you know which one I decide on tomorrow.