If I AskYou Nicely - Will You Play Ball With Me?

The crochet has stopped altogether and the knitting is limping along. How can I resist this face especially when he lays his head on my knees and pleads to me with his eyes to play ball with him. Can you see part of his ball collection at the top of the second photo? He likes to scatter them around the house so that he is never far from a ball should the opportunity for a bit of throw and catch occur.

We have already had a couple of games in the garden so he is not exactly deprived of any exercise but he thinks that I am his sole playmate and here to amuse him all the day long. I suppose it is because he usually has the other dog to wrestle and play with.

I think that I have told you before that he goes slightly mental when he hears the ice cream van chimes. Today the van stopped further down the street and when I let him out he was sitting next to the van gazing upwards at the serving hatch long before I got to the cart. He is very single minded when he hears the chimes. He won't stop barking until I get my purse and go and get him a cornet. Not only does he eat his cornet in record time he also demolishes half of mine. He is very greedy when it comes to cones of soft ice cream.

I have managed to get a few more rows done on the knitted baby coat. I still have a sleeve to do and the neckband. I would like to make the hooded version but I am not sure that I have enough wool for that. I will make the neckband and make a start on the hood, If I run out of wool then I will just have to unravel it back again.

I got tempted by the Texere site today and ordered some of that Creative Yarns Reflections but they only had two colours in the one with the lurex in it. I ordered those and a couple of balls of the Reflections without the lurex. These should make some mini shawls or lacy scarves for Christmas or Birthday presents. I know that I said that I was not stash increasing but I did manage until August without loading up with wool for me and even now the wool that I have ordered is destined for presents and I said at the beginning of the year that wool for presents doesn't count. I will let you see what I have bought when it arrives next week.

A friend of mine has just said on Facebook that she is tidying up her craft room and it is making me feel a bit guilty. I tidied mine up and it was all organised but since then I have rummaged in it so many times that it is all over the room again. I need to settle down and stash it tidily. I really should catalogue all what I have and what it was bought for. It would probably save me a fortune when I am looking for wool for presents. I probably already have wool is stock that would be suitable instead of buying new. I know that I have nothing like the Reflections in stock though. Most of my stash is quite plain. Nothing really exciting in it.

I am looking forward to when I can mill visit with Sue and when PurlCity from Ravelry (the same friend who is reorganising her craft room ) opens her wool shop in the Northern Quarter of Manchester in a couple of months time. I will let you all know once it is open and give you the link to her web site. I can't give you any clues at the moment as to what she is going to be stocking but as soon as I find out then I will let you know. At the moment I have to rely on friends to get wool for me or buy my wool online but it isn't quite the same as seeing the ball in the wool and having a good old squish and fondle is it? I have often been disappointed when I have ordered online and then found it was not the colour that I thought that it was.

Funny old day today. One minute the sun is shining and the next minute the rain is coming down hard. Buster seems to have gone to sleep or at least he has settled down so maybe I can get a few rows knitted before dinner.

A Nice Spring Morning

It's a lovely spring morning - well it is when the sun stays out. Buster is making the most of it and wants to play ball. When I have finished washing the dishes I will put my jacket on and play out with him for a while. I feel so sorry for him not being walked but there is not much that I can do about that. People have offered to walk him for me but he just won't go with anyone else. It will soon be Tuesday and he will be back at home with the other dog. Thankfully the pup had now gone to a good home so the atmosphere in the house will return to normal. Buster has recovered well and apart from a few scars and a bit of tenderness he is almost back up to strength.

I put the two shawls side by side to show the slight difference in the size. I mad the second shawl on a 6mm hook and the first shawl on the 5.50mm hook as recommended in the Blue Curacao pattern.

I have started an All Shawl from my oddment stash. As usual when I get anything given to me it comes without a label. It is some sort of mohair or imitation mohair and has faint flecks in which you might be able to see in the close up photo. I only have 6 x 25 gram balls so the lacy edging will have to be a mix of different colours but the warmth will be at the shoulders which is the mohair. This shawl is probably destined to an old lady who Sylvia knows as I have run out of old ladies in my family and friends. I have already made shawls for people that I know. I don't make enough to donate them to an old people's home although it is an idea for the winter months in between when I start making homeless peoples hats again.

Today I got a first class letter from the hospital and my heart skipped a beat as I thought that it might be my call up for my operation. When I opened it the letter was recalling me for more tests following my mammogram. It was a bit of a shock but I am thinking positively. I have lumpy breasts which is why I started having mammograms in my 30's so I am hoping that it is just something like that. My Dad always used to say don't worry about anything unless you get told that it is bad news so I am trying to put it put of my mind until my appointment on Thursday. My mother had a non cancerous cyst removed and we both had cysts aspirated so I am keeping that thought in mind. I have no symptoms and can't feel any more lumps than usual so fingers crossed all will be well.

Buster is waiting patiently with his ball in the back garden so I had better do some dog amusing and leave the dishes for a little while.

The squares are finished - now the work begins

76 squares, plus 2 half squares and 10 godets have been made. Now the work begins. The assembly. Thankfully this time I have crocheted over the tails as I went along so at least I don't have all of those to sew in however I am going to suggest that Lisa carries with her a needle and thread when she wears this jacket as my sewing up skills leave a lot to be desired. No matter how hard I try there will always be bits poking out somewhere.

I think it will be tomorrow or Tuesday before the whole jacket is assembled. I then have to crochet all the way around it for the borders, crochet a shell edging and make some crochet buttons to fasten the jacket together.

I went with Julie and her two dogs for a walk with Buster today. Thank God for Julie. I don't know what I would have done without her. She threw sticks for Buster and wore him out for me. My knee was so painful yesterday I didn't think that I would make the walk today. I dug into my stash of strong painkillers left over from my spinal pain and took those and have managed to hobble through the day.

Last night I felt like I had red hot pokers stabbing into my knee. At one stage I was on the point of ringing for an ambulance as the pain was that bad. I am sure that this is not right and I am going to ring the hospital on Tuesday and leave a message for my specialist. I am not a wimp and had suffered crippling pain in my back for many years before my spinal op but this pain in my knee is relentless. It does not stop when I sit down or put my feet up. I am getting hardly any sleep as the moment I lay down the pain starts in earnest. I have tried pillows under it, warm bean bags and still it wakes me up quite a few times during the night. I try not to cry out too loudly as next door might wonder what is going on in my bedroom, but it takes my breath away sometimes and I have to let out a scream. I expected the pain to have diminished by now but instead it is escalating. It is far worse now than it was the first week after my op. I can't understand why it is so painful. It's not like I had a new knee joint fitted.

I managed to sit in the garden for a while whilst I was sewing some of the squares together. Normally I would crochet them together but as the last row of these squares is all in trebles it made a lumpy edge so I decided to stitch them together to be neater. Buster thought my sitting in the garden was a signal for a game of ball. I just wish that he would bring the ball to me and not leave it a foot away from me. Luckily I had taken my walking stick into the garden with me so it acted as a ball hook and hockey stick for retrieving and then whacking the ball. It's hard to get much sewing up done when the game is never ending.

Much as I enjoy Buster's company I will be glad when my son comes to take him home tomorrow.

Rain, rain go away

I am trying to wash the bedding and throws just in case (Ha Ha) I get called into hospital tomorrow but the rain is immanent and all of my washing is out there on the line. Don't you just love the British Summer. Buster is, of course, unimpressed with my cleaning efforts and just wants to play ball as you can see. He tried to give me two rather squashed squeaky balls while I was hanging out the washing.I think he knows something is happening as he has become very clingy these last couple of days. Wherever I am he is about 2" away from my feet. I have started him on some Glucosamene tablets to see if it will help his stiff joints but it is a constant battle trying to hide them in his food. Guess who always finds the bits and spits them out? I think my son is coming to get him tonight and if so then I need to give my suite a really good hoover before it goes to it's new home. I do it most days but the dog hair still clings to the velvety fabric and I would hate someone to think I am a dirty so and so who doesn't clean properly.

My crochet hasn't grown much as you can see as I have been doing other things instead of my crochet. I haven't gone wrong once with this garment so I am finally getting the hang of Doris and her shaping. I doubt if it will be finished before I go into hospital provided I do get the call tomorrow. The project is a bit large to take in with me so I will just stick with the sock knitting as planned. I might get a few rows done before my op. I can't bear to sit and do nothing. I was hoping that my Interweave crochet mags would have arrived before I went in but no sign of them today. I have e mailed Pavi Yarns to see if they are on their way but have not, as yet, had a reply.**** (See below) I wanted to browse them when I couldn't do any knit or crochet. I am always a very nervous Internet orderer and have only just started to do this. I worry all the time about using my cards etc. I think there are so many warnings about Internet fraud that it does make you very wary about parting with information. Maybe it's an age group thing or maybe it is me who has a suspicious mind. I would rather go into a shop and buy things that I can see but these days wool shops are rarer than hen's teeth.

I have added 2 more links to my blog. Charlie Chuckles and ArtYarn. These are two of the ladies from the Kings Arms Knitters. I hope that you do follow my favourite links to blogs from time to time as if not then you will be missing some interesting blog posts. I do love to read blogs. I find out lots of things from other peoples blogs and follow their links onto blogs that I otherwise would probably never read. The trouble with blogs and Ravelry is that I read too much and crochet too little some days. I haven't quite mastered the art of crocheting and blogging at the same time yet.

I am off to walk Buster now and then back to the cleaning. My back will be well and truly knackered if I do go in tomorrow but it has to be done. I don't want to come home to hairy carpets and a muddy paw printed kitchen floor.

Oh my neighbour Julie went to Christies yesterday and is having another op to remove the offending lump in her pancreas, that was left behind from the previous operations, and refused to respond to the chemo and has been re-asssured that she is not having any more chemo. I do hope that all goes well with her. She was positively upbeat about the consultation yesterday and feels happier about everything now that her questions have been answered. Her consultant seems to be fairly confident about it all so I pray that his diagnosis is correct. Her eyebrows have returned and some of her hair so that is helping with her confidence. Yesterday she was laughing out loud when we walked the dogs and it was so good to hear that sound which has been missing for so long.

****I am editing to say that Pavi have replied to my e mail and my magazines are in the post - Yeah! I hope that they arrive in tomorrow's mail. I love new magazines.