Crocheted Aran Is Finished

I finally got around to sewing the buttons on Sylvia's aran. I was going to put a small border of double crochet around the bottom to stop it curling up but by the time I had stitched the jacket together I finished up with a mere 40" of wool left. The jacket took 20 balls of Patons beehive Aran and the pattern is from Glorious Crocheted Sweaters book edited by Nola Theiss.

My niece called this morning as I had a 9am appointment at the hospital for a review of my CPAP machine. I couldn't have got there on public transport at that time as the trams and buses are all crowded with commuters on their way to work. If I can't get a seat then I find it very difficult to keep my balance when the vehicle is in motion. Fortunately for me my niece is on half term holidays from the school that she teaches in and was able to take me.

When we came back she helped me to fill in my Disability Living Allowance renewal booklet. She knows me as well as anyone and knows what my day to day struggles are.I knew what I wanted to say but as my handwriting is big and sprawling and the places to write in on the form were very small she wrote out what I was trying to say. Better spelling and grammar than I would have done. I have photocopied all of the letters from the hospital outlining my problems so I hope that there will be no problems in renewing my claim. I don't get much per week but it does help with taxi fares and paying for my garden to be mowed. Things that I can no longer do.

My son rang today to remind me that I had promised to have Buster this weekend. I won't be able to go Tea Cosy knitting for Towneley Hall in Burnley this weekend which is a shame as I was looking forward to it. I can't leave Buster for hours on his own. He is getting older now has a weak bladder and it isn't fair to expect him to go for hours without a toilet break. I can leave him up to 4 hours and he is OK but any longer and he will have an accident and that makes him very upset.

I love his company. he is such a loving dog so I will enjoy my weekend with him. I looked in my Tunisian book and discovered that there is a DVD is there also. Amazon have e mailed me to say that my other learn Tunisian book is on it's way so I will see which is the easier book to follow.

The weather is cold today. Who would think that it is supposed to be flaming June?
My knees really do not like this cold weather and will no doubt keep me awake tonight. I have to monitor my oxygen levels tonight with a device that the hospital have loaned me. I monitors my heart rate, whether I stop breathing in my sleep and how much carbon dioxide there is in my blood stream whilst I sleep. I have told the technician that i will wake up several times with my knee pain so not only do I have to wear my mask and the device I will also have to remember to note down the times when I wake and walk about. Sounds like a really restful night for me then! I have got a new mask as I am increasingly tired due to my old mask leaking. My niece has to take the device back to the hospital in the morning for me. What would I do without her?

I Feel Pretty - Oh So Pretty

I often get asked why I am still single. I think that the top photo speaks volumes.I might be able to attract a man but he would have to be someone really special to want to sleep and wake up with me wearing my new CPAP breathing mask that I got today. Not only do I look absolutely fabulous wearing it the CPAP machine that it is attached to hisses and blows air and manages to sound as if someone is hoovering next to the bed. As you can see I am altogether a luscious package. Not much point wearing a sexy negligee when any poor man sleeping next to me would think he was in a force ten gale as the air whistles past his ears. Perhaps I should make potential suitors wear a balaclava helmet and ear plugs in bed?

I have been missing for a couple of days. I have had a busy social life for a change. Today wasn't so good I was out on public transport going to and from the hospital. I thought I had found a better way to eliminate the walking.It was a success as far as that was concerned but I had an unguided tour around Cheetham Hill along streets that were never designed for a bus to travel down them so there were a few hairy moments as it squeezed past cars almost taking of the wing mirrors.We went past where I first worked for the Jobcentre and it is no longer there. The people of Cheetham Hill must all be in work or else they now make them travel more miles to make a claim.I suspect that the latter is the case. I left my house at twelve and didn't get back until after five but I did call at Marks and Spencers on the way home. Thoughts of cooking dinner fled from my head and I settled for something for the oven. I went into the hospital cafe after my appointment but my sandwich was so disgusting that I left it. I had asked for a baked potato and the guy said he didn't have any. Two minutes later three people walked past me with baked potatoes. When I was on my way out I gave him a piece of my mind. I bet he won't forget me in a hurry. I told him exactly what I thought of his service and how rotten his sandwich was.

On Saturday I met up with my friend Sylvia and her foster baby and we went to Bury Market. I bought some black Jarol Heritage DK. It has 55% wool and is lovely and soft. I used some for my niece's Christmas present and she said it has washed really well. Unfortunately the stall holder said that it hasn't sold as well as he hoped so I guess that he won't be restocking it. He sells it for £2 per 100 gram which I think is extremely reasonable for something with so much wool. The aubergine is a mystery yarn without labels. As it was only £5.50 for the whole bag I bought it. If it only lasts a little while I don't mind at that price. I am going to make another Doris Chan sweater with it. I find that I really do wear them every day whereas I have a disgusting amount of fancier crochet items that languish unworn in my wardrobe as I consider them too nice to wear in the house. Sylvia bought some gorgeous fluffy chunky in muted random colours. I was very tempted but I made myself resist as I still have loads of wool in stash yet to work up. There never seems to be the colour that you fancy in stash though does there - or is that just me?

I have put some photos from the Vintage Baby Knits book by Kristen Rengren. I am still disappointed with the book. I was hoping for actual vintage patterns as I do love them but these are nothing like any vintage patterns that I have ever seen with the exception of the pink matinee jacket. The cape wouldn't be so bad if they had chosen a smaller baby to model it and the coat would be better if they chose a slimmer baby as the buttons gape badly. On first glance the red pram set looks OK but in the close up the collar is so big that it swamps the child and wouldn't keep it warm unless it was wearing a scarf underneath it as there is such a gap betwixt neck and collar. I will post some more tomorrow but don't hold your breath for anything wonderful.I have far prettier actual vintage patterns in my stash although I did "lose" a lot of them when a friend borrowed them and then denied she had ever borrowed them. I was and still am heartbroken about that loss. My charity shops never have any loose patterns for me to browse in - nor do they ever have any wool either. I keep asking on the off chance but it never happened. Other people who live in different areas seem to find lots of vintage patterns at car boots and charity shops.

My son and daughter in law visited me yesterday for Mother's Day. I was supposed to be getting a plant that they had chosen for me but Dillon the youngest dog decided that he was a herbivore and ate it! I got a box of emergency chocolates as most places were closed when they discovered the eaten plant. That dog is a real handful. I think that they are trying to re home him as he needs someone with lots of patience and no other dogs or cats. They saved him from going to the dog's home when they got him originally and are trying to re home him. Several people have shown interest in him so hopefully he will have a new home soon. He is a lovely dog but just too full of energy and mischief as he is still a young pup. Unfortunately he is teaching my son's other dog to be naughty and she was really well trained before he arrived. Buster tries to ignore him most of the time but eventually he loses him temper with the pup.

I have almost finished the second piece of the striped knitting. Once I have done the neckband then I will only have the sleeves to make and as the sweater is drop shouldered they shouldn't take as long. I need to start the black wool as it is for a gift but ideally I would like to finish the sweater off first before I start crocheting.

Watch this space. No bets on whether I give in and start to crochet tonight.

Time Share Cat

Yesterday I introduced you to Dillon and today it is Oscar my time share cat. I call him the lodger as although technically he belongs to next door he spends a great amount of time with me. He comes in on cold evenings and makes use of the spare bed as you can see. He is a very timid little cat. He will tolerate my stroking him for a very short while and then whoosh he has gone to hide somewhere. Next door considers him to be an outdoors cat and treats him appropriately. He considers himself to be an indoor cat and when she puts him out he comes around to my patio door at the back in the daytime or the porch at the front in the evening. He is a clever cat. He knows which bit of the house I am likely to be in depending on what time it is. Last night when I was drawing my bedroom curtains to go to bed he was on the bonnet of the car across the road staring at my window as if to say hey it's cold out here have you forgotten me? As soon as I went downstairs and opened the front door he ran inside like Linford Christie and gave me a look as if to say - about time too!

I was very good last night. I didn't pick up my crochet hook. I continued to slog on with the aran jacket. I have almost completed the first sleeve now but decided to make the collar next as I might have to shave an inch off the sleeve length. I would rather not complete both sleeves and then not have enough wool for the collar. I could get another ball of wool but that would involve asking my very busy niece to go up to the Yarn Barn in Shaw to get it for me as a trip involves a long journey by tram and bus for me which would take me the best part of a day and I can't afford to lose a day's knitting time. The sleeves look quite long so I am sure that my other niece would not miss an inch if the wool doesn't pan out.

Today I am off to the hospital to get my CPAP machine checked out and the pressure turned up. I have been having problems for a while with this machine and have finally managed to convince them, with the aid of a sleep study, that I was right and the pressure was wrong. It has only taken me 12 months of nagging to get to this point. Maybe now I won't feel so tired and have a headache when I wake up. The machine is supposed to ensure that my oxygen levels are up and my carbon dioxide levels are down whilst I sleep so if it is set wrong then everything goes to pot. I have sleep apnoea which means that I forget to breathe when I am sleeping and so starve my brain of oxygen. Having my brain cells deprived of oxygen is not a good idea at my age as I seem to be losing enough through old age and would like to hang on to the remaining few that I have.

I will take a bit of crochet with me to the hospital in case that I have to wait. I don't usually waith long in this department but I never like to have idle hands. I will just take a hook and some dishcloth cotton. Every few rows counts when I am on the countdown to Christmas. Oscar will have to be rudely awakened before I go out as he hasn't had a toilet break since 1am this morning and I don't want to come home to a smelly house.

My new life saver - Hurrah for CPAP

No - it is not a new knitting bag although when it is not in use it could be? It is my latest super dooper high tech CPAP machine. Basically I have sleep apnoea and have done for about 10 yrs now so I sleep hooked up to this baby and it breathes for me when I forget. Its no big deal to me any more unless my machine develops problems. I was going to have it checked over before going into hospital. Don't want an electrical fault to fuse the entire ward do I? However a couple of days ago it developed a leak and water and electricity are not a good mix so a check was needed asap.

When I got there the technician presented me with this baby. Wow I have moved into the latest technology. Its half the size of my other machine, wonderfully quiet and as I can testify from last night's amazing sleep it is working 10 times better than my old one. I have awakened refreshed, full of the joys of Spring and raring to go. I think my other machine was CRAP and not CPAP! I had it about 2 yrs so it was overdue a maintenance check. I am getting a new mask as well next week. I did enquire if I could get one in black leather with studs to make it a little more fetish looking but she didn't see the humour of that remark! Hey it was just a joke I am not weird - well I dunno maybe a bit weird?

I have my eyes on the new bag to use as a knitting bag when I visit my knitting clubs so imagine my joy when she asked me did I want to the old bag as it was no use to them. Apparently they are designed to fit the machines and all new machines come equipped with their own. My old machine was being scrapped so the bag was redundant. It looks like a useful shape (bottom photo) and the see through pocket in the lid will house the patterns etc. The royal blue one has lots of pockets and looks rather glam so I think I will sport that one to future Knit Outs.

The shawl has progressed as far as the the border. That will take a little time but I should have the finished shawl to photograph tomorrow. Cathrine if you e mail me at fullbodiedwoman at yahoo.com I will endeavour to tell you the method of the increases. The pattern is so old that I doubt if it is still in existence. You might be able to see the increases if you click on the photos of the shawl - they go a lot bigger.

I am going to water aerobics this morning. The weather has gone dull again but luckily I did the bulk of my washing yesterday and it all dried on the washing line - Yeah for sun shine! It's summer please let the sun shine.

My horoscope was almost right

I don't really believe in horoscopes, well at least not the ones in the daily papers, but I did glance at yesterday's and it said I was to check e mail and text addresses carefully before I sent them. So what did I do today? I sent an e mail meant for Rose to Vicky! Luckily Vicky alerted me to the fact and all was well. So the horoscope got it almost right - just got the wrong day!

My sister in law's shawl has progressed well. I have now worked up 200 grams See how well I understand UK instructions particularly from ancient patterns. This was from a booklet circa 1980. The last time I made it I was using stash wool and so cut it shorter than the pattern but this time I will make it to it's full length. Still not sure about the edging though (see pattern on previous post) . That might have to be a modification as I doubt that she would want a frilly collar.

I started a hat for Kath with the part 100 gram ball I had left. I am using a pattern that I got free from the net. I wanted to forward the link to Rose but discovered that the lady in question who designed Guy's hat has now jumped on the bandwagon of selling her patterns and the link has changed. I am all for people making a buck but it does make life difficult for us Brits who might only want one pattern. I get confused sending away for things in the UK so have no chance with converting to dollars and have never mastered Pay Pal. I might have got to grips with some of the internet but most of it remains a huge mystery to me.

My niece Vicky has offered to take me up to the Yarn Barn in Shaw for a little look around on Saturday. I don't need anything (famous last words?) but who can resist an offer of a ride to a wool shop?

This afternoon I am off to the hospital to get my CPAP machine checked out in readiness for the operation. I did ring last week but the technician got a garbled message from me. I relayed the message via a secretary - I am going in hospital, need machine checking, plus I need a new mask and container as container is leaking. She got message - Not an urgent message as Jan is going in hospital for a few weeks and so won't be able to come to any appts! I didn't think I was that hard to understand how can it not be urgent when I have a leaking container. Water and electricity are not a good mix are they?

I have washing blowing in the sunshine - yeah for sunshine and am off to walk my dog before I have to go out.