I Am Dog Sitting For A Week

I have company for the next week. Buster is here to keep me company. I am not sure who looks after who. He is a very intuitive dog and seem to know that I can't do certain things any more and has a lot of patience with me. He waits until I get up or down the stairs before he sets off after me. Before I had these mobility problems he would just dash down the stairs and push past me.

I have finished the white crochet baby jacket. It is drying outside on the blocking boards. I haven't crocheted one sleeve longer than the other honestly. It's just the angle that I took the photograph. It needs it's ribbon at the waist and then it is finished. I crocheted the 1 -2 yrs size but it has come out more a generous 2yrs old size than the 1-2 yr size. At least it will fit the little girl a bit longer and probably still fit her next summer. I have found that Sirdar patterns seem to jump such a lot in size from 6-12 months and 1-2yrs. Everything increases by lots more. For example the 2 first sizes have 1/2" difference between the sleeve lengths and yet the 1-2 yrs size goes up by 1.1/2" instead of another half inch.

I have started the small granny shawl from Inside crochet. I am just using some unknown 4ply from stash as I want to see how it fits before using my sock wool stash goodies on it. It is another easy pattern so far so if it turns out OK I may make it in double knitting for my charity shawls.

Thanks for all of your suggestions on what to do with the hand wash only shawls. I will find a good home for them before the end of the year. Whether it be a donation to a raffle or someones elderly relatives. I still have some mohair or mohair type in the stash so will probably make some more hand wash shawls before Christmas.

The sun is shining today and I have managed to dry some washing outside. The weather probably won't last but hey ho at least I have had one day of sunshine even though it isn't particularly warm.

I apologise if you are having trouble leaving me any comments on the blog. I have been plagued with anonymous spam type messages during the last couple of weeks so I have had to change my settings. I have managed to catch most of them and delete them as I don't want anyone to click on any dodgy links thinking that I have OK'd them. I don't think that you would have clicked on the last two as one was for driving lessons and the other one for business cards. It's not just me who gets targeted. I have heard lots of my blog friends complaining about the same thing happening to them.

I doubt if much crochet will get done this week as Buster has a brand new ball with a squeaker and he is driving the neighbours mad with it on the lawn at the moment. I doubt if the squeaker will last longer than today but he is having a whale of a time with it. One set of neighbours has gone out and the other sets boys drive me mad by kicking a football against the dividing wall for hours on end so I don't feel too much sympathy for them.

Granny Square Pram Blanket

I made this second baby pram blanket or small shawl as a giant granny square. I made is this way as it was easy and quick to make and as I started it on the coach trip I didn't want something that I had to concentrate on. I have now made 2 cream blankets for Louise's baby which is due in approx 11 days time. I rang her this morning to tell her that they were finished and her mother answered and said she had gone to work! These modern mums work a lot longer these days. I suppose it is so they can get the maximum maternity leave once the baby arrives. There was no such thing when I had my son. I think we got a bit of money from the government if we had paid enough NI stamps but that only lasted a few weeks and was a mere pittance compared to the wages that they get these days.

The expectant mum across the road was having a cleaning frenzy yesterday. She said her house is spotless and was in the process of hoovering out the car when I went shopping so I guess her baby (due in 7 days) will be making it's appearance soon.

I was thinking back to my weekend away and remembered one of the party saying to me on the way back home that her lasting impression of Hull was a bride vomiting in the gutter. Apparently she was in full bridal dress but this lady was not sure if the wedding had taken place as the "bride" kept shouting "Where's me fiance? I want me fiance" Was it perhaps a hen night where she had dressed as a bride or had the groom seen the light and left her at the altar? Guess we will never know the answer to that one. As this lady remarked I only hope that the wedding dress wasn't a rental! This beats the wedding that I saw once where the bridal dress had been roughly cut up the back and then laced up with white shoe laces, though holes made with scissors,as the bride was heavily pregnant! Obviously a case of buying the dress before the pregnancy or borrowing one at the last minute. It would have been better if at least they had the dress altered and stitched instead of looking as though it had been hacked up the back by a pair of kitchen scissors. The bride at that wedding was drunk and abusive as were most of the guests. I just had the misfortune to go into a pub where the wedding party was being held upstairs. I left pretty quickly after that.

I am still working my way through a pile of ironing. That is the one chore that I still find difficult since my spinal op. I have to do some and then rest. I have tried ironing sitting on a stool but I find that equally as hard as I am up and down off the stool getting fresh things to iron or putting the ironed things on hangars.

I am off to watch Loose Women which came back on TV after the summer break yesterday. I will probably start one of my new baby crochet patterns today although I should finish off the knitted baby 4ply jackets that are on the needles.

Granny square shawl finished

Vicky's granny square shawl is finished. Well finished is perhaps the wrong word to use as you can see from the last photo. There is still the spaghetti mess of tail ends to stitch in. I am hoping that Vicky will volunteer to stitch them in herself as the one thing I am bad at is sewing ends in. On my shawl I find new tails poking out every time I put it on. I think I stitch them in well run them in and out and up and down and yet still they wriggle out and poke out of the squares. I guess I missed the lesson on stitching up somewhere in my youth. I think that is why I now like Doris Chan designs - so little to stitch up when finished.

I didn't go out today as I had to wait in for a telephone consultation one of my GP's. Yesterday when I checked the contents of my prescription bag the painkillers were missing. I checked with the pharmacy who said there were none on the prescription. I rang the surgery to be told that I had ordered them too soon so the doctor refused to issue them. I tried to explain that yes I wasn't due them on the Friday when I ordered them but due to their 48 hour policy for repeats it meant that I could not collect them until Tuesday after 2pm (they don't count Sat and Sun as days as they are closed) which to me means 4 days after I ordered them so by then I would not be receiving them too soon. They tried to tell me they consider the date to be when they are ordered and signed and not the date that they are collected. I said well in that case why could I not get them until Tuesday if it was signed? Surely you should consider the date to be the issue date and not the date ordered. Anyway they would not issue me with another prescription today until I had spoken to the GP who said "I don't see what the problem is - why did they not issue you with a prescription. What you are saying seems valid to me. Come back and I will sign one for you now" Grrrr

I bet the GP who refused to issue me a prescription has never had spinal surgery. I am now on a lot less strength painkillers and am reducing the daily amount I take. I said to the GP if I was going to overdose myself surely I would have done it when I was in chronic pain, depressed and on very strong drugs and not now when my life is going well and I am confident of eventual surgery success.

I am hoping to get up to Bolton market tomorrow to find the wool stall that is usually on Chorley market. I need to get some man colours for socks for Christmas. I must resolve not to be tempted by anything other than what I need as I already have so much in stash and the next couple of things I have to make are knitted garments for my niece once the wool arrives. I doubt if I will have any time to make anything for myself between now and Christmas.