Yarn Shopping

Today I went yarn shopping with my niece. We went up to the Yarn Barn in Shaw.I love going to that shop if only to see the loads of display garments that she has on the wall and in her window display. They really make you want to make them when you see them finished. Much better than just viewing a pattern or feeling a ball of wool. It was the best kind of yarn shopping for me as I didn't spend anything. My niece was choosing some more wool for me to make her a second long chunky jacket. I made one for her last year and used Sirdar Click chunky. I don't know what happened whether it was the wool, the pattern or the way I knitted it but it dropped and kept on dropping until my niece now wears it as a dressing gown. This time we have chosen a yarn that feels more substantial but it is still soft. I am making a smaller size anyway as she has lost quite a bit of weight but I am considered juggling about with the needles to use a couple of sizes smaller to tighten up the fabric this time around and give the jacket a bit firmer tension. I often do this. Even if my tension is spot on to the pattern but I feel that the fabric is a bit too loose I will knit a larger size and drop a needle size. She has chosen King Cole Magnum lightweight chunky in a purplish colour.

We chose a pattern for the charcoal Patons Diploma DK that I had already bought for my younger niece. My older niece knows what kind of jackets my younger niece likes so has chosen this one but without the ribbon fastening at the waist.

My niece kindly bought me the two chunky patterns for me to use with the sale chunky that I bought before Christmas from E Kemp. I am so glad that I bought it when I did as it has all been sold out now. My older niece likes the garter stitch jacket so some of the sale wool might just get knitted up for her. She had a browse in my stash room today and picked out some colours that she liked. I have far more in there than I need for myself so I will know what to make for her in the future. I will get her to chose patterns from my stash another day to match up with the colours that she has chosen.

Since I have found a way to partially knit a hat on the knitting machine I have now made 3 on the machine.I knit the decreases on the crown by hand. The first brown one that I made came out a bit large but the second brown one and the multi coloured one came out a lovely beanie size. The crocheted hats are based on the beanie hat from the Stitch n Bitch Happy Hooker book. I was using some old Listers Can Can with the contrast stripes of red and blue done using scraps from my stash. I really want to start my new projects off but I am going to make a couple more hats (my total is now 12) as I may be going to the Kings Arms Knit Club on Monday when I can hopefully hand them over to be taken to the Big Issue office.

8 Sirdar Knitting Patterns

No more snow has fallen but it is still very cold. There is a silver lining to every cloud though as I have been staying home, wrapped up warm doing my Christmas knitting. As a lot of my friends prefer me to knit for boys I decided that it was time to refresh my patterns with some new ones. I sent away to McA Direct for these patterns as any orders over £10 come postage free which is great for someone housebound as I am. I chose 4 patterns that were more for boys and 4 for girls. What I like about the Sirdar patterns is that like the Kay Jones crochet patterns they usually size up to around 6 or 7 years old which means that the patterns can be used a few times. I do like to get value for money with my patterns these days.

I have almost finished the cardigan for Charlie. I am just knitting the shawl collar. As I have enough wool for his little brother I am undecided whether to knit the exact same pattern or to chose one of these new ones that also has a shawl collar. I also chose another hooded pattern as when I force myself to finish off the hooded jacket I started a long time ago I can knit another larger one in a different pattern as I could not bear to make another one in the same pattern. The only drawback that I find with the Sirdar patterns is that they always seem very long bodied so I always have to cut at least an inch off the finished length.

I am getting a little stir crazy to start some crochet but I must finish off the Christmas knitting before I dare to start any crochet. I am leaving my sister in law's crochet sweater until the last otherwise I will never knit my niece's black cardigan in time.

We have more snow forecast for the weekend which is a shame as I will need to go out at some stage for some food. The Farmers Market is coming again on Sunday for the last time before Christmas and I want to stock up on some meat for the freezer to use over Christmas. I don't have any potatoes, carrots or onions in store to make some warming stews for my dinners. This kind of weather always makes me think of big pots of stew or thick soups.

I hope to have finished off the shawl collar tonight so that I can at least show you one cardigan that I have made for Charlie for Christmas.

I hope that those of you with far more snow that we have in the UK stay safe and warm. We only have to get 2" of snow in the UK and everything grinds to a standstill. The councils are never prepared for it. I could understand if we never had any snow but we usually get snow every year. Some country areas have it bad they have 12 - 15" of snow which is a lot of snow for the UK.

Tinned goods vanish from the shelves as people panic buy as they know that fresh supplies are probably stuck in a wagon on a motorway somewhere. As long as I can get some staple things then I will be OK. I am not a fussy eater. Porridge is a great winter warmer at this time of year.

Crocheting in Accrington

Here I go again. I had typed out the whole blog and then pressed the wrong key on the keyboard and sent it all to oblivion. As Blogger auto saves I thought that all I had to do was retrieve it but it wasn't there. All that saved was the title! Anyway enough of my problems off I go again.

I have had a busy couple of days going to Accrington with Rachael and having a good old chit chat with everyone. As I didn't take any photographs if you click on my blog title it should take you to the page on Rachael's (Artyarn) blog where you can see lots of photos and descriptions including a photo of yours truly languishing in an armchair crocheting. On Saturday we went along to Haworth Art Gallery.

Yesterday I should have gone to Sylvia's to deliver the cardigans for the foster babies. The weather was atrocious but I would still have gone except that Sylvia and both babies are still full of colds so we didn't think that it was wise for me to go. I am thinking of posting them off today when I go out as I don't know if I can get there next weekend and if I do go into hospital who knows how long it will be before I get up to Sylvia's again. The babies need the cardigans as the weather has turned colder and they will be growing out of them if I don't get them there soon.

I managed to get another cardigan from the 400 gram balls of aran. I chose a pattern that was mostly plain as cables eat up the wool. I started Sirdar 3738 but when I started knitting I realized that the cable also had a lacy pattern running through it which I thought was rather girlish. I therefore changed it to just a plain 6 sts cable. I like the twisted ribs and collar as it brings just a touch to a plain cardigan.

I am still crocheting slowly on my longer jacket but as it is done all in one it seems to take ages to do a row. The pattern is looking very nice though it is just slower with all of the crocheting around the loops that is the pattern.

I bought two more plus sized patterns. I found them online for sale as second hand (or pre owned as they are now called) which were cheaper than if I had managed to find them to buy new. I prefer the Leisure Art booklet with the green cardigan on the front as it has more patterns in it that I will use as you can see from most of the photos. The other book is an American School of Needlework one and the designs are not as good in my opinion. There are a couple of pullovers that might be OK but they are photographed badly in my opinion.

I am stocking up on so many pattern books I think that I will have to start a catalogue of which patterns I like in which books as I spend half the day pattern browsing every time I want to find a pattern that I remember I have seen somewhere.

I have been told by Amazon that another baby crochet pre ordered book is on it's way. It was due at the end of October but apparently it has arrived early. My credit card has taken quite a bashing this last month. I might be going wool browsing this week again. Do I care? Nope I will pay it off eventually so I am not worried and most of the credit card bill was for my scooter and recliner which have made my life so much easier. I will pay a sizable chunk off it when I go to the village this afternoon.

I haven't heard anything from the hospital so I am hoping that no news is good news and that I passed my pre op tests. All I have to pray now is that there is a still a bed when it is my operation day. I got cancelled the day before my op last time. Please keep everything crossed for me during this coming week.

A Great Day

I have had a great day out today. I had a ride up to Accrington in Rachael's (Artyarn) new car and spent the day crocheting leaves in Accrington Market Hall whilst Rachael was teaching people how to crochet.

There was no music today and it was a bit breezy every time the automatic doors opened but as I was tucked away near a pillar in my armchair I missed most of it although poor Rachael got quite cold. If you want to look a what we are doing then keep your eyes on the Artyarn blog (link is in my favourite blog list) as Rachael can explain much better than I can what it is all about. Tomorrow we are going up to the Art Gallery in Accrington where once again I will sit in style whilst Rachael does all the hard work. Ha Ha.

I was really looking forward to the homemade lasagne from the market cafe but as the lady explained they change the homemade menu every day so that it doesn't get monotonous. Today I had homemade meat pie with mash, cauliflower and carrots. I haven't tasted pie that good since my late mother made me one. I just do not have the right touch for pastry. Cakes I can manage but pastry - no.

I also went back to the old fashioned sweet shop and this time I got Liquorice tablets, Butterscotch tablets and some Rum and Raisin fudge. No wonder that I can't slim!

I called in Habiknits and picked up a bargain of the un labelled cream flat ribbon cotton. I am not sure what it is but it looks very much like something from Sirdar. It is a bargain at 89p a ball. I bought a couple of balls of three different colours last year from he Habiknits in Bury but when I went back they didn't have any more. I was overjoyed to find 10 balls in Accrington.

The pink Sirdar Silky Look DK is another bargain from Purplelinda. It is a bit paler than anything I have made for myself but I hope that it will look OK when crocheted. I am a great fan of Silky Look and it must still be a good seller as it is still in stock some 15 yrs after I used to stock it in my wool shop. Purplelinda are selling it for half price at £1.40p a ball but there are only the discontinued colours which are this pink a very pale green and a pale turquoise.

The baby patterns jumped into my basket as did the Silky Look. I was actually only ordering another ball of King Cole Riot. It's amazing what happens when you browse!.

My friend Sue surprised me with a visit whilst I was in the market. She had read on my blog where I would be and decided to surprise me. It was lovely to see her again. We live a bit of a distance apart and Sue works shift hours so I don't get to see her often. Another friend that I made through knit club. She brought her finished pale blue version of the Doris Chan pattern September Morn jacket for me to see. I also have the pattern but as per usual, haven't got around to it yet.

Three years ago I didn't know any knitters or crocheters and I now I can list quite a few people that I know who do one or the other. It's so nice to chat craft. I value my Internet friends for chit chat as well. Who would have thought I feel that I know so many people from all corners of the world. But for the Internet we would never have a chance to exchange ideas. I know that it has given me a new lease of life. I no longer feel like the lone crocheter of Manchester!

Tonight I hope to finish of the baby jacket that I am making in aran wool. I have made this one mainly plain with just a cable up the front. i think that I will just about make it with the left over aran I had from the 400 gram that I made the other aran from. I hope to get it finished so that I can give it to the baby when I visit Sylvia on Sunday.

Two Parcels For Me Today

I waited in most of the day to see if my wool parcels would arrive. Just when I had given up and was about to leave to go and collect my prescription from the Doctor's surgery two parcels arrived at 4.30pm. I got one from Purplelinda and one from Texere. I still have another parcel from Texere to come and that is the one with the extra 2 balls that I need to finish crocheting my sweater and two colours that I have ordered for baby B.

As I had liked the outcome of the Cinnabar cardigan in the King Cole Riot DK I ordered another two colours of it. This time around I ordered 5 balls of each colour as the jacket was such a tight squeeze with only 4 balls. On the photo the colours look very similar but in real life the one on the right has russets and olive greens in it whereas the one on the left is a mix of dark reds and maroons. It's hard to show the colours in the balls but once they are crocheted I am sure that they will look very different. I also ordered another ball of the Orange Reflections with the gold thread in it as I decided that one ball would not make a shawl for me.

From Purplelinda I ordered the King Cole Mirage in the shades of purple with green. Once again I have bought 5 balls along with 2 balls of bright red in Patons Fab DK to make another cardigan or a sweater for Baby B.

From Purplelinda I ordered 3 pattern booklets. I will photograph what it in them tomorrow so that you can see all of the contents. The Turtleback Jackets have just got the two patterns in the booklet that you can see on the photo but I will take a photo of the back views of them tomorrow. I would call them more of a shrug. They are nice openwork ones that will look good in the summer or in the winter over a plain sweater. As they fit quite loosely I think that they will be flattering to wear for a fuller figure like me. It might give me the illusion of having a waistline. I have only got one shawl fastener so I must keep an eye out for a couple of different designs in different colours. The one I have is black and that won't look too good on a light coloured shrug.

I have finished the blue cardigan for Baby B but am not starting any more until I get feedback about the size as I think that although the chest size looks right it looks as though it is rather long in the body and the arms look way too long. I wanted to experiment with stash wool so that when the new wool arrives I will have the size right for him. I won't be doing the mock ribbing again as although it is faster for me to knit I don't like the overall look of the doubled ribbing. I tried it just to see how it would look. I think that I will stick to the hand knitted ribs in future.

Tonight I will crochet the last ball into my lilac sweater and hope that the remaining 2 balls turn up tomorrow so that I can finish it off. I like the James C Brett Rio DK but it doesn't have a good yardage at all. Also it has worked up thicker than my usual DK. It will make a lovely warm sweater for the winter though and I just hope that the different dye number won't show too badly when the wool arrives.