What To Make With A Bag Of Purple Oddments

The funny shaped socks are finished. They fit beautifully so who cares how weird they look. Best pair of crochet socks that I have made so far. I am not sure if it is the pattern stitch or the wool that makes these socks so comfy as usually I find crochet socks a bit uncomfy underfoot to wear them inside my shoes. I normally wear my crochet socks as house socks and my knitted ones in shoes and boots. I will definitely make another pair like this although they are a bit boring to crochet so I will wait a while before I do that. My niece likes a pair of slipper socks from the other book so as soon as I can get out to get some suitable wool then I will make them for her.

I think that I like purple. In fact I think that I really like purple otherwise why would I have so many part balls from projects that I have made in the past.After sorting out my oddments into colours and seeing what a huge bag of purples that I have I decided to make yet another All Shawl by Doris Chan.I really must find another pattern that uses up oddments but this pattern just seems to lend itself to crocheting a couple of rows of one colour without looking too striped. I think that it's because I crochet in between the stitches of the previous row rather than into them. The second photo is the next run of colours but on reflection I think that I will take the lighter colour out. It looks a bit too light now that I see it in the daylight.

My cat Oscar (sorry my next door neighbour's cat Oscar) is now sleeping on the sofa. I woke him up with the camera flash but he has now gone back to sleep.Fortunately for me he completely ignores my wool when I am knitting or crocheting. He is a strange cat. Never wants to play. I have tried with bits of wool and balls and he just looks at me as if I am completely mad (he is not far wrong there then)All he does when he visits is sleep and eat.

The amaryllis has bloomed further overnight and is now almost in full flower. It is probably because the house is quite warm. I will worry about the heating bill when it arrives but I am sorry I just cannot stand the cold. My knees hurt on a good day but on a cold day they are unbearable. I had a very bad night again last night. I don't know why but as soon as I get into bed the pain in my knees worsens considerably. I just seem to get in the right comfy position to sleep when I should be getting up. I have tried everything. I have put pillows under my knees, rolled up towels under them. I have rubbed them with Ibuprofen and Peppermint udder cream but none of them have worked. When the snow goes I must discuss with my GP about stronger pain killers if only to take before bedtime. I have an appointment with the specialist next week but he wont prescribe any painkillers. All he does is eventually write to my GP with his recommendations.

The snow is slightly melting and I might try to venture out today. I need to collect a prescription and although I have placed an order with Tesco there are of course several things that I have forgotten.

Purple crochet is finished

Yes the purple crochet cardigan is finished. Not one of my better projects as you can see. If it wasn't on a yolk I would have unpicked it. The body is too long. The instructions did say chain very loosely at the start and now I realise my loosely wasn't loose enough so the whole cardigan is rather tight at the bottom of my rib which is fitting on my widest part! I might have had enough plain yarn if I had made it 3 - 4" shorter and that could have made the whole garment more appealing. Anyway it is done now. The yolk colour looks rather grey in my web cam's gaze but it is more of a match in the daylight. The pattern is from a very tattered page torn from some magazine many years ago so I cannot give any clues - not that anyone would want to crochet it anyway!

I didn't do my regulation 16 rows on Kevin's suit of aran armour last night as I wanted to get the purple creation sewn up and out of the messy (craft?) corner. I will try to attempt 32 rows today to keep myself up to speed. I have started another crochet chunky cardigan (different design)in a rather startling shade of emerald green but once again I really don't have enough yarn so I will have to work all the pieces at once and finish them all off once I see how the yarn is working out. It will be a shorter version of the pattern but I must be shorter than I used to be or styles are being worn shorter these days. The finished version of this crochet pattern that I already have in my wardrobe is almost teddy boy length so I can easily crop 12" off the body length!

The dog is recovering slowly. He cannot understand why we only have one sedate walk a day on a lead. He obviously feels OK but the vet's instructions were to keep him calm (then tell the postman not to call?), away from too many dogs (the wood is full of them no matter what time we chose), off the furniture (ever tried that one?), and no ball games that involve jumping. Considering the operation he had I presume the vet means rubber balls? The vet did say put a baby gate on the bottom of the stairs to stop him going up. I didn't have one and had no intention of buying one so I tried closing the door to the stairs but my house creaks and groans and doors open on their own so that didn't work. I have never seen any evidence of ghostly apparitions so I am hoping it is just the shifting of the house that opens doors. The only doors that don't open are the locked ones at the front and back door. I have got used to it after 39yrs here but it does scare my friend Caroline. She refuses to stay in my house alone. When my son was small he used to clap his hands and say Oooh ghosties are here mummy! If we are haunted then they are very friendly ones thank goodness.

Oh no! Not the vets again mum

Buster went for his post op check up on Monday and everything is going well as regards the operation. His bits are rather purple and bruised but that is only to be expected. On Friday morning (on his last walk before his op) he rushed down the hillside as per usual and gave a little yelp. When I took him to the vets I noticed that his right eye was a bit red. Yesterday I asked the vet to take a look as his right eye was very runny and it transpires that he must have scratched his eyeball and now has an ulcer on it. So I have to put drops in several times a day as well as giving him his antibiotic and painkiller pills. I am beginning to think I have a new career as a veterinary assistant.

On the subject of purple balls (my yarn and the dog's bits) I am crocheting up some chunky I had in my stash and as usually happens I haven't got quite enough for my project! I had another search in my stash and found some mohair in a similar purple colour but with coloured flecks in it. Luckily I have run out on the yolk so I have saved some of the original yarn for the neckband and button bands and so I hope it will look like a feature. I will post a photo tomorrow if the yolk gets finished tonight.

I am still battling with the "suit of armour" aran for Kevin and have managed to finish the back and start the front. I am limiting myself to a 16 row pattern at a stretch as it really is affecting my wrists. Luckily I started it early as Caroline wants to send it to Ireland to her brother for Christmas.

I am still deciding on some of my Christmas projects and have been looking on Flikr at people's finished projects for inspiration. There are some gorgeous items on there but some are terrible - I wonder why people find it necessary to put 12 photos of the same item (usually the awful ones) on there? I still haven't found the time to update my Ravelry. Maybe I will spend a few hours on it when I am not nursing the dog and trying to finish off Christmas items.