Easy Peasy Shawl

As I didn't finish cleaning the front room properly until today I could not return to my niece's crochet birthday present last night as dog hair was still everywhere. I started this triangular shawl instead. It is a very easy shawl by Sys Fredens from her Contemporary Crochet book. It is just UK trebles with increases in the centre on every alternate row and each end of every row. I started it last night with a ball of James C Brett Marble Chunky that I had left over from when I knitted myself a sweater recently.

The pattern was supposed to be on a 12mm hook but I found the hook too large to work with because of the arthritis in my hands so I changed to a 10mm hook instead. I tend to crochet a little on the larger side anyway and as the shawl is worked from the point upwards then size isn't that much of an issue. I might just have to fit in a couple of extra rows to get it to the right size.

The rippled wrap shawl is now dry. It is quite a bright shawl and as it is made mostly from man made fibre yarn it is light and airy. Hopefully it should still give extra warmth across the shoulders and has the advantage of being machine washable.

I am hoping to get back to the crochet that I put on one side tonight but I might just push on and finish the chunky shawl first as I don't like having more than a couple of projects on the go at any one time. I have so many projects buzzing about in my head that I want to make this year that I just don't know where to start next so I am trying to be disciplined and only have a couple of WIP at any one time otherwise I get overwhelmed and nothing seems to get finished.

It has been quite sunny today but I don't know if it is warm as I have been washing sofas, dusting and hoovering. Housework takes me much longer to do these days and I have to keep sitting down so jobs that used to take me a couple of hours now seem to take me most of the day to complete. Still as long as the work gets done it doesn't really matter how long it takes to do it.

Crocheting A Shawl From Oddments

As the child of frugal make do and mend Parents and Grandparents I always get a huge sense of satisfaction when I can make a shawl out of small amounts of part balls that are lying in my stash. I was brought up cutting coats into small pieces to make peg rag rugs long before it ever became fashionable and trendy to make them. As a child I scoured church jumble sales looking for something 'with a good bit of fabric in it' that could be altered and cut down to make a dress for me or sweaters that had a bit of wool that could be unravelled and turned into hats, scarves and mittens. For more years than I care to remember I thought that all knitted things came striped. Sweaters with undarnable holes in the elbows got re-sleeved. Too short sweaters had the ribs taken off and were 'let down' with longer different colour ribs knitted downwards and socks got re-footed when the darns got too many.

This shawl came from a free pattern on Ravelry which is another bonus in these purse tightening times. It is called Rippled Wrap by Cheri McEwan but unlike her version with bright multi coloured stripes I chose to use up from my bag of blue oddments.

I come from Oldham originally (or Owdham if you are local with a Lancashire accent)and when I married and moved to Manchester I had to alter the way that I spoke as I had such a strong dialect accent that no one understood me. My maternal Granddad's accent was so strong that even I needed a translator. I can remember my family saying " Our Jannit (their way of pronouncing Janet) is a great lass she can allus (always) make summat (something) out of nowt (nothing)" I learned this from my family and am proud to carry on the tradition of turning something that other people might over look into something that looks good. I wish I had inherited my Mother and Grandmother's knack of cooking. They used to turn out filling nourishing meals out of very few ingredients. Why did I not take more notice when I was young?

Chatting about multi coloured stripes to use up oddments my Ravelry friend Knitnurd has been making some fabulous baby and toddler multi coloured Marley knitted hats. They are from a book that I have. The Itty Bitty Hat Book by Susan Anderson and although I have made several hats from this book I haven't made that hat. I will be making them now I have seen hers. Another fabulous way of using up oddments. If you click on my blog title it will take you to her blog. You might have to scroll down a day or so before you see the hats.

Buster has gone home so I won't be doing much crochet or knitting today as I have washed all the throws and cushion covers and everywhere needs a good clean. I washed the bedding this morning but have yet to remake the bed and hoover. I think that I will be knackered after all of this. Buster is always torn when it is time to go home. He likes the fuss that I make of him but he loves my son and daughter in law for walks and the companionship of their other dog to play with. I think he would only be happy if he could have us all together. It reminds me of my son when he was small - he always wanted his Dad and me to go and live with Grandma and Grandad. They don't see that things like that just wouldn't work out with everyone under one roof. Through a child's eyes it must all seem logical.

Rippled Wrap

The All Shawl is dry now and is packed away ready for it's intended owner. I must have knitted or crocheted an awful lot of things in blue in the past as I had a large bag of oddments. I saw this shawl on Ravelry and decided to try it out in different shades of blue. How large it will be depends on how many more rows I can get crocheted before I run out of blues. It is a free pattern to those of you on Ravelry. Called Rippled Wrap by Cheri McEwan. Hers is made in rainbow shades which is very attractive but as I am using up oddments from stash I had to chose the colours that I had the most part balls in.

Sorry about the fuzzy photos of me wearing the shawl but it is hard to press the shutter and then get into position before the flash goes off and the shutter clicks. I could try to take some with my web cam but it changes all of the colours of everything as you probably noticed with the Blue Curacao shawls that I have just finished. It washes all the colour out of everything.

Buster is really not talking to me today. He won't even play ball with me although as I speak he has found the ball that I keep having to replace the squeak and is dashing around the garden with it. He went out originally to chase away a very cheeky magpie and it's mate who insist on searching my lawn for tasty grubs. I suppose that the rain has brought the tit bits to the surface. I will go out and play with Buster in a few minutes after I have been out with the plastic bag to remove his little ditties from the lawn. Not a pleasant task but as anyone who has a dog knows it is a necessity.

My house is now coated in dog hair and I will be there wielding a mop, a duster and the hoover tomorrow with the washer on the go with all of the throws and cushion covers in. I don't know how I coped when I used to have Buster here full time. I suppose that I could still zip through my housework then. I love having him but this time has been especially hard as I have not been able to walk him so he has been indoors all of the time apart from little trips into the back garden. I am sure that he will be overjoyed to see my son and daughter in law tomorrow. he will get a work out when he meets up with their other dog (not the pup that bit him as he is now in Yorkshire in a new home)