Hat With Duck Motif

I am having a break from the aran knitting. I have finished off the back and two fronts now.The last front too k me longer than I had anticipated due to the fact that I forgot to place a buttonhole and had got up to the armhole shaping before I realised it. Grr I just love unpicking - especially aran.

My niece in London asked me to knit 4 hats with a duck motif on for her to give to duck mad friends and baby girls. I suddenly realised that I need to get these hats down to her before Christmas so decided to leave the aran and push on with the hats.A friend of my niece is going down to London before Christmas so with a bit of luck they will be finished for her to take with her to save on the postage. My niece and her husband work full time so they miss the postman and have to travel miles to the sorting office (they don't have a car) to pick up any parcels that they have missed. I made the gents hat first to see how large the motif turned out so that I can make adjustments for the babies hats. I got the motif from a children's cardigan pattern by Cascade yarns. It is a cute pattern and if you click on my blog title you can see it.

I am going for both my flu jabs this afternoon so I am hoping that i don't get a sore arm as a lot of my friends did when they had their swine flu jab. That will really put my hat knitting back a bit and drive me mad. I can't just sit and do nothing so I will have to devise a way to either knit or crochet if this happens.

At least it is not raining today. My knee doesn't like the cold and the wet.I am looking forward to the day when I will have a full nights sleep as I haven't slept all through the night for over 5 yrs now. First it was back pain waking me up and when I got that sorted then the knee pain jabs me awake. I just know that when I visit the specialist in January he will say it's my weight causing this. They will not listen when I say it's the pain that has caused all this weight gain and not the other way around.

Time for a coffee and to sort out my shopping list as I might as well do some whilst I am out and about. I have to pass some shops on my way to the doctors so why waste a walk?

Let There Be Heat

I have heating once more. The plumber paid two visits yesterday and I am repaired although it could be temporary. I have to keep my eye on the water pressure and if it drops down call him back. Apparently I had no water pressure in the boiler causing water to pour out when the boiler switched itself on. It could have just been that the water was missing (he has drained it all and replaced it) or it could be something more expensive like a new pressure valve. Since it has been fixed my house is extremely warm even with the thermostat turned a few notches further down than it was before leaving me to think that it hasn't been working efficiently for some time. Either way I have my fingers crossed that I don't need a new valve.

With all the comings and goings yesterday plus the fact that I had to light my Calor Gas fire for warmth yesterday (which sends me to sleep) I didn't get much knitting done as you can see. My niece's aran takes quite a lot of concentration other wise I have to unpick rows where I have knitted instead of purled.

I plan to try to sit down and do some serious knitting today but as you know whenever you plan things like that something crops up.

Hopefully later today the neighbour from across the road will come and twiddle my plug. Calm down I do mean my PC monitor plug. I saw him this morning and mentioned what was happening and he promised to call in when he comes home and see if I have a loose connection causing the screen to go off. I know that I have had a mental loose connection for years so I wonder if he can sort that out as well whilst he is here?

I have just had a discussion with the GP and it seems that I am eligible for a swine flu vaccine because of my breathing problems. It just shows that you should never take the receptionist's word as gospel. I have to go back to the hospital in 10 days as my last sleep study showed that my oxygen levels are too low and my CO2 levels are too high when I sleep. This is probably the answer to why I have been feeling so tired and low. I have been feeling really grotty over the last few weeks with no apparent reason. I had put it down to broken sleep patterns and a case of the winter blues. They are going to adjust the pressures on my CPAP machine so hopefully I will be back fully functional after that.

I had some sad news this morning. My Uncle Fred (my late mother's brother) has died. He must be well into his nineties but it is still sad to see another link with my mother gone. I am not sure how many of her 15 brothers and sisters are left now. The youngest of mum's siblings must be well into their seventies now. My Uncle Fred was a real character. In his youth he used to do stock car racing and had so many bad crashes it's a wonder he made it out of his 30's. He took up marathon running at an age when most of use are slowing down and I remember on one occasion he competed in a mini marathon that my ex husband was running in. Despite the vast age difference and the fact that my ex had trained hard he was extremely upset when my Uncle Fred sailed past him and finished a long time ahead of him even though he would have been in his late 70's by then. He has battled cancer in his later years but carried on running and keeping active until the last few years.

Enough chit chat. I have mucho knitting to complete before Christmas and time is a wasting. Time to pick up my needles and knit like the clappers!