Knitting Time Again

It's knitting time again. I have started the jacket for my niece's friend Eve. She has chosen quite a simple free pattern from Garnstudio Drops and the thickness is Aran so as Eve is only a UK size 10/12 it should not take me that long to make. I just wish that my stocking stitch was a bit neater. It always has ridges in it as if I have been using two different sized needles. I have tried experimenting using two different sized needles to see if that evened it up but without success.

The scarf for Louise is growing slowly. This is my 'sitting and waiting for the ambulance' knitting. I have now knitted 200 grams into it but I need to knit another 300 grams into it to make it a long length warm scarf. As I will be going to Physio again next week then I should have another 100 grams knitted into it by next week. My edgings are a little uneven but I am sure that I can sort that out once the scarf is finished.

I have ordered some more shiny yarn for the Christmas Tree Ornaments for the Kings Arms knitters tree. I have also ordered a pattern for little crochet ornaments. There are plenty of patterns on the net but as I don't have a printer at the moment I decided to order a pattern. My PC is in another room to the one that I watch TV in the evenings and I either have to write the patterns out by hand or keep nipping in and out of the room to view the PC which isn't exactly relaxing. When this arrives I will have a bit of crochet on the go to appease my crochet mojo which gets very frustrated when I am knitting most of the time.

Another wet miserable day today. I was going to go and do some shopping but I changed my mind. Luckily I had some muffins in the freezer as bread was the main thing that I had run out of. I am hoping for a dryer day tomorrow and then I can do a bit of shopping for the weekend.

No sign of my lodger cat Oscar today. I think because it has been so rainy he has stayed in his own house today. It has now gone dark and the curtains are drawn. I hate this weather when I have to put the light on and draw the curtains and it is only 4.30pm. It makes the evenings seem to long. I think that it will be a long time before we get any nice sunshine again. Maybe I should switch on the S.A.D light to perk me up for an evening of knitting.

Back To A Bit Of Knitting

I am back to my knitting and back to blogging courtesy of a borrowed monitor. I think that I mentioned that my monitor kept switching itself off well on Saturday it more or less gave up the ghost. I asked the neighbour across the road if he could look online for a new monitor for me as it was a little difficult for me to browse for one when the *$£* thing kept switching itself off and he has kindly lent me his monitor (he also has a laptop) for me to use until I can get a new one delivered.

I gave myself a stern talking to and picked up my knitting needles again. I have now finished off the left front and have started the right. There isn't a mistake in the ribbing on the right front - that is a buttonhole. Buttonholes are never my strong point. I cast off OK but the cast on the row after always fills me with dread. Sometimes I am lucky and it all goes smoothly but sometimes for some reason I finish up with one longer stitch at one of the corners. I have read manuals and online tips and I swear I do exactly as they say but I still finish up with a slack stitch.

I didn't get up to Bury today as the weather once again put me off. I hate the rain and I am so sick of getting wet through everywhere I go. It is knit club night at the Kings Arms tonight but I will be knitting with them in spirit but at home. I am such a wimp at tram and bus travel in the wet, the cold and especially in the dark. Roll on the lighter nights.

I suppose that I should think about getting the Christmas decorations down from the loft. I love it when they are all up and the tree is lit but I am not very motivated to doing all of the trimming. I think I am turning into one of the Grumpy Old Women who say Bah Humbug and moan on about how much effort it takes and all of the mess to hoover up etc. Once the rest of the street start putting their trees up then I know that I will join in as I do love the house when the fairy lights are lit on the tree and around the bay window.

At Last A Baby

My neighbours have finally got their little boy. He was due on the 9th but he has taken his time. They have called him Zak (not sure of their spelling yet) and he was born at 3am this morning and weighs a little under 7lbs. I have just had a text to say my niece's friend Louise is on her way to the delivery room so it's all happening today. My neighbour's husband said there had been 7 babies born today before lunchtime at the hospital so if Louise give birth today then that will be one more plus any others born after lunch.

I have finished the back of Charlie's cardigan and started a sleeve. As you can see I have also started him a lighter coloured sweater to knit when I am in the lamp light. For a while now I have been having trouble with my eyes (or so I thought) Yesterday one of the bulbs in the lamp pictured started flickering and I had to replace it. Last night I was working away underneath it when the light bulb exploded and the room was plunged into darkness. As it was almost bedtime I decided to leave it until this morning to investigate what had happened. Today I found the fuse had blown so I replaced it but had to put in two normal bulbs as the energy saving bulbs had blown. I then discovered that there is nothing wrong with my eyes. It was the poor light that was coming from these energy saving bulbs that was causing all of my eye problems. Lord help us if the day dawns when all we can get are these bulbs. I think I will have to give up knitting and crocheting if that day ever comes. Not much point saving energy if we all finish up with bad eyesight!

The calendar has had a really good plug on Ravelry by Teresa (Skeinfest) in the Doris Chan forums. These are very popular forums and are read by hundreds of Doris Chan fans and Doris herself. Another lady on Ravelry has picked up the story and has featured it on her blog. All this extra publicity can hopefully give the calendar sales a US boost. Thanks Teresa for mentioning us. Teresa is the lovely lady who got me the Doris Chan leaflet (the one that I used for the grey shoulder capelet and the openwork black and red circular shawl with the flowers around it) when I could not find a UK stockist or a US stockist willing to post it out to the UK.

Thanks for your comments on the Paella and Cava party Bev and June. If both of you lived nearer I am sure we could have a similar garden party but with crochet! I am not sure whether we would crochet anything recognisable after a few Cava and Grenadine's but I am sure there would be a lot of laughter.

Not much to blog about

Still knitting the aran jacket. I am convinced though that it will not be big and baggy enough for my niece so am going to search in my pattern stash (I have 4 large boxes of patterns so I could be gone for quite a while) and try to find something more suitable. I will finish this jacket off and get some more wool for another one. I have almost finished the second front.The two sleeves and collar are just in knit 2 purl 2 rib so that should progress pretty quickly if there is anything good on the TV today. Thank goodness for the old re-runs of Father Dowling, Murder She Wrote, Bergerac and now I have Shoestring as well. I haven't quite got around to Starskey and Hutch yet but I will!

The sock knitting hasn't progressed one jot this week. I seem to be lacking motivation in that area. I think I am just concentrating on the aran.

I am still subduing my cravings for crochet. The urge is getting stronger everyday. I am indeed a crochetoholic. I will be giving in to temptation any day soon and grabbing a hook and wool for the sake of my sanity. The crochet wrap book that I have pre-ordered should be here on the 19th so I definitely will be raring to go then.

Aran jacket back is finished

As you know I have been worried that my niece's Aran was turning out a bit on the small side. I am adapting the pattern from Chunky thickness to Aran, using smaller needles of course, so the size was always a bit on the experimental side. I have now finished the back and so decided to block it out and check the size before progressing to the fronts. I think I can now relax as it is looking large enough now for my slim niece. Whew! I still think that my knitting is looking very uneven for some reason. Perhaps it is lack of practise as I have been crocheting rather a lot lately.

The socks are still the same as Saturday. Not a row knitted on those. I am getting crochet withdrawal symptoms. Itching to get something on the hook. I think it is time to stand up and be counted. I am a crocheter at heart. I like the instant gratification of seeing my work grow in front of my eyes. I do admit though than some things are better knitted rather than crocheted. Socks and gloves for example.

I got up really late this morning. I am worse when I get too much sleep. I feel really groggy even now despite having an invigorating shower (no not cold). I perform better (steady - no not in that way!) on about 5 - 6 hrs sleep. Any less is not good but any more is an absolute disaster. I go into slug mode. Droopy, dreary and a bit depressed. Today isn't helping as it is typical November Manchester weather - dull and depressing.

I am watching Loose Women at the moment and enjoying a coffee. I think I will just do a bit of knitting this afternoon as I am not in the mood for anything strenuous.

True colour of blue crochet

I managed to sneak up on my web cam for this photo of Caroline's crochet cardigan. If I try to focus the camera then the colour goes greyer and greyer the longer the camera stays pointed at the subject so I apologise for the fuzziness I just captured the colour before it went!

Kevin's aran continues to haunt me. I have managed 64 rows of the pattern on the 2nd sleeve now and have calculated that I need a further 96 rows to finish. How sad it is that I have to force myself to count rows? Thankfully it is a raglan so once I start the decreases then the rows will go faster. I picked up a cream aran cardigan that I had knitted one front of a few weeks ago (for a friend) and sailed through another front last night so obviously I haven't lost my knitting mojo. Admittedly she is size 8/10 so not as much knitting as for my size 18. Now that should be an incentive for me to diet - less stitches and much less wool = more garments!

I have now organised my yarn stash into my spare bedroom. Well apart from the messy clutter (sorry craft corner!) that is lurking in my front room and not counting the patterns, boxes and bags in the pantry. I have now got some hanging files for the filing cabinet I gleaned from Freecycle but I am reluctant to take time from my knitting/crochet schedule to organise my patterns (thousands) from storage boxes into categories for filing. My friend Caroline is always trying to organise me so if I get a visit from her before Christmas perhaps she will motivate me.

She normally comes and prods me into putting up the Christmas tree and lights etc. I do love Christmas with all it's glitter just not so good these days with hauling the tree etc down from the loft. My tree is looking very shabby these days but once it is trimmed up not much of it shows. I look on it as a rather worn well loved teddy bear and am loathe to part with it for sentimental reasons. Anyway it is good for the planet using up old things and not buying new. I am not a person who changes the colour scheme of the baubles every year I prefer the old favourites. My nativity scene figures have been with me since I was a little girl although I do have a replacement Baby Jesus as it's original was made of wax and straw and got melted when I put the candles too close to the scene and set the stable on fire as a child. My Baby Jesus is out of scale and looks like a full grown toddler compared with Mary. I have also lost a couple of lambs along the way. One day I will make another stable as my little figures look a bit pathetic sitting there on the window sill.

The dog is looking rather forlorn as we had a bit of a lie in this morning and he hasn't yet had his breakfast or walk. I am such a bad mummy today. I think I will skip the morning walk and take him for a longer one at lunchtime. I should go up and get my flu jab as well. They only do them between 1 - 2 pm at my surgery so maybe Buster will have to wait until later for his walk. He is still limping so I think missing one walk will help rest it a little.

16 rows done so it's time to crochet

I did my obligatory 16 rows on Kevin's aran and that brings me to 8 rows short of the armholes on the front so I may get more done tomorrow as the V and raglan shaping will mean I can get more rows done as the stitches decrease. There is hope for a finish before Christmas. This knitting is taking me the longest time to complete a garment in a long time. It's very slow going compared to my usual speed.

I could not wait to start some crochet. I am making a short sleeved cardigan for my ex husband's new wife for Christmas. I am using some cotton I bought from Lidl and am very pleased with the quality of it considering how little I paid for the cotton. I have made the back already and started one of the fronts. I really am a crochet girl at heart. I just love how fast it grows. My wrist is aching somewhat but I am not sure if it is from the aran, the crochet or just the cold weather annoying my arthritis.

I must try to master how to use my digital camera as the photo above taken with a web cam is fuzzy and the colours are all wrong. The aran is a denim blue shade and the crochet is a dark denim blue shade.

The dog is happy now he is back to his off the lead walks and stick retrieving. He loses the stick many times though because of the thick drift of leaves. He has a habit of skidding to a halt and that causes a mini avalanche of leaves down the hillside and so he loses the stick. He has a good nose and often eventually finds it but sometimes I have to distract him with another stick or we would be there all day whilst he sniffs around trying to find the lost one. We had a hairy moment today when we met a woman walking 7 dogs in a variety of sizes. She had them all off the lead and so they were reacting as a pack so it was a bit unnerving for Buster as they clustered all around him. I managed to shoo the aggressive ones away with my stick as she had little control over them. Surely even an animal lover would not keep 7 dogs. Imagine the vet bills on those!

I overslept this morning as I had a very disturbed night's sleep. I must have eventually dozed off in the wee hours and so I slept in until 9.30am which is unheard of for me! I normally get by on 5 - 6 hours sleep per night. Last night I had about 4hrs I think. I was going to have an early night but here it is at 1.30am and I am typing on the blog as I don't feel tired at all. I will go to bed in a few minutes though and try to get some sleep.