A Fat Rant

As I am sure we have all put on a few pounds over Christmas I am sharing a You Tube video with you today. If you click on the blog title it will take you to a Fat Rant by Joy Nash. I so totally agree with what she is saying in this and her other You Tube videos. If you have the time just watch a couple of them. Any one who knows me knows that I have been struggling with a weight issue for the last 5 yrs. I had my spinal operation cancelled on me 4 times due to the fact that said I was morbidly obese. I am a size 20 now but when they said that I was a size 16, Overweight? Yes I will give you that as I can barely walk about so it is difficult to lose the excess weight but morbid? Have they seen some of the vast women in the streets and more to the point have they not noticed that they have a large amount of very overweight people working in the hospital. Hard to take weight advice from someone when their nurses and clerical staff weigh much more than I do. Put your own house in order first please and then you can tell me I am morbidly obese.

I have to go to the hospital in January and February and know that the minute I go through the door I will be criticized for my weight before they even examine me. I need a new knee but know they will say they can't operate on me at this weight. Come back when you have lost weight. Your BMI is too high. What I find amusing is that one of the specialists is less than 5 feet tall in his Cuban heel shoes and must buy his clothes at the children's department but I don't say to him why don't you grow and put on a few pounds. Is it any wonder he says he would find it difficult to operate on my knee. Jeez he must have to stand on a step to even reach the operating table. I might stand more of a chance if they employed full sized surgeons. When I had my carpal tunnel operated on privately the surgeon was a lovely burly Scot who looked like he tossed cabers in his spare time. I just wish that he did knees or I had the money to pay for an operation.

I am not defending my size. I am merely trying to point out to them - which came first. My problems or my weight. If they look back in their records I arrived at the hospital 5 yrs ago with back troubles and weighed 70 lbs less. Surely there is a clue in there somewhere. Hey this lady can't walk or exercise so she is gaining weight - not eating more just to piss us off! No they are not interested in why I am gaining weight only that I should lose it. I think if the NHS put a bit more money into helping me now before I become an obese statistic ( oh sorry according to them I already am one) instead of keep saying they can't operate on me because of my size. Round and round in a circle I go.

I am not a stupid person but yet I do have a bit of an obsessive depressive eating pattern, which has developed over the last few years, which I have explained to them on many occasions. I eat more when I am depressed and guess what makes me depressed? The fact that I am in pain and can barely walk. Hey geniuses why don't you listen to me? Giving me a diet sheet won't help at all. I know what I should be doing so just fix my body and my head will follow.

I am not hiding from the world in my photo. Just demonstrating that my nephew in law will be ready for the next bit of snow we get. I knitted him the Palindrome scarf for Christmas but it was a bit short so I have crocheted him another scarf, this time much longer, and made the Anarchy hat from the Stitch and Bitch The Happy Hooker book. I haven't made the hat as long as I don't think that he wants a hat with a brim. I will have to post it now as they have gone back to London today. Notice how the stitch changed the colour. The scarf is in UK trebles and the hat in UK double crochet.

I might pick up the sweater that I had started for Charlie before Christmas. I stopped knitting as the multi colour had pooled just under the neck on the front making it look like a huge chocolate stain. I will unpick it and try using wool from another ball for every other row to break this pooling up. I can't leave it looking like this even though I know that you can't always predict where the pooling will land when you are using random wool.

A new day - a new project

I have to use up as much of the wool I have for one project. There is something about me that cannot put the extra ball into stash. I had a full 50 gram ball plus a part ball left from my niece Vicky's jumper. ( June - I made the jumper in Sirdar Click DK sorry for not mentioning it last post) On
my niece's last visit she had expressed a desire for a scarf that was lacy and done in circles linked together.

I started this scarf but soon realized that not only did linking the circles together drive me nuts but that it was coming out too big and I would not have enough wool. I then remembered seeing a vintage crochet dress pattern in a lacy stitch in my stash and so used that stitch to make a scarf.

I am quite pleased with the effect and how much scarf I managed to make with so little wool. I crocheted a fringe out of chain as I knew there was not enough for a fringed one, I hope that she won't mind that it's not the circle one that she liked. I will maybe try that pattern out again in finer wool next time. I still have to use the part 100 gram ball left from my other niece's cardigan but think perhaps a knitted beanie would be more her style.

I went to the Salford Arms knitting club last night. We had a half hour delay in getting there as there appeared to have been a bad accident further up the main road. Lots of flashing lights and ambulances flying about. I hope that no one was seriously injured. Our visit was therefore quite a short one but I did manage to start the second Tiger sock and do a few rounds. The lady who knits with strips of plastic bags was there and she had a couple of finished ones with her. I might have a go one day as they make really strong bags for shopping and it's such a good way of recycling supermarket bags into something useful. She was making another bag out of brightly differently coloured bags for a beach bag. She said that she put one up for raffle and raised £50+ pounds for charity. Good idea. Another of the members has almost finished a knitted dalek. It is for a gift for an avid Dr Who fan and it looks really good now she has almost finished it. One of the guys from the bar came to us with his camera phone to take a photo of the dalek as he was so intrigued with it.

Today I started the crochet shawl destined for my sister in law. I made her one with a slightly different edging than the pattern for Christmas in black and she loved it so much that she hinted that she would like one in a different colour. I chose cream as that's another good all round go with most things colour. My sister in law has conservative tastes and would never wear a strong colour like I would choose. I will decide on the edging when I get to the end although the one on the pattern has a sort of collar effect and I doubt that she would like that. One reason I changed it last time. Her birthday is the 23rd so it's all sytems a go. Midnight oil will be burned.

I still have to finish Anna's soakers and Nikki's hat before the next Knitting Noras Knit Out - whew - mush mush Jan get those hooks a flashing!

I had a good night's sleep again last night so hopefully the bad dreams and wakefulness have gone away for the time being. Poor sleep affects my mood and energy levels for the rest of the day. Hopefully I will be able to get some more shawl crocheted today in between dog walks.

I just read the Panopticon (see link at the side) and I was rolling about laughing. If you have never read Franklin's blog then please just take a look at it just once - he is such a funny guy (as well as being a good knitter) I love Dolores the sheep (and Harry) and am a member of the Ravelry group named in her honour.

Crochet scarf finished

I managed to finish Vic's scarf off this morning as I had nodded off on the sofa last night with 4 rows still to finish. It took 300 grams of super chunky and I used Sirdar pattern 8577 which also has a crochet newsboy hat on it.

I have had about 4 starts on a Peruvian style hat for Kacey my elder great grand daughter but the first one in the lovely wool I had bought in the Sale was turning out so big that despite a couple of adaptations I did a lot of unpicking so I gave it up. I started again with a lovely soft ball of chunky that I bought from Bury market a little while ago but am still unsure if it is working out too big again. I am hoping that 2 -3 yrs old heads are larger than I remember them. That is the only problem with working from US books. The wool weight is all a bit of a guesswork. Aran thickness would have been the perfect match but as the pattern was shown in a shaded variegated yarn I was trying to get as close to the pattern as I could. Aran yarn only came in solid or fleck colours. The yarn I am using now is variegated but working up a lot darker than it looked in the ball. I will press on and finish it tomorrow and see how it looks with the embroidery and the brighter trim.

Not much knitting achieved today all in all. I am off to bed before 1am tonight as I am feeling a little tired from all these late nights.

Another present finished

Last night I finished crocheting my sister in law's scarf. It is crocheted rather appropriately in Patons Blur which usually is a description for my photographic skills. It doesn't help that I have put the manual in a safe place (i.e.lost it!) or that I totally lack basic skills in photography. I am going to have a tidy up of my collection of papers that are strewn around the house in various hidey holes so hopefully the manual will be found. I usually keep in in the camera box so am a bit puzzled as to why I thought it would be safer somewhere else.

I started Kath's cardigan on Monday eve just to get a feel of the pattern but as I had reached the shaping for the waist bit I didn't do any last night as it was late and my concentration was at a low ebb.

I started a basic shell scarf in some Sirdar black chenille I had in stock but am still unsure if I will continue with it. Everything black that I crochet ends up with lots of Buster hair woven in it as no matter how much I lint roll and brush everywhere he has a habit of shedding over my work (or so it seems) If it's not Buster hair then it's mine. I usually wear it twisted up but long blonde hairs get woven into most garments I make. Perhaps Buster and I should wear those dashing net hats they wear in food production? Buster would have the all in one overalls of course.

On with the day. Buster has decided that my breakfast looks far more tasty than his breakfast and as we still haven't been for the morning walk so I am not in his good books. Ah the joys of owning a dog. My friend Caroline's dog has just had to be put to sleep on Monday so she is very upset. He had been quite ill for weeks, back and forth to the vet's, but she kept putting off the inevitable. She says now she realises why I was so upset when my little 14yr old cat Ollie died in my arms a few months ago. She had never had a pet before and didn't understand my grief. Her dog Jack was a demented un-trainable idiot but she loved him and that's all that matters. Her relatives will be sad for her but glad that they will no longer get bitten every time they visit her, and the neighbours will be glad of the break from his constant barking.

Fabulous Flirty Crochet

Kath's cardigan ( sorry about the blurred photo but the yarn is so dark) is finished and blocked to try to stretch it out as it did come out very small. The pattern was riddled with mistakes. I did read the errata page and amended my book but it was still wrong in quite a few places. I really do get so annoyed when I pay £10 -£15 for a book and then finish up having to work out the pattern on my own. It's bad enough that the US books call the stitches by the wrong names for us UK crocheters but I haven't bought one book that hasn't had mistakes in it.

I still have one pack of yarn left but the next one I make will be of my own design! I will just look at the picture in the books and do my own thing. I find that when I do that the garments fit better anyway. The close ups show the collar detail and the button tab detail.

I have done roughly half of the scarf to match the Kilim cap and stitched the ends in thanks to Gok Kwan and his How to Look Good Naked programme. I love that programme. Much better than the horrible Trinny and Susannah who are so rude to everyone. I would hate them to do a make over on me their taste is clothes is abysmal and if they came anywhere near my boobs I would punch them.

Caroline's aran is progressing. I have done 2 fronts and part of the back. I will photograph it tomorrow. I have to switch from knitting to crochet throughout the course of the evening to rest my hands. I started a knitted scarf in mohair but the lacy stitch was annoying me when the stitches kept sticking together so I cast it aside and have started to crochet one instead. I hope I like this one as I will have less and less wool if I keep discarding pieces of knit and crochet that I don't like. If you have ever tried to unrip mohair you will know that it is virtually impossible so I have about 5 false starts curled up on the sofa like big fluffy false eyelashes.

It was water aerobics day today and I usually enjoy it but today my legs went very numb and wobbly and I kept overbalancing. It has never happened to me in water before. It happens on dry land a lot and I have a big bruise on my right arm and leg to prove it. I almost fell through the porch window when I lost the feeling in my legs after Buster's walk and overbalanced as I tried to get up the step into the house. Once I sit down the use comes back almost immediately although I do get a burning sensation and pins and needles for a while.