Hard to stay awake day

My nights seem to alternate between sleep and no sleep. I am just going with the flow. I was up and awake this morning at 5am after a restless night of little sleep. Today I have been smiling to myself as I keep waking up after nodding off with my crochet in hand whilst seated in the middle of my bay window. I hope that the neighbours have got used to my eccentricities over the last week or so. I hope that I am a pretty sleeper and don't have my mouth open or am snoring and drooling. No-one has yet said anything but they are a good bunch of neighbours around here and far too polite to tell me if I am. If I feel like a sleep then I am taking it. I let my body dictate what it wants to do for the day.

I may have visitors tomorrow. Charlie from the Kings Arms knitters has said that she will pop in with her small daughter for a quick visit.

I am still working on the unravelled aran. I had hoped to be further along with that today but as I have been a nodding dog all day then not much crochet has been done. The photo is of one of the sleeves. I am ekeing out the wool so doing sleeves even though the body is not fully completed.

Vicky J gave me the huge ball of wool in the other photos and I am toying with doing either one of the cardigans/jackets pictured from everyday crochet book. I haven't weighed up whether I have enough wool for the long length one yet or even if it is the correct thickness for the patterns but I can work around that bit.

I have taken close ups of my flowers so that you can see how beautiful they are. The scent is gorgeous and fills the room. Thanks once again to the Noras.

Hopefully I will get a better night's sleep tonight and be full of the joys of Spring tomorrow. The pain is getting better every day. I am still looking forward to trying a walk outdoors at the weekend. I didn't try today even though the sun was shining as I was far too sleepy and wobbly.

The joys of a good night's sleep

Yesterday I was so sleepy. I struggled to keep my eyes awake all through the day and kept nodding off in my chair like some old biddy.

My niece called and brought me some groceries. She also managed to fathom out how to attach the handles and grips to the bath seat which has made such a difference and I now feel totally secure in the shower.

Vicky J came and brought me 2 surprise gifts of flowers from the Knitty Noras. As you can see from the photos she has chosen some beautiful ones for me and as they are both in soil they will last longer than cut flowers. I have got my instructions from Vicky J on how to keep them alive so I hope that I learned all her instructions well. She changed my bed linen for me and loaded the washer. I am so lucky to have such a lovely friend. The plus side of having had such a rough couple of years healthwise is the lovely good friends that I have made and who have made my life so much easier with their love and friendship. I hope that I can be such a good friend to them in the future.

I woke up this morning full of the joys of Spring. I finally went to bed around midnight after napping on and off most of yesterday and although I woke myself up a few times during the night I actually slept in until 10.30am! I feel like I have turned a corner today and feel so much better. The sun is shining and it is a great day.

Yesterday I didn't get much crochet done as I felt rather sleepy. I crocheted a few squares. These are called Russian squares and I really like them although I am unsure as to whether they will make good squares as the shape looks rather dodgy without blocking. I am not making another shawl and at the moment what I have in mind for them is rather up in the air or within my designing brain. It involves the balls of unravelled wool as well so if it all works out then you will see the results soon.

I found out that I have been awarded the Arte y Pico award by Ambemoggie. I feel very honoured, but totally unworthy, of this award. I now have to make my own awards. As part of this includes links to the award and to people's blog sites and I am such a total numb skull at anything to do with the net this might take a while. I still haven't worked out how to add links to this page using peoples names as the link so am hoping to get some help with this. At the moment if you want to read about the award then please click on Ambermoggies blog link on the right hand side of my page. Amber was deservedly awarded the Arte Y Pico. She is a lady that I have drawn much inspiration from. How she copes with what life has thrown at her recently and still stays so cheerful is an inspiration to me.

I am off now to try to make something with the Russian squares. I hope that you enjoy the photos of my flowers. I wish that you could smell the scent that is filling my front room.

Another Christmas present finished!

I have finished a shortie crochet cardigan for my friend Caroline for Christmas. She is such a slim little thing that it seems to take no time at all to make anything for her. There is no pattern as I just made it up as I went along using her forgotten cardigan as a template. I really must sort out my digital camera as the cardi is a rather gorgeous shade of cornflower blue and my camera has turned it into another dirgy bluey grey colour. For some reason my camera does not like blue or purple shades. Turns them all to grey!

I have finished the first sleeve of Kevin's aran and done 32 pattern rows on sleeve number 2 so am on the countdown to hopefully finishing it this week. I love it when I am on the final stretch of anything makes me want to knit faster and faster! I can't stick at it so I will find another project from my Christmas list to start tomorrow.

The first layer of the M&S chocolates has also disappeared. I have tried to ration them out but they are just so yummy that I get tempted. I can't see the next layer lasting long either! I rarely buy chocolates for myself and it's probably as well as I just can't leave them alone if anyone buys them for me. I have put my bunch of flowers on the coffee table where I can see them most of the time. They don't last that long so while they are fresh I want to see them at their best.

I turned down going to Fibre and Clay at the weekend as I didn't think I wanted anything and so now I am going to have to go to Ramsbottom for some wool to use for my niece and her husband. Of all the yarns I already have I can't see any suitable colours in the right amount for what I have in mind. Isn't it always the way? I have managed to make 2 gifts from my stashed yarn so I don't feel too bad.

Kamrin - I am so glad that you too understand my joy at the birthday gift of a sock book. I love books and I browse all the time on the net for the latest crochet books. I do wish they would give more photos of the book contents as I can only afford the odd book now and again and so would like one with at least 3 or 4 things in it that I know I will make. My local library is useless and I have tried browsing the cache of the other local libraries via the library's facilities and have come to the conclusion that the people who order the books in Bury obviously are not crafters in any shape or form. The choice is pitiful. I went into Waterstones in Bury and they had 2 knitting books (both basic how to knit books) and I got told "We don't have any call for knitting books as people buy them on the net" I said people probably do that because you don't have any !!