Clutter v Memories

As I have been cleaning today and so not doing any knitting or crochet I thought that I would share a few of my treasured possessions with you. My friend, my son and daughter in law would call it all clutter and throw it all away. To me every piece holds memories and I love every one of them. The decanter and tall wine glasses came to me after my Mum died. They were gifts from the family for my Mum and Dad's Golden Wedding. They are crystal and silver and a chore to keep clean and shiny but everytime I polish them I think about the happy memories of my parents. My parents kept them in their boxes as they were 'too nice' to have on display. I still have the boxes but as they were bought to be shown I have them on display. The smaller hand engraved crystal sherry glasses in front are reminders of my wedding day as they were given to me by a good friend who is sadly no longer with us. The same applies to the engraved crystal dessert glasses. I have told my niece to make sure that she gets them when anything happens to me as I would hate to see them vanish out of the family. My son would not want anything like this although he does still have the collection of crystal animals and the display cabinet that he bought for his Grandma over the years.



I love the teddies despite the fact that my ex husband gave then to me as a Christmas present about 10 yrs ago. We may have had our differences in the past but it shows that at least he knows my taste in some things. They look like fabric teddies but are made in pottery by Regency Fine Arts. I believe that they do a whole range of bears. These are Biggles Bear and Errands.



The photo of my parents and it's frame are special as it was the last time my parents were photographed on holiday together before my Dad became terminally ill. My Dad had bought the frame for my Mum for the last wedding anniversary that he remembered to buy anything for. It was in his room throughout his stay in the nursing home until the day he died. The black and white dogs used to reside in my Grandmother's hearth. My Dad got them from somewhere. They were used in a shop window display for Black and White whisky more than 50 yrs ago. The black otter came as a gift to me from my Mum and Dad when they visited Canada and the Leopard came from my ex husband when he went to South Africa.



The amaryllis continues to cheer me up every morning as they are on my kitchen window sill. I don't know if you can see but it now has four blooms open.



I am busy today trying to de hair the lounge. It takes me such a long time to do things these days. A job that I would have zipped through in minutes in the past now takes me ages. A sign of the times and old age I suppose. It's a case of do a bit of cleaning for five minutes and then sit down for five minutes. I had to clean the glassware and the ornaments whilst sitting down. It's things like this that depress me more than the pain. My mind wants to do things but my body lets me down. Life is a bummer sometimes. At least the lounge will be Buster hair free by this evening. I try not to get upset when I can't do as much as I would like but it does get me down when the house is not as I would like it.

Today is a beautiful sunny day and I would love to be sitting outside in the sunshine finishing off the crochet spiral waistcoat but I have so much work to do before I can relax. The bedding is blowing outside on the line and I hope to re make the bed before tonight otherwise I will be sleeping on the recliner tonight! I try to aim for one room at a time so the bedroom and bathroom may be on tomorrow's agenda.

I forgot to mention that the baby hat and booties book I previewed the other day on my blog is all knitted. Although crochet is my first love I don't mind so much making baby things in knitting. I just baulk a bit at knitting adult things as it makes my arms ache.

Coffee break is over now so back to the hoover. I just hope that I don't nod off in the chair tonight as I did last night. I missed all the TV programmes that I had planned to watch and didn't pick up my crochet at all. I did get a full night's sleep hence the bit of energy for cleaning today.

Sidetracked

I must be feeling better as I have been tidying up since I last blogged. Not a stitch has been knitted or crocheted which is very rare for me. My back is hurting but otherwise I am fine. I think that my anti depressants must have finally started to work plus the swelling in my knee has slowly started to go down. Maybe finally I am turning the corner. My specialist did warn me that it could be up to twelve months before I regained full mobility in the knee so maybe I was just being too impatient.

Sorting through patterns and books isn't easy when you have as many as I do. As you can see from the bookcase those are just my knit and crochet books. The two boxes underneath are just two of five boxes. I have now sorted baby patterns into one box. Ladies single leaflets into another. One has old Phildar and similar books, the other has my old McCalls craft magazine from the early 60's which are now falling to bits but I still love them. The last box now houses my machine knitting books and patterns as I hope to start to use my big knitting machine again soon.

I also found my Mum's wooden sewing boxes up the end of the cubby hole under the stairs where I keep my pattern boxes. I started to tidy those out. I always thought that I inherited my hoarding tendencies from my Dad but now I know that I got a double dose. I got my Mum's hoarding instincts as well. If I ever want to make any i cord knitters with 4 small nails and a wooden bobbin I know just where to find my wooden sewing thread bobbins from. I never had one of those plastic soldier i cord makers when I was a kid. My Dad used to just hammer 4 small tacks into a bobbin and my Mum would give me a blunt sewing up needle to hook the wool over with.I told you before that I come from a make do and mend generation which is probably why I still find it hard to throw things away that might come in useful one day.

I just had to share some of my very old crochet patterns with you. I am sure that many of you remember the fashions of the 60's and 70's even if you didn't wear any of them. I didn't make a lot of them for myself but I used to crochet for a boutique in the 60's so a lot of patterns are from that era.

Time to go back to my cleaning and tidying. At least after 2 days I am up to putting things back today. Previously if you had come to my house in the last couple of days you would have been surprised to see that I was in such a mess. It's funny how when doing a big clear out it always looks far worse than it did before you started. Or is that just me?

Anyway it's time to get back to work. Hopefully by next week I will get around to the upstairs. Whew. I have let things slide around the house for the last couple of years and now I am paying for it. I will never make the covers of House Beautiful but at least it will be a lot tidier. Wish me luck I am going back in, pass me the duster!

The Hospital Saga Continues

As I have not heard anything from the hospital about my knee operation I decided to give them a ring. I got the ever helpful (touch of sarcasm here) secretary of my surgeon. She said that she had no idea when I would be sent for as my surgeon has just had an operation and is now on holiday to recuperate. He has cancelled all of his ops for the time being. Jolly Good Show. I bet that he didn't have to wait for his operation or get cancelled twice. Things are looking grim. I just hope that his operation was a minor one and not something that will keep him off work for a long time. This news will disrupt the family one again as if my op isn't in August then my niece will have gone back to work (she is a teacher and off at the moment). She was going to stay overnight with me when I first come home. If she is back at work then she won't be able to do it. At least my son won't have to cancel their family holiday with their grand daughters in August as I will be able to have Buster again. His other dog is lovely but she is like a whirlwind, knocking into everything and everyone, so I can't look after her as she is too energetic. She dived in the house on Sunday and everything flew off the coffee table as she swished it with her strong tail. Buster seemed very happy to see her and went off with her in the car without a backward glance.

My son is in negotiation with his friends for my mobility scooter but they are on holiday at the moment. At least if I get one of those then I can take Buster for a walk. Not in the woodland that he is used to as the paths are muddy with stiles at the entrances. I can take him to what used to be a children's playground as the seats are still there, even though all the swings and slide have gone, and it is grassed so he can play ball on it. I wonder if he will walk along side me or hitch a lift in the foot well or the scooter? He is a bit too big to fit in the shopping basket on the front. Hee Hee

I am still cleaning up today.It takes me such a long time these days to give the place a good clean. I managed to change my bed without trouble as I can walk all around that bed. The double bed in the spare room that Buster sometimes sleeps on is really awkward. It is pushed against the wall on two sides. Have you ever tried to remake a bed whilst sitting on the mattress. Not an easy task believe me. I can't kneel so I had to lie on the mattress to tuck in the corners of the sheet which isn't easy with a fat body pinning down a lot of the sheet. I got into some very unusual positions,

I am knitting the old pattern in the photo with some Wendy Monaco in a sort of denim blue but making it without the ties at the neckline. I didn't take a photo as the jacket is all in pieces at the moment and I still have the hood to knit. The pattern is from a booklet called 50 Best Sellers of the year and was given free in the Woman magazine on September 19th 1964. I do like my old patterns. They seem to fit so much better and are far easier to understand.

I sorted out the odd balls of baby wool into two storage trays. As you can see no matter how many jackets that I have already knitted and crocheted I still have a lot of wool to work on. I have more girl colours than boy colours at the moment so the foster baby girl will be getting some more jackets for winter.

Time to get back to my cleaning although I may sneak a mug of coffee first, I have almost finished the upstairs cleaning but still have all the downstairs to do and the staircase Whew. I am knackered already and I am going to Knit Club tonight as well.

I had better stop nattering and get some work done or I will not be ready when my niece calls.

Not Much Crocheting Done Lately

Not much crocheting has been done over the last couple of days. I am still in the cleaning and tidying up mode. So much of the house has been ignored or glossed over for the last 12 months since I had my spinal operation and subsequent knee operation even now it is not being cleaned to my satisfaction. It will not be up to my pre op standards. I am still limited with what I can do as my knee, although thanks to the physio/osteo and the ice packs is slowly improving, I still can't clean as well as I would like. It's difficult to get to places when my knee won't bend properly and I cannot kneel. Still at least I have started and albeit very slow progress the house is getting cleaner by the day.

Yesterday I had time off from cleaning and mowed the lawn instead. The lawn had grown like a meadow with all the rain we have had lately and it took me quite some time as my poor old lawnmower kept cutting a bit and then stopping for a while. The grass was still wet underneath and I had to wait for it to dry out layer by layer. Eventually I got it done although I must confess that my knee didn't like it one bit. Still it has to be done. The hedge could do with a trim but I decided not to try to do too much in one day.

My two nieces came to visit me yesterday. My younger niece lives in London so I don't get to see her often. The had been visiting Garstang where my Mum and Dad used to have a caravan. They said it was beautiful there and hadn't changed much at all.

Today is my son and daughter in law's wedding anniversary. I hope that they have a good day. No doubt they celebrated at the weekend. I have sent them a congratulation phone text but didn't ring as they will probably be at work.

I have finished crocheting the baby cardigan but as you can see if needs stitching together and buttons added. I have started the hat. I have not enjoyed doing this pattern with this wool. The wool has a silky thread which keeps snagging up as I make the bobbles. I think the yarn is more suited to being knitted and not crocheted. The black crochet is the start of another Doris Chan All Shawl.

I have been icing my knee whilst writing this blog and my 15 minutes is up so it's back to the cleaning. I will take a break and shower soon as my niece is taking me to the Knit Club tonight.

More dolls clothes

Relax ladies. I have not been up all night knitting and crocheting. Nor have I been flogging the elves in the cellar. I made these doll's clothes last year and then decided that my great grand daughters were far too young to play with them. As they fit a 14-15" doll and Baby Annabel is 18" I had to start again to make clothes to fit her. I will include these clothes as I am sure that the girls have dolls or teddies that they will fit.

I have knitted the bits for Annabel's pram coat and have started the leggings. All in K1 P1 rib which is definitely not my favourite stitch as it slows me down so much. I am going to make a crochet pram blanket to match the pram suit and then I will have finished.

I have been trying, once again, to do some more deep clean housework. I have been doing dusting and a bit of hoovering here and there since my op but nothing heavy. I don't know how the people on How Clean is your House can leave their houses as long as they do without cleaning. Mine has been left for 4 months due to my operation. I can, however, understand how they become overwhelmed by the sheer amount to do. I still have loads to clean but am limiting myself to just so much each day. I promise I will get around to the insides of my kitchen cupboards once I can bend my knee to get down there! It will all get done eventually so I am not going to beat myself up because my house isn't up to my usual standards.

Today I cleaned some more windows and am a little sad to see that my great grand daughter's hand print and Buster's paw prints are no longer on the patio doors.