Mothers Day

It's Mothers Day today just in case you hadn't guessed from the title. I had a lovely bunch of flowers in my favourite colours, a box of chocolates and a Terry's Chocolate Orange (empty box on show because Orange did not last long hee hee) I had a card from the family and a lovely home made card from my great grand daughter Kacey (with a little help from Mummy as she is only 2) again in my favourite colours. What more could I wish for. Kacey had a sore tongue and wasn't in the best of moods but I still got a smile from her. Her younger sister Emily was sleeping until she got woken up by Kacey squeeking Buster's ball. Emmie was non too pleased with this and as she is a grumpy babe at the best of time you can imagine the scowls on her face when she was rudely awoken.

Yesterday was a great day out. My friend Vicky came and gave me a lift to the Holiday Inn in Bolton where there was an exhibition which was part of the International Womens week. There were several diverse stalls and the Knitting Noras were there to promote knitting and help if anyone wanted to learn to knit. Our group had it's photo taken with the lady Mayor of Bolton (who was also knitting)so maybe we will make the papers. There was disruption in the form of a protest. Some women didn't like the fact that there was a stall promoting pole dancing and had placards. It apparently got a bit out of hand when they started throwing the woman's garments about that she had for sale and the police had to be called. I missed all of the excitement as I was knitting away on my chair in a different part of the hall. I can see both sides of the argument. I can see why some women might think that pole dancing is exploitation of women and had no right to be included in the exhibition but on the other hand the lady with the stall was not girating about on her pole dressed in a sexy costume I think she was promoting it as a form of exercise but to be truthful I didn't take much notice of her stall. I thought that Women's week was all about women making their own decisions about what to do with their lives. I wouldn't want to be (nor could be) a pole dancer but if someone has a burning desire to be one then surely it is their own decision and not for me to tell them it's wrong or right. I had a really good time and I am sure the other ladies that I was knitting with did also. Thanks to Laurie for nipping into Marks for a sandwich and drink for me. Much appreciated.

The baby tried on her finished soakers and they fitted quite nicely, although they are a touch roomy but that will allow room for growth. I haven't taken a photo of the finished soakers but I believe that some photos were taken so I may be able to post one on a later blog. I think I may have misread the pattern at the division of the legs and on the second pair I will do the gusset part a different way. I wasn't happy with the fit around the crutch area on the first pair. Linda, baby Anna's mum, is dyeing some finer wool as she wants some more making. I am on my second pair in the thicker wool.

The knitted garden is now on display in Unit 10 (next door to New Look) of Crompton Place Shopping Centre, Bolton. I believe that Lisa is still planning to add more things to it when it moves to another location - possibly the Arts Centre. I am sure that the ladies who took these photos of the garden will not mind my posting the links on here http://www.flickr. com/photos/ 21094189@ N05/ and http://www.flickr. com/photos/ eadaoinflynn/. There are also some photos on Vicky's blog (scroll down - the link is on the right hand column marked blogs)

The bottom photo is Buster looking sad after all the family had left. He still does not really understand the reasons why he can't go back home with them. I had thought he was cured of his nasty habit but yesterday he was naughty again when Vicky called for me and he snapped his teeth near her fingers. Ahh! What am I going to do with him? 99 per cent of the time he is a loving dog - a bit growly if he doesn't know you but not a threat and then out of the blue he snapped out and surprised both Vicky and myself. I suppose I had got a bit complacent about him because he had been so good for so long. Today I watched him like a hawk when the babies came and made sure he was nowhere near them just in case. He behaved like a true gentleman with them but I can not trust him again after yesterday.

I feel like I have a knee full of chopsticks

I feel rather like I have a lapful of spaghetti and chopsticks. I am knitting long legged soakers for a fellow Knitty Nora member's baby girl but the wool has not got a good yardage and so I do not have enough wool for the legs. The wool was hand dyed so I could not ask for another ball. I introduced some cream wool into the leg and last night knitted one leg in a broken striped pattern but when I got up this morning I didn't like it very much so I unravelled it. I decided that I would not have enough wool to complete the second leg the same way. I decide then to search out another set of needles and work both legs at the same time so that any striping would be identical and I could see how the wool was working out. So I now have 7 double pointed needles and 4 balls of wool to tangle with! I am a glutton for punishment. I just hope that she likes the finished random effect.

I went to the dentist yesterday to do the impression for my bite guard. I hate that squishy feeling when I had to bite down into the soggy sticky pink rubber tasting goo. I had a mouthful, a tongue full and even a face full by the time he had finished. Good job I wasn't wearing any make up as I had bits of rubber solution sticking all over my face and chin and not just around my mouth. I have no idea how it finished up everywhere.

I didn't make it to water aerobics today for various reasons (mostly laziness and apathy!) but I did get a bit of good news yesterday. I hopped on the scales (which is a thing I don't usually do) in preparation for trying to start a diet and discovered that I have lost 5lbs since my last weigh in 2 weeks ago. The hospital had weighed me then and I was convinced that their scales were wrong so I had hopped on mine when I got home. All I have done differently is to stop taking my HRT for the last 2 weeks. I had always insisted that I had gained weight after I started on them but everyone in the medical profession that I said this to just poo pooed the suggestion. They said it was just because I was eating more because I felt better. I knew I was eating the same amount as usual but thought that they knew best.

I found out today that one of my neighbours is having a very similar back operation to me in the next couple of weeks. Same hospital but different surgeon. I hope hers goes well otherwise it will start my nerves off if she has any problems. I am quite surprised they are doing it as she is quite a lot fatter than I am but maybe different surgeons have different rules for weight. I am not nervous at the moment as it all seems to be a long time away. My pre-op is not until beginning of April so I am not expecting to go in before May or June.

I had a shock today in the form of my gas bill. I haven't used any more gas and am pretty frugal with the central heating and the thermostat and it has really gone up such a lot. I was convinced that theymust have read the meter wrong but they haven't. The upshot of it is that they have now put my direct debit up by £10 a month to cover it. My pension is going up £4 a week but the way that every utility bill is going up people in my situation just get poorer and poorer. True we get £200 a year just before Christmas but that still doesn't make up for all the price increases. No wonder old people freeze to death. I am lucky. I am still pretty active despite my back problems but I do feel chilly in the house on really cold days. I couldn't afford to keep the heat on all day. I bought a calor gas heater with last year's heating allowance but haven't used it much. I can see I will be dragging it back out of the garage soon unless the weather gets warmer soon.

Here we go unravelling again

I am officially the queen of unravelling. No photos of the finished crochet socks because they are not finished! I have gone drastically wrong with the second sock so will have to unravel it back to the heel shaping.

I went to the Knit Out of the Knitting Noras today (Thanks for the lift Vicky) and was crocheting my sock there. I know I was doing a lot of chatting but I can't blame my mistake on that. I think I started off with too many double crochets when I picked up along the heel and so it took far more rows to decrease down to the right amount. The first sock looks sock shaped but the second one looked more funnel shaped.I still prefer the look and feel of knitted socks but as I put my toe through yet another pair of socks on this morning's dog walk I need more crochet socks merely because they are far quicker to make. Even quicker if I don't go wrong!

Once I have finished the socks I am starting to knit some soaker longies for one of the Noras. Linda has the most adorable baby who sits and chuckles all through the Knit Out. The baby wears cloth diapers and bought trousers don't have enough rise in the bottom to go over the bump so Linda has found this pattern that is shaped to accomodate the extra thickness. Linda has dyed some multi coloured wool so they should make interesting pants.

The Knitting Noras had brought knitted things for the garden for International Womens Week. Vicky has knitted a fairy amongst other things, there was a beehive, a frog and a rabbit. Lisa has already been given lots of other vegetables and flowers and along with her helpers has the task of joining the knitted squares together to form the garden. I should be quite a garden when it is finished and hopefully there will be photos.

I am off to bite the bullet and unravel part of the second sock. I am not saying I will take a photo of the finished socks as I doubt they will be finished tonight.
Maybe by Tuesday?

Update - memo to self when it says on the pattern decrease 2 tog twice it does not mean do it once !