Hats For The Big Issue Homeless Project

Last year the Nexus Cafe in Manchester combined with the Big Issue and had a knit in at the cafe to provide some hats and scarves for the Big Issue sellers and the homeless of Manchester. Last year I made quite a few of each from donated and scrap stash wool and this year I vowed to make some more. I think that the Kings Arms Knit Club might join me in making some hats, scarves or gloves. One of our members Marie kindly dropped my contribution into the Big Issue for me so I am hoping that she will do the same for me this year.

I have crocheted 2 hats so far with some wool that I got donated but never used last year. Each one took 2 x 50 grams of Patons Moorland chunky in a brown fleck. This is now discontinued but should be warm as it has a good percentage of wool in it. One of the hats turned out a bit on the large side when I tried it on but maybe men have bigger heads than me or maybe there is some homeless guy out there with a lot of thick hair, I have started an earflap hat in crochet and that is also from donated chunky wool. This time it is Patons Beehive chunky in a plain brown. I have doubled this wool up and it will take 3 x 50 gram balls. I am going to have a rummage in my copious amounts of part balls in the stash room to find suitable colours for men. I plan to keep making hats in between my other projects until I have enough to donate. I might crochet some stripey scarves with my oddments. I will double and treble the wool to make it into chunky warm hats. I have been making so much for babies and toddlers that I have a lot of pale colours in my oddments.

The second matinee coat is for Phil's, the Kings Arms barman, new baby girl to be. I have made a slightly larger size this time. Once again it is a vintage Patons baby pattern and the wool is Sirdar Snuggly Baby Quicknit. I thought that I would make one for when she is born and one for a bit later as babies grow so fast.

I have not put any photos of the Interweave crochet magazine on here as most people have had their copy for a long time. This is not the original magazine. This is a replacement copy that was sent to me on Friday.I wonder if my original one will ever turn up? If it does I shall post it straight back so they can resell it. There isn't much in this Winter issue that I would think of making for myself. Maybe I have become a bit jaded as I have so many books and magazines. Nowadays something really has to grab my attention. I have enough on my list of things to make, without adding anything for me, at the moment.

Today is supposed to be Blue Monday but to be honest I didn't feel much different than any other Monday except that I was so tired this morning that I nodded off at the PC desk in the middle of looking at Ravelry and bumped my head on the edge of the desk. I woke up, of course, thinking what the heck just happened !

The sun came out today for a while and as you can see it was warm enough to steam the wet fencing. When I saw it at first I thought that something was on fire as there was so much steam which looked like smoke at first glance. The sun didn't last long though and we went back to dull and wet in an hour or so.

Tesco delivered my food order today. I needed quite a few things and it's hard to fit a lot on my scooter. I don't use home delivery most of the time, just when my shopping list is long and the weather is rainy as it was on Saturday when I put my order in.

Tonight I am going in the stash room to find some more wool for hats. Should I tie a string around my waist so that I can find my way out? Imagine the headlines -" Wool Stash hoarder found trapped underneath a pile of wool. Neighbours discovered her when they noticed that they hadn't seen her for a couple of days. After recovering in hospital the first thing she asked for was a ball of wool and a crochet hook"

Finally The Missing Books Arrive

As you know I have been waiting for books to arrive from Amazon and the Book Depository for a few weeks, The postman knocked on my door and presented me with everything (except the crochet magazine) early this morning. There was also a CD that I had ordered as a present to myself at Christmas. I now have Robbie Williams to listen to and 5 books to browse today. It's not just me who had missing books. My friend Eadaoin has posted on my facebook page that her books have arrived today that she ordered before Christmas and another friend Dorrie has at last got her books from Amazon. Perhaps Royal Mail is catching up with deliveries at last.

I must have misread the write up for the Simply knit hats book as I thought that it was for all the family and it turns out to be just for toddlers. Never mind, as I am sure that I will find a use for it. I would hesitate to call it simple though as that is misleading for a novice knitter. The first pattern that I looked at had a skull and crossbones knitted in a contrast colour into the hat. Fair Isle knitting is not something that I would recommend for a simple knit. I will take photos of the contents on another day.

The Hooked on Crochet hat book from Annie's Attic looks like a book that I will get use from although there is a nice pattern (not shown on the cover) in it that needs a double ended crochet hook for it. Of course I only have Tunisian and normal crochet hooks so I doubt that I will make it as it looks a bit complicated. I would have to buy a hook and it hardly seems worth it just for one hat although there is a hat in the Just Hats book from Lion brand that uses a similar method. I haven't looked but I bet that it's a different sized hook. Sod's law eh?

The Precious baby booties book from Annie's Attic illustrates every pair on the front cover so there is no need for me to show you the contents of that leaflet.

The Crochet for Tots by Nancy Queen isn't a new book. It's one that I have thought about buying for ages but just never got around to it. There are a lot of workable patterns in it which I will show you later but I am not sure why there is a fixation in this book for three quarter sleeves. Sorry, but to me it just looks as though the toddler has grown out of the sweater or that I have made the sleeves too short for the child. The sleeves in the book are also very wide which I would adapt.

My baby knitted matinee is on the finishing stretch. I just have about half of the yoke to knit. It seems to have taken me ages to knit this jacket. I think that it's because there are lots of stitches on the needle at once.The body is knitted all in one and so is the yoke. I don't remember it taking me this long to knit it in the past but my knitting has slowed down over the last few years.

I have so many adult jackets to make in the pipeline just waiting for decisions on which pattern and which colour that I will be busy over the coming few months. I think that I will just start some hats for the homeless as if I start a big project then I am sure that I will get a decision any time soon and have to drop whatever I am making to start the relevant jacket. I still have the second jacket to knit for Charlie that I didn't get around to before Christmas. I haven't heard whether the jackets that I made for my Great Grand Daughters fitted or were appreciated. I think that my son will give them to the girls this weekend. I do hope that I get some feed back. I don't know about you but I do like some feedback on whether they fit or are liked when I give a present.

A couple of bloggers have kindly given me awards that I am supposed to pass on. My problem is that I like so many blogs that I find it so difficult to just pick out a few to award these awards too. I am very grateful to be judged worthy of awards and I would love to pass them on. Maybe I will just award them to everyone whose blog I follow as you are all very deserving. I find it difficult enough to post comments on the blogs even though I do read them on a weekly basis. I will have to make more effort to leave comments as I know how much I enjoy receiving comments. In the mean time just assume that I have read your blogs and enjoyed your postings.