Another All Shawl

As I said that last time that I made the All Shawl by Doris Chan it really is a simple fast shawl to crochet. I finished this one a few days ago and made it with 4 balls of Rowan Lux in Blue and one in Silver Grey to finish off the edging as I ran out of blue.

I will be taking this shawl up to the Blundell Arms to the next Knitting Noras knit out on Tuesday along with Lisa's birthday multi coloured All Shawl and a top that I made for her out of cone that came along with the oddments that she gave me for her Granny Takes a trip Jacket, I will take some photos of that for tomorrow's blog.

The bottom photo shows the way I like to crochet. I take a sweater that fits me (in this case Jewel by Doris Chan) and I think of a design in my head and crochet my thoughts using the sweater as a size pattern. It is the way that I learned to crochet when I was a teenager. There were so few crochet patterns back then and hardly any for garments so I used to make up my own. My idea is top up from an under bust empire line which is what you see here and then downwards. I have not yet decided how the under bust section or the sleeves will look but I am sure I will improvise as I go along. The wool I am using is Patons Velvet and I have 10 x 50 gram balls so the finished garment will be governed by how much wool I have left after the bodice is finished.

The official photos of my niece's wedding have arrived online and all I will say about those with me on them is fat ladies should not wear patterned dresses in cream. Not one of my better wardrobe choices.

The knee support means I can hobble about a bit better but it still feels like something is loose and moving about inside my knee. When this happens the pain makes me catch my breath. Ah well - not long until my hospital appointment in June.

Finally - I stitched the buttons on

Finally - after 3 or 4 days of just looking at the black cardigan I stitched on the buttons. I am not a particularly good sewer upper, no matter how hard I try, which is probably why I am such a convert to Doris Chan's patterns as there are very few seams (if any) to sew up on any of her garments. I try hard to match patterns up at seams and sew tails in securely but I invariably have little sprouts of tails that work there way to the right side resisting all attempts to darn them in up, down and sideways. Short of superglue I guess it is something I have to put up with.

The cardigan is crocheted in Sirdar Wash n'wear 4ply which isn't perhaps the prettiest of yarns to look at, and maybe shunned by some as it is all acrylic, but I would recommend it for durability. It has been a best seller for years and it's no wonder. It truly does wash and wear. I used to use it for my son in 4ply and DK when he was young and his sweaters used to come out of the washer, without pilling, and look good despite his rough handling. I have garments in my wardrobe that I made 15 - 20 yrs ago that I can put on and know that they still look good and I could not say that about a lot of the luxury yarns.

Yesterday I went to the hospital (Thanks for the lift Deb you were a lifesaver) for a spinal appointment. The specialist did look at my knee for me and agreed that all is not well. He wouldn't, of course, comment upon the operation but said the scans and X rays of my knee were not good and in fact the cartilage was non existent and it's just bone rubbing on bone in the knee plus I have grade (some number - 3 perhaps?) arthritis which is the worst that it can get. He also examined my wrist and thumbs and said arthritis was in there as well. He is going to get in touch with my GP about changing my medication to something suitable for arthritis as I mentioned my Gp was reluctant to prescribe when he didn't know the results of my bone scan tests. The good news was that the bone scan showed that my hips are OK at the moment ( Thank goodness for small mercies)

My Neoprene knee support arrived yesterday and whilst it is too soon to say it is making a big difference I do feel more supported when I walk and am hopeful of it making a difference to my distance walking. I am a hobbling advert for Neoprene supports at the moment. As I refuse to stop crocheting, no matter how much my wrists ache, I am sporting wrist straps as well when I am crocheting. At least they are all navy blue so I do co-ordinate.

We had a bit of a floor show at the hospital which passed away the waiting time. Some poor guy slid off his wheelchair and had a really bad fit. He was rolling around and thrashing about. The medical staff came running to try to help him but they got accidentally kicked as they tried to stop him from hurting himself on chairs and pillars. A friend of mine is epileptic but she has never fitted as badly or violently as he did. I do have a black sense of humour and although I was concerned about him I could see the funny side. Luckily there were not many people in the waiting area but the staff are asking us to move out of his way as the chairs were getting kicked etc and as it was an orthopedic clinic is was funny to see people trying to hobble out of the way quickly. They put screens around him for his privacy but he kept kicking out at these and one almost fell on Deb so we had to move even further away. If it hadn't have been serious it was like a scene from a Carry On Film as staff were dashing about with pillows putting them in front of anything that he might hit his head on. Eventually he stopped fitting and everything calmed down. Deb said she heard him tell the staff that he wasn't an epileptic when they asked him about his medication so I don't know exactly what happened to him but the staff took him off to be examined. If it was his first fit at least he picked the right place to have it with all the medical help at hand. If he had been in the street he could have been badly injured.

The sun is shining today so I do hope that we have a better day than yesterday. I am off now to don my wrist straps and do a bit of crochet as not a lot gone done yesterday. Tomorrow I will post some photos of the blue All Shawl. I had an e mail from Lisa yesterday to say that she has got the Granny Takes a Trip jacket (I had left it with Bev as Lisa was away) and is thrilled with it.

Another Blue Curacao shawl finished

I have finished another Blue Curacao shawl from Doris Chan's Amazing Crochet Lace book. I always find it strange calling it that when I make it in another colour. As I think I said before this one is for a neighbour and it's her wool. It is a bit thick for the pattern and so doesn't show the stitch up as well but I am sure it will keep her warm which is the main thing.

Before I make another of these shawls I have asked the Doris Chan forum on Ravelry where I keep going wrong. Reading a pattern wrong once is something we have all done but I have now made 4 shawls and they have all finished up with a double fan at the bottom instead of a single fan "point" as the picture in the book shows. I have had no complaints from my friends but I would like to make one the right way so that it looks exactly like the pattern.

I have been hoovering up Bear's dog hairs today and so have still not sewn the buttons on my cardigan. The sun was shining today which for some reason made me want to find everything remotely grubby around the house and wash it! I still haven't finished as I have noticed that one of my cushions fell victim to Bear's muddy paws but that will have to wait for another day when I have another full washer load.

The postman brought me a parcel and I thought it looked a bit small for my order. It only contained my wrist strap. Bupa did say that my parcel might arrive in two parts so hopefully my knee support will arrive tomorrow.

Debs has offered me a lift to the hospital tomorrow for which I an very grateful as I was wondering how my knee would hold up in the walk from the tram to the bus and then to the hospital and then back again if my knee support doesn't arrive before I have to leave the house. If I remember I will ask Deb to model the shawl so that I can take photos of it in wear as I think it gives a better idea
of how it fits.

I pray that none of my neighbours loses a dog today as I am quite worn out with wrestling Houdini (otherwise known as Bear the Siberian Husky) that I did yesterday. He is going to be adopted on Saturday by a couple who already have a husky as Belinda (I drink cups of tea) pointed out they are pack animals and work better as a team and as I found out yesterday need constant entertainment.

A Big Ornament on my Window Bottom

I got up and had just had my shower after breakfast when the doorbell rang. I though perhaps it was an early delivery of my knee support but instead it was a neighbour holding the foster dog Siberian Husky from across the road. She had found him chasing cats in the next street. She said that another neighbour had said that I knew how to contact the owner. I rang Will and he was in Nottingham on business and could not get back until around 7pm.

Therefore the task of looking after Bear for the day fell to me. He is still only a puppy despite his size and he cannoned around the house like a bull in a china shop knocking everything off tables and chairs with his tail. As you can see he is so huge that he could reach the worktops in the kitchen and I had to rescue my painkillers from his mouth at one stage. I learned to ignore the bangs that came from upstairs and he dashed about up and down the stairs. Whoever takes him on a permanent basis will need a lot of patience.

I tried to put him in the garden as he isn't really house trained but he dived through the privets and I just about managed to drag him back through with his tail and then he almost got over the fence. I found a length of my brothers old climbing rope in the garage but I could not leave him tied up in the garden as he chews his way through everything!

I was so relieved when Will's brother arrived about 6.30pm and he obviously didn't know that I had the dog as he burst out laughing when I showed him the dog laid down across the window bottom.

Will brought me a lovely bunch of flowers and some chocolates and told me that Bear is going to a permanent home on Saturday, I wish Bear's new parents the best of luck I hope that they are fit, active and have lots of patience! He came from a home with a young baby and had obviously become a problem. Dogs such as Bear look beautiful as pups but then grow to such huge dogs who need such a lot of exercise and I don't think people realise how hard they are to look after properly. He wore me out and I only had him for a few hours and of course I didn't walk him. He went out with Will's own dog later in the evening and they can outrun Will on his push bike. They are basically sled dogs and need at least 5 miles of exercise a day. Not an ideal choice for someone with a young family.

Needless to say I didn't get much crochet done and didn't get the buttons sewn on the cardigan. I do hope that Bear doesn't chew through his harness and break out of the garden again tomorrow!

Almost there

Almost there. The cardigan still needs buttons and blocking and the shawl is just the edging row short before that too gets blocked. Today was wet and miserable so not the day to take photos of a black cardigan finished or not. The camera flash turned it grey today.

The other day I came across Crochet Therapy blog through Ravelry and I really liked her latest words. It chats about her being told to "Fill yer bucket" You really need to read the full article to understand what I am talking about (click on my blog title). Basically Belinda says that she was told it is hard to help others if your bucket is empty and to fill your own bucket then you have look after yourself in order to help others. I can understand exactly what she means and so I commented on her blog in order to mentally help her to fill her bucket. I think my bucket is a bit dry this last couple of weeks.

I cancelled an appointment at the hospital today. It was just a 6 months review of my saliva ducts (or lack of) and as I am finding it hard to walk and didn't feel like spending £20 on a taxi too and from the hospital I rang to say that I could not go. I am hoping that my knee support arrives this week in the post and then I will be able to walk about more with my knee supported.

Tonight I think that I will try to do more on the lacy sweater I started and abandoned a couple of weeks ago. I have made the yolk so there is still a lot of crochet to do as it is in 4ply on a finer hook. First though I must force myself to sew the buttons on the cardigan and make room to block it and the shawl out which will take a few boards to stretch it out fully.

It might look silly but ......

It might look a bit silly but it is giving me relief. I am wearing my neoprene back support wrapped around my knee. It falls down when I walk as it isn't meant for this use but the warmth I am getting from it is really helping. I am now going to order a proper neoprene knee support. I was going to wait until I saw my knee specialist but I can't hobble around in pain for another 4 weeks.

I saw the knee support that I am going to order online on a Bupa site which also had a few interesting facts about arthroscopy that I had never been told after my operation. These are some of the instructions to patients according to Bupa:-

First this
You can exercise to strengthen your upper body before the operation. This will help you to get around after the surgery when using walking aids such as crutches. - I never got told or given anything to aid my walking around. Crutches etc were never even mentioned.

Then this
You may need someone to help during the first few weeks after surgery. It's a good idea to arrange to have a friend or family member stay with you for a couple of weeks after the operation. - I got told have someone there the night of my operation then resume my normal life. They know that I live alone.

And this
It's a good idea to prepare your home for when you return from hospital. This may involve rearranging furniture to make it easier to move around and placing commonly used items at arm level so you don't have to reach for them. It's also a good idea to stock up on non-perishable food such as frozen or tinned items, so that you don't need to go shopping immediately after your surgery. - I just walked up the village for shopping as no-one told me differently.

Finally
To begin with you will need to take it very easy. You will need to do exercises at home for about two weeks and then you should be able to start gentle exercise such as walking.You should be able to return to your usual levels of activity after three to eight weeks. - No wonder I have been in pain I have been walking around doing shopping and walking the dog the weekend that I had him!

It would have been helpful if the NHS had given me a list of things like this instead of just telling me to go home and resume my normal life after a couple of days! Then at least I would have known what to expect. I have probably done myself harm doing all the activities that I have been doing over the last 6 weeks.

I don't have a photo to show you of the black 4 ply cardigan as I had forgotten just how long it takes to make 2 borders and a neckband all in UK double crochet. I still have the buttons to stitch on after I have done the picot edging. I hope that the day is brighter tomorrow as trying to photograph black in the gloom isn't easy.

Another Blue Curacao shawl

This time it is in emerald green. It always feels weird calling it a Blue Curacao shawl when it is in a different colour! This one is for an elderly neighbour. Her son kindly pulled down my old garden shed when he was on a visit to his Mum and Dad from Spain. Whilst he was here he got his mother to part with some oddments of wool and in the bag was a half knitted cardigan. He said green was his Mum's favourite colour but she didn't have enough wool to complete the cardigan. As she had admired the shawl I made for my other neighbour I thought I would make her one as a surprise and as a thank you for the loan of her son for his manual work. The wool is Beehive Chunky and is a little thick for the pattern so I have upped the hook to a 6.50mm.

I forced myself to finish off the last sleeve of the black 4ply cardigan last night and so hopefully I will be able to stitch it together and make the front bands, neck band and finally finish it off today. One of my longer projects as I must have started the back at least 3 or 4 years ago and left it after about 10", I haven't enjoyed this cardigan at all. I think the combination of black, 4ply, a 2.50mm hook and a boring mostly plain UK treble pattern was altogether too much. My tension has really slackened off the more I crocheted so it's a good job that it's for me and I am not too critical. The extra room my slacker tension has given me is all to the good as I am considerably heavier than I was when I first started it so there is a chance that it will fit me ! If not it will get added to the "when I am slimmer" pile.

I should have gone to a christening today but as I didn't get much sleep last night and was up and about groaning and moaning around 6am this morning I feel too tired to be bothered. My social life has really hit the skids lately as everything is just too much trouble. Roll on the beginning of June when I see my knee specialist again. I have to see the spinal specialist at the end of May so I might ask him to have a look and give his opinion. He was the one who referred me to the knee specialist early this year when he spotted the problem.

Thank goodness I can still crochet even though I have to wear wrist straps most of the time. Old age doesn't have a lot going for it when it involves arthritis.