The Streets Are Not Paved With Gold

The streets are definitely not paved with gold. Well not the ones near me. They are paved with pot holes, tree roots on the surface, kerb edgings about 4" high and cars parked on the pavements so near to the wall that I can't get through, After Buster and I had been for a short walk/drive I decided to test out the scooter all the way to the shops. I think that I should get a high visibility jacket,a louder horn and perhaps a big flag as Beverooni suggested and just drive on the road. I felt like every bone had been shaken up inside my body and I discovered that if I hit a kerb on an angle I almost tip out of my seat. I was great though once I got to the shopping precinct. I was able to go into a lot of the shops, the doctors to pick up my prescription and also the pharmacy to get it filled. Oh the feeling of freedom.

I tried on my waterproofs from my dog walking days and I could only squeeze into them without any trousers or sweater underneath (which is not much good in the winter) so I have been searching online for a new set. I toyed with the idea of bright yellow or bright orange but as they are for men in my size they didn't come with a hood. I have settled therefore for a boring black set. Not very exciting it's true but flimsy enough to be folded and stored in the basket for sudden downpours. I refuse to buy one of those cape efforts. Not only are they very expensive they cover the scooter as well as me so not very easy to do any shopping as I would have to keep climbing out of it. I had to be rescued by a nice young man at one stage when my scooter hit a kerb and almost tipped me over. I wouldn't have minded so much but it was at a proper crossing point that supposedly had lowered kerbs. I won't be crossing over the road at that point again.

Buster has got quite used to walking with the scooter now especially now since I have mastered how to crawl along instead of zooming and leaving him behind. He is not impressed with my writing this blog as you can see. He wanted me to play ball with him so I distracted him with a treat. He is now trying to lick every last trace of the treat from his front legs whilst giving me soulful looks in between.

The shawl is almost finished. The ball that I used must have been at least a 200 gram ball of 4ply as I only have one row of picot edging to crochet and there is still a lot on the ball. As you can see because of my boo boo it has come out huge compared to the pattern. I have resisted trying it on until it really finished. It will be interesting to see how it looks with my big size mistake. It will certainly wind around my neck a few times. It is a cross between a long scarf and a shawl.

Thank you everyone for your kind words about my best friend Pearl. I feel so much better just going out and about even for a short time. The lad from next door was fascinated with it and has christened it my granny mobile and wants to help me to customise it. Says that I need 'cool' stickers on it. He wanted to race me up to the shops.

My bag for the back of the seat should arrive tomorrow so I will be able to shop for a few more things next time. I keep looking at Pearl and wondering if I could crochet a bag to fit just here - or maybe just there. By the time I have finished with it it will be festooned with crochet bags and pouches on every available hanging space. I saw a sort of cushion affair in one of the disability books that had long side pieces that went over each chair arm like saddle bags. Almost like the things that you can keep the TV remote in on your armchair so you don't lose it. Needless to say I am already thinking that I could make something to store my waterproofs in pockets hanging on the chair arms on either side of me so that they are always with me and not taking up valuable shopping space in my basket. Whirr Whirr, My mind is whirring. I must settle down to finish the shawl/scarf tonight as I haven't picked up a hook all day. I will settle back down again once the novelty of Pearl has settled down and Buster has gone back home again.

My New Best Friend Pearl

This is my new best friend. I got fed up of waiting for my son to get me a scooter so I rang up the Mobility shop and they had this second hand one brought in at the weekend. Apparently it's previous owner had it from new for 3 months but decided that it didn't go fast enough for him (typical male) and traded it for a larger one. I would have liked a larger one if I am honest but they cost so much money and this was half the price that it was when new so I jumped at the chance to buy it. I had rung the mobility shop a couple of times but what they had in was too expensive. I will call her Pearl as that is the name of the model. It's a Pearl 4 wheeled scooter by Sunrise Medical. I will however have to think of ways to attach a shopping bag on the back of the seat as there is no way I can shop with such a tiny basket on the front. I can feel the customisation feeling washing over me. Time to get creative methinks. For the time being I shall be a bag lady with shopping swinging from the chair arms and the handle bars as I wobble down the road. I know that I can go out shopping every day but if I had to buy washing powder and other large items then the basket would be full before I started with any food.

My son is angry with me because I bought a scooter when if I had waited I could probably have got one a lot cheaper from his friend. What he doesn't realise is that I have been waiting for quite a number of weeks for one and the longer I wait the more stir crazy I am getting. Having to ask neighbours to post parcels for me and get me a loaf of bread is embarrassing. Now I can nip up the shops and do things for myself. I can't go far as it only has a range of 10-15 miles. The reason for the difference is that if I lived on the flat I would probably get 15 miles per charge but as I live on hills then it is more likely to be only 10 or so. As long as I can get to the village shops, the Post Office,the doctors and Tesco then I will be happy.

I went out on my maiden voyage today with Buster running along behind. I gave up on the lead as he kept running in front of the wheels and I was scared of running him over. I soon found out that he can't run at 4mph and I had to keep stopping and going slow whilst he caught up. I haven't quit learned to control the acceleration yet.I also discovered that a lot of the pavements around here don't have sloping ramps and I had to keep reversing to find a driveway and use the road a lot more than I would have liked. I will try a different route tomorrow. I found that I could have got through the stiles into the park but I couldn't get up the kerb that led to the gates. That's the problem with living in older streets. They just don't cater for wheelchairs or scooters. Plus the streets are so narrow that cars are parked half on the pavements and I can't get through and so have to go on the road which is a bit scary.

With all the excitement of today I haven't done any crochet. I have made a boob with my shawl but I am leaving it and making the other side to match. I misread the pattern and only decreased on one side of the side piece of the shawl instead of at both sides so I now have a much longer side piece than the pattern. I have enough wool to make the second side the same size so I will carry one. It has turned out a bit deeper than I would have liked it to be. I am still in search of the perfect crochet neckerchief type shawlette. With everyone that I make I am getting nearer to getting it right. I am glad that I used stash wool as I hope to get it perfect when I use my new wools.

Crochet Ribboned Baby Jacket Ready For The Post

The white crochet 4ply baby jacket is dry, The only ribbon that I could find today was a double sided satin ribbon with a picot edge that is really meant to be hair ribbon. It fits through the eyelet holes quite tightly and the picots will make it hard for the baby to pull the ribbon out. I found it hard enough to thread it through so I hope that her little fingers can't manage to drag it out. Babies and ribbons are not a good combination. The pattern is a newish one that I bought online from Purplelinda. I am sure that your LYS will stock it if they stock Sirdar.

I am up to the part on the shawl where I add the side wings on. Yes I have seen the missed block on the left hand side. It's funny how the minute I take a photograph of any of my work mistakes glare out at me. In my defense I was crocheting in the garden whilst entertaining Buster by throwing his ball for him so it's easy to get distracted. He still hasn't lost the squeaker out of his new ball so I bet all of my neighbours loved me for the constant squeaking noise as they were trying to catch some rays in their gardens. My gardener will love him when she comes to mow my lawn tomorrow as he has dug a big hole in the lawn at the edge whilst trying to retrieve his ball from a bush.

I need to get some scales that weigh wool. I had no label on the wool that I am using and it is such a big ball that it must have been more than a 100 gram ball. I will have to try to weigh the shawl as best I can when it is finished to find out just how much it has taken. This is my trial run shawl before I use any better quality wool.

I have parcelled up the little white jacket, the blue hooded jacket and the autumn coloured scarf. All I need now is to hail a passing neighbour tomorrow and see if they are going anywhere near the Post Office. My next door neighbour's daughter would have taken it for me but she is away for a few days with her Dad. Her Mum said that she might be going up near the Post Office but will let me know tomorrow. The Post Office is no-where near the precinct. It is set away up the road on it's own. There have been several campaigns to try to get it moved nearer but as it's also a sorting office I doubt if that will ever happen. Once I get my mobility scooter then I will be able to zoom up there myself. My son doesn't seem to be having much success in getting me one as he never seems to find his friend, who sells them, in. I might have to resort to getting one myself but I will have to wait for my niece to come back from her holidays to take me to the mobility shop.

As for my knees today I think the least said the better. All I can say is creak creak ,ouch, ouch.

I Am Dog Sitting For A Week

I have company for the next week. Buster is here to keep me company. I am not sure who looks after who. He is a very intuitive dog and seem to know that I can't do certain things any more and has a lot of patience with me. He waits until I get up or down the stairs before he sets off after me. Before I had these mobility problems he would just dash down the stairs and push past me.

I have finished the white crochet baby jacket. It is drying outside on the blocking boards. I haven't crocheted one sleeve longer than the other honestly. It's just the angle that I took the photograph. It needs it's ribbon at the waist and then it is finished. I crocheted the 1 -2 yrs size but it has come out more a generous 2yrs old size than the 1-2 yr size. At least it will fit the little girl a bit longer and probably still fit her next summer. I have found that Sirdar patterns seem to jump such a lot in size from 6-12 months and 1-2yrs. Everything increases by lots more. For example the 2 first sizes have 1/2" difference between the sleeve lengths and yet the 1-2 yrs size goes up by 1.1/2" instead of another half inch.

I have started the small granny shawl from Inside crochet. I am just using some unknown 4ply from stash as I want to see how it fits before using my sock wool stash goodies on it. It is another easy pattern so far so if it turns out OK I may make it in double knitting for my charity shawls.

Thanks for all of your suggestions on what to do with the hand wash only shawls. I will find a good home for them before the end of the year. Whether it be a donation to a raffle or someones elderly relatives. I still have some mohair or mohair type in the stash so will probably make some more hand wash shawls before Christmas.

The sun is shining today and I have managed to dry some washing outside. The weather probably won't last but hey ho at least I have had one day of sunshine even though it isn't particularly warm.

I apologise if you are having trouble leaving me any comments on the blog. I have been plagued with anonymous spam type messages during the last couple of weeks so I have had to change my settings. I have managed to catch most of them and delete them as I don't want anyone to click on any dodgy links thinking that I have OK'd them. I don't think that you would have clicked on the last two as one was for driving lessons and the other one for business cards. It's not just me who gets targeted. I have heard lots of my blog friends complaining about the same thing happening to them.

I doubt if much crochet will get done this week as Buster has a brand new ball with a squeaker and he is driving the neighbours mad with it on the lawn at the moment. I doubt if the squeaker will last longer than today but he is having a whale of a time with it. One set of neighbours has gone out and the other sets boys drive me mad by kicking a football against the dividing wall for hours on end so I don't feel too much sympathy for them.

Thank Goodness For Crochet

Thank goodness for my crochet. I don't know what I would so without it. I have woken up to yet another rainy miserable day plus it's Friday the 13th to add to my misery. What would I do with my days if I didn't have my crochet to keep me happy? Certainly not the TV unless I want to watch re-runs of everything or some infernal cookery programme, a game show or worst of all an American style 'Slanging match' chat show. Who on earth would want to appear on TV and air their dirty laundry in public?

I got my labels for the crochet garments, that I give away, to try and hint not to shrink my handmades in the washer.I was intending to put them into the shawls, made from donated stash, that I had planned to give to a senior citizens home but I have hit a snag there. I have found out that the staff put everything in the washer so if I make any more shawls I will have to make sure that they are in acrylic. I will keep the two shawls that I have already made and donate them to someone that I know will hand wash them. I am pleased with the labels. They fold in half so my name is on one side and wash care instructions on the back. Now I know what size they are I can put other things on them if I order more labels. These came from Carelabels.co.uk and cost £10 for 100. I may possibly change the wording to handmade and then I can put them in the few knitted things that I make. I won't put the labels in friends and relatives garments as I know that they can wash them properly. The labels are for the things that I give away and am not sure how that person or organisation will wash them.

I have finished the body of the 1-2yrs old matinee coat style jacket. I just have the sleeves to make and then I will try to either get to the post office on Monday or bribe the teenager from next door to take the parcel up there for me if the old knees are still feeling dodgy.

I am not sure if Buster is coming this weekend or next. I have sent a text to my son but as he is probably in bed (he works funny shift hours which is why I don't ring him ) and will answer when he gets up. I didn't get up until 10.30am today so I can't call anyone who stays in bed! I seem to do that. I can have two or three nights where I get hardly any sleep and then sleep the clock around on the next night. If Buster isn't coming until next week then I might try to get the baby things up to Sylvia's myself.

I am going to crochet the sleeves on the cardigan,make a coffee, put some music on, and try not to look at the rain hammering it down the windows. It has now gone so dark that I need the light on. What a great day!!!!

Another All Shawl

The pink shawl for charity is finished and is blocking and I will show you it in wear tomorrow. I had 6 x 25 grams of vintage Listers Shalimar which has mohair content but is nothing like the luxury mohair but in fairness it was an economical yarn that could be used instead of mohair. I used the All Shawl pattern which is free from Doris Chan on Ravelry. I used 5 balls and then realised that I would not have enough for the edging so I saved one ball and used a toning cone of 4ply machine yarn for most of the border. The warmth will still be there on the shoulders. I used the remaining ball to edge and weigh down the edges of the shawl down as a full edging in the fine might have curled upwards.

Thank you for your lovely comments about my photos. They are newer than the other photos but were taken last year. The only ones that I have taken of me this year are usually of me modelling something, and without any makeup and that is not a pretty sight. The shawl I am wearing in the smaller photo is once again an All Shawl pattern. I made the shawl in black as the per pattern and made the edging in red. I then counted up 4 rows and did another border in an orange shade. I counted up another 4 rows and then did another edging in gold. This gives a 3 tiered effect. I had to work our how to space the patterns as of course as the 2nd and 3rd layers are not as wide so I had to make the edging fit with less pattern repeats. I saw the idea from a fellow Raveller and asked how she had made it and she kindly explained what she had done. That is the beauty of Ravelry. Most people are willing to share their adaptations of a pattern if you ask nicely.

Today it is not only raining. It is raining cats and dogs, coming down in stair rods, hammering it down, or persisting down (polite version). I am sure that every part of the world has it's own local saying for the kind of rain that just pours from the sky and wets through raincoats and umbrellas. I got married 42 yrs ago this week and my friend got married a week after and another friend a week after that. We all had the most glorious wedding days and honeymoons. The sun shone so much that I got really sunburned. I can't remember 3 weeks on the run recently where the weather has been that good. August and September used to be hot and sunny. As a child lived in Wales for a short time and I used to help with the haymaking and when my friends and I got tired we used to ride on the back of the Shire farm horse and the weather was always so hot. I lived in shorts, T shirt and sandals and even had short hair at that time. I was as brown as a berry although we never sunbathed. I didn't know what sun screen was but can never remember getting burnt from the sun. A carefree time in my childhood when I looked for field mice, fed chickens and goats and played with ferrets until one bit me really hard. I didn't want to come back to live in Manchester but my Dad couldn't find any proper work in North Wales. We lived in a totally Welsh speaking village and didn't speak Welsh. Now that could be where the work problem came from plus my brother had to bus many miles to get to Grammar School.

Today I ordered some labels to put in my crochet gifts. I am always worried in this machine wash everything age when I give someone a shawl or garment that is hand wash only. I was recommended Carelabels by Roger one of the Kings Arms Knit Club members and when I e mailed to enquire Julie not only designed a label for me but also sent me a template of how the label would look. That's service for you. At £10 for 100 labels I think that is also a very reasonable price. They may arrive tomorrow so if they do I will let you have a peek. I have stuck to a simple design as I think that too much information can be overwhelming.

I have resisted the lure of the new wool and carried on crocheting a baby cardigan. It is for a friend of Sylvia whose baby's birthday is next week so I am going to try to finish it. I think that I will have to post it as I won't see her before the day. Buster is coming on Friday or Saturday (I think that it's this week) so I can't leave him to go up to visit her until he goes home again in a week. As I have mentioned before he can only do 3 or 4 hours without a toilet break.

Shh it has actually stopped raining (for a while) How can we be short of water in this country when so much falls from the skies?

Time for a coffee and back to the baby crochet. The knees feel a bit better today although I didn't get much sleep last night. I shall probably have a ZZZZ in my chair later.

My Wool Order Has Arrived

Only a crocheter or a knitter can understand the excitement of a wool delivery. Even though I chose it and ordered it I still get a big buzz when it actually arrives and I can squish it, fondle it and stroke it. Ordering online is OK but you can't beat the enjoyment of seeing it in real life before buying it. I had been able to see these first hand when my friend Sue called last week to show me her new purchases. She had bought hers from Coats Crafts in Ramsbottom but as I can't get up there under my own steam I ordered mine online from Texere.

I was feeling a bit miserable when I first got up as I had walked to Tesco and back yesterday and my knees were protesting loudly last night and this morning. So today is a rest up and crochet day.

The wool that I ordered is 3 shades of Classic Collection Reflections Angoragold Batik DK in Blue, Grey and Brown. It is a quite fine DK and the ball looks quite large as it has approx 850 metres on it. The Orange and the Green are also Reflections but with a metallic thread. Hard to see the metallic in the photo as it is quite subtle.There is less on the ball with these as the metallic thread must weight heavier. There is approx 550 metres per 100 gram ball. The lady from Texere was really nice. I had originally ordered the metallic in the pink and she phoned me to say that it was out of stock and read out all the colours that they did have in stock so I chose the orange. She told me that they now stock all of the five colours with the metallic thread but just haven't updated their web site yet. The Reflections cost £4.99 a ball and my friend Sue has made small shawls with just one ball for each so that isn't bad for a present for someone.

The King Cole Riot DK is for me. I just cannot resist bright jazzy colours. There is only 294 metres per ball so I bought 4 balls. I think this will probably end up as one of Doris Chan's designs for myself. This wool was about £3.50 a ball but it is 30% wool so that means I will probably make a jacket rather than a sweater as I can't wear wool right next to my skin. No matter how good the quality of wool, angora, merino it is I still itch and get a red rash if it touches my bare skin. Luckily I can wear wool on my feet although I have to make short legs on my socks or I get a red rash on my ankles.

I only did a couple of rows on the shawl for charity last night before I fell asleep in the chair. Hopefully I will get more crochet done today as I plan on doing absolutely no housework ( except the dishes) and just rest my knees. Time to get dressed and start the day I think. I am going to resist starting something with this new wool - well at least I think that I am LOL