Crochet Today Special Issue

As I mentioned earlier my sister in law got me a part subscription to Crochet Today for my Christmas present. I was expecting another couple of copies but not this special one.

Although I do admire afghans and people who have the patience to make them I haven't made anything bigger than a cot blanket in the past. I do like the cover afghan Boho Bedspread by Katherine Eng which I think could be an ongoing stash buster type of afghan. I could maybe tackle something like this and put a few rows in here and there rather than make it in one go.

The Granny Update hexagonal blanket by Bobbi Anderson is another favourite as I do like the colours.

I likes the green and white Stripes and Dots Blanket by Marianne Forrestal would make a very pretty pram or cot blanket.

The Blooming Blankie by Donna Childs is another pretty ripple pattern type blanket but I doubt if I would put the flowers around the edges.

The Pocket Blanket by Michele Wilcox is cute with it's little teddy pocket and I like the colours of the Stained Glass Afghan by Regina Rioux Gonzales.

The magazine has some useful tips on joining motifs together. I have always struggled with joining anything that isn't a square or hexagonal shape so hopefully I can read this for some enlightenment for joining circles or anything that needs an infill of crochet.

There are 25 afghan and baby blanket patterns in this special edition but they are not all new patterns as I have seen some of them before in previous copies of Crochet Today.

I have managed to crochet the back and almost two fronts of the baby pink cardigan. Buster seems to be a bit brighter today. Yesterday he slept most of the day in between bathings and he slept late (as did I) this morning. He is still walking with his head on one side but doesn't seem to be in as much pain today and managed to bark at the postman which shows that he is recovering.Yesterday he didn't even notice when I got mail through the letter box nor did he bark at the paper girl when she delivered my evening paper.

My next door neighbour's youngest came home from school with his arm in a sling and she was taking him to the hospital to see whether his arm was broken. He had fallen whilst playing football at school. I haven't seen her today to find out what happened at the hospital yesterday afternoon.

Just Call Me Florence

I feel like a cross between Florence Nightingale and Dr Doolittle. Buster is still feeling very sorry for himself but I call him a wee bit better today.I have been tending and bathing his ear and neck all day. He had a good night's sleep last night and has slept on and off for most of the day. He keeps tilting his head to one side which worries me slightly but as my son says it's probably because his ear hurts so much. Last night he didn't want me to go anywhere near his wounds but today he has let me bathe them frequently which I take as a sign of improvement. He is going to stay with me now until after Easter as my son and daughter in law have plans and I usually have Buster anyway over the holidays. He is eating and drinking OK so I not too worried about him in fact he has just had a treat of some left over rice and chicken. I am just keeping him indoors or in the garden so that he doesn't get near dirt until his wounds have healed.If I walk him he will jump in the river which isn't a good idea as all kinds of animals, including rats, could use the river As I type he has just brought me his ball which is a massive improvement as yesterday and today he hasn't been the slightest bit interested in any kind of interaction with me.

As I had to put away the black crochet because of shedding dog hair I have started a pink crochet baby cardigan. Any dog hair that goes on this will easily get washed off. I am using a pattern by Kay Jones. I like her patterns as they use UK terminology so it's a welcome relief from having to translate from US to UK all of the time. Younger crocheters have learned with US patterns but old school as I am I still think in UK terms and so have to convert everything in my head.

The postman brought me two crochet books that I ordered from Amazon. Contemporary Crochet by Sys Fredens has quite a lot of designs in it as you can see from the 3 pages of small photos. I can see a few items from this book getting crocheted. If not for me than perhaps for my nieces. I haven't browsed it properly yet. I have just given both books a quick look. The Crochet Me book by Kim Werker I am a bit late in ordering,. It has been around for quite a while but for some reason never made it into my wish list until just recently. I quite like the cover Victorian shrug and wrap by Robyn Chachula which I have seen made up many times on Ravelry. The leaves sweater by Annette Petavy is unusual and I quite like the zig zag edging.

The pink bolero or comfy cardi is again by Robin Chachula and is another that has appeared on many peoples projects on Ravelry. The shades of plaid scarf by Julie Armstrong Holtez is quite quirky and I have used the wool weaving over mesh crochet technique on a cardigan and a pram blanket a long time ago.

The babydoll dress by Amy O'Neill Houck is another instantly recognisable pattern. I had always given it a miss as I don't exactly have the kind of figure for a crochet dress. I then saw a version on Ravelry that was made shorter with a slightly longer bodice. The model doesn't look as though she has much boob age room and she is slim. Worn over trousers I though that I could get away with wearing it that way. I wouldn't make the sleeves so puffed though as I think that look is exclusively for the very young. I may leave it sleeveless and wear it over a fine sweater or make it with long sleeves. I would use a cord or a chain to thread through as again I think that floaty ribbon is for the young.

For the moment it looks as if I will be crocheting baby clothes or other bits and bats. I will have to give my niece an I.O.U for her black cardigan but I think she would rather have her cardigan later than crocheted with chunks of Buster hair woven in it. I don't know why it is only black wool that his hair seems to stick to so much. Anything acrylic and his hair just seems to slide off. Yesterday I was wearing a brown hand knitted cardigan with a wool content and it looked like a yeti when I took it off. One Buster has healed a bit he will get a jolly good brushing. He adores being hoovered so I might risk giving him a quick once over at the weekend as long as I don't get the nozzle anywhere near his neck and ear.

My Wounded Soldier

I have got Buster for a few days. I did mention before that there had been trouble in the ranks between Buster and Dillon. Buster has always managed to be the top dog whenever there was a skirmish but last night Dillon must have decided that he didn't want to submit. It developed into a major dog fight and Buster has come off the worse. He has been badly bitten about the ears and has several tooth wounds around his neck so is generally feeling very sorry for himself. He is doing a bit of clinging today but hopefully that will settle down as the days go on. Dillon has hopefully got a new family lined up. One of my son's friends who has recently lost a dog similar to Dillon might have him so they are going to take him along for a meeting this weekend to see how it works out. My son's other dog will miss Dillon as they curl up in the basket together but Buster was their first dog so if anyone has to leave then it has to be Dillon. Since this fight happened they don't feel that they can trust the two male dogs together alone and so Dillon would have to be in a dog cage whenever they are out which isn't fair to the dog. I do hope that he gets rehomed this weekend. He is a lovely dog but at 9 months old he is so playful and really needs some one to one attention.

Buster is moulting like mad but I can't brush him because of his open wounds. I will just have to keep bathing them until they show signs of healing. His moulting means that the black crochet will have to be put away in a bag for a while as it is for a present and I don't want it to be covered in dog hair.

The jacket has progressed a little and I have almost crocheted 200 grams into the body of it. I will start something else tonight. Something small that I can wash when it is finished and get rid of the dog hair. Dog hair seems to cling onto black wool and even if I wash it then I will still see loads of dog hair. Maybe later in the week, when I can give Buster a good brushing, I can get it back out of the bag.

Buster is street watching at the moment. The boys are playing football in the street so he is sat on the pouffe watching them play and the world go by. He is finding it hard to sleep even though he appears to be very tired. As both ears have been bitten as well as underneath his neck and collar line he can't put his head on one side to lie down and sleep. Hopefully we will find a way around this by tonight. I will bathe him again before bedtime.

I hope that Dillon goes to a new home at the weekend and then Buster can go back home again. I love him to bits but I know that I just cannot look after him properly. I can't walk him which won't be a problem this week as my son wants me to keep him clean and away from any dirt that might infect his bites. Also he can't wear his collar at the moment.

Are They Meant To Be Flat?

I have just been for my routine Mammogram at the aptly named Popham Centre at Fairfield Hospital.I felt as though they were trying to pop them. Although I have always had a fair sized bosom I would never say that I was big. The thought crossed my mind as they tried their damnedest to iron my boob as flat as a pancake, and in doing so it spread my boob across the X-ray plate in a manner mimicking pastry being rolled out. What if I had bigger boobs? Would they have to use an X ray plate the size of a tea tray?

I met up with a former neighbour in the centre who I haven't seen for some time. I didn't like to say that she looked dreadful but I was shocked by her appearance. it turns out that the poor lady has been very poorly with cancer and has had not only chemo but a bone marrow stem cell transplant from her brother. He travelled from Sweden and luckily he was an exact match for her bone marrow,He is younger than her and very fit and healthy so I hope that all goes well for her. She is a really lovely lady. She and her husband offered me a lift back to my home town as they don't live too far away. I was really grateful for the lift as my knees ached from the trip up there via metro and bus.

I called in the charity shops as I usually do for a browse. I am always on the look out for wool and today I was lucky. I got this pink double knit for £3. I am not sure how much there is as some of the balls are not full balls but I will be able to make a pram blanket with it once I hear of a little girl baby. I don't know if you can see from the close up photo but it has little flecks of different colours in it.

I have started another jacket for my elder niece for her birthday at the beginning of April. I made her this jacket at Christmas in pale blue with short sleeves and although she loved it she said could I make her one with long sleeves. As I said in a previous blog the market stall didn't have much choice of colours in the wool that I bought last time. I chose black as it is a general colour that will go with a lot of her outfits. I would have liked to have chosen a brighter colour but there wasn't much choice. She doesn't know about this jacket and I had already promised to make her a couple more so next time she is on school holidays she can nip over to the Yarn Barn in Shaw and get some brighter coloured wool for another jacket.

I altered the pattern considerably so I am winging it once again as I cannot remember how I made it last time. Fortunately I took many photos for Flickr and Ravelry so I keep referring back to them for guidance. This time I am going to write better notes!

Time for a welcome cup of coffee and put my knees up for an hour or so. I am going to do some crocheting. I have loads of housework to do but my knees say no at the moment. Maybe later when I have had a rest....or maybe not ;)

I am so envious of the ladies who manage to find crochet books at their libraries. My local library doesn't cater for anyone who knits or crochets. They have a few tired old books and even when I look on the central library list there is nothing any different in there. I am always having to order books just so that I can read what is in them, Needless to say I have lots of books with only one item in that I like that I probably would not have bought if I had browsed it first. I have ordered a couple more crochet books and they should be delivered this week. I do hope that I like something in these as much as I like the last baby crochet book.

Sewing Up Stripes

Whenever I sort through my stash and find bits and pieces of compatible yarns then stripes always seem like a good idea. When I finally finish knitting or crocheting a striped garment then my mood changes. It has taken me most of today to seam together all the different colours trying as best as I can to exactly match the stripes. This sweater was a bit more difficult because of the wavy stripes. Hopefully it will look a little better once it has been blocked out to flatten the seams.

This sweater seems to have been on the needles for such a long time. Partly due to the fact that I started it twice as my first choice of colours was disappointing as the lilac was so pale it was virtually indistinguishable from the white. The pattern is Sirdar 8930 but as you can see I made mine with long sleeves and not such a long bottom ribbing. I didn't make the neckline as deep and stitched it down to form a doubled neckband rather than the collar on the pattern.

I used 4 balls each of green Patons Cotton Sahara 2323, Patons Linen Look in White and an unlabelled cotton ribbon (possibly Sirdar) in a mink shade. I christened this sweater mint choc chip as it reminded me of the colours of ice cream.

I have managed to find the pattern for my next crocheting project. I altered the pattern last time and so have been zooming in on photos in my projects to try to recreate the same style. I do wish that I wrote things down. I never do and as I don't have the jacket to look at and as it is a surprise for my niece's birthday I can't ask her to see the other one so will have to keep gazing at photos and winging it again and hope that it turns out exactly like the one I made before which she loves.

I changed my CPAP mask back to my old one which just covers my nose and although I am still a wee bit tired today I am much better than the last few days and have managed not to fall asleep as yet. In theory the newer mask should be better for me as it covers up my mouth as well as my nose but for some reason it doesn't work as well in my case.In order to work the masks have to be a good seal otherwise the pressurised air escapes and fails to keep me breathing when I stop. Sometimes I wonder if I still need to wear my mask every night and then a few days with an ill fitting mask prove that I do. I have been falling asleep without warning randomly all through the day which is what used to happen before I was diagnosed with sleep apnoea. It used to be embarassing when I fell asleep at work even in the middle of a coversation with someone.When friends came around for the evening I used to wake up in the dark on the sofa. My friends culd not wake me so just let themselves out and turned off the lights. I was always having to ring people up to apologise. I once fell asleep on the garden wall with a trowel in one hand and a fork in the other in the middle of weeding. My neighbour had to shake me awake as my front door was wide open and I was sleeping on the wall.

Hopefully I will stay awake this evening long enough to start my niece's jacket but as the wool is black I can see that not a lot of crochet will get done. I usually save the dark colours for daylight.

Ana Luisa - The Crochet For Babies book should be available in the US as it uses US terms. The number is 70217 by The Needlecraft Shop, I got mine from Amazon.co.uk but I am sure that Amazon.com will stock it. I think that I first saw it advertised on a US blog or web page.

Yeah - Almost There

I am almost at the finishing line. I have 6 more rows to knit until the last sleeve is cast off. I have, of course, still got to stitch it all together but I am heaving a huge sigh of relief as I can now do some crocheting without feeling guilty. I am not one for having too many WIP at any one time. I try to limit it to one or two at the most. Once I put something down I tend to leave it down and then don't go back to it - ever. When I was younger I used to have bags full of half finished things scattered all around the house but as I have a limited attention span these days I find one or two things are my limit.

I am posting some more photos from the Crochet For Babies Book. These will be the last ones even though I have only photographed about half of the book. The book has 40 patterns in it and almost every one of them are usable patterns which is rare in books these days.

The purple jacket and crown hat is labelled Prince Charming as is by Darla Sims. I do think though that the outfit is more suited to a girl than a boy. I would never have dressed my boy in anything like that except to maybe make the hat as a birthday crown.

The Sailor Baby jacket by Svetlana Avrakh would make a lovely jacket for a boy. It is a simple design but just adding the embroidered anchor motif and the sailor collar makes it more unusual.

I love the Seaside Cardigan by Nanette Seale with a fish motif. At first glance I thought that it was Tunisian crochet but it isn't. I think that I will have to practise the pattern stitch first as at first glance it all sounds complicated to me. Perhaps the penny will drop once I get some wool and a hook in my hand. Sometimes merely reading a pattern puts you off starting it as the way it reads isn't quite clear. I am determined to master the stitch though as I think that the jacket is a good solid non openwork stitch well suited to a boy.

Little Boy Blue by Laura Gebhardt is very similar to another double breasted jacket that I have made a few times. I think that the stitch is different to my older pattern but the style is the same and has proved very popular with mothers of boys as the stitch is close and non lacy.

The Sassy Style Sweater by Tammy Hildebrand is what I would describe as a long sleeved bolero. There are several pretty cardigan styles in the book that I haven't photographed and as this bolero fits from 2 - 6 yrs I think that it could possibly come in useful for my great grand daughters this summer along with a couple of other pretty cardigans in the book.

Color-Play Sweater and Beanie by Tammy Hildebrand could be a useful way of using up all of those one balls that we accumulate in stash. Again it fits from 2 - 6 yrs and works up quite chunky as the stitch is rib effect made by working around the posts.

The Get -Up and Go Shirt is a simple little T that could prove a popular top for the kind of summers that we experience in the UK. Once again it isn't too lacy so would cover a little girl's modesty without the need of a T or vest underneath. This only comes in 20 - 24" sizes but as it is worked side to side I would imagine that it is relatively easy to add a few more rows and make it a bit wider.

Yesterday I went to Tesco for my big shopping in the rain. Last night and today I keep falling asleep. I think that I will go back to my old CPAP mask as this tiredness has only come on since I changed masks. I keep falling asleep for ten minutes here and there which is just what I was like before I got diagnosed and given the mask. If I swap masks and this carries on then I will know that it is my medication and not the mask. I was woken up four times last night with the pain in my knees so I don't get good quality sleep anyway. I was downstairs before 7am this morning but fell asleep over my coffee and then again over my Sunday newspaper. I even fell asleep half way through my breakfast which could have been dangerous as I woke up with a mouthful of food that I hadn't chewed and swallowed.

My knees are a bit painful today but they ache more when there is a change in the weather. Today it was very misty when I woke up and it is very dull and drizzly.

My Internet crochet friend June went to the Olympia Craft show in London and from here description it sounds far better than any craft shows that we get here in Manchester.I didn't go to this year's show in Manchester as I was disappointed with last years show. It was full of card making items and cross stitch and embroidery and so few wool stalls. June is saying that there is another craft exhibition at Alexandra Palace in October and I know that she really enjoyed last years show. Maybe next year I will be able to go down to London. I will probably have to give Woolfest a miss this year as I could be in hospital for my first knee op in June.

The fish motif sweater photo appeared on the blog in the wrong order but I am sure that you can work put which description fits it.

More patterns from Crochet Baby Book

I have managed to work out the stitches to convert a short sleeve into a long sleeve and have finished the first one. Sorry Lynn (Lalltop) the sweater has a round neck even though it is more of a scooped neckline. I feel that I am on the last stretch now and hope to have the sweater finished over the weekend and then I can reward myself with some crochet.

As promised here are some more patterns from the Crochet for Babies book. There are so many patterns in the book and nearly all of them are so sweet but I can only post just a few on here. I wish that I could crochet with yarn that has a textured effect. I think that the bobble blanket by Mary Ann Sipes called Warm and Cuddly looks lovely made in Red Heart Baby Clouds chunky.

I love the Grandma's Double Delight by Elaine Bartlett as it is a granny square theme but is quite a close stitch instead of the usual openwork granny square that I am used to making. This blanket has less holes for a tiny baby to get it's fingers stuck in. I think the delicate colours chosen for this blanket look lovely.

I have skipped over a couple more lovely blankets to show you the Swirly Fringed Blanket by Karen Hay as I think that the edging is very unusual. More secure for babies even if they put the fringe in their mouths.

The Lil Lamb Cardigan and Hat by Darla Sims is too adorable for words. Once again though it is done in boucle chunky - this time Bernat baby chunky boucle. I think that the wool makes the jacket look like a little sheep and I don't think that it would look as nice in a plain wool. I always manage to get my hook tangled up in my stitches when I try to crochet anything boucle.

The Beach Baby Ensemble bikini by Mary Ann Sipes is lovely. I think that it is merely for sunbathing and play wear as anyone of my age group has vivid memories of wearing handmade swimwear that stretched out of all recognition once it got wet.

The Blue poncho is part of the same beach ensemble and it brings back memories of when I crocheted my baby a blue and white striped poncho all those years ago. They were very fashionable way back in the late 60's and I used to use it over his coat for an extra layer when he was in his pram. Often I would just tuck it around him when he was sleeping as he hated being wrapped up in shawls or blankets.

Today I have washed the bedding as it looks like a good drying day although the sun has gone in again this afternoon. I was going to Tesco for food shopping this afternoon but my eyes keep closing. I don't know whether it is my new mask that isn't working properly or just me but I can't keep my eyes open today. I will hopefully manage to do some shopping tomorrow. I will try the morning tomorrow when I am a bit more alert.