A Pink All Shawl

I have finished another All Shawl. This one will be put away to be hopefully joined by a few other shawls before Christmas. Sorry about my rather miserable face but I was concentrating. It isn't easy taking photos of yourself. I have to find the right place to put the camera and then press the shutter and rush to where I am supposed to be standing. I had already taken 4 blurred photos before these and so I was so intent to get the shawl in that I forgot to smile. I still didn't get the angle right but I was getting fed up so I decided that these photos would have to do.

The shawl pattern is of course the All Shawl by Doris Chan and I made this from 4 x 50 grams of discontinued Sirdar Sea Pearl for the main part and 3 x 50 grams of Wendy Monaco in a toning shade for the edging as I didn't have enough Sea Pearl to make the whole shawl. I think that it is a nice subtle colour that will suit an old lady at Christmas. I am not a lover of crocheting anything mohair or fluffy but this didn't crochet up too badly.

When I gave my friend the baby cardigans that I had already made another foster Mum fell in love with the Sirdar pale pink openwork jacket that fastens with a ribbon. As my friend didn't want to part with the one that I had made ( she is still hopeful of getting a baby girl) I said I would make another one. The main part is crocheted all in one and I have just got to the part of dividing for the fronts and back. Hopefully I will get it finished off tonight as all being well I am meeting my friend tomorrow for a browse around Bury Market. It's far easier to give her things insead of having to post them. We can never make definite plans as it all depends on the weather, her legs and my knees. If both of us are having a good day and the sun is shining we will be off to the market. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

I went up the village today to collect my prescription. I really enjoyed the walk as my knees were behaving and I wasn't in too much pain. When I came to take my painkillers after dinner I realized why. I had accidentally taken two extra painkillers. I remember now that I took some with my coffee before lunch and then when I made some lunch I forgot that I had taken them and took 2 more. Not a thing to be recommended as overdosing can lead to all sorts of problems but it has proved to me that my painkillers are not strong enough at the moment. My GP did say that he would up the strength a few weeks ago but when I asked him on the phone he has still given me the same ones that I had before. When I queried this he said that he didn't want me to get used to too strong a painkiller as after my knee op I would not get the full benefit of taking strong ones then. I suppose he is right but it would be so nice to lessen the pain in my knees now and again.

Crochet Baby Bolero

I have finished off the lilac crochet baby bolero that I had started before I knew that the baby girl would not be arriving as planned. There may be a baby coming later this week but I am hanging fire about making any more girl clothes until she or he arrives. This bolero is Peter Pan pattern P904 that I bought online last week from Purplelinda. I did the 0 - 6 months size and it took 100 grams of King Cole Baby Acrylic DK.

I have almost finished the All Shawl and I managed to find some toning plain wool in the donated stash to make the bottom pattern so at least it will all be pastel colours instead of having a darker border as I first thought. That is the problem with only getting 4 or 5 balls of any one colour donated. I have to juggle the colours about to make a shawl. I really need to reach everything out of the stash, sort it out better and then put colours that could work together side by side for when I start another shawl. I have found another pattern on Ravelry that looks as easy as the All Shawl and another pattern that would adapt to being striped. Some patterns are beautiful but the pattern stitch would just not look right if it wasn't made in a single colour so that limits my choice of patterns somewhat. Also I prefer the rounded shape of the All Shawl rather than the triangular shape of other shawls as they stay on the shoulders better. As these shawls will be intended for older people I thought that shape would be easier to wear especially if they have limited mobility.

I still haven't practised my Tunisian Crochet with my new hooks but today I ordered a couple of Learn Tunisian books from Amazon. One is expected to be delivered later this week but the other one could take up to three weeks. I hope that they will be easy to understand. I thought that I would wait to try my hooks out when I could read what I was supposed to be doing and hopefully follow instruction diagrams.

My friend has gone to Manchester today and I have asked her if she would look in Abakhan to see if they have any longer colour length multi DK wool for me to use on the crocheted version of the Baby Surprise Jacket. I did order some on line but it is so difficult to see online how long the colour sequences are. When it arrived I decided not to use it as it wasn't suitable and would have turned out flecked instead of striped. If she doesn't find anything then if we go up to Bury Market later in the week I will have a look on the market and in Habiknit.

Thanks to everyone who leaves such lovely comments for me on the blog. I do appreciate each and everyone of them. I do try to keep up with blogs that I follow. I must learn to post more comments as I know how much I value them when people leave them for me. Like Leslie I am somewhat of a lurker on blogs. I read them and mean to leave a comment and then wander off to the next post without doing it.

I am off to watch a bit of TV and see if I can finish the shawl and block it out. I really need to get back to knitting the boy's hooded jackets but I am just not in the mood for knitting at the moment. I will just find another project to crochet. Not sure if it will be another shawl or something neutral for a baby.

A Busy Couple Of Days

I have had a busy couple of days. On Friday my friend came with the Patons Crystal with cotton that she had bought at the Black Sheep Sale. I know that I am supposed to be on a no buy at the moment but when she phoned to tell me about it and that it was reduced from £19.90 to £4.99 a pack now what is a girl to do? I can't resist a bargain like that.I have not decided what I will make with it as yet so at the moment it has gone into my stash.

I have finished off the little pink jacket. The pattern that I used is Little Princess by Laura Gebhardt and is from the book Crochet for Little Babies that I bought from Amazon a few weeks ago. The jacket is part of a set but although I have made the jacket twice now I haven't got around to making the matching dress. The wool is 100 grams of unlabelled pink fleck acrylic double knit.

I have almost finished a lilac bolero but on Friday my hopes of crocheting for a baby girl hit a setback. With fostering you can never be sure which baby is arriving or if they are arriving until the very last minute, The 3 month old baby that was due to arrive at the foster Mum's is no longer coming so I am keeping my fingers crossed that when the call comes again for another baby that it will be a girl. Otherwise I will have to crochet like mad in blue!It's all part of the uncertainty of fostering and is another reason why I take my hat off to people who do foster. I know that it is something that I could not do.

On Saturday I did some food shopping and then I had a furry visitor for the night. My son and daughter in law were going out so I had Buster overnight. He is such a loving soul that I would dearly love to have him with me full time but as I cannot walk him then it isn't fair on him. He is coming back next weekend and possibly bringing Skye with him. I will have to wait and see if I have one dog or two. It hasn't been decided as yet. The couple across the road have offered to walk Skye for us if she arrives. She will go with them whereas when they tried with Buster he refused to go. He is more clingy than Skye due to the fact that he was a rescue dog who had 3 owners ( 2 of which ill treated him) before he came to our family at the age of 7 months. He can't get put in kennels when they go on holiday as he gets stressed and all of his hair falls out.

I have started another All Shawl with some of the oddments that I got given. There isn't enough of the Sirdar Sea Pearl to make the shawl in one colour. I choose the All Shawl pattern as it is so easy to make and it suits having the bottom pattern done in another colour. I will put this shawl away when it is finished. As I mentioned before I am aiming to have a few ready by Christmas time to pass on to old ladies. I will keep crocheting a shawl here and there before Christmas.

I have decided that the wool that I bought from Purplelinda isn't suitable for the crocheted Baby Surprise Jacket. As you can see on the pattern it needs a wool with longer lengths of colour to give it the striped effect and the James C Brett wool that I bought only has about a 4" colour sequence so will turn out flecked rather than striped. In knitting it would be a slight stripe but as treble take up quite a bit of wool for each stitch then one colour would only make a couple of trebles hence the spotted effect.

I am hoping to go into Bury on Wednesday so will have a look if there is something there will a longer colour length in a neutral colour as it may be for a boy.

The sun is shining today although it does keep going dull and is quite windy. It rained overnight. When I let Buster out in the middle of the night his coat was quite damp when he came back in. I have washing on the line so I hope that the rain stays away until it has all dried. Now I will have to dust and hoover and try to get rid of all the hair that Buster so kindly left behind when he left.

Crochet Baby Waistcoat

I have made this little waistcoat from oddments using the same pattern as yesterday's little jacket King Cole 3151. I know that it is a bit hard to see but the fleck is a different colour to yesterday's jacket and the lilac for the edging is a slightly brighter colour. I made the waistcoat a slightly larger size as the cardigan did turn out quite small. It is a very easy pattern to make and I think that the stitch used is lovely.

I started another crocheted baby cardigan last night from a different pattern but when I looked at it this morning it would have fitted the baby when she was about 2 yrs old. As it was crocheted all in one I didn't notice that fact until this morning when I folded it across to measure the size and it would have been a 22" chest.That was a waste of an evening's crocheting.

I unravelled it all and started a different smaller pattern. It is still coming out larger but I am going to continue with this one even though it will be approx 20" chest. I think that the wool I am using must be a thick double knit and so is crocheting up larger than it should be. At least babies do grow into things and so it won't be wasted even though it won't fit the baby at the moment. I have quite a bit of this pink wool so I will have to try a smaller size than I am aiming for and hope for the best with the next garment that I make. I do find though that there is quite a discrepancy between patterns as far as sizing is concerned. Some baby patterns are really long in the body, some long in the sleeves and yet others have short sleeves and body length. The month sizes vary greatly also so I tend to use the chest measurement sizing rather than the age.

My friend Sylvia has kindly printed out the crocheted version of the Baby Surprise Jacket that I bought last week so I can use the multi wool that I bought this week and start that pattern soon. I am going to have to buy a printer soon as I have found so many lovely free patterns on Ravelry to use for my baby clothes and ladies shawls that I will have writers cramp soon if I can't print things out. Getting a lap top would be one solution so that I could leave them as PDF's but I think it will be far cheaper to buy a new printer for my existing PC. If I win the Lottery this weekend then I will buy both of course. Ha Ha. I did win last week but as it was only £10 I didn't cash it.I will use the money to pay for my next lottery tickets.

I Can Crochet In Girly Pink

My friend fosters babies. Her latest baby left her, after over 12 months with her, a couple of weeks ago so she has been waiting for a new placement since then. As you know I have been making baby items for the new arrival and was praying for a girl this time as she has a tendency to get little boys placed with her. I have just had a phone call saying that hopefully this time it's a girl and if all goes well she will arrive on Friday. I will have to step up the size as she is a couple of months old and we don't know, at this stage, how big she will be.

I took a chance and made a pink matinee and a bonnet earlier but after that I tried to stay with neutral shades. I have finished off the cardigan from the King Cole pattern 3151 and whilst it has come out quite girly with the lilac trim it has turned out quite small and so I doubt will fit anything bigger than a small newborn. It will have to go into the bottom drawer for when another new small baby arrives. I am now making the waistcoat pictured in the top right hand corner of the pattern. Fortunately I had started making it in the next size up before I got the phone call so at least a waistcoat will fit her. I have not put pockets on the cardigan nor will I on the waistcoat as they are a bit superfluous on a new baby.

I knew that sorting out my wool and finding out that I had lots of pinks and lilacs was an omen. I think that it was me willing her to get a little girl this time that has worked it's magic. Yeah that means the girly crochet patterns that I favourited on Ravelry may get used along with the other patterns from Kay Jones that I haven't started yet.

The only trouble is that the boy's jackets will take a back seat now. I don't enjoy knitting at the best of times and especially knitting for boys. I do it because I know that the Mum prefers knitted things. Any excuse to stop knitting - I know I am terrible. I told you before that I am a thwarted mother of girls. If all of my babies had been born I would have had 4 boys whereas my brother got 2 girls. Obviously I can't make girls. Although I am sad that I only had the one child can you imagine me with 4 sons? I think not! We would never have fitted into my small house especially if they had been the size of my son. I doubt that I would have had 4 children anyway - we planned to have two but plans don't always work out in life.

Tonight I am going to finish off the waistcoat and drool over my baby girl patterns to see what I am going to make next. Thank heaven for little girls.

Crochet Hooded Baby Jacket by Kay Jones

As you can see not a lot of housework has been done in my household. I have finished off a green hooded baby jacket. It looks a bit crinkly but that is because I made it from wool that I 'inherited' and it had been unravelled and re balled when I got it. All of the crinkles will drop out the first time that the jacket is washed so all will be well. All I know about the wool is that it felt like acrylic and I think there was approx 3 x 50 grams. The edging is sometimes called crab stitch. It is UK double crochet but worked from the left to the right making a rolled edging.

The pattern is number 50 from Kay Jones (www.creativecrochet.co.uk) and I can whizz through her patterns as I find them so easy to work from and it's such a treat to me not to have to convert the pattern stitches from US double crochet into UK trebles all of the time. Kay would probably sell more patterns if she did write them in US terms but for selfish reasons I hope that she never does as I am so grateful to be able to crochet without studying every row of the pattern and converting it in my head. As I have bought loads of her patterns at least I will always have those written in UK terms.

Today has been freezing cold once again although I did manage to dry some washing outside in the few brief moments of sunshine that kept appearing through the day. My knees are creaky in the cold hence all the crochet that I have done today.

I have started a tiny cardigan with some scrap wool. Once again it is a re balled oddment so I have started the waistcoat on the top right of the King Cole pattern 3151. I think that I will have enough to put sleeves in it as it is turning out a mere 16" chest. I have another scrap of wool that I will make the waistcoat with but I will start the next size up with this wool.I am going to leave the pockets off as I am making such small sizes. It is a lovely pattern stitch. Almost like a bobble but so easy to do. I got this pattern ages ago from Purplelinda but this is the first time that I have used it. As I like the stitch and it goes up to a 24" chest I can see myself making more from this pattern.The hooded jacket looks very sweet as does the short sleeved polo and the striped cardigan. More ways to use up my part balls.

No other news except that bad knees must be catching on my street. The guy who lives across the road from me is limping. He twisted his knee whilst hiking last weekend. I refrained from telling him that this was how my knee problems started. He is only young though and probably doesn't have underlying osteo arthritis so fingers crossed that after physiotherapy he will be back to his normal self soon.

The Postman Called Today

I just love it when the postman calls with a parcel for me. Even though I ordered it and know exactly what is in the parcel there is still something exciting about ripping open the envelope and seeing the contents. My parcel today came from Purplelinda. I love the acrylic hooks that they sell even though I am the kiss of death to the finer ones. They are labelled that they are only suitable for fine work but hey ho breaking a couple is the price I pay for loving the feel of them. They are so lightweight and as I can't use bamboo hooks they are the best thing for my arthritis. The wool is to try the crocheted version of the Baby Surprise Jacket. I bought the pattern on Ravelry a few days ago and I am hoping that this wool has a long enough colour sequence to give the jacket a striped effect. It is so easy to find sock wool with long colour changes but more difficult to find long length double knit unless I pay loads of money for hand dyed wool which quite frankly I think is a waste of money for a young baby.New Mums have enough to do without having to hand wash baby cardigans.

I couldn't resist the bolero pattern. It is P904 by Peter Pan and although I have a couple of bolero patterns already this pattern is in DK. I think that I need to hide my card so that I can't order any more on line for a week or two. It's like an addiction. Other people love clothes and shoes, some collect jewelry. I just love anything related to crochet.

I have finished the pattern 220 by Kay Jones. I decided to edge it with pale green so that it could be used for a baby boy. It was a very easy pattern to make and I am sure that I will be using the pattern again. The pattern goes up to a 26" chest so I am not limited to using it for baby sizes.

I have started another Kay Jones pattern with the green that I have used for the trimming. I have chosen a hooded jacket in a rib effect crochet. I will post photos of that tomorrow.

Yesterday I sorted through my stash and put the baby colours in one box as I seem to be in the baby cardigan making mood. I have quite a few balls of white but have left them in their packages. I just wanted to see what colours I had in stash.

I really need to tidy up the rest of the stash as it has got very higgeldy piggeldy since I inherited lots of odd balls to use in my homeless hat and scarf making. I will use these up later in the year ready for the cold weather. I need to sort out 'my' stash that is destined for my personal use away from the donated stash that is destined for my charity crochet and knit.

My knitting has hit a stop this weekend. I can only knit if I am feeling tip top but if I am not then I find crocheting is something that I don't have to concentrate on quite as much.The weather has turned cold again which affects my joints anyway. Bring on the sunshine!