LATEST BIT OF KNITTING

 

 

Here's my latest creation, made in about 5 1/2 weeks. It's not as difficult as it looks because you work on 31 stitches ar a time - one of the diamonds. I used DK wool and a No.8 circular needle, which meant that the weight of the knitting was on my lap. Not something you'd want to make in the summer months! It measures 4' x 4' and I'll use it as a throw on the back of the sofa. No sewing together but 400+ tails to sew in - sometime!!!

 I have no idea how to 'cancel' the large amount of white space below here as it won't highlight, so, sorry, another How Do You...

WHAT A WEEK...

It's been a bit of a pickly week, what with one thing or another.
On Monday I had to go to the dentist (about 48 mile round trip) to have a crown repacked round the base as I'd had a problem. Eating my first slice of the homemade blackberry jam I'd been given I heard a loud Crack! The dentist was away the next day (Friday) so I had to hang on until Monday, hoping I wouldn't swallow the crown if it fell off. He took an Xray and couldn't see any damage so repacked it on gum level and that was that. 
On Tuesday, about midday, I felt a bit lightheaded so, not wanting to fall over, that evening I called NHS Direct for some advice and they sent - an ambulance... Two paramedics brought in their bag if gubbins, stuck little sticky patches all over me (well, nearly) took details, did lots of BP readings and decided I needed a Responsible Adult to stay with me until I went to bed. They eventually managed to get hold of Stuart who turned up to watch TV until I went upstairs. Duty done all round.Then to the doctor in the morning. It's an ideal way to get an immediate appointment - 'The ambulance came to me last evening...' and I had a time for 20 mins ahead. Mad scamble to get dressed and out!
Friday was a doctor's appointment - yet another doctor I didn't recognise - but that went OK. I asked for the results of the chloresterol blood test I'd had some weeks previously and it's gone up slightly so I've reverted to statins after giving a four month trial to Plant Sterols instead.

On Friday my granddaughter, Diana, and her daughter, Danielle, who is 22 in March, came to choose a blanket as Dan is now living in a cold, heatless house while it's being remade.It belongs to her partner and the tenant who moved out left a mess to be cleared up.  This is the blanket she chose.
The house has a neglected garden covered in blackberry bushes and will probably need a goat to clear a way through them. Well, that's what various websites say.
In the evenings I had been knitting a What Can I Do Now blanket for Battersea Dogs and Cats Home which I finished and posted together with a mouse toy - patterns provided.

Such a boring pattern - 8" squares of the same colour...which made a blanket supposedly about 39" square. Must be a bloomin' great cat! The mouse was a bit fiddly but it's a bit like putting in a bar of chocolate with a Christmas present for a child, just an extra. I doubt I'll do another. I made this because I've given up stitching for the winter as I find the light isn't good enough, even with a standard lamp and a Proper 150 watt bulb on one side and a craft lamp on the other.. No daft Euro- demanded bulbs for me until I'm forced to use them. I have a stash of the good old ones upstairs...

 

Then, while I was having a quick look at US blog sites to find knitted blanket ideas I found this.

I think it's more an ongoing project rather than 'sit and knit until it's finished'. But it is possible to knit-and-read at the same time once you get into the swing of it.

It's made in one piece so heaven knows how heavy it will be on my lap later on. Or how hard on arthritic hands, either!This piece is 4' wide. Takes about 20-30 mins to knit each 'square'.

You can see in this closeup that there's no sewing together involved as each 'next square' is from picked up stitches. I like the way the double-decreasing centre row makes this tidy line up the centre of the knitting.

Here's the reverse...



and here's a photo showing that there will be 'hundreds' of tails to sew in at the end - if I ever get there!! I don't think I'll be able to take this to appointments at the surgery or hospital to pass the time!

http://luannsloosethreads.blogspot.co.uk/p/knit-mitered-square-sock-blanket.html

 

Kath found another pattern which I sent for but it's done on three needles and makes a 'puff' which you fill with your chosen stuffing as you go along. I took one look and decided to put it on one side. The photos seem to show double-ended needles arranged as they are when you graft two sets of stitches together. Perhaps some other time.

 

Both of these patterns are made with Sock Wool, which I'd never heard of until a while ago when I decided I'd make some knitted socks to pamper my cold old feet. I looked in a local wool shop and found the price for a 150 gm ball of sock wool is anything from £10-£13 so forgot that idea. Until eBay... I now have a ball of lovely multi-coloured wool sitting on the table and a downloaded US pattern of socks made on TWO needles, not the usual set of four which Americans seem to favour. Shades of my Mum knitting during the war - not for me!

 

The garden's a mess with the empty pond filling up again. Gillian's on holiday and the heavy-work gardener has taken himself off to what sounds like a commune in Spain for a month or two, so it'll just have to look after itself. The wildlife will be able to enjoy it.

 

My boiler has been playing up for months and I finally decided to get something done about it. The plumber (registered) lives across the road so has been coming and going when he hasn't been working in the evenings and I hope has finally cracked it, being a persevering sort of bod. It seems that wireless timers/room thermostats (or whatever) are influenced by eg baby alarms if they're on the same frequency so by taking out the same pin on the room stat and the thingy in the airing cupboard it has (cross fingers) cured it!!! Now I have heat all the time and not hit-and-miss as it has been for months...! That's tempting fate!

 

At least the sun is shining, must put out some washing before it disappears...

 



2011 END OF YEAR HOTCHPOTCH

Jonathan has tinkered about with the computer to try and make it go slightly faster so this is all hit and miss on an unknown format for Blogger.
Anyway, I bet you are either beginning the slog in the kitchen or gathering everything to go visiting - my Christmas was 23rd with Stuart and his family and yesterday with Teresa and Jonathan so I'm back to normal, whatever that means!
A few days before today my parcel of wool arrived from a lady I found on eBay but this was, in effect, a private purchase. I'm pleased with all these bright colours and can't wait to start using them...

This is my current crate of wool which is holding the remains of already used balls so the colours above are a real boost.

These are four balls 'in waiting', so to speak, including two of those multi-coloured efforts; I don't know what the trade name is for these. The muddled one at the top right is something Kath gave me before she moved, a ball of oatmeal/beige which I use to crochet the strips together on knitted blankets. I had to make a new band to hold it together as the previous one was spoiled. I'm always taking in tucks on the bands so they keep holding the outsides together - I start from the middle - being Lazy Libra I know this means the wool unravels (usually!) without any problem such as falling over or needing to be twitched back into place. James, Stuart's son, gave me 5 balls of wool to add to my stash, bought by himself, too, very brave for a 22 year old lad...

This is a batch of 48 Granny Squarres which have d-o-z-e-n-s of tails waiting to be stitched in and then, when I can find enough wool of one colour, will have an edging round each before I try crocheting them all together in an 8 x 6 formation to make another blanket - plus an ouside edging, of course.

Here's the afghan/throw I made for Sarah's Christmas present after she said how much she liked the charity blanket I made. It measures 40 x 52 1/2 so larger than the previous one, and it has a fancy edging, too. Didn't take long, crochet grows exceedingly fast...

Now for something completely different -

This morning I went down to the bottom shed in the gloom to fill up some of the sunflower seed holders and saw these signs of spring arriving - a few spidery crocuses just poking through here - and

daffs under bracken with an out of focus spray of cat mint- and

some pretty and tiny fungus growing on a stump, left over from when Gillian and I chopped down a viburnum  but couldn't get out the last few inches of the stump (which, cross fingers, hasn't resprouted, yet).

More daffs by the badgers hole under the fence and

the ones I spotted first, beside the shed door, which made me look for more signs of Spring-come-early.

Finally, I have to finish on another notice with a problem...

Have a good day, see you again later.

Just a quick 'Hallo, Ria' to Jonathan's Mum who doesn't speak English but looks at the pictures - she's really into the gardening side of things, but I hope she sees her name and knows she's remembered.

NEW MAKINGS

Just recently I've been stitching 'Long Hexies' from Kath's pattern during daylight hours and knitting when it gets darker - here are the results so far.I've stitched some of them together into individual patches of 4 long hexies and a pale yellow centre square then stitched four of those patches together. Most of them are not joined yet, I'm waiting until I have more sets to choose from. The bottom left individual hexie, orange with a kind of leaf pattern, came from the cover on one of the pots of jam my daughter recently brought me from Holland.

I make lap quilts which are about 45" square so this one is half done. I recently bought a nice new thimble from Cotton Patch, called a Clover Protect and Grip Thimble. It has the usual metal top with a rim to stop the needle slipping but the body is flexible yellow plastic. It's so comfy I wish I'd known about it years ago. This is the latest blanket which I finished yesterday. It's almost the same as the one I did last month as I've knitted this one in 'bars', too. Just to make it a bit more interesting I made every 4th bar in two colours so that it breaks the lines a bit. Now I'm stuck for what design to do next. Any ideas?

BLANKETS AT LAST!

I've been trying to get these pics a decent size for a couple of weeks now, ever since Kath spoke about her crochet blanket. The originals are 6 x 4 SLR photos taken up to 20 years ago... sometimes scanning is OK for this type of photo, other times it's a nightmare. This is as good as I can get it without a special computer programme.

Anyway, these two 'Granny' crochet blankets were made for charity but I have no idea, now, who I gave them to. It's not so much the finishing of the item, more the making of it. I can't remember what I did with the taggly ends, I certainly wouldn't have sewn them in, much too long-winded.

This blanket has a different pattern for the individual square, not a 'granny square'. I wonder where this one went?

These were made while I've lived here, one crochet blanket and two knitted ones. but some time ago as they're also 6 x 4 prints.

These are digital photos - so much easier!

This is 6' x 4', which I always make the size for 'large' blankets. Once upon a time I went to Oxfam's warehouse in Bicester and saw how many knitted blankets are thrown away and go to be 'ragged' because they don't conform to Oxfam's preferred size. All made with time, care - and money - but dumped. I asked in various Oxfam shops and none of the volunteers had any knowledge of a particular size being wanted.

This is a 'small' one, half size at 4' x 3'. I get bored with knitting plain strips so decided to take a quilt patch pattern of half-squares and do that instead. Still in garter stitch, though.

Another quilt 'pattern' - I've made several strippy quilts so thought it would be interesting to try one in knitting. There are 5 strips here to be crocheted together, that's all. 4' x 3'.

The last 3 blankets are laid out on my lounge floor while I stood on a chair to take a photo - well, I shan't do that again!!

I'm crocheting together another small garter stitch blanket at the moment. The three above went to a charity taking things for Romanian families. Recently I bought a pack of 16 assorted wools, 100g each, for £10 plus £6 p and p from eBay and the joy is they come to your door! And £1 a ball for blanket wool is cheaper than the shops...

My Knit and Natter group have a contact locally who takes things for an orphanage in Burma so may swap to that.