The Other Sweater.

Regular readers of my blog will remember I started the year with two works in progress, I was actually indulging myself by making not one but two sweaters all for me, one knitted which I finally finished and showed you here and the other was a crochet sweater.

Now this was a definite first for me, I have made almost everything there is to make in crochet but I have never made a sweater for myself, I made a sleeveless top which you can see here and I also made this cardigan, I can show you the pattern only as the actual cardigan was frogged, now maybe I'm a peculiar shape but that cardigan just didn't sit well on my frame, it looked quite hideous to be honest but strangely enough I wasn't sad when I pulled it all out, all those hours of work you may think were for nothing but I enjoyed making it so it really didn't matter and the yarn was put to better use in the form of many charity makes. 

So what about the sleeveless top I can hear you asking well yes I wore that.... once! and that was really just to try it on, it eventually went into the charity bag where I hope that someone liked it better than I did. 

Now you would think that after that I would have learnt my lesson but oh no not me I wanted to make a crochet sweater and that's what I did....

I have to say the fit is loose but I can stand that, a big blowsy sweater like the knitted one but the problem is the yarn, it's so heavy I need a crane to lift it and once it's on, it brings me to my knees, Eskimo's could wear this sweater it's so heavy and warm but they would probably sink in the snow,😮 it weighs in at 850 grams!. Now that it's made up I don't like the colour or the way that the variegated colours have come together it hurts your eyes to look at it😵 I wont be using this particular type of yarn for sweaters again.




So lets find some positives.. I made it without a pattern and it does actually fit! I know, I know I wont wear it but I'm quite proud that I was able to do that.  The yarn was in a sale and very cheap so I don't feel too bad about it not working out.

So what shall I do with it? shall I pass it on to a charity for the homeless perhaps or one that supplies clothing to countries with sub zero temperatures or should I frog it and use the yarn for hats and scarves. All suggestions gratefully received. 

Have a great weekend.😊

Something for me.

Hello all you lovely people I can't tell you just how much I have missed my blog but finding the time to actually write a blog post totally eluded me for the best part of last year there seemed to be so much going on.  
I have noticed with sadness that many of our blogging friends have stopped blogging altogether but that is a sign of the times I fear as our lives get busier with the ever increasing demands on our time. 
I am going to try to write more on here this year I have so much to share with you but please forgive me if the posts come in fits and starts.  I would like to thank those of you who have asked after me and have said that you have missed my posts it means a lot. xx

So lets start with what I'm making right now, as you know most of the things I make are made for charity but recently I have been making some things for myself too.  I started knitting a sweater a few months ago but discovered that knitting was hurting my elbow😒 I have had problems in the past with aching joints all related to overindulging in my passion for crafting.  Can you imagine a life without knitting or crochet I'm afraid I can't and will battle on until I can't manage to crochet or knit another stitch. Anyway back to the sweater I decided that moderation is key and so restrict myself to short knitting sessions I'm sure that it will get finished one day.

November 2015 issue 139

I don't know if you guys are like me but I love a craft book or magazine and have collected quite a number of them over the years and I can't bring myself to throw them away, every now and then I look through them and promise myself that I will make something out of them and that's how the making of the jumper came about...

I have been wanting to make this for quite a while as you can tell by the issue date but have always managed to talk myself out of it like, I'll never get it finished or I'll probably hate it when it's finished or I should really be making things for charity, but this time I just jumped in and ordered the yarn motivated by the fact that I can never find anything I like in the shops, either I hate the colours or the style, nothing seems to look right of course that could be because I have an ever expanding stomach and I swear I'm not eating anymore than I used to do, I'm putting it down to age and a slower metabolism. 😂

I love the colour of this soft squishy yarn and now I have it I can't let it go to waste and must finish the sweater, luckily this is a basic style that never goes out of date. I have managed to finish a sleeve, the back and am halfway up the front, it's such an easy pattern that I can knit quite easily while watching TV in the evenings I allow myself an hour a day.

Luckily crochet doesn't seem to affect my joints as much as knitting does and I have made all sorts over the past year which I hope to show you, but would you believe I'm now making a crochet sweater for myself talk about overindulgence two sweaters for me! I'll tell you all about that one later.

What are you starting or carrying over into 2019?

Will I ever Learn!

Just before Christmas I had a hospital appointment for my sinuses which have never been the same after the impacted wisdom tooth extractions back in 2015! Anyway right across from the hospital is Kemps wool shop see this post, (I've been back many times since then.)

I had no intention of buying anything because as you all know I’m stash-busting and have a mere 23,044 grams of yarn to use up before I can even think of buying more.  My friend Mary however doesn’t have that dilemma and did intend to buy, I was only there for moral support and to give advice about colour, brand, you get the picture.

 I browsed as you do and was sticking to my resolve, by the time Mary’s basket was full I wasn’t even tempted in fact I was feeling quite smug, and then I looked up.  There right in front of my eyes was a gorgeous sweater that someone had knitted, the pattern and yarn information was pinned to the sweater, what great advertising! Who could resist I know I couldn’t before you could say stash busting I had picked up and bought 6 balls of the yarn and pattern to make it.  Now that’s what I call an impulse buy I do it all the time and I usually live to regret it.

The yarn in question was Sirdar Aura and it was quite expensive I have never paid that much for yarn! I’ve just retired for goodness sake what was I thinking, I can’t do things like that I have to watch the pennies.  As soon as I got home I started knitting it and it was chunky yarn so it worked up quickly but look...

The yarn was twisting as I worked with it and because it was twisting, the yarn strand was getting thinner and making an uneven texture so I had to stop every couple of rows and twist in the opposite direction to correct it, what a pain!

On the plus side the pattern was easy and I can recommend it I will use it again and again because there are children’s sizes too.

It took me 10 days to make the sweater and as I was knitting it I was wishing that I had bought the same colourway as the one I had seen in the shop. Which was Nico I had bought Rhythm I am never satisfied when making something for myself I should have known I wouldn’t be happy with it.

Why? 

• It’s a chunky sweater I have hot flushes every hour anyway I have them every 5 minutes when wearing this sweater.
• I don’t like the green in the colourway there’s too much of it you can’t tell when it’s wound in the ball. (It's much brighter in real life)
• It has wool in it so it scratches even though it’s lovely and soft so I have to wear a long sleeved cotton top under it.
• It makes me look fatter than I already am I put half a stone on over Christmas says she hanging her head in shame.

Will I wear it? yes! I will have to after what I paid for it lets hope for freezing cold weather then I will be nice and cosy inside my chunky scratchy sweater.

If I ever mention that I want to make a sweater for myself again PLEASE STOP ME!

Another plus

This was what was left

And I made this just to use it up 

An easy crochet scarf and the yarn didn’t twist while I was crocheting it! I will tell you how I made it if you want to know AND I have never had it off my neck, it’s multi colour so goes with lots of outfits, it doesn’t scratch now how is that possible when the sweater does, I used up the entre 600 grams of yarn for the sweater and scarf, so no stash to carry over, see there’s always some positives.

2017 is going to be the year of  positives let's find something positive in every situation.😊

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