Hello Again

I can't believe it's August all ready, the past two months have gone by in a blur.  As mentioned in my previous post my Grandmother turned 100 in June.  Sadly she passed away on the 10th of July.


Altogether July has not been my best month ever.  I did finish delivering the training course at work, update our business continuity plan and get all my team performance appraisals written, but in between there have been a series of small disasters.

There was the puncture on my way home from work that saw me sitting on the side of the motorway for an hour at 10pm on a Saturday night.  From that I learned that a surprising number of people forget to turn on their lights, the shoulder is much narrower than it appears as you whiz past it at 100 kph and really people should slow down.

My eldest the Man Child has caps on his front teeth due to an accident when he was a boy child.  He managed to break one whilst eating a lollypop! Oh and he sprained his ankle playing hockey.

My cat had a stroke! She'd been sitting snoozing in her usual position on the top of my chair when she suddenly leapt off and started walking in circles.  The dogs had a freak out over her and by the time I got them out of the way she was fitting. When she came out of the fit she was very strange so it was off to the vet at 10pm on a Sunday evening.  She's more or less back to normal now, but for 24 hours she was blind and didn't know me.   She bit me, hissed and spat until she came out of it.   Thankfully cats recover from such episodes a lot better than humans, she's a bit weak in the back legs but that is it.

The hubs opened an official looking envelope to discover a speeding ticket from a speed camera for my car.  I've never had a speeding ticket (touch wood) so he handed it to me smugly.  I looked at the date and said hang on! That's was the day after Grandma's funeral, I wasn't working that Sunday, we went shopping and YOU were driving! Then I gave it back to him!

The Wee Girl got glasses!

I got new glasses, I've had to move to progressive lenses with a special pair of reading glasses for all the crochet and writing I do.

But every cloudy month has silver linings.  I got a new laptop and a new camera.  I have been lusting after the camera for some time.  As soon as I get my software sorted out, I shall be posting new pics taken with it.

A busy few weeks

Here is the wee girl wearing her now, somewhat grubby slipper boots.  That's what happens when you slide on the lino when the dogs have muddy paws.  She's very happy with these boots.

I adapted this pattern for a basic boot, instead of ribbing I trebled (U.S. dc) 6 rows then did granny clusters for another 5 rows for the folded down part.

The WG likes to keep toasty warm and there has a been a bit of a cold patch.

I've also been making hats flat stick.  A teddy bear,  a monkey and a couple of earflap hats for my nephews and friends little boy.

If that wasn't enough, I've been working on a training module for work and started delivering it this week.

All in all I've been working my tail off.    The man child had a teacher in service day today and begins exams tomorrow, this evening the WG has an open house at the intermediate school she will be attending next year.  There's hockey and work for me on Saturday, Sunday is work and Monday, Tuesday I am both working and delivering the training I developed to yet another team.

I don't believe this business will abate for a while yet.  Both the hubs and I are working on Saturday so in a true test, the MC has to get himself and his sister to their hockey games at the local field.

I'm hoping things will slow down soon.  Who'd have thought winter would be so much busier than summer?

A Granny for Gran (Ripple Granny Tah Da!)

I'm excited to present my version of the Ripple Granny throw.  

Two weeks, less than10 100 gram balls of Marvel acrylic.  It is approximately 3 feet by 3 feet.  Enough for Grandma to cover her lower body down to her feet and tuck around herself when she sits in her chair.  About the size of a cot blanket.

Here is a peek at the colours.  A dusky mauve, mossy green, dusky pink, chocolate brown and cream.  Not the bright colours I generally use but definitely Grandma colours.

58 rows of Granny clusters.  108 stitches on a 5mm hook.

I adapted the pattern I found by doing a colour set and then counting in on the clusters to start in the same place so the first row of the mauve in each colour set is 5 cluster sets.  That is how I managed to get the zig zag sides 

The edge is just 3 rows of single crochet because I thought the zig zagginess was pattern enough.  I think I mentioned it was acrylic rather than wool in case it gets put in the residential care driers.  Now I just need to label it with Grandma's name, wrap it in a ribbon and I'm ready to go.

I will write up the pattern if anyone is interested.  It's a mixture I adapted from a number of different Granny ripple patterns that I googled to work out how to do it.

Now I have to get my a into g and start cooking for the party this weekend!!!  Have a wonderful day!

Foggy Saturday Morning

Saturday morning at this time of year means Hockey.  Both the Wee Girl and the Man Child play.  There's one thing you need to know about hockey, it's never cancelled.  Rain, hail or shine, hockey is always on and today was no different, in spite of the fog.

The WG had a game at 10:30 thankfully just down the road at the local high school the MC attends.

The MC had a game for his club at 2pm today, during the week he plays for the school in the first 11, he has practice twice a week for school, a game on Wednesday and then another practice Thursday evening for the club with a game on Saturday.

Some of the WG's games are played away, which generally means a trip to another school across town.  A couple of weeks ago we had to be in Mt Roskill for a game at 9:30am then back to West Auckland for a marimba recital at a local festival by 11am.  It was tight!

Today though, it was just the two hockey games, some hours apart.  Did I mention the fog? Those buildings are right across the road from the field but they were only just visible at 10am when we arrived.

The WG plays 8 a side and on half of the turf.

Here she is with her pink hockey stick on attack.  She played the first half on defense.

Unfortunately it was something of a whitewash, the opposition won by 4 goals to 1.

I remember when those shorts she's wearing hung down around her knees and there was barely any skin to be seen between the top of her socks and the bottom of her shorts.  4 years later and she looks a lot bigger.

And here is the MC, playing in the 3rd Division Men's team.  He's 15 and playing guys in their 20's, 30's and my age!  The guy who is tackling him in that shot, is a former Olympic player, he played for NZ.

The MC holds his own with the older players and he's bigger than some of them.  That astounds me.  Although he is taller than me, I still think of him as my child.  Seeing him taller than men with facial hair, well it's something of a shock.

As you can see he got around the former Olympic player.

We came home around 3.30 having been at the hockey turf for the better part of the day.

The WG is doing the 40 hour famine too, so she has been shoveling back Barley Sugars and Just Juice.  She's given up food, technology and talking!  It's been a quiet 20 hours so far.

Crafting for cash?

A friend of mine is thinking of taking a stall at the local market and she has invited me to crochet some goodies to sell.  I don't usually sell anything I make.  Sometimes people give me wool to make things from for them.  That's about as close as I have ever got.

I'm thinking of making some fingerless mitts, hats, cup cozies, flower posies and key rings to start with,  quick stuff that doesn't take a lot of yarn.  Then I can use any money to make more expensive things and things that take a little longer, scarves etc.

I'll have to think on it.

Meanwhile, my granny stitch zig zag/ripple is moving along nicely.  I've made some alterations to the pattern so it's got zig zag sides as well as top and bottom.  I can't wait to get it finished for Grandma's birthday.  I have 12 more days to get it done.  I have to work out what I will do to edge it.

Home Sick

I awoke this morning to the pitter patter of feet, well not so much a pitter patter as a stamp stomp, the wee girl has elephant feet.  I usually wake around 8:30 - 9 ish on my days off.  My darling hubs gets the kids up and off, so awaking to the sound of footsteps in the house was a little odd.

It transpired that the WG had been allowed to remain home as she was "sick" with the unlikely combination of sore throat and  sore tummy.  The hubs made a call and left her home for observation.  Her colour was good, she didn't have a temperature, no sign of a cough or even a sneeze.  I was and remain a little skeptical.  A little bit of chit chat and I discovered that the WG's bff is moving away which may explain why she felt off and a day at home with Mum isn't going to hurt.

I had intended to go out and get some more yarn for the Zig Zag Granny rug and wander Spotlight looking for some monkey hat wool and a colour scheme for my next project.  The zig zag granny isn't going to take a long time because it's not going to be that big.

I have some work to do perfecting the granny zig zag foundation as well.  I started this one using a pattern on Ravelry by Birdlebee, it has a multiple of 18 but the ends are a lot longer than the actual zig zags.  I think I can work that out for the next one.  I'm liking the granny ripple!

Back at work

Sadly my holiday is over.  I can no longer devote hour upon hour to crochet.  I was just getting used to the whole idea of being a stay at home mother.  I've had a good month so I can't really complain and I still have lots of leave to take later in the year.  Meantime taking the month off has meant that I am within the target of less than 40 days of leave....just.

I made two more hats for my friends children.  The pink bowler style hat was my own adaptation of a beanie, I created the brim by doing an increase row and then two more straight rows of trebles.

The monkey helmet is an earflap hat with two circles sewn on afterward for ears.  I now have requests from a couple of different friends to make monkey hats for their little boys.  So I will be making hats for a while longer.  They are very quick so I am happy to do it.

I've also made a couple of pairs of wrist warmers for the wee girl and myself.  For those cold winter morning hockey games.

I'm also making a zigzag (ripple) granny throw for my grandmother's 100th birthday next month.  It's not going to be huge, just something she can use to sit with to keep her legs warm. She doesn't get around too much these days, so even in the warm rest home, she feels chilled.  She can walk and does, but she has cataracts which mean that she doesn't see too well.  While she's happy to trot out to the dining room for meals, she doesn't like to be in unfamiliar places and fair enough.

It's difficult to get something for her, living in a rest home means that she can't have a lot of "things" and because she can't see, photographs while appreciated are fairly meaningless because she can't enjoy them.  Which is why I decided to make her the rug.  She may not be able to see the colours but she will be able to feel the stitches and appreciate the warmth it gives her.

Because clothing and bedding is washed in the rest home laundry, I have chosen to use acrylic yarn, so that nobody can accidentally shrink her rug.

I've chosen a brown, sage green, soft muted pink and cream as colours and I am using mode vera marvel 8 ply (DK).  The ripple in granny clusters is growing quickly and as soon as I have a respectable number of rows, I shall post a picture.