T for Tuesday

I took my lunch and peppermint tea out into the garden today, it was such a lovely day, warm while the sun was out anyway! I made a prawn curry, Slimming World recipe. I haven't joined in T for Tuesday at Elizabeth and Bleu's place for such a long time (and I have missed it so much) but eating outside like this reminded me, and I thought I would pop on over. Also I have never linked up from my new crochet blog, only my paper crafting one!

When I had finished my lunch it was still nice so I grabbed my WIP, which is the Persian Tiles crocheted blanket and another mug full of peppermint tea, and I want to get on with this blanket for reasons that will become clear later! I have been so ill with a nasty virus for over two weeks, I still have it a bit now but I am so much better. Before that I had really painful sciatica for a couple of months, I couldn't stand for long, or walk more than a dozen steps without really suffering and having to sit down, I was on Tramadol in the end and that wasn't helping totally. Suddenly it stopped and gave me a break - in time to go down with the virus!

Week 1 of the virus I spent most of the time sleeping in bed, only getting up to feed the dogs and get myself drinks, I hardly ate a thing. Apart from a really sore throat and ear I felt like my head was in a washing machine, it only stopped a bit when I lay down! Week 2 was a bit better but it went into my sinuses, I had a different kind of sore throat, cough, sneezing, then I got an infected eye. That's when I went to the Doctor, who said it would probably go in a couple of days - it didn't, it spread to the other eye but it was a lot better, still not totally gone though. I did get a script for antibiotic drops but he said don't get it unless it doesn't get better, because I told him I would have an allergic reaction to them which would cause extreme pain - catch 22 or what! 

I'm crocheting them factory style, I think that is what they call it, doing all of the centres (badly) then all of the next row, and so on. I was doing the copper row here, yellow is next. This is because the rows are all quite complex and this way I can remember what I am doing (hahahahaha), but because of what happened before I haven't sewn in any ends at all! I calculated how many ends I will sew in and there are 1020 in total for this blanket, something I hadn't really figured on when I decided to make it! See the finished one at the back?

I'm making progress, really have to concentrate. Luckily I can crochet with my sun glasses on, bog standard sort, reading the pattern when I needed the next row was a bit more difficult haha! I stayed out all afternoon, why you might ask? Well apart from it being lovely I was recently told my Vit D levels are low, and that is despite taking a supplement so I thought it might help. Didn't wear a hat, maybe I should have. Anyways I sat on the patio crocheting until my right arm got frozen, we get a mean draft up the side of the house! Thinking I should move onto the lawn in the sun, but I don't want to put the tote on the grass (we have two dogs, if you know what I mean). Then I thought if I move two chairs over there I can put the tote on one, but the grass really needs cutting..... so I got the petrol mower out. I don't normally do this, well hardly ever and if I do someone has got the mower out and started it.... I had trouble starting it, tried the clutch in different positions but I thought I was probably not pulling the string fast enough, couldn't seem to do it. It was hurting my hand so I went to get my leather gardening gloves, posh ones from the National Trust shop last year! That was better and I put everything into pulling fast and - finally it started! So off I went cutting the grass, after poop picking first! It was ok, when I stopped to empty the collector I couldn't pull the string at all, thought I had broken it, but in the end I worked out there was a wad of grass and reeds (I cut down the dead reeds on the pond last week and there were some all over the grass), and managed to get it going again and finish the job.

The circles - they are the centres of the octagons I am making, and there was a gap between the first ones and the rest due to stopping to make Easter toys, then the two weeks sick in bed with the virus! I know what I am doing, I know this part of the pattern I thought, and got stuck in making the number up to 15, then I looked at the pattern for the next row - I had used the wrong hook!!! There are two sizes of hooks used in this pattern, so my middles were different sizes. I made another, it was 5cm (2.5inches?), tried to work out which were big enough - in the end common sense prevailed and I measured them, some were 4.5cm, too small, some were nearly 5cm - I've used them, I think that as they are only a tiny bit and there is a lot more to go any tiny variation here between exactly 5cm and just a little under will work out fine when they are blocked. I hope so anyway! The worst thing was that before discovering my error I had sat and sewed in the ends really firmly! This is something I never used to do, I would only crochet over them, and sometimes sew them in if I couldn't crochet over them. But now there is so much information online I have learnt the right way to do it securely.

 This was an accidental photo on the phone but I left it in to show you the lovely sky today, not a great photo I know!

 While I was cutting the grass, and sweeping up reeds from the paths I realised that the top patio (aren't we posh, it happened because we had a much larger greenhouse that we changed for a child friendly one with safety glass and ended up with a space near the pond) was a lot warmer than the lower one, so I moved there to continue with my crochet after the grass cutting exercise (and I do mean exercise)!

I had planned to spend the afternoon doing more cleaning, but yesterday it was pouring with rain and today - no rain! Sunday we had hail stones and sleet! So tomorrow if it rains I might get to the cleaning again.

 Thought I better feed the fish, and tried to get a photo of the monster Ghost Koi, we had two but one vanished, the remaining one has outgrown everything else. See him below, the silver one...

....under the wooden beam...

 ....more of him, he is a bit camera shy....

 .....swimming away again....

 ....that's him - bottom left, well a bit of him/her!

When I moved to the top patio I had done all the copper and started the daffodil yellow.

 I feel I have made a lot of progress, after the yellow rows come the fans, they are not done in rows and they are what I need the smaller hook for! In fact I've now done all the yellow rows!

View from the top patio.

I did loads of housework yesterday, cleaned the lounge and hall like I haven't for a very long time, I kept looking at things and thinking how dirty they were so went for a Spring clean, and all because I was feeling kinda guilty for buying this...

It is a Lux kit for a Scheepjes CAL (crochet along) called Dance on the Beach, and there are three variations. Mine is called Dance in the Sea. It came in the Lux kit, which 50% Marino wool yarn, the tote, gorgeous scissors and some stitch markers, and a sachet of some stuff to wash it in I think. You could also buy a cheaper acrylic kit without the tote and scissors. For every kit there is a donation to MIND, because the person who started these designs was Marinke Slump, a lovely girl who used crochet to get her out of depression, but sadly lost her battle with it and took her own life. Her friends and colleagues completed this in her memory.

I thought it was quite appropriate because my hubby is suffering depression (well that is my excuse though he might be more depressed if I told him what I spent on this lol), due to his cancer. He really hasn't been well for a couple of weeks and I was quite worried about him, but today he felt up to going to work this afternoon for a couple of hours, and seemed a lot better, he had his cancer treatment yesterday. It is his second sort of Immunotherapy and we don't know if it is working yet. He will have a scan in a few weeks to find out. That is also why I didn't want him to cut the grass, the cancer spread to the lymph gland sitting above his stomach and so he is finding it difficult to eat much, and it hurts him to bend down. When he came home again he said he had been thinking of trying to cut the grass!

I've even taken Sooty for a short walk, two evenings running! Poor dog, we were taking them both to Barton Farm, as you can see in previous posts, but Sooty went down with a nasty bug - unless he ate something nasty! By the time he recovered I had sciatica, then the bug! He is so happy to be going out again, I just hope it doesn't trigger the sciatica or anything else! We have to sneak out or Alfie gets upset, and he is really too old to go walking now, he has gone all lop sided and his balance isn't great, I think he might have had a stroke. He is over 14 years old now though, and he seems happy enough.