T on Tuesday, by a bad blogger!

First I want to apologise for not returning your visits and comments last time I joined in, which was two weeks ago, and I missed a week to top it off. How embarrassing, but it has been a tough couple of weeks.

The week I posted I meant to go round at the weekend at least, then Hubby was ill and in hospital on the Thursday where they decided his anaemia was worse and he needed blood transfusions, and would be staying the night - then they decided to do the transfusions all that afternoon and evening and send him home again. So he was back home that evening but feeling really fragile. He seemed better for a couple of days then started being sick again mornings, and I was trying to keep his spirits up.

Then last week Hubby had appointments at the hospital 4 out of 5 days, and I had an appointment about my foot (which is now fine) on the other day. I had to go with him to the hospital each time, in case he needed me to drop him near to the department and park the car. The day he had his transfusions I couldn't park in the drop off car park, had to drop him as near as possible and then it took me 45 minutes to park. He nearly collapsed just walking in, and they took him straight to a ward - he couldn't walk there and when I finally got in he was being taken in a wheelchair which the nurse left with me at the entrance to the ward. I couldn't push the thing, they are made of cast iron tubing and so heavy! 

We started last week with an oncology appointment, then he needed his bloods taken, then there was a treatment day. On Friday he should have been going in for a Radiotherapy appointment but on the Thursday during treatment they said he needed more blood transfusions and booked him in for those, then rang us late afternoon to say "something had gone wrong" and his cross matching blood couldn't be tested, so we had to go in as early as we could for the blood to be taken again - then it took two hours for the blood to be delivered for him! Oh what a long day, I was so tired after all that sitting about and wandering the hospital corridors for two days in row, and we were there for seven and a half hours Friday!

Anyway it is T on Tuesday time, and you can join in at Elizabeth and Bleubeard's blog. As you can see from the first photo my crochet "nest" has been drastically tidied because we have our son, daughter in law and two little grandchildren staying. It's only been moved to the craft room, which I won't be able to get into soon (and where I am posting from now so maybe I won't be able to get out).

See my Dance in the Sea storage bag is filling up nicely, we are on week 6 so 24 squares have been completed and 10 weeks to go. This is going to be a really nice sized blanket.

Because I finished the week 6 squares in the hospital I thought I should do more on the Persian Tiles blanket, I would like to finish it - or decide if I will make it bigger but only if I can still get the same dye lot in the navy which will show if it is different. In the background a pirate ship, this is my grandson's present (well the main one) for his 4th birthday which was on the 17th. Our little granddaughter Lily is 6 months old now and beginning to move, which is one reason I tidied the "nest". On the footstool the tiles are all now at the same stage, I was finishing the same two rows on the last one. Now I can move on to the next row which is a smaller hook and fills in the valleys to make the octagon, then there are just two rows left to finish. So I hope to be able to block and to start assembling the blankets soon.

I have been using two colours, so both yarn bowls are in use. Next to the new yarn bowl I blogged about last time (which is now officially part of my birthday present in advance for July) is a set of Tulip Etimo crochet hooks, which hubby has bought me in advance for my birthday.

I started to use my new hooks, I know - should wait until July, but I wanted to try them. The handle feels lovely and warm in my hand. I found that the size 5mm created a much bigger square than the Knit Pro hook, here they are side by side and you might be able to tell that the shaft of the pink Tulip hook is thicker than the Knit Pro. I tried both of them in a hook gauge took and they both fit the 5mm slot but the Tulip shaft is tight in the slot and the Knit Pro is not. As I didn't want to have to redo the gauge swatch and work out which hook I needed I carried on with the Knit Pro hooks for now but I have found since having them I often need to go up to a larger size than stated and this difference in the two hooks might explain why!

 Can you see how the non slip coating has worn away on the Knit Pro? It has on several of them, and I looked at the Knit Pro web site where it states they have a lifetime guarantee - unless you bought them from Amazon or Ebay, so I can't do a thing about it!

 Side view, you can see the different profiles.

Back view, notice that the Tulip hooks seem to be slightly longer, the handles and the shafts are a little longer.

Close up of the hook. I don't know how much difference I will find when I work with the new hooks properly but I will tell you all as soon as I know.

 Here are my strawberries, the only thing I am growing in the greenhouse this year because hubby cannot help me with carrying compost, or heavy watering cans so it is better that I don't grow any tomatoes or courgettes. The slugs and snails are more prolific this year too, so would probably eat the lot!

Look at my strawberries! They are ripening at the rate of three per day right now! The one above is the first one I picked, it was delicious.

Bit blurry but this is a huge strawberry, which my little grandson is going to have for breakfast!

 This is the Dance in the Sea week five square, it was supposed to be pale green but seagull prints looked better in the sand to me, this is the first time I have changed the colour from the pattern.

 Week 6 square is a C2C (corner to corner) square, and I did a lot of those making the premature baby blankets! They were supposed to be sand coloured and I swapped last week's colour so they are green.

 I've joined a mystery CAL, see the last post if you don't know what a CAL is! All I know is I needed Aran yarn in cotton or acrylic and the quantities, so here is a bag of lovely squishyness waiting for June 7th to find out what we are doing first! The mystery CAL is by Melody's Makings and is called Veronica meets Spring, and cost a few dollars to join. There will be some free patterns given out in addition to the mystery CAL instructions. My yarn is Rico, due to a special offer which made it very affordable - am I crazy taking on another project when I have so many not started?

I hope that I will be able to get round everyone's blogs this week, barring any excitement and if I get time. I have spent three days getting the house ready for our visitors and I am totally exhausted now and aching all over, hoping for a good nights sleep so I better go hit that sack right now as it is already gone 1am. So I am a candidate for Alzheimers due to lack of sleep, but crochet will keep my brain active so maybe they net off!