Well hello there!

I’ve not blogged for ages, years! I just don’t seem to have time these days.

I finally finished Persian Tiles in Stylecraft Life by Janie Crow. It still needs blocking when I can wrestle it away from Mable, I’m waiting for nicer weather to do that. After my previous post I left it, I lost the pattern and bought it again, then found the first copy. I only had to finish the last two rows on each large motif, complete a less finished one, join them and do the border. Phew it’s done, quite a relief really.  I’m working on a circular Tunisian crochet cushion to use the leftover yarn now.

It’s been a dhalk Meg, a totally new technique so there has been much frogging, I like it.

T for Table, and Tuesday.

In honour of T on Tuesday here is my fruit infuser bottle in action. The frozen gel thing is attached to the infuser bit here, but I can just as easily add a few icecubes instead. I didn't know why I wanted one, the fruit in a glass works fine, but this is portable. I took it with me to Slimming World, and could take it out to dog shows, in the car, or anywhere really. It is quite heavy as it holds 900ml, nearly 2 pints.

Both the bottle and insulating sleeve are marked with reminders of when to hydrate. I love that it comes in purple and other colours.

I am joining in with Elizabeth and Bleubeard and the T on Tuesday folks for a mad catch up which includes beverages. I actually managed to get round everyone who visited me last week and a few more, pretty good for me. Not sure how it will go this week!

I bought four more plants in an effort to make the garden nice and ones I hope will stand up to the dogs, here's Luna sniffing one of the new plants I just planted and it is called Blue Hobbit and is an Eryngium which I will never remember, I might remember the Blue Hobbit bit! I also planted Viola Freckles, Penstemon Pinocolada Violet, and on a previous day Astilbe Heart and Soul and never heard of most of them before. It promptly turned to moonsoon conditions after this so I think I can safely say they are watered in.

The Astilbe (Heart and Soul) is the pointy one with pink flowers, at least the tops are still pink. I freed the Acer from it's pot with my son's help this year which is why it doesn't look great. It suffered from being so pot bound that normally all the leaves would fall off by now, but next year it should do better. 

 I bought this pretty small Acer recently, it suffered an unwanted pruning but has grown back a branch where one was lopped off, dog or son I don't know. The cone was left by the Water men when they repaired a damaged drain cover, I put it where the dogs are digging a tunnel, they already dug up a new plant I foolishly planted there. I have relocated it now and hope it will grow and isn't in shock. The marigolds are the best ever since I decided to plant them in the tubs.

Bertie likes these little chairs, he also likes the big ones! Little people will get to use them at the weekend.

I bought some cheap cut to size roller blinds for the summerhouse to keep it cooler when the sun is right on it on hot days and to protect the chairs, Luna and Bertie "helped" to measure and cut.

Richard put the blinds up for me, just one to go but it had a damaged bit so I am trying to get another. I bought solar lights too, thinking if I had enough of them it would be bright enough to crochet in the dark. I think that was wishful thinking but they look pretty. 

The old rose bush is happy, never had so many roses, this is just one side. It is 12 years old now.

Luna on our walk this evening, she has got very bold or very naughty depending how you look at it (very confident?) since Bertie arrived, between the three of them the walk was "interesting". I kept these two on leads past the hedge they both dived into last time and stayed in there for ages, then let them off. Then Sooty was miles behind sniffing, we were halfway up the field. I stopped Bertie going down a rabbit hole and Luna vanished into the hedge again! I put them both back on the lead, retraced our steps to go get Sooty then realised I had dropped the bag of poo, so we went halfway back and found it and turned round to meet poor old Sooty then onwards. I let Luna off again, she did go into a hedge but came quicky out then went the way she knows not to go towards the stile that goes to the road - but did come back, then vanished into the hedge next to the road even though I said no. Came out covered in sticky buds as you can see and went right on the lead! Both she and Bertie rolled, not sure what in, but it could be bath day tomorrow and she and Sooty both need a trim now it has turned hot again from being like Winter for a few days!

Luna seems to be happy again, we had a blip last week as she attacked Sooty a few times and the last time was pretty vicious. I got inadvertently bitten getting her off, and I did give her a small tap on the nose which had a bad effect, I also did as advised and shut her in the downstairs loo for a few minutes as a naughty room. She got very jumpy and worried around me after that, we had a bad training session the next day and she was car sick going home which she never is after training, but I think all is well again now. I will never know the abuse she suffered in her previous life, she needs to know she can't hurt Sooty but how to do it so I don't make her scared of me? 

Anyway I had her name down for agility training for months and got the call that she can start next week, and was discussing it with the training lady who advised me to shut them out of the kitchen when I prepare their meals and then put Sooty in a seperate room to eat so he feels safe and they don't try and steal his food. A couple of times Luna attacked him when he was in the living room and they were in the kitchen and I called him out for his food - she wouldn't let him pass. So he got scared of coming out when I called, it was fine when he was already in the kitchen, except Bertie would grumble and growl at him. Once I worked out how to do as advised, the first time I messed it up, all has been fine and no more attacks. They weren't all about food, one time the two dogs were in the summerhouse with me and Sooty just came out and stood up to look in the pond and Luna rushed out and went for him, another time I was eating in the dining room, she was under the table and Bertie in the room and Sooty came in and that was the most vicious attack.

Please excuse Bertie, he never kept still enough for a photo until this one!

I couldn't see what I took but there was an amazing sunset going on here as we walked round the last field.

I waited for the dark to see all the lights on, the two butterfly sets are from Sainsburys, but one I paid full price for and today went back and they were in the sale, should have taken one back and got a refund and bought two in the sale but I didn't think of it. The round globes across the door are from Amazon, they are nowhere near as bright as the butterflies. I also bought some stick ones and hanging single ones to put in the garden where the spotlight doesn't reach, and only one of those is working and it was when I brought it indoors when I got home. I will give the others another day to charge, but the butterflies worked tonight so I can see some going back - one is damaged so will be for sure.

All three of the dogs love it in the summerhouse, when I tried to lock up just now I couldn't because when I managed to get one out the other went back in! 

Oh the table - I nearly forgot! I decided that a small table would be nice, and lots were advertised secondhand but already gone. Then I saw this one, the right colour too and only £3 and I drove all the way to Shepton Mallet to get it, about an hours drive each way. It has a shelf, which is a bit out of shape so I am standing things on it to try and flatten it but I'm not worried about that. My sat nav wouldn't recognise the address from home or postcode, I had to drive to Shepton then stop in a car park and try again, and it finally found it! What is going on, that isn't the first time.

You might remember the Persian Tiles blanket (a Jane Crow design) from a long time ago, I was so near the end but stopped to make Frida's flowers also stopped to make Last Dance on the beach blanket, then I went on to do other things and never got back to it until now. I decided I will finish it before starting on the next project or another WIP that needs finishing. I have one half finished hexagon to finish and ends to sew on on all 16 - started Monday and only completed 3 so far! There are a lot of ends and I want them secure. Then it's ready to block, join and do the border. Problem is I cannot find my blocking board and I have been looking and looking - what have I done with it? I am also wondering if I can make the blanket bigger as I have lots of reds and orange left but I worry I might not have enough blues to do that.

Next week my 5 year old grandson will be staying with me on his own for the first time, think I will be busy? I am already planning the week, got to work round his bedtimes and some commitments I have, but there are a few things going on that we could go to, and walking the dogs, working on his memory book of his grampy (I really need to clear the craft room enough to do that, I also have to blitz the house before the weekend), the whole family will be here for the weekend then they will leave Kenny with me, returning to take him camping with his uncle.

I didn't tell you before but it was my birthday a couple of weeks ago, and I went into Bath with Richard and he went off to do his thing and I went to Debenhams because I had a couple of vouchers (coupons) to use. I had no idea of the effect it would have, the last time I was there with Shaun, he was pretty sick and had to sit down a lot and he was telling me to buy all the clothes I showed him and I was crying then. Well as I went up the escalators it all came back and I ended up sobbing in the toilets, it was pretty awful and I couldn't look at clothes properly. I bought some chopping boards in the end. I don't know if that will happen again.

You can never own too many bags 😂.👜🎒

This one came with the Scheepjes yarn pack for the blanket crochet along, it's just a tote but big and strong with one inside pocket. Could be used for anything.

This shows the pink Artbin tote alongside the one I bought from eBay which was the exact same design as the ones everyone was buying back then but only around £12.

I think I paid about £15 for the Artbin one, and it was the one I bought first. At them time they were being advertised and raved about and mine came from the USA. It is lightweight and the one I grabbed to go to the A&E (emergency dept) every time I had to take my husband. It has a carry handle on the top, and a shoulder strap that can be attached in two different ways - or it could until one of the plastic D rings broke early on. I should try and find a replacement.

This tote comes in other colours and is widely available in the UK now. It is just one compartment inside, with a pocket on the front. It's lightweight and can hold quite a lot, but yarns do get tangled.

  It also comes with a detachable pencil case sized bag, this can be very annoying when full of hooks as it bangs against you or the bag and rattles as you walk.

It has two slots in the top with rounded ends for yarn to go through without opening it, unfortunately the yarn jumps out through the slots often as you crochet, things can fall out when it's carried sideways, and dogs can take yarn out through the slots as can children (so you could be sat next to kids somewhere and never know they have taken your yarn). It also has no ridgidity so flops when not so full.

This organiser has 6 compartments of clear pvc, divided by clear pvc which is not sealed at the bottom, so things could move possibly. three of the compartments have zipped openings at the front so you could shove more yarn in, or untangle jammed yarn I guess but not for all the compartments. It has a clear pocket either side, a shoulder strap but no carry handles apart from that, and there is a storage compartment behind the yarn compartments. The problem with this design is that if you are working on a project and it is attached to the yarn there is no way of putting it in the storage compartment without cutting the yarn and taking it out of the holes. I knew this was an issue when I bought it, but wanted to organise my Persian Tiles blanket yarn, that blanket is still unfinished by the way.

The lid has 6 holes to feed the yarn through to work. The lid doesn't fix down in any way and is rigid, as you work if you don't rewind your yarn into cakes or have centre pull yarn the yarn will jump out of the organiser, there is nothing to stop it, the lid just pops up. Also the clear pvc can build up static or a sort of stickyness and stop the yarns moving so freely.

A bag and box line up. Despite owning two lovely yarn bowls and these totes I am working out of the pvc storage bag at the very back which was in a pack of two for £2.99 from B&M lol, mainly to keep the dog away from the yarn!

I thought I would take some photos of the new bag with the iPad to make them easy to add to blogger - Nah! iPad photos not an option to add so I had to retake them.

It is by Teamoy and I got it on Amazon, no discounts or freebies for me but I keep hoping! These come in black or grey dots, and I kept adding to the basket, thinking about it then finding they were sold out again. I kept missing them. Then I could have had a black one, which strangely cost more. This one cost £27.99 and I had a voucher to use, the black one was £32 at one point but I waited until this one came back into stock and grabbed it right away!

It has pockets all round, front and back spotty pockets zipped, and each side one clear pocket and one spotty.

The top is clear, and has a clear zipped long pocket one side that can hold knitting needles or Tunisian crochet hooks, or just more crochet hooks.

It has two carry handles and a shoulder strap with attactive matching padded bit.

The front pocket contains more pockets and loops for crochet hooks or tools. The side pockets are large enough to take a magazine.

The yarn compartments are material, and each one is totally seperate, no gaps at the bottom of the dividers. The clear lid on this half zips closed and has 6 grommits to feed the yarn though, it also has little velcro straps on the edge to keep the yarn in place.

One of the best features is the storage compartment next to the yarn, behind the yarn if you like, is large and has it's own seperately opening clear lid, the one with the needles compartment. This is fixed by two poppers. I might add a bit of velcro to the centre which is not fixed at the moment, but it kind of overlaps so might not work, as there is a velcro strip already for the yarn loop holders a small bit with loops would be all that I need to add. This bag is so well designed and addresses all the problems that the other two have, the only issue will be the weight of this. It's fairly heavy with my pure wool blanket CAL in it, and I haven't added all the crochet hooks and tools. It would be great to take on holiday with everything you need in one place.

While I was looking for previous photos of the bags I found the previous photo I blogged of me wearing the cardigan and I though I would show them together so you can see the difference.

  

I was thinking of frogging it back then.

The belt thing not quite working lol.

I can see a difference and it fits better now but I've still got a way to go on my Slimming World journey.

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!