It's Tuesday so it must be time for T on Tuesday.

On Tuesdays a bunch of folks get together to share their beverages and views of the world and this all happens at Elizabeth and Bleubeard's blog. I missed last week, it was Wednesday by the time I would have posted which is a day too late! I know it is Monday, so do you but I see the T post is there so here goes!

See my peppermint tea in place as usual and viewed from my crochet chair! I knocked it over last week when full, and that is a pint of hot tea that went over my WIPs, and the carpet (who cares about the carpet)!

I bought a blocking board for the Pesian Tiles blanket, but have only used it on Dance in the Sea, here it is blocking 7 squares at once. I had to post to find out which holes in the board to use, couldn't work out how to block a 19cm square! Someone said these are no good for the Persian Tiles, so I might have to get some foam mats and blocking pins. The sides of my squares seem to bend in (liek they are too stretched) but straighten out when it relaxes. I wonder if I need some blocking wires to stop the bending.

This is the week 2 square of Dance in the Sea CAL. I hadn't done star stitch before and really enjoyed it, I had to go up two hook sizes to get the square the right size but as this was suggested in the video I did it right away. I love how bulky and soft this square is, it would make a warm blanket on its own.

This is the week 3 square and I adore this colour. The square was quite tricky and I had a bad start, frogged and tried again, frogged and tried again then got it! I took it to the hospital while I sat with hubby as he had his treatment, and I couldn't access the video because the wifi signal is non existent in the oncology suite. He had been going for blood tests and treatment on his own before he had a spell in hospital, but he went for blood tests on his own and came back wiped out and in a terrible state, so I went with him. He said he would have been fine on his own that day, but he forgot that I took over when we got there and sat in a car park for half an hour waiting for a space, so he would have been late and stressed if he was on his own. As it was the blood form had not been filled in correctly and they had to ask for two more tests before he could start his treatment so we were there a few hours.  I am pretty happy with my week 3 square, but......

 ......when I made my second square of week 3 I realised there was just one stitch I had done slightly wrong and now my bobbles are better defined. So I have to decide if I leave the first square or frog it and redo it.
Underneath you can see a few of the Persian Tiles which have moved on and I am doing two rows on each before the next now. The next row involves a hook change - then there is only one row left! I seem to have a lot of yarn left, hope it goes into the border.

 More Persian tiles, I still have to sew in all those ends!

Someone posted about storing their squares in the bags you get with bedding, those clear ones with zips. Great idea but I didn't have any, however I spotted some on the B&M website so made my second ever visit to that store to get some. I really thought they were square in the photo, but I guess they will do.

Looks a bit empty here, but it now has the blocked squares in it, and will soon have more!

 I printed off one of the pattern sheets and cut the title out to use in the spine of my display book.

These are the Scheepjes scissors that came with the deluxe kit, along with the lovely beach bag, some stitch markers and a sachet of Eucalan, which is an intriguing substance that I had never heard of before. It was invented by an Australian woman to address the problems of washing during drought. You soak your hand made knitted or crocheted goods in it and you don't rinse. If you use the washing machine you put it on a rinse only programme and put it in the conditioner bit I think. It is made of lanolin and natural oils and is available in lavender to deter moths, and other scents. Of course if you are allergic to lanolin it isn't a lot of use to you and I hope I'm not. Anyway some folk are soaking their squares in Eucalan before blocking, but as I only have the one tiny sachet I have only used water. I might invest in a bottle.

I ordered a couple of new books, this one is called Crochet Geometry by https://wordery.com/shannon-mullett-bowlsby-author and has some really unusual and lovely patterns in it. I first saw it on Twitter and was intrigued, googled it to find more images and bought it from Wordery. It took a while but it is worth it. I have so many patterns and books, not sure when I will get to it but I hope to make something soon.

I started this post last week, since then hubby has been in hospital but only for one night, has come home with more tablets so he will rattle, but he is home and not too bad thankfully. I took him in Sunday lunchtime, spent 4 hours sitting in A&E (emergency room) before they decided to keep him for a night or two, luckily it was only one night in the end. I got a little crochet done but was fetching and carrying. We are both on antibiotics now, I have a foot infection possibly cellulitis, I wore my Mary Janes Friday and only walked from the car park to the hairdressers but one of them rubbed and made a hole and by this morning it was swollen, hot and throbbing so I guess I should be sitting with it up higher than my head really! I will I promise!

T for Tuesday - zzzzzzzzzz

As you can see I missed last week, and haven't posted anything since the last T day!

What a difference in the weather from last week, this morning it snowballed, really! Look - little balls of snow! They were soft when you stood on them. So no sitting in the garden crocheting this week, I've been inside bundled up with the heating on instead! We did have a little sunshine, but it was still very cold outside.

Last night I made a mug of peppermint tea and sat down in my recliner to do a little crochet before bed - then I fell asleep and woke up (to a cold mug of tea) after having a nightmare still in the chair at 2 a.m. Alfie dog also woke, and stood up all distressed trying to work out where he was, after having a nightmare at the same time. I hope it wasn't the same nightmare! What do dogs have nightmares about I wonder?

So here I am again, sitting in the recliner before bed with my crochet and favourite mug of peppermint tea (well I will be in a minute after I post this, and my tea is cooling down to drinkable temperature hopefully and not cold like last night), trying not to fall asleep before bed! If you want to find out more about this weekly event hop over to Elizabeth and Bleubeard's place.

Here are the views from my recliner, complete with bits on the carpet from grandson's recent activities that you can read about at the bottom of this post!

 I have got further on my Persian Tiles blanket, the remaining 15 tiles are coming along nicely. I really thought that by last Wednesday I would have completely finished them all ready for joining and end sewing, well that didn't happen!

 The reason I hoped to finish was the Scheepjes Dance in the Sea CAL started on Wednesday last week when they released the first pattern for the first squares to be made. Tomorrow the second pattern will be released. So I am trying to finish my 4th square tonight. I realised - after someone else also noticed it on their squares - that my border is the wrong side facing, so on the 3rd and 4th squares I did it without turning to get the border the right side. I might have to redo the first two borders now!

 Hopefully Alfie won't have nightmares tonight, here he is settled in and wearing his jumper.

Sooty's in the other bed, at least I hope he is and that he's not pinched my chair as he often does!

I joined the Facebook page for the Last Dance in the Sea CAL, I might have mentioned that last time, and after seeing someone posting a project book filled with prints and yarn samples I remembered I had some similar books and it was really a good idea so....

Here it is, I need to print off something to go in the spine bit, probably the top of the page with the CAL name.

I inserted the info sheet that came with the kit...

and a couple of pages printed from Marinke Slumps' blog from a post created by her sister, and this one shows the blanket I am making and the yarn samples. This is a good idea to identify the yarns if the last bit has lost the yarn band! I also added the hints and tips sheet with the reference square we created first, then the first pattern. Tomorrow I can add the second. This will keep my patterns nice and clean and neat and I will always know where they are.

The reason last week was missed was that my hubby was unwell at the weekend and I took him to A&E (emergency room) on Monday morning and they kept him in from Monday to Saturday in isolation treating him for an infection. I found it really strange that we had to put on a disposable yellow plastic apron when we went in to visit him, what does that do? It doesn't cover a lot of your clothes really, and what about handbags, coats if you take them off etc? On leaving the room you had to dispose of the apron and use the hand gel outside - except I am allergic to the hand gel, so they said wash your hands. The only place to wash my hands was in his room. My eldest son and his little family visited at the weekend which made hubby determined to be discharged, and he was finally on Saturday, after being declared "safe" and not likely to infect anyone on Friday ("you don't need to wear the aprons now" - we were sat there with them on), and being converted to oral antibiotics.  He is very weak and has lost weight, and was given the news that the cancer is still growing although it hasn't spread to anywhere else. We are waiting at this time to hear if he is suitable to go on any cancer research trials in Oxford, I so hope that he is. It has given us a little hope for the future, our little grandson feels the same love for my hubby as hubby feels for him, and he said his granddad is his best friend and his favourite. It could be very tough on him to lose his granddad when he is only just coming up to 4 years old in May. This was him posing with a "get well" card he made for his friend who has scarlet fever, Kenny has just recovered from Chickenpox himself. He was in trouble when he added more bits to this card because he used the child friendly scissors to cut a hole in the heel of his sock - while he was still wearing it! Then he kept insisting to his daddy that it was an accident - scissors were confiscated, even plastic ones! He looks so innocent doesn't he! This is a rare photo of him smiling nicely!

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.

Happy Easter little ones!

Easter pressies for my grandchildren. The carrot pouches are from a free pattern on Amigurumi to go. She also has a bunny pattern to fit the pouches (might have been a better one to do), not the one I did.

The baby bunny was from a free pattern from Simply Collectable, I fell in love with those ridiculously long ears!

The Hatching Easter Chick is a free pattern from Toma Creations, so cute and baby friendly.

I surface crocheted the children's initials on their carrots and here they are with the toys inside and the drawstrings drawn up and tied in a bow.

Birthday infinity scarves.

For a week I dropped the Persian Tiles blanket and instead I made birthday scarves (one each) for my brother and father. 

Here the denim one made with Stylecraft Life is finished, the tan one made with Rico Essentials 100% Marino wool in Pebble.

The Rico wool was tightly twisted and reminded me more of cotton in use and appearance, when squished the scarf is soft enough, but not sure it looks as good as the denim one. Also I found myself researching different methods of joining yarn, and on the pebble scarf I used the invisible knot, the Russian Join and the Braided Join. I hope the invisible knots will hold, I was led to believe they do then read comments left by people on the other two which said otherwise! The Russian join made the yarn bulky so there was a lump in the scarf, the braided join tutorial said that it wouldn't add bulk and you wouldn't notice it - maybe I haven't quite got it yet, I tried twice and it was just as bulky as the Russian join.

You can also see the Furls yarn bowl in use here. This bowl while very beautiful is quite small, I was a little surprised when I first saw it here. You can only buy it direct from Furls in the US and I guess I carried away, it was on sale when I bought it but it still was slightly over the limit for Customs, so I had import tax and fees to pay and the Post Office fee is a flat rate £8, which is ridiculous when it is many times the actual tax. Made the bowl around £40. It still worked out cheaper than any wooden ones I have found over here! It is only suitable for one colour at a time too.

 It works really well with round balls of yarn, or cakes wound on the wool winder. Larger oblong balls of yarn really don't work at all. I have tried finding the yarn in the centre on these and failed many times, I just checked on definitions and I see that Red Heart explains how you can't use the yarn from the centre of a "ball", well I will stop trying! The Americans call what most others seem to call a skein a ball, and a skein is a similar but different arrangement.

I found a good definition of hank, skein, ball and doughnut, even cones here.

I always thought skein and hank were the same thing, and this is backed up in this definition and it seems is a U.K. thing.

When you buy a hank you have to wind it into a ball or cake before using it, the doughnut, ball or skein (oblong ball) can be used as it is. I know a lot of people always rewind their yarn into a cake, it makes it easier to store and easier to use, you can find the beginning of the yarn in the centre easily. 

The Rico wool I used would best be described as a doughnut (US donut). The Stylecraft Life is in skeins, or if you are in the US it would be a ball. I have had to wind some of these into cakes recently, and I will explain why when I talk about the new tote I bought recently.

If I buy a huge skein of yarn (maybe it isn't a skein then as the term also seems to refer to a specific quantity according to some definitions) of 200 grams to 400 grams it is better to cake them.

If you use skeins as they are they bounce all over the floor, and there is no good way of stopping that - except for winding into a cake it seems.

I must give my model a makeover - anyway here the finished wool scarf looped over twice.

Here is a better photo of the little scarf I made for me in hand dyed yarn from Woolly Wonders, and I am still debating whether to frog it and make it with a different pattern. I like how the colours worked up though. It is shorter but still loops over twice easily which surprised me. 

See what I mean? Looks almost stringy.

I might just keep it as it is, what do you think?

Yarn totes, new stash and infinity scarf.

Storage is always a headache when you collect yarn and other craft supplies! Some people are very disciplined, I can't resist a bargain every now and then!

I have had the ArtBin yarn tote for around a year now, the large black tote is a recent acquisition, as are the Baaag and blocking board, and the Furls yarn bowl has only been here a couple of months.

I think I will review each of them but not tonight! I can give an opinion of the yarn tote, but not the newer black one - that needs some "road testing", I have used it a little so far.

So the reviews will come along later.

When I saw this bag at an introductory price from Eweniverse I just had to have a couple (mini flock), and if you love sheep and punny gifts you should check it out! One might be a present for someone, unless I stash more yarn in them both!

Remember the gorgeous 100% hand dyed Marino wool I bought from Woolly Wonders Yarn? Well this is how it looks made up into a summer infinity scarf. I will take a better photo soon, and I'm trying to decide if I should add a crocheted flower like the pattern shows, and if so what colour. The scarf pattern is a free one by Elk Studio and has a very interesting waffle like stitch throughout. To make a flower I have some chunky 100% Marino wool in cream and in black, or I have 50% Marino wool in several colours - decisions.

 The blocking board underneath the scarf arrived from Wool Warehouse yesterday. I've never done any blocking with a proper tool, only with pins on the ironing board. This particular board is Dutch and you can buy it direct from the makers, who make it in several colours including purple, they even make one with a photo of your own on it! It is called a Granny Block station.

Sponsored yarn bomb in Bath for Cancer Care.

I was invited to take part in a yarn bomb last time I dropped off the little green blanket and hat to the RUH, I would love to help if I can, in fact I would love to join the CAL sessions.

The details are here!

I hope it is O.K. to use this photo from Emma Leith's blog post about the yarn bomb, doesn't this look wonderful!

More preemie makes.

I grabbed a ball of yarn and hook when we had another long wait in hospital recently, and this set of C2C blanket and beanie for a preemie baby went to NICU at the RUH, and I am told that they were "absolutely delighted" with it.

While we were away in Torquay I made another set in pale green.

The blanket probably needs blocking. This was taken in the hotel, see the posh damask bed cover thing. 

I have been suffering with dermatitis on my left hand, and my index finger is so sore I have had to stop crocheting for now, I hope it heals up soon, it is currently cracked and sore and nothing seems to help it.

Anyway this set will also go to the RUH NICU soon, and I have a package of other items to go to the Preemie and Angel baby group in Grimsby, and I have estranged family in Grimsby and the area so it seems appropriate. The group is desperate for items for twins at present.

These were the only photos I took when we were away because after a good trip down and first day hubby ended up in Torbay hospital in the early hours of the next morning, he wasn't at all well poor chap. Cancer is such a nasty disease, and comes with many other afflictions and not just physical ones. So it turned into the holiday from hell, and I didn't enjoy the food or surroundings while I was alone in the hotel. Shaun got to spend one night in the hotel and we came back a day early because he was clearly not enjoying it one bit. Our lovely son kindly came down by train and drove us back to save my poor back and knees.