Crocheting the BLUES

 Hi there, this is about blues and the blues in so many ways. Here is the Tribe t shirt being blocked on my home-made blocking board: just some plywood, a piece of thick foam from the market and then black and white gingham stapled securely over the top to give me the grids I need to keep things straight.

 Pinned out to the best advantage with non rusting long pins and then steamed with the iron as it's 100% 4 ply cotton. You can still see my foundation chain markers placed every 10 sts to aid counting and the green marker at centre front for the neckline shaping.

 The work had quite uneven side edges due to the ''loopy'' rows in the pattern- from Rowan here:
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/tribe-3

and my project page here: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/merrystitcher/tribe

but these were straightened beautifully by this blocking. And below is the titchy sleeve!

 So when I finished it on Friday I was over the moon for a while as I love it! Even if it is a bit big and makes me look fatter than I am. Honest- lol.

 It's wider than it's long so I may still add a few rows to the hem to make it slightly longer...

 And then Saturday I spent almost the whole day crocheting! All blues: first a number of trials for a hem edging for a dance dress that's too short - just on/above the knee. So it needs a lacy extension?

 This is Filet Points from Harmony guide to edges and trims and I love it but found that at 30 cm weighing 4.7 g, and needing 210 cm I HAVEN'T ENOUGH IN MY 50 G SCHEEPJESWOL single ball from Delft years ago.

  I also tried these two from the same book: 3mm hook and 8/4 or 4 ply equivalent crochet cotton.
But the holes are too big in the border, though I like the curved hem edge.
I need one that can be worked lenghtways  creating length''as you go ''as measuring and then making a length always goes slightly awry in my experience.
From left to right these are called:


I then tried the filet points in AIDA 5 from Anchor but don;t like it, smaller, looser and too hard and stiff.

 Quick shot of the lovely KIRARA that I have been pining for for many many months, and have given into now. J LEWIS only had the 3 skeins left so that makes 4 with the one I had aeons ago.

 Trying to cheer myself up with purchasing yarn/patterns/fabric just HAS TO STOP though as I have been cataloguing again and I have a stash of over 110 ''lots'' as well as 48+++ fabric pieces, 200 + sewing patterns and have already made 93 crocheted projects since 2005?

Then again it will keep me occupied and happy for many months. Below is the tension sample in KATIA PANAMA in a really gorgeous blue for Rowan's KOS pattern- yep I seem to be on a run of Rowan crochet patterns, but Tribe was free online and I just adored it from day 1 - to see as well as make- and KOS was acquired via Simply Crochet magazine #6.

This is the KOS pattern: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/kos

 I only bought the panama in Masons the other week, less than a month ago!  And for Tribe I went and bought the Patons 4 ply especially too. This is NOT using up my stash? But then the turquoise beaded bolero DID do just that recently. I think I'll take KOS as a project for our French PCL camping holiday which is starting in a few days.

Camping, being fully catered for, FRANCE, possibly sunshine and white water canoe-ing on a fabulous river in a famous gorge what more could I want???

I've been wanting to do just this since 1976- giving the game away there, oops- but my parents wouldn;t let me. At last I get to go and take my teen lovelies.

So why oh why am I feeling so BLUE? As blue as all this yarn and fabric..

I was looking forward to it last week, but today/ this weekend all I have been wanting to do is find a corner to curl up in and cry. Cry my heart out. 

Could this be the b****ed hormones again? 

It's not my feet which are still hurting and mean I can;t dance at all at the moment.

And I'm really feeling so very lucky because I have new shoes, new sunglasses, new books to read for the holiday, the KIRARA and some more new yarn purchases ( oh hoarder extra ordinaire - moi)

and and and... JJ has been brilliant and even treated me to a sat nav at last! As I'll be driving from here to Dover then Calais to Dijon and Dijon to Montpellier.

TOM TOM here I come, even though new gadgets are both exciting and a bit intimidating and scary these days....

So what is it then? Lack of exercise and fresh air due to the dodge feet? A dread of the summer being over soon and the days shortening already? It's dark before 9 pm now when it used to be light at 10:15pm.

Having to walk the dogs earlier and earlier as Pips doesn;t like the dark.

It could be low blood sugar, that always affects me opthalmically but I have eaten lots recently. Yep gained about a stone too and yet still the tears threaten and come unwanted and in unguarded moments. Torrents.

Lonely.

That's it. JJ is a love and of all things with a tan and having lost weight and treated himself to lots of new clothes recently: he's just so scrummy( = real good-lookig fella) looking now.

But he wont hug, wont hold me and I am to be thankful if I manage to steal a peck on the cheek a week.

The *** has been absent now for 3 years and 8 months: since January 2010.

I thought I could cope but I'm getting to my limit I think.

If only there was affections - even in small doses- then maybe I could cope better?

There's a coldness, brrrrrrr freezing really. I don;t think it;s intentional, just after his car crash and brain damage - slight- it's the way it is? And now this Friday he announces he's been discharged, he's discharged himself. No more counselling. No more medication.  4 years since that awful car crash and 20 years of us being together. But I felt like he's handed his depression straight onto me.

I had hope that counselling etc would bring the old JJ back? Even a little bit of him?

I miss that one. We had such fun. and pre- kids the *** was just amazing, fabulous, wonderful.

So what do I do now? I've lost? HOPE?

Is this why I am such a hopeless hoarder? I buy stuff I don't need and don;t have time to make?

Crochet is my displacement activity, keeping me focused and ''happy'', while watching TV/ I-player/films.

St Andrews rest of the week

 I think this was the bridge over the Tay as we drove to Carnoustie, but it could be a bridge from the train as well...

 Now you'd think there's nowt wrong with these wee feet wouldn't you?

 At least the heels as lookin good but ach how they hurt.

 A dachshund clock, who could resist?

 Taking my mind off the long walk to Holy Trinity by taking pictures on the way there...

 And back....

 Back in the room with my heel supports and bandage, painkilllers, Scottish music on the i-pad and my mug of tea!

 I LOVE this mug!!!! The kitchen was 3 fire doors walk away and the thin paper cups got so hot while carrying a fresh mug of tea back to my room that a mug became an essential, a necessity not a luxury.

 The sparse and slightly depressing student's room. Feeling sorry for them , my room in Newcastle was so much nicer! And this room wasn;t a patch on the New Hall one last year which was absolute bliss!

 Ach aye, this bed was a ightmare, springs sticking into your back from all angles, even after adding 3-4 blankets to cover the mattress I could STILL feel them: ouch ouch ouch!
And the sheets and duvet covers weren;t pure cotton, those fine ure cotton all white ones were so very lovely last year. Never mind 'twas only for a week.

 The town hall ceiling...

 Views towards the hills and the sea on the way to class again.

 Those fun turrets that fascinated me last year too, I think I may have taken the same photo then as well.

 A coat that looked fun but didn't look good on.

 Such a pretty jewellery tree! Watch the birdie.... Miss E didn't want one.

 Pots of cheer, yep those feet were hurting again..

 It says BUTT'S WYND which I thought was very funny but ya cannae read it.

 Carnoustie in the interval.

 A kind of pudding for BREAKFAST that was similar to X-mas pudding, only a bit less sweet.

 These in all their various forms kept me going.

 Rebecca knitted OUSDS a mascot: a NESSIE!

 Thursday's Younger Hall dance: OUSDS group photo time!

 And after the dance the feet were agony and the bucket of cold water was absolute BLISS.

 What's this suasage but as a flat square???

 Oh but the kippers were really lovely!

The museum. And the next post will be about a walk I took on the Friday and Saturday.