It's Crochet, Knit & Natter 9: So Many Projects, So Little Time. (Oh well - I almost made it rhyme!)

[Fairislefandango]

A thread for woolly crafters of all types and levels.
Previous thread here

Hmmm... starting the wine first resulted in no knitting! I think knitting would have been better tbh <makes mental note for next Friday >.

How's it going, everyone? Work is crazy busy, but I'm really enjoying it and so far am keeping on top of things pretty well (a grand total if 2 days in ). Crafting hasn't really been on my radar, but I might manage some knitting in front of the tv tonight...

After trying lots of different trains I've found one that gets me comfortably into work for 8.45 and I don't have to sit next to anyone. Room for some crochet!

That sounds civilised, @StillNiceCardigan ! Dh drives me into work en route to his work, which is great. We leave home at 7:30 and get back about 6pm. So far I've been doing at least another hour of work in the evening and that's before I've even got any marking to do! I'm doing a bit of knitting now before bed though. I'm grateful to be doing mindless k1p1 rib - I don't think my brain is up to any more than that!

That sounds and looks great @StillNiceCardigan

Glad it’s still going well@Fairislefandango! So handy that you can lift share too Mindless knitting sounds perfect, I’ve started another carbeth cardigan for the same thing.

I’m just home from the first guild meeting of the year, it was lovely to catch up and meet people and see and hear what everyone had been up to over the summer. It was a spin in so people brought their wheels or spindles or knitting or looms and I got some spinning done as well as taking

Talking! Not taking! Though I did do a fibre swap so I’m home with some lovely white Galway fleece.

Glad new jobs are going well! A spin a long sounds fun too!

I haven't been feeling great recently, I've got a blood test today which is mainly checking my thyroid, iron levels and to see if I have diabetes. So I've been a bit worried! Haven't got any crocheting done as I've been poorly and it's still been hot here! Thankfully it's just starting to cool down!

Glad to hear the new jobs are going well. I was very anxious for no very good reason about the start of term as I usually am. I thought it was just me but happened be in a group all saying the same thing. It's been great so far though. I'm trying to use my sigh a lot more which I'm enjoying. Not much knitting! In fact I had to frog about a third of my blanket because I noticed two tiny mistakes quite close to each other. Once I'd seen them, I couldn't get them out of my mind.

You've made me want to try Sky @Fairislefandango but for once I feel like bold colours and the range is a bit lacking that. My usual favourites are all the ones they have but I'm not in the mood.

@StillNiceCardigan a train you can crochet on sounds perfect to me!

@SpinMeRightRoundBabyRightRound a spin in sounds fab! Not that I have the time, space or money to take up spinning!

@sophs29 hope the blood tests find the problem, and that it's not serious.

As always the last couple of weeks of the holidays were stupidly busy so my anxiety is now sky high. I did think I was going to be ready to go back to work. I'm not. Boooo. But our Church administrator is leaving, so I'm thinking of applying for that. I can 'do' Church without spiking the anxiety, and the Vicar knows about my issues so should be sympathetic.

Almost back to full crojo. I made some squares while I was away. Not sure what for, I'll probably make a few more and then make a bag. Depends how much of the yarn I have left.
Then I picked up a long forgotten UFO (about 3 years old IIRC). I can't even remember why I shelved it. It's not complicated. Anyway it's almost done now, but it's going to need some aggressive blocking, and I never block anything!

Finally in this massive post, I realised one of the balls of hand dyed yarn I bought is lace weight. I'll need a magnifying glass . I have found a lovely shawl pattern for it though.

Glad the crojo is back, @CrochetBug! I have the opposite problem. I've finished the first handle on my bag, but realised (just after I had cut the yarn, obviously!) that I've attached it with the stitches backwards at one end so there is an ugly ridge across it on the outside rather than the inside. I'm going to have to take it back and redo it. I did leave a very long tail just in case I'd screwed something up, so it should be fine, but.... I just don't wanna:-)

Hope everything turns out to be fine, @sophs29

@QuantumWeatherButterfly oh no! What a pain!

I forgot to add the photos of my squares and scarf.

Since we're on the subject of languages, Flying Tiger is actually the Danish equivalent of a pound shop. They were originally just called Tiger - and the pronunciation is very similar to tier which is a 10 krone which is around a pound (or was at one time) and what things were priced at initially

I have done absolutely no crochet, ended up taking nothing away as wasn't organised enough to sort stuff to take. Then came home with covid so barely keeping on top of general living and working. It's not stopping me considering buying the latest pica pau book on pre-sale though. Must resist!

@sophs29 sorry to hear you haven’t been well, I hope it gets diagnosed soon and you feel better

@CrochetBug it was lovely 😊 Your potential job sounds ideal, best of luck for it, this has been a lucky job thread so you’ve already got bonus luck from that! Love your scarf, beautiful yarn!

It’s such a lovely bag @QuantumWeatherButterfly, Ah go on, the sooner you do it the sooner you can show it off to us and everyone who sees you with it 😄

Oh no @tizwozliz, I hope you feel better soon!

I got the very cross Duolingo owl tonight as I hadn’t done it today yet, he had very angry eyebrows! I’ve also finished my free trial of super so no more unlimited hearts and the pressure is on 😐

Aaaaaargh! I just gritted my teeth and took back the ugly ridge but the change I made made no difference, the ridge is still there. The only difference is that this time I somehow managed to reattach in the wrong place - despite the correct stitches being stretched and therefore absolutely clear from the first time!

So, I basically just made it worse! It's a good job I can still have a sense of humour about it - I'll have another crack at it tomorrow.

Any advice on what I am doing wrong? The pattern asks me to slip-stitch the handle to the correct stitch on the attaching square, then dc back into the handle. First time, I ss into the back of the stitch (not the back loop, just hook in from back to front), this time I ss in front to back, which I thought would fix it, but didn't. Pic below of the ridge which is on the outside, and the much neater ridge-less inside. I was hoping to get them the opposite way round.

Oh! Is it because of whether it is a right side or wrong side row? The pattern says to make the last row right side facing - does that include the row with the joining slip stitches in it? Re-reading the pattern, I think it might. In which case I can take another row back and try again.

@QuantumWeatherButterfly have you got a link to the pattern? I can't visualise it.

@tizwozliz I knew Tige used to just be called Tiger (I still refer to it as that, even though my friend insists I'm wrong) but I didn't know why. Its very interesting!

Here it is, @CrochetBug - thanks for taking a look for me.

I read it that the last row of the handle is RS. So the joining row of SS and DCs is done from the inside. No idea why that's making a ridge though. I'd be tempted to just SS them together instead of I didn't like the finish doing it her way.

Thank you everyone! Had my results back and I have overly high cholesterol! I'm under 30 and eat well and exercise so I have no idea why, some of my results I can see online have got written next to them quite worrying notes but I just spoke to my Dr and he didn't seem bothered and just said to cut out chocolate and cheese? I told him I've been passing out etc and he just said I've probably had a viral infection. I might get a second opinion 😣

I read the pattern the same as crochetbug @QuantumWeatherButterfly but id also just join it how I preferred it to look!
Love the colour combo on your squares @CrochetBug

Thanks, both - I feel a bit more confident to play about with it until I like it now! I'll try again tonight and report back.

@sophs29 My DH has high cholesterol, and controls it through diet. I'm happy to give you some more info on that, if you like - but I agree that your symptoms don't seem relevant to that at all!

Thank you so much @QuantumWeatherButterfly that's so kind, my dad does too, he's got a million cholesterol cookbooks so I might have a look through those next time I'm round!
I've just seen on my results that my B12 is abnormal too and looking up that deficiency it's a lot of my symptoms so I think I'll speak to my usual doctor and see what she says!

Sorry to derail the thread everyone! I promise I'll be crocheting soon and will be annoying you all with that instead 😬😂

I hope you get some sensible answers from your usual doctor @sophs29.

i’m off on holiday tomorrow (we are setting off for the airport in about half an hour and staying in a hotel nearby overnight). I’m not taking anything crafty with me as we are flying to the US and I don’t want to risk being barred from entry due to having pointy needles in my luggage!

Please do push your usual doctor into looking into it @sophs29 we’ve been back and forward to the Drs and A&E with my mum since we got home from holiday and she had emergency surgery yesterday and it was her older more experienced Dr that got us there.

If you know something isn’t right then keep pushing!

Oh wow - lots of posts to catch up on! I'm very busy but basically having a lovely time at work . I said that to my Head of Department today and she looked kind of astonished but pleased . I think when you've been working at a lovely school with civilised students for ages it's easy to forget what a new pleasure it is for new staff who have been... elsewhere!

@CrochetBug - so glad to hear you're crojo has revived! Squares and scarf looking lovely.

@sophs it's hard having to battle to get a sensible diagnosis, isn't it? I hope you get a second opinion that's more helpful. I'm on quite a restricted diet atm due to self-diagnosed intolerances and/or possible coeliac and I can barely face going back to the doctor about it all.

@tizwozliz - hope you recover quickly from Covid. I'm just dreading a rash of cases at school!

@MerylSqueak I hope your start of term anxiety abates. Sometimes it's just hard to get back into routine.

Sorry if I haven't replied to all - I have to get sorted for tomorrow before I head of to yoga, which I'm really looking forward to! Then a bit of pre-bed knitting, I think.

Thank you @StillNiceCardigan have a lovely holiday! I think I'd be same regarding pointy things and planes 😂

@SpinMeRightRoundBabyRightRound I'm sorry to hear about your mum! Hope she's recovering well from surgery!

@Fairislefandango it's so hard, I know somethings not right and my bloods show things aren't right, but I also hate wasting peoples time and if the doctor doesn't think anything is wrong, I feel bad arguing with a professional! But I will do if I carry on like this!

• It's such nice news to know you're getting on well at your new school! I bet it's like a breath of fresh air!