Friday 6th May - Random things...

 I finished the Baby Surprise Jacket on Sunday. All except the buttons - I was not expecting to find that there would not be a matching set of buttons among the over-flowing contents of my mother's button tin. (I've put my own button jar in a safe place so that was no help either.)

Before;

And 'abracadabra'! But I still need to sew along the should seams to complete the jacket.

Ang, of 'Tracing Rainbows' has come to the rescue - one of these sets that she sent me is bound to fit. 

Then I shall have to search out a suitable baby to receive the surprise.

I spent the rest of Sunday doing loads of measuring and maths to try and work out how to knit an Adult Surprise Jacket;

But in the end I have fallen back on my roughly deciphered instructions and have cast on 189 stitches on 6.5 mm needles at a gauge of roughly 3 stitches and 8 rows per inch, and set to work. 

I started the double decreases at stitch 42 from either end. I need to decrease in this fashion until I am down to 103 stitches (or something close to that - I can't quite remember), which will be the under arm, and then double decrease until... I'm not quite sure without checking my notes. But that's a long time away. I'd be crossing my fingers for luck but that makes knitting much harder.

I'm still doing 'sketch a day'

 They are done from memory (in bed, before I get up!) rather than looking at the subject as I scribble with my pen. Yesterday I evicted two spaghetti squash plants from the cold frame into their own outside pots as they are growing at an alarming rate. That leaves two, which are destined for a friend next door (he doesn't know his luck yet, or should that be fate?) and a friend in the next street, so I shall be able to go and visit. I've grown quite fond of them already.

I haven't got many colours to play with, as I use this amazing (and rather expensive) multicolour colouring pencil

It is like those multicoloured biros we used to get in our Christmas Stockings, only with decent colouring pencils instead. I have discovered how to layer up different colours to vary the shades; the green is a bit harsh on its own, but turns into spring green when given some yellow; and the brown comes alive with the help of a bit of orange or red. Of all the extravagant 'I HAVE to have one of THOSE' purchases I have made over the years, this has been one of my favourites.

While I was pottering in the garden this morning I did that thing I haven't done since I was a child - filled a boot with water. Ho hum. 

I was rearranging the cats' drinking provision; their preference is for slightly stinky garden water, and as they are now so old a creaky (poor old Leo limps now - arthritis in her shoulder, we suspect, but the vet says giving her painkillers - loxicom or something - would finish her off) we are constantly looking for ways to make their life easier. So today I was finding and cleaning and filling a a shallower basin for their stinky water, and somehow managed to transfer some to my boot.

Mind you; those two cats are pretty neat at sorting through the mixed biscuits we put down for them to pick out the cheaper (and clearly tastier) go-cat and leave the nutritious and expensive dark brown 'Meowing Heads Senior Menu' nuggets on the plates. Guess what is no longer on the shopping list. At their age, they can live on junk food if they like. 

I can remember that my mother-in-law's main daily food intake was most of a freshly batch of a dozen fairy cakes - mid-morning, after lunch, tea-time and supper-time - for the last year of her life, in preference to anything else set before her.

Right. I've off to buy a new iron - this morning got off to a slightly shocking start when I got the iron out to improve the appearance of the dress I am wearing today. The iron much be over 20 years old; all the plastic around the steam nozzle is crumbling away (and it doesn't steam or spray anymore, only hiss in a menacing fashion).  

I shall have a cup of tea first, with one of the teabags that accompanied the buttons.