Tuesday 9th April - Tunisian Crochet

Panic not - this isn't going to turn into another craft blog!

It's just that I'm always on the lookout for ideas for things that my mother might be able to do even though her left hand is still being "disregarded" by her brain. It was repairing her crochet blanket that gave me the idea:

She made the squares for the blanket during all those really, really long long-haul flights we used to make back in the 1970s, when we lived in Indonesia (but my brother and I went to school in England). back then there was no in-flight entertainment of any description, unless you can be diverted by the airline magazines, free packs of cards and colouring books which was about all that was provided. 

Well, forty years of use had resulted in about ten of the flowers breaking, and several seams needing mending. It was a task that had been sitting on the to-do list for several weeks, and today I spent a couple of hours on it. We took the blanket into the hospital when my mother was in - it brightened up her corner of the ward and provided much needed extra comfort. 

Crotchet seemed to be a possibility, so I acquired a large 6mm hook and some really pretty chunky wool. A little experimentation proved that it is possible to crochet one-handed. By holding the hook in my left hand, and doing all the "work" with my right hand, I was able to create a chain. The trick is to rotate the wool and the fabric, rather than the hook. However, that was as far as I could get. I just could not make head nor tail of any of the instructions for what to do next.

And it's not because I'm a novice - I made this, for heaven's sake!

 

(Cue sound of me blowing my own trumpet)

 

Then I had a brainwave - how about Tunisian crochet? All I knew about this type of crochet was the name...

 

It is wickedly simple to do. These aren't the sites where I found the instructions (why can you never find any site a second time unless you bookmark it?) but they do have very clear instructions. One even has a left-handed video which is perfect.

 

http://chantelg4.hubpages.com/hub/Simple-Directions-For-Tunisian-Crochet

http://thingsbright.com/welcome-to-tunisian-crochet-week/

So, I have now managed to create this strip of Tunisian crochet, (using an ordinary 6mm crochet hook and Sirdar chunky wool called Folksong"). Furthermore, I have made it while holding the crochet hook more or less stationary in my left hand.

I reckon that it would be possible to create several long strips of fabric, in different colours, and then sew them together to make a new crochet blanket.

But. And there is a huge but. Just because I think it is a good idea, for all sorts of reasons (something useful and productive to fill the time, something to start involving the left hand in to encourage the brain to connect, a new skill) doesn't mean to say that my mother will have any enthusiasm or interest or inclination for it. I mentioned the crochet to her this evening on the telephone, and her response was very discouraging. Oh well. I may end up making it myself. 

I wish I could, no, I wish SHE will, find something that she would like to do, that would interest her, that would help her work with her disregarded side.

Oh well, nothing venture, nothing gain?

Tuesday 9th April - Crafty Work - Finishing Off bits and pieces

Over the years I have started many, many craft projects. I have also finished many craft projects. I have knitted jumpers and scarves, made curtains, patchwork quilts, cushion covers, sewn skirts, dresses, blouses, shirts, dressing gowns.

I have got five of my various fabric wall hangings up in various places around the house, and at the moment we are using two of the quilts on the bed (the warm one on my side, the lighter weight one on his side) - so I'm not completely hopeless at finishing things.

However there are a lot of things that are still "works in progress", and these came to light when we were doing "extreme bedroom tidying" a couple of weeks ago.

I have been staying in for the past few days because of having a chest infection - not enough to make me feel properly ill, but I am taking no chances. So, an ideal opportunity to finish some things off, or at least make some more progress.

Here's the cushion that I started back in about 2007 (or was is 2006). It uses a yarn called "Crofty" which has cleverly been dyed in such a way that when knitted up it looks a bit like fair-isle. I was a little worried about sewing it up as that is usually my weak point, but I managed it!






 
 











The patchwork cushion next to it is one of several that I made when I was in my "crazy patchwork" phase some years ago.

Now, these next two pictures are of patchwork blocks for a quilt I started back in - 2001 maybe? I am bodging it together using a method called "quilt as you go". Each square made with its own backing and wadding, and then somehow, once they are all done, I have to work out how to join them together. There is no rhyme or reason for the choices of fabric, colours, design, or anything!

The owls are left over from a quilt I made for a friend's daughter as an 18th birthday present, and also for taking with her to university. Her quilt incorporated leftovers from her bedroom curtains as well as lots of owls. The blue block below (trying saying that without losing your teeth) uses bits and pieces of the same fabrics as the quilt on his side of the bed. 

I finished these blocks a couple of days ago - just three more to go and I will have made them all.





 
 



I have knitted some more blocks for "the Knitting Project" which I started last Summer


The one with the heart motif will probably have to go. I knitted it while watching a Dr Who episode, and had to pull it out about three times. In spite of all the corrections, it's still too full of errors - too many even for me. I might keep it, though; I like the blocks to have memories attached to them.

Saturday 6th April - Sweeter Dreams

Well, time has shown that it is possible to get used to all kinds of inconveniences.


When I was at boarding school, I became, over-sensitised to a high-pitched whine made by the boiler down in the cellar. My study-bedroom was one of the old servant's rooms in the attic of the Victorian house that we lived in, and the head of my bed was against the chimney which acted as the flue for the boiler. It would wake me at 5am every morning, and then I would be driven almost to tears by the persistent noise. I remember padding round the corridors in the dark until finally I found somewhere where I couldn't hear it, and curled up in a chair in the common room desperate to catch up on a few more hours' sleep.

However, we are winning over the oxygen machine. It has been in place for just over a week, and we are both beginning to sleep right through.

It has a bass motor hum, and then a couple of ostinato sounds; the click of the relay as it switches between a gentle hissing inhale and exhale, and a steady mid-register change up and down a minor third, like a soft, slow-motion fire-engine neeeeeee-naaaaaaw. The most disconcerting thing is that the tempo of this "music" is just too fast for breathing in time.

I have been listening to audio books on my mp3 player through headphones as I know that this always sends me to sleep. It makes for quite a traffic jam around my ears; ear-plugs, the ends of my glasses if I am still wearing them, and the thin plastic tubing, which wraps round my ears to hold the tube in place in my nostrils.

I thought the plastic tube would be dreadful, horrible, but actually no, not too bad. The main problem  of the tube pressing uncomfortably against the bony part of my skull just behind my ears was solved by choosing a softer pillow. The other fear, of having the tube wrap itself round my neck, has only has happened just the once, and the tube is stiff enough to stay loose.

I may well dispense with the audio books soon; I am listening to Chesterton's "Father Brown" stories at the moment. Last night I only heard maybe half of one story, so must have dropped off to sleep quite quickly.

It seems that time and time again, what has looked like being a dreadful, terrible thing, has turned out to be much less worse that I feared. The first Cardiac Catheter that I had filled me with real fear and apprehension, but - hey - it's not that bad.  Root canal fillings at the dentist were - not much worse than an ordinary filling. Not a great experience, but by no means unendurable. I am learning not to meet trouble halfway; it may never happen, and when/if it does, it may well not be such a great trouble as I might have imagined.
   

Saturday 6th April - The cats think it is Summer

We have been endlessly grooming the cats. I'm quite surprised that they have any fur left.

 Getting hold of the "downstairs cat" is no problem. She spends hours and hours comatose on the back of the settee, providing a local landmark for passers-by. It might not look like it, but she is purring and very happy to be groomed.

 We removed about four times as much fur as this from the fluffy cat in a single session.

 You don't always get to do both sides of her in a single session.
By this stage the air is full of fluff. And there is still more to come. And more...

 

 

You'd think she would look more grateful. This is her "you should have brushed me like this days and days ago" stare.

 

Which she proved by delivering a hairball an hour or so later. Yeuch.  

 

Grooming the "upstairs cat" is all a bit trickier. No photo this time - she is an altogether quicker mover; zips in and out of shot, down the stairs and away outside and to the top of the apple tree before you know it.  

Monday 1st April - Resonance

Tonight I will NOT be listening to the Brahms Requiem on my mp3 player.



There's a terrific build up in the third track ("Lord, let me know mine end") with an increasingly powerful bass. What with the cellos and timpani, all possibility of sleep was driven away. I lay there, ears ringing with the repeated hammer blows of the thundering notes.

The end came, and there was a silence.

That's when I realised that the motor of the oxygen concentrator is also in D major.

No wonder the harmonies were so overpowering. 

Easter 2013

The Easter Weekend - like the Curate's Egg, "Good in Parts"

Bishop: "I'm afraid you've got a bad egg, Mr Jones"; Curate: "Oh, no, my Lord, I assure you that parts of it are excellent!"
"True Humility" by George du Maurier, originally published in Punch, 1895.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curate's_egg

Wednesday - Spy Wednesday

Up at the Royal Free for a cardiac catheter "procedure".
A long, long day - 6am train in order to be there for 8:30 am. My husband came too (as he has on the three previous occasions). Once again, there has been a slight improvement in whatever they are measuring, each time so slight as to be within the limits of the accuracy of the equipment, but, each time, always "in my favour".

Maundy Thursday

Waiting in for the delivery of an oxygen concentrator, to provide night-time oxygen as other investigations have shown that my oxygen levels fall when I am asleep.
Visiting my parents in the evening. The men go to Staples to photocopy papers, my mother and I chat, drink tea, eat biscuits...
Our son arrived for the Easter Holidays; after supper husband, son and daughter went Easter Egg shopping. The result was a bit overwhelming;

Good Friday

A slow morning. Neither of us got much sleep as the oxygen machine, chuntering gently in the background, takes a bit of getting used to. Son and Daughter enjoying a lie-in.
In the afternoon, everyone except me went out for a walk (weather very bracing!). In the evening, round to the parents; the men-folk discussing the alterations  to be made to the bathroom so that my mother will be able to use the shower.

Saturday

We were planning to visit Arundel castle, but it was cold, and I didn't feel well. So the rest of the family went in to town, but reappeared as it began to snow with half-eaten pasties in their hands and some goodies for tea on Easter Day.

Easter

Sunshine! Blue skies! Church in the morning, lunch in a restaurant in town, Easter tea with my parents. Lovely day.

Easter Monday

Off to have another try at the Arundel castle expedition - but when we got there it was jolly cold, so after a coffee we went on the to Explosions museum in Gosport, thinking that as it was indoors is would be warmer. It was - fractionally. We looked around for an hour or so, but our noses were frozen and the café was chilly, so on to a favourite pub for lunch. Hmm. Pub not on its usual good form, so didn't stay for pudding! Dropped son off at his flat and came home.


Now stretched out on the settee, warmly wrapped up in a fleecy throw, cat curled up by my feet, my personal basket of  Easter Eggs just within reach, laptop on my lap...

















It's been - well, not quite as planned. A kind of series of unfinished and rescheduled events.  Sometimes that is just how things are.

Having said that, I find that I have enjoyed Easter this year!

I've had good news about my health.

We've had some laughs, and some amusing times. We didn't watch much TV; Dr Who (scary scary scary) and Shrek 4 (Forever After - the one where Puss-in-Boots has got fat and wears a pink ribbon).

I've listened to some great music: http://www.a-letter-from-home.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/saturday-30th-march-waiting-day.html
and weird music: http://www.themusicjungle.co.uk/live/2013/04/01/issue-83-in-a-persian-market/
 and astonishing music: http://www.themusicjungle.co.uk/live/2013/04/01/issue-83-portsmouth-sinfonia/

I've even managed to get Issue 83 of www.themusicjungle.co.uk online!

Now then. What's this in my Kinder-egg?



Ah, a sort of car thingy. The others only got sticker-sheets.