Celebration Shawl

 The 'Celebration Shawl' was designed by Doris Chan and the pattern published in the January 2004 issue of Crochet Magazine.


The original yarns used are now discontinued so I substituted Wendy 'Party' in Camel #556 for the main panels, and Sirdar FOXY Badger for the fur trim.  It is beautifully soft and warm.


My only problem with the pattern was on Row 3, a very simple row, but it could have been a bit more explicit with the instruction over the central part of the row where two increases take place.  I finally figured out what I should be doing by examining the pattern photo with a magnifying glass.


I have two more shawls to crochet from this pattern, one for a friend in the USA and one for my eldest daughter.  Several friends here in North Yorkshire have taken a liking to it also.

I obtained the Wendy 'Party' yarn from Kemps online shop, it was on special offer at 69 pence per 50g skein.
http://www.kempswoolshop.com/
and the Sirdar FOXY came from Linda at:
http://www.acornknittingyarns.co.uk/ via Ebay at a Buy it Now price which was very reasonable.

Betty's Carpet Slippers

Betty is a lovely lady and the mother of a friend of ours, and she has just celebrated her 90th birthday. Her birthday dinner cum party was held at The Golden Ball, better known as 'Snatchems' near Heysham, Lancashire.

I designed and knitted the slippers for her, they have a double sole with a foam inner. I don't normally knit in black if I can avoid it as it is hard on the eyes, but black was requested so I brightened them up a little with the pink I-cords.

As soon as I have written out the pattern, and worked out changes for different sizes (Betty's are size 4) I will publish the pattern on www.ravelry.com under the title 'Inner Sanctum Slippers.' I intend making at least three more pairs, for another friend, myself and my DH Jim.

The soles and top gusset are knitted on 3.00mm straight needles and 3.00mm circulars for the uppers. The I-cords were worked in DK on 2 - 2.50mm dpn's. I also used a 3.0mm crochet hook to join the bottom and upper sole together using 1/2 dble crochet.

The venue for the party is an old Tavern on the estuary at Heysham, now a pub/restaurant, it earned its nickname of 'Snatchems' during the days when men were press-ganged into service for the Navy, in a very sneaky way in this case. If a man drank his tankard of ale and found a coin in the bottom, he was presumed to have accepted the 'Kings Shilling' albeit unknowingly. Then the glass bottomed tankard came about, so a man could check the bottom of his tankard and refuse it if it contained a coin. (Since the pub is quite isolated, I hope those who refused a tankard stayed sober enough to avoid a knock on the head when leaving the premises!)