Four Girls in a Truck

Hello There!

I've had another quick hop over to France, with B and her mum and mum-in-law in B's truck.  We got lots of bemused looks from as we piled out and even more when we had to help the Mummies back in ~ it's surprisingly high.

We were camping again in our bargain tent which was cosy warm and very dry, despite downpours.

You can read what we got up to here.

We had a meal in a restaurant opposite the lovely chateau at La Clayette.

All in all a successful trip, although there was a slightly sticky moment when I was driving on the motorway and B asked "How are we for fuel?"  I looked down and we were on empty, I hadn't been taking much notice.  We turned off the air con and radio and hoped for the best.  Luckily we managed to get to the next service station with the fuel light on.  B gave me thunderous looks and tutted a lot.

I carried on with my Beach Stripe Surf Blanket when I wasn't driving.  I'm very pleased with progress so far.

I seem to have got a bit fed up with knitting at the moment, the little green cardi has been flung into the naughty corner and I only want to crochet my blanket.  I love making blankets, I like the idea of having something practical which will last a lifetime.

These blankets were made by my Great Aunt Daisy, the pinker one was mine and the darker one for my brother.  They are (ahem) roughly 35 years old and still looking good.

I grew up surrounded by knitters and crocheters.  My Mum taught me to knit and her two sisters were knitters too.  On my Dad's side my Gran taught me how to crochet Granny Squares and Auntie Daisy used let me join in with making the squares for our blankets.  She used to do the yarn over rows and I used to do the purl and knit rows.  I must have been under 10 at the time.  The yarn came from jumpers they got from jumble sales and was washed, unravelled and wound around chair backs to get the kinks out.  Auntie Daisy used to knit at amazing speeds, she once managed to produce a cricket jumper for my brother (6 foot tall even in his school days) the day before term started because he'd just remembered he need one.

My Mum gave me nuggets of wisdom which I still follow today:

Never knot your yarn, join at a row end.

Never use bent needles;  these were the days of steel needles.

Don't finish for the day in the middle of a row, you'll make a hole.

I used to make jumpers when I was around 18 in the days of batwings in the 1980's, and then things started to tail off.  When Mr Clicky and me got married and had the children I made baby jumpers and then as they got bigger things tailed off again.  No time to knit.  Now they are teenagers and I've returned with a vengeance, I seem to have come full circle making blankets again.  

I thought you might like to see the progress of my Phoenix Friendship Blanket.

Looking good I think.

Right! I must go and hang some washing out as there seems to a bit of sun today, instead of the usual rain.

See you soon............Clicky Needles.