Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Sweetpea... also in plum

Taking a few moments out from working and waiting for my new mobile phone to spring into life, to write a further update here. Although before I do, why is it that the delay between deactivating the old SIM and activating the new one has to take so long? I've been without mobile connectivity since 2:30pm yesterday afternoon and I'm now beginning to fret. It's not that I want to call anyone or that I'm particularly itching to send a text message but... You never know I might actually be missing some vital call while I'm disconnected like this!

As you might be able to surmise, upgrading my mobile telephone and my talk plan was on my list of errands over the weekend. After visiting the Orange shop and fast coming to the conclusion that I knew more than the store assistants did about the deals on offer, I headed home and called Orange's Customer Services to negotiate my own deal. Yay for the internet and doing your own research.

Next on my list for overdue upgrades is a computer... As in I think that maybe it's time I actually bought one and maybe, perhaps I need some kind of proper internet connection. Currently, I use dial up from home and a very antiquated laptop which has been retired from work use. While this used to be more than sufficient for my home needs, recently I've been struggling to even read email and so the slow realisation that I need to move out of the stone age is catching up with me.

But I digress...

I also finished crocheting the Sweetpea Shawl on Saturday evening and so, on Sunday decided to take advantage of the fine weather to have a go at blocking out on the patio. I took an old bedspread - normally reserved for camping use - and laid it out, weighing down the corners with bottles of water. Then I spread out the shawl, pinning it into place and pulling it to open out the pattern. Once I had it pinned securely in place, I sprayed it liberally with clean water and waited...



I had to have stern words with both cats when they decided to try to help, but other than that it went well enough and about three hours later the shawl was dry. I carefully unpinned it and was relieved when it didn't immediately spring back into it's previous shape and did a practice drape for Dave who told me it looked 'longer'. Before blocking, I think it reached to about the small of my back whereas now it reaches the back of my knees!











Sunday and Monday night I sat and attached tassles and voila! One Sweetpea Shawl.


I'm really pleased with this one and I think it's probably the nicest thing I've ever crocheted. Before blocking it looked fairly good but now it is really pretty and the pattern has opened out so it can be easily seen. I'm impressed both with the shawl and the transformation, so I guess this blocking lark is all it's cracked up to be.


As always, click on the pictures to see bigger versions.

5 comments:

Esther said...

very pretty indeed.

RichT said...

I wanted to see the picture of Dave wearing the shawl, I'm sure it suited him ;)

Looks like you had a busy productive weekend, and you definitely need to upgrade your Internet connection, although that does mean you may use it more which may or may not be a good thing.

Julie Spriddle said...

Erm... I said 'did a practice drape for Dave' not a practice drape on Dave...

RichT said...

On Dave would have been better :]

Frizbe said...

lol at on Dave :-) looks very pretty :-)