WE ARE NOT AMUSED!

Her face says it all!

As I mentioned in a previous post, this Bernat dog coat was meant for Pearl, but despite measuring her from collar to the base of her tail, it worked up in a larger size (my tension was off, I guess) and swamped her.  Lucky that she has a slightly larger sister!

However, someone was not at all happy with it, refusing to co-operate in my photo shoot.   I was hoping for a canine, Ellie McPherson style strut on the decking, but Elsie was having none of it and flatly refused to look at me. It's quite mild here at the moment but when we have a nice cold snap, she might be more appreciative of it.

I have also finished my Nordic Shawl. I've already been wearing it in the evenings, before the fire is lit and it's so warm and cosy.  If you want a lovely warm item of clothing that crochets up really quickly, give this a go. Information and links showing lots of examples are in my previous post.   I ought to block it, as the drape isn't quite right, but I'm a bit of a lazy mare when it comes to blocking, so we'll see.

I did increase the main body of the shawl by about ten rows.  You can see how big it is (our bed is Kingsize) which suits me as I like things large. I always buy sweaters that are  one or two sizes bigger than I need.

The light in our bedroom is really bad (north facing).

I chose colours as close to those chosen by Annette of My Rose Valley, who's pattern this is, using Stylecraft Special DK in the following colours:

I did manage to make  slight cock-ups though, which was down to choosing wool one evening by the light of my wall lights.  I thought I'd chosen Raspberry, but somehow a random yarn had made it into my Stylecraft stash and I mistook it for Raspberry.  I was gutted, but didn't really want to frog back and lovely Mr. pointed out that they wouldn't be close together enough for anyone to notice.  Isn't he sweet!

Raspberry on the left, interloper on the right

Also, I have never looked closely at the dye number on yarn labels in the past, That's gonna change!

Again, it's no biggie, it's only for me to wear around the house, allotment possibly, campsite...not for going out somewhere special, but it's a lesson learned.   If I do the silver version, which I'm quite tempted to, I will be checking those labels, oh yes!

Due to the first of these mistakes, I have decided that it's time to sort out my stash cupboard and make it more user friendly.   We bought a large number of these wooden boxes at auction years ago and they've been languishing in our unit since then.

Well, I had this wonderful idea of painting them, lining them with fabric and using them for yarn storage.  I will show you the disgrace that is my stash cupboard as a before and after, once I've cracked on and accomplished a few finished boxes.  Any hints on how to line a box with fabric would be muchly appreciated!