A chilli start :Day 1

Today I was meant to be at a planning hearing but due to a combination of circumstances including finding out at the last moment that I had the location wrong (having previously checked with a lovely local the closest car park…and yarn shop) I ended up working from home.

I was feeling pretty low to tell you the truth, it had just started to snow and then “knock knock”. The postman ! (Post lady actually) and it is here, my special delivery specialness parcel from Divine Diana (PebbleDash)…and here they are, a colourful array of specialness…photo taken on the window cill to make the most of the light…each parcel beautifully wrapped in tissue paper, waxed paper and a lovely silver sealI feel a very lucky girl…I love chocolate…especially dark chocolate…especially when its a brand I’ve been meaning to try…and even more when I know I won’t have to share it with anyone…

The rest of the day was a bit mixed, someone we asked some time ago to fix a tile on the roof suddenly turned up out of the blue which was an “up” but the “down” was that someone confirmed that Henry the worlds softest tom cat might have ended up under the wheels of a car…it is sad news but I prefer to know what happened.

Seven Days of Specialness

Had a few problems posting as did my fellow swapee so we have agreed to start shortly when both parcels have reached their destination… I am so looking forward to the knock of the postman. I find February the hardest month it is such relenting greyness.

However, if you look hard enough you can find reasons to be cheerful…I used to think that spring started with the appearance at the end of April of bluebells, I’d spot my first bluebell wood of the year and do the dance of happiness…then when I moved to Cardiff I discovered the joy of Daffodils, for me spring started on the 1st March, a mad blast of screaming yellow and bright bright green against bluest of blue skies…Cardiff Blue.

A few years ago when I was waiting and waiting and waiting for life to begin, a new little wonderful life to begin, I discovered snowdrops, a reason for hope in greyest, coldest, miserablest dull dull dull February…and now I celebrate snowdrops and start to smile when I see them forcing themselves out of a cold hard ground.

I know that they are out down south, but we’re still waiting up here…so until it warms up  a bit more here in the midlands  I shall look forward to the postman’s knock.

(Spider narrowly avoided being called snowdrop by virtue of arriving into our lives as a boy, such is the passion with which I embraced the snowdrop in the days before his birth !!!)

FO: Now you see it, now you don’t

I have claimed to have finished two of the WIP’s that were left over from 2009 but neglected to provide evidence (sorry I’m speaking like a lawyer today, it was a hard day at work).

(note this post was longer, but my laptop closed down half way through before I had saved the draft and I’m not in the mood to write it all again)

The bear will have a special post later in the year when we have managed to take the photographs – he’s down for a special fashion shoot when the weather improves. In the meantime let me introduce you to a stripey scarf…or is it ?

My friend Ed used to be a vampire…actually he used to be a LARPer which I think is how he and Husband came to be friends…the main thing about Ed though is he has just had a birthday and its been cold…ideal conditions for knitting a scarf I think !Yarn: 1 x sirdar clix in purple, 1 x Patons smoothie black

Needles: 4mm

Pattern: Shadow of the Bat

New: Illusion knitting

The look of this scarf changes depending on how you look at it, from one direction it’s just stripes but if you get the light right then its a chain of bats…I also like the fact the 2 yarns make an interesting ridge type effect.

Why being frank ?

I was asked the other day “why is your blog called ‘Being Frank’ when your wordpress url is ‘nuzzle’ ?” Good question.

The answer partly involves children’s television, my next door neighbour, the most wonderful experience in the world (depending on your point of view) and the most wonderful yarn imaginable….

My son is almost 5 years old. He wakes early at the weekend and wants company. I am very grouchy in the morning so as a compromise we spend saturday and sunday mornings together watching television in companionable silence (until he gets bored, but by then I’m several cups of tea to the good and can fake “perky”). His poison of choice is CBBeebies who for quite awhile featured a couple of Alpacas called “Nuzzle and Scratch”. Spider was quite keen on these 2 and would drop everything to watch them – these days are long gone, he considers himself far too sophisticated these days and has taken me through the BBC website telling me what he’s grown out of “I’m too old for talking trains Mummy” (but still won’t miss chuggington).

I have a thing about Alpacas…especially knitting with their fur…fortunately we live down the road from an Alpaca farm so I can get my fix quite regularly. They have also started selling yarn which is as far as “air miles” are concerned are definitely worth it for me, it’s collected in Rugby and spun in Banbury before being sold in Rugby…my other obsession Noro is Japanese…

“So that explains Nuzzle, but who or what is Frank ?”

Frank is a small person whose birth I was very fortunate to be present at and I have to say that childbirth is definitely the most amazing experience you can go through as long as you are not the one giving birth !!! Spider’s birth probably was amazing but it was a rather fraught experience which I have chosen to forget the details of…the boy (Spider) himself is of course a miracle (and a monster despite the angelic smile and winning ways).

Frank is the blue eyed boy not quite next door who was born 2 doors away in an upstairs bedroom at 2 minutes to midnight with me the one on the phone to the midwife watching him simply pop out (Spider= 11 hours active labour, 2 days of non active labour, plus some other unpleasant details). Being Frank, when I started this blog was a nice thing to be because life is pretty simple for a new born…whereas a frazzled full time commuting lawyer with a 3 year old was not quite such a nice thing to be.

…and of course I liked the play on words, I do tend to be a bit more pointed on here than on Appetite…and its a slight nod in the direction of Elizabeth Zimmerman and “The Opinionated Knitter”…was surprised the other day to discover she was a brit.

Anyway, this is what the best dressed small boy (Frank) in the village is wearing at the moment(yarn Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK (john lewis odment), pattern Toddle (wee Sophisticate) – I left out the keyhole though as I was worried about risk of strangling)

Four year olds however have ideas about what they want to wear and what colours and the results are not always something to feel proud to have made…nope turns out I was so unimpressed with the last scarf for Spider that I didn’t even photograph it (it was orange and blue).

Acquisitions

I have been a bad girl…not only have I neglected the Wips this week but I’ve been shopping…

You see I  signed up for a swap, 2 in fact if you count the scarf. I don’t do swaps very often…much as I enjoy getting post and trying to find something that might make my fellow swapee smile or make them happy I do find deadlines quite stressful trying to fit the making in round work and home life and the travelling and something usually has to give…but then sacrificing the housework is not too much of a hardship !

I am not breaking the rules of my self imposed game though as the get out clause was “apart from things required for swaps, I won’t start anything new unless I’ve finished a pair of wips”. The other get out clause on the shopping ban was that I wouldn’t buy anything new except that required for swaps and I may have ever so slightly breached that…

On the swap front I am frantically trying to get my parcel together for Domesticali’s “7 days of specialness” a little unsecret swap designed to brighten up the dull grey days of february. My partner for this is Diane of the Pebble Dash Blog and being vastly impressed and a bit scared by her crafty skills I’m sticking to the stuff I know (so no fabric will be abused by me and my sewing machine in the course of this swap !) and feel safe with…!

The other swap is a whole scarf exchange through the travelling scarf group on Ravelry…incidently apparently our travelling scarves were featured in Yarn Forward this month…that one is a secret swap so apart from saying I’ve been swatching I can’t say anymore.

But to get back to the sinning, the bad act took place in John Lewis (as usual). I’d gone in to acquire some yarn for swaps and then as I got to the check out I got led astray by some 4ply Rowan Tweed at £1.99 per ball – I have 15 balls of it and no idea what to use it for (at the moment)…oh yes, and its black…but it does have colourful flecks in it…

I have been a bad bad girl. I must spend more time on the WIPs to make up for it !

Joy

On monday night there was a little piece of perfection on my needles, it was lovely and small and the stitches were lovely and even and smooth and perfect…such a welcome relief after the bumpy unevenness of Julia’s cardigan. Oh I am calm about the cardigan now, I’m sure it will turn out better than I’ve feared, once its been washed, but it was so nice to have even stitching without having to wash something first.

Why was it so even ? Because it was knit in the round. Having been reading up about it, it seems that its not unusual for a knitters purl tension to be different to her knit tension which means there can be a tendency for stocking stitch to be slightly uneven because of the mixture of knit and purl, something that is exaserbated with the cardigan as it is 100% rib. When you knit in the round you of course only ever knit if you are doing stocking stitch, you never purl !

I have been good and stuck to my self imposed rules. I ended up doing 3 days on Julia’s cardigan. The bootees await a bit of elastic, the earrings can now be put together as I’ve bought the missing fixings, the basic icon doll is made up but probably won’t become an actual icon as I’ve accidently sewed a leg where an arm should be and vice versa…they look very similar when they are stuffed and waiting to be sewed…

Ed’s scarf and the Long Time bear are complete and await their new home.  The DNA scarf is over halfway now, and admittedly was taken to London on the train on friday when I should have been knitting the hoodie because it was easier as a travel project. I spent most of friday night and some of saturday knitting the hoodie and I am now up to the armholes on the front.

I’m giving myself another week to try and get as much done as possible on these and then I will need to take a break as I have signed up for a couple of swaps which need some attention and thought… and if I learned anything over christmas its that if you try and do too much then it all ends up looking a bit wonky !

FOs: Under the spell of Stitchcraft

I get a lot of my “craft” books from the local libraries, a lot of them go back unused, just looked through and thrown aside but I’ve had a couple of books out since before Christmas on repeat renew as I’ve been working from them to provide presents.

My favourite of the two I have out is Celtic Cross Stitch: Anne Orr & Lesley Clarke unsurprising really as I’ve always had a weakness for celtic style designs, the cross stitch bit is not quite as big a surprise as it would have been this time last year as after my dabbling in it for Mum’s birthday I’ve got quite keen on it…the stupid part was thinking “ooh, I know, it’ll take too long to knit all my christmas presents so why don’t I do some cross stitch for speed”…and then being slightly too ambitious with the chosen items…as a result my brother’s present is still outstanding almost a month after christmas.

I made bookmarks mainly because most of the men in our family read, and actually use bookmarks and (from experience) men tend to prefer  practical presents. I couldn’t find anywhere that sold aida band though (a pre edged band of aida so less risk of fraying) so I bought a kit with similar colours and used that (before I misplaced the silks that is) for this Eagle bookmark for my dad (Dad is into books about romans at the moment and the eagle looked “imperial-ish”)The stitching was fine but the outlining of all the bits was a real pain in the posterior – and it is the outlining once again which is holding up my brothers present, all the stitching is done apart from the outlining. My brother’s present is actually the design of the bookmark I bought but I’ve had to improvise the aida band out of the materials I have to hand. I had planned to put a picture of it up here and do all my cross stitch presents in one go but I’ve just discovered I haven’t photographed it yet.

Neither did I photograph what in the end was probably the best bit of stitching I did last year, a small piece for my brother’s birthday card, it was a green squared design with an interlinked cross in the middle. The other card I made was for a secret santa. It was a celtic knot and is badly photographed hereThe final 2 bits of stitching have still to be sent out, one of which I am working on at the moment and I’m getting a big kick out of the colour combinations on this one…so I guess there will be another cross stitch post for these and my brother’s present.

A big “thank you” to Mum who has donated all her silks and cross stitch bits and pieces, it does come with a proviso though and it is a really big proviso as she has finally found the japanese lady cross stitch kit and it is really rather big and possibly out of the competence of a beginner such as me !

FO: Through the Keyhole and not so square hat

I have  finished some of the WIPs I was whittering about last week, so if I wanted to, under the rules of the game , I could start something new (I finished both of Tuesday’s items) but instead I shall use the time to work on Julia’s sweater with the option of something new (and small) if I need variety.

Today’s post is about some Christmas knitting and features some better quality photographs than usual as they were taken by Islay my sister in law.

I was a bit worried by the idea of giving handknits as christmas presents to Children. I figured that it would lead to a lot of upset children, so any child who received something made from me also had the back up of something else – usually a WHSmith Voucher. I did take the precaution with Skye and Aran (niece and nephew) of getting Islay to get an idea of what they’d like “so if someone was to knit you a scarf or a hat, what would you like it to look like ?”. The answer was “a scarf like this but bigger” (I was provided with something to copy) and a “square hat with tassles”.

Both presents were recieved with surprising good manners but the vouchers were the real hit.

Skye’s template was a toddler fleecy keyhole scarf in light blue with rounded ends.  I made it out of dark blue in the end and then got cold feet, it was also quite a harsh wool, so I added a light blue softer inside and seamed it like a cushion before tuning it the right way with blanket stitch around the “keyhole”. Also, because it looked quite plain (and it was remembrance day when I knitted it) I added a poppy, which I was also a bit worried about as it wasn’t in the original spec and she is a bit of a tomboy – the ends are rounded by increases/decreases.Pattern: My own, basically a strip of stocking stitch with rounded ends and a keyhole

Needles: 4mm

Yarn: a “superwash” sock yarn(used double) from Lidl (which is not superwash)and a 100% merino DK plus scraps red and black. Unfortunately because of the sock yarn not doing what its meant to the scarf is handwash only

New: Keyhole

The request from Aran for a Square hat with tassles caused a lot of problems at first as I was thinking of something more 3D but Islay eventually explained, “no square, like the one on Being Frank header at the moment” Ah, no problem. Spider’s tiger hat is actually a rounded hat with ears but square upright is easy.

I used a basic rib at the bottom taking stitch measurements for 4yo sizing from another hat and then added a basic square bit of stst . The front piece is a bit wider than the back as I wanted the front to sort of “wrap” round the head. Tassles were added using a half pompom technique by wrapping the yarn round a ruler.

Pattern: My own

Yarn: Patons Diploma Gold (Royal Blue) just over 2 balls – machine washable 40c

Needles: 4mm

New: would you believe the tassel ?

Tomorrow I hope to put something up about the lovely handmade presents I received in return.

Progress…kind of…

The weather has meant lots of time for knitting and less time spent travelling. Have made real inroads into those WIPs…I have also shared in one boys single handed aim to rewrite history so that the romans (playmobil only) were the “goodest guys in history”…

Anyway, of the big items I have managed to get myself out of a rut on all of them, admittedly have frogged one of them (with intentions to redo with a better yarn) and have fallen back in love with Spider’s hoodie so much so that if it wasn’t for the game I suspect I’d be concentrating on this one and the others would fall by the wayside…it’s yummy, or as yummy as something made from cotton can be !

The game has forced me to sew up lots of small things. The booties now just wait for a small loop of elastic and the icon doll has become a pile of body parts rather than small curled bits of knitting. The biggest improvement has been in the “Gentleman Bear”. He went from being a bare bear to being “granddad Bear” as you can see from the picture below the waistcoat, slightly too small trousers and rumpled, tie-less shirt makes him look as if he wouldn’t be out of place leaning on a spade in an allotment and sucking on a pipe. definitely a granddad in the Clive Dunn style

Since this morning I’ve attached braces and given him a bowtie – Husband says he now looks “slightly dangerous” in that “Man about town/on the pull” sort of way…just wait til I finish his jacket with his snazzy yellow handkerchief !

I hope to spend most of this week playing the game and hopefully finishing some of the pairs. In the meantime I finally have some Finished stuff to blog about as some of my friends and relatives have been sending me photographs.

Bored already

I have discovered the definition of tedious. It’s making a DNA cabled scarf out of 4ply. I’d say I have about 60cm made so far and at least another 140cm needed. Today I worked out where I’d got to in the pattern (row 21 of either the 3rd or 4th repeat) I am now on row 26.

Admittedly I haven’t done much of it today despite having taken a day off (school was closed and yesterdays working from home didn’t work too well due to system problems) but really I don’t want to ! Julia’s jumper may be quite repetitive but at least you can get on and knit, this scarf is just tedious AND you have to concentrate.

Todays “frippery” is a pair of earrings and I can’t do anything about that until I can get to some shops as I need the “findings” and some beads.

Oh well at least I’ve worked out where I’d stopped and what I have to do next…bored though.

Dens of Sin Part I

March 4th

I have been a very very naughty girl.  I have fallen off the wagon big time. I can now kiss farewell to ever having a tidy organised house again…stash is back.

But I am leaping ahead of myself here. More later. In the meantime I have a rush job on for my son’s girlfriend’s birthday present…she is 4 years old so it shouldn’t take long.

Pictured : JaegerMohair silk DK(aster), Rowan cashcotton 4ply (citron and peppermint), Rowan KSN (ballerina) Debbie Bliss Cotton DK (Black and what is meant to be bright red but seems a bit pink, too late to change now) – oh and some Kiddy Print, a delightful surprise freebie

My Sister Knits

How rude of me, I was so excited at getting the parcel of yarney gorgeousness that I just leapt straight into blogging and didn’t bother introducing myself…so some history.

 

“My sister knits” was going to be the name of this site, but just before I ventured into cyber space I discovered that “My sister’s knits” was already in use for a yarn shop in America somewhere and was one of the contributors to a book I’d recently got out of the library One Skein Wonders.

 

I was a bit of an unusual teenager. Was probably described as nerdy, after all glasses, head in a book all the time (even when walking to school) and…I knitted ! What sort of 13 year old knits for godsake ? Me, I preferred to think I was creating a form of art. I was a bit unartistic in all other ways, but I could do this.

 

At this point I was going to insert a picture of me and my favourite jumper the Toulouse Lautrec from Knitting Masterpieces, knitted at the age of 17 and still going strong some 20 years later…but the only one I have features a horrid 80’s perm I wish to forget about !

 

Years later I discovered that my brother, who I loved and hated in equal measure (but then this is the essence of a sibling relationship) was proud of me. Not because of my degree, the going back to college to get a postgrad qualification, not the struggling on low paid jobs in order to qualify as a lawyer or the further determined striving to get into a field of law that I was happy with (environmental) but no, he was proud of me because “my sister knits”. Its always the unexpected that catches in your throat.

Knitting on a train

It’s a big train. A big empty train. There are lots and lots of unoccupied seats. Why why why do you have to sit next to me ? Do I look friendly ? Does my knitting make you feel safe and secure ?  Do you realise the effect you are having on my tension ?  I am so terrified that I will take your eye out with the unpointy end of my furious needles… please please get off at the next stop otherwise I will have to unravel what I have done and start again as its far too tight.

Learning to Knit Part 1: Knitting Heritage

My Mum taught me to knit at the age of I think 8. She was taught by her Mother, my Nana.  I love the idea of it being handed down along the matrilinical line…Nana probably learned from her Mother, but Mary Ada was a bit severe in later life, can’t imagine her doing anything like knitting, but then again perhaps she did, prim and upright, tension tight and regular, nothing out of place… however to get back to Nana, who was everything Mary Ada wasn’t…

 

Nana was a quietly amazing woman. At about the age of 80 she had a stroke and was paralysed down her right side. This is probably why I don’t have memories of her knitting, but boy could she crochet –after having taught herself to do things with her left hand that is.  Nana crocheted square after square for the Red Cross, she was still going strong into her 99^th year…who knows perhaps she still would if the taxi drivers hadn’t suddenly refused to drive her there (H&S issues apparently), she kinda lost the desire to live and slowly faded away 4 months short of her 100^th birthday.

 

I dabbled with knitting for several years, making dolls clothes, experimenting with mixing different oddments of yarn, textures and colour combinations and then, when I was about 15 or 16 a book came out  Knitting Masterpieces – making pictures with wool ! I was hooked – it didn’t take me long to complete the “corrupt official” and the “Toulouse Lautrec”…and then I discovered other books…

 

Teenage years can cause friction between mother and daughter, but Mum and I, I think have always had knitting at least in common. But some years ago she came down with RSI (that’s 30 years as a computer programmer for you) and hung up her needles so to speak…I kept going…I didn’t think I would ever stop.

Ladybird Hat: Zoe Mellor

Ladybird ladybird, fly away home...

Pattern: From Animal Knits, Zoe Mellor

Yarn:Debbie Bliss DK Cotton (colours ) – 100g total

Needles: 4.5mm (unbranded metal)

Time: 1 evening and 2 train journeys, approx 6 hours

Not the best effort I most admit. The cotton was a joy to knit with but I’d ordered the wrong shade of red and the deadline (Saturday) meant I didn’t have time to change, I also ran out of black towards the end so the spots on the front are actually acrylic rather than cotton (don’t look too closely).

Hopefully it meets the approval of a fashion conscious 4 year old princess…

I used to knit

Having knitted through the teenage years, the student rented accommodation (including the 18 yo sister of a friend leaving £10 for something I had just finished knitting as she thought it would look better on her !) , through my 20’s knitting for friends having children, knitted through the house renovation from derelict hole to Victorian gothic heaven (OK that was just the bedroom), into my 30’s and marriage…I stopped.

There were no reasons for ceasing to knit, I think it was just a gradual process, a number of factors lead to a decline in activity and then a final abandonment of the needles when I became a Mum myself.

Contributing factors

- a series of boyfriend’s who smoked

- an incidence of competitive knitting when 2 german flatmates of a boyfriend, grabbed my needles and proceeded to show me how much more efficient their continental style was

- lack of cash and a growing dissatisfaction of knitting with acrylic

- not realising that I should be lengthening sweaters to deal with the fact I have a long long back (and very short legs)

- living in a house full of plaster dust and builders rubble for 4 years whilst I renovated it

- hating making up, especially when making toys

- kittens

- more kittens

and then when I was expecting what is now my boy, I just didn’t have the energy to knit…and after he was born I had neither time or energy.

So, last November in a fit of organised zeal I placed my stash on freecycle and threw away all the half made bits stored in plastic bags under my bed

I became an unknitter…

The monsters under the bed

Under my bed with my stash lurked some horrible monsters that just zapped my enthusiasm for knitting, mainly because I was wracked with guilt everytime I looked at them and had to remember just how long they had been WIP’s.

The worst of all was a black white and brown cotton eifel tower, roses and fans jumper dating from 1987 (teenage years, magazine Pins and Needles), I’d been knitting this on and off since my  O levels, part of the reason it took so long was that during the student years I couldn’t afford the yarn and tended to buy 1 ball at a time as and when I had the money…the other draw back was the number of ends that had to be weaved in plus some of the struts on the tower and the bars of the fans had to be embroidered – making up was going to be a big job and therefore I delayed finishing it so that I could just avoid the task.

Second on the list was a lilac 4 ply jumper I’d been making for an Auntie since 1990…as that Auntie had passed away in 2003 I figured perhaps it was time to put the jumper to rest…

Also lurking is my attempt at a shetland wedding shawl. Inspiration from Pins and Needles (the sewing/knitting mag my Mum bought most of her married life til 1990), yarn used was as close as I could get to lace during the 80’s from my LYS, either a Patons or Sirdar 3ply, might even have managed to get a 2ply – that lurked in bag getting grubbier and grubbier from house move after house move, slightly tea spatted from my time at university, waiting waiting waiting for the final ball to finish it off…

Finally, assorted bits of baby clothing for friends started and never finished – these just got chucked. The other articles were frogged and freecycled with the rest of the stash.

The only things I kept were 2 balls of Debbie Bliss (recently bought) waiting to become a tiger hat, odds and ends waiting to become the clothes for a bear my Mum had knitted (last thing before she gave up) and a bag of green wool I’d borrowed from a neighbour to make a dinosaur puppet…this was it, my last stand knittingwise, after this I would even give the needles away.

So I cast on in black to start the tiger hat – and that is possibly where the trouble started…

FO: Saartje’s Bootees

Saartje's Bootees

Pattern: Saartje’s Bootees

Yarn: Rowan 4ply cashcotton

Needles:2.75mm (unbranded metal)

Time: a kid’s party

The lovely Vonnie (Adventures of a Lady in Training) was using a pic of her version of these as her pic on Twitter and I fell in love with them immediately. Although I had planned to do them by the end of march they were not next in the queue as I have to finish off the dinosaur puppets and knit yet another Tiger Hat before my boy’s birthday at the end of the month.

However I had a party to go to yesterday and I didn’t want the hassle of carrying several balls of double knit around with me, let alone carrying the pattern book with me , so I took these and ran them up in less than 2 hours…they are not quite in keeping with the pattern as I didn’t know what longtail cast on meant.  Also I didn’t have any 2.5mm needles so I took a risk on 2.75 being ok tension wise, and it seems to have worked.

Just needs some small buttons to finish them off.

Tiger’s say grrrrr Mummy !

Who needs a crash helmet ?

When I was expecting the arrival of “Gonzo” (the working title for what eventually became the delightful young man above) I had planned to knit, after all, I’d knitted for every other baby I knew so why not my own ? But it was not to be, my copy of Double Knits:Zoe Mellor remained untouched throughout the entire 9 months.

But to say that I haven’t knitted for my boy (who for the purposes of blogging is called Spider, his name for himself) would be untrue. Just before his 2nd birthday I finally managed to knit him the Tiger Hat from Double Knits which he absolutely adored for the 4 hours it was in his possession before it got left behind in a cafe in Banbury. He was devastated, because he loved Tigers…but he got over it, or so I thought. For his third birthday I’d managed to find the time to make the bear hat from the same book, but at some point over this last year it seems to have disappeared.

When I bought the wool for the bear hat I’d also bought some Debbie Bliss DK in orange and black to redo the tiger hat. When I destashed I kept it back as I’d hoped to make a christmas present for the next door neighbour’s son with it – one of the last 3 projects I ever intended to do.

Spider, saw me knitting and started asking and asking for another hat and so that’s why one wet February day I was wondering around John Lewis, surfacing 30 minutes later without the orange and black wool but clutching a hank of kidsilk haze and some mirasol (electric purple and so so soft)...

London Commute

“What is she doing here on our train ? Our early morning oh so serious people only dress in black and grey train ? Our train where people read important papers for important conferences, read auditing magazines or tap away furiously on lightweight laptops ?

 

She, with her plastic cook shop carrier bag and her knitting magazine, yellow trainers and pink fleecy jacket doesn’t belong here on this train full of working people, how dare this stay at home mum catch our early train. Shouldn’t she be at home getting her children ready for school ?”

 

So sorry that I offend. If you like I can whip out my journal of planning and environmental law so that I blend in with the rest of you unsmiling serious people, but in 90 minutes I will have the joy of “Regional Spatial Strategies” and listening to important people tell me things I need to know, and since my employers don’t pay travelling time I intend to enjoy this train journey as me time, to enjoy the sunshine and the flowers, to read what I like…for 90 minutes I just want candyfloss for the brain…I can be serious later…

Teaching an old dog…

Having spent a week or so thinking about it, I have come to the conclusion that the real reason I stopped knitting was that I was bored.

 

I mean when you think about it, I’ve basically been doing the same thing since I was a teenager namely picture knits with the occasional bit of cabling thrown in for variety. I have also fallen into the habit of using acrylic for everything, picture knitting otherwise can get very expensive as sometimes you find yourself paying for a full 50g when you only want a couple of yards ! Also when knitting for children I have to force myself to use anything but acrylic as they grow so fast and only get a years where out of something, whereas some of my jumpers (made with wool admittedly) are still in reasonable nick some 20 years later – or would have been if I hadn’t donated them to the RSPCA charity shop at the same time as I destashed.

 

I hate acrylic. I really hate acrylic and I am not going to use it again unless the pattern calls for it.

 

What I am looking for is a year of “innovation” from me that is.  I am going to try and make sure that everything I make from now on teaches me something new. I am also going to try and use more natural fibres and try and make sure that what I create comes up to my personal threshold of “beautiful”…although I probably have a slightly warped idea of beauty but the story of my photography project (City and Guilds) can wait for another day !

 

Apparently, this year is the year if “natural fibres” anyway so I guess it is timely !

FO: Finally, the Dinosaur Puppets

just hatched

Pattern: From  Making Dinosaur’s

Yarn: Odments of green and brown, mainly DK

Needles: mainly 3.25mm

Time: Far too long

The intention was that after these were finished I’d lay down my needles – I now know that this isn’t going to happen.

The good news with these is that I met the deadline. The bad news is that in order to finish the brown one off I ended up buying more yarn as the multicoloured brown/green was really really horrible.  Most of the brown puppet is left over copper cotton from a scarf (waiting finishing touch) but I also bought 2 balls of brown acrylic (25g) from Jackson’s in Reading and a ball of weird brown fluffy stuff with no label from the oddments basket…I therefore have more yarn to use up rather than less.

Both children loved the puppets and the paper mache eggs – although I doubt these will last long…I am relieved and lightly proud of these. I really hated making up as there were too many ends to weave in and lots of little bits to sew on. Arms could have been better unfortunately it was only when sewing the last arm on that I finally understood what the pattern was trying to say about folding it over !

Stash and Stash Envy

I have stash envy. That’s not surprising you are probably thinking, since you destashed before Christmas and now don’t have any stash at all.

But no I had stash envy before. You see my stash was always comprised of left over bits that you probably couldn’t do anything with, and even if you did the finished product would take ages because there would be so many bits to weave in. I was therefore envious of knitters who had a proper, organised stash. Those people who could see a pattern and go, ah yes I have x balls of Rowan Whatever DK which would be perfect for that.

These people know what they have, where to find it and know what changes they need to make so that the finished item looks good…my stash was a box of mixed up bits under the bed that never seemed to go down…plus odd balls that I picked up in sales but never used as I was saving them for “something special” .

So I am going to try a new approach.

• I am going to check my tension before starting – that way I hopefully will feel more confident about yarn substitution
• I am not going to buy “bargains” unless I have a strong idea of what I am going to do with it 
•  I am going to find patterns that use up my oddments on a regular basis so that I don’t end up with a large box of bits lurking like a scarey spaghetti monster under the bed 
• I am going to be stricter with myself and not start something new if there is something waiting to be finished off 
•  What stash there is will be organised, the labels kept with the half balls

Things are admittedly already going wrong – so I am going to spend April putting myself back on track. I have already partly done this with the wonderful Dead Fish Hat – but I need to find some space in the house as a “knitting corner” where I can keep all my paraphanalia

Knitting for Charity

It is perhaps unfair to blame either Spider or John Lewis for the fact I’ve gone back to the needles. I think it possibly started at Christmas and then a conversation with some work colleagues got me thinking again…and by the time I went looking for tiger wool in John Lewis I was probably just looking for an excuse.

 

At  Christmas my Mum gave me several balls of Snowflake Chunky and a pattern for a cat tea cosy. I’d asked for a tea cosy for Christmas – she decided I could knit one – I hadn’t told her I’d hung up my needles…I spent several days stroking the yarn, and decided that OK, one last item after I’d finished the 3 unfinished items that survived the destash.

 

Then at work one Friday lunchtime we were noodling around the internet trying to find a cause that we could make cakes for – we like cake competitions at work, any excuse for a bake off. One colleague Portia (we’re lawyers and she has a name that sounds like a race car anyway) discovered an organisation that raised money for Sailors…and to cut a long story short something on their website led me to trying to prove to them that you could knit a hat in an evening.

 

One evening later I had an incredibly large red hat…and the start of a need to knit…at the same time as I picked up the red yarn for the hat I’d picked up 3 balls of pink wool as I’d also, whilst noodling on the internet I’d come across the Jenny Chant appeal – so I made a start on a 2 metre pink scarf.

 

I learned 2 important things from this charity knitting

 

1)                  I probably should do tension squares more often, especially if substituting yarn

2)                  If you are knitting for charity and money is raised by selling the object then the item should be beautiful and something people actually want to buy…and if its being given for people to wear then it should be something they want to wear.

 

Busy week…

Since I took the needles up again a month ago I have been busy every evening, but haven’t had the time to put anything up here about it… I think I may finally have reached a natural pause, but its late and tomorrow I have a day off, but have to clean the house – so maybe tomorrow, and the next day and the next…I have quite a lot of finished items…and “most” of them involve something that is “new to me”.

Happy to be bored: Fairy Gothmother Lite

I am currently knitting something that is delightfully boring. Its mainly garter stitch with one row being a drop stitch – you could probably get the same result by knitting every 4th row with a larger needle. It is not very interesting to knit and actually a nice change after all the things I’ve been tackling this last month, which really got me out of both my rut and my comfort zone.

My son has a Fairy Gothmother who gives the most fantastic presents to her goth son. She also has a birthday at the beginning of April and I am working on something special. And yes OK I am working to a deadline but as I said above its quite a boring knit and not something to tax the brain – I also happen to be about 60% through it already.

Its USP is the yarn. It is made out of 3 skeins of 100% silk and 2 skeins of mohair and it feels lovely…it won’t look quite as dramatic as the one I have in my head as the lilac/purple mohair I bought felt horrible and fake, whereas this Rowan Kidsilk is kitten soft. I couldn’t find silk in black at a price I was willing to pay, so instead of a black and purple goth style wrap I have a fairy ballerina style silver and pink wrap. Silver silk I could get and I had a spare ball of pink Kidsilk Night available (and a cheap source for more).

Anyway I am totally bored and looking forward to a challenge now, having had several days rest, so am hurrying throught the next 40% to tackle something a bit more taxing…I also have a backlog of Finished Objects to put up here so I may do that when I get bored of the knitting dream I am currently wrapped up in.

FO : Salty Seadog bobble hat, sans bobble

Pattern: Patons hat pattern

Yarn: Stylecraft Acrylic, red approx 100g

Needles: 3.24mm and 4mm

Time: An afternoon

New: Nothing new learned, except that I should do tension squares

This is the hat that I knitted for the British and International Sailors Society – at the moment however it’s waiting to be parcelled up and sent, but I don’t have an address.

FO: Wilf’s Frogged Seafoam Scarf

Pattern: One Skein  Wonders

Yarn:Rowan Kidsilk Haze brown/grey – 50g

Needles 4mm

Time: several evenings

New: mohair, frogging

Knitted for  a friend in New Zealand on the basis something lightweight would be cheap to post. Also good pattern for someone out of practice –  apart from the increasing at the each end (to create an eyelet pattern) it is straight garter stitch…easypeasy !

I’m not new to mohair, but am new to soft mohair. 1980’s mohair was a bit harsh and artificial to the touch whereas this, at least for the first half of the ball was lovely and soft. Towards the end though where the “fuzz” had been squashed by winding it did get  coarse in texture.

The main new thing I learned from this was how to “frog”…to think I’ve spent my life calling it unravelling, it’s amazing what you can learn from the internet!

This 1 skein project said knit until you run out of yarn. I did. It looked a bit short and really needed an extra ball for a good fit. But then I think it would lose something aesthetically – I didn’t like the idea of a long triangular tale down the back…so frogged the whole thing

As a result of recently discovered perfectionism – will no longer knit anything that isn’t beautiful – Wilf is without a birthday present – and since her birthday was the 10th March I suspect knitting something new is out of the question.

Lesson Learned: Plan more in advance when making things for deadlines !

FO: This year I be mostly wearing hats

I have made a lot of hats this month as March seems to be when most of Spider’s friends have birthdays. The first one was made out of guilt when realizing that I perhaps the birthday present I was about to give was inadequate compare to what Spider had just received.

I spent a hurried week making this.

Previously written about in March…

Of course as soon as I’d finished this it was straight into finishing off the dinosaurs and the previously mentioned tiger hat (for Spider)- knitted in acrylic this time in case he lost it and because I wanted more “give” in the hat as the largest size given was for a 2 year old.

But having knitted one hat for one friend, of course I felt honour bound to knit the next friend a hat too…taking inspiration from GlittyKnittyKitty.

Pattern: Dead Fish – Knitty
Yarn: Assorted oddments of left over acrylic approx 100g
Needles : 4.5mm dpn
Time: 3 evenings and a morning
New: knitting with double points !

It was perhaps a bit of an ambitious project for someone who had never knitted with more than 2 needles before, especially in view of the fact that I had a deadline of less than a week. But once I’d managed to tame the octopus it wasn’t too bad…unfortunately taming the octopus took 2 evenings !

Most of the yarn was left over from the 2 dinosaur puppets and the tiger hat – but I also had a 25g of yellow bought by mistake, or it may have been bought to finish off the teddy bear which is the last of the “monsters under the bed”.

Problem is of course that Spider now wants one of these hats too…planning on a Nemo version as I have a lot of orange and black left over…but not yet…there are too many other deadlines at the moment.

Yay ! I’ve just done an I-cord

Yay ! I’ve just done an I-cord

My current WIP, which I can’t put up as it’s a present for someone who knows this blog exists (not many people do), has several variations on an I-cord. I’ve never done one before so to do 3 different sorts in the space of one item was a bit daunting – but I love it. Especially the I-cord bind off, I think that is so cool and gives such a lovely finish!

The I-cord happiness vibes keep me going on what really is quite a horrible knit. It’s the yarn mainly, it is so splitty and also there is no give in the cotton so at times with the i-cord it can get a bit tight and difficult to knit.

FO: Mother’s Day Flowers

Pattern:From Ravellery

Yarn: Dishcloth cotton Ecru

Needles: 4.5mm

Time: Morning

New: Relief Patterns

Don’t know what the official name is but this is a bit like braille. A pattern is created by doing a different stitch on a stocking stitch background…I’d spotted a map of New Zealand as a dishcloth previously which I wanted to have a go at, and had been toying with the idea of knitting a flower with wire but lacked the pattern or the wire…I did however have the dishcloth cotton…and only a morning to do something.

Never tried dishcloth cotton before and my Mum prefers useful presents to “dust gathers”. She seemed pleased but I think she preferred the rest of her present, vouchers for the 1911 census!

Book: Knitted Icons

The boys (Husband and Spider) took me out to Stratford for Mother’s Day. Primarily to satisfy my curiosity about a library that opens on Sunday – we made sure that we used it; this sort of thing needs to be encouraged!

Got lead astray in Waterstones and told the boys that they were buying me this, Knitted Icons for Mother’s Day – I’ve hardly seen it since as Husband keeps looking through it and going “hey, look what you can make”

FO: Tea Swap Tea Set

Pattern: Fiesta Tea Set (interweave)

Yarn: Sirdar Cotton

Needles: 2.75 and 3. 25 dpn

Time: a week of hell

New: circular knitting, more dpn practice, I-cords and variations on I-cords, using hairspray!

I signed up for a tea swap about a month ago because I’m a tea addict. Totally ignoring the fact that I am not exactly crafty and part of the requirements of the swap were that you made something with a tea or coffee theme.

Mostly I bake. I waffle on about cooking on a separate blog Appetite for Cake. Not being convinced that cakes would travel well I looked around for something I could knit which wasn’t a tea cosy and found this.

It probably would have been a nice knit had I chosen better yarn – this stuff split like you wouldn’t believe, most of the time spent making up was spent weaving in split ends that were sticking out all over the place.

Used hairspray to stiffen it slightly…

What can you use it for? Well it could be a dust gatherer, or you could use it as containers on a dressing table…probably the best use though is as a toy for small children.

I had been planning to use the left over cotton as the start of a hoodie for Spider (Waves from March issue of The Knitter) but not keen on doing a whole garment in such a splitty yarn.

Book: Creepy Cute

We have just had a few days holiday in York. Not a Yarn shop to be seen, although there is rumoured to be one in the Shambles, but I found that far too confusing… there are plenty of bookshops, some chain, some not so chain

In the Little Apple Bookshop I bought this, ignoring the fact that I can’t actually crochet…I think it might be a good incentive to learn…I don’t really do “cute” but I do like this

Eeek! I have acquired stash…

It’s true I now have a selection of yarns with no planned project for them and no chance of them being used in the immediate future as I have a queue already and several WIP’s…I am in danger of breaching my stash resolution from earlier

Firstly and nicest of all is some Wendy Pure, a tape yarn made from Bamboo. This came from Emma in Aberdeen, my lovely tea swap partner. It is a lovely selection of blues and purples – goes quite well with the Mirasol which I accidentally bought in John Lewis and haven’t plucked up the courage to commit it to a project.

I also have the frogged Rowan Kidsilk Haze and 2 balls of lilac Jaeger mohair plus a free ball of Nord Kiddiprint from Janette’s Rare Yarns…oh plus 2 balls of eyelash picked up cheap from Dunelm

OK it’s not a lot as stashes go, but stashes have a habit of growing…especially when you take into account oddments such as the Sirdar Luxury Cotton from the teaset – this was not nice to work with.

I have also acquired one or two books along the way through Amazon’s “used” service – although one of these Domiknitrix: Jennifer Stafford was cancelled by the seller for “other” reasons just before posting – I think they realised that selling a book for 99p when you only get £2.75 for postage wasn’t a good deal when you are shipping from the states.

Can one be as much fun as two ?

Having purchased Creepy Cute whilst on holiday (holiday madness ?) I though I’d better learn how to crochet and have taken out from the library Learn to Crochet:Sally Harding.

The book is as helpful as it can be, but the problem is I just don’t understand diagrams – guess its a lawyer thing, we’re just better with words…

Casting on ie making a chain is ok – I understand that, I can do the first row, whether in a round or actual rows…its after that that things start to get a bit hazy and confused – ok part of this was because I kept forgetting to do “turning chains” – I also started to lose track of the number of stitches in a row, and when doing a round couldn’t work out where I’d started off from…

I am hoping that part of my problem is down to the yarn – first time I tried I used some of that awful sirdar cotton that I have left over – this lunchtimes effort has been with dishcloth cotton, which I am praying is causing me problems because its too thick for the needle (4mm) – its also splitting quite a lot…it could of course just be sheer incompetence on my part !

Its quite a short book, only 79 pages and I have it for 3 weeks – so I guess I perservere and see where I get to…if all else fails I guess I shall have to see if I can persuade Mum to give a tutorial, hopefully RSI is no bar to teaching someone !

Missed Opportunities and the kindness of strangers

The other day I came across 3 balls of Twilley’s Freedom Spirit (99p each) in the odd balls basket of Jackson’s in Reading – although they felt nice and were in 3 very nice colourways I left them there – being a good girl and living up to my no stash resolution. I had no immediate plans for them and therefore there they should stay.

Couldn’t get them out of my head though, especially when I found out that this stuff didn’t just feel nice but actually felt nice as in they were good for felting projects – felting being something on the current “tick list”.

Of course when I went back the next day they had been snaffled by some other lucky punter – all 3 of them, I’d have been happy if they had left me one, as one would have been enough to make the mobius bowl from last months Knitter Magazine – oh well !

I was not completely out of luck though. I had been making a soft cotton hat using the remains of the Sirdar cotton. The intention was to use the red and blues as striped and then use the green and yellow to make the flower – but when I got knitting I found that the 2 blue stripes looked so good together that I couldn’t bear to contaminate them with the red…yes I knew I was being silly, I knew I’d never reach the end of the hat before I ran out of yarn, but I just couldn’t help myself.

Anyway fortunately a wonder person called Jane on Ravelery has come to my aid and there is hopefully winging its way to me through the postal service, a ball of the French Navy cotton which should be enough to do the crown.

FO: Fairy Gothmother Lite (Mulberry) and Wingnut’s Tea Cosy

Pattern : Mulberry from Collinette Arboretum

Yarn : Rowan Kidsilk Night (Ballerina), Debbie Bliss DK Silk (silver 02)

Needles: 4mm

Time Taken : 3 weeks on and off

New : knitting with silk, blocking – yep, never blocked before in 25 odd years.

I have finished the FGM Mulberry. I am not going to put a picture up as I was not very happy with the end result – I think part of the problem is that I don’t like knitting in pink and the sooner I accept this fact and stop buying the stuff the happier I will be!

I don’t mind pink however when it’s in something like this…

Details

Pattern : Skull tea cosy from Halloween Mania

Yarn : ever present DK black acrylic and some pink

Needles: 5.5mm

Time Taken : 2 hours end to end

New : er, well it’s a tea cosy, never made a tea cosy before… oh and knitted with 2 strands at a time

The teacosy was an absolute doddle, but unfortunately lots and lots of ends to deal with due to the 2 stranded knitting. The Mulberry again was easy – biggest problem was finding room to block it as the house was full of various ages of “boy”.

The skull tea cosy was going to be for Wingnut, a climbing amazon who thinks I don’t get out enough on to rock (true)…but it was given away as an Easter present following a flying visit to some friends in the lake district on friday night – if I get the needles out tomorrow I should be able to knit a replacement before she comes to visit…only have found a different pattern and more in line with the pirate motif that has suddenly invaded my life…

FO: 302 Kinky Knickers

[there is a photo for this, just need to introduce camera to computer)

Pattern : 302 from Knitty

Yarn : Strawberry liquorice bootlaces

Needles: chopsticks

Time Taken : 30 mins

New : knitting with sweets, knitting with chopsticks

Because I was disappointed with the Mulberry I made these as a fun present for the FGM – they made her laugh and to be honest I think she preferred them.

Bit of a pain to knit, as its been pointed out on Ravelery the “yarn” does have a tendency to break if you are not careful – also if you can only get short lengths then you have to tie them together which makes for a bit of a bulky knit in places.  I have plenty of yarn left over (if kids don’t eat it) so may have another go and experiment with ways of splicing the strands together.

Husband was the one to deliver the present to FGM who he regards as his “adopted sister” – he was not to sure about telling a sibling that she had to “keep her knickers moist, otherwise they would break…” !

Perseverance

I kept with the crochet and I thought I was finally getting the hang of it. Am much happier when doing rounds, which is fortunate as its mainly crocheting rounds for the Creepy Cute stuff – my main reason for learning to crochet.

I very quickly though got a bit bored with going round and round, as after all this object was never actually going to be anything, it was just a sampler – so I started riffing and seeing what sort of effect I could achieve, sort of crochet doodling… and this was the result…

Must admit that what it reminded me most of, prior to the riffing around, was a Judges wig – these are usually made out of horsehair, but are usually a greyish white and have the same kind of texture as this dishcloth cotton – somehow however I think that an Amigurumi Judge would have a fairly limited market, restricted to the stranger members of the legal profession and recently divorced people who want to practice a bit of voodoo!

I was feeling quite pleased with myself and elated. I’d always assumed that crochet was a fairly rigid format – guess its because most of the patterns I’d seen were based round geometric shapes – yet it was clear that you could go completely off pattern and the stitches didn’t mind if you didn’t come back to them – unlike knitting where one stitch is so intimately connected to the ones above and below and to the side…

Anyway when I showed Mum she was interested to see what I had been up to, but burst out laughing when she saw me actually crocheting “You’re knitting, that’s not how you do it…” There then followed a quick demonstration of how to hold the work, the yarn and the needle followed by demonstration of how you work a double and a treble…. Of course I can’t for the life of me remember what these were, fortunately my sister in law has recommended another book with much clearer diagrams – so let’s hope a diagram dunce like me can get to grips with it.

I have however realised that what I have always admired about crochet, the crispness of the stitches and the “straightness” of line actually comes from the fact that most crochet I’d seen was worked in cotton – so if I can’t get the hang of this 1 needled magik, perhaps I could try reworking the Creepy Cutes so that they are knitted – but suspect this would be admitting defeat!

Horrible Hairy Handknit

 I have made a bit of a cock up. Then I  made it worse by carrying on regardless rather than admitting defeat. Firstly I didn’t order enough wool, I misread the quantity mistaking the 100% wool for 100g (duh !). Then, when it arrived it was the wrong colour – I mean seriously the wrong colour. What I should have done was just keep the 5 balls on hand in case I wanted to do some felting as this felts beautifully, but no  I went ahead and ordered another 4 balls.

My son will hate me – doesn’t matter that the end result is meant to look like a dinosaur, all he will remember is a horrid hairy home made jumper in a rather nasty shade of pea soup that his Mum made him wear !!!

 Anyway I have made a start on the back of Steggie…it doesn’t look quite as bad in day light…guess I’ll just have to see how things go.

Bank Holiday Quick Knit Fix

Over the weekend we had a flying visit to the Lake District, partly driven by the fact they top dressed the fields outside on Thursday night and it smelt something awful, partly because we hadn’t seen these friends for about 2 years.

Anyway I took the Creepy Cute book with me some white cotton and a crochet hook. I had a horrible trip up the M6 fighting the cotton and the hook all the way – by the time we got to Kirby Lonsdale I had crocheted a golf ball sized head and was crying out for the more civilised 2 needled sport.

The Craft Cottage in Kirby Lonsdale came to my rescue supplying me with not only a ball of Noro Silk Garden, but a pattern and a very cheap pair of 5mm – I was a much happier and nicer person after that – the 5mm are very short, which I like, most of my needles are looooooooooong (30cm usually) and are cumbersome to use…but if the 5mm don’t become a permanent addition to kit then I may give them to my goddaughter who I bought the Usbourne How to Knit book one Christmas but failed to provide wool or needles (thoughtless godmother !).

Anyway on the return trip down the M6 I made this [details] in between navigating (went off route early on)

Pattern Hareton

Needles: 5mm

Yarn Noro Silk Garden (no 248 I think)

Time: 2 hours

New: First time with Noro, I’m hooked…

This is a present for a friend, I don’t want to give it up….guess its easy enough to make another…

FO: Totally Indulgent Scarf in a Bag Part 2

Some weeks ago I was looking for oddments of brown wool and came across a half price knitting kit ( a Patons scarf in a bag), cheap as the beads were missing as was the “handmade with love” label…I think I’ve mentioned before that I got sucked into it by the lovely copper colour of the cotton and it was only later that I discovered that I’d basically scored a virtually free pair of needles and pattern paying just slightly more than the retail cost of the cotton…which not only made a scarf but contributed to the dinosaur pattern that I was looking for the brown yarn oddments for.

I made the original scarf at the beginning of March, no pics as I’d lost my camera – this is a reprise made of the same yarn but this time a nice bright spring like green, which I’d already bought before the intended recipient revealed that her current favourite colours are red and purple ! The pattern is very straight forward being every other row purl and the knit rows either an increase or a decrease row lacey type pattern.

Pattern: Patons Skinny knit scarf

Yarn: Patons Cotton

Needles: 4mm (a lovely metallic red !)

New: Nothing this time, but the first time round, possibly knitting with beads ?

WIP: Kittens and embroidery, knitting with cobwebs and fairy dust

Although most of my clothing is black and practical, despite the fact that I can stand on my own feet, will muck in quite happily with the DIY and don’t stand by doors waiting for a gentleman to open it for me, sometimes I want to be a princess, I want to wear sparkly stuff and waft around in a cloud of fairy dust (I draw the line at pink though) – sometimes I want velvet and silk rather than goretex and polartec !

The state of my wardrobe though means that I can’t really justify splashing out on fripperies when really I need a couple of decent pairs of work trousers and some tops that aren’t splashed with bleach…so I am knitting something for me, one £4.50 skein at a time…its softer than kittens, lighter than feathers…the colour is both practical and impractical at the same time being white which will go with most things, but runs the risk of getting grubbier quicker ! Oh, and there is a slight sparkle to it !

FO: Yo Ho Ahoy and other nautical expressions

 Its time to get some of my finished works out the door. I have that feeling that I have too many WIPs but in reality there are only 3, its just it feels more because there are quite a few finished and nearly finished things sitting in the basket by the fire.

A few days ago I ordered some Lett Lopi from Stash Fine Yarns of Chester (I love the service it is lightening fast). The intention was to knit something and then shrink it deliberately in the washing machine. I’ve mentioned this previously; see the “horrible hairy hand knit post below.

A wonderful coincidence of a birthday, finding a fantastic pattern that would be perfect for that birthday and placing an order for the Lopi resulted in this:

I’m so pleased with the result that I’m itching to do another. It probably needs a bit more felting but I don’t have enough control over my washing machine to put it through again and as it’s a present I don’t want to risk ruining it. 

On the next one I think I would use 4 small balls of the blue so that I’m not carrying quite so much yarn across the back as it pulls the stitches out of shape – normally for intarsia I would consider this a real no-no, but with felting it doesn’t show quite so much.

Disaster !

I have finally finished the leftover stripe hat and it’s far too big for a 7 year old…I have 6 days or so to come up with a replacement…less really as I wanted to hand this and her Mum’s present over this weekend…

Knitting…

Has been happening here, I’ve just not been feeling well enough to write about it…there are a few WIPs and quite a few FO’s…there are also rather too many things where the knitting bit has finished and I’m just waiting to sew up…oh and there are a few cock up’s where I am trying to work out what I should do for the best, frog, sew it up differently or try and shrink it in the wash.

When I last posted here I was all set to do a “season’s outfits” for small plastic dolls as a replacement birthday present for my goddaughter, having once again got head size wrong and ended up making a hat which was too big for a 7 year old – unfortunately it was also too big for a 38 year old as goddaughter’s mum loved the hat and would have liked it as her own if it had been slightly smaller.

Anyway after posting I started making dolls clothes as fast as my needles could do it…fortunately I had only made 1 dress before we took my goddaughter for a day out (may bank holiday) when, sitting watching the rain fall and eating the traditional english picnic (in the car) we had the following conversation

“so what dolls do you have ?”

“I don’t like dolls…”

You have no idea how happy I was to hear that, having 2 days before after finishing off that 1 dress deciding to knit her a felted handbag instead as I had realised that knitting an unspecified doll a whole wardrobe was going to take for ever  – the knitting would have been fine, but there was far too much making up involved !

Anyway, handbag, which will appear up here shortly with the other one I did for Mrs Lacer (Lacer’s Life) was a “palpable hit” – how do I know ? Because the handmade birthday card I received the other week had a perfect picture of it with a poem about the “Handbag of Glory” (similar to Edward Monkton’s stuff Penguin of Death etc).

Scarves, scarves, scarves…

Over the bank holiday weekend I was a little “one track” and was concentrating mainly on finishing off the Jenny Chant Scarf which has been lurking at the bottom of my “work basket” – I basically had to ban myself from thinking about any of the things I’d rather be knitting (or thinking about knitting following a birthday visit to IKnit, London) and just channel all my energies into this one scarf.

Now it’s not the scarf’s fault, it’s me.  Admittedly I hate knitting large amounts of rib especially with 3.75mm needles as it grows so slowly but the real problem is my aversion to pink…at least that’s what I thought, but when I did finally stop knitting (It wasn’t 2 metres long but when I weighed it in the kitchen it weighed 150g which was the main criteria for the scarf, 3 balls of 50g) I thought well lets try and get all this out the way in one go and made a start on the second scarf (I’d bought 3 balls of 100g), only this time with horizontal stripes.

This second scarf isn’t too bad and I can only put it down to the fact that I changed the order of the stripes – this scarf, once you get over the pinkness, the ribness and the 3.75mmness isn’t quite such a nightmare to knit – I’ve had to put it on hold though as I only have 1 pair of 3.75mm and they were needed for something else, which is slightly more urgent as children grow quickly and you can’t take ages when making something you want them to have more than a months worth of wear out of.

The bank holiday weekend was also the first posting date of a “Travelling Scarf” group which I had joined on Ravelry so I was firstly busy chasing around the countryside trying to find a postbox that would give my scarf a fighting chance of getting where it needed to be on tuesday morning and then secondly playing around with various ideas for my contribution to the scarf I had received that morning.

The idea of a travelling scarf is that each of you knits a section of scarf and then posts it to one of the other members of the group (same one each time), you then knit a section of scarf for all the scarves you get sent until you receive your scarf back again.

There are no other real rules other than that, although some people ask for particular colours or types of yarn or other criteria. Mine is a word association theme, the idea is that the person knits whatever comes into their heads on seeing the last section of scarf, does not have to be a word such as this one, you could interpret it by colour or by stitch or whatever…you can also lie about what comes into your head !

I was lucky in my first contribution as Karyann sent yarn along with her scarf so all I had to do was think what stitch I wanted to do.

Karyann’s starter is on the left here, my section of “DNA” is on the right, knitted on 4mm which seemed to match the tension of the starter square, sort of, possibly should have used 3.75mm but as mentioned before I only have 1 set.

The final scarf was a last minute present for a friend of my (the Fish Hat in March was for her son). Now the problem with knitting for people in May is that you can’t really give them winter woollies and when I think of this friend I think of chocolate brown alpaca, soft and lovely and lots of cables – not practical as a may birthday present – so instead I’ve gone for something colourful and light which can be used in the evening to brighten a black dress (a sort of shawlette) or used as a scarf in September when it starts getting chilly again.

Pattern: Whisp from Knitty

Needles: 5mm

Yarn: Laines du Nord Kiddy Print

New: Fishnet Lace ( a new stitch to me)

I ran out of yarn towards the end so it is not as large as the original and I decided against adding the buttons – it seems to have been well received…

June’s knitting will mainly be trying to finish off a cotton hoodie for Spider before he grows too big for it, this is a very slow knit as it involves  colours and is on 3.75mm, but apart from getting the order of the colours wrong I am quite pleased with how this one is working out.

Bored

I currently have 1, 2 3…oooh at least 6 things on the needles at the moment and I don’t want to do any of them. I’ve spent the evening working on something new, not knitting for my Mum’s birthday, and I can’t face doing anymore of that tonight.  I don’t however want to do any of the stuff I’ve started.

I think I may have to give myself a strong talking to and finish some of these things off, the problem is none of them have deadlines and I work better with a deadline – I blame university !

Being good

I have spent most of the last 3 days concentrating on making Mum’s birthday present and I think I’m on target for having it finished by her actual birthday, at least I will now I’ve got the bits I need to finish it off, having dragged my family remorselessly around various shops in Leamington Spa looking for it.

One of the side benefits of  yesterdays shopping trip was that I finally discovered the whereabouts of  “Web of Wool”, who kindly pointed me in the direction of the shop that I actually needed. As a “thank you” I bought a pair of short 3.75mm. I decided that it was pointless trying to continue with just 1 pair when I have so many things on the go. It also got me wondering as to why I have struggled on for over 20 years with such long needles when I actually prefer knitting with short ones.

I also purchased some sock yarn. Its plain. It’s black. OK it’s slightly silky but I wanted to have a go at making socks for socks sake without being in awe of the self striping properties of the yarn. You see I really really don’t understand this handknitted sock obsession – I have always suspected that getting a pair of handknitted socks as a christmas present would be my idea of a present from hell…but since these pages are about changing habits and attitudes of a life time I think I should at least give socks a try.

But time for some discipline. I am not allowed to start the socks until I have reduced the WIPs to a more manageable level so I’m back on the scarves. I have another metre to go on Jenny Chant II and I have already finished my section of the latest travelling scarf.  Tillymint sent some stretchy shiny purple yarn with her section so all I had to do was think of a stitch, which wasn’t hard as the yarn was calling to me that it wanted to pretend to be webbing. I will do a seperate post in about 2 months time with all the travelling scarfs, I don’t want to spoil anyones fun by putting them up here now.

Once the JC scarf is finished I have some hats to sort out. The biggest dillema is what to do with “Rosie” which is the cotton hat that came out far too large. Actually that seems to be a common problem for me as the charity sailors hat came out far too large too.

FO: Purple Camouflage Hat

I started knitting again last February when a brief trip round John Lewis resulted in me finding myself standing in the high street with a ball of some lovely soft mirasol in “electric purple” and a brown/grey ball of kidsilk haze – 3 months later and the kidsilk had been knitted into a shawl and then frogged, yet I was still waiting for inspiration for the mirasol.

The mirasol was destined to be a chemo hat for a lovely work colleague who used to leave purple inspiration on my desk when she thought I looked blue. Well the mirasol has finally turned itself into a hat,but I am not sure about it. I’d like to think its because I chose the wrong pattern, but the truth is I’ve started and frogged several patterns before I chose this one, and I think that it may be that I don’t like variegated yarns.

I love the yarns when you see them in the shop as a skien, all those lovely combinations of colours calling to you from the shelves, but often they just don’t seem to knit up in a way that does justice to the yarn, and I’ve tried knitting this up in a variety of widths but its just not doing it for me at all…perhaps this yarn wanted to be a pair of socks and not a hat after all.

Anyway, here is the finished object and a rare picture of me – please note that this is not an intentional copying of the style of the magnificent knittivists over at Glittyknittykitty - I had problems finding something I could take a pic of the hat on which didn’t also involve revealing that I haven’t vacuumed for about 2 weeks – the sunglasses belong to one of my stepsons and is a vain attempt at obscuring what I look like. I ran out of yarn so the flap at the bottom is not quite as long as I would have liked. The button is one left over from a big chunky cardigan that I made for a friend some 13 years ago and I haven’t found a home for it until now…I think perhaps the button is the nicest bit…I may just donate this hat to some good cause or other as I have had a better idea for my Purple Princess.

Pattern: Pi Topper Chemo Cap

Yarn: Mirasol Yarn Chirapa

Needles: 4.5mm

New: knitting a hat in the round, mirasol, variegated yarns

If anyone wants the hat then please drop me a line before Friday when I shall be posting a number of the charity knits off. I’m getting ruthless with the house and the clutter as I’ve had a brilliant idea for making sure that I can keep all my equipment in order and prevent it getting mixed up with all the boy toys that fill the house.

A cunning plan to get my brother out from under the bed

My actual brother is alive and well and living in Berkshire and, as far as I can recall can’t fit under his bed as it’s a divan. The brother I am referring to is a Brother PS-31 sewing machine last used with intent (if I remember rightly) in 2001.

Despite having knocked the house down some 18 months ago and rebuilt it with a 50% increase in space there still does not appear to be sufficient room for the 3 of us (plus weekend inhabitants). This is all down to inadequate use of the space available and not having finished off the house yet.

At present Husband and I share a wardrobe, at some point there will be a built in wardrobe. In theory sharing a wardrobe shouldn’t be a problem because although Husband has a lot of clothes I have very few. It doesn’t work however because although I have close to no clothes, Husband really does have A LOT and the wardrobe is really very very small.

As a result, apart from about 7 hangers in the wardrobe most of my clothes are under the bed in boxes. Also under the bed are 2 boxes of year/yarn ends, my sewing machine and a jumbled crate of sewing bits.

Why I want to get the sewing machine out and in use has a lot to do with my lack of clothing. Now I know that a lot of women claim that they have “nothing to wear” but in my case it’s true because I hate shopping; I am a horrible shape; I have an internal northerner who on seeing the price on an article of clothing goes “how much ?”; I have no confidence in my ability to by clothes that suit me; Oh and I am reluctant to buy clothes anyway because they all seem to be badly made in the first place – have lost count of the number of pair of trousers whose hem fall down within the first week.

I did periodically buy from charity shops but now everyone is buying from there the choice is going down and the price is going up. So I have decided to give making my own clothes ago as at least this way I stand a chance of them fitting properly, I might find something I like, I don’t have to go through the trauma of shopping and if they fall apart I only have myself to blame.

Sure you can buy clothes cheaper than it costs to buy the material to make them, but then the material is usually poor quality anyway and, as mentioned above they tend to fall apart (whether its supermarket, Next M&S whatever none of them seem to last anymore) – so the way I see it I have nothing to lose. Admittedly my sewing experience is limited to a ball gown, several pairs of curtains/cushions and a roman blind – very proud of the roman blind as I didn’t follow instructions but worked out how to do it myself – but I have never considered lack of experience as a bar – the only way you ever master something is by trying it in the first place.

So this morning, making the most of Husband’s absence (he’s gone to Le Mans) I am rearranging the house, primarily by commandeering the wardrobe in the stepsons’ bedroom for my clothing, after all Teenager keeps very few clothes here and those he does keep seem to be all over the floor !

Today the house, tomorrow the world… Mwahahahaha !

Trying something new

My Mum’s reaction to her birthday present was “fantastic, if you can do this then you can finish my japanese lady off” – turns out she was half way through something before the RSI kicked in big time and made it too painful to finish off. Not sure this is quite my thing really but I’m always happy to help…

My Mum’s birthday party had a nice surprise for me too, but that can wait for another night.

Presents for me

My Mum’s birthday last week was the first time for ages that I’d had an opportunity of seeing my Brother and  his lovely Islay (sister in law) and since we’d last met both Husband and I had had birthdays. So the weekend was a great opportunity to swap gifts and catch up on gossip.

I was the fortunate recipient of a whole new set of bamboo knitting needles, and what’s more they are short ones – yay ! I can’t believe I have struggled on for about 24 years now with such long needles – although I am not knocking them, they do come in very useful for some of the adult jumpers I occasionally knit, but most of my knitting in the last few years has been for smaller people !

Yesterday I was also the lucky recipient of an unexpected act of kindness from Mrs Lacer (Lacer’s Life) but I have already written about that on Appetite for Cake so check out write up by Mrs Lacer here - also her picture is better than mine.

WIP: Such a slacker

I haven’t been posting much on either blog of late, partly due to internet connection problems and partly because I used to write most of them during my lunch hour at work and instead I go out for a walk in a futile attempt to shift the blubber around my midriff  (muffin tops ? hell I’ve got a whole brioche sticking out the top of my trousers !).

Anyway I’ve  been using the time in the evenings at home that I used to waste noodling around on the internet to try and finish some of the WIP’s (trying so hard to be disciplined and not start anything new). So I have 2 Jenny Chant scarves now finished, (ends weaved in etc) in vertical and horizontal scarves respectively.

I also have made inroads into the cotton hoodie that I am knitting for Spider. It’s the Waves hoodie by Sasha Kagan from The Knitter magazine. I changed it to shades of blue plus lilac as I didn’ like the colours used on the one shown in the magazine. I will admit that the lilac doesn’t work where it is and if I were to do it again – which I won’t as it’s a very annoying jumper to knit – I would change the order.

Anyway, this is what the pattern looks like

Arse

Apologies to my Mum for the title of this post but it is an accurate reflection of my mood and the fact that I am kicking myself at the moment.

Started the front of the Waves hoodie last night. Am about 20 rows into the chart when I look over at the sleeve of the hoodie which is lying on the sofa following some photographing. I suddenly realise with horror that I have the order of my colours wrong. I unravell the front all the way back to the moss stitch border, roll the yarn up and put it all away for the evening – can’t face doing anymore.

As I put the sleeve back in the bag also I realise that I’d been looking at it upside down. Yep, I’ve just frogged 20 rows of perfectly good knitting for nothing.

I hate myself right now – looking for something simple to waste tomorrow evening on as I can’t face reknitting the front just yet – perhaps it’s time to sort out Rosy…

What to do about Rosie ?

Rosie (Rowan Magazone no 25)  is the hat I made for my god daughter. The hat for a 7 year old which was far too big even for Husband. It looks like thisI think that if I can get it to the right size then it may actually be quite a cute hat, something a 7 year old girl would quite like, in fact her Mum (age 38) is quite taken with it if it wasn’t for the size – I think its the  power of the flower.Rosie has been sitting in my workbasket for about 2 months now whilst I’ve tried to decide what to do with her. I possibly unwisely decided to unravel her and reknit – this has so far resulted in a birds nest of multi coloured cotton and after yesterdays unravelling incident I can’t quite face reknitting her – what I need is something simple to calm my slightly frazzled nerves – Rosie is not yet a nice simple knit but she will be if I can ever make sense of this mess of cotton.

Socks

I’m sorry, but I just don’t get it, why ? And its not because I can’t use circular needles or dpn, I can…it’s just why ?

Too hot to knit

I’m knitting, but it’s far too hot. I’ve mothballed the alpaca scarf and the 2 hoodie’s for Spider, can’t face any of these until the heat dies down…so I’m trying something new and to be honest it hurts !

I was in Rugby today buying a present for Spider, the pre-school has an end of year meeting with parents prior to heading to reception in September, and this is, sad to say the first time in 2 years that I’ve had an in depth conversation with anyone about how my boy is doing, and I’m pleased to say that he’s doing well, he is “on target” they won’t say more than that but they did indicate that he’s a bright boy with an amazing vocabulary -so yes, he’s earned the playmobil roman catapult.

Anyway on the way back to the car I spotted a sewing shop. We stopped and I splashed out on 2 meters of red cotton with big white spots – think Minnie Mouse – my sewing machine however is still dust covered as I also bought a reel of 28 gauge red wire.

An hour of torture and blisters later I have a very very small square of wire knitting which I have squidged into the shape of a heart…I am not convinced it is worth the effort…we’ll see what the other one looks like and whether with a bit of work they look like earrings.

A coincidence…

I stopped off between meetings today to deliver some courgette plants to my sister in law/brother – as usual we did not talk just reacted to children telling us things we “never knew” – the email conversation later was about knitting with wire – I had admired with a look a bracelet she was wearing…later she had checked out Being frank and noticed I’d been knitting with wire, as had she (not yet confirmed whether it was that bracelet)…but aside from jewellery, Islay enquired was there any point in knitting with wire?

Well I guess it depends on how inventive you are – some of the jewellery designs I’ve seen have been really cool but I probably wouldn’t do it because it involves too much investment in beads and fixings and I’m not sure I want to go there.

I have just invested in a knitted wire book as it was going cheap on Amazon, will list it here when I finish the second heart earring but it is mainly jewellery…I am also knitting at the moment a shirt made with a yarn devised from wire…which is much much more flexible but I am just not sure…

The question Islay raised is “is there much use for knitting with wire (in view of the fact it hurts) other than jewellery ?

Who’s afraid of Big Brother (PS31)

My sewing machine has sat in the dinning room for over 3 weeks now, a brooding presence in the corner, silently accusing me of fear and failure. Well this weekend I conquered the fear, I found the instructions, threaded it, wound the bobbin on and all the other things you are supposed to do before you start a sewing project – even tested the tension.

I plucked up my courage and took sissors to the material, I cut and tacked. I pressed all my seams and neatend them – I’ve even tackled putting a zip in, having found a whole batch of assorted zips I’d picked up from somewhere along the line. Quite brave really – shame its all wasted effort as I’ve already ruined it all by cutting the skirt too short…

I am not deterred though, whilst I was picking up some interfacing from Dunelm for the waistband I also picked up 2 more lengths of cloth to have a play with – and even if I have messed up the “Minnie Mouse Skirt” (red with big white dots), it only cost £8 for 2 metres…

I hadn’t planned to sew this weekend. I am trying to finish off some of the part finished knitting projects. If I make a real effort for the rest of the week I may be able to finish off at least 4 of them as they don’t really need much to complete. I have

2 red heart earrings (knitted wire) – need to be placed on fittings

Cat Teacosy – needs sewing up plus some wadding

Alpaca Scarf – needs ends sewing in and blocking

Green Bootees  – need buttons, which have been in my handbag for weeks

Steggie – the horrid hairy handknit, just needs the hood knitting

Dolls dress – sewing up, buttons

Going to try and finish all these this week and post the latest version of the travelling scarf

Self Control (WIPs)

I have been ignoring the John Lewis clearance sale, in fact I have been ignoring it for the last 2 weeks. This second week has been much easier as I’ve just had to spend over £300 on the car (service, windscreen, new MAF air sensor). A prudent knitter would buy the yarn when its cheap and stash it until she’s ready to use it but I am useless, as soon as I buy some new yarn I want to see how it knits up and unfortunately I’m incapable of just stopping with a tension square, which is of course how I ended up having so much on the go.

Anyway this week I have been working hard as I promised:

Minnie Mouse Cartoon Skirt – zip in, seams done, need to gather and attach waistband and hem – might take zip out and redo..

Alpaca Scarf – blocking, decided not to crochet round the edge as I’m not good enough

Wire earrings – been looking for the beads etc

Dinosaur Zip up aka the horrible hairy handknit – virtually finished, just need to sew zip in

Teacosy – read make up insts, looking for wadding

Travelling Scarf – latest installment posted.

I’ve also been through stash and bundled up the leftovers to go to a charity in Sheffield and various charity knits ready to post

My halo is glowing…fish tank still needs cleaning though !

ps Not been completley honest about the amount I have on the go, there is still the last of the UFO’s from under the bed, the teddy bear, a test knitted icon (marilyn monroe) and “seatangles” which is a strange top knitted with a yarn based on stainless steel ! I think that’s it, honest…

A lost bear (FO)

Once upon a time a little boy was invited to a teddy bears adventure party. As the party was in the afternoon his Mummy took him into central Birmingham to watch a scary film about dinosaurs in 3D

As the film might be scary Mummy suggested he might wish to take his bear with him. He might also like to have his bear with him for the party in the afternoon. The boy agreed and the bear was duly placed in the car and carefully strapped in.

The film was fun but scary and the boy was glad that he had his trusty Even bear to cuddle. He held tight to the bear through the film and was still holding tightly as Mummy and boy went on to Think Tank, Birmingham’s science museum.

When they returned to the car, the boy turned to his Mummy and said “Mummy, where’s Even bear?”  Yes at some point whilst wondering around pressing buttons and pulling levers, the boy had put Even bear down and forgotten to pick him up again. Fortunately on returning to the museum Even bear was located quickly, patiently waiting in the same place for his boy to return.

It was agreed by Mummy and the boy that Even bear had had a nasty shock and needed a nice present to cheer him up. The boy wanted Mummy to teach him to knit so that he could make a scarf but instead Mummy agreed to knit one that afternoon and they made a quick detour to Dunelm for some boy sized needles and some wool.

Whilst the boy charged around the nature reserve with his friends making hides for hedgehogs and other games, Mummy and Even bear (who had had quite enough excitement for one day) followed him, Mummy knitting as she went.

That night in bed the bear that the boy cuddled up to was sporting a lovely new red shiny scarf.   The End.

Yarn – patons orient (red)

Needles: 4mm (child size)

Pattern: Knit, 10 stitches, continue until desired size

New: nothing

LYS: I KNIT

I know that this isn’t my local, but I have a fairly flexible definition of local as being somewhere you can shop easily without having to go out of your way to reach it!

A couple of months ago on the way back from a meeting in London I made a detour round the back of Waterloo Station to Lower March Road and the knitting sanctuary that is IKnit. In my pocket I had £25 birthday money (yes 38yo still have birthday money) specifically given for splurging on whatever I pleased in the knitting line.

There were many things that I liked about this shop but what most impressed me was their “service”.  Due to a slight mix up at the till, one of my purchases did not get put in the bag but was left on the counter. Unfortunately I didn’t discover this until I was about to catch my train at Marylebone. When I phoned up to explain the problem, they couldn’t have been nicer and put the missing item straight in the post to me. Then the other day, again between meetings I nipped in to the shop  to buy and to get some advice on something before buying. Whilst paying for my purchases I asked if I could have my change in 10p’s for the toilets at Waterloo, on hearing of my “need” they did better than provide me with change and  without hesitation they offered me the use of their toilet !

The essentials: IKnit stock a wide range of yarns to suit all purses and budget. The staff are very helpful and knowledgeable about their stock. They are happy to provide assistance and advice if asked but realise the importance of letting customers take their time in deciding what to buy. They can be found at 106 Lower Marsh, Waterloo, London, SE1 7AB.

photo of purchases to follow when I find my camera !

FO: Alpaca Travelling Scarf

I am still  periodically knitting these travelling scarves. I may no,t as originally planned, feature them all on here as I keep forgetting to take photographs before I post them.  This on the other hand is a genuine travelling scarf in that it was pretty much all knitted whilst driving around the south coast a few weeks ago.

The yarn is 100% alpaca from Toft Alpacas. They ship it a grand distance of 15 miles away to Banbury to be spun and then it is shipped back to Dunchurch (near Rugby) to be sold. This is about as local and as low a carbon footprint as you can get!

I fell in love with the chocolate coloured yarn sometime ago and it took me a long time to find a pattern that suited it…anyway I am very happy with the result.

I love the fact that it is a vertical stitch on one side and horizontal on the other. I also love the magical way that the pattern develops. I started off disbelieving that you could get vertical colours from the stitches as they were set out in the pattern and was left believing in witchcraft!

Yarn Toft Alpaca DK (100% alpaca) in chocolate and cream

Needles: 5mm

Pattern: Ripe (from the Anticraft)

New: nothing

LYS: One that shall remain nameless

Sometimes the service that you get from a shop is not all it could be. One shop which is local to me has provided a service that has been far from shall we say “prompt”.

The shop itself is well stocked with a wide range of yarns in a wide range or prices. Likewise the knitting “gubbins” suit both luxury and budget buyers and there is a good selection of knitting bits and bobs.  When you are in the shop they are very helpful, there if you need them but keep their distance when you browse.

They also provide a mail order service, postage is free I believe over a certain weight. Now because parking is not always cheap or easy in this particular town (and I’m rarely in a position to go there anyway during work hours) I decided to utilise the mail order service. Also something I needed was not in stock but could be ordered. So at the end of June I placed an order.  After 2 weeks I had heard nothing so I emailed them asking if payment had been OK and whether the delay was due to waiting on the out of stock item. Reply? I had none, nothing, absolute silence.

When my bank statement came through and confirmed the payment had gone through I tried to call them.  I tried several times but kept getting the answer machine but couldn’t leave a message as the machine was full. I began to get concerned that they might have gone out of business, but no, my Mum confirmed that they were still trading. I called again. This time I was able to leave a message and asked them to call me about my missing order. That was Friday. If I hear nothing by Thursday then I may email from my work address – with the automatic signature in place. If that doesn’t get results then I will just have to go into the shop and ask for a refund.

Despite being a believer in supporting your local shops, I don’t think I will be using them again!

FO: Steggie

About 2 weeks ago I finally finished Steggie. This has not been a happy knit as I chose the wrong yarn, I also bought too much of it, but that hasn’t been a problem because whereas I’m not happy with it as a jumper as a yarn for felting it is truly fantastic.

When I finally finished I realised that although its fine in the arms and the chest, my boy suffers from the same problem I do, namely a long long back. The jumper just doesn’t fit it, or rather it fits now but won’t do by the time the winter comes…not that this is a problem really as there is very little sun around at the moment.

I will be making this again but probably in red and turn it into a dragon – dragons are almost as popular in this house as dinosaurs.

I haven’t bothered putting a zip in yet. He’s wearing it as just a shrug on at the moment. It will acquire a zip before it gets passed on to someone smaller.Needles: 5.5mm

Yarn Lett Lopi

Pattern: Steggie

New: possibly the raglan sleeves, think I did them about 20 years ago, but didn’t enjoy the experience so not done them since.

Notes for next time: Planning on knitting it all as one piece as much as possible to avoid a lot of the seams. Better choice of yarn. Difficulty tracking down a zip means I might put button holes in the next one.

A stitch marker in time

In the past I have been scornful of stitch markers, “they’re for wimps” not for “serious experienced knitters like me” I would laugh back at the pattern instructions. But I was deluding myself. Serious experienced knitters recognise when a bit of help from a silly little thing like a stitch marker could save them several wasted hours going back and reknitting.

It was easy to delude myself as I wasn’t doing the sort of patterns that you need to keep track of such as cables or lace. Intasia, at least the big chart stuff tends to keep track of itself as all you have to do is count some rows and compare it to the number of stitches in a particular colour on a chart – spotting mistakes is quite easy.

Also instructions that say “place marker” to aid decreasing or increasing usually found me to lazy to go and find a safety pin or whatever and I would just rely on counting.

What has brought a change of heart in me is firstly knitting an occasional cable repeat in a wrap (Lilly Chin reversible wrap) and discovering that Rowan Kidsilk Haze is a pain to frog as the rows stick together. Secondly I’m knitting a lace based jumper for myself and finding it hard to keep track of the stitches. I had been counting from the edge, but the edges have started decreasing for the armholes and I keep forgetting how many stitches I’ve decreased by !

To begin with I’ve been using waste yarn to mark stitches with, its cheap and I don’t have to go on a big search to find it, but the jumper I’m knitting is in black and the fibres from the waste yarn (red) show up significantly where they have shed. So I may have a go at making my own little markers as I have some wire left over from some wire knitting and a few beads and things from other projects.

I will no longer scoff at instructions to use stitch markers, I have learned my lesson…the hard way…

Knitting has been happening

As the title says I have been knitting, rather a lot as it happens but with everything else that’s been happening I haven’t had any chance to photograph it and write about it. Busy weekend too as we have relatives over from Oz and I have a house to tidy again and need to visit the post office if nothing else as its another posting day for the travelling scarf…and I need to send Jam to Neath, South Wales (it’s a hobby !).

Still no sign of the missing yarn – if I get chance I will dig out my bank statement and head into Leamington Spa to the shop that has failed to deliver my order.

NQFO: The minnie mouse skirt

I have, on and off for the past month or so, been making a skirt…or busking a skirt would be a better description as I haven’t followed a pattern just gone on “instinct”…

I popped into a shop in Rugby towards the end of July (I think) to see if they had some wire for wire knitting and found myself drawn towards some bright red (thin) cotton with big white polka dots and I just knew that this material was what I needed to kick me into dragging the sewing machine out from under the bed, threading it and then trying to relearn what I used to know. I also, at that time happened to have been reading Yeah, I made it myself: Ethine Farry

The sensible thing would have been to have searched for a pattern to suit what I could see in my head (Minnie Mouse)  or a pattern that would make up a skirt that would suit the material or even to have used one of the ideas in the book. But no, I decided I could find a way of “building” what I could mentally see, and yes, it has been a process of construction, and demolition everytime I’ve gone wrong, followed by a rebuild in a slightly different way.

Here is a selection of my mistakes

• I managed to cock up my measurements and cut the material to different sizes
• It took 3 attempts to put the zipper in, on the 3rd attempt I realised I had a zipper foot for the machine
• I cut the waistband too small and forgot to overlap for the buttons
• my gathers are uneven

It is badly made and wonky but I am feeling quietly pleased with myself now that I have almost finished it – on sunday I am off round to my mum’s to stand on her coffee table so that she can pin the hem up for me so that its almost even.

I have shown myself that I can do it and with a bit of practice might actually make something I’d dare to wear out. Mum suggests I buy a pattern and try making the same thing several times over – she is probably right, but first I have to find something I like.

In the meantime, I think, that at the age of 38 I may have fallen in love with textiles – not with fashion. Fashion can go hang. Me I think I will be happy if I can make something that doesn’t make me look like a sack tied up with string and is from a fabric that I love.

Anyway I have the bug. Earlier in the week I went back to the same shop in Rugby for a small bit of material to line a bag and came out £11 poorer having got lost in the remnants basket – there was also an incident 3 weeks earlier in Dunelm when I spent £20 on various bits and pieces. I am slowly building up a drawer of material with vague plans as to what they are destined to be…for most of them I will actually try and find a bona fide pattern to fit what I want to try and reduce the chance of cock up, but for some I don’t think the pattern has been invented yet, unfortunately I ran out of light this evening before I could take a photo of my “stash” …my family know what I am planning for one particular piece of cloth and I think they are afraid.

Been a busy week on the knitting front. I hope to put some stuff up later in the week but Husband and I are sharing a laptop as a Spider related accident meant that a cup of milk got spilt all over Husband’s laptop.

I like…

I know this is meant to be a knitting blog but I’m allowed to digress…inspiration has to come from somewhere…

Anyway I was looking for something and as usual found something else, so using the blog to bookmark it so I don’t lose it completley…

This is a cheap skirt if you manage to collect together a load of scrap bits that go together. If I was a bit more awake and savy with the pics function of this blog I would be able to bring the photo into my post – but I’m not, but it is worth checking it out – honest !

Cheap as chips…

Most people I know (girls/women anyway) have a selection of “slobbing around the house clothes”, clothes of a loose fit that are as comfortable as an old slipper that they can just shrug on in the evening or on a Sunday morning when they are not going to see anyone. For most of them it seems to be a pair of jogging bottoms or something similar. As I tend to spend most of my working day in trousers my Sunday morning choice is a long black skirt with an elasticated waist and has been since I was 20 and found the first in a series in a lovely and long since gone shop in Reading called Saffron Moon (yes, it was the sort of shop that sells incense and carved wooden objects). The first one was black Indian cotton with black embroidery which eventually washed to a soft as butter feel and on the grey side of black.

One of the remnants I found last saturday just called out to be transformed into a comfort skirt. The shop it came from is called Mo’s Fabric and Dance and since a lot of its clientele are buying material to make costumes for dancing you will perhaps not be surprised to hear that a lot of the material is sprinkled with sequins.

Back when I had my first house and did things like make my own curtains I ordered a lucky dip of haberdashery bits from a firm called Croft Mill (whose catalogues were a thing of joy – sadly they seem to have stopped doing mail order) EDIT at least I thought they had but on searching for a link they seem to have started again but on a slightly smaller scale. Some of the things in the lucky dip were used a long time ago, but some of them I could never see myself using but for some reason I hung on to despite my clearing out last November of all my bits of material and knitting (I am regretting being so organised now !). Anyway when I saw the brown drapey sequined stuff at Mo’s I just knew that it belonged with the length of 2 inch wide elastic that was lurking upstairs…You need to see the picture below to appreciate the true horror of this elastic and understand why I have never used it before !

The material was £3, the cotton 70p from cardiff market and I would estimate the elastic as probably £1 at that. here is the photo of the material – and I promise I won’t be wearing this out !

FO: Minnie

Finally, with some help from my guru finished my dotty skirt. As soon as I got home I just had to drag my photographer out onto some waste ground(our garden) for some scenic pictures – all the best fashion photography takes place in industrial decay !Pattern: Dirndl, bodged together after reading various websites

Material: red and white polka dots from Mo’s Fabric and Dance

New: Nothing but its been a long time

Time taken: 2 months !

FO: A clutch of handbags

I started knitting again with the intention of trying to move away from the Intarsia/fair isle stuff and to try some new techniques – to try to expand my capabilities. It is with some shame and guilt therefore that I have to confess that I seem to be knitting the same thing over and over again…and in very similar colours.

It’s just I enjoy knitting this pattern and there is a certain childlike fascination with sticking the finished product in the wash and deliberately shrinking it – normally if I did this to something I made I would be shrieking in horror as I removed it from the washing machine instead of the dance of glee and happiness that I actually do!

The first time it was made very deliberately and planned in advance. I followed the instructions pretty much to the letter for Portia at work [here].   The next time was for Mrs Lacer and I played with the colours a bit and the method of construction.

The next 3 were slightly more hurried affairs where I was running out of time for a birthday present. Firstly for Cookie my Goddaughter who informed me just before her birthday that she didn’t like dolls – so I made her this instead.

The last 2 were made during August for some very good friends. H’s was very similar to Mrs Lacer only due to shortage of time I only put a skull on one side of the bag and then knitted a shiny red lining out of the Patons Orient I’d used for Even bear’s scarf.  Lovely Lullabelle received one with a flower and a fabric lining…and actually I think she is more in love with the lining material!

Anyway I think I am all pirate tote-d out now. Time to try something different, something new. I may do some more felting at some point but not to this pattern. I’d also like to stop knitting skulls but that may not happen for awhile as some of the stuff I’ve made recently has been admired and requests have been made!

FO: Fluffy

This one has been sitting waiting to be photographed for awhile but I keep frogging the hat to go with it and trust me this yarn is horrible to unravel.

Fraser bear is sporting a very simple scarf for a 7 year old girl made out of patons whisper. I actually started thinking about Christmas at the start of the summer holidays (as opposed to the start of the Christmas holidays)

Yarn: patons whisper (just over 50g)

Needles: 4mm

Pattern: knit until reach desired size

New: nothing

Tangerine torture and batman

Sometimes we make promises to people and regret them later. I auctioned myself for water aid earlier in the year or rather my services. I promised to knit whatever the winning bidder wanted. Not quite so crazy a promise as you might think as the caveat was that they pay for yarn – yarn is not cheap so I figured that no one would have the money to pay for decent yarn on top of whatever they bid for my services.  I reckoned without someone who had 2 x 10 balls of rowan wool in their loft.

I will tell you more later in the week about what I am actually doing and why it is perhaps not quite so much fun as it could be.

This evening however I am skiving off. I had a lucky find in a charity shop and after 2.5 days of 4ply I welcomed a change. My charity find is also 4 ply but there is a lot of it and the pattern is fun fun fun. But I can’t say much more as its a present for someone who will love the end result despite the fact that the 100% pure rowan wool came from the British Heart Foundation.

Charity shop treasure hunt

Having recently purchased a replacement car for the work commute we are on rather a tight budget now. We are also on holiday in the lake district, an area famed, much like wales for rain (we are getting a lot) and sheep.

But instead of searching out rare and unusual local yarns I am trawling the local charity shops for yarn. There hasn’t been a lot but i have managed to track down a few prize items and avoid the acrylic. So far I have spent £3 total and found (so the scales in the kitchen tell me) 150g Rowan 4ply in black, 25g 2ply god knows what in a wet sky blue colour, 50g aran in white, 50g double knit in red – all of which I am certain are 100% wool.

A thing of beauty

The person who bid and won my services in the Water Aid auction asked if I would knit the cardigan shown on the cover of this 1942 Woman and Home magazine. I’m hoping that the cardigan will turn out ok but the magazine itself is definitely a thing of beauty.

It is full of wonderful adverts such as “Persil Washes Gently ’someone’s missus takes care of his shirts’” and “Don’t waste heat, keep your oven grease free – Kleenoff cleans cookers”, “How fuel can be saved…use Parazone to whiten your linens and cottons” and “Bairns Wear knitting wools – I heard Mummy saying how difficult it is to get Bairns Wear for knitting out woollies, so we will have to be careful – they’ve got to last a long time”

There are patterns for renervating a winter coat, making a skirt out of an old coat and a baby coat out of an old jacket.

A strange article on the danger of kissing… a pattern for a shopping bag “This Bag will save the wrapping paper – put your shopping in it instead of letting the shop wrap your groceries up in paper” (very topical)  – oh and Menopax for women of middle age “In Grandma’s day women had to put up with many things that today would not be tolerated…”

When I get back home I shall photocopy the cardigan pattern and return it as its far too delicate a magazine to put up with the usual abuse my patterns go through.

The cardigan itself is lovely but not something I would chose to knit as it is 100% rib (k2, p2) which I really disike and done on 3.25 and 2.25mm needles (I rarely use something so thin) – oh and the original yarn is 3ply so I’ve had to put a lot of work into working out how to get the right tension… and I’m having to knit it in stages as of course when you are knitting something to order it becomes much more important to get a correct fit…its getting rid of a lot of my usual lazy habits

Anyway I am now a sleeve and left front to the good and on monday it’s off to Hatfield with a batch of fitting instructions and on its return I suspect there will be a lot of frogging and reknitting…

Torture – but worth it for the joy of fondling this gem of history… I really miss my mum’s Pins and Needles magazines she had about 5 years worth dating from the late 60’s and early 60’s plus another batch from the mid 80’s – I used to spend hours reading my way through them…

FO: Ripley the Elf Boy

I fell in love with Ripley as soon as I saw it over on Ysolda, I knew that I had to knit it at some point between now and Christmas after I’d finished most of what is already on the needles.  I hadn’t anticipated making it so soon but its been very very wet here and we have spent the last 2 days of our holiday inside watching the rain fall on the garden.

Saturday morning I sloped off on my own to Kirby Lonsdale to do another charity shop trawl, but Kirby it would appear is too posh to have charity or secondhand shops so I ended up in the Craft Cottage again (and once again got led astray by a ball of noro ) who supplied me with a no 6mm circular and some aran.

This is a lovely pattern, its very er “architectural” and a joy to knit although the decreasing at the crown takes for ever. The Craft Cottage didn’t have the 6mm dpn recommended but fortunately you only use them for the band which is knitted back and forth (and I have a whole set of needles with me this holiday) and when it gets difficult on the crown – but I used the 4.5mm dpns I had with me for the last 6 rows.

I didn’t swatch as its not as if I could change to another circular needle or use different yarn, on this wet bank holiday weekend in the middle of nowhere I just have to make do with what I’ve got.

It’s for a friend. I hope it will fit. I’ve knitted the medium which appears to be a good fit for Spider who agreed to model for the photo as long as he didn’t have to wear it – “I look like an Elf Mummy, people laugh at people who look like an elf”. (its more purple than the picture shows it).

Still needs a bit of finishing as I don’t have a tapestry needle with me to tidy up the ends…anyway, back to the 4ply I guess…and the cleaning as its “going home time today”

Pattern Ripley (Ysolda Teague)

Yarn: King Cole Aran (pure Merino) in aubergine

Needles: 6mm circ and 4.5mm dpn

New:using a circular needle and the “pleats” used to gather up the back of the hat oh and this is my first Ysolda pattern.

Bad day made good

I have a number of draft post on knitting but not in the mood this evening. It’s been a difficult day and even though I think things have worked out for the best I doubt Spider would understand – but remind me next time, never promise things to children.

We were due to go to Brum today to the Imax to see one of the 3D dinosaur films they have, they do 3. Anyway for some reason I decided to log onto the website and check timing and which one was on, only to discover that it was not the underwater one but the only other one we have seen. Spider was keen to see it again whatever but unsurprisingly in view of how much it costs I was firm in my refusal… cue sulks all day.

But I maintain I was right as not only was there trouble in Birmingham today (no idea which bit) but we had a somewhat cold but good day watching the Vulcan just outside Leicester – which Spider loves, but because he was in a bad mood and tired all day he refused to join the fun – he’s so stubborn that boy (if my Mum is reading this then she is saying “He’s so like his mother at that age”).

But the day has finished well, I am watching Elizabethville which is a lovely feel good movie and wearing my latest skirt, which needs a hem, but its pretty and makes me feel good.

I am liking my sewing machine. It is making me happy, not as happy as knitting needles do, but I am having fun remembering what I’ve done in the past…I’m never going to be good, I’ve started too late in life (have I mentioned that my Mum used to make all my clothes when we were in the south pacific ?) but I love the speed in which you can put something you have designed into practice – sooooo much faster than knitting !

Since the age of 13 as far as I can recall I have made

1 x grey/red cotton dirndl skirt*

1 ball gown*

1 pair of lilac curtains

2 x cushion covers

1 x roman blind

1 x handkerchief point skirt

1 x polka dot skirt (dirndl)

1 x brown “velour” tube skirt

* indicates all the times I have made something using a pattern, what it doesn’t show is the things I have started out making using a pattern and haven’t finished. If I’m using a pattern I never seem to finish it, as it’s “meant” to look in a certain way. If I don’t use a pattern then I keep going working out what I’m meant to do until it looks like its meant to, and I will undo and redo again and again until it does… I follow knitting patterns, I am incapable of following a formal sewing pattern. I will experiment with sewing, but with knitting I follow the rules…

Progress…of a sort

We are trying to rationalise the house, to make it “work”, to make it so that you don’t have to spend 45 minutes trying to find something that you found easily the day before…this has mainly entailed taking the “office” to pieces and moving it’s contents into Teenager’s room for sorting – as usual we ran out of time and have ended up with an empty office and a spare room full of stuff – which wouldn’t have been a problem as Teenager doesn’t often sleep here but unfortunately Spider has popped into our bed at 4am in the morning the last 2 nights and wriggled around so much that Husband left to find somewhere he could have a less disturbed nights sleep only to remember that the spare bed (Teenager’s bed) is covered with the contents of the office.

I have been doing my bit. As well as finding a home for several bags of boys clothes and rather a lot of Duplo I finally managed to find a home for the Purple  Chemo Hat and Ripley finally headed north to it’s new home, a friend who possibly needed a bit of cheering up at the end of August but possibly doesn’t anymore …

I’ve almost finished the Bat Shawl (the black 4ply from the charity shop) – but have had to knit back as I got my right and wrong sides mixed up and didn’t realise it until 4 rows later (a row now consists of about 200 stitches so it’s taken time to correct my cock up).  The Tangerine torture is back from its recipient, the sleeve needs another inch but otherwise is fine, the left front  needs another inch, but will need to be frogged back to the beginning as I agreed with the auction winner that perhaps it needed the same needles all the way up rather than the first 4 inches being a finer rib as recommended in the pattern (ick…).

I’ve also made a start on my 3rd skirt, which is a Clothkit, ordered from them at the beginning of August when they were offering 25% everything bought that weekend – the Rob Ryan Long Skirt that I’d ordered however has turned out to be very popular and I had to wait whilst they reprinted – I was wondering whether it was worth making such a summery lightweight skirt in autumn, but the weather this weekend has been better than most of the rest of the summer.

FO: September Safari

At some point there will be a photo of the skirt that I made at the beginning of September. It has been waiting since then for me to take it round to my Mum’s where I will be begging for help with hemming it, and it has been waiting for me to photograph it – but with the nights starting to get shorter I’m finding it difficult to take a decent pic -may have to break out the SLR and do it properly.

The details

Thread – bought in Cardiff market 95p

Material a sort of velvet jersey with sequins in a lovely chocolate brown colour (£3)

Waist: Elasticated, Leopard print, about 2 inches wide, purchased in a job lot from Croft Mill in 1995 (£1)

This is so cheap, so comfortable and looks fantastic in a weird Bet Lynch sort of way. Very easy to make it involved 1 seam and then sewing the waist to the elastic. Unfortunately I then had the bright idea of trying to neaten things off with bias binding wich I sewed around the seam where the waist joined the elastic, forgetting that if you sew what is basically a ring of non elastic material around the top of a skirt then you won’t be able to get it over your hips because IT DOESN’T STRETCH !!! Boy do I feel stupid or what !!!!

So I had to clip all the way around the circle to make it slightly less inelastic  – still need to tidy it up, but have been waiting to hem it before finishing it off – not stopped me wearing it, and although it was made for slobbing round the house in, it’s actually pretty cool and I may wear it out if Husband ever takes me out to dinner somewhere interesting…. photo to follow shortly.

Hello, my name is currantbun and I am a…

Yarn addict ? No actually. I am being very good. I can honestly say that I have very little in the way of “stash” and the majority of what I do have stored up has all been bought for specific projects, a large number of which are under way (I have 11 things “on the needles” at the moment, some of which only need some small finishing touches). I’ve always been reasonably good in fact. The stash that I gave away last November was mainly remains of balls, odds and ends, leftovers.

No, my problem it would appear is fabric. I seem to be buying it at a faster rate than I can actually use it.

First there was this

Not quite sure how you’d describe this, except that it’s not black…which I guess for me is quite a departure…  But then when I saw it drying after washing before use…I had second thoughts. It’s a bit summery and I’d just spent the afternoon I bought it kicking through leaves in Leamington…so I cut out the Rob Ryan skirt instead…but that is on hold whilst I try and sort out some darts front and back as I am erm, curvy

Then last week whilst walking through John Lewis, thinking about “Talk Like a Pirate Day” I heard something calling out to me and £10 later I had 2 metres (150cm wide) of this

Which will be making a skirt for me and by request from Spider when he saw it (“what are you making me Mummy”) for a “something”.

Cutting out a muslin for the Jolly Roger skirt I realised that my fabric scissors were “shot” (and also that an A line skirt with a drawstring waist is not a good shape for me) so I bought some new ones at Mo’s in Rugby who also managed to relieve me of £9.98 for this drop dead gorgeous Alexander Henry fabric.

I have a sneaking suspicion that I don’t sew, I just collect fabric…

I am bored…

Been finishing things…would prefer to be starting things. I don’t have stash cos I have no self control and I just start things spontaneously and have no staying power to finish things off… anyway I have almost finished the tea cosy I started in february – it would have been finished a long time ago if I had some wadding on hand.

If I can find my teeny tiny buttons I would finish off the booties – which I no longer have anyone to give to as the recipient is now close to about 9 months old.  The bat shawl I finally finished last night but have to knit the cast off row off and do it less tight so that it will block properly.

I have wire earings to finish off but don’t have the parts yet – I have a half made skirt which I am too scared to finish as I need to put darts in…I have just bought a pattern to do a hoodie for Spider with the skull and crossbones material, only its far too difficult – I showed Mum and she just said “yes, Burda patterns are quite difficult to follow”. I have plans to use the rest of it on a drawstring A line skirt but the muslin version I did looked foul so I need to find a new pattern…

I have a jumper to finish off (for me) I have a scarf (Lily Chin reversible cable, so soft so lovely t) to finish off.

I need to get some organisation in life and start finishing things

But most of all I need to tidy the house, because I can’t think with all this junk lying around…

Apologies, am on the edge of a meltdown because I haven’t done anything housework related for awhile and the house is really looking a mess…I think I need to get rid of my family for a bit so I can clear the decks.

I’m not really bored, I’ve just got far too many things on work related, house related, craft, everything really that I don’t know where to start

Dead Cat

There are cat body parts all over my dining room table. Before you call the RSPCA I should point out that they belong to the teacosy I have been not finishing since Christmas. I went to Mo’s fabric in Rugby again and to stop me buying any more fabric (I could sooo buy the whole shop) I bought lots of bits to finish off all the things I’ve been not finishing off because I hate finishing things…I love starting things. Starting things leaves you feeling full of optimism, finishing things makes me feel miserable because all that “new promise” suddenly seems badly misplaced.

Anyway the cat isn’t bad…he’s got a kind of mischievous grin to him due to wonky embroidery on the face. I haven’t yet finished him though as I got bored and went and made carbonnara and muffins at the same time, which sounds a bit super mum with all that multi tasking but truthfully I think the muffins may be truly awful…testing on Spider tomorrow. Posting on Appetite after as I’ve been maxing out on bananas…but still have my “plum” and “damson” posts to finish off.

A husband’s worst nightmare ?

I married Husband because he is honest, sometimes gut wrenchingly so, but I wouldn’t have it any other way, I prefer people to be honest with me. If I ask for someone’s opinion I genuinely want it, I don’t want them to tell me what they think I want to hear.

So you will sympathise with Husband when I tell you that we don’t have a mirror in this house. I mean we do have some mirrors, head and shoulders only, most of which are still waiting to be attached to walls, (see use of mirror below perched on toilet seat in order to take photograph)  but we don’t have a full length mirror. So what do I do if I want to know how something looks ? Yep, I ask Husband.

This is quiet cruel of me. His natural instinct is to tell the truth, but his sense of self preservation makes him wary of saying something that might mean he gets the silent treatment for a week. I try to be gentle on him, I never ask “does my bum look big in this ?” as it’s a given in this house. I am well endowed in the posterior department. I try for clothes that minimize the impact and ask questions like “does this flatter my shape”  or  “is this slimming” or “smaller ?”.

So please, empathise with the poor guy on the occasion his wife asked “how do I look ?” modelling something she had just run up on the sewing machine.

I recently purchase “Sew What ! Skirts” a book that advocates making your own patterns for some basic types of skirts based on your own vital statistics. The first pattern they suggest is an A line skirt with a drawstring waist which “to make it easier we have removed the darts”. Hmmmm, I have recently discovered that someone who is well endowed in the rear (and since childbirth) tummy department really, really needs to include darts in their clothes if they want them to fit.

So, not wanting to risk my specially purchased fabric and a bit nervous about my pattern making skills I made a “muslin” which is a dressmaking term apparently for a sample or test piece ( I also wanted to make sure that this skirt didn’t make me look like a sack tied in the middle with string, which most things do). So I sacrificed an old sheet (24 years old).

After following the instructions to the letter, plus a couple of hours messing around with scrap material as I learnt how the buttonhole feature of my sewing machine worked I had a finished article, which quite frankly looked like a bottomless drawstring bag ! Time to try it on and check it out in the mirror…ah…oh Husband !

Now, what is the poor guy to say about this ?

He stood there for a good minute or so, struggling with words to try and say what he thought but in words that made it sound not quite so bad.

It is truly hideous. It emphasises the bulges nicely. But I have learned an important lessons (other than include darts in everything). Because the material has to go along over the “shelf” of bottom and tummy I need to add an extra inch or so to get the length I need – I hate skirts that finish above the knee !

Husband is inclined to think that it might not be quite so bad if I used a heavy cloth as it might “drag” the hem down a bit. I also think I maybe don’t cut it quite so generously and make it a bit more “fitted”… alternatively a much more fitted pattern is required…oh and possibly a dark material, something in black perhaps…

FO: Snowflake the teacosie cat

Pattern: From a Sirdar booklet on makes for bazaars

Yarn: Sirdar Snowflake Snuggly chunky

Needles: 4mm I think

New:Never used this yarn before, probably never will again. It’s really horrible to knit with and if you drop a stitch you are sunk ! On the plus side it will probably make a nice beard for a santa Claus, the white will anyway and I’m already on a promise to Spider to make that.

Not that I will be making him anything for a long time as whilst I was having a short nap this afternoon (no energy due to the cold virus) the little Herbert took my dressmaking scissors and tried them out on a mini tape measure shaped like a ladybird that someone on Ravelry had sent me as a present in the last stages of the travelling scarf.

Feeling smug with myself this afternoon, not only do I have a clean house (smelling fainly of bleach) but I have finally finished something from the WIP pile.

Oops

I made a start on the Shipwrecked shawl from Spring 2009 Knitty. Displacement knitting as there were other things I should be getting on with like the tangerine wateraid cardigan for Julia.

Anyway I was motoring through it as it’s quite a fast and addictive knit when suddenly, on row 23 of the Madeira section of the shawl I realised I’d missed out row 19 which unfortunately is quite a striking part of the pattern (you do a yo k2 together all the way round which gives you a circle of small holes all the way round).

To make things worse I was in a hurry, about to go to a party with Spider so I pulled the needle out and decided to unravelled it that way instead of carefully knitting back 5 or so rows. Being a bit too enthusiastic I dropped rather a lot of stitches, made a right dogs breakfast of it and couldn’t find my place again.

Due to impatience I’ve ended up having to go back to row 1 of the pattern and wasted about 4 days in the process (2 days work, 2 days sorting out). So deciding that it was probably retribution from the knitting gods I’ve dug out the tangerine nightmare and have spent the evening trying to knock that into some shape to appease the gods.

I do have some finished knitting to write about but I need some good light to take a picture – and besides it’s more topical towards the end of the week.

Yay

My husband “ordered” me to go to John Lewis. But more of that later.

Yesterday I joined the library or rather I  joined another library. I am already a fully paid up and enthusiastic member of Warwickshire library I just don’t get to use it very often due to my commuting. So when the libraries announced that they were going to band together so that you could use one authorities card in other libraries I was straight down to Reading Central the first opportunity I got to find out whether they were a partner in this scheme.

The answer was “no” not yet. Not been implemented yet. But they were able to offer me a non resident membership instead (which they couldn’t last time I tried to join back in 2002) and if I go back with documentation proving both name and address I get to take out 20 books instead of 2…

I took out In Stitches:Amy Butler in the hope it might inspire me for Christmas. Having persuaded everyone I know to join me in a handmade Christmas I suddenly realised that there is no-way I can knit for everyone and I can’t rely on food gifts either as that will be a lot of last minute work due to “shelf life” of cooked presents, I need to expand my handmade repertoire.

The problem is that my sewing experience is “limited” and you only get better by “doing” and at the moment I am stalled on a clothkits skirt that needs darts…I may be taking it round to Mum at the weekend for a tutorial. (I also have Sew:Cath Kidston on reserve)

What I can do however is make curtains…which brings me back to John Lewis and my mad husband.

My husband called just after lunch yesterday and asked me to go to John Lewis to buy some bulbs. Having spent the last year cursing the electrician for doing a duff job on fitting the kitchen spotlights (half of them don’t work and you can never predict which ones will come on) Husband came to the conclusion that it might not be the fittings but the bulbs and searching the internet found that the cheapest ones were at John Lewis who have branches on Reading and High Wycombe and “can you stop off at one of these and buy 8 please”

So there I was let loose in John Lewis in High Wycombe at 6.30pm yesterday – fortunately for our bank balance they have a limited haberdashery there (and no wool) as its aimed more at soft furnishings and interiors – so I contented myself with a good nose around and buying a yard stick and a playmobil tomb robber.

Spotted some fabulous dinosaur curtain material at £6.90 per metre but fortunately didn’t have the window dimensions for Spider’s room with me. Unfortunately the bulb was the wrong size and I had to take it back after work…and this time I did know how much material I need to buy.

Unproductive scuppered mojo

I have not been having a very good month. Apart from one item, which if you are very good I will show you  tomorrow (actually good doesn’t come into it, all I need is decent light for a photograph), everything I have touched this month has gone wrong.

First there was the skirts or rather lack of them. I am trying to produce at least one skirt a month (skirts are relatively easy and I might actually wear a home made one). I started well, although Minnie Mouse actually took two months to do and then the leopard print elastic one was done at the beginning of september. I then started the clothkits skirt, took fright when I cut it out a bit small and then had to put darts in, so that went on hold whilst I attempted  a drawstring A line which looked like a bag – so here am I with only 2 days of October left.

I’ve been making a long cable scarf for a friend in NZ, that’s on the back burner as I had to knit back after spotting one of my cables had gone the wrong way – and remembered that its summer in NZ at the moment so it would make a pretty pointless christmas present. On the shipwreck scarf I’m still unravelling it following missing out a row.

And then there’s this scarf I’m knitting out of alpaca which I’ve had to unravel about 5 times as it just wasn’t looking right…It was only last night that I realised its cos I’d copied the pattern down wrong…

Oh and its my Dad’s birthday shortly. Having messed up his present I thought of an alternative, bought a few extra things needed to make it, and then chickened out of making it due to shortness of time and lack of confidence. So I am now back making the original idea which fortunately is going pretty well now, and being knitted means that I can take it with me tomorrow when I’m out and about hunting dinosaurs with Spider and his cousins.

Then in the evening tomorrow I might have a moment to carve a jack o lantern (ok I’ll admit it I’m scared of shar knives) and maybe make a very very quick skirt for a party – thank god I did manage to make a cake this evening and not mess it up.

I know what the problem is here – I’m trying to do everything at once and doing it badly. I have however already analysed the issue and have a rescue plan in place, on saturday early before cooking a birthday dinner over at my parents I am picking up an old computer table which is going to become my “work table”, a pin board and a notebook – it probably won’t work but for the moment dreaming that I may one day become organised, is making me happy…as is knitting with alpaca…

FO: Wa na na na na na na na

It’s official. Im a klutz. I should be ordered to stay away from all craft making stuff and drummed out of the make and do club.

I had not thought I could get anything else wrong. But no, I had not the sense to steer clear from the sewing machine despite the fact I was obviously suffering from bad sewing karma. Having issued myself a challenge to sew a skirt a month, my heck I was going to meet that challenge, despite having had a very tiring day yesterday with my SiL, my nice and nephew and Spider…and on getting home another traumatic hour treating Spider for nits (Husband has shaved his own hair off as his way of dealing with the problem.

I planned to do a very silly Halloween handkerchief skirt (Sew What Skirts) which I figured I could whip up in 2 hours flat…everything that could go wrong did go wrong

Things I have learnt:  If you are going to cut a hole in the centre of a square of material, make sure you have measured your hips correctly…the positives from this situation is that at least my hips are not actually the 48 inches I thought they were yesterday, oh and Spider has  scored a cape for next year if he wants to dress up…

Fortunately some things have gone right this month, chief amongst them being this christmas present knitted for a friend who doesn’t read Being Frank (but does read Appetite) so I can tell you that the yarn is pure wool and cost £1.50 for 400g from a charity shop

Pattern: Wa na na na Bat Shawl

Needles: 3.35mm (you need to use a circular as there are a lot of stitches)

Yarn: 4ply Rowan, pure wool, black (claims the label) probably vintage

New: lace knitting from a chart

I am very pleased with this… and would quite like one myself in the new year probably and maybe not even in black. Quite a few people who have knitted this have added an extra row of bats at the top and I would have gone down this route too if I hadn’t run out of wool. I had to cast off in black acrylic as I ran out just after the last pattern row. I don’t think you can tell and besides it gives the cast off a nice stretchy feel.

FO: Blue Eyed Boy

In the town my Dad was born in they describe someone as having “blue and white eyeballs” if they are a supporter, a true supporter of the local football team. And believe me, my Dad has blue and white eyeballs…he also has blue eyes…and possibly a tiny red rose in his heart (!).

Its his birthday round about this time of year, and really the only present he wants is for his favourite football team to actually win every game for the rest of the season – something that is not in my gift. So instead I gave him a scarf which as he pointed out is not quite the right shade of blue, but it is as soft as butter, made of alpaca and will be deeply comforting when his team are as usual come the end of season, flirting with the relegation zone !

The yarn I originally bought for me when spending my birthday money in Iknit earlier in the year, but I can’t honestly think what to do with it. I had 3 skeins. This took two so maybe in January I make myself a Ripley with the remaining ball…although I think the colour will be better on Dad, I don’t wear a lot of blue – lets face it I don’t wear a lot of anything except black. Maybe that should be my new year resolution, introduce more colour into my life.

The details are

Needles: 5.5mm (tension not important)

Yarn: Artesano Aran (alpaca and wool 50:50)

Pattern: Palindrome

New: I have never spent so much money per square inch of knitted product before – this was not a cheap scarf ! Oh and never cabled so much before and for so long…

Reduce, reuse, recycle…refashion

I had a child free evening. It was parent’s evening at the school and  my lovely Mum invited Spider to have a sleep over (Spider is doing fine, thank you for asking). We tried to be romantic, but it’s a bit difficult when you know that dinner is actually leftovers…

After we’d stopped being romantic I remembered I had plans…

As mentioned in recent posts attempts at doing something else other than knitting were not going to well so before risking my lovingly chosen material on something that in all probability I would mess up, I have been experimenting with reclaimed fabric. In this instance its a blue canvas material which in a previous life was a bathroom blind…and apart from the fact its faded at one end is exactly the same as the material I’d just bought.

So I’ve washed the blind and ironed it and cut out all the pieces I need to make a bag from Bags, Bags, Bags : Dorothy Wood making up will have to wait though as I can’t find grosgrain ribbon anywhere in Leamington Spa – besides I wanted to get back to being romantic with my Husband, it’s not often we get an evening together alone !

Hopefully I will finish it tomorrow…I haven’t messed up yet, but there is still time…

FO: Little Green Bag

I pulled out of the family trip to hunt for Lewis Hamilton at Brooklands today pleading tiredness. And it is true I am so tired by the weekend that I could happily sleep for 48 hours – it’s the commuting that takes it out of me.  I managed about half and hour before I felt compelled to get up and do the ironing…there’s 2 weeks worth…

I finished just in time for silence at 11am so decided I had earned the right to 30 minutes sewing, trying to finish off my roller blind bag and here it is

It is very much a learning experience bag. If I do any more I will remember to

• line the ribbons up at the seam edge so that they meet, before I sew the side seam and the bottom seam
• only attach the top ribbon with one line of stitching so that the top line of stitching on the ribbon is the row of stitches that attached the lining to the rest of the bag (otherwise you get 2 lines of stitching next to each other
• be more careful when cutting out to ensure that the panels are the right length
• read the instructions more carefully
• Take more care and time over things

The bag as I mentioned before is made out of an old roller blind. The interfacing is some I had left over from a previous project. The 2 ribbons and the handles were new but the cheapest that I could find on line, having failed to source the right handles or grosgrain ribbon of the right dimensions in either Reading, Leamington Spa or Rugby.

You can’t quite tell from the picture but there is a row of 4 pockets on the outside of the bag.

I am feeling quite pleased with myself…not sure if I’m going to do it again as a christmas present though, trying to attach the base of the bag was a real pain.

Right gotta go, the downstairs of the house needs cleaning and the family will be back in 4 hours…

Not a good day…

I tend to say things on this blog that I don’t on Appetite because not many people stop by here who aren’t friends or family. Anyway, I have had a not very good day in Milton Keynes with the males in the family…Teenager has been stropping because his Dad decided we weren’t going to buy a Wii and then decided that no, an Ipod Touch was not happening either…had Teenager’s interest in such a thing been mainly music then it might have been a possibility, but no, he clearly only wants it to play games…so it’s not happening.

To a certain extent also he is suffering from the fact that shortly after buying his older brother an MP3 play in 2004 (Hong Kong, our honeymoon, not cheap) he managed to let it go through the washing machine – also the Teenager has managed to break rather a lot of phones and my canon dig camera 300D.

Spider was also playing up as he is already wound up about christmas… the next 40 days or so is not going to be pleasant as he keeps saying “I want” and I keep saying “no”

But the worst thing it that the sodding nits are back…only I must be doing something right as a mother as it’s not Spider that has them this time it’s me and possibly Husband…I am not happy.

Oh, and I wanted to do a bit of cross stitch this evening but have misplaced my hoop – what I want to play around with requires a smaller hoop anyway so I may be spending money in John Lewis in Reading tomorrow, JL in Milton Keynes didn’t sell them at all !

Off to bed in a grump – also managed to mess up my evening G&T

*This post just hilights how consumerist things are, and I am sad that the present side of things has been discovered by Spider so far in advance of what christmas is meant to be about which is celebrating being with family (and God if you beleive, but then winter solstice was celebrated by the pagans before that…)

Busy Busy Busy

I have had quite a productive weekend but I can’t post anything here at the moment because some of it is Christmas stuff but the main reason is that the camera has a flat battery and I have misplaced the charger (so what’s new).

I have tried to be good and introduce a bit of self discipline. Despite having a lot to do in just over a month now I am trying not to start anything new and finish what is currently on the go on the grounds that I’d rather have 10 finished presents than 30 in various states of unfinishedness.

I also had a day off from the family. After last weeks horrible trip to Milton Keynes I decided I wanted a bit of “girl time”, I wanted to spend time in a testosterone free zone – so I took my Mum to a craft fair down the road in the Warwickshire Exhibition Centre… we spent money…we ate bacon butties…we left the boys and the men to find their own entertainment.

My day off

Normally when I have an unexpected day of freedom I end up tidying the house, because sad to report it does make me happy to have some sort of order in my life.  Last monday was to be different. OK I did anticipate perhaps a bit of tidying as this was the state of my “work table”Not good. All down to trying to do too much at once due to a sense of panic that I am not going to get everything done by Christmas – so time to take stock, organise, prioritise and do some of the stuff that cannot be done at work or travelling by train.

So I took a day off on monday to tidy a small corner of the house and to start finishing things off and planning christmas, from scratch this year as I’ve lost my “5currantbun’s Handy Christmas Planning” book (mainly the christmas card list), except I didn’t do any of this.

Instead I sat on the sofa with a poorly boy who didn’t want to do anything much except cuddle and watch some DVD’s. It was a highly enjoyable day as Spider is very good company, even when he’s ill, probably more so when he’s ill as he has more of a tendency to do as he’s told then, so I get less cross…I also did a lot of knitting, unfortunately not Christmas knitting, as I’d just remembered that it was Flapjack Queen’s birthday…immenently !

Anyway, kind Husband took pity on me on Saturday and took the boys Christmas shopping to Leicester and left me with orders to “do what you want to do”  and no, that was not the cleaning (I have that to do now when I finish wasting time on the net). So I have a tidy desk, I’ve finished a few things, planned a few things, have a new card list and the first batch of cards in the post.

More importantly I am feeling, calm, serene and dare I say it, a bit more organised…I am also feeling poorly due to cuddling on sofa for 12 hours with a boy with a runny nose.

FO: Christmas Decoration Scarf

I am actually quite proud of this. Inspiration for this came from someone elses scarf which is actually lots and lots of different pompoms joined together. This gave me the idea of using up lots of bits of wool and creating a paperchain. Of course when you float around the net you discover that its already been done so I did end up following a pattern.  But the combination of colours is my choice, partly dictated by what I had in my (small) stash and partly by the chocolate brown coat of Flapjack Queen.

Pattern: From someone elses blog will add the link later I’m feeling lazy

Needles: 4 mm

Yarn:  Leftover Toft Farm Alpaca DK (brown),  1 ball of red 100% wool, DK from charity shop, orange leftover acrylic DK and 1 ball of 4ply golden yellow Rowan wool bought specially for the scarf as it seemed too short and the yellow went well.

New: nothing, but it did remind me how much I really really hate sewing things up. If you hat making up too then this really isn’t the project for you.

I was lucky enough to be there the first time she wore it (not surprising since I’d just given it to her) as we walked to do the school pickup and was so pleased by how much she liked it and the compliments she got on it…a cynic would say that perhaps that’s why I gave it to her on the way to collect the children, but honest it was the first chance all week I’d had to give her the scarf as I’d only finished it the night before !

FO: Tri Peaks Challenge Hat

A long time ago, when Husband and I were younger and before Spider, we used to climb mountains together. Some of our friends still do (last one I climbed totally was Tryfen at 3 months pregnant, have managed half of a mountain on 2 occasions since, one of which we had to abandon as we went massively off route and climbed the wrong mountain…).

This hat is for the wonderful Hairy Scarey Uncle Andy, who has spent the last few years getting his mountain leader qualifications as he’d rather be up mountains for a job.  I’m toying with the slightly silly idea of attaching flags to each peak and a small roped up climber….but then again perhaps not !

The important stuff

Pattern: one of the fabulous  Woolly Wormhead’s free patterns

Yarn: Patons Inca (from Jackson’s 3 balls in the sale)

Needle: 5mm circ

New: crochet bind off which creates the peaks and the seams

Earning my spurs

Today I became a fully paid up member of the court of make and do, all hail prit stick, bacofoil and sticky back plastic.

The letter said “Your child Spider has been allocated the role of an angel in the school’s upcoming Christmas performance. Please ensure that they have a costume available at school no later than 9th December”. My first thought was “wow, that’s a major bit of miscasting”, my second thought was “what the heck does a boy angel wear”.

Tonight I set to, in true Blue Peter fashion. OK so Mum had already done the difficult part, she’s cut holes in a pillowcase and hemmed the edges to stop it fraying and then cut 2 wings out of some white semi polystyrene flexible packaging membrane and then sent it home with Spider with instructions to us to “stiffen the wings somehow”.

The unstiff wings sat there on the table for over a week waiting for someone to give them a bit of body, and tonight with less than 12 hours to go I finally tackled them…except I took a detour first, being as I am the queen of procrastination, and fashioned a halo out of white card and baco foil, but then when I could avoid it no longer I turned my mind to how to stiffen the wings and the solution came by accident when looking in the wrapping paper drawer for the sellotape. You see out house is, to put it mildly, still a little bit disorganised, so I was not at all surprised to find in with the wrapping paper some garden wire, used for tying up plants and attaching to walls for plants to climb up.

So I have created a wire framework and stuck it in between the 4 membrane wings and then stuck the whole lot together with sellotape and very tacky glue, which claims to dry clear, if not Spider is going to look like a butterfly with lots of swirls and dots on his wings.

The real difficult bit has yet to come. Now we have to attach the wings to the pillowcase. Fortunately Husband used to be married to someone who was no stranger to sticky back plastic etc and he brought to the marriage a whole host of strange things that she left behind, including some sticky backed velcro strips…but I might leave that for Mum to attach as Spider has long since gone to bed and I can’t work out where to stick the strips…

oops !

Last night Spider burbled something about broken wings. Made enquiries this morning, yes the velcro on the wings had come undone and yes it would be really great if I could take them home with me and mend them over the weekend in time for Monday’s performance.

I was not prepared for quite the scene of devastation that met my eyes when I collected my boy from his grandma. As a result of the wings no longer being attached to the costume the wire had popped out and torn the membrane…or it may have been caused by them just being stuffed back into the bag they came from. Whatever the cause the wings are a right off. Also the halo is all broken, twisted and bent and the baco foil is coming off

So starting from scratch this time and going for something stronger, thicker card for the wings and halo covered with lashings of baco foil. Mum has been a star and unearthed some more velcro, some fresher velcro which might actually stay attached to the wings/costume.

Anyway, looking forward to Tuesday and seeing my boy take his place with the rest of the host.

FO: The man who has everything

Someone I have known almost forever has a special birthday coming up. Of course for special birthdays you want special presents, usually this involves several of you joining together… in case this has involved writing a cheque and leaving it to him to put the money towards something he really wants.

However, I don’t feel right about giving someone a cheque for their birthday, it is immensely practical but it does seem a bit impersonal so I have made a “case” for the cheque to go in…it may of course be a good idea for his wife to pre warn him that it may not be a good idea to open it in front of his children unless he fancies explaining what its purpose is.

Also I should point out that it is not meant for wearing. I’ve used Noro Kureyon as it was the only suitable yarn I had at the time, but this is not exactly a soft and gentle yarn and the item in question is designed for a very delicate part of the anatomy !

Pattern: Seamless Willie Warmer

Needles: 4.4mm dpn

Yarn: Noro Kureyon

New: oh, c’mon, need you ask ? Do you really think I make a habit of knitting such things !

In case you are wondering I am intending on sticking the cheque inside the, er “spout”…no matter what size I knitted it I bet he’d claim it was too small, because all males would !

Getting it wrong

Had a lovely day in Birmingham today with my Mum, a gentle day with very little buying in fact. We went in the hope of a german christmas experience (my parents spent their first years of marriage over there) but mainly got crowds and the smell of food frying…we still managed to have a good day.

I came home worn out though and collapsed into a warm bath with an early christmas present from Mum of a Lush bath bomb and found myself crawling into bed at 5.30pm where I lay comatose until the boys got back an hour later.

After being revived with tea and pizza I tried to crack on with the remaining presents that still need finishing and ended up making a real botch of my brother’s present, so much so I’m going to have to start again. It’s a very very small thing but has a very complicated pattern. Anyway decided to switch crafts and finally make a start on something for Husband but that went wrong too…am so glad that I didn’t attempt any of the cooking !

In fact you may have noticed Appetite has been very quiet of late – partly because I’ve had a cold, partly because food presents have to be left until closer to Christmas but mainly because I am afraid of what I have to do, or have told myself I have to do….but that is for another day, probably after Christmas when the gifts have been given !

Feeling Despondent

So here we are, 5 days until Christmas and to be honest I’m not doing too well. I’ve sent some knitted pieces of silliness off to various nice people that I’ve never actually met but as far as gifts to my nearest and dearest are concerned I am not only behind schedule but I’m getting it wrong… very wrong.

Most of my sister in law’s present is OK but foolishly I tried a bit of sewing which took 4 times longer than it should have done and quite frankly it is not very good. Was meant to be delivering the presents tomorrow but I might leave it until next week and see if my sewing “Guru” (aka Mum) can help me sort it out…I also can’t get my neice’s scarf to uncurl so that I can sew it up, will have to block it properly and that’s going to take time to dry.

My other sister in law’s shawl has hit a big snag and Husbands present is currently a ball of wool

So instead here are some bad photos of things that did actually work…

Husband, looking over my shoulder has just poked me on the arm and told me to cheer up, it doesn’t matter, and by the way James May is on telly…

FO: Colour in Winter

This scarf has a special meaning. It is made with Noro and what was meant to be italian wool for a friend of Spider’s who is half italian half Japanese.  I have seen some very nice Noro striped scarves which get some interesting effects by using 2 different colours of Noro in alternative stripes .

Pattern: Noro Striped Scarf (Jared Flood)

Yarn: Mainly Noro Kureyon

Needles: 5mm

New: Nothing, sticking to stuff I know mainly at the moment

Why Homemade ?

You may wonder why I decided to do a homemade christmas when I have done nothing but bellyache about it for the last few months. Well it was actually fun. A lot of it did go right and turn out surprisingly well, I just haven’t been able to write about it until now as it would spoil the surprise, and some will have to wait until Wednesday after the last batch gets delivered.  The problem, the big problem was I didn’t decide to do it until November and then was basically fighting the clock the whole way and making mistakes as I was rushed.

So, the main reason for handmade/homemade was that we are still broke. It’s better than last year, the debt has been halved we now owe about £10k on cards and the rest of the bank loan – we didn’t like living on credit but there is not a lot you can do when rebuilding your house goes over budget and your husband is made redundant (for 15 months)…next christmas we are having a “we beat the credit crunch” party as we will finally be solvent.

So handmade it was for finance reasons but also I feel things have gone too consumerist. We buy presents for people because we feel we must spend on them. I don’t want that. Husband and his brother have a nice habit of not buying presents for each other every year, presents are only given if the perfect thing is spotted for the other, something that may not be expensive but is right (for example an old Hednesford Hills Mineral water bottle for the one who lives in Cannock). So it was handmade christmas. The most precious thing I have is my time and I have spent it on my loved ones…whether they wanted me to or not !

So this year we are broke. Next year Husband and I will exchange presents. This year he got a box of teabags and this…

He looked at it for a moment. He looked hard. He looked harder and said “it’s a Dudley Bug”…it is meant to be a Trilobite, a type of fossil (for my fossil !) because my husband is a frustrated geologist at heart…and bless him he did wear it out on Christmas day.

I overbought on the yarn, so Christmas eve I cast on Coronet for my brother in law and tried to finish it Christmas Day…but Boxing Day found me knitting furiously with Husband sitting in the car revving the engine.  I finished it on the way to Staffordshire…It was only when Brother in law tried it on and turned the brim up that I realised I knitted it inside out so I snatched it back, unravelled it back to the cabled brim and whilst they went for a walk before dinner I knitted it back the right way.

I don’t know if Brother in law liked it but his better half tried it on and her smile brightened when I said. Shall I make one for you ?…now that made me feel so so happy

Planning…

Yesterday I did some tidying. An attempt to start the new year in a better organised state than last year. The main thing I tidied up was my WIP’s basket, mainly so it would fit under the bed…although I have been too tired today to think about new year (much as I love the idea of new starts and drawing a line under the old year), I did get some time during December to think about my knitting.

My main aim this year is to have more self control and to finish what I have already started. Prime candidate for this is therefore the orange cardigan that I have  been paid to knit (money to Water Aid) its been on hold for the last month as I am experiencing some problems with the eveness of the stitches.

The second plan is to get more colour into my life. My wardrobe is mainly black. The only time it’s not black is when it’s grey… but that is going to take time to sort out as not only do I have a black sweater to finish and a grey(ish) wrap but just before Christmas I splashed out on a ball of Alpaca to make a hat…and yes, it’s black.

The third aim is the same as last year, to keep trying new things…if nothing else I want to manage a pair of socks before next December.

Nothing but Wips

The house is in chaos, it’s deliberate. As I mentioned before we are trying to get some organisation into our lives this year except in order to do so we have to take bits of the house to pieces…it’s a brief period of pain but so much better when you get through it…a bit like having a tooth removed I guess.

I’m taking the same approach to my works in progress before they turn into longterm UFO’s (unfinished objects). You see most of these things hiding in the basket under my bed just need a bit of tweaking, a bit of finishing off and its the knitting I enjoy, I have no enthusiasm for finishing off.

I have turned it into a game. The rules are that I cannot start anything new unless I finish 2 WIP’s off but it can’t be any random 2 objects it has to be 2 WIPs that form part of a pair.  I have about 10 outstanding things and they quite nicely divide up into 5 big things and 5 little fripperies.  I have allocated each pair a day for being worked on and weekends are “free” in that I either work on whatever one of the 5 sets that I feel enthusiastic about or I tackle some sewing.

Monday was Julia’s sweater. This has stalled because my stitches are uneven and wobbly so I decided to so some experiments with different needles and also tried washing and blocking a sample piece

picture to follow

The good news is that it sorted out the uneven stitching the bad news is that the sweater is not meant to have its ribbed ridges pulled flat…

I also spent some time searching for some buttons for a pair of bootees I knitted last February – guess I need to find a new recipient for them as the planned owner is now a year old !

Tuesday: Experimented with shadow knitting. Making an illusion scarf for a friend’s birthday. This included a cold 30 minutes in the car waiting for Husband to finish work (my fear of icy roads meant we car shared that day). In the evening I tackled the Bear (left over from 2008, originally started in 2005 by Mum) who is finished but all his clothes need sewing up. ..took me an hour to iron all the bits flat.

Wednesday A day at home working but kept getting kicked out of the works website (so many people on it today working remotely) in the intervals whilst waiting to log back in I took the opportunity to unravel my sister in laws shawl. I should point out that was not my original intention. I had planned to try and work out why I kept messing up the pattern but I realised whilst reading the pattern that I actually needed another 3 balls not the 1 ball I thought I needed and besides, none of the online shops seem to stock that shade – oh and it turns out her favourite colour is blue. The frippery for today is a wire rose – couldn’t do anything with that as it needs some leaves and I have no green wire.

Tomorrow is allocated to a cabled scarf (in the shape of DNA) and a pair of earrings – which need me to purchase the fittings and some beads (icy roads predicted, so perhaps not). Friday is a cotton hoodie for Spider, guess I should measure him first, if he’s grown too much I may have to frog that right back too – I stalled on that after undoing a sleeve which I thought I’d got the colour order wrong on, only to discover after I’d done it that I’d been holding it upside down. The hoodie’s partner is a doll from the Knitted Icon’s book, not sure what its going to become, maybe Marilyn Monroe, maybe Abraham Lincoln.

In addition to the above I have a sweater and a shawl for me which also need some work…completing them though is part of the reward for finishing some of the other stuff

In case you are wondering, I am intending to put some of my attempts at homemade presents up on here but unfortunately I forgot to take photographs of most of them so I’m waiting for people to send me some photographs to share with you.