A semi-busy day

Getting up early followed by some house painting and housework, then a roast lamb lunch at the parents (mine, not Felix's) then home again to do nothing but slack off watching episodes of "West Wing" Series 7. Oh, and some knitting.















If you saw that pattern photo in the flesh, you'd run out and knit it straight away too. All it needs now is a perfect pom-pom and I'm all set. I know early on is the only time I'll get to dress the baby up in ridiculous clothes, so I'm stocking up!

Finished Objects 2009 - #3

Never thought I'd ever get to write a title like that again this year at my current rate!




















Behold, Lenny the Bunny.

I would have been even less subtle and named him "George", but my gorilla I've had since I was born that I'll be handing over to the boitjie is named George and he'd be terribly jealous.





















Look at those ears - angora lining! A bunny made from a bunny. I had to wear the flu mask the hospital gave me to keep the extra long hairs out of my mouth so I don't start choking again. (Interesting fact: you need to change masks every two hours. Mine was worn for six in an emergency room. Good hospital policy there.)















If the baby doesn't want the bunny, I think the kitty does!

See? YOU get it...

I love and adore my husband. He's sweet, funny, brilliant and if you were to meet him, you'd like him straight away, because everyone does. My mum likes him.

However, while he does appreciate the knitting that I do for him, there comes a time when he doesn't get it. When I start rhapsodising about a new cast on or a stitch pattern or anything the Yarn Harlot writes I get the feeling he's secretly thinking about something to do with Oblivion when he nods and says "Yeah, that's great babe..."

This is why I have a knitting blog. Because when I show you a tubular cast on I love:














Or a kitchener cast off that makes me want to lie down and whimper from overwhelming joy:















You understand. You just get it.

Bless the interwebs.

Can we knit it? Yes We Can!

The last week has been a slow grind of trying to sort out my current projects and various stash. Moving house is never fun at the best of times; moving house while pregnant and quite ill is obviously insane. First time I've never had to move my walnut dressing table which weighs a tonne, so I'm not really going to complain...

Current projects pile is pretty easy.




















I have the amazingly wonderful Endpaper Mitts to finish up. I've only got the rib at the top of the second glove to finish up, followed by the gloriously perfect Tubular casting off. True love of knitting comes from this cast off. Trust me.















I also have current "Stuck in traffic/stuck in a queue/stuck watching "Transformers 2" project, which is a knitted bunny toy for the Podling. The pattern is from "Last Minute Knitted Gifts" and it's really easy and really fast, so I think I need one. Plus the inner ears are angora, and that's just nice to play with. Not when you're hacking up some lung, as I was last fortnight, which is why the next project is on hiatus.















This will be an outfit for my mum's doll, Judith. I've had to put it aside due to the large fibres releasing themselves and causing me to choke so badly my husband reaches for the phone to call an ambulance. Hence the intarsia jacket being unfinished and the skirt being unembellished. I also plan on striped boots, a cloche and a sleeveless top. My mum's been incredibly brilliant the last two months and needs as much spoiling as she can get. Helping us to move house on her 70th birthday puts her way above the mark of "wonderful" and moves her into "god-like".















Lastly, the alphabet blanket I started about four months ago continues on. I'm pretty much sick of the sight of it, so I will soon have to have a week-long "Just sit down and do it already!" session. I dislike doing this because it feeds into the minute part of my mind that says "Why are you doing this? Are you insane? Go read something!". I generally ignore the voice up until the moment of blocking the work, where I retaliate with a "Nurny nurny nur nur!".

To think: I'll be a responsible parent soon. We're all doomed.

So, how are you?

I have internets again. Now, think carefully about that sentence. Imagine two months with no internet after constant use for over a decade. Mild insanity may be the end result. With me, it's a bit hard to tell.

All is pretty much well now. I've been in and out of hospital for the last two months, due to a few complications with the baby. Nothing serious (according to me) but I was forced to do a lot of lying flat on my back, which is an incredibly boring state to be in. Mild illness meant that I had very little inclination to knit until recently, so there's not a huge dent in my baby clothes knitting list.

In the meantime, we've moved into the dinkiest little flat in the world, up in Ferntree Gully, about 35km from the CBD (as opposed to my previous 3km from the St Kilda Rd flat - *sigh*). It's about 5km from my parents, 6km from Felix's brother and about 2km from the hospital, which is pretty darn helpful, especially around the end of September.

To make up for a lack of posting I'm going to try to post every day this month. I certainly have a lot to catch up on (593 emails, for example) and you can all suffer the consequences. Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Andrea...

Back on track, and a celebration

It turns out that all I needed for motivation was a big fat sook to everyone who reads this blog. I find that if I say something bad out loud or type it then it tends to fade in my estimation and I can move on.

I noticed that I seem to be a bit lazier at night, so I decided to make 9:00pm til 10:00pm a knitting hour for specifically my baby blanket. It has to be that late because Felix doesn't finish work til 7:00pm, then has the train to catch, then I have to feed him something to stave off grown-man starvation whining, so later it was.

The plan was flawless, perfect, genius! I know I can knit six rows in an hour, because that's how long the train ride takes. Brilliant, it'll be finished in no time. However...

I received some amazing yarn from a beautiful person (full explanation later) and I started winding on the skein as soon as I had shown it to Judith. I started winding on in the car, people. It's that lovely.














So, Sonia, your advice has been taken. Start something new. Does my knitting a Baby Surprise Jacket for a newborn really surprise anyone?

---

Yesterday was a long lazy day, starting with a sleep in til 11:30, followed by watching the latest "Doctor Who" special while eating leftover Ikea meatballs with gravy and jam for brunch.














Next up was mooching round Chadstone looking for a cotton doona cover we both didn't hate, munching choc tops and popcorn during "The Boat That Rocked" and heading out to the Tea House at South Yarra for yum cha with flowers in the food. Luckily Borders on Chapel Street was open til 11:00pm, or we would have had to cut our fun short.

Happy Anniversary Felix. I couldn't have imagined a better two years could have existed.

I'm sure I'm a knitter...aren't I?

A combination of lethargy and displacement have made me recently question everything in my life, especially my hobbies. My knitting and sewing have seemed utterly impossible as Felix and I are guests in a friend's house, taking up their spare room bed and wardrobe.

Virginia Woolf once spoke on the need for female writers to have a room of their own, but I think it applies to those of us who craft as well. I know she would agree, as she was a knitter and as crazy as we all seem to feel at time.

I have had neither the space nor the inclination to knit of late. Most of my knitting is in storage until we find somewhere to live, so my project choice is limited. I currently have only one project on the go, and it's a pretty big one. I started the Debbie Bliss Alphabet Blanket in the beginning of March and I've only knitted two alphabet rows out of six. Now this is not a small project and normally I'd be fine with that amount, but I'm not employed and really have nothing else to do but find us somewhere to live (almost impossible when you don't own a car anymore).

So I need to decide a few things.

1. Do I want to continue with the blanket?
2. If yes, how will I force myself to get it done?
3. If no, what do I intend to start instead?
4. What can I do to be a little more productive and less, well, blah?

This may take a while. In the meantime, I shall make a start by blocking two almost finished projects:














An argyle tank top and a wraparound jacket for the Podling.