Hooker with a heart of gold

So, you're contemplating crochet?  Why not! It's the latest craze! Look at all the cool stuff you can "hook"!

Think you need more discipline in your life?  Why not create your very own Master Chief?

Tired of kids playing outside at night? Just leave Slenderman outside and watch 'em run screaming in terror!

Are you pining for the fjords? Well, so is your new Viking friend! Take him on a boat ride with you, but make sure the boat isn't on fire or else you may actually be dead.

What a fabulous stool sample!

Suffering from Game of Thrones withdrawal?  Why not whip up the Stark family? (NB: Buy more red wool.)

Does this mean I'm mature now?

Look!

Wet concrete!  I've managed to not write in it!

(It's self-leveling,  no point really.)

Instead,  I shall sit back and knit whilst I inhale coffee.

So THAT'S the snail doorway!

Our back room carpet was ripped up today, due to massive amounts of mould. But where did the mould come from?

....well, !@#$&. I think I'll go knit for a bit.

Step One: Get it right

Joex, aka Most Awesome Chick EVER, got engaged and as I'm seeing her this weekend for Dot's birthday party I knew I had a smidgen of time to get her present made. Why yes, I could buy her something instead!  I'm sorry,  but have we met before?

I worked my way through the beginning of the project, getting the first 12 rows done. Just as I was packing up to go to bed I noticed it.

The bottom edge is meant to be reverse stocking stitch.  As in we can see the purl side. When I joined it up, I reversed it, and the knit side has curled up. I now need to frog 12 rows of fair isle.

#$@! $*

Vworp! Vworp!

Ooooo, I am so ridiculously proud of myself.

One set of Doctor Who Selbu Mittens completed. I started these in April and they are quite complicated so the time taken wasn't too bad. Until you realise that the knitting really only took about a week. I suffer from Second Sock Syndrome, even with mittens. The yarn is Grignasco Champagne, which is 75% extrafine merino and 25% silk, which means I spoil Felix a lot.

The pattern is from this chart, created by Kelsey Seay, who is a very large clever clogs. The only change I made was to follow the pattern exactly for the front of the thumbs, and changed the underside of the thumbs...

...to hidden TARDIS'. TARDII? Anyway, I love them, and so does the man himself, as you can see.

Hard work, but worth it. Veni, vidi, vici indeed.

Method and order, Watson

I'm off to Chantal's tonight to work on our BFF cowls.

The pattern printed out on two pages, so I had to reorganise it into a single page. Thought I might just add the check offs. Two knitting needles, one stone.

Quite dapper

A few nights on a couch can lead to a lot of things. A numb backside. A season of "Elementary" viewed (not a patch on "Sherlock", but what is?). An entire scarf knitted.

The pattern is the Diagonal Garter Stitch Scarf from Morris & Sons, knitted using Morris' Maya 14ply. That is 150g of baby alpaca in charcoal grey.

Felix loves it.

Bring out your dead!

Marcus had gastro, but now he's better. Marcus gave his gastro to Dot, because sharing is caring. Dot's now on day six of puking, including a moment this morning that was highly reminiscent of "Pitch Perfect". Because sharing is caring, Dot gave her gastro to me.

There is a sign on our front door stating "Plague House: Dot Not Enter!" and while it was originally a joke I'm not so sure anymore.

It appears bad health leads to bad luck. I either have a very large brick or the tapestry was extra small.

Well, smeg.

Nothing rhymes with purple

My darling Chantal decided that she needed a timetable for her WIP's and I thought to myself "That's what I need. I only have a list. Let's come up with an unrealistic schedule!"

First up was to knock off Jade's purple gloves, another project I've been carrying around since we left Scotland in January 2009.

The yarn is Rowan Wool Cotton, because I talked Jade into buying the very best yarn she could get, so I think I still deserve brownie points for that. The pattern is the Garter Stitch Mitts by Ysolda Teague, of whom I'm very jealous (gorgous and talented tends to get me a bit green eyed).

So all I have to do now is find Jade and ship stuff off to her. To the Facebook!

Radiant

Radiant,

From Hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee.

You were supposed to be my friend!

You were the Chosen One!

Hello. My name is Andrea. You're the jumper that was supposed to fit perfectly. Prepare to be thrown in the drawer.

Future plans

It's raining, it's pouring, right now Marcus is snoring. Hopefully Dot will sleep soon, but as she's currently reading this over my shoulder and trying to steal my mandarin at the same time I highly doubt it.

I've managed zip, nada, zilch on my planned projects. My brick is still in hiding from Marcus (sorry SapphireBlue, I'll have a brick doorstop for you soon!) and I still have a side to sew up in my Radiant jumper. A brief conversation today with Chantal made me realise that there will one day be a knitting life beyond my current WIP's and this cheered me up no end.

So, what plans ahead?

Dot needs some cardigans, and I have a red aran one in mind, followed by a gorgeous blue/white stripe with cherries intarsia, based on "Cherry Pie" from "Little Rowan". The original pattern only goes up to 24 months and the yarn is a 4ply. I have a little girl who's almost 24 months and takes a size 3, plus my yarn is a 6ply bamboo/wool. Lots of adapting to do there. After that I have an adorable bobble cardigan for summer. I love cardies!

Which is why I'll be knitting myself a gorgeous Louisa Harding cardigan called "Sabrina". I have seven balls of red and six balls of wool/cashmere blend, which is enough to make this scrummy piece for myself. I've also got acres of Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed for "Renaissance" from "A Yorkshire Fable", a book I own solely because I swear I know the male model. Last up, I'm making myself some alpaca bedsocks. I keep making them for my parents, so why not myself? I have two balls of Eki Riva in two shades of purple to use for that project.

I have 16 balls of Zara waiting to be turned into a jumper for Felix. I just don't know what to knit! 8ply cables? It's just not right! No reasonable suggestion requested! I also have a ball of green/orange striped 4ply sock yarn. I may be forced to make socks.

I also may have promised my da a cable jumper for making my very unsuccessful square foot garden for me on Cup Day. I'm silly like that.

Mmmmmm, future knits. So much more satisfying than the ones I'm already doing!

Bad luck runs in threes

1. I re-twisted my knee.

2. Marcus has gastro. Our 5:45am wakeup was less than pleasant.

3. I don't own this book.

I NEED to own this book.

It's just so 80's!

Happy days ahead

I finished off the trim on my Radiant front last night.

It's all set for me to sew it all up and get it done. Two 5mm double point needles are helping me keep it all in order (highly professional I am).

A late night text message has paved the way for a glorious weekend of happiness, punctuated with slight hopes that Marcus won't Exorcist over the floor again.

However, despite that horrifying thought, I have a brick and a tapestry to cover it with. One productive weekend coming up!

I'm not pig-headed, I'm strong-willed

Instead of curling up in the fetal position weeping for the second time this week, I headed off to the lounge room and pulled back the shoulder and trim on my Radiant. I untwisted it, re-sewed the shoulder and I'm in the process of re-crocheting up the trim. I'll get this top done this week, for certain. Strong Protestant work ethic to the rescue! (The first time time this week in fetal position weeping? "Game of Thrones". Holy heckmonkeys, was that a shocker!)

Marcus got up at 3am with a terrible temperature, but seemed okay when I needed him to model his new jumper. Sick, but still posing like a model. Highly professional.

The pattern is the T-Top Sweater by World Vision, one that you knit and donate the finished object. It sits oddly on Marcus, but I think it's adorable, very hippy.

The yarn is "Wintergreen" Jo Sharp Aran Tweed and it's lovely. Of course she got rid of this shade, but "Grass Stain" in Woolahra from Morris & Sons is a pretty good match. Niiiiiiiiice...

Turns out modelling when unwell can be exhausting. Poor little mannikins.

Poor Felix

I'm lying in bed with a twisted knee, crutches nearby, and Felix is home from work keeping an eye on the children, one of whom was just violently unwell.

I have a lot of free time on my hands, and as it turned out, enough yarn. Sewing up in thirty minutes and Marcus' little green jumper is done.

What? You think I'd put a jumper on a child who just puked simply to take a photo. No thanks - I like my knitwear unblemished!

I went back to work on my long-suffering Radiant. It appears that when I sewed the shoulders together I twisted one side, the end result of this action being a Mobius top. Easy fix, just under the shoulder.

Wait, first I need to undo the crochet trim down the inside. I can handle that.

If I hadn't sewn all of the edges ends down the back of it.

Should anyone come looking for me, I'll be hiding in my room, sobbing.

I can work around this

Ah, peace and quiet! Well, children asleep and that's pretty much the same thing, really. I still had a smug glow on after yesterday's work so I got straight back to work on Marcus' green jumper.

I have fourteen rows of garter stitch to go, but there's 130 stitches in each row. That's quite a long row, and it'll require a lot of yarn. I'm using Jo Sharp Aran Tweed that was originally a jumper of mine I made in 2004. It was a bit short so I frogged it and stored the yarn away.

I'm sure I don't have enough yarn for this but if I'm lucky I have some spare in the bungalow. I don't understand how I had enough for a jumper for me but not enough for a four year old's jumper, so there must be some floating around.

On the bright side the longer I spend on this the less time I have to re-sew up my Radiant.

You know that I'd do anything for you

Finishing my pieces can be quite difficult, but if I put the baby down for a nap I can usually keep Marcus away. Unless it involves a sewing machine.

Today's little finished piece is my cat draught stopper. I heart it a great deal. Look at how beautiful it is!

It's so pretty...

...I love lookin- wait a second...

...oh man...
 

Nononononono, it's not a pony! Get off it!

New plan. Take pictures while she naps, try and work stuff in at night.

Try staying cross at a little girl who's this cute, though. How do they know how to do that?