Thursday, March 27, 2014

Little Miss Bossypants

I'm currently on Row 38 of the first block of Sherlock Great Adventure Afghan. Felix's niece Ash is over and she's been nagging me to knit.


Gimme another five minutes and I'm stabbing her with 4.5mm.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Time for a chat with Felix

I've lost my knitting mojo.

Again?  What happened?

No, not again, still.

But I thought that thing you saw at Morris and Sons had rekindled your interest...

Oh, the rainbow Viajante? It did, but the complete lack of time it takes to knit it... well, it's probably never going to happen. I don't even have the energy to knit up my square.

Okay, fair point.  So what do you currently have in progress?  If I recall, you were almost up to date with your WIPs, weren't you?

I need to sew in the ends on the crochet blanket for Marcus and block the Egeblad doily. I don't suppose you've seen a small ball of fluffy red alpaca anywhere, have you?

Ummmm... maybe in our room?  Either that, or one of our little darlings has absconded with it.

Do we have any little darlings? Dot didn't look that darling when she was painting the floor with a new container of Nuttelex two hours ago... Hrm, well that red alpaca was to add a pompom onto Da's beanie. Other than those, and my stripey cardigan that I'm very slowly working on, I've only got my Sherlock square.

So... Dare I suggest it... do you have any new projects you're interested in?

Nope, so dare away. I have the yarn to make a cardigan with Chantal, and no inclination to do so. I need something short and sharp, I think.

How about that Sherlock Beanie that Emily was bugging you for?

But I've already made one of those! Making two of the same thing is why I hate knitting socks, and why you were lucky to get Doctor Who mittens.

Fair enough, we'll put a pin in that one then.  How about a beanie for one of the precious ones, then?  To quote one of our favorite TV shows, 'Winter is Coming'...

Marcus has a beanie he refuses to wear. Dot has an aran lace beret she refuses to wear. I think you have a better chance of getting a new beanie.

Okay.  So, what would you consider a 'short, sharp' project?

I have no idea. I really am a bit lost. I just need a small something something to get me started again. I think I'll just have to quit knitting. Nothing else for it.

Okay.  I understand.  I'll start piling your stash up in the back-yard, you go get the petrol can from the garden shed.

Monday, March 24, 2014

Cute little knits

Is there anything sweeter than a baby jumper? I sewed up two this weekend and it was squees all round.


Wook at the widdle duckie!

Friday, March 21, 2014

How many do I need?

My Book Depository order showed up today.


Forget mojo, I'm trying voodoo.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

I've lost my knitting mojo. Has anyone seen it?

I've lost it. It's gone, completely. I have no tv knitting, no audio book knitting, no stuck in a queue knitting, and - most shockingly - no desire to start a new project.


I checked down the back of the couch and my mojo wasn't there. Nor was the remote control, nor Jesus.


Please note that this mojo extends to crochet and sewing. I don't want to work on anything. I love blocking lace, it's the best part of knitting lace! I have a finished doily just begging to be blocked.

Nope.


I am at a loss. Even pretty pictures of yarn aren't helping.

I got nothing.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

It's time to relax

We've as a long weekend here in Melbourne, and every day was full to the brim. Saturday was the wedding of the year, with Joex and Cameron gettin' hitched in a beautiful ceremony that their smallest flowergirl took no part in, as she is a crazy little poppet.


Dot decided to sit out the entire thing, except when she spotted the table with the paper and pens and wanted to draw a picture. As it was the signing table and the paper was the wedding certificate Dot was moved along quick smart. But it really was a lovely day!

Sunday was my family reunion and I decided to leave the rest of the family at home while I went off to Maryborough in country Victoria. About 100 relatives makes it a lovely day, and - most importantly - my side of the family won the cricket match, by four runs. I wasn't playing, mind. Sunlight and sport? Yuck! The best part is the 4 hour drive that I could knit the whole way through, finishing up the main part of my Egeblad doily.

Yesterday was the public holiday and Dot and I went off to visit my sister Fiona, who has a terrible sinus infection, which comes from a dry socket when she had her tooth pulled. I've had two cesareans and a sinus infection, and believe me: the sinus infection hurt a LOT more. By the time we got home I needed a nap. Which lasted a few hours. Which was odd. I got up feeling rubbish; chills, headache, sore ears and a sore throat. So I had a lovely hot bath and crawled into bed to sweat it out. Three hours later I was soaked, still sick and giving up. I think my brain told my body that I didn't have any more extreme knitting/crochet projects so it could just relax now, which means being sick.


Today I have Felix home to help with the kids, plus he's not feeling too good himself,  but apparently I'm sicker. If you need me, I'll be here on the couch casting off my Egeblad with a crochet hook.

Friday, March 07, 2014

Autumn Ills

The change between summer and autumn has had a rather bad effect on Marcus, as he's currently snuggling up to me on the couch with a rather vicious head cold.


Poor little mannikins has a blanket, an apple and "Frozen" on the tv, which he is constantly flipping back and forth in.


I'm taking the chance to catch up on his crochet blanket. It's keeping me warm and getting bigger. With only two squares left to go, I'm feeling pretty good. Mind you...


...there's still a lot of ends to sew in before I start the border.

Thursday, March 06, 2014

Throwback Thursday

It's been a while since I trawled through my ancient/vintage/horribly 80's patterns for you all, and with our recent cold snap here in Melbourne I thought I'd show you a highly useful pattern book.


It's my Paton's Knitting Book No. 232, which isn't even on Ravelry - can it be possible? I looked it up by both the title number and the title pattern name "Erica" and nothing came up. (Sidebar: look up "Erica" in the category of "gloves" on Ravelry. You won't regret it, but your knitting queue may grow a bit.) I do like these gloves, they're so very "calling on" gloves, aren't they? I think they'd look wonderful in a pale spring green.


"Harebell", while beautiful with the little repeats and sensible cuffs, would probably catch on everything. "Heath" look like a more sensible option, if not a tad plain. With the right yarn though...maybe something with a silver thread?


Next up are "Hyacinth" and "Holly", some very nice fair isle gloves and mittens. You know how I feel about fair isle by now, so I shan't go into extreme rhapsodies as usual.


"Primrose", despite such a prissy name, are the thermal underwear of glove patterns. Just look at the sensibleness of them: long cuffs, reverse stocking stitch, fabulous lines. If you made these in a gorgeous charcoal grey you could easily give them to a knitting-worthy man. Not Felix, though. He has Tardis mittens.


Can't have glove patterns without some plain ones. Here are "Ivy" and "Honeysuckle", the plainest of plain gloves, zhuzed up with some embroidery (is that how one spells "zhuzed"?) and "Hawthorn", the equally plain/embellished mittens.


More examples of "Ivy" and the "Hickory" hat to throw on top. I like this hat, it's fairly easy and Nordic-y.


It's even more Nordic-y on the back cover. It's also in fair isle (yay!) and once you throw in a fluffy blonde you're practically living in the fjords. No more pining.


The reason I love the old pattern books so much are the illustrations and instructions. They're usually perfectly done and the ads - oh the ads! Great fun.

Let me know if I should scan this and add it as a download - enjoy!

Wednesday, March 05, 2014

Organising what's next

I sat down last week to work out what I wanted to knit/finish up/start once I'd crocheted enough hearts (I still don't think I have crocheted enough. I wanted to do 1000.) for the forthcoming nuptials. So I had a look in all of my containers for what I'd started, what needed finishing, what was nowhere near finished and made a spreadsheet.

Oh, how I love spreadsheets! They make me feel so organised, even though I'm not quite there yet. (Don't look in the top drawer of my dressing table, or in the back room of the bungalow. Let me keep my delusions.) This one has only 20 projects on it, of which three are knitting. That's when I got suspicious. So I looked at my Ravelry projects page, and took a good hard look at my "In progress" section. It has 7 projects in it, only two of which are on my list. The rest are actually finished, but I've never mentioned them here as finished either.

Oops.

I said I wasn't quite there yet, alright?!

Tuesday, March 04, 2014

True weirdness

I'm sitting on the couch with Felix, just vegeing out. I have nothing in my hands,  nothing in a work bag, nothing on the floor next to me. It's odd to not be crocheting, but it's great that the hearts have been passed along to the bride-to-be. 120 hearts in each of the four colours.


This is what 480 hearts look like all packed in together. My right hand needs a bit of break,  I think.