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?

Stupid plan, really

I thought I was being clever. If I avoided all the front pages of Pinterest, and concentrated on sorting all my stuff out, I'd be set. Less mindless browsing, more free time to knit, right?

Idiot. Moron. Cretan.

I need to make so many more things!

 I need a Princess Leia beanie!

I have twenty balls of royal blue wool. I need a TARDIS cardigan - a TARDIgan!

Felix needs these Iron Man glovsies!

I need to crochet Dot a massive crochet blanket for her bed - granny ripple, maybe?

Breathe, you eejit.

Breathe.

...

Right now I think I need less coffee and much less Pinterest. More books on tape and to cast on the sleeves for Marcus' green jumper.




* It is a pretty cool Tardigan, though.

Free to a good home

Actually, I'll pay you to take my children. My knitting night at my place was somewhat disturbed by two enfants, truly terrible.

No, they're not that bad, but their refusal to go to bed until 9:50 and 10:40 respectively was somewhat trying. It also meant I managed sweet Fanny Adams on my BFF cowl. I did manage to hand over the 221B beanie to Jon, and Chantal and I spent too long trying to pick out jewellery from the Gatsby collection at Tiffany & Co. Who needs a house when they can have a tiara?

So today is back to slogging it out on Marcus' green jumper. I need sixty rows of stocking stitch until the sleeves start, then it'll be fifty rows of too many stitches. That takes up a LOT of knitting time. I can feel my right hand starting to cramp at the thought. If I get desperate I can always pat Lolli, though.

High functioning sociopath

Being a huge fan of the BBC series "Sherlock" I fell a bit hard for the 221B beanie on Knitty. The wallpaper from the lounge room, complete with smiley face (minus the bullet holes)? Gimme.

I've been a Sherlock Holmes fan ever since I was in primary school. My parents let me stay up and watch the Jeremy Brett series, and they took me along to the "Holmes Away From Home" exhibition in 1986. Eventually I made it to Baker Street and met up with staff at the museum who were even more fanatical than I am, and I own The Good Old Index!

When I heard about the new series I was giddy with joy. Steven Moffat writing? It'll be brilliant, I thought. Not even close to describing how much fun this show is. One of the best moments is near the end, where the mystery of the moving bullet is finally explained, which is also the first thing my friend Jon mentioned when he called me up during the closing credits. We were cacking ourselves and talking over the top of each other: "Oh, and what about that bit when-" "Oh that was brilliant! Did you get that bit-" "I know! But that's from-" "Well, yeah, but what about-" "Yes! That was amazing!".

(If you think this is bad, you should see us when a new Pratchett comes out. We communicate solely in sign language and squeaks of joy.)

So I made my beautiful beanie and I embroidered on my smiley face yesterday. If you cut a perfect circle out of label paper and use it as a guide, it helps a lot. As I mentioned before, the beanie is too long for my freakishly huge head so I'm passing it along to Jon, whose head is even freakisher.

Enjoy it Jon. I'm looking forward to our conversation after episode one of season three. In the meantime, no Reichenbach theory is too crazy to be contemplated.

Unlucky numbers

13.  I have thirteen unfinished projects floating around, mostly in a hidden corner of my lounge room.

Holy heckmonkeys, I don't think I've ever been this bad. So what do we say to the Knitting God of Death? Not today. Knitting triage time!

I had a check of how much I had left to do on each project, what needs to be purchased (for some of them) and made a spreadsheet to sort it all out. Nothing like messing around in Excel to make you feel like you're really accomplishing something.

1. Sherlock beanie (221b): I only started this ten days ago and it's done, except I need to embroider on my smiley face. It's a bit big for my head too. I may need to make another one in 10ply instead of 12. If only I knew who to give the first one to... Status: 95%

2. Radiant: I may or may not have stuffed up the sewing up of this jumper. It's now a Mobious jumper, so I need to open up the seam again and untwist and resew. It's cotton. This is going to be a nightmare. Status: 95%

3. Doorstop: I need a brick and an hour to sew this up. I'm currently lacking a brick. Status: 95%

4. Jade's purple gloves: a project for someone else that needs some tweaking, followed by a three needle cast off. I need about an hour to nut the mistake out and finish it up. Status: 90%

5. Cat draught stopper: the back of this project has to be made up with a zip, and I need to make up a cushion center but I have some lovely rocks to stuff down the bottom to give it enough weight to both stop the wind pushing it over and Dorothy dragging it around (I'll need the full 20kg bag of rocks to stop the latter). Status: 80%

6. Duck tapestry: I needed some blue for the sky. I have blue for the sky now. Should take about two or three hours to finish off. Status: 70%

7. Doctor Who mittens: I'm about a third of the way through the second mitten. The problem is that it's fair isle. I ADORE fair isle, but you can't watch anything but the knitting, and I can't even listen to my books because I'm counting numbers. I'll have to fire up some Cantigas and knit for a few solid hours. About five, more than likely. Status: 65%

8. Marcus' green jumper: This is ridiculous. I started this on Australia Day! Get knitting woman! Status: 60%

9. Marcus' orange jumper: I need more wool for this, so until it comes in I can't do a thing. Status: 60%

10. Marcus' blanket: Only just past halfway, this will need about another 100 hours. I plan to finish it before August. Maybe. Status: 95%

11. Egeblad doily: I found it! Now I need to actually work on it! Another Cantigas knit, or maybe some Enya? Status: 50%

12. BFF cowl: I'm knitting this with Chantal, so I need to hurry it along (she's kicking my backside at the moment). Maybe as soon as I finish Marcus' green jumper, so I can use the 4.5mm needles? Status: 20%

13. Marcus' new jacket: Oops. I started a new project on Sunday. Morris is having a 20% off sale! I had to buy yarn! Status: 5%.

The plan is to finish up the easiest ones first, and my carry-around knitting will be the project that is easiest and almost finished. Green jumper it is!

I'm coping without the internet by the way. Has anyone else decided to join in?

Faffing about

I'm at a bit of a loose end here. I want to get everything finished,  but I keep starting new projects, without finishing the old ones. The curse of the modern knitter, I think.

You see,  in Ye Olde Days of knitting you made clothing to wear, and you worked on one piece at a time.  Now, we get easily distracted by whatever new project everyone else is starting on Ravelry, or something we've seen on Pinterest, and then it's all "Oooo, look shiny things!"

So until I finish at least five projects I'm banning myself from the internet, with exceptions.:

1. This blog. Dur.
2. Ravelry, but only my own projects page.
3. Pinterest, but only my likes so I can clear them out (I use my likes as a springboard to becoming pins.  I'm fussy that way.).
4. Gmail.
5. Anything to do with work.

That's it. No The Age, no Metapicture,  definitely no Facebook.

Double dare you to try it.

Well, today sucks

I hope everyone else had a lovely weekend. Mine partly sucked.

Saturday was fine. Lots of fun, work, lots of laughing, an episode of "Defience". Not a bad day. Sunday started off great fun too. We went out for breakfast to celebrate my mum's birthday last week. As a family we take up a LOT of room in a restaurant, as there was 17 of us there yesterday. We drove in for me to start my Sunday at Morris & Sons and that's where the day started sucking.

The phone call about my nan happened, and I rushed back to see her before she was gone. My nan was turning 97 in August, so she had a pretty great run. Her knowledge of the Golden Age of Hollywood and Agatha Christie were encyclopaedic, and I'll miss our chats about both. Nan was a knitter and a crocheter, and I have two amazing ponchos she hooked up in the 70's that I still get stopped in the street for questions about.

I had some knitting with me yesterday in the hospital and just sat talking to my cousins and knitting while we all waited. I ran out of yarn late in the afternoon, but found a small amount when I got home later. I was going to pick some up at work yesterday but I just bolted out of the place. Maybe during the week I can grab some. After the funeral, perhaps. I think Nan might be a bit ticked if I was knitting during the service.

I've written before about how knitting helps and yesterday was no exception. I'll be able to look at Marcus in his little orange jumper and remember it was there at my Nan's last day.

We won't be mourning her, we'll definitely be celebrating her life. She was a knitter, after all.

*Please* hold still!

On Wednesday night I sewed up Dorothy's little sea shell jumper. It took 30 minutes to set two sleeves and sew up all the seams. I really am quite lazy, aren't I?

The pattern is called Sea Shells and is from the book "Heirloom Baby Knits" by Deborah Newton. I found it at Morris and Sons one browsy afternoon and realised that it was perfect for using up the bamboo/cotton I'd frogged from Dot's little hexagon cardigan that she outgrew in a week. It's very VERY boxy, but then, so is Dot.

It was a lovely fast knit in 10ply with an easy to remember pattern. I made the 18-24 month size and there's still room to grow in it, although the sleeves look very short when Dot holds her hands up. I checked when she's just moving around and it's down to her wrists so I'll have to suck it up.

Getting her to hold still for a photo was a bit of a trial. First we had the kitchen...

...then the couch attack...

...by the time she was back standing I'd given up.

So of course Dot sat down and looked cute.

My children drive me nuts.

So wonderfully wonderfully wonderfully wonderfully pretty...

As previously shown, I'd almost finished my kitschy draught stopper.

I said it would only take another two hours and so it did. You're looking at about 250 hours of cross stitching here. I knew I needed something so we didn't all catch pneumonia this year, but this was just spot on. I still need to sew it all up, but at least all the hard work is done.

Look at that face! It's just so kitsch, but who says kitsch can't be cute?

My children respect neither my craft nor my photography. I am an artiste, dammit!

A very low-fat Easter

I know that I'm biased, working for Weight Watchers as I do, but this really is a great alternative to a chocolate egg at Easter time.

Marcus and Dorothy may not have had these at Easter but I don't care. Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran makes the perfect chocolate colours, milk and dark.

The pattern is the Chocolate Easter Bunny by Doni Spiegle and it was a really quick make. The actual bunny bodies only took 5 hours for the pair of them, but I just couldn't seem to get it together in time to finish them up!

Marcus thought it really was chocolate, so he was disappointed when it wasn't, while Dot cuddled hers and then tried to eat it.  They don't look that real, kiddos.

It's the tail that kills me. I want to carry the bunny around calling "Poofy tail! Heeheeheehee! Poofy tail!" like Homer Simpson and the poodle.

Almost two hours

It was closer to three hours to finish off Marcus' beanie, and he's not very impressed with it.

The pattern is Debbie Bliss' Contrasting Edge hat, minus the edge. I shortened it by 1.5inches (yes, I still sometimes work in inches, much easier for knitting) and it fits like a dream. Well, probably only for this year.

The edge is Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran and the blues are Misti Alpaca Tonos Worsted I had left over from another project, so using some up was a way to tidy up the stash.

Unfortunately, the photography cut into Marcus' pwning time, so the session ended rather swiftly.

Stick around this week to see how much of my Wednesday list I've almost finished!

Unrealistic expectations

Knitters have no idea of time.  We really don't.  We think that we can knit a beanie overnight,  or a jumper in a week. We start to calculate stitches per minute and work out how many inches we can "whip up" in an hour. Sometimes we're asked to knit something for someone else and we think "Pffft! Two hours, if that!".

Knitters are the most delusional of crafters.

I thought I could knit Marcus a new beanie overnight. I started Wednesday afternoon, but by the end of the night I had only four of the eight inches I needed before the decrease (feel free to create your own joke here). Yesterday was Anzac Day here, so a whole day off to knit? Bliss! However, I've been pretty sick the last few weeks, and I was wiped out yesterday by a headache so I spent most of the morning sleeping. I took the knitting to my nephew's birthday party in the afternoon but spent most of the time there trying to stop Dorothy eating an entire orange, including the peel  (failed miserably, by the way). When we got home I went straight back to bed to nap, so the evening was a write off. When in doubt, revise the pattern.

I've decided the beanie doesn't need a turn up, so now I only need to knit another inch before the decreasing starts. So there's an excellent chance I'll have it all done by tonight. Absolutely.

Two hours, if that.

I almost got something done

I am about two hours away from finishing something.

It's a cross stitch kit to make a draught stopper that we desperately need in our little crooked house. I felt that a cat with yarn fitted here perfectly. Two hours to go, seems possible right?

But wait! There's still more!

A latch hook cushion for my little Dot.

Doctor Who mittens for Felix (winter is coming).

A new cardigan for Dot.

What needs finishing, though?

 Mum's doily. Once I find it again...

 Marcus and Dorothy's Easter bunnies.

Sewing in the ends of my cotton top.

Sewing up Dorothy's cotton jumper.

Frogging my Skew socks to make a beanie for Dorothy.

Buckets to keep me occupied right? Lots to do? Which do I attack first?

None of them.

Marcus got to the scissors while I was changing Dorothy and now needs a beanie to cover up his new hideous hair style. I swear I could just scream sometimes!

Round and round we go

Nothing like a bad toothache to get you up at 2:00am and knitting.

Today's effort? Egeblad, a doily made by the lovely Bells, and currently being made for the exact same reason: a present for my mum. Mother's Day is coming up and I believe that handmade and purposeless presents are the norm.

Can't get more purposeless than a doily. Throw in some "Spartacus" and I'm almost awake.

Almost.