Made of win

Look at this toe, just look at it!















See? I made it for my da's right foot. He can't wear this on his left ever, so from now on he'll have to look extra carefully before he puts his socks on. I just love it.

The pattern for this anatomically correct toe comes from Under Dutch Skies, whose debt I shall forever be in. On the other hand, my mum has really pointy toes that fit the usual toe instructions perfectly.

Sometimes I think she's a mutant.












On the second sock, not as much progress as I'd like. I spent today working my fingers ragged, but tonight the boitjie ("little boy" in Afrikaans) decided a full-on kickboxing championship was called for so all of my energy was invested in not screaming.

Ah, mother-love... When he gets here, he's grounded til he's 23.

A knitting day, but not mine

Today was spent in the company of two very delightful knitters, my nieces Ashlee and Kirsten. Now, Ashlee first learned to knit when she was 7 but hadn't learned purl until today. Seeing as she's now 13 I decided it was about time to teach her. That way she can knit some really great stuff for the baby as well (is it child labour if they're family?).



















Being a very bright girl, she picked it up with no fear and actually enjoyed it! The best part is that Ashlee has a very tight tension on garter stitch, but as she added purl in she loosened up. Amazing to watch.




















Kirsten is 10 and the queen of finger knitting. QUEEN. She didn't think she could learn to knit but the phrase "like a duck to water" comes to mind. She worked it out in about two seconds and was soon zooming along with a garter stitch rectangle which she made into a bag for her doll.



















The trick to someone like Kirsten learning is to ensure that she can't can't talk while knitting, because when she does the next words are sure to be "Aunt Andrea, I think I made a mistake!".



















Ashlee's stocking stitch strip was a scarf for her doll, and the end of a two year "I'm not knitting 8 stitches for 60cm" drama. Personally I don't blame her - my idea of a scarf is cast on 450 sts and knit 6 rows!

I'm so proud of the two of them, and I'm glad that they'll have something to use when they hit the evil teen years. According to my mother the only time I was calm and nice was when I was knitting or doing some embroidery, and the same holds now. Why do you think I knit all the time?



















As for my sock, I was concentrating on my nieces so much I barely got a stitch done. I think I can finish the first sock off by tonight, which leaves the weekend for the second. That's if Ashlee and Kirsten don't drop by to learn some more...

*yawn*

The boy woke me up nice and early this morning stretching and kicking, so I was forced to give up on sleep and get up at 4am.

If you need me, I'll be unconscious.

Oh. Yeah. We're having a boy. Sorry if you wanted a surprise..

Told ya

My mum came over today to help me with some curtains and - more likely - to keep an eye on me. She also spent too much money on me again, and we were forced to go shopping. Darn.


















The curtains look pretty cute, though.

The end result of this parental interlude, however, is a a complete lack of knitting. Well, not complete.




















I've finished the gusset decreasing and then it's home free for the feet. Tomorrow is Ikea-ing with my niece (10), nephew (7) and my mum (eternally 24). I'm designated driver, so I can't knit in traffic, but I might try to squeeze in a few rows as we wander around. Here's hoping.

I'd call this "Sock it to me!" but I have a sense of humour

Well, I've managed to amaze myself with my sock knitting today. Take a look at the needle poked through the sock.



















That's where I started this morning. I've finished the sock leg, the heel flap, turned the heel and started the gusset decreasing. I'm in a state of awe at myself, and I'm my biggest critic. Tomorrow my mum is coming over and we're sewing all day so I doubt I'll get anything knitted, so the awe will end, thankfully.

My niece was just happy that I was knitting in St Kilda colours - try being non-AFL-affiliated in Melbourne. People just stare at you like a freak. Good thing I've been used to it for years!

Blanket? What blanket?

I need to sit down for a week and work on nothing but my baby Alphabet Blanket as I previously mentioned, but not this week. This week is mental.

Today involves a bit of driving around, Tuesday is babysitting my niece and nephew (who are perfect), Wednesday is a day with my mum finishing off curtains and make another one to hang in my workroom/entrance, Thursday is niece/nephew/Mum trip to the greatest place on earth a.k.a Ikea in Richmond and Friday is... actually, I don't know what Friday is, but mental it shall be.

You just can't work non-stop on a blanket with tea breaks on that kind of a schedule. Hence a new project: socks for Da.















He's been feeling a little hurt that my mum has been getting all the socks while he misses out, so I decided to start a pair for him to wear to golf. Da loves his St Kilda (AFL team) so when I saw this last lonely label-less ball of Opal Ladybird at Wondoflex I grabbed it.

I've started off in 2.75mm needles but it feels all wrong. I think I might have to change to 2.5mm and restart, which is annoying. I really do want to finish off my blanket next week, unrealistic as that sounds...

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.

A knit free week?

We were at my niece and Felix's joint family birthday party on Sunday when my sister asked if I was still unemployed with sooooo much time on my hands. "Well, yes. Why?"

Some help was required for my niece, Eden, specifically for her dance group. Now my sister knows that I'd lay down in traffic for any of my nieces and nephews, so I said yes. How hard could helping out be?















There are 40 blue stars to sequin. Easy enough. It's the 105 pink ones I'm worried about.

So much for knitting this week.

Long? Not really. Lacy? Partly. Fun? Yes!

Today in Melbourne, summer is truly over. It started raining overnight and it's still bucketing down. To everyone getting soaked at Sound Relief - suffer. I couldn't afford tickets to the concert let alone buy my husband a birthday present. Oh yeah...Happy Birthday Felix!

It seems a round-up of my long lacy summer is necessary, so I shall recap what I managed to knit.














Technically I finished my Snowdrop Shawl in early November, but I'm counting it!














Next up was my Cascading Leaves Shawl, which I love because I know that Kaye - who owns it - loves it too.













Then I finished my Nosferatu Shawl in about two weeks - so fast!














Celtic Hearts was even faster. One week - I loved it.














Finally, my lace beret.

I don't feel that I stretched myself too hard making any of these, experience-wise. I've knitted lace before, and love it, but it's fun seeing just how many I managed to knit in such a short amount of time.

What to knit first...

Chantal once pointed out that the problem with pregnancy is that you have less than nine months to knit everything. As usual, she's right, so I'm taking advantage of my current unemployment to knit my fingers to the bone.

Recently I was worried because I didn't feel like knitting. Or reading. Or (shock horror) watching BBC dramas. This is when Felix started to worry. I asked my Divine J(udith) what was wrong with me and her reply was very comforting. "Koekie, you just moved back to Australia, you travelled for 50 hours straight, you're living on a sofa bed and you're pregnant. Just take the time you need to relax." I love Judith, especially after she promised to knit Podling presents in cotton. I loathe knitting in cotton - no give to it - but as Podling is due at the end of September, summer looms, so cotton it must be. Judith has taken a weight off my mind, and I have promised that the second I know the boy/girl question she'll be told.

I myself am a wool lover, but even I have made sacrifices. I have knitted a cotton tank top in Rowan Wool Cotton - *gasp*! That's about two hours from finishing, and once I find my camera again I can take pictures. It's somewhere around.

In the meantime, I've also started the Debbie Bliss Alphabet Blanket in Patons Merino Deluxe DK that was a present long ago from Damien from ACS. It's always great to put a lot of yarn to a great use, and this blanket is a one-of-a-kind.

Next up - a knitted christening gown?

6,561st reason to love Ravelry

I've been having a pretty rough time since we got home from Scotland. We arrived in time for the horrendous heatwaves (I fainted), the tragedy of the bushfires which brought back a lot of painful memories of 1983 for my family, and - selfish as this sounds while so many have nowhere to live - the torture of the pull out sofa bed. Which is the perfect size for one. Except that there's two of us.

Anyhoo, my rant on Ravelry about how some heartless sod had stolen my bag had caused many many lovely Ravellers to pop up and offer me wool and presents. The first offer (within minutes) cam from the very lovely Karen who offered me both a new diary and an anniversary present for my parents as part of the RAK (Random Acts of Kindness) group on Ravelry. I accepted happily and today my parcel arrived.

When you've been having a bad time, to see all of this makes you believe in the kindness of complete strangers.















Can you believe it? A bag, wind chimes, some beautiful soap from India, a worry doll (very necessary!), chocolate, a candle, incense, a charm with yarn dolls, a little wind turner, lots of tea (yum!) and - the ultimate - a Wedgewood picture frame!

I burst into tears and Felix just looked at it and pointed out - yet again - how fantastic Ravelry is. He's beyond right this time!

My mum has claimed the Wedgewood frame for herself, and is planning to save it for her 7th grandchild's picture, even though the baby isn't due until late September.

Oh, that's another reason for my bad mood - morning sickness. Because the 7th grandchild is coming from Felix and I.

Surprise!

Bleurgh

Current events have caused a knitting slowdown. More details somewhere around March at this point.

I hate lethargy.

News, of a kind

Many of you are regulars on Ravelry, so my most recent tale of disaster would be of little surprise to them. For those not on Ravelry, here goes.

Long story short - we came home. I missed everyone, it wasn't working out so well in Scotland and I nagged Felix until he agreed to come home (he'll tell you I didn't nag, but he's wrong and very sweet). The trip home was terrible.

First, the bus trip from Dundee to London - 12 hours, little room, heaters on full. Let us never speak of it again. We trained out to Heathrow where I went on a last minute present spree for my dad at Harrods and refused to buy me a 1974 Dalmore's single malt. I still think 400 pounds is a bargain. Heathrow did have a very very large advantage.















Here I am five minutes before boarding the plane. Knitting. I went through three security checks, and I'm knitting. Then on board guess what I did all flight - that's right. Knitting.

(NB: United needs to be less stingy with the alcomahol. US$6 for a very teeny beer is disgraceful.)

After staying awake for the next 10 hours flying over Iceland, Canada (hello Winnipeg!), the Grand Canyon, the salt plains of Utah (in the distance) we eventually landed in San Fransisco. It's not a very large airport, but we wandered up to security and passed through to the US on Inaugeration Day, no less. (Ask Felix about my reaction to the fingerpint scan. I went a bit silly.)

We had two hours before our connecting flight to LA, so we settled down, and I sent Felix away to find coffee. Sweet sweet coffee... He came back with the goods, and I reached between my feet for my backpack with my knitting. Wait...

Someone had taken my backpack.

This backpack was very dear to me, being both a birthday present from my parents and the cutest black leather backpack ever. The contents were variable:

• My wallet with my id’s, useful only for Australia, but no money at all
• My 2009 diary
• My mobile phone
• A ball of beautiful burgandy sock yarn, that was to become a pair of Earl Grey socks for my dad (yes, that burgandy sock yarn)
  
• 1.5 Incoming socks, knitted in Tofutsies for my mum.

They took my knitting. I had plans for the Incoming and Earl Grey Socks. They were to be a present for my parent's 47th wedding anniversary.

I was a bit confused at first - obviously I'd moved my bag elsewhere, because I knew it had been between my feet, and no-one sat next to me, so I must simply be confused. I'm good at losing things, ask any member of my family. But Felix saw me put it down, so it must be around. Eventually we worked out what had happened. Someone sat behind me and pulled it from beneath me to them and wandered off.

My first port of call, after reporting the loss, was a very very nice bar for a very very large G&T. Then I pulled out more knitting. (What? You don't have spares?) The flight from SFO to LA was swift, and didn't prepare us for the horror that awaited us. It turns out that United overbook their flights and one girl had been waiting for 6 days for an available seat, despite having already paid to be on the flight. Luckily, I had more knitting - the Prismatic Scarf using two balls of Noro Silk Garden, which I didn't really start for a good ten hours because I fell asleep while they doing the safety speech. Good thing we didn't crash...

Landed in Sydney early morning and had to transfer to Melbourne, so I was a bit worried about my carry on luggage with the second round of knitting in it. Check this out:















Me, knitting on the flight from Sydney to Melbourne. Apparently chunky plastic needles are fine. Who knew?

So we're back for good, and just in time for the Melbourne heatwave, Round 1 (Round 2 is this weekend). As you can imagine, I fared badly with Felix just cruising through. Gotta tell you, I'm so glad I'm back.

Cross your fingers for me!

My da is in hospital to be fitted with a pacemaker either today or tomorrow. He's had an irregular heartbeat for years, but because he's as fit as a Malley bull he's never needed one - he's signed up for the Australian Masters Games in two weeks, and he's in ten running events. Ten!!! One of them is on his birthday, when he turns 70! He looks a lot younger, I can tell you!

So, cross your fingers for me and hope that my mother doesn't smother him with a pillow as he tries to bribe the specialist into letting him compete in the Games after all! Oh Barry...