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.

How long?!?

We interrupt our regular knitted items to bring you a very old piece of tapestry.

This is a Queen Adelaide tramme tapestry door stop kit I bought when I was fifteen, at a craft show at the Malvern Town Hall. The background yarn wasn't included, and I ran out of what I had bought. So I put it aside.

For 23 years. With only 99 stitches to go. 99 out of 9799. I worked 99% and gave up.

Yarn purchased Sunday.  This will be finished in the next hour. Then I'll need two bricks: one for the door stop, and one for the back of my head.

The ends are near

I run a finishing business where I volunteer to sew in the ends of other people's jumpers, yet my own languishes from my avoidance.

To be fair, there are an awful lot of ends and it is cotton. That's a reason, not an excuse, I swear!

Stress not

In years gone by when I was upset or stressed I'd pour a large glass of wine or eat some ice cream.

Now I sit down and make things.

After a stressful morning I sat down and crocheted this button bracelet in about 15 minutes. Much better for me than wine, I think.

Dear Debbie Bliss...

I have enough projects to finish. I have many unfinished and very many to start. I even have the stash set aside.

Then my da saw a gansey in your latest magazine.

"It's says "Barry's Gansey Sweater". My name is Barry. It must be mine, mustn't it?"

Thanks Debbie, thanks a lot.

Little Mannikins

One of the UFO's I was looking forward to working on was a little green vest I started for Marcus. I was a bit worried it might be too small for him, but no fear!

When I pulled it out of the bag the back was finished and the front was worked until about an inch below the armholes. I pulled it out on Saturday morning and by Sunday night it was all done bar the sewing up.

The pattern is Sirdar 337, and the yarn is Sublime Yarns Cashmerino DK that I bought on sale. The yarn is gorgeous, if not a tad fluffy already. As for the Sirdar pattern, well, I adore Sirdar patterns.  Beautiful, clear instructions, nary a mistake (so far) and - best of all - size 0-7! So Marcus will have another vest next year, and the year after, and the year after...


Did he like it?

Hard to tell!

Ooops.

Today's finished object is one of shame.

At the beginning of the year I wrangled my ufo's into some semblance of order, namely THE LIST. Now, to do this I had to open boxes that had been hermetically sealed for years, containing things that man dare not what of, etc etc. One of the boxes contained a dodgy looking Audrey Hepburn emblazoned bag and my heart sunk, for inside was someone else's knitting.

 This is possibly the worst of the worst. I'd taken Jade's knitting, from Scotland, faithfully promised to fix it (the scarf) and finish it (the gloves), then I would post it back to Scotland. Please note that two weeks after we arrived home from Scotland we found out Marcus was on the way and my entire life turned into baby knitting.

But enough excuses, here's Jade's scarf.

It's a plain stocking stitch scarf of 450 stitches on a 5mm needle, and early on Jade turned around mid-row, creating a hole. I promised to pull it back and finish it for her. To do this I had to undo about 15 rows, then started again, only to realise that the mistake was three rows lower. So I picked up the stitches three rows below, while in Gold Class watching "The Hobbit".

I couldn't look down at any point, because the film was just too brilliant. Luckily, after about an hour, I was off and knitting again. It took another three days and then I cast off 450 stitches.

Yeah, so Jade: it's finished. Still want it sent to Dundee?

Well, they're done...

I needed only enough yarn to knit a plain toe and once that was done I had no more excuses to not show them, so here are the Butteryarn Socks ("Nice pattern, butteryarn...?!").

The yarn is so impossibly chunky that a sock can almost stand up by itself. The pattern is "Log Cabin Socks" from "Handknit Holidays" and it was great fun. The fact that the first set of cables branch out and join up to make the next set was lots of fun but still kept me on my toes.

Felix actually likes his socks. Mind you, they're handknitted socks , so obviously he likes them. He seems to like the colour and yarn as well.

I think he's just being nice again...

PS: "They're really cool! They're like wearing armour!"

I give up.

The heater is on. In *January*.

When I woke up this morning it was 10°C. In January. This is quite odd, as today's finished object was finished on a 39°C day, just a few weeks ago.

My lounge room wreath isn't very fancy but it was fun to make. The pattern is from Good Knits, and while it wasn't easy crochting around a polystyrene wreath form, it was worth it in the end.

 

The roses are from the ever amazing Attic 24, and they eat a fair chunk of yarn, so if you're looking to kill off some stash, pick up a hook.

The most fun part for me was nuking some diced potatoes with water to make starch for the edging. I pinned out every loop on a blocking board, took it out onto the front verandah in the disgusting heat and sprayed until the edging was wet. Thirty minutes later it was dry and ready to decorate. Hot days have their uses sometimes!

Pretty girly things

Isn't it wonderful what nine hours sleep will do? It'll get you happy and bouncy and almost ready to clean up after a grarage sale.

Almost.

Last week I made two beanies for two little girls I'm not related to. My mum's best friend Marg knitted up a cardigan for her little grandaughter in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran and gave me the leftovers, which was one and a half balls, both in a soft dusty pink. I found a spare ball in the samples box at Morris one weekend, so I decided to make Marg's two little grandaughters matching beanies.

Now Sadie and Lucy will look adorable in these. They're lovely little girls, who come round to play with Marcus, and they live up in the Dandenongs, where it gets pretty cold over winter (I plan to move up there yet). The pattern is The Able Cable Hat, and it's fantastic. Simple increase/decrease that looks like a massive cable, with clear instructions. I started these beanies for the Ravellenic Games, but the games got the better of me, so they've been languishing in a bag ever since.

The flower on top is from Solgrim, and it's a pretty easy crochet. The mismatching buttons means the girls will be able to tell whose beanie it is, which is very important to sisters. Trust me on that one.

My brain is fried

I spent the first half hour in bed last night going over the plans for our garage sale today, which means that when the kids woke me up at 4:50am, I'd had less than five hours sleep.

This is my Da's new St Kilda beanie for winter. The pattern is Lina. If you want more than that it'll have to wait. I need sleep more than anything in the world right now. Unless Joss Whedon wants to bring back "Firefly".

That'd be nice too.

Takin' care of business

We've been cleaning out the bungalow in anticipation of a garage sale on the Australia Day holiday. I ventured into the back room and surveyed my stash and a pile of bags, filled with unfinished projects and very determinably ran away.

Thirty minutes later I had a list of all of my unfinished projects and my future projects in an easy to understand order of progression, so I set about throwing stuff into boxes to sell.

Working out which unfinished project to continue on and which to kill off was at times fairly easy, yet other times it was all tears and excuses. The amount of time invested, the cost of the yarn, how it had the potential to be beautiful, really it did. Hours later and my list stood at fifty-four projects, but about six of those were projects to kill off. It's pretty easy to kill off a jumper that you've spent about fifity hours knitting but now realise you're two dress sizes smaller...

End result? Things are getting finished! Really! I can understand your hesitation in believing me, so I shall show you instead. One project a day, working days only mind, because that way I have weekends to catch up!

First up: cabled shawl collar jumper. I started this for Marcus when he was six months old and even then it was massive. I thought it would fit him at twelve months but it was still too big, plus I hadn't sewn the collar on. So I put it aside and promptly forgot about it.

Fast forward to tidying up and now it's done. Buttons added and it's the perfect size for Dot this winter. She'll need a tartan wool skirt, obviously, and shiny boots. I love me some shiny boots.
The yarn is silky wool from Shiloh Wool Mills, and the pattern was a Patons one I found in an old edition of "Creative Knitting". I'm helpful, aren't I? I'd show you a photo of Dot wearing it, but in 31°C you can forget that!

---

If you do happen to be in the Ferntree Gully area on Monday, drop into Gerald Street. We want to get a lot of stuff out of our lives, so we're selling most of our books and most of my yarn (they seem to take up the most space). Kid's toys, clothes, the works. It's pretty much all $2 and under, so a jumper for $30 is possible!

Post-Christmas Joy

As I have previously mentioned, I have a pretty wonderful mother-in-law. Sue is a quilter, so I know she understands the need for stash and something to store it in. When I found out that she was my Kris Kringle giver last Christmas I was pretty happy knowing it'd be something good.

But it wasn't.

It was amazing.

My BagSmith Project bag was late coming over from the US, but worth the wait. It's just beautiful.

 

Look at the pockets! Six mesh pockets on this side...

Lots for needles and tools on this side.

Why do I love it so much? The frame.

It folds out to stand up. It's a freestanding knitting bag/basket.

Sue, you've excelled youself this time, truly you have. *mwah*

Happy New Year!

Welcome to another year past any Apocalypses! (A bigger load of rubbish I'd never heard of, and showing "Deep Impact" on tv was just insensitive...)

Another year gone past, another set of New Year's Resolution, which almost all seem to be "I must knit more". Funny that.

Instead, I hand over to you a year of very meagre pickings and present my finished projects of 2012:

• January Cal Square #1
• January Cal Square #2
• Felix's Cider Cozy
• Snuffles the Dragon
• Cameron's Van Halen Cozy
• Microbat
• Baby Blu Jeans
• Marcus' Green Cardigan
• Crocheted Cowboy Boots

That resolution is starting to look pretty necessary now. On the other hand I did knit full jumpers for my customers, so I'm not totally hopeless.

Have a great year this year, dear knitters, and positively RUN to Detail-Oriented Diva to download and print out this fantastic picture. How encouraging is it?!

For my mother-in-law

Dear Sue,

There isn't a waking hour that I'm not glad that I married your son. I keep forgetting that I get you as an added bonus.

When you make me something as brilliant as this wall hanging for my birthday:

Well, then, I'm extra glad I married your son. I absolutely love it!

Andrea

It'a a very crochet Christmas!

I had a lovely 38th birthday last week. Spoiled with pancakes in bed after a sleep in, if you can qualify 8:30 as a sleep in! Felix gave me a new iron, which is just what I wanted/needed/whimpered for, and the kidlets gave me a new ironing board to match. The board is brilliant - the highest setting is too high to iron but it's perfect for sewing up seams. Just excellent!

On Monday night we set up the Christmas tree while watching "Home Alone", because Christmas movies are mandatory for such activities. We've never has a tree up, apart from a metal one that holds tea lights, so I was pretty excited.

It's teeeeeeny and pretty and I adore it. The kids love the bell ornaments and I have to keep replacing the silver one constantly.

Crochet baubles were a given, once I saw this pattern by Pip from Meet Me at Mike's. An easy follow and look how awesome it is! I'm planning another red, and two white. I figure four ornaments of each type seeing as there's only four of us. Logical? Not really, but it works for me.

Today the kidlets are in their pjs for the entire day due to diseased-ness (is that a word? It can be, right?) and I'm not too fab either. Marcus has sinus pain and is snuffling constantly, while Dot has THREE molars coming through. THREE.At the same time. 

It's times like these I regret giving up alcohol...

Almost there

Today I've started my final project for a customer this year. Bliss!

Once I've finished this cardigan I can work on my own knitting. I have so many half-finished projects that need finishing that I have a list.

Sadly, Felix's Butteryarn socks are next.

Nice pattern,  but her yarn? *shudder*