Once you frog, you can't stop!

Another victim of the "Enh" knitting plague. I've been ignoring this cardigan for a while, for no reason other than it really isn't necessary nor on a deadline.














I took it out and looked at it and considered if I could make anything else out of it.













Oh look! It fall down go boom! Hehehehehe...

A sad side effect of pulling lots of yarn out is that the cat and the baby find it.














The cat I yell at. Squishie I take pictures of.

Finished Objects 2010 - #4

I set a zip. All by myself. Into a jacket. Can you feel that? It's smugness, that's what it is!
















The pattern is by Debbie Bliss and I once planned to make it for my littlest nephew, but never got around to it. I was looking through some old folders and found the pattern again, had a think, realised that I had a ball of navy and a ball of cream and cast on.














Three balls of navy were bought because you honestly can't knit a jacket with 50g of wool/bamboo! I recommend the Spotlight Bella Baby brand constantly and having knitted this jacket my opinion of the Layette range has not changed. It's fantastic to knit with: smooth, nice twist, pill-free, great (albeit limited) colour range.

Marcus made no complaints and my mum swooned when she saw him in it for the first time. Actually swooned. I think she's a bit biased, myself.

---

Two weekends ago I spent the day with Chantal, watching her zoom through knitting projects while I massacred her projects list on Ravelry (Sorry, Chantal, but if you haven't started it it doesn't go on the list!). In return she made fun of my inability to get any work done on my Fair Isle vest.














I started this project on June 1st 2006 (you what?!?) and zoomed through the back then got bogged down on the front. I decided to finish it off because I really need a nice warm vest for winter and I love the colours I chose (which were originally for a completely different project, a Jo Sharp intarsia). I don't care what fashion claims, the 70's colourways rock the most.

I just couldn't get going on this piece again. The width was too narrow and I worried that the 30cm or red ribbing was a very bad idea. The more I thought about the more I realised it just wasn't fun anymore.

So I took a long hard look at it last night and decided to adapt the pattern.














Right, what's next?

Time for a re-think...

A new project was due using some of my newly re-found yarn.
















The back of Marcus' new raglan jumper is a lovely shade of purple.













The front is a beautiful pale blu- what? There's not enough there to finish the front?!

Ahem.














The front is a lovely combination of pale blue and blue-gray.

















The right sleeve is a pale olive with stripes of purple, pale blue and blue-gray to tie the whole piece together.

















The left sleeve is just the pale oliv- oh come on! Not enough yarn to finish that piece either? There's only 10 rows to go!

One of those days, I think... Now I just need to go off and find my camera so I can take a decent non-iPhone pic of the finished piece!

Finished Objects 2010 - #2 and #3

That is not a typo; I really have finished two projects at once. It never rains but it pours, I guess.

First off, my Skewed Snow White Socks.

All these required was that I sew in the ends. I really can be that lazy, but this time it was because I forgot. I kept thinking I had hours of work left to go when I had five minutes, tops. It's strange how the mind plays tricks on you sometimes.















These are an amazing pattern to knit. Skew was instantly a hit on Ravelry and with good reason. The design defies logic to be worked diagonally which allows for defined toes and the greatest piece of origami for the heel. I love the swirl of the heel - just look at it! Brilliant!














The short row shaping at the top is equally clever. Suddenly your sock is done and you can knit up row after row of rib and voila! Done!














The colourway used here is "Snow White and the Seven Stitches" by Biscotte and Cie and was a gift from the ever wonderful Chantal, who spoils me greatly. I loveloveLOVE it to little tiny pieces and can't wait to wear them somewhere they can be seen and appreciated.

I spent yesterday with Chantal who is kicking my backside in finishing projects. Yesterday she wiped out two pair of socks and was picking up stitches for the neckline for an exquisite cabled vest for Marcus (how spoiled is my son?!?), so that should be done by now. Then there's only four rows garter on her cabled baby blanket and another Monkey sock to go and that will be five projects completed in a week. Stop showing the rest of us up, Chantal!

My other finished project is a bit odd. I was rummaging through a folder of old interwebs printouts and found it, handed it to Felix and asked if I should bother to keep it and he requested that I knit it straight away (I believe the phrase "Hell yeah!" may have been used. I therefore give you the Chicken Viking Hat.















As you can see Marcus is incredibly unimpressed. This is his usual face when a hat is put upon his head. Within a minute he'd pulled it off and started gnawing on the feet.

It was good while it lasted...

Is there such a thing as autumn cleaning?

No matter if there isn't, I can then claim sovereignty over the name. All royalties to me, please.

It started on Monday when I started vacuuming my gallery (the nickname my mum has for the concrete hallway in front of the concrete bathroom and concrete laundry - very 1930's). I realised there was a spider's web in the corner, so I vacuumed it up. It felt good so I kept cleaning. Wednesday was the lounge and I knew I was cleaning a bit harder than usual when I took books off the shelf, dusted them and put them back. This was a bit worrying.

To scare you further I started to tackle my yarn. I came up with the brilliant idea (according to me, anyway) of bagging it all up by colour, because I tend to make things based on what colour I'm in the mood for, rather than a pattern or and idea. This would be an insane idea if it wasn't for my very odd memory which means that no matter if the yarn has no label, I'll still know what it is. I can tell two different 4 ply yarns apart, it's not that hard to me. Like I said: odd.













This is the first layer of the yarns. Many bricks of colour, and I was amazed by how little black I own. Ex-goths need more black for credibility's sake. I was also confused by how much blue I own - I don't even like the colour!













This wasn't a big shock - I own a LOT of burgandy yarn. I expected that to be the highest amount, whereas Felix was all for purple (I think he forgot that I used up 10 balls knitting him his Cobblestone, but no matter). As you can see, both are pretty huge. A complete lack of yellow is not surprising, as it is a colour avoided by pretty much everyone, except my niece Ashlee.

The big surprise was was that I own a lot of cream yarn.













So much that it wouldn't fit into the stash box. Here it is nestled next to the multicolours/variegated pile. So much cream and I took three skeins out as well. Weird.

I've also pulled out a few hibernating/fully forgotten projects to investigate if they will be finished or frogged. This could take a while.

Finished Objects 2010 - #1

See that title? I honestly thought that it would NEVER happen, but there it is!















It's apt that the first item whipped up took two days and is worn by Marcus - yet another pair of Christine's Baby Booties, which I think are one of the best patterns out there. I used the last of my Patons Merino Deluxe DK, which is no longer available (but Feathers is? Morons...). I was forced to go up to 3.25mm - the horror!
















Marcus can't kick them off, although he gives it a pretty good try! Eventually my assistant was required to make sure I could even get a shot.

















Thanks Felix.

Our special day; Odds and sods

Marcus' christening went off without a hitch (unless you count our car running out of petrol before we even left the house. Thank heavens we tried to go somewhere three hours before we had to leave!). It was lovely weather with lots of friends and many more family, some of whom made it all the way from NSW, so they win.













He looked just beautiful in his christening gown (not dress, no matter how many times his Auntie Leah calls it that), and he is now the third generation to wear it, which I love. Felix and I scrubbed up okay for the event (how fake is that pose?!), and yes Gidgetknits, my husband deliberately bought a navy and red pinstripe suit to match the Doctor. This is why I'm married to him.
















It was a bit of a big day, so Marcus flaked out relatively swiftly, including during the first hour of the church service. Standing to sing hymns while holding an 8.5kg baby when you have a bad back is emphatically no fun.

So how did the christening shawl look?

















Here's the fairy cakes I made.

















Here's the christening cake I made.
















Here's Felix's 30th birthday cake I made (I heart my nerd).

So, how did the christening shawl turn out?

...

It was 27 degrees! Who wears a shawl in 27 degrees?!?! In other words, I'll get it finished relatively soon, no rush now!

---

In the meantime I've currently got about four rows of ribbing to go on my Skewed Snow White socks, I started a fair isle jacket for the Squishie after the yarn fell out when I was tidying up and I've got about 45 minutes before I finish up another pair of booties using the fabulous Christine's Baby Booties pattern. I'll get it all done eventually.

















The jacket was knitted up during last weekend's "Wire in the Blood" marathon where I watched series 1-5, finishing up yesterday afternoon, while Squishie slept - he really doesn't need to watch dismembered bodies and Munchhausen by Proxy mothers now does he?

That's a bit better

A nice week so far.




I've cooked up a batch of blood plum jam;



A dozen blueberry muffins were made;



The border started on the christening shawl.

10 repeats done, 110 to go.



In other excellent news, the christening gown worn by Felix's mum fits Marcus.

Where's the fun?

Joining the Knitting Olympics was a baaaaaaaaaaad idea, and here's why. In the next two weeks I have the following:

1. My dad's birthday (today, in fact!) for which I am making a dinosaur cake;
2. My family reunion of which I am one of the organisers;
3. A sudden influx of relatives from interstate (all Felix's family, in fact);
4. The most important event: Marcus' christening, which I have yet to finish the shawl for.

The end result of this is that I've been putting unrealistic deadlines on my knitting. Skew socks in two weeks? Easy! It would have been too, had I not also been making my Da's birthday present, his birthday cake and making up 22 invitations to be sent out.

See? Too busy.

I've been spending very spare minute trying to catch up on the socks until Friday when I discovered that I couldn't carry my baby anymore. Felix stayed home from work and has taken complete care of Marcus over the weekend while I inhale Voltaren and Mersyndol for a back that has "soft tissue damage", also known as "Ow! Smeg it!". (This is an opportune moment to mention how wonderful Felix is. I haven't changed a nappy for almost three days now - thanks honey!).

Friday was an epiphany. Why do I do this to myself? Why do we all do it? Self-imposed goals, deadlines in fact, where we rush through the knitting, working almost as automatons, stitch after stitch, row after row, "I've got to finish this so I can get started on that thing for So-and-So's birthday!". It's taking all the fun out of my knitting, which is why I think I'm slowing down so much. I also don't think it helps that I knit automatically, which is a great help of plain knitting at the movies, but not very (I suppose) mindful.

I want my knitted gifts to be filled with the love and joy of the knitting itself, not the stress and pressure that I felt under to finish them on time. How often have I spent getting up extra early on the day of someone's birthday just to finish the present in time? How often have I tried to calculate just how long another 20 rows will take to knit? How long before I stop feeling guilty about the presents I didn't finish, and ran out and bought a meaningless present to replace, the kind you just grab off a shelf with no thought, because all of my thoughts went into the knitting, but there just wasn't enough time?

I'm quitting deadlines. If I knit something from now on, it'll be because I want to knit it. It will be because I like the juxtaposition of the yarn and stitch pattern. If it ends up as someone's present, great, but no more pressure. I have enough pressure from the rest of my life without my "relaxing hobby" adding more.

Now to justify the pressure I'm piling onto myself over the next two weeks for the christening shaw

Knitting Olympics - Day 1 Results

Whilst the Yarn Harlot may advocate the use of caffeine and chocolate, here at Let Me Knit! we highly encourage the use of other stimulants to get through the Knitting Olympics. Did you know that three apple juice icy poles crushed up with vodka tastes really good?

Anyway, I cast on the Skew sock thinking how this would be a major challenge. It is a complex pattern, but once you get down to brass tacks, it's just beautiful. The use of left and right leaning decreases makes me smile and I try and explain the brilliance of it to non-sock-knitters (my mum and my husband) but they don't understand why it's so much fun.














I'm using a fantastic yarn that Chantal gave me as a present, the occasion being that she thought I'd like it (understatement!), and with a name like "Snow White and the Seven Stitches" I really do love it. See? It's the same colours as Disney's Snow White. How cool is that? It's made by Biscotte and Cie and you might like to look at her beautiful sock yarn. Amazing stuff and I'm tempted by the Nemo yarn...

My brilliant plan to not let Felix tell me off for putting myself under this amount of pressure failed last night when he asked me what I was knitting and I told him. He doesn't "particularly mind". So much for the secrecy part of the plan. But if I hadn't told him, then I wouldn't have managed this picture:














Squishie is a bit unsure about how to knit a sock with a single circular, but we think he'll figure it out.

Good heavens, what have I done?!

I'm making my father's birthday present, due on February 28th. I'd tell you all what it is, but he reads my blog so I'm not falling for that again (suffer Da!). I'm also knitting a lace shawl for Squishie's christening on March 14th - just started row 171, only 10 to go before the border, so yay for me there. This is an awfully huge amount of work, and I have schedules and notes on how much I can fit into each day to get it all done in time.

Considering all of the above, would anyone care to tell me what on earth possessed me to sign up for KO2010?





I'm knitting these by February 28th. I'm using the beautiful Snow White and the Seven Stitches that Chantal gave me for a present (Enabler, I curse thee!) and the instructions look nice and hard.

How could I be so stupid? I saw the Knitty surprise pattern and swore to make them for the Knitting Olympics because Chantal and I had been discussing them today. I laughed and said no chance would I be knitting anything, I have enough on... oh, b****r.

My one consolation is that Felix won't know. I don't think he reads the blog unless I point it out to him as a particular posting...oooo, I hope he doesn't find out! Knitting at 5am it is then.

---

A brief announcement - we moved the actual christening to the 11th of April, so I have a slight respite! Phew! I'm still an idiot, though.

Sleep? Bah - for the weak only!

It's almost half past one in the morning and I'm posting. As someone with a newish baby, you're probably all thinking "Ah, the baby is awake so Andrea's awake. Poor thing."... No such luck. Marcus slumbers blissfully, as does his father. I am unable to deal with stereo snoring, hence the very early knitting.

Oh, yes, I'm still knitting. I'd post about it but daily updates of "Yay! Another row accomplished!" really didn't thrill me, and so I have left my blog in relative peace.

The christening shawl is now up to row 154, another section involving double yarn overs (I love the size of the hole because it's just so huge!) and then it's on to the very last chart - hu-bloody-zzah. It's getting hard to put goodwill into this knit sometimes, but I persevere. The best time for knitting is just after dinner during our evening episode of "Castle", but we're almost out so I suspect that we'll be forced to find another series to fill in the evening. I suspect a re-watch of "Firefly" beckons, if we could just remember who borrowed it last...

Oh, and for Sonia.














Marcus got chubbier.

Knitty knit knit

I've been living the most wonderful life the past few days, filled with purpose and meaning. Saturday I handed Marcus over to his daddy and nudged them both in the direction of the lounge and the X-Box: "Come and watch Daddy cook some fools, Squishie!". This left me free to tackle the black hole that was our bedroom. How can a baby have more clothes than I do?

True, I have more knitwear, but that's because I've been knitting for myself for almost 31 years, whereas Marcus has only been in the picture for a few months. It's still disappointing when things like this happen:














This is the grey jacket I knitted for Marcus last year (my last FO, in fact). I dragged it out for the cool change yesterday, only to discover that some edge stitches have come undone. Now, I could spend some time picking them back up and fixing the jacket properly, but I really can't be bothered. It was a stop-gap jacket at best and I'd much rather get started on his winter knitting. There is an awesome cabled jumper in his winter future, not to mention the need to make many many pairs of overalls.

The christening shawl continues on unabated, with the count currently at row 119. I keep finding that I've missed YO's, so I occasionally need to tink back the 16 stitch repeat a few rows. Never phased me, even when it's patterning every row. Then I read Donna's post on her Cap Shawl and now I'm terrified. Poor Donna - go over and give her a nice posting-hug, will you?

---

Looking through my camera I've found a few FO's that I didn't post last year - yay! So, the sneaky news is that they're going to be the beginning of this years' FO's. Bwahahaha!

A weird knitting moment

I'm still on the multi-pattern repeat in the lace and I've just come to a part that feels a bit odd.

I have to slip 1, knit 1, pass slip stitch over. Easy. The oddness comes from the slip stitch. I'm constantly slipping a yarn over. It just feels weird. I keep freaking out that I'm doing it all wrong, even though I know I'm not.

Weird.

Faith in humanity somewhat restored

First we had the very nice pamphlet delivery lady on Saturday night. She heard my mobile ringing in a garden and picked it up and returned my parents phone call. After a chat they all agreed to meet out the front of my place, and she handed the mobile over to my parents. Thanks pamphlet delivery lady!

Last night we came home late after the vile vile heat and while I was downstairs (half asleep due to a headache-busting Mersyndol Forte) Felix went back up to empty out the car. While he was there a man asked him if he knew where Flat 3 was, as he needed to deliver a wallet he had spotted in a storm water drain. Thanks complete stranger!

Turns out we're only missing the two credit cards and we canceled them fast enough that no damage was done. Yay - no new license photo!

Stupid life

This weather is just intolerable. 43 degrees is ridiculous, and all I want to do is move back to Scotland. Luckily, Squishie and I are off to my sister's house with its lovely lovely air conditioning which means I may actually get some knitting done.

Not lace knitting, mind you. I have a pair of socks on the go for Felix (curse you Bells, you temptress you!) and a short-sleeved sock yarn cardigan for the Squishie, so I need not worry about lace knitting counting while the awesome Leah and I watch chick flicks and hand the baby over to his highly competent cousins to mind. Lots of drinks with ice in them, and we'll be set.

---

We had something pretty lousy happen this weekend. We bolted into the house on Friday afternoon (it was really warm) so we could get Squishie all comfy. Here's where the stupid comes into it: I forgot my purse and Felix forgot to lock the boot. Saturday night comes around and I realise I don't know where my wallet is. I check the car - nope, not there. We eventually drive off to the petrol station we used it at last, and on the way we get a phone call from my mum telling me that some very nice stranger has found my mobile two streets from my house and just how did I lose it?

So that's how we found out that someone had stolen my purse from my car. It looks like the eejit climbed through the boot and grabbed the purse and mobile from the section under the radio. They forgot to look in the centre console, so the iPod is safe (it's the old one anyway) but now I have to go off and get all of my cards again: licence, Medicare, library and we need to get all of the banking cards again, because they were all on my purse. Grrrrrrr. The very nice police officers apologised but there weren't any decent prints due to the cars post-holiday dust and the heat on Saturday.

I was feeling very sorry for myself for most of the weekend and then got on the webs and read Lynne's post over at Yarnivorous. I spent most of last night hugging Squishie instead.

A Lacy Summer

Having joined up with Bells' Long Lacy Summer yet again, I thought the christening shawl would be a breeze. I'm pretty good with lacework and it tends to speed along.














Not this time, I'm afraid. I don't know if it's the patterning in each row which causes me to slow down, or just the lack of knitting time available but I just don't seem to be getting far.

I'm currently on row 108 and I have plenty more to go. I'm trying to get a section down each week, and I still have 6 rows left in the section I have to finish before Sunday. Shouldn't be too hard, really but I also have to do all the household-y work, not to mention the Squishie (when he's awake - his morning nap is the perfect blogging time!) who is a real time stealer, especially when he's beaming at me.

My wake up at 5am plan is actually working quite well, except for the part where I use it for knitting. At the moment I use it entirely for housework, because the post-Christmas disaster I call my home really was a disaster. Hopefully by the end of the weekend I'll be back in to knitting time, but I can't do my usual knitting routine of watching a dvd while I'm knitting this shawl; it's hard to concentrate on a film when you need to concentrate twice as much as normal on your knitting.














The worst part of this pattern is that it has two parts: the lines of lace flowers down the corners and the main panels. The flowers are a 18 row repeat, which means that I'm keeping track of two patterns as I go. It gets easier if I'm working on it continuously, but this stopping and starting means that I'm getting a bit lost.

I'm thinking that a big push might be in order tomorrow, especially as I have no plans to leave the house in this weather: 34 degrees all weekend!

I don't know everything

It was a bit of a shock to be pulled up short by the christening shawl I'm currently working on. The knitted lace (not lace knitting) section required me to knit two together. Easy! Anyone can do that. The problem was that the two stitches to be knit together were a knit and a yarn over.

Looking at the potential stitch, it seemed that the only way to knit it was to knit through the back of the two stitches, lest the YO become a tightly stretched thread and the hole it created disappear. So I tried that. It worked, but the twisted stitch looked completely out of place.

I decided to look it up on Ravelry - where would we be without it? According to the pattern listing, no-one else had any problems with row 105. I seriously contemplated messaging the creator, Dorothy Siemens, to ask what to do.

After about 20 minutes of hesitation I gave up and went to bed. Yesterday morning, in a brief moment of "Quick! He's asleep!" I decided to try again.

I looked at the two stitches again, looked at the pattern - still K2tog - and did just that. The YO didn't pull tight, the hole was relaxed and lovely and I learned a very valuable lesson: designers do actually know what they're doing, especially with lace. I think I know so much about knitting just because I've been knitting for years (31 years this March) yet something like this has pulled me up.

Knitting resolutions for the year? Find out more. Read up on the history of what I love, find new techniques (I used cable cast on until I was 28. Pffffffft!) which are always brought up on Ravelry, challenge myself more. This could be a little hard with Marcus around, but if I have to get up at 5am every morning to do it, then I will.

Forget lemonade, we're moving onto clear spirits...

Port Macquarie is lovely (apart from the vile humidity). How can you not love a place where you can see this many wonderful birds at once? (My in-laws backyard.)




















Marcus enjoyed himself immensely, especially at Lake Cathie (it's apparently pronounced Cat-eye, not Cath-ee. Freaks, I tells ya).




















This picture was taken just before his butt hit the water and he lost it completely.

However, Port Macquarie has one small problem: it is 1200 kms away, and now my darling Felix has promised we need never visit there again. Why? Because the drive home was just as bad.

First stop was at Taree at 10:30am on Saturday to feed the Squishie (Did I mention that's what Marcus has been called since he was a week old?). All was going well until we returned to the car to discover that the battery was completely dead. Somebody* had left the lights on and drained the battery, so we called the NRMA, who decided that telling us sixty minutes and taking two hours with no reason was perfectly fine.















Were it not for my knitting I would obviously have gone insane. I got some pretty odd looks while we waited, but K.I.P. will do that. Eventually we hit the road again, with me driving through torrential downpours only to stop 10kms before Buladelah.




















Yep, another tailback, another batch of knitting - luckily only one hour before the tailback ended. We stopped just before the town at a Revive centre to grab a coffee which was when I declared: no more holidays ever ever EVER again. The rest of the day consisted of driving as hard and as fast as I legally could, making Goulburn by nightfall. 600km in just 12 hours...bah.




















First stop this morning? Look Squishie - it's a really BIG sheep!




















He loved his little take-home version too.

Felix drove today and I managed another 10 rows of my Garden shawl, bringing me up to a total of 100 rows - only 79 to go, not counting the border, obviously. The only reason I managed so much knitting today was the brilliance of my boys. Felix drove and Marcus, well...















Nothing like the world's best traveler to help his mother keep her sanity. Now for a medicinal fortified!

* It wasn't me, and Marcus can't drive...

Finished Objects 2009

Well, the post is a day late but humidity plays nasty tricks on the mind (only 68% today).


















We had a very non-eventful NYE here: watched "The Glenn Miller Story" with my in-laws and Felix while we waited to see if Marcus would wake up in time for us to see the local fireworks at 10:00pm; he slept until 10:30pm and grizzled so much that our midnight saw Felix, Marcus and I all lying down trying to go to sleep.



















Despite the shortness of my 2009 list I think I still went pretty well. I think we can all agree that number 19 was my greatest work for the year, if not my life.

Happy New Year all.

• Grey Jacket
• Marcus
• Alphabet Blanket
• Aqua Grey Seamless Booties
• Mintie Booties
• Alpaca Booties
• Brioche Baby Booties
• Alpaca Hat
• Wee Willie Winkie
• Dodecaheeeeeeeedron!
• Green Baby Booties
• Baby Argyle Vest
• Baby Wraparound
• St Kilda Socks
• Endpaper Mitts
• Ruby Red Hot Water Bottle Cover
• Kingsford Smith Hat
• Lenny the Bunny
• Lace Beret
• Celtic Hearts Shawl