A lazy Sunday

Sunday is usually hectic for me. Get up, get dressed, take care of kids, grab Dot and head for 8:00am service, come home, late breakfast, get ready, head off to Morris & Sons.

Today, wake up at 7:00am, realise the headache is going to kill me, go back to sleep. Felix wakes me at 8:00, feeds me Panadol and a cup of tea and leaves me asleep until 9:00am, while feeding and dressing two kids. Beyond the call of duty? Absolutely.

I did make it in to M&S, full of tea and happiness. 12 degrees is brisk for me, and I had another great day at work. Best moment was when a customer asked me if I recognised a pattern and I could say "Oh, that's Bubbles! I love that!" Pulled the pattern up on Ravelry and she liked the third picture on display. Yep, the one by Andrea. My ego got a teensy bit bigger after that (it's almost grape size now).

Lest you fear I shall become big-headed with my new found awesomeness, I gift you a photo of how I repaired the hole in Felix's sock.

I tied a knot in it.

This week's knitting

Here's what I have:

Five headbands for a customer, with #6 being finished while I wait for my niece's debutante ball to begin tonight (they never start on time). I've also picked up three finishing projects to drop off next Saturday.

Dress? What dress? No idea what you're talking about...

Hook-ing, not hook-...

Crochet is what I do when I want something made up quickly. I'm fast at knitting but I seem to be ridiculously fast at crochet. On the other hand, cut me in half and you'll read the word "knitter" running through me like rings through a tree.*

I suggested to Felix that he might need a hat with earflaps. The current weather is pretty terrible here in Melbourne, and now that he's growing his hair out I worry about him out in the early morning cold with wet hair. Yes, I am turning into my mother.

I chose the Granny in a Flap hat from UK Lass in US, and he loved it.I suggested grown up colours and he loved the idea even more. I then changed my mind completely and decided to make him a Turn A Square in greys instead. I'm not all that constant, really. The kidlets are now getting matching Granny hats, because I like torturing them. Dot pulls every hat off and Marcus just won't let me try to put one on his head, but I shall persevere. Because I like torturing them.

My next crochet idea is the Caracol's Granny Poncho in light grey and charcoal, with maybe some red in there. I have some grey pants with a red pinstripe, and I need to wear more handmade items to work on Sundays. Last week I wore the Elsie cardigan from Rowan "Vintage Style" and customers kept asking where it was from and how great it was and what a beautiful colour etc. It was pretty fun, actually. Now I need some 10ply.

If only I worked at a knitting store...

* Please don't cut me in half.

Happy Baking!

Even when it's not Easter I could live off hot cross buns. However, I only eat them at Easter, because otherwise they're not special.

Of course, if you don't add the crosses, they're fruit buns. You can eat them anytime - yay!

(Psssst! If you would like to be very very lovely, please visit my profile here. Basically, I'm begging for votes for the Healthy Life Awards with Weight Watchers. Pretty please?)

Back on track (sorry)

Knitting on a train.

We shall now resume our normal schedule of staying up until 3am, knitting like a fiend possessed.

(Sorry my thumb looks so manky)

A knitting disaster

I'm still working away on the pink dress, with about two weeks to go. It's a hard slog mostly because I loathe the yarn. Still, money helps the world go round, so I'll just have to keep knitting. Except I can't.

Last night while I was chopping up an onion for dinner I slipped. At first I thought I was fine, but then the bleeding started. Not a big cut, but a bit deep.

About twenty minutes ago I settled into my seat on the train to head off to my Sunday job at Morris & Sons (I shall pause while you all squeal with jealousy) and I pulled out my knitting.

Do you know how useful your left thumb is when knitting? Especially the left side, where the cut is?

Until I can work out a way around this, I'm in pretty deep trouble.

Train trips are really boring when you can't knit.

One day. Maybe. I'll get around to it.

I bought my knitting needle roll in 2003 when I first started going to a regular knitting group. After a few incidents of mistaken identity (someone else swapped their roll for mine as they were identical) I decided to make sure that never happened again.

Good thing about felt, you can embroider it.

Fast forward 9 years later and I finally added the needle size numbers inside.

When it comes to procrastination, I could play for my country, but only if I didn't have to do it right away.

I must be insane

Really, there's no other explanation for it. Why else would I tell the lovely ladies at Wondoflex that "Oh, sure. I'll knit on spec, certainly."

...

#$@&*%$& idiot!!!

...

Okay, a bit calmer now. In the meantime, I have a dress to knit. Yes, an actual dress. For an adult. It won't knit up on a knitting machine. It has taken over my life. Tomorrow I'm meeting a customer about a child's cardigan, and I just had a phone call about a few jumpers for a girl up in the country.

If you need me, I'll be knitting. A pink dress. A lot of pink dress.

(Yep, it's all my own fault and I shall never have a social life ever again.

Has anyone seen my Adiposey?

I had my crochet in the front seat of the car, but then the car went all wobbly and I grabbed everything out of it in bags and now I can't find the bag that had my crochet and now I need to work on Felix's Adipose doll and I don't know where it is!

*deep breaths*

In other news I finished Marcus' green cardigan.

When we put it on him to take a photo Felix said "Look at Daddy's little Kurt Cobain!" which was both incredibly funny and somewhat accurate, Mr Cobain having been the sort to rock a cardi. Marcus failed to work out why we were laughing, but he seemed content to slob about in it for the afternoon (we couldn't take it off him without protests so we stopped trying).

I also realised that my new 4ply cardigan I started to knit for Dot will be far too small for her. Dot is somewhat... large for her age, and generally wears size 1, so I've frogged it back and started making her a new cardigan using bamboo/cotton blend.

It's a Hexagon Granny Cardigan and it is positively zooming into existance. I started this at 7:30pm last night and I'm onto the second half already. Mind you, I need to buy more yarn to finish it - at least another ball. Considering I'm using Moda Vera Bamboo Cotton the bank shall remain unbroken.

The Baby Cowboy boots were finished up on Saturday as well (day of the green cardigan) and they're just adorable. I adore them. They are to be adored. Possibly more so once they're on Dot, but I have no intention of waking her up just to take a picture. Feel free to sulk.

The good, the bad and the oops-I-started-another-project (or two)

First up, the good.

Dot's Baby Blu jeans, made from Knitty. I wish I could call them a fast knit, but considering they took over 9 months, I won't! Rowan Denim is fantastic when it's all washed and faded but I now have a set of bamboo 4mm with indigo staining.

I haven't managed to try them on her yet, but I need to make her a cowboy shirt first. Red, I think.

The bad? I had a beanie I made my da ages ago (a few years, we're talking) and all I needed to do was add a brim. Now, the beanie itself was far too deep, so I overlocked the edge to make it shorter. Let me repeat: I overlocked the edge. On a scale of 1 to stupid it was amazingly stupid.

When I came to the point where I needed to undo the beanie I still thought I could work it. This idea continued past the black and onto the white before reality kicked me in the head.

Would you want to wear a beanie with this many joins in it? Me neither, so it's frogged now, but I plan to purchase more Rare Yarns later and make it before winter kicks in too hard.

Dot likes it when I frog my knitting because she gets any of the scraps to play with!


As for the oops, I not only started the Adipose amigurumi for Felix, but also a 4ply cardigan for Dot and some crocheted cowboy boots to go with Dot's new jeans.

Mind you, I only started them two hours ago, so I might be able to finish something up this week!

So close!

Look over there on the right at my "Works In Progress" section. Look at the percentages there: 95%, 5%, 95% and 95%. All I need to do to finish off Marcus' Green Jacket is add four buttons that I haven't been out to purchase. All I need to do to finish off the Garden Shawl is block it, which I don't plan to do until it's closer to Royal Melbourne Show time (ever the optimist). As for Baby Blu jeans, I need to sew them up, which won't take me too long.

So would someone please move the cat so I can actually finish them? She went to bite me when I tried.

Meet Snuffles (and his highly productive creator)

I was on Ravelry and spotted the perfect photo. It was cute, sweet and looked pretty simple. It was also amigurami, which I think means "Crocheted small things that make people squee". So I dropped my knitting, picked up the hook and made myself a dragon.

Meet Snuffles.

I adore him, 'nuff said. The pattern was beautifully written and so easy to follow. The only modification I made was to increase his wing size and add them to the back of him. His tail helps him stand upright and look adorable.

He's very adorable. Happy Year of the Dragon everyone!

LINE

I've been working hard on other projects. I finished up Cameron's birthday Van Halen cosy.

Now he can rock out with his beer all cosy. The very lovely Joex came and picked it up yesterday while dropping off a stereo for me to use in my sewing room (woohoo!) and mentioned that the previous evening she and Cam had been microbat hunting as a community project - catch them, tag them, release them sort of thing. Sadly, they didn't catch any, so I thought I might make it up to her as a thank you for the stereo.

An amigurama microbat is on its way to you today Joex!

Small Objects

Recently Felix has discovered a fondness for Rekordelig fruit cider, especially the mixed berry flavour. (I love the stuff as well but I gave up alcohol as part of my 101 ideas in 1001 days.) Normal beer holders are just too narrow for the massive 500ml bottles that the cider comes in, so I crocheted a holder.


















It's made up of two layers to keep the bottle nicely insulated, with the inside made up of various orange 8ply scraps and the outside is two lots of Zara 8ply - in Felix's favourite colours, of course! It was a complete success, so much so that I'm working on a smaller black one for a friend. Now all I need to do is embroider the Van Halen logo on it.

Very rock, indeed,

Oops.

I was happily knitting away last night and boasting to Felix that I'd soon be finished knitting up my Blu pants. My smugness was diminished somewhat by Felix asking "What about the jumper?". Oops.

I have a jumper I need to finish 12 rows on, wet block, sew up and add button bands, all so I can hand it back to one of my customers. Luckily, I know she's not overly anxious about it, and the longer I take the longer I can avoid it. It's 80's Fair Isle and it's rather involved, you see. My lovely client told me no rush and I'm taking her at her word.

I might make some small knitting bags instead.

A New Year idea

Just after January 1st passed Felix told me about an idea he'd read on a website. The basic premise is that you complete 101 tasks or ideas in 1001 days, which  is 2.7 years. I thought it was a great idea, so we've set up a list with 40 for me, 40 for him and 21 that we both want to do either separately or together. Unsurprisingly, finishing up my UFO's and WiP's for both knitting and sewing are on my list. Truly surprising is that I've actually started.

Marcus' overdue winter pj's actually came in handy with our fabulous Melbourne weather the last fortnight. When it snows in January in Australia, the world is truly upside down.

Next in the sewing pile was a patchwork quilt for Marcus, because we moved him into a cot minus one side, a sort of baby bed and we wanted to make it a bit of an occasion for him.

It wasn't too hard to dig into my sewing pile to finish things up. I've been avoiding my knitting needles this summer - too warm, too humid, too icky. Oh, and I usually have the world's largest baby squashing my lap.

Instead I've been sewing...

...and sewing...

...and sewing...

...and sewing.

Small children require a lot of clothes, and I have an awful lot of fabric to use up (an unofficial goal of mine).

Yesterday Chantal came round for a knit and gossip session, but only on the condition that I got out a UFO to work on. Grrrrr went my brain, but I agreed and delved into the box in the workroom. First project out of the box was Blu that I'd started on a whim for Marcus. He's far to big for it now but it'll be a perfect fit for Dot so I guess I should thank Chantal after all!

To add to my to-do pile, however, #69 on my list was to join a crochet-a-long for a rug.

Square #1 for January is done...

... as is Square #2. I'm not sure if they'll all be this swift, but I certainly hope so!

Finished Projects 2011

• Marcus' Teal Cardigan
• Modern Baby Bonnet
• Hoot
• Green Baby Surprise Jacket
• Garter Stitch Baby Hat
• Green Swirl Baby Hat
• Retro Rug
• Felix's Koolhaas Beanie
• Marcus' Inca Hat
• Marcus' Winter Mittens
• Whovian Washcloth

Generosity or insanity?

I had a pick-up this morning, so I organised my mum to mind Marcus while I took Dot with me, as we usually do. Unfortunately my mum had an appointment this morning so two of my nieces became ring-ins for the morning.

When I got home Marcus was exhausted (well done girls!) and went straight off to sleep. I put Dot down and dragged my nieces out to my workroom. While I sorted my buttons into OCD jars of varying colourways my nieces sat on the floor going through my stash, taking whatever they wanted.

No, they weren't pinching my stash. I told them to help themselves to whatever I didn't really want, and they fell upon my stash with gusto. Occasionally I freaked out and helped myself back to some yarn (like I'm letting them have my white angora! Or the baby camel hair!) but on the whole I was very nice. Ashlee pointed out that her yarn had all come from The Reject Shop and mine felt nicer. Of course it did - she was stroking a ball of Sublime Extra Fine Merino!

I've realised I'd rather buy up a huge amount of yarn to make an actual jumper than buy a small ball here and there. Unless it's looking at yarn. Looking at yarn is sacred.

O, ye of little faith

This post goes out to my sister who requested I assist her in someone else's crochet project.

Nora (I think the name was Nora, I wasn't really paying attention to be honest) wanted to finish off her late sister's crochet projects and she was stumped on the last rug. My sister wasn't too sure how to join all of the strips either so she asked for my help to make up a border "just to show how it's done for the rest". Being both nice and an unbelievable show-off I said yes.

The pattern is called "Barefoot Summer Days" (because it looks like feet) and it's in American terminology which isn't that much of a problem for me. Then I started. 

Next month, I picked it up again, tried to re-read the pattern. Nope, still horrible for my brain.

Next month, I picked it up again, tried to re-read the pattern. Swore. Put bag in back room and went off and had a baby instead.

Next month, I put Dot down and picked up the rug. The pattern swam before my eyes and then made sense. No idea why. Two strips done in no time at all.

Baby brain assists in hard crochet work. Who knew?

Ahhhhh calm...

Last weekend was Marcus' 2nd birthday. As you may expect, I was prepared and gave him a very low-key party, nothing major.

...

*snort* Well, I tried to keep a straight face.

I went so far over the top, I was in Belgium.

The theme was "trains", so we held the party at the Mooroolbark Miniature Railway. Marcus has never been on a train in his life when we handed him over to my da to take on his ride, and his reaction was one of indifference. My son, the dilletante at age 2. I'm so proud.

Personally, I thought his train cake was rubbish, but lots of complete strangers loved it. Well, not rubbish, but it didn't work out how I visualised. Still looks like a train, though,

Yes, I made him a shirt with trains on it for the party but I ran out of time to add button holes. Tomorrow, my mum will be coming over for a sewing morning; while I add buttonholes, she'll keep the boy from using the overlocker (this is much more difficult than you might think). I love the banner behind him - I bought them from a shop on Etsy, and everything matched. I had matching invites, envelopes, drink wrappers (which I forgot to put on), the works. I'll be using Parties by Hardie again, trust me.

Now to return to my somewhat more normal life. I have a christening to plan, after all...

Humph.

Royal Melbourne Show results came out yesterday. Only one prize was awarded in the Fair Isle category, and it wasn't to me.

Excuse me. I'm going off to sulk.

(I'm fine, really. But if I act as if I'm upset I can get away with a lot more.)