Planned creativity

Mid November last year I had a bit of a panic attack. The festive season was rapidly approaching, Marcus was starting school at the end of January, Dot's applications needed to be in (along with the $30,000 a year for the program!) and I had previously announced that Christmas was at our place.

Panic! Chaos! Lots of crying! Cue Chantal.

Chantal dropped everything, drove straight over and organised the next two months of my life perfectly. It all went off without a hitch and I swore that panic wouldn't happen again.

This year's plan involves me working on something to do with Christmas on the 25th of each month, that way having it all sorted by the time it needs to be ready. "Everything done by December 1" is the phrase, I think.

So on Sunday I finished up yet another banner (I can hear my family groaning), sewed up an old advent calendar, and crocheted a bauble.

The pattern is from Meet Me At Mike's, and it was super fast, less than an hour. I'm feeling pretty good about this plan, to be honest. This could work.

I now return to my regular knitting/ sewing up schedule. So. Many. Ends.

By jingo!

What's the most Australian knitting image?

No question.

Happy Pavlova Day, my fellow Australians! I managed two over the weekend.

For Sunday,  an Iced Vovo pavlova: four layers, sandwiched with cream, jam, crushed Iced Vovo biscuits and marshmallow, topped off with more meringues. It was so sugary, my teeth squeaked.

For today, an old fashioned pav: with cornflour and vinegar, it is WAY chewier. Plus I added a chocolate Australia. Chocolate countries taste the best.

Dot agreed.

Hope you all had a great long weekend!

Typical knitting timing

I finished up Dot's adorable poncho today. (Marcus' godfather's comment: "Why are you making something she can easily escape from?")

Bendigo 8ply alpaca. Big lofty and squishy with surprisingly little shedding while I worked on it.

The pattern was a freebie from Aus Country Spinners, and it was full of fun details

Little ferns.

Diamonds and an amazing yarn forward psso that I'll be using again.

Great pattern all round, and I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Dot? She's not going near it for a while the. It's going to be 33℃ today. Last thing she needs is an alpaca poncho!

Not knitting, sewing

It's hard to write about knitting when none of it grabs you. Currently I'm sewing up a blanket for a customer, crocheting an edging on to Marcus' blanket and sewing up a jumper for another client.

Too much to start a new project, too much to pick up another old project, but I needed something.

Time to bring out the sewing machine.

I made a little bucket to hold Dot's myriad of fairy dresses (her current favourite was a Christmas gift from her cousin Rohan. Took me almost a day to take it off her) and trying to contain some control has been near impossible.

I used this amazing tutorial and some fabric from Ikea (I love Ikea!) and all up it took two hours, but that was in sporadic bursts.

I did have rope handles, but the rope is far too narrow to make big enough knots to not go through the grommets. Back to Bunnings tomorrow!

Very smelly, and everywhere

On Sunday I ventured out to the country. The annual lavender festival was on at Lavendula and the need for fresh cut lavender was great, albeit somewhat scary.

Bees. Everywhere. Seriously. I happen to be rather allergic, but I persevered and brought home a lot.

The first bundle was the only one I managed to get most of the way through, so the second two will be dried for later use.

I have 30 lavender bottles for my Finishing Touch customers for this year. Now I need 30 customers!

Motoring along

What's this? Barely the first week of the year and two Finished Objects? ~ clears throat, prepares acceptance speech for Knitta of the Year ~

Not likely.

I finished my Danish Flag coaster for my History of Magic class. The theme was Vikings! I didn't know what to make, so this seemed a reasonable compromise. The mitred squares were easy, but I hate the edges. Maybe if they were all going in the same direction, as they do in the blankets. At least I've tried them now.

I also whipped up a granny square for Quidditch (yes, really Quidditch). Round One is make something for charity and this is heading of to a group blanket. I'm not technically participating in my Harry Potter group this term (January-March) so I'm in the Students on Sabbatical group, and managed to wheedle my way into becoming the Quidditch Beater, which means I need to come up with cheers and encouragement for other members.

Me? Enthusiastic about knitting/crochet?

Never.

If you think it's too hot to knit, then you don't know me

It's currently 32℃ here, heading for 35℃ and I'm still knitting. Nothing can stop me, only because I have an air conditioner, but still I am knitting.

A small metred coaster, as I've never made a metred square before. You start off with an odd number and decrease the centre three stitches into one until you have one left and cast off. I can see why so many knitters love them: you have less knitting per row as you go along which is lovely.

Almost as lovely as my Christmas present from my brother-in-law, Jase. Not only did he give me a yarn bowl (to hold my yarn in one spot as I knit) but he made it.

Jase, you truly rock.

Ow. Ow. Really ow.

Yet another tooth pulled out; I'm surprised I have any left. End result is that not much knitting has been achieved.

However, on the weekend I was informed of a random prize won where I could pick any pattern on Ravelry up to US$6.00.

I chose Tiny Owl Knit's Beekeeper's Quilt. Now, how much Madeline Tosh sock yarn should I start stocking up on?

In case you were wondering, the correct answer is "all of it".

Wait, where did 2014 go?!?

I swear I just blinked and it was gone! Ah well, onwards to 2015!

Before I start a new year of knitting I need to gloat about another great year of knitting, with so many finished projects.

1. Joex's Wedding Bouquet

2. Joex's Wedding Hearts

3. Sherlock Square #1

4. Egeblad Doily

5. Sherlock Square #2

6. Marcus' Crochet Beanie

7. Dot's Crochet Beanie

8. Purple Potion Cowl

9. Mature Beanie

10. Toilet Roll Cover

11. Mermaid's Rose

12. Jam Cover

13. Doll's Skirt

14. Mini Jumper

15. Stonehenge Beanie

16. Sherlock Square #3

17. Winter Mocassins

18. A Little Textured Vest

19. Sherlock Square #4  

20. Sherlock Square #5

21. On Monday...

22. On Tuesday...

23. On Wednesday...

24. On Thursday...

25. On Friday...

26. Sherlock Square #6

Now all I need to do is kill off some unfinished projects before I start anything new.

*pauses for hysterical laughter from everyone who knows me*

Fairly uplifting

Every time I think I'm only okay at knitting I shall read this post and remember that I turned this...

...into this...

...nice.

Grift and graft

Oh ye of little faith. Of course I can fix the blanket! It just requires faith, trust, a pinch of fairy dust and the ability to use Kitchener stitch.

For all the non-knitters reading this (hi Facebook!) Kitchener stitch is a way to graft live stitches into a solid piece of knitting. It's generally used to sew up the toes on socks and a lot of people hate doing it.

Then there's me. I LOVE Kitchener stitch! It's such an easy thing to remember: purl then knit, knit then purl, repeat until all the stitches are done. You can get a really mindless pattern repeating and next thing you know, it's all done.

Luckily for me, the creator of this holey mess has knitted more squares, so the technique is pretty straightforward.

Step 1: unpick the cast on stitches and put the live stitches on a spare double point needle.

Step 2: pick up the live stitches on one of the remaining blanket squares with another spare double point needle.

Step 3: sew the two live seams together using Kitchener stitch, chocolate and sheer stubbornness.

Step 4: repeat until finished.

This is going to take a few days.

Work! So much work!

I picked up three orders last night at knitting group, where I haven't been in ages.

First up is a doll's costume to sew up. Nice and easy.

Second, we have squares to sew into a blanket. It'll take some planning, but nothing complex about it.

Third...

Oh you have to be #%&*ing kidding me.

More room, less room

We moved house last weekend. I'm still in a state of constant anxiety but I'm sure I'll calm down.

In a year or two.

The biggest difference to me is that I've lost my craft room, quelle horreur! I will be storing my crafty bits out in the garage and bring them in as I use them.

Obviously I can't do that with knitting projects I've already started. They have special places of their own.

My Sherlock blanket, Mum's Ski jumper and my Sabrina cardigan are under my side of the bed.

Marcus' blanket is in a carry basket next to the bed (for now, it can't stay there permanently).

Lastly, all the materials for my Divination OWL are packed into the bottom of the wardrobe.

Hopefully I'll have unpacked enough to get some knitting done this weekend. Fingers crossed!

I'm not panicking... I'm not panicking...

We pick up the keys to the new place in less that a week. "But surely you've nearly finished the packing, Andrea?" I hear you cry.

Nope. Not even close.

You see, the kids freak out whenever we put anything away. Felix and I spend most of our lives cleaning up the house at night, putting toys away and tidying up as best we can. The idea of being able to pack up the kid's stuff right now is ludicrous. Unfortunately, it's not just the kid's stuff the kidlets object to.

Dot had a HUGE freak out when I packed up my knitting books. Dot had a HUGE freak out when we packed up our excess clothes. Dot had a HUGE freak out when I tried to put away the vegetable peeler after I washed and dried it last week.

Current plan? Wait until we have the keys, spend nights packing up boxes and taking them across without the kids noticing. That way, no freak outs.

Now, to try and cull some yarn before the move...

Pros and Cons

We're moving. It's been four years in our little rental and it's been good. Not great, but good. We brought Dot home from the hospital to here, we had Marcus run away from here, we've had fun and lots of tears here. We've loved this place and now we need to leave it.

I get clingy though, and I suspect that I'll get all dewy-eyed about here, so I'm making a comparison list for the new place vs the old, the known vs the unknown. Even this place has its faults... The pauses is for people who have been here to start laughing.

Con: The new place doesn't have a craft room.
Pro: The new place doesn't have slat windows that let the cold winter air in so badly that we stapled clear plastic tablecloths over the kid's bedroom windows.

Con: The kitchen is smaller than here.
Pro: The kitchen floor is level. There is also not a stump sticking two inches up in it.

Con: The house is on a main road.
Pro: The bus stop is outside our next door neighbor's place.

Con: The lack of shade in the back yard.
Pro: The lack of mould on the carpet. Ditto rotting walls.

Con: It's a big upheaval for the kidlets,
Pro: Suck it up. Separate bedrooms FTW!

Con: It's a lot of work moving.
Pro: 11 dead mice since Easter. Including one in the bathtub tonight. We can leave them all behind.

Con: The backyard isn't as big as here.
Pro: No, it's bigger.

I'm sold!

On Friday...

...he ate through:

an orange.

I still need to make another four, but they're going to take some effort.

On Thursday...

...he ate through:

four strawberries.

On Wednesday...

...he ate through:

three plums.

On Tuesday...

...he ate through:

two pears.

On Monday...

...he ate through:

one apple.