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.

How bad can it be?

What's your oldest WIP? What deep dark woolly secrets lie within your cupboards and drawers? Mine is probably a cardigan I started over the summer of 2005, and never restarted. I'll get around to it one day.

Yesterday afternoon I received a bag containing the ultimate Work In Progress.

This jumper was started over 48 years ago. My mum wants me to finish it for her. The neck needs to be picked up and a band knitted. Oh, and the sleeves after that, but she thinks there might be a problem in the neck shaping, so fix that bit first.

"I don't like sewing in ends."

Now I know why it's taken so long to finish.

Always look on the bright side

The advantages of being ill are minimal, unless you happen to be a knitter. Then it's all about how long you can knit for while watching TV, skolling bottles of cough medicine and taking pills for blocked sinuses. Oh, and honey-centered Butter Menthols. I love them.

Monday I finished up Dot's vest. It is adorable, isn't it? Less than two weeks and really easy. Best kind of knit. I don't have a photo of her in it, because that would require her to sit still. This rarely happens, unless flour is involved....

 As I'd finished her vest by 10:30am I started another of my Sherlock Holmes blanket squares. This one was called Goodge Corner, from "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" and was great fun. Lots of twisted knit stitches, and it was a constantly complex pattern.

That was finished last night, however I did notice a mistake that made me drop a stitch down 43 rows, correct it, and come back up again. So what's on today's agenda?

Casting on 286 stitches. Good thing I'm still sick.

And Then There Were None

Dot spent last week being sick.

I joined her on the weekend and we were both sick.

Marcus looked peaky yesterday and this morning he's sick.

Felix is staying home to take care of us all.

Abandon all hope, ye who enter... Unless you're bring me yarn. Then you're allowed in. I myself will be on the couch drinking tea all day, and very slowly knitting.

Make it at least 70%

Ahem...

Winter musings

The Finishing Touch took off again, as it inevitably does each year. At one point I had seven projects to sew up, and one to knit!

Now I can sit back and work on a little vest for Dot. It's much less stressful and still cold enough for it to be necessary.

Quidditch, Round 2

One of the reasons I joined up with the Harry Potter group was to try and use up a lot of my stash. I have lots of bits, one ball here, some scraps there, and I was hoping to kill them all off and go on a massive bender when Bendigo rolls around again this year (July 18, for those of us marking off our calenders).

I had two balls of Morris & Sons Pure, a single-ply Aran weight wool that I picked up for something else, and never used.

Now they're a Stone Circle beanie, the two colours representing the two most famous stone circles in England: Stonehenge and Avebury.  The pattern is called Christian's Hat and it was ridiculously fast. 

Plus Felix gets another beanie. That is never a bad thing.

Quidditch!

One of the really fun things you can do as a member of the Harry Potter Knitting and Crochet House Cup is play Quidditch. Usually, it's between the four houses, but this is a World Cup year, so it's time for the 18th Quidditch World Cup! GOOOOOAAAAALLLLL!!!

Round One we had to make something representing one of the teams playing. I misread the instructions and though I had to make three items. So first we have an Irish Rose jar cover...

...then we have a Brazilian samba skirt (for the record I did NOT buy the Bratz doll. Ew.)...

...and finally a mini jumper for Romania.

I tend to try to be an overachiever.

A notion for Potions

Next up I made A Very Brady Cowl for my Potions class.

The yarn was brought home from Japan by Joex and I LOVE it. Even better is the name of the yarn: "Olympus make make". The colour didn't match what was allowed in a Girding Potion, but luckily the class copy of the Potions book had some handy hints handwritten in the margins...

For the honour of Slytherin!

Growing up I read a lot of school stories. You know the kind: poor girl wins scholarship to expensive boarding school, or twins go off to school, or a finishing school overseas or any number of ideas. I own a lot of Enid Blyton, obviously. My two favourites growing up were "The Testing of Tansy" and "The Honour of the House". When I went to a high school that took it's house system very seriously I was in my own little heaven.

A few months ago I discovered the Harry Potter Knitting and Crochet House Cup group on Ravelry. The idea is that you're sorted into houses, you make projects for your classes, maybe knit up an OWL (a three month long project) and compete in the Quidditch. Where do I sign?!?!

As a result I've been having a LOT of fun, and getting a LOT of stuff made. Time to start showing off...

First thing I made was a rose for my Herbology class using the sock wool from my Rivendell socks (I frogged them, they wouldn't go over my heel!). I swore I'd never make another one, but I couldn't resist.

The idea is that it is obviously a mermaid's rose.

Obviously.

Whimsy

When did you last knit something so completely ridiculous it made you laugh out loud?

I'm bringing these back. Everyone, cast on for toilet roll covers, ASAP.

Beanie fever

I hope you all had a lovely long weekend. Ours was a little bit terrible, with two sick kids, but we made some important changes that will pay off in the long run (we hope).

Felix likes beanies. He has a LOT of hand knitted beanies because I like knitting for people who appreciate the end result. His latest is a doozy.

It's called "Skullcracker"  and Felix decided he wanted some grown up colours instead of the usual bright orange and green. I used Cascade 220 for the first time and I now understand why it's so popular. Soft, lofty, lovely colours. The pattern was interesting enough to keep me awake, and I replaced the plzin ribbing with two colour brioche stitch, which is brilliant. I've found my new favourite stitch pattern!

Urgh

My precious children have generously passed along some germs to me. Despite what they might think, sharing is not caring.

I'm so groggy I flubbed up a pattern row so I'm now in bed, planning on a small nap. Full track pants , wind cheater and a very squishy cowl are all working to keep me warm.

Joex brought me back the yarn from her honeymoon in Japan. Isn't it gorgeous? It only took about three days to knit up. 

It's currently very helpful.