Blogtoberfest day 31- the end

Today is the last day of Blogtoberfest and I'd like to say thank you to Big Cat for hosting, it has been interesting reading a whole new set of people's blogs courtesy of the festival goers list on her blog.

I have made it to the end without missing a day despite coming close a couple of times! With the odd family illness, some knitting, school orientation for my eldest, it has been a pretty busy month.

Of course to cap it all off I am coming down with some sort of hayfever/cold to take with me for a long weekend at the beach with the in-laws. I have already resorted to Panadol to try to reduce the face ache and the pressure in my jaw and ears. The kids have been told mum is sick please play nicely and it is sort of working (as much as it ever does!). I have had to call J to ask him if there was anything important I was supposed to do today as I simply can't remember, he said H to school orientation and drop off his friend D at childcare after, which I had managed to remember thanks to writing it on my hand last night before climbing into bed. Oh and to fill out H's ELVS study form which I should get to at some point.... The baby has just woken cranky he must need lunch. The panadol must be kicking in, I can feel the fog lifting.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend and for those Melbournites taking the extra day a wonderful long weekend!! I am taking my second sock to knit on the weekend while sitting at the beach, today I'm knitting another keep me awake face washer because that's all my brain can manage. So on Tuesday or Wednesday there should be some finished objects perhaps!!!

Blogtoberfest - The penultimate day

I have a sock and I am not afraid to wear it!!!

Seeeeeee:

Isn't it beautiful?

Had to do the toe shaping twice because it occurred to me to try it on before binding it off and they just felt a little too short, so I pulled back the shaping and added 6 more rounds of knitting then redid the toe shaping. I even checked there was enough yarn left on the ball to knit the other sock! I used the "knitting" kitchener stitch (from TECHknitting) to bind off, sewed in the ends and I was done. Lovely. I am now grinning from ear to ear as I contemplate casting on for the second sock and wonder whether the colour bands will fall in similar places or whether they will be completely different like the triad of socks Bells and Rose Red did with their friend Brown Pants recently.

I'm off to cast on before I have to think about dinner for the kids....

Blogtoberfest day 29 - Third time's a charm

Well, today when I was working on my sock I oopsed a couple of times. Mostly because I didn't translate the instructions to knitting correctly. Third time lucky though I managed to turn the heel properly. Not sure I will use this pattern again, but it is a starting point. So now I am about 8 rows short of the toe shaping, but since my eyes are getting heavy and the baby is bound to get me up at some ungodly hour, I must away to bed......

Blogtober 28 - the socks progress

Well it was S'N'B this morning and while master T amused himself, got cranky and then amused a little girl who was having a babycino with her mum, I worked on my sock. I eventually got into a rhythm and was powering along. Got to 6 rows short of the heel flap.

Stopped at Woolybutt to pick up some navy buttons for the Sublime cardy. The bugger is starting to pill. It's never been worn or washed and it is pilling. I'm a bit pissed. It doesn't make sense, the other cardy I made using this yarn didn't pill. What is going on? Oops just checked the labels and this one is Sublime Cashmere Merino Silk DK and the other was Sublime Baby Cashmere Merino Silk DK, who knew that adding a word made a difference to the structure of the yarn. I'm going to have to check where I got it from and see if they know if others have had it pill on them. It's probably the cashmere, I'll have to see if I can de-pill it, otherwise I'm not sure what I will do with it. I had the same pilling problem with Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino and once the original round of pilling was over it has been beautiful ever since, so I will investigate and hope.

Dinner tonight was spinach and ricotta canneloni and a salad using spinach and lettuce from my FIL's garden, D was here for T, but C is over in Calgary for a conference so she has missed out! There are leftovers which will make their way into the freezer for a lazy dinner one night in the coming weeks. "Talked" to C on the computer today, she has had a very busy day starting at 7am and ending at 10.30pm with 30 min to herself for a swim at one point so she will probably sleep well. I hope so.

T is sleeping much better now that he is feeding less often and eating more during the day, he still gets up at least once during the night but he is settling well and letting me sleep a bit better too so things are improving on the sleep deprivation scene.

Oh and I am doing the heel flap now, finished the last 6 rows of the leg piece while watching the Buffy episode "Hush" and divided for the heel so it is all moving along nicely now. Can't watch the "Hush" episode with C here because it freaks her out, but the boys love it so it was the episode of choice tonight. Our other real favourite is the Musical episode "Once more with feeling" we even have the soundtrack on disc to play in the car on long trips.

Heading to bed before T wakes up for his "middle of the night" feed, 3 more days of Blogtoberfest and then it is November, where has the time gone?

Day 27 - The socks, the socks, they rock!!

Yes I have managed to start my first ever pair of socks and they are going to be beautiful!

Have a look:

I have just the right accessory too, one of Michelle's quilted sunnyboys!! It is perfect. The perfect size for my ball of wool and dpns.

Oh and the dpns came from my great grandmother's house after my great uncle passed away, apparently Granny Mac used to knit socks too!

Must go, need to knit my socks and watch Bones on TV. See ya tomorrow.

Day 26 - My favourite knit

Well there seems to be a rash of "My favourite knit" happening at the moment, Bells, George and Rose Red have all had a dose, as have Julie and Kylie so I thought that considering the busy weekend that we have had has precluded knitting, I would show you my favourite knit!

Unlike the other ladies my favourite knit is not an item that I have made for myself, it is in fact the knit that I make most often for someone else. If you have been reading my blog at all regularly you will know that it is in fact the Bubblegum Jacket. And just to show you how much I love this knit here are some of the examples floating around my house at the moment:


Granted the navy and pale yellow on the left, the grey in the middle and the purple in the back on the right are all for the shop. The cream front and centre is in current use for T, he has that one on a couple of times a week (don't look too hard though, I made it from ACKrylic-god help me, when I was having a very pregnant brain moment while pregnant with Z, also it is covered in balls, me being too lazy to remove them). I own more but at least three are currently at my friend T's house with her baby just about fitting into a couple of them, they will return home when he no longer needs them. I actually have one that I knit for my niece when she was born, she is now 8 almost 9 and we have used it for all three of our kids and a couple of other friends kids in between as well and the pattern holds up so well. The green and purple on the right have both been sewn "inside out" because I felt like knitting the same thing at the time but wanted to look at something different!

Of the ones for the shop, my current favourite is the grey


Isn't it lovely? It is made from bamboo and looks and feels so soft and silky, yummy.

And why don't I have a favourite knit for myself? Well apart from a garter stitch scarf on really big needles I made a couple of years ago I haven't made anything for myself in years and years and years and you get the idea!!! But that is about to change because tomorrow I cast on for ....my first pair of human size socks for myself and I can't wait!

Blogtoberfest Day 25 - Ummm, a title?

It's been a lovely day, beautiful and warm. We had a birthday party for D and the twins today and H is staying there overnight tonight, his first non-family overnight stay. I'm nervous for him despite knowing that he will be fine. He loves his friend D and has been looking forward to this visit all week.

Another no knitting day mostly because there were so many other things to do: washing clothes, folding dry clothes, playing with children, organising birthday presents, partying and then this evening my sister came over with her partner for dinner and to print out and photocopy some papers for her trip that starts tomorrow. She is off for a conference in Calgary and a joint holiday in New York with her partner. Hope she has a good time!

Best way to end the day? Watching The Bourne Supremacy with J after Z and the baby were in bed!

Day 24 - Confession.

I'm not so good at keeping my Ravelry lists up-to-date.

Does anyone else refer to their blog to determine when they cast on and off projects? I do it all the time. I suppose it is partly because my projects are generally small so they don't take long from start to finish. I have come to the point of relying on the fact that I have written it in my blog so that when I go to Ravelry to update it I have my blog open in another window to check start and finish dates and how many projects! Don't ask when I last did an update. I'm at least three if not 4 projects behind. Should I count wash cloths as projects? They use up stash and time so they really should but it does seem a little ridiculous. I have worked out that if I add the stash photo* and details to Ravelry and then the project I can use up stash as I go, bit of a cheat but at least it's getting some of the stash on there!

I worked out today that the stay awake wash cloth I knit the other day cost me about $2. That's cheaper than buying one and it served the priceless purpose of keeping me awake when I really needed to be. Please forgive the terrible photo but here's the proof!


Two things of note, first knitting 8ply cotton on 4.5mm needles results in a soft wash cloth but also one that finds it hard to stay in shape. It's 8 ply, why did I use 4.5mm needles??? I'm shaking my own head in wonderment, honestly. This wash cloth went straight into the bathroom and has been used to wipe off all sorts of mess off kids faces and rinses out nicely so I'm happy. Secondly, I really need to use knitting graph paper when setting up a picture so it doesn't go all short and wide on me when it is knit! I have a really good one bookmarked, somewhere...you put in your tension and it generates a pdf of the right scale graph paper-brilliance, just need to find the link, ah there it is! Now I just have to see if my computer will talk to the printer so I can print it.

Today has not been a knitting day at all, it has been a busy day:

H had his first grade Prep introduction session this morning at his school for next year. He was there for two hours and in that time he made himself and me matching beaded bracelets and he coloured in a "Rainbow Fish" complete with silver foil scale (If you don't know it, the Rainbow Fish books are great, check them out at your local library or bookstore, the kids love them). He really seemed to enjoy it. The next session is next Friday.

While H was away T had a nap and Z and I baked chocolate chip cookies. Thanks Big Cat for the recipe, they worked out brilliantly. I am on the hunt for chocolate chip cookie recipes. My kids love to cook but not really to eat what we make, but they do eat chocky chip cookies so if you have a recipe you love, send it along to leonie.tewierik@gmail.com or just leave it in the comments. We will make all of the cookies and give ratings!

This afternoon was H's turn at his grandparents, so when we got home from dropping him off, Z and I got out the overlocker and some fabric and another IKEA quilt and made two more "cheat" quilts. This time for the twins (friends, not mine!!!), whose party is tomorrow afternoon. They worked out well and have been washed and line dried this afternoon ready for gifting tomorrow.

Dinner was at my in laws tonight and it was a birthday tea for J including an apple cake for birthday cake and a pineapple carrot cake as well, lovely. The boys fell asleep in the car on the way home and transferred straight into their beds so all is quiet here I might just skim a couple more blogs courtesy of Google reader and then head off to bed. Looking forward to a warm weekend (*grin*).


*I have taken photos of all my stash (except for last weeks little episode at Spotlight) but they are now on the external hard drive where they were placed when we reformatted my laptop's hard drive. This means that they are now one step further away from being dealt with :-(

Blogtoberfest the 23rd!

It's a busy day at our house today. It is J's thirty somethingth birthday and after the kids gave him his presents this morning (apparently I was snoring away) he headed off for a fun filled Thursday at work! Well I hope it is fun filled but the chances are that won't be the case, he works in a company that does stuff for stockmarket trades so with all the kerfuffle on the stock markets at the moment they are busy keeping on top of everything!

This means that theoretically it is Birthday tea tonight. Sorry no hints, he occasionally checks my blog and fair chance he'd check today on principal looking for hints. The kids want to help make birthday cake so that will be happening soon I think. J doesn't like icing but I think I have a way of getting around that.

So I should finish cleaning the kitchen :-p

Before the baby wakes up.

Oh and yes I got some ace sleep last night, thank you everyone for your well wishes for T, he must have heard the sleep wishes because he was in bed at 9pm and only up the once at 2.30 am and then slept until 8am so YES I got sleep and am so much the better for it! He is almost back to normal with all of his food and drinking again so hopefully we should get some more nights like last night.

And on to the Southern Summer of Socks. I took the advice of Bells and looked up the Knitty tutorial on socks and today made a tiny sock while sitting outside with the boys.

The yarn looked like this

before we rolled it up into this


and now the "sock" looks like this


and there is still most of the ball left....

Maybe if I made it just a little longer before the toe decreases it might fit T. Note: I have not sewn in the ends as I am not sure I will keep this sock, it will probably get frogged, but it was definitely worth doing as I learnt a couple of good things.

1. Follow the instructions even if they do seem a tad weird (thanks Jan).

2. When it says "k1, ssk" it helps if you do remember to do the k1 as then the decreases sit better.

this side I forgot the k1

this side I remembered the k1PS I can see the difference!!!

3. ssk (slip1 knitwise, slip1 knitwise, insert left needle into the fronts of these two slipped stitches, and knit them together) actually means k2tog tbl (or knit 2 together through the back of the loops), it took me a bit to work it out and then I realised that the instructions were American and we obviously use different terminology. I will double check with someone who knows but it certainly sits the way I think it should so I'm happy!

So the practice sock is done, I have tamed the prickly porcupine that is knitting with 4 dpns I may almost be ready for a real sock, but first, DINNER!

Day 22 (part2)- I forgot, are you surprised?

Oh and I forgot to say that I have edited the Day 21 post link about the Colinette Jitterbug to redirect to the blog post where I showed the photos. "Why?" you ask, well, the link I did have there took you to all the photos for the blog not the single one I thought it did.

Oh well it makes sense to me.....

Day 22--Something else new instead :-)

Well after hinting yesterday that I might be about to embark upon the voyage that is sock knitting, today the something new has morphed into a face/dish/wash cloth.

Before you have a fit, I am NOT using the Jitterbug (had you there!), no I'm not THAT sleep deprived, but I am sleep deprived enough to know I shouldn't start something that will require any amount of brain power.

So instead this afternoon when my body was saying "It's bedtime" and the clock was saying "it's barely afternoon you twit," I went and made myself a cup of tea, pulled out some of the Cleckheaton Natural Cotton 8 ply in the pale browny colour I bought last week and the chart I made for the flower design wash cloth and cast on. It was as much an exercise in staying awake while the children played in the yard and the baby slept as anything else, I figure a responsible adult should be awake when in charge of minors, and I am at least somewhat responsible!!! Twenty rows and a second cup of tea later and I am at least feeling normally tired for the time of day.

The kids have had a wonderful afternoon playing with snails on the windowsill out the back and playing with mud on the mats on the grass (they have holes in them and the mud made great spotty designs when the mats were lifted) and we are now almost done with dinner. So once they've had a wash, mud removal is necessary, I think they can have an early night! Probably shouldn't have said that out loud.......

Blogtoberfest day 21- The start of something new

Well as we round the corner of Blogtoberfest and face the final straight, I've got some knitting to talk about!!!

I finished sewing together the pieces of the navy bubblegum jacket and knitted on the neckband while watching some Northern Exposure, now all it needs is some buttons.
It does look decidedly grey on my screen but is in fact a really dark navy colour...the sun was a bit bright, will take more photos when the buttons are on.

And here we go starting something new....

A couple of months ago I posted this picture of some Colinette Jitterbug in the lagoon colourway. Today after I finished knitting the neckband onto the bubblegum jacket I sat down and rolled myself an enormous ball of wool.


The next step is to find a pattern to knit some socks for me with it. I have had some ideas and been provided with others (thanks Bells, CelesteM, RoseRed and Jan) I am investigating my options....stay tuned!

Gradual improvement

Well T continues to gradually improve, he wasn't so great this morning but was greatly improved this evening, even having a decent dinner, so hopefully he will sleep better tonight.

I have had a pretty good day too, we walked to kinder for both drop off and pick up today so Z was happy, T loves to go for walks in the pram and it isn't far so it's worth doing when we can. The boys have had their moments today both ups and downs, a whole heap of firsts today really: T climbed up the back steps for the first time (he still can't go down them) and he started cruising the length of the couch (holding on and walking), he does not yet stand unaided. Z's fun for the day was seeing how many things he could throw onto the roof of the garage, he succeeded with the frisbee and a small ball at which point he was banished to the other side of the yard until dinner time. We used the camcorder to record H swinging from a branch of the oak tree, his current favourite backyard passtime. The boys ate their dinner without coersion and J arrived home just as they were starting dessert so that left me free to go swimming which was lovely. The big boys were asleep when I got home, J cooked dinner and I got to play with a happy baby (a change from the last couple of days!!) until my dinner was ready.

After T went to bed I managed to sew a few seams for the navy bubblegum jacket. Will finish doing that tomorrow at S'n'B if T is well enough to go. I'm off to bed now to see if I can't catch up on some ZZZZZZZ's before T wakes again.

Hope everyone's knitting is doing good things for them!

A slow day

Well it has been a slow day.

T is still unwell, very hot and grumpy and wanting to be held all the time, even with medication. He seems to be working on cutting three of his double teeth at once poor little guy. So today was not a knitting day at all. Have been looking at various patterns on Ravelry for a lacy shawl though while he has dozed on me, he really didn't want to go down in his cot at all and who wants to argue with a sick 12 month old?

So as I said, a slow day, and I suspect that tonight will be spent on the bed in T's room with him beside me so that he can be comforted through the night again.

just a quick one

We have had a busy day, I finished the other front piece for the navy cardy in the car this morning.

The baby is sick and crying, must go take him back from his dad again who is holding him so I can write this.

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend.

One piece down...

Yes that's right, I have finished the first piece of the red moss stitch cardy. It is an interesting process choosing how to do each little bit: cast-on, edge stitches, decreases. Each one has an impact on the final result. The calculations for how long or wide each section needed to be was definitely aided by the presence of numerous cardies of the right size in my possession both worn by my own kids and ready for sale when I open the shop.
So without further ado, a back!
Oh and one of the best bits of working with a bamboo based yarn....you get more length for the same weight compared with wool or cotton, so more knitting gets done from one ball. Always good :-)

A design perhaps?

I needed to go to Spotlight today to purchase some fabric, I found what I wanted and was done in about 5 minutes flat and that was with two children in tow. It must have been a world record. The only problem was then I went to the yarn section....

I haven't been to Spotlight for quite a while, my LYS (local yarn store) furnishes a lot of my yarn, as does the internet. The other, commercial, yarn that I buy is from one of the two local Lincraft stores. Well.....I am a sucker for the bamboo yarns, the mixes and the 100% ers, the look, the feel, the drape of the fabric they knit up into, and there was this red. It almost had a touch of pink and it was calling my name, then there was a pale khaki green, and a dark purply blue....and I think you get the idea. There was some pure cotton in "natural" colours that had to come home with me as well. Yes J does know and his only comment was a wry "Well you'd better open the store soon then".

When I got home I had to get the needles out to do a swatch. I don't normally swatch, most of the things I knit are small enough that discrepancies in gauge don't make a lot of difference. But this was different. I want to knit a moss stitch cardy with the red Serenity DK (50/50 Bamboo/Cotton), it shows the stitches up so well, but the only pattern I have is for 4 ply so I didn't know how many stitches I'd need. So swatch time it was. 30 stitches and 15 rows later I had a fair idea of how many stitches I'd need for a 3 month size cardy, so I frogged the swatch.

Then I realised that I wanted to have a button hole band knit as part of the front rather than as an add on later and I want it to be plain. There's a crossover front cardy that I have made a couple of times that has something similar so I thought I might just use that style of band. Then I realised the pattern I was referring to has set-in sleeves and I prefer raglan for little people as it is easier to get limbs in and out so that also needs to be adjusted.

At this point I came to the realisation that I may in fact be creating my own design, it is pretty simple and has probably been done a thousand times before but it's a nice feeling to be able to change things you want and create something new and know that it is going to work! And it does beg the question: What constitutes a new design?

The original: 4 ply, moss stitch cardy with garter stitch collar and button bands added at the end with set-in sleeves.

The new design: 8 ply moss stitch cardy with plain button bands knit as part of the front pieces that will carry on around the back of the neck to join at the nape of the neck (possibly grafted), with raglan sleeves.

The only real similarity is the fact that it is a moss stitch cardy!!! There will be some calculating of decreases for the raglan shaping on the sleeves and body pieces and also for the neck shaping, but it should work out ok, will let you know how we go :-)

Of course I have cast on. Wouldn't you?

Delays...

Well I have spent a fair amount of yesterday afternoon and most of the time I have had free today (the better part of the last 2 hours, multitasking, reading blogs, feeding T lunch, eating my own) untangling the ball of yarn I need to use for the remaining front piece for the cardy I am knitting. I knew when I was using the other half of the ball that it was getting a little tangled but since then I have had my knitting in and out of it's WIP storage location (more on the progression of knitting project storage soon) too many times obviously, because when I went to start knitting yesterday it took me a good 5 minutes to actually find the end....so the untangling began. Silly me forgot to take a before picture and the after would just be a ball of wool so boring really. Have just checked the camera and there aren't even any pictures of this cardy in progress. Bad photographer, must remedy the lack of pictures and soon!!

Yesterday I found one of the cats in the evidence of the complete lack of domesticity that is my loungeroom. Do I get points for actually having washed the clothes/nappies in the first place?

Blogtoberfest day 14 - Close call

Was heading off to bed and realised I had not yet posted for Blogtoberfest!!! Oops.

Today was S'N'B Rosanna so I spent a lovely hour knitting with the girls, they were a very chatty bunch today, you could hear them as you approached the fruit and veg store, it was lovely to hear so many happy voices. I turned up late as I actually managed to get all the forms together for H's school application!! (Don't ask when it was due, just note that as per my Birthday list, a form has been completed and sent off to the relevant people, 4 forms in fact, does that count for more??)

I worked on the second sleeve for the navy cardy and completed it at home early this afternoon while T was sleeping. Only one side front, seaming and collar to go, not far now. Have also decided that I will probably just use the pattern on the Jitterbug ball band to make me a pair of socks, now I need to work out which size.....

Southern Summer of Socks

I'm thinking I will join the Southern Summer of Socks. I have never made a pair of socks before but figure I have used both dpn (double pointed needles for you non knitters) and circular needles before so it couldn't be too hard could it??? I'm sure these are famous last words. I have a skein of Colinette Jitterbug in the Lagoon colourway (all blues and greens, beautiful) it is sock wool so that's a start. I have until the end of April to finish them so that's another good point. Other people will fit in lots of socks in that time but I have decided not to be too ambitious, 1 pair should do it and anyway I never knit for myself so yet another good point, good excuse really to make something that's just for me. All I need now is some suggestions for a pattern, if worst comes to worst the Jitterbug comes with a pattern inside the label so that might be the fall back plan!

The navy jacket is coming along really well, have finished: the back, one side front and one sleeve and have cast on for the next sleeve. It is coming along quite quickly, love that 8 ply, it makes all the difference when you are used to knitting everything in 4 and 5 ply for babies. It feels so fabulous to knit with so puffy and soft, gorgeous.

Waiting for T to wake up so I can feed him before I head off for a swim, really looking forward to getting into that water!!!

The warmth

I'm heading outside to sit in the shade because it is TOO HOT in the sun (26.7 deg C according to the BOM -we are in Viewbank).

Have had a great time this morning doing the colour perception test that Julie linked to in her most recent post. I thought I was doing pretty well scoring an 8 until J did the test and got 0, ie perfect colour perception! Go do it, it's great fun and interesting to boot!! Certainly makes my pedanticness about colour matching make sense, doesn't explain J's penchant for odd socks though, hmmmmm.

A beautiful day

My day started early. I was up at 6.4o am. After a disturbed night, it was really early. It was beautiful. The sun was just up. The sky was clear. The air smelled....lovely. Time for a swim. It was 5 degC. There was mist rising from the pool. My friend and I chatted whilst kickboarding. 32 laps of the 50 metre pool later we climbed out dressed and returned to our respective homes.

I had so much energy. A swim does that for me every time. Where did I direct this energy to? A load of washing onto the line. Another load into the machine. Knitting. Second load out. Knitting. Knitting. Blog reading. Relaxing. Watching the kids play outside with their dad. Knitting. A visit to a local nursery. Knitting.

Friends came over for dinner. The six kids together were wonderful. Two 5 year olds. Three 3 year olds. One 1 year old. No arguments. Lots of laughter. Lots of fun.

The kids are asleep. The day is nearing it's end. Time for a final cup of tea. In bed I think. And just a little more knitting.

Beautiful day.

PS Have finished the back and up to the armhole of the first side front of the navy bubblegum jacket!

Remind me never to listen to the IT man ....

Yes, under advisement of the resident IT man, who couldn't believe how slow my computer was running, we "fixed" it last night.

This involved
*removing the contents of my laptop to an external hard drive
*reformatting the hard drive
*reinstalling the operating system.

It has taken me until 3 pm to get internet access again because I am not a very good IT woman and thought I had reinstalled drivers but hadn't so the computer didn't know it had wireless.

But now I'm back. Or am I???

Yes I have internet access, but as yet I do not have
*bookmarks (oh man I'm screwed)
*passwords (see above)
*my photo shrinking software (still on external hard drive)
*scrolling enabled on the touchpad (very annoying when trying to scroll down a page without using keyboard buttons)

I will get there but don't have a lot of time this arvo to fix it.....thank goodness Google Reader is based somewhere else or I wouldn't have anything to read while feeding the baby!!!

Keeping company

All right couldn't help myself, needed something to knit while keeping the boys company out the back...

sublime cashmere merino silk, DK in navy. Lush.

And just because it is such a brainless knit for me, yes it's the bubblegum jacket in 3 month size adjusted from the 5ply pattern.

Here we go again says she grinning away!
:-)

And done!!

So here it is the completed purple bubblegum jacket....



ta daa!!

It looks a deeper purple in reality but this does capture the hint of pink tone to it so it's all good.

For another angle on the colour check out the source. So one skein of Colinette Jitterbug in the Velvet Bilberry colourway. JUST had enough to complete the 3 month old size, did think I was going to run out completely but scraped it in by doing the collar in garter stitch instead of ribbing and was able to get away with a couple less rows because the garter stitch used less stitches and was bulkier. The garter stitch also matched the curviness of the pattern stitch so that was good too! Found some slightly larger buttons at Lincraft this morning, they were also quite see through so darkened when stitched on.

Beautiful.

Will probably have to block this one, I don't normally as the garments I make are so small, but the seams, especially the underside of the arm, need a bit of flattening out. Will also take a photo tomorrow in daylight and see if I can't get a more accurate colour match.

Hmmmm what's next????

Almost there

Well after a lovely morning with the "stitchers" as J calls them finishing the second side front and casting on the second sleeve and completing the cuff, I spent the afternoon finishing the sleeve and starting the sewing together of the purple bubblegum cardy. I stopped via Lorraine's store to get some buttons on the way to pick up the kids from childcare and found some that were a great match for the colour. I'm not so sure about the size, they are a little small.

So all that is left to do is one sleeve seam, sewing in the ends and sewing on five buttons. The only problem is I'm exhausted and am having trouble keeping my eyes open so I am heading off to bed at a completely unheard of time (it isn't even 10 o'clock!!!). There's no way I'm getting anything like decent sleep tonight so I figure I may as well go early and try to fit in a bit more that way. T has been sleeping terribly the last 3 nights and when he doesn't sleep well neither do I as I am up with him trying to calm and settle him. The most sleep I've had in a block over the last 3 nights is about 2, maybe 2.5 hours in one go, I'm hoping tonight will be better but I am not holding my breathe.

Wish me luck!!

Bubblegum jacket progress

So this is where we are at. Have weighed the sleeve and the completed side front and they both weigh ~18 g so the incomplete side piece (12g) cannot be reknit into a sleeve with no yarn joins so I have put the needles back in and joined the yarn and off we go again.



Also by weight there is enough yarn left on the ball you can see on the bottom left to complete the front piece, the other sleeve and the neckband. Yippee!!! So tomorrow at S'N'B I will be finishing off the side front and hopefully casting on the final piece!

So, hadn't gotten around to photographing the boys new quilts yesterday, so here they are (they are both folded in half in this picture) showing the two fabrics, they choose which side up each bed time!

A wonderful end to a fabulous day

So last night we went out for dinner at Thai Thani in Brunswick St Fitzroy and loved it! We had the 2 person banquet and it was exactly what we needed. We are suckers for Thai food :-) The boys had a lovely time with C&D and we picked up T on the way home to our house after dinner.

The evening ended with me sitting up in bed with a lovely hot cup of tea some extra special birthday chocolate (Monsieur Truffe) and of course my knitting. The best of all worlds really, such a nice way to end my birthday. Did the cast on for the left front of the purple bubblegum jacket and did some more today on the travel to and from collecting the big boys so it is now about 1/3 done.

While everyone was away I made a surprise for the big boys, I had J reach down my overlocker so I could make up some "quilts" for the big boys beds. They have shorter than normal single beds that we got from Ikea because Z was such a climber he kept falling off the big single bed we had and hurting himself so we downsized and it was a great thing to do. The only problem is that the beds are both shorter and narrower than a usual single bed so normal doonas hang over all sides and the boys keep getting all tangled up in them. So today I cheated and used some fabric I purchased from Lincraft with a matching backing fabric and cut a cheap single bed doona/continental quilt ($12 at Ikea) in half and made two quilts from one (each one is about 100x150cm). They look great and all they need is a little bit of hand sewing to close in the ends. I have no intention at all of "quilting" these quilts, I have attached the padding in the middle to all of the sides though so there is no chance of it moving around inside like the doonas were doing, so the boys should stay nice and warm now. It makes me want to sew them some more.....

With daylight savings starting last night it is lovely having the sun hanging around for longer in the evening, can't wait to see what else I can fit in in a day!

It's a lovely day today!

It is in fact a fabulous day today because today is my 35th birthday!

It has set me to wonder where I will be in a year's time and so I am setting myself some goals.

To lose 10-12kg. Now I'm not weight or diet obsessed, and never have been, but lets just say I have not been paying any attention to this for the last 12 months because I have been breastfeeding and have on a regular basis just been simply starving! But, the weaning is underway and I won't have the same energy requirements, so I'm going to need to pay attention or I might run into strife. 10-12kg would put me at a much healthier BMI and the best bit would be that my clothes might actually fit nicer!!!

To open my online store. This one is pretty self explanatory, I have most things all lined up but just need to knuckle down and make some decisions and follow through on them. I may just have to update my list of things to do on a weekly basis so that it is more fresh in my mind.

To cut my hair. Oooops done that last week!! So for any of you that have known me for any length of time you would know that I have had long (past shoulder length) hair for almost ever. We had a think the other day and realised it has probably not been this short for about 12 years. It took a bit of getting used to but I am really liking it now and am really glad I did it. As I go to bed each night I still reach up to take my hair out of whatever elastic/hairband/clip has been holding it for the day and realise that no, it is actually short!! So I suppose this one should be more 'maintain' my hair do!!!

To be on top of forms and other outside requests for information and time, e.g. kinder forms, school forms (new for 2009), rsvp's for invites, that sort of thing. Some of them have been slipping through the cracks and it has got to stop!!!!!!!!!!

To remember birthdays, even if it is only to send off a quick sms or email just so that the person knows that they are remembered and important to me.

That should do it. So see you in a year for an update on my progress (*grin*).

In other news, i.e. KNITTING, "No" you say, "not knitting on a knitting blog".......I finished the first sleeve of the purple bubblegum last night. Haven't cast on the next one yet, might do the other front first, I am finessing the one break in the yarn so I don't have a join along the side of a piece. So I need to have a sleeve and a side front complete so I can weigh them and see whether the currently incomplete side front is in fact enough yarn for a sleeve, or if I can make the remaining sleeve and front pieces from what is left on the ball. Anyway left front is next and that will answer all of the questions really. Glad I have an electronic balance/scale to help me in these challenges!!

And the rest of today...well the boys are building/constructing a garden bed for me as a birthday present today with their dad, the baby is asleep and I have a little bit of cutting and sewing to do....shhhhh don't tell the knitting needles :o) AND the two big kids are staying over at my sister's place tonight for a sleepover and we will leave the baby there while we go out for dinner, then pick him up on the way home, yes he still has a feed during the night so can't stay away from mum overnight yet, but he will soon. The kids are excited to be having a sleepover and I am excited they won't be home!!! Win, win all round really :-)

Have a great day!

Silk blanket complete

Yes after a couple of doses of frogging the silk blanket is actually complete and I am very happy with the final product.



It is a basic stocking stitch blanket with a garter stitch edge, I thought that would be best to show off the "rustic" feel of the silk. As I've said before this is tussah silk, silk gathered after the silk worm has escaped, so it is not as smooth as that gathered from farmed silk worms.



It still has that silky feel though and is quite warm when it is laying on your lap and it also has an appealing heaviness to it. Think I will have to block this one though to stop the edges curling up and so I can get a final measurement on it. It is approx 49 x 67 cm, just the right size for in a baby capsule or carseat. Exactly what I was aiming for. I am pleased :0) It does have colour graduation along it's length but no stripe anymore so all is well.

Time to do some more work on the purple bubblegum jacket I think.

Blogtober 2nd!

Finished the reknit of the silk blanket just now. It does not appear to have a glaringly obvious stripe across the middle now under inside lighting conditions, but I will wait for the light of day before inspecting and photographing it. I am hoping though that it is all fixed now. There is still some variation in colour and in texture as well which as far as I am concerned is just a factor of being made from tussah silk, it was just having an unintentional stripe in an odd position that put me off, and led to the frogging!!

The boys have had a pretty good day today, H and Z both completed a row or two of their knitting, they can't do it by themselves yet but love to sit on my knee and have help in completing rows. They only have 20 stitches, so it doesn't take long to do 1 row and progress is slowed mostly by me forgetting to ask them if they want to do some or not.

I have had a pretty busy and fruitful day today. Finally got around to the handwashing, don't ask how long it has been piling up, I have lost track (ooops!!). Sorted out some of T's room, he's about to change clothes sizes so I have more work to do in there in the next week or so. Many other things that have been hanging around for weeks were finally dealt with including a couple of forms that needed to be filled in and returned to their respective sources. The big boys played nicely in the bath this evening, I kept them company by sitting in the corner knitting while keeping an eye on T who loves being in the bath so much there was a fairly high risk of him trying to dive in!! In the end he just decided to pull on my knitting needles I think he likes how they wave around.

So I should have a photo or two tomorrow of the finished silk blanket and maybe a progress shot of the purple bubblegum.

Blogtoberfest Day 1

I have joined up for Blogtoberfest over at Big Cat's Emporium.

The idea is to post once a day for the month of October so we will see how we go!!

Looking at the Silk blanket in the light of day showed that it had a stripe about two inches wide that was a completely different shade from the rest....how did that happen? Who knows. Hadn't noticed before because I have been knitting that one at night and the stripe turned up in the last episode of knitting. So yep you've guessed it, it has hit the frog pond again. Have already taken it back, removed the offending orange/red toned portion and have started re-knitting it again. We will see how it goes this time. I know I am being a little over pedantic but I like it so much I want it to be perfect.

The purple bubblegum jacket has the back, 2/3 of one front and 2/3 of one sleeve done. It really is a quick knit when I manage to pick it up, so I will just have to remember to pick it up more often!

H has asked if we can do some of his knitting tomorrow so I will have to take photos of his and Z's knitting so we can keep track of where they are up to. They are always both so curious about what I am knitting that I bought them each a short pair of needles and they each have a bag for their knitting to keep it safe :-) They are each making a face washer with "fat" cotton on "fatter" needles. Just done in garter stitch. H does one needle and the yarn while I do the other needle and Z does the yarn while I do the needles and we practice either counting up to 20 or down from 20 (good maths practice!). The plan is to make a square each so they can have something they have made themselves to use in the bath or shower.