What's going on?

Well, this weekend there was lots of sewing, and with the cords and the scissors and the pins and the surface area and the toddler, I remembered why I like knitting more.

I made a small project bag for Kim from Alaska, who first visited us last year and brought me a copy of Knitting Without Tears; I thought she deserved a little something in return (let's not mention the timeframe).

After snb on Sat (where we said g'bye to Kim, as she heads home again soon), I visited the Spot of Temptation with a couple of other knitters, one of whom helped me discover (hi Kizzie!) some wonderfully retro floral cotton in the remnants basket, and oversaw some dithering amongst useful patterns for toddler clothing. DD #1 almost has a new floral shift, and DD #2 almost has a new tiered skirt (I ran out of purple thread for the binding on the dress, and ran out of time to gather and pin the tiers of the skirt. Also need smaller width buttonhole elastic, if such exists)

There may also have been some knitting, and photographing of knitting. Penni looked over at my needles and said in a voice that was half shocked, half queasy "you're knitting something brown???"
As you can see, the brown is necessary to make the multi go far enough to accommodate man-size socks. I promised the MOMD some socks, he chose orange-and-purple, I found some Moda Vera to experiment with, and the rest is a mystery that will unfold over the course of the summer.

Speaking of summer, and summer sock projects, I have picked up my sock projects once or twice:
One repeat down, plenty more to go.

Those socks are a nice segue into the other realm of summer projects: lace!
Bit by bit I'm spending time on it, it grows when I have satisfied minimum effort on other things.

On my Rav projects page you will see that the MIL teacosy was begun, but I was not generous enough with the number of repeats I cast on, so I am starting again. Le sigh. At least I worked it out now, and not two weeks before Christmas!

I'm sure there are other things I should be blogging, but I'm having a feminine evening so my brain is preoccupied with yearnings for tea, rugs, hot water bottle and knitting with no more distractions. I'll get back to you as soon as I regain my superpowers.
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Weekend snippets

It is amazing (or not really) how much you can get done when you have an extra couple of days in front of the weekend!
Over the past four days there has been a visit to the Show, knitting, necessary house-cleaning, knitting, kitchen duties, knitting, DS had a friend over (who came over all eight and begged to go home at ten pm that night, poor little bloke), reading, knitting, clothes washing, shopping, knitting, a trip to the Richmond Maze to see some friends, knitting, watching the first Indiana Jones movie with the MOMD (who was astonished that I had known that he'd never seen them - pure serendipity and sheer dumb luck), knitting, more time in the laundry, muffins, chocolate cake, knitting..... I'm having a lovely time, and no RSI due to all the interruptions :>

***later that evening...***
Well, the kids made mud, then mud pies, then had a mud fight, then painted their limbs with mud, then when they ran out of skin, painted their clothes with mud. It's a good thing that I'm pretty relaxed about dirt (and that no mud ended up on the clean towels on the washing line - that would have been the end of Relaxed Mum and the beginning of Furious Mum, pretty much instantaneously!!!). The MOMD was late home from helping a neighbour put in a new staircase, having stopped for a chat and a beer or two, so I put the kids in the shower in the laundry, and started the dinner, and gave the very relaxed MOMD the mop for the laundry floor. It has taken a couple of hours, but the children are now all clean, dry, dressed, fed, clean of tooth and put to bed. The MOMD will be in bed shortly. I am looking at maybe 90 minutes of unfettered freedom, tea, chocky cake and complete control over the remote. What a great way to finish the weekend!!

So, the knitting this weekend?
A swatch with my new Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed, colour 'Enamel' - think inky blue with flashes of blue and indigo (not allowed to say purple for this one):

I grafted the toe on Berlin #1 and cast on for Berlin #2:

I washed the doll parts, ready to finish seaming and to add details (like, oh, I don't know, ears, a face... things to make it less weird-blob and more recognisable-doll).

I haven't done any shawl knitting (that requires no people talking to me), but I did make a start on the MIL tea-cosy - see Ravelry for details!! (Neri, if you're reading this, I am not showing you pictures - you will just have to wait until you unwrap it)

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Ohh, I'm rich!!!

I picked up my be-ribboned socks this afternoon - and I'm rich!!!

a drink to celebrate

My gorgeous lace shawl, 3 repeats in:


Non-descript black ring of knitting, for work secret santa. Ravelry will give more details.


And I stopped at the Moonah LYS for a little something-something for to make me a Talia (knitty spring 08) - pics tomorrow when there's light. Shock: it isn't purple!!!
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Body Parts

I very much enjoyed confusing my students last week when I announced the presence of body parts in my bag - which was only topped by the students' reactions when I revealed them: "eeww miss, that's sick - put them away!!!". Year 8 boys aren't so tough.


This weekend was full of spring - thinning apricots, many loads of washing, much moving of hoses, the clipping and washing of dogs, impromptu bbq, and some knitting. I even got back to fixing the toe on my Berlin sock:
I had hoped to finish this pair in time for the show next week, but cold hard reality is starting to intrude into my pleasant little fantasy world. (Cue peculiar frog noises and jaunty "London Bridge is falling down" tunes from toybox - as the strata shifts, strange things happen)

That's about it - it's well past my bedtime now, so I'll head off - I'm going to need my sleep to deal with what promises to be an inordinately boring Monday. Hopefully there will be much more interesting tidings during the week!

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Sockyness

If you've been over at the Southern Summer of Socks blog, you'll know that I've joined up again AND that I've finished a pair of socks!!! (mind you, they are the monkeys that I started during the last SSoS!!!)

These were my second or third attempt at this pattern, so I had ended up using 3mm needles to get them stretchy enough to fit over my heels. They are a little looser on my leg than I'd like, but otherwise gorgeous!
Yarn: Jolly Jumbuck 'Hercules' in Bruised Plum
Needles: 3mm bamboo dpns
Mods: Eye of Partridge heel, and a few extra heel rows for depth and stretch.
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Waving not drowning

First day of term 3, almost freezing (most of the time), very few students about as it was a staff development day for K-6, so I did a stocktake of the entire fiction collection of the infants library. Zapping the barcodes of a couple of thousand books makes for a monotonous - and filthy-fingered - day. I amused myself by flaunting my spicy socks to everyone I thought would be impressed, ignoring the vigorous clashing with the rest of my outfit :P
Tonight will be whatever is passable on the gogglebox, and more knitting. I am progressing on the Alpine Cardi - I made a larger sleeve for #2, have ripped and reknitted 2/3 of #1, measured, plotted, ripped and reknit the back neck to give it a gentle curve, and am ready to finish sleeve #1.2, steam block and sew up ready for the neckband. Hopefully I will have an FO to wear above the ankle later this week :>
I shall have pictures next time...


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Spicy Orange FO

1. Spicy Orange Socks, 2. Spicy Sock architecture, 3. side on, 4. Sock recumbent

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

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Proof of Sock

Proof of Sock
Originally uploaded by knights_dont_knit

At least the laundry floor is clean now...

First Monday of the two weeks of the spring school holidays - kids are alternately cranky/boisterous/singing/annoying/whiny/cute/hungry/crying/playing some nice game. There was much washing to do, leading to a bucket in the laundry tub, into which the washing machine's outlet hose was put. Said bucket was propped up so as not to block the plughole (previous flooding cause). Some little while later, I came back to discover that the hose did not like to have it's fun spoiled by forethought on my part - so it jumped out of the bucket, out of the tub, and flopped down behind the washing machine, thence to pump an entire 6.5kg capacity washer-load of water onto the laundry floor. Did I mention that whoever did that extension (laundry with large shower, spa bath, and basin and toilet) did not think it necessary to put a drainhole anywhere in the floor? Not even under/next to/ near the laundry tub?
So, after some mopping/swooshing/swiping, the floor was clean, only slightly wet, and the bedlinen which had been awaiting a turn was in the machine. 3/4 of an hour later I came back to discover that the rushing water noises were caused by the machine trying to fill and drain at the same time (thankfully on the cold setting). I sorted that one out. But I haven't gotten it out to hang up yet.

Aside from the marvellous tapestry of family life, I have been knitting a little - I am particularly proud of having finished the first wildly orange sock in 8 days - and no I did not knit at work, give up sleep, or run away from my kids and hide in the wardrobe with a torch. just lots and lots of nighttime knitting. Although it may not have been ideal for my ulna - or perhaps the other one - whichever is on the outside of the forearm - I am totally chiffed with myself! And the sock is pretty dang awesome too :>
Also, yesterday I cast on a baby bolero, 3mth size, to give to a girlfriend - I'd like to finish by Wed lunch. I've done the back, am partway through the sleeves, and this is a knit-in-one-piece pattern, so cruising along nicely. I'll do a bit more before bed tonight, with my ipod on; I was watching I am Legend but the MOMD was snoring gently and I didn't want to watch it alone - 30 mins in and I was tensing up waiting for the monsters to jump out of the darkness! Hopefully he'll be able to sit up to watch it with me tomorrow.
Not much else to report - oh, except that my DS came with me to snb on Sat! He was his lovely self (as opposed to the unlovely version that kept oozing out all over the house today), and did his knitting, and worked on some Sudoku, and had baby cuddles with baby Ezra. J seemed to have a nice time - we shall see whether he wishes to come back next month!
ok, so that'll do for now - must leave myself some knitting time ;>
More blogging when there are some kind of visual representations of knitting to share. Maybe.

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Sock updates!

I'm flying along the st st leg of my fab orange sock, and just about to start the heel.


I am also trying not to be distracted by the announcement of the 4th SKP08 sock - Ziggy socks! I love the patterning, but with my deep heel, I'm a little concerned that a stranded sock would not be the greatest choice for me.... Of course, I've never done stranded knitting of any kind before, so I can't know until I try, right?


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Update to the update

(which sounds kind of like pig latin....)

I tacked together the 4 pieces of cardi currently available and tried it on, confirming my suspicions that the sleeve would be a little snug (go the gym-built biceps). Also, being somewhat narrow across the shoulders, the back is a little too wide, which makes for extra fabric at the back of the neck.
Conclusion: there will be maths.
But not today.
I need to try it on again with hubby and measuring tape handy, undo about 6inches down the back, add a few extra decreases, and maybe even scoop the back neck slightly to make things sit nicely when I get to the neckband. Then I'm going to check the numbers on the pattern and knit about a size larger sleeve - extra width gets taken up by the point of the shoulder.
The pattern has one size across the shoulders - 10 inches - and even though I know I am narrower across the shoulders proportionally speaking, I didn't double check this measurement. Everything else (which is what, the fronts????) looks fine.

Ok, time for dinner and delayed Doctor Who.
And some really orange sockyarn!
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Weekend update...

Ok, so another big week over, one more week until the two-week spring holidays, with very little planned - yay!

Some knitting, though a lot of not-knitting due to extreme knackeredness. After dreaming of it for ages last night I cracked and cast on the loudloudloud orange sockyarn I bought at the craft fair a little while ago. Much playing in Ravelry produced the Arch-shaped Socks (pdf) from Jen of 144 Inches of I-Cord- lots of plain knitting to allow the natural loudness to shine through, and some interesting shaping on the foot.

And how about the purple cardilette?

(sketch made with http://www.odopod.com/sketch/shell.swf)
The sleeve seems awfully small (and no, I didn't cast on the wrong number of stitches), so I'm going to tack that side together and try it for fit.
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Sunday Catch-up

Several times this weekend I found myself looking guiltily up from my keyboard or hands or book and thinking that there was a task somewhere that needed doing... Our weekends recently have been crammed with domestic chores and dashing off to watch hockey or grab some long-awaited items in the sales or doing a massive shop at the supermarket.
This weekend, however, seemed suddenly to be filled with space.
This was greatly helped by the MOMD and I having 2.5 days at home between us this week (looking after germy daughter, as per Monday's post), so the washing did not all stack up until the weekend, and the kitchen was not a scullery maid's nightmare, and the floors did not attempt to stick themselves to any passerby.
I had my moments of mad efficiency, cleaning things at top speed and FTL laundry-folding, vacuuming the rumpus room in a few free minutes before dinner - but the rest of the weekend was - free.
Yesterday morning I knitted for over half an hour at Mr 8's hockey; we bought a Pioneer HDD recorder in 15 mins flat yesterday and discovered that Sat parking was not worth the probable cost of going out to lunch, so went home and had lots of empty time.

Time to scan parts of the paper.
Time to catch up on some blogs. Time to knit socks.
Time to talk to my mum on the phone.
Time to cut out fabric for a princess dress (still in pieces).
Time for a dog walk each day. Time to make some serious messes and time to clean them up again.
Time to Google the episode of Doctor Who I had missed, and to watch it and finish a hat for me.
Time to swatch for Sea Tangles (baby 4ply is not going to work).
Time to think about new patterns (Alpine, anybody?).

We got a lot done, but it didn't feel as rushed as usual.
And what's more, there was time to meet the woman who is going to come and clean for two hours every Monday - I am going to be SO HAPPY to walk into the house tomorrow to discover the floors and bathrooms miraculously clean, dry laundry brought in and maybe even clean cupboard doors (depending on how her time goes).

See how happy I am? the Wedge Hat is done!!! I wore it straight away on dog-walk-#2-with-pram. It needs a good soak-and-block, but is nice and snug (a must in this windy clime). And those are the Monkey Magic socks - positively racing along! And now I shall find something to knit, and watch Doctor Who meet his daughter via our brand new HDD recorder. I'm going to live in the moment :>
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Pins and Knees...

I've spent the last hour and a half pinning dress pattern pieces to cheap satin, and now not-quite-as-cheap organza.

On the floor.

On my knees.

I even vacuumed before dinner, to eliminate the worst of the cake crumbs and mud specks.
Tomorrow I will start sewing.

Greater love hath no mother than to put aside her weekend knitting time in order to make an organza-over-satin princess dress for her DD just because the DD asked her nicely.

(But all is not lost - I did knit at hockey this morning, and on while talking to my Mum on the phone this afternoon - 3 repeats done on monkey leg #2!!)

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Sunday, Sunday...

I took some pics of the house etc today, but I need to work a little more on my thoughts before I show you why I live where I live - so hang in there!

Instead, let me share a (partial) Monkey and an FO:


The tiny socks were intended to be toddler socks, but came out too small for my small person, and also freakishly long. I ripped the toe (and about another 2cm - freakishly long) from #2, reknitted it to a sensible length, then unpicked the graft on sock #1, ripped back to the corresponding spot where the toe began on #2, and knitted the toe. Then I put them together. Not. The. Same. Size. Two hours of prime knitting time last night spent on ripping, knitting, grafting, ripping, knitting and grafting, for socks that are more like second cousins than siblings. Apparently, not writing down how many rows I used for the heel flap, and then not being able to count the rows correctly due to on-again, off-again version of Eye of Partridge heel, meant that I did not make the heels the same size, so the gussets were not the same size, and I also did the decreases on a different stitch for each sock, and I think #2 is much firmer fabric than #1 - and, all in all, I believe that these socks were destined to be doll's clothes.

But all is not lost. See my Monkey? It is growing.

Wait a moment - what is that corner of white intruding upon my pictorial posing?

Let's take a closer look, shall we?


SQUEEEE!!!!


My order from Elann finally arrived - on a Sunday!!! Today's fondling tells me that they are nice strong colours, fairly smooth, not as soft as Patonyle (but what is?), nice medium twist - oh, but wait!
Can you hear that?
Those delicate, enticing voices?
Look! They're jumping out of their skeins to be the first on my needles!

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Breaking the Silence...

I am here to blog this important news: I'm still here!

Yes, I've been fairly busy - a few late afternoons/evenings, no early-morning blogging time. Thus the lack of blogging. But there has been some baking, reading and knitting. And snb today which was lovely - about 15 of us (excluding the toddler, infant and newborn!), lots of interesting projects around the table, and seriously tempting offers of a cheap spinning wheel!

Baking: Beer Cake, and also eggless banana muffins. Both excellent.

Reading: Contest, by Matthew Reilly. Rip-roaring read, so long as you are happy to add aliens to Indiana Jones, and suspend critical analysis for the duration (which was about 3 or 4 hours - like I said, rip-roaring read). Also, Awakening, by Bevan McGuiness; classic fantasy - several main characters coming into ancient powers/ trying to stop ancient powers, good vs evil, semi-feudal societies, etc etc. So far it is pretty good.

The segue between reading and knitting? The Rowan Book of Little Knits (or some such title) has some cute little children's knits in it....

Knitting: A few rows here and there on the everlasting Clapotis.
Onto the foot of a monkey sock.
Finishing off a pair of baby/toddler socks for I-know-not-whom because I want those needles.
Frogging of the Rattlesnake Creek sock #1 because a) I cannot stand cables in sockyarn on 2.25mm wooden needles a moment longer, and b) it won't go over my heel. Note the order of the reasons. It is an entirely accurate reflection of my thought processes.

Coming up: more sporadic Clapotis-ing.
Ripping and reknitting the toe of Berlin sock #1. Starting #2. (But not tonight unless I go all non-drinking-ish. Half-a-glass of chardy so far and my typing accuracy is about 36 wpm, 62% accuracy. Not even bronze-medal standard.)
Starting again on the Rattlesnake Creek socks with the newly released KP dpns.
Vesting for me.
Maybe even vesting for Miss 5 (she's been waiting long enough!)
Oh, and that hat that only needs two more inches.
And Miss 2 wants a Calorimetry. (Try typing that while tipsy!)

Where's my Tardis???
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There has been progress...

on TdFKAL knitting:
(Click here for big)

And I even snuck in a cable or two on my SKP08 Rattlesnake Creek Sock:

All that, and no serious housework, a quick trip to the LYS in Moonah wherein I gazed at, fondled, ummed and ahhed over various items (Naturally Vero, Sirdar Sublime, JS Silkroad Aran Tweed, Bizarre (Italian something), Kureyon sock & funky stuff in the bargain box) but walked out with only the two circ cables I went in for!!!!!
Next there was 20 mins poking around an antique place, reading blogs at home, and an afternoon chatting with parents of one of Miss 5's friends at their house over tea and cupcakes, Lemon meringue cupcakes (oh yes), shortbread and smartie and choc-chip bikkies. Now the MOMD is in the kitchen preparing child food, and putting on a lamb roast for us, I have time to blog, and there's nothing much planned for tonight or tomorrow... {cue Julie Andrews} "Somewhere in my youth, or childhood, I must have done something goooooood"

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Updating on knitting and whatnot

1. My Tour de France KAL project: I call it "Ondulation", which means 'waves', because the pattern moves in waves like the riders streaming around corners as they travel through the gorgeous French countryside. IT is actually a bit longer than that now after a couple of evenings in front of the tv, but those pics will follow later!
2. My Wedge Hat doesn't have too much farther to go - I'm hoping to get it done before next week:
3. Argosy is coming along quite nicely thankyou, and even louder in person than it was in the ball:
4. This is a basic vest for me, in the neverending stash of Jet; I haven't touched it over the last week, but its time will come (probably after the TdFKAL):
5. I have done the first cable round on the Rattlesnake Creek socks, and hope to do a few more tonight - we'll see how the tiredness goes.
6. To close, Ribby Man has been getting a little sight-seeing done - he is in Paris at the moment, and here he is taking in the glory of the Palais du Luxembourg:
   

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What I Did On My Weekend

There was assorted housework and coddling of scratchy-throated toddler (who shared it with me).
There was a toddler's teaparty - my small daughter turned 2 on Thursday!

In other news, I finished the Knucks for my son:

There was a Craft Fair in town, so I met up with Penni to go through, and Jen and Kate and Kirra from our snb at lunch, and may have had a little yarn follow me home...
- and some buttons too.

The first two balls have decided to be an Argosy scarf (pic soon, I promise), which I cast on last night in front of Doctor Who (WOOT!! The Doc is back in town!!!)
The sock yarn is going to speak to me after I find out the next SKP08 sock tomorrow. I have not quite finished the toe on my first Berlin, but I think I'll get it done tonight - I did another half-repeat and I think it will be nice now. I worked some more on my Wedge Hat, on my Jet vest, and picked up a long-neglected monkey sock and turned the heel.

And now Miss 2 is a-wailing (I stopped jigging her around upside down), and I must went.





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What's Going On Chez Moi?

There've been curtains (many more than this):

There was snb last Sat, with an attempt (failed) to capture the photographer in a photograph:

One and a half knucks for DS:

The toe of the first Berlin - I did a round toe, which looked awful on, so ripped that and am doing a standard wedge toe, but continuing the purl stitches down wither side where you normally have two knit stitches between the decreases:

My first dyeing experiments:

Also lots of cooking, plenty of cafeing, and even one instance of going out to dinner with other adults!!!!! Quite a lot of clothes shopping (nearly finished, just need some work pants), much chatting with Mum, and not as much knitting as I'd like.

On the whole, a pretty good holiday, plenty of household projects off my conscience, some FOs to keep me going and some project fun to keep me happy.

And WWKIP on Saturday to finish it all off in style!

Oh, and have you seen the new Knitty? I heart the Spring Forward socks!
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