Here is the finished blanket all wrapped up and ready to go, that border was more than 500 stitches! Tedious.




And above is the winter vest I am making for Molly. I have worked and ripped back the last 2 rows five times, dropped 4 stitches which were a complete pain to pick up again and now I'm finally back on track. All I had to do was remember to do a purl stitch after the armhole stitches rather than a knit stitch. Honestly! Where is my brain?

And for something (at last) that is non-baby knitting I thought I might give this a go...

Shake shake shake! duhduhDUHduhduh...

I have been a charitable and virtuous person and made something for a lady in Christchurch (title...see what I did there? Yup.) I thought you might like to see the process. So,

I had some knitting arrive in the post which was very exciting! Like a craft-themed Christmas. And the fact that these internet strangers had put such a lot of effort into their squares made me whip up another one. Learned a new stitch too, Andalusian stitch. Pretty (it's the white square in the last photo).

Then I blocked all the kindly sent squares and got ready for a marathon session of seaming. This was unexpectedly difficult because some of the squares didn't have any tails of wool so I had to match with ends from my stash or carefully position them to take advantage of the ones that did have tails.

Then there was the weird accident with the domed-glass paper weights and sunshine. Glad I was home. I doubt insurance would have believed the story if our house had burnt down because of knitting and laser-beams. It would have wrecked an overseas square too rather than one of mine which I could easily patch. Proof...

Here it is in its unblocked, unsewn state,

And I will post the finished object photos soon!

Get on with it woman

Things that are hard:

-Dressing a small person who doesn't want to let go of their toes

-Eating well when you only have one hand free and there are delicious vanilla and poppyseed cupcakes sitting temptingly on the bench at 8am

-Finishing my knitting once I am bored with it! It takes me almost as long to seam and sew on buttons as it does to actually knit the pieces.

-Sewing with wool that breaks at annoyingly impractical points in your seams. Although, this tweed does come together really nicely, leaving almost invisible joins and making me feel accomplished.

Things that are easy:

-Staying in your dressing gown until well past midday

-Wasting time in a ravelry-gmail-facebook loop

-Linen stitch! I am making a cowl (ostensibly for Bojana, but it's looking very small. If it blocks ok I'll drag it over my own head and keep it. If it doesn't then Molly can have it next winter and I'll make Bojana a decent sized one).

This is one of those projects that is clearly not working as it should (size-wise) but is addictive and complicated enough that it would almost be more annoying to rip it all back and start again than it would be to finish and not be able to wear it. I'm not sure it will even fit around my neck, let alone pull over my head but I am happy going round-and-round and admiring my handiwork. Simple things...

Resurrection!

I could be described as a domestic goddess you know. I am nearly always confined to the house for a good part of the day now so to fill the endless hours (when I am not feeding Molly or feeding Molly or feeding Molly) I have channelled my inner 1950s housewife.

There is knitting. This is my first properly seamed garment to date. It's a blue tweed jacket for Molly. The wool looks nice but is a pain the a$$ to seam with! It's very splitty and likes to un-ply itself. So there has been a lot of swearing and tantruming over finishing this. It got worse when I discovered that something was very wrong with my gauge resulting in sleeves that were wildly disproportionate to the body. I took a deep breath and CHOPPED them short rather than re-knit them. Taking scissors to your knitting is stressful and counter-intuitive. However, it's looking like it may have worked. Pictures will follow next time (if I can work out the collar).

There has been baking. This was the cake I made for Cameron's birthday. It was a rosemary cake and smelled awesome. But I had to store it in a container that had housed parmesan cheese which ruined the effect somewhat.

And there is always laundry.

Tell me of your life.

The end is in sight

Is it well sewn? No.

Does it sit flat and even? No.

Are the colours harmonious and complementary? No.

Did the cat drop a flailing, screeching wax-eye onto it just as I was finishing? Yes (but it's ok, I saved it).

BUT...I am almost done! I don't care about the many imperfections. I am going to finish it and give it to our little girl as a birthday present one year. And because it isn't perfect she can mangle it and drag it about and I won't mind. I am just thrilled to bits that I will have actually finished it and it won't sit in pieces under our bed forever mocking me. Note that the messy and uneven edges will be snipped to a nice tidy line. Straight sewing evaded me.

So today I went to the little quilting shop in Onehunga and the lovely ladies helped me buy the things I need to finish it without smirking or laughing at all, and I am even in time to join in with one of their classes for a couple of evenings so they can help me finish the backing, actual quilting, and binding. I am not-so-secretly proud of myself over the fact that I am nearly done with this!

Mojo

I have finally got back into my knitting. I'm sure that while you're off galloping around Europe this is the last thing you will be interested in, but oh well! Here are the latest little knits...

The bonnet is lovely and soft to touch. It's made of bamboo fibre which I hadn't used before, but will definitely buy again. I am making a dent in my stash at the moment though rather than buying new wool, so that's satisfying!

I have also become motivated to finish knitting the socks I started (and promptly lost interest in) at the beginning of the year. I am now powering towards the toe of the first sock! Which means I turned a heel successfully. Excellent. I am enjoying knitting something different, but the annoying thing is that I have a whole second sock to knit if I want to be able to wear them! Damn pairs. Whether or not the first one fits will determine the fate of the second sock.

Hope you are having a great time in France! Miss you xxx

Swap number 2!

I took part in another knitting swap this month and just got my parcel a couple of days ago...wool! Yay! Plus chocolate and tea and some really pretty stitch markers. Just wanted to show you (gloat?). I like these swaps. It means I get new wool without guilt and often it's stuff I haven't seen for sale here.

I'm baaaaaaaack....

Woah, where have I been? Sticking my head in the sand due to the crappy weather we've been having over the last few weeks, I think. But finally today the sun made an appearance, and on a late afternoon walk I spied that the temperature was a balmy 18〫C. The ever-persistent wind was even warm.

Despite the weather, the spring flowers have been abundant for some time. The other day I cycled through the cemetery and stumbled upon a lovely field of colour. The daffodils were particularly sweet in their little clusters with their faces turned to the south, awaiting a kiss from the sun.

I am knitting furiously to get the cabled scarf done and in the post in time for my brother's birthday on the 25th. Tomorrow night I'm hosting knitting group, which isn't exactly a recipe for productivity, but hopefully I'll get there! Photos to follow.

Progress of sorts

I have made it to the sleeves on the cardi I am knitting. I don't know what has happened to my poor brain, but I am making so many mistakes and I just can't work out what I am doing wrong! Lots of little snarls and holes which I have never had trouble with before...ah well. I still like how it's coming along.

And also, I did some shopping at the Dimples sale last week, went with a friend who is in the know and found some very cute things. These little ladybird booties were my favourite purchase.

Finish Fail

I took this (bad) photo of my cross-stitch thinking I had finished...then noticed that I haven't done the word 'three' underneath to match the other 2! Sigh.

I bought the pattern book for these a few years ago and intended to make all 12 of the designs. That isn't going to happen. I don't actually enjoy cross-stitch all that much, mainly because the end product is impractical and can't be used for anything. So I am stopping at 3 and will have to try and work out what I want to do with them. I'm thinking little cushions. Maybe.

Ny cykel (och mer stickning)

I bought a bicycle during the weekend. Isn't she cute? Try as I might, however, I'm unable to adjust the seat and handlebar height on my own - where's my handyman when I need him? She's a bit rusty and noisy, but I'm excited to explore the Swedish countryside with her over the summer. The weather has been so nice here recently - still cold, but really sunny and light until late.

I like to come back from class and sit with tea at the dining table with the sun streaming in. The light this afternoon was so lovely I thought it might be nice to take some pictures of the gorgeous Rowan pattern book I picked up today. It's full of inspiration for the warmer weather and I love every pattern in it. I'd like to make that sweet little top in the last photo for summer cycling...

And my Saroyan is finally blocked. You can see the ridge in the decrease section in this picture - quite disappointing, but I still really like it. It's so warm - I was nearly expiring when taking pictures!

Retail relief

To keep myself busy while Tim's away, I settled on a cabled scarf pattern for my brother's birthday and needed some new wool. So I met a few of the knitting group girls in Malmö this fine Saturday morning at Fröken Garn. Unfortunately, once there, everything they had was far too beautiful to even contemplate giving to my brother.

Instead I bought a skein of chunky baby alpaca in a brick orange colour for me and two little balls of Norwegian milk yarn. Yep, yarn made out of milk. The very idea that yarn can be spun out of milk astounds me. Ullrika, in the group, had recently been using it to make a gorgeous baby cardigan and she said it was lovely to work with. It's so soft. And now there's a baby coming who might appreciate it too...

I could only find one skein of the alpaca. Given that I'm finding the neckwarmer you made me so useful, I think I'll try something like that. It'll be a super quick knit.

So long Saroyan!

I have washed and blocked my scarf/shawl and it came up nicely, I think I may even wear it today. I have decided not to dye it, it will go with more in this colour. Got very bored with the pattern by the end, but your finished product and the fact that I badly want to do some baby knitting motivated me to get it done! I could probably have done one or two more repeats to give it a little more length, but it covers my shoulders and is so warm...good timing. It's getting cold here!

This little cardigan is what I am going to cast on today. I am going to use some of my Debbie Bliss wool in forest-green that I got in that swap last year (you have seen the stash, I don't need to buy anything!)

I am going to make the little bird mobile too, I think it's really sweet and I need a quick project. It also has the added bonus of using up some of my quilting fabric too. Damn quilt. That is still on my 'to finish' list. Do you have a new project lined up?

I heart my stash

I went through all my wool this afternoon just to make myself aware of what is in there again! I love my wool. I had such a nice hour looking through it all and remembering where and why I bought it. I have my lovely wool from Peru, although I actually bought nicer Peruvian stuff at Mascos! There is the gorgeous ball of Danish wool from you, 2 skeins of organic cotton in a lovely pale green for a soon-to-be-little-person, and quite a bit more besides. A LOT of my wool is from Mel. I'm not sure introducing me to Southseas was a sensible idea.

I am finally on the decrease section of my Saroyan, so hopefully (illness allowing) I will be finished within a week. Then I can start something new!

Birthday...almost forgot this year!

Thanks for the birthday wishes! That food looks good. I will just get you to make it for me when you come back : ) I will keep an eye out for the post! Seems like the Swedish get their mail delivered faster than us...so maybe it won't take 7 weeks like mine did. Tsk tsk.

I had an ok day, had to work, but home now and relaxing. I have started a new cross-stitch and will reveal the cutesy pattern in due course. Having dinner with the family tonight and day off tomorrow!

Happy Birthday to you!!

What I would like to bake for you if I could. Hope you have a wonderful day!

(From here).

Nimble fingers

Finally I have the energy again to tell you about my weekend! (Really I wasn't that tired, but procrastinated as usual).

Remember how I told you a few posts back about Juliane and her beautiful dolls? Well, she taught me how to make one! She invited me to her doll-making class in Höör over the weekend, and by the end of it, I was holding a gorgeous doll, albeit bald, made by my own hands (with rather a lot of help from Juliane...) The class was held in a Waldorf kindergarten, which was the perfect pastel-y place to pass the hours hand sewing, eating cakes and chatting with my classmates. It was so much fun. I'm so proud of what I have created:

I'm just putting one photo here, but you can link to Juliane's website to see lots more. I actually haven't finished crocheting the wig yet - this one is just borrowed for the photo.

(Now I just need a little girl to gift her to - come on Tim!)

It arrived!

I love it. Thank you so much. It's absolutely perfect for the weather right now too - cold enough, but not so freezing that I need a scarf wrapped four times...

Excuse the twee way my head is cocked to one side - a dumb habit - and the super tired face. I had a really busy weekend, which I'm going to tell you all about, but right now I just need a nap!

xoxo

Free at last

I have finally finished the tiny vest that has been lurking in my project bag for months. Yes! I really like it, it's so tiny and cute. Plus it was knitted sideways so no seaming! I have made some progress on the saroyan too, although probably not as much as you...I am now about 4 repeats into the straight section, although worryingly my giant ball of wool is rapidly shrinking and I am hoping that I have enough!

Here comes the sun

Though the snow was very beautiful, I am happy to see the sun at last. I thought you might like to see a few snapshots of our walk in the park yesterday, plus a little video Tim made of himself cracking ice. It looks perilous, but the ice pond couldn't have been more than 20 cm deep!

Along with the sun, the daily temperatures have risen. But after dark it drops again and becomes icy, as I unfortunately discovered last night when running to catch the bus. Fell hard on my behind.