Simon the Dinosaur, from lets knit! magazine, a birthday present and stash-busting project. The Man almost died when he saw these photos of the little monster IN the PC! this is how we keep the PC from overheating, rather than install more fans, but little creatures in it where not the plan..

all the knitting in the house go YEAH!

Not that I have actually finished anything recently(other than Simon the dinosaur..), but having just been down in Kent visiting the Mans family and only taking ONE knitting project, I hammered away at it, while I wasn't reading. Sherbet is 3/4 done down the body, but now I'm home I most likely won't do the boring knitting, I'll find a new project.

I tell a lie, I have recently finished the Girls cardi, Sorbet. The beast that broke my needles only had mild misadventures from that point, due to running out of the yarn I was trying to use up, albeit a little early... so she has a funky cardi, and the Boy has an Owls sweater on the way(which will get its own post!)

While I was away I redescovered the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, as the Mans sister owns nearly every related book. I tried reading Little house in the big woods to the Boy, but frankly, he wasn't interested. Unfortunately I was, and have managed the first three in five days! I will have to order the rest from the library, I expect...

P3tog broke my needles!

In my craft room I have about 1/5 of the total floor space available. This is because I hoard. 18 months ago the 4 of us where living in a flat with 1 bedroom and a kitchen/diner/sitting room. I am not complaining-we rented from a lovely family we are still very close to, who lived in the rest of the house, I am just making a comparison. Now we have a 4 bedroom 1930's(ish) ex-council terraced house, and it was full of "stuff" within 2 months....

Anyway, I have identified that my stash of yarn, fabric and magazines are all unnecessarily large, and in an attempt to cut down, I plan to knit one pattern out of each magazine I own, incorporating at least one ball of "stash". I should also be making more clothes for my family, but that is a more intense activity, and the results are more frequently turned down.

But back to the knit. After a successful dinosaur who is a fine present for any of the many young people turning 3 this year I am acquainted with, I have moved onto the more stylish Sorbet pattern from Yarn Forward magazine 17, a child's cardie with ruffled bottom edge, striping and eyelet patterning between. choosing to forgo the traditional "girly" colours, and acrylic yarn suggestion, I have gone for jewel toned 100% cotton, which I shall say now was a suggested alternative!

starting at the bottom, I cast on an unreasonable amount of stitches on rather small needles. my 3.25mm knit pro straights are needles of choice at the moment, but I have short ones, so after a bit of faff, I transferred the stitches onto a circular. at the end of the ruffle section, the pattern called for an ass-load of p3tog's to reduce at the top of the ruffle. now I have found "3togs" a strain at the best of times, but P3tog, 100% cotton yarn and tight gauge resulted in my second knit pro symphony breakage, Boo-hoo! Split along the grain, so blatantly my fault, no manufacturing problem (last time Alison at p2tog sent me a new pair really promptly, excellent service). I plan to get the Man to glue the beast back together this time, as the mend he did on the straights a child stood on was fantastic! It is a rather convenient coupling really, the knitter/spinner and the carpenter...
before/after photos of the needle to follow, when I have earned enough Man-points to broach the subject of the job...

Dying in your sleep is not safe....get out of bed first!

so, I started this blog at a time when I was literally, dying in my sleep. I was seeing colours in everything. I think I had just dyed up a load of BFL Top for the Small Girls jumper, and I called the yarn Snowsuit. It was winter, and the view at the bottom of my garden at about 3:30, kinda just before sunset, was soooo rich, that I wanted to dye it, to keep forever. So I did. stove top on BFL top, with a solid green and semi-solid brown/orange and a blue/white. Now I have finished spinning it up, and Small Boy has decreed it good enough for his next hand knit sweater, though I'm not sure there is enough.

I'll do another top-down raglan design, but perhaps open all the way up the front, so if I run out of this handspun, it will look fine "topped up" with something different. Also i found with the last one it was great for random yarn, as I could write the pattern to the gauge of the yarn. this time though I will not cut corners by knitting straight off the bobbin. oh, no. the last one bloomed an ass-load. I have learned from my mistake>:P
Any hoo, good job I did dye it up, as the council are trying to build bungalows back there now, and that lovely backdrop of sycamore trees will be chopped down to make way for more ill-planned housing, sigh. the yarn is very satisfying though.

Me time!

even with the pc back, and gardening in full swing, i still have found knitting time this past month. i had forced it upon myself, as at the beginning of april i was supposed to be having a stall at the local Independant Arts Centre, but the organizer was super-slack, and didn't get back to me, over 2 weeks of attempted communication. so now i have a pile of baby booties, and know i can fit in 3 hours of knitting a day, if i really don't want to see another human-being, or cook. so now i have been jaded by this lack of response & warmer weather, i got out something for ME. thats right. put aside the mummy Material and got started on my Sherbet cardi, from Yarn Forward magazine. nice lace-ish pattern, I will feel so chuffed when it is done, knowing I did it all.

It is good to remember you are allowed your own time when you are a parent, to be unproductive or frivalous with your time. the Man goes into his workshop and does random things like turning fire extinguishers into hard-core Super-Soakers, and I am knitting thinnish guage sox or cardis for myself. sometimes I read, but that is dangerous (I finished the twilight series, with only one more up-all-night session. close call!). if you pretend it is "work(like the booties)", it seems to be easier to get childcare, but deep down, it doesn't count.
anyway, the pattern is mostly well-written, and the pics on ravelry are great for helping through the less-clear measurements on the yoke.

socks and shoes-backdated!!

So, on the 17th i gave up on the xmas knitting, cos it was me birthday, yippie!
i do wonder when you grow out of a birthday being sooo exiting, but maybe that i will never grow up that much. i hope.
any-hoo, I cast on some frivalous, super-nice, just for me knitting, kai-mei by Cookie A, from her book Sock Innovation. this is going a treat, I have almost reached the toe decrease, but stumbled across two issues, both self created.
Number one- the sock foot has a lace panel that travels across the foot from one gusset to the toe on the other side. the set-up row before creating the gusset involves place 4(ish) markers in the round. i took these out when i had finished gusseting, as i thought i would go that bit faster without slipping them all every round, as the stitches told me how to proceed. problem was, when checking out how far to knit the foot, (when i had done 5") i noticed a referral to said markers, and i can't get my head around where they where. bum.
so to try and get around this, I am looking up other projects on ravelry to see how far over that pesky lace panel travels, before the toe starts.
I will smile again when I have caught up wth my ripped-knitting. unfortunatly that was about 2 days worth, and I had hoped to cast on number two on new years eve.

Number two-while looking at said project pics on ravelry, it came to my attention I still have no sock shoes! this is a dilemma I have been facing for a while, that I wear trainer-type footwear for the most, so I can cycle in them, and I have wider that femaley average feet, so low cut shoes are usually too narrow. this pattern all the detail is on the foot, so it will be hidden most of the time! I think there is an extensive (child-free) shopping trip on the horizon......