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.