Smitten Shmitten

Well now. The sun may be shining, but there are clouds overhead, and poor old Drew has gone back to the drawing (drew-ing?) board.

So, having knit furiously up to the armholes and completed the back and started on one of the fronts, I took stock. Hmmm. Less than three balls of yarn used for a project that is supposed to take 9 balls. Hmm. And, only 21cm below the armhole for something meant to fit a 4-5 yr old, even before washing/shrinking. Hmmmmm.

It wasn't stacking up. I checked on Ravelry, and I think there's only one completed Drew (perhaps that says something), which had the comment that it came up small. A forum post about the pattern and yarn requirement mismatch generated various comments mostly saying 'dont forget the hood' - which is a bit bamboozling as this pattern doesn't have a hood, but anyway. I usually find Rowan patterns/sizing to be generous, so thought age 4-5 would be fine for my average/slim 4 1/2 year old son. Then I got the tape measure - you know like proper knitters do - and actually measured my son and a couple of his jackets, and have decided to start all over again. This time I am going to use the age 6-7 size in terms of chest size/width, but aim for something which is about the same length as the age 10-11 size. I hope I'll end up with a jacket which he can wear for a little while at least, and not something which is so short he'll grow out of it before I have had chance to sew the zipper in. 

I spend an unhappy half an hour or so on Wednesday morning frogging all the lovely stripes, and then I took a deep breath and started again. I went to an interesting lecture later on that day, and got on with the reknitting while Carolyn Steel talked about cities and food and her book 'Hungry City'. Food for thought. If you are interested at all in issues around food shopping and supermarkets and growing your own (which of course most people are) then it's worth having a look and/or listening to Carolyn speak. She is very passionate about her subject, and there is lots of interesting info on her website and blog.

Smitten

The boys went out on Saturday to watch the rugby sevens at Murrayfield. While they were out I grabbed a little pile of Rowan Denim which has been marinading in the stash for a while. I swatched for Drew - something new to knit for the bean. I got gauge and cast on, and I'm smitten. I can't put it down, even though there are a million other things to do like finish Grace, plant out the runner beans, hoover up the dust bunnies, make the supper, write a presentation for Wednesday. You know how it is. I can't stop. It's only been on the needles since Saturday afternoon and I'm almost at the armholes. It's yummy. I love the feel of the fabric in my hands.

My stash of Rowan Denim doesnt quite run to the required 9 balls of one colour/dye lot, so I'm going all stripey instead. The bean declared yesterday that he "...doesnt like stripes..." but he added that when it's finished, then he might like them then. I'm smitten, even if he isnt (yet). And, as he is only 4, I like to think I'll be able to make him wear it anyway.

Betty is looking pretty good too, but she's one for a quiet corner when there is space and time and light to concentrate on the pattern and the increases (that's a lower cuff in case you're wondering).

The wild weather has kept us mostly inside this weekend. The wind has been incredible and both children have been blown over by it, making outside walks/adventures rather difficult. The sun has been glorious, but the showers frequent and heavy and the wind very, very strong. I managed a few minutes of gardening between the showers, earthing up the spuds and weeding the denuded rows of salad and beetroot. Pesky slugs.

third time lucky?

With only a few days to go until DH's birthday, the end of the purple socks (currently on my feet) gave me chance to cast on for some quick and secret birthday socks. Since Grace is having a short break in the not-quite-finished basket, I thought that 10 days or so would be plenty of time for some secret sock knitting.

Well, I might have been right, except I made a rather basic error. It's not even a beginner's error, because beginners tend to not to be quite so stupid. So, time to 'fess up: I didn't read the pattern and knitted the cuff in the wrong rib pattern, so I had to rip it and start again. And I didnt just do that once, I did it twice.

So, now I'm casting on for a third time and reading the pattern (Java) just one more time, in the hope that this time I've got it right and third time does prove to be lucky.

This week I have...

... finally managed a FO! The purple socks are done, and very fine they are too. They took 56g of Jenny Cook's lovely yarn (leaving another 50g for another pair), and they took an absolute age (I cast on at Christmas!) because I have been doing. Other. Things.

... still not finished poor old Grace. I ripped the collar and button bands, and will have to do them again - perhaps things will work out better if I do it in the light. It was kind of okay before, but not good enough really (given that i've spent sooo much time knitting the d*rned thing, I might as well make a good job of finishing it).

... been trying - but failing - to finish my marking (grrr).

... enjoyed the spring sunshine and being outside without coat, hat or scarf! It was so glorious at the weekend, that I had to take refuge in the shade from the fierce sun and heat [Note: fierce is a relative term, but given that we are in Scotland, and still in early April, temperatures of more than 20 odd degrees is really a shock to the system. Today it was equally sunny, but very windy and about 10 degrees cooler!]

... cast on for some new socks - Java from knitty. I'm hoping to dash them off in the next couple of weeks so I can give them to my husband for his Easter birthday.

... got some sewing lined up; dribble bibs and wipes have been cut and stacked ready for stitching. It felt good because I cut them from a bundle of old/stained baby clothes which were not good enough to give away. There are some new babies in the offing, and I want to plenish my stash of gifts for new parents. I also cut a few fleece nappy liners too in the same vein.

... listened to Lord Layard's lecture on happiness, given as the fourth Joseph Rowntree Lecture at York University a few weeks ago.

... finally realised that it is best to make bread in the morning. On Sunday morning I started a couple of loaves at breakfast time, while the little ones were playing and DH was having a snooze. It felt really good to have dough made and proving all before 9am! By late morning they were all done, and perfectly crusty and warm and delicious for lunch.

Slooooow progress

Grace is still on the needles. The back is almost done, but so is the yarn and my optimism about having enough to fnish it now seems misplaced. Heaven only know what I'll do to complete the collar and button bands... oh well. On the plus side, it seems pretty big as age 3-4, so it should fit the intended recipient for a while yet!

In other news, we helped a young friend of ours celebrate her 4th birthday last weekend. The bean and I made her this lovely card. We also gave her a copy of one of our favourite books: 'Iggy Peck, architect' which the bean received for his 4th birthday. It has some fabulous rhymes, and great illustrations - and is perfectly suited to the daughter of a trained (if not practising) architect. Happy birthday Ruby.

In the spirit of ongoing discussions about going off-grid and supporting the local economy, we bought the book in a real bookshop. You know one that you actually physically go to,  and where you can touch and read the books before you buy them! It was lovely, and as an added bonus DH found a lovely book for his dad's birthday - something always to give thanks for, so we heartily recommend the Edinburgh bookshop if you are ever in Bruntsfield/Morningside or Edinburgh for that matter... [As I was holding a sleeping toddler, I was unable to rifle very effectively through the craft books, of which there is a nice selection. looks like I need a return trip...]

Finally, in terms of the lenten aspirations: I have made 3 loaves of bread; been out on my bike twice; been to Pilates classes once a week and generally managed to keep myself off the biscuits, cakes and chocolate (except on Sundays of course). No sewing to report (except sewing on a button and reattaching some elastic in my pyjama trousers), and a bit more knitting. Things should get a bit easier from now on because teaching (but not marking) for this semester is now over, and some other project deadlines have also passed, so the mountain of work is no longer so mountainous. Phew. And, summer time is here to boot, so a chance perhaps to get out in the garden in the evening and continue the work sowing and growing.

Oh frabjous day....

Today I finally managed to finish Grace's two fronts. I weighed them. They weigh 167grammes. I weighed the yarn that remains: 208 grammes. Phew. Looks like I should be able to make it after all. I am pleased. I wouldn't have minded some yarn shopping you understand, but it's just so satisfying to use things up. I like finishing things: bottles of bubble bath,  bars of soap, the last few scraps of pastry, the last jelly baby in the packet.... It's a different to finishing a project. It's something to do with replacing a thing with a space - particularly when our lives are so full of stuff and so lacking in space.

The other thing I did today was make a mental list of the things I will be avoiding during Lent (chocolate, sweets, cakes, biscuits) and some of the things I'd like to do more (exercise, sit-ups, Pilates, making bread, knitting, sewing). Today I knitted. Yesterday I did Pilates - which counts as exercise and sit-ups. So far, so good.

Home Alone...

It's Saturday and the sun is shining weakly outside. My husband and children are elsewhere and I am all alone. I should be in the garden, trying to unwreak the havoc therein, and getting ready to plant seeds and bulbs and things to eat in the coming months. But inside, looking at a computer screen, trying to catch up with work or get ahead or somehow effect some change in my never-ending list of things to do and the blizzard of emails that fall thickly into my mailbox each day. So am trapped and free all at the same time.

I might, just might, have spent a few minutes searching in my stash for some more yarn for Grace. I found little bit more, but as I still haven't finished the fronts and the yoke seems to be eating yarn, I am more and more sure that the yarn will run out. I may even have to unravel my tension square, except that it's not very big and wouldn't help very much... The trouble is there is nothing else in my stash that I can use to make up for the missing yardage. Rats. Looks like I might have to go shopping....

Birthday Parties # 2

We were at another children's party this weekend (they always seem to come along in pairs dont they?) to celebrate the birthday of one of the bean's nursery friends, Macey. There were balloons and dancing and face painting, and we came home with one of these boy tigers.

While we were there I met Kerry Kimber, who runs Kids Knit. She was telling us about the tights (yes, tights!) she'd been knitting for Di Gilpin and a catwalk show happening today in London. Di has designed a collection of knitted pieces including socks, stockings, tights and a skirt with 4m of knitted fabric - all of which have been hand knitted. Kerry made one pair of tights, which took around 70 hours to complete. It sounds interesting and fun as a one-off, but not a way to make any money - although DH was quite keen on the idea of me knitting for money...

Examples like this demonstrate the great difficulty that UK hand-knitters have in making a sensible living from knitting pieces for sale, and the very great price that such items would need to retail at to provide such knitters with the minimum wage. Maybe if we shifted our taxation and economic system to favour labour-intensive processes and products over carbon-intensive processes and products then this might change a bit. But £700 (or more) for a pair of tights is still a hell of a lot...

In which the knitting gods make their views known

So, despite casting on and knitting the first couple of inches of Doris in a crazed funk (mmm, more more, my precious), I soon realised that something was not quite right. I'm a bit lazy when it comes to swatching - mostly because when I do bother I tend to find that my tension is exactly that required, and then I feel I've wasted valuable knitting time and should just have started all along. Humph. Anyway. So, looking at the supposedly smallest size Doris I was blithely knitting, I realised that it seemed to be - you know - a bit on the big side. Even without blocking or being particularly flat, the back that I was knitting was measuring more like the largest size than the smallest. Oops.

I frogged and selected another pattern. This time I'm going for Grace. Another cardigan, but with no moss stitch (below on the right). And - you guessed it - I swatched. I swatched in two different yarns and wouldn't you know I got gauge with both. Ha. Seems my tension with stocking stitch is very different to my tension with moss stitch. Who knew? I still want to knit Doris though - although next time I promise I'll swatch first.

Giving Up

January has been a bit of a disaster knitting wise. The purple Christmas socks are still on the needles, stalled somewhere before the heel flap of the second sock, and the Ava that I cast on. Ha. It is no more. It has been cast aside. Frogged. Done away with and sent very firmly to Coventry.

It's a lovely pattern (probably). But we didn't get on. I kept mixing up the wrong and right sides so the button holes appeared on the shoulder, rather than the centre front/flap. And it was all taking longer than I anticipated (because I had to keep correcting my mistakes), so I ended up improvising an infinity scarf for that 6 year old whose birthday was looming in front of me. And then. Last night. When I got to the bottom of the first front I cast off and discovered the fatal flaw. The front and back did not match up. By about 2 inches. Rather more of a mismatch than can be dealt with by finishing tricks. I've got no idea why that is/was, and I didn't bother to try and find out. I frogged it instead, and have put the yarn back into my stash (grrr).

I still love the socks off the Winter Kids book though, so this morning I cast on for a Doris. There's a small girl we know that will be 3 at the end of the month and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this time the knitting gods will approve.

February seems to be a good time for a spring clean, so I'm giving myself one, and am looking forward to a gluten free month. I'll (probably) keep away from sugar and chocolate too, although my resolve may weaken on that one on account of the two bars of delicious chocolate sitting in the fridge!

New Year New Knitting New Babies

Happy New Year!

It's been a whirlwind start to the year. I'm teaching again so there is lots of thinking and reading and preparing and photocopying and tinkering with the university VLE going on. And, there has been plague in this house. I am the only one not to have succumbed and the only one not to have antibiotics. DH is still laid low and although ordered to rest by the GP, as a self-employed person, he is inevitably tucked up with his laptop... So time to knit and blog has been small.

Anyway, there is new knitting and new babies to report. First, some old friends welcomed their second child, a girl named Zoe, last week. She was born at home, like her big brother, and on her mama's birthday! A day later - near neighbours Lorraine and Trevor welcomed a little girl called Sophia Rose. Welcome to the world little ones. We wish you much love, light and peace as you grow. And, to your dear parents we wish much sleep.

On the knitting front, I swapped one of my Christmas presents (a sock book) for something I was a bit more excited about: Rowan Winter Kids.

It's stuffed full of gorgeous projects and the bean has already requested one of the sweaters... not sure I'll manage it in time for his birthday (next week!) but I have already cast on for one project - Ava - a girl's cardigan knit in one piece in a chunky yarn.

I am using something from my stash rather than the colourscape yarn specified. It's a shame not to have such lovely colours to work with, but stash busting is *still* the challenge in 2011! I'm hoping to gift Ava to a friend's daughter, but it will depend how it looks in my tweedy yarn...

Oh yes, and one last thing, I  had some scrumptious sock yarn from my mother for christmas. It's Jenny Cook's again, and so tempting that I wound the skein on Christmas day and started knitting straight away. The first sock is done, and the second on the needles...

FO: Husband socks

The husband socks are finished, finally. They have taken an absolute age. I cast them on in June, and finished them in September. Admittedly one or two other things got in the way (e.g. Sam's birthday socks), and there was the small matter of sock one being rather too small, so sock two was made to the correct dimensions and sock one duly ripped and reknitted to match. And then, there was just life to get in the way. I have to say that with two small children and one almost full-time job, my time for anything other than housework seems to be exceedingly small.... so I take my hat (and socks) off to those women who manage to do it and blog about it too!

Here they are (for what it's worth)

Pattern: Thuja (Knitty)

Yarn: Regia

Mods: only to change no of stitches required

Time taken: June - September 2010

To celebrate the conclusion of the husband socks, I cast on yesterday lunch time for a pair of twisted socks (Knitty) using some Plymouth Co. Happy Feet yarn that I was given a couple of years ago. I'm not wild about the colourway, but it's only a pair of socks...

And, after hearing that an old friend had an elective c-section booked in for the 16 September, I went back to the Freddy (Kim Hargreaves Rowan Junior) that was on the needles and started turning the crank. Last night front and back were both completed, and today I'll get going on the teeny tiny sleeves. It'll be ready in a few days, by which time I hope we'll have had confirmation of the new arrival...

Sock Fest

There are quite a lot of socks in my drawer which have - to date - been unblogged. It's time to put this right.

For Christmas my brother and his girlfriend (now sadly an ex girlfriend , sniff, sniff) gave me two balls of sock yarn. To start with I made these fabulously fraternal socks:

Pattern: generic top down

Yarn: Schoppel Wolle Crazy Zauberball

Another pair followed, this time using a grumperina stripe to vary the effect. These became a 40th birthday gift for our friend Sam - her first handknit socks. She put them on immediately, so we think she liked them! Happy Birthday Sam.

Pattern: generic top down

Yarn: Schoppel Wolle Crazy Zauberball

The good news is that there is still enough yarn left from these two balls to make another pair. I'll get onto this once I've finished the second husband sock, a christmas gift which has been repeatedly put to the side to allow for other more urgent birthday knitting to take place! It's next dear (honest).

FO: Dolly

Finally. The finishing took a bit of time - it's such a nice little knit, but the finishing is a bit time consuming... every time I make one (I think this is the third one), I think there must be an easier way of doing this, but I havent yet bothered to work out what that is.

Item: Dolly from JB29 by Martin Storey

Yarn: Patons 4 ply (I think), 100% wool

Time taken: a while! April-July 2009

Mods: picked up and knit the stitches for the ties, rather than sewing them on separately. No other mods.

Now that's Out Of The Way, there are other things to get on with. I really need to knit a hat for a friend's upcoming birthday, but instead, I have cast on for a childrens cardigan from the Rowan Family Collection. I decided that it would be a relatively quick project, and that it would make a useful inroad into my stash, which is still overflowing - although things are easing slightly. Last night I was able to organise some of the overflow into one of the storage tables, so something must have happened!

I'm knitting the cardigan using some balls of Jaeger Prelude which I picked up in a charity shop for 50p per ball. It's washable - but has some woolliness - and should make quite a good children's garment. Hopefully it will be fairly gender neutral, although it's primarily destined for a smallish girl. I managed a few rows over lunch today, while I was flicking through the Rowan magazine and newsletter which arrived through my letter box this morning. Mmm.

Finishing off...

July is all about finishing things off. I'm trying to work my way through an endless list of work tasks before starting my maternity leave, AND to hoover up various knitting and stitching WIPs which are cluttering my mind as well as the house. It's part of the tidying we (I) need to do before the new baby arrives.

Since we came back from holiday, I've made/finished:
- a sundress for a first birthday
- one pair of repurposed red trousers for the bean
- and, the socks I took on holiday...

Alas, because there was a bit of a rush to make the dress I did not take any photos before sending it off in the post. But, we've had a lovely thank you card, so I hope that means the dress is vaguely the right size and shape! Happy birthday Harper!

The repurposed red trousers were made with cut offs from a favourite pair of red trews of mine which had the audacity to wear out! They were fabulous in many ways: I bought them in a sale, they were one or two sizes smaller than I normally wear, they didnt fade at all even after several years of wearing and washing and their in-built stretch meant that they were comfortable to wear. What more could a girl ask for? Anyway, once they had given way in the upper thigh, I cut off the salvageable parts of the legs, and turned them into a pair of toddler trousers. I used a favourite pair of the bean's trousers as a pattern. Because I did not taper the legs in any way, the finished trousers ended up slightly on the flared side (actually, they were quite hilariously flared). Perfect for the late 1970s, but not quite so fashionable now. To cure this malady in the most minimalist way, I elasticated the cuffs - again using the original trousers as a pattern (these also have elasticated cuffs).

The socks have been plodding for some while now, but now that Wimbledon is on (c'mon Andy!), I've been making the effort to pick them up everytime I stop to watch a set or two. Yesterday I finished sock no. 2 - but discovered that I had a reasonable length of yarn leftover. Although I am not normally a perfectionist about such things, in this case I decided it would be worth the effort to lengthen the leg of each sock and use absolutely every gram of this vibrant yarn. So, they are finished, sort of.

holidays

Next week we're off on our holidays. Nowhere foreign, just plain old England, and the furthest away bit of England from Scotland that you can find.

We are going to the Isles of Scilly. This will involve 2 days of driving, a trip on the infamous Scillonian from Penzance to St Marys, then a short boat hop from St Marys (the main island) on the Firethorn to Bryher, and then along the track to Bryher campsite where we are staying.

This will be the fourth time we have been to Scilly in recent years. Last time we took the bean who was a jolly 8 months or so and not yet walking or talking. Now he's 2 and 4 months, and it's a whole different ball game! But Scilly is a magical place for children - no cars to speak of, lots of beaches, rock pools, tracks, footpaths, places to scramble and explore, and lots and lots and lots and lots of boats.

As we are camping and have to pack all our kit ready to be manhandled from boat to boat to tractor and campsite, knitting isnt high on the list of Things Which Absolutely Must be Packed. However, I'm hoping to squeeze in a wee bit of sock yarn and to finish a sock or two while I'm there. Keep your fingers crossed for fine weather!

We normally take our summer holidays at the end of August and beginning of September, but this year decided that the impending arrival of bean no. 2 sometime in August made that just a teensy bit tricky. So we're going now instead. Who knows whether its a good idea to go camping for 2 weeks when you're 6 months pregnant, but we'll soon find out! Fortunately I carry my babies neatly, and the bump isnt very large just yet (I can still ride my bike without too much difficulty), but I'm not sure how I'll cope sleeping in a sleeping bag with a snoring toddler only inches away and no mountain of pillows to keep me comfy...

Catch up #2: socks

We were on holiday at the end of August, staying with some very hospitable friends in Denmark. They live in a farmhouse at Selso, close to Skibby and less than an hour from Copenhagen. While we were there I planned to revisit a Copenhagen yarn shop I spied last time we were in Denmark, but events conspired against me and I didnt make it. I settled instead for the offerings of the local supermarket in Skibby, which had sock yarn with aloe vera, very reasonably priced too! Not bad for a dinky place in the Danish countryside - I dont think there are many British supermarkets with yarn, let alone sock yarn....



I bought 4 balls - two plain, two variegated. A couple of weeks ago, I cast on with the variegated yarn to make myself some (more) socks. As usual, I kept things short in the leg and kept my fingers crossed as I made the second sock. Bingo. It worked. A pair of socks in less than 50g.





To make things even better, I asked my mum to try the first sock on when I was visiting the other week. It fit, so rather than put the completed pair in my sock drawer, I've put them in the gift stash ready for you know what. Christmas.

Catch up #1: smitten

There's so much to catch up on that I'll have to pace myself.... Well. The ravelympics were a disaster. I didnt really get off the start line, and neither of the WIPs I was meant to be wrestling were. They are still WIPS. My excuse? The Olympics distracted me. A Lot. I was too excited/busy shouting to knit. It was fantastic - we were an Olympic house morning, noon and night. We cant wait till London 2012. It. Will. Be. Great.


One of the things that distracted me at that point in August were mittens. I managed to borrow a copy of Zoe Mellors 'big book of kids knits' from the library and set to work making as many pairs of mittens as I could from a large ball of lilac yarn that I bought in a charity shop. It ran to 4 pairs. Here are 3. Cute eh?





I also started knitting the bobble cardigan (but without the bobbles) from the same book for the bean. This is also charity shop yarn - and is knitting up fine (although I did have to change needle size to get gauge). But it does make me sneeze and give me itchy eyes, so I've come to a bit of a stand still. I cant decide whether to skein the unknit yarn and wash it before carrying on, or just carry on....

FO: Dolly (3-6 months)

Here she is in all her glory. Dolly (3-6 months) from Jaeger book JB29 by Martin Storey.

It's a lovely pattern, although the finishing is a bit of a faff, because the neck trim is knitted separately and has to be sewn onto the neckline... (and you have to cast on 300 stitches to start it).




No mods worth mentioning. I used 2 balls of RYC cashsoft 4ply and not much to spare. It's a lovely yarn for babies because it's seriously soft and can be machine washed. As a mum myself, I know that handwash stuff is fine in theory, but really, why make things harder than they need to be when there's yarn like this available? I hope baby Bella approves. I knitted the second size rather than the first, because Bella was a well rounded 8lb 8oz when born and to she'll probably be thinking about wearing outfits (rather than just babygros) when she's big enough to wear this. [Edited to add: I hear that Bella slipped into her new cardigan on the day that it arrived! The girl obviously has a highly developed sense of style...]


I'm very pleased with the way things turned out because these were odd balls of yarn. Together they looked slightly different in colour - but knitted up you really can't tell them apart. (Dont worry I took the necessary precautions).


What's the weather like where you are? The UK is being bashed by gales at the moment - as we're on the East side it's not too bad, but in Scotland this windy weather seems to have been going on for months. When it's sunny it's good for drying the washing, but you do have to use LOTS of pegs! Today the sun is alternating with lashing rain, beating a drum on the window of the study where I'm sitting. Outside, I can see the trees in the street, whipping their bare branches in a frenzied jig.