All words and images are Copyright 2002 / 2003 Kerrie Rycroft
Monday 31st March
Highlights (and lowlights) of my weekend :
High - going out with Wayne on Friday night while my mum looked after Brooke. Its good to be able to remind yourself every now and again that you were a couple long before you were parents! High - spending Saturday afternoon at the Stitch 2003 show. I bought some magazines, a knitting kit to make Winnie the Pooh (so cute) a multitude of beads and buttons, a kit to make myself a tiara to wear on wedding day as well as lots of little odds and ends. It was fab. High - getting to halfway through the Raglan shaping on the front of the Phildar sweater, the end is in sight! High - spending Mothering Sunday at the seaside with Brooke and Wayne chilling out and playing on the beach and in the arcades.
Low - watching Brooke go head-first down a flight of stairs (15 steps) and being unable to catch her - we started out on the same step but I just couldn't move quick enough. She fell forward and then literally rolled down the stairs headfirst until she landed at the bottom. Luckilly she was more shaken and scared than hurt and after 10 minutes she was running around as if nothing had happened. It took me a little longer to recover! Next low - (in the grand scheme of things not that low at all) dropping the Phildar sweater as I tried to catch Brooke on the stairs and getting it so tangled that I had to unpick back to the beginning of the Raglan shaping. Oh well, a couple of good nights knitting should still see this completed...
So all in all it was a good weekend with just the frightening minute on Saturday spoiling it. I managed to buy the yarn for mum's birthday present at the show on Saturday and I swatched for and started this on Saturday evening. I'm pretty sure she doesn't read here so I can tell you that I'm making her a cardigan / coat which is knit in a P3, K1 Slip 1 K1 pattern on 7mm needles out of Sirdar Supa Nova chunky. Its going really quickly so far, her birthday is at the end of the month so I have time to get it finished.
I also started the next strip of blanket yesterday evening. OK so I have cheated a little bit on this one, I just managed to cast on for it and work a couple of rows. So technically I started it... It will be finished next month and then at a rate of one strip a month until July when it will be complete..I'm really not sure who I'm going to give this blanket to - perhaps I'll just save it...
There's lots going on here at the moment, I'll be posting my project list for April tomorrow,and hopefully finishing this Phildar sweater so that I can show you photos before the weekend...
Friday 28th March
I just love Emma's suggestion for the wedding knitting, I'm going to order the pattern right now, how cool is this going to be! If I do manage to make it of course I'll show you a picture - unmodelled though! Otherwise all those people who find their way here aftersearching for "kerrie with no clothes" on Google would actually get what they were looking for! As my top is strapless I won't be able to wear the camisole but the "smaller item" might be just right!
The cable section on the back of the Phildar sweater is completed! I am soooo happy to be at this stage right now, I really didn't think I'd ever get here. That's what an evening in front of the TV can do for you! So now I'm on track to complete this tomorrow on the train journey on the way to Stitch 2003. I will be spending about 3 hours on the train in total so have high hopes of completing the pink cable front of this sweater as well as swatching for mum's birthday present if I have time. How exciting! I promise you pictures early next week when it is seamed and blocked. Then we can decide on what to do with the arms if they are too short, I think Emma and Alison are right, I'll just have to pick up the stitches and knit a few extra rows. I might unpick the striped section and do these extra rows in between the orange and the stripes, think this will look better than at the bottom...
I also started on the T bar shoes as my new train knitting project this week. Progress is slightly slower than previous weeks as I seem to be gossiping with friends too much but I have nearly finished the first one. I'm using cotton glace in pale green for this pattern, it is a bit of a change from all the pink that I've been using. Its also a colour that I had in my stash so its a good feeling to be using something instead of buying new. Talking of buying new - I think John Lewis have a conspiracy to make me spend as much money there as possible. Every time I go in there they seem to have exactly what I want in their sale basket. This week it was Rowan Biggy Print - reduced to £2 per ball (from £6) and Rowan Polar at the same price. I know they are both wintery yarns but how could I not buy them at such a bargain price? And I did buy them using leftover gift vouchers from Christmas so that almost makes it OK. Doesn't it? It can be hard having no willpower...
I'm planning my work list for April at the moment. I've got so many projects that I want to start I just need to prioritise them and work out which ones I'm going to do first. Do you think I'm brave enough to make Minnie from the new Rowan magazine? I love the design, have enough Cotton glace in my stash to make it (thanks to my order from Colourway which arrived this week) but I'm not sure about a whole adult cardigan in cotton glace. Am I patient enough or would I get bored too easily? I just don't know... What do you think? If I do make it, I'm leaning towards the one with the patchwork effect at the top instead of the spotty one. Decisions, decisions...
And for no apparant reason other than it seems like a good idea, here is a picture of Brooke that I took this morning - a potential blogger in the making don't you think?
Getting up early to catch up on some work work is only a good idea if Brooke can be persuaded to stay in bed for an extra few minutes! She has started to ask to do "writing on the puter" more and more recently, how can I refuse someone so tiny and cute!
Thursday 27th March
I've got weddings on my mind today, - we are making such good progress its amazing. I've been working on a wedding website, we'll be including the address in the invitations that we send out so that guests can share in some of our planning and thought process. It will have a weblog that won't be updated daily but as the week's go by we'll be posting more and more there. I'll let you know the address when it is ready.
Our family and friends are helping us out loads with the wedding, its going to be a bit of a handmade affair, Wayne's cousin is making the cake, my mum is doing the flowers, Wayne and I are making the invitations, a friend is painting our names and wedding date onto glass candle holders for us to give away to guests, Wayne's dad is handwriting the table place settings - its going to be a fantastic day! I'm planning a trip to the wholesale flower market in a couple of weeks to price up the flowers so that we can pick them up the day before the wedding. The only problem by doing this is that they are only open from 3am to 6am - now that is one early morning!!
I've been shopping recently and bought my shoes for the wedding. You can see a sneak preview here of my outfit for the day - don't let Wayne see though! I know it is a little bit cryptic but See what I mean about unconventional? The woman in the shoe shop nearly died when I told her that the shoes were for my wedding! She tried to persuade me not to buy them but I insisted. Hee hee..
Leigh asked the other day whether I was going to knit anything for the wedding day. I think that one of Wayne's worst nightmares is that I'll walk down the aisle wearing something that I have knitted myself, like this or how about this His feelings towards my knitting range from non-commital to frustration to downright stressed. (depending on how many skeins of yarn he has tripped over on his way around the house) He can often be found roaming around muttering about yarns and needles and patterns all over the place... So I can't knit anything that is going to be visible but I do really like the idea of knitting something to be part of the day. It almost seems a shame not to.
Now I have the something old (mum's veil), something new (my dress), something borrowed (the veil again) but nothing blue. So how about I knit myself something blue? It would have to be something that would not be visible, maybe a patch sewed to the inside of the skirt or something? Or how about a pair of cotton bikini bottoms!! I remember seeing some in the latest Rebecca magazine, what do you think? Is it totally out of the question to wear handknitted underwear on your wedding day! I'm giggling too much to type at the moment. Hee hee hee.. Any other ideas as to what I can knit? (hopefully something more grown up and sensible than my one!)
Wednesday 26th March
Do you know what? I am loving this Phildar sweater now that I've started it again! I have completed about half of the cable on the back section and I'm now almost comfortable with the pattern. The amount of time I spend unpicking work and frowning at the pattern are reducing all the time! I won't pretend that it is straightforward enough that I don't need the pattern or the chart but I'm getting there... Last night's TV knitting was really productive and I'm so excited about finishing this. I'm still nervous about whether it will fit Brooke or not, I think the body is going to be OK but the arms may not be long enough. Keep your fingers crossed for me, I really need some of my good knitting karma back at the moment!
Here is a quick peek at the progress so far. On the left are both of the arms, next is the front of the sweater with the striped section attached and finally is the back of the sweater without the striped section. What do you think?
Tuesday 25th March
I'm working from home today so I was actually here when the postman delivered the mail. Amongst all the boring bills and junk mail was a parcel from Carolyn. Inside was a copy of the Winter Interweave knits!!! Thanks Carolyn - I promptly mad emyself a cup of tea and sat down to pour over the designs. I'm tempted to make the cravat and you were right Carolyn, I love the poncho - I'm not sure when I'd wear it but I might try my hand at a child size one for Brooke. I love getting presents in the mail...
Talking of which, its trade time! I have 2 spare skeins of Colinette Giotto that I'm looking to trade. The picture below shows all 10 skeins when I first bought them. I used about 1.5 skeins to make the camisole top that you can see in the March 5th post. If you want to trade this, send me an email - I'll accept anything either handmade or purchased in return as long as it is yarn related. I'll pick a winner on Friday and let you know at the weekend.
Monday 24th March
I finished the first iteration of my Knitty knitting on Friday night in front of the TV. This was another really enjoyable make. I loved it, and I hope you all will too when you see it. With all my designs I have a version 1 which I'm happy with and then versions 2 and 3 grow out of that over the next few weeks until I have something that I consider finished and ready to be shared. After such an enjoyable few days of knitting I decided that I was relaxed enough to pick up the Phildar sweater and get on with it.. Wish me luck! This sweater has languished in my work bag over the last couple of months for a number of reasons.
Procrastination Number 1 - the cable pattern on the top half of the sweater is complex to say the least. (I should have guessed from Becky's chuckles when she translated the pattern for me that it was going to be a challenging knit.) It is going to look great when its completed but it is definitely not something that I can just mindlessly knit in front of the TV or while I'm keeping half an eye on Brooke. It needs absolute concentration and this is not something that I always have a lot of.
Procrastination Number 2 - I lost one page of the pattern (it is a pull out cable chart that I mistakenly pulled out and lost) and so used this as a good reason to do nothing and wait for Becky to copy and send over another, (which she did ages ago now).
Procrastination Number 3 - It looks as though it is going to be too small for Brooke. I know I can block it larger and add extra length on if needed but the idea of having to do this puts me off picking it up and knitting it.
Procrastination Number 4 - little needles + little yarn on projects bigger than shoes = :(
You see why I'm putting this off? I can see that it is going to be another Rebecca dress type project, a gorgeous pattern which I'm pretty sure I'll love when its finished but the actual knitting is not as much fun as I thought it would be. Nevertheless it is on my list to complete in March and I'm going to do my best. No promises but I am going to try!
Here's a reminder of what it is supposed to look like when its complete. The only difference is that I swapped around the colours for the orange and the pink sections, Brooke and I love pink, we're such girls!!
So - here's a quick summary of what I need to make and where I am now.
Striped section for bottom of arms - 2 completed.
Striped section for bottom of body - 2 completed.
Orange piece for middle of arms - 2 completed.
Orange patterned piece for middle of body - 2 completed.
Pink cable piece for top of arms - 2 completed.
Pink cable piece for top of body - 0 completed.
I finished the 2nd arm last night and am just about to start on the cable section for the back. Now that I've broken it down into manageable pieces it really doesn't seem so hard.
One other thing that is slowing me down with this project is that I'm reading the pattern in French - about time I learned to do this instead of keep trading for translations all the time! Its not a major problem but I do keep thinking oh if only this was in English.. I'm probably using that as an excuse though! I'm really not confident that I'll have it finished by the end of the month, that's only a week away, but if I can be on the last piece of cable by then I'll be reasonably happy.
Friday 21st March
Buzz Buzz
The bees are here! I think I was the only person on the train last night who wasn't stressed at the huge delay, at east it gave me a chance to finish these a day ahead of schedule! Very simple pattern, very easy and enjoyable to make. I loved them! Now all they need is some little feet to wiggle around inside them. I do question how well they would stay on wiggly little feet with no ankle cuff to hold them in place but we'll have to wait and see.
My Knitty design is flying along, I should be finished this evening. These last few days knitting have been really relaxing, I love working on my own designs. It feels so natural just to pick up my needles and knit without having to understand someone elses pattern. I get tense sometimes when trying to work from patterns that aren't very user friendly and I hate it when knitting becomes a chore. That's not the idea of it...(I'm still bitching about the Rebecca dress, did you guess?)
In wedding news - you wouldn't believe how organised we have become recently! No really, you can stop laughing now - we are getting organised. I think the realisation that Christmas was 3 months ago and that the wedding is now only 5 months away caught us both by suprise. August still seems like such a long way off but iI'm assured that it will come round fast. And I don't want to be walking barefoot up the aisle do I? So its wedding action stations here. This weekend's wedding project is planning my hen night, does anyone have any tips for me? Or any plans to come to London for it? Hee hee.
Thursday 20th March
Do you remember that Leigh asked to see my first knitted project? Well here's Norman. I guess that he is about 18 years old now, and doesn't he look good for his age! A bit frayed around the edges (but then who isn't?) and his hat needs stitching back onto his head again but I still think he looks pretty good.
The bees are coming along nicely as well, the first one is finished, seamed and on my shelf stuffed with tissue to keep the shape while he waits for his mate. Number 2 should be joining him tomorrow evening. They are going to be so cute! Next on the ickle boots plan are the T bar shoes that Becky made recently. I'm making them in a different shade of pink but they are undoubtedly one of my favourite designs in the book. They are slightly more intricate than the bee shoes so I don't exect to finish them in a week this time. I've allowed myself a fortnight. Hee hee...
If anyone has some spare time on their hands and would be interested in knitting some samples of my recent designs for me please email me for details. I have commitments that I need to meet in the next month or so but I don't have enough hours in the day to get everything done! I'll let you know the whole deal when you email me. OK?
Wednesday 19th March
Here she is, the Rebecca dress, finally completed and ready to wear, and just look how much Brooke loves it! She insisted on trying it on over the top of her PJ bottoms and then had me taking photos of her for about 10 minutes! I had to bribe her to take it off and put her school uniform on in the end. I'm so glad to be able to cross this off my list, it was a chore to knit instead of being enjoyable. Even with the contrast yarn around the neckline (which you can see most clearly in the middle picture. I think it blends in well enough so that the only person it stands out and is obvious and annoying to is me) I only had about 12 inches of yarn left over. How close was that? I think I'm going to leave moss stitch to the soles of the tiny baby shoes that I'm making for the near future, can't be doing with making a whole garment out of it again for a while... I will be using the 3 needle bind off in the future, that worked really well. I was impressed at how easy it was to get the hang of and how neat the join looked afterwards. Make sure you go and see Leigh's dress, I love the way it turned out. I'll definitely be using plain yarn next time, the cables and stitches seem so much more defined in a solid colour.
So last night I cast on for my new Knitty submission. I'm really excited about this one, I hope it turns out the way that I'm planning. I've done all the math and writted up the pattern so it should be completed by the weekend so its a nice quick project that should put some of that feel good factor back into my knitting again. About time too!
I was sent my first photo of someone else's version of Joseph earlier this week. Its really nice to see other people using my pattern and to sneak a peak at the finished and modelled garment. It made my day, thank you for emailing it to me Stephanie!
Tuesday 18th March
Do you want the good news or the bad news first? The bad news is that I ran out of yarn on the Rebecca dress. :( I just knew this would happen from the minute I finished the first skein. I think that all my good knitting karma has moved out and gone to live another knitter. If anyone sees it can they send it back in this direction please, I must have been too lucky for too long.... I was about an inch short of completing the front when I ran out, what a bummer! I was determined to finish it last night so I decided to unpick it down to the point where I separated for the neck shaping and knit it again with a border around the neck using 2 strands of Rowan All Seasons cotton in a complimentary colour which I happened to have in my stash. This did the trick and I managed to finish the front last night. It is blocking as I type and I'll put it together tonight and hopefully show you some photos tomorrow. Although the finished pieces look good and I'm sure I'll like them when they are on, I really haven't enjoyed this pattern as much as I hoped I would... I will not let it defeat me though, I already have the right yarn to make it for winter, I might use plain stocking stitch next time instead of moss stitch..
The good news is that I love the bee shoes that I'm making! (and compared to the bad news that really doesn't seem so good does it?) They seem to be going so quickly that I'm sure I'll have them finished by Friday. I completed the sole on the train yesterday and made a good impression on the stipey upper this morning. My new niece modelled the zebra slippers for me on Sunday, they look so much better on babies feet than they do just sitting on my shelf. Seeing as I don't know many babies I might offer some of the slippers for trade when I've run out of montivation to keep making them. That won't be for a few weeks though, there are still so many that I have the yarn for.
(My list of links in the sidebar was getting out of control so I shortened it to a list of daily reads. The full list of site that I read can be found here if anyone is interested....)
Monday 17th March
What a glorious weekend! The weather was so bright and sunny that I spent most of the time in the garden playing with Brooke and visiting friends and consequently didn't knit as much as I had planned to. I'm so close to finishing the Rebecca dress, I have shaped the armholes adn divided for the neck so should get that done tonight (all being well) I'm so nervous that I'm going to run out of yarn, I'm thinking of doing the neck border in a contrasting yarn to make sure I have enough. Might just cross that bridge when I come to it. Pictures either tomorrow or Wednesday of the finished and modelled article depending when Leigh and I can synchronise our watches.... I have to say that as much as I love the designs in the Rebecca magazines, I don't care much for the patterns. This one has given me so many headaches its untrue. I ended up making a few changes and just knitting it the way that I was comfortable instead of exactly as the pattern required. I'm sure it will look cute though...
I also chose the pattern and yarn for my mum's birthday present (which is another Rebecca pattern, glutton for punnishment? Yes, I think so.) As soon as I finish the dress I'll be swatching for the birthday present and my next Knitty project. Tomorrow will mark the beginning of the next Knitty knitting, which according to my knitting calender (and yes I really do have my projects mapped out on a calender) should be complete by the end of the week. If you think this level of planning is excessive you should have seen my indecision on Friday. I was using MS Project to put together a programme plan for a series of projects that I'm running with at work... My mind was going "hmm, a project plan for each knitting project. With dependencies, milestones and resources all neatly documented.... There will come a day when I feel the need to do this. Then I can have a nice folder for each knitted item containing swatch, MS Project plan, sketch (if one of my own designs) and photo of finished article. Pretty neat huh? Or pretty sad, you can tell me the truth, I can take it..
I've decided to offer some yarn that I have for sale here before I put it on ebay. I really need to sell this rather than swap it so I've put a suggested price in £ sterling next to each one. If you are interested email me and I'll let you know the postage costs.. I'm going to put them on ebay on Friday so you've only got a few days if you are interested. Pictures are available if you click on each description...
Its zebra time! What do you think? The ducks are still my favourite that I've made so far but these are good too. The only annoying thing about these slippers is that I've noticed a mistake in the bottom of one of them. Now, although this is annoying its not bad enough to inspire me to unpick the whole upper and redo it. After all how many zebras do you know with identical feet? None - good that's what I hoped you'd say! For the very observant amongst you who have the Zoe Mellor book and are comparing my knitting to the picture in the book (hey - I'd be doing it if I were you!) Yes I did knit the cuff in 2 x 2 rib instead of 1 x 1 rib. Why? Because I prefer it, that's all.
Friday 14th March
This is the completed back of the Rebecca dress and a close up of the cable pattern that runs down the center. I left the shoulder edges on needle holders as I have decided to be brave and attempt the 3 needle bind off technique that other people have raved about. Its not a great picture but you get the idea. I'm about 10cm into the front (only another 47cm to go!) I would love to get this finished at the weekend so that I can show you it worn early next week. Leigh and I originally thought it would take 2 weeks to make these dresses, we are obviously speedier knitters than we knew. Less than a week and we are both well on the way to completion.. Go and check out how she is getting on with Becky's dress, I think it looks great! I'm still concerned that I won't have enough yarn to complete it, I'm pretty sure that even if I do manage to finish the dress then I won't have enough to seam it with, I need to start looking out for a complimentary seaming yarn
The zebra slippers are so close its scary. I was the only person praying for the train to be delayed outside the station this morning, another 10- minutes and I would have finished them. Oh well, I'll get them done on the train tonight and post pictures for you tomorrow.
So that will be one thing crossed off my March project list. More will follow over the next few days as I finish the Rebecca dress and my next Knitty project. I'll be casting on for the bee shoes on the train on Monday and picking up the Phildar jumper again next weekend when my Knitty project is all submitted... I love having lots of projects planned and knowing which I'm going to pick up and work on next. It calms me.. Talking of lists have you seen the listmania which is beginning to break out within the knitblog webring? Alison posted a list of her stash broken down into project and Carolyn did the same. Now Ivete (next site in the Knitblog webring) has posted hers and Becky is threatening to follow suit! I'm not brave enough to go through the whole of my stash, I'll stick with a month by month list I think!
And last but not least today is the red devil herself going off to school this morning. Doesn't she look cute? Red dress, tights, shoes and cape (this is the Phildar cape I made for her last year) Red bracelets, red bunches and big red hair. In the end I just tied a load of streamers together and secured them on the top of her head with a big red hair clip. Wayne became dad of the year (like he was ever anything else?) when he came home with a red nose for her. You should have seen her skipping down the road shouting "its red nose day" to everyone she met. Shy and retiring this girl is not! Even if she was too busy watching cartoons to look at the camera.
Have a good weekend everyone!
Thursday 13th March
I bought some lovely things last night, a couple more skeins of cotton glace so that I can carry on making these lovely slippers. Some Rowan patchwork fabric, I've got a couple of designs in mind that will use fabric and wool which I'm keen to get on with. And a bunch more fluffy ribbons and things. The one thing that I couldn't get was the yarn to make my mum's birthday present with. Her birthday is at the end of April and according to my knit schedule I should be able to start this one on the 29th March. This is the day that I'm going to Stitch 2003 at Olympia so a nice long train journey will be good for my knitting. Provided I manage to get the yarn before then.
I haven't had much luck the last couple of days with my train knitting. I know which train to wait for and where to stand on the platform so that I get a seat. But it over the last 2 days, every time I get comfy and start knitting a couple of stops later I look up to see a heavilly pregnant woman standing up in front of me. So she sits, I stand and the knitting suffers. In the grand scheme of things it really doesn't matter when I get them finished, its just my own personal schedule that says they have to be finished by tomorrow..
The duck feet were given to their new owner yesterday, or rather to their new owner's mum. One of the girls who looks after Brooke at nursery is expecting any day now so we wrapped them in a lovely little gift box and handed them over. I hope she likes them!
Look at the spotty vest that Melissa is making from the new Rowan magazine. Its going to look great but I don't think I have the patience to knit that much in cotton glace or to weave in so many ends!
Tomorrow is red nose day in the UK and Brooke's class at school are dressing up in red clothes to raise money for charity. Typical me left it to the last minute and now do you think I can buy anything red in London? I need a red nose and a red wig but everywhere seems to have sold out. I think I'm going to have to get creative tonight and see what I can make. I don't have time to knit anything but I'm sure I have some red party streamers somewhere in the house.... I'll post pictures tomorrow so that you can see how it worked out. Keep your fingers crossed for me!
Wednesday 12th March
Tonight is the night that I get to go to Liberty and spend lots of money on yarn. Yay, I can't wait! I've got my £10 voucher and I'm not going to let myself spend more than £10 of my own money. It doesn't bode well that my horoscope this morning says "We all make purchases mased on an emotional response now and again but some of us are able to say enough. Will that be you or are you keeping the tat? Hee hee hee. I am going to try and be careful, especially as I just ordered some cotton glace and jaeger merino dk from Mcolourway this morning. They have a good sale on so its almost justified!
The back of the Rebecca dress is finished and I've cast on for the front. I did run out of yarn before finishing the back but only just. It was at the end of the row before I had to cast off for the neck, so I had to use about 4 yards from the 3rd skein. What do you think? Am I going to make it through the front with just under 2 skeins when the back took just over 2? The front does have a deep V neck so I'm hoping I can make it up there. I'm not going to order any more, just keep your fingers crossed for me please.
Seeing as I don't have any knitting photos to share with you, I thought I would show you a couple of things that my mum has made for Brooke. On the left is a rag doll that she made her for Christmas this year. This "little baby dolly" as she was christened, goes to bed with Brooke every night and regularly gets dragged around the house by one arm. On the right is a sit on horse which mum and dad made her the Christmas before last. She was scared of it to start with but now rides around the house on him and spends ages brushing his hair and feeding him crackers. Bless her... What a talented family I have!
Tuesday 11th March
Leigh asked me if I could remember the first thing I ever knitted. I can remember the first big project that I finished but not all the practising that must have gone beforehand. It was a toy dwarf (from Snow white) and I gave it to my sister as a birthday / christmas present. We called him Norman after someone my mum knew. I wonder if he is still around? I'm sure I saw him a while back, I'll try and track him down so that I can take a photo to show you.
I didn't get much knitting done last night, did make some progress on the Rebecca dress, I'm about 10 rows from completing the back. It looks really big, both Leigh and I have decided that our girls will be wearing these dresses next year as well. I think she is slightly ahead of me in the knitting - hopefully we should both have them finished at about the same time so that we can post pictures together. I need to do some fixing and finishing this week, the hat that I made for the new baby was a little bit too small so I need to try and either block it larger or unpick it and add a section to the back to make it larger. It needs to gain about 1.5 inches. What do you think is the best way to do this?
The zebra boot is flying off the needles - sole finished and I'm working through the stripy bit on the top of the foot. I promise photos as soon as they are both completed, can you wait until the end of the week?
Monday 10th March
I had a good knitting weekend although I didn't make as much progress as I would have liked with the Rebecca dress. My personal goal was to make it to the armhole shaping but I was about 10cm short in the end. I planned to knit to ER last night but it was too interesting and I had to put the needles down and concentrate fully on it. I hope that I'll have the back completed by Friday.
The picture on the left shows the progress so far. The one on the right is a close up of the moss stitch to show the colour more clearly. I love the yarn and I *might* just have enough to complete the dress. The total length is 56cm and at the end of the first skein I had completed 23cms. Now bearing in mind that the top is a lot narrower than the bottom I think I might make it. The front is V necked so should take less yarn than the back so as long as I don't go much over 2 skeins on the back I should be OK. Now I know how Alison feels about the yarn situation with Greensleeves, its scary to think I might run out of yarn.
Go and see how Leigh is getting on with her dress. The Brooke and Becky knitalong is in full steam ahead. Hopefully it should only be a couple of weeks before you can see the 2 little darlings in the their dresses. I can't wait!
I'm onto the 2nd zebra boot and I hope to have this finished by Thursday this week. I made good progress on the train this morning, nearly finished the sole.
I also spent Saturday morning sorting out some of my material stash. I'm planning on getting the sewing machine out one night this week, I've got lots of lovely things that I have pieced out that I want to put together. Alison has set up her own sewing blog over at Sew Blue I love the material she is going to use for her PJs!
Saturday 8th March
Yesterday was a good day. For a number of reasons. Firstly I worked from home so that means I didn't have to fight the crowds on the trains. Secondly, I picked up 5 packages from the post office - it was like Christmas!! The first one was my order from Kangaroo (great service, the order was shipped the same day I placed it and arrived 2 days later). This was the Chrysallis yarn for the Rebecca dress that Leigh and I are starting today. I also ordered some Colinette pattern books. Most of them are great but I don't like the children's one at all. So if anyone wants it, just send me an email and I'll post it over to you.
The 2nd parcel was an ebay auction I won for 10 skeins of Rowan Kid soft. This is a gorgeous mohair blend yarn which is going to become a shawl / throw of some sort for a birthday present. Next was a package from Jenanne in exchange for a couple of books I sent to her last week. She gave me lots of lovely fluffy yarns, I cannot wait to dive in and start playing with them. Thanks Jenanne - they are gorgeous! Brooke carried one to school with her all day telling everyone that mummy was going to knit it for her!
The last 2 parcels were another ebay bargain - check out my new friends!
Theone on the left is wearing a Rowan Biggy Print hat that I love, I wore it every day in the winter and it kept my ears nice and warm. The 2nd one is wearing a Patons Hip Hop headscarf that I made for myself a couple of weeks ago. This is a lovely lightweight headscarf that I'll wear in the summer. The mannequins were an impulse buy but they are going to be great models. I'd really like to get hold of a child size mannequin, if anyone knows where I can get hold of one without paying too many $$$ let me know.
And now to get on with the Rebecca dress. I swatched at the right guage and am about 15cm into the dress but it looks HUGE! Just measured again and I'm about 0.5cm over the specified width. Oh well, at this rate it might fit her next summer as well. I'm worried that I'm not going to have enough yarn to finish it, I wonder if I should order some more....
Thursday 6th March
Its been a quiet week at work this week (which is probably good as my brain has been quite woolly for a few days, full of plans for future projects.) I'm busily trying to get lots of things finished before starting the Rebecca dress on Saturday with Leigh. I was having a slight dilmema about which yarn to use for this knitalong. I was sure I had something in my stash which I could use but the only thing that was the right gauge was a wool blend which really wasn't suited to a summer dress. I just happened to be checking out some of the yarns on Kangaroo on Tuesday and I noticed they had Colinette Chrysallis for sale. Gorgeous colours, 100% cotton and exactly the right guage. So I bought 4 skeins!! I know I promised not to buy any more yarn, but I couldn't resist. So now I'm ready to go on Saturday...
I got a leaflet in the post this morning from Liberty which entitles me to a free £10 voucher to spend next Wednesday evening to celebrate London fashion week. Fantastic! So that's the equivalent of 3 balls of cotton glace which will help me with my mission to make as many of the little shoes from the Zoe Mellor book. I started the zebra boots on the train on Tuesday, and I've nearly finished the first one.
So yesterday I got all organised and made a list of all the knitting projects that I want to make progress on in March. I even decided which order I was going to knit them in, breaking up big complicated projects with little simple ones or plain stocking stitch to give me a break. I went home last night and finished the first thing on my list which is a very good start. I just have one more session of seaming to do tonight and then I'll still be on track for the weekend.
My gran is the one who taught me to knit when I was small. Not sure how old but I think I was about 7. She is still knitting and loves to make things for Brooke. We're a good knitting team as she doesn't like anything chunkier than 4ply and I can't go smaller than cotton glace! Here are a couple of her latest creations, a purple ribbed skirt (which is too short already for the lanky child) and a cotton glace sweater designed by Debbie Bliss which is too large. It should fit her for a while yet... The poor child can't escape from hand made clothes!
Wednesday 5th March
Wow, I'm one year old today! The last 12 months have flown by, I've made so many wonderful friends through this website and learned so much from all the other Knitbloggers!
In between the collapse of Enron in November 01 and finding a perm job with the Beeb in April 02 I had a couple of short term contract jobs. One of them was painstakingly boring and involved me spending most of my days chatting to a friend who was also working there, reading magazines and surfing. I found an article about Blogger somewhere and went to have a look. I soon became addicted to the weblogs that I found and decided that I would teach myself HTML and have my own website. Just like that!
So a trip to the bookstore and I was ready to go. The first few months of the weblog were not spefically knitting related, more general chat and finding my feet. Then I discovered the Knitbloggers webring and thought, that sounds like a good idea. So I joined.
One year on, here I am. Lots of lovely visitors, some great friends (as I mentioned previously) and a hobby that I love....Here's to many more years of knitblogging, there is still so much to learn. I've never knitted a sock, felted anything or dared to attempt steeks. I've never knitted with mohair or on needles smaller than 3mm. I have so much to learn and I'm looking forward to sharing it all with you. Some of my favourite memories from the last year have been, the day that Wayne and I got engaged, the trip to Lyon to see Becky, Brooke's first day at school, the feedback that I've received about Joseph, the many swaps that I've taken part in and loads more. I look forward to the day that I show you Brooke's first knitted stitches and get to share our wedding photos with you. Its all so exciting..
So thanks to everyone who reads here, especially those of you who comment and or email me. Its good to have friends like you.
Here are my 12 favourite knitted things from the last year...
Tuesday 4th March
Quack quack!
The ducks feet are finished - I love them!
I added a new link to Leigh at NiddyNoddy. We are planning a knitalong of design 36 / 37 in Rebecca Baby and Kids #13. Leigh has ordered the correct yarn but I'm going to substitute something from my stash. The first Brooke and Becky knitalong starts officially on Saturday and the only rule for me is that I have to finish as many of my existing projects as I can before then. So no talking, just knit!
Or at least no talking, just knit and write up patterns. This is what I've been doing for the last few days now, I make so many things off the cuff and then forget to write up the patterns it seems shame. So I've got off my butt and added links to a few patterns on the left hand side including this pom pom hat that I made for my new niece. It only took an hour and used oddments of a few pink and cream yarns that I have accumulated over time. It was such fun to make, I'm going to start work on a few more... :
And here are some matching booties that I made. The pattern is the slip on shoe from Zoe Mellors book. Only I used cotton yarn instead of Kid Classic. I was also concerned that it might slip off the babies foot too easily so I picked up the stitches around the ankle and worked 3 rows in garter stitch. Then I added some pom poms so that it matched the hat. Look how tiny they are, they fit in Brooke's hands perfectly!
Monday 3rd March
Meet Joseph...
The new Knitty is here - check it out! There are so many lovely patterns in this edition, I can't wait for the time to be able to go through it properly and add to my wishlist! Of course, I've already made Joseph so that's one off the list to start with. Hee hee.
Sunday 2nd March
Its all happening around here at the moment, knit news first... I finished the 2nd ducks foot slipper on Friday night, they look so cute as a pair. Will post pictures this week. I also sorted out a huge amount of yarns and pattern books, inevitably I have some to sell which I'll post here later in the week before putting them on eBay.
Non knit news - I'm an aunty! A little girl born a day early in the early hours of this morning. This means that I get to make some of the gorgeous pink booties from the Zoe Mellor book, the duck feet will go to another pregnant person who may or maynot be having a boy. I sorted through my stash and found lots of small amounts of pinks and creams so I think I'm going to adapt one of the patterns to use this. Hopefully have something finished by the end of the week.
We took Brooke to see The Lion King yesterday at the Waterloo IMAX cinema. She loved it. I thought some of the scenes might be a bit scary for her but she didn't shut her eyes once. Afterwards we went out for a chinese meal and she was an angel again. Its been a really lovely weekend so far. Wayne and Brooke are outside in the garden at the moment, I've been watching them out of the window. I think she is undoing all the hard work that Wayne is putting in. hee hee hee.
I've also been doing some tidying up around here. I'm getting my archives in order and have written up some more patterns. This week is going to be a busy one with lots of updates here. Hope I have enough time for my day job!
