Kerrie's Place: February 2004 Archives

February 29, 2004

Ta Da!

I said lunchtime and I finally uploaded the main index page at 11.53. Not bad!

I hope you like. This has taken months of planning, a steep learning curve for me on the site design, and lots of time and effort not just from myself but from the designers / authors and everyone who has contrubited.

There are still some errors that I can see, most annoyingly why the formatting on some of the left hand column is not co-operating but I'm sure I'll work that one out after a short break away from the PC this afternoon.

A huge thanks here to Leigh who went above and beyond the call of duty with editing the patterns, keeping me sane and generally encouraging me. Thanks Leigh.. These last few weeks have truly taught me who my friends are.

Posted by Kerrie at 11:55 AM

Posted by Kerrie | Comments (0)

February 27, 2004

48 hours....

Sunday lunchtime. Can you handle the wait?

Posted by Kerrie at 11:04 AM

Posted by Kerrie | Comments (0)

February 19, 2004

Holiday time

Its been a silly week in our house this week. Poor little Brooke has been off sick with a throat infection, cold and general sickyness. She is on strong antibiotics which have caused her skin to dry out and become sore. I've spent the first 3 days of the week at home with her, trying to work, knit, tidy up the house and look after her. I couldn't manage all of it so basically just crashed on the sofa and watched Monsters Inc repeatedly.

I finished the lacy sweater sleeve and started work on the back. Not much else going on knitting wise really. However, I do have a million and one things to do with MagKnits and only 10 days left to do them. Argh!

So I decided that I'm going to take a little blog break for a few days, I'm swamped with last minute MagKnits jobs and I think that I need to lock myself away and get on with it. (I'm also in good company with Carolyn and Alison both being away from blogland this week.)

I'll be back on 29th when the mag goes live, but in the meantime I'll have my head down working away somewhere. I probably won't be checking my email too regularly although I will reply to any MagKnits emails that require an answer. Also, if you have my work email address and want to get hold of me, I'll still be working so will be receiving them during office hours.

Have a good 10 days, can't wait to show you all the lovely patterns / articles we have in store for you! Hopefully by the time I come back I'll have a healthy child and a fabulous magazine to show for it!

Posted by Kerrie at 08:53 AM

Posted by Kerrie | Comments (0)

February 17, 2004

One sleeve, two sleeve, three sleeve, more?

Or, what I knitted at the weekend...

Along the bottom is the first sleeve of my Ribby. I used All Seasons Cotton and love the way the 2 colours go together. I had to make a few changes to the pattern to ensure it fits me. I wanted the sleeves to be 21 inches long instead of 18.5, and as I got gauge those 2.5 inches worked out to be about 12.5 rows. I didn't want to alter the shape of the sleeve too much so fortunately the pattern called for working the increase rows every 6 rounds, 13 times after the foundation increase row. This meant that I could work the increase rows every 7 rounds every 13 rows, knit an extra 13 rows and get the nice long sleeves that I wanted.

Next up is the second sleeve for Brooke's ribby. The only parts remaining on that cardigan are the collar, zipper facings and finding a zip for it. I'm not rushing to finish this one at the moment...

At the top is the first sleeve for the Zoe Mellor lacy sweater pattern. This was a nightmare to knit, I ripped it out 3 times on Sunday night. That will teach me for trying to knit and watch ER at the same time I suppose. I've now just about finished the first sleeve, and I think I'll start the back of the sweater today.

Posted by Kerrie at 08:00 AM

Posted by Kerrie | Comments (0)

February 16, 2004

Weekend review

The weekend was a really good one. Brooke and I met Jen in London on Saturday, shopped in Liberty and John Lewis before having lunch. Jen is now Brooke's new best friend, she talked about her all day on Sunday and kept asking when we're going to see her again. She even had me drawing pictures for her on Sunday and saying "Jen drew a better one than that yesterday" Yeah, thanks Brooke....

Valentines meal was a success. The plan was to get Brooke to bed at about 8ish and eat at 8.30. We ended up with her tucked in and fast asleep by 8.20 and we ate about 20 minutes later, not bad at all. Wayne did a fantastic job of the cooking, I think he should make it a more regular occurance than once a year!!

Knititng wise, it was all about sleeves. I finished Brooke's second ribby sleeve, started and finished my first ribby sleeve and started the lacy sweater sleeve. Brooke chose the colour of the Handknit dk, its the exact same shade as the pattern shows! I gave her a choice of a few colours but she went for pink, such a Barbie girl... I'll show you photos of all of them tomorrow..

Posted by Kerrie at 08:30 AM

Posted by Kerrie | Comments (0)

February 13, 2004

Ribbys for all

I'm still plugging away at the sleeve of Brooke's ribby. Isn't it funny how at the beginning of a project you can be all excited about the knitting and then towards the end sometimes the excitement tails off? That's how I've been with this one. I just want to get it finished now..

In the meantime, to procrastinate a little more I decided to make a ribby for myself. I signed up for Alison's ribby cardi along last year and never got around to starting it. I decided to use Bonne Marie's 2 x 2 x 3 x 1 pattern, I love the 2 tone colours she used.

So after swatching various yarns in my stash I got gauge and decided to use Rowan All Seasons cotton. I have 10 skeins of a dark charcoal grey type colour which I picked up in the sales which will be MORE than enough for the solid colour. I'm going to pick up some ASC Melange in Cloud or Slash which I hope will co-ordinate nicely.

Tomorrow I'm meeting Jen in London so I'll probably buy the yarn then. My shopping list is HandknitDK for the lacy sweater, ASC Melange for Ribby, some ribbon for a pair of baby slippers and anything else that I can include in my Gift Vouchers so that I don't have to spend any real money.... Its going to be a lot of fun.

Then as its Valentines day Wayne gets to cook his one meal of the year! I can't wait, its usually a very special meal with lots of lovely exotic well cooked food. Now that I've said that he'll probably do sausage and mash this year. I have to try and tire Brooke out tomorrow and not let her nap on the train so that she'll be really tired and go to bed early so that we can have our romantic meal after she is asleep. What do you think my chances are?

Posted by Kerrie at 10:57 AM

Posted by Kerrie | Comments (0)

February 12, 2004

Adorable Knits for Tiny Tots

I couldn't resist buying the new Zoe Mellor book today. I have a massive headache and the neighbours decided to start drilling the wall that joins our 2 houses and banging with a hammer this morning. By lunchtime I couldn't stand it any more and went for a drive, I ended up in Borders. How did that happen? Who knows..

Anyway, after establishing that there were no new knitting magazines that I wanted to buy I wandered through the book section and came across the tiny tots book. Somehow it jumped into my hands and I bought it.

I love Zoe Mellor, some of her designs are a little to fussy and intarsia heavy for me but on the whole they are gorgeous. There is one pattern in the book that has Brooke written all over it. Its a knitted top with net skirt attached to it and ribbon ties to make a fairy dress. I have the net in my fabric stash and will use cotton glace for the top. Can't wait to start this one...

I'm impressed with the fact that she uses yarn other than Rowan and Debbie Bliss in this book. A couple of the patterns call for King Cole anti tickle Merino DK (which is a gorgeous soft yarn) Good to see that there are other yarn companies out there apart from the usual UK ones.

What else do I plan to make from this book? Well theres the lacy sweater that I've already talked about.. Plus a Rowan Cork jacket knit in cable and moss stitch. I have the Cork in my stash. Most likely one of the dresses and the stripy tanks (again yarn in stash) and I also love the skull and crossbones intarsia pattern. Might have to find a use for that somewhere.

My only one critical observation is that the finishing of some of the garments isn't quite as precise as I would have expected. Example - the hood of the cork jacket is seamed in the middle and the 2 cables dont quite meet. The seaming of the ribbing on the bottom of the pirate sweater looks to be off a little bit as do a couple of the other photos. Don't get me wrong, my work is not perfect but I like to think that if I was making something for an international book like this that I'd make sure it was damn near perfect. Perhaps its the photos rather than the garments.

Don't let that disuade you though. I say buy the book, you'll love it!

Posted by Kerrie at 04:56 PM

Posted by Kerrie | Comments (0)

February 11, 2004

Good News!

Well, I think its cause for celebration anyway..

1. I'm meeting Jen in London on Saturday for gossip, lunch and yarn shopping. Woo Hoo.

2. There is a new UK based website who are selling Anny Blatt and Bouton D'Or yarns amongst others. www.marchmoon.co.uk (this link is via Liz)

Happy Wednesday!!

Posted by Kerrie at 04:46 PM

Posted by Kerrie | Comments (0)

February 09, 2004

Promises, promises

I finally got around to starting the 2nd sleeve on the ribby gilet zippe for Brooke. Talk about late starter! My new agressive knitting plan is to have this finished by the weekend. Wish me good luck..

I also downloaded this free members pattern on the Rowan International website

Isn't it a gorgeous girl's cotton lacy sweater. Its from Zoe Mellors new book which I can't wait to see. I think a trip to central London at the weekend is in order to find both the book and some Rowan Handknit dk... I see that Polly is organising a knitalong for this, I may just have to join in the fun although I'll be starting in this month and not waiting until March.

After seeing this quiz on millions of sites and then finally Kerstin's this morning I decided to join in the fun. Who'd have known that I was Mercerised Cotton? Hee hee.

You are Mercerized Cotton.
You are always very crisp and neat. You are very
playful and are happiest while outdoors in the
sunshine. You are sometimes accused of
splitting hairs, but in the end people find you
pretty easy to live with.

What kind of yarn are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Posted by Kerrie at 09:48 AM

Posted by Kerrie | Comments (0)

Fluffy shrug

Wayne had a great birthday weekend, bless him. We went to a comedy club on Fridya night with a group of his friends and stayed out dancing until 2am. (Wayne made it until 3am but I had to go home before then, just too tired!) Saturday was spent looking at houses (1 nice and the rest not for us) and then Sunday at his mums having a birthday dinner with all his family.

I finally got around to writing up the pattern for a child's shrug that I designed towards the end of last year. I'm doing some craft fairs in the summer and plan to sell this in pattern and kit format. The pattern is ready to be printed now and I have most of the yarn on order for the kits, its very exciting. I have about 10 designs that I'm going to be selling, I'll show you them all over the next few weeks.

This is a child's shrug with 3/4 length sleeves and removeable furry wristbands. The shrug is knit in Rowan Wool Cotton and the wristbands in Jaegar fur.

Brooke prefered the shrug without the fur wristbands but she decided that she liked to wear them on their own. They didn't really match yesterdays lilac party dress but she was happy!

The shrug is sized from 12 months to 5 years, I'm not quite set up to offer this for sale on line yet but I'm hoping to sort that all out next month. (after Magknits!)

Posted by Kerrie at 08:45 AM

Posted by Kerrie | Comments (0)

February 06, 2004

The end of another week

No real interesting content today I'm afraid, just lots of random thoughts... I'm working from home and enjoying the fact that I don't have to go outside in this miserable rain we seem to be having all the time the last couple of days. Its not really cold as such (which is lucky because I can't get our boiler to come on to be able to have hot water or central heating. I'm sure Wayne will know what to do within minutes of walking through the door though) so that's one good thing.

Thanks for all the emails offering help with Magknits, I will get back to you all by the end of the weekend and let you know what I'm going to do next. I've been working more on the design as well, its looking good. I finally decided I was happy with what I had which was a big decision for me. Now I just need to go ahead and code code code all the pages. Tra la la....

I'm reading like you wouldn't believe at the moment, just finished James Patterson's 1st to Die which I've read a couple of times before. I love it when there has been a long enough gap between books that I don't remember the ending, this was one of those times. I've got Michael Connelly Lost Light to start next, maybe over the weekend sometime....

Its Wayne's birthday this weekend so we're out celebrating and visiting lots of family. Also going househunting again at the weekend so that should be fun. We get to go visit some building sites and imagine what the houses are going to look like when they have them ready in a few months time. Woo Hoo. Bring your wellies...

Just finished my favourite snack lunch when I'm working at home. Heinz tomato soup with 2 slices of white bread and margarine, potato salad and a little cheese grated on top of the soup. Yummee. That's one of the good things about working from home, you can choose lunch from your own cupboards. Other advantages of working from home are :

- You can use your entitlement to a lunch hour to have a nap or catch up on daytime TV
- You can wear your PJs all day and not worry about looking smart
- You get so much more work done without people stopping by your desk every 2 minutes
- Its easy to walk through the kitchen and throw a load of laundry into the machine and then walk by and hang it out to dry a little later.
- Drop Brooke off later
- Pick her up earlier
- Still do a full days work

On that note, I'm off to go downstairs and find something to pass for dessert, ring a couple of colleages and wrap Wayne's birthday presents.. Have a great weekend..

Posted by Kerrie at 01:21 PM

Posted by Kerrie | Comments (0)

February 05, 2004

Magknits & hats

I've just updated the Magknits weblog with a cry for help. Go and have a look and see if there is anything that takes your fancy..

Lots of parcels to post today, some ebay yarn, some trade yarn, the European Stash box and some beautiful hand knitted garments that were submitted to Magknits that I'm sending to a very lovely person to model for me. I can't wait until you see the photos, its going to rock. (sorry for more teasing!)

This is another quick and easy hat that I made for Brooke over the weekend. It uses just under 1 skein of Rowan Big Wool.

I used a moss stitch border and then plain stocking stitch to the top. Its a success!! (the strange lumps in the hat are her 2 big bunches on the top of her head!!)

Posted by Kerrie at 10:00 AM

Posted by Kerrie | Comments (0)

February 04, 2004

Quiet month

There's not too much knitting planned here this month, I do want to get the purple ribby finished for Brooke and I just started the 4th strip of patchwork blanket so I should try and get that done as well. Apart from that I think I'll just be making quick and easy things from my stash, hats, gloves, bags etc. Mindless kind of knitting that I can do on train or in front of TV.

Most of my free time is going to be spent in front of my laptop trying to get Magknits put together. Its fun but I need to stop changing my mind on the site design, it is getting really frustrating now that I keep thinking of something new and then starting from scratch. My deadline is Sunday.

Sewing wise, I want to make a needle holder out of some fat quarters that I have lying around. I also want to start to get organised on a patchwork blanket that I've been planning for Brooke. I'm going to use her old clothes and make a square that measures about 2 foot each side for every year and then when she is 16 or whatever join them all up into a patchwork quilt for her. I have a plan for the blocks so that they will all be similar enough to look good in a blanket, I'm really excited about this especially as it means I get to go through some of her baby clothes to pull out suitable material. No better way to spend a rainy evening!

Posted by Kerrie at 01:39 PM

Posted by Kerrie | Comments (0)

February 03, 2004

Before and After

Before :

After :

I like them both equally but the after shot is definitely easier to look after and more appropriate for school. Its worth the hour it takes to plait it so that I can use those 10 minutes brushing hair in the morning for something else. Like sleeping or finding a parking space closer to nursery!

Update on the European Stash Box, it arrived back at my house yesterday "returned to sender, not known at this address" Hmmm, I'll be sending that back out again tomorrow when I go to the post office and emailing the person on the list to get their correct address. Shame that we've wasted a month in the postal system but I'm sure it will be fine now.

Posted by Kerrie at 07:23 AM

Posted by Kerrie | Comments (0)

February 02, 2004

Plaid mitts

I started a pair of Plaid Mitts at the weekend, following Alison's pattern. I started off with an almost complete ball of Plaid, I had swatched with it already so it wasn't completely full. After finishing the first mitten (apart from the thumb) I started to get nervous that I may run out of yarn. So I decided to leave the thumbs till last with the plan of using a contrast yarn if I needed to.

After completing the second mitten I had a small amount of yarn left. Enough for 2 thumbs? Who knew. So I cut the yarn I had left in half and started on the first. Finished it with just over 2 inches of yarn to spare. Same for the 2nd thumb (luckilly) so I was left with almost 5 inches of yarn in total - talk about close.

Here's the finished mitts,

I wore them today on the way to work, nice toasty warm hands.

PS - everyone say hello to my grandma who I spotted in the comments yesterday. She is the one who taught me to knit years ago so really you can blame her for the whole thing! Nice to see you here....

Posted by Kerrie at 09:20 AM

Posted by Kerrie | Comments (0)