 January 31, 2006
Big News
Do you guys want to hear something exciting? I recieved the paperwork in the post this morning which kind of makes it official that from the 1st March HipKnits is no longer going to be based in my garage, I've signed the lease on a lovely little retail shop unit in Sawbridgeworth. How exciting is that? Full details of address, phone number etc will come later but for now I can tell you that we'll be in Allen House at the Maltings, Sawbridgeworth. All of the other units around us are lovely places to look around, antiques shops, yoga and pilates studios etc. Its a gorgeous listed building next to a river with a very exclusive feel to it. Sawbridgeworth train station is the other side of the road with trains to London taking about 40 minutes into Liverpool st and Harlow and the M11 are about 5 minutes away. Nice and easy to get to.. Bringing you all back down to earth slightly, I'm not quitting the day job to do this. I was originally looking for storage space rather than retail space but when this came up I just couldn't resist it. I'll be juggling more and more stuff for the next few months until I work out a permenant solution. I'll be having an open weekend once a month, knitting group nights once a week and the shop will be open at all other times by appointment only. I do have a couple of people who are ready and willing to work in the shop but not enough to open every day. If you are ever in the area and want to come and have a look around, send us an email first and we'll make sure that someone is there to welcome you. So, the first open weekend is 4th and 5th March. As well as all of our HipKnits yarns there will be many other new yarns to look through, some of which are not available anywhere else in the UK. There will be champagne, cakes, goodie bags for the first 20 customers, toys and activities for children as well as a very excited Kerrie to meet! I'd love to see you there if you can make it... As well as HipKnits yarns the shop will also be stocking some other goodies. A range of children's clothes that I've been working on for a while now, some gorgeous vintage fabric, eiderdowns and quilts and other handmade goodies from other artists. Its going to be great, can you tell how excited I am? Do drop me an email if you have any handmade goodies that you'd like to suggest I sell for you, the more the merrier..
Posted by Kerrie at 06:47 AM
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January 30, 2006
Shawl Kit again
Its all about pink here at the moment, I found my shawl kit that Adrian custom dyed and spun for me. She sent me 4 of the biggest, squashiest, most gorgeous skeins of merino / silk blend yarn you have ever seen. I am totally in love with it. I asked for pink and brown and the colours are just perfect. I have big plans for another one of these shawls (mum got the last one I made for christmas) and as I changed the pattern somewhat I'll only use half of the kit on this shawl. What to make with the rest of it? Ha ha, you'll see. In other news, go and sponser Alice on her 60km walk around London in aid of breast cancer research. Its all in a good cause. Oh, and you should join the Yarn Harlot's knitting olympics. I have. I'm going to be designing and knitting a laceweight cashmere shawl. In 16 days. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Gulp. I think that there is a team UK button around somewhere, I'll have to try and find it and get it up here on the site for some moral support..
Posted by Kerrie at 07:34 AM
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January 28, 2006
Learned from Brooke
Thanks for all your comments and suggestions on the mystery of the vanishing weblog. I decided to get my moneys worth out of my paid for moveable type account and logged a call with their helpdesk. Voila. Problem solved, whatever it was. I'm not sure what caused it or what they did to fix it but phew is all I have to say. Do you know that today is the first day since before Christmas that I've woken up without a headache? I put some of that down to a visit to the docs where he diagnosed sinusitus, ear infection and other gunk and gave me some painkillers and antibiotics but mostly I think its because I didn't wake up until after 10.30 this morning. Isn't that amazing? Wayne took the kids out before 6 to go and pick his parents up from the airport and I just slept until I was ready to wake up, instead of being woken up. Beautiful. Wish I could do that every day, I'm sure that would banish the headaches for good! Brookie cookie is back to normal and ready for school on Monday. She is such a funny kid. I learned lots and lots from her being home with her sicky self for the last couple of weeks. Here are a few snippets.. - The Old MacDonalds man (Ronald MacDonald to the rest of us ) lives in heaven with God and father christmas. - The reason that we've never seen the Old MacDonalds man in any of the Old Macdonalds shops is because children are not allowed to see him and if you do you won't get any chicken nuggets. So whenever a child comes near to Old MacDonalds he climbs into his helicopter with a big M on the front and flies back to heaven. - Brooke is the only person in the world who knows that cats are not really cats. They are in fact small dogs. She knows this either because a cat once told her or because she dreamed it. She can't remember. Either way its a secret and she can't tell me why they are pretending to be cats. As far as the rest of us are concerned, they just are and that's all we need to know. - Being a mum is much more hard work than being a doctor. She knows this because she is busy conducting surveys to see what she wants to be when she grows up. She asked the doctor, the man in KFC, the man in the Post Office, me and her dad if it was hard to do our jobs. She caught me at a hysterical moment when I was very stressed out and received a vehement YES IT IS HARD TO BE A MUMMY in response. The doctor was much more chilled out ad just said sometimes. So its much more hard to be a mummy than a doctor. I knew it! - Sometimes people are the same thing as what other people dress up as. This one may sound a little confusing but its one of her purls of wisdom at the moment. It all comes about when we saw some army soldiers in a shop near us. Brooke pulled my arm and whispered in my ear "what are they supposed to be dressed up as, are they going to a fancy dress party?" I explained that they were real soldiers and weren't dressed up but she wasn't convinced until I told her that she could ask them. She crept up to them and tugged on one of their sleeves and asked them "are you real army soldiers or going to a fancy dress party?" When they stopped laughing they explained that they were really soldiers and she nodded seriously and came back to hold my hand. It was later on that day that she first explained to her dolly that sometimes people are the same thing as what other people dress up as. Except ghosts of course. On that basis, we are now on the look out for the REAL Cinderella or Spiderman. - Sometimes baby brothers are a big fat pain in the bottom. Doesn't really need any explanation does it? Those of you who have younger brothers will no doubt fully agree with this one! I can see the car pulling into the drive now with my family back. Peace and quiet shattered. Not bad considering its 3.30 though, off to hug them all and play some games..
Posted by Kerrie at 03:29 PM
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January 26, 2006
Where has my weblog gone?
I can see it in the archives but on the main page there is just a big white blank space. What have I done?? Edit - OK. This is odd. When I look at my list of entries in the main entries page in MT I can see them all and they seem to be in the right category. When I click on the filter list at the top and say show me everything in that category nothing comes up. WTF? Off to investigate a little more.
Posted by Kerrie at 06:09 PM
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Handspun pink goodness
I'm really pleased with this yarn that I spun from a big chunk of Lornas Laces roving in desert flower. Its the same shade as the sock yarn that I used for Brooke's socks the other week so I really should make something for her out of it, don't you think? I have around 150 metres. What can I make with that? She has a million scarves, a couple of shawls, 2 hats.... I'm thinking either a tank top or a bag, most likely a bag. Then she could keep her socks in it! ha.. I'm just about to kitchener the toe on Cam's 2nd sock made from Tree sock yarn. I really like the colours but I have a bad feeling about the size. A bad, bad feeling. Lets wait and see shall we? Poor little Brooke, her chicken pox has all cleared up and she was set to go back to school yesterday when she started complaining that her ears hurt. A quick trip to the doctors showed that yes, she has an ear infection in both ears so a nice prescription of antibiotics and she is off school for the rest of the week. We haven't had much luck healthwise here since the end of November, surely it has to stop soon? Wayne and I have pretty much had one of the kids off sick every day for the last 2 months. That has to be some kind of a world record, don't you think?
Posted by Kerrie at 08:02 AM
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January 24, 2006
Ranting...
If this were another kind of blog I'd write something witty about how stressed out I'm feeling at the moment. I'd share my frustrations with you in a Very Mom way, although my manual would extend to colleagues and bosses as well. Trust me, the need to vent is amazingly strong at the moment. I'm just channelling Dooce and repeating, don't bitch about work on the blog. Don't bitch about work on the blog. Also extend that to husband and kids and guess what I won't be writing about anytime soon? Instead of doing that I'm sitting here reminding myself that I'm MAJORLY PMTing which is probably why the whole of the rest of the world seems to be wrong while I am totally, absolutely, completely 100% right about everything. Know that feeling? They are wrong though. Its not me, its them. All of them. I'm also remembering some good things like Cameron learning how to say mummy which is so cute. He has worn out the word daddy but "murmeeeee" is his new favourite. We spent a whole 45 minute journey back from mum and dad's the other day (spotty people and bad back people were left at home on the sofa while the healthy ish ones took a sanity break!) having this conversation over and over and over again "murmeeee" Over and over for 45 minutes. It made us both laugh so much that we cried and cried so much that we almost couldn't keep up with the routine. I say almost as nothing short of a natural disaster could stop Cam from repeating my name over and over again and do you think I'm going to be outdone by a 17 month old? So with tears running down our faces we pulled up at home and promptly resumed our roles as the grown up and non sick members of the house. Cam is growing up into a really funny boy. He is so full of energy all the time, it drains me. He has got really into books at the moment but approaches them with his usual 100% or nothing enthusiasm which means that I have read the same book over and over to him 22 times last night. (yes, I counted) In the end I pointed to the other side of the room and hid the book while he wasn't looking then pretended that I couldn't find it, I was that desperate. I couldn't face another rendition of "where's my mummy" complete with animal noises on each page. It was only after that I'd read it to him 10 times that Brooke asked from the sofa why I always missed out the last page. "I don't" I replied, turning to the back of the book "see, this is the last page. Oh, no it isn't. You're right I have been missing off that page." Damn 5 year olds and their ability to know everything that their parents do wrong. I have no idea why I kept missing that page out, chalk it down to any one of the following : Not enough sleep I am so looking forward to Valentines day this year, its not long now is it? Its the one night a year when Wayne cooks dinner. He usually pushes out the boat and buys new cook books, amazing ingredients and makes something extravagant and wonderful. This year Valentines day falls in half term week while Brooke is staying with mum and dad. Wouldn't it be nice if Cam could stay overnight with them as well and I could go back to my pre kids Valentines evening routine of laying in a bath reading a book while Wayne cooks a romantic meal. Not that I haven't enjoyed the post kids Valentines evening routine where I spend the hours looking after the kids and trying to keep them entertained and out of the kitchen while he cooks. You know that by telling 2 small kids that they can't go into the kitchen that magicaly becomes the one and only room they want to go into? Why is that... I guess that this is my unsubtle way of asking mum and dad if they fancy another child in the house on Feb 14th. You don't suppose they have any plans do you? Lets hope not!
Posted by Kerrie at 06:33 AM
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January 23, 2006
Angelica
When Stef first sent me the pattern for Angelica, I fell in love. I decided to make one for a HipKnits sample, in my size of course, and cast on straight away. I worked on it feverishly for a few days and then for some reason lost interest and haven't picked it up since. Seeing the progress made by the lovely girls over at the Angelica Knitalong made me decide to pick up the needles again and join the KAL group. I have yet to work out how to update the blogger blog so until then I'll show you the progress pics here. I'm using some HipKnits aran weight silk in a shade that I only dyed around 500g of which *should* be enough. If I run out I'll have to make the bottom part of the sleeves plain ivory though, that should look OK don't you think? I really like the way it fits so far, I should knit for myself more often don't you think?!
Posted by Kerrie at 06:04 AM
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January 20, 2006
Friday roundup
I'm heading into Loop today to drop off 12 more skeins of cashmere sock yarn, 4 black and cream, 4 pink and brown and 4 green and blue. I'll be dyeing more cashmere for the website this weekend I think, 10 kilos of it arrived yesterday - that's 2 bags so big that my postie couldn't fit them on his bike! Now when I moan about the Royal Mail that does not include Mark, my postie who drops off the mail on his bike every morning, whatever the weather. He is lovely. He often leaves parcels hidden in the garden and has been known to sign for recorded delivery ones for me and then take them home with him and drop them in when he knows I'll be back home in the evening. We love him. I guess that the fact that I send out about 40 or 50 parcels out every week I should expect the odd one to go missing, but it does still annoy me. I've had some good mail this week, no photos though, Joleen sent me 3 skeins of My Paper Crane handspun yarn that I bought from her before Christmas. I know just what they are going to turn into. Handspun yarn is hard. Its always so tempting to buy but who knows what to do with just 1 skein. There are only so many scarves that one person can have aren't there? I'm putting together a special mini issue of MagKnits soon, full of patterns that take just 1 skein of handspun yarn, and not a scarf amongst them! I have yarn donations from Miss Bell, Hello Yarn, Nickerjac and Hello Mango so far. Does anyone want me to send them a skein in exchange for a design for MagKnits? None of them are spoken for yet so drop me an email or leave a comment if you think you can help. I had to rip out the sock I made for Cam as it was too small. I'll be starting another one on the train this morning though so they should still be finished fairly soon. The tree yarn is knitting up really nicely, I'm so happy with the colours. I really enjoy knitting the socks on circulars using the magic loop technique. I have no desire to try and learn DPNs, no matter what you say - they are evil! I haven't even left for my day in the office yet and already I'm looking forward to coming home tonight. I find the whole commute so stressful at the moment, wish I could work from home every day...
Posted by Kerrie at 08:20 AM
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January 19, 2006
Scarves and Socks and Spots
Scarves - Did you all see the pretty scarf that Lyn made from HipKnits silk that I sent her before Christmas? Its the one in the middle with the flower, knitted in Candyshop colourway which just happens to be available here at Yarnsmith at the moment. I believe I only sent her around 100g so she has proven that 1 skein of silk is enough for a scarf.. Socks - You're all right, I'm sock obsessed. I resisted the urge for so long but now I can't stop! I made a little sock for Cam last night in front of the TV and hope to get the 2nd one done in the next day or so. I'm using a skein of tree sock yarn from HipKnits and I'm really pleased with the way that the colours came out. Its definitely some Jaywalkers for me next. Finally, spots - Exactly 2 weeks to the day that we noticed Cam's first chicken pox spots, Brooke has come out with the chicken pox. Bless her. She is devastated that she can't go to school and the spot right on the corner of her eyelid is driving her mad already. At least in a week or so it will all be over and done with and no more chicken pox in this house.. It doesn't mean quite as much time off work for Wayne and I, we're much more able to work from home when she is around than when we're trying to look after Cam. Still, I see the opportunity for lots of DVDs and snuggles on the sofa coming up. Yummy..
Posted by Kerrie at 06:04 AM
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January 18, 2006
New Knits..
Looky what I went and learned to do? It all started before Christmas when I decided to make dad a pair of cashmere socks for Christmas. The lovely Anna got me started, lent me pattern and needles and walked me through the magic loop method as I still have DPN phobia. Dad got the first one on Christmas day (to make sure it was almost going to fit at least!) and then I finished the other one a few days later. I sent them off to him by recorded post the other week, but the wonders of Royal Mail have decided to keep them. There is a postie out there somewhere with nice warm feet while I'm filling out compensation forms.* Onto pair of socks number 2. These are made from Lorna's Laces in Desert Flower. Only my 2nd pair of socks and already I thought I knew what I was doing so I winged it without a pattern. As you can see, they came out a little too big for Brooke but not so much that she can't wear them. She loves them, even though they don't match completely. As soon as the first one was finished and declared "cool" she hounded me for sock number 2. I managed to get the 2nd one done over the weekend, they are only little after all. Now don't you think its time to make some for me? The good thing about kid socks is that they don't take much yarn. Brooke's pair came from 1 skein of Lorna's laces with some left over. So much so that I *may* have enough to make myself a matching pair, how cool would that be? I may have to learn toe up socks so that I can make sure I don't run out of yarn though. Obviously I couldn't take photos of Brooke wearing the socks without a certain little man getting in on the action. Here is Mr C in his sisters socks, telling me where his hair is while I take the photo. * - on a different note, I'm really fed up with Royal Mail at the moment. Dad's cashmere socks and 3 kilos of silk for a wholesale order are the latest casualties of the guaranteed mail that just never arrives saga. I had an order that I posted to the US in September. It never arrived so I replaced the yarn, sent this out in December and it arrived within a week. Guess what turned up last weekend? The original parcel, postmarked early Sept with the correct address and postage. No indication of where it has been all this time. How annoying? I'd be willing to pay a little more for a more reliable service but even the 2 courier companies I've tried have let me down. 1 missing parcel and 1 parcel left in a pile of rubbish outside a store. Its just not good enough. There's a gap in the market here if anyone is out there ready to fill it...
Posted by Kerrie at 06:22 AM
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January 17, 2006
New Hair
Thought I'd show you my new hair colour, Wayne dyed it for me the day before Christmas Eve. As with all permenant red hair colours it has faded a lot since then but I still love it. We used one of those hair dye kits with the little highlighting wands so I have blondish streaks on top of the red. New year, new hair colour! Of course Cam wanted to get in the picture, he is as bad as Brooke for thinking the camera exists solely to take photos of him. When I pulled off a load yesterday I found about 30 pictures of the plugs underneath the desk in the study. Its finally happened, he's worked out how to take pictures. The day he works out how to delete pictures is the day he never gets to touch the camera again!
Posted by Kerrie at 07:54 AM
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January 16, 2006
Blankets
Last night we travelled home from mum and dad's house, arriving back at around 8.30. We like to leave at this time in the evening as the kids fall asleep in the car, last night the "heading down the motorway towads London ona Sunday night" traffic was kind to us and it was a nice easy drive home. Wayne and I tend to share the driving on days like this, he drives there and I knit in the car and then I drive back and he sleeps in the car. I can't knit in the dark too easily and he gets tired easily driving at night so it suits everyone. When we get in, we have the decision over which child to take in. They are both sound asleep in the back of the car, and the bedrooms in our house are on the 3rd floor. Its never easy to decide which one to carry, there are pros and cons with both. Brooke. Con - she is so heavy! All children weigh more when they are asleep for some reason and carrying a dead weight 5 year old all the way up 2 flights of stairs is no fun. Pro - she never ever wakes up. You can just drop her into bed and know that within 2 minutes you'll be back downstairs. Cameron. Pro - he is not as heavy as Brooke. Con - there is always the chance that he will wake up as you're trying to get his coat off and put him in his cot and then it may take you a while to get him back to sleep again. See, its not cut and dried. I took Cam up last night, tucked him in without waking him and then met Wayne half way up the stairs with Brooke so helped him out. It was only as we were tucking Brooke in that it occured to me that both children spend every night wrapped in a hand knitted blanket with a duvet on top of them. Cam has this blanket and Brooke has the wedding blanket. I really need to make her one of her very own don't you think?
Posted by Kerrie at 12:58 PM
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January 12, 2006
HipKnits at Loop
Go and check out the HipKnits yarns page at the Loop website. Pretty cool huh? We're in good company up there with GGH and Blue Sky Alpaca..
Posted by Kerrie at 09:43 PM
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Babies
Its all a bit fretful here this evening. Cameron has come home from nursery in a very loud and argumentative mood. Brooke is sulking and my headache is just getting worse and worse by the minute. Wayne came home from work nice and early and I can see in his eyes that right now he would rather be anywhere but here. I don't blame him. I'm counting down to bedtime already and its still over 3 hours away. Do we have any gin in the house? Keep your fingers crossed for me. Brooke and Cam are playing babies at the moment. This involves Brooke playing nicely with her doll in a pram and Cameron following her around with a teddy in a pushchair. Every now and again, Brooke and her baby will walk up to Cameron and his baby and they will have a long conversation that goes something like this : Brooke - "hello Cameron and baby. How are you? How is your baby doing today, has he been good. has he had lots of sleep?" Repeat - over and over again until all the adults in the house are ready to spork out their eyes. If I wasn't so super stressed out it would all seem funny. I usually love it when they are like this, Brooke trying to play nicely and Cameron just wanting to copy everything she does only A LOT LOUDER and with far fewer words. He is brushing his baby's hair at the moment, none too gently. Brooke is trying to explain to him how to do it nicely but he is quite happy to sit and traumatise his poor teddy by hitting him over the head with a comb over and over again as he pretends to brush it. Sigh. Who knew boys and girls were so different.. I'm out all day tomorrow so back on Monday, its my sister's birthday tomorrow so HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENNA. We're going to her party on Sunday. I'll share pics on Monday if the camera cable turns up before then..
Posted by Kerrie at 04:56 PM
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January 11, 2006
This and That
Did you guys see that MagKnits won the best knitting magazine award in the JenLa contest for the 2nd year running? We rock. Thanks for choosing us girls! I've been sending out lots of emails this week about advertising in MagKnits, the spaces for this year are selling out fast so if you have a fibre business and want to advertise with us drop me a note, email address is at the bottom of this page, and I'll tell you what's still available. Talking of MagKnits, I have lots of yarn donations looking for designers. Sitting in my cupboard at the moment are 6 balls of Knitpicks Shine in cream just waiting for the right designer. I also have a company who have offered to donate some of their own brand of hand painted wool yarn in the designers choice of colours, 1 x 100g skein of Fyberpspates lace weight silk and of course - anything that you want from HipKnits. I updated the site earlier this week with lots of new colours and products, I will be fixing the paypal issues and putting the last few bits on this morning. Some of the handspun that I have from Miss Bell and Hello Mango is just gorgeous.. So if you're interested in taking any of those yarns and designing for us, just let me know. In other news, Cam is about to go back to nursery today. His spots have all scabbed over and wayne popped in with him last night for the girls at nursery to take a look and see what they thought. Bring him back was the verdict so for the first time since 20th December (gulp!) he'll be going in. Wish me luck, I feel awful already at the prospect of leaving him. :( I finished the book on the train last night, 24 hours for a whole book. That has to tell you how much I enjoyed it, one of the most inspirational stories I've ever read. I'm not ashamed to admit that I cried pretty much all the way through it, on the train. If you're looking for some inspiration and don't mind a few tears, read it.
Posted by Kerrie at 07:09 AM
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January 10, 2006
Knitcast
Eeek. I'm on Knitcast. I haven't listened to it and I also have no intention of listening to it. It's bad enough when I pick up the messages on the answerphone at home and accidentally hear my own voice, *shudder*. Go and check it out though if you're interested, I've had a lot of emails recently asking me when I'm going to be on.. I bought a new book yesterday, The Luxury of Time by Jane and Mike Tomlinson. Why do I do this to myself? Its about an amazing woman who is first diagnosed with breast cancer at age 26 and goes on to be given 6 months to live a few years later. Its written by her and her husband and is so brutally honest it had me bawling on the train on the way home. The piece where she had to tell her 3 kids she only had months to live was one of the most emotional pieces of writing I've ever seen. I'll be reading it again on the way into work this morning (as well as trying to fix the Paypal annoyances with HipKnits) and I expect to finish it today..
Posted by Kerrie at 06:57 AM
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January 09, 2006
Man Scarf
Remember a while ago I was saying that Wayne had asked for a scarf like the brown and pink one I made for me? Well, as I should have expected, the request became more complicated. Could he please have one knit in stripes but not short stripes, lengthways ones. And could he have 3 colours. And could it be really, really, long - like 3 metres? Hmmm. A trip to John Lewis after Christmas found Wayne in the chunky yarn section while I poured through all of the Debbie Bliss Maya on sale. He was eventually steered towards the Debbie Bliss Super chunky cashmerino yarn and I bought 3 balls. A little gauge swatch confirmed my worst fears. Using 12mm needles I was going to have to cast on 210 stitches to get the right length. Sigh. Remembering Helen and her fearless casting on of over 600 stitches for a scarf for one of her friends last year I started. I worked in garter stitch, 2 rows per colour until I ran out of yarn. I used every last drop of the cast on and cast off colour (around 2 yards left of each) and had a little more of the middle colour left over. He actually likes it and has worn it a couple of times, so that has to be a good sign. I think I prefer the wrong side though, what do you think?
Posted by Kerrie at 08:02 AM
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January 07, 2006
Better Late than never, maybe?
Phew. New MagKnits is up. Its all about children this month, MagKnits.com Cam is modelling the mouse mitts, he loves them. They are actually a little too big for him but I think I'm going to have problems sending them back to Janine, he has become quite attached to them! Yarnsmith are our issue sponsers this month. They are having an amazing sale at the moment, don't forget to use the MagKnits discount code at checkout as well. Who doesn't love a bargain? OK - that's one big site update out of the way. Now its time for HipKnits. I have all the photos taken and the site pages put together, I just need to add the 2 together and hey presto, you guys can shop! Maybe tomorrow...
Posted by Kerrie at 04:37 PM
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January 06, 2006
Flower Basket Shawl - Brooke sized
I bought some beautiful handspun yarn from a blog stash sale a while back, I think I have about 6 or 7 skeins of it, and while I was looking through my yarn over christmas I decided that I would use it for a flower basket shawl. This was a bit of a strange decision, the yarn is chunky and knitted using 7mm needles. The yarn in the pattern was laceweight and knitted using I can't remember exactly but much smaller needles. The handspun yarn was also 2 ply of different coloured singles with colour changes every few metres. After a few rows I doubted my choice, I was worried that the extreme colours in the yarn would hide the lace pattern but I stuck with it. I only worked 5 repeats of the pattern instead of 7 partly because my yarn was so much thicker but also because it was a gift for Brooke and she is only teeny. It turned out perfect, blocked a few inches bigger than it looked when it came off the needles and she loves it. A nice quick and easy knit too, I started it on Saturday and the knitting was finished by Monday. Blocked and ready to wear on Wednesday. I loved the pattern, I'll definitley make another one in a plain fine yarn for me I think... I had a few problems taking a flat photo of the shawl. I eventually got this one but not without having to bribe a couple of kids to move out of the way, Cameron seems to think the shawl is a cushion and is currently dragging it around the house and sitting on it every now and again. Think I should make one for him next?!
Posted by Kerrie at 06:36 AM
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January 05, 2006
My favourite 2 christmas presents
Although I got a LOT of great presents this year including books, subscriptions to my favourite magazines and clothes, my favourite 2 presents were from the children. Brooke and Cameron bought me these. How cool are they? I had seen a pale pink pair that I fell in love with a while ago but brown and pink? Very Kerrie. I think I have worn them just about every day since Christmas.
Brooke spent a weekend at mum and dad's in November and learned how to use mum's sewing machine. Don't grandma's let children do much more fun stuff than their parents? Brooke sewed me this cute doll, aren't they both cute? The doll sleeps on my bed now, I love her. Its true, handmade gifts are the best. Cam's spots are really coming out now, he is covered but doesn't seem to be scratching too much yet. Thanks for all the tips, I'll let you know how he gets on. I'm hoping to get some work done today while he sleeps, the HipKnits Blog is up but the rest of the site is going to have to wait, possibly until the weekend now. MagKnits is my big priority for today..
Posted by Kerrie at 09:06 AM
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January 04, 2006
Happy New Year
Its the first day of almost back to normal here for us. Edit - Oh no it isn't! I have just received a call to go and pick up Cam from nursery as he has chicken pox. He will be at home for the next 7 to 10 days until his spots have all dried up. Oh what a joyful start to the New Year this is. Brooke We had a great holiday, I feel so relaxed and refreshed and full of ideas, plans and projects for the new year. Its going to be a good one. I don't really make resolutions, stop biting my nails and exercise would be on the list every year if I did, but this year I have a few themes that I want to work on. One of them is "look after me". I can be really lazy with myself, rarely get my hair cut, don't wear make up, slob about in jeans and T shirts. This year I turn 30 and I want to start taking a bit better care of myself. So I'm booking myself a style consultation next month and want to make a real effort. This may mean that I try to stop biting my nails and exercise a little but we'll see, I'm not promising anything. Brooke's New Years Resolution is to stop sucking her fingers in the day time. She is doing OK so far, bless her. Its hard to break habits that are so well formed so I think it will be a while before she manages to stop her fingers from going into her mouth every time she sits still. Cam's Resolution is to say daddddddddyyyyyy as many times a minute as he possibly can - this one is going great. His record is saying it about 30 times without pausing for breath. Not sure if Wayne has made any, I'll have to check with him. I have HUNDREDS of photos, some of Christmas and New Year, lots of knitted gifts and other little projects. I'll get organised with those later. For now, I'm off to finish putting MagKnits together and then take a million photos for the HipKnits update which will be tomorrow or Friday.. Happy New Year! Oh, and the new header at the top? We had some photos taken of the kids before Christmas and they came out beautifully. We decided to buy the jpgs instead of the printed photos so that we could do more with them. Everyone in the family had one printed out for Christmas and we still have lots that we want to get enlarged and up on the walls at home. This was one of 2 family ones that we had, I love the way it is really relaxed and informal. The other family one is amazing, I'll have to show it to you sometime..
Posted by Kerrie at 09:45 AM
Posted by Kerrie
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