Happy New Year to you too

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Go 2008!

And more!

Photos!

And a resolution begun before the New Year!

My favourite Christmas present

Seriously, it almost made me cry. Well, I am a bit hormonal!

Have you got a good photo to put on here? I have just put away my camera, but I will take a photo if you haven't.

Christmas Knitting

Well, it's been a very busy week, knitting wise.

I like your post - extremely good resolutions. Do socks count as adult wear?

Things I have knitted this week:

A sock for Andrew. Woohoo for the sock.

A hoodie. I luuuurve this. Mucho. See ravelry for details.

A bootee - will finish its pair and then make another pair, for some friends.

What a week!

Is it my turn yet?

Well, I don't think I've posted for a while so I'm guessing it should be about my turn.

Shame then that I don't have any photos!

I started a post the other day with an invaluable lesson I learned in the pain of weaving in a billion and one ends (in particular the backgammon board but in reality I seem to have a glutton's punishment for choosing knitting projects with large amounts of knitting in to do as pointed out in my knitting group). If you have an end that is impossibly short (i.e. less than the length of your needle), then sew the wool needle into your piece backwards so the needle hole is sticking out just where your end emerges and the rest of the needle is already in position of the sewing. Then all you need to do is thread the end into the needle, push it through the pre-positioned loops and - voila! the end is sewn in.

(YES I WAS BORED)

I had a number of "good thoughts" today which would have made my 3 things post except that I'm not doing that today. Mostly as I can't remember what I thought of. Just that I did.

Instead, then, I will post some rather random and a bit pointless New Year's Resolutions. (Pointless because I don't agree with the idea of trying to change fitting in with a calendar year. Random, er, you decide.)

1. I will do a triathlon this year.
2. I endeavor to have a romantic entanglement. (How DO you do this?)
3. I will post ALL my wool stash on to Ravelry - including the unlabeled, half-finished and quite frankly gross yarn I have accumulated over the years.
4. I will complete a knitted item for a(n adult) human to wear. Possibly even me.
5. I will purchase at least one of the following: a motorized vehicle of some description, an ipod, a set of knit picks or a magazine subscription for something completely decadent, possibly a knitting mag, or craft thing, or even Which? (Gosh, I really do know how to push the boat out!)
6. I will get a part time job in Plymouth.
7. I will go to the cinema/theatre more often.
8. I will read either the BMJ, the Lancet or the Practioner at least once a week in the University library.
9. I will do yoga. Somewhere, sometime, as it seems right.
10. I will get off my lazy arse and download pictures for this blog more frequently. (So that would be twice a year, then.)
11. I will not be dictated by even numbers or multiples of ten.

Yeah, so I made up the last one only because I hate lists of set numbers and although mine was created spontaneously it came to ten and then my imagination/memory let you.

I think they are mostly do-able but I'm stumped on number two. How do you create these situations? Perhaps I should have added the clause about 'without spending money specifically on it'. I refuse to pay money to join dating clubs or websites. Maybe I shouldn't but I still don't trust the internet and hate the idea that some corporation is profiting from my lonliness. Bastards! Weight watchers got 6 months subscription out of me and, yeah, sure it worked (bastards!) I resented paying for this clearly sensible advice. Perhas 11 should be 'relax about money'? But with four more years of study ahead of me I think the purse strings should be as tight as possible. As long as it's a knitted purse with quality and interesting yarn strings...

Musing on sock heels

So, the heel I turned is a german one, apparently. Which seems to mean that there are 'seams' that go along the side of the heel. I would prefer a 'seam' (for want of a better word) to go diagonally up the heel (Am I making any sense?). Anyway, do you think I could borrow the simple sock recipe from your new book? Am I allowed to say that? I now want to do myself a pair but made fom much thicker yarn on bigger needles, sort of bedsocks style, or slipper replacements. And in a much friendlier colourway!

I've taken a photo of Andrew wearing the half finished sock:

I've just turned the heel of a sock

Honestly! It looks slightly loose where I've picked up stitches but I'm hoping you are right when you said it will sort itself out when it's finished.

Now I need to knit the foot and toes.

Socks socks and socks

I finished another (mini) sock but I have no photos so you are going to have to believe me.

No other knitting, in spite of over 12 hours of train travel in the past four days. Shame. (Incidentally, no bloody progress on the report either, in spite of over 12 hours train travel in the past four days.)

Three Positive Things

Day 2.

1. I saw a bus driver dressed up as Santa Claus. This cheered me up immensely.

2. I needed a book the library - I was thinking of doing a project on Raymond Brigg's When The Wind Blows - and only two of his 37 listed works were in my campus library (there are three University campuses) and one was the one I needed. Sorted!

3. I got my PBL feedback from my tutor and I got an Excellent score! This is my first 'excellent' all term (I failed a Core Competency and have been getting satisfactory in all other aras) and I'm really pleased with myself.

Now to research my study topic... use of hormone therapy in transsexuals... and knitting.

A new project

So, I'm half way throuhg mum's Christmas present which looks good but is massive and I'm not sure will felt. Ah, she'll hate it whatever. I'm trying to do a second mini sock, mostly because I've done the first. I'm currently doing an SSU (Student Selected Unit) which essentially boils down to a 2000 word report written over three weeks.

So naturally I will spend about two weeks and six days trying to decide what to write it on. I've already changed my mind three times since Monday - one per day!

However this post isn't about that and it isn't about knitting, either. I'm killing some time in the computer room before going to meet up with some other (mature) students. We're going to watch an autopsy video. I'm, irresponsibly, more excited about communal wine drinking.

But it isn't about that either. While killing time, I decided to read the Sydney Morning Herald, and found this article about learning positive thinking, which anyone who knows me, knows isn't my speciality.

First project: Write down three positive things that happened today:

1. I found my young persons railcard! Woohoo! That saves £5 replacement cost. I also dwelt on the fact that I am still eligible for a YPC, in spite of my 27th birthday looming nine days away...

2. I got some personal emails. I felt a bit lonely and bored last night and was wildly procrastinating from working so started emailing very, very old friends and acquaintances. I'm not sure I didn't come across as a stalker. But it felt good. And I got replies. Yay!

3. I had a fantastic left-over curry sandwich for lunch. It had (stolen - sorry Lora) spinach leaves, tarka dahl and mushroom bahji and grated carrot on seedy bread. I do love my food. It's usually the highlight of my day, which is why it is important that it is good.

Geek alert!

I've catalogued my needles on ravelry.

I put all the Denises as 60 inch circulars.

How do you add blog posts to ravelry?

I'm guessing it has something to do with typing something into the box with RSS source or something writtn next to it. But what?

Small favour

Hello Ella

I might possibly need a tiny bit more brown wool. I'm not 100% sure but wanted to give you a heads up. I am two rows off the first third of the project (which is looking good! the colours look amazing and the pattern seems to be flowing together although it is scarily large) and just finished the first ball.

There was a beer festival in Plymouth on Monday. It wasn't anywhere as big as the St Albans one but it was fun and easy. I probably shouldnt have gone before my final lecture but strangely enough I got more answers right in the End of Topic Quiz than I've ever done before. Which either means I understood the topic or was aided by the alcohol...

Sadly though I didn't have such luck with my knitting. I wouldn't have normally tried except I wanted to go to the Plymouth SnB and it's my only WIP. After phaffing about and realising that I'd someone how turned it round to the wrong side several rows after beginning, I ended up getting carried away with the frogging and came back with less than I'd started. Unimpressive.

Pumpkin: proof

Stripy hat

I've made a little hat for my friend Chrissie's baby girl, as a thank you present because Chrissie keeps giving me all her outgrown baby clothes - I have drawerfuls of newborn size babygros!

I used a debbie bliss pattern (see http://www.ravelry.com/projects/EllatheElephant/simple-hat) with some left over baby cashmerino, so it is very soft. Mostly, though, I am very proud of having mastered (ish) mattress stitch for sewing it up, as the seam is almost invisible on the outside. I messed up a little at the end of the seam and I didn't reverse it for as much as I should have done, so you can see the seam on the rolled up edge, but it is still a huge step forward for me!

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

After an afternoon of uploading all my stashed wool photos, Ravelry seems to have crashed! No! This is more likely to be my computer struggling to keep up with my bandwidth demands.

And I should be revising - we have consolidation week next week and I'd like all my notes to be in order. I don't think they are. But at least I have notes...

I'm in!

As EllatheElephant!

The simplest jumper ever

From Debbie Bliss Baby Knits for Beginners' - The boat neck sweater size 0-3 months. Knitted with Debbie Bliss Merino Aran. I knitted every tenth row instead of purling to get the raised stripes. (Get me being all creative ).
Not for my baby!

Hot off the sticks

I've just finished another project. (I really do need to get out more.)

It's a super superficial project. I made a pumpkin. Not really sure why - what with missing Halloween and all. But I found a pattern and had orange wool and that seemed like enough logic for me.

No photos yet but my pattern was here:

http://www.curlypurly.com/pumpkin.html

I've caught the knitting vibe again. Big time. Probably because I have so much more important stuff to be doing. Not helped by ravelry, which is addictive in itself. Oh, and Christmas for which I had planned to knit lots of presents. Although I'm not sure where the pumpkin fits into that.

Guilt

Is is wrong to already be excited about the John Lewis inevitable January Wool Sale?

Slowly but surely!

"You are #50624 on the list.
3153 people are ahead of you in line.
7495 people are behind you in line.
81% of the list has been invited so far"

Ten days or so to go, I reckon. Will this blog die then?

An Alarming Discovery

Last night, in an effort to wind down after failing to learn any anatomy of the upper limb (why can't I look at pictures and make sense of them? or even remember anything after five minutes?), I decided to catalogue all my needles on ravelry. Oooh the fun and excitement.

I have been picking up needles as I've picked up patterns but more importantly from other sources such as the random find in a charity shop and the discarded remains of my grandmother's old collection. Apparently, I now have 56 needles... that's quite impressive!

Back to anatomy.

Drum roll, please!

Last night, with a little assistance from Lisa at the Plymouth SnB, I finished my first ever pair of socks. They are flawed, wobbly and fabulous.

And about two and a half inches big.

This is my 'oooh how cute' scale picture. With my great big smelly green trainer in the background. Juxtapositions, darrrrlings....

Ravelry ... nearly there!

"You signed up on October 30, 2007
You are #50624 on the list.
5893 people are ahead of you in line.
5178 people are behind you in line.
80% of the list has been invited so far"

I reckon another fortnight ought to do it! It seems to be about 700-800 a day.

Going back a while

(and continuing to avoid work)

I made a sock wool cardigan but never posted the link. Now I've just found it in order to update my ravelry page* it's Baby V-Neck Cardigan from PT Yarns.

*Actually it's just to procrastinate but let's not be picky, eh?

Ha!

I finihsed my first mitten tongiht. am quite pleaed. am not drunk but have rearranged computer on floor and am typing twhile lying front down on floor and it's quite dirfifcle.

shouldbe in bed but damned ravelry is very addictive. so the mitten, eh? i'm not overly chffed but might be a ggod pressie. there would be photos but i don't have neough usb spare to down load picture. which is why the comouter is o thef loor isn the first palce.

got a piattern for a mini sock. am very excited!

photos to follw.kxx



(Added with the computer in a far more comfortable position)
(Er, but not there. Odd.)

Interested?

Someone invited me, via ravelry, to this UK Stitch n Bitch day but since it's in London I can't go. However I thought you might be interested:

http://www.iknit.org.uk/stitchnbitchday.html

However it's organised by the shop who had that crochet class failure, so I'm still suspicious if it'll be on. (Shouldn't really be bitter, especially since there's someone at the Plymouth SnB who's offered to teach me crochet, but old habits die hard.)

Christmas ideas

I think I mentioned to you the other day that I am thinking of giving Jade a knitting kit this Christmas (uh, does Paula read this blog?). The problem is that I don't really know what ability six year olds have (uh, she is six, isn't she?). I was hoping to make the kit myself: find the wool, pattern and needles except that I didn't know where to start. So a little google-searching has turned up this kit:

What do you think? (And looking at the one three down. Although the horse one is brilliant and I want it. Not a hint. No, really not. Oh anyway.)

Why having a DVD player is a Good Thing

AFter a weekend of HELL trying to upload and fix in a new DVD driver for my Mac (grrr, Macs) which wasn't helped by the fact that I don't own any screwdriver, least of all a philips one, nor know nobody in Plymouth who does and was using instructions written by a moron, I now have a DVD driver on my computer and a completely wasted Sunday to prove it.

However, although I failed to file any of my Fetal Unit notes, or recall any important knowledge from the session, I did find the impetus to pick up my knitting again and put together this patternless*, dashing item.

Sure it looks like a giant raspberry nipple on my head and is both not quite wide enough and a little too tight, but I MADE it and then WORE it and that just rocks.



*Errr, vague pattern: c.o. 34 st, k 1 row, decide it's not wide enough so c.o. 6 st at the end of first row, st st for four rows, decides it's too wide, [k 9 k2tog] rep til end making up the numbers for a row, st st for oooh, maybe 6 - 8 rows?, [k1 k2tog] for a row, k another row, might have been purl, wasn't paying much attention, k2tog to end, and again, seven st left, pull together wtih knitting strand and sew up two sides.

Just like the little ones for the bottles - but bigger.

Tell me which colour you are missing

to finish that cotton dk cardigan:

http://www.getknitted.com/acatalog/info_DB_CDK_AW07.html

I want it finished!

Retro tanktop 0-6 months

Oh, it's so cool. It's a tiny bit short, because I never believe how long it should be and finished the back earlier than I should have done.

It started off as a brown shawl-collared cardigan (Debbie Bliss Baby Knits for Beginners), although adjusted for size, as the pattern starts at 6-12 months.

Then I got bored of knitting in brown (it's so dark!) so I added some orange rowanspun aran picked up cheap in Olympia last spring.

Then I decied to do different sized stripes.

Then I decided to change it to a jumper so I wouldn't have to knit two different front pieces.

Then I though, sod the sleeves, it will be a sleeveless jumper.

Then! inspired by phot of Karen aged 3ish wearing brown corduroy dungarees and a brown and orange jumper (1982?), I went for the V-neck.

The neck was done on Denise circulars.

I've finally got the hang of mattress stich for sewing up, so it looks quite neat on the inside.

I'm quite pleased with this!

Karen, oh no! Where could Toy Knits be??

Very peculiar

For a long time, I've had a sneaking suspicion that some of my wool went missing in the Grand Move across London and then across the UK. Finally, I tried to check it out by purposefully routing through all of my stash looking for that half-used ball of dark blue cotton dk. I don't have any knitting friends, except my sister, who has her own highly enviable stash, so unlike losing a book, I don't think I've lent it to anyone.

Today I actually confirmed that I've lost my only knitting book (Toy Knits by Debbie Bliss) or at least it isn't in Plymouth. Which makes me wonder both where it is and what else I've lost with it?

I think there may be a mini-stash hiding somewhere.

I think I need to work!

Or at least take/post photos.

Helloooooooooo?

Right, JUST because you are on an 8 hour car journey home from visiting me DOESN'T excuse you from not having yet posted the beautiful tanktop you finished yesterday at my kitchen table. I want photos!

And, I am procrastinating from learning more about the fetal circulation system by joining ravelry! Hoorah! (Username knister if you fancy checking me out.)

Only down side is that they require a flickr account to upload photos which means more organising and phaff. On the plus side though, it will certainly allow me to procrastinate even longer.

Pracrastinate from what, I hear? Ah, that is the fetal circulation system. Why, do you ask, is the fetal circulation system different from an adult's? Well, that is because they receive their oxygen from the mother's placenta through umbilical cord and not the lungs as adults do. There are three main shunts that rearrange the fetal circulation: foramen ovale, ductus arteriosus and ductus venosus.

OK, I'm going ot stop there. If only there was a knitting pattern to help me out.

Me in a bin bag

This is the only creative this I have done since arriving at university: made a black tie ball gown out of a bin bag.

Actually, that was true until yesterday. I am currently sitting at my computer watching lectures online while knitting another ipod sock. However the intended recipient (and it's got an initial on the front) had their birthday over a week ago now so the great impetus has gone.

Perhaps it'll be ready for Christmas.

Sock wool cardigan

Then ironed and with buttons on: this becomes my first ever finished knitted clothing project! Oooh the excitement! I was hoping for a real 'action' photo of it being modelled on baby Ruby but that will come with time. Actually it might end up on some of her dolls, what with the extortionate amount of time it took for the button/ironing bit to happen at the end and her scarily fast rate of growth.

From now on, I'm knitting for me

And to start off, I am knitting something in brown and orange, in celebration of that photo of you when you were about three, wearing brown corduroy dungarees and a lovely brown and orange cardi.

It was going to be a cardigan, and then I decided to make it a jumper to save on the the two front bits. After some more thought, it is now to be a tank top, to save on knitting sleeves. I really hate sewing up, can you tell?

I am presuming that with the arm holes I can just pick up stitches and do some ribbing as a border and that with the front, I just split it in two at some point and then again pick up and rib a border? And advice gratefully received.

I've finally finished the cardigan!

It only took four months!

The lace at the bottom and edges curls up - but I was meant to wash it, block it on a towel and dry it beneath another towel. However, I finished it about ten minutes before I left to give it to Della, so I asked her to do all of that instead!

New rule: I am never knitting anything on less than 5mm needles ever again.

Any idea why

the Medical Museion, University of Copenhagen is linking to our blog?

Second shop found...

And it's worse than the first. The one in Derry's Department store may have been generic with an unoriginal selection of brands and wools but the second one I accidently stumbled across the other day ("Busy Fingers" or something like that) is 100% accrylic nastiness. It's the kind of place you get static from just looking at.

Oooh, Ella. Very much like the changing colour option. Since you have managed to change yours, I propose I stay using black and you use whatever else you want. Yay?

There would be more knitting talk except I haven't done any. I think my computer is arriving TONIGHT! Yay! I'm off to peruse nhsdirect for any more gems of information on conception. While this may work in my seminar I doubt it'll impress the biomed people this arvo... Gotta go.

I am knitting!

I am in the process of sewing up the sublime wrap cardigan that has taken me four months to complete.
I'm just not taking any photos!

I feel like an expert at conception... was that too cheesy?

Why don't we just agree to post in different colours?

Welcome all you techie mums

So. Ella linked to here from Mumsnet, eh? Perhpas then someone could teach us how to set up this blog so it's more obvious which one of us has written our posts? At the moment they look identical except for a small name at the bottom. Advice please.

Also, Ella, got any plans to post again? How is the knitting going?

Since arriving here in Plymouth, I've only used my needles to help create a fancy dress outfit where they were the first pointing object I could reach when I needed to make a hole in the bin bag I was trying to turn into a ball gown. I do actually have photos but no way of uploading them. Or at least not one that I've worked out.

I also have run out of the cotton wool needed to finish that Debbie Bliss baby cardigan. BUMMER! I'm particularly miffed because it was on clearance sale at John Lewis but I thought I had enough until I checked my stash long after the sale finished. PLONKER!

HOWEVER, it looks like my computer might come with a DVD player which I envision will give me nice, calm, knitting time for when the studying gets to much.

Now I must prepare for my first case study unit: Conception. How fitting is that?!

Where have all the wool shops gone?

I found the only wool shop in Plymouth and it sucks!

Ah well, guess I won't have much time for knitting anyway.

Knitting on holiday

Right. First off, I won a bet (and a bottle of beer) by getting my knitting needles through Heathrow security! Hoorah! Sure, they were plastic detachable ones and they were detached at the time and posed much less of a security threat than the newly sharpened pencil I was carrying in the same bag but, I was still pretty chuffed with myself. Pity then that I was too tired to knit in victory either on the flight or in transit.

However. I have actually used them since I arrived. I have knitted another two mini hats for the innocent drinks charity campaign but I'm quite bored with them now. (There would be photos but I can't be bothered to work out how to download them even with a highly sympathetic and computer savvy cousin in the vacinity. Hey, I'm on holiday.)

But! The delightful people at the London Stitch n Bitch (have included in their weekly email details of a new charity knitting initiative! Hoorah! This time it's a tea cosy for St John's Ambulance. I'm not so enamoured with the free pattern (no photos) but I found one on the other website.

And. That's another new project to dream of.

(Oooh sorry about hte absence. I blame moving flats, leaving my job, packing for holiday and other such things. Of course, these things didn't stop me knitting and I've another wine bottle, a finished baby cardigan and a few more of those mini hats...)

Happy New Year!

Knitting in ends

Wow, what a fab technique!

http://sockpr0n.blogspot.com/2006/10/how-to-weave-in-ends-while-knitting.html

Embroidered hat

I made this for someone at Andrew's work - my first try at embroidery!

Whoopsadaisy!

So while clearing out my room in preparation of packing up next week (sigh), I found a load of the small hats I made for the Innocent Smoothie / Age Concern charity appeal last year.

Luckily for me they are doing the same drive again this year, with the same pattern, so I've just popped them in the post. However the deadline for new hats for this year is October 21 and I'm quite tempted to make a few more. Maybe for 2008?

Why I may not be knitting my christmas presents this year:

Attempt number one...

Drum roll please

Today is the ninth of the eight of the seventh.

I love these funky dates. (Which I am aware are irrelevant and only because I live in a country with the Gregorian calendar. Or perhaps it's the other one? Whatever, it's an ethnocentric and arbitrary set of numbers*. But I like it.)

*For those of us who don't believe in dates or events set out by the religious organisations.

What I'm Knitting

Because I can tell you are desperate to know.

1) The Cardigan. One sleeve, some fancy edging and the samll matter of sewing on some ribbon and it will be done

2) A little baby hat for someone at Andrew's work. Doing it without a pattern, nearly (In that I'm doing some ribbing, then some plain, then decreasing, then sewing it up). Maybe I'll do a little embroidery on it as well. Daring!

Both a winner and a loser

So I had a nasty/nice surprise this evening. It was scary how much wool I accumulated in the last eight months or so. I fear that it might be multiplying in the dark. However it was nice to know how much wool I have. Like an unexpected birthday present.

So while I won by sorting out and rediscovering my wool, I proved myself to be the sad strange loser who sorts her wool out on a Friday night. That's just tragic.

Ah, but such beautiful wool.

Stage 1: Pulling bags out of the wardrobe... and under the bed... by the lamp... on the shelves...


Stage 2: Taking off the wrappings.



Stage 3: Putting the final nail in the coffin of my social life. Yes, I colour co-ordinated my wool on a Friday night. But at least I did it well.*



(I'd like to point out that I don't have a TV and get sick of using the computer after a day at work sitting in front of a computer. And, obviously, have no social life to talk about.)

Wish me luck...

I have decided that before starting my next project, I must first check my stash of yarn. Because we are trying to let the flat, my room remains in a constant, unnatural state of tidiness. Obviously, it's not tidy - I've just hidden everything in the wardrobe. And the bags of wool just keep getting added. I'm a bit worried i may have a mountain on my hands. It may possibly be volcanic.

However I have finished the baby cardigan in variegated sock wool. (Photos to follow when I can be bothered and hopefully modelled on a defenceless newborn.) Thankfully the baby was 10 days late otherwise she will have grown out of it by the time I get it to her parents. Although it may take another six months to decide what buttons to put on it. And perhaps another six to sew them on. By the time it's tidied and finished I suspect she'll be giving it to her children. Or grandchildren.

Now I'm going to venture into my room to find out the exact extent of my wool-ownership. Wish me luck!

Bear

Highly specialised knitting accessories

On Sunday, I was delighted to find a pattern I'd printed off the internet which used wool I already owned and needles I didn't need to buy and had immediate gift-giving potential. Hoorah!

So I sauntered merrily to work with my knitting bag tucked carefully into my paniers, complete with the pattern, wool and needles.

But, then, disaster struck! I had forgotten my trusty stitch counter and although I could remember the first five rows, anything higher than the number of fingers on one hand is just beyond me.

I was quite proud of my solution:

Meet Marvin the Mountain Pig!

Another gloriously imperfect project from Debbie Bliss's Toy Knits book.

Here you go Karen!

This is what you were looking for.

Anyone else: don't ask. Really.

I promise I will start knitting again

when the school holidays start. And I've finished reading Harry Potter (first day of the holidays: I Have A Plan)

An observation to share

I've just spotted the similarity between the words 'knitter' and 'nutter'.

Winning knitting

This was my entry to Roger's (apparently infamous) Worst Wine Tasting Competition. Ella strongly argued that I should win since my bottle was actually undrinkable. I didn't (it wasn't quite within the rules apparently) but my efforts did win me a bottle of (drinkable) wine.

AND I invented the pattern. (Although I'm not sure I remember it properly or would ever repeat it without a few major structural / aesthetic tweaks.) AND I knitted food, for the first (and highly satisfying time ever). AND I finished a project - in a morning!

So, all good and far too exhausting. I'm off to bed.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

After the inevitable embarrassment of dealing with money, I found the courage to charge £10 the commissioned bunnies below. Sadly, I suspect I wasn't clear and have been paid as a job lot rather than by individual piece.

Pants.

Still, nice to have some money in my wallet and it's a lesson for the future.

Finished the left front

God, this is the slowest cardigan in history.

Absolutely and utterly FINISHED

Here are the last two rabbits I will do for some time.

What do you think? I think they're kind of sweet actually. I got the faces on this evening which is my most hated part of the rabbit making procedure. It's the bit where all the effort can be ruined by a miserable or scary expression and it's also the bit I find the hardest. I don't like embroidery. It's not knitting and generally doesn't do what I want it to. Too tough for me.

Ella, I used this post for guidance since the first expression was distinctly unhappy. Not that either of these looks particularly happy but that is a vast improvement on unhappy, no?

The four stages of building a bunny

Stage 1. All knitted and no where to go.

Stage 2. Feeling a little bit discombobulated.

Stage 3. In one piece but without a fig leaf.

Stage 4. Reading to hit the town!


(And if you wonder how these bunnies breed so fast...: Stage 5: Brief bunny love.
)

blogger didn't lose it, I did!

!

Has the mojo returned (second attempt)

the short version (blogger lost the first)

finished back, hooray. fronts decrease rapidly - A Good Thing. Row counter very handy.

Has the mojo returned? (first attempt)

maybe ... have finished the back which is always the biggest hurdle I think. Plus because it is a wraparound cardigan, the fronts start big but that you do a lot of quick decreasing so it feels like it is going quicker. Plus plus I have deciphered the pattern into a list of what to do on each row, which, along with my trusty row counter, is making making the job a lot more straightforward. All good then!

Uh oh

I have just accidentally spent a silly amount of money in a wool shop.

It all started so innocently. I just popped into Bunty's Wool Shop in West Ealing, after buying fruit and veg in the Saturday market and getting caught in the rain. It was both an excuse to get out of the rain and a chance to pick the Jaegar caramel wool I needed to finish Rabbit No.1 (which ran out after two floppy ears). I was pleased to find a good muddy pink wool which would be ideal for a pig for Maggie as well as the Jaegar wool - which means I don't have to trek to John Lewis in Oxford Street, where I bought the original ball.

Flushed with this success, and the surprise beauty treatments I'd afforded myself as both a treat and a way out of the bucketing rain, I decided to consider a new me-centric project. Perhaps, I reasoned, this was why I had recently been dishearted with all knitting recently. Simple it sounds. Simple it was not.

So three hours later (I kid you not) I have come out with TWO jumper patterns (actually one book of patterns which I want one jumper patter from and one sheet pattern) which I plan to merge into one bastardized sweater and three balls of mock-kid wool, two other balls for alternative projects and a mighty dent in my visa bill. (Which would have been significantly bigger if I'd bought the real kid wool.)

It was still raining when I came out.

Proof it's over

One of out two is done. Well, it will be when I put some features on it. STILL need to bloody buy some wool to finish the first but then it's over over over and I can draw a line under the Rabbit Period of my life.

Give some to me then!

Worked has ceased on the cardigan. The back is finally done (hooray) and the first ten rows of the left front, but nada since. Dear oh dear.

Stacey's knitted a pink rabbit though (and needs to sew it together!)

And I'm back again, said Nora (with a monumental crash)

Ah ha. The mojo has returned.

Whether this was finishes the knitting of Rabbit No. 2, eating pizza in the park last night or some hormonal change, I don't care.

Rabbit No. 2 needs stuffing then I can start the pig.

One very slow stitch at a time

Nothing is progressing very fast at all and, if I've even more honest, I'm not really feeling the love of /for knitting at the moment. But I think I'm in a funk and not terribly feeling for the love for much.

The rabbit is becoming in drips and drabs and I'm sick to the back teeth of it. It doesn't help that I'm not making it for love or fun or even that egotistical kick you get from seeing the face of the person you give it to. Having not arranged a price in advance, I'm not even sure I'm making it for money - certainly not for profit!

The sock has been put on the back burner. And that's about all folks!

Hmph. Once the two bloody rabbits are done, I will try and get my teeth into a new and exciting project. And learn my lesson about how to say no.

World Wide Knit in Public Day

was yesterday.

And although I didn't go on the London Stitch n Bitch organised tour, I made sure I got out and knitted in public, which ended up me doing a few extra lines of an ear while on a tube journey. So not really any different from any other day then!

Sadly there is no photographic evidence since I was knitting alone and with two hands needed to hold the needles, it's hard to find the extra limb to focus the camera. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Other breaking news!

I am now the proud owner of a pack of interchangeable knitting needles. Pink ones, at that. Now I just need to find a project to make them proud...

It's difficult to knit

when you aren't feeling well.

The back of this cardigan is going to take forever. But the fronts look like they will be quite quick to knit as they decrease so quickly. And I am looking forward to doing the edging, it will be nice to have something different than ribbing or moss stich on the edge of a cardigan for a change. I bought some gorgeous ribbons from http://www.londonbeadco.co.uk/ which is bead shop near school with a tiny knitting section, which may spur me on to get this done!

The Joy of the Row Counter

It is good. I have to do 52 rows and now I don't have to count or remember. Which is a Good Thing.

Six inches to spare

Phew!

I had two sweaters to do for the two Small Rabbit in Sweater which I had promised to the boss. However I wasn't even sure that the cream used in the S design would last for the first sweater, let alone the second. However I have just finished the N - which I changed to a cream letter on a pink background to try and eke out the last of the cream wool - and in spite of my dire predictions I managed to finish the letter. With just six inches of wool left.

Yay!

I think I have also found the type of wool it is, because being a plonker I took off the labels a while ago and bought them at a fair. I think they are Freedom Wools.

The excitement of the letter S

Another day, another rabbit, another sweater

This one is for a boy called S.... (While trying to protect his anonymity, I've also forgotten his name. But it does begin with S. Sam's my guess.)

Using blue for boys and pink for girls goes expressly against my beliefs but since these toys aren't for me but I suppose I should respect the tastes. (Hmph.)

This is my first attempt at a S graph. I quite like it.

She's right

I was not happy.

I arrived in Vauxhall flustered and tired after a cycle across town. I was on time but only just owing to having to leave my office three times (first as a practise, second to get my mobile that was actually in my pocket all the time and finally to get my building pass that I had left on my desk when I returned to collect my not-forgotten phone). The small shop was filled to the bursting with people for the course. Someone walking in just before me and got the last chair, then someone walked in moments after me and it was obvious we would not fit all in the shop. I just felt deflated. (Not helped by the fact that I'd only half changed into my cycle clothes and felt like a complete prat in my yellow reflective jacket, bright red trackpants, turquoise cycle helpmet, sedate green t-shirt and nasty pink glow from all exertion.)

They did say I could stay but I'd lost the inclination. I thought I could justify the trip by doing some wool shopping but with nine sitting eager crochet students dominating the already small space there wasn't really the atmosphere - or indeed physical possibility - for browsing. I was even more embarrassed that I needed to borrow an A-Z off the manager to work out how to get home and he was obviously more concerned with getting tea for his paying customers. I left in shame.

Then spent about 20 minutes trying to work out how to join the one-way system around Vauxhall station in order to go back north. That wasn't as bad as the hour I spent cycling lost around Belgravia. I finally trudged through Hyde Park and caught the train home.

The day got worse before it got better, but not related to knitting. And, anyway, it's OVER!!!

She's Not Happy

and nor should she be, they overbooked her crochet course and now she is cycling back from deepest darkest South Lahndon. Grrrr.

On a another note, we shall be converging somewhere in a bar on the South Bank to knit and probably not bitch tomorrow night. And Stacey's coming as well!

I was too tired to knit either way on the train today which is a first. But that's what you get for having weirdy early morning insomnia and getting up at five.

I'm booked and ready to go

Owing to my failure to read the pattern before starting, it turns out that I need to crochet the final part of these fingerless gloves from Alpaca Select. Problem is that not only do I not own a crochet hook, I haven't got the foggiest how to use one. So after a few months of procrastinating I'm off to a crochet class! I'm booked on tonight's session at I Knit London which will be a sneaky excuse to go to a wool-no-yarn shop.

But now I've got the pre-match nerves. Who else is going to be there? Will it be fun? Or horrendous? Do I really need to pay to learn something I can get off the internet? Do I have enough money to justify paying for crochet classes, when I don't even have an overwhelming desire to crochet? How am I going to get my bike from Vauxhall home?

And, most importantly, what kind of choccie biscuits will they provide?

Today is...

The Fifth of the Sixth of the Seventh.

I just wanted to share that.

Kxx

Sublime yarn

is gorgeous to knit with. Even though I had to unravel the first fifteen rows because I had managed to change direction halfway through row five. I have no idea how I don't notice that I do that.

On the rabbit front, the pattern is being used a lot. Lisa has requested it and so has Stacey!

Did you read the latest post in AngelKnits?

Ella

Which stitch n bitch were you thinking of going to this week? You may want to read what will be happening at AngelKnits tomorrow?


Still fancy going???

On going projects

There's nothing new or exciting starting or even going on with my knitting at the moment.

• The stripy socks
  
  My love for sock knitting has been severely hamped by the reality of using 5 x 2.5 m needles. It's progressing pretty consistantly but it's so bloody slow! Also, the self-patterning wool is cool but in reality there is only one pattern and that has already repeated itself three times. I suppose it didn't help that I read a fantastic soul food cook book recently that had a graphic recipe for chitterlins (pig intestines) and now as I knit this pink tube my imagination has been hijacked by inappropriate porcine anatomical images.
  
  




• The blue and green cardigan
  
  Yeah, well this one has been on the back burner for weeks. I can't work out how to join the stitches to knit the button band on the side and the frustration is too offputting on continue. I did even try on Sunday morning but ended up pulling out all the ribbing and joined on stitches because it looked so shoddy. I'm not a perfectionist by any stretch of the imagination but this is my best piece so far and I'd like to end as well as it started.



• The alpaca fingerless mitts
  
  
  
  They are both mostly finished but the second one still needs to be sewed up. Oh, and I have yet to knit on the thumb bit. The pattern also had a crocheted flower on the end which I didn't pay attention to because I have no idea how to crochet - or indeed don't own the right needle. So they are unfinished. And it's summer so I guess there's a good six months before I might need them (either for myself or a handy gift) and I'm not panicking.



• More bloody bunnies
  
  I accidentally agreed to make my boss two rabbits for his grandchildren (I assume). However he wants them the same as Isobel which means I have to go out and get some wool. Sure the pattern was cute to begin with but now I am seriously bored! (Oh, I found the reference: it comes from Toy Knits by Debbie Bliss. Ella says you can justify buying a pattern book if you can see at least three patterns you plan to make. Is it still economical/justifiable if you only use one pattern but use it more than three times? )

Bloody counter

Now it's working but only seems to be able to identify me and my mum. Which is probably all who are reading it, so perhaps not such a worry.

Is it working or is there a dropped html stitch somewhere?

Right. It's Friday evening and I am determined to sort out this bloody blog before the weekend. First off, the tracker. Why isn't it work? Firstly, where on earth, in the source, do I put the html code??? And secondly, why is it only showing my computer? Of course the obvious answer to the second question is that I am the only one looking at the site but I have spies out there (hi Mum) who have been helping me and they are not coming up. Hmmmm... this one is going to take some working.

Then I got thinking about adding some buttons, and images, and thingamebobbins. You know, the normal 'nesting' behaviour of any blogger when he/she finds themselves in a new, empty space. Or perhaps that's just me. Anyway, this of course led to reading some knitting blogs which led to a complete collapse in productivity.

And now I'm hungry and the bike's outside still with a flat tyre and my movie is calling (mostly so I can knit although I'm not so sure how well that will work since it's subtitled) and the tracker is still not fixed and most upsettingly this post has absolutely no point. Shame.

This is what I was hoping to attach to my sidebar but mostly because I think it looks cool:

One day, my friend...

you will be a sock.

This is a big moment for me as a knitter. I am attempting the Dreaded Sock. Whether this is dreaded because the wool is extra-fine, the pattern is more complex than anything I've done or the five needles are sending me insane I am yet to decide.

The wool came via a colleague who picked it up at Heath's Country Store in Nottinghamshire or thereabouts. I am seriously considering a wool-expedition but seeing as I've yet to make it to Vauxhall to check out I Knit London it's unlikely I will make it across the county line. But I can dream. Just like my sock.

Where's your blue and green cardi then?

Well?

My very first rabbit, as yet, unnamed.

Isabel the Rabbit

Made for my pregnant colleague using the pattern from ... ooh, no idea. I'll reference it when I get home tonight. Bloody brilliant though, as it's mucho cuteo, quick to make and looking at this site they appear to have bred like rabbits!

And then there were two...

...albeit entirely unwearable booties.

My first tension square: proof!

It's in some self-striping sock wool and transfered from my phone by the ever reliable card reader (which all self-reliant girls should carry around with them, next to their stitch carrier and puncture repair kit. Althouh that might just be me.)