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?