Still no eyes: the ones I bought are too small, but there are still other bits to sew on while I wait. Can you tell what it is yet?

Only another million little pieces to go..!

I found out about Bobbins magazine through reading rubbishknitter’s blog. It’s a (currently) one-off craft magazine and is really rather brilliant. I bought a copy the other week and read it in the bath during some precious baby-free time.

I don’t read many UK magazines, partly because the patterns don’t appeal to me but also because many of them are overly commercial or have a faux-chummy style which grates somewhat after a while. Bobbins is just a really good read. It doesn’t have the commercial edge, doesn’t claim to be your bestest friend and everything in the magazine is there because it is tasty or pretty or interesting.

The book reviews, for example are honest and a decent length; not just a paragraph about how great every new craft book is and you must buy them all and have no money left to buy the yarn to knit the items in them. I was actually put off buying one book after reading the review that I might otherwise have bought at some point. This is A Good Thing for a person who has bought many books over the years that she has never knitted from, purely because of a review.

My favourite pattern in the magazine is (are?) the Two Hoots socks. I really want to knit these for my handknitted sock- and owl-loving Grandma’s birthday.

My only complaint is the magazine hasn’t even more in it, and that it is only a one-off at present. Actually, that’s two complaints, isn’t it? But it’s rare that I sit down and read anything from cover to cover these days, and I’m just greedy.

I have finally made my Matilda shawl pattern available as a free Ravelry download.

This took a lot longer to reformat than the sock patterns as I wanted to redo the charts to make them clearer and – because I am clearly a glutton for punishment – wanted to provide written directions as well.

…to everyone who bought one of my patterns before 31st January. I am now able to donate £80 to UNICEF’s Haiti Earthquake Children’s Appeal.

So with days to spare, I manage to squeak in with some knitting in the first month of 2010. It’s been a “difficult” month, and I’ll be glad to see the back of it.

I hadn’t picked up the needles since I finished my Evangeline Armwarmers. I had plans, though. Plans for lace and socks and lots of creative stuff that would flow from my needles. And then my baby had a personality transplant and the only time I am free is when I am having a bath. I even have an audience when I’m having a wee – had forgotten about that part of having babies.

But we’re turning a corner and yesterday I tentatively delved into the deepest recesses of my stash for an oddment of soft pure wool yarn, pulled out some soothing bamboo needles and cast on for another baby hat. The plans will still be in my brain next week or next month, after all, ready for when I can finally turn them into reality.

Just a quick post to say that 100% of all sales of my Rosamond and Trillian patterns until 31st January will be donated to UNICEF’s Haiti Earthquake Children’s Appeal. If you already have one (or both!) of these patterns, you can buy one for a friend through Ravelry’s gifting system.

I was going to post a picture of us all bundled up for the cold weather, especially for Kai, but Oscar’s school is closed because of “heavy snow”. Ahem.

It’s slightly heavier than before Christmas, but based on last February, it’s nothing. And Henry’s school was still open, much to his disgust. Just checked on the school’s website, and they’re closing early at 1pm, probably because nicer parents than me let their offspring stay at home and there’s no one to teach. *blushes*

And it’s just started snowing again, so fingers crossed that the buses stay in service til he gets home and I can stop feeling evil.

I’ve been spoilt for the past few weeks. Mr B has been working from home and then on holiday, meaning I haven’t had to venture outside first thing in the morning for the school run for almost a month. So although yesterday was the first day back after the Christmas break, today was the first day I had to see just how cold it was first thing in the morning. But I’m a knitter: I am Prepared.

Rose went out wearing a vest, tights, trousers, long sleeved top, socks, legwarmers, Sweet Baby Cap and Tomten Jacket with the hood pulled up. I wore my new socks from Diane and scarf from Kai (pictures coming up), wristwarmers AND mittens together and a hat, along with my coat and other clothes of course. Along with the baby sling, which is another three layers of fabric, this meant that all that could be seen of my daughter was her face, and I’m now considering the possibility of some sort of baby balaclava. Oscar refused to wear anything other than a hat and gloves with his coat and Henry leaves even earlier to get his bus and probably discards his hat once he’s turned the corner, so it’s just a poor defenceless baby flying the flag for extreme knitwear wearing. But it all worked as we arrived back toasty warm other than cold cheeks on our faces.

All this is a roundabout way of saying that I do love my knitted accessories and I am so lucky to have knitting friends who make me gorgeous knitted stuff. And that it’s about time I shared my Christmas presents.

A beautiful Gail aka Nightsongs shawl from Kai, knitted in Malabrigo sock yarn and adorable Mum-and-baby matching Express Lane socks from Diane, knitted in The Knittery Cashmere. All have been worn and loved already since they were unwrapped and greatly appreciated, especially since it’s apparently going to get even colder here in the next week…

A Christmas round-up and resolutions post in one.

We had a relatively quiet Christmas. I tried very hard not to overdo it and try to make a million different things to eat, but somehow it ended up being seven people for dinner and me producing a mountain of food. Then Rose proceeded to cry throughout the meal, meaning we ended up eating in shifts, Mr B and I. Though I find that I never eat much Christmas dinner anyway as I’m half-sick of the sight of food after cooking all morning! Next year, she’ll be 15 months old and able to tuck in with us all, at least.

I got some gorgeous knitted gifts from Kai and Diane which I will photograph for the next post (currently have a baby attached to me!) and Mr B loved his annual Christmas socks, of course. Other than that, it wasn’t a very yarny sort of Christmas this year.

So onward to 2010. I resolved this time last year to be very selfish, which didn’t exactly pan out the way I’d planned, did it? Though it started well with my Deep-V Argyle Sweater, pretty much as soon as that was off the needles, morning sickness arrived and I made nothing for myself afterwards.

This coming year, I don’t know whether I can plan to achieve anything as it can be days between me putting down and picking up the needles again. But that hasn’t stopped me plotting. I’ve got ideas and charts and notes for new designs and all I need is a 40 hour day and I might just get them done!

Hoping you all have a very peaceful and happy 2010 and the new year brings you whatever you want it to.

Two – two!! – snow posts in the same year! Admittedly, it’s nothing like the snow we had here in February, but it still counts. The boys are disgusted that we have so little, as today is the last day of school for the year, and they were hoping that their holiday would start half a day early. Yes, they only have to go in for a couple of hours and play games and they still complain.

I’m hoping that it won’t all melt or, if it does, it comes back this time next week. A white Christmas would be something really special.

At least, that’s the conclusion I’ve reached after my poor baby has twice been assumed to be a boy. She was wearing purple both times; the second time it was a purple and pink striped top which looks completely girly to me, but apparently the stripes confused matters. Are stripes only for a boy as well, then? *rolls eyes* Heh. I should be used to it, as I now remember DS2 being called a girl, despite wearing head-to-toe blue. Maybe my conclusion should be that people just don’t look properly.

But whether it’s boyish or not, I couldn’t resist this pattern. It’s the Baby’s First Fair Isle sweater pattern, which is knitted on tiny needles and steeked and I am probably never going to finish it before Rose outgrows it. I blame the hours I spend surfing one-handed. I’m full of plans and ideas for knitting projects, but can’t actually make any of them.

The yarn is the exact same as used in the original pattern, which is something I almost never achieve. Being Trekking and Opal, though, means it’s easy to find, relatively speaking. The Opal was no problem, but the Trekking eluded me til I thought to check people’s stashes on Ravelry. When, thanks to Lesley, I finally got hold of some.

I’m saving this as a post-Christmas project. Once all the visits and cooking and being sociable is over, I intend to hibernate in my pyjamas and knit as long as I can while I have both hands free.

Purple, bunny-shaped buttons. How could I resist? Available from Delish Beads on Etsy, just in case anyone else has the urge for cute buttonage. Now I just have to knit something for them to be sewn on to…

BTW, speaking of irresistible things, the Drops Christmas Calendar is back again with a new free pattern every day ’til the big event. I love today’s pattern.

Just a quick message inbetween feeds.

You may have read on Ravelry that The Inside Loop website is closing down. Diane and I have decided that with us both having other commitments that take up a huge amount of our time that we won’t be producing any more issues and to therefore take the site down.

What this means is that the patterns and articles will still be available until the end of January, so there’s plenty of time to download any you want. Yesterday we contacted all of the contributors to let them know so that they could start looking into making their work available from alternate sources. We did want to leave it a few days before announcing the site closure to everyone else until we had heard back from all the contributors, so I wanted to reassure everyone that the site isn’t going to “do a Magknits” and just disappear.

It was a lot of fun and hard work producing the magazine for a year. I ate far too much cake, gossiped a huge amount and other than the mad last minute panics that we seemed to have with every issue, it hardly felt like work at all.

My patterns will be reformatted and then put up for download again, hopefully before the site goes down depending on how much free time I get. I would like to rejig a couple of the designs and remake them, but will post here with any updates. The articles I wrote will also end up on here.

And now it’s time for milk again and by the sound of it, another nappy change!

Being dead to the world by 10.30pm every evening means that pretty much anything could happen in my bedroom at night and I’d be oblivious to it. As it happens, I awoke to a very nice surprise today in the form of this artistic effort on my bedroom wall by Mr B to celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary. Who needs Hallmark, eh?

…and more distraction from the existing WIPs. *blushes*

A post to catch up on a few WIPs and answer a few questions that came via the comments.

Firstly, thanks for all the congratulations on my 4th Blogiversary. I tend to get a bit introspective when it comes to anniversaries. Imagine what I’m like on my birthday! I am proud of my little blog in that I have managed to keep it going for so long and that it proves I do a heck of a lot of knitting. So I imagine I’ll gladly hand over the money to keep it going for another year when the time comes. To clarify the paying part: I have my own domain name (http://www.hauntedyarns.com) where I host my blog. So I pay for the webspace each year and to keep the domain name every two years. Back when I decided to buy my own webspace rather than having a free blog, the advantage was that I had somewhere to host pattern pdfs; this was pre-Ravelry which of course has made it less of a need now as I host them all there.

I am woefully behind with the second clue for the Aurantium Shawl. Clue 3 came out early on Tuesday and is the edging, so the end is in sight, if only I can knuckle down and knit it!

I’ve not even finished the first chart of Clue 2: my excuse being that making 9 stitches from 3 is bloomin fiddly with laceweight yarn and takes too much brain power. Though I can tell it’s going to look stunning when it’s done. Probably too stunning for me to get baby sick on, so I may give it to my Grandma as an early Christmas present.

The February Lady Sweater is also making slow progress. Each row is long and the yarn is in 50g balls so runs out really quickly (the number of ends I’ll have to weave in at the end is depressing) but it’s enjoyable knitting.

Of course, I could get both things done a lot quicker if I wasn’t so easily distracted by shiny new patterns like some sort of knitting magpie..!

This blog is four years old today! I started it to have a photographic record of my finished projects and to have somewhere to witter about various yarny subjects. Over the years I’ve been fortunate to have more and more people visiting and I know you’re there, even if you aren’t commenting.

Back in March/April when I was feeling like death warmed up, I did wonder whether I would ever get back to blogging again. And when the baby arrives, I also think that anything regular is going to be impossible to achieve, not least because I’ll have nothing to write about knitting, just how many nappies I’ve changed and whether I got any sleep the previous night. Which doesn’t make for great reading for a knitting blog! Added to that the fact that I have to pay for the webspace irrespective of how often I blog, right now I don’t know whether I’ll be keeping the blog after January, when it comes up for renewal and whether there’ll therefore be a fifth blogiversary.

But all that is in the future and not something I have to worry about for the moment. So do take a slice of cake and I’ll put the kettle on as champagne is off the menu at the moment.

I’ve fallen in love with garter stitch. For a long time, I avoided it because it seemed beginner-ish and dull. But I’ve grown to love the texture and the fact that it knits up in a millisecond. So I’d been debating about whether to knit a February Lady Sweater for a while. I didn’t want to commit myself to anything big with the time til the Big Day rapidly disappearing and far too much to organise before then. But the fact is, I wanted one. It’ll look good with the bump and be nice coverage for afterwards when I’m undressing in front of everyone every couple of hours.

The yarn is Louisa Harding Kashmir Aran from my stash. It’s been destined to be several different projects, but in the end, I think it suits a lace pattern best. The texture is odd as it’s not a twisted yarn but like a length of finely-knitted i-cord. It’s very soft, though, and has a slight sheen.

The hardest part so far was getting to the sleeve division. I had over 300 stitches on the needle and every row was taking at least a quarter of an hour and I was slowly losing the will to knit. But now it’s done, it’s just lace pattern til it’s long enough and hopefully it’ll be a lot more enjoyable!

How can I avoid knitting baby hats when patterns like this one are lying in wait to tempt me?!

The pattern is Blue Rabbit Hat by Mel Clark. I don’t know whether to buy some yarn and cast on immediately, or just stay away from Ravelry until October.

There is progress on the Trellis cardigan after having a break for knitting pant-wearing superheroes and lace. And I may also have given in to the hat urge yet again… but I’m planning ahead!

After giving DS2 his Captain Underpants toy on Friday, DS1 started asking where his toy was. Apparently a hat is not the same as a toy. Even a Manchester United hat. Now the problem is that DS1 wants a Sackboy, for which I do have a pattern. But it’s this one (Ravelry link), an Alan Dart pattern knitted in about a million sodding pieces and with about ten years’ worth of seaming to be done.

It might not be too bad: I’m hoping I can convert parts to be knitted in the round to avoid as much seaming as I can. In the meantime, I have yarn in a DS1-approved colour:

and clearly I now know my place.

Oh dear, this does look bad. But it’s not a baby hat, and I had already decided to knit it AGES ago. Honest!

DS1 is a huge fan of Manchester United. So when I saw this pattern appear on Ravelry, I showed him it and he was practically leaping around the room at the thought of having a special Man U hat, how could I refuse to knit him one? Seriously, getting any sort of enthusiasm from an 11 year old about anything is rare, so I need to make the most of it. I thought I’d be safe from teenage apathy for a couple of years at least.

The pattern is designed by Tori, who also designed the beautiful Hippocampus mittens that were in the Winter ‘08 issue of The Inside Loop (and I will knit them one day, I will!) She’s designed a range of football club hats to raise funds for a new football ground in Lillehammer, which they clearly need from the photos, so if you know any Man U/Liverpool/AC Milan/Barcelona/Juventus supporters who might need their heads warming, then here is a good place to start looking for patterns.

I’m using the yarn specified in the pattern. It’s Dalegarn Falk, 100% wool and machine washable (my heart sang at that point because you really don’t want to know what happens to small boys’ hats over the course of a winter and I don’t think a gentle soak in some Eucalan would cut it) bought from Dragon Yarns and feels really nice. Will be interesting to see how it blooms after washing.

But I’m saving this to start at the beginning of August. I want to get as much knitting done before October, anyway – even winter hats! – but Mr B is off for a gentle stroll some serious walking with the small people and some of his work colleagues in the Cotswolds for the weekend. So I am tagging along and planning to spend the day sitting on a comfy chair with my knitting and a regular supply of tea and food while they’re off sweating. So this should keep me occupied for the day! We’re staying here, so it’s not exactly roughing it.

Now the Moo hat is done, minus sewing on the ears, I decided to go ahead with the urge to knit something on bigger needles as I’m not quite feeling like more tiny needle knitting! Fortunately, I knew exactly what I wanted to knit.

I’ve made Trellis before as a baby gift, about four years ago now. IIRC, it was my first ever cabled project and a really enjoyable knit.

I’m using Rowan All Seasons Cotton like the original pattern. More stash-busting, as I got these four balls as my Rowan International membership gift when I was last a member. The colour is a gorgeous purple/lilac/mauve and I have just the right amount to knit the smallest size, so it must be fate.

First of all, I just need to point somewhat frantically at the countdown ticker on the left. 100 days to go! When I say the baby is due in October, it seems like ages away, but it’s less than 15 weeks (assuming she arrives on the due date, ha ha ha). *knits faster* I should have got a bit of a clue from the sudden explosion of bump that has appeared:

I’ve given in and bought maternity jeans after wearing my old, big girl trousers for the past few months and ironically I feel slimmer because they’re not flapping around my legs. And the comfort of a huge stretchy cotton tummy panel cannot be underestimated.

So, to the knitting. I really do not need to make any more hats, but when they have ears on, it’s hard to resist! Plus I had suitable yarn in my stash. The pattern I’m making is from the Dale of Norway #135 I bought last week; picture of hat here top right, page 7. I wonder how many other animals I can make this poor child look like?

It’s an interesting knit. Partly because there’s no real symmetry to the cow print pattern, which means paying attention on every row. And though the directions for the hat itself are clear, the total stitch count for the hat doesn’t match the stitch count for the pattern chart and there’s no indication of where to start on the chart. So I just winged it! The randomness helps as it’s impossible to tell that it *isn’t* supposed to look a certain way.

The worst part really was having to knit the ribbing on 1.5mm needles. I needed to go down to 2mm needles to get the correct pattern tension, so following the convention of going down two needle sizes for the ribbing, that’s what I ended up with. Though it was over quickly enough, it’ll be a different story when/if I choose to knit a cardigan from the book and have to cast on around 200 stitches on 1.5mm needles. I’ve prepared for this by buying a 1.5mm circular needle, which is really just two toothpicks held together with dental floss and frankly gives me the willies. I may go and dig out some aran weight yarn instead.