Category Archives: random stuff

It is ridiculously cold here today. The weekend was a washout and finally on Saturday evening we realised the absurdity of sitting shivering on the sofa in several layers of clothing and actually turned the heating on. I don’t know what is happening to June, but with Wimbledon starting next week, it begins to make sense.

And in between making endless cups of tea to warm my hands on, I have been finishing off the descriptively-titled Sirdar 2303 that I started far too long ago and ended up languishing behind a parade of knitted monsters.

But oh, I hate seaming. The reason I completely and utterly embraced the wonder of top-down raglan cardigans when I first discovered them was because there is nary a seam to sew. It’s not because I can’t do it, I just get a terrible nervous feeling when I take two flat pieces of knitting and have to somehow fit them together. And it takes forever.

Yesterday it took the whole day to sew up two shoulder seams, pick up the collar and button bands and attach the sleeves. Not helped by the fact that first off I sewed the right front to the left shoulder and then had to unpick it, causing the yarn to untwist into its separate strand/plies and becoming impossible to use. I still have the sleeve and side seams and the buttons to do.

I’m torn between thinking that only knitting one style of cardigan forever isn’t a bad thing after all, and feeling that I should be extending my skills before I become bored with the same-ness of my knitting. I just see myself doing the same thing over again: starting a project with excitement and determination and then by the time the back and left front are complete, becoming fed up and putting it aside to knit a top-down raglan in three days flat! And yes, I do have a complete, top-down raglan waiting to be photographed when the rain clears up. Which entirely illustrates my point…

So do you have a favourite garment style that you knit over and over again. And if so, why?

…to a rubbish week. Thank you all for the get well wishes on my last post. I am feeling heaps better now and no longer have a scary-looking ear. Now if it could stop raining ALL THE TIME, I’d be entirely contented. It can go and do some good in the areas of the UK that have had drought warnings.

But to cheer me up, I have now booked to go to KnitNation on the Saturday with rubbishknitter. It’s the first knitting event I’ve been to for almost three years (!) so I am giddy and excited and wondering if taking a giant shopping trolley with me is at all possible…

Nothing of mine to post today. I’m getting over an ear infection with various unguents and tablets which probably wouldn’t have got as bad in the first place if I’d gone to the doctor sooner, instead of doing my usual thing with anything health-related and just ignoring it in the hope it would go away.

So for knitting-related content, here’s a knitted Dobby the Elf which Henry won for me by entering a competition on the newest Harry Potter dvd, and arrived yesterday. He’s definitely knitted, but not sure how good a likeness it is. Rose keeps calling him “mouse”!

Just to prove – to myself as much as to anyone else – that I haven’t been idly twiddling my thumbs this past couple of weeks.

Well, I still don’t have glasses. On Saturday I had the whole eye drops brouhaha which made everything blurry for the next day and gave me a stonking headache. It was a bit like having a hangover but without the good bit of getting drunk first..! And it has now been decided that the lenses need tweaking yet again.

I have to say that I can’t fault the optician’s willingness to fix this. I’ve had six tests now (I think; I’m beginning to lose count) and at no point has any suggestion been made that I am in any way annoying, insane or don’t know my own eyes. So I am coping without for the next week and will take yet another trip into town at the weekend to pick up New Glasses Version 3!

My copy of the Summer 2011 issue of Interweave Knits arrived in today’s post, thanks to the always-speedy shipping from Hulu. I have a cuppa, a soon-to-be-napping baby and a good read. Happy weekend everyone!

I’m having another sort out of my books! All below are for sale; click on the cover of each book to take you to their Ravelry page where you can see the patterns inside.

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All books are paperback and I’d like £5 for each one. Postage is extra. I’m happy to post anywhere in the world but it *will* cost more the further away I have to send it! Please email me (email address top left!) if interested.

And if I end up having some space on my shelves, how long do you reckon it will it be before I fill it again…?

A few months ago I noticed that I was having trouble reading small print, such as the ridiculously tiny writing they put on yarn ball bands with the somewhat vital meterage information. Because I am an organised sort of person, it took only a few months (!) for me to finally get an appointment at the optician and get my eyes tested. And so the fun began…

Firstly, my eye test results were apparently completely inconsistent so I needed to go back for another test with eye drops which would render me all but blind for the rest of the day. Then I apparently didn’t need the eye drops because my results were perfectly consistent. Waited for glasses to be made. Glasses made everything turn blurry and eyes ache. Was told to get used to them. Didn’t get used to them. Another eye test later and the prescription was altered. Waited for glasses to be made again. Finally (!) picked up the glasses on Saturday, thanks to the ridiculous number of bank holidays we’ve had over the past month. And they are still blurry, although my eyes don’t ache so that’s something to be grateful for. *sigh*

I’m preparing myself for yet another trip to the optician. The problem is that I can see well enough without wearing glasses, as long as I don’t actually want to do anything that involves looking at something closely. Such as lace or socks on tiny needles. So I can either accept that I am only ever going to knit chunky stocking stitch for the rest of my life or put on my big girl knickers and go and be stroppy. Anyone got a chip for my shoulder?

*shakes fist at sky*

When I saw the preview of the Summer 2011 issue of Interweave Knits was now available, I clicked on the link quicker than a very quick thing. I scrolled through the patterns and for once nothing was really making me go weak at the knees. Certainly not enough to make me part with the best part of seven English pounds for the magazine to sit on the shelf for evermore. (Have I knitted anything from the Spring 2011 issue? I have not.)

And then I saw the Baby Elephant Vest by Melanie Rice:

It has lace elephants on it! It’s ridiculously cute! It would fit Rose! Interweave, you are evil and I don’t like you any more. (Just don’t stop me buying this issue so I can knit an elephanty vest, TYVM.)

No matter which way you’re going to vote today, this video helps explain it all.

I’ve been having a bit of a clear out of my Ravelry queue. Unlike a lot of stuff in my life, it’s actually nicely organised, with different sections for socks, widget and cardigans and Rose and the boys (though mainly Rose because she’s less fussy) even have their own section for things I might knit for them one day.

But I’ve just had to delete about half of the ones I planned to knit for Rose because she’s now too big for the biggest size available. So many knits I’d wanted to make and then ran out of time. If I have one regret about all the baby knitting I did, it’s that I knitted far too many things the same size. No baby needs to have more than a couple of cardigans in one size unless they live in a very cold climate and/or are extremely messy! A Cardigan for Merry is off the list. I didn’t bother when I was pregnant because It would be “ages” before Rose was a year old (ha!). And now she’ll be at least two years old before she needs a snuggly cardigan again and far too big for the pattern.

Though I’m also excited because Rose is now entering the smallest size range for Alice Starmore’s Secret Garden, which is beautiful. And I have added to my pattern collection by buying a copy of Zoe Mellor’s Adorable Knits for Tiny Tots (A complete bargain on Amazon as the cover price is actually £14.99, not £4.99 as they say it is!):

Which has some lovely patterns that I should hopefully get the opportunity to knit before Rose gets too big! I really, really, REALLY want to crack intarsia this year and I think something cute for Rose will be the impetus I need.

Well, I have a functioning pc, although there is absolutely nothing on here. I had to install my beloved Firefox which is a given, but finding that I’m having to reinstall even seemingly basic stuff so I could just look at a pdf is a bit of a pain. Mr B has been working like a hero over the past week to try to sort it out and it looks as though the data is still all there on the hard drive, so the working theory is that it was the graphics card that died. And once I get my fingers on all my stuff again, it’s being put somewhere very, very safe indeed.

So this pc is only temporary and isn’t even connected to the printer (and I’ve just realised I don’t even have Word! Argh!) and it’s not worth getting settled, though I might get out a few cushions to cosy it up a bit. And (un)fortunately, rubbishknitter, a new graphics card is way, way cheaper than a whole new machine.

I am writing this post one-handed on a laptop without a mouse or a permanent power supply. My eight year old pc died suddenly on Friday evening and currently I don’t know even if I can access any of my files. The patterns at least are safe on Ravelry/this website, fortunately. But I don’t even want to think about the rest of it until I have to!

I shall hopefully be back online regularly soon. I can access emails sporadically, but plase bear with me as I won’t be able to reply to comments until things are back to normal.

If you spend too long looking at the lace edging on someone’s knitted cardigan on the bus while trying to work out the stitch pattern, it will look like you are ogling their bottom.

Tomorrow is my birthday, so to share the giving around, from today until the end of 27th February (GMT), there will be a 36% discount (hmm… wonder if you can guess how old I’m going to be? ) on all my buyable patterns.

Just enter the code birthdaybunny by using the “use a coupon code” links that appear during purchase or enter your coupon code here – it can be used as many times as you like.

Well, it’s actually a birthday present come early, but it counts as far as I’m concerned.

Absy emailed me the other week for my address as she “had something for me” which arrived today. Excuse the blurry first photo as it was a rush one before a small person grabbed everything. Proof that even a whizzy new camera can’t make a person take good photos.

Well, she had only gone and knitted me another Ene’s Scarf! You may remember me posting a while back about me stupidly losing the one I knitted. When I unwrapped the parcel I confess I got a little bit tearful because I loved my other scarf and was so pis cross that I was an idiot who couldn’t keep track of my belongings. And this one is a beauty:

The yarn is KnitPicks Shadow in “Sunset”, which of course I have never tried before because it’s KnitPicks and I’m not in North America or Canada. It’s very soft indeed and I wore my new scarf this afternoon on the school run and my neck was as snug as a very snug thing. And I am spoilt and owe about a million knitted things in return.

I have had my digital camera since 2003 and it probably shows. At the time it was bought it was considerably whizzy but it’s getting old and temperamental. Not to mention that it doesn’t have the greatest picture definition and it’s the size of a house brick. So today I got one of these:

It’s lightweight and shiny and apparently has a macro setting to die for. I can’t wait until it’s charged so that I can start using it. At least I have a lot of yarn to practise on!

Nice thoughtful Friday post for you all.

I am feeling somewhat fed up this morning at the lack of a yarn shop nearby. I had the idea to knit something a few days ago and did my default thing of ordering online and now am waiting impatiently calmly and serenely for the yarn to arrive. Had I a LYS nearby, I would have popped on my coat, wrapped up Rose, charged up my Oystercard and paid it a visit. I could have fondled the yarn, made sure that the colours went together instead of crossing my fingers that the inch of yarn on the shadecard was accurate, gone home and cast on that day.

So to exacerbate my pain, please tell me about your wonderful LYS and how you trip along there on a whim to buy the most delicious yarns from the most wonderfully friendly people.

I’ve said before and I’ll say it again. When we next decide to move house, close proximity to a LYS will be on my lists of must-haves. Possibly right at the top of the list before a roof.

Please ignore.

So it’s that time again when I make rash promises that I have to then justify twelve months later.

Fortunately, this time last year I had a small baby and the good sense not to make any sort of declarations of knitting intent. Although in the end, I had only four fewer finished projects in 2010 than I did in 2009:

which impressed me, considering that two thirds of 2009 were baby-free and none of 2010 was! There’s definitely a theme emerging to my knitting, with lots of small accessories and the only garments being baby-sized. I do like the sense of achievement in seeing the finished items build up over the year. And I even managed to include publishing three new designs in that number.

I need to resolve not to make rash statements, though. Remember my mitten fad? Never got past halfway-through the first mitten. *sigh*

So what *will* I do? I plan to dedicate my time to designing. I have the sock book to finish and some other unbloggable stuff going on. This might mean fairly sporadic posting over the coming months because of a lack of time and Secret Things, so I hope you will bear with me.

I love blogging and the feedback and comments I receive. Through this blog I’ve made new knitting friends and been tempted by yarns and patterns and I hope it will continue for many years to come. I’m resolving to reply to all comments I receive from now on, too, because I do read them all. Honest.

St Brigid is still a possibility for 2011. I am now aiming to wangle the yarn for my birthday in February, but it’ll be a very long-term project. It just feels like such a waste to wait years for a book and then to never knit something from it when I finally own a copy, so even a sleeve would be a start..!

I’d like to get out and do more yarny events. I missed Knit Nation and the I Knit Day and even Ally Pally last year and I think it’s time for Rose to spend a bit more quality time with her father.

All in all, I hope to look back in a year’s time with a real sense of achievement. 2011 is a blank page and I want it to be filled with positives and good things. And I hope that you all get whatever you want for the coming year as well.

It’s Christmas Eve evening. I am feeling pretty rough, but have baked and chopped and iced and ironed and wrapped and all without the aid of a large glass of wine.

Hope you all have a peaceful and happy Christmas and I’ll be back in a few days to tie up any loose knitting ends.

My second Brambles Beret is blocking. I was determined to get it done by the weekend and it should be dry by tonight as long as the heating doesn’t pack in because around 11.30-ish the morning a huge whump of snow happened:

which lead to:

Fortunately the postie had already been with the day’s post, including

Which is the Wonderful Wallaby pattern. I’ve seen this pattern on various websites for a while now and everyone that has knitted it has raved about it, and in the end decided to buy it, in part because of the huge size range. It would be nice to knit something for the boys in the new year, perhaps, if I can avoid having to knit one in black. It’s a gorgeous little pattern. The booklet is illustrated with cute drawings and it’s written in a very chatty, EZ sort of style, which I like. I ordered my copy from Earthsong Fibers on 4th December and postage to the UK was only $3.95, so the whole order was only around the eight pound mark, which I don’t think is too bad for such a detailed pattern.

School has finished for the holidays now. I still have one more gift to block and write about, though, and my new Beret to photograph in all its glory.

Thank you for the sympathetic comments on my post about the lost Brambles Beret. That evening I mentioned it to Mr B and he remarked that I was making a habit of losing hats in Croydon. Twice in five years isn’t a habit, dear husband, said I, mentally poking him to eye with a dpn.

What also isn’t a habit is knitting for myself, especially at this time of year. With all my festive knitting done (bar the blocking of a shawl which I should get done next week) it feels positively decadent to knit myself another hat.

The yarn isn’t as wonderful as the Ultra Alpaca, but it’s Cascade 220 which is serviceable, in my stash and a similar colour. I will photograph this one as soon as it’s blocked while it’s blocking so that whatever happens, I will have a record of it.

I really don’t mind if I wake up tomorrow and all the snow has melted. In fact, I would welcome it with open arms and a big snog. The schools have been closed for three days, there has been no post, no supermarket food deliveries and the pipes have frozen. Every time it snows in this country, it somehow takes everyone by surprise and everything grinds to a halt over a few inches of white stuff.

For purely selfish reasons I am miffed about the lack of post because I have a copy of the new Interweave Knits on its way and a vital component of a hat for Henry. We have a postie who wears bermuda shorts almost 365 days a year, after all. I’d have thought that snow would have just meant a change of trousers.

Mr B has dug the car out and is on an errand of mercy for nappies and cat food and I think this weekend we will mainly be hoping for a thaw. Wishing you all a toasty warm weekend, wherever you are!