Category Archives: random stuff

Thank you all for your suggestions on what to knit with the Wollmeise yarn. It was fun reading through them and deciding which one to pick. In the end I was very tempted by Aberdonian’s heartfelt plea but decided to go with josiekitten‘s suggestion as it’s a subject I care very much about and I like the idea of bright orange Wollmeise socks wandering the world.

Josiekitten: please email me with your address and I’ll pop the yarn in the post to you. Absy: I have a very small skein of blue Wollmeise left over from my Swallowtail shawl. It’s not orange (obviously) but if you email me your address as well, you can have it to squish and knit something very small.

You know those days where nothing goes right and as the day goes on, everything just accumulates until it’s just a whole heap of rubbishness and you wish you’d just decided to stay in bed instead?

Rose was grumpy. I was grumpy. Nothing exciting was planned for the day except a date with the washing machine and a pile of dirty plates to wash up. Rose got grumpier and refused to have a nap and I gradually ate my way through all the chocolate biscuits in the house. And then possibly went to the shop to buy more…

I decided to cheer myself up by winding up some yarn. In this case, some lovely handspun laceweight yarn that was a present from Kai.

So, grumpy baby, grumpy parent, laceweight yarn… what could possibly go wrong?! While glossing over the finer points of what happened, I ended up with a pile of tangled yarn and a broken swift.

When Mr B came home, I bemoaned the now lack of swiftness due, possibly in part, to me (but only slightly). Much as I’d love a stylish wooden swift that doubles as a table decoration, they’re not cheap and I foresaw a lot of small people being coerced into skein holding duties.

Until the next morning when I found this sitting by my bed:

My lovely husband had got up at 5am and, before he drove off into the dawn to another day of doing whatever he does, had glued together my poor, broken swift. It now turns with a slight wobble which I think gives it character. But more importantly, I can wind yarn again. Although never again when I am in anything less than the happiest of moods.

I saw an advert for AK Traditions’ Huggable Friends in a back issue of The Knitter and fell in love. Having only had two boys before, I’m not really “up” on girls’ toys, and at the tender age of almost-nine months, I don’t expect Rose cares one way or t’other about the toys she plays with other than they’re fun and keep her occupied for a few minutes. But seeing the advert made me realise that her mother she needs a dolly.

A quick Google led me to The Knitting Parlour as a stockist of the booklet (and with free postage!). It arrived after a couple of days, wrapped in purple tissue paper which now makes me a customer for life.

I bought the book mainly for the doll I saw in the advert, Abbey:

who has fantastic auburn plaits which I greatly envy – I’ve been dyeing my hair red since I was about sixteen because I’d love to have it that colour naturally – but the other patterns are also gorgeous, including Finn who looks handsome in a traditional guernsey sweater and my namesake:

who even wears a purple hat.

Now I just need the pattern to knit itself and I’m sorted..!

I fear this might be a recurring theme for the next week…

1. Prairie Rose Shawl looking much the same as it did a week ago? Check.
2. Manly sock not touched at all? Check.
3. Pattern testing for Marina still ongoing? Check.
4. Grumpy baby with TWO NEW TEETH permanently attached to me (baby, that is, not the teeth!), meaning that I can’t do anything about the first two? Check.

There isn’t a cloud in the sky today and it’s unbearably hot. Because, of course, after complaining about the cold and rain of the past few weeks, as soon as a bit of sunshine appears, it’s time to start complaining about *that*.

So no knitting for me today. Rose and I are sitting in the shade until it cools down and we can go into the garden.

I think I’ve said a few times that with certain techniques it’s a matter of finding a pattern that you have to knit to give you the impetus to try it out. Crochet being one, and also my other nemesis, intarsia. Even typing the word makes me feel slightly faint.

Well, dear readers, I have found The Project. The one that will get me using bobbins and other such fandangles.

Willie by Pamela Wynne is possibly the best use of intarsia I’ve seen for ages. I am not a huge dog lover, but there’s something about sausage dogs that makes me giggle. And this is one loooooooooooooong doggie:

It’s completely not the season to knit cardigans, but Rose is beginning to outgrow even the biggest of the ones I knitted her before she was born and it’s always good to be prepared.

Yarnwise, I’m debating whether to go for the yarn used in the pattern, Louet Riverstone Chunky, or Texere Chunky. I love the colours of the original pattern, but the Texere yarn comes in stronger shades and I rather like the idea of turquoise with a mustard edging.

In either case, I need to equip myself with bobbins and larger needles. I don’t have any circular needles in the 5 or 5½mm sizes as I never knit with chunky yarns. This is going to be an expensive little sausage.

I need to stop overestimating the amount of knitting I can do in a day right now, especially when it’s the final few rows of a top-down triangular shawl. So I have nothing to share today. I could share a picture of the shawl all bunched up and sad-looking, but instead here is my favourite YouTube video ever, for old-time’s sake.

Also, I have decided to have a good clear out of my yarn stash because it’s frankly ridiculous and I *will* die squashed under a mountain of yarn one day. I’ve started updating my trade page on Ravelry, and will add more when I have spare time. Feel free to email or message me if you want to save me from my fate.

I’ve had a couple of kind people email me to say that they’ve been trying to leave comments but are being told that they’re spamming. I’ve deactivated the spam plugin on the blog for now and hopefully that will solve it for the time being. It doesn’t work, anyway, as I keep being offered cheap designer handbags…

Proper post later today.

One school ended for the Easter break yesterday, the other tomorrow. So I’m taking this as a sign that I need to batten down the hatches, fill the cupboards with food and hope my eardrums don’t burst.

It also means I’ll be away from blogging for a couple of weeks. I’ll be back mid-April if not refreshed and invigorated after my holiday, at least with some finished projects to share.

As I spend most of my “free time” knitting, I don’t get much time to sit down and just read these days, so when Rose has a nap it’s a nice treat for me to have a cuppa and a read of something knitting-related.

I have been buying Interweave Knits since the beginning of 2005 when I finally discovered it existed. It was very much a source of inspiration for me when I was less confident and more scared of anything that involved strange techniques like stranded knitting or even circular needles. Nowadays I buy it in the hope that one day I will again be motivated enough to knit myself a sweater.

So when I got an email from Interweave dangling a 15% discount in front of me, I decided to treat myself to some of the issues I don’t have, and started with 2004. It took 3 weeks to arrive after it was shipped, which made me a bit fidgety as I thought it might have gone the same way as my sock yarn, but it did get here, and I eagerly unwrapped it and put it into the PC.

Unfortunately, it’s not really the same, “ooh! new Interweave!”, experience when those magazines are on CD. When I bought the digital version of The Knitter, I wasn’t bothered about what else was in the magazine as I had my sights focussed on Alice Starmore goodies, but with Interweave I do like to read it cover-to-cover. Now the magazines are in pdf format, with a contents page at the side and the patterns are easy to print, but it’s not really the same as sitting on the sofa with a snoozing baby and something to read. But I have patterns aplenty now, with the Flower Basket Shawl being the first I printed off.

I think, for me, that digital magazines will only be an option for me if I’ve missed a must-have pattern and I will always prefer the feel and smell of a shiny new magazine, in much the same way that I eschew the idea of ebook readers. I suspect this is is a sign of me getting old.

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 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!