Lidl occasionally have yarn in on special offer. Usually it’s just something acrylic that doesn’t interest me, but this time they have actual wool/nylon sock yarn and that interests me greatly.

Four 50g balls for £2.99 is a bargain and I snapped up some navy and grey solids and some green and brown variegated. I was tempted to buy some of all the solids, just because they’d be handy for mittens, but I resisted. The yarn feels fairly soft which surprised me; softer than Opal or Trekking, which is my benchmark for softness-of-sock-yarn. I think it might suit being knitted fairly tightly. And of course now I have potential for six pairs of handknitted socks for less than nine quid which is not to be sniffed at.

It’s that time of year again. There are the good bits, like buying new pencil cases and pencils and stationery goodies (I suspect I enjoy this part rather more than the boys do). And then the rubbish bits, such as the realisation that last term’s PE kit is too small on the day before school starts and the tedium of sewing on eleventy billion nametapes. One small person is back, one to go tomorrow and then maybe I can think straight for five minutes and share some knitting with you all.

So the first mitten is on the needles and gradually taking shape. With so many patterns and different colours of yarn to pick from, I just went for the easiest option which was to knit a pair in the same colours as the pattern photo.

This is the start of a pair of Heather’s Mittens by SpillyJane. It’s not quite the rhythmic standing I like best: the pattern isn’t symmetrical and needs close attention, but I adore the way the stems are curving and the leaves appearing after each few rows.

I’m magic looping this mitten. It’s a method that seems tailor made for them. Two needles – two sides of a mitt. It would be nice not having to use such titchy 2mm needles, but I am a loose woman.

There must be a term for the complete opposite of a mitten. An anti-mitten? Digging around in my stash produced these little pudgy cakes of fingering weight wool in a multitude of colours. Now I just need to work out which colours go together…

To date, I have completed a single, solitary pair of mittens. The yarn I used for them, Rowan Classic Cashsoft 4ply, is totally unsuited to keeping your hands warm in the winter (not a 100% wool yarn, coupled with being knitted at a relatively loose tension, I think) so I don’t wear them when it’s actually cold (!), but they are damn gorgeous mittens and I am suitably chuffed with my knitting skills.

So having only knitted one pair of mitts, how come I have so many patterns?

I have mitten patterns from Russia. Patterns from Estonia. Patterns from Sweden. Top-down mittens. Mittens on kittens. If I catch the word “mitten” in the corner of my eye, I’m on it like a woman possessed. I think it’s the fact they are small (quick to knit!) but beautiful (impress people!). Some of the patterns I have are like little works of art, and who wouldn’t want to wear art on their hands?

However, I only have one pair of hands. It’s not like socks where you can reasonably wear a clean pair each day. So I hope everyone that knows me will understand this obsession and forgive me when they are all gifted mittens this year. And then I’ll have got it out of my system, I promise.

And a reminder that 50% of all profits until the end of September will be donated to UNICEF’s Pakistan Relief Fund. I’d love to be able to give a really big donation to the cause as it’s not getting the news coverage or financial assistance that it should. I don’t know why and I don’t want to get into heavy political debate on a very un-political blog, but the end it’s just regular men, women and children who are suffering and that need help.

The pattern is currently in the last stages of being tested and edited. I had always planned to make this a charity pattern but, inspired by yarndancer‘s blog post decided to make it open for pre-orders to get the ball rolling. The actual pattern will be ready after the weekend. 50% of all profits from sales of this pattern until the end of September will be donated to UNICEF’s Pakistan Flood Children’s Appeal BTW, if you’re in the market for a sock pattern, do look at yarndancer’s Ravelry store. Lots of lovely designs and she is also making a donation to the Pakistan Relief Fund for every pattern sold.

Olivia is a top-down triangular shawl with a series of different stitch patterns to keep your interest. Declared “un-putdown-able” by one tester!

Each pattern section flows into the next and the number of repeats can easily be increased to make the shawl completely customisable. The lace increases to form a natural curve in the top edge of the triangle to fit around the shoulders.

The pattern contains both written and charted directions.

Size: Shawl shown measures 106cm/42 inches by 124cm/49 inches. Finished measurements will depend on how severely the shawl is blocked.
Yarn: Approximately 425 to 475m fingering-weight yarn. Shawl shown is knitted in Artist’s Palette Yarns Smoothie Sock (75% superwash merino wool/25% nylon, 425m/100g) in colour: Olive
Tension: 26 stitches = 10cm/4 inches in stocking stitch before blocking with 3mm (US 2½) needles. Actual tension is not vital but will affect how much yarn is needed and the finished size of the shawl.

Price: £2.75

and Thank You.

Crawling is no longer good enough. Rose is pulling herself up on everything she can and edging around the room like a baby on a mission! Probably not that randomly, her feet have suddenly grown too, and I get the feeling it won’t be long before there’s a post about her first visit to buy shoes.

She can babble along quite nicely now. Occasionally the “mamamama” or “dadadada” is directed to the right person. She also squeals when she sees someone she recognises, like her big brothers. She can clap her hands:

and point to things with her index fingers. She loves mealtimes although eats very little as most of it ends up smeared on her face or in her hair.

It’s scary to think that the next of these posts will be celebrating her first birthday. I don’t know where this year has gone. I’m so glad I have these updates to look back on to see just how she has progressed. And possibly to embarrass her with when she’s older.

This month’s colourway is called “Family Vacation” and is inspired by this photo:

As the person who gave away Wollmeise because it was orange, I think it’s pretty clear that I won’t be using this yarn for anything for *me*! But I can think of a couple of people who would love the colours and it’s gone into the pile for Christmas knits. If I can use that word in August.

The club is taking a break for September which I think is probably a good thing for my stash as I can hopefully make a bit more space before it restarts.

Still bogging along, with the Baby Bog Jacket now looking rather like a knitted superhero cape. The interesting cream stripes are from the thumb trick, which many of us will have most likely come across before when knitting a pair of Fetchings. You knit across the stitches with a length of scrap yarn, slip them back to the left-hand needle and knit across them again with the working yarn. When the scrap yarn is removed at the end of the knitting, you’re left with two rows of live stitches. In this case, for grafting together the fronts and sleeves of the jacket.

Reaching this point is a relief as there were times I did wonder what on earth I was doing knitting row upon row of garter stitch. Mindless knitting changed to “hmmm, this is beginning to get a bit tedious” at around ridge 18. By ridge 28 I was speculating that the reason there are relatively few Baby Bogs on Ravelry is that many knitters expired of boredom before they finished the wretched thing. But then hurrah for Sense and Sensibility on DVD on Saturday night, the boys entertaining their sister while I admired bonnets and me knitting a good 30 rows uninterrupted.

Yesterday I reached the wonderful decreasing row and now have only 100 stitches to contend with, plus the interest of the shaping for the armhole. The sleeves are all knitted as part of this garment, but there are directions for adding slipped stitches to mimic a seam and some increasing and decreasing to help with the fit. I think I may actually get this finished and not have KILLED BY GARTER STITCH BOREDOM on my gravestone after all.