What a full, active life I lead.

Following on from my previous post – no, I haven’t done any gardening at all this weekend. Some of my vegetables are sprouting, but the sunflower seeds are ignoring me. This confirms that flowers hate me (I have had terrible sinus so far this season) and vegetables love me (which explains why the strangest man in the room always feels the urge to come and talk to me about cabbages and their plans for world domination).

My life for the last few days has been something like this :

Friday :
I did some more knitting with the new Elle 50% wool 50% cotton DK. All in all not an unpleasant experience.

I liked – the wool was nice and soft and knits up pretty nicely. Even though it isn’t that tightly spun I had no problems with it splitting. The colour was gorgeous, I thought of raspberry sorbet all the time I was knitting, and the wool makes the cotton less obvious and gives it a nice bit of bounce. My stitches weren’t quite as even as I get with wool, but that is something I expect and allow for when using cotton.

I disliked – the colour and dye lot information on the INSIDE of the ball band. This is one of those ball bands that sort of impales the ball so you (OK - me – maybe I’m clumsier than most) pretty much have to dismantle the whole thing to see if you have balls from a matched set.



I seriously disliked – the KNOT! Just far enough into the ball to make you wonder if it is worth ripping but then again just far enough that you know you will make a plan. I have another 2 balls to knit into a chemo cap for Georgia (more on her later) and really hope not to have a repeat of this. It isn’t really the experience you want to have when you are trying something for the first time.



I was totally puzzled by – this thing



This would explain why I couldn’t find the inside end of the ball when I fiddled around in its insides. The ball was wound around it. I have obviously lived a sheltered life as I have never seen anything like this before. It seems like cheating to me. Kind of like stuffing tissues in your bra. Does this happen often? Am I the only one to find this vaguely creepy? I discovered this after I’d found the knot and decided to re-wind into the centre pull ball I’d been wanting all along with the added check for any additional knots.

Saturday :
This just got away from me. I did the monthly shop in the morning, took the kids to the library to exchange old books for new ones, did a bit of shopping and took the kids for lunch. Then I took Jackie to visit a friend who has just had a knee replacement. I was supposed to be there at 3. I was convinced that I left home at 2:30. The trip took no longer or shorter than it should have but we got there at 4. Either there is a time warp somewhere between our homes or I managed to lose an hour. Then, when I went to make myself a cup of tea I put salt in instead of sugar. For future reference – tea draws much faster when you ladle in a few spoons of salt rather than sugar. It also tastes AWFUL!

Things got better after that, though. We had a nice visit, she liked the books I got her at the Library’s second hand sale (was it terrible of me to ask her to give them back once she’s read them so I can read them too?), and I didn’t lose any more time that day I did also sit and watch “Haunted Mansion” with the kids and get a kiddy hat finished. More on that later.

Sunday :
I blocked the shawl for Georgia. 2 balls of “Splish Splash” cotton, 5.5mm needles (I think) and what I could remember of the Kiri shawl pattern as I was too lazy to check on it when I started.

Yes, I am blocking on the squishy floor things that you get for the kids. I was thinking of getting wood and nails and making a blocking frame so I stop having to borrow beds but I saw these when I was shopping, realised just how much cheaper and time efficient they were compared to making anything and just bought two sets. I think I might buy myself more.

Before



During


You will get an after picture once I hand it over, hopefully on Saturday at knitting.

Then I delivered some HONEY stuff to Maureen, bought milk for the week, dropped the boy child off at the shops so he could browse the bookshops and took Jackie to a birthday party. After the initial upset when she hurt her ankle on the trampoline it seems that a good time was had by all as she didn’t want to leave.

She was obviously a little tired, though, as this happened within moments of us getting home. You will see from the picture that yes, indeed, cats are the MOST opportunistic animals in the world.



While she was asleep I washed some underwear and the hat I’d finished on Saturday night. There is a great big i-cord on the top that will get tied into a bow. As I’d chucked everything into the washing machine at once I had bra-balls handy as I was deciding what to stuff the hat with while it dried. How’s this for inventive?

Does it count?????

If you have decided that you are not going to buy anything to knit as you have TONS of stuff in your stash and really should be using it, and that you really need to stop buying sock needles as you have tons of them started but not many finished, does it count as breaking this “promise” when:

1. You were going to be good and use leftover sock yarn to knit a hat for a friend’s daughter but your own daughter saw it and LOVED it and it fit her and she looks SO CUTE in it (scroll down to earlier post to see happy Jackie in pink hat) and now you need to make something else before you see her again in November.
2. You need to use it to make a chemo cap for a different friend as you were going to make her one but used the cotton to make her a shawl instead and she is worried about losing her hair and you’d like to have this done by November too.
3. Buying the wool is REALLY a favour to yet another friend who was wondering how it would knit up but has no real project planned for it and can’t justify getting any just to “test”.
4. All your sock needles (well, at least the 2.5mm DPNs whose location you can think of right now) are full and you want to do the mystery sock on Sock Knitters Anonymous on Ravelry next month and you need to make your daughter “long socks” because she asked so nicely and the are cheap and bamboo and you’ve never used bamboo DPNs before (bamboo circulars yes, by the same maker, and they are NICE) so really this is just an experiment not an actual purchase.

Because – if all these mitigating circumstances don’t count then I have been a BAD GIRL!

BAD GIRL
Originally uploaded by href="http://www.flickr.com/people/14942160@N02/">jaynewagner

Wool is 3 balls of “Elle Elite DK” 50% cotton, 50% wool, colour 034, feels lovely in the ball, will hopefully be just as lovely knit up. Jackie, who grabbed it and yelled “Thank you Mommy” the moment it came out of the bag has been told that it is not for her but that I will make her something with any leftovers.

Just so you know – I do get some knitting done every now and again – see Michael’s next sock below. Trekking (XXL), colour 23, pattern made up as I go along (and, if I’m being a GOOD GIRL – see above – noted on an index card so I can recreate the second sock to match it), stitch pattern called “Gingerbread Rib” from a book I borrowed from Miriam – “Vogue Knitting – The Ultimate Sock Book”.

Gingerbread Sock
Originally uploaded by jaynewagner

Commenter who asked about gardening with yoghurt tubs – that post will come over the weekend if I have a moment to plant another one.

We apologise for the delay in blogging

Yesterday’s scheduled blogging was delayed due to the screening of the first episode of “Survivor – Cook Islands”. I know it isn’t marvellous TV but I like it. Jackie and I sit around and watch it together and it is cute to see her pick a favourite team based on their colours. She gets so excited when “her” team wins.

Then it was delayed again as a friend was visiting from the UK and we went out for dinner.

Now, as promised, a summary of what I have been doing with myself all year. Honestly, I would have had so much more time for blogging and knitting for me and all that sort of thing if people around me would just stop getting pregnant and having babies. Strangely enough – all little girl babies – I wonder if the thought of having something handknit is attracting them.

This was for a colleague at work – kind of a rush job – I was darning in the ends on the morning of the baby shower.

This was for my next door neighbour. I don’t always knit for neighbours but Jackie heard that they were having a little girl (she is big on little girls – insists that the world needs more of them and keeps asking when her baby sister is going to arrive) and asked me to make them something.

This was for somebody who just lucked out. The mom is the daughter of the lady who owns / runs the shop where we have our S’nB meetings. I had been really wanting to knit this shawl and her being pregnant was all the excuse I needed. It’s the Rosebud Shawl from the Heirloom Knitting site – done in the KnitPicks dye your own laceweight. I found the pattern incredibly well written and easy to follow, and other than losing a bit of steam once I hit the border (144 repeats of the same pattern – excluding the times when I zoned out, messed up, and had to rip back the best part of one side – TWICE) it was a fairly easy knit. Mother was instructed to USE it and baby has already been spotted in public wrapped up in said shawl so I am a happy knitter.
Shawl is too big to put in one pic and the only ones I have are of it blocking. Here are photos of the centre :

The border:

The edging:

There is also a hat I don’t have a picture of. Maybe Miriam would be kind enough to let me have a pic of it when she has the chance as it was a present for her new arrival. It was another rush job. I finished the knitting in the car on the way to the baby shower. It was well received, though, so worth the effort.

Finally – here is an exception to my normal baby knitting rule. On the whole I knit only for the women that I know and work with. In the whole pregnancy phase I think of the bacon and eggs analogy. With bacon and eggs the chicken is involved, the pig is committed. With pregnancy the father is involved, the mother is committed. Well, this blanket (crochet not knitting) was made for one of the men I work with. The little girl that this was made for is especially special to her parents. They have been trying to have a baby for 10 years. About a year ago they lost a child at 8.5 months. I think the exception to the rule was warranted. The best part is – when I handed it over I got the BEST response I have EVER received for a baby gift. He was absolutely delighted – almost glowing with appreciation. It’s apparently the first hand made gift she has received and, as his wife wishes she knew how to knit and crochet but doesn’t, they really appreciate just how special it is.

In non-knitting news I graduated with distinction. My first ever post-graduate qualification is now under my belt and I can start working on my MSc. I got my Graduate Diploma in Engineering – Mineral Resource Evaluation.

I was planning on inserting a picture here but I have just had a look at the pictures off the camera and I look insane in them so you can all just imagine how I looked.

I have also been making socks for the kiddies. I have finished this pair for Michael. You will see Jackie’s “egg flips” have been inserted for scale. I had to chop out the top of the socks as otherwise you would have had a close up of Michael’s groin. I am not that cruel a mother.

OK – off to rest after all this blogging. Will try to post more regularly in future. You know – if you lot posted more comments I might be more inspired to blog. As it is I don’t know if anybody other than me ever reads this stuff.