Those dangerous sock knitters

We nearly missed our flight to Broome due to a couple of craft-related miscalculations on my part.

Firstly, Emma had some homework to do, so I told her to just throw her school pencilcase in her carry-on bag. Forgetting she had scissors in there. D'oh. Goodbye scissors.

Secondly, being aware of recently relaxed regulations allowing passengers to take knitting needles on board, I thought "Yahoo!" and packed a knitting project bag with some socks I was about to start.

Socks. Knitted on nice, pointy, thin, metal, Addi double-pointed needles. Put bag through security. "Uh, ma'am, what are these?"

"Knitting needles."

"Um. I'm going to have to check with someone."

"Oh. Okay." [thinking: Shit. They've probably never seen these and think of chunky straight needles for knitting basic scarves, when they think knitting needles. Shit. Those are expensive needles. The flight has started boarding!*]

After calling over a couple more people, they finally determined that I wasn't planning to stab someone with these pointy objects and let us through.

Needless to say, I packed them in the checked baggage for the return flight. I should also add that I got horribly tangled when winding a ball from the skein, and it took me so long to untangle, that I never got to start the damn socks anyway.

* I'm not an idiot. We got to the airport in heaps of time considering we checked-in online. Unfortunately the Virgin bag-drop line seemed to take longer than the actual check-in line, so we ended up almost late!

Ribbit, ribbit.

Arghhhhhh. I've been slooooowly knitting a Milo vest for Alastair. Size four is a lot of garter stitch in the round, okay? I haven't been getting much knitting time. Last night I was watching Midsomer Murders and finally got to the underarm cast-off part. I completely stuffed up the cable cast-on and didn't realise until I'd done both sides. Alastair has now lost interest in the vest he asked for, so I think this is destined to be frogged, sadly.

He's now asked for a scarf, and picked some nice chunky yarn, so a mindless 2x2 rib scarf on 8mm needles is a lot more do-able in my current state ...

With the time that I haven't been crafting, I have been reading and launching my own direct sales business. I am now an independent Phoenix Trader and sell a range of gorgeous, artist-designed greeting cards, gift wrap and stationery. I can come to you in Perth or you can order online from my webstore.

Socks!!

I finished!!

Unfortunately, as you can see from the following photo, I obviously didn't know about checking dyelots way back when I purchased this yarn:

The gauge was also a little off, probably because of the long delay between one sock and most of the next. But, really, socks aren't that tough! I need to take the plunge and get into some of the yummy sock yarn I have.

These were knitted in Cleckheaton Country Silk 8ply (85% wool, 15% silk), to be nice soft warm house socks for winter. I'm wearing them now; they're definitely snuggly.

Today I went through a tub of unfinished projects and ripped out three that I just wasn't going to finish (and in fact I couldn't remember what pattern I was knitting from!), which now leaves me with NO unfinished knitting projects. Meaning I need to cast on for something new ... or get stuck into the sewing projects.

UFO#1 finished!

Here's UFO #1, a shrug knitted from this pattern. (Warning: link goes straight to a PDF download.)



I even blocked it! I tried to take a photo of it on, but all the mirrors in the house are in shocking locations light-wise:



It was knitted in "Earth Sky" on blue-faced leicester, light aran weight, from The Yarn Cafe/evoke yarns. I knitted a size medium, and the only change I made was to knit a garter stitch border of five stitches on both sides to prevent the edges rolling. It used about 130g of yarn.

Next: the Thuja socks that I started knitting two years ago. I've now made it down to the heel flap on the second sock (wait! Since I saved the draft post I'm on to the foot. Yay!). These will be nice warm house socks for winter.



The problem I can see with having left the second sock so long is that my gauge seems to be a little different; I'm knitting tighter so the sock is a bit smaller. They're stretchy, though, so both will fit and they're only for around the house.

Lazy update-by-photos

Home-made finger buns. FINALLY found a recipe that my kids will eat in lieu of the Baker's Delight ones - all I did was add an extra tablespoon of sugar to a white bread recipe, do the dough in the breadmaker, and the key is to put them close together on the tray so they have the joins like the bakery ones. Oh, and undercook them a little compared to what you would do regular bread, so they'll be soft rather than crusty.



Custard apples ... the only thing I can grow, and no-one here really eats them. Palmed a couple off on friends and added one to a batch of strawberry sorbet for sweetness. Amazingly, these things sell for up to $8 each in the shops!!



Chocolate cupcakes for Miss Emma's seventh birthday, to take to school. Icing is natural food colouring.



Cake for her birthday party, she only wanted a love heart and didn't mind that it was a bit of a slipshod decorating job, heh. It does say "Emma" in sprinkles.



And the birthday girl herself.



Really bad photo of the Milo vest I knitted Evie; I finished this a while ago but had no pics. I've lost my yarn needle so the ends still haven't been woven in! Argh.



There's one important domestic art every mother should teach her son - how to make a good coffee.

Better late than never?!

I knitted this cushion cover for my friend's wedding present (the blue and red are almost identical to the theme colours they had for their wedding):





The buttoning bit is a bit wonky, and it's a bit big (I was paranoid it'd be too small for the smallest cushion insert, so I guess I over-compensated), but I made up the pattern myself and I'm pretty chuffed. Except for the funny part ...

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The wedding was 18 months ago (I did buy her a gift at the time as well, I'm not a completely sucktastic friend). So, Tam, if you're reading this, I'm sorry I suck and we should meet up sometime soon so I can give you the world's most belated wedding present.

I had made an error on it, and I really, really hate undoing knitting, so it sat in the unfinished basket for ages. D'oh.

Playing catch-up

I did manage a few small projects while in stress-induced hibernation.

A library bag/tote bag - a birthday gift for one of Emma's school friends:



I repaired moth holes in a pair of longies that had been sitting in my repair basket forever:



Just for fun, here are the same longies on Alastair when I originally knitted them two years ago - he would have been about 15 or 16 months old.



Oh, and I converted a woven wrap to a mei tai:



(although the body length is too long, so I need to find the motivation to unpick it and fix it properly)

We're doing a Nappycino knit-along for a headband, and what better reason to procrastinate on the uni assignment I should be doing??



Pattern: DROPS 86-10 headband
Needles: 4.5mm 40cm Addi Turbo circulars (circs not required, but it made the project more portable)
Yarn: some New Zealand 12ply felted lambswool leftover from another project

A nice easy knit, it only took me 48 hours and it's not as if that was un-interrupted.

And here's the zippered pouch I mentioned in my last post:

Can I have more time, please?

Baby girl (now nearly 8 months old) hasn't been sleeping well at all lately. She's always been a night waker, but this week it was ridiculous - no daytime napping, and she'd wake up at 5am bright and alert, refusing to go back to sleep.

So I would like more time, please. I suppose technically I'll gain an hour when daylight savings ends!

I also broke my laptop, which makes blogging less convenient. I'm using an old laptop, but I miss my bookmarks, and it doesn't have enough memory to run all the browser windows I like to have open.

I received some absolutely scrumptious bamboo jersey and ribbing in the mail last week, and I am thinking winter long-sleeved T-shirts. I made this for Alastair using the pattern I bought at the op-shop:



I quite impressed myself with the freehand guitar! The ribbing at the neck is a bit messy, need to work on that. Ignore the line down the front, it's a crease that I was too lazy to iron out. The long sleeves wound up too tight, so I'll adjust the pattern and probably chop this one to short sleeves. Although, really, I think I should have sized up to size 4; I'd say it's a small-fitting pattern.

I tried it on Alastair before finishing the hem and sleeves, and he refused to take it off, so it's since been worn and washed and landed back in the sewing room to be finished properly. I should be glad he likes it!

I also finished my Fetchings, in time for cold mornings:



These annoy me because I'm SURE the two balls were from the same dyelot, but they've knitted up so differently. It's not so obvious when worn, thankfully, and it was just some stash yarn I had lying around (Patons Jet, wool/alpaca blend).

I also made Evelyn a nappy cover, since she's outgrown her smalls:



and had my first try at melting and moulding chocolate. I am aiming to give fair trade/ethical gifts this Easter, but there's not much of a range, so I bought some bulk chocolate and will make our own shapes and eggs.



This was much easier than I thought, but I think making hollow eggs will be more difficult.

One Fetching down, one to go - well, less than one, since I've knitted about 5 rounds of the second. At least I'll finish in time for winter ;)



The cabling doesn't show up very well due to the different coloured twists in the yarn, but I do really like the self-striping effect, and the knitted fabric feels lovely. It's Paton's Jet, a wool/alpaca blend. I can see myself making more of these anyway, because they're great for using up small amounts of yarn that I have sitting in my stash.

That said, I did stuff up the first cable repeat on the second pair, by holding the cable needle at the back instead of the front on two sections, so that the cables twist in the opposite direction to what they should. Silly me! I think I'll leave it; it adds character.

I finished the gift I'm making for friends expecting a baby:



Two PUL covers (size small), and three snappi-able fitted nappies. They've chosen to mostly use flats for cost reasons, so these nappies will fit over quite a wide size range - I can just fasten that size on Evelyn, but she's big for six and a half months - and fasten with the Snappis/pins from the flats, but just be a bit more fun.

Cute flannelette print inners with snap-in boosters:

Pictures, not many words

I'm knitting my first Fetchings, in fact, my first ever cable project:



Here is last night's baking. Muesli slice and apple & strawberry muffins.





All devoured at playgroup.

Op shop find - a handmade smocked dress for $1.75!

FO!

From Surprisingly Domestic

From Surprisingly Domestic

Next project is this in this:

From Surprisingly Domestic

(Tiger Cub on organic wool from The Yarn Cafe)

Argh! I'm an idiot.

:(

I try and keep my unused yarn in plastic tubs with lids, of course, but I have been careless about my unfinished objects, because, well, I guess I planned on finishing them sooner rather than later and it didn't happen.

Today I pulled out a pair of shorties for Alastair that I'd started working on LAST summer, and here's what I found:

From Surprisingly Domestic

From Surprisingly Domestic

Waaaah. I threw it in the bin because it wasn't that much work and the wool was eaten in quite a few places.

Lesson learned. I'm going to check my other UFOs & try to keep them safe.

In better news, the capris just need the crotch grafted and the ends woven in.

A productive day

Have I ever mentioned that I like crime fiction?

Our bookshelves are overflowing, so when I saw an offer on Freecycle for one in our suburb that would actually fit in our car, I snapped it up. (I love Freecycle, but given that we have a smallish car with no towbar, it's not actually feasible to collect many things from it!) Then I moved a lot of books around.

It fits about half my crime fiction collection:



The rest of our fiction collection is here (I'd say about 80% of it is mine!):



In contrast, here are the books poor Garry has to read (they're all computer books):



Evelyn's capris/shorties (I think they'll be capri length now and shorties in summer) are coming along nicely too: