My first ever *guest post*! From a boy of very few words. (Except of course when he’s talking about HTML. Or CSS. Or Java. Or pretty much anything computer related 🙂 ) Enjoy!
Hi, this is Finn. On the weekend Mum taught me how to knit. I learned garter stitch. I made a blanket for my sister’s baby doll. While I was making it Rohan pulled the needles out. Mum put them back in.
Do you like it? 🙂
Started on Tuesday…
Finished on Thursday…
Ripped on Monday?
I prefer it as a neck warmer, actually. Ah well. Can’t win them all, I say. Despite Lara’s reassurances, I can’t quite get over the feeling that I’m wearing a tea-cozy on my head! I’m just not a natural hat-or-other-headwear person. (Speaking of hats, and me wearing them, did you see Gypsy’s post about Liesl’s beret? I may not be a natural hat person, but that cracks me up!)
Anyway. I’m ripping. Calorimetry didn’t use as much of this beautiful skein of Fibreworks Silk/Merino as I had hoped anyway. I plan to start again and just knit it as a simple 2×2 ribbed cowl, since I prefer the way it looks around my neck (the tapered shape of it means it isn’t quite right as-is, or I wouldn’t bother to start again). That way I can use up the whole skein, which was a birthday gift from Dermot last year 🙂
I’ve been feeling like a bit of a knitting fraud lately. (As in “how long until the real knitters evict me, because anyone can tell I don’t really know what I’m doing?”) But the fact that it doesn’t bother me to rip it all out and start over makes me feel a bit more… I don’t know, authentic, somehow? I enjoyed knitting this beautiful yarn the first time around, and I’ll enjoy it again. The knitting process has gone from completely frustrating, to (almost) relaxing.
Meanwhile, I also broke my ‘no more than one knitting project on the go at a time’ rule. (Well, technically this was finished when I started the next thing!) I’m having a go at double knitting. S.l.o.w.l.y. (I take back what I said about knitting no longer being completely frustrating. Check back much later!)
Calorimetry ravelised here.
Parenting has been kicking my butt lately. You might have guessed, based on my absence. Every time I think about breaking the blog-drought, I’m either too exhausted, or I can’t seem to form two sentences, or I get a bad case of ‘if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything’.
There’s nothing special about tonight, except perhaps all of the above apply. This week is kicking my butt even more spectacularly. Husband in Sydney, School holidays, and kids all sick. Monday night I had a miserable Niamh in bed with me with a suspected ear infection (though she did seem okay by morning, after medication and a night with Mum). Last night was Ro’s turn in with me, and tonight, well… he’s currently napping fitfully on my lap (one-handed blogging, y’all!) and won’t go down in any bed. This is after the excitement of a few hours ago when his big brother coughed until he vomited. Awesome times.
Blah. Let’s have a little recap on some of the good stuff that’s happened since I was last here, shall we? Good then. Point form ahoy:
:love: We moved the babe out of our bedroom and in with his sister. This was monumental. And, of course, led to him finally, finally sleeping through the night. I should have remembered that from last time, really. Ok, so I did remember. I was just really reluctant to boot my baby out. So the sleepless nights – all my fault. Obviously. Next!
:love: My blog turned five. FIVE! That’s a really long time to be saying nothing much at all. Less than 400 posts total… gosh, I really am a crap blogger! (But really… I have got to say, blogging was way less pressure back in the days. Now… I don’t know. Every now and then, I see a favourite blog go ‘pro’. Or ‘pro-ish’. Suddenly there’s Sponsorship. And Product Placement. Cash for Comment. Or competitions to enter, but only if you ‘Follow’, and Twitter and Facebook about it. Often, the original, entertaining, unique voice of said blogger is lost amongst it all. At which point I mercilessly drop them from my feed.) Ok, sorry. Rant over.
:love: My best girl turned four. Way, way more exciting than the blog turning five. Niamh is such a party girl, she always has been. We had pretend party play for weeks around these parts. Culminating in a totally fun, but also totally soggy pink-and-green party at the Bundoora Children’s Farm. Kids don’t care. Rug ’em up, they’ll have fun no matter what. And we did.
:love: I am quite bad at point form-ing my thoughts!
:love: Someone introduced me to the Sookie Stackhouse series. Thanks, Someone 😛 I read the books almost without coming up for air (don’t worry, I still managed to clothe and feed my children. Just.) Then I went out and bought Series One of True Blood on DVD, and we watched that over a week, then rinse and repeat with Series Two. Totally loving it. Series Three, of course, isn’t on in Australia yet, so we’ll be (cough, cough) waiting for that for a while. 😉
:love: After 44 months of breastfeeding, I finally closed up shop. (That’s non-consecutive months, obviously. I meant the total for all three children). I truly thought that would be harder for both Rohan and I than it was, but I just knew time was up, and we just… stopped. Now he goes to bed with cuddles and a few sips of water, and even (sometimes) for Dad, not me. Another monumental step. (And I just realised I can burn my maternity bras now. Or, you know, just bin them. Probably more environmentally friendly that way.)
There’s probably more good stuff. Just can’t quite drag it out of the brain cells right now. Between up there ^^^ and here, I managed to get Ro back into his bed, and the clock ticked over to Thursday… Must. Go. To. Bed.
Oh, but before I do, I also managed to get a few crafty bits and pieces in:
I finally finished off the doll stroller seat for my friend’s little girl:
Seen being test-driven here by our recently arrived good friend Gracie, another Bamboletta sweetheart to keep Molly company.
Also, I joined in with Sooz’s Useful swap. My original plan involved crochet, but then I stupidly managed to sprain my crucial-for-crochet-right-index-finger. So since yarny stuff was out, I broke out the fabric instead. This is only a peek, mind you, but I’m hoping the recipients love these – I certainly do, and I intend to make myself one or two now.
Once my finger began to recuperate, I started back on those tricksy DPNs (to help the recovery, you understand!):
And emerged victorious, with a smashing pair of red fingerless mitts to bring some happy to the coldcoldcold mornings we’ve been having.
Ravelry details over here if you are so inclined. I love my mitts 🙂
And, folks, as Peter Cundall used to say, that’s yer bloomin’ lot.
Posted in Blog Blather, Family, Sewing, The Kids, Yarncraft
In: snapped while the kids were waiting for their porridge this morning. Creative Space/ Kitchen Table reality, don’t you love it? I admit to an occasional green-eyed-monster moment when I see other spaces which are actually dedicated Craft Spaces, but my time will come!
I picked up a Pocket Bot kit from Jodie at the Stitches and Craft show (More on the show perhaps tomorrow.) Pieces were cut out during last night’s Masterchef. Hopefully it will be less in pieces later today.
Out: car crafting while Niamh was at her Kinderballet class and Rohan was sleeping in the back.
Trying to make sense of the Blair-Witchiness of DPNs. I am determined to conquer this circular knitting thing and make myself a cute pair of fingerless mitts for winter. Note everpresent iPhone, complete necessity for catching up on crafty blogs whilst out and about :giggle:
Hmmmm. I seem to becoming the just-Creative-Space-nothing-else blog. Must work on that! Meanwhile – see other Creative Spaces today over at Kirsty’s.
Apparently it’s not that difficult to knit a hat – who knew?! This weekend, that’s what I did – cast on 80 stitches Saturday, sewed up a hat on Sunday. Brilliant!
The difficult thing, it would appear… is convincing the intended recipient to keep it on his head for more than a second or two! Even when distracted by a delicious ANZAC biscuit (prepared earlier by his big brother).
So with that in mind – here is the front:
…and here it is off!
Here is the back:
…and here it is off again (nearly)!
The End.
I did say I was itching to get stuck back into the dyes, didn’t I?! Funny how when I get something into my head, the priorities list has a way of rewriting itself! Last night I dyed a few pieces of 100% wool felt. It’s the first time I’ve done this – I’ve been meaning to try it for an age, but was finally spurred on when I saw a) the lovely hand-dyed felt Trudi has been creating, and b) the deliciousness out at Winterwood. Winterwood is where I picked up my base felt – it is so soft and lovely, and it thickens up a bit more in the dyeing process. The trick is getting it not to thicken up too much – I was scared to poke and prod too much once it was wet, and as a result there is a bit more mottling than I was after in two of the pieces. Now I’m a bit more familiar with the process, I’m sure the next time will be a bit easier.
Combined with a little bit of car-crafting from Monday (doesn’t this make a lovely knob-cozy for my stereo?)…
…I think you can tell what I’ll be making more of today 🙂
Visit some more creative spaces via Kirsty.
Oh, and also Speaking of Colour, it has recently been brought to my attention (when I switched to using the family Mac, with it’s whizzbang monitor, instead of my less whizzbang laptop) that on some screens, my blog and all my photographs look a bit… crap! So if you have one of those screens, I’m really sorry. It would appear I’ve been blasting your eyeballs with oversaturated colour for the past however-long-you-have-been-reading 🙁 For what it’s worth, the background felt in the above pictures should be a lovely creamy colour, not the light yellow it appears on my screen currently (of course, the problem could lie with the whizzbang screen I suppose!)
Posted in Dyeworks, Memes, Other Craft, Yarncraft
Tagged bead people, hand dyed felt, my creative space
In the left corner we have Beauty: crocheted ric-rac, inspired by Kate at Fox’s Lane; quick and easy tutorial found here. Fun, easy, and slightly addictive crocheting. No idea what I’ll be doing with it yet – I did threaten the bemused other half I’d trim a lampshade in it!
And in the right, the Beast: product of an impromptu knitting lesson with Mum yesterday. The change in the seasons has started up the two-needle-itch again, and I want to be ready for something a bit trickier than my one completed knitted thing.
Ugly, isn’t it?! But hey, there’s increasing, decreasing, short rows, a wee bit of lacy stuff, heel stitch, 1×1 rib, and picking up stitches along the edge, all in that little piece of ugly!
(Edited to say I realise that sounds like I meant Ro’s cardigan is ugly. No no, I actually meant the grey thing just up there. The cardi is still gorgeous, but I bet it doesn’t fit anymore)
Also in my creative space today are some little bits of not-allowed-to-show-you and a whole lot of nothing-to-see-here-but-supposed-to-be-finished-by-Sunday. (Because a certain wee someone we know is about to be one, and don’t mention it to me or I might just cry!)
My Creative Space comes to you courtesy of Kirsty!
I hope everybunny had a hoppy easter!
(!!!Sorry!!! Not sure what came over me there!!!)
We had a lovely and far-too-chocolate-filled weekend at my father-in-law’s place in central Victoria. The kids got to run riot with the cousin they don’t see enough of, and I got bit more granny-squaring in, despite the (was it slightly derisive?) commentary from uncles-in-law. Pfft to them, I say. Also, there might have been a little bitty trip to the Bendigo Woollen Mills and Bendigo Spotlight somewhere in there… can’t remember… crafty amnesia has befallen me. (What stash diet?!)
Bunny finger-puppet project from the purl bee. A great little project for the budding crafter: Finn stitched his own, I just added the face and tail for him.
Posted in Family, Sewing, The Kids, Yarncraft
Tagged crafting with kids, easter craft, finger puppet
My creative space has Grannies in it. I was packing up my Grannies. They were stacked so prettily. Then everything went awol…
Sigh. It is the end of a long week. A week in which those toes learned to step. And then to walk. And (before that perhaps?) to climb to lofty heights. There have been near misses (but Facebook friends will have noticed that I stopped mid-near-miss to get a photograph!) It has been a week of solo-parenting. Which I will never learn to love, but which I am learning to navigate more smoothly. It will be a welcome relief when Dermot gets in the door tonight. Even more welcome if he gets here in time for me to rush off to tonight’s Craft Bonanza (or at least a little bit of it.) See you there?
I’m rejoining Kirsty’s My Creative Space meme. See more spaces over at her place.
While we were away, I noticed the projects I’d picked up to bring had a bit of an oceanic theme going on as well:
The colours in this crocheted face washer matched the view nicely on that grey, blustery day 🙂
And then there were these mermaids. I put a few hours of stitching in – this is Mirabilia’s Mermaids of the Deep Blue. To be honest, I’m still in a little bit of shock that I actually cross-stitched. It’s been ages – I’d be willing to bet that most of my cross-stitch-y friends and readers have stopped following this blog, it’s been so long!
Blogtoberfest Day 6
Posted in Counted Stitchwork, In Progress, Other Craft, Yarncraft
Tagged crochet, cross-stitch, mermaids, mirabilia, wash cloth