FOs and WIPs (and how you keep track!)

You asked and here it is – The Swing Jumper photo (I’m not including the link because I’ve done it so many times before). This is a crappy photo of a really lovely jumper. I’m wearing it today for the first time and I just love it – I’m already planning on making it again (and again – who wouldn’t love a jumper that takes about 16-18 hours to knit and looks just gorgeous and is really flattering?)

As I said, I used my standard no-brain tactic of increasing the needle size (to 7mm) and making it in the largest size, and in future sweaters I may do 1 more decrease at the neck edge (messing with perfection, I know).

I started the squatty sidekick last night, and as I had Lamb’s Pride Bulky, rather than worsted. I used 8mm rather than 6.5mm needles and used 10 sts across the bottom, rather than 5 as I like a bigger bag. (Yes, yes - I just can't help myself - I've always got to play with other people's instructions - it's a character flaw - what can I say? You should see what I regularly do to recipes!)

It’s looking pretty good so far (even if I do say so myself), and I like a big bag because of all the stuff you tend to carry around in it when you have kids (books and amusements, wipes, tissues, snacks etc), so I’ve had to account for those extra stitches in the shaping. Oh and my copy of the pattern has an error in the stitch count, which I will let Knitting Daily know about (that is, if you have 5 sts on the needle and you pick up 30, then 5, then another 30 you tend to get 70sts and NOT the 90 my copy of the pattern says).

This is also the first thing I have used to Knitpicks options on – although I have possessed them since March (Omigod! I can’t believe I’ve had them that long!) . This has been a combination of habitually reaching for my usual needles (and then not changing over part way through an object) and partly wanting to start something worthy of their wonderfulness!

Well, they are wonderful – I had a moment of worry when one end of the cord started to loosen, but I hadn’t tightened it with the key, and once I did that we’re fine again!

I was reading Bells post about her plethora of WIPs. I find it hard to do that – mainly because my knitting time is so limited. I generally have something easy on the needles for travelling or meetings, and another thing – which may be larger (so not so portable) or more complex (so requires concentration). My travelling knitting is generally socks (plain or with an easy repeat like the feather and fan socks) and my other knitting is garments of some kind. The Monkey socks reversed this, because they required me to concentrate and to keep track of which row in an 11 row repeat.

So now, we’re almost back to normality. I will cast on a new pair of travelling socks as soon as I finish the scarf (not long now) and after I’ve run off a few Squatty sidekicks (as per the pattern with corrections) I’ll cast on a garment. Easy!

I admire and envy those who can keep track of more than 3 WIPs (3 is definitely my upper limit), but secretly suspect they have more knitting opportunities than I. They may travel on public transport (of which there is none locally), have lunch hours, attend more meetings, or not have children threatening to destroy their knitting to get at the coveted pointy sticks!
In other words – they have lives!

Ohoh! One of those Days

It’s been one of those days. Started about 3am with waking up and not going back to sleep – seems to happen to me around the full moon – my insomnia peaks then. Usually I would get up and have a solitary bath in the still watches of the night, relax amongst bubbles and read a book, and then saunter back to bed and sleep, but I was too tired to get up!

The children were no better once we’d all got up for breakfast – I had a raging headache, they were slow and needed heavy duty chivvying to get dressed and eat breakfast – getting them out the door was like herding cats.

Now, usually I love Tuesday morning - get rid of the kids – sorry, take the children to kindergarten and child care, Tuesday morning from 9ish till 12.30 is my only child free time, and today all I did was run errands and birthday party shop.

The Princess turns 5 on Thursday and the Party is on Saturday. Thursday is one of her 2 days per week at kindy, so that requires a cake to share at school – also presents at breakfast (which means getting up earlier than usual, because everything will take longer) and big presents which she might otherwise have wanted to take to school at dinner time.

Tomorrow is playgroup day, so when I return from playgroup I’ll be cleaning and cooking. Today is the day I drop 2 children off in the morning, return at lunchtime to collect Dectructoboy, and again 2 hours later to collect Princess. It’s worth it just to have the time to myself!

To add insult to injury, I forgot to tape Knitty Gritty on Saturday, so I didn’t even get to sit quietly and watch it with no interruptions (a Tuesday treat).

At least last night I finished the Swing Jumper, including gentle steam blocking – so tomorrow I can wear it to Playgroup – the social highlight of my week! I did manage to sneak into the local Op Shop and find a Country Road angora jumper (in my size!) and 1.5 balls of a rather nice variegated mohair.

I also managed to read the Mad Housewife’s post on the importance of children’s craft to a mother’s well being – which made me laugh hysterically and maniacally while cackling madly. So the day was not a complete write-off.

So today I herded cats, ran and ran, carried stuff, ran some more – ran late and looked longingly at my knitting.

Grey, grey, the world is grey

Grey, grey, grey.

It’s one of those raw, grey days today. I think of them as being indecisive winter days. It doesn’t have enough commitment to rain, there’s no wind and everything is sort of bleak and blah.

‘A perfect day for knitting’, you might think. Well, yes, if you don’t have small children. I have managed to engage in some knitting related activities. Some time ago, I gave my stepmother (a totally wonderful woman who both spins and knits – but not socks) some rainbow dyed Lincoln wool and taught her to do a twisted German cast on (my preferred sock cast on). I gave her a copy of a basic sock pattern, coached her through heel turning and gusset picking up, introduced her to Kitchener stitch and set her loose on the world.

She has finished her first sock, but looks as if she will run out of wool before reaching the end of the second sock. Luckily, I had another skein of the rainbow Lincoln (which I didn’t really want to give up – but that’s the way the world goes sometimes).

In the process of digging out the Lincoln, I decided to tidy up my sock yarn stash.

Now, I think I mentioned that I had enough yarn for at least 50 pairs of socks. Better revise that well upward!

This is part of my pre-tidy sock yarn stash.

This is the same stash after finding the yarn and tidying it.

This is only part of my sock yarn stash – it may be grounds for a sock yarn diet. Although not yet at SABLE proportions, I’m certainly working on it!

In addition to the tidying of part of the stash, I also updated my knitting journal (yes yes – I keep a record of each project, bands of the yarn – if they have any, details of yarn and a sample, any modifications I made to the pattern, and recently I added start and finish dates. I also run a ledger of new techniques and stitches, display books for patterns – 2 for socks, 2 for jumpers and cardis, one for kid’s stuff, one for shawls, one for hats, scarves and mittens and so on – that does not include knit magazines, but downloaded patterns and gift patterns – I also have a folder with plastic sleeves where I store DPNs and Circs, each sleeve marked with the size of its contents and an index card detailing what I have in each size), and got the heavy duty document holder ziplock ready for the Squatty sidekick – (Pattern, yarn and needles)


How come I can be so organised with my stash, and so crap at keeping my house clean and tidy and clutter free. They invented the term ‘engaging squalor’ for my house. There are piles of books, papers and mail on most flat surfaces – either awaiting reading, awaiting action or awaiting filing (or recycling).

I keep promising to dust and then vacuum, but haven’t done it for a few weeks. – I must do it before the birthday party on Saturday. Bathrooms get cleaned, and the kitchen is always clean, but the rest bores me rigid.

My best non-dusting story is that after we were burgled when we lived in Queensland, I could show the insurance assessor the dust free areas where the TV, video and stereo etc had been – and he believed our loss because no-one could fake those!

Mind you, it rather backfired – the police can’t get fingerprints from dusty surfaces!

So, off to give away yarn – and a pattern for the Voodoo wristwarmers!

WIPs and WNIPs

Thanks for all your comments re wine – it’s just lovely to know I have so many soul sisters out there, willing to drop everything and have a glass (or two, or three). Willing to drink while cooking (even it the cooking just consists of making toast!). If you’re ever coming to Tassie, let me know and I’ll put the sparkles on ice! Here’s to you!

We had a happy family day yesterday. Took a trip to the northern Capital for some shopping before the Princess’s 5th birthday on Thursday, and Destructoboy’s 3rd, 15 days after that. (Yes yes – they were both supposed to be Virgo’s, and both turned out to be Leos – Princess was 6 weeks early and Destructoboy 2 weeks early – both C-sections – I’ll give you all the details later – over a bottle of wine). The Accountant and I are both Aquarians – me with Leo rising, which makes for occasional fiery exchanges.

The Accountant kept Princess occupied by taking her to look at toys which we had no intention of ever buying for her – but it’s amusing to watch her run from one thing to another! I raced off with Son in stroller and on the way back to rescue the Accountant, the Shopping Goddess smiled. I found 2 really nice tops reduced to $9 (yes $9) from 60 – of course I bought them – need you ask?

I’ve been sympathising with Georgie on her shopping woes – as it’s well known that you never find anything you like when you look for it – only when you’re (a) in a hurry to get somewhere else; or (b) you have no money, and your credit card is maxed out. As I don’t wear ‘work clothes’ any more – only jeans and t-shirts (at least I’ve finished the preganancy/breast feeding/ pregnant and breast feeding/pregnant/breast feeding four and a half years so I’m out of maternity bras and forced t-shirt wearing). T-shirty things minimise ironing (which eats into my knitting time)

Grabbed the tops, had lunch with In-laws and played in the park and then the best bit!

Picked up my wonderful and now entirely functional coffee machine. The genius coffee machine doctor had finished it, the In-laws collected it for me, it cost a quarter of what I feared and it’s back home.

I love my coffee machine! This meant I could have a latte this morning, Princess could have her frothy hot chocolate and Destructoboy could have a babycino. Hurrah!

Oh dear – I’ve almost finished the Swing Jumper – it’s been such fun knitting something easy, that just whizzes along – I’ll finish the second sleeve tonight and start sewing it up after blocking it and tomorrow will put the crochet edge on the neck and bottom and Voila! An FO (and of course now that I’ve committed myself by saying all that aloud, the Knitting Goddess will strike me down for Hubris!)

I’ve also almost finished the travelling feather and fan scarf (which I will put the sort of pattern up soon as it’s the second variation I’ve knitted). Just half a ball of Jet to go and the ends to weave in.

What will I start next? I have no socks currently on the needles, so I think I will get the June Red Bird Sock of the Every other Month Kit (Polyglot) on the go. This is knitted in Collinette Jitterbug and the colourway is ‘Mardi Gras’ – so cheery and fun – just have to wind the skein into a ball.

It really is imperative that I start these as last week I received my little parcel from Canada and it was my August kit, which was the yarn (Scheepjeswol Cotton 8) for 2 pairs of socks and patterns for 2 pairs – an easy lace, and a tangier variation – 1 pair aqua and 1 pair jade green. As these are cotton, I’ll probably save them for summer knitting but if I don’t get a move on it’ll be October and another will arrive and I’ll start getting overwhelmed.

Considering that my stash currently contains wool for around 50 pairs of socks (at a conservative estimate) it’s time I got a move on!

This week also bought the arrival of some Rowanspun 4 ply and the buying of some Noro and Silk Road, so I think I need to get my head down and backside up (at least metaphorically as it’s very hard to knit in that position!)

Possibly I will take a couple of evenings to make some Squatty Sidekicks so I’m getting ahead on the whole Christmas thing. And then it will be time for Childhood, followed by Juno. And then more socks and then some Fibretrends knit then felt animals. And then the Katia Cardi in the Knittery boucle. And then the Kauni cardi. And the Turtle walk socks by Spidey. And the swing jumper again. And the Black Dog jacket – maybe in silk garden. And the Arcadia jumper. And the, and the and the,

Reset. Reset. Reset.

So much knitting, so little time!

Some days, wine is the only answer

Some days wine is the only answer.

I love wine. I love visiting wineries – tasting and smelling all the different varieties. I love matching wine and food – having dinner complemented by the right wine. I adore the glass or two in the evening, while I cook and then eat dinner. I love it when the man delivers 5 cases of new wine – whoops.

I have found that unless we actually visit wineries, I prefer to buy my wine over the internet or by mail-order. I have found a wonderful company who only charges $5.00 per case delivery anywhere is Australia – which is great, because some places charge 28 dollars a case to deliver to our little island.

I shouldn’t really buy wine, because we have lots in the cellar. But most of the cellar is red. I generally prefer a glass of white while I’m preparing food, and the Accountant doesn’t really drink white, so enter the cases from the nice people who send wine around Australia.

This year we have had two shortish holidays as a family. At Easter, we visited Canberra (hi there all my ACT friends) – and drove back to catch the ferry through Rutherglen – a lovely winey time and because we had the car we could stock up just a little!

Then in May we went to Western Australia. This included a few days in Margaret River – strangely enough, another wine area. We tried to buy only what we were going to drink while we were away (thus removing the likelihood of heavy, clinky cabin bags when flying home) but of course we were seduced.

You know you are a parent with munchkins when you choose a winery because (and only because) it has a playground. But we lucked out – turned out that Watershed wines not only had a playground, it had lovely wines and an excellent restaurant. Some days you just can’t lose!

And sparkles! Don’t get me started on how much I adore sparkles! Sparkling Red is a favourite, but pink champagne (style wine – just in case Appellation Controlee come after me) and white sparkles are also great.

Red bubbles are great with Indian and Thai food (fruitiness offsets spice perfectly), and pink and white for any other time – particularly a glass for while I’m deciding whether to have a(nother) glass. I don’t get to drink sparkles much at present – even I can’t justify opening a bottle and drinking the whole thing! It really doesn’t keep and the Accountant isn’t a great sparkles man. Ho hum!

So mainly white it is. The Accountant’s doctor recommended that he drink a glass of red a night, which he is doing – I just drink it because I like it! 2 glasses and I’m a happy bunny – no more than two, because my knitting tends to suffer if I have more than that.

Besides, there are days, and every mother knows it (even if we often don’t admit it in public), when the children have been holy terrors, you’ve shouted, and screamed and cajoled and threatened and coerced until everyone is fraught and fed up. Those days wine IS the only answer.

What was the question again?

A Love of Leftovers

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions – I love leftovers and have carefully noted your ideas for future leftovers – I should have pointed out that this was the third meal from the leg of lamb – roast, followed by fritters, some used on sandwiches, so last night it was:

I sweated some leeks, garlic and mushrooms in a little butter, then added chopped leftover lamb, stock and white wine, mixed herbs, pepper, worcestershire sauce and nutmeg, and 10 mins out from serving some fresh local Brussels sprout (or fairy cabbages as they are known in this house), stabilised some leftover sour cream with a little cornflour and stirred that in – served with a jacket potato. Easy and fairly quick, while also cleaning out the crisper drawer, providing some veggies and it was great!

Today. a warning.

Crocs eat handknit pure wool socks.

Yes, I’m afraid I’ve ditched my comfy crocs, for winter at least – they have eaten 3 socks recently – which will force me to reknit 3 heels. They destroyed the heels in my Spidey rainbow socks, my Spidey Watermelon socks (after only 3 wearings) and my gorgeous merino/cashmere jojoland quartette socks after only 2 wears.

These gorgeous socks are sitting forlornly in my mending basket waiting for me to either darn, or to re-knit their lovely heels. I’m so distressed – not least because I am crap at darning – and I refuse to take the Yarn Harlot darning strategy (where you say ‘Darn!’ and bin them).

These were socks I really, really loved wearing. Knitting them was fun too. But I don’t want to knit disposable socks – I want my lovely socks to last for years and years.

When I’m feeling richer I will buy some Birkenstocks.

I love socks – I love knitting them and I love wearing them – generally 100gr of sock wool provides me with enough yarn to knit myself a pair and a child a pair. Luckily, the socks that were eaten hadn’t had the leftover yarn used on child socks – so I should have enough to make new heels (or to learn to darn)

So it’s boots for me (and ugg boots round the house – not so attractive, but I haven’t got around to making my own Fibertrends knit then felt clog slippers, only the ones for the munchkins at present – one of which has been swallowed by the mobile black hole which roams the house eating socks and coathangers, biros and the only CD you feel like listening to.

Off to cook dinner – chicken thighs roasted with bacon and quince jelly- and something or other with it – spuds probably and red cabbage cooked with white wine vinegar, balsamic, olive oil and raisons.

Cheerio!

On the Wonder of Books

Quite exhausted from yesterdays rant.

On the knitting front, I am halfway up the first sleeve – so I may go very close to a two week jumper on this one (yay!) – thank you, Ms Black Dog.

I had some positive feedback yesterday from the rant – thank you ladies – When I work out how to deal with teenage attitude in my not-yet-five year old without screaming and yelling and threatening to cancel birthdays I’ll let you know!

Today I thought we could talk about books.

I love reading – and would like to be better at reading and knitting at the same time. I’m currently reading ‘The Book of Lies’, having just finished the first 2 Lily Bard mysteries by Charlaine Harris. I’d read all the others but not those. I enjoyed her ‘Southern Vampire’ series so much, I just had to check out her others – enough humour and sex, without taking anything to seriously.

You may have gathered that I am a science fiction and fantasy fan, with love of children/young adult books as well as the grown up ones. I adore the classic children’s books – Winnie-the-Pooh (NOT the Disney version – yech yech yech!), Wind in the Willows, Milly-Molly-Mandy, Paddington Bear, anything by Roald Dahl, Alan Garner, and J P Martin’s Uncle books.

I’m very much in love with all the Tamora Pierce series – particularly because they have great female central characters in non-traditional areas, Phillip Pullman (I understand there is a film of Northern Lights coming starring Our Nic), John Flanagan, Joan Aiken and Nicholas Stuart Grey (sadly out of print, but email Penguin Books and keep asking for them – that’s what I do). My excuse is that I buy all these for the children when they’re older, but the truth is that I just enjoy them.

Growing up on a farm as an only child, with 2 TV channels (which didn’t transmit 24 hours a day – no morning TV in those days, and it finished at 10.30pm with ‘Thought for the Day’ and the National Anthem) I read. And read and read and read and read – I read out the children’s section of the local library before I was 7 and then got a special dispensation to take out adult books.

Someone I know suggested that the best way to get kids to read was to give them a torch, and then forbid them from reading after you turn out the lights, and there may be something in that (certainly my children are more likely to do something I have told them not to, than something I tell them to do!)

I envy Taph her ability to set books free into the wild – I can’t give up books (unless I really hated them!). Books, to me, are friends. My favourite shops are my LYS and bookshops – new or second hand, don’t care. My favourite bookshop is Galaxy in Sydney. I don’t often get there, but I mail order regularly (if less frequently than BC – Before Children). I’m currently still working through last December’s order – the local library has been providing me with all the books I requested in the last few months, and library books get priority over the ones I own.

I love the smell of bookshops, especially second hand bookshops of the sort Terry Pratchett describes, where books are stacked and piled in no apparent order, and manage to bend into L-space. I don’t get enough time these days to smell eau-de-tome, but enjoy it whenever it is offered.

I also re-read books – unfortunately if you hoard enough books, you don’t get enough time to re-read all the ones you want to – but I’ll get around to it when I work out how not to mess up my lace knitting every time I get to an exciting bit in Chapter 7.

Enough already. Have think of something wonderful to do for dinner with leftover roast lamb. Unfortunately ‘Delicious’ is a bit light on for ideas on how to use up leftovers, so I guess I’m on my own for that one!