she-demon

I decided not to show off pictures of my latest efforts and instead concentrate on my daughter's work today.

I've bought half a pig. A significant proportion is currently in my conservatory looking very unappetising and turning into ham and bacon. The fact i think it looks icky did influence my decision not to share ickyness.

i'd also like to say a thank you to some of the people on Downsizer for some great gifties and swaps as well as their help in many things. You know who you are. Thankyou.

Cuteness

Couldn't resist showing off the cuteness. It's taken a while by she cat has calmed down and girlchild has calmed down and they are starting to make friends. They aren't actually asleep in that pic, just relaxed and happy.

Anyway, I've added a bunch of patterns to ravelry, just to keep track of what i've actually knitted in the last couple of months. Lots of socks and some other nice bits. I need to take a bunch of photos to show them off properly though. I've stuck that on my list of things to do tomorrow.

Need to pick a project to work on now though. I've knit my way through the baby surprise jacket, and need some inspiration to hit me. I'm hoping it will hit me in the direction of one of my multitude of WIP, although that is rarely likely. I'll wait and see.

basic baby bib

I had a look at the patterns for baby bibs that were available on ravellry and none of them really did anything for me. Simple is one thing, however, all the patterns I could find seemed to be completely unshaped like the one in Mason Dixon Knitting. Although that seems a very popular pattern, it just isn't my cup of tea, so I decided to design a bib myself with a bit of added shaping at the neck.


yarn: dishcloth cotton

100% cotton
machine washable
heavy DK/worstead weight

cost: £1.50

time: 2 hours to knit, 15 minutes to finish

knitability level: beginner

needles: 4.5mm/ US 7

gauge: 21 stitches/34 rows per 10cm in garter stitch

extras: 1.5cm diameter plastic button
sewing thread to attach button

instructions:

Cast on 36 stitches. Knit all rows until work measures 7 inches.
k14 turn (place remaining stitches on holder or waste yarn)
k14
ssk k10 k2tog
k12
ssk k8 k2tog
k10
ssk k6 k2tog
k8
ssk k4 k2tog
k6
knit all rows until work measures 11 inches in total.
cast off.




place remaining stitches back on needle.
cast off 8 stitches
k14
ssk k10 k2tog
k12
ssk k8 k2tog
k10
ssk k6 k2tog
k8
ssk k4 k2tog
k6
knit all rows until work measures 11 inches in total.

*k1 k2tog yo twice ssk
k3 p1 k2
knit 2 rows*
repeat from *to * 4 times

cast off

to finish:

sew in ends
sew on button to shorter ends


Many of the dishcloth patterns with a square garter stitch border could be used as the front panel for this bib, simply by adjusting the centre cast off of 8 to an appropriate size for the dishcloth patters. Or simple embroidery could be added for a personalised look.

the month of finished items

I've decided that january shall be the month of finishing many items. Some shal be new, sme shall be from my WIP's, some shall be small simple items like baby hats, some shall be more complex.

I started this a few days into the new year, when i finally started recovering from being ill over christmas, having then just started recovering from having been ill from october. it all really showed me quite how much stress I'd been under, how much damage to my system that having a large abscess can cause. A healthy adult is not ill for over 6 weeks with flu.

Anyway, I started a new project with sale yarn. I'd been knitting river in mint green KSH. Just not me, not my colour. So I frogged that and restarted in a pale lime (yes, i still like green) and knit until that was finished.

That was my first FO of the year. Since then, I've added to the list.

river in matchmaker 4ply.
6 charity baby hats in Dk acrylic
mp3 player pouch in calmer
2 pairs approx toddler socks in sirdar snuggly 4 ply
wavy headband
cable headband


I'm now about to go start on a pile of bibs in dishcloth cotton.

I'm back

After a long time away from the internet, various illnesses etc, I'm now back. I shall endeavour to start to blog regularly with loads of nice piccys when i get my decent computer fixed and therefore have a connection that is stable for more than 2 minutes at a time.

Anyway.

here are my knitting resolutions for 2008

1. i shall knit at least one charity item per week
2. i shall finish half of my WIP list. I need to update that. i intend to remove the sidebars and just link through to ravelry
3. I shall knit from stash or swap or charity shop purchases only until ally pally. The aim shall be that I can fit all of the stash on 3 shelves and in 4 boxes. The exception to this is yarn purchased for items 4 and 5, although this should be swapped for if possible
4. I shall knit one pair of socks per week.
5. I shall knit one lace item per month
6. I shall knit one item from or partially from handspun each month

general resolutions:

1. the house shall be clean and tidy before july
2. i shall grow more food this year
3. i shall read at least one book every week
4. I shall cull at least 200 crap books before july (possibly some through some form of swap system) This is to clear off enough space to store craft items on shelves.
5. i shall make a start on selling some of the stuff i have made for the buisness
6. I shall make enough jam over the summer so i don't run out before christmass

postie came again

With a lovely package from the delightful Yorkie. A load of craft bits for kids to play with on camp, rubber stamps, beads, fima, foam, raffia, it will all get used to great effect I'm sure.

I also finished a craft project of my own,. the fish rug that is now on my daughter's floor and has had her bum sitting on it for at least half the day.



This has also been a week of food preservation. I used up a big bowl of lemons bought cheap off the market for salt preserved lemons, I'm making 2 batches of wine, one a kit and the other from scratch and I've just done blackberries preserved in whisky. I'm feeling inordinately pleased with myself atm.

Look what the postman brought me

Isn't it pretty?

well, I think it is because I've bought so many variations that are similar to this colourway, it's getting to be quite a habit. This is the lovelly Mountain Colours aran that arrived in the post, along with some scrummy feeling alpaca this morning for me, thanks to lucyvanp. A lovelly pressie to cheer me up.

So whatsup?

Well, I'm working on more earrings, and planning some other bits and bobs, and still fighting the camera on a regular basis until I can work out how to take pix I'm happy with. I'm cooking up a storm, 2 types of homebrew on atm, a blackberry wine in a bucket having a good stink at me, and a cheap wine kit that will hopefully be ready in 2 weeks so I can take the wine to camp. That is bubbling away nicely on the kitchen surface.

Knitting wise, I'm working on one of my blanket projects, I've started a new big blanket project, a somewhat special idea that I'll launch in a few days, knitting squares for the urbanite blankets. I'm also working on a latch hook rug kit, that i should finish later today. The whole thing is a bit paint-by-numbers, not in the slightest bit creative but it cost me a quid and I know the girlchild will love it.

food heaven

I don't know about yours, but mine has to involve blackberry pavlova. made the mix and put it in the oven while i went to pick the blackberries, Let it cool, topped with fresh whipped cream and the pick of the crop of berries.

Look what came in the post

My beads arrived today. I made a couple of mistakes in ordering, some of the glass pendants are far, far too large to go with what I've got planned, but I'm sure I can use them at a later date. I really like the carved bone ones though, I got stars and flowrs.

i've also realised I need to hurry up and sell some stuff, because the bead shop sent me a catalouge and I want to buy loads of pretty beads and make loads of really scrummy jewelery. It's been ages since I spent any time making jewelery and I'd forgotton how much I enjoyed it.

I also spent several hours making felt beads. All I need to do now is dry these and I'll be ready to start putting together some earrings. I've got a good feeling about this one.

check out the earrings

Sorry for the delay in blog posts but I've had quite a few weeks. I had a HUGE terrible looking and very painful lump appear in my left boobie. I'm still seeing the docs about it, but I'm just going to say, you know you are having one of those moments in your life when you are delighted to find out you have a abcess the size of your fist

Onto a more cheerful note, check out the earrings. This is the latest idea in my quest for world domination, Tidy things up a bit and they will appear on etsy. That will hopefully bring in the income to put some of my other plans into effect.



well, what do you think and what would you pay for them?