It's been a while

I've been a little busy.

As I mentioned in previous entries, I started many things back in September, and I've been working hard to get at least some of them completed.

The hall, stairs and landing now have a superficial covering of paint and paper, making them look about a squillion times better than they did before. Some nice cream paint and some cheap but pretty orange wallpaper mean that I can open my front door, without someone offering to get me onto DIY SOS.

The kitchen's tiles are progressing slowly, the utility has the framework of its wall and a newly tiled and grouted floor, which looks fab, and we have the door all ready to go on.

I need to get some cupboards and new work surface to house all the junk in there, and then A and I will be building and insulating that wall before the freezing (more freezing) weather arrives.

Woohoo!

Knittage

Nothing very much to report. I've been handknitting mainly.

I knitted an alpaca half-pipe hat for Connor's birthday.

I knitted this double stranded on 5.5mm needles and in the round. I learned a new cast on - tubular cast-on which is nice and stretchy, but I think a little fiddly.
Then a nice and simple 1x1 rib for 18cm, then stocking stitch, with decreases every 4 rounds or so.
The brim is stiffened with 10 gauge cross stitch fabric.

I thought it looked ace, but Connor moaned it was itchy, so I made another!! And as each of these only took a couple of evenings to make, I made an extra of each to go up into my etsy shop! Pretty pleased with them too.

This one was in a simple burgandy double knit, which is lovely to knit with, and then same as above, including double stranding. This knitted up even faster than the alpaca, possibly because there was no fluff and stuff, and then the brim was the same, and just tacked in place.

Simple! And he's been wearing this one loads!

Tension? Oh really!

I'm being lazy when it comes to knitting at the moment. I've managed to pile up the jobs so high now, that I am frightened to start anything as the rest will come tumbling down and squish me to death.

I decided to do some DIY in the coming weeks, and that list is now 37 items long. Some of those items are small and some of them may well take until the heat death of the universe!

I also added in some Christmas knitting projects - 18 of those, and counting!

And I decided to do more home cooking and baking, which is a good thing, but not an easy thing for me, as I can cook, I just usually prefer not to.

All this is in addition to etsy and also my coming-soon cosy emporium!

Sigh.

Sometimes I wish I could just dump it all and not think of all the things I should be doing. Then again, I'd only end up with other things on those lists, and have the same feelings of dread.

So in the spirit of bloody doing something, I have stripped a wall on the stairs, semi-completed the kitchen tiling, drawn the plan for the utility room and started Aaron's fisherman's rib jumper.

We're all told, when we're given the keys to our knitting machines, how important tension squares are. This is reiterated over and over and over again. I know how to make tension squares, how to leave them to settle and how to measure them. So why the bloody holy hell did I make one for Aaron's jumper and then NOT MEASURE IT?

I blithely started the back of the jumper and knitted about 200 rows (to arm hole point) and then decided to measure my tension square. Result? The  back is now twice as long as it should be! Argh! Luckily, my DH is also proportioned about twice as long as he should be, so it'll be a little long, but not too much. 

Lucky for me too that I decided to stop at 200 rows and not continue to the 240 I had estimated. For that I would need a husband who was also a giraffe!

Can you keep a secret?

Ok, so I'm not being very regular with this blogging! I do have reasons, not just excuses. There are a number of reasons, not least of which is that my knitting Tuesdays have vanished, and I just haven't gotten my new routine worked out yet. Also I've been off all cigarettes now for 12 days, and my concentration and sleep-patterns are well and truly messed up.

But, there is something really cool I wanted to mention. And this is such a cool thing I am almost bursting with it!

I got asked to send one of my cosies to New York for a photo shoot! Yes, I really did!

Now, this may come to nothing. After all, they will probably be photographing loads of things, but I was asked! Woot!

I checked mail late the other night, and saw a convo from one of the etsy communications team. Basically it told me they'd been approached by a magazine in America who would like to feature my cosy in their holiday buying guide! The only problem was it would have to be in their office within 48 hours!

Argh!

And I really did say 'Argh!'. 

At first, I decided to be flattered but to let it slip. After all, Stafford to New York in that amount of time would be hard! Then I browsed around and found it would be hard, but not impossible. So, at 4am, I was out in the office, packaging up the cosy, organising a courier for the next (actually current) day, and getting panicked.

I got to bed at 5am, and left strict instructions on what to do if/when the courier arrived.

He turned up at 4.45pm, when I was out of the house, and collected the cosy. And then I tracked it all the way to Times Square!

It got onto aeroplanes, and off aeroplanes, and was weighed and examined and scrutinised. And then delivered, early, to the lady in question at the magazine's office! Amazing!

So now I am waiting. The lady did mail me to say it had arrived and there was a strong possibility it would be featured, and she'd let me know.

Anyone who knows me realises that this is torture! I have to wait another 2 weeks or so, and then I'll discover if my cosy made it to the magazine's pages! I am madly hoping it will, and fatalistically expecting it won't.

They'll post my cosy back to me, once they've finished with it, and it will be better travelled than I am!

Keep your fingers crossed!

Well!

I just noticed I've been sparce with photos over the last while and I've also been just bunging them in the middle of the page. I used to position them neatly so that text flowed around them prettily.

I'll do better in future!

Call me Bond - Classic Bond

We've had an up and down sort of week, and I'll probably bore your eyes with that in a later post. For the moment, I want to introduce you to my new little friend.

I have two main knitting machines which are set up in the office:

1. The basic but lovely one is my Knitmaster chunky with ribber. That machine produces lovely hand-knit looking stuff with barely any fuss or bother, and makes a lovely clacky noise.
   
2. My all-singing, all-dancing Brother KH965i, which is a standard bed and does everything bar make the coffee - and I am sure there's a button for that too!

So all in all, I am pretty well set up and two machines is really the maximum I can use at any one time - yes, two machines - I have the garter carriage for my standard bed so that I can set it up and let it knit whilst I chunk away on the Knitmaster. So why, oh why was I browsing eBay again like some rather unsavoury kerb crawler of knitting machines?

Well, I have an addiction OK? I try to resist it. I have more yarn than I need. I have every tool and accessory I would need. But I didn't have a Bond.

And I needed a Bond.

You see - and here comes the rationale - the two main machines use brushes to help form the stitches. Brushes are great and make really nice knitting. However, yarns like eyelash and chenille do not react well to them, and end up looking horrible or, worse yet, break all over the place, making them impossible to knit with.

A Bond doesn't have any brushes. A Bond is a very basic, no frills knitting machine. It uses magic to make the stitches!

Additionally, it has a smaller gauge than the chunky, making it a happier experience to knit double knitting.

So, as you can see, a Bond was a necessity.

I got mine on eBay, and then a series of problems occurred which made me doubt how sensible buying anything which needed to be delivered was.

There was a mix up with payment - this was sorted quickly, but should have been a flag! The seller, very kindly, sent the machine via ParcelForce 24 to make up for the payment problem mess. This was really kind, but it led down paths better left unexplored by mere mortals!

The parcel didn't arrive within its guaranteed time span. The parcel went bloody missing for a while, with the tracking frozen at collection, and the parcel in some stranger's hands! Phone calls and emails ensued. Two hours of phone calls established that:

1. No one at ParcelForce was to blame.
2. No one at Royal Mail was to blame.
3. No one at the Post Office was to blame.
4. No one anywhere knew where it was, and it was in no way through any fault of theirs or the organisation they worked for.
5. Oh, and no one answers a ringing phone in a delivery office.

After all the excitement of not finding my parcel or someone to blame, I went and had a snooze for an hour - it was honestly that exhausting! Then, wonder of wonders, I had an email, at 12:50 from ParcelForce, telling me it had been delivered and signed for!

I did scratch my head a bit at that. I ignored the mail, as there was no parcel in my house, thank you very much, and went back for another 10 minutes of nap.

By the time I got up and showered,  I had given up. It was lost. Best to accept it and just mourn now. And then! And then, Robert announced that there was a parcel for me! Just delivered at 2pm. My Bond! How we laughed! How we danced!

It was in perfect condition, with some truly lovely yarn thoughtfully included by the seller, Angela. I set it up and read through the instructions. Easy peasy! Compared to the tome of instruction my Brother came with, the 5 small leaflets with this were a doddle. I had them read in the time it took to drink a cup of coffee. And we were all set to knit.

But first ....

I rang the Post Office, Royal Mail and ParcelForce and complained my little bum off! One complaint was aimed directly at the lying harridan who had mailed me to say it had been delivered over an hour before it was. And Robert hadn't been asked to sign for it! Another complaint there too!

And some days later, after the assurances I got from each organisation that the complaints would be investigated and someone would get back to me within 24 hours?

I assume that the results are in the post.

Knittage

Well it has to be something from the Bond now, doesn't it?

I decided to make a shrug. Some of the yarn that came with the machine was a chunky sort of yarn with a coloured something going through it. Obviously not enough of it to make anything big, so the shrug was the best idea.

It is quite complicated to cast on with a Bond, compared to my other machines. There is a weighted hem and elastic to work with, but we got there in the end. As there are no brushes, the weighting is way more important, just as when you are using a ribber.

So I cast on the 27 stitches (54 needles) on EON using a closed cast on, hung the hem, and then used Key Plate 4, which is a chunky tension, to knit throughout.

I knitted 115 rows, increasing every 21st row to 35 stitches, and then decreased the same way over the next 115 rows. Then a simple cast off. Then I sewed the sides up from the cuff for about 10 inches. Done!

I had just enough yarn to make and sew this up. It looks lovely and bright. And it was incredibly easy to make. I plan to make another one very soon using some of the lovely angora and mohair mixes I have. With any luck the texture will stay fluffy and it'll look as good as this one!

Photos to follow!

Christmas is coming ....

Isn't that a frightening thought?

It'll be my birthday on 15th September, and every year, the gap between my birthday and Christmas shrinks. Not that this is a bad thing - far from it.

I like celebrations. I'd go farther than that - I love celebrations! I'm the one in the hat, singing and dancing and having a great time, and quietly jigging about inside, because it's a birthday/Christmas/Saturday celebration and I am delighted.

I've never worried about getting older too much. I worry way more about dying. That's a daily worry for me to be honest. But getting older doesn't really worry me at all. I'm pleased with each birthday that I have my beautiful family with me, and that they are all strong and healthy. What more could I want?

I'll be 42 this year, and that means I've had many birthdays and Christmases. And yes, the time is contracting. It may still be 3 months officially, but everything speeds up, and I find I have less time to do more things in. Presents, food, knitting, preparations for everything, and still not enough time from September to December.

And I'm starting my Christmas knitting now. And it's going to be stressful. If not disastrous!

There's socks, waistcoats, jackets, baby gear, gloves, scarves, hats, not to mention jumpers! And some have to be posted to Ireland. And some have to head up to Scotland. Oh and there will be a new baby before Christmas and another one in February, and they definitely are on the list. So knitting will be more and more frequent. Isn't that a shame?

Aaron understands all of the hustle and bustle. He's my soulmate who understands that a gift voucher is not a present, and presents have to be given on the day, not some time after! We've spent the day in town, with 3 of the boys, browsing and filling up the Helen's Birthday bags. And now I can't sleep because I am really excited.

Even though it's only Saturday, and my birthday is on Monday, I'm hyper. I tend to be like this every year, and I count down from about August, so everyone knows when it is.

My presents tend to be the small and well-thought-out kind, and I love the fact that everyone really considers what to get. Aaron is off on Monday, so that'll be a lazy day with present opening and eating out. Although the brain slug he has will also be rearing its ugly head too then.

Finally, weeks after the CAT scan and months after the initial frightening visit to the dentist, Aaron has an appointment with Mr Grimes, his consultant. So we'll be seeing him at 4.20 to find out what is lurking in my darling's head, and what measures are necessary to make him all better. It's frankly terrifying, but I am positive that nothing evil will head our way on my birthday, and I'm keeping upbeat about it all. Aaron panics enough for us both - and it is his brain slug after all - so I get to be the 'rock' this time. And he deserves my best rock-ness.

I am lucky, and nothing is going to ruin that day, so all in all, it's for the very best that we're going to see him on that day, because it can only be good news!

So wish me a happy birthday, and I'll save you a piece of cake!

Bleurgh

That about sums it up at the moment.

Tuesday was my very last knitting day, as Dylan is about to start at the local school's nursery, and will be attending daily from 12.55 to 3.25.

I planned to make it a great one, and had knitted a 'tension sock' which was way too big, but had large numbers of rows so I could scale it for a perfect fit with the next sock I made.

I knew I had to pop to Cannock for a hospital appointment (Jack came with me, as Rob wasn't about, and I must say I was very proud of how impeccably he behaved!), but reasoned it would all be fine, and estimated I would have to give up about 2 hours' knitting to get there and back. This would then leave me with the majority of the day to make some socks, as I am in dire need of new ones, and still get some tea cosy time in.

How wrong was I!

The crap, awful, dismal hospital in Cannock swallowed nearly 2 hours of my time excluding travel of 60 mins! Bloody stupid appointments which are never on time, and I had to race from there to pick up Dylan, as Rob had a driving lesson and couldn't pick him up for me.

All of which meant I DIDN'T ACTUALLY SEE THE SPECIALIST AT ALL!!

I hate wasted time.

I really hate wasted time in a hospital, when I could have been knitting my socks!

In the end, I got 1 sock made. It fits perfectly, and it is exactly the style I wanted with perfect turn-down ribbing and gorgeous toes. But there is only one!

I could cry. I've loved my peaceful knitting days. They have kept me sane, and allowed me to get better at machine knitting. And now they are gone for the foreseeable future.

Oh, I know I will still be able to knit when Dylan is in nursery. And I have been able to get some done in the evenings. But it won't be the same.

And I blame the NHS.

Knittage

You thought I was going to show you socks! Ha! Not until I have both done!

Instead, here's my beautiful lambs wool and silk waistcoat I mentioned last time.


This has been an odd one, as it took me a few months to complete this.

The back and sides are very simple SS at T6, which gave a lovely drape when washed, with nice even shaping. The yarn was very annoying to knit with, as it's a 4ply, but really brittle. It snapped over and over and over again. Because of the flecks of coloured silk in the yarn, I didn't think it needed too much decoration. I think the SS looks great and really shows off the lustre of the material.


I joined the shoulders on the machine, and then washed the piece.

And waited a couple of months to knit the button bands. These were done really simply as doubled SS bands, with the turn row being at T9. And then the buttonholes were just simple 2 stitch holes over 2 rows.

Everything sewed together really well, but the yarn was painfully annoying to sew with - snapping and brittle - so I used a 2ply matching yarn and just sewed it up and wove in the ends.

The buttons I found in a charity shop, and thought they looked absolutely perfect on the really plain but luxurious waistcoat.

Synchron-knit-acy

It's funny how things happen. For months now I've been obsessing about getting things done, panicking about having too much to do and too little time to do it in. I've had death and kitchens and chickens and gardens and children and on and on and on.

Sometimes it does appear that everything conspires to steal time. And I had thought that the boys' being home, the arrival of the hens and the ongoing completion of the kitchen would leave me with negative equity in the bank of the long hours. And they haven't!

I must confess to being perplexed.

As the hens are out and about most days now (see my Cockadoodle Blog!), I have the perfect excuse to be in the cabin, where I can keep an eye on hens and bunnies at the same time. And I quite often sit and think, or sit and sew on the step so they can come and visit me when they like.

As I am out in the garden and cabin, Dylan is usually bumbling about, talking to sparrows and watering his wellies. This means the older boys pop out and chat on an on-and-off sort of basis.

Then, during a break from knitting or accounts or gardening, I don't mind popping back to the kitchen for a bout of grouting or a whack at polishing quarry tiles.

So the additional drains on my time have turned out to be facilitators which give me more time to do the things I love, namely the everythings in my life.

I am a lucky, lucky person, you know. I have a great family, happy animals, an active interest in my job (mom and housewife and general renovator) and hobbies that grow more interesting every time I do some!

Oh and the hobbies have increased, again. I fell for a needle felting kit on ebay, and after it arrived, spent an hour or so embellishing a felted case with flat needle felted rovings, and then needle felted a 3D sheep, using some fleece I had. Joyful experience. Painful if you prick your finger though. Of course I broke a needle during all this, so (over) compensated by buying 3 sets of 10 new needles. They arrived yesterday.

I've finally managed to pick up my handknitted sock project again, and am now turning the heel, thank mumphie!! I began these last Christmas, and hated hand knitting socks. They take about an hour to knit a pair on the machine, and about a decade by hand!

Dylan is having an orange stuffed rabbit in the next week or so - apparently. He handed me my DPNs and a ball of Jaffa DK, and announced his rabbit is waiting to be made. So I'll get on with that too.

I managed to pump out 2 really fantastic tea cosies on Tuesday, in pink/black and pink/white/OhdearGodPINK! I should have had those sewn up tonight and washed, but then I decided to knit a lambswool and silk tea cosy, which I loved! It took me about 30 mins from start (cast on) to finish (tied the knot in the icord at the top). And after that I made another one and (hot water) felted the heck out of it, to make the cutest ever little cosy.

So the pink creations have not been sewn up yet, and I also have big plans to needle felt the felted tea cosy at the weekend.

Oh and I made a last minute tea cosy for our friend Dave, who is leaving Stafford for the evils of Croyden at the weekend. That got sewn up this evening, and Dylan, Jack and Aaron helped out by making bobbles in many shades and sizes to help decorate it.

So looking back on this week, it's been busy and hectic and frantic, but we've all had so much fun, and we've eaten and drunk well, and we've all played and hobbied like crazy. Who would really want a quiet life?

Knittage

I have some lovely lambswool and silk blend yarn. It's a 4 ply and I had planned to use it to make Aaron something insanely fantastic. Instead, I made a waistcoat (which I will reveal at a later date) and now a tea cosy.

This one was so simple it makes me ashamed to blog about it!

Latch tool cast on of 63 stitches, knitted a stocking stitch row on T7, selected my tea cosy pattern on the machine, which was programmed in about 3 months ago, then knitted 7 rows on slip, and 1 row on plain.

Repeated this for 210 rows,  and then cast off. Repeated for the other side.

Then I knitted up a quick 3 stitch i-cord, about 200 rows long.

Popped inside and sewed it up, threading the i-cord through the loops at the top and tied a bow. Ta da!

This feels amazing, as it is such lovely yarn, but it will need more looking after than the acrylics I normally use - that is, you can't throw this one into the washing machine and then tumble dry it to death!