KnittingNatty

C'est un mystere non plus

hehehehe - the mystery project is revealled!

This was rather daft on my part, knitting a french project as a KAL for the Tour de France, and then not being able to reveal it! But finally I can reveal my project was none other than another Clapotis.

Here are some pics I took before it went for a trip to Donni's house.

Why do it? Apart from being a great knitting friend, she has been very generous in her time with the Good Yarn Karma site, is a valued member of our online knitting community, but there was another reason: She hand spun yarn for her own Clap, knitted it up and and then felted it by mistake. I felt her pain, and then started thinking "wouldn't it be good if Donni could have another Clap, but not have to knit it?"

And one thing lead to another. And there we have it. Just what the world needs. Another case of the Clap. ;O)

Branching Out - yes I am always the last one in the universe to knit anything

The pattern is from Knitty.

The yarn is a slightly slubby handspun original: a lovely, chocolate merino plied with a dark blue with the coloured flecks in it. This yarn changes colour in different lights and is never dull to look at.

The yarn was a New Year's purchase from one of the Wool shops in Hobart, Tasmania. Not yours, Katt, the other one, the Spindle Tree. When I saw the yarn, I just knew what to knit with it. I think it will make a fine and sophisticated scarf for the cooler weather.

I used just under 100 g and the pattern came out to 49 inches. The yarn asked for a 6.00mm needle and I was glad to oblige. It will look nice on Friday with a nice brooch.

I'm off to tuck in the ends and do a quick wet block...

Okay, one more pic for the road:

Now I really am going this time!

Button heaven!

Have you guys seen these? Talk about beee-yooo-di-ful!

I am feeling much better, but some days just take it out of me and there is no knitting done at night. Thanks to one and all for your warm get well wishes! I'm sure that it all helped!

I wanted to post a photo of my DD doing something that there is a photo of me doing thirty plus years ago:

  The more things change....

Shine-y Shine-y

Here is the Shiny yarn I bought a couple of months ago for a little girl's scarf. She's about 9 years old. Her birthday and Christmas are separated by only a handful of days.

This yarn was a Spotlight special @$1 a ball, and although its been fun and all, I am donating the remainder of t h Spotlight yarn to Ian's kindy for craft activities. Just sayin', Shine-y Yarn, It's. Ova.

Yarn: Moda Vera "Embrace", carried with yarn left over from the Ladder Stitch Cardi, which gave the fabric body and substance.
Needles: Yellow plastic 7.5 mm from Mum's collection
Pattern: The Yarn Harlots one row scarf pattern. Go down to Oct 12. How time flies!

(I bet the stitch pattern has never quite looked like this, though!)

One more Xmas knit crossed off the list! Phew!

Decisions and dishcloths

A whole day later and I am still unsure which way to go with this decision.

Like Donni says, I think I will put in the application and make a decision later. I really do change my mind each morning and evening.

I have been out of full time work for 5 years and out of part time work for 1 year.

At the moment, I get my sense of self from going to the gym (and having personal fitness goals), through my knitting and blogging.  This is enough for me to sustain my sense of enjoyment of the children being with them 24/7.

There is enough money to pay the bills. We don't live extravagantly, but we are stable. I am happy at home caring for the kids, if a little socially isolated.  I feel the social isolation more keenly at some times than others. During the week, the children and my days are routined and comfortable. I enjoy their company.

Before my feelings about returning to work were truly tested by this position, I wanted to try and last at home until Caitlyn went to Kindy, which is 2 years time. I ideally wanted to get part time work, and go full time when the kids were settled into Years 1 and 3. I thought that I would see them settled first and then look for work then.

Its hard not to get emotive about the decision to be made. I am trying to stay as focused on the different ways I come up with about making the decision. Like looking at it from the perspective of:

• Career opportunity - now vs later. WIll this job/ a job of this calibre crop up again at the "right time"? Should I just grab this opportunity with both hands?
• Regret - which decision will I regret more
• Skill depreciation (thanks Terri!)
• Money (am I just being shallow and putting money before my children)
• Selfishness (am I just being selfish wanting this job? Cause I really want this job for myself)
• how the kids will react/ respond to such a big change
• Missing out (home, special moments, potty training; later tuckshop, P&C, sports days etc)
• Organisation/ stress levels/ is this committment sustainable?
• Disruption to our family unit
• What are my fears when it comes to my children talking about how they were raised
• what values is this teaching my children
• general brain seizure from trying to juggle everything
• less relax time with all the household tasks to be done in the evenings
• How on earth will I manage it when we still run out of milk when I am at home full time?

Onto knitting news:
I am finally finished the dishcloths! The project has already been removed from the sidebar as i am completely over the number of WIPs I have on the needles at the moment. I just want to start something new. I know, I know. Again.

I promised you and here it is, a picture of how much Cotton Ease I  have left over in total:

(Blurry hand provided for scale)

And these are the last 2 dishcloths:

The pattern is called "flying geese" and you can print a copy of the pattern from here. ETA: The link was wrong - it is right now - the pattern is on page 4. Stitch detail:

The thing I like about this stitch is that it is completely reversible - great for this kind of project! And what a way to show what only knit and purl stitches can do!

Please feel free to comment some more about this decision. I am not delegating my decision making responsibility to you, gentle reader, and I realise that everyone's situation is different. Nevertheless I am interested in your perspectives and anything else you want to add.

Tychus for my little tyke

A quick knit, a great stash buster, definitely do-again.

Here's how it looked as the pattern was written:

What? Tychus

Yarn? Yes, please. No, JK. Umm, some Jo Sharp left over from Ian's train jumper in blue and some 8 ply in "Flannel" from Bendigo Woollen Mills, borrowed from Jo Sharp "Laurel Hill" project. There is no way I will need all the yarn I bought.

Modifications? I made the rows shorter so that it would be boy sized and not "large man" sized. The short rows varied between 12 - 20 sts or so. I used 8 ply (DK) weight yarn, and a 4.5mm needle, and the fabric came out firm but not too stiff. All the same I would not want to churn out heaps of these in a row cause the hands would hurt!

I added the icord to make it more whimsical and boyish, threading teh icord through the gaps left by not wrapping my stitches before turning the work. I would have left it at that, but Ian insisted on the "rocket button", centre front.

And a gratuitous pic of my little tyke. Just 'cause.

Panta fixation

If you like a Panta in the same way that you like potato chips, this is a bit of a must.

A Panta knitted with Cascade fixation - I used 1 ball and have about a third left over - if you buy two balls at once, I think you would probably squeeze out a pair of socks as well. Or you could go completely hog wild crazy and just buy 3 balls to be on the safe side and whip out a baby girl panta as well as one for yourself... Donni?

One word, though, I would advise caution as Fixation has a lot of lengthways stretch, to test it regularly against your head as you knit. If the last section is a little short, who's gonna know, it will be tucked under your hair after all!

Thank you Karla for sending me this yarn, which I think broke the sound barrier for getting in and out of my stash in record time!

Shining star

After finishing the pea pod cardigan for Caitlyn last week, I got to thinking about how much I enjoyed knitting Kate Gilbert's other famous design, Clapotis.

And that I had her pattern for the Shining Star for some time and had not yet cast it on. I tried the cast on when I first got the pattern, but then had difficulties with it, and put it aside for another day.

Yesterday was that day.

I know that a Cascade fixation Panta (link is for the knitalong - pattern compilation is in the sidebar) is brewing up onto the needles, but it was really windy yesterday, and the wind gives me headaches, so I decided to give it another go, using leftovers from Ian's train jumper as the yarn was grossly overestimated cost a bit of $$ is so soft, and would not itch at all. Don't need much in the way of justification, now do I?

I started to run short of yarn, so I skipped 4 rows just before where the ribbing starts. Otherwise, I wrote the pattern as written. I used about 1 and a half balls of Jo Sharp 8 ply. You would definitely have enough yarn with 2 balls.

The pattern is well written, and works well. I liked knitting it alot, and wondered why it took me so long to get around to. The cast on was totally my bad. True to form, I have worn it without weaving in the ends, and so the chances of that happening now are about 5 percent. Or nil...

Fixating

After Donni's attempts on the weekend to enable everyone to buy more Cascade fixation, I had a brain wave.

Remember my Panta, where I used Cotton Ease and slung along some knitting elastic for the ride? And what a pain that elastic was? Well, what do youse all think about a Panta made with Cascade fixation? I think the recommended needle size is even the same... Hmmmm...

I'm going to have to go update my list now... Thanks Donni for the inspiration!

Good mail day?

Lookie what I recieved in the mail yesterday afternoon! It's a sock needle protector for those travelling socks in progress:

I placed my order after having seen them on the Yarn Harlot's blog. Only one slight problem, Houston. My needles don't fit. In the photo below, the points are fitted on the LHS. Check the RHS of the work.

Or to be precise, the holder will fit only 3 of the sock needles in my possession. Most of my sock needles are 20 cms. I have part of a set of DPN's purchased in the US which are 18 cms, and they fit well. I have a left over sock needle from a visit to Germany in 1992 which is 15 cms, and it fits, although with other 15 cm counterparts, I think it could slide out. The slot is 13.5 cms and is not adjustable. I think at this point that the sock needle protector is made for 18 cm needles only, as it is not adjustable.

So maybe not such a good mail day after all. I will e-mail the seller and see if they have another size. I'm not flaming anybody, it is a case of what a difference an inch makes. Who knew that they make sock needles 2 cms shorter in the US? I sure didn't.

Any thoughts? Please e-mail me.