Hell has frozen over

I went to Ikea today. I haven’t been in years. I still get the shivers thinking about what happened last time. Damian decided not to join me, which was a very good thing. I was in and out of Ikea in under 20 minutes; with a bit of pre-planning I knew what I wanted needed and now hopefully I can keep Purl from messing with my stash. Just quietly, I felt like a winner getting out of Ikea in record time. I might have to plan more trips like this.

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Hopefully Purl doesn’t take up rock climbing.

The monster pants are all done and I’m just finishing the sleeves on Marilyn’s matching cardigan. I’ll get Damian to take proper modelled photos next weekend. I can’t wait to hand it over and see my sister’s reaction.

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The next instalment of my Cookie A sock club arrived on Friday. I love the yarn and the colour but unfortunately that means I’m way behind. Oh well, that’s life.

A battle of wills

After 4 months of living in harmony, Purl has decided she has as much right to my stash as I do. Or all of a sudden, yarn in zip lock bags has become extremely appealing… Looks like I have a date with Ikea.

Does she look innocent to you?

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Purl helped me clear out one pigeon hole…

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And here she is on her ivory tower planning, plotting her next move… hmm… she’s not very happy with me.

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Bad Cat

I get really bored talking about Still Light, so I figure you must be bored hearing about it. All I’ll say is, it has been placed on hold yet again (with just 2 sleeves to go). My niece’s first birthday is coming up in less than 3 weeks and I wanted to make her something and I didn’t want to chance not getting it done in time if I. didn’t. stop. knitting. Still. Light.

Fast forward to this morning. Damian left for work hours before me. I wake to find this on my living room floor. 

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Oh crap I thought. She’s got a taste for it. She’s somehow managed to find the left-over Cleckheaton Country Wide I made the Latte Baby Hoody with. Oh she must have got into my basket. Never mind I thought. No harm done. I’m beginning to sound like ‘those’ cat people that blame themselves for their cats destroying their knitting. Sadly, I’m beginning to see it from their perspective. 

So off to work I go, with the yarn safely shoved into the kitchen bin. At some point I unconsciously consider, ‘gee that was a lot of left-over yarn she got a hold of’. Way more than I thought I had… after all, I didn’t have enough to even make a ‘baby’ pocket on the jacket as I’d hoped. I pushed the thought out of my head.

Tonight I arrive home. I begin peeling the potatoes in prep for the delicious meal my husband is going to cook. I casually gaze at my yarn shelf and for no reason at all I see this:

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This is where I freak out.

Ok. This ball of yarn is from my new ‘niece’ project. It has been placed up high on this shelf by Damian. Ok… so if that’s up there, then where is the rest of my yarn and project bag? It’s missing. I search high and low. I finally find my bag still relatively tied up in Purl’s TUNNEL @#$%%^&*

I carefully untie my project bag and then I hold my breath for the safe return of my knitting project. (At this point I think Purl walks sideways out of the room). Thankfully the project is intact. I go to the bin and yank out the red yarn. It is not the Cleckheaton Country Wide wool, I’d originally thought. It is the Jo Sharp DK wool, which is the monsters mouth in my niece’s project. Woe. Oh. Oh well. At least I’ve already done the mouth, nevermind I wanted to use it for stripes as well. There I go again sounding like one of those cat people.

The project is Das Monster. Toddler monster pants! I love them and have wanted to knit them forever. If there’s time, I’ll make my niece a cardigan too.

Lessons learned:

Purl cannot be trusted. Ever.

She has a taste for yarn with some grit. The Rowan yarn sits unharmed in baskets totally at her reach.

Purl loves yarn, just like me.

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Some success

I have 2 new wool enthusiasts! I spent this morning showing my nieces how to make pom poms. Magically before their very eyes they made these:

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Can you see the delight in their eyes?

The french knitting and the knitting with needles, was a little trickier; that was to be expected. It took me a long time trying to learn to knit as a kid and I explained that to them. We had big plans to make Dixie the duck a scarf as well as Lily’s unicorn a scarf. Guess I have some knitting to do…

Whoops and before I forget, I found this great t-shirt for Lily as part of her b’day present.

 
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It’s happened

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This is the moment every knitter dreams of. I try not to expect it or anticipate it. These things can not be forced let alone suggested, if there’s any chance.

My brother’s girls have asked me to teach them to knit. Now going through this experience once before with my niece on the other side of the family, I don’t have my hopes up.

Whilst I’ll bring along the requested needles and yarn, I’ll also take with me pom pom makers and knitting nancies. I’ll even take my hand cranking knitting tube maker. I have all these things, in preparedness for sharing the joy of yarn and making stuff with the little ones in my family.

It took me years to learn knit as a child, I found it incredibly frustrating. So I’m not expecting big things right away from a 4 and 6 year old; this is where the pom pom makers and the hand cranking knitting machine will pay dividends. The feeling of accomplishment is more important than not dropping stitches.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Everywhere I look, Ravelry, blogs, knit nite… everyone seems to be knitting more than me. Perhaps I need to stop looking in those places to free up some knitting time.

What’s the secret? I need to know…

‘Winter is coming’

This is what I keep hearing. Sadly there are no winter-sets to speak of, let alone finished objects, I’m looking at you Still Light, oh heavens how I’ve tried. So what do you blog about when there is nothing to show?

The Latte Baby coat got some handsome buttons last week…

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Purl has been extra snuggly now that it’s cold and I’m taking full advantage of that.

I finally watched the last episode of Downton Abbey season 3 whilst finishing up some spinning. Oh my word and I thought Game of Thrones was tragic. Thankfully my real life isn’t as dramatic as that, touch wood.

These 2 bobbins are now ready to ply after they’ve rested for a day or so.

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Very little spinning has taken place this year as keen observers will have noticed. I can’t blame the kitten for everything, it’s just a matter of time (in my defence Purl is currently sleeping on my hands as I type). This fibre comes from 2 Bendigos ago. They are EGMTK beastie blends with merino, bamboo and silk. I can’t wait to see them plied, as I imagined them 2 years ago.

As well as winter coming, so is Bendigo Show… and possibly a blip in the yarn diet. Whilst I still haven’t purchased any yarn since NY, this came into my possession this week, who says you can’t receive gifts outside your birthday month?

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Thank you Teopea! It was a very sweet surprise.

Back to knitting, if I have the heart to wake Purl up…

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The Latte Baby Hoody

 

 

This week I’ve worked solidly on this baby hoody for a co-worker. It’s missing some buttons, but I hope to rectify that in the next couple of days. So far, I’m thrilled with the result! The pattern was well-written and clever, not a seam in sight. The knitting began at the very top of the hood section using Judy’s Magic cast-on… clever huh?

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… and do you recognise the yarn?

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The yarn was left-over from making my Silvi Coat, Cleckheaton Country Wide. I managed to locate a little over 5 balls. I was rapt to have put them to good use, but I wish I had just one more ball. I had to skimp on 2 rows in the woven band and I had to forego a pocket. Boo hoo. But alas I don’t think it’s a major tragedy.

Now back to Still-light… still going. It’s times like these I wish I had a magic wand.

Ode to Corinella

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I found out some sad news on the weekend. The Corinella colouring competition that has appeared in the Herald-Sun each Saturday morning for the past 90 years, is no more.

This made me feel terribly sad. Not just for me, but for the future of kids, creative kids.

I don’t know where I would be today without Corinella. As a kid, I wanted to be Corinella! I even tried to get work experience in their office at high school (ok so I was a big kid, I went to a Sunbeamer Annual Party in my retirement year, I was 15, I’m sharing a lot here).

Whilst I have my dream job now, the door has closed on the fantasy of one day being Corinella! Maybe I need to start a petition…

Growing up, we didn’t have a lot. Corinella gave me the opportunity to win some FUN things. Things that kids with slightly wealthier parents could afford to buy them. Instead, I won those things. I got better at colouring and then when my older sister taught me about ‘tone’, that’s when the winning really started happening. Corinella made me competitive. It made me excited about colouring, and boy did I love colouring. Did I mention, I won a lot? I had at least half a scrapbook filled with paper clippings of all my wins. 

When my sister handed down the news, she looked at her husband and said “Corinella’s the reason we were having kids”.

It’s the end of an era. Nothing ever lasts… and I don’t want to believe a word of it. I am thankful Corinella was there for me. I had something to look forward to each week. And when there was a delivery, I was ecstatic! It has definitely made me who I am today, just ask my mail guy at work.