Dumplings

The camera is playing nicely, so taking advantage of the moment, here's a shot of the socks (child size 10) for Lois and a hat for Talia.



Tiny Talia's head is so teeny that none of the hats bought for her fit and I made a hat with sock yarn, casting on 90 stitches. Sharon was over the moon with this one hat I made for her ("Opal - Rainforest - Flamingo") so I've rattled this one off for my Mam to take back when she visits at the weekend.

Something that will utterly swamp Talia is "Dumpling" ('Rowan Babies'). I made it in the 0-3 months size but the recipient is less than one month old, though even so, this cardigan will allow plenty of growing time. :-)



This is a great stash buster - made in "Rowan Big Wool" - knitting up in only a couple of evenings on 12mm needles. It only used 1.5 balls and I plan to use the remaining half ball with a full ball of cream to make another one for my friend Rachel's new daughter, Effie. I think "Dumpling" would look great with cream as the main colour and this pink blend as the trim. (That feels the wrong way around to me - it should be a cream trim... it's just the amounts I have won't work that way).

Do you like the gingerbread man button? One of a little haul from Ally Pally.

Messing about on the Dark Side

I've been doing battle with Darth Sewing Machine again. Despite the damn thing taking me out at the thumb, I won.

Before Christmas, I missed two of my sewing classes - one through rowing with MFI and one because I was ill - and I had a couple of pieces of work to do. I think classes start up again tomorrow and, in my usual fine tradition of being organised and not leaving everything until the last minute, I decided to make a start on one of these projects today... after lunch in fact.



Above... some strips of material laid out next to some cord. A big clue to what I was making is at the top of the picture, no, not the bin. Below, you can see the material being wrapped around the cord and sewn up - though there were several arguments with Darth SM to get a tight enough seam along the cord.



The piping was then attached to a larfe piece of material. (This is "Ruby Hamptom Check" by the way and is a lovely mix of colour and texture - chenille squares intersperse the silky-feeling stuff. Oh, yes, I understand my materials, not).



Next stage... putting in a zip and attaching the other piece of material. She says this like it was easy. The big guns were brought in at this stage after relations between yours truly and Darth SM broke down. Damn thing maliciously attacked my thumb (though perhaps I shouldn't have had my thumb right under the foot) so I retaliated by snapping the needle (though this could be argued as being a bigger pain in the backside to me than the machine).

Those big guns? The BF arrived with a cup of tea and cake.



Can you guess what it is yet?



Above - inside-out.

Below - the right way around and stuffed.



Check out my piping - I'm well chuffed with it (having previously sworn that piping was a Dark Art and to be avoided at all costs).



I'll be taking the cushion to class tomorrow - largely to prove I've done some work. There was also a table runner to do before Christmas, but that didn't happen as I was finishing my Christmas knitting. I might do this next weekend as it'll make sure I actually get it done for next Chrimbo. That's the red cotton sheeting and cream starry voile on the left of the picture (below).



On the right is some brown material patterned with pale pink and dark pink circles that my friend Sian gave me. I think there's enough for a small cushion there.

In knitting news, I bought "Son of Stich and Bitch" last week. I'm hiding it from the BF as I can see him getting a few presents out of there. I'm really fickle with knitting books - the first time I looked through the book, I wasn't overly impressed but now I love it. I've also finished a baby hat and some child's socks from the remnants of the "Opal -Rainforest - Zebra"... but the camera is now having a hissy fit so no piccies.

A Few Thoughts on Last Year

I had several resolutions, some of them I'm keeping for this year.

The stash was never reduced. Hahaha! I made many, many pairs of socks for myself, and as far as having a go at designing went... I played about with a few baby hats and blankets, but nothing serious.

This year, I have catalogued the stash - with the exception of the big box of orphan balls that I'm scared to delve into. ;-) I want to break the back of these before I treat myself to more yarn (except when I need to buy yarn to make gifts for other people). I'm keeping the list in my side bar to help me keep track.

Books I read last year... lots. With the exception of 'American Gods' (Neil Gaiman) purely because I didn't like the style of writing, they've all been goodies. The BF mentioned that Facebook has a facility for scoring books, but I find this difficult... I'd rate 'Desperation' (Stephen King) and "The Time Traveller's Wife" (Audrey Niffenegger) with a 5/5 but there entirely different novels with 'Desperation' being a trashy horror. I score on enjoyment.

1. American Gods - Neil Gaiman
2. A Feast for Crows - George RR Martin
3. The Kraken Wakes - John Wyndham
4. Consider Her Ways - John Wyndham
5. The Children of Men - PD James
6. Cell - Stephen King
7. A Modern Utopia - HG Wells
8. All Fun and Games Until Someone Loses an Eye - Christopher Brookmyre
9. Havoc, in it's Third Year - Ronan Bennett
10. Until I Find You - John Irving
11. Slant - Greg Bear
12. Saving Fish From Drowning - Amy Tan
13. Labyrinthine - Kate Moss
14. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
15. The Traveller - John Twelve-Hawks
16. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid - Bill Bryson
17. The Hungry Tide - Amitav Ghosh
18. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - JK Rowling
19. As Used on the Famous Nelson Mandela - Mark Thomas
20. Ringworld - Larry Niven
21. Lisey's Story - Stephen King
22. Desperation - Stephen King
23. The Birth of Venus - Sarah Dunant
24. In the Company of the Courtesan - Sarah Dunant
25. A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil - Christopher Brookmyre
26. Blood Music - Greg Bear
27. The Complete Robot - Issac Asimov
28. Wintersmith - Terry Pratchett
29. Making Money - Terry Pratchett
30. The Caves of Steel - Issac Asimov
31. The Naked Sun - Issac Asimove
32. The Night Watch - Sergei Lukyanenko
33. A Spot of Bother - Mark Haddon
34. Gerald's Game - Stephen King

The Joy of No Deadlines

As Piglottie has very rightly pointed out, knitting to deadlines takes some of the fun out of knitting and turns the hobby into a chore. So for next Christmas, I'm either going to start knitting earlier, or...and this is my preferred option... not knit as many things for people. Realistically, I know I'll be doing the former. D'oh!

Since finishing the socks for my Step-Dad (on the 26th, that I have forgotten to photograph) I've been churning out the socks for myself.

Here we have a pair of "Opal - Rainforest - Zebras" (which has been in the hoard since October 2006) and a pair of "Admiral R Druck" (which I picked up on my trip to Ally Pally - part of a 'three for £12 offer'). The Zebras were rattled off pretty quickly in 6ply.



To keep the Zebras company, I'm now on with a pair of Tigers... don't know how well that would work in the wild, although you don't get tigers in Africa.

The BF has been wandering around the house singing "Tiger Feet".



And, because I'm making a concerted effort to reduce the orphan balls... I'm going to knit these up before I start anything else. (Being a size 5, there's actually enough "Zebra" left for another pair of socks for me... but I can't possibly have two matching pairs of socks!!! :-) So, these will either be for my friend Debbie or my niece Lois).



PS News of another new baby. My friend Rachel has just had a little girl - long name... to be known as Effie.

Happy New Year!!

Posting disappeared by the wayside towards the end of last year, and then I was away for Christmas. There are advantages and disadvantages to keeping your families on the opposite side of the country. One of these is the travelling you do to make sure you see everyone and another is that at least their rows are kept on the opposite side of the Pennines when you escape.

In this instance, Christmas was spent with the BF's family where everyday could have been spent more peacefully in Basra. There's a lot of family tradition that to be followed... this translates as a lot of work that MIL and especially FIL ('cos he doesn't do any of it) view as essential to the true Christmas experience...that no-one else expects. When help is offered, it is always rejected and then there will be several rows to rival anything seen on 'Eastenders' as everyone is criticised for being unsupportive and ungrateful.

From there, we went to my Mam's (both of us breathing deep sighs of relief). My Step-Dad turned 60 on the 28th and, for eight months, my Mam has been planning a surprise party. She hired a small room at Lumley Castle (on the banks of the River Wear at Chester-le-Street for you cricket fans) for a family party.



For the first time (in six years) my brother and I (and our partners) met my Step-Dad's sons and their partners. It was a fantastic evening - everyone hit it off. My Step-Dad was stunned when he caught sight of his sons and my brother sat together in the bar: "But how do they know each other?" The food was delicious, the wine was free-flowing and the birthday cake (completely chocolate) smuggled up from "Slattery" (http://www.slattery.co.uk/) in Whitefield went down a treat.

In other news... my second Christmas neice was born on the 15th December - Talia Rose. My brother sent me a text message: "New baby is here. Smaller than Lois - 6,10. She's got massive feet!" I love his sentimentality... and she really does have massive feet. :-) My brother and his wife loved the things I had knitted, as did her sister...who disappeared with the moon and stars blanket.

My Step-Dad was really grateful for the socks I knitted for his birthday - it was quite a reaction for someone who doesn't usually say much.

The BF loves "Saranac" though some blocking is required for better shaping. I'm a little disappointed with that, and I have made a further rod for my back. He loves the socks "and wouldn't mind some more if you're knitting them."

Meanwhile, my nephew has finally started wearing a hat. The "Sirdar Bamboo DK" paid off. Once the gift was opened (including the two jumpers which his Mum loved, but he wasn't much impressed by) he made off with the hat. He spent all night rubbing it against his head and face. So the softness works - that and the fact that we've fasted it to his head. (I previously suggested stapling, but for some reason, this wasn't a popular idea).

Some of my fab presents included "Bags Two" and "More Sensational Knitted Socks" - which I'm going to need some help with... regarding how to follow the instructions! Basically, I made out like a bandit.



Anyway, Happy New Year to you all - I hope the coming year is everything you want it to be.

Christmas Update

Once more... apologies for neither updating my own blog nor popping into see what other people have been up to. Work has been chocker, then there's been the Christmas Knitting to finish and I really didn't have a spare moment to do any updating... and then there were technical problems with t'interweb not wanting to play nicely.

Anyway, I haven't done:

1. Stocking for Lois.
2. Puss in Boots for Lois.
3. Socks and gloves for SIL - but the yarn never arrived from the company I ordered from.

The socks for my Step-dad's birthday (28th December) are still in the pipeline.

However, I have finished everything else, including:

"Relish" for Lois.



"Streamer" is now done (with sleeves unlike pictured here) for Thomas. This was a pleasure to knit. I love intarsia and making clothes for munchkins is satisfyingly fast.



As was Thomas's hat. His mum is worried about him getting cold and he won't keep hats on so she requested something we could fasten to his head (without staples). This is knit in "Sirdar Baby Bamboo DK" and is beautifully soft so, with any luck, this will encourage him to keep wearing it too.



And, of course... the biggie... "Saranac" was finished on Thursday night. I've changed the shaping as it seemed that following the pattern would result in something half poncho / half jumper. To be honest, in the last fortnight I wasn't convinced I would finish it. However, I was in London for two days at the end of last week and this with the train journeys and a couple of lunch breaks at work really helped.



Hope the BF likes it. I'll post a modelled picture once he opens it.

Speaking of opening gifts... I opened an early present from my friend, Arpana - it was "Bags Two". I am delighted. It's not something I would have bought for myself but there are some fantastic bags in there - felted, intarsia, fairisle, woven, satchels, messenger bags and totes. I'm going to have to start knitting some of these in the New Year.

Dunking Helicopters and Duff Batteries

On the dunking helicopters front, I thought I'd tell you about some of the previous fundraising and awareness raising activities I've been involved in for World AIDS Day. (I thought it might be good to keep a theme running for this month).

Before I joined the public health training scheme, I was a Health Promotion Specialist for sexual health. So, for several years I've been involved in World AIDS Day events, in one form or another. One year, when I was working in Hull, we decided our sponsored fundraising event would be...being dunked in a helicopter.



There is, or used to be, a maritime rescue training centre in Hull for training coastguard staff to rescue people from the North Sea. This facility had a large pool and a helicopter shell.

Just for fun, several of us agreed to be strapped into the helicopter, submerged in the pool, and then swim out. Sounded straightforward enough. Well, we did it... but as soon as the helicopter started sinking, three of us decided that was it and swam out. Even if this is what you want to do, I think it's hard to override the brain and it's logical response to get the *£$!%" out of there right now!!

Second attempt... we coped with the fully submerged helicopter.

Then... the training crew said for the full experience... they would submerge, then rotate the helicopter so it was up-side-down... Uh-huh...right. I made my excuses and vacated the pool, rapidly.

On the knitting front (duff batteries)... I've actually finished the sleeves for "Matros" (my grumble piece AKA jumper for my nephew) and am sewing up tonight. Don't think I'll get the collar done until tomorrow night, but yippee!! I've attached the sleeves to body of "Saranac" (jumper for the BF), but it may take longer to finish than I thought. Tomorrow, I'll be knitting on the tram (socks for the BF). It's only three weeks until Christmas and I'm starting to panic.

:-)

Next World AIDS Day story... if people would like it...will feature Labi Siffre. (For anyone who is not sure who he is: "Something inside so strong").