Earth Mother Weekend

I am having an unspeakably practical weekend.

Today...



I have made four jars of blackberry jam, having spent two hours picking blackberries in Reddish Vale yesterday - I have the scratches and sceptic splinters to prove it. Good fun.

On Sunday I baked choc-chip and walnut cookies and assembled a tray of Mars Rice Crispie Cake. The BF is very happy - he denies having a sweet tooth.

And, these photos of rather dubious quality show that I've blocked "Retropolitan 2.0". The damn cardigan is definitely going to fit my Granda this time. It fits the BF so I'm pretty confident it will fit my Granda. Too big for my Mam. I've also blocked the sleeve for my wrap, so I can sew it...



...to the rest of it.



And, (she says, revelling in the terrible grammar of this post - my friend, Apostrophe Girl will be spitting feathers), I've started another Christmas present for Talia. It's another "Stylecraft DK Merino" number, "Alicia" - very simple, and not a knit stitch in sight. It's all purl, with a few knitting through the back loops thrown in.



I'm onto the second sleeve now. Baby clothes are great - they knit up so quickly. I don't knit anything other than baby clothes in cream or white. This is ivory, and I just love how delicate it looks on the needles.

Sheepish

It has been drawn to my attention that my Stash Busted List includes items not actually knitted from my Stash.



Good point.

I shall fix this.

In other news - I'm knitting the trim on "Retropolitan 2.0". I need to find some buttons. And, I've knitted the "Twilleys Freedom Spirit - Wrapover". I need to block the sleeve so it matches the other one and sew these on to the body, but everything else is done.

Can't block now - waiting for the carpets to dry. We've just had them cleaned and they have gone from beige and black to cream. However, the chap who cleaned them told me that the only way to keep carpets looking good is to vacuum them every day. Vacuum. Every day.

This is not welcome news.

Retropolitan Version 2.0 - Update

So, I started off with a ball of this...



(Wendy - Aran 'Heather': 400g)

...and it's done all of this!



I was thinking (based on the pattern requirements) that I would use closer to the two whole balls (of 'Heather'), even taking into account I added half a ball of blackberry to the mix.



...Still leaving all of this to contribute to the ribbing , for finishing it off.



And I still have one ball of each left in the 'orphan' box. The colours blend well. It could become a version of the "Bonnie" scarf maybe, or another cardi for a grandfather, or maybe I'll get a "Samus" (Knitty) out of each... can't make a decision until I've seen what is left.

Finished Stealth Socks

It's the BF's birthday in a couple of weeks. However, he passed his first year OU exams this week, so I thought he could could have his socks early.



He's over the moon with them. I was worried that he might think them a little too bright - his usual colour choices are black, grey, brown, pale or dark green.

Of course, with his exam results, he took some persuading that 67% (B) and 71% (A) were brilliant scores. This is because he's been getting stupidly high scores in his coursework - 98%. I asked him if he had spelt his name wrong.

Stealth Socks

These are for the BF, but they're not intended to help him in his quest to become a ninja. (Have I not mentioned this before?) They're for his birthday and I'm really pleased with the colourway (Kaffe Fassett's range).



I'm not too pleased with the gusset on the second sock... will I frog and re-do, or will I find a way to bodge it?



What do you think?

Retropolitan - Version 2.0

So, the original was too small. My Mam has adopted it. My Mam told me to make the smallest version for my Granda, that was too small for my Granda, but it fits me Mam perfectly. Coincidence?

Anyway, as my Mam has the one intended for him, I'm using the "Wendy - Aran", which was intended for a "Samus" cardigan (Knitty) for her, to make "Retropolitan 2.0" for my Granda.



The BF is my model to check chest size and length. You can see (above) that I'm going for a brown cardigan with a 'Blackberry' striped ribbing. The intention is to use the 'Blackberry" for a deep stripe across the chest - eking out the yarn. The good thing is that I'm anticipating this will use up a chunk of this Aranweight I bought two years ago - 400g balls seem very out of place in the orphan box.

PS That's one side-effect of stash-busting... I'm creating a lot of orphan balls. I'll need that book on knitting up one-skein pressies.

Finito

I've finished "Hannah" for Talia and I am really pleased with the finished result.

Here it is, sewn up, with a few stray threads for weaving in. Just as I was about to start the hood, I ran out of charcoal. I substituted some "Rowan 4ply" in sooty... it's close enough.



Last night I popped into "Hobbycraft" looking for a lilac zip, but the purple versions clashed with the colours of the yarn, so I've gone for a slate coloured version.



Hmm... in this picture, I'm not convinced that my substitution has worked, but it looks ok "in the flesh" or should that be "in the yarn"?