sticking with it...

i've almost finished the second mitten (here's the first). taking care not to poke my eye out with five DPNs on the go at once.

mini mittens

i'm knitting mini-mittens-on-a-string christmas tree decorations*. they're knitted on DPNs and the work-in-progress looks like a wool explosion in a kerplunk factory (or a kerplunk explosion in a wool factory). i'm hoping to give some as gifts, if i get enough finished...
* can't actually find the source of the pattern now but will have a proper look later

sock knitting

i'm knitting socks (or should that be sock) on four needles. i've knitted in the round before but never attempted socks but i thought i'd give it a go after buying this rather lovely wool from the ever fab tiger. i'm following jenny gordy's instructions in lena corwin's made by hand book. as you can see, progress is rather slow. it's satisfying though, to get away from the screens and sit down to something like knitting which, in my case at least, requires complete concentration (and when knitting rib, for me to repeat 'knit, knit, purl, purl' silently to myself). it makes me appreciate my fore-mothers who knitted and sewed and made so many beautiful things in the days when such craftiness was done out of necessity not a need for creativity. both my grans were so quick with the sticks, the rhythmic clickity-clickity was the soothing soundtrack of my childhood visits to their homes. thank goodness that we have the option of less labour intensive hosiery or my menfolk would be chilly of toe!

making and breaking

and so it's autumn, all my photos are a tad dark and grainy. i've been making wee baby j a pixie hat using a vintage knitting pattern (it's from the same booklet as the zigzag helmet). i bought some lovely and unbelievably affordable wool from tiger, (the brighton store opened not long ago and everyone i speak to is beside themselves with joy to find a new source of scandi loveliness). i'm a very slow knitter and, unlike grannies everywhere, am unable to do anything else at the same time so progress is slow. even slower in fact as o-o naughtily grabbed the knitting while my back was turn and unravelled two hour's worth of work. sigh. it was a day of destruction. in the afternoon he ran past a display of elmer mugs in the jubilee library shop, knocking two off the shelf and cracking them. i paid for the damage of course, whilst cursing patchwork elephants, low grade plastic crockery and ill thought out shop displays through gritted teeth.

when not destroying, o-o's been constructing mc escher style castles from our geriatric lego.

 and sailing away with little bro on safari boats.

fingers crossed for a win!

babywear meets world's strongest man meets gay pride

scheck out wee baby j sporting a new jumper made by (great) auntie g. where babywear meets world's strongest man meets gay pride - one hell of a venn diagram. sadly i was unable to capture his 'lifting the atlas stone' pooing face here. he's getting to be such a tough guy - i draw your attention to the cheeks, the chins and the arms. 'has he been eating raw eggs and chicken breasts for breakfast?' i hear you cry. breast milk is surely a doping scandal waiting to happen.

zig zag knitting cast off

i've finished the knitting and cast off. now just need to sew up and make some twisted wool ties. m's just announced he's going to make a batch of homemade strawberry ice cream, yum. o-o says that a walrus says 'galumph, galumph, galumph', he read it in his richard scarry book, who knew?

zig zag knitting

i've started knitting the 'helmet' hat for the lovely ex neighbour's lovely new baby. at first it looks like a bit of a knotty bumpy mess but after a few rows order emerges from the chaos and you start to see chevrons appearing.
all old ladies seem to be able to turbo knit whilst simultaneously doing several other things (in my grandma k's case these other things might include; boiling the living daylights out of a pan of veg, winding a baby, listening to the radio, keeping a watchful eye out of the window to log passersby's admiring glances at her garden and playing an ultra competitive game of cards). i, on the other hand must keep my eyes and mind firmly focussed on the knitting in (v-e-r-y slow) progress. as captain oates said, i may be some time...

a rainy day

l-man is with us today and it's raining. we spent the morning confined to the house, twiddling our thumbs, brumm-brumming cars about and (loosely) sorting the toy animals by species. then o-o and l-man decided to cosy up in o-o's cot with pajama ted and knitted bear. 

o-o put both teddies to bed with plenty of blankets. i love knitted ted's wonky smile, he was made by my welsh gran. 

as cabin fever began to set in l-man suggested we venture out to the secret playground despite the rain. everything was very soggy and there was a small amount of squabbling over the spinner. 

tomorrow o-o is going round to l-man's house to play. i'm going to print some old lady swearwords, any special requests colourwise?  i also need to pick up sticks and make a new baby gift for our lovely ex-neighbour who has just celebrated the arrival of her fourth tiddler. i'm planning to make a 'helmet' using a (very) vintage pattern, bought on ebay, which utilises a satisfyingly zig-zaggidy construction, i'll show you what i mean once it's underway.

babies must wear wool

o-o wears a lot of hand-knitted clothes, he has several pairs of woolly trousers. it is my view that babies should wear hand knitted, woolly clothes as much as possible. cosy, stretchy and one-of-a-kind, so lovely. i made some orange trousers when i was pregnant using the instructions in this book by elizabeth zimmermann. here's tiddler o-o wearing them whilst doing a spot of radish leaf ripping (please excuse the depressing, student house carpet, it has since been removed). circular needles, they're the future. there are instructions in the book for adult sized knitted leggings, i would dearly love to knit m a pair but alas, i am slow of needle and it would take me the rest of my natural lifetime to make them.

i've spent the last hour trying to put up our 'hang it all' (ish, bought on ebay for £30, not the real thing) coat racks. i've given up; our house is made of some kind of crumbly substance similar to wensleydale cheese, the wall is now pock marked with many holes of varying sizes, none of which will accept a rawl plug. harumph!