Heads, fingers and toes (FOs)

A quick post to catch up on some of the little things that have recently made their way into my gift stash.

These are girl socks for the jelly bean, knitted with sparkly Berocco sock yarn. See those sparkles?

Followed by handwarmers for my dad, knitted with some mystery grey 4 ply. I think this yarn came from grandmothers house. There were several partial balls which - as you can see - were clearly from different dye lots. I hope the subtle difference in colour is not too noticeable when being worn! It feels like quite a woolly yarn, and it has bloomed and softened with washing. I improvised the pattern based on the ones I made for myself a few weeks back, but using slightly more stitches to accommodate a manly hand.

Last and not least are two very weeny baby beanies for those twins. Anticipating smallish babies and smallish heads, I adapted my baby beanie pattern, using 80 stitches rather than 100... Oh, and rather than an i-cord stalk with knot, I made wee circles instead. Cute huh?

Glasgow School of Yarn (and an FO)

On Saturday we went to Glasgow. A family day out and a birthday treat for my mother-in-law. While the boys went to see the new transport museum, we made our way to the Mackintosh Church to the Glasgow School of Yarn 2011. Unfortunately, I booked too late to get into any of the workshops, but we spent a happy hour or two in the market place choosing yarn, drinking tea, eating cake and chatting to knitters.

Natalie from the yarnyard was there with her lovely yarns and magic carpets (which she explained to me) and a lovely warm hug; and the jelly bean helped me choose some yarn to make some boy socks with - and we carried off some lovely BFL yarn in the colourway 'Lochside' from Abstractcat.

Once the second handwarmer was finished, the skein was quickly wound and a pair of boy socks cast on. I'm adopting/creating a new tradition to make my children socks each Christmas. And, while we watched the last episode of Spooks (sniff, sniff) I soon rattled through the leg of the first sock (I don't know why this picture insists on appearing sideways... I've tried to put it right, but it just won't go...)

Everyone else has got much better pictures than me of Glasgow and the CRM church (try here and here for lovely pics), and everyone was super friendly, and I only hope that it happens again next year.

In other news, the handwarmers are finished and rather lovely (even if I say so myself). There will definitely be some more of these in the near future...

Pattern: handwarmers (based loosely on the purlbee's pattern)

yarn: Jenny Cook hand dyed yarn (multi-coloured) with some green 4 ply from the stash (Jaeger?) 40g used

I'm trying to make better use of my time by being a bit more focused and organised about things both at home and at work. To this end, I am tending to having one 'big' project (for the house) and one 'little' knitting project (for out of the house) on the needles at any one time. At the moment, my big focus is on the cardigan of doom which is now blocked and waiting to be seamed and finished. I'm also focussing on my sewing basket/mountain a bit more regularly. Apparently you actually have to get your sewing machine out for things to be made and repaired - just thinking about it is not enough; who knew? Anyway, serious roll of drums and trumpet fanfare, because I have just made my first quilt! Tada!

It may be an itty bitty doll sized quilt for the jelly bean, but it's a quilt and I pieced the top and bagged it and stitched in the ditch and everything. And, it's all recycled/repurpose from old shirts and some old flannel sheets...

Announcement (and FO)

We interrupt this blog to announce that forthwith the drinking of tea in the vicinity of laptops is strictly forbidden. At. All. Times. (Without. Exception).

I should explain. There was a small incident last week. One involving an almostly completely drunk cup of tea and a laptop. Despite my best efforts (tip laptop upside down, shake vigorously, blot any remaining moisture with hanky, swear even more vigorously, keep fingers crossed and leave laptop in warm place for a day or two) said laptop has taken ill and is with matron in sick bay. Not sure when she'll be back - and of course, until she is I can't do any work it's a bit tricky accessing photos and files.

No matter. I might have missed this week's making monday, but there is a wee something - or even fourteen wee somethings to show instead.

A small bevvy of hats for this year's Big Knit, which I parcelled up for Age Scotland. These hats will shortly grace the tops of Innocent smoothie bottles and each hat sold generates a donation for Age UK. The target was 650,000 hats!

In other news: I have been WIP wrestling, and got Deli (aka the cardigan of doom) out of hibernation. Since I had 4 of the 5 pieces already knitted, I thought I would block what I had and go from there. So, two sleeves, one back and one front were all washed and ready for blocking. As I got to work with the pins I noticed a hole, and then another and another. I'm not sure I can even say the word: m o t h. Apparently one has been nibbling at my knitting. So, there has been ripping and grafting and gnashing of teeth as I repaired and reknitted the three of the four pieces which had holes (and installed anti-moth measures in all my stash boxes). At the weekend I started knitting the second front (the last piece) and was gaily decreasing for the armhole when I thought I had better check that it matched the first side. It didn't. It wasn't quite as far out as the yarn harlot was, but it was still out, so there'll be more ripping and reknitting, and I daresay some gnashing of teeth too. Still, I did manage to finish my first handwarmer last night (after abandoning the cardigan of doom in disgust). I'm wearing it now. You know. As you do. Just to see.