Some completion!

Finally finally finally, I finished that pair of mittens I've been working on for aaaaaages! Well, hardly working on, otherwise they wouldn't have taken ages! Gave them to my mother-in-law as an extremely belated Christmas present - so belated, in fact, that she won't even be able to wear them until November, cos the weather has taken a turn for the better (warmer) here (in what was once snowy Manitoba)! I didn't even get a photo of the completed pair, but just wanted to note here, purely for myself, that they are DONE, and that yarn is off to the thrift store, cos I don't want to knit another thing with it!

There... I feel better now!

Another project finished: a hat for myself, again, too late to be of any use, but we'll be back in Canada another time, and I'll enjoy wearing my own hand-knitted head-warmer then! I plan to line it with polar fleece for extra warmth. Here's an in-progress shot and a shot of me knitting it while I was sick for 2 weeks with a nasty cold - oh yeah, Jasper was sick too - he doesn't usually cuddle up in my arms like that!

This is the final product (as you can see, I messed up the increasing at the crown, using different yarn from the pattern, but OH WELL!). I love the earflaps...


Also while I was sick (honestly, I was resting too!!), I somehow managed to complete two oft-contemplated projects for Piper: a texta/marker roll, and an apron, both out of the same doggy fabric. I felt VERY satisfied with how easily these two items came together (both on the same day, and the apron in half an hour), and satisfied with how useful they are to her. Love that, when one's craft is appreciated!


We went to my husband's grandma's place last week to bake cookies, so here's Piper and her apron in action!



Piper and I enjoyed creating this map of a zoo together. She stuck animal stickers on the page, grouped how she saw fit, and I drew cages or fences around them as she directed me. She was pretty into cages, which is unfortuate for the animals! Well, if they were real! What I mean it, it's not very politically correct! I really enjoyed the process of working with Piper, with her directing, and the control freak in me not freaking out about not knowing what the end product would be like... just being in the moment...


I'm quite into sewing, as of the last few weeks (at the expense of cardmaking/any kind of creation with paper, stamps, etc). I'm making a rag quilt for Piper - just simple squares, and I know it's a well-done concept now, but I've never gotten around to making one. With a little guidance from Knit and Tonic, I'm on my way. Tanell, the lady who owns my local quilting fabric shop suggested that I use coarsely-woven muslin between the two layers of flannel, as opposed to batting, because it fluffs up the raggy bit very well, and it makes for a quilt that's not quite so heavy. Here's a shot, in progess in the basement:


I hadn't necessarily planned to make a quilt for Piper. Originally I walked into the fabric shop wanting to find flannel in chocolate/green/turquoise colours, with hopefully one animal print, to make a quilt for Jasper, whose first birthday is next month. They didn't really have those colours - I'll have to look further afield - but I did walk out with fabric for a quilt for Piper instead!

I meant to blog about this ages ago: this was my Christmas gift to my husband. A box of surprises, one to be drawn each week. Each bit of paper has a code written on it, which corresponds with a particular experience or gift, which I present or do for him that week. Needless to say, at least half of them are sexual - ha ha! I was happy with how it looked in the end...



Last but not least, I bought this book off Amazon: Chic Knits for Stylish Babies. I love looking at it. Don't like all the patterns, of course, but the ones I like, I like a lot. There's something lovely and coordinated about a funky knitted outfit. I'll just have to have another baby to have an excuse to knit up some of these patterns (if I start now, I might just have an outfit done in a few years'time!). It's put out by Phildar, the French yarn company - bit expensive to get hold of that yarn here in Canada, so I'll do my best at substituting, but sometimes I just want to follow a pattern EXACTLY, cos it makes for less brain strain - I feel like I've modified a few knitting patterns lately, and although they've worked out, a part of me feels the tension as I knit, wondering if I got my maths right!

Mitten

Saturday the Ninth: Long overdue, I worked on a mitten meant for someone for (last) Christmas!

Two items out the door

I've been trying to finish off a few bit and pieces lately. Spent an hour or two one evening with a friend which passed VERY quickly, but I did manage to sew the buttons on to this cardie which I started knitting before Jasper was even conceived! I haven't ever had to do loops for buttons before, and at the moment they're just literally a loop of wool. Dunno how long these will last - is there a proper/better way of creating a loop for a button. (Crochet?) Wouldn't you know it, he's almost too big for it already!

I also finished this (late!) present for a niece. I printed out the face on transfer paper and ironed it on, and then embroidered the text underneath - my first attempt at embroidery, so I'm pretty happy about that. The overall effect, though, makes for a rather quirky gift, not your usual Target or Pumpkin Patch purchase, or should I say Gap and Old Navy purchase, seeing as it will be making its way to Canada as soon as I manage to write a letter to go with it, and make it to the post office! Not sure how the mother of the recipient will take it (and really, that's who baby clothes are for, eh!) but oh well. Sending homemade gifts across the other side of the world is one of the few ways I can physically demonstrate my love... And they know I'm quirky already...

And I have finished one mitten! I remain hopeful that I will complete the second sometime soon, that this won't be a lonely single mitten for the rest of its life! The honeycomb pattern is interesting - makes for quite a thick glove. I haven't attempted any kind of blocking yet... It is also very warm, which is a good thing! I used waste yarn to knit an opening for the thumb hole, and even though I have never knitted a sock/mitten/glove before (the only extremities I've covered are heads), the pattern makes total sense to me. I realise I'm often able to visualise the finished outcome from reading through the pattern, which is helpful.

So yeaahhh, that's been it, lately, attempting to squeeze some crafting in, here and there, handballing my child at social events so I can pick up sticks... Feels bitsy and slow, but that's what I've got to work with at the moment. (Although, to my chagrin, I just discovered Auntie Cookie has two kids and still manages to create a prolific amount of things which are always gorgeous - how DOES she do it?? And what's my excuse going to be now??)

Multi-tasking

The days go by quickly with two kids! Was feeling frustrated for a while there over my lack of progress on the mitten - I seemed forever to be working on the cuff, but now it's coming along nicely. I've started the honeycomb pattern which has made it much more interesting. Also, thinking about this blog, in the back of my head, has helped me find and name moments of creativity in most of my days, even if I haven't touched the needles.

So, Tuesday's creative endeavour was toasted muesli, thanks to Poppalina. My moment of inspiration involved adding a bit of bee pollen, which we just happened to have in the pantry. Actually, the jar of it has been sitting there for a while, being nutritious but at the same time, not quite straight forward to eat (tiny yellow pebbles that they are!).

I think I overcooked the muesli slightly, but it still tastes great! It was a brilliant move, adding cardamon powder, whoever thought of that. The question is, as always, will I have the time and inclination to make it again, or is this just a once off and next week I'll have to buy crappy stuff from Safeway once more? Probably the latter!

Wednesday's creative endeavour involved more cooking: making chocolate cake with a four-year-old, a three-year-old and a two-year-old (I was looking after a friend's two kids). Each child had their own bowl, the contents of which were amalgamated into one cake tin, and the end result was actually quite tasty! Unfortunately, I don't have any photos, being too busy dividing the ingredients into thirds, melting butter, helping mix, etc, to even think about dragging out the camera. The separate bowls saved arguments about who got to lick what at the end (that almost sounds rude!) but even then I didn't think of taking snaps! Oh well, next time... and enough about cooking!

Today Piper, Jasper and I went to the Toy Library in Malvern. Came home with a Noah's Ark, amongst other things, which is how I found myself sitting on the playroom floor with Piper, holding a plastic lion which was about to jump into a pool infested with barracuda fish (stay with me!), while juggling my DPNs to squeeze in a bit of knitting! I figured it was okay to knit if I could still use my mouth to make sound effects for the lion (or am I deluding myself and diddling my child out of a genuine, focussed playspace with a parent???)!

Actually, I'm getting real good at multi-tasking - here's a shot of me knitting while breastfeeding! It's an acquired skill (for Jasper and I!): I'm learning how to prop him just so and not jerk him when reaching for more yarn, and he's learning not to let the occasional poke in the head from a DPN affect his attachment! On the whole, we're doing very well!

First challenge?

Just came across this on Ric-Rac's blog (which I'm enjoying!)...

the Chocolate Lollipop Yo-Yo Cushion Challenge: to create an original cushion made from the Chocolate Lollipop range of fabrics, and to also incorporate Yo-Yo’s into the design.

A patchwork shop in Ballarat has set it up, and it's tempting to have a go, just to get the creative juices flowing. I find I often feel daunted at the thought of having to come up with something original, but that's mainly cos I just don't do it that often. Once I'm immersed in the creative process, something generally always comes together, and at the very least, being immersed in a creative space is a good place to be, even if nothing tangible emerges. But as I said, I haven't had much practice lately at making something up from scratch, and it's why I think I should enter this challenge, not to mention the bonus 6" square of the Chocolate Lollipop range which you receive "for inspiration and a starting point"!

And hey, I could learn how to make yo-yos! They look cute, and that's another technique for me, even if the cushion never comes together.

On a different note, I finished Pipsy's *pink* scarf yesterday. I was originally going to use two different shades of Noro Silk Garden yarn, but in the end I didn't like how they looked together - one was more subdued than the other, and the combined effect was a scarf that looked rather too brown for a three-year-old! So I ended up using the brighter ball and a pink-mauve-blue rather fluffy yarn that I've had in my stash for ages. SO satisfying to use it up! I enjoyed knitting the scarf (in mistake rib, so slightly more texture than a normal rib), enjoyed the mindlessness of it.

My parents were over in the evening, and after trying to cast on provisionally for a hat for me, and failing, and deciding to find a tute online somewhere sometime, I pulled out more stash yarn (rather ancient, I think!): Little Bo Peep natural yarn - undyed, lanolin left in.I have two different tones, and have had in mind for a while to knit up some mittens for someone for Christmas. (They live in Canada and might actually use them!) So I started on the rib cuff of one of them, on rather loveless plastic needles, which I bought in a rush a couple of weeks ago. If I'd thought about it a bit more, I could have ordered some lovely Brittany birch hardwood ones - *sigh* Next time...

Must hit the sack, even though I find it hard to tear myself away from all the amazing posts listed in my Reader...