six and a half stitches

FRIDAY INVENTORY

1. Stack of japanese craft books

2. Sock yarn - Lornas Laces Shepherd Sock Yarn Gold Hill

3. Sock yarn - Mountain Color Bearfoot Obsidian

4. Surprise package of wool from Veronik Avery as a thankyou for photographs I took for IK. I'd love to know who this is by - I'm guessing something along the lines of Handpaintedyarn, as it's single ply spun wool and looks kettle dyed, but it has no tag. Does it matter? No, because it's just a marvelous colourway.

5. Package tied up with string with little custom made Troupe Person inside.

6. DPN's for backtack project - more to be reveleaed when I know more myself. But there is knitting involved. More needles and stuff for Better The Pal swap.

7. New Lingerie. Always a good thing.

8. New white tops, which necessitated the new lingerie purchase.

9. Small child fast asleep after rigerous play.

10. Blogging time done.

11. TIE ONE ON submission finally photographed. Large Navy teatowel, part of 3 pack set from target. Pocket - part of another teatowel from the same set. And around the bottom are linen napkins cut into irregular rectangles and pieced together. None of which shows up in this photograph AT ALL. I had a hard time this morning with hyperactive child jumping everywhere, mainly on me. I blame it on him, entirely. I'm allowed to do that. I'm a mother. I'll try and photograph it better, and do it some justice.

12. Time left over to sit, have a biscuit, and start second sock...umm........bye...................

RUBYLOOBYREDSOCK

I debated a fair bit yesterday whether completing one sock constituted a FO, or not. I'm still undecided, but given a lack of FO around here, I'm taking the chance, and showing you the first sock.

Cable sock from current IK, knit with Fleece Artist Ruby Red sock yarn. And my they are a lovely item to have on ones foot, and a mighty fine object to knit up. I think I'm officially in sock binge mode.

LEAP FROG

Big box of sock yarn arrived from Simply Socks. Lovely yarn. Yummy yarn. We leapt straight out of the frog pond, and into something longer than 5cm - the little lovely cable socks by Nancy Bush in the current IK in the Ruby Red colour to the far right of the photo. Turned the heel, a little like turning a momentous corner, and on the home foot stretch.

Then there's just the second sock syndrome to concquer.

TEENSY SMILES

A while ago I posted about Max's drawings, and how they fit into the developmental scheme of things. He had been drawing a few faces, and one freakishly realistic koala face which was an accidental koala, but a koala nevertheless. Since I did that post, Max hasn't done one face, and I had been wondering whether I had made the whole thing up. Until last week when he went on a two day face drawing extravaganza.

Page after page of B1 faces drawn in blue chalk (and for that I apologise because light blue chalk is not very web friendly), each one described to us what he was drawing, and why. Each one with it's own expression, it's own naivety, it's own charm. I've kept them all (there are literally sheets of them) and will take them to be copied and reduced so I can use them somehow, because these form such a wonderful vignette into Max's mind (no, I probably wouldn't go too deeply into that, because there's a lot of trains and fire engines and schemes for how to push every button in mummy and daddy in there at the moment). What I really like, is that every single one of them is 'happy' and smiling, or so it seems.

These two are my favourites. The one on the left because he did more detail, scribbled the eyes in and made them look shifty and gave the mouth a big wide opening. The one on the right is apparently Thomas The Tank Engine in a tunnel. Obvious really.

SCRATCH AND SNIFF BLOGGING

Go on. Scratch your computer screen really hard, and take a deep breathe, and smell what I can smell.

Smells good doesn't it? The house, I have to say, smells magnificent. The lavender particularly, smells great. You see who makes it? The Woolen Rabbit. Kim is worth keeping an eye on - she has fiber galore, spins, weaves, and knits (ok, after the last post about socks, I'm trying not to look at Opal silk sock yarn pictured on September 16th).

Max thought it was a great toy. Max thinks everything is a great toy actually, and I was especially overjoyed at my head being used as a crash ramp for the metal fire engine travelling at high speed this afternoon, but the soap hit a suprisingly tender spot with him, and there's a reason Dear Anne, that you thought you sent me 4 bars of soap and there are only 3 pictured.

He disembowelled* 1 bar immediately after opening at the post office (crafty Anne, you had me stumped there for a moment with who this was from) and held tight to it till the playground (another post office, coffee stop, chocolate cow stop and walk away). The remaining 3 bars were disembowelled a nano-second after the first photo was taken. He wanted to style his own photoshoot. He proceeded to place the soap in artfull arrangements around the house for the next half an hour, before deciding he had to get naked. It was one of those days. Anne - this is a beautiful, thoughtful, and really lovely (honestly if you could smell the house....) gift, and I'm hoping you're ok with me breaking the silence of who my Better The Pal is, but I wanted everyone to go over, and leave a little message of hugs and love for you, because you lost a dear friend, and I'd like to send some of the thoughtfullness back to you. Thankyou :)

* Tore the wrapping off and snuggled it close. I raise them sensitive and new age thankyou very much.

I'D LIKE TO LEAVE THE POND NOW PLEASE

I've hit a slump. I thought it would have passed by now. But it hasn't, and I'm starting to fret. I own a lot of wool. It overflows out of boxes, and surrounds me. Sometimes, I think it taunts me. I think I know what I'll do with each and every ball of wool. And when I hear that siren call to take up a particular ball and start knitting, I obey, and up till now I'll be quite happy, knowing my intuition has made the right choice for me.

But recently I've encountered a slight problem. The desire for my little hands to rip out every stitch after 5cm, and frog the lot in the frog pond. I've been getting restless, needing to cast on, then getting bored instantly with what I'm knitting. And then that gives way to utter despair that I wont get anything done ever again, except baby kimono jackets, which, while eternally beautiful and stunning particularly on small babies, are not what I want to post about every week. And so begins a mammoth obsessed hunt for a new delight - wool, pattern, item. This week it's been sock yarn and socks. Not at all helped by the beautiful stashes found at Di's, and Blossom's, and a deep desire to need to have to try Mountain Color Bearfoot sock yarn.

But did you think I'd wait till the yarn arrived? (don't you love the fact I swap languages half way through - calling it wool in the first half, and yarn in the second. What can I say, I'm confused, and pond water dulls the brain, and you should try working with me where my language is all over the place having worked for British, Australian and American companies in the last 4 years all with different architectural terminology). No. I decided I'd 'practise' - yes, I truly believed that when I wrote it too - socks on 2 circular needles. And I cast on with Cherry Tree Hill Potluck sock yarn in a jewel colour, which looked rich and luscious on the ball, and looked like sludge knitted up, and I'm getting the jitters again.

It's coming up to that 5cm mark, and I want to frog. The truth is I have already frogged once. Why I thought I should believe a pattern which says cast on 72 stitches for socks for me I have no idea. I keep thinking there's a better outcome with another yarn, that if I frog it and start again it will work better, be more perfect, be more stunning, the pattern more coherent...

But it doesn't end there, socks are just the tip of the iceberg. A month ago it was scarf patterns that caused me to cast on, and frog, around 4 different types of wool. Now I'm having World Shopping jitters. Because in 50 days I'll be somewhere in London, and I'll be wanting to buy yarn because it's so much darn cheaper there than here, and I'll be buying pattern books (you know, the same darn cheaper reason), and what if I can't decide, or loose my confidence, and walk away with nothing. And I'll be in Paris, and what if the same thing happens then? Then, how will I cope with being in NY, and standing in Habu and Purl and wanting desperately to buy (there are things there with My Name On Them thankyou very much, so nobody go and buy My Things, please), but getting nauseous because I might need to frog every piece of wool in my house, and bag, and in the entire store.......in fact, what if I have to frog every single piece of wool (I've reverted to english again) in the whole world, because I'm restless?

It's very involved being me.

23/5

"He was exceptionally good on the wool-placement-in-the-sandpit and the back-of-the-dump-truck part."

If you've seen the meme doing the rounds, you'll know what this is about, and I kind of like the idea of not explaining it, and just letting it be something discovered from the past, and in so doing taking on new life. All I will say, is that not a lot has changed in the year since it was written! And the baton will now be passed on to: Belinda - someone who has been a great friend in a newish city and who now has her own fabulous blog and is a wonderful cohort in spending money on yarn and material; Bertha; Kelly; Cari and Kerstin.

PEBBLES HAS A NEW FRIEND

Pebbles is much happier now that a friend has come to play permanently. Lisa's birds really brighten my day, thankyou :)

CONTAGIOUSNESS

I don't classify our family as being a 'sick' family, in fact we're normally the last people to get ill, and if we do, it's for a day or so at the most. But this winter we seem to be the family of contagiousness. Max brings something home from day care, we get it, he gets it, we get it, he gets it, and so the circle goes on, with a bit of spice added in with new contagions every few weeks. I'm tired of it. I'm tired of explaining to work why I'm not there, again. Why I need to leave early and pick Max up. The balancing game of family and work and what's more important in that particular week. This constant feeling of compromise is really hard at times, and right now I'm feeling it acutely. I've been in bed for 7 days. I think that's a record even for me. Even when I look back over the years and think of times when I was actually seriously ill, I was never flat out in bed for 7 days straight. The flu, which turned into acute sinusitus, got the better of me this week I'm afraid, and I've not responded to many emails, or been in contact with people, or done anything generally except feel pretty miserable. It's only been this weekend that I've felt like getting out of bed, or had any energy to do anything more than be some sort of wife and mother.

I tried to make up for some lost time.

I sewed up the little wrap top. The pattern, for those of you who asked, is from the australian version of Family Circle magazine, June 2005. When I did the first wrap top I said many a word of disgust at the way the pattern was written, and the fact it called for a yarn you could only buy in France. But it knits up well if you ignore the pattern for the most part, and is very sweet. I've tried to show how the front fabric flap works as well, because some people were confused by that the first time. Sewing the knit fabric to the woven fabric is easy, if you take your time, baste or pin well beforehand, and slowly guide  it through the sewing machine. The knit will want to ride up and bunch together, so you need to go slow, and stop frequently to watch the even spread of knit to woven fabric. I end up pinning the crap out of it, but basting would probably do a better job. I've also cut out, pieced together, and started machine quilting the matching baby quilt. When I started playing with the colours and shapes, I threw my diagram out, and went with instinct instead. God, quilters everywhere must cringe when they see me coming! I am so not techincal in this respect, and don't follow any quilting conventions. Anyway, it's very bold, with the stripey fabric along the top and bottom edges, and a soft charcoal grey fleece on the back. The quilting is simple lines across the quilt. I have left a white cotton patch where the bobble fabric will go, because I have no idea how I should/could/will attach that to the quilt. I'll make that up later, when I'm not so tired, and can think relatively clearly. I think I've answered most people's questions about how I've put all this together, but if you have any more questions, let me know and I'll answer them.

mmmmm, INTRIGUE AND MYSTERY OF BOBBLENESS

So are you intrigued about what the bobble felted piece is going to be? Well, first I have to show you something else.

This is a little knitted wrap top for a baby. I can't tell you whose, yet. I did a similar one a little while ago in red with elephant print fabric as the inside wrap piece. This one is a deep blush pink, with matching (like spookily scarily matching) hand screen printed fabric from the same woman who did the material for Max's quilt. It will have a little hand covered button from Uplifting Arts to hold it together. It's not finished yet, still have to sew up the fabric to the knitted piece. Shall I reveal a little bit more?

I like things to be coordinated. And if I lay the baby jacket over a whole lot of matching fabrics including some more satellite hand printed fabric in other colourways, and put the bobble felted piece against it, I get a beautiful arrangement of fibre, material, texture and colour. Which, when you look at it from another angle,

speaks to me of baby quilts with a padded bobble centre piece. I've since added a couple of extra pieces of fabric in since taking the photo, some more red dot fabrics to fill out some of the spaces which I fear might occur. I've drawn up my plan for it - it will be very simple, but I think the fabrics will be patterned enough that it doesn't need to be complicated. Now this really is what I'm about - mixing different media and fibres, textures and colours, and I've been wanting to do something with combinations of knitted and sewn stuff for such a long time, and this little lot is perfect. It wont be a large quilt, just a bassinet size - big enough to put in a stroller, on the floor for baby to lie on, or to cover baby up in a cot while it's still young, and maybe it might even become a dolls quilt later on.