Milo

Finally done! My first Milo.



I love, love, love this pattern. So simple, but so cute too! My only mods on this version was to do a picot cast off on both the sleeves and the bottom. I wanted it to look a little prettier for my pretty little girl :) I did the giant cable option also.

This one is done in Woolganic in the "Samsara" colour. It's lovely and looks just like butter. I can't say enough good stuff about this yarn.

I had actually finished this vest in the same yarn already, but I'd knit the 18month size with the owl cable option, and it was just a little too big, and looked a little stumpy since I made it shorter. So I ripped that out and started over and this is the final product. The yarn held up really well to being knitted and frogged and knitted again.

Very happy with it!

A shawl

I never thought I was really a shawl type of person. I don't accessorise much at all, tbh. But I've seen some really lovely shawls on Rav, and people wearing them in ways I would never have thought - one of my reservations about shawls is how on earth do you wear them without looking like Grandma??!! I also have had some Noro sitting in my stash since an impromptu visit to my LYS, which I have had no idea what to do with. Then I saw this. And so many pretty ones in Noro! So here is mine.

The colourway is #205. A pretty simple knit, and dropping the stitches was fun! I didn't find it too difficult to do given the grabby-ness of this yarn. Many people complained about this in their project notes on Rav. I liked this particular shawl pattern because it's definitely usable as a scarf too. The Noro feels lovely and soft in my hands, and suprisingly so against my neck too, but I do think it's not a yarn that I could wear too close to my skin for too long. I think it will be more of a shoulder wrap for me. Anyway, I love it. The pic is not so great as the light was bad, and I haven't blocked it yet, but I'm happy with it. There is a lot more dark pink in the colourway too, you just can't see it because I couldn't get it all in.

I had some apprehensions prior to using this yarn. I'd read a lot of negative stuff about it on Rav, and was starting to think I'd end up regretting my not-so-cheap-purchase of this stuff (6 balls in 3 different colourways!). But I have been pleasantly surprised. I only had one join in one of the balls, and the colour match-up, while not the same, wasn't completely different so I was able to just continue on without searching for a more suitable join. I also didn't experience any of the vegetable matter and dirt that seems to be the problem of so many on Rav. And I've rewound all 6 balls, so I'm not talking just about the 2 for this particular colourway.

So for me, this yarn and pattern combo gets a thumbs up! I really feel like making another one, but I should find something different to do with the two other colourways, right?

A sock.

And not really a very exciting one at that.

I'm falling behind on my plan to knit a sock per month. Which actually started out as a pair of socks per month of course. Socks are interesting to me. I love knitting them. I like the small needles and the thin yarn. I like that I don't have a huge pile of stuff sitting on my lap. I like that I can stuff them in a small bag and put them away so little hands can't get hold of them. I like that I have a very usable item when I'm done with them. But I have so. much. trouble. deciding what pattern to knit and with which sock yarn. I think the major problem is that I mostly have very pretty variegated colourways in my sock yarn collection (yes, it feels more like a collection that I should put on display than a stash). And I like pretty patterned socks. Often the two don't seem to go together. I need more plain sock yarn, or at least less variegated, maybe more semi-solid colours. Or something.

Anyway, here is this month's sock. Actually it's May's sock. I started it in June. But lets not get into technicalities.

It's the Sell Your Sole sock. Just plain stockinette. I added the picot cuff for a bit of interest as per some other projects on Ravelry. I've been afraid of plain socks, because I thought that (a) they'd take forever, and (b) they'd be boring. But this has been suprisingly quick and interesting, funnily enough. It's been a nice relaxing knit without any charts to follow or purls to make at the beginning of a needle (which annoy me no end, btw). I wouldn't call this a pattern so much. I didn't really follow the instructions for the gusset decreases, because I always add a few more rows to my heel flap anyway to accommodate my high instep. The second sock is already over half done too, btw. Just in case you were wondering. I have until tomorrow to finish it if I want to meet my goal.

I love how the colourway has knitted up. I really don't think I could have found a patterned sock that would have been so nice in this yarn. It is a 5ply, which would account a bit for the speed at which it has gone, but still, it's pretty relaxing just knitting something small round and round. I can see more plain socks in my future!

I don't have much else to show on the knitting or sewing front, although I am trying to get stuff done. A currently-absent husband and the onset of illness in the remaining four of us literally the minute he left has meant that I've spent far more time wiping up snot than knitting. Hope to have some more projects finished in the near future though.

Quick post

I feel like I've crossed the line with things I'm doing at the moment. Or I should say things I want to be doing. I've got far too much going on at once I think. I've got some fabric cut to make pants for F (hopefully!), but I can't seem to find the time to get the machine out. I've cast on two new projects in the last few days that I'm not getting anywhere with, when I've got unfinished stuff waiting to be finished. I spend far too much time sitting at the PC looking at stuff, as opposed to actually doing anything. And I've let my internet addiction take over again, so this one will be quick before I turn the PC off and try to get my act together again!

So first an FO. The vest for M. I had to modify the neck for this one to make it slightly rounded to get it over his head. Turned out ok I think and he's worn it a few times so that's a plus. I don't like the neck and arm shaping in the pattern of this, so I've got one for L unfinished that I'm going to do my own thing on and hopefully I can get a v-neck that fits over his head.


My birthday presents purchased with birthday money.

This book has been the cause of my knitting frustration I think. So many socks in here that I want to knit! And already half-way through the other book.

Next is my new toy (and my first attempt - it looks like a nasty tangled mess, but it wasn't all that bad, that's just what it looked like once I took it off the spindle). Haven't had a lot of time to play with it unfortunately and not likely to in the next few weeks either. Lots of time to watch more youtube videos on how to do it properly!



And some delicious fabric that arrived this morning from the Crafty Mama Shop. Have plans to make some things for F with all of these, but what I don't know yet. It's so lovely though, that I'm really feeling afraid of using it!


And that's it. PC is off for the rest of the day. Dishes will be done and groceries will be purchased!

On reflection this wasn't such a quick post!

Somewhere over the rainbow.....

Another Rainbow Dress finished! This only my second, so it's not like I've been churning them out or anything, but I'm excited anyway. This is the project that I cast on while pretending the vest debacle wasn't happening. I'm still in denial about that one, but may have come up with a way to rectify it without too many tears.

Anyway, this particular knit is done with Four Bags Full merino from TYC (my most favourite place to buy yarn!) in "Maia Jade" and I used Treliske OM in "Fuschia" for the garter bodice and the lace trim at the bottom (which is curling up so you can't actually see it properly). I love the way it's turned out. I did an eyelet row too (as I'm sure you can see!) for some ribbon. This one is the 9 month size, and I suspect it will fit her for quite some time, first as a dress and then as a top.

Such a great pattern! And so easy.... So you think that it would be mistake-free and quite simple wouldn't you? But no. It's not. Well not for me anyway. Maybe it is because of it's simplicity that I just tune out or something, but I knit, knit, knit and then realise I forgot to increase, I lose count, various other bad things happened while knitting this one too, and the same with the first one I made. Not sure what is up with that, but one day I'm sure I'll knit a Rainbow Dress that is perfect!

Have cast on something for myself now, while I continue to pretend the vest isn't mocking me.

The Harvest

Here's our haul from the mandarin tree....


And here's what they looked like while still on the tree.


This is our first real crop of fruit. I think the tree's been there for about 2 years now. I'm not sure if this is a good haul for a tree of that age or not, but we are happy with it. And some of them were huge! We were a bit worried about how they'd taste, having never grown citrus before, but they taste alright. Not the sweetest, but they certainly aren't horrible to eat. We did get a tip that apparently you should pick them from the tree and then let them sit for a few days, and then they will become sweeter. And I can say that the one we ate straight from the tree was ok, but the one's that have been eaten subsequently after sitting for a few days did have much more flavour.

Note that L is eating a mandarin section, but not one from the tree. Not sure why he has to be a goofball in every.single.photo, but he does! Like father, like son I think.

Getting organised

I like organisation. I like organising things. That's not to say that I'm a particularly organised person myself. For some time now we have not been able to walk into our walk-in-robe. I tend to stuff things in there that don't have a home elsewhere. And sadly the WIR is not the only organisational issue in this house. But one step at a time here.

We had some wasted space in the corner of our bedroom, which was being used by me for things that had no home and couldn't fit in the robe because there was no more room for them. My robe disorganisation was spilling into the bedroom! and something had to be done. So off to IKEA we went.

Trips to IKEA in this house are generally not without their drama. In fact, after the last trip (which was only a few weekends ago) I vowed that I would never go to IKEA again. The drama that time involved the play room and poop. It was fun. Previous dramas have involved the restaurant and vomit (not to associate IKEAs restaurant with making us sick - the vomit was an unrelated illness that didn't manifest itself until after lunch had been eaten). I'd like to point out at this time, that neither of these incidents involved the adults in the house (beyond the clean up), just in case you are wondering what the heck is going on with us. There's been various other things, mostly just involving shopping with kids and people going the "wrong way" in both the marketplace and the showroom.

Anyway... we had to return the loan clothes, and I decided I needed to get my act together and sort my stuff out. Storage was the key! So yesterday we purchased this.


I would have liked a bigger one, but this is what would fit in the space. Now I'm figuring out where else I can use these things in the house! I haven't finished filling it up with my stuff yet, but two of the boxes are already full of yarn, as are the two plastic boxes at the bottom. There's still another plastic box of yarn in the robe, as well as various bags of yarn bits and pieces. It's a bit like having my own little yarn shop in there! I'm aiming to free up
the two drawers in the base of the bed for something other than stash and WIPs, to make those things more accessible and so I can store other things in the drawers and not on the floor in the robe. Although this presents the danger that DH will finally see the true extent of my yarn addiction.

And yesterday's trip to IKEA? Drama free!!