Has it been a year already?

Happy Birthday to my baby girl!

This time last year I knew that I would meet my new little one before the day was out. I had a rude awakening (to say the least) at 4am when my waters decided to break! I spent the next couple of hours trying to convince myself that that was NOT in fact what had happened, because she wasn't due for another 5 days and I was completely unprepared for her arrival, having convinced myself that she would come late like her older brother M. How wrong I was! By dinner time she was out and having her first cuddles with mummy and daddy :) Meeting her two big brothers for the first time, and having her first bath.

These days she's almost walking, into everything (esp my tupperware and pots and pans cupboards!), wrestling with her brothers when she can and *finally* (fingers crossed it continues!) sleeping through the night!! Although the downside of that is it comes with 5am wake ups. But I don't mind too much :) A bit of mummy and daughter time before all the chaos of the boys begins when they wake up. She's such a sweet and cuddly little thing also. Very patient - being dragged here there and everywhere after her brothers, sometimes having to wait for a feed or a sleep.

So a big Happy Birthday to my sweet little girl :)

Sew Cute!

Last week, with F's 1st birthday looming, I decided that it would be lovely if I made her a little outfit for her birthday. Let's not mention that the only thing I've sewn so far is a couple of bags - nothing anyone has to wear! Anyway, after a bit of help from the Crafty Mamas forum, I was direct to this pattern. Super easy! I had some fabric lying around from a SL sale, so all I needed was a bit of elastic and ribbon and I was away!



I think I did pretty well. Although I will admit to a bit of trickery in the photos. The waist on the skirt is not finished - I just have to sew up the elastic and I'm done! I'm going to leave the casing open so I can easily change the elastic, as this skirt will likely fit for a very long time! I couldn't find maternity elastic (or whatever they call that adjustable stuff) at SL. Will have to look around for it because it would make life so much easier! The little butterfly applique was so much fun too. So sweet, and I can't wait to see my little girl in an outfit (almost) entirely made by me!

Dream in Colour... or is that Color?

Well after all the drama I finished it.


And I love almost everything about it. Almost everything. I don't like the way it fits :( I know it's a shrug, so it's not meant to be huge, but I was hoping it would fit like the picture with the pattern shows it. And even though I browsed the projects on Ravelry numerous times, and saw that most of them fit the way mine fits, I was kind of hoping that mine wouldn't fit that way. I do think it may be a tad small, but I am planning on losing some weight (oh, yeah, I'm totally into the buy-clothes-in-the-size-you-want-to-be-not-the-size-you-are thing). I'm not sure that I'd be happier with the fit if I was smaller either.

I'm not sure what to do about it now. I like the idea of it, but it's such a beautiful yarn that I'd had to waste it in something I may never be comfortable wearing.

My first thought was that I could try adding another pattern repeat and making it a bit longer. I'm not sure if this would just result in longer arms or not though. I can see some people from Rav have done this, but not easy to see if it would fix the problem that I've got. I don't want to frog it back and re-knit if it's not going to help.

I could also rip the whole thing out and knit it on larger needles to see if that makes a difference too. But again, a lot of work which might not necessarily change the outcome.

I uses exactly 2 skeins of this yarn, and I have one full skein left. So I could also rip the whole thing out completely and make something else using all three. But I'm not sure if 3 skeins is enough to make anything else I might like.

I think I'm going to put it aside for now while I ponder what to do. If anyone reading has any suggestion, I'd be happy to hear them :)

And now a peek at something else I'm working on.


It's this pattern (Rav link). I'm not following the stripe sequence for it though, I'm just kind of doing it randomly. I think it's looking ok. The brief was "orange". I really couldn't see myself knitting an entire vest in orange, so I'm trying to make this as orange as possible. It's for L and he said he likes it and will wear it. I'll get him to sign a contract to that effect shortly.

Free Time

I have more of it. So I've been using it wisely. I've recently extricated myself from a forum that I continually found myself returning to. Not really sure why, just one of those things that I couldn't let go of. Anyway, I recently decided my relationship with it was over and I'm feeling like a weight has been lifted. I haven't been there for more than a few minutes each day, only to tie up some loose ends, and I've been soooo productive around the house. My house is tidy, I've been sneaking in some knitting, some baking, and most importantly some time with my wonderful kids :) I'm so glad I don't feel the pull to sit here and waste more than half of my day in there anymore. I feel so much more productive, and HAPPIER!!!

So here's some recent stuff I've been up to since Easter.....

Platzek - No, that's not dirt on the top. It's a brown sugar/butter/flour mix. Delicious! It's a polish Easter bread that comes from FILs family. MIL makes it at Easter every year so I'm trying to continue on the tradition. Good with butter and a cup of tea :)



Banana cake (that's cream cheese frosting on the top). I buy bananas each week, and they never get eaten. And they seem to ripen at a scarily rapid rate, so I'm always left with 3 or 4 that are too ripe to be eaten by the time the new one's arrive. I think I'm subconsciously wanting to make banana muffins and cake - why else would I continue to buy them when no one eats them in their original form?!



And a little something I'm working on for Miss F's birthday next week. I'm actually well beyond this stage, but I'll put up pics when I'm completely finished.

What to do?

This is my Dream in Colour Shrug.



I love everything about it. I love the pattern. I love the yarn. I love the colour. The pattern is really easy to remember and I'm flying along with it. I love it so much that I've pretty much stopped everything else I've been doing so I can knit this. I want it done so I can wear it!

And so to my problem.....

This morning I was admiring my handiwork, and quickly glanced at the pattern... you can see where this is going, right? In my enthusiasm (and my false sense of security at having memorised the pattern well) I seem to have left one row out of each pattern repeat (well, actually two as there'd be a purl row to go with it) **insert crying smilie here** Honestly, it's barely noticeable and you'd probably only notice it if you were familiar with the pattern and you were looking closely. I did knit the very first pattern repeat (it's 20 rows) correctly, but from then on I've knit the next four repeats minus the last two rows.

So what do I do???

I figure I've got 4 options.

1. Continue knitting, and then when I get to the very last pattern repeat, knit it correctly so that I have at least got it symmetrical.

2. Continue knitting and ignore it completely and just keep knitting as I have been pretending that those two rows don't exist.

3. Rip it back to where I was last correct and start again.

4. Start knitting correctly from here.

I have 4 more pattern repeates left. So far my favoured option would be 1. My least favoured would be 3, as since it's lace I suspect if I try to rip it back then I'll end up having to go right back to the ribbing - not an attractive prospect!

So what would you do? Any advice appreciated!!

ETA: Thanks for your thoughts everyone :) I think I have decided it needs to be frogged though :( I'll be short 16 rows if I just keep going, and that's not a whole pattern repeat. I'm not sure how I'll make up for the missing length. So back to the ribbing I go *sigh* at least it is an enjoyable and quick knit so it shouldn't take me too long to catch back up! wish me luck!! lol

PIF Creation

And now that these have *finally* been sent (and received!) I can reveal them...



I made these for the PIF Swap from early last year. I only got the one comment (which I was secretly happy about, because I really couldn't imagine having to make three things for three different people!! I had enough trouble deciding on this project!) and after a bit of thought (and a bit of stalking LOL) I decided some fingerless mitts would be the way to go. And the recipients favourite colour is red, so I chose one of my very favourite yarns - WOOLganic in Chilli Pepper.

This is the "Cafe Au Lait" mitts pattern, which I love, love, love (can't seem to open Ravelry for a pattern link right now). I'm going to make myself a pair in Gondwana when I get the time. Really quick knit, although not without its dramas - all knitter related unfortunately. I finished the first one really quickly. Then put them aside to do a few quick Christmas projects. Then I cast on the second mitt and it literally flew off the needles! Had it finished by Christmas, all ready to post off early January to meet my 365-day deadline of Jan 26. After I finished I held them up together to admire and... what's that?! One mitt is smaller than the other? Oops, I must have done something wrong with the pattern right? Nope. My inbetween projects were on smaller needle tips, and I completely forgot to check this before casting on and finishing the second mitt. Doh!

It took me a while to be able to face frogging it and re-knitting, but I did and finished it by the deadline. Getting to the PO proved to be a problem though! But they are now safe and sound with their new owner and I hope she loves them :)