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!!

Ch-ch-ch-changes....

There are things going on here at the moment that make me realise I really don't like change. I say I'm ok with it, and I deal with as necessary, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. So it's official - I don't like change.

I also don't like it when I spend hours lovingly knitting something, ripping things out because they aren't "perfect" and re-doing them so that they are at least better than before, only to discover that it.doesn't.fit. Even though I followed the pattern correctly and I am getting gauge. The problem would be with a vest I'm knitting for M. So close to finishing it - have only to seam the sides and do the arm bands, and he could be wearing it. And I could be showing it off on here. But. It does not fit over his head :( I followed the instructions correctly. I've been back over them and redone in my head what I did. It looks lovely. Nice and neat and just like a V-neck vest should look. Only it does not fit over his head. The other major dilemma with this is that I'm knitting the same vest for L. And I'm afraid that we'll have the same issues with his. I've been so traumatised by this, that I've dealt with it in the most appropriate way possible. I cast on a completely new project and having been pretending like it never happened. Isn't that what you do when faced with this kind of knitting "challenge"?

I've also ripped out my Dream in Colour shrug. It was painful. But I could not leave that beautiful, beautiful yarn languishing in an unwearable garment. I hope that it will become something else for me very soon. As soon as I get enough motivation to swatch for it. The yarn cakes are sitting here staring at me so I should pay them some attention soon.

*Sigh* So no photos as yet of anything remotely interesting. Many apologies. But I am trying to channel the stress that I'm feeling right now into something other than completely freaking out about things, so I have been plugging away hard at some knitting. There should be something of interest to show soon I hope.

Snapshot of my life

In the absence of any finished projects, or much else interesting to say! I thought I'd put up pics of a few things that occupy my time (other than my children, which totally dominate me!).

So here's my knitting. Well some of it at least. While things are in progress they generally sit on this little lamp table beside the couch. I can pick them up easily at anytime by leaving them here, and so far this has worked ok. Access to the table is blocked by an ottoman, so it's all been relatively safe from Miss F... until recently. She's worked out there's a back entrance and it looks as though I will have to make the effort to put this stuff away finally. The boys leave it alone for the most part too. They both are showing an interest in learning to knit, and I'd love to teach them. L already has some kids needles that I bought him a while ago. M is a bit young yet I think, but he likes to hold my wool while I'm knitting.


I do have to confess that this is not all of the WIPs. Others which are in hibernation are in project bags, or stuffed into various drawers around the place also. I do try to keep it to a minimum though, and there's only 3 current WIPs in the photo. I am itching to cast something new on though, but I think I'll have to have a WIP month again sometimes this year and knock a few off the list.

Next we have a fairly new distraction....


I wasn't going to succumb to the craze - I rarely do. In fact before this, the last major game technology we have is a Playstation. And when I say Playstation, I mean the original. Not PS1 or PS2. The very first one. And we got that one late in the game too. L plays it occasionally and has no idea how far behind the times we are LOL But back to the Wii.... there was a great deal on, and we needed something that would get us off the couch, before our Homer-dents became irrepairable LOL Note that I've taken the photo while it's still in it's hiding place of a drawer in our bedroom. The children do not know that we have this. Shhhhhh... Not that I think they even know what it is (we miminise their exposure to advertising etc) but if they saw we had it, they'd for sure want to know what it was, and then want to play with it, and I don't want to have to listen to the nagging about it all day! And I like that it's Mummy and Daddy's special "toy" LOL Although I'm a bit annoyed with Wii Fit for telling me I'm overweight and making my Mii pudgy! So it's a lot of fun, but it takes away from knitting time. At least I'm able to fit more knitting in during the day these days to make up for it!

Lastly is my PSP. This was another major leap into gaming technology for me! I actually got this a few Christmases ago and I played it quite a bit to begin with, but not so much lately. Although the fact that I've got it out on the desk instead of put away, means that I am trying to get back into it. I've only got the one game (well two if you count the new one that DH got me for Christmas last year, but I haven't even opened that one!). It was the Simpson's edition (hence the yellow) and I'm completely stuck at Lard Lad :( I've been trying to defeat Lard Lad for months. Actually, maybe closer to a year? Sad I know... I know how to do it, it just takes so long and you have to do it all in one go, so I just keep giving up. I'll get him one day though....



So there's just a few things that take up some of my time. I could show you the numerous baskets of clothing that need to be folded, or the ginormous basket of ironing that I keep hiding behind the curtains in the bay window, but I'm sure a lot of you have plenty of those of your own to keep you amused LOL

What else takes up your "spare" time??

Off the needles... finally!

These ones were a bit of a challenge. Mostly because I got SSS halfway through the second sock! I just didn't have the concentration for following the chart. Not that it was hard, it just felt like slow going, and so I cast on a few other things that were easier and kept picking them up instead. Anyway, so they are done now and I love them :) Can't wait to wear them.



Haven't decided on the next pair of socks yet. To be honest, I'm feeling a bit socked-out right now. I might give them a break and work on some other things before starting the next pair.