Easter

These little guys have been popping up on Ravelry and they are so cute I just couldn't resist making some!

My plan was to hang them on the "tree" with the other Easter decorations I picked up recently. The "tree" is actually just some branches with lights on them.

They make a nice decoration in the room and at Christmas it occurred to me that I could hang some baubles on them and it might look good. It did! So when I found some sparkly Easter egg decorations in Spotlight I brought them home and decorated the tree for Easter.

These little guys lasted on the tree for about 5 minutes before Miss F figured out a way to get them down and spent the rest of the night running around with her chick-chicks. I think I'll let her have them for Easter. She can really do without all the chocolate.

I used WOOLganic 8ply for all of them and they were really quick to whip up. I did two in a couple of hours and one more later that night. They still need some feet, but for now they are ok and looking really cute.

Socks

I'm obsessed with them at the moment.

So far I've turned this


into these.



And I've cast on (and ripped out) another two pairs.

I've decided that I need to challenge myself a bit more now though, so I'm itching to cast on one of these patterns also - bmp and Vellamo

I'll probably go with Vellamo.

I've got some variegated sock yarn that I just can't find a good pattern for (hence the ripping out!) so I'm thinking it might look good broken up with some black.

I'm not sure I'll have a finished pair of socks by the end of March, but I'm trying!

Janaury

Hello Blogger my old friend...

ok, I won't inflict any Simon & Garfunkel on you, but I will give you a run-down of January. And yes, I know February is half over already.

During January there were socks...

Leyburn socks.

This is one pair.
Fun pattern and great for variegated yarn.

There's another half-pair of a different pattern (one lone sock) which is going to the frog pond soon.


There were child-sized shrugs...

Never Not Knitting's Chloe.

Not quite finished, just needs buttons and loops.
Miss F is not bothered about the lack of these and is wearing it anyway.


And Cowls...

Dew Drop Cowl

This was from a Ruby & Sage club slot, and I actually started it right after receiving the yarn.
Halfway through I discovered I'd twisted my stitches and that was the end of that for a while!
Just needs blocking now and it's done.

A Noble Cowl

This is one of those patterns that has survived many Ravelry queue culls since I joined up.
It would easily be my most favourite knit for a long while. The yarn is madelinetosh DK and it's just beautiful. Now we just need some cold weather so I can wear it!


February might not be as productive for me though.

I do have these on the needles...

Whisper Lace Socks

I've been a bit addicted to these. The lace pattern and the colourway are both so pretty and I haven't been able to put them down. Unfotunately this means sore hands, so I'm taking an enforced break from them and the other WIP I have on the go.

Both the boys are now at school also, so things have become a bit busier around here. More homework to supervise plus a new school with a longer commute. The upside is I only have one child at home with me, but without a brother around to play with her or distract her when I need it, it's actually a bit more demanding than having two at home. She even tells me to stop knitting these days if it's not a convenient time for her to have me doing that!

Hopefully I'll also have some sewing to show off next time. Fabric is all cut, I just need to find the time to sew it together.

Books

I used to read a lot pre-kids. Until recently though I don't think I've read a novel in about 5 years. Sometimes I just don't have the patience for it. Sometimes there are just too many distractions around here for reading - I certainly can't sit down with the kids around and quietly read a book! And with little ones that for a while didn't sleep through the night, picking up a book often put me to sleep!

Somewhat ambitiously though, I bought Eat Pray Love to read on our overseas holiday. I thought I might get an opportunity to read on the plane - that didn't happen, but I did find other times to get through it while we were away. With nothing else "new" available to read when I was finished with that, I picked up Pride & Prejudice which I've had sitting around for years. I hadn't actually read this one before, but I am a great fan of the story and of course of the BBC mini-series. I'd tried to read the book many times in the past, but for some reason couldn't get a rythmn going with it so never got very far. Maybe it was being able to picture Colin Firth's Mr Darcy that helped this time?! Not sure, but I flew through it and then hit the Book Depository for more reading material.

And now that I'm riding the bus for nearly 2 hours each week, I've decided I can use that time to really pick the habit up again.


So far I've read all but one of the above books in the last 3 months. I'm currently on The Book Thief, which is turning out to be quite intriguing. It's a lot longer than the others so it might take me a while to get through with only 2 hours a week to devote to it! If you haven't read The Lovely Bones, then I recommend you do, but have your tissues handy! I couldn't put that one down.

I do try to read a bit at home these days too. Now that the kids are getting a bit older and less dependent on me, it's easier to feel less guilty about taking some time out for me. Although it can be a bit difficult trying to read with a 2yo climbing on and off your lap! There was even a lovely moment last weekend where L and I were both lying on the couch together and reading our respective books, undisturbed. Bliss.

I did get another book that I wanted for Christmas too. Not a novel:


Even the kids are interested in this one! I know a lot of this is on the Bakerella blog, but the book is so cute and I needed a suggestion for DH for a Christmas present. I probably wouldn't have gone and bought this for myself, so a perfect opportunity to get my hands on it!

And I treated myself to something knitted related too:


I thought it was about time I learned how to do this so I can avoid Second-Sock-Syndrome in the future. I'm yet to give it a try, but I'm planning a DIY Sock Club for this year with the sock yarn I've accummulated, so hopefully this book will help me plough through those less painfully and with 12 PAIRS of socks to show for it! My only disappointment with this book is that the socks pictured on the front don't appear in the patterns in the book.

Do you like to read? Do you have any recommendations for me?

Bye bye, 2010

I achieved my goal of finishing my two WIPs before the end of 2010! The first was my mum's Christmas socks, and then these:

Flutter-by socks (Rav link)

These were a really fun pattern to knit up. They went pretty quickly too, which is great when you have two of them to make! I had knit the first sock before I even started my mum's socks but I put them down to make hers. I had actually intended to knit one of these and then knit one of hers, and then do the same with each second sock. But Christmas crept up on me and I needed to finish mum's socks first.

Anyway, I scraped these in by finishing up the foot on our little after-Christmas camping trip, and grafting the toe on New Year's Eve! Yes, what an exciting life we lead... me knitting at home on the couch on NYE. But really, we had spent 6 hours driving home that day and life with small children means our days of partying are kind of over. I even skipped the ringing in of the new year and went to bed at 11pm!

So apart from a couple of UFOs which are really long-term WIPs, I was project free at the beginning of the year. Kind of.

Christmas Knitting

I said I wasn't going to knit any Christmas gifts this year, but then all the Christmas knitting on Ravelry got the better of me.

I decided on a pair of socks for my mum.


She's a knitter and has a few pairs of socks made by me already, so I know that she appreciates them. I don't knit for anyone that doesn't appreciate the finished item anymore. Hence why no one else in my extended family is getting any knitted gifts!

These are Shur'tugal and they were a lot of fun to knit. I love the features in the heel flap.


I did make a mistake on the second sock after picking up the gusset stitches, but you can barely tell. I'm still not sure exactly what I did wrong, but when I got to that point on the second sock the pattern didn't make any sense to me whatsoever! And I know that wasn't the case with the first sock. That will teach me to leave such a long gap between the first and second socks! Or to take notes with the first one.

Anyhoo... I have decided that I must learn to knit two socks at once to avoid this and second-sock-sydrome in the future. That will be my challenge for 2011.

I've also decided that there will be no more new projects for 2010. I currently have 2 active WIPs that I want to finish off and that will be my task for the rest of the year. One is a whole sock so that will probably take up most of my time!

Hopefully I'll make a couple more posts with more FOs before 2010 comes to an end!

Decorating

We are getting in the Christmas spirit around here finally. All the birthdays are over with for the year and we are able to concentrate a bit more on relaxing for the next couple of weeks.


The tree is up and we finally got the advent calender up last night.... only 14 days late! But better late than never. Although I'm not entirely sure it's the best idea with Miss F, who is a bit too young to understand that you only get a treat from the calender once a day!

This year we finally have a tree that is taller than the adults! One day we'll have a real one, but for now it's just a fake. I like the traditional Christmas colours - red, gold and green - so we've gone with that theme. It helps that we already have plenty of decorations that fit the theme!


The kids are on school holidays and I plan to spend my non-working days hanging out with them, decorating the rest of the house and hopefully managing some crafting before the 25th. No Christmas crafting though. That's another hassle I don't need to put myself through!