Well what do you know

O there is great rejoicing and jubilation here. The thneed turned into a poncho at last. And a better poncho than I'd dared to imagine!
In fact it was so nice that the three year old is now insisting that she get one too. Her knitting request list already has a bright pink sweater and a white cardigan with embroidered flowers on it so it'll be a while...
Her other new request is "Mummy can you knit a Snow White dress?" To which I reply, "the question is not can I, but will I, and the answer to that my little chickadee is never in a million years." We are living with a revolting obsession with disney princesses at the moment that is driving me totally and utterly doolally. I'm with the wicked stepmother and the bad fairy - all the simpering princesses should die horrible deaths.

There's a reason for patterns

So I finished the second piece of the poncho thingy, only to discover when I pinned them together that I had created a poncho that would only fit over the head of a barbie doll. This is partly because of my stupid aversion to patterns (of which more later) and partly due to sheer laziness - I kind of suspected that I wasn't making my rectangles (or parallelograms) long enough but I got bored so I cast off. What's most disturbing is that I've done similar things before - you'd think I'd learn wouldn't you? So I've now spent the last week or so frantically knitting extra panels to add on... I have no idea how this rotten thing is going to turn out but I suspect I may be creating a thneed.
On the up side, I beat the baby in a rasberry blowing competition yesterday. It's the little triumphs that keep me going...

Why?

Why am I starting a blog at half past five in the morning? Because my evil children (watch those heads spin!) have had me awake since 3 and it's now too late to go back to bed.
I love my babies dearly but at this hour on a freezy cold morning I can't help wondering why the hell I ever had them. The three year old (who hasn't stayed the whole night in her own bed since she turned two) has decided that the middle of the night is a good time to chat; while the little one (who USED to sleep through) doesn't want to miss out on the midnight partying, and has taken to waking three or more times every night. O the joys of motherhood.

Strange Knitting

Of course one advantage of being up with the birds is that I can sit and knit without having to use the needles to fend the children off.
I am in the middle of an interminable poncho/wrap/shrug thingy for my niece. I have no idea why it's taking so long - it's just two lacy rectangles, and I'm knitting it with 5mm needles - but strange things are happening to it and I'm pretty sure that it's warping time as well as its shape. I say 'rectangles', but the stitch I'm using (turkish stitch: y fwd, slip 1, K1, psso for one row, followed by a knit row) has turned it into a parallelogram which is kind of odd but, cross fingers, will look intentional when it's sewn up. Anyway, I've been knitting it off and on for weeks and the second rectangle (or whatever it is) doesn't seem to be growing at all...