On posting patterns and pizza

I keep saying I'm going to post patterns and I don't... Partly this is because my patterns tend to look like this:

This is how the pattern for the little orange and pink cotton dress looks at the moment. Katie helped to colour it in, even though I pointed out that most knitting patterns aren't actually coloured in. Oh good grief!

It's also because I'm never quite satisfied with them... The cotton dress's sleeves were wrong and if I wrote the pattern out properly I'd change the sleeves a bit. But if I were to then post the pattern, I'd have to knit the new version of the dress so that I'd have a picture. And really people, who can be bothered?

I have been working on the ventouse hat - I knitted a new one, this time with a flat back... Which is nice I think. But I haven't picked up and knitted the neck band and ties yet, and I can't because I got enthused about a leaf lace pattern and started knitting a jersey with the 4mm needles that I was using for the hat. And once again, the kids have been playing hide the needles, and I'm back to one pair of 4mms.

So I can't post the pattern because I can't finish the hat.

The new jersey however, will be different! (I hope) I've been typing the pattern as I go (heaven forbid I should actually know where it's going!) so that if it works out nicely, I'll be able to post it straight away :-).

The lace is from a book called Beautiful Knitting Patterns by Gisela Klopper, and it's really pretty. I decided to do it panels with some cables, and so far so good... I'm now trying to decrease the lace nicely and make the cables go around the neck (or something) so cross fingers for me. Then I have to decide what to do with the back and sleeves... Knitting by the seat of your pants!

I haven't been blogging very often because life keeps getting in the way. I got my second assignment in for university, which ate a lot of my free time and made me just not want to go near the computer. I have no idea how this one will do - I thought my first essay was pretty crappy and I got an A+. This is what ten years away does to your judgement. This one I think is really crappy and when my lovely partner read it he said, 'You're not really handing that in are you?' so I'm thinking that the old GPA may slip a little! Then I have the exam on 15 June and that's one paper down, 4 to go, and I'll be a university graduate (a little unhatched chicken counting there).

On Friday I went to kindergarten with Katie and made pizza (including dough from scratch) with 23 children. I expect the shaking to stop anytime soon. Whatever kindergarten teachers are paid should be trebled immediately. Anyone who deals lovingly and patiently, on a daily basis, with the kid who poured flour a) into the yeast mixture, b) all over the floor, c) all over the kid next to him, d) all over the just-about-to-go-into-the-oven pizza and e) all over me, deserves to earn at least as much as the Prime Minister. And when I rule the world, I intend to sort that out. Glad we've got that clear.

Must go knit...

May your child be undersized and deformed

Last night I went out to dinner for my friend Kate's birthday. That's right - I left the house without children, at night and I talked to adults who don't have children. Wow!

Kate is pregnant (16 weeks) so I knitted a baby bonnet yesterday to toss in with her present. It didn't quite work (but I gave it to her anyway - dammit, it took me a couple of hours!) but it has potential so I'm going to try again and then I'll post the pattern. Anyway, here it is, beautifully modelled by Katie's doll Smelly Baby (don't ask). As I said to Kate, I was obviously hoping that her baby has a very small head, which you have to admit is kind, and if she needs a ventouse delivery she'll have a hat that'll fit beautifully...

Happy Mother's Day

Here's a little question in honour of Mother's Day, which I believe was supposed to be yesterday...

Q: What's worse than waking at 1am to a little voice saying, 'Mummy, I wet the bed'?

A: Realising that it's your bed she's talking about.

Oh the joys of motherhood are never ending.

Anyway, I haven't been blogging about knitting this week - I've been knitting instead. And... ta da! One cotton dress for the girls' cousin in London. Spotlight had this lovely cotton on sale (which is how I make all my decisions about what to knit) and since it's not cotton season here, Olivia got lucky. Jess was very happy to be the model but I think she thinks it's her dress so there could be tears before bedtime. But then, when are there not tears before bedtime? I'm so pleased with how this turned out that if I get my act together (cue uproarious laughter) I think I'll write the pattern out nicely and post it for the delight and delectation of anyone else who got their hands on some Spotlight cotton.

Alpacas ate my baby

So I ripped out all those pleats and the lace - don't think the wool will ever be usable though. Let's just NOT talk about ripping back MOHAIR okay? At least I know I can do pleats - if I ever decide I just don't have enough stress in my life!

Sometimes, especially after a whole spate of cables, lace, stuff-ups and frustrations, you've just got to go for the thick wool/small child combo... So Jess, as of about an hour ago, has a brand new jersey:



The greyish bit is Patons Inca - 50% wool, 30% acrylic and 20% alpaca, which I used 6.5 mm needles to knit. Forty-four stitches wide - boy that went fast! The cream is something lovely and expensive - I think it was pure wool - that I bought back when I was gainfully employed. The whole thing turned out way better than I'd imagined. And at half past five this morning I learnt how to do lazy daisies (or something? I'm not an embroiderer) and put three little flowers on the front - doesn't everyone do things like this at the crack of dawn?

Need more coffee now...