One plus one plus one...

I knitted a sleeve for the baby jumper yesterday. Then I got up this morning and started idly trawling through Ravelry for interesting patterns, until I gave myself a stern talking to: one sock, one fingerless glove, one sleeve - anyone see a pattern here? So I knuckled down and have nearly finished the second sleeve (we're not discussing the sock or the glove at the moment).
I have a problem with this jumper however... It's one thing to knit away casually without a pattern when I'm knitting for my girls - I can always reach out and grab them as they whizz past and hold the knitting up against them. But it dawned on me as I knitted the first sleeve, that I have no idea how big a six month old is. So I have no idea if this sweater will fit or not. Now the obvious answer to that is that it could be given to an appropriately sized child if it's wrong. But - and here's where I stun myself with my own idiocy - I have knitted the six month old's name into the front of the sweater.
If it is hopelessly wrong I'll be offering it free on Ravelry to anyone who knows a baby called James...

TLAs

OMG

It's been less than a week since I last posted!! Hope you're dead impressed. I have to say that when it comes to knitting blogs, Ravelry is the devil's work. No-one seems to be blogging regularly anymore - they're all hanging out on Ravelry nattering. And while this is a good thing and to be encouraged - it means I'm stuck reading the Yarn Harlot and The Panopticon over and over and over. (Of course, they're bothe worth reading over and over, but I used to be able to skitter around ten or twelve blogs every day...) And of course I'm as guilty as anyone...

WIPs

I am still working on the second sock but I have secondsockitis. I knit a round and think 'Oh God, I've done this already', and turn to something else. Luckily it's still pretty warm here so the socks won't be needed for a while.

The baby jumper came to a grinding halt when I left it on the sofa (you'd think I'd learn...) and Jess jumped on it. Normally knitting wouldn't be affected by a few kilos of small child jumping, but I was knitting with wooden needles wasn't I? Crack!

But I did manage to revive and finish Jess's jumper and what's more it fits (always a toss-up when you're a lazy mother who can't be bothered finding a measuring tape or a pattern).

It's a pretty standard jumper with no pattern. This time I hemmed the waistband and cuffs instead of ribbing, so that the pretty wool would show its variegation off nicely, and I like how it looks. I did a row of eyelets around the neck as decoration - I'm planning that she'll wear this over a skivvy in winter and I didn't want a tight neckband. (And how cute is my Jess? You'd never guess what an evil, feral, demon-possessed child she really is by looking at those photos.)

DPNs

Despite being slack about the sock, I decided to perservere with the DPNs and what do you know, I think I've finally got them beaten into submission. Exhibit A - four DPNs PLUS cables PLUS a thumb gusset...

And oh boy am I proud of myself! :) I started this yesterday and it was SO quick - finished it at about 6pm - and 90% was knitted in five minute bursts in the car. Now I have to do it again... this could be a repeat of the sock...

Well, that was March

I truly did plan to start blogging regularly again, but March got away on me. We had a fairly horrific month with hideous, harrowing, family dramas - and because they involved other family members and their children I can't blog about any of it. The permanency of the internet scares me now and then - and while I'm okay with my own drivel remaining for eternity, and I'm a mean enough mother to not really care that my kids may be embarrassed in their teen years, there has to be a line hey?

On the up side, we have a new computer (cue cartwheels, popping of champagne corks and general merriment). It's not really new - it's second hand from some corporate who are upgrading - but it's new to us and, most importantly, it has a functioning internal fan.

Other uppish things this month included my first (and second) ever visit to knit rangers who are just a fabulous bunch of people. And there's photographic proof here! (Proof I was there - not proof they're fabulous - you'll just have to trust me on the fabulous part.)

And I have been knitting...

I finished the acrylic lace thing. Katie keeps calling it her shrag (shrug not having been part of her vocabulary up till now), and you know, it's strangely right:

(If you're paying attention, you'll notice she still hasn't outgrown the self-administered haircut trend.)

Then I took the girls to Wellington for Easter and decided that the three (!) sweaters I'm working on were too bulky so I bought some Magic Garden wool and splashed out on a set of Ashford bamboo dpns and voila - my third ever sock!

The foot inside the sock also belongs to Katie, which is why I was able to knock a whole sock off in three days - she has big feet for a five year old, but they're damn small compared to mine! Don't look too closely at the sock - I got so excited that I'd reached the end that I did a bad thing - I had no wool needle with me to do the grafting so I did a three needle cast off. Hmmm...

The three sweaters are the Sunrise Circle (which hasn't actually been touched apart from when I dumped it on the floor to photograph it); a little woolly jumper for a six-month old boy I know; and a sweater for Jess in Paton's Jet (wool/alpaca) which was coming along fine until the girls removed the needles to play Robin Hood - and I have to say, I was so happy that they weren't being fairies or princesses or mermaids that I didn't even growl - in fact I helped to make the bow (the needles were the arrows).

And now the second sock is calling...

National Frog Day

Today, in case you hadn't heard, is National Frog Day here in New Zealand. Because, of course, it's Leap Day, and we're not afraid of using a ban pun as a reason to celebrate our endangered frogs.

Did you know we also have a National Frog Week every October?

God I love this country!

So here is a picture of an Archey's Frog (our most endangered frog), and Happy Frog Day everyone!