Mission Mitten completed

Woo hoo! I've completed my Druid Mittens, and they are gorgeous if I say so myself. I'm actually surprised with how long they took, according to Ravelry I cast on Aug 23 and I cast off last night, Sep 21. It didn't feel that long. Still, I wasn't working on them the whole time. Plus, I have over half of the skein of Lisa Souza Sock! Merino left that I used for them. Perhaps another pair of socks for my daughter are on the horizon. I don't think I'd manage to downsize these mitts for her.

Pattern: Autumn/Druid Mittens from VK Fall 08
Yarn: Lisa Souza Sock! Merino
Needles: 2.75mm dpns

Sorry for the hands against the door pic, it was dark when I finished them and the white background was all I had to make them stand out!
These dpns broke on me halfway through mitt no 2. I was very disappointed with them. Still, my lys is becoming even more local today, with it's second shop opening up in the city centre, about 5 mins walk from my work! yipee, I'll be heading down there today at lunchtime to try and off load some of their stock for them and to replace my 2.75 dpns and get a set of 2.5 bamboo for the plane knitting.

Progress on my Dad's sock:

Not much I know, but I seem to have achieved very little this week. Hubby has been unwell and my Mam is very bad again, so I haven't really had much time.

I've also been feeling very down over the last few days. I sometimes get like this (don't we all), but my Mam has me very worried. She's just slowly sliding down the slope into total dementia and I feel so helpless.
She no longer knows what day of the week it is, whether she has eaten or taken her medication or not. The strain is really showing on my Dad too. I begged them to let me get a home help for them just to give a hand cleaning the house and to give Dad a break to go for the paper or a walk, but Dad said no. I totally get that he doesn't want to admit he can't cope and that he doesn't want a "stranger" in the house, but the house is getting really dirty and he looks exhausted with it all. I do what I can when I go round, but even Mam won't let me clean the bathroom or change their bed for them.
*sigh* it's all getting to be a bit much for me now to be honest. I'm almost dreading going away and leaving them on their own, as they have no-one else to call in on them and keep them company or do any jobs they need.
Still, my Mam is 80 on Oct 10th so I'm going to have a nice dinner in my house and invite Mams sister and Dads sister over too.

Sorry for the rant! I just needed to get that off my chest.

In spooky news, I know it's early for scary stories (Halloween and all athat) but I had the weirdest dream last night that I just have to share:
I'm adopted and sometimes thoughts of my biological father come into my head. Well last night was a doozy... I dreamt I was in the supermarket looking at vegetables when Sir Cliff Richard came up to me and said "Hi Sinéad, I'm your father!" !!!! Needless to say I woke up pretty quickly!

Photo Update

I'm a little bit delicate this morning let me tell you. Not too bad, but a little bit rough around the edges. Had a great night last night, but was ultra sensible and got the bus before the last one home! I don't think my husband quite knew what was going on, I normally stumble in the door sometime after 2am from a taxi, so I think he was secretly a bit pleased I was home so early. (He made me toast. A dead giveaway.)
Hence I'm up at 8am, putting up my progress pictures from yesterdays post! It's a nice sunny morning (uber surprise). My living room is like a little patch of heaven early in the morning when the sun shines. It bathes the room with light and I love it.

My Pi tablecloth:

At the 288 stitch stage, so it's become a blob on the circs and will remain so until finshed and blocked. But, I think it's coming along great!

My daughters crosshatch socks

She's delighted with these, especially because they are the same yarn as my Embossed Leaves. She thinks it'll be "really cool" for us to wear them at the same time. Em no.

This is how much Smooshy was left over:

I wasn't kidding when I said it was down to the wire!

This is my second Druid mitten. Nothing exciting here, just on the cuff.

And this is the beginnings of my Dad's Christmas present socks. I found the name of the pattern:
Garter Rib Socks from Sensational Knitted Socks (Rav link). Nice and boring mens pattern that won't require any independent thought.


Thanks for the pattern and yarn suggestions so far, keep 'em coming!

Friday night freedom!

I can't believe I haven't posted since last Sunday - my goodness time flies when your boss is back from holidays! ;) Busiest week in ages, trying to get loads done (so I could look like I did loads of work instead of spending the day streaming the olympics on the work pc while the boss was away)

But, I do have some progress for you all:

My first mitten!


Isn't it just scrumilicious? I know it's not perfect, there are some errors, but I love it. For a first mitten ever I think it kinda rocks. I can't wait to finish the second one. I reckon these would be pretty cool for the cold car in the mornings driving into work.

My daughters Crosshatch sock is coming along nicely too:

I finally got the stitch count right on 48 stitches and it fits her fine. I had to do the heel twice though, that's what I get for chatting too much at my SnB, the heel was at least twice what it should have been, enormous!

So, I signed up for the crochet class at the local school. Starts Sept 23rd until Dec 7th I think. I'll only miss one week when I'm in Florida (6 weeks 6 days to go woohoo!) so that's ok. I'm really looking forward to it too, it'll be great to learn a new craft and some new ways of finishing knitted garments.

Although, I felt so bad when I broke the news to the SnB ladies. Two of them told me they'd teach me themselves, but I want to go to a classroom atmosphere to get the full benefit, plus I don't want to spoil their night, teaching me who takes several goes to get the hang of it! But it was lovely of them. They said they'll miss me, even if it is only for 10 weeks, and I have to say I will too. I love my Tuesday nights and wouldn't swap them for anything. God knows what I did before knitting, it's opened up so many new things to me, new friends I never would have normally met and of course new international friends through this humble little blog and the mighty Ravelry. Knitting and crafting rocks!

Now I must get cracking on my Christmas list. No more procrastinating for me, decisions need to be made - just a little bit later maybe...

Right so, well it's Friday night and I'm off to have a few drinkies and play some Sims 2. Sayonara!

Sunday morning blues

I'm listening to some pretty psychedelic Eric Clapton suff as I type this, very Apocalypse now sort of music. Groovy man...

Look! my Druid Mittens progress, and I lurve them.


The chart is messy enough to follow, but clever ickle me sneaked into the photocopy room in work and blew it up onto an A3 page *snicker* much easier now with some post its to mark the spot.

Lace news:
Using the wonders of magic loop, here's my progress so far on my Pi Shawl that's going to be a tablecloth.
Before stretching:

After stretching:

I'm on the 144 stitch round. Still not enough to fit fully round my circs. Next increase should do it. See my ladders though? I was doing so well up until those. I guess that's the problem with magic looping laceweight. I can't pull any tighter for fear of snapping the yarn and there's no way I can do this sucker on dpns so I figure it'll have to be a "design element" or I'll make a doily type thing to sit on top of it....

I've also cast on for a pair of socks for my daughter with my left over smooshy.
Crosshatch Socks from More Sensational Knitted Socks (ravelry links)
I'm on my third attempt at these. I measured her foot and cast on according to the directions. there was no way these were going to fit her, they would have barely fit a newborn, so I increased one pattern repeat and tried again. Nope. Increased again now to 48 stitches and it seems okay so far. I'll try them on again in a bit and see. She's the original big foot.

In other great news, one of the schools in my area has announced its Autumn evening courses. And Look! Loads of crafty things! I can't believe it! Here's the list of courses. They include knitting for beginners and improvers, sewing, patchwork/quilting, card making, beaded jewellery and crochet! I have been looking to learn crochet for a while now, and here comes a 10 week course!! woohoo! Only problem is it's on Tuesday evenings, the same night as my beloved SnB. But, it is only for 10 weeks, so I think I should still do the course.

I'm thrilled to bits! Plus, there's Asian/Indian cooking on Wednesday nights that hubby wants to do so yummy new dinners heading my way!!

Druid Mittens

So I promised a post on my Druid Mittens and here you go.

The progress so far. Not a lot I hear you say, but believe me I'm proud of this, these take ages!! I know the pics aren't great, but it's nearly 10pm and really dark, so take what you're given, ok?

I do love the pattern, but I'm not sure the yarn is right. It seems a bit light and doesn't really show the pattern to it's best.

Remember I said I had lace woes? I yearn to make lace, I think it's so beautiful that I'd love to create my own. When I was in Florida last year I bought a load of lace yarn. One in particular was Prism Lace (Ravelry link), hand dyed in St Petersburg. I was watching Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting Workshop on DVD the other day and saw the Pi shawl. After many gasps of breath and admiration of its beauty I thought, wouldn't that make a beautiful tablecloth?

So, I decided to cast on using the Prism lace. She talks about Barbara Okher's (unsure of spelling) cast on as being the best one. I swear I tried for an hour and couldn't get it right until I lost my temper with it and decided for the betterment of my sanity and the yarn to put it away and try again later.

This is my second attempt at lace, the first being with some yummy misti alpaca laceweight to make a swallowtail shawl. That too ended in flames and much swearing.

Am I missing some basic element of lace knitting? Other than requiring solitude in a quiet room, coz with a 7 year old that's just not going to happen. Maybe I'm pushing my knitting too fast, after all I'm just 18mths knitting. Walk before you can run, right?

I've also begun thinking about Christmas knitting. I hate that C word, it conjures up such images of panic, overspending and stress for me. Anyway, I'd love to give handmade gifts, I'm just not sure how they'd be received. I was thinking maybe a pair of socks for my dear Dad and a Branching Out scarf for one of my sister in laws. Others, I don't know.

The idea of a washcloth with some nice soaps appeals to me, but the washcloths I have made previously were rubbish for lathering. Maybe I used the wrong yarn? It was 100% cotton, so what should I be using?