WIP Wednesday - Meet Totoro!

After last week's big project update with the woven rug, this week's update is quite a bit smaller, because the Easter weekend didn't leave a lot of time for knitting, or crafting, or doing much of anything other than having fun with the family.

But oh, what fun we've had!

I'll try to do an update about all the things we got up to in the next few days, but for today I want to introduce you to the newest member of our family...

Meet Totoro!

Isn't he cute? 

He's actually absolutely huge. I don't quite know if it was the yarn (actually, it probably was - I think it was supposed to be DK but I used aran...), but he's LARGE. 

I stuffed him with everything I had available. I had a tiny bit of toy stuffing left over, and that went in first. You couldn't even tell. Next went in some shredded left-over batting from my last quilt. Totoro absorbed all of that too, without looking the least bit chubby. Seriously, by that point I thought I must have accidentally constructed a Tardis (bigger on the inside, and all that...). 

I then went through my basket with sewing leftovers and I am so glad that I'm such a pathological hoarder, because I found a whole bunch of off-cuts that anyone in their right mind would have thrown out because they were too small to even make the tiniest of quilting patches, but which I'd kept on the off-chance that I'd need them to stuff something. Like a huge Totoro shell for example. 

I crammed a whole lot of sewing off-cuts into the main body and finally the chubby Totoro shape started to emerge. Little bits of fabric also went into the arms, ears and tail, and then I assembled it all and stitched his little face on. Tadah! 

The boys LOVE him. 

(I also sewed the sofa cover - that was a little project that DID get done. There are two chair-beds under there and they kept sliding apart. It drove me insane! The cover isn't quite finished yet, though -  I have to hem the bottom edge all around)

It's quite funny to see for me, because they are not normally the stuffed toy type and even when they were little didn't pay much attention to Teddy Bears and other soft toys at all. Clearly it makes a difference if it's something made for them and they were able to observe the whole process, start to finish. 

I had meant to make this one for boy#3 but it looks like boy#1 has claimed it instead. Orders have been received for more Totoros. I may be crocheting Totoros for the foreseeable future... 

Also, for Yarn Along - I'm currently reading The Long Song, by Andrea Levy, which is a harrowing but also utterly riveting read. This is what it says on the inside cover:

"You do not know me yet, but I am the narrator of this work. My son Thomas, who is printing this book, tells me it is customary at this place in a novel to give the reader a little taste of the story that is held within these pages. As your storyteller, I am to convey that this tale is set in Jamaica during the last turbulent years of slavery and the early years of freedom that followed.

July is a slave girl who lives upon a sugar plantation named Amity and it is her life that is the subject of this tale. She was there when the Baptist War raged in 1831 and she was present when slavery was declared no more. My son says I must convey how the story tells also of July's mama Kitty, of the negroes that worked the plantation land, of Caroline Mortimer the white woman who owned the plantation and many more persons besides - far too many for me to list here. But what befalls them all is carefully chronicled upon these pages for you to peruse. 

Perhaps, my son suggests, I might write that it is a thrilling journey through that time in the company of people who lived it. All this he wishes me to pen so the reader can decide if this is a novel they might care to consider. Cha, I tell my son, what fuss-fuss. Come, let them just read it for themselves."

Shared with:

A Year of Projects

Keep Calm, Knit On

Yarn Along

Stitch Along Wednesday

WIP Wednesday - Ink Flare

I'm still recovering from my tonsillectomy on Friday, so things have been pretty slow around here. I think I had wildly unrealistic expectations for my recovery time... It really amazes me how groggy I still feel, five days on from the op. Part of it, I suspect, is that sleep is so interrupted, because one of the few things that really help with the pain is drinking lots of cold water. Well, when you sleep you are obviously not drinking, and when you are not drinking your throat really dries up and, well, OUCH! 

But enough of me whinging. I'm feeling a little better today, so I've decided to tackle the disaster zone that the house has become over the past few days, and I've also had a chance to take a few pictures of Ink Flare as she looks right now. 

The body is done, and so is sleeve #1. I'm about 1/3rd into sleeve #2 right now. I've not done as much knitting as I thought I would over the past week because even knitting often seemed to energetic, lol, but there has been some progress and considering how quickly this project is knitting up I think it might be possible to complete it over the coming week or so. 

As for reading, I've been indulging in a bit of pop lit. I have another book I want to start, but with my head so fuzzy I didn't quite feel up to it. So I've been reading Deborah Harkness's All Souls trilogy (A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night, The Book of Life). I'm currently on book three.

I'd heard a lot of good things about this trilogy, and it certainly makes quite good sick-bed reading, but honestly? I'm not entirely sold on these books. I enjoy the historical aspect of them, and the detective work of historical research, which feed into my own interest in history and own compulsion to research absolutely everything. It also helps that the author is a historian and academic, and therefore knows what she is talking about in that area. 

What I haven't particularly been able to get behind is the main romance. Since it's pretty much at the centre of the book this is obviously a bit of a problem... It's not only that the trope (a vampire / witch love story) is kind of exhausted, but that I find the main characters individually, and their relationship with each other, a bit annoying and tiresome. The rhetoric is so over-romantic at the same time labouring the point of how hard they have to work at making it work, how independent they really are, how much they adore each other, blablabla. It's hard to explain but even while it's trying to present a realistic portrayal of a new relationship it seems like a wish-fulfillment fantasy of the author, with the heroine an independent modern woman who wins the (flawed) dark, brooding male hero, and while everyone is initially skeptical and hostile towards her she manages to win them all round because she is so amazing... Sorry, I'm exaggerating, but, well, I'm just not feeling it, you know? I always get the sense that I'm being  told how to feel, how amazing these characters are, how amazing this relationship is, while what I'm seeing is something quite different. I'm not only unconvinced because I just can't feel it but also more than a little put off by how simplistic it all seems, and by the unhealthy obsessive and stifling nature of the dynamic of the relationship. I don't know, it's probably just me - it's not the first time I seem to be swimming against the tide of the general popularity of a book. :/

Shared with:

A Year of Projects

Yarn Along

Keep Calm, Craft On

Yarn Along Wednesday

With all the Christmas business this is my first Wednesday update in a while. I do have things to show for though, both WIPs and FOs. I won't dwell on the latter here, as I'm planning a more extensive FO Friday 'reveal'. ;)

In addition to my usual A Year of Projects update and Keep Calm, Craft On, I'm also joining in with Ginny for Yarn Along this week and I thought I'd for once do the reading-and-knitting update that Yarn Along really is about. I actually read a lot, but I rarely remember to blog about it. 

This Christmas I got a little book of poems on motherhood from my brother in law. It's Carolyn Jess-Cooke's BOOM!, and I'd been hankering after this book for a while now so I'm thrilled to finally get my hands on it. The poems are lovely - in turn funny and touching and always so very recognisable in the emotions that they express. Truly beautiful. 

I'm also dipping in and out of sixteenbynine, which is the pilot issue of a new journal on television. It's interesting, but not having read much of it yet, right now I'm probably most in love with the cover design, which I desperately covet as a poster to put in my office! ;)  

As for knitting, with various projects close to completion I've embarked on another Ink Flare. I fancied making another one ever since I knitted one with my unruly purple wool last summer, and I had this perfect green hand-dyed mohair yarn from Fleece Artist lying around here. I'm making this one in the round to avoid all that sewing and on 6 mm needles this knits up so fast. After knitting both Tea Leaves and the Garter Yoke cardi on 4.5 mm needles I'd forgotten how quickly a project can grow on big needles. I've already completed the body and have just started the first sleeve.  Judging from prior performance with sleeve knitting this will probably be the point where progress slows right down, but it's a lovely yarn to work with and I really REALLY want to wear this jumper soon, so I'm hoping this will keep my motivated. The knitted fabric is loose and airy, which is what I'd intended, and the colour variations give it some texture and I'm so looking forward to seeing it finished!

As for my other projects, the Scheepjes Mystery blanket is truly finished now. Here is a little peak before the bigger post:

The Garter Yoke cardi is also finished, at least the knitting part. I've ordered some buttons for it that will hopefully arrive soon. 

There is some progress on my never-ending sock, but not enough to warrant a photoshoot. Who wants to see the same sock every week anyway if there isn't any vast difference?!

Embracing the home life...

I'm finally on maternity leave (yay!) and I've been trying to wind down a bit. It's hard, in particular as I still have an article to finish up before Tick arrives. It's in the final stages, but I do find myself fretting over it late at night after yet another visit to the bathroom (if Tick could just be a little more kind to my bladder we'd both sleep so much better...).

In preparation to embracing the homelife I am hoping to enjoy in the coming months I have splashed out on a few books though:



There is a Kath Kidston book on embroidery - I thought it would be a bit more about actual sewing, but it's nice anyway - and two cookery books. One is a lovely little book on homemade edible gifts - cakes, biscuits, chutneys, jam, marmelade, pralines, alcohol... and it's beautifully photographed. I can't wait to try some of the recipes. The other one is a cookery book based on the wonderful food that is always mentioned in classic children's books. Who can't remember reading children's books and, for hours after, wanting pancakes, muffins drizzled with melted butter, and homemade lemonade? The book is compiled and written by Jane Brocket of Yarnstorm, which is something I only found out after I had already bought it!

Hopefully all the cookery books will have the added side-effect of providing me with a few cheap x-mas presents for friends and family. I'm no good knitting things for a deadline, and I have a rather disasterous Sockapalooza experience to vouch for it, so I am not even attempting knitted gifts - they happen when they will, but not usually in time for birthdays, anniveraries, or x-mas - so I am hoping that perhaps I can make some luxurious chocolates and cakes and maybe bottle a few chutneys for people. The Bean will hopefully help - we've recently ventured into the real of cupcake making together. We made Postman Pat mini muffins and apart from the fact that he managed to eat quite a bit of the dough and about half the icing they were a great success.

I even have some knitting content today:


Yes, I've dipped my foot into the dangerous waters of sock-knitting again. This was an internet pattern that was knitted inside out. I will edit this post and give you a link once I find the pattern and can confirm the name. It was an easy enough knit, although socks are always painfully slow for me. Unfortunately, though, I don't really like the socks. Nothing to do with the pattern, I hasten to add, just that the yarn really didn't go with the style of the socks but once I had finished one of them and had realised this there was really no way I was going to unravel the whole thing again. It had taken me months to get to this point, after all!! Instead I quickly cast on for the second sock and finished it in record time, just to get this project out of the way. I will still wear the socks, obviously, but I really wished that I was happier with the result...