What strange times we are living in...

 ... it looks like we are going into Tier 2 again, so no more meeting with anyone indoors. I can't say that at this point it makes much difference since with the Rule of 6 it was virtually impossible for us to meet anyone anyway - we are, after all, already 5 in the house, so meeting up with another family was impossible.

We are coping, but it's been a sad kind of a year, really. I feel for the kids too. The teenager in particular is struggling since all this has come just at the time when he was starting to spread his wings a bit. After 4 years of CFS he's finally back at school and making friends, and you can see there is so much he'd like to do, when right now so little is possible. 

But enough moaning, I do realise we are lucky, really. We have each other, we are healthy, and we even have a big enough place that we don't feel too crowded and, most importantly, an outside space. I really felt for people living in flats when we were in proper lockdown, that must have been so difficult. I've lived in plenty of flats over the years, and being able to get out is so important. 

I've been crafting. Nothing too sustained, since live has only become more busy since Covid, and even though I'm supposed to be part-time I've found myself almost working full-time in recent months, but as ever the crafting has kept me sane and happy. I've not had a chance to photograph a lot of the things I've done in recent months, but in no particular order here are a few:

A circular needle holder - I was getting sick of having to dig through a big bag of tangled up needles. Just have to label them so I know what's in each.

The obligatory face masks. These are made with vintage Amy butler fabric, mainly. I was glad to find a use for all those little bits of fabric.

The Throwback Cardigan. I'm so in love with this. I opted for cheaper yarn, as I really can't justify spending something like £150 on yarn for a single garment (no matter how gorgeous the proposed yarn might be). I opted for slightly cheaper yarns, but still quality, and the main colour is a Rowan yarn so this is such a pleasure to wear. I just have to figure out some sort of button arrangement so I can close the cardi. The original pattern seems to just leave it open but I'd like the option to button it up.

Audrey in Unst. Again, this is been a real success. It came out too large so I've been ruthless and have sewn and cut it on both sides. Initially it came out a bit wonky but I've fixed it and it's now neat and absolutely lovely. I'm getting a lot of wear out of this one. 

I'm currently working on Engi. The last couple of years seem to have been mainly about colourwork and Icelandic-inspired knitting for me. I love colourwork, it's such a joy to see a pattern emerge while you are slowly working on it. 

I have been crafting, I promise...

... I've just  not been blogging. As usual.

We are OK. The days are busy and full with three boys at home, and having to school them, and the new puppy, and all the other normal things as well, like my actual paying work for example!

Crafting fits around the family. It always has done, but now perhaps more than ever. I knit in the evening on the sofa while we are watching a film. also brought my long-neglected braided rug project out again. I work in small bursts, also to protect my back - braiding in the evening on the sofa, then sewing in 10 minute sessions throughout the day whenever I find time. Initially I couldn't see the progress but by now it's grown and I think in a few weeks I'll have the size that I'm after. Really loving how it looks. 

I've been knitting Audrey in Unst, which is such a cute little cardi, but I've stalled on it recently because it turns out that short-row sleaves are really not my friend. I did one, hated the look of it, tried it on to find it unshapely and baggy, and ripped the whole thing out again. I will try again, possibly with German Short Rows, which are supposed to have a neater finish, but I'm a bit fed up right now. I do want to wear the cardi this summer, though, so I think I'll give myself a few days off then cast on for that sleave again.

Today I snuck off to the attic for an hour and made a little bag for my dog walks. I'd bought one, but with all the paraphenalia that I tend to bring, such as poop bags, treats, the whistle and clicker, the weird rabbit skin tug-toy that Stanley loves, and my phone I found it a bit small. 

I didn't use a pattern, just made it up as I went along, and I'm so pleased with it. I used denim for the outside and lined it with some ancient Amy Butler fabric I still had lying around. I think it's turned out really cute! 

Happy Father's Day!

Hello, how are you all? 

It's been a long time again so I thought I'd report back with some updates on kitting, crocheting and other crafts.

I've got a few FOs to report!!

First of all, I've finally, FINALLY finished Black Acer. Seriously, there were moments when I thought it would never happen. A few weeks ago after I finished another project and was itching to start something new but didn't have the right yarn I thought to myself - I really want to finish this, I want to be able to wear it this summer! It coincided with the boys wanting to do a Marvel movie marathon so I needed some knitting while that was happening. I don't mind Marvel, but it doesn't keep my interest massively well, and it was just perfect to watch and knit at the same time. 

Seriously, after procrastinating with this cardi for literally YEARS I finished it in a couple of weeks or so. I even sewed the buttons on!

I've not washed it and the weather has been so bad that I've not managed to get a few good shots of me wearing it yet, so I've got to remember to get that done. 

I'm really pleased with it and I'm so excited that I finally get to wear it!!

Second FO - my Mohair Cowl. This hasn't been on the needles for quite as long, but it's been long enough that I'm happy to be done with it. Again, no pictures of me wearing it yet, as I haven't got round to it, but it fits and I've actually already given it an outing or two. 

One thing to note about this pattern - the sleeves are way too long! I knitted it just as the pattern asked me to and I could have omitted at least 3-4 inches from the upper sleeves. I was thinking about unravelling, but then I'd lose some of the ribbing, which is supposed to go up to the elbow, and I'm certainly not going to unravel and knit both sleeves again. It's a bit annoying to have to pull them up all the time (which I think is intentional, it's what you are supposed to do), but it's fine, it'll have to do.

Third FO - in an attempt to finally get rid of the scatchy never-ending olive no-name yarn that I bought years ago on ebay I decided to crochet a basket. I made it extra large (so did more increases than demanded) but I managed to completely use up the yarn and even a little bit of leftover burgundy yarn. I'm using it to store the multitude of gaming paraphenalia the boys have  (cables, xbox controllers, headphones...). 

And guess what, yesterday was my birthday and this is what I got from D:

It's a full kit for the Yellow Queen Sweater!

I'm so excited to finally knit something that isn't from stash. I wound all that Cascade 220 into yarn cakes yesterday and I can't wait to cast on! 

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Knitting Wishlist...

We all have one, don't we? A list of patterns that we would love to try out and make. And a list of yarns to match it. 

Pretty high on my wishlist at the moment are those Icelandic sweaters with the lovely patterns around the yoke. I would love to make one, and look how pretty they all are.

The Yellow Queen Sweater

This one is highest on my list, and I just love the colour combination, but look at all the other pretties...

Afmæli

The Fluffy Feather Sweater

Vintersol

Birki

I love them all!! 

It's all so tempting, but I've promised myself that I wouldn't add more WIPs to my list before I've finished at least two of my current projects. 

I'm not on track...

Knitting and crocheting has been pretty slow recently, and if I continue at my current pace I may get to my pretty Icelandic sweater when I'm ready to retire. 

Old FO - my Casual Orange Jumper

I actually finished this jumper a little while ago but then never got round to blogging about it. 

It was one of my stash-busting projects and I pretty much used up every tiny scrap of this yarn to finish it. Originally I'd hoped that this would be a cowl, but cowls take a lot of yarn and I had only three skeins of Jaeger Shetland to work with. 

This is knitted bottom-up and when I got towards the neck I made a quick decision, scrapped the cowl, and went with a simple scooped raglan neckline instead. I had kept a bit of yarn aside for the sleeves and I basically knitted them bit by bit, together, so I could figure out how far the yarn would go. 

I'm actually pretty happy with this project - I've not worn it much yet because I finished it in July and it's been so hot since, but I'm anticipating getting quite a  bit of wear out of it this autumn and possibly even in winter if I layer it with a long-sleeved top. 

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A Year of Projects Update Post

I didn't upload anything last week, but hey, better every other week than never, right?

As usual, I'm finding it a little tricky to stick to a timetable. Will I ever learn? I'm in my mid-40s now so the chances that I'm going to completely change into an ultra-organised person are not so good I feel... But I have got better. I used to be notoriously late for everything, always apologising, always rushing, and my organisational skills have improved over the years. It's mainly down to having to balance kids and work I think...

Enough of that, though. Let's get to the main topic of this post - my Year of Projects update. I've not been terribly productive this past couple of weeks. Obviously I'm in Germany right now (though about to head to the airport), so there is that, but also, I suppose it's part of the whole summer holiday thing - the days stretch out and by now we are all thoroughly used to not doing very much at all (not D, though, he's back at work, poor thing). We get up late, have breakfast even later, tinker around the place, play a bit, perhaps see some friends, loll around on the sofa, and the boys have alternated between quite a bit of gaming but also quite a bit of biking. As I mentioned a few days ago, D has built a mini bike track in the back garden and boy #3 in particular has been going round and round on his little mountain bike.

I did get a few rows in on my mohair cowl, so I'm up to the armhole decreases now, and it's the only project I've brought with me to Germany so it's received at least a bit of attention. The yarn knits up pretty well, and considering how much this project has been carted around it also seems to wear fairly well.

Other than that, I've been thinking about projects rather than actually working on projects. I still have all this stash yarn, you see, and I think I've finally found a few projects that might work. Look at this, the Mohair Cowl Pullover. I think it will do really well for this yarn:

And this, the Grocery and Produce String Bag - I'd love to make a few, which will deplete my cotton stash a bit.

The Sunday Chunky Jumper might be just the ticket for the remainder of this rather scratchy bulky yarn that I still have lying around.

But then I also really fancy this Curvy Crochet Cowl? And I've never crocheted a jumper, so that makes it quite tempting too! Perhaps I have enough of this yarn left for it:

And what do you think of either the Frosting Pullover or Maria for this Fleece Artist single-spun mohair yarn?

I'm also contemplating another crochet blanket - perhaps another wavy one  - because of this:

I think there are just enough left-overs for a blanket - though I'm just as likely to run out at the crucial moment so I have to emergency-buy more yarn that I then have to use up in turn...

And there you go, I think you can see my problem. There are just too many potential projects! I'm obviously sticking with the blue Mohair Cowl that I'm working on right now because I want to see it finished in time to actually wear it in the autumn, but I think  I could perhaps add one more WIP to my current list - which one is it to be?!

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Holiday Update #3

Our holiday is slowly drawing to a close, so I thought another update was in order. 

After the heat wave broke a few days ago temperatures have been far more tolerable, with most days around 25 degrees, which, for me at least, is quite a nice temperature - enough to not be cold in shorts and a light shirt, even when in the shade, yet not so hot you don't know what to do with yourself. My stepmom sent me a message today, and apparently temperatures near Frankfurt have been around 39 degrees for a few days now. My folks are in Wiesbaden, which always has a pretty oppressive kind of heat in the summer because of it's strange situatedness between the Rhine on one side, and the mountainrange of the Taunus on the other, so weather tends to sort of get 'trapped' in there, and it  gets very humid and unpleasant. I'm feeling really sorry for them, especially as they had been planning to come and see us for about a week but then had to cancel because of an awkwardly scheduled op - having to recover in this heat must be particularly awful.

For us, the slightly lower temperatures have meant a lot more activity, which has been nice after the enforced inactivity. A few days ago we went to a mountain bike trail that D and boy #1, who both have a bad case of mountain bike obsession, had discovered. It was a 30 minute drive away but there was a nice cafe for grandma and me to set up camp while the boys enthusiastically pushed their bikes up the hill, rode down, and pushed them up again. I occasionally followed them up the trail to take some shots, and I have to say it looked pretty good fun. 

For lunch we took our sandwiches up the hill, where we found a huge climbing wall and a bizarre structure that none of us could quite make sense of. You may have seen a picture of it that I posted as part of my 100 of 10 series, but here are a few more shots.

I assume it might be some kind of viewing platform? There are stairs going up through the middle of the two large concrete disks, and there are additional more shallow steps going up the sides on top of the rubble. We didn't go up because it was quite a way and we had the bike and the picnic, but if it is a viewing platform, wouldn't the large concrete discs partially obscure the view!? I don't know... It  looked fun though - a bit like part of an alien space ship that got buried in the hill. 

The day after boy #1 needed to rest so we decided that we should have a calmer kind of a day. Boy #2 was determined to go to a 'boot camp' we had spotted not far from us, so we decided to have a look because there were benches where boy #1 would be able to rest should he need to, and it since it wasn't more than 5 minutes bike ride away and you pay for an hour only, it wouldn't be a big outing.

It was pretty good fun. If anyone has ever watched Ninja Warrior on TV, this is the kind of place that people who go on the programme might train. The guy who owned it (who wouldn't have looked out of place on Ninja Warriors himself) said he'd  built the entire course himself, and he proudly told us that it's the biggest boot camp in the Netherlands and that the Dutch team had come to train there. 

It was pretty easy-going. We paid and off we went. He didn't even stick around, just told us to pull the gate shut behind us when we were ready to leave. I have to say, I'm loving the lack of red tape and the much more easy-going attitude here...

The boys obviously honed in on the one really manky pool in there. Seriously, the water in that pond was absolutely rank, and they obviously did fall in - thankfully not head-first, though, and only up to their knees, but still... Showers were in order after we made it back!!

Yesterday we finally, FINALLY, made it to Amsterdam. I've never been (well, I might have been when I was 10 or 11, but I have no actual recollection of this so it doesn't count). I knew that due to boy #1's ME we wouldn't be able to do much, but just soaking up the atmosphere for a while was such fun. Our main pursuit was finding an art supply shop, carefully researched on the internet before the holiday, where the boys would be able to see and buy their much-coveted Copic Markers. These are very expensive alcohol-based markers for illustration, and boy #1 in particular loves them (though he so far only had one and a bunch of knock-off cheaper markers). This mission was achieved, as was a little wander around town, so everyone was happy, although, shock! horror! I didn't make it to the yarn shop I'd picked out, so no souvenir yarn!! This has never happened and it will likely take me a while to get over the shock. :) 

How cute is this entrance with the roses and that little gate?

Van Beek art supplies

How amazing is this train?! It's a double-decker? I'd never seen one like that!

I do miss big cities at times. It's not so much that I really need to live in a city anymore, I'm more than happy in our little village, but I sometimes need my big city fix. I guess it brings back memories of studying in Munich...  If we come back here next year I may plan in a little trip to Amsterdam just for myself so I can explore a little further. 

In knitting-related news, I've got as far as I can with my sun hat so I'm now working on my mohair cowl, which is growing quite nicely. 

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