February gloom...

... and what to do with it.

Recently Soule Mama posted a series of inspiring blog entries about how to deal with the February funk - her Winter Manifesto.

I loved reading the posts and it made me think about how I deal with this gloomiest of all the winter months. See, I'm not a winter person, and while I'm not averse to a bit of the fluffy white stuff, what I really hate is the dreary wetness of the UK winter. Somehow it's always worst in February, maybe because the holiday season is over, or because it's been winter for so long already and you find yourself longing for a bit of fresh growth, or maybe even because spring seems just round the corner - the days are getting longer, there is the odd balmy day that makes you think of spring... yet much as this month teases with it's close proximity to spring, there is still a lot of cold and wet to come and somehow that makes it even worse.

At the weekend we found ourselves with an unexpected half-day of free time and no particular idea of what to do, so D suggested going out into the garden. While I was initially reluctant ("but it's cold and wet out there..." *whine*) I let myself be persuaded and it turns out that you can have fun outside - even on a grey day in mid-February.

The Tick was asleep for most of this, but The Bean was excited to visit his friends the worms (fast asleep under a couple of logs in the garden) and then happily proceded to water our already completely waterlogged garden. I'm sure the weeds won't mind...


And lo and behold, amidst the dull greys and browns of the season I managed to spot some new green shoots - bluebells!


I know that spring is still a long way off, but it's good on the eyes to see a bit of colour at this time of year.

In knitting news - Unwrapped is coming along nicely - pictures to follow. I just hope it will fit... I'm still weary of the wonky gauge!

Destashing swap...

Shortly after Tick was born I took part in a swap on Ravelry. I hadn't done any swaps for a while and the concept appealed to me - it was a swap with the purpose of only using things you had anyway and to spend as little as possible (as a kind of counterbalance to the crazy spending that xmas usually gives rise to). At the same time the parcel was of course supposed to be filled with nice things - the idea being that you shouldn't give something to someone else that you wouldn't also be happy to receive yourself.

My swap partner was in Australia so we arranged to send our parcels surface mail and to accept that we would have to wait rather longer for them to arrive (the alternative was to spend far more on postage than on what was in the parcels). I dived deeply into my stash, filled a box with yarn, fabric, some knitting needles, a pattern and some sweets. Surprisingly my parcel arrived very quickly, making me think how crazy it is that I can send something to Australia using surface mail and it arrives within 3 weeks and send something to Germany using normal mail and it also arrives in 3 weeks. What's that about?!

Anyway, the parcel from Australia took rather longer. It arrived a few days ago and boy was it worth the wait!! This is what my partner sent:



Isn't that fabulous? I love the bold colours on the big skein of yarn - it's hand-dyed! There was pretty knitting, books, a sock pattern, a cute little book for The Bean, sweets, ... I can't list it all, there were so many things. Thank you so much sthrnx, you made my day!! :-)

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

We had snow on Monday - real, actual snow that lay on the ground in a poudery pristine white layer at least 4 inches deep. Anyone the least familiar with the UK climate will realise how unusual this is. Of course everything immediately broke down and the whole country round to a halt, but me? I was happy. Far happier than I normally am at the berginning of that dreary month of February, whrn the cold and damp has had ample time to creep into the bones, there are no more distractions in the shape of holidays, and spring is still a long way off. And Bean loved, loved, LOVED the snow. Despite the cold I could hardly get him into the house and even when it was time for bed he was asking to go outside to check on the snowmen we had built earlier.

There is something so magical in seeing a child enjoy the snow - for the first time, even, because although he has seen snow before there's never been enough of it do DO anything other than try to stay out of the slush that the cars had made. It's supposed to snow again on Friday and I so hope it does because Bean has not stopped talking about the snowmen and was quite upset to see that they'd melted when the weather turned, not 24 hours after that miraculous snow, to return to the usual UK fare this time of year - rain and temperatures just above freezing.


In other areas too, miraculous things have happend. I have cast on for a sweater. It's Unknit from Knotions and I'm using some Rowan DK Tweed that I bought on ebay a while back. My gauge, despite knitting 3 (!) swatches with different needle sizes, is off, and I've given up hope that this yarn, with any needle size I might try, would give me the gauge that is needed for this project. So I am winging it. I'm knitting the smallest size, which is actually winging it doubly because a) the width is the part of the gauge that is totally off (by about 2 cm) and b) right now my boobs are not really their usual (humble) size because I am feeding Tick. I am hoping that by knitting it in the 28 inch size I will end up with a garment that will fit me once I am not nursing Tick anymore. We'll see how that will work out...

For now I'm leaving you with another picture of Bean in Winter Wonder Land. :-)

FO!!!

Something amazing has happened - since my unravelling of the neverending sock I have started and completed another project.

The evening after the sock was gone I cast on for a horizontal stripes scarf. This was a little project of the Bean, who's been stealing my scarf for a few weeks now because he likes to 'wrap up warm' and hide away from the wind (he hates wind). I used three strands of yarn and big needles so this was a very quick knit. Even with Tick's evening feeding and cuddling routine it was done in two evenings. The yarn is some leftover merino that I still had lying around (even after Bean's baby blanket AND a stripey raglan sweater I made for him ages ago). There is still quite a bit let but the stash is finally diminishing.


The rag rug effect was unintentional but I quite like the chaotic hippy look of the scarf and Bean certainly hasn't complained and walked off to nursery (he goes there occasionally so I get some time with Tick) rather proudly this morning.

Photos are rather rushed (Bean refused to sit still for even a second this morning) and the scarf is unblocked).

Now on to the next project...

Sometimes...

... drastic measures are required.

R.I.P. never-ending sock!

Yesterday evening I decided that the sock needed to go. I love the yarn, I love the pattern, and the first sock was nearly finished, but I was just not happy with it. It was too tight, despite the fact that I had already tried to fix this problem by unravelling the sock partly and re-knitting the heel in a larger needle size, but the instep was still too narrow. I was also not particularly happy with the toe, which, should I knit this pattern again, I would make longer. It's something about the weird shape of my feet that makes them look all wrong when the toe is too short.

That said, I LOVE the heel design on this sock. To the extent that I think this will become MY heel. I'd be quite happy to substitute any heel on any sock pattern with this one - it's neat, it's sturdy, and it's not too fiddly. And I do love the whole idea of this sock - it's simple and pretty, and cables are so satisfying to knit.

But despite all this the sock needed to go. It's always a bit heartbreaking to unravel a project, in particular one that you've been working on for so long, but it's also quite liberating. And it means that I am now free to pick one of the projects on my list to make a fresh start. :-)

I'm longing to...

... knit.

These days I find myself daydreaming about knitting... planning elaborate knitting projects in the wee hours of the morning when Tick wants to feed yet again. .. snatching minutes to finger yarn earmarked for projects that may or may not come to fruition in the foreseeable future... and furtively knitting the odd half-row on my never-ending sock - the one started before Tick was born (and no, I'm nowhere near starting sock #2) - when the Bean is watching The Night Garden before going up for his bath and bed.

I have two projects on the needles right now.: The never-ending sock, which, to my defense, I had to unravel partly because it was far too tight for my fat ankles, and a heavily altered version of Knitty's Satchel Bag, intended to become a knitted (and lined) nappy bag big enough to fit all of Beans and Ticks STUFF. But I have so many plans - especially at night, when it's quiet and Tick is sleepily feeding, I sit in the half-light of my dimmed bedside lamp and think of all those projects.

I want to knit a belted cardigan like this one HERE.

And I want to knit a funky scarf for The Bean (he keeps on "borrowing" mine), possibly made from left-over yarn and using two strands at the same time so I can blend colours. I might knit it sideways.

I'd like to make Tick another couple of cardigans.

I want to knit a few cardigans for myself. Like THIS ONE or THIS ONE here.

I want to design a jumper using some light blue mohair yarn that I bought ages ago. I know exactly how it should look but obviously haven't got round to working on it.


The reality of the situation is that in the next few months I probably won't get around to much knitting because during the day I'm more likely to be involved in activities that feature the items in the picture above and in the evening when The Bean is snoozing peacefully Tick seems to wake up and want a lot of holding. I'm guessing he is catching up on all those cuddles that he is missing out on during the day when his big brother demands most of my attention. Maybe there will be more time once we get Tick into some kind of bed-time routine but right now he goes to bed when we do - which isn't very late either. ;-)

I guess for now I need to console myself with fondling yarn, looking through my pattern collection, snatching the odd minute to work on the sock, and dreaming of all those projects that may or may not happen...

Just a heads up...

... to say that I have more yarn listed on Ebay here: http://shop.ebay.co.uk/merchant/cov-kipper in case anyone is looking to expand their stash. I'm getting through my unused yarns and it actually feels quite good to let go of some of it. There is still plenty, no danger of my stash approaching anything that looks reasonable, but if I at least have a project in mind for it, no matter if that is 10 years away, I don't mind holding on to yarn.

Anyway, sorry for the lazy update - I promise that there is more to come but I have The Bean at home all day for the rest of the week and he's decided that sleep during the day is for the weak. This translates into no time to update the blog (or eat, or do the laundry, or hoover, or tidy up, or... you get the picture! ;-) )

That picture is a fairly accurate depiction of how I feel right now - a bit chaotic and untidy, and a bit blurry and out of focus... Christmas takes its toll, with the excessive eating and the excessive visiting and meeting people, and the excessive presents. We had a policy of not giving excessive gifts this year - after all, The Bean doesn't need another room full of toys and Tick doesn't really need anything other than mommy milk right now ;-) - but somehow we seem to have neglected to tell other people. The result can be seen above...

We had a lovely time, though - relaxed and fun, if a bit chaotic.

New Year is shaping up to be a much more quiet affair. I have managed to catch the flu that has been going round, so I've spent the last two days in bed, only feeding Tick when he demanded it, while D has been entertaining The Bean (they are out in town right now, buying a new mobile phone I think...). We hadn't planned to do much for New Year anyway, but the way it is looking now the evening might be over by 9.30pm! Oh well...

In any case, I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and I wish you all the best for the New Year!

x

Decluttering...

I think if I will have one New Year Resolution this time it will be to get rid of some of the clutter in our home. Honestly, the clutter, it knows no bounds.

Yesterday I went through a few bags full of yarn that I accidentally stumbled across when I was trying to stuff something else into an already over-full closet and I made a radical decision - I want some of my stash to go.

I'm fine with having a lof of yarn and I love looking and petting all the pretty skeins and thinking about all those future projects, but then there are also purchases that either I don't like anymore or that I can't for the life of me assign to a project and some of it should find a new owner. I am thinking of listing it all on ebay (and in the case of the random bag of odds and ends I have already done so - link is here), but I thought I'd offer it up here first, in case someone is interested.

Here we go:

Two balls of Patons Washed Haze. £2.50 plus postage.


2 balls o Kool Kotton in a light beige / linen colour. £2 plus postage.

4 balls of 4 Seasons yarn. This is very similar to Rowan All Seasons Cotton (although not as expensive as that!). £4.00 plus postage.

One big ball of Opal Sock yarn. £3.00 plus postage

2 balls of Wolle Roedel Ronda yarn. £3 plus postage.

Huge mountain of odds and ends (there are a few more that I forgot to include in the photograph. This has been listed on ebay here.


Two bags of fibre. This is Welsh mountain and Swaledale, so it's not particularly soft. Would be good to practice with. I would let this go for just cost of postage.

Last but not least, this selection of mini skeins from the Natural Dye Studio. Please note that these are not regular size skeins but mini-skeins. I bought this as a selection to try some Fair Isle but I is it really ever going to happen? Probably not in the next 10 years, so I might as well get rid of it. £4.50 plus postage.

Comment or send me an email if you are interested. Otherwise this will just go on ebay because I really REALLY need some space in my cupboards!!

More to come.

He's here...

Sorry for the silence - it's the New Baby craziness that has taken hold of us here.

Tick arrived on the 13th November - two days before his due date - after only 6 hours of active labour and only 1.5 hours after we got to the hospital. In fact, the midwife nearly missed it. She'd gone out to get a nurse and when she came back in she just about managed to catch him!!

I'll be back more regularly in a few weeks time I think, once things have settled down a bit. For now I am sitting back, basking in the New Baby glow, and trying to juggle a very proud but also quite confused little Bean and a little Tick who, in the way babies tend to, has his days and nights mixed up and likes to sleep like an angel during the day and feed like a little fiend all night. Right now all is well with my world.

So until I return to more regular broadcasting, hope you are all finding some enjoyment and some quiet, peaceful time in the often frantic uprun to Christmas.

x