Thursday, August 30, 2007

With thanks to Ms Zimmermann...




See this smile on my face?
See this grin that's so incredibly large it almost cuts my head in two?


Well, okay, no you can't, but if you could you'd see that I've been so deliriously happy today because, just two weeks on from launching my 'knit anything stash attack', I've completed Ben's stripey pullover, with ne'er a pattern in sight - all thanks to Elizabeth Zimmermann's percentage system (handily summed-up in this Knitting By Numbers article from Knitty.com).

To the more seasoned knitter among you this stripey stocking-stitch jumper, knitted in-the-round, is a bit run of the mill, ergo - no major feat. But, like I said, its the first time I've used the percentage system (love it) and I'm over the moon that:

1) I managed to knit something despite my 'two under two' devouring every morsel of my knitting time; and

2) I used up seven balls of stash (Patons Fireside) which was actually on its way to the op shop, as I'd bought it to make a baby blanket which I never quite managed to complete. (Or start, actually).

The only duffer side to this celebration is the fact that today was about 25 degrees C, so I could only force Ben to run around in it at dawn, in the wee hours of the morning. (Spring has obviously arrived with gusto, so he will probably never wear this completely-wintery pullover again. Ever.)
Yet not even this can bring me down. This sweater symbolises a lot to me. Its completion represents the closing of a chapter. We've turned a corner: Lachie is well and settled (at last), we're sleeping (not a lot, but we're sleeping) and Spring has sprung ...

Onwards, my friends, onwards ...

Friday, August 17, 2007

Four skeins and a baptism...


Two things to report on this week:

1) Lachie was baptised on Saturday, in a simple, warm and friendly ceremony at St Peter's Eastern Hill. He now has two sets of fairy God parents, and if they're reading this they should know that they've signed up to a lifetime of babysitting. Or God will be very angry...

Lachie giggled throughout the entire ceremony, which Emma (one of the aformentioned God mums) thought was entirely unfair as she was under strict instructions not to laugh (or cross her fingers or any of that stuff). Anyway, she gave birth two days later, without much fuss, to Finn (who is gorgeous) so she was justly rewarded for her piety.
Huge thanks to Father Craig. You rock.

2) I'm launching a stash attack.
In a bid to knit anything (given that Lachie and Ben can hear the sounds of needles clicking from the next suburb and use it as a cue to howl) I realised I needed to spend less time thinking of what to knit (as I have no time to think) and more time actually knitting . So, as a quick remedy, I've cast on a really simple striped pullover (for Ben), on circs, to use up some odd skeins of 8ply (with a matching gauge) in my stash.
Where I've written 'really simple' here , I probably mean 'really boring' - y'know, it's stocking stitch and the hardest part of it is counting eight rows per stripe. Taxing stuff. But, heck, I'm knitting. And I've managed six inches into the body already. So hurrah. And all that...
Pics later this week.

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Outed

I outed my Simple Knitted Bodice last night - at my first SnB meet, of all places. I personally think this was extremely brave, given the stretchy, would-fit-a-sumo nature of the finished product. Aww, who am I kidding? I wore it because I could find nothing else that fit over my post pregnancy body. I've gone up a dress size and you'd think, almost two months on, I might be approaching normal?

Nope.

Anyway (says she, trying to be a little less self, er, focused) the North Melbourne meeting was great. Many thanks to Tam, Jacqui and Rebecca. My Mum (who is visiting from the UK and lapping up her grandkids) came along too and loved it.
Back in Blighty, Mum has a jumper on the needles - where it's been for eighteen years. I remember her starting it - a rather intricate thing with lots of lace. Anyway, her arthritis took hold so she had to give up knitting and now paints (brilliantly).

Off the needles: My first pair of socks, which I finished at the meet last night. Okay, so they were done on 5mm needles with extremely bulky yarn and I won't wear them anywhere but at home. But, darn it, I'm proud. Pics to come.

Thursday, August 02, 2007

End of an era

Well. It's finished. 'Tsover. An era has ended, on two counts:

1) Bracksy and Thwaitesy resigned. For anyone not in Australia, this means that Victoria's Premier (Steve Bracks) and Deputy Premier (John Thwaites) have hung up their hats as State leaders. And very nice hats they were.

I am unexpectedly sad at this news, especially as I've had quite a bit to do with Thwaitesy over the last five years, most recently in his role as Water Minister, and I have to say that he seems quite a decent bloke (for a poli). I'll miss him. Sort of. Oh this is freakin' me out.

2) The Simple Knitted Bodice is finished.
And it will never see the light of day.
This is the jumper that has taken me three months to knit - the body lace finished on Mothers Day when I was in the maternity hospital possibly 'losing' Lachie, the right sleeve completed at the Royal Children's Hospital as Lachie underwent surgery at two weeks old, the left arm completed this week, at home, as we nursed Ben and Lachie through one of the worst colds I've come across (and I'm a Pom so that's saying something).
I was wondering how I'd ever wear this jumper, given the memories associated with it - but seems that is no longer a quandry.
Despite my meticulous calculations, and the fact that I swatched, measured and swatched again, it's just toooo big.
As the project was knit 'in the round' I didn't have any sewing up to do (hurrah) but as I wove in all the loose ends last night and tried on the bodice - I realised that it would fit a woman two sizes larger than me. Or a weight lifter with very muscly arms.
This could be for two reasons:
a) I was seven months pregnant when I started it.
b) I was eight months pregnant and / or extremely emotional while I was knitting it.
c) It's just a rather generously sized pattern (and I'm going with this one as I've found at least four other Simple Knitted Bodice knitters on the net who have had the same problem).
Anyway, I'm going to 'gift it" to my Mum (if she'll have it) and knit up another one in a smaller gauge to see if it makes the foggiest bit of difference.
Perhaps. If I ever recover from the first one...