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.

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...