Lana Grossa Meilenweit Cotton Fun Socks FO

Just finished these off for DH this morning, they were a pretty quick knit on 2.5mm needles with 60 stitches. Didn't use a pattern, just my normal dull sock method. I've decided that my next pair will be for me from some of my Sock Candy collection, I am going to try and really simple pattern just to give it some texture but make it easy enough that I don't really have to think about what I'm doing.

I need to weigh the yarn I have left from these to compare it to the ball that DH is using to make Little One some socks. I think by the look of it DH should be able to get a pair of toddler socks out of this ball and I should be able to knit a pair of socks for him out of the ball he's using, never thought I'd be sharing yarn with my DH!

I ripped out the Anastasia socks this morning, I had only done the toe and about half an inch of the pattern. I just don't feel like using charts and having to count on socks at the moment. I do need to knit the second of the socks I'm designing from Fixation. They first one looks great and I'm just being lazy not bothering to get on with the second one!

Made some more progress on Licorice Whip, I know I keep saying that I will finish this but I now feel like I can do it, I've done almost 5 repeats out of the 15 sleeve decreases needed so it feels like I'm getting somewhere. As long as I keep picking it up and doing a few rows here and there I should get it done soon.

I cut out a maternity shirt yesterday, will get on with some sewing of that this afternoon while Little One is at school. I'm feeling motivated again to get on with things. I had a burst of motivation about a month ago and sorted out all the baby stuff and have since stopped dead in my tracks and done hardly anything so it feels nice to want to get things done again.

Poo Pockets Nappies FO

Finished these off the other day, I made 6 in total, 2 of each patterned flannel.




These were made completely from leftover bits from my stash so I'm pretty pleased with them! The bodies are 2 layers of killington flannel (ok, not actually a leftover as I have some yardage of this, but I've had it forever so nice to use some of it up!) and 1 layer of patterned flannel. The soakers are cotton french terry or hemp fleece. I will add some aplix (velcro) to them once they baby is big enough not to need the fronts folded down to fit. We have some aplix wraps which will hold the nappies in place without pins/snaps/aplix so they should work just fine. These are really really soft nappies but I'm wondering how well the flannel will wash at 60 degrees, I think they will look pretty old pretty soon but as they were basically 'free' besides the pattern and the time I'm not too worried. I just wish the pattern had a more appealing name...

So, I did my mending and sorted through some projects that I have out and about and cut out the pattern for the next maternity shirt I'm going to make, just need to cut the fabric and get going on it now. I am a little concerned as it's a kimono sleeve shirt and I don't know if the front top bodice is going to be long enough, but I'm hoping that with the band below it that it won't cut right across my chest. On my body my chest sits quite high (not all pert and alert, just high lol) but compared to standard patterns it seems to be lower than 'normal' and I've yet to figure out how to make adjustments to compensate for it, one day I'll get it sorted. I must get the rest of these maternity garments made and out of the way so I can get on with other stuff that's less pressing but more interesting! The bump has grown now so that I need really quite long maternity tops to cover the panel on the front of my trousers and I've not got many that do the job!

The knitting is crawling along, almost at the toe of DH's sock and have actually done a few more repeats on that Licorice Whip sleeve, it'll get done one day!

WIP Tracker

It looks like the WIP tracker that I've been using has had the pictures removed from the server. I have tried and failed in the past to save the pictures in my own space and link to them so it looks like I'm in the market for another tracker.

Can anyone recommend a free and easy to use tracker to me please?

Finished the first sleeve of Martha and actually did 5 rows on the Licorice Whip sleeve yesterday, hopefully will manage a few more today. Besides that not a lot of knitting, I'm finding that when I sit down to watch tv at night I'm just too tired to do anything but veg out.

Moving Slowly

I'm still here, just returned from a lovely busy few days with my parents over Easter, we totally tired Little One out, he slept until 10.15am the day after we got back!

The apron was a hit with my Mother, although I should have made her the small size rather than medium as the pattern sizing suggested, be warned if you want to use this pattern, it comes up really big. I'm sure she'll use it, baggy or not, so that's good.

I've not been sewing at all for a while now, I still have the nappies (short for napkins which used to be the British term for diapers in case you're wondering. Where does the word diaper derive from anyway???) I'm making cut out and have done a small bit of work on the but nothing significant. Hopefully once I get an hour or so in there they will come along fast. The knitting is pretty slow as well, I've not picked up Martha for over a week now, just been working on the second of the current socks for DH. I did pick up the stitches for Licorice Whip's second sleeve but only made 2 rows before putting it down again. We've finished series 4 of 24 now so perhaps I will give knitting that sleeve a go during season 5 which is on it's way to us now.

I want to start a petition for pregnancy to only last 6 months. 9 months just seems like overkill to me, 6 is far more reasonable I believe (says the woman who's 5 months pregnant...). I've got almost everything ready for the baby now, mainly because I had most of it already and only had a small bit of shopping to get done. All I need to buy now are mattresses for the cot and crib and a bouncy baby chair. Sure there's sewing that I'd like to do but that's all 3-6 month sizes as I have 2 drawers full of 0-3 so there's not much point sewing any more in that size range. The baby is doing well, the heart scan went fine and we have just about decided on a name now I think, one that we'd never even discussed before, I just have to use it for a week or so and see if it sticks or not.

Little One is off school this week so not much will be achieved besides some knitting, he doesn't nap now so I can't nip off for a bit of sewing. I'm feeling very tired at the moment as well which isn't helping things, I wish I had more energy and patience to do things with him, but he seems happy enough so I'm trying not to stress over it. I tell myself that he rushes about enough at nursery so a week of sitting about reading, watching tv and playing with whatever is to hand is good for him.

Sorry the blog is so dull at the moment, hopefully I will get some energy from somewhere soon and get things done. I achieved a huge amount of baby preparation a few weeks back, the nesting should kick in again in the next few weeks I'm sure!

Christmas In April

I decided to give up on the bag that I was supposed to make my Mother for Christmas but flaked out on and make her something else. The pattern itself wasn't hard except for one set of instructions which I could just not make sense of, making small tucks/darts in each of the pockets. Unfortunately this was a really important step (lots of pockets, some with multiple darts) and impacted on almost all the pieces of the bag. Even after thinking on it for a few months I just could not get my head around how it was supposed to work.

So, I took the fabric that I was going to use to line the bag and made her this instead:





It's Simplicity 5201 from some lovely vegetable fabric that I bought at Abakhan many moons ago. I love this fabric so much that after using all but a few scraps up on this project I went to Abakhan yesterday and purchased another 3 yards of it for myself! My Mother is about five inches shorter than me and many many dress sizes smaller so this apron won't be as fitted on her, I made the medium size. If you make this and intend to make a larger size please make yourself more binding that the pattern gives you. I used all but about 12 inches on the medium size so I just don't see how it will be enough for the large or extra large sizes and it would be a real pain to get almost around the apron (it's bound all in one go, quite amazing really!) and find you've run out. My binding is actually a different shade than the main fabric, I bought 2 pieces of this fabric and didn't realise until cutting this out that 1 had a blue background and the other was more turquoise, but it seems to look ok so I'm not worried.

Making the binding was the hardest bit of this project. You have to cut a load of strips, connect them together, iron quarter of an inch in on each side of the huge long strip you've made and then iron it in half. The tops of the pockets are bound as well as the entire edge of the apron. I'm pretty pleased with my binding job, especially as I did it kind of by the seat of my pants and didn't pin it at all, just tucked in the fabric as I went and kept stitching. Making the binding also took the longest amount of time, everything else was pretty speedy and enjoyable.

Also from Abakhan yesterday I got some lovely cottons and some synthetic stretch knits as well as a zip for a maternity dress I'm intending to make soon and some black dye to dye the ribbing for the front of the maternity trousers I want to make as well. Next on the sewing table though are some cloth diapers, I cut out some bits yesterday to make 6 of them using up both stash fabrics and leftover scraps that I'd saved. I've not used this pattern before so it will be interesting to see how they come out, hopefully it won't be too dull or confusing as I'm going to be making 6 of them!

I am almost at the end of the first sleeve for Martha and chugging along nicely until the weekend when I didn't pick it up at all. I finished the first of DH's current socks though so I did make some progress on something. Still not pulled Licorice Whip out of the bag, I do fully intend to get that done soon though, it's bugging me that I'm so close to finishing. I know why I'm stalled, it's because I won't get to wear it for a long time yet, but I may as well get it knit and done rather than having it hanging over my head and ending up disliking it for making me feel so bad!