Frogging Results

The Celandine vest is now completed, with contrast trim around the neckline and armbands. I really like the way it turned out. I snapped it here before it was washed and blocked, and I shall probably wear it to work tomorrow:

And the textured baby jacket has now become a textured baby cardigan with a twist instead of miles of knitting:

Frogging Along

There's been lots of frogging at Chez Melody this week. Not only did I run out of grey yarn to finish my Celandine vest with only one armhole band to complete and had to frog the neckline trim and the one completed armband, but I also decided that I didn't want to knit seemingly miles of textured fabric to produce one small baby jacket.

I had some black country Style DK in my stash which is destined to become an Action Man hoodie for youngest son Danny, so on the advice from the members at the Crafty Threads 'n' Yarns forum I knitted the neckline and armbands in the contrast colour on the vest. It's looking pretty good with the contrast trim, and it will now be completed instead of languishing with a tidgy bit to finish and no more yarn!

I frogged the textured baby jacket in favour of a little cardigan with cabled twists. It might be knitted now instead of staying firmly shut away in the cupboard.

I've also been doing some very important stuff for me this week, but it's not knitting related. Maybe I'll tell you about that in a couple of weeks or so *wink*

Knit, Knit, Knit Like the Wind

I’m knitting like the wind at the moment ~ I have a smidge of yarn left to finish off my Louisa Harding ‘Celandine’ vest that I decided to knit in Sirdar Country Style DK instead of Kimono DK as I’m using yarn from stash.
I have to complete the shoulder and neck shaping on the second side of the neck and knit up around the neck and armholes. Will I have enough yarn to finish??

And it's really cold here today ~ brrrrrr!!

Another Baby Jacket

Yet another one of my friends is expecting a baby (in mid-February), and so out came the knitting needles again to knit the expected newborn something to wear whilst they are teeny and the weather is chilly.

I asked my friend whether she would prefer lemon or white, as she doesn't know the newborn's gender as yet. She replied that she'd like lemon, but added that she'd also like mint. As I had some very pale mint baby yarn in my baby yarn stash I cast on straight away for a little baby jacket with a collar, in a lovely textured stitch pattern which I think is suitable for either a boy or a girl:




It's lovely to knit, except at 42 rows to 10cm using double knitting yarn, there's a heck of a lot of knitting to do in such a tiny garment :-o

When I went to visit my knitting friend Wendy on Wednesday, she showed me how to crochet a square blanket. Here is my progress so far:

Progress Pics

Just a few pics to show you my knitting progress this week:

The Ocean sock, almost up to the toe on the first sock. I'm lovin' this Sockamonth Challenge, although some people have finished their first pair already!!



And my new project that I cast on yesterday for the ‘Arsenic and Old Lace' knitalong on the crafty threads 'n' yarns forum. A lacy sweater in dark red Sirdar Mohair that I dug out of my capacious stash. I'm knitting this to the tune of this Sirdar Blur mohair pattern:



In all a good week's knitting methinks, since I was back at work on Wednesday, and there were new children in the setting after the Christmas break

Oh dear, oh dear! What a plumbing disaster we had yesterday!

When John was getting boys out of the shower before bedtime, I heard a shout "Deb, I need you" The shower just wouldn't turn off and there was water gushing out of the shower head. Hot water at that. We had to turn off the water at the stopcock to stop the shower, but it meant that we had no running water at all. It was a nightmare! We couldn't flush toilets, we couldn't wash our hands, we couldn't do any dishes, nothing. Nicht. Nada. Nowt. I had to ring an emergency plumber this morning to come out to the problem, which took a whole 15 minutes to fix. How people manage without running water is beyond me, and even more so clean water. So let's not forget those people who don't even have clean, parasite-free water in which to bathe and to drink, let alone to use their bloody dishwashers and washing machines.

Okay, on with knitterly stuff. My sock progress for the Sockamonth Challenge was severely hindered last night due to my stopcock duties *roll*, and my progress thus far is this:



I'm about two thirds of the way down the cuff. I'm knitting a sock for my seven year old son on DPNs (I've given up with the bloomin' two circulars method for now) in a lovely yarn Four Seasons Hot Socks. Matthew chose the colours because they reminded him of the ocean, so they will officially be known as the ‘Ocean Socks', and rather aptly too, I feel, after last night's fiasco with water *rolls eyes again*

And progress has been made on the milk chocolate merino cardigan. After washing and blocking, and then steam pressing, the front and back of the cardigan look like this, you can just about see the sleeves blocking in the same photo:



It actually looks like I picked up the right number of stitches on the front bands now, instead of looking like I picked up too few and the cardigan fronts looking runkled up. That's because I knitted the cardigan to the tension I had after washing and steam pressing, rather than before the blocking treatment. Sneaky huh?

New Year, New Projects

Yay! I managed to finish two projects before the end of 2006, and here they are fresh off the needles. I finished the milk chocolate merino cardigan for my Mum and the Opal Magic socks for my Dad. Both projects need to be blocked and the cardigan needs to be pressed before handing them over to the recipients:

I'll be trying my best to knit twelve pairs of socks in 2007 for the Crafty Threads ‘n' Yarns Sockamonth Challenge, as detailed here: crafty threads 'n' yarns forum
This is what I want to start tomorrow for the January knit-off, a pair of socks for my oldest son in Four Seasons Hot Socks on two circular needles. I've only knitted socks on DPNs before, so I'm knitting smaller than average socks to try out a new technique. There are prizes to be won each month; Natalie of the The Yarn Yard and Terri, the moderator on the Crafty Yarns 'n' Threads forum, are donating prizes each month and at the end of the Sockamonth Challenge next December

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Merry Christmas and a Happy and Peaceful New Year to You All

Diamond Wristwarmers

Yay! My diamond wristwarmers are complete:






I've really enjoyed knitting these ~ quick and easy on DPNs and very little finishing to do; I'd like to knit them again using Artesano Alpaca sometime in the New Year, maybe in a rich plum colour.

A quick current WIPs count reveals that I have finished three out of ten WIPs this week, those being the Big Wave scarf, a hat for Dan and my wristwarmers. The next two WIPs to finish have got to be the dreaded millstone socks for Dad and the bands of the merino cardigan for Mum.
I had to completely re-knit the back of the cardigan as I decided to undo the ribbing at the bottom and knit it downwards instead to counteract the flipping outwards. It was only after I'd started to unpick the welt that I remembered (too late) that ribbing can't be undone from the bottom up :-?

Six Weird Things About Me....

Terri tagged me good and proper, so here we have six weird things about me; some of them are not that weird to be honest, but here goes:

1 ~ at a children’s party, I’m more likely to be found with the kids than with the grown-ups

2 ~ I have a Bsc Special honours degree in Genetics and Microbiology from the University of Sheffield (yes, really!)

3 ~ I’m actually quite supple and can sit cross-legged on the floor with the kids at pre-school, although I don’t have double-joined elbows!!

4 ~ not really that weird, but I usually wear contact lenses and refuse to wear my specs

5 ~ I prefer to write with a sleek fountain pen and ink than a biro, not that I get to do that very often in my job

6 ~ I can’t read a map to save my life

Now then, six people to tag with the same question... who shall I choose? I'll get back to you on that one when I've finished my brekkie.....

Stash Reduction Time!

Okay, I have things to sell, so I might as well see if anyone-who-reads-my-blog wants any of these knitterly items fresh from my yarn stash:

11 x 50g balls of Rowan all Seasons Cotton in shade Slick. Ten balls in an unopened pack and the other ball loose but unused. £20.00 for the pack including First Class postage to the UK:



10 x 50g balls of Sirdar Country Style 4 ply. Unopened packs of cream, denim blue, and navy up for grabs, one full pack of each. £9.00 per pack including First Class postage to the UK:






All my yarns are stored in a pet free environemt and we are a non-smoking household. You are welcome to drop me an email at melody.yarns@tesco.net if you're interested in any of the above yarns, or want to ask any questions *big smile*

I am also offering these yarns for sale in the Craft Market section on the Crafty Threads ‘n' Yarns forum (<-------- link to the right on my sidebar) so it's a first come first served basis for the yarns and the first person to say they want the yarn has first choice on it.

Busy and Browsing

I was browsing through the Jaeger cotton booklets the other day and was thinking how lovely it would be to knit a few of the designs in Trinity DK. Then lo and behold, through the Crafty Threads ‘n' Yarns forum I find that Janette's Rare Yarns has Trinity DK on special offer in her eBay shop. How's a girl to resist when fate plays a part?

If it's possible I've been even busier this week than I was last week having gone to several evening meetings, children's paties, just generally been out of the house or just plain busy with work admin. I have managed to cast on for the first sleeve of my Grace project, and it seems to be knitting up beautifully again. I have made adjustments to the frequency of increases due to my difference in tension (albeit slight), but at least I will get all the increases in before I get to the sleeve head shaping this way.

I've been so tempted to start knitting a project in Patons Cotton DK thanks to the Jaeger cotton booklets, so I chose four designs that I wanted to knit and asked the boys for their votes on which one they prefer. So far, no-one has voted for the same one, but then there are only three boys :? I'll just pick a colour and start one I think.

Eta: I cast on for the V neck version of the fitted sweater from Louisa Harding's Modern classics book last night. I'm knitting it in variegated lilac Wendy Supreme Cotton DK and it's working up a treat. I must get some of my old WIPs finished though. Maybe I should make that a New Year resolution... hmmmm.

Busy, Busy, Busy

This week has been an extremely busy week, and there has been very little knitting time unfortunately. Last weekend was my turn to plan for the forthcoming two weeks at preschool , so I was busy with that; I somehow managed to plan myself to spend the whole week making gingerbread biscuits with 30-odd preschoolers....

I helped with cookery club and helped in class 1 at the local primary school on Wednesday morning and lunchtime, then went to have my hair trimmed in the afternoon. Thursday morning saw me at work again, and then in the afternoon I was back in class 1 helping with a sewing project for Christmas. With all this sewing and cooking I sound like a Domestic Goddess don't I? :-? On Friday it was work in the morning again, and then I took my oldest son and two of his classmates to a Cross Country meeting against other small local schools; Matt did very well and finished half way down the field, so I was a very proud mummy considering that he's probably one of the youngest runners for his academic year.

This weekend I have been catching up with all the inevitable washing, ironing, food shopping, cooking and bathroom cleaning that I haven't had time for this week - oooh and I made a fancy dress costume for a friend's son yesterday. It's amazing what you can make out of a piece of black fabric!!

I have to write end of term reports this weekend and ensure that everything is up-to-date for the children in my Key worker group who are moving onto primary school after Christmas - I'll be doing that this evening no doubt.

So in all, there has been little or no progress with my current WIPs this week, but I've done a bit more on the teacher's Big Wave scarf that I promised to show last time then didn't. I did however, start a mini project that is quick and easy to do and this is one of a pair ~ the Diamond fingerless mitts, or handwarmers, by Ruth of KnittingBloggyBlog ~ and my progress on the Big Wave scarf in Sublime Merino DK:




Ruth's pattern for the Diamond Handwarmers is here

I'm knitting them in Patons Diploma Gold DK in a gorgeous denim blue colour, and they are knitting up nicely. The pattern is extremely well written, and the finished mitt is a superb fit. The only problem is that I can see myself wanting more of these mitts, and one ball of Diploma will be enough for one pair. A little while ago, as I was clearing more yarn stash out, I eBayed just one solitary ball of Jaeger Matchmaker Merino DK in black and sold it for 99p. I'm regretting that now, as it would have made a fab pair of Diamond fingerless mitts :(

Lastly, a quick peek at what the postie brought me from Stash Fine Yarns this week:



Quite honestly, the Jaeger Natural Fleece was something I've wanted for ages and in this colourway (Bordeaux), and at 3 for the price of 2 I'd have been silly not to buy it, wouldn't I? The 'Modern Classics' book by Louisa Harding is so wonderful that I've read it from cover to cover every day since it arrived I think. There are some gorgeous designs in it and there are only around three that I wouldn't knit for myself. An excellent bargain considering the price of individual knitting patterns these days.

Catching Up

Oh dear. Well I managed to break my Stashalong for November when I bought some luscious yarns from my LYS last Saturday. I just couldn’t resist buying a pack of Sublime Meino DK in Redcurrant and a pack of Sublime Kid Mohair in Smoke Blue. I've been thinking about buying some of this yarn for a while to be honest, and actually seeing and feeling it in the shop tipped me over the edge. I also bought three balls each of Sublime Merino DK in Grape and Alabaster to knit Christmas presents for the two Class 1 teachers at my son’s primary school, which is what I went into the yarn shop to buy in the first place! I originally bought the Pistachio colour in the Kid Mohair, but decided that the colour was too pale and just wasn't me. The owner of the shop was very kind in letting me exchange it for the Smoke Blue - thanks Gwyn!

The Sublime Merino DK is gorgeous to knit with and is beautifully soft and squidgy, but it’s loosely twisted so I have to be careful knitting with it or it splits slightly. This is the progress so far on one scarf:

The Sublime Merino book says that the scarf can be knitted over a weekend, but does that mean 48 hours straight knitting without going to bed? I've almost knitted the first ball of the first scarf, so I should be finished in time for the end of term.

I also bought the new Louisa Harding book "Modern Classics" this morning from Stash Fine Yarns. I can’t wait for it to arrive as I’ve had a quick squizz here and the designs look exactly the type I love - classic pieces with timeless appeal. I’m so excited, I can’t wait for it to arrive!!

New Beginnings

A new era has dawned for both myself and Jacquie from Jacquie’s Journal. We launched our new message forum for crafters of all types on 5th November 2006, and the forum is so new that we are still within the first twenty-four hours of its launch as I write this. It’s an exciting time for both Jacquie and myself, and we are both excited to have got the forum off the ground so quickly. Our special thanks go to Paula for giving us the chance to make this happen. Thank you Paula.

It’s a forum where people who enjoy different crafts are invited to come and chat about knitting, crochet, embroidery, paper crafts, dressmaking, tailoring, cross stitch, tapestry, jewellery making, weaving, spinning, and ... the list is endless!
Why not come and see for yourself - we are at:

crafty threads 'n' yarns forum

and we’d love to hear from you!

Ooops!!

Ooops! I tripped while I was going up the stairs on Friday evening and fell awkwardly onto my left wrist. Result - one wrist in a splint for a week. I haven't tried knitting yet, but it hurts to move it so I don't think there will be much progress on any WIPs this week :(
I'm not supposed to go into work either, but we'll have to see about that tomorrow...



Now if someone who works in the medical profession could just send me an NHS splint for my right hand, I'd have a lovely matching pair of NHS issue, velcro wristwarmers for winter *wink*

Did Someone Say Story Sacks?

I'd never made a story sack in my life until a couple of weeks ago. Now the preschool where I work has asked me to make some story sacks for them too, and some PE bags for the children who are leaving to go to school at Christmas, as presents from preschool. I'll have them down to a fine art soon! I brought a sack of fabric home from work last Friday, and have already spotted some fabric that I can use for the gym bags, and some plain white fabric to stitch onto the bags as small panels so that we can ‘write' the children's names on the individual bags. I'll be going into production at this rate!

Anywhoodle - knitterly stuff:

I managed to complete the fusion knit jacket last weekend, and sat and knitted the last bit of the collar in bed last Sunday morning. Well, it has been half term this week!


And the body pieces of the machine knitted merino cardigan for Mum are done too. I only have to knit the ribbing and bands on and that becomes a TFO as well. I have decided to frog the ribbing on the back of the cardigan as it flips outwards and I think it's due to handknitting the ribbing first, increasing stitches in the last row and then hanging the stitches onto the machine needles, so I'll frog it back and knit it downwards. That should work. And I'll finish the rest of the pieces in the same way to match.




With two WIPs out of the way, or very nearly, I have to decide what fusion knit projects should take their place. I definitely want to knit another fusion knit half ‘n' half jacket as it turned out really well - I especially like the way the collar ‘falls'. I definitely want to knit another merino cardigan in a different colour too, since it's so quick and easy to knit. I really enjoyed the designing part of this project, and drawing the block to knit from.
To fill the place of the WIPs just completed, I cast on the stitches to knit the Celandine vest from Lousa Harding's first book 'Gathering Roses', using a Country Style double knitting yarn from my stash. I've only had the yarn for about eleven years, so it's about time it was used.... *wink*

Knitted Dishcloth Cuts Cleaning Time in Half!

Yep it's true! I knitted this little baby last week and washed it straight away to ensure its absorbency. It had been mopping up spilled tea and coffee all week on kitchen duties, but I decided that it should be put to the test with the Big Kitchen Clean-Up

I usually clean the kitchen with antibacterial spray and one of those blue and white stripey J-cloths, a sponge scrubby thing, hob cleaner, paper kitchen towels, Fairy Power Spray, and a lot of elbow grease. And a little squirt of Cif on the sink.
Today I cleaned the whole kitchen, including the work surfaces, cupboard and drawer doors, tiles, hob and sink with this little beauty, using only a solution of normal household bleach in hot water. And a little squirt of Cif on the sink.
I was amazed how little thing held up to the rigorous test I put it through. The hob was covered in oil splashes and the dishcloth made short work of getting it gleaming clean again; the sink wasn't looking its best and once again Clothy didn't fail and the sink came up brilliantly shiny. Helped out by a little squirt of Cif, of course.

And the most amazing thing was that it took under an hour to do the whole kitchen. I think it must be the garter ridges that give Clothy super cleaning powers. And of course, it has to be better for the environment than all those other sprays and cleaning agents that I would normally use.

Now for a little promotion for two knitting chat forums that I frequent. Both forums are extremely friendly and are both fairly new. The first one is the Knitting Connection forum which is run by Paula, and the other one is the Knitting Haven forum which is run by Holly. The Knitting Connection forum currently has a yarn auction which is running until 21st October to celebrate National Knitting Week, and there are lots of knitterly goodies on offer. Why don't you pop on over to both the Knitting Haven forum and the Knitting Connection forum? I'm sure that you'll meet people you already know on there!

One of My Personal Irritations

I don’t know about you, but I find online stores and mail order shops that advertise products and don’t actually have them in stock excessively annoying. I ordered and paid for a couple of (knitting) books from a mail order company last week, only to receive a letter yesterday to say that none of the books were available. And a few weeks ago I ordered and paid for some yarn from an eBay seller only to find that one of the colours of yarn I ordered was out of stock even though there appeared to be over 900 balls of that colour in stock. Why advertise them and take my money from me if they are not available to buy? But at least these sellers were honest enough to admit that the products were not in stock; for a supplier or online store to say that the product has been sent out but has been ‘lost in the post’ while waiting for the product to come back into stock is downright dishonest.

Get Knitted appear to have the right approach. The item is displayed on their website but the customer is informed on the webpage if the item is out of stock, so at least the buyer can decide to shop elsewhere for the product or wait until it comes back into stock. By advertising the product, paying for it and finding it to be out of stock the customer does not have the flexibility to shop elsewhere. Which is, of course, why the less reputable online stores do exactly that.

And this is why I won’t shop with certain online shops in the future. I can always find the products I want at a more reputable store, and support them with my loyalty and custom.

WIP Update.

First some great news - I won a competition last week, to guess how many grandchildren the owner of the Knitting Haven forum board, Holly, has. I did a bit of detective work on the message board and posted the correct answer first. Look what I was able to choose as my prize!!

IRL the yarn is a beautiful mix of pale green, pink and light blue colours and I'm just itching to make some socks for me!! I'm never good at competitions and never win, so this came as a total surprise!



I'm very good at posting the start of projects aren't I? But rubbish at posting piccies of completed ones. So here are my current WIPs in their raw state. We have, in order of appearance, all the current WIPs for me which are: a cerise half ‘n' half fusion knitted jacket, ‘Grace' jacket from Rowan magazine 27 in a lovely lilac shade of Rowan All Seasons Cotton, and the start of this, the Ribby Cardi from ChicKnits in Jaeger Extra Fine Merino aran which I cast on last week at Wendy's house:




Next we have WIPs for other people - notably the mink coloured merino cardigan which I'm machine knitting slowly for my mum and the Opal Magic socks for Dad:



The final picture is of my Raspberry Splash mohair cardigan that I finished knitting several weeks ago, but still need to find the impetus/time to stitch it up:



I've chosen Jaeger Extra Fine Merino Aran from my yarn stash to knit the cardi in, as it matches the stocking stitch tension exactly. Denver Jon sent the yarn to me last year, and I'm using Nero Navy; I think it will make a very warm and smart Ribby and I need a navy cardi or jacket to wear for work. So far the yarn is working beautifully and is slipping over the Brittany Birches a treat - it is glorious stuff to work with.

I'm so close to finishing the cerise jacket, with only the front bands and collar to knit, but they're the fiddly bits aren't they? Hopefully I'll be able to finish this by the end of this week. Then I'm finishing the projects where very little work is needed to complete them.

I've also managed to overcome for desire for the Sirdar Salsa I was talking about the other day, and found some navy boucle DK yarn in my yarn stash which might be a good subby for the Celandine tank