Kim Socks Complete

Aha! I *knew* I would do it!

I've had a shedload of trouble trying to upload the photos to the PC. The image program threw a wobbler and wouldn't fire up so my piccies have been trapped in my camera all weekend. Mr Melody is useful sometimes, and just dragged the photos across to the PC directory using Explorer. Who knew you could do that??

Et voila! My pink Kim socks in all their pink loveliness:

Next Step - TE1

The next stage of our PGCE starts in earnest next week with the start of our first teaching experience, lovingly known as TE1. I obviously can't blog about which school I'll be at, or about anything that happens whilst I'm there due to confidentiality policies; but if you see a slightly perturbed student teacher over the next three weeks, frantically knitting a sock, then it could be me... couldn't it?

My pink Kim socks are almost finished, with only the toe shaping to do now. I think I'll be able to finish those by the end of October *wink*

Both the Little Melodies have been suffering with a nasty dose of croup each this week and have both been marched down to to the Out-of-Hours surgery in our local area at unsocial hours of the night/evening. It's unfortunately a common occurrence at this time of the year, both boys appearing to have suffered quite badly this time, with both of them either losing their voices or sounding like Darth Vader without having to wear one of those voice changing masks. Luckily it's been half term this week, so they were able to drink plenty of water, take their time recovering and sleep during the day if they wanted to, which is the best cure for any viral infection I think.

A sure sign of them getting better was earlier this evening, when the littlest one asked
"Could you ask Mattie to stop killing me please?"

Aren't children wonderful? LOL!

Grace Finished

My Grace jacket from Rowan magazine 26 is now completed:

I didn't make any modifications to the pattern at all and I'm fairly pleased with the way it's turned out. I have noticed that there is a fair bit of 'rowing out' occurring within the stocking stitch which I don't like and I'm sure that it's due to me using bamboo needles for this project. I've come to love working with my Brittany Birches and feel spoiled by them in many ways; bamboo needles are just not the same anymore :(

I'm particularly pleased with the collar on this jacket though. For some reason the moss stitch edge to the collar appeals to me. A close-up to show you what I mean:

Feeling Very Tired

I'm feeling very ratty and tired today - I finally managed to get to sleep at 4am this morning due to the intensely irritating sound of Mr Melody's snoring. There are times when I wish I could stick a DPN into him....

BUT! I have almost sewn my Grace jacket together that I finished knitting in the summer/ spring/a long time ago and it will be ready for showing on my blog this week I hope.

I've made more progress on my Kim socks too and the gussett decreases are done. Only 10cm more to knit on the foot and the toe shaping and I'll have those completed as well.

I realised last week on my TE1 visit (to my first teaching placement) that I really don't have enough decent jackets or cardigans to wear in the classroom. I have enough trousers (okay, they do need shortening I'll admit) and skirts that I can wear, plus an abundance of tops. But very few cardigans, sweaters or jackets. My aim is to knit myself a 4 ply fusion knit cardigan or long sleeved top this week or next weekend, but in the meantime - any suggestions for a nice, casual but smart jacket or cardigan that would be suitable for the primary classroom?

Still Wearing Pink

I'm still managing to wear an item of pink clothing per day in October for Breast Cancer Awareness month, although for those who know me in real life the pink may not always be that obvious. Did I mention pink underwear? LOL!

I was very pleased with myself I managed to achieve a 96% score in a Maths Audit this week and I think I might choose Maths as a specialist option on the course. I would be bonkers not to after all.

Knitting News:
I decided that since Natalie of The Yarn Yard was offering no one but TWO prizes for the October Sockamonth Challenge, I should try to knit a pink pair of socks and finish them in October. Natalie is offering the standard 'finish the socks' prize and an extra prize if your socks are pink. How could I refuse? So the Kim socks from back in February have been resurrected, and here's the progress so far:


Funny how it took over six months to finish the lace cuff on the first sock but just over a week on the second..... *shrugs* I think that knitting on two circulars is a bit of an acquired 'feel' though; at first it feels really awkward and ungainly, but on going back to the circulars to knit the second sock, I knew instinctively how the needles should feel and what I should do with them, so maybe this is the reason for the seemingly speedier second sock. And I want to get the pair finished for the 31st October deadline obviously. How's your pink sock knitting going?

Three Hours of PE This Morning

That's all I'm saying.... LOL!

Rippit, rippit, rippit!

The first assignment has been finished and handed in. *sighs of relief all round*

There hasn’t been a huge amount of knitting done at Chez Melody but this week has seen me going for a haircut. I was beginning to look like a Yorkshire Terrier my fringe was so long! I've also been making costumes for the boys for Book Day, when all the children at the boys’ school were invited to dress up as their favourite book character. Lots of late night making, sticking, cutting and stitching was involved in said costume makery.

I’ve been feeling a little jaded with my knitting projects this week, possibly due to late night commitments, and have frogged a couple of things. I frogged my 2x2 cotton cardigan as I was totally bored with all the ribbing and couldn’t face knitting the tedium that is 2x2 rib throughout the winter. Then I also cast on, and almost immediately frogged, a cabled hoodie in Sirdar Spree chunky yarn. I love the hoodie pattern, but I wasn’t overly fond of the off-white colour of the yarn I’d chosen to knit it in. I have managed to knit some of Dad’s scarf on the station platform however and cast on the stitches for a Central Park Hoodie - only a year behind everyone else!



Here is the beginnings of the CPH resting upon its own project bag that I made earlier last month. It's a piece of Laura Ashley fabric that I had left over from a project some years back, and all I had to do was stitch the sides and add a drawstring. So much prettier than a tatty plastic carrier bag that I usually haul my projects around in.

100 Posts!

Would you believe that this is my one hundredth posting onto my blog? A cause for celebration maybe.... pop by and leave a comment for me!

Until I realised that this was posting 100, this entry was going to be entitled "Pretty in Pink" as it is 1st October and the start of Breast Cancer Awareness month. I usually buy an item of Tickled Pink clothing to support the Breast Cancer Awareness charity, but as I'm an official member of Wardrobe Refashioning I'm unable to do that this year.

Instead, I will pledge to go through the whole of the month of October wearing at least one item of pink clothing to support Breast Cancer Awareness. This morning I'm wearing a pair of pink stripey socks, a pink hoodie and pink underwear. And here's the proof!



Righty-ho - back to my assignment. I probably won't have time to blog this week as I have several study type things to work on, so I'll catch up with you all next weekend. Have a good week!

Oh Dear - More Unravellings

Not only is there a pile of garments waiting to be mended in my workroom/craftroom, but Mr Melody and I went through his clothes this morning and put a whole lot of stuff into recycling. White shirts that have been in the wardrobe for months and the collars around the neck have gone yellow, shirts that are past their sell-by-date and a pair of his pure wool work trousers that I noticed had a tear in the pocket fabric that wasn't mendable. I've popped a lot of the boys' socks into recycling too as Dan's feet have grown so much in the past few months he's outgrown them!

My invite to join Wardrobe Refashioning arrived this morning - trust me to find the People Tree website just a few hours before it arrived. Sheesh *rolls eyes* There's some fabulous stuff there....

My refashioning tasks this week will be to mend the trousers in my craft room and to mend my combats where the pocket ripped and the button came off.

On the knitting front - I frogged my 2x2 cotton cardigan last night; I decided that I could free up the needles and concentrate on a chunky cardigan for the cooler months ahead.

Falling Apart

It's one thing to buy cheap and cheerful clothes from the supermarket and to think that we've bagged ourselves a bargain, but it's quite another thing to find that these items of clothing start to fall apart after being worn for only a short period of time. This week has seen it's fair share of clothing falling apart in the Melody household: I have already mentioned that two pairs of Matthew's school trousers have been put into repair (my crafting/work room!) which joined a pair of Mr Melody's trousers that need the leg seam repairing. But I've found to my dismay this week that a pair baby cord combats that I love have lost the cordy bit on the inside of the legs due to friction :? and the fabric has become thin as a result, and the hood of a cashmere hoodie (again bought from a supermarket chain and not handknitted) is parting company with the neckline and I've spotted a dropped stitch.

We all went to a sports store yesterday evening to buy Matt a footie top as he plays football a lot now and needs this type of sports clothing, and I was taken aback to see the amount of non-sports clothes on sale at the sportswear store. All cheap and all cheerful. No, I didn't buy any non-sports stuff as I'm currently trying hard NOT to buy clothes just for the sake of it, but I wonder how long it would take before they start to fall apart too?

Very Little Progress :(

I have a bit of progress to report on my Las Vegas socks - I'm up to the gusset pick-up on the second sock. Although I can report that my first assignment is in first draft phase at the moment, awaiting quotes and references where appropriate.

I managed a few more rows on the Alva cardigan and Paris jacket but that's about it this week.

Matthew has somehow managed to rip the side seam of his school trousers and the hem of another pair has come adrift, so there's mending to be done this weekend. The trousers are in good condition and there's no way I'm throwing them out just yet.

Strangely, I 've just removed a comma splice from one of my sentences when last week I didn't even know the term existed....

Las Vegas Socks for September Maybe?

I've just sat and typed out my post for today and the whole lot disappeared into the ether - sheesh!

For some reason Blogger appears to be a pain in the rear this afternoon as my delete key wouldn't work a few minutes ago.

Anywhoodle, here are my Las Vegas socks which will possibly be finished in time to enter into the September Sockamonth challenge on the Crafty Threads 'n' Yarns forum:

I managed to miss the train by about five minutes a couple of times this week, so I took the opportunity to grab a polystyrene cup of train station tea, whip out my sock yarn, DPNs and sock bag and knit. Sheer Bliss.

I might have to miss the train a couple more times to get these socks finished by the end of September, and as these are my third pair, I might be in the running for a bronze award.

Student Life

Uni life has already started and we have assignments to write and plans to set out. I'm tired, I haven't had dinner yet, but I'm happy :) I've discovered that wearing my contact lenses all day in hot and dry environments doesn't result in particularly comfortable eyes :?

I also found this week that socks are very useful to knit on station platforms whilst waiting for trains. I promise I'll take piccies of my Las Vegas socks to show you at the weekend. Denver Jon would be proud as he sent me the yarn last year all the way from Colorado just up the road from Las Vegas.

On to Refashioning News - I have done a little refashioning since taking my pledge - I shortened a pair of navy chinos for Mr Melody and he's already worn them several times to play golf in. He's been to the office in them once as well, as he now informs me that chinos are perfectly acceptable in his office environment.

Preliminary Placement

Phew! Busy.

I spent Monday to Friday this week as a Student Teacher in my preliminary placement at a local primary school.... I had a fabulous but busy time working with Key Stage 1 children and have enjoyed it immensely. I have loads of notes to type up.

Lectures start on Tuesday morning at 9.15am sharp.

Ooh! Ooh!

I forgot to tell you that Jacquie awarded me the Rocking Girl Blogger award last week..... how could I forget!!! I've been coveting that award for ages, and when I finally get one, I forget to tell you all *rolls eyes*

Thank you Jacquie! Now all I have to do is figure out how to add the button to my sidebar....

And now I have to award the button to five other bloggers, but I fear that they have all been nominated previously :( Here goes nowt:

1 My darlingest, best cyberbuddy Denver Jon of Colorado Knits who has a blog no more. Jon was the one whose blog I read every day and who got me into blogging in the first place. So thanks matey!

2 Jo from I'd Rather be Knitting - she knits some fabulous stuff and we seem to have the same patterns on our 'to-knit' lists. But she finishes lots more than I do!

3 The blogger who showed me Wardrobe Refashioning - Joanne from Don't Talk Just Knit - you gotta love a girl who refashions

4 Murdo and the Pirate Purls cos I love the nutty, orange, lab-coated muppet to bits, and I love her Perfect Paparazzi Pirate Purling girls too (and happy bithday for yesterday to the eldest Pirate)

5 Fegrig - not a Rockin' Girl Blogger as such (then neither is Denver Jon of 1 above, but we gotta have equal opportunities here guys) as he made me laugh so much with his dog-walking antics today. I hereby award both Fegrig and DJ a *cough* Rocking Boy Blogger button each. Bring it on boys....

It's Refashioning, Jim. But Not As We Know It.

Not refashioning in the true sense of the word admittedly, but our cream leather sofas and chair were getting a bit grubby and looked bleugh, so last Monday I cleaned the leather with hot water and washing up liquid and made some more cushions from fabric that I already had in stash. I made one cushion cover from pale cream cotton with a smidge of lycra in it; it's not plain cream, it has white figured flowers all over it but the pattern is difficult to determine with the camera. I had intended to make flowery cushion covers for the sofa this week as well and got as far as getting the fabric out, but fate intervened once more and I found myself in class 1 for four days solid and helping out by being nursery nurse cover for the week.

Birthday Booty

I was finally allowed to opened my pressie from my wonderful friends Murdo and the Pirate Purls and this is what I found inside:

Wonderful knitting luxuries from Knitpicks, Boyes and the Yarn Yard, and some other little luxuries for me. Thank you so much Murdo and Pirates!!

I had such a bad headache on my birthday that as soon as I'd taken the boys to school and I'd had some breakfast, I went back to bed to try to sleep it off - so many apologies to the wonderful Murdo and the two Pirates for seemingly blogging late about my wonderful birthday gifts - they really are appreciated.

On birthday afternoon I logged in to see if I could pay my student tuition fees online again - this time it worked!! It's stressful having to shell out £1,535 to pay for the first half of my tuition fees - my next installment for the other half is due in January 2008. Thankfully my parents had given me money for my birthday and Mr Melody always gives me a sum in the bank to spend on what I want for me, but I can see that it will be no yarn purchases for me for a while nevertheless :( as I spent my birthday cash on the books and yarn in Wales this year (see previous posts!!)

Birthday and resolutions.

As it is 2nd September today I'm took the pledge yesterday to join Wardrobe Refashioning as from now, although officially I won't be able to join until 1st October. I just cannot afford to buy any new clothes anymore for myself unless I absolutely need them; the boys of the family are excluded from this of course as they will need new items for school uniform and work I should think.

I really need to sort out the old clothes that won't fit or I won't be wearing anymore and either get rid of them or pack them away somewhere. Having worked in an environment with small children and paint and glue for three years, I'm used to wearing casual stuff for work and clothes that could be mullered and I wouldn't be bothered about it. I can still wear jeans and combats for Uni of course, but I'm assuming not for Teaching Practice in schools. Besides, I want to look half reasonable for school and jeans just don't cut the mustard do they?

And I really have to lose some extra poundage. Sitting around on my fat ar*e all summer and not doing any exercise, plus all the goodies I've been eating, has added inches to my thighs, hips and waist. I'm positive that when I start walking from home to the train station and then from the train station to Uni each day the extra weight will start to drop off, but I can't wait that long. I walked to pick the lads up from school on Friday, and then round to my friend's house later in the evening and all told walked about 2.5 miles. Not bad for a start anyway.

I sat in bed for a wonderful hour yesterday morning, in a quiet house whilst the boys were at football practice, and read about a quarter of Jacqueline Wilson's ‘The Illustrated Mum' as part of my summer reading list. I'm about a third of the way through already and sat this morning with a box of tissues by my side, tears rolling down my cheeks. It's an excellent and thought provoking book; I'd highly recommend it.

A Bank Holiday Full of Challenges

I set a Bank Holiday Challenge for everyone on the Crafty Theads ‘n’ Yarns forum - to cast on a project on Friday afternoon/evening, and to have it completed by midnight on Bank Holiday Monday.
I was hopeless as usual, as despite actually setting the challenge, didn’t know what to knit or sew to compete *rolls eyes*

I decided to knit a dolly clothes set for a little friend of Danny’s who is five this week, rather than spend money buying a pressie. I knitted a size 12" chest preemie size cardigan in Brett’s Shimmer 4 ply (as I have a small mountain of it left over from my now-closed eBay shop), and the little hat to go with it. I’m still knitting it, so you’ll have to wait to see the finished dolly set.

I also set myself a non-crafting challenge to actually go out to the local town to find some long, knee-high boots for this winter as I’ve spent the last one or two years trying to find boots that will actually zip-up over my calves. I’ve got small feet, and muscular calves as a result of too much dog-walking and running, and boot manufacturers don’t cater for my shape of leg or smallness of foot generally. I can’t find boots that come up to my knee and actually fit over the bulgey bit of my calf muscle.

I tried all the usual suspects, but found either no boots at all or none that would fit :( So we went out on Bank Holiday Sunday to Marks and Spencer at Fosse Park to check out the boot section.




And lo and behold! Boots that fit!! I had to go up a foot size, but heck, they're fabulous boots!! The cowboy boots wouldn't usually be my first choice of style admittedly, but they look fabulous with a shortie denim skirt. And the high heeled suede boots are to die for and exactly what I wanted


Mr Melody was so fed up with traipsing round shoe departments and shoe shops that when I found two pairs that fitted, he insisted that I bought both pairs. I knew there was a reason for dragging him with me.....

Holiday Stashing - Part Deux

This is the final instalment of my Holiday Stashing piccies, taken before I stashed all the yarn and books away in their respective places.

Books, books and more books from Stash in Chester. Oh and 8 balls of Noro's Cash Iroha in a gorgeous mulberry colour to knit Agnes from Noro Knits, two pairs of Brittany Birch needles and two balls of Regia sock yarn:







And four more Colinette books and some cotton DK for dish/facecloths at bargainous 50p a ball from Ar-Y-Gweill in Llanrwst. (Notice that I managed to pick up the discontinued Portmanteau book from here? Yippee!):




I bought so many books on holiday that I had to tidy up my shelves in my crafting room today to make room for them all on the bookshelf *chuckles*
On a positive note though, I now have more free shelf space to store the yarns-that-I-want-to-knit-next rather than sticking them out of view in the guest wardrobe :)

This weekend is Bank Holiday weekend, so I'm planning to get some crafting stuff done - there are so many things I want to do, so hopefully a few will be achieved. I've set myself another Bank Holiday challenge to either knit Eve from Femme Fatale using the new Giotto yarn that I won on eBay last week, or make a start on a fusion-knit. Or sew myself a new top Or maybe make some new cushion covers for the cushions our sofa - I have the fabric and I have the cushion innards, so I really should put the two together :? There are so many crafting projects going round in my mind, but at least the crafting mojo is back :)

My Wardrobe is Out of Control!!

My wardrobe is full to bursting with clothes. I have lots of pairs of shoes, boots and sandals. I also have a large yarn stash and a fairly large fabric stash.

At one time, before I had children, and I went to work in an office for a living, I sewed all my own clothes, even my suits. Just before I found I was having my eldest son, I attended an evening City and Guilds Tailoring course but only went for a term and a half as I quickly realised that I wouldn’t be able to tailor stuff to fit my ever-expanding tummy! My mum was an excellent seamstress in her day, and still prefers to tailor her own clothes as she is able to attain a custom fit.

So I am able to knit and sew my own stuff without resorting to shop-bought clothes.

I saw an interesting entry on someone’s blog over the weekend - Don't Talk, Just Knit - about the Wardrobe Refashioning blog that aims to refashion clothes to reduce the amount of money spent on new clothing and textiles, which suits my reducing, reusing and recycling ideal very nicely.

Just one last visit to M&S and I’ll join up, I promise....