Ysolda strikes again

I was going to make a hat to match Mousie Number 2, and I was looking through my Ravelry Queue to see if I'd put a good pattern there. That's when I realized what it is that all girls need...

SHOES!!



Matching Mousie and Mary-Janes

I had a lot of trouble with the strap, and a little trouble with the directions being a bit too vague. It wasn't until the shoes were both done that I realized they were right. I blocked them by stuffing plastic bags into them (so they looked like shoes instead of floppy nothings).
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I made the large size (err on the size of L for babies, I say) and they actually fit Jasmine. Here is her cute, chubby foot, reluctantly modelling one shoe...


She couldn't get it off, which impressed me no end. The strap, when done up, simply doesn't fit over the foot. It holds the back of the heel up, and there's no stretch in the top edge of the foot. A great shoe for a baby!
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Not Jasmine's, though. Off it goes to the neighbor's girl's girl.

Today I had lots of time off. As Nathan is working tomorrow at his "hobby job", he told me to stay out until 4 or so. I had 7 hours! So off I went to Bendigo to visit the Bendigo Woollen Mills.

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It didn't occur to me to take my camera, but it was a beautiful day for tripping around the countryside. I think it must have been the warmest of all the warm days this week. It took me about 2 hours to get there, but I had a great time turning the Bargain Room inside out. I got a few things.

Quite a chunk of my Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show money is gone, but I shall be able to save most of it again. Anyway, you can't get better value for money!

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Now it's nearly ten, and (apart from buttoning the shoes) I haven't done any knitting. Tonight I'm doing a little Vivian.

Mousie 2

Our new neighbors (they are building a house) are excited because soon they get their first granddaughter, after quite a few grandsons. Normally, I confess, I try to discourage this weird Gender Importance, especially after finding it so annoying myself. (If everyone tells you "I hope it's a girl!" you stress about whether anyone will be as excited for your potential-son.) But this is a bit different, because this is actually the second girl, the first being lost in a miscarriage recently.
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Since our neighbors are so nice that Byron keeps asking to go visit them, (and I also needed an excuse) I made their daughter's daughter a Mousie.
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Jasmine approves.

Mousie 1 was knit in fluffy 8ply alpaca, and Mousie 2 was knit in smooth 5ply crepe wool. It's a little like knitting with cotton, but the end result is nice and smooth. The 5ply makes the mouse quite a bit smaller, though I used the same needles.

Took this one for Kel, who liked the similar photo in the book. Ysolda's a better photographer than I am, of course, and doesn't use her two-year-old's blocks. Ü

I dyed a 50g ball of white into the pink/yellow mix. The whole mouse weighs 15g. What shall I do with the rest? Maybe it would make a cute hat for her Ü

Temptations. Sigh.

As you can see, I didn't resist the urge to cast on something new...

I've had this cheap 50% wool, 50% acrylic sitting on the bench for a while. I dyed it by rolling it into two balls and throwing it in a pot of vinegar, soap, water and "orchid" (red and blue food dye). As you can see, the dye doesn't get all the way in properly, which makes an interesting effect when knitting it up Ü. I'm on the second mitten, now, knitting from the fingertips down.

I went shopping this morning, which means I sat in Stockland and knitted. I've almost finished my sister's birthday socks; there are about 5 rounds to go! Here's a sneak peak at the bottom of the foot, all color leeched out :D hehehe

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And now onto today's shopping...

I bought a fluoro yellow ball of yukky mostly-acrylic because Nathan wanted a fluoro yellow hat. It wasn't fluoro enough for him, I think, but it will do. I won't hurt your eyes by posting a pic, though. Instead...



Moda Vera Picchio. 70% merino, 30% silk.

It's so pretty, I skeined it for photography, but I couldn't get all the colors to photograph properly. Anyway, the brownish one is "bark" and the greenish one is "Fusion". It's so soft! It's a lot like Noro silk garden, except the long color changes are more muted, the yarn is more even, and it's Not At All scratchy. Beautiful! I wanted to get 4 to make a "noro striped scarf" but I didn't really have $32.

Then a friend came over and bought our "Paddock Bong" as Byron calls it. It's the first car I ever bought, but it's a 1984 Mitsubishi that has long been Nathan's paddock bomb. Now it can only be jump-started, and it's not really good for anything but scrap. But Glenn's bought it, and now I have more yarn money for Bendigo!

(Anyone else out there traded a car for yarn? lol)

Now it's my hubby's turn to have time off. He was moving my garden from 100m down the yard to just outside the door, but he found a wasps nest under one of the sleepers, so he left it alone. Now he's out in the shed making me up a sock blocker, bless his blokey heart. hehe.

For Jasmine

Unlike Stickyfingers, who makes her 10-month-old cute toys, I made my 10-month-old a rat!

Ok, so he's a little bit sweet Ü. He's actually a "Mousie" from Ysolda's book.

I knit him in about 24 hours, partly because I was itching to cast-on something new (so it may as well be something quick) and partly because it occurred to me that I once knit Byron a toy when he was 10 months old.

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Byron is not going to like that this is Jasmine's, though. He got all upset when he wasn't allowed to take it to bed (even though it was still missing eyes and an ear). I must admit, it is soft and cuddly!

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I used my pair of 2.5mm knit-picks circulars, but I made it from 8ply alpaca (DK), which is why it looks more like a rat than a mouse. It's grey alpaca from Bendigo Woollen Mills and "Faye" (DK alpaca) in "Blush" (semi-solid pink) from Wired for Fibre.

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