18.4 kilos.

This was going to be a new year's resolution, but I changed my mind.
.
Here is the yarn from three shopping bags. One is yarn for my sock-club next year. This basketful weighed 6.4 kilos (after subtracting the laundry basket).
.

The insides of the bags.
.

Further yarn stash, in the big suitcase under the bed. Mostly big balls of Bendi. 4.7 kilos.

.

And here is what I could find on the shelves... another 7.3 kilos.

.

That's 18.4 kilos.

.

So my goal for the next 7 months is to decrease that number. What I buy will be added and what I knit will be subtracted. I think it will help me be more selective about what I spend my money on. No more: "$2 each... woohoo... I'll buy 15!" My yarn weighs quite a bit more than any of my children (though perhaps Zach will overtake it by the end of the year...) and it would probably be good for me to lighten the burden on the shelves and make a bit more house room, for, you know, living in and stuff. Ü

Bootleg and Beaded Bags

As my sister has just Thursday, Friday and Saturday left of her 20's, she's having a 1920's Theme party on Saturday night. I'm not much of a dress-up sort of 'skirt', but I didn't really need much of an excuse to cast on for this:
.


It's Paper Moon by Beth Hahn. You start with a long, wide band with odd cables and a picot-type edge. It has about 2000 "through the back of the loop" instructions, and every line is just written out. There were 3 repeats of a 40-row pattern, then about 60 more rows for the button band, which wraps around the outside.
.

My button didn't fit through the buttonhole, but I just tacked it all down anyway. I picked up 128 stitches instead of 120 to give it a bit more width (I don't have regulation flapper-hair) and then ran out of yarn (!) with about 10 decrease rounds to go! Fortunately, it was already tall enough to just decrease from about 40 to about 10 in one swift round of sk2po's. It looks fine.
.


The yarn is Wired For Fibre, Lauren, in "infinite". Jake to knit with, and certainly makes some darb get-up. It's the bee's knees :)
.

See you Saturday, sis. With hooch ;)
.

Paper Moon

This is the first repeat of the hat band for an interesting-looking, differently-contructed hat called Paper Moon. It's for a 1920's party next weekend.
.

I'm loving the soft, dark grey, thick wool, and my shiny Addi Turbos are just the thing to knit it with. But it's not really TV knitting, so I've been whipping up this. It's an all-knit, make-up-as-you-go dress for Gillian, who has been far too naked since the kids lost most of her clothes ;-)
.

I was watching day-time TV (as you do when three kids sleep all at the same time but you're too tired to take advantage of the quietness to do Housework) and saw on a cooking show that honeycomb is Amazingly Simple!

.

Boil up some water, sugar and golden syrup, mix in some bicarb, let it cool. (Just don't let it cool in the pot, or you'll never use that pot again!) lol.

.

Blue-ergh

Cyanotic. Hehe.
.

Wired For Fibre: Olivia (20% cashmere, 80% merino) semisolid blue and pale purple. Happy Birthday, Zara Kate.

.

This will be for the Brick Boy. He needs a hat, too. There are hats everywhere. None seem to fit him.

.

Having said that, I've just wound up a ball of WFF Lauren, which is a 10ply superwash, to knit a new hat for myself. It's going to be dark greys, but nice.

.

I'm three

The poor little kid was so worked up about his birthday that he had trouble sleeping the night before. He had a wonderful day, though, opening presents and playing with some friends at MacDonald's, seeing more family, heaps of balloons, yet more presents, and icecream cake!

.

Naturally, he vomitted all over his birthday jumper soon after this, but it was mummy's fault, really... for not taking him seriously enough when he said, "I'm going to vomit"! I took him more seriously the next time, and whipped him and his sister out of the bath in time. Now he's made it a hatrick, but with less mess, as there's nothing left. Happy birthday!

.

I enjoyed the jumper yarn so much I decided to use it for a hat. It's A Hat Fit For a Nephew, my nephew, Michael. I posted it, though he lives 15 minutes away: the parcel in the mail is part of the birthday present! hehe. Byron is my model again:

Tried to get Zach with both mittens on. He seems to love them. Must be tasty wool. Wouldn't hold them still At All. Funny little monkey...

.

Also been giving in to the dyeing addiction. I divided up a 200g ball of Bendigo Woollen Mills Luxury 10ply (in the Ice colorway, which is pale blue) and did some coloring in.

They worked out ok. I think I could eat them both... I had to put them away in the yarn stash, out of sight.

.

Now that I'm finished my blue jumper and blue hat, I'm onto another blue project. Byron's little best friend, Zara, flicked through my WLK book one day, and I told her she could pick something for a birthday present. She picked Mousie, in "blue, please". lol. So I'm making her a very nice cashmerey one with some WFF Olivia mini skeins I bought myself for my birthday.

.

I may or may not have also gotten a few other luxuries. But that was a while ago, now. I have saved up my cash again, and have $180 so far, for Bendigo. Two months to go!

.

Byron's 3rd birthday jumper

Almost three years ago we were holding the beginnings...



of this little monkey!
How cute has he gotten!?
.
And here is the Weasley Sweater AKA Byron 3. This is Bendigo Woollen Mills Luxury 8ply in Oceanic and Lake; I held one of each strand as I knit with 7mm needles. It's good stuff! He only had a singlet on under it, and he did not want to take it off Ü

7mm was a teeny bit loose, but my 6mm ones were unavailable Ü . I loved the speckly mix of two similar colors. It's just a plain bottom up jumper, knit in the round as much as possible with a slab of Double BasketWeave on the front. I love it. It looks very blocky in this shot, but very curvy in 'real life'.

.

.

Striking a model pose. LOL! He thought he was pretty funny.

The neck was a little wide, I thought, but it's only really a pattern for my own reference! Next time I'd probably use 6mm needles, but I'd leave the rest how it is, a bit oversize and chunky.

.

The back is plain.

And after this I took it off him for wrapping! It's not his third birthday until May 17.

Pattern:

Wool: two strands of DK weight yarn held together

Needles: 7mm circulars

Cast on 113, 56 for front, 57 for back. Do Moss stitch edgings, 9 rows

Knit 9 rows

Do a 2 wide DB on the front, ie, k5, do DB pattern, k5 on the front. (36 rows)

Then separate front and back after 56 rows.

(On the back: Knit.)

.

Back top: cast off two at the start of first two rows. Then knit (or purl) two together at the start of each row until there are 45 st left. Knit until 6" from beg of armhole. K12 onto holder, cast off until final 12, knit 12 onto holder.

.

Front top: Decrease for arm holes same as back, until 46 st left. Knit 4 more rows. Knit 18, cast off 10, knit 18.

.

On each strap, cast off two on the neck side every right-side row, until there are 10st left per strap. Knit 9 rows, inc 2, then kitchener to the back shoulder.

.

Neck: pick up and knit 66. Rib 9 rows.
Sleeves: pick up and knit 45. Every 5th row, decrease one under the arm. Finish when long enough with 9 rounds of moss (requires an odd number of stitches). I did 45 rounds before starting moss stitch.

.

[nb: all the multiples of 3... Ü ]

.

DB pattern (in the round)
(st. no. required: Multiple of 18 plus 10)

.
Row 1. *K11, p2, k2, p2, k1. Repeat from * across, ending k10.
Row 2. *K1, P8, (K2 P2) twice, k1 repeat from * to last 10, K1, P8, k1
Row 3: as row 2
Row 4: as row 1
Repeat 1-4.

Row 9: Knit.

.
Row 10: *(k2p2) twice, k10. Repeat from * until last 10, k2p2 k2p2 k2
Row 11: *(k2p2) twice, k2, p8. Repeat from * across, ending (k2, p2) twice, k2.
Row 12: as row 11
Row 13: as row 10
Repeat 10-13.

Row 18: purl.

.

Well, it's after midnight again, so I'd better... just do a few more quick things before I go to bed :D

.

Have a KIP

I like knitting in public. I knit in church and creche and playgroup. I often head over to Stockland (an indoor shopping center) on my Friday evenings "off" and knit, and people sometimes stop to chat. Knitting and babies: good conversation starters. Today I headed into Spotlight because they'd advertised a knitting day. Kelly kindly offered to mind the kids for a bit so I could go solo (muuuch easier Ü). They didn't have much in the way of bargains. Some of the specials from my last visit were back to full price, and I think Spotlight is slowly being overtaken by acrylics. But there were a heap of people, sitting around the table knitting!

.

That impresses me, because I thought our little knitting group was likely to be all the knitters in the Ballarat area; apparently that was a bit misguided! I didn't even know anyone there, except a woman I used to do night shift with. Half of them were learners; they had a stack of acrylic and needles and hooks. I chatted to a woman called Isabella, who was knitting left-handed (and it took me a while to figure that out) about the Bendi S&W festival while I knitted some stripey socks. Two of the knitters were about 10, and each had half a white scarf already done. There were half-a-dozen high-school age girls, teaching each other.

.

There was barely room to sit around the table, and we were getting in the way of other customers Ü. I did move for a pram, because the baby in it had a very cute hand-knitted jumper on, but the mum stopped to join in.

.

Thanks, Spotlight, for putting on a day. You might be sliding downhill into Acrylic Valley, but you're ok.