All done and finished!

A grand reveal today. Noro scarf is all done. Finito!!

Right in time for my dear one to wear in the snow when he and Jemimah head off on their Annual Daddy-Daughter Ski Trip in a fortnight's time.

He is very pleased to have something hand-knitted by me, and I am very pleased at how well she has turned out. Given that she was made using left-overs.

Anyhow, here she is. Her pattern is from here. She is made of lots of different balls of Noro Silk Garden yarn, with a neutral shade between each coloured stripe. Apart from that, she is exactly like the pattern.

Waddayareckon?

PS While they're skiing, I'll be footloose and fancy free in Melbourne. What should I get up to?

What would you do if you were Home Alone for a week in the City? No kidlets, no responsibility...

Knitting woes

Noro Scarf is now over four feet long. That leaves less than two feet to knit. A weekend's worth easily.

Except for one problem. Noro Scarf has come to a grinding halt due to a nasty case of tenosynovitis in my left thumb. I can't write. I can't lift a saucepan. And I can't knit.

Not two feet's worth anyhow. My limit is currently two lousy rows a night.

Slowly.

And in pain.

Cruel really, isn't it?

Tonight I find myself at a total loss. I have three unfinished knitting projects that I can't do. I have been separated from my current book, Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle since last weekend. (It is probably sitting on my bedside table in Melbourne, which is not helpful to me now.) My erudite choice, The Scottish Covenanters by Johannes G Vos is far too...well... erudite...for tonight. Which leaves me with The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, which will do. With a hot cup of tea and a chocolate and a hot water bottle.

It is actually a terrific book if you're in the mood, but really I'd rather my scarf.

Has anybody seen the film?

Today...

...I am knitting. What are you up to this wintery Saturday afternoon?

Things we've been doing

Good morning, Girlies!

Sorry for making you all cry yesterday - that wasn't my intention, truly.

There've been plenty of tears over here too in the past few weeks, but life goes on, and there have been plenty of happy times as well- all the more precious because they're the last times we'll ever spend with my much loved Dad.

Here's some of the nice stuff we've been doing in the last week or two:

• Gaining comfort from the Psalms
• Knitting (you'll need to wait and see what)

• Making Potato People
• Playing Lego and Uno
• Comforting visitors
• Working on Grannie
• Eating cheese
• Drinking tea. And coffee. And champagne. And Drambuie.
• Reading this
• Making cards
• Catching up with cousins
• Finishing my second cushion (no buttons yet, you'll notice)



• Doing an incy-wincy bit of school
• Laughing and reminiscing
• Drooling over this
• Answering the telephone
• Renewing acquaintances with old family friends
• Playing dress-ups
• Having brekky in bed



• Eating icecream direct from the punnet
• Searching for thistles
• Holding hands
• Listening to this
• Celebrating a birthday - not mine



• Cackling over this
• Laughing over old photographs
• Hugging each other
• Being a family

Great Sponge Battle Attempt 4!

So I finally mastered the sponge.

180° C exactly - by the thermometer - for 21 minutes exactly - by the clock - did the trick. Phew.

And then what did I do? I failed the icing. I have never in my life mucked up icing before, but I did last night. It was thick and hard as rock and yucky. Definitely failed. Not even the Princesses would eat that icing. The homegroup boys say that that means I need to make an Attempt 5 next week. They would, wouldn't they? The sponge itself was really pretty good though, she says, blowing her own trumpet.

On a more positive note, here is a picture of the completed cushion. Well, it will be finished when I get some buttons. Can you just imagine that those big ugly nappy pins are really lovely Buttonmania horn buttons, please?

I would very much like it if you would all tell me how wonderful this cushion is. Just so that I don't need to skite about my abilities twice in the one post.

Thank you. I appreciate that.

Cushion update

Jemimah is having a lovely time this week with Princess Pea. I've hardly seen them. Pea has joined us for school, which has been completed quickly and happily, and then they can both get on with more important things.

Like catching lizards. Making cupcakes. Doing jigsaws. Acting out their favourite fairy tales. Toasting marshmallows on the fire. Making a house for the aforesaid lizard. Colouring brain hats (More on this soon). Playing in the cubby. Jumping on the trampoline. Having picnics at the playground. Cooking spaghetti bolognese for dinner. Having big messy bubblebaths. Laughing. Eating. Sleeping. Well, not so much sleeping.

No telly yet. That's pretty impressive, is it not? They have put in an order for Shrek tonight while homegroup is here though.

With all this free time, I've been knitting. I've finished my cushion. Tada!!

I decided on moss stitch for the flap. This is such an elegant stitch, and yet it is not one I use often - all that backwards and forwards with the yarn as you change from plain to purl is rather tedious. This time though, I settled into quite a happy rhythm, and I am really happy with the result - it was worth the effort.

I started to sew it up last night, only to discover that I had carefully and neatly sewn the button flap over not under the holes, and so I have had to quick unpick it. Which I had to do immediately, or I would never have bothered. That'll teach me to sew at midnight. Rather silly. Maybe by tonight you will see the finished product stitched the right way round. Sans buttons, of course. They will need to wait until I can get into Buttonmania on our next visit to Melbourne.

I'm sewing in the kitchen because the light is better for my ageing eyes. As I look up from my work I see these.

Beautiful, aren't they?

On my needles

I told you I'd show you my new wool. Isn't it sublime? It is another Noro yarn, this time Kochoran, a wool, angora and silk blend. I can't wait to have cushions made of this.

I've had to do a tension square to discover how many stitches I'll need for each cushion. 41 stitches is 28 cm. Why on earth didn't I knit just 40? Because I didn't count, that's why!

Oh my! I am so out of practice... Let me see: to knit a 36 cm square cushion I'll need 53 stitches. That's right, isn't it? I'm so glad I'm doing MEP maths.

The basket is an Injalak coiled basket of pandanus fibre. You can learn more about them here.

Some scarf

Image from here


I absolutely adore this scarf, I do.

Should I make my crochet granny rug or this first? Decisions, decisions...