FO Friday 156: Grumps

Tarot of the Magical Forest

Between my ISP and Blogger, I shall have pulled out all my hair strand by painful strand before I manage to complete this post. Yes, I am feeling grumpy, how did you guess ?

I had been feeling as if I was trudging through treacle recently, as I seemed to be doing lots of knitting, but not finishing anything. The sweater for Titch ie. DH is on a hiatus while I sulk about not having enough yarn to complete a pullover for a giant ogre and I sulk about him being an ogre. Then I shall sulk some more, as I completed Destructo Boy's school cardigan this week, the second one this year as the first was too small despite my squeezing him in my anaconda coils, only for him to tell me it was too big and puffy. Grump.

 

 

 It does look a lot better now that it has been washed (after this photo) but the photo of the apres-wash cardigan was way more rubbish than this one. Grumpety grumble. It is Sirdar 2363, in Supersoft Aran: I modified it by adding the pockets, clever me - that way I have somewhere to put the bricks with which I shall weight him down before hurling him from the bridge. Grump.

 And then this morning I finished my Infidelity project. It looks like a dish-rag as it is not yet blocked:

 

I love Malabrigo Lace Yarn - so soft ! so squooshy ! - but it is the skein that never ends. I did lots of repeats of various parts of the pattern, AND a picot bind-off, and I still have 5 or 7 grams left. Grump.

 So it is just as well for the bodily safety all in my near vicinity that the postman showed up with this:

Jamieson & Smith 2ply Laceweight sent by my lovely MIL from her recent visit to Shetland. Such fabulous depth of color, and these skeins contrast so brilliantly, don't they ? I say nothing about the texture as yet, I'm trying to improve myself and make less snap judgments. Grump.

Yes, I do have a plan in mind for them, as it goes, just it won't be happening right this minute as another plan has swept in like a tsunami. Oh yes, I am spontaneity personified. But you already knew that ....

While I spend the next hours or so blocking my Infidelity project and drinking Ceylon tea because I have run out of Assam - grump - why not go see what's happening over at Tami's Amis ?

WIP Wednesday 162: False Economies

Well, there's absolutely no need for you to kick my butt and shout ''I told you so!'' at me, thanks - I've been doing it for myself.

This is this year's school cardigan I made from a vintage pattern for Destructo Boy. It's cute. It came out right - even the pockets. I even got the pain in the bum sewed-on miles-long neckband to work. The key to my self-flagellation and current whinge and woe is in the 3rd sentence from the end.

Destructo Boy wore the cardigan yesterday as he has already managed to misplace his school sweatshirt. It is a snug fit. It is too snug of a fit, even when I squeeze him tight like a boa constrictor, and stretch the cardigan like two crocodiles eating the same gnu. Yes, he IS learning about similes in school this week, how did you know ?

Anyway. It has been gifted to his BFF, and I spent hours online yesterday comparison shopping for yarn for a replacement. This time it is Aran-weight, for speed of knitting, and I invested in a new pattern too. I went to one of my usual bargain haunts, to find that the postage would absorb any savings made on the discounted yarn; for the same amount of money elsewhere online solely on yarn/pattern, I could  get free postage. 

Bit of a no brainer, even for me: £10/$16 of yarn plus £5/$8 p&p, or £15/$24 of yarn with free p&p. And both of these were less expensive than buying what I wanted/needed from one of the LYSs, which was over £1.15/$1.85 per ball more expensive. There isn't even much of a delay in starting the project - the yarn ordered yesterday arrives in the post today.

So the Old Man Cardigan and the Infidelity Knitting is shoved to one side as I race to knit Destructo Boy a new cardigan before he loses another school sweatshirt ....

Don't forget, there's still time to vote in my poll .... 

Read more cheerful posts over at Tami's Amis .....

FO Friday 154: Poll - Time to Go ?

So my DH and even my kids are telling me that I must throw out, jettison, abandon to the seagulls at the tip, rip out from the bottom of my soul, one of my most favoritest possessions ever in the world.

I tell them that they have small hard pebbles in place of hearts, and therefore are about as compassionate as a spider-hating cat.

This is the item in question:

no, I wasn't 18 even when I got this at the gig

the Tour dates ... once upon a time they were legible

some holes with a bit of T-shirt attached

OK, not BNWT, but still with the original label

can I persuade you this is anticipating the need to make an ad hoc tourniquet ?

Just in case you can't decipher the faded shreds of fabric, I'll tell you that this is the T-shirt I bought when I went to one of the gigs on Bryan Adams' '18 til I Die' tour of the UK, in .... umm .... 1997. Which means - after I've counted on fingers AND toes - that it is 16 ... omigoodness .... 16 years old. I might have to weep.

Here's the poll:


Is it time to ditch the T-shirt ? DH has just told me that Bryan Adams had quit touring a while back .... I am going to wallow in a pit of gin and depression cuz that means that he too is no longer18, while you vote, and then head over to Tami's Amis for some cheerfulness .....


PS: I do not wear this out or in public, I wear it to sleep in. Oh yes, I am ALL about seduction and alluring; femme fatale est moi .....

WIP Wednesday 161: A Bit on the Side

Housewives Tarot

I know you will rejoice almost as much as I did, when you hear that I skipped merrily out of the dentist's a mere 10 minutes or so after entering full of gloom and doom.

No, the appointment wasn't cancelled; but instead of the needles and drills I had been dreading, there was a gentle scraping, a refill, and some kind of mini-hairdryer type thing to set the filling stuff.

I couldn't believe my luck, let me tell you. It even made all the jokes that were made about my wussiness endurable.

I decided I would treat myself to some yarn, blow the expense, as I had been such a good, brave girl, and not one tear had actually escaped either eye. Unfortunately, the newish posh local yarn shop is apparently shut on Mondays, and has some seemingly random other opening hours.

That meant I was forced instead to buy buttons from the tiny new buttons and beads shop:

It is such a tiny and specialized shop I am not sure how long it will last, so I thought I'd better get a few for just in case, and put them away somewhere safe - at some point no doubt I will make things that they go with.

I am afraid I have rather been cheating on my poor old DH - I have been knitting Something Else rather than his Old Man Cardigan .... I do not know how will take such a huge betrayal.

But I have now completed the right front, including pocket; and last night began the left front. There is no picture of the Other Project, as that would constitute proof of my infidelity  ....

Go and see purer works over at Tami's Amis .....

High Noon

Fenestra Tarot

 
I am not here.

No, I'm not a figment of your overactive imagination; this post is scheduled.

I am at the dentist. 

My dentist is nothing like the one below, but the one below is the archetype taprooted into my brain like a particularly malevolent dandelion.

I am fully prepared for any aftermath: I am stocked up with ibuprofen, paracetamol and gin.

Think of me kindly when I'm gone.

WIP Wednesday 160: Old Ogre-wear

Spiral Tarot

So in amongst the frenzied last minute holiday activities like swimming, park visits and girlie shopping with Mini Diva, I have actually managed to start the Old Man Cardigan for Shrek, aka DH. He not only selected and paid for the yarn (James C.Brett Rustic Aran Tweed in a shade enticingly named DAT16).

scale shown by 44kg/96lb Alsatian, not the Ogre, but built along the same lines

 
But he also pre-approved the pattern, choosing from a variety which included quite a few vintage offerings (thank you, Kitten), and ending up with this Nubby Pocket Cardigan pattern. It does have a textured stitch pattern, which I misled myself with, foolishly imagining that it would make the acres of Back that much more interesting to knit.

You think I exaggerate with 'acres' ?

Well, OK, possibly. 

But not by much - the back shown here is 18''/45cm  from bottom edge to bottom of the armhole, and the armhole is currently 10''/25cm long, and needs to be a minimum of 11''/27.5cm. That's 29''/ 72.5cm so far - and we haven't even mentioned the width yet. Because I'm too lazy to get up and find the gauge, I'll guesstimate you by saying it is the 52''/130cm size I am making.

I know, you are right, I really don't have time to sit here chatting with you if I want to get this finished in this lifetime, let alone this year. Pop over to Tami's Amis where they are enjoying their WIPs ....