Things I have learnt this week

Things I have learnt today (apologies in advance; skip to the end if you like!)

1. Connor doesn’t ever vomit just once
2. If your child vomits in the middle of the night, put a towel down in your bed before you try to go back to sleep with them
3. Because you didn’t know about #2, expect to change your sheets about 15 minutes later (but thank goodness you have a spare bed)
4. If you’ve already got the washing machine going, and it’s a front loader, the second set of bed linen that won’t be washed until the morning really needs to have the vomit scraped off it BEFORE washing (I pretty much knew that, but I was being strangely optimistic and/or lazy, mostly because of #5 below)
5. You don’t tend to make great decisions on not much sleep
6. It is heartbreaking when your toddler says to you in a sad voice “give me something to make me better” and there isn’t really anything you can give beyond water and cuddles, and #7
7. Vegemite toast is the best thing at helping an upset tummy, apart from water and cuddles
8. Tea, and lush knitting (Happy Mink yarn from Suzy Hausfrau) really does help with all of the above.

He’s sleeping now, so I’m on my third cup of tea and am doing some knitting, after hanging out two loads of washing and putting on the third.

I also learned the following this week:

TIME REALLY DOES FLY!

(Sorry it’s a bit blurry and dark, the iPad isn’t the best photo option early in the morning!)
Yes, Connor turned three this week! I can hardly believe it. He both amazes and frustrates me every single day! And makes me want to be a better person (I wish I was better at being better!). He’s wearing big boy undies now, loves to “help”, and is quite the conversationalist. He is generous with kisses and regularly says “I love you, mummy”, even when he’s not angling for a biscuit (or bissick, as he calls them).

To make up for the vomit story (SORRY!), I’ll share something he said yesterday. He saw the Queen (Queen Elizabeth II, in case you were thinking Freddie Mercury or similar) on tv, and he turned to me and said “Look! Nanna’s on the TV!”. I laughed and laughed! My mum (who looks NOTHING like the Queen) is going to love this.

Prize winning Pax!

Please forgive the show-off title, but I am just a bit proud of winning first prize at the Royal ?easter Show this year with this scarf – my first entry in the crochet competition and my first full Tunisian piece. Woot!

I really wasn’t expecting to win, so it was a lovely lovey surprise to go to the Arts Preview Night and find a blue ribbon on it!

Details
Pattern: Pax by Aoibhe Ni. A free pattern, designed to introduce crocheters to the techniques and designs of Aoibhe Ni.

I’m not an experienced Tunisian crocheter at all, and from what I can gather, Aoibhe’s pattern writing style and techniques are slightly different to most other Tunisian designers. In any event, she has a loyal following on Ravelry and has designed some gorgeous patterns. And she also provides lots of helpful videos of her techniques, so if you’ve been thinking about Tunisian, or can crochet a bit and like the look of her patterns, give it a go, it is really not difficult at all! And this pattern is a great place to start. You start with a long piece of plain Tunisian simple stitch (with short rows, to give the crescent shape) and then crochet on the lace edging.

Yarn: I used a gorgeous ball of 100% cashmere fingering/4ply from Knitters Addiction (no longer in operation, sadly), a birthday gift from the lovely JP. The pattern calls for lace weight, but I thought fingering might be a bit easier on the hands and eyes for my first full Tunisian project! Oh my goodness this is the most lush yarn. So soft, and only gets softer with blocking. I wish I had more of it in my stash, just beautiful. I used about 90g/495m.

Hook: another good thing about Aoibhe’s patterns is that they use a regular crochet hook (the type with a straight handle, not a shaped one) so you don’t need a traditional long handled Tunisian hook. I used a 5.5mm Knitter’s Pride wooden interchangeable hook (so you can screw a cable on for larger Tunisian work if you want!)

Time: 17 December 2012 – 23 January 2013. This worked up really quickly (as usual, I was working on other projects during this time too!).

Modifications: None! I worked it exactly according to the pattern. I would use a bigger hook next time, as I think my gauge was a bit tighter than it could have been, but I’m still very happy with it as made.

It definitely will not be my last Aoibhe Ni pattern!

Tell me what to do … Please?!

I’ve finally taken the plunge…I’m about to become a quilter! (Of sorts). It won’t replace knitting and crochet, but I find I cannot resist the lure of pretty fabric and especially gorgeous quilts any longer.

Today I had a few spare hours and so I got this out:

All lovely Liberty tana lawn, inspired by Donna. My first quilt, may as well use the best! It’s going to be very simple, a queen size quilt made with very wide strips. I had in mind doing it like this (in all photos, the strips are folded in half, the quilt will be longer than it appears!!)

(This is OPTION 1 – I think quite classic, let’s the fabric speak for itself)

But then Donna made a suggestion to me which has given me the following 3 options:

(OPTION 2 – sorry this photo is upside down, I blame the iPad!)

And then there’s this:

(OPTION 3 – the joins in the middle are staggered – because I need to cut approx 14″ off the length, this would allow me to cut 14″ off one of each of the 2 strips of the same fabric, rather than 7″ off both strips of the same fabric, if that makes sense?)

And the last one:

(OPTION 4 – this is the same as option 3, except that I’ve kept the blue strip in the middle together, rather than splitting it – mostly because it’s my favourite print. And maybe the strong vertical down the middle is a good idea?)

I will put a plain colour sashing around the entire quilt, I think it will be about 4-5″ wide. Probably in light grey although possibly red, if I can get the *right* red! Please let me know what you think, or any other suggestions for layout. I asked twitter and got 3 votes for option 3 and one for option 2 (although I hadn’t thought of option 4 then). I’d love to have more opinions!

(Sorry I haven’t added a poll, I couldn’t work out how to do it through the wordpress app on the iPad!).

Misplaced optimism or something else?

You know what it is like when you get a project idea stuck in your head, and no matter how many WIPS you have or how much yarn you have in your stash, you just have to make this project NOW, and you have to buy the yarn for it, because despite having tubs and tubs and chests of yarn, you don’t have this particular yarn in your stash.

And so it was with this project. I had the magazine with the pattern already, and I was browsing Ravelry one day when I came across a lovely FO, exactly the same colours as the pattern, with fabulous photos. And I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

And I found myself at one of my favourite yarn (and fabric) stores, Calico & Ivy (which is sadly closing in a couple of weeks) and they have a great range of the required yarn (Rowan Kidsilk Haze, be still my beating heart!) and so I had a play. I pulled out the colours used in the pattern, which I liked, but not right for me. So instead, I went with this combination:

I went off wearing blue (especially navy blue) for a while, but I’m back on board with the blues, and I just love these blues and greys together. As did another customer in the shop, heh!

Even though I’m halfway through a vest for Connor which I must finish for his birthday next month (he’s going to be three!!) I couldn’t resist starting yesterday. I spent a little while getting organised:

And then I started. Tell you what, it’s slow going using the KSH, especially the dark colours (I won’t be doing this project at night I don’t think!) but it is so lovely:

Even moreso when it is blocked (or pinned out, in this case – I thought I might have to go up a hook size to get gauge – but this stuff really stretches out nicely.

What is it that makes us knitters and crocheters do this, buy new yarn for a new project even though we’ve got so much already in our mental or actual queue/WIP pile? Is it (perhaps misplaced) optimism in our ability to plough through the yarn, or just plain insanity?! I think I prefer to think the former, but maybe it’s a bit of the latter…I blame the yarn fumes!

Blogging mojo missing…knitting mojo alive and kicking!

I’ve got quite a few things I could be blogging about, but can’t seem to motivate myself to do it (story of my life, really, except for knitting and crochet!)

I have been knitting! Yes I have! It was with much relief that I picked up the sticks again last month after sending off my Easter Show entries – I hadn’t knit a stitch since early January! I might have even already mentioned that to you, but it still amazes me. Fortunately, I remembered how to cast on, and in just over a week I had this:

A little vest for a friend who has just had her second baby – got to love the little knits, so quick!

Details:
Pattern:. Floyd by Martin Storey from Rowan Miniature Classics. I’ve knitted this before, for Connor, and found the pattern a tad on the small size. So I decided to knit the 6-9 mo size, even though the new little guy is only 2 mo. And I added a bit of length in the body, as the
Rowan Handknit Cotton shrinks a wee bit in the wash and dryer.

(Sorry about the sideways photos, don’t know what happened with those!)

Yarn: Rowan Handknit Cotton, 1 ball each in red, blue and stone – all up I used about 105gm. I had a ball of red leftover from Connor’s vest, so used it for the bands, and striped the blue and stone. If I buy one more ball I reckon I’ll have enough for another vest!

This is a nice cotton, a bit thicker than a regular DK/8ply, more of a worsted weight really I think. It is nice to knit with and knits up beautifully. And easy to wash and dry if necessary!

Sticks: 3.25 and 4mm sticks

Modifications: As mentioned, I made it a few cm longer in the body. I also left off the pocket, since a baby doesn’t have much use for pockets in their garments! And the stripes add enough visual interest anyway, I think.

Time: 24 March – 2 April

I don’t often repeat patterns that I’ve already made, but I can see myself making this one again. It’s just a nice cute vest – classic and versatile.

Ribbons galore!

I have been quieter on the blog than I meant to be over the last couple of months. The main reason is because for most of January, all of February and early March I was madly crocheting on my entries for the Royal Easter Show (like the State Fair in the US, not sure of equivalents elsewhere). In fact, until the entries were submitted (on 8 March) I had done NO KNITTING since early January! Amazing!

Something that a lot of online knitters (and to a lesser extent, crocheters) have bemoaned is the quality and especially number of entries in the knitting and crochet classes at the Show. The knitting has improved over the last few years, but I thought the crochet was still a bit lacking. So I decided I would finally enter, after having only thought about it previously. I obviously wasn’t the only one to think this, as there seemed to be a lot more entries this year! Yay! I entered three items, one in the Tunisian class, one in blanket/lap rug/afghan and one in shawl using 4ply or thicker yarn.

The Show holds a preview night each year, and this year anyone who entered got a free ticket. And the chance to find out before the Show starts who won ribbons!

And here are my entries (and, I am pleased and excited to say, RIBBONS!)

I got a third for my Hexagons.Grey blanket:

(Interestingly, the blanket immediately below is the same pattern – interesting how using a different colour palette changes the look of the object entirely!)

I also got a third for my Daisy Doo, in the shawl 4ply or thicker class:

(The blue one above it was awarded second and the burgundy one on the right came first).

I was really pleased with these, as I hadn’t expected to win at all, I just wanted to bolster up the number of entries. My only slight disappointment is that both of these were displayed wrong side out! But I will contact the RAS and have it fixed.

But I have saved the best for last … I was MOST EXCITED to see a BLUE ribbon on my Tunisian entry:

My first Tunisian, the Pax scarf by Aoibhe Ni. Beginners luck probably! (I will do separate more detailed posts on the Hexagons Grey blanket and Pax later. Hopefully this month, heh!)

And I am already planning my entries for next year’s Show! I’ve even started one already.

Some amazing women

As I’ve been browsing blog posts and twitter this morning, I’ve been reminded that today is International Women’s Day.

And it seems like a good day to share this story, although this is not the post I was hoping to write about this subject.

For around five wonderful weeks I knew I was pregnant. I did the pee test (I did four!). I had the blood test. I booked in with my obstetrician. I booked the hospital. We even bought a new (bigger) car! (Well, we needed to do that anyway, we just did it a bit sooner). I was surprised and so happy. I never really thought I would have a sibling for Connor, but I always hoped. And just when I had really come to accept it wouldn’t happen, it did. Or at least, it seemed to.

But it was not to be. I had my first appointment and scan with my OB on Wednesday, and my little baby’s heart was not beating. It was late in the afternoon but she phoned around various specialist ultrasound clinics until she found one that could see me straight away, just to be sure. And it was sure.

So I had a trip to hospital yesterday morning and now I’m feeling a bit sore and sorry for myself, but I’m ok. Surprisingly so, really. I suppose a part of me always thought that a second miracle was too good to be true.

But you know, that’s not really what I wanted to focus on with this post. It was an awful thing and one that I wish no person had to experience, but which I know is so common. But if it has to happen, I feel so lucky and know I am so privileged to have it happen in the way I experienced it. Thanks to so many amazing women (and my amazing husband) who have helped and are helping me through it.

My lovely OB. Funny how so many people still assume a doctor must be a man. She felt she did a bad job telling me the result of the scan, but her slight awkwardness really demonstrated to me that she cared, that it was difficult for her too, and that she wasn’t treating me as a number. It must be a difficult balance, as a doctor, to be compassionate but also professional, to deal with the medical issues as well as the emotional ones.

The ultrasound technician, who must hate delivering such news, but who was very kind and gentle.

The registered nurse who did my hospital admission the next morning. I could not have asked for a gentler, more empathetic person.

The nurse who looked after me in the short stay ward, another fantastic caring kind person who is a credit to her profession.

(I must also mention the anaesthetist, even though he’s a man, heh heh. He was very kind too, although he lost points for basically telling me I was a wimp when he put the needle in my hand! I probably was, but he didn’t need to tease me!)

My mum, who was so devastated but who took on the task of telling all my brothers, and my mother in law, who looked after Connor for us and who cooked a mountain of food so we didn’t have to worry about cooking last night or possibly even tonight as well!

My wonderful friends. Thank you xx

So many amazing women, who made such a personally devastating experience so much easier to bear. Such excellent examples of how we, as people (not just women) should treat each other all the time.