Finished object, and returning to things left unfinished.

What happened to the past week, forgive me, it has been a week and a half since I last blogged. Things were busy, I suspected I was getting a cold, still do, the preliminary symptoms have come to nothing. Last week was the last week of term so there were things to do. I had a constant stream of students making enquiries about when they would get their marks back. My standard reply was that mine were done (true)' and that I was waiting for the rest of the teaching team to finish (true), and that organizing other adults was at time like herding cats ( all to sadly true). They took it well, the students, and on Friday I handed back what's could, including the three as yet unmarked, with what marks I had and a note that they had passed, one mark was still to come, the so the total would go up.

Then Bear came home, from two weeks in Christchurch helping with the 'rebuild', and the cubs started their term break, with birthday part invites, so the past few days has been a whirlwind of finding appropriate presents, within budget, and ferrying cubs to and from. In amidst all of that I knitted some, not a lot but I finished a sock, and spun, and distracted myself and little cub with sewing a new dress. Today I am indulging in finishing two books for bear, ones I printed out way back in march 2012. Feels nice to have them finally being works on.

Alien pirate socks

Little cubs pirate socks are done, not blocked in water, but blocked on feet, immediately. Being pale green, and with the eyes the skulls have a slightly more alien feel than a pirate feel, I imagine in blood red, white or black these would be spectacular.

Close up of alien eyelet

My change, was to knit the heel flap in eye-of-partridge, and to bind off with Julie's magic stretchy bind off. Oh and to add eyelet eyes to the skulls on thleg section. I knit the medium size, to fit a 9" foot, and have 18 grams of yarn left over. Not bad considering with all the twisted traveling stitches this is a dense sock. I am having thoughts about how I could make use of the skull motif with the eyelet eyes in a more floating alien way on another pair. The pattern is Pirate Danger by Jeannie Cartmel, a well written pattern as far as I could tell. I don't always follow instructions ... so can't be totally sure.

New green dress

Here is the little cubs newest sewing effort, the green floral hidden behind the sparkly silver number. If it were not for the sparkly silver, black jeans, purple shorts and leggings covered with hearts also in her wardrobe I would wonder about the image she presented to the world. Taken on just her preference in dress fabrics, cuts and lengths, she seems to lean towards the uber conservative small town girl. Still that is better the if she were to lean the other way.

Today I am sewing, books this time, guitar chord books for bear. These are two blanks I printed off for the bookbinding class I taught at unwind earlier this year. No one wanted to bind guitar chord books, the class preferred grid, knitters graph, lines, dot grid and plain pages. No worries I knew Bear would want these, and today seems a good day to complete both. Once the stitching is complete, the blanks get a good press to set the stitches, and then I will cut, cover and assemble the covers. I

Book binding, guitar chord books

And finally spinning, I am on leave this week, taken as the cubs are on rearm break. Bear is on leave next week, to cover the other week of the term break. Because I would be at home, and able to spin a lot, I decided to spin on my Philip Poore Pipy wheel. This came after a conversation with Bear where we were discussing how 'full' the house is, how much 'stuff' we both have. I suggested that a traveling wheel in bag plus three other wheels in the back room, and the big Grace wheel in the living space was part of the clutter and I should maybe sell one or more. Bear was horrified, and said no, I should use them. So this week I am using the Pipy, and I am loving it. For some reason I thought woolen spinning was best on a scotch tensioned wheel, but the double drive Pipy is a dream to spin woolen on.

Phillip Poore Pipy

Perhaps once the tension is set to a beautiful delicate pull in, any wheel works well for most spinning? The blend is a carded batt, or batts from Do Arnot, in Oamaru. In the past I have spun Do's batts worsted, short draw and found them not as smooth as the combed top that others sell. This time around spinning fine supported long draw woollen I am really enjoying the carded batts, the fibre flows easily and the prep is fantastic for woolen. What was difficult for worsted is perfect for wollen. The blend is 'Lichen', and a mix of merino, alpaca, and silk with the proportions not identified. The colors are amazing, fawn, gold, green, brown, purple, silver .... all in a combination that works and has life without drama.

Time to go and finish the stitching on the books, and see how little cub is doing with making butterscotch cookies (all on her own - I like this side of growing up).

Cheers, na Stella

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I may have created a monster ....

Today, there is knitting, and knitting news, but mostly the post is about what I have been doing instead of knitting the past weekend. First up, I cast on a new project, not a new cardigan, but a hat. Saturday was knitters study group class and the 'study' was on cables that grew out of increases. I'm working Atle Beret by Elizabeth Lavold from March/April Piecework 2012. Little cub is working one to, hers will be a headband, mine a hat. She felt a headband would be more useful, and she probably is right.

Viking cable project

My yarn is handspun, blue with shades of warmer purples, a cabled yarn slightly Aran in weight. Beyond that I know nothing, I really should keep better yarn records - and thought I did.

Vintage pattern

Ages ago I bought this pattern, and little cub, Bear and I found fabric. I cut the pieces out and made a start, then lfe got busy(when is it not I ask?) and the mostly made dress hung around behind a bedroom door for weeks, months maybe. Last Sunday little cub had a playmate, elder cub had a rowing session, and I dug out the sewing machine, all the bits and pieces and settled in to finish the dress.

Monster ish

Here is little cub, proudly modeling the finished dress. After dropping her off at her playdate, Bear and I popped into town to buy suitable 'legs' for the dress, we thought brown. We found nothing in brown, fashion here seems dominated by black, grey, and pink. Bear did find the perfect orange.

Ladies have matching nails

We had a little fun once the dress was done, and worked on a manicure to match. Brown and orange with Mary quant style flowers on some nails. We even used vintage buttons to finish the belt.

A hat to finish things off

That was all well and good, but the next morning look what little cub emerged from her room with. She hastened to assure me she had not made it the night before when she should have been sleeping, but instead had set her alarm so she woke up early to finish it before breakfast. She has covered an Alice head band with ribbon and attached a felt flower from her craft kit.





I have the feeling that I may just be encouraging a monster. This is the same wee girl who complained that other people wore jeans and tee shirts to the Royal New Zealand Ballet, that they didn't dress up. She of course had her gold and black lurex dress, black and gold kitten heels, and a silver padded bomber jacket all bought second hand that morning for less than $10 at her insistence. The same girl who suggested many of her school mates really didn't take care when they dressed and just wore track pants to school not dresses. This girl is ten years old and already coordinates better than I do, and I suspect with more flare and drama. I might have created a monster, and I have no idea how she will handle the school uniform that is part of high school life in New Zealand.





Still - I can't help smile, and worry that perhaps maybe I am one of those mothers who dress their kids funny.

Take care - na Stella

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Confirmed (I think)

I think I've confirmed that there is enough yarn to complete the lace edge on Rosebuddie! I know, its all in the details today, what is that saying about small things amuse small minds?

Rosebuddie nearly off the needles and able to be seen flat

Rosebuddie now has over half the lace edge worked! The lovely thing about working the edge sideways on knitting is as the edge is completed the stitches are released from the needle and one gets a feeling for the true size of a project. Not only the size but the look, the way the colours in the handspun yarn are playing out in the knitting, and the proportions of each section of the lace. This is a time when I catch myself repeatedly smoothing out the lace after each few rows and just admiring and looking. I can't be alone in that can I? A sort of mix of pleasure and surprise at how something that has been bunched up on needles looks when relaxed and flat.
The details of the yarn usage are:

• before the edge started I had 49 grams of yarn remaining, 
• after the first corner was worked I had 38g of yarn remaining, 
• after the second corner I had 28 grams of yarn  remaining. 

In theory those numbers confirm that I need 10-11grams of yarn to edge a side, and I will finish with a small amount of yarn left over.

My new 'old' dress

And the dress, back view as the fit across the back lower waist and the swing of the skirt are the features I most like. I'm not sure what Bear did but his photo makes me look slimmer than I feel just now, I like it, wonder how I can do that in real life? I shortened the dress considerably, as the original length, to nearer the ankle than the calf seemed dowdy. This length is a nod to fashion but not quite the short flippy mid thigh skirt length that seems so popular right now but so wrong for someone of 'my age'. I'm also elegantly pale or deathly pale depending on your view on sun-tanned skin, but that is just a fact of living here, working when the sun shines and being the kind of knitter who sunburns failry easily so tends to avoid direct exposure to the sun.

take care
na Stella

Enough - maybe , probably.

I think I have enough yarn, I think I do, I think I do, I think I do. Do you think that if I repeat this mantra as I knit there will be enough? And sorry, seems I am having a flashback to the little train that could. Today I have progress of a good kind on the  Rosebuddie blanket, the dress is nearly finished and I am loving the vintage details in its construction, there is an actual finished object with photos, and a new toy was loaned to me. Now I want one of my own.

Here is the 'first' corner on the Rosebuddie blanket. I say first in a slightly tongue in check way as I have knit the edging up to and around the corner once if not twice before on this very same blanket, so there have been corners before. Last time I realised I would finished the blanket with an enormous amount of yarn left over. At which point I frogged the edging and added a few more repeats of the next-to-last lace panel. I had weighed the yarn I had left just before I began the lace edge, and had 49g. I weighed the yarn again after I reached the first corner, and I had 38g left. Now to me that means a side takes 11 grams of yarn, and if I have three sides left to knit I will use 33g. The celebrations consisted of me sitting in my knitting chair, smiling to myself and checking and rechecking my maths just to make sure. Inside I was all happy and warm, even more so this morning when I layed out the corner for a photo and noticed how pretty it is.

 Wednesday went well, I sewed the vintage dress pattern as planned. I made minor adjustments as my waist is not in the same place as the waist of the pattern, and oddly had to shorten the skirt as the hem was nearly to my ankles. That felt a bit frumpy so the hem now sits just below my knee. I loved the little construction details, like seam binding. In a recent Opp shop purchase I had found a wheel of vintage cream and orange floral seam binding so bought it for the princely sum of $4. The vintage pattern provided three options for neatening the seams, pinking, hand overcasting or seam binding. Seam binding isn't used here in New Zealand, or sold but as I had this to hand I decided to use it. I did practice some economies and over-lock the skirt seam allowances. I loved the effect of the seam binding so much I didn't want to use it all up in the one garment. I also like the weird mix of modern overlocking with vintage seam binding .... some historian somewhere will be very confused by that mix.

 Because the dress was designed in a time when seam binding was common the instructions were written to allow very precise and neat finishing of the inside edges. I didn't quite know how this edge would work out but followed the instructions and I'm pleased I did. Look so neat, the way the seam binding fits together where the button fly at the front and the neck facing meet. There were also instructions for hand stitching a button hole, something I can do and have done, but this time I went for machine button holes, I wanted to wear this dress this month, and hand stitch button holes take forever to work.

 This is one more project off the needles, Dark and Twisty. Little wristers in sock yarn, cabled and ribbed. Little cub has been wearing these most days, despite it still being summer and warm, so these should get a lot of wear come winter.

 Now this is the toy that I was loaned, a wee darning aid. At first I didn't quite understand why this would be any better than darning by eye, and hand and using a mushroom or egg. But I love playing with knitting and sewing toys so I dug out a old knit swatch and pretended it had a hole in it.

 Wow! I love this, I want one, I really do. I dont' darn, much or often or even like this but I want one of these. This little gadget make darning a very even square patch easy, I was impressed by the clever little hooks that lift and turn the warp so you can just slide the darning needle across instead of weaving up and down through all the threads. Now this darn breaks many of the rules given in old books, especially where they suggest staggering the edges so the darn blends in better, but I like it. I have all sorts of ideas about using this to decorate knit or not knit things. The back is neat and tidy to, but didn't photograph well. I imagine if there was a hole I could either neaten the edges by stitching them to the darn, or trim them away, or both.

Tomorrow the cubs go back to school and Bear and I both return to work, until now one or the other of us has been at home for childcare purposes. Tomorrow is the first standard week of the  working year for all of us. That means today is all about making sure the cubs are clean, tidy, washed, and ready to go to school. There will also be baking as things are prepared for lunch boxes, and books are labeled, shoes polished, bags emptied of the fun holiday stuff and filled ready for school. Excuse me as I go and be a parent, instead of a Knitter.

na Stella

Messing about

Seems like I have been messing about with lots of different things the past few days. Little cub has been invited to more birthdays, and like before these friends play the ukelele, and have seen her ukelele bag and the one we gifted to C ... so let it be known that they would love one of their own. Because it is never easy finding great gifts  - Little cub and I decided Bella gets a bag ...

Bella

and Caitlin gets a bag as well. The plan was to make them different but not so different that they were hard to make. Like the others I traced around the ukelele and added seam allowance straight onto the denim. I ironed fusible web onto one side of some bright colourfull fabric left over from a previous project - I always keep good sized scraps. Then I  cut out their names in letters then ironed the letters onto the front of the Uke bag. Then I zig zagged over the raw edges  to finish them nicely. Little cub chose the colours, based around one friend liking green and the other friend liking purple .... the threads are left over from previous projects.

Caitlin

I also made significant progress on my Rosebuddie, I  knit 3/4 of the way through chart, on addition to the complete repeat I had already worked. This left me with 49g of yarn - which I hope will be enough to complete the lace edge with. I've calculated how many stitches I have, and how many repeats that will allow me to knit around the edge, and adjusted the stitch count by two stitches to make things all match up nicely. This time I'm liking the way the eyelet boarder between the blanket body and the edge is working out -now that I'm p2tog rather than K2tog.  

Rosebuddie, this time with nice eyelet lace edge

The vintage dress pattern I bought to make myself a dress has been opened, carefully unfolded, checked, and the instructions read through. Everything is there, and it is well used but nicely looked after. I Googled how to use vintage dress patterns, and was encouraged by the number of people out there blogging  like this info. On Sunday morning, out buying Denim for  Ukelele cases I found this lovely gold and chocolate floral at Global Fabrics and decided that I was brave enough to make it into a dress. My usual taste in clothes runs to darker and plainer, but I must have been feeling a tad risky. The print is a very stylized old gold floral, kind of arts and crafts tonal print. Still am it seems as I've cut out the dress and have it pinned awaiting basting for fitting. More recently the fabric I have bought with plans to sew specific things has just ended up in stash, this time I really want a new dress, especially after making 5 for little cub. I usually make my own patterns so toile rather than baste and fit. Subtle difference being that a toile is adjusted and discarded in the process of making the garment fit, and a basted fit is achieved by cutting the garment in the final fabric with checking for size and allowing for alterations before it is completed. I was in town today and saw a special on little pretty vintage style summer cardigans .... so thought I might head back to buy one to go with this latter in the week.

Rose gold and chocolate brown

The other project that made its way onto and then off the needles are these little chickens and eggs. The cubs both love them, the one with the blanket stitched wings is by little cub. She knit it in the round - her first magic loop knit project and a successful one. She had started one earlier that was knit flat, but lost interest, seeing then knit in the round was enough to make her dig out her knitting and ask me to show her how to make one. The chick pattern is adapted from Fuzzy thoughts, and the eggs from Frankie.

Chicken or egg?

I'm off work again for three days this time, and if my plans go well I will have all day Wednesday to test fit and complete the dress ... ready to wear to work. Tomorrow there is some serious play date-ing at my house followed by the Ukelele girls birthday party.

Take care - na Stella

Still thinking about it

I'm still procrastinating,

28g is enough for a second wash cloth

So much so that I finished the wristers (sorry no photo yet) and the wash cloth. I tend to enter my project details in Ravely and one of the sub categories provides space to record how much of a skein was used, so I weighed the remaining yarn ready to enter the information. The washcloth used 23 g of the 50g of yarn, meaning I had 27 g left, More than enough for a second cloth. As I'm still procrastinating I started a second cloth, immediately, besides what else would I do with 27 grams of cotton linen yarn? I might be procrastinating about the blanket but I'm still knitting.

Two more knit journals

I've also been procrastinating by making more books, these two are knit journals, so have nice fountain pen friendly pages printed in a knit proportioned grid. The dark grey one is for me, and the animal print a gift. You might notice that the two books differ where the covers attach to the spine. I'm using 4mm thick board because I like nice stiff covers on my books, covers that don't bend. Good for knitting and working in ones lap, nice and stiff for writing on and sturdy enough to live in my knit bag. I'm working out how much extra needs to be allowed for the 'french-groove', that little ditch between the cover and the spine. There is a little bit of artistic choice here, how much larger than the pages the covers should be and how deep and wide the groove should be. Different cover materials also shrink with the glue and allowing 10mm might result in a narrow mean groove with one kind of paper and a wider more generous groove with a different paper. I think if I cut the covers 6mm larger than the pages, and allow twice the thickness of the cover board plus 6mm I might have the formulae right for the papers I'm using. The next one will be the test.

Tidied away

As part of the procrastination I tidied up my craft storage last week, and now have a drawer devoted to book and boxmaking.

Seven more book blocks

Inside I now have seven more book blocks. Book block is the term used to describe a set of pages sewn together ready to be covered. I'm coptic binding the book blocks but instead of coptic binding the covers in place I insert the book block into a hard covered case and paste the flyleaves in place. I like the way the coptic binding allows the book to stay open at each page, but also like the look of a book with a journal style cover with a square spine and french grooves. Some of these have plain pages, most have a knit grid. I'm planning most of these as gifts for birthdays that will occur during the year. Making the covers is the really fun part, so having seven book blocks ready is nice, a little bit like having bookmaking stash.

Vintage wooden darning mushroom with spring band

Today we drove the cubs up to Waimate so they can spend the week with my Dad. On the way back Bear and I stopped in Oamaru and had a look around a few antique shops, I found this neat wee darning mushroom in turned wood in one of the shops. There are no makers marks, and unusually this one has a little fitted clamp that will hold the fabric in place whilst it is darned. I am repeating to myself that I do not need to collect these, I'll  just have a few interesting and nice ones.

1940/50 and perhaps 1960,

Then we headed to the south end of Oamaru where there is a Historic area, lots of Victorian themed cafes, galleries, craft shops and one shop 'Retro-Funk' that specialises in mid twentieth century items. Bear noticed there were patterns for sale, vintage ones. Little cub is wearing the four dresses I made using the last vintage pattern almost all the time, so we had to get this pattern for her. Little cub has been asking if the next dress could have a collar, and this style has a collar, is the same brand (Butterick) and is in the same size, so should be the same nice fit. The other pattern dates from at least 1950, or earlier going by two newspaper sheets that are tucked inside. The original owner has traced off the front of the dress and drafted a shawl collar on newspaper which is dated June 1951. I'm wondering if I'm brave enough to sew one of these vintage styles for me. I like the idea, they look pretty, and these two dresses look shapely and yet timeless. If I find the right fabric I could just try one, and see how that goes. First step should be to toile the pattern in calico to check the fit, so that might be my project for next week, unless something else distracts me. I'm back to work this week, but on leave again for much of next week before the cubs go back to school next month.

I think I'm ready to pick up the blanket and knit .... perhaps my procrastination stage is nearing its end? I'm off to dig the blanket out of the basket and see how I feel about it.
Hope my entry into work for the new year is gently, and that yours was the same.

na Stella

Owls!

Boxing day here, the day after Christmas day. I was always told that boxing day was the day that wealthy Victorians went about passing on the food and other left overs to those less fortunate than themselves. I've also heard tell of Boxing day sales, particularly in the UK, where shoppers almost lost all reason in their haste to purchase heavily discounted items, particularly clothing and accessories. Here Boxing day is usually quiet, often is is an invite somewhere, and there are left overs, and of course the cubs (and adult bears) want to play with their new toys. In short mostly Boxing day is a mop up from Christmas day, eating the left overs, and finishing up Christmas things. Today - the washing machine threw us a curve ball .... yesterday after Christmas dinner I popped the table cloth which Bears Mum had embroidered into the washing machine  .... thinking it best to clean it before any food had a chance to settle and stain. Last night I pulled the damp table cloth out of the machine and hung it over the side of the machine ready to hang up this morning. This morning Bear went out to hang the table cloth on the washing line while I made breakfast coffee. Bear returned reporting that the table cloth was covered in brown 'mud' and that the washing machine had more 'mud' all over the inside. Long story - short, appears this washing machine has a filter, deep inside the agitator that we were unaware of .. and the filter was completely filled with years of wet lint. Filled the the point it was washing out of the filter and back into the wash, and it was mud coloured and  ... ewwwh! So our boxing day went in a mess of cleaning up the mess, including dropping a cloth between the agitator and the wall of the machine and fears of needing a repair visit to retrieve it. Luckily Bear is the sort of person who just works away quietly at things and he hauled the washing machine out and cleaned in behind and under and in the process the cloth fell out the bottom ...... What was boxing day like for you? Was it better than mine?

1950's style petticoat

The last two days of the 'before' Christmas week littlest cub and I sewed another dress and a petticoat. With each of the dresses she has asked if the skirt could 'pouff out', and inspired by rumors of a 1950's petticoat for sale at a local second hand shop (we went but it was sold), I searched out instructions and made one. I bought the bridal tulle and the bias binding, and already had the material for the top and the elastic. So far little cub has worn it every day and with every skirt and dress she has. I suspect that she will ask for another one, as I let slip that I'd read that girls in the 1950's sometimes wore more than one to make their skirts extra full. The dress is just like the pink one, but in blue plaid ....

Unravelled by Carrik, of Central Otago, NZ

Did you know that there is wine made for knitters? This is one that Bear brought home for us, Unravelled by Carrick, one of the Central Otago wineries. I've not tried it but Bear is good at reading and remembering wine reviews .. so it should be tasty. Carrick say  'The name is a play on our Carrick Bend Knot and represents a marketing decision to produce a very reasonably priced uncomplicated, upfront ("unravelled!"), enjoyable wine, with recognizable black cherry fruit and ready to drink now'... I like to think that its fibre rlated and  I'm happy to connect the two together in my own mind.

Owls, tatted and silver

Christmas brought other fibre things, these amazingly cute tatted owl earrings, from Suzanne, who is making the most amazing snowflakes right now. the larger sterling, Garnet and marcasite Owl was from Bear and is delightful, officially a broach I've temporarily hung it on a chain so I can wear it in warm weather.  With temperatures in the tee-shirt, light dress and sandal range I'm just not wearing things which will support a heavy broach right now - and I'm not prepared to wait until winter.

Rosebuddie starts

The little cubs with a bit of guidance from Bear gifted me chocolate and some patterns, Rosebuddie by Anne Hanson, Deciduous and Icelandic Poppy by Evelyn Clark. I finished the KAL socks Christmas eve so was all set to start something new  ... and Rosebuddie is now on the needles. I'm using fingering weight hand spun Perendale, and I love how the colour changes in handspun are so different to the colour changes in mill or hand dyed yarns.


and this is Yoyo doing her new 'thing', Cat-in-a-bowl'. Most days we come across her either curled up in the bowl or sitting and surveying her domain. She curls up in the larger bowl, and sits in the smaller of the two .. we have no idea why.  Bear suggest that maybe she has no idea why either. This behavior is new as far as we know, traditionally Yoyo relaxed on the front stairs or under the foliage around the garden .. the use of terracotta bowls is new. I suspect that these warm up in the sun and she has discovered they are soft, slightly elevated so dry and warm as toast. This has the whole family calling out 'Cat-in-a-bowl' whenever we spot her ... and stopping to look.

Cat in a bowl?

So - boxing day continues, the washing machine is back and washing, its Spin night tonight, and we are off to the Waimate Rodeo tomorrow so an early start.

take care
Stella

You would think that with

two full weeks leave from work I'd be relaxing, and maybe even knitting. Well I've been relaxing but to those around me I seem to be far from relaxing. Since Friday at 4is when my leave officially began I've slept in until 8am on a Saturday and Sunday, cut and sewn two dresses and initiated littlest cub into use of a sewing machine and iron, finished binding my diary for next year, made two boxes to store assignments in, blocked my yarn and knit some. And it is only Monday, not only that but lunchtime on Monday!

So the vintage pattern worked out well, appears my little contemporary 9 year old cub is pretty much a vintage size 12. She is tall, and the dress has 'growing-room', which I am loath to remove as if I do she will certainly grow overnight. This is the second dress, the first is sleeveless in a white, tan and taupe plaid. The best thing is that the sun is warming up our part of the world and she can wear these without freezing.

This one we even went so far as to construct the little decorative bow trim, and attached it to the center front waist. When I say 'we' I mean little cub as she sewed the bow herself and most of the seams on both dresses. I stepped in on the more tricky curved seams where errors would matter, like the neckline and setting in the sleeves. I cheated and resorted to a hand-prick-stitched zip, I can and do machine zips in but love the vintage look and the process of hand prick-stitching in a zip. I do machine the tapes to the seam allowance for security but like the custom hand made touch of working the zip this way. What you can't see is the shocking pink bias banding inside the neck, waist and hem that neaten up those edges of the dress. Little cub wants a petticoat that makes the skirt go out more, so that is on the cards for latter this week, as will be a few more of these pretty dresses. I have a notion to return to the opp-shop and source a few nice vintage plastic buckles and buttons as trim for the next few.

One of the last things I had to do before the end of last week was tidy up and file away all the admin side of marking. As I worked thru the Year one Essays and the Year 2 Lit Reviews I kept them in two photocopier box lids. You know those ubiquitous shallow cardboard boxes that are put to use in most offices. I like my desk to be a nice place to work and worn ripped photocopier paper box lids just were just not contributing a nice ambiance. I'm not sure a pile of written assignments to mark could ever contribute a pleasant ambiance, but I'd like to think it could be nicer than it was. Today I sat down and constructed two shallow boxes, that easily hold A4 sized paper. The left over wallpaper from the cubs bedrooms covers the outside(Designers Guild) and the wallpaper from the hallway(Liberty) above the wood paneling lines the inside. There was a lot of learning going on in making these, and the second is neater than the first, but both are 100% nicer than a photocopier paper box lid.


I have been knitting (and frogging) on the new project, a top down set in sleeve sweater for elder cub. This was the state of play last Friday and you may notice that there are no needles in this work. I removed them having realized that frogging was required. Yo-yo, currently stealth cat as she has lost both bells, waited with me as I arranged for the photo.


I had to frog as it became abundantly clear that the sleeve cap I was knitting was suitable for someone with very defined biceps, perhaps even ones enhanced with steroids. Elder cub tends towards the slighter end of the range of shoulder and upper arm development ... so this would never look like it belonged to him. Currently state is that this is back on the needles and I've worked beyond this point and am nearing division for the sleeves and body.



And yarn, finally I have blocked the Wabi Sabi River Stones fibre, Merino, alpaca, silk and angora 50g and 272m, or thereabouts. As usual no plans yet to knit this one into, but I really enjoyed spinning it and love the colour ( or lack thereoff).

So I'd better go, younger cub has plans to invite a whole host of friends around tomorrow afternoon and that can only happen if her room is tidy. Her version of tidy and mine differ, in that things under the bed, and toys on the floor and washing not out in the laundry bin, and stuff like pencils and hair ties on every surface are things I'd like tidied away. I'm nearly as unreasonable as I remember my own mother was about keeping my bedroom tidy.

Oh well best go and see what progress has been made.

cheers - stella