Thursday, 27 March 2008

All the leaves are brown and the sky is grey

We are finally waving goodbye to summer in these parts, and although this year has been lovely and mild (only a handful of days over 35oC), I'm not going to miss it. I was feeling the heat as the bump grew, and its nice to snuggle under the doona again. The trees on our (soon-to-be-former) street are starting to turn colour and we've even had a little rain.

My lack of blogging can't be written off by disaster or tragedy - it has been simply due to lack of time and anything interesting to blog about.

But there has been knitting. A commission for my colleague G (who either admires my handknits or uses it as a way to shut me up about knitting!) as a gift for his partner's birthday next month.

G wanted some socks. After much discussion, and cruising of Ravelry, he decided on embossed leaves (sorry, Rav link) from 25 Favorite Socks, using The Knittery's cashmere-merino sock yarn in Merlot.

This yarn was just a dream to knit with, and they came up beautifully. It was very hard to give them up. Sorry about the dodgy photo though; little fingers smeared the camera lens and the light has been tricky this week. It doesn't do them justice (even if I do say so myself).


Egads, its worse than I thought. Trust me, they're pretty!

Yarn: Knittery merino-cashmere in Merlot (link above)

Sticks: 2.75mm knitpicks dpns

Mods: Several. Remedial sock knitter here, don't forget. I didn't follow the first two lines of the pattern; I just used my usual cable cast on and then did 20 rows of twisted rib. I also had to make them a bit longer to fir the recipient's foot, so did an extra half pattern rep (rows 9-16), then did a usual flat unpatterned toe shaping and grafted toe (instead of the slight patterning as stated). Oh, and an eye-of-partridge heel too. Just to make myself feel clever!

I really can't take credit for these socks coming out so well; the pattern is really straight forward and I enjoyed knitting them. But I must thank Bells and RoseRed for holding my hand when I got all angsty and needy over the changes.

In other news:

The bump is growing. All is well.

We may have finally found a house to move into to. Its not yet 100% certain, so please keep up the sacrifices to the goddess.

PJ and Beloved are both recovered from the chocolate-induced comas of Easter. Am I a bad mum if I steal the easter eggs out of PJ's basket while he's searching for more eggs, to hide them again and keep the fun going?

16 comments:

Bells said...

PJ is such an adorable muffin. Love that photo.

The colour of the socks is great! Good job! If I squint, I can just make out the pattern. ;-)

Gae, in Callala Bay said...

If you are able to use guile in order to limit, somewhat, the amount of chocolate consumed by PJ - good for you, and I bet you won't get away with it next Easter.

Our youngest GD (Kirby) celebrated her first birthday on Easter Monday, and had her first taste of Fairy Bread - enthusiastic approval; on the other hand, older brother Darcy just spent his time picking the Hundreds and Thousands off the bread. Yup, one Sparrow and one Vulture.

Rose Red said...

Oooh, fairy bread. Now I want some...

Sorry, off topic! Yes, you are a bad bad mummy. NOT!

Lovely socks, lovely pattern - my favourite of the patterns I've knitted so far!

twitchy fingers said...

We did the same thing with Lily's Easter egg hunt! I believe it makes us better parents. Same goes for eating the easter eggs so their teeth won't rot.

Anonymous said...

Don't worry. My kids still have egg hunts at 11, 14 and 16 and the joy is in finding the eggs and doing it over and over again. After Easter day the rule is that all eggs etc must be shared be everyone. We survive.

Could you answer my question. I am most interested in the knitpicks needle set. I was given some money for my birthday and wonder if I should buy some? Is is better to get someone to send them on from the US or should I just bite the bullet and buy them here is Aus?

Best wishes for the move.

Lynne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lynne said...

And what's wrong with keeping the fun going? We had an Easter egg hunt and our only DD is 22 next month!!

amy said...

No, it makes you a good mum. He looks pretty happy, I'd say. My kids didn't have an Easter egg hunt this year, but I was forced to take a nap on Easter morning (after having been kept up half the night by a kicking, squirming, talking 3yo who invaded my bed), and they ate jelly beans without sanction for a good two hours. I think it made up for the lack of an egg hunt!

Donna Lee said...

I'd say that makes you a clever mom. My girls used to hide the eggs themselves so they could find them all over again. "The hunt's the thing" (sorry Shakespeare).

Georgie said...

Hey Suze, thanks for your comment. I adore both my knitpicks dpns and my knitpicks options (the circulars with interchangable tips) set. I rarely use regular straights any more. I think most of the people I know who use them would feel the same.

Drop me an email (see top left of blog) and I can give you some more info!

DrK said...

my fingers and toes etc are so crossed fo you re the house thing. and im planning embossed leaves too with my knittery merlot that some really lovely person gave me. its slimsocks tho so i might need some help with mods of my own!

Michelle said...

Hope the house thing works out, otherwise you might be forced to be our neighbour!

PJ is the cutest little thing, and you are not a bad mummy. Just a sensible one. He'll be smarter next year, so better watch it!

Five Ferns Fibreholic said...

For a moment I thought you were going to ask if it was okay for you to steal and eat goodies from PJ's basket. My answer would be yes...afterall what is Pirate treasure for if not for plundering.

TinkingBell said...

So ,lovely to meet you (next time will have to meet PJ too!) Thanks for making the trip to the big smoke so special - adore the socks - how brave you are to give them up!

Anonymous said...

I've been for a walk on a Winter's day.......well technically it's Autumn but it has been cold and rainy.
I think you demostrate excellent parenting skills with your re-distribution of the eggs to keep the fun going. Parents should be cleverer than their children!!!
Very nice (blurry) socks but your commentary helped.
Hope the house works out. Crossing things here!!!

Denise said...

Oh, hiding your kids' treats over while they're not watching is standard tricky parent practice (STPP). well done!

Fingers crossed on the house front - let me know how it's going!!

And congrats on the great socks - good work!!!