What a lovely day!

Limerick Vibe was on in Raggle Taggle Studio, Sarsfield Street today.

It was a series of ‘taster’ classes that people could pop into and participate for free (with donations being kindly accepted).

My lovely friend Stiofan reminded me that it was on and I’m glad that he did.

I tried my hand at Tai Chi, listened to the Storyteller and enjoyed Dancing for All.

A wonderful way to spend a soggy afternoon.

 

Progress on both the Right and Left fronts of Sedgemoor with only minor tinking back required to remedy the occassional forgotten twisted stitch.

Apparently, circulars are great toys for batting and chewing.

Jasmine taught me this.

I’m utterly glad that she didn’t run off with it as it’s got Sedgemoor on it!

A friend of mine has become an uncle.

The natural result of this is a new baby project.

You recall Valen’s Vintage Vest?

 

Well, both of these colourways are destined to become vintage vests.

The Vintage Vest pattern is perfect for babies with big heads and no necks.

I sourced the pattern from Knitting Magazine, November 2008 Issue 56

 

The brown colourway is Hayfield Bonus DK, 100g, Shade 0949 Lot 303210.

The blue/green colourway is Patons FAB! DK, 100g, Shade 02356 Lot 561110.

Both purchased at Singer Sewing Centre today after giving up on getting my friend to dish what colours would best suit the new baby.

*sigh*

 

 

 

Inch by inch, row by row

Twisted stitch by twisted stitch it does surely grow

 

It was eminently possible….

….to ‘just’ cast on for the right and left fronts of Sedgemoor & proceed to ‘just’ do one row.

It then got put away and wasn’t the cause of my staying up unitl all hours.

 

I’m so proud of myself.

(I still managed to stay up late and miss the first lecture of my day, but that was laundry related rather than knit related, so it doesn’t count in my knitterly universe.)

 

Sedgemoor Progress

*happy dance*

The back of Sedgemoor is complete and cast off!

This has me tickled pink.

After all the false starts and befuddled brow moments I’m so glad that I stubbornly persevered with this.

Do I dare cast on the fronts at this late hour? Hmmmmm.

The Teen’s uniform is in the wash (she is now dating and thus all thoughts relating to practical matters were set aside while her befreckled youth and she ‘hung out’) so I have at least half an hour.

It’s totally doable to ‘just do a few rows’ and then set it aside and get enough hours of sleep to be functional for college, a meeting and Capoeira tomorrow……isn’t it??

 

And life moves on…..

As the wider family bade farewell to our lovely mother/granny/aunt/greatgrandmother/sister/thoroughly lovely human being, my smaller family celebrated the Teen turning 14.

With the genetic heritage that has been shared with her, she has many decades in which to make her mark.

Maybe she’ll take up the piano like gran dreamed…..

Sunday brought cupcakes from the lovely Hazel

Vanilla, breakfast and Red Velvet cupcakes

Along with Flake cake, dancing, keepsie upsie with a balloon and much attention given to our pets.

I’m wishing that I had given a tad more attention to my latest work-in-progress.

You may recall that I had an urge to cast on a baby knit or two……

Well, I did. It went swimmingly and giving the desired dose of satisfying payback……..when I noticed that the second page of the pattern was missing. Noticed only after completing the entirety of the back and a sizeable portion of the left front side.

*sigh*

Oh well, back to the knitterly drawing board.

Sirdar Pattern 3956

 

One of my favourite people breathed her last on Wednesday.

Catherine Dennehy, my gran, who sought in vain and with much patience to teach a much younger me to play piano, who gave up on my walking like a lady by the time I was 15 and who always had my back, experienced a second childhood in the nursing home that she resided in for the last few years.

She was ever content with the view from her room, the companionship of her peers in the home and let me know time and again how lovely the nurses and cleaners were.

I’ll shortly be shooing my father into the car so that we can get to her removal on time.

A few years ago I visited gran around Christmas time. She was in the common room of the nursing home. She briefly greeted me & speedily refocused her attention on the grandchild of one of the residents playing piano. There were enthused rounds of applause when she finished her recital & we younger generations were introduced. “and can your granddaughter play (the piano)?” “No. She started to learn” replies gran “but she can knit, crochet & embroider. She’s won prizes for knitting. Can your grandchild?” she enquired. “I’m afraid not” responded the lady

*insert image of my gran beaming ear to ear*

I think she figured that I had the potential to play the piano and could always get back to it, whereas manual dexterity and the creativity associated with handcrafts are skillsets that not everyone possesses or develops. In her eyes I was continuing on the skillsets that were passed to me from the generations that came before me.

I come from a rather long line of seamstresses and milliners.

Thank goodness that at least I could knit.

 

Uh Oh……

I went into a local newsagent’s for the new Agatha Christie part work that’s out now…..

Except they were sold out of it……

So, um, I bought an entirely different part work…….

One I’m not so sure that I can buy just one of……

Therefore, uh oh.

For the purposes of random entertainment and keeping with the knitting blog stereotype….

I present……

…….a cat in a dress.

 

 

Froodie’s Throw Progress

There hasn’t been a whole heck of a lot of progress on this since I’ve gone back to college.

Button’s rates it highly however.

Whereas Jasmine approves of my stash containers.

 

Well darn it!

No, I’m not in angst over a frayed pair of handknit socks.

Although, that was a good guess. Well done

It’s more a case of blasted technology ><

My memory card refuses to play nice with my computer and cough up the pictures that I wanted to write this post around.

*sigh*

Sedgemoor is chugging along nicely with only minor tinking required.

In my zest for mastering the complicated parts of the pattern I managed to overlook some of the simpler details.

Easily rectified (well, with some patience and the help of a cable needle it was fairly easily rectified….okay it was a minor pain in the behind but worth the hassle).

Froodie’s Throw is…….resting…..while Buttons rests on it.

My stash tidying spree has resulted in my 3 drawer storage….thingy becoming chock full of fairly neatly wound balls of yarn.

No wonder one of the Teen’s friends asked “….do you think you’ll knit all that before you die??”

At this point I’m starting to wonder!

It’s not *that* bad.

Really.

Honestly.

No, really!

Other knitters have larger stashes than mine.

Of course, many of them may be designers……or yarn store owners……..

In other news, I seem to have a nagging desire to knit baby clothes.

It’s sort of been swirling around in the background for a while.

I’m pretty sure it’s down to my thinking of baby knits as satisfying quick knits.

Nothing to do with the Teen swiftly growing into a towering Amazon-like young woman with no desire to wear hand knits…….other than this pink scarf…….

Trawled through hundreds of photographs on my computer to find this.

Also saw so many of my Teen looking so much younger just a few short years ago.

Tempus truly does Fugit.

 

 

Making space and letting go

Sometimes very nice ideas become invested in and produce things which just don’t work out.

Sometimes the fact that these things won’t work out is obvious from the get go and we do the right thing promptly.

Sometimes we blithely ignore our gut feeling and decide that at some point the very nice idea will work out.

These are two very nice ideas that are going to be frogged.

I haven’t worn them in over a year.

They’re taking up valuable yarn.

This is something I frogged earlier.

It was this.

Of course, it was meant to look like this as far as the designer was concerned.

I just changed a few elements.