It was too late to write more last night, but really a drill makes a pretty good yarn winder. Ours does anyway - it can go much slower than either of the mixers, but the biggest plus is that it can go backwards so a mistake feeding the yarn onto the ball is easily fixed. I think we will try it at least once more and see if it saves time without all the mixer disasters slowing the process down.

I went yarn shopping yesterday, as you may have guessed from the hank that got wound last night (which is destined to be a bag for Isabelle btw). While I was there I also bought 6 balls of Jo Sharp DK to make a second French Market Bag. That’s right I am buying yarn for the second bag before even starting the first, but I just had to buy it yesterday, honest. one of the other students at knitting class on Wednesday had a sample of felted Jo Sharp DK and I instantly decided it would be easier to get the yarn for the second bag locally, preferably while it was on sale at my LYS. Which meant dragging Isabelle to the yarn store yesterday…. In the end I wasn’t happy with what I chose so I went back again today, this time with TWO toddlers. I gave them a bag of tiny teddies each the second we walked in the door and came away with this:

This I am happy with. Am I ashamed to have bribed them with chocolate biscuits? Not at all.

Pattern: Reverse Bloom Wash Cloth - Interweave Knits Winter 2003
Yarn: Jo Sharp Soho Cotton, colour #220 “Poppy”
Needles: 4mm/60cm Tulip bamboo circular, 4mm/40cm Addi Natura circular, 4mm Addi Bamboo DPNs

The christmas “to do” list is shrinking!

There is so much going on today I don’t know where to start.

Pattern: Sophie Bag
Yarn: Cascade 220, colour #9407 (green)
Needles: 6.5mm/40cm Crystal Palace Bamboo Circular, 6.5mm Tulip Bamboo DPNs

Sophie is done and I have reorganised my gallery a little so that she will actually appear at the top of my FO list instead of the bottom. Following on from changing format of the FO page, I have also decided to fiddle about so that recurring projects like wash cloths could appear in both the “Finished Objects” and “On the Needles” lists. Speaking of wash cloths:

The Reverse Bloom Wash Cloth is progressing and I really do hope tonight will be my last night working on it. I think it will be pretty and I will be pleased to give it as a gift to someone but I don’t know if I will be in a rush to make another one soon. I think the thing that is bothering me about the Reverse bloom Washcloth is that the knitting is very simple but the project is rather fiddly. It seems to me that 12 ends to weave into a wash cloth is about 10 too many. I have actually woven the ends already because on such a small project it was a real pain having them tangling up all the time.

The ColdHarbour Mill Aran yarn I ordered has arrived and I am very happy with it. The colours are not what I expected, having far less blue in them than I anticipated but I am very happy none the less. The yarn is lovely and I am really looking forward to knitting it up!

ColdHarbour also sent the colour card I requested. In keeping with their website which claims to be an internet store but has only the names of their yarn colours with no pictures (and requires that you call them to order but doesn’t provide a phone number on the shop page), their colour card doesn’t have names attached to the colours. So now I know there are lots of colours I like, but not what they are called. I can guess of course but what if I am wrong? I am not one of those people who is good at describing colours so I am quite worried about calling up and actually trying to sort out which colour is which over the phone…

I decided to try out the Reverse Washcloth pattern in Jo Sharp SoHo Cotton. It’s not what the pattern calls for, but so far so good. I knit most of the first petal three times before being sure I was happy with the result. The combination of this pattern and the cotton yarn being quite unforgiving means it has been better to start the current petal from scratch if I make even a small mistake - so the third petal got redone twice too. Each petal is quick to knit, so lets I hope I don’t have to knit the next two petals more than once and I could be done tonight.

Cloth nappies (diapers if you are in the US) make great washing machine companions for the felting object. I decided to brave my own frontloader which ruled out using jeans for fear of them shrinking or bleeding onto Sophie. While I was busy trying to figure out what I could use that was absolutely colour fast and could be hot washed I noticed the nappy bucked needed emptying. So into the washer went the nappies. First I washed them on their own, ’cause ewwww, and then in went Sophie. I set the machine to its shortest cycle (about 45 mins) on 50 degrees Celsius with no spin and she felted well. There were a few spots that weren’t quite done so I ran second cycle the same and I am fairly happy with the result. There are a few strange sort of creased spots which I am hoping will improve with blocking and perhaps a bit of ironing. I am thinking about trying without the zippered pillow case next time, perhaps a little hotter.

Do I put her in my front loader? Or boil her on the stove? Or take her to the laundromat? That remeains to be seen.

Should you find your self counting stitches on your 52nd row of 54, should you find that you have to many, should you then notice that you entirely skipped a pair of increases back on row 20 - don’t do what I did. I thought about this for quite some time, 3 or 4 hours I guess. I wrote an email to the ever patient and always helpful Alison asking her opinion. I did not then wait for her very sensible answer to just ignore my problem but instead decided it was best fixed by dropping 32 rows of stitches and picking them up properly decreased. I knew that my new stitches would be sloppy and there would be some redistribution to be done. What I did not realise was quite how much yarn would have to be redistributed…. If only I had thought to take photos while I was working you could have a had a good laugh at my expense. Alas the only photo I have is one from after the patch up job was complete. If you look very carefully in the bottom right corner, below the safety pin where the decreases were missed and above the garter stitch base you will find a few stray stitches that I have yet to butcher… those stitches are still pretty, the other side of the bag is looking lovely. Alison tells me that the wonder of felting is that it hides a multitude of sins and I so hope it hides mine….

Sophie is halfway there. Well the knitting bit is half done anyway. If I had posted about Sophie on Monday I would have whined about hand winding a hank of Cascade 220 in a car. Or perhaps linked to this clever invention which I discovered just a little too late. If I had posted Tuesday morning I would have said I wasn’t loving Sophie, the 6.5mm circ I had was too long, double points really weren’t fun for this project and especially while knitting the first few rows of the sides I found the Cascade a bit thin to knit comfortably on 6.5mm needles. If I had posted last night I would have showed you this photo and said that I made good progress at knitting class and was looking forward to moving on to a new pair of 6.5mm circs when they arrived in the morning.

Well the needles came, I have changed over and I have to say am never going to love going to love knitting on 40cm circulars as the needle points are just too short for my hands but it is definitely more manageable with a fatter needle and wool yarn than the combination of 4mm needles and cotton. I need to stop blogging now so I can go knit this thing because despite all the whining Sophie is really growing on me, I want to see her finished.

I do have knitting news, but I am too tired to try to sort out my thoughts enough to make a cohesive post, so that will have to wait for tomorrow. Instead I am posting about something completely different, today was an important day. Today marked a whole week that Isabelle has spent in panties. She still wears nappies to sleep and she is still having occasional accidents but there is no question that she has the hang of living nappy free and that she likes it. Today was the day that Jesse and I both agreed that we are not looking like going back.

When Isabelle weaned a few months ago we threw her a weaning party. Of course we didn’t use the “W” word with her, we called it her “big girl party”. Well now she really is a big girl and I feel there really ought to be another party and more presents but somehow I doubt many people would appreciate an invite to a “potty party”. Here she is, our little “big girl”, so grown up with her ready-for-the-bath “up do” hairstyle that Jesse was so taken with he had to get the camera out.