The problem with being so productive that you don’t have time to blog about it is what to say when you finally do find time. It’s something of a let down to have been writing posts in your head for days only to find that there is now too much to put into one post and you are too tired to find anything witty enough to say to make that post worth reading. Dot points will have to do. At least there are photos.

Tuesday

1. My Mother in law came. We all love my mother in law - especially Isabelle.
2. She brought the decorations, which were promptly applied to the tree.

3. Two adults to one child apparently allows more than twice the productivity of one adult to one child.

Wednesday

4. The second French Market Bag is done. I hope it dries in time. Would a hair dryer help do you think?

5. My Grafting really isn’t great. Felting saved this bag from, well, ugly grafting.
6. My weaving of ends is really quite neat, at least I got something right.
7. The yarn for my last christmas knitting project had the bad manners to turn up. If yarn for christmas knitting is unable to arrive in a timely manner then it is my opinion that it should be so completely tardy that one cannot possibly feel compelled to put that project back on the to do list.
8. I made christmas pudding for the first time ever. After putting the first half of the ingredients into the biggest mixing bowl I own (which is not small) I realised that my mother in law was right. Only a bucket would do.

9. While it boiled for ELEVEN hours we baked an obscene number of gingerbread cookies for Isabelle to give as gifts.

Thursday

10. The first Booga Bag I started is now knitted, felted and blocking.

11. It is not going to be dry on time. What is the point of getting the knitting done in time if you still can’t hand it over?

12. We decorated noodle boxes to put Isabelle’s cookies in.
13. Isabelle LOVES glue

14. Pretty much every single item in my tiny pantry fell out and onto my head at some point yesterday. Today I bought a gazillion matching containers and now it looks like this

15. while cleaning the pantry I found my almonds. The fact that they were in the pantry meant they were not in the puddings I just boiled for ELEVEN hours. I had a quick look at the recipe, I noticed 4 other ingredients that didn’t make it in either. Lucky for me none of them are likely to matter, but in future I plan to make pudding based on the recipe rather than the shopping list.

Tomorrow will be far less action packed - decorate those cookies and do a lot of grocery shopping. That is all.

Progress on all fronts - my first French Market Bag is done and there are now gifts wrapped and under my tree. If only the tree was actually decorated - that will have to wait for tomorrow, when Robyn arrives with our decorations, which are currently in a box in Adelaide.

Pattern: French Market Bag
Yarn: Cold Harbour Mill Aran in Devon Green (MC) and Tartan Green (CC)
Needles: 7mm DPNs, 7mm Addi Turbos

That is today’s photo and I can now say I am happy with the result. Below is a photo I took yesterday straight after removing it from my makeshift blocking device. I was not happy with the result, the sides puckered dramatically under the handles, my blocking object had been a bit too tall and left slight dents in the handles and I was worried I should have blocked it to have a slightly narrower base and taller sides. The light yesterday really accentuated all of these problems.

What happened between today and yesterday? Well I left it out in the sun to ensure it was well and truly dry and went to the beach. Then a thunder storm happened. And rain. And hail. The storm was of the dramatic, but short and sweet summer variety, so the bag was left damp but not sodden. I set it to dry over a slightly smaller and softer shaped blocking device and today the bag was basically the same and yet much improved.

I was worried about the bag loosing it’s shape and going all saggy so the finishing touch was to cut a square of plastic (aka Ikea flexible chopping board) and cover it in matching fabric. The base will definitely help the bag hold it’s shape but it is flexible enough to move with the bag and not damage the felt by cutting in at the edges.

And finally one last perspective shot - this is Isabelle’s interpretation of “stand by the fence and face me”.

It’s one ball of yarn bigger than it was 24 hrs ago, approximately 3 balls to go.

Jesse brought this home today, it’s about twice the size of the one I had been eyeing off during the week and is FAR too big for our house - Isabelle is VERY impressed.

There were many possible contenders as title for this post. for example all of the following crossed my mind:

“Perhaps I was a little too enthusiastic”
“Perhaps I should felt a swatch next time”
“oh my god it SHRANK!!!!!”

But they all convey a certain sense of distress or panic that I am not actually feeling. This was not what I was expecting, in more ways than one. This is not what I expected the end result to be and I most certainly would not have expected to be so happy about it, should I have had even the faintest inkling of what was to come. Life, it seems, is full of little surprises. In short I finished and felted the French Market Bag and it is now blocking.

And I could leave this post at that. But the thing is that I think everyone really needs to get a bit of perspective here. First of all the felted bag is pretty much 9 inches cubed, if you need to then get out your measuring tape. Have you got a good sense of how big it is now? If so, then you are ready to see this:

….and this….

When wool shrinks that much it makes really STRONG fabric. It’s now half the size it started off and about 3/4 of the size I expected it to be, but my fears of it not being strong enough to support a load of goodies appropriate to it’s size have been well and truly alleviated.

I am so excited I just had to tell someone. The body of the first French Market Bag is done, I just have to decide where to place my handles and well, place my handles…I will be using the excellent Knitty article on grafting again. I have yet to do enough grafting to remember the setup part off the top of my head.

I have just started the last skein of yarn on my first French Market Bag, I am hoping to be done tomorrow night but that may be a little hopeful as I didn’t make much progress today…

The second bag has grown it’s first stripe…. My big issue with this bag is the handles. I know I want short handles but I don’t know whether to stick with the original FMB pattern or whether to go for icord handles. I am nto sure which option would be stronger. Any advice here would be most welcome.

Lately I have been feeling anxious about whether I am up to knitting adult sized sweaters. While holding these bags up against my body the other day I realised I have all ready knit a sweaters worth of stocking stitch on these bags and they aren’t done yet!

Part of the reason I didn’t make as much progress as I hoped for today is that Isabelle and I visited not one, but two, bead shops today and couldn’t help but play…

p.s. those last two photos were taken on the same table about 3 minutes apart (ie same light conditions). I have NO idea how I ended up with such differnet colour results. I really must read the camera’s manual one day…

Just hours before our vacation came to an end Jesse looked out the kitchen window and called for the camera. Stark naked, Isabelle had clipped a lead onto the freshly washed dog and headed off for a walk. She was most of the way to the beach when Jesse saw her, by the time he got the camera out she had reached her destination.

We got home last night and I have spent most of the day unpacking, grocery shopping, washing, all that post holiday fun. I did also manage to catch up on my blog reading. Can I just say how much I love my ADSL? Life on a modem was miserable.

I am a few days behind with my photos so for now here are some picks of the last day we spent at Black Point. The weather finally cleared as we were leaving so we got to have a walk

…and even to swim (our sedond swim for the whole trip)….

As you can see Isabelle’s idea of fun in the water involves attempting to drown her father.

On the knitting front I am very pleased with my holiday effort, I am three quarters of the way through the first market bag, which is as far as I could get while away as the last skein had not yet arrived when we left. It was here waiting for me last night so I need to go knit… Oh and I am also about a third of the way through the second rectangular shaped market bag.

The French Market Bag is ready for a second ball of the main colour, for the second time. It may have to wait a while…

My second market bag is not going to be a French Market bag after all but rather a hybrid somewhere between a FMB and one of those shopping baskets made out of woven packing tape. Making a rectangular base is much easier than a square as you can bypass the DPNs and go straight to a circular needle. Seaming the centre line takes a bit of time but I still feel like the rectangle has been easier. I am thinking that this bag may end up a more practical shape for a larger felted bag, more likely to hold its shape when loaded up with stuff.

And finally the last of the little things I have been trying to find a moment to show off - I have been making stitch markers again. I was quite dubious about the new rings I found ( I thought they might be a bit to chunky) so I tried some of them out on the FMB.

In short, I LOVE them! Big, it turns out, is better. Grandma Mary spotted these heart shaped markers the second I got my FMB out to show her so I have made up another set to give her with her wash cloth.

Isabelle has been finding more treasures on the beach…. speaking of the beach, this may be a beach holiday and summer may be officially upon us, but it’s pouring with rain and the howling of the wind is so loud it is hard to hear yourself think.

I went to see my gran the day we left for Black Point. She showed me the stunning Kaffe Fasset sweater she is working on and I kicked myself for not having my camera handy. Then she gave me this:

The drill really isn’t a great solution so you can imagine how thrilled I was. I immediately got out the second hank of the main colour for my French Market Bag and wound it up.

She also gave me some recycled 8 ply yarn that I plan to make into a basic sweater of my favourite style - being raglan, 3/4 sleeve, mock turtle neck.

I realise this yarn looks red, it is in fact more of a wine colour but I didn’t think to take a photo during daylight hours so the colours are a bit whacky in the photo…. Last but not least Mary also gave me some garter stitch squares for Isabelle to use as doll blankets:

This new connection with my Gran has really been one of the highlights of taking up knitting for me and I think she is always pleased when someone in the family discovers knitting.