That is the swatch for Kate. My tension is WAY off. I am two full stitches out. Do you think washing will change things that dramatically or shall I wait until I am closer to wash the swatch?

Note to self: when starting a new project on vacation pack more than just the needles suggested in the pattern.

The silver lining here is that I now know that the All Seasons Cotton is lovely and I am really happy with the colour. I can’t wait to get started on Kate and I will be trying some bigger needles the very second my christmas knitting is done.

Why yes, that is a lizard carcas on my coffee table. Do you like it?

And yes, that is a millipede in my childs hands. Are we noticing a pattern yet?

One guess who chose these items from the beach. Yes, that would be her father.

We seem to be having some trouble with traditional gender roles in our household at the moment. Perhaps we always have.

You will recall from my last post before I left Sydney that I had decided to rip out the last 8 rows of increases for my French Market Bag base and reknit straight. I wanted to maintain the visible rim of base colour on the sides of the bag and 200 stitches on larger needles seemed just a little too huge. I did indeed rip out those 8 rows and reknit them straight. I started the main colour and it was all going swimmingly.

It was only after I had knit through the entire first ball of the main colour that I began to wonder if 168 stitches really was enough. I realised that I had not actually measured the base after ripping out the extra increases, which was my last chance to lay it completely flat and get an accurate measurement. I tried to get it as flat as I could, and what I saw was very pretty.

Pretty, BUT…. Isn’t there always a ‘but’? Pretty, but I suspected, now too small. Jesse was horrified when I suggested ripping it out again, with many many more rows to be undone this time (the little gold safety pin you can see in the picture below marks the end of the base, the point to which I would have to rip back). After much agonising I decided to just keep on as I was going. I added the second ball of the main colour and I continued to kid myself that everything was ok for a few more rows.

The thing is that BUT just kept coming back to nag at me whenever I picked up the needles to work on it… But how are the handles going to work with only 168 stitches? But is it really going to be big enough to be useful? But what about that third skein of the main colour that I was sure I needed to make a big enough bag and which I can’t possibly use up at this rate? The buts kept on coming and the bag stopped growing. Then this happened:

This time I measured it. Fourteen and a half inches across. Not as small as I had feared, but not as big as I think it needs to be. New plan. Redo half of the base increases that I ripped out the first time and add 4 rounds of increasing 1 stitch per corner at even intervals through the bag body creating a total of 200 stitches at the top for nice handle placement and a more truly french market basket shape. I have reknit the rest of the base colour and the base is 16 or 17 inches across depending on how I measure it, I will knit the sides to be as tall as they are wide so I will place the increases at 3 inches, 7 inches, 11 inches and 15 inches. This plan still involves finishing in time for christmas, along with the other bag and a half that also need to be finished by the 25th.

Pattern: Octagonal Swirl
Yarn: Heirloom Cotton in a pale lilac
Needles: 4mm Addi Bamboo DPNs, 4mm Tulip Bamboo circular

Picture me agonising over how best to get needles past airport security and then picture me working incredibly hard not to look both smug and guilty as I stood in front of them on the other side trying to shove my laptop back into my over stuffed bag. Hiding a pack of bamboo DPNs into a pocket already overflowing with pens and pencils works a treat. I guess future plane flights will be a good time to work on socks!

This is my last christmas wash cloth and I knit well over half of it on the flight to Adelaide. I finished the rest driving around to see people when we arrived and then cast off after dinner the same day. I seem to have knit the two stitches on the second or third needle in the wrong order in the first row causing a twist at the center. I choose to think of this as a feature not a bug.

I have been doing a lot of knitting, in fact I have so much knitting content I don’t know where to start. So instead I will start with where I am am:

That is the view I will be looking at for the next 4 days. I have been coming here my entire life and I will never get sick of looking at that water.

That is Jesse getting on the phone to work literally the minute we arrived here.

This is the first swim. I was too busy with the camera to actually swim, but I did get my ankles wet, which is quite a good effort for me.

Can you say “EEEeeeewwwwww!”? I can honestly say that I think jelly fish are stunning - as long as my child is not holding one up for me to see that is. Jelly fish belong in the water, not the hands. I’ll say it again, eeeewwww. You may also notice in this photo that Isabelle returned to the water after removing her togs, having a bath to remove the blue tinge from her lips and limbs, and putting her “Warm” clothes on….ah-hem.

I cast on for the base of the French Market bag at knitting class last night and finished it tonight. Working on 7mm Addis one skein of the tartan green produce enough rows to increase to 200 stitches and knit one row more. Had I read the pattern again 30 mins ago I when I was carefully measuring how much yarn I had left and calculating whether I would get to 200 stitches I would have stopped increasing before reaching 200 stitches and started knitting straight. I thought the pattern called for 3 rounds in the base colour after reaching 200 stitches and that one round was not too far off. It actually calls for 9 rows and my base is huge. Did I mention it was HUGE? Having ordered extra yarn to make sure the bag’s height is greater in proportion to the base than the original I don’t want to muck up the base/height ratio now, so I will rip back 8 rows tomorrow and knit straight from there.

Speaking of tomorrow, we are going home to Adelaide tomorrow and I probably won’t be posting much till early next week. In the meantime happy knitting to you, and keep your fingers crossed for me that I can sneak some needles and yarn on to the plane. I just have to figure out what projects to pack now…