Who would have thought it, actual knitting content. I picked up my needles the other night and it seems I can still remember how to knit.

A green scarf… I have three balls of luscious Eki Riva Sport and this pattern is a lot of fun, I think this one will be growing rather quickly. Though I have to say the purl side is driving me mad. It’s weird, purling is troubling me more now than it ever has before. I am guessing that my knitting has improved dramatically, my purl not at all, and there is now enough disparity to drive me nuts. Purling combined style is wonderfully fast and gives me lovely even tension - but odd selvages. I have been trying various other methods and I am so painfully slow at purling continental style that I actually tried to teach myself English purling. I simply could not figure out how to purl with the yarn wrapped around the fingers of my left hand, I ended up finishing the row by just dropping the yarn between stitches. This method was faster and looked better than when I had tried holding the yarn properly but it just felt so wrong. Purling problems, ugh. If you have any wisdom to offer here, please share it!

Isabelle and I, we both love post. Look what came for me today:

One ball of Rowan Calmer in khaki. The only (regular) winter hat wearer in my life will be getting their very own Shedir from the Knitty Fall ‘04 surprise issue, hopefully before the end of winter. And can I just tell you how impressed I was that Up Country wrapped the book I ordered in bubble wrap? It arrived in pristine condition.

Well the latest velour baby blanket is done and it is gorgeous, even if I do say so my self. Photos to come as soon as I had it over to the blog reading recipient.

You know hand sewing is not really my thing and I dreaded sitting down to sew down the binding on this blanket. But just like last time the 4 or 5 hours I spent snuggled up under this blanket in order to stitch it’s edges down were just lovely, this was in fact the happiest part of making this quilt. Somehow those moments when I am actually cuddling up to the nearly completed item are the most like knitting. Those are the moments when I really feel the love and joy I am hoping to infuse into this new little person’s life with the gift of a hand made blankie. The hand sewing is worth every minute.

Also making me happy tonight is the launch of Mem Fox’s new website, Mem is Isabelle’s favourite author and our favourite client, go say hello. In case you were wondering the graphic design is by the lovely Annette of NiftyCorp.

The quilt top is assembled, the layers are basted, I am ready to quilt this little baby blanket - and my fingers are just itching to start knitting the second it’s done. It feels great to be back on track. It’s funny (sad?) how despite the fact that I find making things so soothing it’s when I need it most that I am least able to craft. I don’t seem to be able to start new things until I have recovered but I can keep slogging away at whatever is already underway, I did finish my vest this last cycle, which I have been wearing all the time by the way. I think I need to plan carefully to have a big (long), but not too difficult, knitting project just barely started when I launch into my IVF cycle. Once I have something on the go I keep working until it’s done, the trick is not to finish mid hormone disaster. Can someone please remind me to start something time consuming just in late July? Perhaps I will be up to Market Squares by then.

After a week of house guests, house keeping, book keeping & web development I am finally catching up with the fun bits of my life (well the house guest was obviously fun but the book keeping was not). I have made a pattern for my baby blanket and cut and pinned most of the pieces. Tonight I will start sewing. I expect I will have something worth looking at by tomorrow, unfortunately I won’t be able to show you - it’s a secret.

In the mean time winter has arrived and I have been shopping. Last night I ordered the Debbie Bliss Cashmere Collection and today I ordered 21 balls of Jo Sharp Ultra in Seafoam to make the cabled jacket on the cover. Of course now that I have ordered it all I am panicing that I should have gone with the cover pattern from Jo Sharp Contemporary Knitting Two. It was such a toss up, I prefferred the collar and chunkier yarn of the Debbie Bliss but I think I prefer the cables to the semi bauble effect of the Debbie Bliss. Arrgghhh.

It’s going to take me at least a month to finish this sweater and that is being very optimistic - I have to wait of the pattern and the yarn, finish the velour baby blanket and a scarf that is now a very belated gift for someone special. And I am way too sick of my existing knits, too say nothing of way too cold, to cope without the big snuggly cardi I have been craving until the cabled jacket is done, so this week I also bought a new cardigan. Ready made.

Sorry about the picture, its the best of a bad (terrible?) lot, I haven’t quite mastered the art of self portraits in the mirror while using a digital camera that hates low light. It is amazing how differently I view sweater shopping now that I realise that almost everything I see on the racks is a knock off of something I saw on someone’s blog months ago, to say nothing of so wanting to go through the process of making it myself. I have always been picky, but now I am a shop assistant’s worst nightmare. I looked in 4 or 5 of my favourite shops at every knit on the racks and tried on about 8 in the one store I ended up buying something from (and I did this with a three year old in tow, sheer madness). I bought another one at the same time and spent days agonising over whether to keep either of them. Now that I have decided to keep this one and started wearing it I like it so much I may have to knit one myself next year. Well something like it, possibly in cotton, with cables and shorter sleeves - sounds just like the mohair blend sweater you see above, right? Well they would both be big rectangles with sleeves:

I believe I recently made threats about sewing something this week, I said things that might have implied there would be something to see by now. Clearly I was lying. Or perhaps deluded. Whatever the case I don’t imagine there will be anything worth looking at appearing here before mid next week. Real life and all that, terribly inconvenient when you have baby blankets to sew, cardigans to knit and a blog to maintain.

So Sunday my Dr called and told me to take the morning after pill, not words you expect to hear from your Fertility Specialist… But at least the waiting and wondering has ended and my body is rapidly returning to normal, as is the condition of my household so hopefully the crafting will start again tonight or tomorrow night. First up is a velour baby blanket for my dear friend’s gorgeous new son, after that I am not sure. I expect to start IVF in late July so I need to make a prioritised list of everything I need to get done before the next hormonally induced craft slump!!

One of Isabelle’s favourite books, and ours too, is “Hippos Go Berserk” by Sandra Boynton. So when my fertility specialist said to me, in very technical terms “Your ovaries just go berserk, don’t they?” all I could really think of to say was “One hippo all alone, calls two hippos on the phone….”. Which was not really a suitable response.

This blog will return to normal some time after my ovaries stop “going berserk” and the rest of my life, like cooking, cleaning, taking Isabelle to cool places, has also returned to some semblance of normalcy. Hopefully this will be within the week, but my E2 is still rising so really I have no idea what will happen next. I am tired. I am sore. I am sad. But in the end I am fine, I will be fine.

Sorry it has taken so long to post a pic of my Leftovers Vest. The whole car thing has been turned on it’s head by our accountant going on leave right when we need him and his partner giving us completely the opposite advice to what he (and everyone else) has told us. I hate uncertainty. My fertility treatment is becoming outrageously time consuming (after the usual 7:30 am blood draw and ultrasound this morning I have also ended up seeing another Dr at lunch and have another ultrasound appt this afternoon), and again I have to say how I hate uncertainty. To add insult to injury, all this activity combined with a general lack of sunshine means I have been unable to get Jesse to take a photo of me wearing the Leftovers Vest. I also hate bad photos but in an act of desperation I tried again with the bedroom mirror and this was the best I could do. I will try to post a better photo one day soon.

Pattern: Leftovers Vest - Knitty Winter ‘04
Yarn: Jo Sharp Silk Road Tweed DK in colourway “Boheme”
Needles: 4mm, 4.5mm and 5mm Addi Turbos

This vest was easy and fun to make and is perfect for the weather we are having right now. I have a 36″ bust and made the recommend size (the second one). My gauge was spot on, post washing finished measurements were exactly what they should have been and I am fairly happy with the fit. I think it is perfect in the bust but would think about more waist shaping if I made another one. I certainly think I will be wearing this a lot.

So we found a car, we still have to get the go ahead from our accountant but it should all be finalised by the end of the day. Yay for the end of pouring over car reviews all day and all night, yay for no more endlessly comparing head and leg room measurements. House hunting has been less productive, but we are less concerned about that, so it doesn’t matter. Now I just have to finish building a website and get our accounts up to date and sew a new velour baby blanket ASAP. One of my dear friends had a very special mothers day this year (well on the Friday, but you get the picture)!

Despite all the unusual real life excitement happening this week I did finally finish my Leftovers Vest last night, it’s blocking now and I cannot wait to wear it because the weather is getting cold!