I haven’t actually stopped knitting, but I might as well have. I have watched almost no television and done almost no knitting this week, which may be some sort of record for me. The break down of our car on Monday has lead to spending the rest of the week car shopping. The part that wasn’t spent injecting hormones and having blood tests that is - “I don’t want to go to the friendly hospital” is what Isabelle said to me in the car at 7am, this morning.

I don’t know if I have mentioned this but Jesse is HUGE. 2m (6′7″) type huge. As in can’t buy clothes, shoes - or cars. With this in mind we made a short list of ten cars with an A list of 4. Yesterday I looked at the top three of the top 4. I got hopeful, I got excited and prioritised even further. Today Jesse wrote off our entire A list in one fell swoop, he could get into them (he often can’t even get both legs under a steering wheel) but not well enough to even try test driving them. Our short list is now made up of small European cars which he has a reasonable chance of fitting into but which may be too small for our needs and massive tanks to which we have equally massive philosophical objections. I just can’t fathom buying a car that gets 17l/100km, I don’t want to spend my life worrying about whether I am about to reverse over a small child that I can’t see.

Our current list looks like this (sorted partly by favourite and partly by probability of making it to test drive):

Renault Scénic II
Toyota Avensis Verso
Toyota Kluger
Ford Territory
Mazda 6 wagon
Volkswagen Golf*
Peugeot 307 Touring
Toyota Prado
Holden Adventra

Our failed list includes:

Holden Zafira
Honda Odyssey
Subaru Forrester

If you have any suggestions or reviews, please share! Tomorrow morning Jesse will see the top 4 cars listed above and most likely write them off too… wish us luck (and knitting time, my vest is soooo close to done)

*we currently drive a VW Golf, which is like a tardis and has ample room for Jesse, not so much for anyone behind him though. It is fine for us now but would be problematic with another child, let alone 2 more if my fertility treatment results in twins! Also VW seem to be having quality and reliability issues so we are reluctant to go there again…

No, not Jesse and I, the front and back of my Leftovers Vest. I have no idea why, but I was really anxious about dividing the vest into front and back at the under arms. I had never done this before and it seemed very intimidating. Well i need not have worried, it was the easiest thing. I did it in the car while house hunting on Saturday.

Amazing what a little weekend house hunting (Jesse driving, me knitting), a monday morning car break down (Jesse dealt with the car and Isabelle, I got in a taxi with my knitting), waiting around in a fertility clinic (knitting brings the anxiety down a notch don’t you know) and then finally waiting around in a cafe for Jesse and Isabelle to catch up with me after the car had been towed, can do for the time line of a knitting project. My Leftovers Vest is nearly done! What’s more, it fits! All it needs now is some ribbing.

I popped into my local baby store today for a car seat accessory and as always I found myself perusing their gorgeous kids clothing (which sadly come complete with a price tag a little too gorgeous for us). The Fred Bare I have seen in the department stores has not thrilled me but the parts of the range my local store had in were to die for. The photo (below) isn’ t great but oh my god I love this sweater. Forget Isabelle, I want to knit if for me! If only I knew enough about sweater design to draft my own version of it. Of course I would need either a better memory or a better photo if I were to attempt making a copy that even vaguely approximated the original.

They also had a gorgeous long line cardi in a pale pink with a single button closure (high on the chest), that doesn’t seem to be on the website, which I would also love to knit for myself. I have to say that finding kids clothing I would like an adult size version of (for the right reasons) is a nice change to finding small people’s clothing modelled on (the wrong) adult’s clothing. I really don’t have any desire to dress Isabelle like Britteny Spears. None of my friends want to dress their daughters (of any age, let alone three year olds) in mini skirts or halter neck tops either so I often find myself wondering who exactly the stores are catering to….

It only lasted for 5 minutes, but it did happen and it happened when the camera was handy! Once the poncho was on she then wanted the scarf which was just too cute not to include…

I was just a little busy last night. I am keeping the first set of multicolour hearts for myself, and I can’t show you my favourite set of markers because I made them with someone in mind and want them to be a surprise. But here are the rest of them, in the order that I made them, for want of a better system.

Mmmmmm Alpaca….So happy was I with my first Eki Riva scarf that I just had to buy more… I plan to make this and this. Many thanks to Wendy for maintaining her list of free lace patterns!

Actually I have already started on the brown one. Oh ,but this yarn is lovely. Never the less I think it will have to wait until the vest is done and I think I will probably rip it out and start again with more stitches.

At least I think I do. I guess I really should double check now that I am so far along…. We took a VERY scenic route to get Jesse to work yesterday, looking at (and mostly ruling out) houses for rent along the way. At least it provided lots of knitting time.

I made these at least a week ago, I filed them safely away and promptly forgot them. I found them again today while fetching out a couple of other sets to post far, far away…. It’s so nice to think that someone far away will be enjoying my markers one day soon! Making pretty things really does make me happy, just as well I can honestly say that something makes me happy after all the doom and gloom yesterday.

Yesterday I realised that I was kidding myself (yet again) and that I really wasn’t pregnant at all (yet again) AND we got turned down for a great house that we had applied for. Blech. But amidst the misery that has been this week there have been some happy knitting discoveries. On Tuesday, after hearing that my local newsagent gets the occasional copy of Interweave, I stopped in (without much hope given how the week was going) and lo and behold there was a copy of the Spring ‘05 Interweave! I snapped it up as I love the ballet wrap on the cover and the bear claw blankie (have I mentioned that I have a thing for blankets?). Following on from this unexpected success, yesterday I tried another nearby newsagent that I NEVER go into and found the Christmas ‘04 Marie Claire Idee. I was so excited I gasped out loud and got myself some very strange looks. I have to say that there isn’t that much in the Marie Claire that does it for me, but I bought if for the scarf pattern I feel in love with last year when Froggy first posted about it - back with the mag was actually seasonal.

Last week I asked a new friend (hello Alison) if she had any 4mm needles I could borrow and she did! As soon as she handed them to me I realised that I had the exact same pair at home, well I suspected I did anyway. I still borrowed her’s just in case, but as soon as I got home I reorganised my needles and sure enough, I DO own a 4mm circ. All that whining for nothing. It’s not my favourite brand of needle, but it’s fine.

So while I was still working on decorating Isabelle’s scarf at night I have been carting my Leftovers Vest around during the day and sorting out it’s little problems. Tuesday morning, while driving Jesse to work, or rather while going along for the ride as Jesse drove himself to work, I painstakingly threaded a 3mm needle through the stitches a row or two above the ribbing. Wednesday morning in the park with Isabelle I ripped out the 3 inches or so that I had knit at the wrong gauge.

4mm’s in hand I am about to see whether I can reknit this thing right this time.