Kate is about 75% done. I used just under two balls for the back and I finished the first ball of the front in the car on the way home yesterday. This is a fun knit and the mistakes I have made have so far been quickly identified and fixed.

You may recall that my first swatch for Kate was WAY off gauge. I tried a second swatch driving to a friends for desert Christmas day, this time on 5mm Addis, and second time was the charm so I cast on Christmas night while blow drying Mum’s Market Bag. I had done about an inch when I decided to double check my gauge and carefully spread my knitting out on the floor. My very first thought was “that looks WAY too small” I was too confused to even bother checking my gauge. I just sat and stared for about 5 minutes (while adjusting the hairdryer absent mindedly). Eventually I thought to count the stitches, which I had cast on in sets of 20 divided by makers for easy counting. I was 20 stitches short. Ooops. That was my biggest mistake so far.

At the same time I also realised that I was supposed to have used smaller needles for the waist ribbing. I put it aside in disgust and started again the next day in the car, careful to cast on enough stitches this time. I forgot to use the smaller needles. Again. As it happens I am quite happy with the result and the needles I would have used were bamboo, which I have decided that I loathe with a passion. Since then all the errors have been to do with making decreases on the right hand one stitch too soon and having to drop two stitches for 2 or 3 rows in order to move the decrease to the correct spot. That, or using the wrong decrease on the right and doing the same as above to correct the mistake. Knitting combination style means I have to remember to first untwist my knit stitches before doing a k2tog or it comes out looking like an ssk, despite this I still feel compelled to actually slip, slip, knit my ssks rather than just doing a k2tog minus the untwisting.

I have been feeling a bit flat today, thus no progress on Kate since our return but this brightened my day - a long awaited parcel from Threadbare.

The Raspberry Lamb’s Pride will go with all the Lamb’s Pride remnants from my Christmas Booga Bags to make myself a knitting bag, probably very similar in shape to the Market Bag I made Mum. The Brown Cascade is to become a Sophie. The Colour Cards make me happy because I clearly have issues about ordering online and that is the only way I can get Lambs Pride.

Jesse, Isabelle, Robyn, Anne and I spent 3 nights at the Bundanoon YHA, which was lovely and we had a lovely time. Monday morning we went for a bit of a drive to the other side of the National Park and this is what we saw when we got out of our car.

My chasing him around with a camera alerted the owners of this picnic just before he made his own presence felt.

Let it be said that our picnic did not involve beer or cigarettes, or a doll for that matter.

Jesse and Isabelle got a really good look when he came their way

As did Anne, perhaps a little closer than she had planned in fact.

The Goanna that sat watching us from the trunk of the tree we ate our lunch under had very impressive claws and was shedding his skin.

This one sat in the grass near by, clearly hoping to chase us away from our picnic so it could have a feed instead.

Tuesday we discovered that Isabelle loves bush walking.

and “Binoculators”

This morning we went for one last walk at the Fairy Bower.

Isabelle’s knitted gifts - the bag I made, stuffed toys that my grandmother bought at her guild and finger puppets that my mother bought (also at Gran’s guild). Can you believe the cuteness of those toys?

After all that time knitting everyone else gifts for Christmas, Jesse and Isabelle gave me the yarn for Carla and a Jacke in Apricot (make mine blue) so I can knit something for myself at last! Mum gave me the needles I will need for Carla and the Skein Holder is a little something extra from Jesse.

I am new enough to knitting to still be surprised, delighted, fascinated by how different two cotton yarns can be.

Pattern: based on the Knitty French Market Bag
Yarn: Jo Sharp DK in Orient (MC) and Khaki (CC)
Needles: 7mm Addi Turbos (60 and 80 cm)

After much attention with a hairdryer, my last christmas gift made it into a box just in time for mum to arrive and take it back out again. This bag was based on the French Market Bag from Knitty with some modifications to make it more like the shopping baskets my mother bought in Vietnam 10 years ago and still uses to do her shopping every week. 10 years ago they were wonderfully unique, today you can get them everywhere, you know the ones - brightly coloured plastic baskets woven from packing tape (the stuff they use to bind palettes). Mum loves this shape of bag so I based the ratios of the sides on her 10 year old shopping baskets, consulted Montse Standley’s The Knitters Handbook for how to knit a rectangle from the centre out, cast on and prayed. I cannot tell you how relieved I am that it worked. For the record:

Cast on 2 stitches, pm, cst on 42 stitches, pm, cast on 2 stitches, pm, cast on 42 stitches.
Work as for the base knitted in the round in the original pattern.
When you have enough stitches to be able to flatten the base, seam the cast on edge together (the two 42 stitch sides should meet up nicely creating a rectangular base once sewn together).
Place the handles centered on the long sides with 4 stitches between the two sides of each handle.

The Jo Sharp DK was lovely to work with but really didn’t feel like wool at all. Not long after starting the first ball I felt compelled to go check that I hadn’t somehow made an awful mistake and bought DK cotton. The yarn was stretchy and easy on the hands like wool but not at all scratchy, it really did feel more like cotton sliding through my fingers. Unfortunately the colours bled a bit during the felting process and the blue that I was so in love with is no longer quite as vibrant but Mum is happy and that was, after all, the point…

Jesse, Isabelle and I are off for a few days vacation with both of Isabelle’s grannies. I am taking Kate with me and there will be plenty of car knitting time so maybe there will be some progress by the time I get back.

Pattern: Booga Bag
Yarn: Brown Sheep Company Lamb’s Pride Worsted. MC: Rasberry, Contrast: Victorian Pink
Needles: 6.5mm/60cm Crystal Palace bamboo circular, 6.5mm Tulip bamboo DPNs

After much assistance from Robyn and a hairdryer my second Booga Bag is done. I really like this pattern, so quick and easy and such a lovely result. I was planning to finally make one for myself out of the remaining Lambs Pride, but now I am thinking I will wait until I can get my hands on some Kureyon and use my Lambs Pride to make a Market Bag for my knitting.

Here’s one more photo for good measure.

Our tree after many hours of wrapping last night, and on the other side of the room a not very discreetly hidden, a suspiciously bike shaped object.

Isabelle was transfixed by all the gifts under the tree this morning. So much so that she did not notice that great big parcel hiding in plain sight. So much so that she did not even notice it when breakfast was over and the time to open gifts was upon us. So much so that she did not notice it while distributing gifts and opening gifts and playing with gifts. So much so that she did not even notice it after the last present under the tree was opened and was a bike helmet. So transfixed was she by the tree that we had to repeatedly point out that there must be another gift to go with that helmet and that might be somewhere else in the room.

There is something so wonderful about giving Isabelle the sort of magical christmas I wished for as a child. We have all had a lovely day.

In knitting news I changed needles on Kate and got gauge so I will be casting on tonight. I am going to try a tubular cast on. Oh, and I received lots of knitting related gifts today, I will post photos soon.

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.