A hat! And a scarf! And no cold weather to wear them in!

I have housemates! They all moved in while I was up in Scotland, and while they're all very nice people and it's great to have someone to wander off to the student bar with, I'm still finding it highly odd to hear other people's voices in my house. They're all very impressed with my knitting too, which may have been a large factor in their earning my approval. Shelly, Emilie and Polly have all asked for knitting lessons. The boys haven't. Yet. I know they're just yearning to throw off the shackles of gender-based repression though...

My stripy cartoony jumper, though I was zipping through it at my parents, isn't going to be finished for enrollment tomorrow because I spent about 3 days casting off the hem so I'm now only halfway through the first sleeve. I'm using the 2x2 sewn bind off from the Vogue knitting book, so although it takes sodding ages, it doesn't have the chain along the bottom and it's a lot stretchier. I think I might unpick the neck edge and re-do it like this.

FOs though! I finished Thorpe about 3 weeks ago with some RYC Cashsoft from Get Knitted. (I like ordering from Get Knitted, they send you biros and lollipops in the package. Whee! Free stuff!) I decided it desperately needed a bobble on top, but apparently I've forgotten how to make them properly and it ended up so dense I could probably use it as a tennis ball.

I also finished My-So-Called Scarf before I moved but it only just got unpacked from my cold weather boxes. How can I forget about something this soft and yummy?! I feel unworthy. Malabrigo is just gorgeous. Smells bizarrely vinegary though. (Well, it did, now it smells of Persil Silk and Wool Wash)

And also, because obviously I am knitting so fast that my current yarn can't keep up (haha), we went yarn shopping in The Wool Shed in Oyne, where I displayed my stereotypical womanly ways by losing where we were on the map both on the way there and the way back.

Mum: Don't worry, we're taking the scenic route.

Hannah: We're in Scotland! It's all the scenic route!

These are buttons. Yes. They have no purpose yet, but I'm sure when I find it, it will be magnificent. They are from Touched by Scotland, a craft shop next door to the yarn shop, which sounds incredibly cheesy but is actually full of Very Very Nice Stuff.

Manos Silk Blend in 'A Shot in the Dark' for a lovely scarf, though possibly a short one I have to pin together with a brooch. Hmm.

This is...err...a stolen photograph of Jitterbug in Raphael, because my skein went into my slightly-less-accessible yarn storage before I took a photo and I'm too lazy to take it out again. For someone who previously didn't see the point in knitting socks, I seem to be developing something of a stash.

Must. Knit. Faster.

Sir Reginald Barnaby Forthington-Smythe III at your service

Sir Reginald has recently arrived the home of my good friend Miss Darby, to act as chaperone on her 23rd birthday, and to ensure that her good reputation remains intact while she celebrates amongst the bounders and cads of Londontown. I personally feel she has more to fear from Reginald than the young whippersnappers of Soho.

Pattern: Pentapus

Yarn: Sirdar Snowflake and Cascade 220

I love this pentapus. It's been a while since I make Texas the stegosaurus for Chris and I'd forgotten how much fun it is making toys for people who are too old for toys. Laz adores him too, as is only right for someone who comes complete with his own monocle and twirly moustache. I now have a massive bag of stuffing I don't know what to do with as the fabric shop only sold 450g bags. Hmm. I shall have to find some more people who will appreciate something this bizarre and pointless.

Sir Reg's hat was made up as I went along (the original floppy hat obviously not his style), I decreased all the way round as soon as I attached it and increased gradually to flare it out, then purled a round to make a turning ridge before decreasing sharply to the middle.

Mia. At long last.

I need to find someone to take photos for me. I faffed about for ages trying to get a half decent shot with the self timer, with my camera balanced on a shelf in my housemate's bedroom (the only room in the whole house with a shelf at the right height), and the best I got was the one below where I look about 15. It was either that or "look, it's my arm in a mirror again".

Pattern: Mia

Yarn: RYC Cashsoft DK

I finished this over a month ago! Egad. Pretty much as is in the pattern, with a King Charles brocade cuff.

I don't know when I will ever wear this. Someone please invite me out somewhere and stop me spending my whole life in jeans and tshirts.

101 in 1001 update: Month 4

I don't seem to be doing very much with my free time this summer. I think it might be the lethargy of having nothing to do. Or perhaps I just need something important to push me to procrastinate. Either way, hardly any knitting, only one fat quarter sewn from the fabric stash, and I have read a grand total of one book, Of Mice and Men, which took me all of one cloakroom shift at work to read from cover to cover (it was a slow night).

I have been swimming and taking proper care of my skin, but I can't exactly say it's regular yet. Getting there though. Wearing skirts has fallen by the wayside a little. I've resigned myself to the fact that we're not getting a summer this year and my legs have been sulking in jeans and trainers every day since Nancy's wedding, with the exception of one night, when I went out in a miniskirt and boots and received many generous offers of drinks from sober and respectable gentlemen.

Knittingwise, I did finish Mia, sodding ages ago, and I farted about with the self timer on my camera today, so I have some very bad photos coming in the next post. Promise! As for sewing and embroidery, I did this a few weeks ago, but have been keeping it quiet as it was a gift for a swap. Anyhoo, Starry (Danielle) has received it now, so I may be smug and show off.

It's not perfect, but not half bad for making it up as I went along, I quite fancy making one of these for myself! I am particularly proud of myself for remembering how to make a jetted pocket (which the post-it block sits in), which was a tremendous waste of time since no one will ever see it! Embroidering and reverse applique...appliquing....appliqueing...sewing the cupcake was fun, thanks to Danielle for picking a fantastic theme for me to play with!

2. Fill out my student loan application for next year. Complete (yaymoney!)
24. Knit 12 garments. 1/12
36. Sew my entire fabric stash. 1/41
43. Do 4 beading or embroidery projects. 1/4
52.Go out to eat 4 times a year. 1/4
73. Go swimming regularly in the summer holidays; attempt to keep it up when I go back to uni. In Progress
92. Keep up a proper skincare routine. In Progress
58. Go to the cinema at least once a month, even if it means going on my own. 4/33
65. Read all the books I haven’t read on my bookcase. 4/25
95. Buy from a local butcher/grocer/market instead of the supermarket once a month. 4/33
20. Reach 175 blog posts. 64/175
82. Try a new food every month. 4/33
91. Wear a skirt at least once a week. 13/143

Neeewwww knitting

I am feeling somewhat windswept today. One of my friends from Kentucky has come to England, so Jade (who I also met in Kentucky, but lives in Bournemouth, obviously) and I are using this as an excuse to do all the touristy things. Today we took an open-top bus (really rather too windy to be entirely a good idea) around Sandbanks, until recently the most expensive land per square foot IN THE WORLD, Studland Bay ferry and Swanage, where we strolled along the beach with our hoods up, ate massive cream teas, and attempted to explain the mysteries of the British Summer Holiday, for instance, why beach huts are great despite the fact that you can't sleep in them and how Punch and Judy does not in fact mentally scar generations of young children.

There has been New Knitting since I last made a non swap-related post. Also New NotKnitting. Oooh.

First off, New NotKnitting! I am giving crochet another chance. I'm actually happy with it this time, it's going slightly better than the Yellow Triangle of Doom from a few years ago. I promise, this one isn't actually triangular, it just looks like that because the trebles are bigger than the doubles. Not sure how far my yarn and my patience are going to go with this, but I can tick off a technique, and hopefully the novelty won't wear of before I can make an armpit bag that I will probably never use (ha)

My rainbow of Cascady goodness is started and going pretty damn fast by my standards (particularly since I haven't bothered to blog about it in 2 weeks). I'm not using a pattern for it, just a swatch and the instructions in Barbara Walker's Knitting From the Top, which looks to be such a brilliant book that I will forgive her for having a whole chapter on knitted trousers. This is going to be my Scotland holiday project, so I will put it away and finish up some other things in the next 3 weeks instead.

Snapping Turtle is still awaiting a zip because I am lazy.

Mia is still awaiting photos because I am Really lazy.

And because I am hopeless I just joined another Monthly Adventures challenge. I have til the 7th to make and embroider a stuffed toy. One evening and two legs down.

P.S. The bouncer in the night club last night recognised me from the knitting club in Poole and came over and started talking to me about socks and baby garments. Heh, love it. Rock'n'roll baby.