I'm still here!

I know, it's been a while but I've been busy/sick/busy/sick! Am working at the Montessori school and am training to be a teacher so have lots of work to do and have had two colds in 4 weeks, which hasn't been too fun. I have barely touched my knitting recently, I did take some socks to school one day and will probably do more knitting there again as it really interested the kids.

I did finally make it to my Stitch 'n' Bitch last night, the first time in ages, so it was really nice to catch up with everyone. Have been working on the girl's Baby Yoda as I'm sure the twins will be arriving shortly and I really want to make sure the sweaters are finished in time!

My mum sent me two balls of Regia Softy this week, it's very nice and I will be making myself a nice warm pair of socks, but not before I get some other projects finished. I don't think Mr H will be wearing his sweater now until next winter as I think spring may be on its way and I've not touched the sweater recently, so there's no way it will be finished before the weather warms up, unless we have another cold snap, but judging by today's glorious sunshine, I'm not sure that's likely.

I learned a valuable lesson at school today - it's not easy trying to control 30 odd children who have all been eating chocolate eggs!

Does the sweater curse apply to married couples?

So, I am knitting Mr H a sweater. So far, the only other thing I have knitted him is a hat, which he does actually wear a lot. I'm just hoping that the sweater curse doesn't apply to married couples, I don't want to spend lots of time knitting a jumper, only for it to end in divorce!

I'm really enjoying knitting with this yarn. It's Rowan Country in 652 Willow and nice and chunky so it is knitting up quite quickly. My only problem is that I am used to. It's very warm using smaller needles, so I'm a bit cack-handed with my 9mm! Hopefully I will get used to them, although I'm not sure how I will cope if I ever decide to knit anything with my 20mm needles!

I haven't actually been doing a lot of knitting lately. We have had a friend of mine crashing at ours for nearly a week now after she had to leave her room due to an alcoholic house mate/landlord. Don't get me wrong, she's a friend and I'm happy to help, but I am kind of at the point where I will be very happy to have just me and Mr H in the apartment. She's not even here much, but I just get a bit funny about these things. I guess I must be pretty territorial!

My friend is over from Canada at the moment, so I am looking forward to seeing her tonight. We were meant to be going skiing in Les Gets today, but I'm still not feeling too good and have been in pain so decided it was best to just save myself for tonight, so I have been sitting on the sofa, drinking tea, knitting and listening to podcasts, what a lovely way to spend the day when you're feeling a little rotten!

I have finally given up on my Rowan baby jacket, at least I think I have.... I just can't be bothered to finish sewing it up. I sat down about an hour ago to do it, but seem to have lined it all up wrong and am going to have to undo it and I really can't be bothered, especially now I don't know who will be receiving it as I think baby Nola is probably a bit too big now! It's not even difficult and it's quite pretty, I just don't know what my problem is with it, I can't see any legitimate reason as to why I wouldn't like it or want to finish it, I guess projects like that just pop up from time to time.

Baby Yoda

I finished Baby Yoda #1 last night. I'm very pleased with it! Have to get going on the other one, but I just cast on the Rugged sweater from Rowan 42 for Mr H. Oops!

Too sick to knit

I've hardly done any knitting this week. I did make it to Stitch 'n' Bitch on Wednesday night, but only stayed for about an hour as I felt dreadful and was sweating like mad. Nice.

I did make it out of the apartment this afternoon to visit the post office, aware that a package for my Baby Yarn Swap on Swap Bot from Italy was waiting for me. It certainly cheered me up! My partner really spoiled me! She sent me two balls of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, which is great as I already have one ball in that colour and wasn't sure what to do with it, so now I have three, there is a bear that I think I might knit from the Rowan Classic Babies book.

She also sent me three balls of Laines du Nord baby yarn, the colours are so pretty! I might have to save these for when I have my own baby, rather than using them for any babies that various friends are having!

I also received some Kwaii goodies, very cute. She also sent me some Japanese sachets to put on steamed rice, yum! (She's Japanese but living in Turin, Italy). She also made me a MP3 CD of JPop. I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, but will be putting it on my iPod soon so I can listen to it on my way to work.

I love receiving these parcels, I always seem to receive them just at the right time when I'm feeling sick or down.

machine, excellent! There are lots of thing that I want to sew and now IWhile I was out today, Mr H came out and bought me a sewing can! I really wanted to get one soon as I was making a rag ball to knit with and needed to sew all the pieces of fabric together but really didn't want to do it by hand, there are so many strips!

So, my rag ball is made out of a skirt of mine that I really loved but got a cigarette burn in it when I was out at a club. I was going to throw it away, but after getting my Mason Dixon book, I was inspired to make rag balls to knit with, so that's what I have decided to do. Knitting with rags seems like such a great way to use up fabric that you otherwise don't know what else to do with and it looks really effective. In the book there is a log cabin rug which is knit in cotton with rag knitting in between the different pieces and I think it looks great, so I think I will be giving something like that a go as I really want to give log cabin knitting a go, it seems like a great way to use up some of my left over bits of yarn that I just don't know what to do with.

I think I might have to start having a look around the flea market to see if I can find some old rag balls there that I can knit with, according to Mason Dixon, that seems to be a likely place to find them and there is a massive flea market in Plainpalais twice a week, so I might go next weekend if I have the time.

A Pair of Booties

I just managed to finish a pair of Bud baby booties from Let's Knit magazine, Issue 1. Aren't they cute? I still have another pair to do as they're for the twins.

Lack of motivation

I can't bring myself to knit at the moment. I want to, but it's just not happening. First it was post-Christmas blues, then my grandmother died (although I did do lots of knitting with my mum when I went back to England for the funeral), then I got a bit sick, then I started a new job and now I'm sick again with some kind of throat infection . I have managed to knit a row and a half of my baby booties this morning though, but with a temperature going up to 39°, I'm not really feeling like doing much.

Serial Project Starter

I planned on just working on my Iceland sweater but I couldn't help myself! My friend is having twins (a boy and a girl) so I just had to cast something on for them! I am knitting his and hers Baby Yoda Sweaters (the proud parents are big Star Wars fans!). I am knitting them in Patons Washed Haze, each in a different shade of green.

This is proving very simple and quick to knit. There is very little shaping involved, which is great, so hopefully they won't interfere too much with my sweater!

I have also cast on Bud Baby Booties from Let's Knit! Issue #1. The girl's version is knit in Patons Fairytale DK, I'm not sure what the boy's will be in but I think I have a few balls of baby DK sitting in my stash. My friend says she expects knitted booties from me for the twins, so I felt I should oblige! She's 22 weeks gone, since she is having twins, I'm giving myself 10 weeks to get the baby things finished as twins tend to be early. The Baby Yoda Sweaters are rather big, so they might not actually be suitable for the twins from birth if they are smaller than a normal newborn but at least they will have something to grow into.

I haven't made a huge amount of progress with my Iceland Sweater. I was having problems with the stitch pattern and couldn't get past row three. I eventually worked out where I was going wrong (after frogging it 5 times!) and have now completed one repeat of the pattern. I think it's looking good. I'm just waiting for the yarn for K's sweater to arrive (it really should be here by now, I should have just brought it back from the UK with me) but I think I will have to hide it when it arrives as K says I have to knit it fast and I'm not allowed to work on anything else! Right, like that's ever going to happen!